greetings and salutations!

i'm not quite sure where that came from either.

i have a song running through my head (as is often the case), and i need to get it out. i'm not sure how it got in, but for some strange and horrible reason, the peabo bryson/roberta flack duet (1983, for you fellow 80s music geeks) "tonight, i celebrate my love" is stuck in my head. that one line is playing an endless loop. please hold while i find a cd to play in an attempt to chase out this dreadful song....................i'm too lazy to swap out the cds in my stereo, and i've been working my way through an imported duran duran singles box set......why is my cd not playing? hang on....i have to get up and walk across the room and everything. i think i fixed the problem, but also came across something interesting- i seem to have two of the same disc ("all she wants is" in single form) instead of a copy of "serious" in said sleeve. this is distressing, especially since one of the tracks on the "serious" disc is "all along the water", which is one of my favorite songs from the liberty album. argh.

now that i've bored all but maybe one other person reading this, let's move on, shall we?

idea gathering for the upcoming poll on my wnok webpage continues. i figure i'll have the poll up before the weekend....but feel free to get your comments in between now and then. i've also been contemplating other areas of my sections of wnok.com. since i'm such an 80s music nerd, i'm thinking about putting together a page for other 80s music nerds to enjoy. maybe some early 90s stuff too- a lot of groups spilled over. we'll see.....yet another thing to do if i come across some spare time. i also need to work on the photo section....gotta see about getting the scanner my mom brought down hooked up and see if it's worth a damn. another night....

after my run on the treadmill last night, i set out today planning on hopping on again after work. it didn't happen. not only did it not happen, but i ate a huge chunk of m&m fudge on my lunch break (after downing a bean burrito, a large plate of spaghetti o's, and a bowl each of beans and broccoli at lunch), and i made cookies tonight (had to test out a couple for quality control purposes), and had some smoky bacon chips with dip. before i start sounding like bridget jones (read the books, have avoided the movies), i don't obsess over my weight or what i eat or anything like that, though i need to at least tone up a few spots. what looks okay in jeans does not necessarily look so good in a bikini.....and i figured out i have about 7 weeks before i could potentially wind up in one again. predictably, i did not wake up early and hop on the treadmill this morning. ah well, i had good intentions.

i bought supplies tonight for a birthday party i'm helping out with on saturday. sarah wants a "

i really should head to bed. i'm up far later than intended.....not that that happens all the time or anything. at least roberta and peabo are no longer dueting in my head. (sorry if they've now taken over yours.)

engaged? (not me, of course)

it's been an interesting day. i emailed a dear friend of mine to let him know that i'm driving out to kansas city in a week and a half (for a wedding), and his reply came today. it was brief, and a little puzzling, but it was good to hear from him.......and a little unexpected. he said he had something to tell me.....so of course i've spent the afternoon thinking the worst and hoping for the best.

i could elaborate, but maybe that's something best saved for later.

i worked out on the treadmill tonight for the first time in an embarrassingly long time. i just went for half an hour, but i got almost two miles in while listening to duran duran's "greatest" cd. i have every intention of getting up early in the morning to put in some more time on the treadmill, but don't hold me to that- i have a hard enough time waking up in the morning as is.

song running through my head right now- "dragostea din tei" (or however the $%&@ it's spelled) by o-zone......it's the song that was popularized by the dude who did the "numa numa dance". (link to follow when i have the time to look it up.) someone gave me a gift certificate to amazon awhile back. i wonder if they have the album.....not that i'm going to mess with it tonight.

that's it for this episode. there's more i could write, but there's also an open bag of "smoky bacon" potato chips (brought back from canada) calling my name.

maybe i'll be a little more interesting tomorrow.

bob marley and miatas

i just got off the phone with my dad. i was motivated to call after the latest issue of rolling stone got here yesterday and looked like it had been through a war and lost. as you may recall, i ranted about the local post office screwing up my mail in one of my first blog entries last month. i thought the problem was solved a couple of weeks ago, when i scribbled "not at this address, please forward to:", followed by my dad's address, on several pieces of his mail and stuffed them into the "outgoing mail" slot. well, i may not be getting his mail anymore, but it seems my post office was feeling proactive and went ahead and informed rolling stone that i'd moved back to kansas city. brilliant! so, my latest issue, featuring a very tattered and worse for wear bob marley cover, arrived yesterday. (actually, somehow during transit, the cover became a separate piece, but i suppose i should give some kudos to my mailman for keeping it all together. ...maybe when i'm done being irritated by his apparent inability to read a simple forwarding order.)

anyway, the conversation turned to my upcoming trip out to kansas city. one of my college friends is getting married on the 19th, and since i'm too broke to buy a plane ticket, i'm driving out. dad will be out of town at the time (disneyworld, wothout me- that's just wrong!), and i've spent the last month trying to talk him into letting me drive his midlife crisis. you see, dad bought himself a gorgeous blue miata a couple of years ago, and ever since he brought it home, i've been trying to figure out how i can con him into letting me borrow it. i was finally able to drive it during my last trip out to kansas city back in october, but i was chaperoned the entire time, and then he hid the keys from me. so, when we were talking today i thought maybe i could trip him up into at least letting me drive the miata around the block, or to the wedding i'm attending.....or maybe i'd accidentally forget to switch back into my car for the trip back to columbia.
"can i at least look at the car?"
"yes."
"can i touch the car?"
"yes."
"can i sit in the car?"
"yes."
"can i backitoutofthedriveway?"
(laughter) "no, sugar."
dammit. i was so close.

that was pretty much the end of the conversation. he said he had to go- to go hide the car keys again, i'm sure. (i'm also pretty sure bob marley would let me drive his miata.)

gnomads and college movies

"mr.brightside", by the killers, was the first song i heard when i got into my car this morning. consequently, a good portion of my commute to work was spent singing in a bad british accent. i'm jazzed we're finally playing it. it remains to be seen whether i'll get to play it when i'm on air in a couple of hours. (i'll get up and look after i'm done with this.)

*yawning* 'scuse me. it was a long week with with a lot of that "early to rise" stuff. i'm not feeling any healthier, wealthier, or wiser, but that could be because i still went to bed pretty late on a nightly basis. ugh- i think it's finally caught up to me. so much for my plan to work out after my shift....unless i hit a second wind. (or a first wind, really, this early in the morning.)

yesterday was an odd day. things were a little rough in the wonderful world of two year olds, but they behaved a little bit better after their two hour nap. bodhi, my favorite gnomad, was back in town- and brought a friend- so i showed them around school. i took their picture with my boss, who asked if they'd be on my website, too. i was also warned to watch what i say on here....parents might be reading. so- i suppose future entries about school and my observations on parenting are put on hold.....for now. my school day ended with quite a compliment from an unexpected source, which made my day. i'll have to remember to scribble it into my private journal, which has been sorely neglected since i started my blog. maybe i'll just print out all my blog postings, staple them into my journal, and consider myself caught up..........

the state newspaper recently did an online poll to find out readers' favorite "teenage"movie from the past 20 years.....the results came out in thursday's paper. two out of the top five 80s films are from the 80s. in case you missed the article, here's the top 10:

1. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
2. The Breakfast Club
3. Dazed & Confused
4. American Pie
5. Napoleon Dynamite
6. Pretty in Pink
7. Clueless/Love & Basketball (tie)
9. Say Anything
10. House Party

where's "Can't Hardly Wait" on this list? what about "Real Genius"? oh, right- that was a college movie. in fact, there are a bunch of good college movies out there.....what are your favorites? leave me a comment or two, and after i have a few built up, i'll set up a poll on my wnok website.
ok- that's an ambitious enough project for today........

feet and mouth dis-ease

i have no idea what to write about this evening.

i was hoping getting that out in the open would lift the writer's block, but it has not yet abated. ah well- maybe something will come to me.

my mouth is killing me. as you may know, i have braces. (picture to come soon....like when i have access to the camera and am actually thinking about taking a picture- or conning someone else into taking one for me.) well, occasionally, those braces rub against the inside of my mouth, and then canker-type sores appear....not a good time. the last time this happened was right after i got my braces. my face swelled up and i looked like i'd been in a barroom brawl. of course, that was the day we had our i.d. pictures taken at school. can you say...reshoot? anyway, i am currently battling a canker sore on each inside corner of my lips, if that makes any sense. all i know is that it hurts....badly, and the lemonade i just attempted to drink didn't exactly help matters any. (sometimes i'm not all that bright.)

the high point of my day was getting one of my gnomes back in the mail. i know- it's a little sad my life currently revolves around a couple of 4 1/2" tall plastic figures. i need a life, and i know it....or do i? you only live once, so you might as well live a little. besides, i've had george michael, my little plastic poseable traveling companion for three years now....the gnomads just have a conveniently constructed webpage for near-instant gratification. nothing wrong with that, especially in a society that has become so overconvenient.

the low point of my day? a conversation that left me wondering if it is possible to be too much of a friend- how much do you put up with from a friend without feeling like a doormat? something i've pondered. i know, it's mostly just my irritation at being fussed at for something so.......it defies explanation. maybe i should just look at it as building up good karma or something- i don't know.

interesting tidbit: mama told me a while back that if you're of mediterranean descent, your second toe will be longer than your big toe. this leads me to my most interesting (and possible favorite) feature- my feet. not necessarily my favorite feature because they're so gosh darn cute, but because they're unique. my mom is half italian, and the second toe on my right foot is slightly longer than my big toe on the same foot. my dad is of germanic descent, and my left foot reflects that, as the second toe is just slightly shorter than my big toe. just another of my quirks, i guess. i'm trying to remember what brought up our most recent discussion of the topic- i think it was an article i'd come across about how some women were getting their toes surgically altered if their second toes were longer than the big ones. it scares me to think we've actually become that vain.

don't know why i brought up the foot thing- just something i thought about earlier today, while i was in the shower.

i guess that's all for now. it was a rough day with the two year olds, and i'm more than a little worn out.

i'm not the only one reading this?

something strange happened this morning. i'd even call it a little unsettling. i checked my blog....and someone left a comment. i know, i know- not that unusual, right? well, it sort of shattered the illusion that i'm the only one who reads this. (i take that back- i know one other person who reads this, but that's to be expected, because he's.....well, he is who he is. besides, i keep catching him doing it.) but now other folks are reading. it's about as unsettling as realizing other people are listening when i'm on air at 104.7 wnok. (i'm still able to block that one out so i can function. but were i to have to get on a microphone in front of a couple hundred people, i think i'd pee my pants. all the more reason why i didn't go into stand up comedy- stage fright.....plus i don't have enough good jokes.)

so, thank you for reading my random ramblings. in a way, it's nice to know somebody thinks i'm important enough to have something worth saying. it's just going to take me a little while to get used to it.........

everyone else.......

i'm a big fan of ebaum's world.

i just had to get that out in the open. i was introduced to the site by idaho, one of the other WNOK djs, over a year ago. he'd played something called "peanut butter jelly time"during his saturday night show, and when i searched for it on the internet (i googled, as usual), up popped ebaum's world. i spent a good 5 hours that sunday exploring that site, and even a year later, i still check back periodically to see if anything new has popped up. i found my new favorite song on the site a couple of months ago.......though i admit it's not exactly something i could play in my classroom at school. it just gets stuck in my head for some reason, though not well enough that i'd be able to sing it on, say, american idol and not look like a fool. (then again, i don't think i could be dragged onto american idol anyway...i've never even watched a full episode.) anyway, the only part of this new favorite song i've paid attention to is the chorus. one of these days, i'll really focus on the words instead of the animation and figure out what the bunny is saying the rest of the time. however, today is not the day- especially since i'm now racking my brain trying to think of "normal" things i've never experienced. (it's not necessarily a "wish list"- just a series of observations- so please don't get any ideas and try to break my streak, okay?)

1. i have never done the macarena.
2. spin the bottle? read about it, never played it. ditto for "2 minutes in the closet" (sheltered, i know)
3. i have never watched most of the reality shows on tv.
4. i have never heard "who let the dogs out" in its entirety.
5. i have never gotten more than two flowers at a time. (and those two don't count- they were from an obsessed listener, and they were mostly dead by the time i found them anyway.)
6. i've never been to the prom.
7. speaking of dances, i never had a date to one in high school. (went to a few anyway, though.)
8. i have never watched "titanic", despite billy zane being in it. (leonardo does nothing for me.)
9. i have never dyed my hair brown. (blonde? check. red? check. orange? check. blue? check. purple? my favorite so far. green? see college graduation photos. i'll pass on brown (and black) though.)
10. i have never worn stilettos....or any heels over the weenie height of about an inch and a half. (and i certainly have not done this while wearing a catsuit and brandishing a bullwhip, which several friends have tried to convince me is perfectly normal. all i can say is that they're freaks.)

anyway, back to ebaum's world. in case your curious as to what on earth "peanut butter jelly time", the tune that first brought me to the site, was about, try here. in the meantime, i need to try to figure out what on earth the bunny's saying between choruses.

potato chips and overtime

this is the third time in two days i've sat down to concoct a new blog entry (to entertain the one person besides myself who actually reads this), and my mind is a blank. actually, that's not quite accurate- my mind is asleep, not blank. i'm so used to staying up late, but not used to getting up early, as i am doing this week, due to overnight babysitting. i got into a warm bath last night around 10:30 (needed to thaw out my toes after attending one of my charges' softball practice in subzero temperatures), and didn't make it out again until over half an hour later. then, i stayed up for awhile to work on the makeup order that's being placed in a couple of days. (i'm not sure i got anywhere with it- just brainstorming, mostly.) so, late to bed (11:30, i think), early to rise (6:30 a.m.) is not doing my body good. (it probably doesn't help that i'm spending over 9 hours a day with my two year olds- and the prospect of a lunch break is a little iffy, since we're short staffed at school and i'm always open to the thought of overtime.)

why is that, you ask? well, overtime pay can be a great incentive. sometimes i wonder why more people don't take advantage of it.....which may be why most people look at me a little funny when they find out how much i work. you see, my college degree hasn't exactly landed me a $20/hour job. not that i regret going to college- nor do i regret my highly useful majors- it's just a little frustrating sometimes to compare my paychecks (two official, plus avon and babysitting) to what my younger sibling (who went the military route instead of college) rakes in. but, rather than get too frustrated, i simply work harder, as i operate under the theory that eventually hard work will pay off. (if that doesn't work, i'll start looking for a sugar daddy who's not broke.)

so, i continue to plug away- an extra hour or so each weekday with the two year olds (several of whom come ealry and stay late, as their parents are busy working overtime so they can afford the $600+/month tuition at school), followed a couple of nights a week by babysitting, 20+ hours of radio shifts on the weekends (plus filling in other folks shifts weeknights on occassion), sometimes followed by babysitting, and working on my avon orders whenever i can.

however, there is a nice perk to my full time job- one that makes putting up with laughable pay almost worthwhile- vacation time. i only get two weeks of paid vacation (which still seems to be up for dispute, even after working there for better than four years.), but unpaid vacation is fairly easy to acquire. since my radio stuff is considered part time, i can request to have a weekend off here and there without much grumbling from my three bosses. as for babysitting and avon- i tailor both of those around my schedule, so when i'm off, i obviously turn down babysitting (hard for me to do at any other time- i hate to say "no", which lets people down, in my mind) and either take care of my avon orders wholly online or (as i will most likely do at the beginning of may, when i'm traipsing around the bottom of the grand canyon) skip a campaign.

admittedly, i'm a borderline workaholic. i inherited too much work ethic. or am i just buying into the american dream- work hard and achieve greatness? i'm not sure anymore. however, while freezing my butt off at softball practice last night, i came across an interesting tidbit in the december 2004 issue of details: the average amount of vacation time for americans is only 10.2 days, and we aren't required to have any time off by law. meanwhile, canadians lounge around doing nothing for an average 26 days per year (10 are required by law), they get 15 days, as required by law, in china, 25 in great britain (20 by law)and anywhere from 24 (legal requirement in germany) to 30 (average- 25 legally) in france. if you add that to the weekends that most folks have off......well, let's just say that one of these days, i may have to go to canada on one of my famous potato chip runs and not come back for awhile.

speaking of potato chips, a bag of sea salt and pepper flavor lay's chips would go great with the soda i'm taking to work to help me through the day. off to the coal mines...