The Adventures of Being Me

Dear Mr. Dave Berry of the Miami Herald: I read in our local paper, The Des Moines Register on page 7B, about your comments to the Arizona Republic on how you questioned if Iowa has airline service or hotels and called it pathetic that our whole economy depends on getting New York reporters to eat breakfast with Mitt Romney. And by the way, last I heard the Iowa caucuses are January 18 with New Hampshire's set for January 24. Plus, I would not recommend leaving Iowa in the early in the morning the day after the caucuses unless you love waiting in line for 4 hours to go through security. And yes, the airlines bring in passengers 365 days a year, though no flights are scheduled after midnight or before 5 A.M. Let me straighten you out on a few things. Our economy does not depend on the primaries and caucuses. I work at a car rental at the Des Moines International Airport and our busiest month is August when there is Knoxville Sprint Car Races, Indianola Hot Air Balloon Races, and Iow...

It was Frodo's turn to go to the vet for his booster shots. And he fought like a tiger spreading all 4 limbs to prevent going in the carrier. I finally got him pushing on his shoulder to keep him from jumping out. I guess he's learning. He meowed as if he were dying all the way to the office. He was terrified at the vet's office panting like crazy. The poor kitty. He is 12.5 lbs. with good teeth, good ears, good claws, and went right back in the carrier and cowered into a corner. He panted all the way home and calmed down reaching the stairs and opening the door of the carrier. I turned on the AC after our walk outside which mainly was in the stairwell. He is good til next year. A few days ago I put on flea stuff to their dismay. The other day a neighbor commented how raccoons in the area can carry rabies. I explained my cats had their shots. Besides my cats are so wimpy they probably run away from a giant raccoon. Sometimes wimpy is good. I redid my closet with new connec...

On Inside Edition the introduction of an interesting answer of Miss Teen South Carolina on Why 1/5 of children can't find the U.S. on a world map was advertised, so of course I have to hear this. Well I missed putting together my drawers and shelf in my closet, so I plug into my internet's MSN.COM page and it was a big news item. If you didn't watch the Miss Teen USA pageant Friday night (I was at work), it goes something like this. Question: Why is it that 1/5 of kids in America can't find the US on a world map. Answer: Many people don't have maps and went on saying that we need to help children in South Africa and Iraq with their education and help them find the United States on a map. I probably would have said something like kids sleep through history and geography thinking it's not important, or say 1/5 of school children are too young to take geography class or better yet, because that question is not on the mandatory state tests, or they are use to politi...

My trip started lousy. First I slept longer than planned cause of a late flight I had to wait for, then after taking my cats out I had to go shopping because of delayed flights on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday lost my initiative to go shopping after work, and finally I got lost or miss turns 3 times. The first misstep was at the corner where I turn to get to the Interstate, road/corner was closed so I got lost driving around trying to find the Interstate in Rush Hour Traffic. Next due to construction on the Interstate and lousy signs, I miss my exit to head toward Muscatine. So I turned around in Ankeny (10 miles north of Des Moines), get off the correct exit better labeled, and head toward Muscatine. Now Muscatine is south of Davenport so when I saw a sign saying 30 to Davenport, I got out the directions Romeo gave me to find the hotel. I missed my exit and had to turn around. Finally get to the hotel and checked in, and I open the door to a woman in bed thinking I'm the maid. Go b...

I was out with my cats when a girl about preteen age (10-12) comes out with her puppy trotting along. She drops the leash handle (retractable kind) and the puppy picks up the leash and runs away. Amusing. She grabs it back and the puppy continues running away. The girl jerks the leash and the puppy slides across the sidewalk with a yelp. Assumed it was accidental until she jerked it again causing the puppy to somersault and dragged an extra distance with another yelp. And she jerks it again causing the puppy to somersault with yet another cry from the puppy. And another drag across the sidewalk with a whimper. Then she lets the puppy go a distance, stops it with the retractable button stopper, lets it go and stops it, and lets it go and stops it. I was horrified with my cats sitting at my feet watching this too (they are very wary of any dog appearance). The girl sees me and sits on the sidewalk inspecting the puppy's fur and petting it on her lap. I'm sure my mouth was hanging...

I had the pleasure of the new management advertising updates of the New Era of Making Customers Happy by emailing most recently 40 pages of press releases from stock market prices on top car rentals, ours included, to Hybrid cars will be available at Avis soon to new government laws making car rentals more expensive to Old Management and New Management having meetings to discusss the company's plan for success. Like I care. I'll just read the Cliff Notes labeled "How All This Effects the Ability to do my Job". That's all I care about. I PO'ed a couple customers today. One wanted to pay in cash at the end of the rental and just pick up their car from us w/out paying a thing. That's not how it works and they released the f-word a few times before leaving. I was close to explaining that if they don't stop cussing at me I will call security, but they took the consumer's affairs # and left. I said, Please do call customer service because the reservation...

I'm sitting here in a rut with a dead end job with no future, but great pay and benefits, and try time and time again to earn extra money without breaking my back doing it or gettign scam out of money in the process. Read about great work at home opportunities in a magazine so look them up at home. Trying to turn over a new leaf is very hard when one gets slammed with EXPERIENCE REQUIRED. Those words are death to a dream. One site I looked up was for virtual assistant where one can be a personal assistant over the internet. I got the computer, got DSL, got a great printer, got a landline phone, No Office Experience. Strike One. Next I checked on being a tutor. I'm not a teacher but did get a college in history. Passed the subject test and got stumped on the essay question "What are the 3 most important issues addressed in a tutoring session?" Never tutored before (I tried but my fellow students needed math help, not history or English) and never been tutored so I have...

The Iowa State Fair had its first casuality, a dog in a car with its windows rolled up died today from the heat. Poor dog. I assumed it was in the parking lot and not behind the farm animal buildings. I wish people would leave their pets home in the air conditioning. It's better than dying of a heat stroke in a locked up car. Iowa State Fair doesn't usually have casualities because a few buildings are air conditioned for people to cool off in and the livestock buildings have huge circulation fans. Post later. Bye!

It is official, I'm in hell otherwise known as ragweed season. Then the TV says the temperature is 90, heat index 103, and my thermometer says 106. I turned on the AC to rid the humidity and relieve some of the allergies. I took a shower right before taking my cats outside and came back inside an hour later with soaking wet hair from the sweat. Anyway, outside Frodo caught a bird. It landed on a neighbor's bird feeder and Frodo jumped at it. It flew over to the sidewalk by the hand rail and rested in the grass. Frodo caught it. He carried around showing me and Precious his trophy for a couple minutes before setting it down. He growled when it didn't move and pawed at it. He picked up a wing with his paw and whined that it wasn't moving. I thought it was dead since it didn't move, but soon it fluttered and Frodo attacked. It remained still and fluttered again to have Frodo carry it around in his mouth another minute. I decided to save the bird, Frodo just wanted a to...

I was thinking of my upcoming Fall Cleaning of my apartment and my birthday present for myself. I will have to do this Fall Cleaning soon cause my storage closet door keeps falling off the track because of the things falling over and pushing on it. And Yes, I buy a birthday present for myself every year because the only birthday gift I receive is $10 from my Mom. I always attemt to buy something frivalous and expensive that no one in my family would ever buy for me. This year it will be new drawers and shelves for my closet. I have cardboard drawers that suit me just fine storing off season clothes, until my cat Precious starting tearing them up. I open a drawer and he jumps in, then I close a drawer and he chews and claws to open it back up. I ordered them online so I wouldn't have to carry from my car up 3 flights of stairs. The shipping costs as much as the items ordered, but I try to convince myself the money is worth it. Anyway, I thought of rearranging my living room furnitur...

Last week a neighbor asked me to remove my cat from her porch because the cat antagonizes her dog scratching at the glass patio door. Today Precious again walked over to the dog porch and I went over to remove him before the dog saw him. I trip over the dog leash tied to the porch railing and nearly threw Preicous. Feeling the jerk, Precious jumps off my grasp tearing my shirt and scratching my arm in the process. Dog is now scratching at the glass door upon hearing our commotion. Precious stares down the dog. I push on his shoulder to get him to move out of dog's sight. After a couple pushes he moves over and dog calms down. Post later. Bye!

Saw a funny ad I had to share: Yamaha Trumpet, great condition, bought new 2 years ago, barely used (he never practiced), hard shell case included $400 Post later, Bye!

I recieved a surprise Monday, my niece is in town visiting my sister. They went swimming the first day and took her to see the new Harry Potter movie. She had seen it before, but not in IMAX formation. It is like a roller coaster ride and I don't care to see one ever again. My brother is also visiting to help with redoing the shingles on the garage. They rented a nail gun to quicken the job. I didn't know one could do that, but then I never inquired about one. My Mom says Dad would never use a nail gun even if you gave him one, cause he likes doing things the hard way. That would explain why he takes so long to finish projects. On my sister's garage, my brother works the nail gun while my brother-in-law lays the shingles down. Guess he doesn't like "More Power" Tim Allen jokes about. Tuesday the nieces painted figurines and I did laundry. I made my baby niece cry cause I was reading "her" Avon magazine. I offered for her to sit on my lap and read it...