Remembering

September 11, 2008 at 4:07 pm (Uncategorized)

September 11, 2001.  Where was I?? That is the question that many of you are asking of your readers today and I felt a strong urge to share my memories from that day.

On September 11, 2001, I was living with my best friend Ashley and her parents in Fayetteville, GA.  I was working as a Floor Supervisor at a shoe store chain and was working mid-shift that day, so I woke up around 8ish and turned on the T.V.  The first plane had already hit the first tower and this was all that was on EVERY channel.  I still hadn’t comprehended what was happening when I saw the live footage of the second plane hit the second tower and turned the volume up to hear an explanation.  All the news anchors stumbled, cried out in shock, and waited along with us to hear the official explanation of exactly WHAT had just happened.  I changed out of my pajamas and went into the living room where Brenda (Ashley’s Mom) was watching the same thing and we just sat there together and cried.  Then I went and called my Mom to talk to her about it where I cried some more.  As I was talking to my Mom, it hit me that Will had family that lives in NY, so I called him to see if his family was OK and to see how he was.  This was the first time I had ever heard Will cry.  His family was all OK, but he was just as upset as everyone else about what was going on and he had just heard it on his car radio in the parking lot at his college campus, he hadn’t even seen the images that had already burned themselves into my brain. 

I collected myself, showered, and went to work.  What else could I do?? Would people even come in to buy something as trivial as a pair of shoes on a day like this?  I know I wouldn’t.  I would hug every person I cared about as tight as possible and that is exactly what I did.  When I got off work, I went straight to see my Mom and stayed there until I was too tired to watch the same destructive loop over and over again and then I went home.  That night, I cried for our country, for the people who lost their lives, their loved ones, and for the state of humanity in general that would allow something so dark within itself take over and value their religious beliefs over the sanctity of HUMAN LIFE.  That was the official day that I completely lost my faith in mankind and God alike.  It was the day that a feeling of such hopelessness took over me that it has been hard for me to restore even a tiny portion of that faith, but I’ve done it.  I am not an overtly religious person, but I can say with my whole heart that today, I will pray for all the people affected by this tragedy and hope that nothing this horriffic happens again in our lifetime, or our childrens lifetime.

 

 

Where were you??

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Fandamonium

September 11, 2008 at 3:17 pm (Life)
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This past week while I was busy being sick, an important event was going on around here.  The Jonas Brothers were here in concert!  Now, don’t be fooled,  I am not a teenage girl nor am I a parent to a pre-teen/teenage girl, so I am not a fan of the Jonas Brothers and I wouldn’t even have been aware of them passing through the Sunshine State if it weren’t for the following:

A radio contest held on the morning show of the local radio station I listen to who were giving away FRONT ROW TICKETS AND BACK STAGE PASSES the morning of the show. (Friday, I think)  The setup was they gathered 5 FANATICS (all teenage girls) and put them in a room where they had exactly ONE HOUR to UNANIMOUSLY decide who got the tickets.  If a unanimous decision couldn’t be reached, none of them got the tickets and they would start the process all over with a new group of girls.  I really thought this was a brilliant and cruel idea until these girls started CRYING 20 minutes in.  Seriously?!? I was really hoping for some American Gladiator meets Sweet Sixteen action and they all started blubbering like a bunch of, well, teenage girls. BOO!!! They all already had tickets (some better than others), but NONE of them had backstage passes and that is what all pre-teen, teens, and creepy cougars want, right? (That and to convince Joe Jonas that certain “acts” don’t count and he could still keep his purity ring and it wouldn’t be a lie.)

Anyhow, my drive to work is only 20 minutes, so I thought I was free of the crying and begging, but alas, ’twas not my fate.  THEY REPLAYED THE ENTIRE THING THAT AFTERNOON AND ALL DAY SATURDAY ON A CONTINUOUS LOOP TO TORTURE ME AND THE OTHER GIRLS WHO LOST!!!  I swear that afternoon I picked it up at the very exact second I had left it that morning, as if they were all inside my radio like a bunch of evil Jonas Loving Robots who were just waiting on me to drive home so they could torture me some more.  Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I couldn’t turn the channel or change to CD.  I just couldn’t.  It’s like seeing a horrible accident on the side of the road and no matter how much you want to avert your eyes, you are physically incapable of doing so.  It was like that, but worse.  One of the girls cracked after about 25 minutes and walked out of the room because she just KNEW they wouldn’t pick her and she was crying so hard that she couldn’t breathe, much less talk while they were trying to interview her to find out why she left the room.  Now, me being the cynic that I am assumed she would say something snotty and then get her parents to buy backstage passes from a scalper, but AGAIN I was wrong (doesn’t happen often).  She said that her seats were really great and she knew how hard her parents had worked and how much they had paid to get those seats and as much as she would love to meet the Jonas Brothers, she really thought one of the girls who had the nosebleed tickets should get front row instead.  I. was. shocked.  In an age of kids who almost all act like those snotty, “my-daddy-embezzles-money-and-doesn’t-pay-his-taxes-so-he-can-buy-me-a-beamer”, I’m-the-next-Paris-Hilton-wannabes, here was a kid whose parents could be proud of the how their daughter behaved in public when they weren’t around.  When they asked her why she was crying, she said it’s because she really did want to meet the Jonas Brothers and she was bummed about giving them up, but she knew in her heart it was the right thing.  Needless to say, the cynic in me was shamed a little for having previously rolling my eyes and assuming that her reasons were selfish.  However, two minutes later, that shame was replaced by shock when a set of parents called the radio station up and offered to whichever girl who won $9,000.00 for the tickets and backstage passes.  WHAT!?!?!?!?!  I was FLOORED.  Seriously. 

They had apparently been trying to get tickets to the sold-out show and were unsuccessful and their daughter had been so mad at them, she had STOPPED TALKING TO THEM.  FOR. THREE. MONTHS.  Wrap your head around that for a moment.  Two parents so desperate to have their daughter speak to them, they would be willing to pay $9,000.00 for TWO front row tickets + backstage passes for their teenage daughter just so she would talk to them.  Immediately, I knew these were the type of parents who gave into every whim their child had and when she pitched a fit, they gave in instead of standing their ground because, more than likely, they are more interested in being their daughter’s friends than her parents and that made me sad.  And a little jealous I didn’t have a pair of tickets and backstage passes to sell for that much money.

The girls eventually decided a one girl within the time frame and when asked why, they all agreed because she had the worst seats and they all felt bad for her. The radio DJ asked if she would be willing to sell these tickets to those parents and unbelievably, she said NO!!!! Not even for $9,000.00 (a nice sized down payment on a new car in a couple of years) would sway her desire to meet the Jonas Brothers. I was pretty proud of (and shocked by) this group of girls, but disgusted at that set of parents.  I can only hope that when Will and I have kids, that we will be able to find that balance of being friendly and yet still being the parents.  And there is no way in HELL that I will ever pay that much money for tickets to a concert for anyone.  Unless it was a re-animated Kurt Cobain co-headlining with Elvis, but that would be weird and kinda gross. 

So, thoughts anyone?  Any parents out there who would EVER pay that much money to give your kids that “Jonas” experience??

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Zoo Pictures!

September 11, 2008 at 1:21 pm (Life, Photography)
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As promised, I will post some of the zoo pictures from Labor Day and I’m sorry that I missed Furday Friday, I’ll try to make up for it this Friday.  Unfortunately, some financial stuff has gone down with Will and I (meaning no more Disney)and this past weekend was pretty stressful.  Stress for me = A Crohn’s Episode, so I’ve been feeling pretty crappy all week and if that weren’t enough, Mother Nature decides that it’s time for her to put her two cents in as well, so I was a great big baby all weekend because all I really wanted to do was SLEEP and CRY, so I did.

 The weekend wasn’t all bad, though.  Saturday, Will went to Publix and picked up some stuff for us to make a really great breakfast of scrambled cheesey eggs, home-made home fries with salsa and sour cream, and BACON!! OMG – it was delicious!  It totally helped me with Mother Nature and her absurd cravings.  Unfortunately, Will also had to close at SB all weekend, so what that meant for me was a lot of boredom, napping on the couch, and movie watching.  Shouldn’t I have been cleaning, you ask?  Of course, but when your stomach is so upset that you can’t walk 3 feet w/o needing to rush to the toilet, staying put on the couch and taking it easy is a much better than a clean house. 

Getting back to the point, PICTURES!!!  Here you go:

This incredibly cute little lizard jumped out at me when I was taking some photos of a couple of birds.  And then he just sat there and stared at me, posing for the camera like a pro.

 

I happened to see this little guy while I was taking pictures of some of the flowers they had planted.  You can barely tell in this picture, but he is missing most of his tail.

 

And here is the most colorful tree frog I’ve ever seen in real life (shot through glass):

It wouldn’t be a complete visit to the zoo without a turtle (shot through glass):

 

Some of the statues they had in their Incan area:

 

 

And a cute squirrel eating the corn that is put out for the wandering birds and lizards:

A cute little fox that was sleeping.  I really wanted to put him in my camera bag and take him home! (shot through a fence by Will)

A Peacock that Will was able to feed:

A duck that was waiting beside the little food machine for someone to buy food and feed it.  Of course, Will does this and the duck bites him.  I was afraid to get too close with my camera because I just KNEW he would peck at it and break my only lens.

These are the birds I was shooting when the first lizard scared the bejeezsus out of me (this photo taken by Will):

These birds were mean, they would SQUUUAAAAKKKK really loud if you looked at them.  When we were taking their pictures, they were making all kinds of noise, so we didn’t stay long. (this photo by Me):

A Flamingo:

In the small reptile exhibit they had, I snapped this picture of a crocodile/alligator – I’m really not sure which.  Anyhow, I had gotten a comparison shot of the body under water, but someone stood directly in front of it and their reflection effed up my shot, so you only get the blurry, shot through the glass, head above water:

There were a TON more photos that were taken, but these are all I’ve taken the time to edit and upload onto Flickr.  You can check back in with one of my two flickr accounts(I’m too cheap to purchase right now and I want to be able to view all 200) later, if you are interested in any I edit in the future.

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