Putting out Fires

Last week I was meeting with a colleague from the UK who was in country for business.  He was staying at a local hotel and had hit the bars with a couple of other guys who were traveling with him. 

He was absolutely MORTIFIED that people in the US drink even the slightest bit and drive.  He told me that in England if you were drinking in a bar and then grabbed your keys to drive home, they would threaten to BEAT YOU UP because they realized you were endangering others.

Now really, why don’t we all feel this strongly about human life?  How hard is it to offer a friend a ride home if they’re drinking too much to realize that they shouldn’t be driving?  And how hard is it to say ‘No’ to someone who is supposed to drive you when you KNOW they’ve been drinking? 

OK, I swear, I’m done.  There’s no way I’m changing this problem with one little blog.

I hate to get serious on my blog, but people, this has got to stop.  When I was in high school, my school was actually mentioned on CNN as the ‘doomed class’.  That’s because in the time I was there, we had FOUR people in my graduating class killed by drunk drivers.  In separate accidents.  When I was a Junior in high school, a car carrying kids from my school was going to a bowling alley after a school dance.  I was supposed to be part of the group that met them at the alley, but when my date and I got about a mile from the bowling alley, the roads were all blocked off and we could see emergency lights up ahead.  We didn’t know that they were for people we knew, and that one of them had died, one was put into a very long coma and has never had a full recovery, and yet another was so broken that she was in a coma and woke up to a halo brace drilled into her skull. 

My senior year of high school a car carrying four students was turning into the street of one of their homes.  A guy who had turned 21 that same day ran into them going 50+ in a 25mph zone.  Ruth from my Shakespeare class died instantly, as did Jeremy (who was the first boy ever to ask me to dance at a school dance.  I promptly hid in the bathroom.  Hey, we were like 13!), and Brandon, who I used to walk home with after school, died in his front yard.  Their friend from another school was also killed. 

A guy I graduated college with was killed by a drunk driver a few weeks ago. You can read about him here.  He was so young and happy!  Do you really think that one night of having a little too much fun is worth taking him out of this world? 

My husband and I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS take turns driving. Is it really that hard to do? Carpool with other people if you’re going somewhere and take turns on who’s the DD. There is so much life to be had, and there’s so many nights for drinking, you’re not going to miss out if you don’t drink for ONE NIGHT. Take a cab for crying out loud. Compare the cost of a cab ride to the cost of being in jail the rest of your life, or possibly losing your life. Can you imagine the changed perspective of the guy who killed Powell? I imagine he looks back and thinks, “It would have been so easy to make a different decision…” Make the right decision before its too late.

Yesterday Ryan planned a Day o’ Fun for us!  It was SO much fun that I actually forgot to do my homework that was due by midnight last night.  Oops. 

The day started w/ a yummy breakfast, and then off to the racetrack!  We each got to go around their crazy curvy track in a Corvette Z06 driven by Bondurant’s head instructor.  People, this is the place where Tom Cruise got trained for Days of Thunder, where Jason Priestly goes when he wants to have a little fun, where Clint Eastwood has been a regular.  This place is COOL.  Anyhow, here I am in the car before I knew what I was getting myself into:

And here I am in the only picture that actually came out not blurry.  That tends to happen when you’re trying to catch an image of a car that has a spedometer that goes over 200mph. 

Seriously, afterwards I went to the bathroom just to make sure I hadn’t  peed my pants.  It was so freaking FAST and so scary that I actually grabbed the driver’s arm on the first turn, which I think might not have been a good idea.  I wanted to do it again as soon as we were done!  Now I want to take the driving class!  They give you a few hours in a classroom, throw you the keys, and off you go.  WOO HOO!

Next we went for lunch at Bison Wiches.  mmmmm  Then we went to True Harmony, Ryan had a stone massage and I had a facial.  Then off for some shopping at Ikea.  Then sushi.  The perfect day!  Thanks bebe!

Occasionally I decide it’d be fun to hit the ‘Random Blog’ bottom on the sidebar.  —>

Most times I find a majority of blogs are written in totally foreign languages (although, strangely, many times with English titles).  I’ve been in class a few times when my friend Random Blog has popped up scandelous sites w/ naked people.  Oops.

But tonight I found one that made me feel INSANE.  I’m having an internatl debate on whether to even put the address here.  OK, I’m gonna do it.  But if you click on this link, you HAVE to check a few random posts from each month.  I’m not sure if this really is a confused girl trying to get a guy to talk to her, or if its just her talking to herself, but either way it is REALLY disturbing.

OK, don’t say I didn’t warn you: http://charliesarah.blog.com/

In light of the very sad situation in
Florida with Terri Schivo, and as a result of my utter laziness toward finding out what the actual legal avenue is for this, I would like to state the following:

I give my consent to award full guardianship of myself to my husband Ryan in the event that I am unable to care for myself.  If it has been shown by extensive testing that I am in fact brain dead with no chance of recovery, my wishes are that I, at the discretion of my husband, be allowed to pass on in the most humane way possible.  If Oregon still allows doctor assistance in this event, I would like consideration to be given to transporting me there for examination and a painless death.  I then wish to be cremated and have no funeral, but instead a celebration with all my favorite foods, favorite music, favorite alcohol, and a viewing of my pictures with my friends and loved ones.  I leave all of my belongings to my husband Ryan.  In the event that something happens to him, I will allow my mother to be the custodian of our property for proper distribution taking into consideration the desires of Ryan’s parents for his personal effects.  Kevin gets our music and movie collection.  $5000 each should be given to a no-kill shelter and the American Cancer Society.  In the case where neither of us survives, I would award joint custody of Karma and Mika to both sets of parents, but they should be kept together. 

Anyone else want to add their wishes for the record?  Is blog suitable for admittance to court?  At any rate, I need someone to witness that I’m sane or something, right?  Any of you dare to do that? 

OK, so maybe we’re a tad out of control.  I’m not posting any more pictures of the remodel until it’s all done because some of you probably will end up seeing it in person and my crazy husband is all excited about surprising people. 

Here’s a list of all the changes we’ve made:

1. New tile
2. New roof
3. New stove
4. New carpet
5. Painted bedroom
6. Painted living room
7. No more Jungle Room
8. New area rug for living room
9. New furniture in the Music Room
10. New window covering in the living room
11. Laundry room inside the house (that’s happening this weekend)

It’s just like having a new house!  I got home last night and my fridge was back in, my dressers were back in the closet, my new stove was there, and the nasty blinds in the main room are gone.  This is the first time that I’ve LOVED my house. 

Can’t wait to have you all over to see it!

This weekend was the first time ever that I had an inkling that I could be a mom.  I actually used a MOM VOICE on a random kid. *gasp*

On Sunday afternoon I left a family member’s house a little worked up, as I’m wont to do (and yes africankelli, I know the actual meaning and correct use for that word  ).  I sat in the passenger seat fuming while Ryan drove toward the freeway and home.  As we’re going down the main road, I see 3 boys on skateboards on the sidewalk.  They looked like pretty good kids, maybe about 13 years old or so.  Then the one in the middle THREW HIS EMPTY CUP IN THE BUSH. 

Well that was my limit.  I yelled for Ryan to stop the car (in the middle of traffic mind you) and back up.  When we reversed back to where the kids were, I rolled down my window, leaned my entire upper body out, stuck out my index finger and channeled my mother:  “I want you to get back there, pick up that trash from the bush, and thrown it in the trash can where it belongs or I am CALLING THE POLICE!”  The three boys were horrified, and the first says, “Who me?” looking all small and scared, to which I raised my voice even more and jabbed my finger at the middle boy and said, “NO!  YOU!”. 

Now this could have gone one of two ways.  I was fully expecting the other two boys to pitch their own cups directly at me, but NO, the deviant in question got off his skateboard, walked all the way back to the trash, and then he found a proper trash can.  I know all this because I had Ryan pull into the parking lot to assure that it happened.  We then drove by the kid and Ryan thanked him. 

Now really, doesn’t that give you a little hope that MAYBE the kids today aren’t as horrible as we assume they’re going to be?  And I honestly think that the next time that poor boy has trash in his hand, he’ll think twice before he invariably throws it right on the ground. 

And if you’re afraid to use your mom voice on scary-looking truckers who throw cigarette butts out their car window, do what I do:  call the number above and REPORT THEM.  They will then get a nice, personalized letter from the Litterbug hotline and a bright yellow trash bag to use in their car.  And you’ll feel all kinds of better. 

Here’s what our living room and kitchen used to look like:

And on day TWO of the flooring project, this is what we have:

Great, huh?  And even greater still is the fact that the nice flooring man who speaks not a lick of English managed to come up with “stinky” as the description for this old carpet:

And a post on the amazing changes to our house wouldn’t be complete without a picture of the surprise lenolium we found two layers down!  Now if that’d been on top, there would have been no need for a flooring project!

Coming soon to a blog near you:  pictures of the underside of our 17 year-old carpet and of the mystery PINK FLOWERED LINOLIUM underneath said carpet. 

Although really, they’d have to be pretty entertaining pictures to compete with the polarizing Cola Wars issue.  See people, I knew I wasn’t the only one nuts about their Cola. 

I always assumed that the world was divided into two silent sides of a war. You know: The Coke Drinkers vs. The Pepsi Drinkers. I am a staunch Coke drinker. When I go to a restaurant and they serve Pepsi, I drink water or iced tea. We go to AMC theaters as opposed to Harkins because they have Coke. I have never once bought Pepsi in the store. And when I’m at my parents’ house (Pepsi drinkers!) I choose to drink Mesa tap water instead, mysterious floating things and all. I don’t have anything against Pepsi drinkers, mind you, I just don’t understand them.

I thought everyone was like me. Turns out they’re not. For my Strategy in Business class last night we did a case study (oh the dreaded case studies!) on the Cola Wars. To get us to be interactive, the teacher had us take a taste challenge reminiscent of the Pepsi Challenge. There were three to taste: Coke, Pepsi, and a generic. I got them right without using a single brain cell. I was one of FOUR out of fifty who got it right. How can that be?

When I raised my hand to point out the obvious that there are Coke Drinkers, and there are Pepsi Drinkers, and we all feel strongly about our drinks, the whole class looked at me like I was crazy. For the rest of the discussion people kept referring to me in this context: “For the most part consumers, except Amanda, do…”

So who’s with me? Who out there can’t live without their Diet Coke in the morning? Who chooses McDonald’s for a hangover because you can get a syrupy fountain Coke at 6 in the morning? Who else thinks Pepsi rots your teeth by the end of the can? Anyone?