-the week-

wow. this week is FINALLY over. seriously its been the longest week ive had in a long time. nothing seemed to go right at work. little went right outside of work. it all just added up to a long week. BUT, it is now over. it is Saturday. and my stress level has been cut way down. i am caught up on facebook, myspace, email, etc. woo hoo. BUT i have been having problems with apps on my phone...so if i didnt reply to you i may have lost your message. sorry about that.

my grandma had a set back this week. she is halfway done with chemo and all has been going great. she started not feeling well and was running a pretty high temp. so they took her into the emergency room. long story short, her white blood cell count is low and she has a bladder infection. so...shes infected and her body's ability to fight off infection is much lower. they had to skip this weeks chemo and it sounds like she'll be in the hospital for a few days. i'll try to update as news comes in.

my work truck is a piece of crap. im due for a new one this summer/fall. hopefully the economy doesnt stop that from happening. my lift gate just completely stopped working on wednesday so it was in the shop all day. so i got a day off. which was nice. thursday all went well with my truck but the roads and the weather were awful. seriously awful. im still amazed the company didnt pull us off the roads. it flat out was not safe to be out. anyways...friday i usually dont have a route, but this friday i had to play catch up. so...i did sleepy eye and then springfield. i drove from springfield to new ulm. i got out at my first new ulm stop only to find out that my lift gate was AGAIN not working. so Rick had to drive the pick up to new ulm and we had to take tanks off of my truck and put them on the pick up. i had to finish new ulm in the pick up. which is not fun. my truck is big enough to work comfortably and safely in, the pick up...well, it isnt.

this weekend. josiah's 2nd birthday party is tomorrow. we'll all be going up to pizza ranch in le sueur. Mmmm. thats the only real plans i have. a couple friends just got a hold of me though wondering if i could go out tonight. after this week a night of drinking sounds pretty good. well drinking and pagliais pizza. Mmmm. i gotta find a sitter though. Sheree, are you busy tonight?

names and definitions

First off, winter needs to end. I'm so sick of the cold and snow. 40 tomorrow! Woo hoo!

2nd. Its Monday I have nothing good to say about it.

We spent all day Saturday up in the cities. It was Grandma Bonnie's birthday so we took her out to eat at Bennigans and hung out with her at her place for a bit. Mmmm. Bennigans. The food was great. I ate sooo much.

After that we went to church in Maple Grove. It was good. The sermon hit close to home. Seems like it always does when Dave preaches. I kinda wanna break it down, but not tonight. And not on my tiny phone keyboard.

I am confused by the undefined. I just want to rush the naming process even if it means calling something over. Uncertainity is confusion. Vague enough for ya? :)

-lunch break-

i just read a story on cnn.com. click here to read it and then tell me what you think. ive often wondered what would happen to the crime rate if we had more of "an eye for an eye" mentality in this country. sometimes i feel like were so eager to forgive and forget that we just keep throwing murders and rapists back out there to murder and rape again. what do you think of this womans response in the story? do think the crime rate would drop if we chopped off the hands of thieves and various other parts of rapists? do you think we have a moral responsibility to give people multiple chances at turning their life around? wheres the line?

also...did you hear the story about the woman getting mauled by the ape? if not, here it is. good lord. ive heard quotes from the 911 call and from the police who responded. apparantly this womans face was just gone. the cops actually said "we need to get this GUY out of here. he has no face left". ive been spending too much time the last 2 days imaging how horrifying this must have been. who gives an ape Xanax anyway? good idea.

ok..i should probably get back to work.

guitar lesson!

yeah, were pretty much rockin out

-valentines day-

hey all. happy valentines day! AND happy birthday to my aunt Sheree and my uncle Dan. a few days late, i know.

today. i was hoping to sleep in until at least 10. 10 sounds about right. chloe would not let me. she woke me up around 8. who called me at 1:30 in the morning anyway? was that you? well? anyways...im going to clean some of the house this morning since im up. i really dont feel like it, but it needs to be done. i still feel sore and old from the dodge ball tourny, but i feel like im getting better. today is sure to make me feel worse all over again. why? because here are the plans for the day. at noon we are going to dutlers bowl here in kato for the praxair holiday party. social hour is from noon to one...and then we bowl. chucking a 15 pound ball 60 feet a few dozen times oughta do wonders on my sore back, legs and arms. and then after that...this is the funny part, i am going up to burnsville to go rollerskating with Ms Ida and her kids. rollerskating ought to do wonders for...well, my entire sore body. so by tomorrow i should be back in i cant move mode. woo hoo.

ok ms ida just called. we are going out for breakfast now i guess. gotta go get ready.

-stories to tell-

today is friday. today is friday. friday fish...yeah i still cant remember all of Mr Harveys song.

short story numero uno:

im driving on highway 14 today. between new ulm and sleepy eye heading towards new ulm. coming the other way is a garbage truck driven by what appears to be a pretty old man. following the garbage truck is a semi...and he is being an ass. hes riding the butt of the garbage truck. and i mean close. dangerously close. hes flashing his lights, his brights, his hazards. hes honking the airhorn. hes pumping his fist. so as i drive by i did the mature thing and yelled at the semi driver and gave him the finger. cause as far as i can tell, the garbage truck was just going too slow for the semi...so he was being an ass trying to get the poor old guy to move. (and yes, i do realize that the semi driver could not hear me yelling at him.) so, i keep driving. and im mad. it took me awhile to settle down about this. seriously, who does that? i get about 5 or so miles down the road and get this...theres a dumpster in the middle of the road. my guess is that its not supposed to be there. in fact it appears, based on its condition, that it may or may not have fallen off a...of i dunno, a garbage truck and maybe, just maybe, it might have been struck my a semi. so...mr semi driver may have been a little bit justified in trying to get little mr garbage truck to pull over. sorry about that whole middle finger thing!

short story numero dos:

wednesday. im in arlington for the 2nd time in two days due to a certain store employees mess up. i wont mention names. anyways...im in arlington. its like 12:01 PM and i am starving. so i decide im going to go to the ONE place that arlington has to eat...subway! Mmmm. subway. i walk in and find a line of literally about 15 people. i get in line and wait a long time. the 2 women working are working their butts off. they are obviously stressed already. it gets to the point where i am 3rd in line. one woman (2 spots ahead of me- lets call her Sally for the sake of the story) has almost completed her sandwich. shes just choosing her toppings. another woman (one spot in front of me. we'll call her Rhonda for the sake of this story) has just begun her sandwich making experience here at the magical land known as subway. i am waiting patiently to make my selection. everyone clear on the scene? another important point to make...the line behind me...still huge. maybe getting closer to 20 people. apparantly the entire population of arlington goes to subway for lunch.

ok...heres where it gets fun. remember Sally? well...some people walk in who seem to know Sally. and they dont seem to care that shes first in line with 20 people behind her. they are going to talk to her...and theyre going to do it NOW. god forbid they wait a minute...anyways...so they start to talk. remember Rhonda? she doesnt know ANY of these people but shes going to turn and STARE at them from a foot away as they talk. and i mean STARE. the rest of the world has apparantly gone away in Rhondas mind. so when the nice subway employee asks "what kind of cheese would you like?" Rhonda doesnt even realize shes being talked to. "excuse me, ma'am? what kind of cheese would you like?". i look at Rhonda...i can almost hear the breeze blowing. no idea shes being talked to. honestly its like she has no clue where she is. one more try from the nice subway employee. "ma'am? ma'am? cheese? ma'am". im standing close to rhonda. i say "excuse me...excuse me." she is LOCKED in a blank stare at this conversation thats going on. so subway employee gives up, walks up to the cash register and gets someone out the door. a few seconds later the other nice subway employee comes back to rhondas sandwich and picks it up to toast it. this gets rhondas attention. rhonda is not happy about this. "excuse me, but do i not get cheese on that? dont you usually offer cheese?". subway lady says "oh...im sorry i didnt realize she (other subway lady) hadnt put cheese on it yet"...rhonda is disgusted. "i cant believe you didnt even ask. who gets a sandwich without cheese?" you know that noise people make when theyre disgusted? rhonda made that more then a few times. she also rolled her eyes. i decided then, that i had no interest in befriending this...rhonda. rhonda finally makes it up to the register and begins ripping on the woman who originally helped her. and this friendly subway employee didnt know what to say. so she just stood there...and said nothing. she just turned red. finally i say "excuse me...she asked you 3 times what kind of cheese you wanted. but you were busy listening in on their conversation. so you didnt hear." i said it as nicely as something like that can be said. she rolls her eyes at me...makes that awesome disgusted sound...and says "oh no she did not ask me"...and another roll of the eyes...another disgusted sound...and a death look at the subway employee. so now im mad. poor subway lady. i say "i sat and watched her ask you three times if you wanted cheese...and you just stood there staring...theres 20 people in line...so she went to take care of people who were paying attention."... at this point i am called rude...and various other names...to which i reply "yeah, youre right...you are the center of the unniverse. im sorry."

seriously...how can you be that rude? better question...how can you be that blind to the fact that youre that rude?

more to come.

-february-

...and the snow falls down

melts before it even

hits the ground

...and im standing here

listening

to the sound

of your hand washing

back and forth

across my filthy heart

...and i dont know

if i should say

im sorry or thank you

i tried to speak

but the tears choke the words

...and i think i finally know what they mean

when they talk about joy

-lyrics by christopher simpson-