Cherry Indigo: May 2006

I've added "word verification" to the comment area to block spammers. My apologies.

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Takin' It To The Streets

A week has passed and I didn’t have to hear the name Taylor Hicks even once. How nice. It was wonderful. I have nothing against him personally, I just can’t get past the fact that he’s the “American Idol” and Americans VOTED FOR THAT RESULT. It’s the election all over again. Egads. I just didn’t think he was THAT good. And I didn't buy the gracious competitor bit for a second. He's definitely a showman, I'll give him that. Once Chris was out of the running, I just couldn’t stay interested. Even Katherine couldn’t hold my attention very well, singing everything from the floor. And then poor Elliot got ditched just when I started to route for him. But Taylor? REALLY?! “American Idol” may have just left the ramp and is currently in flight directly over the shark.

A few of us at work were talking about the fact that more people voted for the final between Katherine and Taylor then they have in any presidential election. Of course, that’s possible because you can vote more then once. Then we started joking about what it would be like to actually hold the presidential elections that way. When you give it some thought, it could be an interesting way to do things, while still keeping voter registration intact.

They could start with the primaries and have the Democrats and Republicans debate one another. At the end of the show, you vote for your candidate….until we’re down to a Democrat and Republican nominee. And why not have all vice presidential candidates do the same? Why does the presidential candidate get to pick his running mate? How come we can’t choose our vice president? (I know, I know, there is all kinds of Constitutional and Congressional logic and reasoning behind that decision but it’s interesting to think about.)

Once we’re down to the candidates for each party, there’s more debating. There are a couple thoughts here….you could have people vote after every show, to see how the polls are tracking or, and I like this suggestion better, have them vote on the debated issues after each show and see where Americans fall on the actual issues.

I’ll admit, it’s not a perfect solution yet. There’s all kinds of technology needed to make sure registered voters are the ones voting and only voting once. I haven’t worked this out yet. Also, there needs to be a way for people not to vote a straight party ticket…maybe that’s tied into the voting on the issues in advance of the big showdown…but that doesn’t seem fair.

I know it would probably never fly in our collective lifetime, but it’s pretty interesting to think about if you let your imagination run a little wild. There has to be a role for some “judges” in there, too.

Text the word ‘VOTE’ to USA-D or USA-R.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Burn Baby Burn

GREAT WEEKEND!!! Yes, I know, it’s Thursday and we’re already rolling into a new weekend….it took me that long to get to this. But last weekend…

The contractor (Brian, who is awesome) finished up on Thursday. The dumpster was finally at capacity – enough that we had to jump around in it to make sure it was below the sides. Otherwise, they won’t pick it up. I seem to remember being up until about 2:30, painting. But that might have been another night....I've lost track.

On Friday, I was hoping to get out right on time but all hell broke loose in the afternoon. It was close to 6:30 before I got out of there, exhausted. So, we decided it actually would be a good idea for me to take a nap – which helped tremendously. Then we worked our asses off cleaning that place up….so much dust. We had intended to keep cleaning until we were done but finally had to get some sleep around 4am.

Rise and shine!!! I woke up at 7:00. 7:00!!! Only 3 freaking hours later. When I couldn’t fall back asleep by 8:00, I got up and finished putting together some furniture until my partner-in-crime was up and then we split up….she did all the shopping and picking things up and I finished up the house. But no nap that day. :(

It was all worth it, however. The room looked so good. Brian and his guys did a tremendous job. Behold!

Before:

After!

And…. Just a few short hours later, the furniture got pushed back, the carpet rolled up, disco ball was hung and lights were lit…. and we had the Disco Inferno!

At some point, when we were getting into the wee hours, a couple of us decided to walk to the end of the driveway to check the sound level. Couldn’t hear anything but it was pretty funny to see the lights flashing around through the windows in the door.

It was probably around midnight when the whipped cream came out. It’s become a staple at parties with this bunch.

Saturday turned into Sunday and it was at least 3am before we got to bed....with many overnights guests! I think we started to putter around by 8 the next morning. I love the morning after slumber parties….we saw a special screening of the pictures while enjoying French toast and eggs. Then off to softball.

I’m almost caught up on sleep….thank God it’s Memorial Day weekend.

Next up....we MUST talk about "American Idol".

Thursday, May 18, 2006

We Now Return To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

Soon. Not quite yet, but very soon.

Here are just a few things I've wanted to write about but haven't had the time (and really, when it comes down to it, I don't have the time right now but the room with the computer is right next to the room with the shower. I sometimes mix them up.)

- ATM scams and work ethics
- Target bags (yes, like the store)
- The completion of house renovations (SOOOOO close - maybe even today) - and one last pic
- The party following the house renovations (also SOOOOO close - but not today)
- "American Idol" - if Taylor wins I swear I'll lose all faith in the system - really can't stand him
- Softball - we're 4 and 0. Hmmm...not much more to say about that, I guess.
- "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter

That should do it for now.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Drained.

I got nothin’. NUH-THEEN.

It honestly feels like my life currently consists only of:

1) Work. And while I could say more, I will respect my own rules and not.
2) Contractors. I love these guys. They are absolutely wonderful and are doing a kick-ass job. But I want my house back. I want it to be clean and straight again. I want to pick up Einstein and not have dust puff from his fur. I have pictures, of course. Even I can’t bring myself to make me post them. I just keep repeating my mantra…we’re in the home stretch. Furniture was even purchased tonight….we’re near the end. And it does look great.
3) Sleep Deprivation. I’m either up too early or too late….usually because of #1.
4) Sitcoms. I’m even sick of them. How much Sex in the City can you have with your Friends Will & Grace? I mean really. Thank God for “American Idol” and “The Office”. I miss books. I have 2 B&N gift certificates in my purse….I need two hours to lose myself amongst the tomes and periodicals. I don’t foresee this happening until June…maybe of this year, it’s hard to say.

I realized today that I miss Bradley. Softball has started and we’re doing very well and it made me realize that I miss having Bradley around. She’s so damn cool and fun….and the best World Series roommate one could ask for. Bradley, when are you coming to visit the East Coast again?!

I really feel like there’s not much to share these days….that’s just wrong. Okay, I’m going to bed! Night, night!!

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Patterns of Randomness

4:38 am.

I'm driving down the Schuykill to 30th St. station to catch the train to NYC again. Ben-FM is playing... anyone?

That's right! "All I Wanna Do (Is Make Love To You)".

4:38 on a Wednesday morning.

Are you kidding me?

Monday, May 01, 2006

I Can't Think of a Title

I was in NYC today on business. At some point, I thought of a...my name is Allison which led to this idea for a blog about thinking that I saw her on some random corner. Ya’ know, there was a brick building on one corner with the hotdog vendor outside, a glass and steel structure on another. A parking garage across the way and, of course, the requisite Starbucks. Then I was going to go on to say that I knew it was her because she looked the EXACT same way as she did in this picture. I was going to work in hailing a cab but I hadn't tweaked that out yet. It was going to be a riot. I could feel it.

Then she ruined it by posting this picture, proving that she was in the park all day, not hanging out on random corners.

So now I got nothin’.

I was in NYC today on business. Yeah, see, it doesn’t have that same jeu d’esprit.

[It would also have been really cool if Iced Tea Not Coke and I were there at the same time (she just came back)...that would have been a blast. She did send me a pic though!]

Oh, wait, I do have a little something else. I love Ben-FM, Philly's newest (a year?) radio station. It's pretty good and their whole schtick is about playing anything they want, having the biggest library, etc. I was completely on board with this but now I'm noticing a pattern to their randomness. For instance...

Heart has about 20 AWESOME hits...I love Heart. Ben-FM decides to play "All I Wanna Do (Is Make Love to You)" to satisfy their Heart quota. They play it ALL THE TIME. It's one of their top 5 worst released songs. Maybe the top 3. What happened to "Barracuda", "Crazy On You", "How Can I Refuse", "Magic Man", "Never", "If Looks Could Kill", etc. etc. etc.? That's a whole week of Heart quota right there and I wasn't even trying that hard.

~~They do the same thing with Patty Smythe's (and Don Henley) "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough". Okay, not even close to being the same example because she only had 3 hits. So, that wasn't so good.~~ Let's scratch that one...literally.

My point being what I already stated...they have developed a pattern in their randomness....did they think we were too stupid to catch on?

I was in NYC today on business. Nope. Not even close to being funny. It really needed the entire contrived story.

Cherry Indigo