( Read more... )

hey, look at me! my first time huddled in a bathtub during my very first tornado warning!

well, okay, i just ran out to shut windows and grab a beer. what? i'm supposed to die sober?

i think it is absolutely essential to have someone in your life who misses you.

they say "I miss you," and they mean "I love you. I think the world of you. You are amazing and wonderful and brave. I am so proud of you."

i am so lucky to have people who miss me.

someone (who, i can't remember right now) compared grief to your first car. how you never forgot it, but your relationship to it changes. it was a rather appropriate metaphor. sometimes, you forget about it entirely. until suddenly you're walking down the street and you're struck by a smell, or the sight of a similar make, and you miss it so much you cry.

i find myself these days in the unpleasant position of envying those who have what i don't. parents under the age of 60, or 50. parents who support them emotionally and financially. these people who have never known the acute embarassment of going to school in Salvation Army Clothes. and CHRIST, i'm 30. really, i've dealt with those demons. i'm proud of my parents. i'm proud that my father worked hard at menial labor to put me through college. i'm embarassed that i was ever ashamed of my parents. right now, i'm frustrated to be caught up in non-productive envy which is kind of wrapped up in my grieving.

i've gotten some very nice cards from people back home who remembered my Dad and got ahold of my address somewhere. some of them came from the local library because we asked that donations be made in his name to the Library. his old boss at the Buggy Bath donated 100 dollars and my old nemesis, one of the children's librarians, heh, donated a book in his name. my Jane is going to donate a copy of Coming Into the Country by John McPhee, a book that Dad went through two copies of in the last 10 years.

some people have asked what they can do, or emailed me with their condolences and offered me whatever i might need. i think it would really be awesome if those who'd like to help me would send my hometown library a book, or some small monetary donation, in my Dad's name (Elmer C. Moody). maybe i'll talk about why that's so significant for me sometime, besides liking the idea of all these books in circulation with Dad's name in them, in the library where i both learned how to read and wrote my master's thesis.

Sheridan Fulmer Public Library
335 W. Alger Street
Sheridan, WY 82801

dammit, i miss Kings!

a grad student friend told me that she wasn't voting because she wasn't affiliated with any party. so i thought hey, i should check where I will be voting tomorrow...and apparently Ohio lists you as "unaffiliated" by default when you register by getting a driver's license.

um, does that mean I can't vote tomorrow?

This may, of course, be moot, since I can't even decide WHO to vote for.

good news: with my tax return(s), i'll be able to pay off my care, and then trade the poor deer damaged darling in for something slightly less damaged.

sad news: i just checked (yes) on the FAFSA form under the question "Are both your parents deceased?"

Dad died at about 8:48 this morning.

i need a new phone. my cell's battery is dying (it won't keep a charge for longer than 48 hours, sometimes less than 24, and it turns off at the worst times).

i really like virgin mobile, so i'd planned to just buy a new phone through them. butbutbut. vm has no service beyond Minnesota. no wyoming. i hadn't really minded before, but i hated not having my cell phone the last time i was home. very inconvenient. it may be a good plan to, oh i don't know, be able to call 911 should i hit any more large mammals.

so, i've been research cell phones and companies. so far, i like the LG EnV best. it's not cheap, but it might be the most useful. i can text message, i can email when i need to do so, and general opinion seems to be that Verizon has okay service. they have nice cheap/free phones to, but if i'm going to buy a whole new phone, it might be a better idea to get the most useful phone possible (without spending a huge chunk of money that i don't have.)

i just hate going back to paying oodles of money when i only use maybe 200 minutes a month. maybe.

dear knowledgeable beer drinkers:

is there any reason that a particularly hoppy beet would taste better when warm?

love,

me.

well, there is unpleasant news to share, but more importantly...

1) I live four blocks from a bath house. yes, THAT kind of bath house.

2) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/austen/index.html. OMG. i love jane austen.

am in Sioux Falls. have not hit any more large or small mammals. have car full of stuff, remnants of Dad's life outside old person prison the nursing home.

swear to fucking god, if (for some odd reason) i am not yet within 30 miles of M-town by dusk tomorrow, i will fucking sleep in my car. i am now completely flipped out by night driving through deer infested territory.

i'm honestly sort of pleased that we're going to have a wet and white Christmas. but i bet anyone out on I-90 doesn't agree with me....holy White Christmas, Batman!

i have many thinky thoughts about Dad and elder care, but it's Christmas Eve, so i prefer to say i hope everyone is warm and cozy and possibly quite drunk.

i am sitting in Jane's living room, as cozy and comfy as you please, as if i were in my own home, listening to Wyoming Public Radio's broadcast of Handel's Messiah from Philly, reading a romance novel, contemplating whether i should switch from Mountain Dew to red wine.

also, i'm SO tempted to open one of my three presents from Jane. presents! to open! i haven't had that in years and years! and we always got to open on present on Christmas Eve. BUT...then i'll only have to things to rip open in the morning.

decisions.

was there some part of "i hit a deer on my way to Sheridan, where I'm from, but I don't know Gillette very well," that you didn't understand, mr. used tire/side mirror guy?

the windshield won't be fixed until tomorrow, so i'm stuck until then. i found a cheap used tire and a side mirror at this one place, but they don't install, they just sell. this tire won't be a permanent replacement. the guy said it would be okay for awhile, but i don't know if i'd want to drive on it all the way back to Ohio.

so, my car is at the windshield place, where it can't really be moved until it's fixed. the tire and side mirror at a 2nd place, and once i have those, i'll have to get to another place to have them mounted/placed on the car.

i'm really not looking forward to anything right now. i've been reliving hitting that stupid deer and guess what? i'll be on the road at the same time tomorrow, 4-6 pm which is prime deer hitting time.

ah, animal crackers. see, i wanted sunflower seeds, but decided that i probably lacked the manual dexterity to deal with them right now.

yes, i'm okay. i feel a bit nauseated and headachey (my pupils are fine, i'm not slurring my speech). EMTs did come to the scene. i didn't even hit my head on the steering wheel and the airbag didn't deploy. i'm in freaking Gilette, 90 miles from home, but i'm pretty much okay. i refused treatment. i didn't hit my head and i didn't even get whiplash (i'd know by now).

the car will hopefully be okay. as best as i can recall (stupid accident memory), i wasn't going more than 70 when it happened. i think (!) that i didn't see mr. deer at first, saw him, swerved a bit and started to slow, but the deer bounced up (??), smashed into the driver's side of the windshield and alongside the driver's side of the car, taking the side mirror with him and leaving some of his hide behind (ew...). BUT he didn't hit the hood and all opinions (people who stopped, the tow truck man) felt like the damage was superficial. there's crumpling along the driver's side, the driver side door is hard to open and the back door on the side can't be opened at all. the windshield got partially smooshed but remained in the its spot, though a lot of glass dust and bits did end up on me and now i've noticed that there's some minor injury on my arms (lovely red spots).

i'll call my insurance tomorrow, though i bet they'll call this an "act of God" and i'll have to hurt them. right now, i just want to get the windshield replaced, see if something can be done about the side mirror, and maybe hopefully just check on the soundness of the body. any bodywork can be done in Sheridan.

oh, and this morning? i got pulled over for going 85 in a 75. dear south dakota statie: why didn't you pull over the guy going 90 who'd just passed me? also, the guy tried to small talk me. look, i respect that you're doing your job and just trying to be nice about it, but shut up. it's 9am and you need to go catch meth cookers or something.

and i know brdgt is concerned: after encountering my car, the buck got hit by a truck and trailer, knocking the tandt into the next lane, we think killing the deer finally (i probably didn't finish him off). the t and t just kept going.

okay.

seriously, it's just not fucking FUNNY any more, not even on a Job-ian Murphy's law scale.*

i hit a motherfucking deer.

i swear, i'm going to have to drug myself tomorrow night just to get some sleep.

i have to confess my secret love: i'm addicted to The Girls Next Door. i love Hugh Hefner. i love his girlfriends. i love the secretary. and now, i can listen to Playboy Radio on Sirius! wheeee!!!

okay, you bandom people that are kind of crazy and taking over the internet? see, i know who Panic is. and Fall Out Boy. And All American Rejects, except do they count? But who's My Chemical Romance? And okay, there are others, but I have no idea of the names. ANYWAY. if anyone happens to have music they'd like to share of this sort, i will love you and kiss you and return the favor in some way.

mind you, i don't even know who these Wray/Wright brothers are, but hey, i just need variety for the massive driving ahead of me.

eta: in the twilight, with only the back door light to aid me, i managed to work install antenna. whoot!

so, i have a sirius receiver in my hot little hands. i've even installed the vent mount.

has anyone self-installed the antenna? it doesn't *sound* hard and i've poked around my car and i think i understand what it would take to tuck the cord underneath the back window moulding, and then down into the trunk...

but am i on crack? (in this respect, never mind anything else.)

my present to myself was going to be a Sirius radio. i didn't get around to ordering until tonight, figuring that i'd pay a bit extra for fast shipping...

first, i couldn't order online. like, it takes my cc info and then just HANGS there, not processing.

then, i tried calling. first, the nice lady offered me a new deal! 99.99 for the whole car kit and radio AND a boombox! whee!!...

only to get cut off.

so, i call back. this time, i hung up because the guy had mush mouth so bad i couldn't understand him.

SIRIUS WHY YOU GOTTA HATE???? 3000 miles!* omg, i really wanted that radio!

*from Columbus, my current one-way trip to WY is 1500 miles.

[8:26 AM] I woke up at 8am for nothing! I could have sworn that, despite my reminder phone call from the School of Dentistry, my appt. was an all day one starting at 8:30, because the crown would take all day, but the front desk also said no! 1pm! ha!

::grumbles::

[much later] apparently, my student dentist realized she wouldn't be able to do my crown today because they have to fix everything else first. curses! so i got poked, prodded, and told that I'm brushing incorrectly, but no crown.

Dad got a nurse to call me because he was wondering where I was..not there yet, that's where i am! Jane is letting me stay at her house (she and hubby will be gone for most of Christmas) and her hubby quite bizarrely said that I shouldn't have people over...who would i have over??!! i'm not even going to TELL my brother where i'm staying. good god.

i'm hoping to leave this Friday, but we'll see. being in Columbus adds about 200 miles to my trip, one-way. Madison, though, is still a good stopping point and also, a good place to gird my loins/decompress. please cross your collective fingers for a lack of freezing rain/major snowstorms. though the quarter starts on Jan 3rd, so if i stopped in Madison for New Years, I'd have to leave on the 2nd.

also, also, also...i love that my icon is actually kind of season appropriate...

NEW YORK (AP) -- In the year 1215, a group of English barons handed King John a document written on parchment. Put your royal seal on this, they said. John did, and forever changed the relationship between the monarchy and those it governed.
art.magna.ap.jpg

Sotheby's released this photo of the 1279 Magna Carta, which will go up for sale in New York December 18.


( Read more... )

excerpt:Written in medieval Latin on sheepskin that after 710 years remains intact and legible, the 1297 Magna Carta was owned for five centuries by a British family that put it up for sale in the early 1980s.

There's no earthly way of being absolutely sure that this was on sheepskin. It's very likely, but it could be goat..or cow....i'm just sayin'...

BUT OMGOODNESS, ISN'T IT PRETTY!??! also, the script is very similar to that used in Marguerite's letters.

::is watching Becket for first time ever::

monks chanting...monks chanting...ooo, historical background text screen! ::reads::

La, La, William the Conquerer...Saxons...er, okay, it's ANGLO-Saxons, but whatever...WTF? OPPRESSED SAXON PEASANTRY?!! IT'S THE 12TH FUCKING CENTURY! THERE ARE NO FREAKING SAXONS, YOU PUNKAss...er, yes.

imported Norman clergy? by the 12th century, we have some serious melding going on. its been a hundred freaking years!

::returns to film, now slighly suspicious::