Are they trying to tell me something?

Yesterday I worked from home in the morning and went in after lunch. I was running late so I grabbed some Wendy's. Today, I only worked a 1/2 day in the afternoon and just got some McDonald's on my way in.

Both times, I ordered a normal, full sugared drink. Dr. Pepper at Wendy's and a Coke at McDonald's. Both times, they hand me my drink, I take a sip, and its Diet Coke!! Have I gotten so bad that the people at the fast food restaurants are trying to tell me I'm fat?? It's like they're saying "Really? REGULAR Coke? Ummm....I don't think so....."

P.S. I would seriously be paranoid if they hadn't already had the drinks poured before I pulled up to the window. ;)

THE List: 21-40

Well apparently my list isn't interesting to people, but I don't care...I'm having fun with it. :)

Here are items 21-40:
21. Order room service at the Plaza Hotel in New York
22. Visit at least 30 different countries
23. Walk the Macchu Picchu trail
24. Watch a pro soccer match in a country that actually likes it
25. See Cirque du Soleil
26. Go on a cruise
27. Eat a cupcake from the Magnolia Bakery in New York City
28. Visit the Louvre in Paris
29. Drink a beer at Oktoberfest in Munich
30. Meet, in person, someone I've become "friends" with on the Internet (Megan? Holly?...)
31. See Pompeii
32. Eat the worm at the bottle of a bottle of Mezcal
33. Go to Carnevale in Venice
34. Visit Anne Frank's house and take a picture of where the tree used to be (cause it'll be gone in the next few weeks)
35. Spend an afternoon exploring Gamla Stan in Stockholm, Sweden
36. Ride an elephant
37. Go to Disneyland
38. Watch the launch of a space shuttle
39. Dance the Tango in Argentina
40. See the Changing of the Guards

THE List: 1-20

At World Market a few weeks ago, I bought the "1001 Places to See Before You Die." I was severely disappointed. I was hoping for a checklist of things that were a clearly defined 1001 items. It is not that at all...its basically a collection of the typical city guide books you get before going places that includes hotels, restaurants, and some sights but without any distinction as to what they're considering their 1001. So I'm making my own...I'm sure I won't get to 1001, but I'll eventually get to 100.

Rather than boring you with them all at once, I'm going to post 10-20 at a time over the next couple of weeks and then (hopefully) give periodic updates of the ones that I've finished. Some I made up myself, most I stole from the Internet. I will say that when I was creating my list (and I don't have 100 yet, so feel free to make suggestions!) I put on a couple that I have already done, but nothing completed before January 2007. So with no further ado, here is my first installment of THE List.

1. The necessary item: Visit all 50 states
2. Bet $100 on Black at a Roulette table in Vegas
3. Cross the International Date Line
4. Look for Nessie in Scotland
5. Kiss the Blarney Stone
6. Sleep in a "haunted" castle or hotel
7. Walk along the Great Wall of China
8. See a Broadway Show
9. Take a picture of me "holding up" the Leaning Tower of Pisa
10. Watch the Cubs play a game at Wrigley Field
11. Spend New Years in an exotic location
12. Visit 6 of the 7 continents (I have no desire to go to Antartica)
13. Watch a Sumo Wrestling match in Japan
14. Take a random vacation not knowing where I'm going until the last minute
15. Take a lesson at one of the Trapeze Schools
16. See the Pyramids
17. Skydive
18. Go to Graceland
19. See the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona
20. Drink Champagne in a limo (nope, I've never ridden in a limo before)

And for my first thing to be crossed off, here is my proof of my FIRST (I hope to have more) New Years in an exotic location...Piazza della Repubblika in Florence, Italy.

You Always Want What You Can't Have

I honestly couldn't tell you how long it's been since I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I've always liked them, but when you are never around children its just not something that comes up. But yet today when I was at the grocery store, I walked past the sad empty shelves that usually house the Jiffy, Peter Pan, and good ole' Walmart brand peanut butters that are gone from the big recall and all of a sudden, I couldn't think about anything but peanut butter and jelly. They still had the large sizes of Jiffy that weren't recalled as well as a couple of "all natural" brands, but it just reminded me too much of my brother's Firestone tire that detreaded back in the day but wasn't included in the recall because it was a 15" and not a 17" or something like that.

After walking around the store for a bit, I couldn't get it out of my head so I finally went over and bought some of the natural stuff. You'd think that someone who has just gotten over being seriously ill for a month would think twice before eating something that has been known to put people in the hospital....and you'd be right! When I got home, I chickened out and made a turkey sandwich instead. But I still have the risky peanut butter. Maybe some day soon when I'm feeling daring, I'll eat some of it. :)

Fun with Photos!

My dad bought me a fantastic new printer for Christmas - one that is made for printing photos and CDs and things like that. Because of several things, I didn't actually get it set up until this weekend. Since then I've had so much fun printing out photos that I've been wanting to print for a long time. They look fantastic!

One picture in particular is one that I took in Austria 2 years ago. I've always said that this picture looks like a postcard except for the power lines and red crane in the background.



So tonight I decided to see if I could take them out. Now I don't have photoshop. I can't create cool things from scratch like Stephen or put people's faces on other people's bodies like Megan, but I have been known to do some pretty great things with Microsoft Paint! :) I took out the crane and powerlines and I think I was right...it does look like a postcard! I know, I know...you can tell where stuff used to be if you look hard, but at first glance, I think this pretty impressive for an inferior graphics program.

Random Thought for the Day

WARNING: This post discusses bathroom habits. Should that make you uncomfortable, stop reading now. :)

Girls, have you noticed that whenever you go into a public restroom with multiple stalls and someone is in one stall, most people will skip the next stall and go into the third? Its like we create a "buffer stall" if at all possible.

Guys, do you do that too? Or are yall much less neurotic and go to whatever stall/urinal is closest?

Told you it was a random thought....

I Hate Apartment Living!!

I have been living in apartments for the last 4 years. I know that it requires a certain amount of maintenance, but I am seriously being driven insane. At my apartment in Abilene they always seemed to wait until I was ready to take a nap before they invariably started leafblowing or mowing or something extremely loud and annoying. I was so excited when I moved out of there thinking that I wouldn't have to deal with this phenomenon anymore....until recently.

I am really starting to believe that the maintenance workers from University Park Apartments all decided to move to Fort Worth and started working at River Park Place. For the past month, it seems like I am never in my apartment without somebody outside my window with some sort of motorized something that is so loud I can't do anything! Right now at 5:45pm, I'm sitting on my couch with my television up almost as loud as it will go and I can't hear what is going on because of a stupid leafblower! Add to that the incessant sound of planes from Lockheed Martin down the road and the BNSF train that rolls through and blasts its horn as loud as possible several times a day and I'm in corporate Fort Worth noise pollution hell! If I have to deal with noise, can't I at least be in a fun location? I can't wait until May when I'm out of here...downtown living is definitely the place for me.

I Watch Too Much Scrubs

Today, I spent the first half of my day in the emergency room because of some side effects from the medicines they have me on - mainly insanely high doses of Prednisone (don't focus on the ER part...this is supposed to be a fun post!)

I think the people probably thought that I was insane because everything that we did, I was trying not to laugh because I kept picturing scenes from Scrubs in my head! The absolute worst was when a doctor was wheeling me down a hall to get a chest x-ray...I could seriously see the end of the "Everything Comes Down to Poo" song being performed in the hallway. It really made me realize how good the directors are at getting the perfect camera angles on that show and how great the set designers are!

I've put the video of the song below if you haven't seen it...its around 1:51 (or :25 if its counting backwards) when it hits that perfect angle that had me laughing even though there weren't really people in front of me. What do you think, is Scrubs really that great...or is it just the fact that one of the side effects tends to be hallucinations? I think its the power that is Scrubs! :)

Pneumonia!!

So I've been out of commission for 2 weeks now and the diagnosis on Monday was pneumonia. And of course, having asthma just makes everything worse. But I got to the doctor just in time - he said 2 more days and I would have been in the hospital. But I got on steroids and antibiotics, crossed my fingers that there would be no random drug tests for anything (ha!) and prayed that it would work. I'm not well yet, but finally on the way up!

In other news, the next cycle of America's Next Top Model started this week and made me VERY happy! I love that show!

I'll write more later, but now I get to go study for a midterm and a final in two classes, neither of which I have attended for two weeks! Wish me luck!