something cool to check out

mom sent me this link the other day. i don't normally pass along this kind of stuff, but this was actually really cool. plus, it's to a beetle's song, so you can't go wrong.

and...this is not something "cool to check out" but rather something i just checked out myself in the mirror so it's on my mind. well, on my head actually. grey hair that is! it must be my fast-approaching birthday (it's saturday! hint, hint.) but i just noticed a spot in my hair that has WAY more grey hair then it used to! how distinguished. or something.

today i saw something i had never before seen

while stopped at a red light i saw a man in one car successfully sell a pair of shoes to a woman in another car.* gives the words "door-to-door salesman" a new meaning.

*okay, i actually didn't see the transaction completed. but the guy showed the woman some shoes (without either of them leaving their cars) and then when the light proceeded to turn red he motioned for her to follow him into the burger king parking lot where, i presume a transaction was perhaps completed. but still, that's savvy.

check it out

i don't really know what it was about fuzzy's post that made me want to read one day in the life of ivan denisovich. it's probably my on-again, off-again eternal search for things that put my life in perspective. but in any event, i got it from the library last week and finished it off this weekend.

excellent book. and it didn't depress me. just like watching fight club will make me feel better about the world, this made me feel better about people. i guess that was the author's intention so i'm fairly unoriginal in this. but it just all made sense to me. under such inhuman and abject conditions i felt that the characters behaved in very human way. well, i won't go into it here. but check it out.

i'm beginning to think i like russian literature. first the master and the margarita, then anna karenina, now the life of ivan denisovich. that can't be all the russian literature i've read though can it? hmmm.

humbling

one of my jobs at work is to bring various speakers into the school or an individual classroom. today i brought in the operation get smart team. they were 3 guys and 2 girls talking about the choices they made in life which led to the various crimes that they committed which eventually landed them in jail. these folks are serving time anywhere from six years to life for some really hard crimes.

i feel really fortunate to have met these individuals and to have heard their stories. certainly they have committed some heinious acts and that should not be forgotten. but they bear their souls every day, earnestly pouring out their faults and foibles for the betterment of the young people in our community, so that they don't make the same mistakes. i have not seen any better form of rehabilitation. and in the process it made me realize what a truly blessed life i live.

catching up on old photos

here's a few pictures from last weekend which we spent in georgia, if you remember.

this is what we spent most of our time doing, though. puzzles.

techno-rific weekend

even for the techno-idiots.

friday i got an early birthday present! thanks scoobs (with the guidance of fuzzy i hear). i've spent a lot of this weekend entering all my oh-so-important dates and my contacts' addresses and stuff. yaaa!

then, yesterday we realized office max was going out of buisiness (or at least the 2 stores in columbia that i went to are). so we bought a new phone (our old one was not liking to dial 3's and 6's, which had become a hassle). and we bought a new printer (our old one stopped working a few weeks ago and found out we could fix it but it would cost more than the worth of the machine). of course, in typical waldie and chris fashion we got home and the printer was not compatable with our operating system. boooo!

so today we've gotten an offer to be given another computer, a better one. for free. thanks bo. yaaaa!

the heat is off

i think.

for those of you who were worried that we would die of heat stroke in our apartment. i'm not 100% sure if they did anything or not though. it got cold last night so we opened the windows and it was managable in here. but it's fairly warm again today and the apartment is still cool-ish. at least cool enough to walk in the back room. so hopefully it'll stay this way.

also i had my 3rd or 4th visit with the somalis. i really like them and am so excited to be getting involved in their community. today i came over and there was a somali woman named halima there. she speaks english fluently (she's been in the us, it seems, for a while). so she was able to give me a little more information and i could tell her about myself. she was very sweet. she reminded me of sister thomasmari (for those who know her) who was always gentle in telling you what she thought you should be doing and how you should do it. so now all of a sudden i've realized that i've changed my times for tutoring in order that i can help another mom who was always working when i came over in the afternoons. but also i'm now trying to find someone to go with me to help the kids while i help the moms. don't really know how that happened but i guess i feel flattered that she was comfortable enough to pressure me into the change. i really don't mind.

africa to our apartment?

i'm in the worst mood ever and as such, i probably shouldn't be blogging. i've purposely not really talked to anyone today because i know i will just not be a nice person. i'm not exactly sure why i'm in a bad mood, though much of it, i guess, stems from the fact that our apartment is 90 degrees, despite running the AC full blast all day. how is that possible, you may ask. well, friends, for those who don't know, we live above the boiler room. so in winter when the heat is turned on, our floors are heated. normally not a big deal when it's like 40 degrees out. but it's been in the 80's for the past 2 days. but the heat is still on in our place. so i've been sweating all day and spitting nails. poor chris. my anger is doubled because we wanted to move out and they won't let us. so urgh to usc graduate and family housing!

we spent friday and saturday at my grandparents' house in rural georgia again. this time we didn't pick pecans, but we did pick turnips. i have, no joke, like 10 pounds of turnips (thanks chris!). if anyone in the columbia area wants some, please let me know. one can only eat so much turnips. anyways, the weekend was good, even though there were way too many people in a way too small house. my uncle, his daughter, her roommate, my 2 grandparents, 2 HUGE dogs and 3 cats were all there (plus me and chris of course). the house is only 4 rooms so it was tight. but it was good to see everyone and as always we had great (albeit way too much) food. plus we got legal advice and a recipe for the almost-famous oat balls from my uncle sammy. so yea, that was my weekend.

now i'll go back to wallowing in my ill mood.

four things

because fuzzy asked so nicely...

Four jobs I’ve had
Cheese Cutter
Trail Blazer
Program Implementer
Site Coordinator

Four movies I can watch over and over
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Little Women
13 Going On Thirty
Fight Club

Four TV shows I love to watch
I don’t have any TV reception so I don’t watch TV. However, we do have the following on DVD:
Fraggle Rock
Will and Grace
Dave Chappelle
Looney Toons


Four places I’ve been on vacation
Bermuda (May 1996)
Egypt (May 2000)
Monti Cristi, Dominican Republic (March 2004)
Okefenokee Swamp, Florida (April 2005)

Four favorite dishes
Ice Cream (my favorite flavor changes with my mood)
Pasta Bella’s (now non-existent) olive oil spread
Pretty much anything mom makes
Veggies and dill dip

Four websites I visit daily (I’m going to change this to weekly because the only thing I have time to visit daily is the GNC (data entry site for work)
CNN
Waldie Family Photos
Bill check
My blog (yes, I really do check it. I usually can’t remember what I last wrote.)

Four places I’d rather be
Sleeping late with Scoobs
Outside on a walk
Africa
At mom’s sitting down to dinner (or having hors d’oeuvres & cocktails

Four bloggers I’m tagging
Rachel (blog already would ya!)
Ben (because I want to read something other than complaining and politics on your blog)
Bo (it’s all in the family)
Theresa (because I never comment on your blog)

what does good friends, yummy food and a 10 year-old waitress have in common?

answer: greenwood, sc .

thanks, sean and cheryl for a fun saturday. you helped pull us out of our slump!

(*and i'm not kidding about the 10 year old waitress. she waited on us at tw boon's. she was the only server in the whole place and undoubtedly was the most precocious child i've ever met.)

my boy be's smart

he just was picked to be awarded the outstanding senior award in the sociology deparment at usc. smarty-pants!