i have nothing against people who call themselves christians.  call yourself whatever you want, believe whatever you want.  as long as you don't try to force your views on me, we're cool.  i have an aunt who continuously fails to go along with that last sentence.

i love my aunt, she's a nice person & has always been good to me.  i do not, however, like when she sends me emails.  i've received few emails from her that didn't piss me right off.  yesterday, i got a whopper.  basically, the email attempts to get me to contact my senators to let them know that they should vote against a new hate crimes bill (the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 Bill # S.1105). 

according to the information in the email, this bill just can't pass because it would "establish homosexuals as a special class of people".  it goes on to say "it is no stretch to argue that S. 1105, if enacted, will embody a national policy that will likely lead to the criminalization and civil sanction of the biblical view of homosexuality."  what?!?  i'd say that's a HUGE stretch. 

it seems the main point is this:  "[there are instances when] homosexuals murdered heterosexuals but were not charged with a hate crime. Had the roles been reversed - the victims homosexual and the perpetrators heterosexual - they could have been charged. Under S.1105, homosexuals are a "protected class" while heterosexuals are not."  am i the only one who sees how ridiculous this is?

do people not get what a "hate crime" is?  you hurt or kill someone based solely on what or who they are (gay, black, muslim, whatever).  and it is just wrong.

i responded to my aunt with a few short sentences explaining that i do not agree and ending by simply saying "i've never heard of anyone being killed simply because they are heterosexual".  i am also sending her this. 

new bras that FIT.  it's a wonderful thing.

i saw this on a blog somewhere & thought it was cool.  go to wikipedia & search your birth day & month.  post 3 events that happened that day, 2 people who share your birthday & one person that died that day.  here's mine for december 27th:

events:
1831 - Charles Darwin embarks on his journey aboard the HMS Beagle, where he will formulate the theory of evolution.

1904 - James Barrie's play Peter Pan premieres in London.

1947 - Howdy Doody, a children's television program, makes its debut on the National Broadcasting Company.

births:
1822 - Louis Pasteur, French scientist (i actually already knew this one)

1901 - Marlene Dietrich, German actress and singer

1948 - Gérard Depardieu, French actor

death:
1981 - Hoagy Carmichael, American composer and singer

go try it with your birthday.  it's pretty interesting.

i'm sorry, blog.  i've been neglecting you.  it's not your fault, it's totally me.  i've been so busy with work and... ya know what, that's not really true.  you want to know the real reason?  my attention has been taken away by another blog.  i know this hurts you & i didn't mean for it to be this way but the other blog is more needy, it requires more of my time.  you've always been a good friend to me but the new blog is so young & it requires more of my focus & care so it will grow big & strong.  i hope you can understand. 

i will still be here for you & visit when i can.  i promise.

Technorati Profile

wednesday is one of my days off & john woke up wanting to "get lost" on some country roads.  i like to have a little bit more of a destination & plan in mind so i suggested we take a drive to leavenworth, kansas.   every time we drove up to the legends, i would see the highway sign for leavenworth & comment that we should go there sometime... so we did.

leavenworth is such a small city that i'm not sure if i should call it a large town instead.  there's an army base & a prison and i'd bet dollars to ding dongs that 90% of the population of about 35,000 works at one or the other.  fort leavenworth is the oldest active army post west of the mississippi (for more on it's history, click here).  leavenworth was the first incorporated city in kansas and pretty much everything i found online (and a lot around the town itself) is quick to remind you that leavenworth is "the first city of kansas".  the prison is pretty well known, i remembered it from the story of the birdman of alcatraz (he was at leavenworth prison first).

the drive to leavenworth from lenexa is about 35 miles of tree-lined 2-lane country highways.  most of the drive is actually spent in missouri until you reach the missouri river & cross the bridge into town.  the first place we visited was the union pacific depot.  the present tracks run along the missouri river which is right behind the depot.  when we walked in, we saw these huge wooden doors on either side of us, one said men, the other women.  we were told this is because the men & women waited for trains separately because men could smoke & women couldn't.  the depot was renovated in the late '80's & turned into a YMCA-type affair that also includes banquet & convention facilities.  we asked the receptionist lady at the depot for a suggestion for a good, inexpensive lunch.  she suggested the high noon saloon & brewery.  to read my review on our food blog, click here. 

after we had a bite to eat, we drove around to see a few places i found on travelks.com.  there's a first city museum... which was closed.  the curator works very short hours & wednesday was not one of their days.  but we did find a very old school dairy queen on the way there & split a dipped cone.  the next place on my list was the carnegie arts center.  it's a small gallery, pottery studio, dance studio & print studio in an old carnegie library.  after petting a cat that was laying on a window sill of the building, we saw a sign on the door that said "don't let the cat out" so we asked an office worker about it.  she said the cat's name was toulouse & they have another named lautrec.  she also gave us a little info on the building & a painting they have that is the "painting that carry nation missed".

next, we drove up a random street to see what was marked on a map as "harvey house".  when we got there & i saw the sign i realized i had seen something about this guy that started the harvey house restaurants on food network.  as i stood there reading the sign, a volunteer who's helping with the house walked by, gave us a bit of history & said that the curator happened to be there if we wanted to see inside.  the house is in the beginning stages of being renovated and is not open to the public, so that was really cool... especially since an expert was taking us room to room!  one bad thing though: 90 degrees outside inside a house that's over 125 years old with all the windows closed then walk all the way to the third floor.  "sweating" is an understatement but it was so interesting, it was worth it.

next we decided to make our way north to the fort & prison area before we did dinner.  so, we stopped at a 7-11 and i had the first slurpee of my life (we didn't have a 7-11 anywhere near where i grew up!) and it was okay... better once it started melting.  i also had a raspberry nature bar thingy to tide me over till dinner.  we drove into the fort & they asked for our driver's licenses.  john only had his state id with him so they made us trade places so the mp's wouldn't hassle us.  i was hoping for some sort of old fort historical type area... but there isn't one.  a lot of the offices and stuff are in repurposed horse barns from the original fort & we did find some of the original buildings, houses & barracks but they aren't really marked as historic sites.  we found the buffalo soldier monument & it was really cool.  then we drove by the prison.  i don't know if there's any kind of tour or anything, i just wanted to see it. 

finally we tried to decide what to do for dinner.  the dude at the harvey house suggested a bbq place but we didn't really want anything that heavy or involved so we headed toward one of the places i found on travelks.com: the santa fe depot dinner.  it's housed in the original leavenworth train depot but unfortunately it wasn't open when we got there.  so, next on my list was pullman place.  they were open & it was a winner!  i'm so glad we went there.  the food was excellent & the atmosphere was relaxed & comfortable.  i'll be writing about the experience at the food blog in the next day or so.

after dinner we left town.  with all the walking & the heat i was just exhausted.   it was a great day spent in a fun little town with my sweetie.  what a fun day off... i'll have to find some more kansas towns to visit!  check out pictures from the day at my photoblog.

you may remember that i am a customer service rep for a large wireless carrier.  i've been substituting in a supervisory position since mid-april.  unfortunately, the temporary situation has come to an end.  tomorrow i'll be back doing the job they pay me for. 

i'm a little nervous to get "back on the phones".  2 months is a long time to be away from your job & then have to go back to it.  i feel like i may have forgotten things & i don't want to end up missing something.  having spent the last 2 months listening to other people & critiquing their calls is going to help me a lot in my own calls but it still makes me nervous.  i'll only have 2 weeks of the month to get great scores & meet all my numbers.  it's stressful because i won't get as many scores as everyone else so one bad one would be disastrous & one bad numbers day will be hard to make up for.

i was really enjoying my temporary position.  i'm going to miss it so much.  they posted the position again so i applied for it again.  hopefully i can take the feedback i got from my first interview and just impress the hell out of them this time around.  i've got several people who offered their help with asking me questions & doing mock interviews so that will help too.  i can't remember the last time i wanted something this bad.  it's like i've been training my whole working life for this position.  i AM this job, i know i'm great at it.  i just need my interviewer(s) to see it & give me my chance to shine.

Since J and i love trying new restaurants and recipes so much, i decided to start another blog just for our culinary travels.  it's still in the very beginning stages & not much to look at yet, but you can check it out here: eat here, get gas.  i'm still working on how it looks now.  i should get my first food related post up soon.  please comment & let me know what you think.

so i finally found out about my interview for the promotion and... i didn't get picked to move on to the second round of interviews.  i can't even say how disappointed i am but i don't think i should spread the details all around the interweb.  somethings are better left at the work place i think.

the tooth drama is pretty much done.  this next part is not for those who have had surgery or been put "under" for any reason.  you'll just say "well, duh" and think i'm a pussy.  now, for anyone who has not been put under anesthesia & is totally freaked out about the idea... i'm with you.  i hate going to the dentist in the first place & the thought of being knocked out worried me even more.  and all the "it's over in a second" and "wouldn't you rather sleep thru it" and "it's no big deal" comments i heard didn't help at all. 

when we went to the dentist, i was all occupied being stressed about being put under & then i was told that insurance wouldn't cover it for just one tooth.  THEN they called my insurance and found out that they'd cover 80% of it so it would end up being $5 cheaper than using nitrous (which i'd never had either).  so after that 15 minute roller coaster of emotions, i decided to go ahead & be put under. 

everyone around me was moving quickly, getting everything ready & the dentist quickly put the needle in my arm & hooked me up while i sat/laid there waiting for everything to "get started".  i watched him push the plunger on a big white syringe & then things started feeling a little wavy.  i remember saying something about it feeling like i was on a boat.  then i opened my eyes & the nurse was the only one in the room.  i started talking to her & asking her things like "hey, there's gauze in my mouth, when did that happen?".  i talked to her for probably 5 minutes before i looked over at the little metal tray they use to hold the instruments & it was totally empty.  suddenly it hit me & i said "wait a second... are we done?" and she replied yes.  then J came in.

it was the weirdest experience.  it was like no time had past & i hadn't been out at all.  like when you sleep at night, you know there's some time missing when you wake up but at the dentist it was like there wasn't any time missing at all.  it was surreal. 

so we went to the grocery store on the way home & got me mushy things to eat.  then i took some pain killers & chilled right out.  so, the moral of the story is that i am no longer scared of being put under.  and you shouldn't be scared either because it was awesome!  i wish i could be put under for any and all dentist appointments, cleanings included.

at the end of april, i wrote about my temporary sort-of promotion.  i've been "filling in" for about 2 months now.  they said it was going to be a couple weeks... but i'm really not complaining because i love what i'm doing.  well, they posted an opening for the position so i applied for it.  i had my interview about 2 weeks ago and haven't heard anything (but, nobody has).  it's making me nervous and very impatient.  then... i called in sick on saturday because of my tooth & the drugs i've been taking making me feel like absolute poo. 

i'm worried that it's going to have an effect on my getting the position but i really couldn't help it.  i was in no shape to be out of bed, much less at work.  but, i haven't called in sick in months.  i just want the job SO bad.  there will probably be at least an email about it waiting for me when i get to work tomorrow (there may have been something sent on my days off... i don't know) but i fear it will be an email telling me thanks but try again next time.  and being sick just makes me more anxious about it.  i'm sure that my calling in sick wouldn't have any effect on the first round of interviews, they surely had that decision made before saturday.  but i'm still totally stressed out about it.  at first i was like "well, i MIGHT just get the job" and now i've gone straight downhill to "there's no way i got it".  all the time it is taking them to interview & make the decision has just made me rethink & overthink the interview & doubt everything about it & me.  if they really do put us thru a second round of interviews it would just be another couple weeks of torture. 

one good thing to come out of all this tooth drama is that i've lost over 10 pounds in the last couple days.  not being able to drink soda or eat... well... anything has helped my figure but not much of anything else.