. . . Tupperware Cities . . .

Friday, July 29

 

My last day at work. I have to be here until 5:30 pm! Shitbuckets!

Lynnette 9:04 AM

Thursday, July 28

 

I have been awake for nearly an hour now. Most of this time I have spent lying in bed obsessing over how much space is in our car, and whether or not everything is going to fit.

FUCK. I hate losing sleep.

Lynnette 4:45 AM

Wednesday, July 27

 

I have been WAAAAAY into jazz lately. No clue why. I found that it calms me down... I dunno.. Sometimes if you find a really good jazz piece it just keeps you busy listening so intently that you don't have any time to space out and....worry.... I found this station in Minneapolis, 88.5, which is nifty.

I'm not worried about moving... I'm only seriously worried about my bike, Tony. I have no clue where he's going to fit in the van. I refuse to let him be strapped lackadaisically to the top of my boyfriend's folks' van, only to find that they didn't secure him tightly enough and he was smashed to bits on the highway, a big rig rolling over his beautiful red frame and snapping it like a twig... or worse, shattering him like glass. It's just devastating to think about.


Oh, I must get back to my Brubeck. Yes.

Lynnette 10:34 AM

Friday, July 22

 

My employer (where I'm working for the next week at least) has just now started blocking internet sites, such as hotmail and myspace, yet interestingly enough Blogger flies under the radar! Cool! (Post Script - Blogger was indeed blocked, which was not discovered until I tried to actually publish this post.)

I finished the Harry Potter book. No spoilers in this so fear not. I was disappointed with this second to last addition to the series. J.K. Rowling's vision is very influenced by the movies and far less her own. This new book, as I have anyone who would listen, is less magical than the previous books, Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, which I enjoyed immensely. She has become a rich woman because of Harry Potter, and now it just seems as if she's tying up all the loose ends, and quite sloppily.

But yes, it's done, so on to bigger and better things.

I also received a gmail from my friend Paul. It's a very bizarre thing because somehow he and I met through a mutual online friend on a bulletin board system called ISCA. Yes, yes, I hear you all laughing now. It's all quite innocent. (Why the hell am I typing like this? Harry Potter really f*cks you up, seriously. All my dreams are in British accents now... !) So, back to Mr. Kruczynski... We met a single time in New York City, when we went to attend the CMJ (College Music Journal...a hipster music magazine) Fest. We stayed with our friend Josh, and I think I was there 8 or 9 days... At any rate, it was a blast.

Oddly enough I haven't set eyes on him since and yet we have still kept in touch. Haphazardly at times, but nonetheless kept in touch. It warms the cockles of my heart. (AND he's still with Sarah, which makes those cockles even warmer!) Maybe I can sucker him into visiting the Buffalo of the South sometime, Florida. *poke*

Christ, why am I here? My sole purpose in life between the Central Standard Time hours of 8 in the morning and half past 5 in the evening is to stuff envelopes and make labels. I know I have said it time and time again. My brain is extremely displeased, bored, unchallenged. I'm not asking to be a rocket scientist over night, but holy f*ck I enjoy thinking once in a while!

Oh, and here's an interesting picture of Chan Ho Park kicking the crap out of Tim Belcher. The story goes like this:



Chan Ho Park vs. Tim Belcher
June 5, 1999: "South Korean pitcher Chan Ho Park of the Los Angeles Dodgers is an accomplished student of tae kwon do. Anaheim Angels pitcher Tim Belcher is not... Park responds to a hig hard tag with a picture-perfect martial arts elbow to Belcher's head, followed by a spin move and a flying kick to the groin - with spikes. Fight over... Belcher, still shell-shocked, cried foul: 'The guy tried to kick my head off. So what if he likes tae kwon do. I like to hunt, but I didn't take a shotgun out there."

Lynnette 10:28 PM

Monday, July 18

 

So I went and bought the new Harry Potter book on Saturday. I have read a total of three pages. I don't understand why, but I'm not very motivated to read it. I've also been reading "The Oceans" by Ellen Praeger, and "Song for a Blue Ocean" by Carl Safina, so maybe that had something to do with it.

I'm sure millions of people have already finished the book. I just hope I don't find out who dies before I finish reading it. Guess I'll have to crack it open again over lunch today!

Other than that, it was a pretty lazy weekend. I'm sure it doesn't help that my boyfriend is a computer addict; it rubs off on me, and then I start playing games. When I should really be out on a bike trail, or reading a book. I need to find that person again, where the fuck did she go?

Lynnette 9:02 AM

Friday, July 15

 

The reason for this rash of posted photos on my site is only because Blogger now offers free hosting. This is excellent!! So. Here are a couple of pictures of me in Duluth, Minnesota, a couple of months ago.


Here is a rare photo of me sans spectacles.



This massive Ten Commandments was sitting on a street corner on what appeared to be public property. It disturbed me enough to do a Steve-o "Yeah dude!" pose in front of it. OH yeah!

Lynnette 9:27 PM

Thursday, July 14

 

This is the best picture in the entire world.

Lynnette 9:37 AM

Wednesday, July 13

 

In light of the new Harry Potter book being released this weekend, here is a picture Candice did a couple of years ago of us celebrating Harry Potter's birthday, July 31st. I am on the right.

Lynnette 2:05 PM

 

Depending on how you look at it, I'm either very good at keeping myself entertained, or just very bad at it! At my job, oh this job the bane of my existence, I find it difficult to stay on task. This isn't because I can't focus (okay well mostly not) it's because I don't have enough to do.

I am simply amazed at how much time I can waste checking the front page of yahoo every 15 minutes or so, or just sorting through old emails, cleaning up my hard drive, starting at stray hairs on my forearm, or just sitting at my desk mindlessly staring at the sea urchins I have on my desktop currently. It's just.... christ.. I get paid a retarded amount of money for what I do: my current role is to stuff envelopes and print out letters that other people have written. I'm not kidding. After I announced I was leaving the state my manager said I would be the "backup" and my coworker would have to move into my role immediately, so that he could learn what I do before I leave. Ugh. So my entire day is spent printing labels and putting them on envelopes. Sometimes I stop in the middle and think, "jesus christ this is fucking retarded," but then I realize that it pays the bills so I sigh and continue with the task at hand.

It's amazing how retarded it truly is.


Oh another thing I do when I'm super bored at work is email this picture to everyone I know. Because gosh darn it, I love monkeys.

Lynnette 2:02 PM

Monday, July 11

 

Looks like we missed the boat...

Yesterday Steve and I felt adventurous so we drove out to Medicine Lake with our new PFDs (they were only $5 - you know, the ugly orange ones that make you look like a real asshole). We meant to arrive in time to make it onto the judge's boat to watch the races for the day. Turns out we were about 15 minutes LATE.
An air horn that sounded alerted us to the fact that the judge's pontoon boat waaaaaaay out in the middle of the lake and the races were already underway. C'est la vie. Next time, next time. Now at least we have a couple of lifejackets. (Although I will be purchasing one that doesn't make me look like an asshole, once we land in Florida).

Then we came home to make a lasagna to use up the rest of our food. Tomato sauce, oregano, feta cheese, eggplant, mushrooms, zucchini, some noodles and of course shittons of garlic (side note: my spell-check wanted to change shittons to the word "spittoons"). I was a bit weary, since I prefer ricotta cheese in my lasagna, but the feta turned out not to be as pungent as I had predicted. Other than that we lazed around the house. It made it to about 97 degrees on Sunday afternoon, but being near the water wasn't nearly as hot. Florida..... Florida.... here we come. I want to be there now, if only to escape this putrid existence in the insurance business that I currently refer to as my "job".

Lynnette 9:24 AM

Thursday, July 7

 

London Calling...

The latest bit of news that has trickled in to me is 40 dead, 300+ injured. It's truly, truly sad. What can I say? It reminded me of the Madrid bombings last March. Fucked up. Just fucked up.

Not much to report, cap'n. I wonder if Cap' Crunch gets mad because he is so short.

Lynnette 9:14 AM

Wednesday, July 6

 

I quit!

I just dropped out of grad school. Weird, huh? I was accepted into UNL's Grad Studies program this fall, because I was seriously considering moving back to Nebraska and enjoying the cheap ass tuition. Oddly enough Florida is even cheaper, thus, our impending move. So for a brief few months this year I was officially a grad student.

Lynnette 10:44 AM

 

Come Sail Away...

Last night was our first sailing "lesson". It was mostly a couple of people and a skipper hanging out in a docked Flying Scot while he told us what the lines and sheets and sails and parts were called. It was awesome. And get this: cheaper than SCUBA!! Haha! But then again, not much is more expensive than diving.....

Here's a picture of a Flying Scot with the sails up, just so you know what I'm talkin' 'bout Willis!!!

Lynnette 9:07 AM

Tuesday, July 5

 

Donnie Darko didn't change my life...but at least I know my real name is Clementine

My friend Zach was shitting his pants about this movie for years. He was always amazed when I told him I had never seen it. Having been in a LOT of film classes together he was just surprised I hadn't seen Donnie Darko! So I rented it. It was pretty. I liked watching it. I was entertained. It was thought-provoking...for about ten minutes. And then, I dunno. I saw it was another notch on my movie-watching bedpost. Does anyone agree with me? Shit.

Oh I also watched Matchstick Men, simply because Sam Rockwell (drool) was in it. I hate Nicolas Cage. But I only hate him because he doesn't spell his name with an "H" like my brother, Nicholas. Oh, and he's a shitty actor, but I figured that went without saying. Trying to watch that man cry for the loss of his not-daughter.... it's just painful.

Fourth of July was extremely uneventful; it heralded our return to the Twin Cities, with an empty car (that now has the "check engine" light on). I need caffeine, badly.

Tonight is our first sailing lesson.

I want to be in Florida already. Mostly because my job makes me feel the blackness of evil is all around me. It's suffocating in here. I despise sitting in a cubicle and sorting through behavioral health records and appeals. It's just... deathly boring. Oh, my friend Amy said that I complain about my job a lot on here. And ya know what?? SHE'S RIGHT.

I also re-watched "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" on our new portable DVD player. Since we have a 40+ hour drive coming up at the end of the month, we're looking at it as an investment in keeping Nettie occupied when she's not driving. It worked. I also realized that the main characters in Eternal Sunshine are the on-screen versions of me and my boyfriend. I don't need to explain it. If you have seen this movie, you'd understand. Fucking a. But I haven't had blue hair since I was 22. So...... okay the rest of it.

BURKE!! Oh yeah, Saturday night my buddy Burke and her brother Patrick came over and hung out for awhile, we had some beers and watched a few episodes of Penn & Teller's "Bullshit". It was great to see her since I will miss her at the end of the month. Her hair was fabulous!

Sunday morning I drove to Lincoln and had lunch with my friend Sallie and met her 3 month old daughter, Isabella, who is gorgeous! It was wonderful to catch up and bitch about stuff... sometimes email only goes so far. Later, Steve picked me up and we headed to see another baby in Lincoln, Ethan, my step-brother Christopher's baby... my first nephew. Ethan is just over 5 months old, and he's already a huge Star Wars fan. Chris was playing us a copy he had of Episode 3, and as soon as the battle scene began Ethan was glued to the tube. He even started reaching out and giggling at the screen. While I'm sure it was a combination of the mixed sounds and flashing lights, Chris was convinced his son was already in love with the series. After passing hours and hours just catching up, Steve and I headed back to Omaha. Before leaving on Monday I spent time at my dad's house; met his two new kittens, Socks and Shoes. It was a full weekend. At the end of the month, I just need to put in family time and say goodbye to the aunts and I'm on my way to Florida!!

Lynnette 8:37 AM

Saturday, July 2

 

The Minnesota state government has gone into its second day of what they are calling a "partial" shutdown. I don't exactly understand where the line is drawn between partial and complete, however, the whole ordeal has left me feeling disappointed. Remember when that was the word that could hurt you the most? Disappointed? Shit. At this point both sides (yeah you guessed it, the fucking elephants and asses) are blaming one another yet nothing is being reached. How convenient that they had to pull the plug on the government before a long weekend. Personally, I think they have a obligation to the state to work THROUGH their weekends, their holidays, their lunch hours, their happy hours... until this budget is dealt with and approved. It's appalling for a group of adults, elected adults to not be able to compromise on these issues.

Aside from that bullshit, Steve and I are heading to Omaha for the weekend. The last few nights I have spent frantically filling boxes with books. Sadly enough, that is the only thing I have packed this week, yet I already have about 15 boxes ready to sit in my parents basement for a few months. Shit. I need to open a library or a used bookstore. Who'll join me?!

Lynnette 8:25 AM

Friday, July 1

 

Some kind of monster...

Last night Steve and I watched the Metallica documentary "Some Kind of Monster". I was a bit weary at first, mostly because I didn't want to watch a documentary that inflates the egos of an awesome metal band-turned-fucking-rich-assholes. It was awesome, and I highly recommend it. We found ourselves laughing through most of it... especially during their group therapy session (yeah, I'm not kidding, folks) where Lars Ulrich tells James Hetfield in so many words that they were a rock and roll band and that it was fucked up that they could just come together and rock.

Jason Newstead is my favorite new bass player...okay second favorite, I almost forgot about Les. The documentary gave the impression that a lot of why he left Metallica was due to the fact that he said that the idea of them going to group therapy (which cost the band $40,000 a month, by the way...) was, and I quote: "Fucking LAME!" He rules!

At any rate, it's extremely entertaining to watch them squirm through recording St. Anger. Which, in my opinion, sounds fucking awful! Trust me, my crackbaby and I used to gear up for "Mandatory Metallica at Midnight" on the rock station in Lincoln, Nebraska.... so I would say I have been a Metallica fan in the past. It's just... fucking Napster, those babies have plenty of money. One scene in the documentary shows Lars selling off his art for 5+ million dollars while he drinks champagne in a private room. How metal is that???

So watch it. Laugh your ass off, we did.

Oh, and the Minnesota state government shut down at midnight last night. So... yeah. No funding for libraries, the DMV is closed, rest areas are shut. It's extremely embarrassing.

Lynnette 9:16 AM