Happy Birthday to me... Happy birthday to me. Happy Birthday dearest Megan... Happy Birthday to me.
Lucky me. 26 years.
two six. six and twenty. *sigh*
we went to ikea yesterday on its opening day. it took us over twenty minutes of circling to even find a parking space. we decided to entertain ourselves by coming up with names to correspond with the rows letters.
A... A is for assholes who don't know how to drive. B... B is for bastards who let their kids run out in front of cars. C... C is for carcinogens which are being inhaled by the very unhelpful parking attendants. D... D is for definitely have a parking space. definitely definitly rainman.
so anyway, we take the escalators up and we somehow make a wrong turn and can't figure out how to get into the place pass the hundreds of people standing in checkout lines to get out. after bouncing around and testing a few spots, we finally broke through and were finally there! but... because we missed a turn we were in the warehouse. so we walked around for about an hour and a half lookin at all kinds of stuff. when we got all the way around i was thinkin three things...
--while $3 flip flops may cut it for normal everyday life, they are not good enough for a 3 hour tryst through ikea --i must be getting old because my bum knee is throbbing and will probably require a good icing later --how do they make such nice, affordable stylish furniture??
so today, for my birthday, what did i choose to do? *ding, ding* you guessed! put myself through it all over again. except this time i knew what i was doing. and we got through in a little over an hour. and i actually bought something this time. two sets of nesting baskets to organize all our bathroom crap. and i got my free $10 gift card for it being my birthday. woo hoo!!
which reminds me... if you love me and wanna get me a gift, buy me an ikea gift card! or just call and say happy birthday... because that totally rocks too. i've gotten lots of emails, voicemails, and text messages from people. i love my birthday!!!
*blog*
posted by megs at 12:44
6.28.2005
this is a test... this is only a test!!
this is pretty cool. a way to blog from my phone. except now it is even better because it won't screw up all the formatting for my posts. i think it won't. well, i'll have to work on it. or maybe i'll just not worry about it. i should soon have my replacement sidekick so then i'll be able to take pictures and do photo blogs again. a lot of fun stuff is comin up and i can't wait to put up pics for it. this will be one doozy of a summer because it's definitely been interesting so far. here are some of the pics that huey sent me to conduct this test. let's see how they look.
here's dylan dog in here super cute bandana. this one is better than the last one because it doesn't look like a grandma tablecloth (blue checkered with little red birds and cherried?? who are they kidding??) this one has beach flowers on it and is super hip. she's such a cool dog.
and this is picture proof of part of ridiculous day as huey and i are fondly calling saturday now. pepe (our car) was trapped on the far side of the trees blocking the right road and we had to climb out just to go down the street and get some drinks and take a bathroom break at QT (because of course the water in the apt wasn't working).
*blog*
posted by megs at 19:15
6.27.2005
if only i had a car like herbie...
to be quite honest with you, my sad big old mercury sable has really been more trouble than its worth from the day i got it. the air conditioner only runs on high. the sun roof button has slipped up inside the roof console so you have to fish around up there to open and close it while trying not to get a nasty shock from the bundle of wires. it had no working radio (despite the fact that it had 2 consoles) so that had to be purchased. and then the transmission problems started. so what did i do? i parked it.... and ignored it. the patented megan way of dealing with any problem.
so, 9 months later, its time to do something again with it. suddenly it has become very necessary that i have my own car again because huey needs his for going to client meetings and whatnot. soooo... huey and i decide on my saturday off to go over, jump the car, drive it down to a level area (because it was on our ridiculously steep old driveway) and then have it towed up to a shop in marietta. little did we know that something which sounds so simple can be infinately harder if the gods are against you.
first of all, we woke up late saturday and found our power off in our apartment. add this to the fact that we were hung over from staying up way too late friday night with our neighbors and you see how it wasn't a nice start to our day. we figured the first thing you do with a hangover is throw comfort food at it, so we headed to church's to get some mashed potatoes, gravy, and macaroni and cheese. i think we threw a piece or two of chicken in there somewhere. oh, and some corn nuggets... yes, corn nuggets. anyway, after that we get on the highway to go the two exits to our old apt and promptly hit a bunch of traffic because they are doing road construction. what is worse is that we knew they were doing road construction and knew not to get on the highway but hey, hangovers make you stupid. so we are goin along and someone pulls up to us and starts yelling and pointing at the back of our car. our gas tank is open? that's weird... we haven't gotten gas in days. huey figures then our antennae is falling off or has fallen off because jay on margaritas likes to do silly things like loosen our antennae. we could have only been so lucky. no... we have a flat tire. so we limp off of the next exit, pull over and survey it. luckily, its not totally flat. in fact, it's got a nail in it. we'll just put some more air in it and deal with it later. so we take it to the new apt and use our handy cigarette lighter air pump and pump it back up.
okay, so... we finally actually get to the apt. now we have to get my car started. after a lot of arguing and a few sparks flying, we get the jumper cables hooked up correctly. huey insisted i wear my sunglasses in case a battery exploded, and i finally consented figuring he knows a thing or two about freak accidents after the fondue incident. so we let them sit for a minute, my car starts dinging, the inside panel comes on, i'm feeling confident, i turn the wheel and.... and it sounded like it was outta gas or something. waited a few more minutes, crossing my fingers... no luck. okay, so the car won't start. we'll call the town guy anyway and figure it out later. so we do that and i check my cars fluid levels. needs an oil change definately... it's like black molasses. ugh. and it seems to be totally out of transmission fluid. which is the problem i knew it had. so we sit down to wait our 90 min at the house while the tow truck comes.
about 1 minute after huey hangs up with the towing people, we hear a loud snap, a crap (a pop) and a crash. ooooh... that was definately a tree somewhere. hoping it didn't hit the road and knowing that it couldn't because we had definately had our fair share of things going wrong for the day, we hop in pepe to check it out and go get a drink at QT (oh yeah, our old apt has no water either. woo hoo). not only did a tree fall across the road, but it knocked over two or three other trees while it was at it, fell across our road and filled a lane and a half of the road that ours branches off of. *sigh* we cancelled the tow truck. huey got to call 911, and we walked to QT for our drinks. then we sat around for 45 min while we watched the firefighters cut up the trees. then we decided to blow the whole thing off for the day and go out for brad's birthday. good plan.
so sunday evening we head back over to get the damn thing towed once and for all. oddly enough, it ended up that huey, me, jay and josh were all at the old place at the same time. the tow guy showed up and said that we had to get it down to the bottom of the hill. okay, pop it in neutral and we'll just roll down. so i sit in the seat and the guys push me back while i'm yanking on the wheel trying to get my back end to swing around so i can point my front end at the hill and go down forwards. the car of course has no power steering so this is a lot harder than it seems at first. so then everyone tells me to just ease it down the driveway, to go very very slow and keep my foot on the brake. they said if it starts to get away from me or won't stop, just throw it in park and it'll stop automatically. okay... deep breath. let's go.
definately the some of the scariest 15 seconds of my life. i hate that damn hill. i let the car roll for about five feet then slammed the brakes to the floorboard. power brakes don't work without power. and the hill is too steep and the car too big to just stop once its going. so i get about half way down and realize it's not stopping and that i'm not going to be able to turn it without the steering working and that i'm going to go through that guardrail that is rushing up towards me (or that i'm rushing down towards) so i risk taking my hand off the wheel for a second to punch the car into park.... and the thing keeps going. so with both arms i yank the wheel hard to the left and just manage to get it to turn when the front wheels hit the road and i come gliding to a stop, really glad that no other cars had been coming at that moment. i got out of the car and my arms and brake leg were shaking like crazy. stupid car... stupid hill.
after a lot of pushing and pulling we got it up on the tow truck and got it to marietta. in fact, i'm on my way out just now because they open at 8 and i need to talk to them and drop off the keys. i just hope they don't come back and tell me that it's going to be a whole crap load of money because i don't have it and unfortunately you can't crap it out like the name implies. so that was my weekend... a comedy of errors. murphy's law at its best.
*blog*
posted by megs at 07:35
6.25.2005
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on. --Robert Frost
it seems the harder that you try to escape something the louder it knocks at your door. when my dad died last november, i thought that i'd never feel so sad, lonely, or scared again. i tried over and over in my mind to relate it to some past event, some life experience that would have prepared me. the facts were that he was sick... he was not the same man that he had been ten years ago. a part of my mind knew this and eventually accepted that it was better for him to be released. but hearing it and saying it over and over, believing it to be true... doesn't make it easier. i so gradually got used to him being sick that his true self became a distant memory. i remember my freshman year in college and his brain biopsy at emory. the line of the scar and the clink of the staples that they removed from his head. how he looked at me when i visited him in the hospital and asked me when i'd had time at ga tech to go get another hole poked in my ears. losing him in pieces like that... his old self slipping away... didn't make it any easier. i will never know why my father was destined to die that day when we were all pleasure cruising a few thousand miles away. i was painfully aware afterwards of my own failings. how i wanted him to be proud of me and see me graduate from college after all my wasting of time. how i wanted him to be able to walk me down the aisle at my wedding and give me away. it seems like such an obvious and cliche thing... to want your parent to be proud of you. and here i feel like i've failed on one account. so i'm trying to make it up now to myself and my mother. life goes on.....
i watched steve this weekend stand up and talk at his dad's memorial service. i guess it's really fairer to say that i listened. i was so scared to look up that i kept my eyes closed the whole time. it's kind of that theory that what you can't see can't hurt you... except that every word he said drove straight into my chest until i thought i wouldn't be able to breathe anymore. as much as i was unprepared for my own fathers death, i was just as ill prepared for someone i cared about to have to deal with the same thing. if tears could mend a broken heart, i'd have us all covered... but i know it's harder than that. it may sound stupid, but i don't think i've ever been prouder of him than i was during his speech. i know how hard it must have been to stand up and talk about something so personal in front of so many people and i think he was very brave. i remember how nice his dad (and mom) had always been to me though i'm sure i hadn't deserved it. i know i've been mean to him over the years and he either glossed over it or they've forgiven me. either way, i'm thankful. to put it plainly, they are all good people.
life goes on.... life goes on.... life goes on...
so to quickly sum up my last month or so.....
i've moved into my new place. it is way too fancy for me, but i'm adjusting.
i'm bored with my job. they pay for my school, so i'm putting up with it.
i should be accepted into kennesaw soon; if my paperwork actually got there on time (fingers crossed).
some jackasses killed my dream of living in an ikea wonderland (more later).
i'll be 26 in five days.... which means i'm closer to 50 than being born. ouch.
