We All Have to Make Sacrifices....

Presenting Miss Ruby the Tank....
I saw Ruby yesterday and she is still doing just fine. As a matter of fact, she is completely back to her normal self and I spent the entire time fending off her advances and wild jumps (she gets excited when you pet her or you know, look in her general direction).

One thing I wanted to add about that whole incident... The day of Ruby's Wild Adventure, Cory, Shayna and I all had plans to go out later that night with our friends Mike and Stephanie to celebrate our friend Danielle's birthday. So when we walked into Shayna's, I was in the middle of texting back and forth with Mike about the plans for the evening (who, what, where, when, etc.). Danielle had picked a sports bar for the location of the festivities and Mike was disappointed by the bar choice. Mike had just sent me a message that said the following:

Mike: "Yeah, sweatpants would be overdressing there, but whatever...beer and friends still equals good times, eh?"

I was in the middle of texting him back that he was right and that I would make the sacrifice of going to just about any shitty bar for them cause they're so much fun, or something along those general lines, when I looked up to see the dog across the street and chaos ensued. And during this chaos, I accidentally hit "send" and off my half-typed text went. It wasn't until much later when we finally met up with everyone at the bar that I remembered the unfinished message. I asked Mike what I had sent him, and it was this:

Erin: "Very, very true. I'd probably even sacrifice myself"

That was it. And the best part is that Mike received that text message and didn't think to question it. I love my friends.

On a completely different note, I've decided that if I ever become rich someday- ahem, WHEN I become rich someday- I am going to hire someone to do things for me. Not like cleaning or cooking or anything like that- no, I want someone who will do the following:

- Read to me while I'm getting ready for work in the morning. Read to me while I'm driving. Read to me while I'm cooking. Read to me while I'm eating. I always want to read at these times cause these are mindless tasks that bore me and a book would make them better. But I also need my hands for these things and can't hold said book and still finish what I'm doing in a timely manner. Cory suggested I get books on tapes, but I need someone who can follow me from room to room and also read to me with expression. I want character voices, is all I'm saying.
- Blow dry my hair while I put on make up, put my socks on my feet while I straighten my hair, defrost/defog my car windows while I get dressed, and any other seemingly miniscule task that would save me time in the morning and allow me to sleep at least an extra 5-10 minutes every day.
- Take my milk to and from the upstairs fridge here at work and also take paperwork to and from my boss' office for me. It's just too far of a walk now that I don't sit up there anymore, and sometimes my new work shoes hurt my feet. But this person will also have to smile pretty at all the ladies upstairs and take notes of all office gossip and goings-on he/she overhears in the process. This person should probably also get me coffee twice a day. I love coffee.

By the way, Cory and I got our tickets to San Francisco yesterday and I got the time off approved and I am totally excited! So San Francisco, look for me in May! I'll be the super pasty one with the big smile on her face.

Have a great Wednesday, everyone! And don't forget- LOST is back tomorrow! Woo!

Doggone It!

I had a pretty busy and very eventful weekend. But let me start at the beginning.

On Friday, Lauren had a Meet n' Greet at her art studio downtown. Here is Miss Lauren in her studio, with a bunch of her different paintings. The naughty elephants are my favorites, but really, I love them all...
We stopped by the after party at Wesley's, but it was too crowded for all of us, so we went home. Yes, we ARE getting old, thanks for noticing!

On Saturday, Cory and I visited a couple of rummage sales, then I headed out to Holly's son Johnny's second birthday party. Lately I've been trying to work out more and I've been taking lots of long walks at Wildwood with my iPod and giant headphones:

I can't wear the ones that go in your ears, they always pop out for some reason. Anyhoo, I undid all of my hard work at the birthday party with Spongebob cake, cookies, and Capri Suns which, according to Holly's sister Danyel, are packed with sugar. But this is Johnny, and who can say "no" to that face? And here is my best gal Holly and me...And a fun part of the party was that all of Holly's sisters were in town. I never get to see them cause they live in Chicago and Indiana, so it was great to have them all in one place.

Holly and her sisters...

After the party, I met up with Cory and we headed over to Shayna's house. This is Shayna, making a pretty face:

Shayna is moving to Washington soon (the State, not the District) and as part of the preparation for her move, she is giving lots of stuff away. Cory and I stopped by to look through some of this stuff. Shayna has a very pretty, very active dog named Ruby. Ruby is about 1 year old and one of the few dogs I really like. Shayna also lives on a very busy road. We were only there for about 5 minutes when I looked up and out the window and saw a dog across the street that looked suspiciously similar to Miss Ruby. I said, "Shayna, is that your dog across the street?" Shayna looked up, "Oh, shit, yes it is! How did she get over there??" Shayna walked outside, then realized the danger of the situation and told Ruby to stay. Ruby listened for about 5 seconds before starting to make her way across the 4-lane road. Shayna kept yelling, "No! Stay! Stop!" but Ruby kept coming. She made it across 2 lanes, the turn lane, one more lane and then, as we watched, was hit by a car in the last lane. Shayna and I screamed and panicked and for a minute, could only wonder, "What do we do???" Cory and I ran outside and Ruby had, thankfully, been thrown onto the grass when she was hit, so she was at least out of the way of more traffic. At this point, someone stopped (although NOT the car that hit poor Ruby) and Shayna's neighbor came outside, thankfully having more wits about her than we did. And then, completely unexpectedly, Ruby stood up! Which was a good sign, but a bad thing when she was still so close to the road, so I quickly told her to lay back down, which she did. The neighbor told us to call the emergency vet and I remembered that I had a card with their number on it with me, from having taken Knuckles there last winter. I ran inside and got the number, and some towels so that Cory and Shayna could pick the dog up and get her in the car while I called the vet. The neighbor was immensely helpful throughout all of this, letting them know the best way to pick the dog up and how to wrap her up, etc. We rushed Ruby to the E-vet and they took her out of the car and inside on a little doggy gurney. Along the way, we were sure she wasn't going to make it because it looked like she was bleeding out of her mouth and we were sure that meant she had internal damage.

To make the rest of a long story short, they took x-rays of her insides and all of her bones, and the prognosis? She's FINE!! No broken bones, no internal bleeding, no brain damage, no punctured lungs, nothing! This dog got hit by a car going at least 45 MPH, and she came out of it with bruising, a few cuts, some road rash, and a lot of soreness, but otherwise, unscathed! We have now decided her name needs to be changed to Ruby the Tank, and I told Shayna she will no longer be able to discipline Ruby in any way, because Ruby has just proven that she is more badass and hardcore than any of us. The blood in her mouth? Just some road rash on her lip, which now just makes her look tougher. I saw Ruby on Sunday afternoon when we went to brunch, and again Sunday night cause Cory and I joined Shayna for a benefit, and she was almost completely back to her usual, rambunctious behavior. I am just AMAZED. Very thankful, but amazed! And now everytime I see Ruby, I'm just so happy to see her because I really thought she was a goner. I made sure to tell her yesterday that she is definitely one dog I will never, ever forget.

Anyway, that's my story of Ruby the Tank. I'm so glad everything turned out the way it did in the end, but I also keep getting flashbacks of watching her get hit, and I don't think that will go away for awhile. By the way, she got across the street because she jumped the fence in the backyard. Shayna said she will never let Ruby step one paw out of the house without a leash on from now on. She's also considering making her wear a leash inside, too, just to be safe...

Everyone hug your dog today!

Rubber Factory

Most of the time, I listen to the local oldies station while at work. The song selection's decent, and the DJ's (are they still called that?) don't irritate the crap out of me unlike some of the other local radio "personalities". Plus, it comes in good, which is really the main thing I ask for. Anyway, lately they've been playing the song "She's Gonna Be Somebody's Baby Tonight" at least once a day. And all I can ever think of when I hear that song is "Surf Nazi". Then I feel a little awkward and dirty.

Speaking of awkward and dirty, when I got out of my car after lunch today, I looked down and noticed that the second button on my shirt was undone. I have no idea how long it was undone, but it's very possible I put on a good show for the patrons of the library.

Anyway. Mike, Stephanie, Cory, Danielle, Shayna and I went up to Royal Oak to see the Black Keys last night. In typical all of us fashion, we were late getting there, but didn't think it was too big of a deal cause we figured we'd just miss the opening bands and get there right before the Black Keys went on. Nope! When we walked in, the Black Keys were already playing and had been for 10 minutes! Then, my ticket wouldn't scan (stupid new technology- just rip the damn thing!) and the Scanner Lady made me go back to the will-call window (the window where I'd JUST BEEN HANDED THE TICKET). So I stood in line, got cut in front of, got a window shut in my face, and FINALLY, after all that, the Window Lady wrote "OK" on my ticket and sent me back to Scanner Lady. So I missed another 5 minutes or so of the show because of that debacle. But, what I did see of the show was awesome and they did a great encore, so all was not lost. Plus, we got home at a reasonable time, much earlier than I'd thought we would, so I'm not falling asleep at my desk....yet...

By the way, there is a Meet and Greet at my sister's art studio this Friday, starting at 6 p.m. Her studio is at Secor Studios, in the Secor Building, which is downtown at the corner of Jefferson and N. Superior. Come support the local art scene! (After-party at Wesley's).

Hope everyone's having a lovely Wednesday and go enjoi the beautiful weather!

Miss Manners

Now that I no longer live close enough to home to spend my lunch breaks there, I often go down the street to the library to play on Myspace, browse Flickr, try to figure out Facebook, and basically do all of the other internet sort of things that the new filters at work no longer allow me to do from the comfort of my desk. It's also nice just to get out of the building for awhile. However, there's one big downfall of public library internet visits.

The public. At the library. Also using the internet.

The guy I've sat next to on two separate occasions who says every single thing he types out loud aside, today was the best example of why I really need to get the internet at home.

First, I was sitting next to a girl who was chewing gum REALLY loudly. And wetly. It sounded like she was a lion feasting on a dead antelope. Like if you tried to get near her gum, she'd bite your fingers off cause she didn't want to miss enjoying even one juicy, bloody bite. After a few minutes, I figured out that if I plugged the ear closest to her, I couldn't hear the chomping and slurping, but that only worked until I wanted to type something.

Finally, she left. And just as I was rejoicing on the inside and settling in for some chatting with Miss Kyle, a new guy came and sat down. And this guy smelled like farts.

Not LIKE he farted. Like he was one big fart himself.

I came back to work. I think I'll read for awhile...

Technology, Shmechtology

Currently the main web site application we use here at work to do...well, just about everything...is down, and without it, there's really nothing I can do. Except sit here and daydream about being outside, where it is 70 degrees! and sunny! Oh, and browse articles about the Britney Spears Dateline special I apparently missed yesterday when I was, again, enjoying the weather. All is not lost, though- Toto is currently on my radio. That'll cure anyone's boredom.

Anyhoo, as I mentioned, the weather is finally warm here! Well, warmER, and if you're from the Midwest, you know that officially makes right now the beginning of the best time of the year. Cory and I made sure to take full advantage of it over the weekend. We spent Saturday morning at rummage sales, including one at a Greek church, complete with an old lady who kept trying to hustle me into buying an evening gown with a very noticeable stain on the scooped neck, right around where your cleavage would be showing, which means right around where everyone would be looking if you chose to wear an evening gown for one reason or another. Which reminds me, the way she started up was to ask me, "Do you ever need an evening gown?" "Not usually," I replied and tried to walk away. "Well, yeah, but then when you do need an evening gown, there's no rummage sale." A good point, for sure, but I'm relatively certain that when the day does pop up that I find myself in need of an evening gown, that the first place I will look is not an old church rummage sale in the worst part of town, even if it does offer all of the stained and ripped finery the '80's had to offer. This woman was a good time, though. She later tried to sell us on the "trousers", and ended up convincing Cory to buy 3 or 4 pairs, so I guess persistance does pay off.

After the rummage sales and a short visit to the park, we decided to really enjoi the nice day and head up to Ann Arbor. This visit was much better than the last time we were up there, which surprisingly was only 2 weeks ago, when we had to fight a giant snowstorm the entire time. That trip ended in 2 strangers having to push my car the rest of the way up a hill after I got stuck and ended up blocking traffic. Whoever says the Midwest is all flat obviously hasn't driven a Grand Am with a joke of a "traction control" system uphill in the snow. Anyhoo, once we got to Ann Arbor, we realized we had unintentionally arrived on the same day the Hash Bash was taking place. Which meant there were tons of hippies, an endless supply of stoners, way too much pachouli, and some of the best outfits and hairstyles I've had the pleasure to encounter in awhile. If only I were stealth enough to have gotten some pictures for you, but alas, I am not. Next time, my friends.

After some shopping and delicious Pancheros, we started to head home only to get a phone call from Cory's aunt, telling us she was having a last minute going away party for his cousin, who is joining the military and leaves on Monday. The party was right then, and happening in Monroe. We had plans for that night, but still managed to stop by the party on the way home for all of 15 minutes. Hey, it's the thought that counts. Then it was home to shower and onward to Mike and Stephanie's house for a night of drinks, laughs, games, and general ridiculousness.

I managed to make it through church and Sunday brunch the next day (a big accomplishment- I usually have to take a one day pass on life after a night at Mike & Stephanie's), but then went home for a nap. After about 1-2 hours of constant interruptions, mostly courtesy of Knuckles (who was being a bad kitty) and the phone, I got up to hang out with Lauren for a bit, then a quick stop by the parent's house for a short walk with my mom and Old Man Max, followed by pizza and slushies at home with cutie-pie Cory. Good times.

Well, it's now 3:00 and we were promised the web site problem would be resolved by 2:30. It's not.

Sigh. I wonder what Britney's up to today...

Sprung (Spring)

Yay, today it has finally stopped raining! And it's sunny and beautiful outside!I took this picture from part of the parking lot at work. We have a ridiculous lawn. Seriously. But it's very pretty.

This is a picture I took by accident while trying to drive through the driveway and take a picture out the window. Hey, it's hard to drive and photograph while also being on the lookout for deer and foxes (fox? foxi?) and such. Seriously, I've almost died in this lot before.

And yes, those sunglasses do mean business.

Smarch

Now that March is behind us, I would like to share with you my Top Three Smoothest March Moments. I'll share the moments in chronological order, cause I'm not sure if I could arrange them by order of Smoothness.

1- For Christmas this year, I received quite a few books, some used and some brand-spanking new. And shiny. And oh-so-pretty. Those of you who know me well, know how much I love brand new, shiny books. Yes, I'm a big nerd. Anyway. I've been making my way through this bounty of books, and got around to reading one of the brand new ones. I had it sitting in the bathroom on the back of the toilet. Cory had been drinking one night and used the toilet without flushing it, then promptly passed out. I walked into the bathroom and that's right- knocked the book right into the toilet! It was like it was in slow motion, but I couldn't stop it. So now I have a brand new, shiny, pee-soaked book. I can't finish reading it now. I won't. I just can't touch pee. Sorry for the waste of money, Mom, but it's going in the trash. The thing is, I've never knocked a book into a toilet before. Why then? Why that night? Sigh.

2- Last Saturday, I woke up nice and hungover due to a Friday night that started out visiting with my friend Amy, who was in town from Vegas, over margaritas at El Camino, and ended up at Bethany's with me drunk dialing my baby sister. And drunk texting her. Fun for Kyle, I'm sure. Anyhoo. Cory, Bobby and I went out to breakfast on Saturday morning, which I barely made it through, and I then begged Bobby to take me back home so I could nap. Bobby and Cory dropped me off and left for the library. I then realized I didn't have my keys and they were, in fact, in the back seat of Bobby's car. I tried waving them down, but it was too late. So I was stuck in my apartment parking lot, with no keys, and no way to get ahold of the boys because Cory didn't have his phone with him and Bobby's was dead. I ended up calling my mom and having her drive me to the library to rescue my keys. A pleasant nap ensued.

3- Last night. I took most of my work shirts and pants to Cory's mom's to be washed (the one drawback to us moving out of the Underwood house- we no longer have our own washing machine) and I only had one clean shirt with matching pants left in my closet. It needed to be ironed, and I was tired. So I decided to be as fast about it as possible. Normally I put a towel down and the shirt on the towel, and iron away. But suddenly last night, this made no sense to me and I thought, "Eh, screw the towel, I'll just iron it on the floor and get this over with." Worked fine for a little while, until I went to move the shirt to iron the other half. And realized it was stuck to the carpet. Our brand new carpet. Oh, that's right. I ironed my shirt into the carpet. Heated up the carpet so much that my shirt was now stuck to it, like an iron-on decal. I managed to un-stick my shirt but there was brown carpet stuck to it (oh, it's light yellow, by the way) and there is now a hard burn mark in the carpet that I'm really hoping Cory and whoever checks out our apartment upon move-out don't notice. I did manage to get most of the carpet off my shirt, though, so I'm wearing it now. Lesson: Seems there was a reason behind ironing on a towel all along.

Hope everyone's having a lovely April Fool's Day! I didn't wear a coat today, so as far as I'm concerned, today is a GOOD day!