Last night I saw a sign up in someone's yard. It read "AEP (stands for) Absolutely NO Electric Power... WTFxup?! (and a few other choice words meddled in)." Now... if you don't know what that abbreviation stands for... google it because I'm not about to type it out. Frankly... what was this lady trying to get with this sign? We all have lost power... we are ALL having to empty our fridges and toss everything out... we are ALL int he same boat. (Can we toss her over board?)

The funny thing was... in response to the crazy cat lady across the street and a block down someone had a louder, prouder 'WE LOVE AEP' sign.

Don't get me wrong, I've been just as frustrated off and on as the crazy cat lady, however... perspective changes things. The guys working on restoring our power back from the aftermath of IKE that swept over the midwest are the same guys that got called down to Texas to help with the initial storm! They are no doubt tired, taxed, and in need of a leg up, not a smack across the face for losing even more time from their families.

*Sigh* I do really want our power back on. Mom had to throw out her whole freezer and fridge. If you've never had to do that before... its a LOT of money! Just think about how much ketchup and mayo cost! You have to throw it all out but your soda.

Anyway... for those not in the midwest or unsure of what happened... we had the 'remnants' of Ike and 60 mph sustained winds for about 4hrs... then 30-40 mph sustained winds for a couple more. Very light rain though, which was weird to be honest. So... basically... tons of trees down and no power as a result.

AEP is saying that Lancaster should be restored to 100% power by midnight Friday. Yes... *cricket cricket* Friday!!!! It seems a bit barbaric that we have to wait so long, but we still have our house and Panera and Starbucks have wifi so I'm not completely shut off to the world. Thanks for everyone that's messaged, called, texted, etc.

Love you guys!!!

So we've had a pretty eventful first 24hrs back in Ohio...

Tonight the tree across the street fell on a brand new Saturn. *Ouch*

This is what I love about my Momma... she grabs her cell and I here beep beep beep (three digits). Here's our exchange:

Me: Did you seriously just dial 911 for a tree on a car?

Mom: Yes.. why?

Me: 911 is for real emergencies you are supposed to just call the sherrif's dept... but ok ha.

Mom: *hangs up*

Me: Ummm did you seriously just hang up on 911?

Mom: Yea, why?

Me: Ummm you can't do that.

Mom: Yes you can. I just did.

Me: Ha ummmm ok.

911: *calls back*

Me: *laughs*


Oh boy... ok and I promise the trip blogs will start to surface. Too many random things happened not to. I'm going to upload the funny Vegas videos I made of the air guitar players, etc too!

<3

A friend of mine sent me this link today... I seriously laughed so hard. Sam the cooking guy was right! Kathy Lee and Hoda are just ridiculous when it comes to talking over people. In fact... if they could talk over their own self I think they would have figured out a way to do that already! lol... enjoy this really really awkward moment with me:

As if you didn't already know... or maybe you've forgot because you work all day and never have to worry about the 'Days of our Lives' and 'All My Children's' of the world... but... yea... having 'poor people cable' is not cool during the day when you've got nothing to do.

I can remember when I was a freshman in college a bunch of the girls in our dorm would get together and watch the soap 'Passions'. This was merely for the hilariousness of the show. I'm not sure if that was the intention of the show creators, and maybe I'm giving them too much credit... but 'Passions' always seemed like a parody of other soap operas.

I'm not sure where this is going other than I'd love to have a petition to get rid of soap operas. Not because I think they are crude or nasty (believe me there are plenty of movies and shows in other time slots that are FAR worse--yikes!) but because they are LAME.

Worst. Acting. Ever.

p.s. According to Jim was on channel 59 and they dubbed the little toddler boys voice so I guess we should try to get rid of that one too. LOL

:D

Re-runs... yea, it's that time of year. Especially with daytime shows. I love love love Rachel Ray, but there's something about watching her show yesterday and having Hilary Swank on promoting her 'new movie' coming out this December as P.S. I Love You that just feels weird.

On the other hand, its sorta cool to catch up on stuff that I never got to see the first time. Like Oprah. Yea... before you X out of this screen and think of me as some Oprah loving new ager... chill. I'm not a fan, but I love stuff about hair and such so yea, I got sucked in. There were a ton of hair stylists to the stars that were giving tips to 'regular people' (yea, thats you and I, lol.).

One guy that they put on was just a 'beautiful mess'. He truly looked like a caveman. Long beard, hunched over, scraggly afro looking hair... ok... I made up the hunched over part... but pretend it was for dramatic usage. Either way he went through the process and when his girlfriend and mom saw him they had like the best reactions ever. (They literally freaked out.) I mean the guy was seriously stinkin' HOT when he walked out, and I'm not into older dudes. (Older = 10-15 yr difference.)

All this to say... I feel like a beautiful mess and I feel like I'm living in a re-run. Granted, my re-run is first syndication, but the day in day out same ol same ol is driving me crazy ha. However the creative process has really been opened up. I've been writing songs, coming up with radio promotion ideas, and even getting a podcast system set up. There's all this depressing cloud stuff surrounding me with 'danger looming on the horizon' (yea more dramatics for fun) but there's this beautiful trusting... leaning... testing process thats taking place too.

Do I want it to be over? You betcha. But I'm along for the ride and so far the view is a Kodak moment.

All State Insurance has the tagline... 'life comes at you fast'.

They equate it to floods, accidents, etc etc. Great marketing line. Seriously.

That tagline is quite possibly one of the truest statements in advertising. Not misleading or construed. Sure they add the '..thats why you need to call all state and do this that and yadda' but I'm talking about the first bit.

Chances are most of us have been 'put out' at one point in our lives. Maybe it was grade school and you were the last one picked, or even later in life when you asked someone out and got the cold shoulder. Knowing your not wanted is a seriously hard thing to digest and swallow. One thing thats potentially worse is when those kids from the playground smiled to your face in class and asked you to copy their homework then did the kickball routine leaving you out in the cold.

Needless to say, those kids grow up... and sometimes they only grow in size. I really feel hurt for my friends that are going through tough times right now. And yes, I know I'm not exactly in the best situation right now, but I'm making it. Really, I could careless about where I end up because I know God's got His hand in it and I'm not about to deny Him the glory. Sometimes I wish I could be a sort of 'caped crusader' and take care of the... well... frankly crap that some of my friends and family are going through. Nothing will ever change that.

Send one up for my friends and family going through tough times if you would.

Just a little from my journal today:

It's not easy to be put into the position of having to pack up two years of life in an instant. But here I am. Trying to see and talk to friends I've made out here in the past two years that I'll potentially never see again. Gosh that's hard to actually digest. It's not that we won't be friends anymore after this... but miles and miles will separate us.

Beauty and pain... luck and blessings... good memories... some tough ones too.

The myspace messages... calls... and IM chats have been so sweet in the last week. KDUV really does have some awesome listeners. Sweet to the core. I knew moving out here would be a blessing because I knew God led me here. I knew there'd be some rough spots too.

I still think the 'rough' spots make the sweet ones even sweeter.

Admittedly it's very hard not to be upset, depressed, or even mad. But I'm doing my best. That's all I can hope for. I'm sorta surprised with myself that I didn't just fall apart. God is awesome about that strength sharing stuff. Sustains... reminds... and restores.

What's next? Who knows... maybe I'll go home to Ohio and work at Kroger.