Giant Spider Attack

Ewww…look at that giant spider.

Sunday morning I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth after my shower, when I looked down I saw this GIANT HAIRY SPIDER sitting atop my deodorant.  I freaked out.  I mean FREAKED OUT.  I rushed out of my room to the kitchen to ask (yell) at the roommate for help.  I was like, “Please roommate, please come and kill the scary spider”.  She gave me a look of disdain and said that she didn’t like spiders either.  After a minute or two of coaxing (whining) I got her to agree to come to my room and view the beast.  She was anticipating a daddy longlegs, therefore she was surprised and a bit freaked out when she saw the giant arachnid facing us. 

During this entire encounter I was only wearing a purple towel and my mouth was full of orange toothpaste as I was afraid to use the sink to rinse my mouth or my toothbrush.  It was entirely too close to the beastie.

The roommate finally suggested that we use some bug killer to spray him and the when he was sufficiently dead she would be willing to dispose of the corpse.  Calmness entered my body.  We had a solution.  I happened to have the bottle of bug spray in my bathroom and I sufficiently covered the area inhabited by the spider.  He tried to run away, but I wasn’t going to tolerate him roaming the house so I gave him a couple extra douses of poison. 

Finally! He was DEAD! Really really Dead!

PS...sorry about the bad photo quality.  This is what happens when I know I have a good story but I am also afraid;)

Funny thing happened Friday night…..

I was scheduled to meet some friends on Friday night for a movie at 7:30pm. Since that wasn’t enough time for me to go home after work I did the second best thing. I found the Indy Lounge next to the Keystone Art Cinema and drank my dinner. Ok…there was food but not much. I got myself a beer and read my shameful vampire porn book until one of my friends showed up about an hour later. She sat down and we talked for a bit. I got another beer from the bar. We talked some more and then she wanted to go into the movie. I told her I still needed to purchase my ticket.
I took my beer as we walked out and I looked at the sign that said “Alcohol prohibited past this point” or something like that and I shrugged my shoulders and left anyway. I went to the automated ticket machine and put all of my belonging on the floor. I immediately knocked over my beer. Damn Damn Damn!!!! My companion went back into the Indy Lounge to get me some napkins and I tried to purchase my ticket while I waited, but I couldn’t remember the name of the movie. Duh. I just stood there until she returned.

When she came back she told me that the bartender requested that I return to the bar so I could pay my bar tab. SHIT!!!! I left without paying my bill. I went back inside without purchasing my ticket and apologized to the nice bartender. After that was resolved I tried to leave again to purchase my movie ticket but I was now on his radar and he wouldn’t let me take my drink outside. My companion was nice enough to go outside to purchase my ticket for me.

Seriously…all of this over 2 beers. Perhaps beer isn’t my friend.

Music to my Ears

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra was kind enough to send me an email advertising this weekend's classic concert tickets were buy 1 get 1 free.  Score!  I emailed my favorite symphony companion and asked her if she had room in her schedule for some classic music on Saturday night.  After a few texts and a phone conversation we decided to get some tickets.  The regular price tickets range from $30 to $90.  In an effort to save money I suggested we get the second cheapest ($38) ticket available as we were there to listen to music and not to see the orchestra.

This is what happens when you buy the second cheapest tickets.  Yea....we were in the third row from the back.  I think the oxygen was a bit thin up in the second mezzanine balcony.  I felt like a commoner having to sit up in the nosebleed section.  I vowed to never let this happen again.  I much prefer the cozy chairs on the main floor in the middle.  As a matter of fact I had never even gone to the second floor until tonight. 

OK....there really wasn't much to see and we the acoustics were great upstairs but I think once you get used to a certain seat you don't want to be downgraded.  The answer is to buy more tickets when they are on sale in January and you can choose any seat for $21.

The show was called "Classically Cinematic" and featured classical songs from movies.  It was fantastic.  Let me say that again IT WAS FANTASTIC!!!!  I loved it and I am so happy that I was able to go this weekend.  I recognized most of what they played, and my favorite piece was their second selection, Wagner's "The Ride of the Valkyries".  It was beautiful and uplifting.  There is nothing better than live music done well.  It doesn't matter the genre (except for country...yuck), if it is done well it is awesome beautiful wonderful great and superfantastic.

The music program described the music and composers as well as the movie that highlighted it.  They included a piece from Aram Khachaturian, "Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia" that was utilized in Ice Age 2 and 3 as well as Caligula.  Yes, they mentioned Caligula in the program and on the stage.  The 13 year old girl in me couldn't stop giggling.  You may remember this post I wrote about that movie.  Just one more thing to love about the ISO.

After the show we headed out to the 4th floor of the parking garage to get my car and go home.  When we arrived at my car the person who had parked next to the drivers side was waaayyyy too close and I couldn't get in my car.  However, I lucked out and they were in their car preparing to leave.  I just hung out talking to my friend while I waited the ten minutes for the traffic to clear and my badly parked neighbor could pull out.  Guess What....that little boy scraped the side of my car as he was pulling out.  I yelled out to him, "Dude, you hit my car."  He gave me a blank look.  I don't think he believed me at first but then realization dawned on his face.  By now he was backed up in the traffic and holding up all of the cars behind him.

He was about 20 years old and he gave me a scared look and asked if he could give me his phone number and could we work this out later.  I gave him a look of dismay and I said I wanted to verify he was giving me his correct number.  I got his number and called his phone to verify that it was his.  I also got his full name and his license plate number.  This was a really shitty way to end my spectacular evening of music.  I am just glad that I was there when it happened and I caught him in the act.  I am sure if I hadn't been there he would have been long gone by the time I returned and I would have been stuck paying for the repairs.  I think my poor little car has had a tough life so far.  At least she responds well to repairs;)

Thank you ISO for another great evening of music!

PS....Symphony on the Prairie will start soon.  I am especially excited to see The Sci-Fi Spectacular with George Takei in July.

Working with Sick Children

I serve on several committees at work. I am member of the Care Committee which plans fun events for the employees, Riley Golf Outing which procures donations for Riley Children’s hospital and I am the leader of the Wellness Committee which provides weight loss and healthy living challenges for the employees. I like being part of the committees and they give me an outlet for my social nature as well as my creativeness while I am at work.

Last week I attended an event for the Riley Committee that was very fun and interesting. This was the day we got to present the $20,000 check to the hospital, take photos and get a tour of the physicality. This is always a good day and a nice way to wrap up the prior year’s donation drive. A few days before the event the coordinator sent an email asking for volunteers to work with the children for two hours after the photo opp. I ignored the email and continued with my work. Then I got cornered. I was pressured to go by two co-workers and while I am likely to jump at any excuse to be away from work, the thought of working with the sick children made my stomach flutter in nervousness.

I ended up saying yes, but all along I was trying to figure out ways to get out of this commitment. My looks of fear and slight disgust did nothing to dissuade my co-workers from making me go. The day arrived and we went through the usual photos and check presentation. Look at me in the middle. Why am I always in the middle of these kinds of group photographs. This is what happens when you are short. Then the check looks as if it is cutting me off at the neck.

After the check presentation and our brief tour it was time to work with the children. On this day they were having a themed party in their atrium. I lucked out and the theme was based on the Library. Great…I know stuff about books. Not children’s books, but books. Anyway our job was to split up into two teams of two and man a booth. We had two choices, paper journals or book marks. Apparently, all of us wanted to work on the bookmarks so I conceded and worked on the journals. Someone had stapled colored construction paper over top of some plain white paper to make some homemade journals.

We got ourselves settled and then came the children. Oftentimes they would come by our table and take a paper journal and leave. But not all of the time. There were two particular children that stood out to me. The first one was a little boy who was super friendly (umm… annoying) and he was at our table for at least an hour coloring. I asked him what he wanted to draw and he replied “I dunno”, I suggested a cat and I got a look of disdain. He decided to draw a black panther. I gave him some encouragement and he ended up creating a book of panthers. One of the pictures depicted the panther eating a monkey. I am not sure why he chose a monkey but he did. I thought the panther should eat rats but he didn’t want to draw them. As he continued to draw the viscous panthers he kept up a nonstop conversation with anyone who would listen. Guess what….it was my job to listen. He told me about the rats that live in his house (his mom explained that they live in the country and they have field mice) and how he got his photo taken with the mayor that morning. Cool! Then we finally hit upon a topic that I could talk about. The 360. He doesn’t play any games that I do but at least we found some common ground.

The second child was a thirteen year old goth girl. Seriously! Her mom was goth also. She decided to make a little book about butterflies for her sick brother. Very sweet. She didn’t speak for most of the 20 minutes she was at the table but she was very creative and she made a very nice book. Little girls are so artistic.

So I guess the afternoon of sick children didn’t kill me. I was glad that my nervousness went away quickly and I was able to find a way to have a good time.  I would like to thank my chameleon like tendencies that allow me to fit into most situations.

T-Ball Memories

OMG isn't this picture cute!

This is Lou and I on the D&D Carpet Cleaning T-Ball team when I was in the 2nd grade.  Actually, Lou was the bat boy. I am sure you can probably guess where I am located in this photo, but I will tell you anyway. I am the 4th girl from the left in the front row. Look at me holding the glove like I don't know what I am doing (I didn't)!  I believe the year was 1982 and I was in the second grade, so I think that makes me 7 or 8.

Now the weird part. I was on facebook last night and I was looking at a FB friend of my sisters whom I am not FB friends with. Immediately this picture caught my eye as I remembered the picture and I knew I was in it. I was shocked and wondered why this photo was on his page. When I began to look at the details I realized that this person wasn't in the photo. How odd! I am sure he knows someone who is in it. He wasn't the owner of the photo so when I tried to tag myself and Lou it sent a request to the owner.

I don't really have that many memories of being on this team. What I do remember is being at a game and being off to the side talking to my dad and showing him my knowledge and skills and then getting in trouble from the coach for not paying attending. That was nothing new.

The guy on the FB page noted that our team came in 2nd place that year.  Woot!  It was like we were the Bad News Bears.

I only participated in one other team sport growing up and that was basketball in the 5th grade. Again my memories of this activity are fairly dim but this is what I remember. I remember having practice after school and it being cold and having to walk home in the dark. I think we lived about a mile or so from the school. I also remember being at a practice and being to the side talking to my friends and showing them a pair of black high heel shoes I had in my bag. Again, I got into trouble and I was made to do extra calisthenics for my bad behavior.  I believe that this was the end of my interest in sports.