Surprise

Yesterday, I found myself doing something I did not expect.
But lets start this story from the beginning, shall we?
Last week, at work, I was in charge of the telemetry floor. There was a nurse up there I have not met yet, a newly graduated one. He was talking almost non stop about the new Jeeps that came out. And how he was going to get a black one.
Now, I do like Jeeps.
I have had Jeep envy for years, actually. I know quite a few people with Jeeps. MM has a Jeep Liberty. I drove it a few days when I first started staying here. It was fun.
So, back to the nurse. Talking Jeeps. Eventually, I went onto the Jeep website to see what all the hoopla was about. Looking at them, I felt a tiny thrill. "Those are kind of cool" I thought to myself. 4 door, and the top comes off, in sections. One over the driver, one over the passenger, or one over the back seat area. You can have them all off, or just one. The interior is pretty nice.
On the website, it lets you "build" one. So I did. They had some really nice colors. The one I chose is the one you see up there. "Red Rock". Nice, right?
Sighing wistfully, I closed the screen. The newby nurse asked me later "So when you going to go get your Jeep?" I laughed, and said, probably never.
You see. Veruca Salt, my Saturn Vue? She's paid off. She's all mine. And though I had been thinking she was acting a little gutless lately, and was in need of a tune up, I had no real reason to replace her.
Fast forward to this weekend. Sunday. MM, Mustang Girl and I went to lunch. Then MM started talking to MG about colors for the mustang. (He spent Sat. working on it). He, for some reason, wanted to go to a Jeep dealership, to look at their colors, and perhaps get some color swatches if they had any. So, away we went. I had told him about my "build a jeep" experience at work. Walking around the lot, we looked around, and inside. A smarmy salesman came up to us. And started leading us towards an ugly green Jeep. But out of the corner of my eye, I saw it.
The Red Rock one.
Just like I built it.
So I had to go see, right? Right?
So I did. And smart smarmy salesman followed me, and opened it up. And had me get in. Then asked me those magic words
"Do you want to drive it?"
SHIT
of course I want to drive it. Was he high?
MM is just shaking his head. Syd is saying quietly here we go again)
she has been through this with her father. Poor Kid.
3 hours later, I drove away in that Red Rock Jeep.
I now have a car payment.
And I traded in Veruca.
Yes, I did. But this Jeep. Its so PRETTY.
It is Veruca kicked up at least 10 notches.
It is fun to drive
and it is now mine. (Mine, and a credit agency's)


Now, the fun part for all of you come in.
The car HAS to have a name. She cannot be "Veruca 2".
This is where the rest of you come in.
Name the car, win a prize. I don't know what yet, I will think of something good.
The judge will be me. (and Mustang Girl)
And it is a "she".
Let your imaginations go wild!

hmm, thought I would be Eeyore

Your Score: Tigger

You scored 14 Ego, 11 Anxiety, and 15 Agency!

And as they went, Tigger told Roo (who wanted to know)
all about the things that Tiggers could do.

"Can they fly?" asked Roo.

"Yes," said Tigger, "they're very good flyers, Tiggers
are. Strornry good flyers."

"Oo!" said Roo. "Can they fly as well as Owl?"

"Yes," said Tigger. "Only they don't want to."

"Why don't they want to?" well, they just don't like it
somehow."

Roo couldn't understand this, because he thought it
would be lovely to be able to fly, but Tigger said it was
difficult to explain to anybody who wasn't a Tigger himself.

You scored as Tigger!

ABOUT TIGGER: Tigger is the newest addition to the Hundred Acre Wood, and he lives with Kanga and Roo, because Roo's strengthening medicine turned out to be the thing that Tiggers like best. Tigger is bouncy and confident -some of his friends think he is a little TOO bouncy and confident, but attempts to unbounce him tend to be fruitless.

WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT YOU: You are a positive and confident person. You feel capable of dealing with anything and everything, and funnily enough, you usually ARE. You don't worry about much, and you love to go out and find new adventures.

Your friends and family might sometimes be a little exasperated by your boundless enthusiasm. You don't like to admit your mistakes, and when you find yourself in over you head, you tend to bluff your way out of things. You would be surprised, however, at how happy the people around you would be if you would actually admit to a mistake. It would make you seem more human, somehow.

Link: The Deep and Meaningful Winnie-The-Pooh Character Test written by wolfcaroling on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test View My Profile(wolfcaroling)

thanks Mimi!

Short Story Saturday

Jennifer flopped down onto the grass, on her back, staring up at the sky, but not seeing the snail shaped cumulous clouds that scuttled by. Truth was, she wasn't really looking.
Instead, she was trying to sort out the myriad of thoughts going through her mind. Her mind, which she had been unable to turn off for the last three nights. As a result, she had been dragging herself to work each morning, heavy lidded and exhausted.
This morning, though, she just couldn't fathom sitting in front of that desk any longer, staring at all those numbers, and trying to make them all balance.
So she called in sick, considering it a 'mental health day', and took herself away. Outdoors. To one of her favorite places, where she could sit in peace, and relative quietness, not seeing the sky, and sorting out the issues of her world, as best she could.
Rolling over, she crossed her arms, and laid her head down on them, smelling the sweet smell of grass, and the loamy scent of the earth. Closing her eyes, she drowsed in the warmth of the sun. "Just a short nap" the thought to herself, as she dozed off.
A short time later, she woke up. Her mind, unhappy that she had managed to subdue it with warm sunshine, had tricked her, and given her a nightmare, instead of a dream. Sitting up, she reached into her back pack for the Odwalla Mango Tango she'd brought with her. Taking a big drink of it, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, and, began to do what she came out to the outdoors for.
To think.
All this had started three weeks ago, when Charlie, a man from work, had come in late. "You look awful" she'd said to him, trying to be empathetic. She wished now she had never opened her mouth. Hearing her words, Charlie had turned towards her, eyes red and wet.
"Thanks" he had replied, then sat down in the chair at her desk, and spilled his guts. He told her of every problem he and his wife were going through. How she didn't talk to him, anymore. How their therapist recommended they just divorce now, and get it over with. How his favorite dog had run away.
She had not been surprised, because she and her husband had eaten dinner with Charlie and his wife, once before. And it had been a miserable experience. One they'd never repeated.
But she'd sat and listened to him, making the appropriate sympathetic murmurs from time to time, thankful that she and Jake had such a good relationship.
Or so she had thought.
She'd gone home, that evening, so sure of herself. Cocky, even.
Until she walked in the door, and crashed immediately into 3 packed suitcases in the hallway.
Her husband was standing in the living room, sorting through their CD's with a box at his feet. The box was half full of movies. Movies that they had bought together.
"Going somewhere?" she asked, eyebrows raised in surprise, heart racing.
He turned to face her, and she shut her eyes against his handsomeness.
"Yeah", he answered, voice raspy. "I can't do this anymore, babe. It is time for me to leave."
"What do you mean, leave? And that is MY Rush CD in your hand" she answered, knowing she wasn't going to like what he had to say.
Gently, he put the Rush CD back into the rack. "She knows that one is my favorite" he thought, sourly.
"What I mean is, our marriage, it's a charade. It's fake. It is superficial. And I want more" he clarified, a little harsh, because she had denied him the Rush CD.
As the pain of his words hit her, she sank down to the floor, in disbelief. But, in her heart, she knew he spoke the truth. And that sometimes, the truth hurt.
They'd been high school sweethearts. "Jennie and Jake" had been carved into tree's. written on notebooks, and PeeChee folders. No one had been surprised when they announced their engagement, shortly after they'd both finished college. Every day, people asked them when they were going to have children. They always said the same thing. "Give us time." Truth was, they had been trying for a year, with no baby. And now she was starting to understand why.
It had been three weeks since Jake had left, in his dark green Suburban. Each evening, she set the table for two, thinking this would be the night Jake came back. But he hadn't. And Charlie was now looking at her with sympathy in HIS eyes. He and his wife had found a new therapist, one who didn't recommend divorce. And now Jennifer was the one who was without her "other half" and looking like she was going to end up in divorce court.
She rolled back up to face the sky, and the sun, ignoring the buzz of her cell phone at her hip, after checking to make sure it wasn't Jake. It wasn't, it was work, and, well. She'd called in sick for a reason. She didn't need to answer them, now.
After a while, her stomach started to grumble with hunger, so she got up, gathered her back pack with her unread book, her wallet, and her car keys and started walking the path back to her car. She found a parking ticket on the windshield of her blue Audi, and just shook her head. Apparently, she had been there longer than the three hours that were allotted. Crumpling it up, she tossed it onto the passenger side floorboard, and started her car.
"To hell with it" she thought to herself, and headed to the nearest Taco Hell. Once there, she ordered herself 3 crunch wraps, and a Mountain Dew baja blast, and sat down at the corner table to eat and drink. She knew that she would be sick later, but, she just didn't care. She had not eaten at a Taco Hell in at least five years, but now seemed like the time to do it.
Sitting there, by herself, she became bored, rather quickly. Taking out her cell phone, she decided she would call her friend, Marcy, to see what was up. She noticed she had a new voicemail, and sighing, she took another drink of the sticky sweet baja blast, and dialed in to hear the message.
"Uh, hi, uh, Jennifer?" Great. It was Charlie.
"Listen. I don't know how to tell you this. But, ah. Yeah. They are closing the company. We are all being let go, as of today. So, uh, you need to come and get all your personal items, and your last paycheck. Sorry. Bye."
"Shit!" she thought frantically. "The mortgage payment is coming up, I have no freaking clue where Jake is, and now, I have no job!" Looking down at all the un eaten Taco Hell on her tray she bitterly considered all the money she had just wasted on fast food. Getting up, she slid the whole mess into the trash, and walked back to her car, dialing Marcy as she went.
The phone rang, a few times. Then, much to her shock, it was answered.
By Jake.
"Oh, Jake? I thought I called Marcy" she warbled nervously, all the blood rushing out of her head.
"Damn it Marcy, how many times do I have to tell you to get caller ID" whispered Jake.
Jennifer simply hung up, defeated. She laid her head down on her steering wheel, and found that she was beyond crying. After a few minutes, she lifted her chin, and, wiping her dry eyes, drove to work, and picked up her belongings, and her scant, last paycheck.
Driving towards home, she considered her options. What she'd really like to do is burn the place down. And run away. Far away. But she couldn't do that.
She could go back to Tennessee, and live with her parents.
But she swore she'd never do that again.
She knew the best thing to do was to put the house on the market, immediately. She could not afford, obviously, to keep it. And she doubted Jake would be much help. His job as a grocery store manager did not pay an awful lot. Marcy was a real estate agent. She could list it. The thought of that just made her laugh, outright.
When she got home, she was not surprised to see Jake and Marcy standing on the steps. A For Sale sign was already up in the yard.
"Wonderful" she thought. "I cannot take anymore." Getting out of the car, she began to pick rocks up out of the driveway, and throw them at Jake, and Marcy. She was a pitcher on her school softball team, and was pleased to find that her aim was still true. As Jake clutched his head, Marcy whipped out her cell phone, and called 9-1-1. All the neighbors came out to watch, including that nosy old lady, Edna, with her ga-gillion cats, and those know it all's, the Petersons. Before long, Jennifer found herself, bound up in a straight jacket, and headed to Madrone Hills, the mental facility. "Fantastic" she thought. Now I don't have to come up with the mortgage.

thanks Daryl e!

I got it. Here it is. A lovely award. One that I will pass on to some others early next week? But I got it.
Isn't it purty?
Been working the last 2 days, but I have a story for tomorrow.
Oh, I probably got some brainless person fired at work, too. (one can hope)

Friday "mie"-ography

Hedy Lamarr.
Pin up girl.
actress.
Inventor.
Thats right. I said it.
INVENTOR.

She was born in Austria, in 1913 as Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, daughter of a bank director father and a mother who was a pianist. Raised as a Catholic, she studied ballet, and piano in her youth. She was noticed early on, and declared "the most beautiful woman in Europe", and shortly after that, in her teen years, she began accepting major roles in German made movies.
In 1933, she married a Austrian arms manufacturer named Friedrich Mandl. 13 years older than her, and a fascist, he did not approve of a film she had recently made (nude scenes,) and tried to buy every version of the film. He did not like her facial expressions during the nude scenes. Sadly, to get those expressions, there was a director poking her bare bottom with a safety pin. OUCH!
Anyhow. He prevented her from acting, and instead, took her to meetings with technicians, and business partners. Mathematically talented, she started learning about military technology during this time in her life.
In 1937, she literally ran away from home. To Paris. Then London, where she met Louis B. Mayer. He is the one who had her change her name to Hedy Lamarr. LaMarr was a last name taken from a famously beautiful silent screen actress who had died of TB that Meyer was fond of.
She made her way to Hollywood, where she began to be cast as a glamorous and seductive. She got many roles, very quickly, including a role in the movie Zigfield Tirl, with Lana Turner, and Judy Garland.
She is well remembered for playing Delilah in Samson and Delilah, the highest grossing film on 1949. In 1953, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States. She also got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1967 there was a publication of her autobiograpy, and in 1966 Andy Warhol made a short film called Hedy.(with a drag queen playing her.)


Her role as an inventor came about in 1941. She was friends with George Antheil, who was the son of German Immigrants. Together, they got a patent granted for a frequency hopped spread spectrum invention. It used a piano roll to change between 88 different frequencies, and was intended to make radio guided torpedoes harder for the enemies to detect, and jam.
However, technology during that era was not exacly up to snuff, and it was not realized until 1962, when it was used by ships during a blockade of Cuba. Their patent had expired, so they never saw any money for it. The frequency hopping idea serves as a basis for modern spread spectrum communication technology that we use to this day, in cordless phones, and WiFi Internet connections. She wanted to join the National Inventors Council, but was told, instead, that she could help the war effort more by selling war bonds. She once raised 7 million dollars, for just one event.
Hedy died in 2000, in Florida. In 2003, Boeing corporation honored her as a woman of science, by running a series of recruitment ads featuring her not for her movie roles, but for her invention skills.
She was married a total of six times, and had 3 children.

Good Hedy quotes? Sure!
"Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid."
or
"Films have a certain place in a certain time period. Technology is forever."

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Hey. Guess what. It's Thursday. Has been for about an hour, now. Yes I am at work. Trying not to watch the clock. Things may get busy here in a moment, but I am going to try to bust out a post before that occurs.
I love museums. I think I have said that before. Love staring at good art, painting, sculpture, usually any kind of art. I will admit that there are some things I don't consider my kind of artwork (cough Picasso cough) but some people really like it, and, to each their own.
So I was web surfing earlier yesterday, and came across some different kinds of museums. Some I'd love to see. Others, not so much.
One I would surely love to visit is the Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments. Unfortunately, it is in Prague, in the Czech Republic. I doubt I will be getting there any time, soon. There are over 60 torture devices located there, and a useful tutorial on how to operate each machine. (no, MM, you should not be scared. Really. Okay maybe a little. No, really not.) Admission is a measly 12 dollars. I think that would be a 12 dollars well spent. Co-incedentally, I am making an extra whopping 12 dollars tonight for being charge nurse. See? I could go.
Another place I may want to see some time is the Museum of Bad Art. I wouldn't have to go so far, just to Boston. Been there, Syb or Holly? It is a free museum, and boasts to have a permanent exhibit of the most offensive attempts at art. Could be interesting.
Then, there are the sex museums. We had my mom all set to go into one while we were in NY city. I was thrilled she agreed to go in. Alas, the morning we had allotted to go in, the damn thing was closed. I have a GREAT picture of her flipping me off in front of it though. They also have sex museums in Amsterdam, Paris, and, of all places, Iceland. I didn't see the Parisian one. But I was too busy in the Louvre and the Musee Orsay to worry about sex. The one in Amsterdam is the oldest one, half a million tourists a year go there. The one in Iceland is mainly dedicated to phallic symbols, I read.
In Philadelphia there is a museum I am BOUND to visit. (Look out BW, I am headed your way.) Its called the Mutter Museum. It has some 20,000 objects that showcase human health anamolies. Hell yeah. I am a nurse, people. Just try to stop me. They even have President Clevelands cancerous jaw growth. Awesome. They also have a skeleton of a woman who was a long time wearer of a corset. Not to be missed, I tell you. Gonna go in with me, BW?
One place I will certainly skip is the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets, in New Delhi, India. The las thing I want to see are a bunch of toilets. In India. Taj Mahal? Yes. Toilet collection? Not so much.
Another one on my must miss list is the Vent Haven Museum, in Kentucky. It is full of ventriloquist dummies. Scaaaaaarrrrrry. I would have nightmares for weeks after that. I saw a bit of that movie, Magic, I think it was called, when I was a kid. Don't like the scary dummies. Plus, my luck, they'd have that old broad Madame there. (You people remember her, right?). I would never sleep again.
So, there you go. My Thursday rambling.

Wordless Wednesday