One year down, a half a billion more to go before I can retire.    And only four more years until I am vested!

Time flies by so fast.  I look at my calendar and I know it has been a year since I started working for USC, but it sure as heck doesn’t feel like it.

For the most part, I think my job has been pretty good to me.  It’s not real stressful, and my co-workers are nice.  Like everyone, I wish I got paid more, but oh, well.  Maybe one day. Not this year, though.  Not even a percent.    It’s the economy’s fault and the fact that I work for the State.

Perhaps the coolest thing about my job is that I can take one free class a semester.  I have yet to take advantage of this – mainly because I can’t decide what I want to do yet.  I debating if I should take ballroom dancing in the fall.  Anyone want to do it with me?

And actually, my one year at USC was on February 13th, but I was too lazy then to blog about it.

Oh, and I’ve finally scanned in all of my postcards, so I hope to start doing an Ana thing, soon.  People seem to like it.  Plus, it will give me something to blog about and I will learn in the process. 

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While waiting in line at Shoney’s breakfast buffet, I overheard this conversation between two waitresses.

Waitress 1: “You know what?  Never mind.  I’ll wipe down your tables for you.”

Waitress 2: “I just love working with assholes.”

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While walking out of Spencer’s, I overheard this conversation between two young men.

Young Man 1: “Don’t hit my burn.  What the fuck were you thinking?”

Young Man 2:  “. . .  . . .”

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Waiting for my mom in the food court of the mall, two girls walked past me.

Girl 1:  “Well, your such a fugly bitch!”

Girl 2: “laugh laugh laugh”

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I just love listening to what people have to say.

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A long time ago, I created a post that asked who my readers were.  I was curious.  Most bloggers are.  And well, I’m still curious.  Plus, I think enough time has passed to take roll again.  I’m pretty sure that my viewers have changed a little since I left China and started writing about my daily life here.

So, if you would be so kind to drop me a comment, letting me know you are, how you found me, or anything else you feel like sharing, I would greatly appreciate it.

The last time I did this, I got six comments.  This go around, I am going to shoot for the stars and hope for eight.  If you commented last time, and you are still with me – thanks.  Feel free to leave me some love again.  Comments, as you know, make me extremely happy.

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I was reading through some of the Yahoo! news yesterday and came upon something very amusing.  Apparently, pranksters have been hacking into electronic road signs and replacing the real warnings with things like “Daily lane closure due to zombies”, “Raptors ahead – caution”, and “Zombies in area. Run!”.  So far it has happened in Collinsville, Illinois, Austin, Texas, and a county in Indiana.

Photo by Chris Nakashima Brown

Had I been an actual witness to any of these signs, I probably would have crashed my car laughing hysterically.  I would so pay money to see something like that on my way to work.  It would so break up the monotony of my day.  You can read the rest of the article here.

Finding out Michael Phleps’ smoked up at the University I graduated from just isn’t good enough.

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96.7 WLTY AKA Steve FM is by far my favorite radio station in Columbia.  I love it because it is a no nonsense type of station.  It does what a radio station should do – play music – any kind of music – all the freaking time.  I don’t have to listen to some stupid disc jockey yapping in my ear about stupid stuff I don’t care about.  I get to listen to music – a nice range of music.

Steve FM’s slogan is “Playing Whatever We Want”, and I think for the most part they do.  There are certain types of songs they play more than others, but just when you least expect it, a song you have either A) never heard of or B) haven’t heard in ages comes on.  I think I listen just to see what will come on next. 

The reason I’m talking about Steve FM is because the other day, driving home from work, a kick ass 80′s song I have never heard of before came on the radio.  I racked my brain trying to figure out who was singing it, but no bands would come to mind.  And since Steve FM doesn’t tell you what song or band is playing, the station’s only real pitfall, I had to try and memorize the lyrics so that I could type them into Google when I got home.  Traffic was horrible, so by the time I did get home, many of the lyrics had escaped me.  All I have to say is, thank God for the internet.  Thank God for Google.  And thank God for YouTube.  I can’t really imagine life without them. 

I thought I had just about heard every 80′s song there ever was, but apparently not, because some how this song has stayed out of my radar since 1988.  Phil said he heard it before and that he knew I had, but I really believe I haven’t.  It was even in the credits of “Napolean Dynamite”, but I really don’t remember hearing it.  Perhaps I didn’t watch the credits.  I don’t know – either way, I think it is an awesome song, and thought I would share it with you.  The name of the song is “The Promise” and it was done by the band When in Rome.

That isn’t the orginal video, of course, but I liked it much better.  Do any of you remember this song?

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I was going through the pictures on my computer and decided to post a few that have never made it on this little blog of mine before.  As you can tell by the dates on the pictures, they are all rather old.  I need to go through all of my China pictures and see if there are any interesting ones I forgot to post.  I’m sure there has to be a few.  Phil and I took something like 5,000 pictures.  And if there aren’t any more photos, I’m sure there are still a few blog worthy videos.  I’ll try to find some this weekend.

I’m anxious for spring to roll around again.

I love taking pictures of flowers for some strange reason.

I am pretty sure that this was taken at Swan Lake in Sumter.

Maybe I will go again this year – get their when more flowers are in bloom.

RIP Dopple

Dopple was my favorite orange cat ever.  He totally could have been a real life Garfield.

RIP Morgan Rose Ireland Yvette DeWitter

She was the best kitty ever!

RIP Thames

Thames talked with every step he took.  He was one strange kitty, but I still loved him.

I found this grasshopper behind One Eared Cow Glass several years ago.

He stayed on that stick just long enough for me to snap a picture of him.

I don’t even know what this is, but it’s scary!!

Anyone have any idea what this critter is called?

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Phil called me up last weekend and exclaimed that he had just made the world’s ugliest birthday cake and was glad to know that his mother’s love would over look it.  I was curious what the cake looked like, so I made him take a short video of it.   In my mind, I had expected it to look a lot worse.    I think Phil is right, though, he should definitely stick to computers because cakes sure aren’t his thing – even if they taste really good.

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Snow crystals are so pretty. I wish I had been able to get a better picture of them.

Snow is such a rare thing in South Carolina, that when those wonderful white flakes do fall out of the sky, the entire state shuts down.  No lie.  For instance, the amount of snow seen in the video below is about all we had – a dusting.  Even before the snow began to fall, many schools decided to close for the day and many others had delayed openings.  I’m hoping they closed in fear of the snow being worse than it was because it really wasn’t anything to worry about in Columbia.  The roads were wet, but they weren’t any worse than a rainy day.  Of course, no one in Columbia can drive when it rains, so I can’t imagine they could drive any better with pretty white flakes distracting them.  I’m waiting for the blizzard of 1973 to rear its ugly head again, so that I can experience 16+ inches of snow in person.  I wonder how many days of work and school were missed then.  That may have been the year my brother prayed for snow.  Boy, were his prayers answered!

We still have February to get through, so maybe we’ll get some more snow.  I want to peg Phil with at least one snow ball.    Just one.

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For those of you who don’t know me too well, I absolutely love Cookie Monster.  And it is not because we share a birthday or anything.  I didn’t even know we did until I wrote a paper on him in high school.  Yes, I wrote a paper on Cookie Monster.  The teacher said I could write about anyone famous.  She didn’t say the famous person had to be of the flesh!

Several years ago, my mom got me a Cookie Monster cookie cake for my birthday.  It was so pretty, I had a hard time eating it.  Well, that and the icing was super sweet. I think it was the most awesome cake I have ever had.  I’ve got a picture of it on my other computer.  I’ll try to post a picture of it later.

If anyone wants to make my year though, just send me a dozen of these cupcakes on November 2nd.  It would be the sweetest birthday present ever!  I’ll be waiting patiently for your delivery. 

The Noms say it all.

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And just to let you know, for those of you who are curious, the table is not finished.  In fact, it is still sitting in pieces on the floor. I have a strange feeling that I will never eat at that table again.

In case you were wondering, this is how I felt this morning at 6:20.

I love Lolcats.  They get me through the day.

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