Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Change.

     My fellow bloggers, change can be a good thing. As most of you have read from my previous posts, I recently purchased a 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Before I owned the Jeep, I was behind the wheel of a 2001 Ford Taurus with 259,800 miles on the engine. The Ford was my dad's car since 2001, so I grew up with it for the majority of my life. I have spent long hours in that car traveling back and forth from state to state every important weekend, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and anything else you can think of to visit family. My dad taught me how to drive in the Ford. It was the first car I had ever driven. Back in April of 2010, my dad put me behind the wheel for my very first time. He took me out to the country, and told me to drive.
     I learned to drive this car before I even had my permit. Once I completed driver’s ed., I was allowed to drive with my grandparents when I went to visit them. They also have a Ford Taurus, one year older, but the same all the way around. I drove a Ford Taurus for quite some time. I had mine for 4 months until it finally stuck out with my father, as he is tired of fixing it time and time again. We are currently trying to sell it. My dad has fixed what's wrong with it, and it’s currently on Craigslist.
     When I got my Jeep, I had no idea how to work it. My Taurus had the gear shift on the steering column, and the headlights on the dash, and the wipers and turn signals on a post. This car was built in 2001, therefore it is front wheel drive, has no traction control, and has horrible power steering, and due to its age, it's very loud, and has developed amazing pick-up. When I first got in my Jeep, I kept reaching up to the steering column to put it in gear, when the gearshift is between the driver and passenger seats. The radio is about 1 foot higher than the Ford, and the headlights, turn signals, wipers, and rear wipers are all on two posts on the steering column.
     The first time I drove it to the grocery store, I got trapped inside it. I could not find the door handles. They are about a foot lower on the door than my Fords were. I also have turned off my lights many times when it is dark and raining, due to the fact that I am used to the wipers being on the left hand post. The Jeep has them on the right hand post. My Taurus had no right hand post.
     I drove my Taurus for the first time in about a month yesterday, and boy it was a lot different than I remembered it. The first thing I didn’t remember is sitting so low to the ground. My Jeep sits up high because it is well, a Jeep. Then I put that key in, and when i heard that engine turn over and roar to life, man, it brought back so many memories. The whole neighborhood probably heard that car start. It's hard to explain, but it's like home. I didn’t confuse my Jeep with this car, like i expected to. I knew where everything was! But I drove it, and man that car moves quick. I will say I do miss several things about that car. That I do not have on my Jeep.
  1. Front wheel drive: It's so fun to drift around the roundabouts and fish-tail the car. I can't do that in my Jeep, its four wheel drive.
  2. No traction control: My Jeep has traction control. You can turn it off, but if you pull maneuvers the car doesn’t like, the computer kicks in, and tries to counter you. This is no fun. I miss peeling away from intersections in the rain and feeling my tires spin.
  3. Loud exhaust: The Ford had a pretty rough exhaust. It was loud, and emitted fumes that smelled like a diesel truck. The Jeep is not as loud as I would like it to be.
  4. Driving a Ford in general: Ford was the only American auto manufacturer that did not receive a government bailout, and I was proud to drive a Ford because of that.
I sometimes miss my Taurus. But you know what they say...You never fall out of love with your first car.
Farewell my fellow bloggers, and in the words of Anonymous, "Middle Age - When you want to see how long your car will last indtead of how fast it will go."

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Frustrated? Or self conscious?

     Hello my fellow bloggers! Halloween is over (finally!) and November is upon us! In my community where I reside, there is one particular road that runs by a body of water. This road is windy and twisty, and there are trees all along the road! As November approaches, all of the leaves on the trees change colors! Auburn, orange, auburn orange, sunkist red, burnt red, brilliant orange, and magnificent shades of yellow. These leaves are freaking beautiful! One of my good friends who I have mentioned a few times in this blog posted a picture on Twitter of a fall scene! I wanted to share it with you! So here it is! Isn't that magnificent?
     Now, on with the story! In my Spanish class the other day, Our worksheet posed a question in one of it's many activities. The question was in Spanish of course, but I am going to give you the English translation! The question was this: If you were stood up on a date, you would feel.... A- frustrated, or B- self conscious. I had a small debate with my seat mate about this...I automatically said frustrated, because if someone stands me up, and I feel self conscious, then they got the best of me. I would be frustrated. My seat mate thought the opposite.
     So when it came time to go over this worksheet, I raised my hand and answered with frustrated. My Spanish teacher thought it was also self conscious, like my seat mate. This got the whole class talking and discussing. I still think the answer it frustrated. What do you think? I have posted a poll up on the top-left hand corner of this blog for you to share your opinion! I'll review the answers in a week when the voting is up! Please share your opinion!
     Farewell my fellow bloggers, and in the words of a Yahoo Answers user, "Best thing about being stood up? The hot guy sitting in the next booth..."

Monday, October 17, 2011

Decisions, decisions.

     My fellow bloggers; I was pouring Robitussin last night, and I discovered that this was a very complicated process, despite what many people may think. When pouring medicine, you either pour it into a medicine cup, or a measuring stick, or you simply use a spoon. In my household, we are fresh out of medicine cups. My only option was a spoon.  So I open the cap to the medicine bottle, pull a spoon out of the silverware drawer of my kitchen, and then, it hit me.
     I was faced with a very important, and crucial decision:  how do I pour my medicine?
  1. I could pour the medicine with my non-dominant hand, and hold the spoon with my dominant hand, which has several risks. Holding the medicine bottle with your non-dominant hand risks missing the spoon you were supposed to our onto, spilling the medicine all over the kitchen counter, making a sticky mess!
  2. I could pour the medicine with my dominant hand, and hold the spoon with my non-dominant hand, which also has great risks. If you pour with your dominant, you're fine. But then when it comes time to put that spoon up to your mouth successfully, that's where the problems appear. You could spill it all over your nice shirt, or your pants! Or even get it on your chin! and my friends, let me tell you: medicine is sticky!
For those of you who are lucky enough, and privileged enough to have a medicine cup in your humble abode, cherish it, like you would your most prized possession. Farewell my fellow bloggers, and in the words of Robitussin, "When your cold is at its strongest, you need the strongest relief. Robitussin provides effective relief for your peak cold,
cough and mucus symptoms."

Monday, October 10, 2011

I hurt the self esteem of a four year old child.

     You read it right my fellow bloggers; I did hinder a four year old child’s self esteem. Let me explain this horrific incident of child self esteem hindrance. I live within very close proximity of a local public park. I walk my dog there just about every single day. Today I really wasn't in a delightful mood. Therefore, I just wanted to finish walking my dog so I could go home and take a nap. Sadly I never managed to take a nap, disappointing, I know. I was walking past the shelter, and a man with his three boys all under the age of six was there. The youngest one looked to be about three or four. He was wandering towards the sidewalk where I was, and his father really wasn’t what I would call an attentive parent, so he was able to wander wherever he pleased I guess.
     I proceeded to walk past the little boy, and with the biggest smile on his face, He told me "Hi," and waved. I had been in similar situations like this before, and I didn’t want to say anything back because then he (like all the other small children I encounter walking my puppy) would ask to "pet my doggy." As I mentioned earlier, I wasn't in a terrific mood. Therefore, I ignored the little boy, and continued to walk by without saying a word. As I got 25 feet away from him, I was thinking, "What on earth did I just do?" I rejected the wave of a little boy. He had good intentions, and is a young child that is learning, and I just completely acted wrong, and made a horrible decision to ignore him.
     I kept walking, and was punching myself in the face for not simply saying "hi" back to this little boy. I turned around, and he was way back behind me, but he was sort of chasing after me. I came up to the sidewalk where it crosses the street, and he kept coming. By this time, the boys father is walking the compete opposite direction with the other two little boys calling his name expecting him to come back. Worried for the child’s safety, I stayed where I was, and did not cross the street. The other two little boys come running after him, and the father is just standing there, 50 feet away, watching his three little boys approach me, a complete stranger. If it would have been someone else they approached, His little boy easily could have been kidnapped, or abducted.
     As the little boys drew close, I wanted to make it up per-say to the little boy whose wave I rejected. I knelt down to the ground, and asked them if they wanted to pet my puppy and all three said "yes!" We then had a conversation about what the leash was for and what my dog's name was. All the meanwhile, their father is just slowly waltzing his way over to them, with not a care in the world his three little children are talking to a stranger. As he approaches, the younger one runs off again, and the other two follow. Then he grabbed the youngest one who had wandered off and picks him up and starts walking back the opposite direction. He didn't say a single word too me, which surprised me.
     To be 100% honest, when typing this story, specifically the part about walking past the little boy when he waved to me, I started to get tears in my eyes. I still feel so horrible for doing what I did. By now, that little boy probably does not even remember, but I do. I feel like I hurt the little boy, for no reason at all. Which I think is true. By letting them pet my dog, It seemed like a good way to make it up too him. But I still feel at fault for hurting the little boy's feelings. This little boy taught me a very valuable lesson, and I will never forget it.


     Farewell my fellow bloggers, and in the words of Angela Schwindt, "While we try to teach our children all about life, Our children teach us what life is all about."

   

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Did you see Johnny's backpack? Lame!

     Before I even begin this blog post, I would like to cite my source for this image; only because it came from www.fbi.gov, and I don't need sued. So there you go, FBI, I'm not going to take credit for your image of this girl wearing her blue backpack. Now, to the blog post.
     My fellow bloggers, as I was walking to my Spanish class today through the halls of my local establishment of education where I get educated, otherwise known as high school, I started looking at backpacks. Then my thoughts became even deeper... I made an astonishing discovery about backpacks. Let me explain.
     All the time we see people getting made fun of, or picked on because they don't wear name brand jeans, or name brand shoes, or name brand anything, for that matter. I personally have no preference. How is my Wal-Mart flannel any different than my Kohl's flannel? It's not. How is the cereal from an Aldi's grocery store any different than the cereal that Kellogg's makes? It's still cereal, last time I checked. People are constantly worrying about what people think of them, what they wear, and how they wear it. There is an exception, believe it or not.
     When I arrived to my Spanish class, I quickly updated my seatmate about my life, and then quickly shared my remarkable discovery. Have you ever heard anyone say, "Have you seen Johnny's backpack? Lame sauce right?!" Or, "Can you believe Susie thought that backpack was cool..?" Most likely, you have not. If you have, it is most likely a very extreme case. But when you think about it, who cares what type of backpack you use? No one.
     I have friends that have backpacks that have broken zippers, and broken straps, but still use it anyway. Because really, what's wrong with it? It still gets the job done. I also have friends that still use the L.L.Bean  backpack their parents got them way back in 6th grade. You know, the ones that have your initials on them, and come with that little reflective strip so you when you are carrying your backpack at night, you don't get hit by a car? You know what I'm speaking of. My backpack I got my freshman year of high school. It's just a simple, gray, North Face backpack. I purchased it at Dicks Sporting Goods durring a sale for like $25 and it came with a free, $10 iTunes gift card. Can't beat that right? Well here we are, 3 years later, and I still use that backpack. And never have I been persecuted for it. We all focus on eating the name brand cereal, buying name brand clothes, name brand socks, name brand toilet paper, and name brand rugs for goodness sake. But backpacks? We could care less. And that I am thankful for.

Farewell my fellow bloggers, and in the words of Leslie Allen, "When the kids go back to school, you start seeing a lot of backpacks."

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

This Is My First Blog Post...

    As you just read in the title of this post, this is my first blog post. Before I jump into the content of this blog, I would like to point out how my blog is decorated. First, I selected my title posts to be the font homemade apple. I liked the name of the font, and I enjoy down home country things, so why not. Secondly, the font of my actual blogs. I chose courier, because it reminds me of a typewriter (which i have always aspired to own).
    Now, to the content of this blog.I've never had a blog before, and have only been a registered member of this website for 5 minutes. In those 5 minutes, I have learned some important things.

1) Be patient when your computer is loading. When I went to create my blog, my browser kept timing out and I had to start over and type in all my confidential information again. I went through this process three times. I discovered that when I finally managed to get my computer to load, I had 4 blogs... All titled the same name. So be patient.

2) Have someone explain to you how this website works before you register. It will be a lot easier. Trust me.

3) Have someone with you when you create it to help you come up with a cool blog name. You can really get a headache thinking of a name to call your blog.

These simple steps can make your blog experience a whole lot easier.