Friday Five!

What was the last thing taken from you without your permission?

My CDs.

Who was the photographer the last time a picture of you was taken?

Tigs :-)

When were you last taken by surprise?

No.

When were you last taken for a ride (interpret literally or figuratively!)?

Tigs took me to Glen Burnie this past weekend.

Where were you the last time you wished to be “taken away from all this?”

Work.

What was the most sick that you've ever been?

Really bad GI infection.

What disease are you afraid of getting?

MRSA

Are you a big baby when it comes to taking medicine/shots for your illnesses?

No, just a big baby about getting sick.

Is going to the doctor really THAT bad?

No, it’s just not really worth it for me.

Would you have the flu twice a month if you were paid $1,000 for having it?

For just one month? Sure. To have it every month? It would have to be a lot more then that.

What do you consider to be your strongest talent?

Procrastination.

Do you have any other talents that you're particularly fond of?

Figuring out unusual tricks for strategy games. Painting.

Describe one talent you wish you possessed?

Piano, and I’m working on it.

How do you display or make use of your talents?

Well, I post about it here!

What do you think drives so many people to watch and/or participate in talent shows and competitions?

The adrenalin rush.

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This past week… Lets see. Business Management got out way early so the prof and half the class could watch the Ravens game. Then there was agility class, which you could see a bit of here. Wednesday was accounting, which went really well considering I hadn’t done the homework, and had only read the chapter (most of it) right before class. Normally I try to read the chapter twice before the class. Yesterday I ended up staying late at work to make a bunch of last minute changes to a all the stuff for the Friday morning meeting. Don't worry, I won't bore you with the details. Then I ended up making some garlic mashed potatoes (SO MUCH YUM!!) and biscuits for dinner.

Tonight was a trip to Goodwill where i picked up a Michael Buble CD and Tigs got a new shirt, and a CD. Then we went on to Trader Joe's, which maybe we shouldn't have done hungry... But we got some really really good strawberries.

Sounds like it should be the title of a D&D adventure, but instead it’s something less fun.

Tonight I start class. Or at least I’m supposed to. You see, on Friday CCBC audited their enrolment and decided that the class I had signed up for didn’t have enough students in it, so they cancelled it, and sent me a letter, which I received Saturday. The registrar’s office is of course closed on Saturday. All weekend I’ve had to spend my time wondering who I’m going to have to deal with in order to rectify the situation. Today I called the registrars office from work and found out there is another session being held at pretty much the same time also in Catonsville , and it has 6 spots left open in it. Of course I can’t switch it online, or over the phone because all of those options are closed due to the fact that today is the first day of summer session 1. What this means is that I’m going to go from work directly to CCBC, deal with whatever paperwork I need to at the registrars office, pickup the book for the class in the book store, and then go to class… until 10pm tonight. Good thing I packed an extra large lunch!

I must admit I’m a little nervous about going back to school. Maybe not for the usual reasons, but for the fact that I’ve got a whole lot of other things going on in my life, and I want to avoid disrupting them too much. For instance I have class Monday and Wednesday nights, and puppy class on Tuesday night. What are the chances that I’m going to have stuff assigned to me on Monday, due on Wednesday? Also I’m going to completely miss out on family time those nights… for the rest of the summer! And in the Fall? At least the classes are only 1 night a week then, but does that mean I should take 2? They aren’t offering anything I can take during the winter-term. I’m just going to have to see how this first summer session goes.

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Saturday we drove over to Frederick to visit the Monocacy Battlefield National Park and do a short ½ mile loop of a hike, complete with a swim for Lucy. It was too hot (as early as it was) to do one of the longer hikes. Plus we knew we’d be walking around Frederick enough to make up for it. We were headed to Frederick to pick up some more dog food and to hit the comic store to pick up our box. Shortly after leaving the house we were driving by the Jo-Ann Fabrics and we noticed that they were closing. I pulled over and Tigs went in to investigate. 20 minutes later she came out with a small bag! As you can imagine, it was rather busy inside. After we got back from Frederick we dropped a very tired Lucy at home and headed back to Jo-Ann’s to pick up some fabric for living room pillows.

Sunday we headed up to Lancaster to watch Cory and Alex play at a street fair in the city. All morning both of them kept praying for rain, and around the time we were heading into downtown Lancaster they got their wish. The heavens opened and rain fell. So we drove back to the house and unloaded the van. We still got to listen to them play, but in the basement, rather then in the street. And as always happens there was a ton of food! I always feel like I need to fast for a day or two after visiting their house.

One of the other things we did while we were up in Lancaster was to go through some of the boxes we had stored up there when we moved. While we still don't have room for any of the toys (good lord there are a lot of toys) I did snag a few more boxes of gaming stuff to sort through and organize. Very little of it (as you can imagine) got organized before we moved. So I have that to look forward to doing. I'm gonna need some more baggies though... Yay dollar stores!

Last week as I got out of my car for work, trying to avoid being hit by a bus and also trying not to be too late for work, I didn't press down the lock button on my door all the way. When I returned to the car I found it rifled through, and the CD binder that was in it was gone. Somewhere between 150-200 CDs that i've spent years collecting are now gone, taken by someone who I'm sure will be terribly disappointed by their spoils. Somehow I doubt the inner-city hoodlum who took my binder is going to be impressed by my Frank Sinatra, Enya, Filk, movie soundtracks, Gregorian Chants, Star Trek disks, or even the few rock albums that were there. My tastes are too weird, eclectic for anyone but me to really appreciate. And I know that any pawn shop would turn the collection down as half of them were burns, and the other half... well, how much of that would you buy? I bet most of them have been destroyed by now just out of sheer pique at the variety. I wonder if he had bothered to look through it for 30 seconds if he would have bothered to take it.

Either way, its gone.

When I got home I was seriously upset about it. tigergladys came to my rescue, and didn't tell me that she had. The next day Eric called me, and so did my Aunt Kim. She had let them both know about what happened and had enlisted them to help me restore my collection. In about a week I should be getting some MP3 disks, and the next time I go to Kim's house we'll bring the laptop and snag stuff from their collection.

I am saddened that it was taken, that I was violated in that way. Yet I feel so incredibly loved by Virginia, who seeing my hurt wanted to make me feel better. And through her actions I can see the love and friendship that others feel for me. In that way I am truly blessed.

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Happy Birthday cinnabunny!!