Playing with your food...

Today at lunch I had one of the most bizarre experiences ever. I don't think I am going to be able to adequately put it into words, but I will try.

Jane and I went out for Turkish food. I've been a semi-regular at the restaurant since it opened four or five years ago, and the owner always recognizes me. So we ate our lunch, and then Jane had a little piece of chicken and some lettuce left on her plate. The owner came over and said, "Are you listening to your plate? Is it saying something to you?" Uh... no?

Then he proceeded to talk as if he were the piece of chicken, saying things like, "Don't you like me? What is wrong with me? Why won't you eat the little baby chicken?" At this point, I think I am just making "the face," not sure what to think.

But then he kneels down at the table, takes the fork, and starts covering up the chicken with pieces of lettuce, saying it needs a nap. Then I began to lose it... I was trying not to laugh out loud... but you know how that goes.

This went on for a good five minutes. Next thing you know, he wasn't even using the fork. He was just touching the food with his hands, and he was even burping the baby chicken. By the end, I had tears streaming down my face. I couldn't breathe. I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time.

Voting x 2

Today is a very important day... it is both the Indiana Primary, and the day we vote off an Idol contestant. I have thoughts on each of these important races.

Indiana Primary

I went to vote against someone, more than for someone. Seriously. How long have we been having elections? You'd think the polling places would be a little more organized by now. First, I was practically accosted by people telling me who to vote for and trying to hand me junk outside the school where I vote. Do people really show up not knowing who to vote for, then say, "Oh, I just got this flyer about Obama. I think I'll vote for him"? 

But moving on... then I went inside the gym. There were four or five different precincts voting in this gym. It took me a few minutes to figure this out. I wandered around a bit then realized I needed to look at the map taped to the wall. An 8.5x11 map, with no instructions. I then learned that I was precinct 25. The signs for the precincts were taped to the tables and they all had people standing in front of them. After asking about 7 people, I finally figured out which line I was supposed to be in. Someone in front of me waited in that whole long line just to learn he was in the wrong one and had to go wait again. Come on, people. If I had a tiny 8.5x11 map taped on the wall somewhere at one of our meetings, I'd never hear the end of it. How about some larger signs on easels? Some directions?

On another note, I am watching Idol and the Primary results are at the bottom of the screen. Someone named "Big Dog" ran for something. And "Big Al" ran for something else. I could never vote for someone who had "Big" in their name. Except maybe Mr. Big.

American Idol

Watching now... Jason Castro was ridiculously terrible. Which means dilemma for me... I really WANT Jason to go home, but if Syesha gets voted off, I will be 3 for 3 in our little contest at work. Do I want justice? Or do I want to win? Hmm. I will decide soon. But I will definitely be voting for David Cook. 

The only thing bad about my switch from AT&T to Verizon is that I can no longer text my votes.

My Niece Has a Sweet Ride...

Yeah, she's three and she has a cooler car than any of us. I'm pretty sure I'm the only family member who has never had a Mustang. We might need to work on that. :)

Souvenirs

I travel quite a bit, and if I bought your typical souvenirs in each place I visited, I would have a closet full of [insert city here] t-shirts. Instead, when I visit a city, I like to find something unique. On many occasions, I don't have time for shopping and come home empty-handed. But I thought I'd share a few of my recent, unique purchases from my travels.

I was in Seattle last week, and found these gems at a great store called Fireworks. If I ever owned a store, it would be a lot like this store... a bunch of random, fun things. Yes, folks, these are pot holders. Disclaimer: the purchase of pot holders does not mean that I will begin cooking!

Last month, I was in Southern California for a lot of work, mixed in with a little vacation. Once our meeting was over, some co-workers and I headed to Belmont Shore, a great little beach town near Long Beach. As soon as I saw this, I knew I had to have it. It got a little bent in my suitcase, but not beyond repair. It is a "grass" organizer. The packaging had pictures of it being used in both office and bathroom settings. As you can see, I went for the office use...

When I surprised mom with a trip to NYC to see the Rockettes last December, who knew I'd come home with such a great find? I got these at Radio City Music Hall... Rockette-leg martini glasses!

A Scrabble First?

Last night, Holly and I played Scrabble. Not just any Scrabble... Super Scrabble. "What makes it super?" you ask. Well let me tell you... it has 441 spaces, compared to the normal 225, and 200 letter tiles rather than the normal 100. In addition, it has 125 premium spaces instead of the standard 61, including some quadruple letter/word score ones. (I am reading the box in case you were wondering. I don't just know all these random Scrabble stats.)

Not only did we manage to use EVERY SINGLE LETTER (as you can see above), but when the game was over and scores were tallied, we TIED (as you can see below). Definitely a Scrabble first for us!

On the bright side...

It was an interesting week, and not really in a "good" interesting kind of way. But I thought I'd share a few random things that made me smile this week-

• When I got to work this morning, I looked out my window and saw a couple hundred firemen running on the canal. How can that not get a girl's day off to a good start? (The firefighters convention is in town... a week we look forward to each year!)
  
• Have you ever been to the McDonalds at 16th and Meridian? (For one of my readers, this is very close to his future workplace! haha.) There are these little signs all around it in the grass that say it's the "Faith and Blessed" McDonalds. I'm not sure what that means, other than extra-nice drive-through workers. I got my typical snack wrap, fruit and walnut salad, and Hi-C, pulled up to the window and was greeted with, "Hi!! I'm LaTisha!! Happy Friday!! Your order will be right up!!" (Note all the exclamation marks!)
• Also this week at Quizno's, the two sandwich makers were singing, "I'm not a girl, not yet a woman" by Britney Spears and cracking up. I'm glad they were enjoying their job!
• And finally, did I really hear the top 8 American Idol finalists sing "Shout to the Lord?" Why yes, I believe I did!

Pianoman

Last night, Kelly and I went to the symphony. But it wasn't exactly traditional... it was part symphony, part rock concert, and part piano bar. Michael Cavanaugh performed. I first became familiar with him when I saw Movin' Out in NYC way back in 2003. He's an amazing piano player, and mostly known for singing Billy Joel songs. Usually it makes me mad when people sing other people's songs, but not in this case. This guy rocks! It was a fabulous evening of music and we were often invited to sing along. You know I loved that part!

We all know that observing others is one of the best parts of any event... and this one was not without some characters of its own-

• The old man sitting next to us. During the first part of the show, Kel whispered to me that he smelled like "old man." Then during intermission, he decided to talk to us. First he talked about how he's finding the show to be "a bit heavy" and wanted to know if we felt the same way. Uh... no. He went on to say that he's not familiar with Billy Joel, then he wanted to know all about Kel and me - how long we've been in Indy, where we went to school, what we studied, and if we are actually using what we studied.
• The lady behind me said to her husband at intermission, "Is Billy Joel still alive?" It was pretty obvious that most of the symphony-goers weren't exactly used to a show this rocker-ish!
• And the best for last... probably not as funny written down as it was being there, but... They were performing "River of Dreams." You know, "In the middle of the night... I go walkin' in my sleep..." If you are familiar with this song, you know there's a little pause at one point before the next, "In the middle of the night..." But this hilarious lady near us was totally singing really loud and just belts out the "IN" a little too early. Everyone around us was cracking up.