Stories from an ordinary life

Lots of random thoughts

My mom is one of the funniest people I know, and unintentionally so. When she plays video games she has to move her whole body with the character, when she watches boxing she has to throw punches, when she drinks she gets tipsy off of one glass of wine and when she talks to her sister on the phone you can hear both sides of the conversation through multiple walls. As a kid it used to drive me nuts that she would get so worked up when she talked on the phone. She gasps and makes other sounds of shock pretty frequently. She could be having the most mundane conversation in ages but it sounds like she's discussing something scandalous. My siblings and I used to follow her around just waiting for her to get off the phone and tell us what she heard. Usually we were disappointed. She was having a conniption over someone losing her watch or breaking a glass.

However, I now find this quality of hers endearing and quite amusing. So tonight I was talking to her and asked her if she'd heard about the woman who tried to cut the baby out of a pregnant lady in Pittsburgh. She hadn't, so I gave her all the gruesome details and giggled to myself at her distress on the other end of the line. I can be so easily entertained.

Well the story (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/13/pregnantwoman.attacked/index.html) is pretty disturbing, and I got to thinking, "Man, this world is full of crazy people!" If the woman needed to find a baby so bad to pull off her fake pregnancy to sucker her estranged husband, she could have just gone to any local high school, looked for a knocked-up girl of the appropriate race and offered her a couple grand for her unborn child. There are plenty of babies ending up in dumpsters these days, there's no reason to be cutting people open to steal their wanted children! And if you can find a kidney on the black market, couldn't you find a baby too if you were really desperate? Desperate enough to kill your neighbor?

Anyhow, I'm really excited that Elizabethtown opens tomorrow. Cameron Crowe is the man; I know I've said it before, but if I could be half the writer he is, then I would feel extremely blessed. He's so profound, and his musical choices are excellent. All I had to hear was the Tom Petty song on the trailer and I was sold on the movie. It hasn't gotten great reviews, but the critics can bite me, I'm sure I'll love it. Besides, it's got Orlando Bloom lookin mighty fine, and I could handle watching that for 2 hours if nothing else.

The problem is, I hate seeing movies by myself and my schedule makes it hard to find anyone to go with me, especially since I still don't know many people in this city. I've done it before with movies I really wanted to see, but I always end up going home feeling kinda like a loser. Even worse is when people go with me to see movies they've already seen just so I don't have to go alone. That makes me feel really bad. (P.S., my sister, yes you Robin, does that to me all the time after she sees them the first time around with her boyfriend.) So, I don't know what I'm gonna do.

As a weekend worker I'm also screwed on finding someone to go to Raleigh with me to hit up the State Fair. I know what you're thinking, it's lame, right? But it's the only place I know of that has fried pickle chips! They are soooo good! That sick satisfaction that fried foods give you, plus just a little tang from the pickles. Just thinking about them makes my mouth water. Plus, I'm a dork and I like to go look at the animals.

I could just go on Mon. or Tues. by myself and meet up with some of my friends that live around Raleigh. Last year I went with my friend Kristina, her husband Trevyn and her son Troy. We had fun, but Troy was ready to leave quite a while before the rest of us. He was 3 and he calls me his best friend, so it's all good! It could be a plan, but I'd like to have someone ride with me on the trip. I get bored driving. (Scarily enough, I'm not even an N.C. native and I always see more people I know at the fair than the people I go with; last year I saw a county commissioner and a principal that I knew from reporting and a friend from UNC.)

So, I guess in summary, what I'm saying is I need to make more friends, and anyone interested in seeing Elizabethtown after 8 p.m. one of these days or going to the State Fair after work Mon. or Tues., let me know!

posted by This one time . . . @ 1:11 AM