Kennywood!

My dad decided he wanted to "ride a roller coaster one more time" before he DIES.  Yeah.  Like he's 90 years old or something, or has terminal cancer.  Ridiculousness. Anyway, he asked if I wanted to go to Kennywood with him, and of course I was like YEAH!  Trips with my parents are always something I jump at cuz they pay for everything and I don't have to drive my car, so it's pretty much the only way I get to go anywhere with my financial situation right now.  So me, Dad, and Joe (brother) went to Kennywood.  We stopped in Washington, PA for doughnuts at the Donut Connection.  They have these "honeydew" doughnuts which are awesome.  They're basically a cake doughnut with glaze.  Sounds plain, but lemme tell ya, completely delicious.  I drove the whole way up and back, and I gotta say it was a small nightmare.  Definitely coulda been worse, but yeah, we had to go right into Pittsburgh, and then on the way back Mapquest had the directions to Red Robin all wrong, and then there was construction and it was 1 lane going through Fort Pitt Tunnel. Drivers in Pittsburgh (or any city) are A-holes.  They drive bumper to bumper like crazy people and will not let you merge unless you about hit them with your car and just horn your way in.  I hate it.  And the streets in Pittsburgh?  It's like, I don't even know what it's like.  Nothing makes sense, and it's so easy to get lost, and every street has like 20 lanes, and it seems like usually I'm on the wrong side of those 20 lanes for the exit that I need to use!  lol  But Kennywood itself was great.  I didn't think so at first.  We went on the Jackrabbit and I was like, I just don't think i like roller coasters any more.  After the first time on the Racer I was thinking, it's not unbearable, but I'm still not loving it.  But by the end of the day I was psyched about the whole thing.  I think I just have to get desensitized to it all every time I go to an amusement park, cuz this is the way it usually is for me.  And I never get so comfortable with it that I'm willing to go on the big coasters, or ones where you go upside down and stuff.  I'm too big a chicken.  My favorite ride is not even a coaster, it's the Wave Swinger, which is a bunch of lawn chair lookin' seats hung from chains, and it lifts you up and spins you around.  I think it's great, but lots of people hate it cuz the ride looks fragile, like the chains might break and send you flying 100 feet into concrete or something.  But I'm sure if that actually happened they'd take the ride down, and at big parks like Kennywood and Cedar point they test the rides often and make sure they're maintained and safe, so I'm not worried about it.  Red Robin was awesome.  Thick burgers cooked the way you want (medium for me!) and lots of topping combinations.  I like their Blue Ribbon burger, but this time I got the Whiskey River, which is marinated in a whiskey sauce and has fried onion straws, bbq sauce, mayo, and the usual burger toppings.  SO GOOD.  I want a Red Robin in our area.  Or a Ruby Tuesday's.  I mean, I like Wendy's and all, but there is nowhere close to get a really really really good thick burger.  

Work vent

Been in a crappy mood the last couple weeks.  Right now I'm thinking of like 9,000 things to talk about, and I'm not sure where to start or how to organize everything so my posts aren't a mile long.  Let's see... how bout work?  Ok.  So my boss went on vacation last week, and she's had to spend a lot of days at the Steubenville store because they just lost their manager and have no idea what they are doing.  Our district manager's husband has colon trouble of a life-endangering nature, and so she's been all worked up lately.  Our OTL (I don't know what that stands for, but she's basically the only person at our store who has a clue, cares, and gets stuff done) her husband had triple bypass surgery and she's been out for a while.  So yeah, Angie (boss), Liz (OTL), and (I like to flatter myself) me, are the 3 movers and shakers who really get the most done and know the rules and what needs to happen.  And they both left me.  lol  I gotta say it hasn't been as bad as I was expecting, and definitely not as frustrating as it's been in the past under similar circumstances, but still, it's not fun.  I've been working my tail off, and I feel like the stuff that I'm immediately responsible for has been getting handled well, which is awesome.  And the other girls haven't been doing too badly on the whole, but it is frustrating to work with them sometimes.  Some of them are SO unorganized, and they can't remember how to do things half the time.  Usually I just try to ignore it and do my own thing, but it's annoying when I can't do what I need because I have to watch the floor while they finish up paperwork, or I have to pick up a plan-o-gram or a sale set when someone else started it, because it's like stepping into chaos.  It seems like they just don't think in an organized way, so everything they do is unorganized.  Things get left half done, and I dunno, stuff like, instead of pulling all the clearance, marking it and taking it to the clearance section before they start to set a plan-o-gram, they'll pile it all in a cart or basket and end up running out of time and leaving it for someone else to deal with.  When they do sale set they don't have just a "done" and "not done" pile, they have 60 piles of signs, and so when I step in to help I'm like, ok what's been done here? And they're not even sure themselves half the time.  Why are we checking the same things twice instead of just having 2 piles & no confusion??  So ok, this post was basically just a vent for me, and I'm sure nobody's thinking, "wow, this was fascinating!"  LOL  Oh well!

"Mr. Owl, how many dates does it take...?"

So.  Having never really played the dating game myself, and after seeing lots of fast movers on tv, I started wondering what is the "norm" on how long the average American dates before sex?  Ya know, not counting 1-night-stand things, just people actually dating with long-term relationships in mind.  Googled some discussions about it.  Three dates seems to be the most common answer, followed by, "I don't really have a set rule, just whenever it feels right."  Sometimes in conjunction with, "3 dates seems reasonable though.  You can usually tell if the relationship is going somewhere by then."   ................  Ok, not that I want to pass judgement on anybody, but ARE YOU KIDDING ME???  How long is an average date?  Maybe 2-4 hours?  So, three dates, we'll go with the long date scenario here and say 4 hours each... basically people are saying 12 hours with somebody and they're ready to go?  That's all it takes?  That's not even a full DAY of hours!  Now, if it's a date that came out of a friendship, then that is different I think, since you already know the person and have a history, but, for example, people who hook up in bars?  Really?  In less than 24 hours of time spent together they're gonna go from, "Hi, my name is ____." to "How was it for you?"  ?  Am I just being a prude?  Having sex with somebody you just met after only 3 dates seems about as ridiculous to me as getting married after 3 dates.  Lots of people, especially men, were saying that if there was no sex after three dates they would end the relationship on the grounds that it wasn't going anywhere.  All I can say to that is thank goodness I found my man with lighting speed, cuz if I hadn't I apparently would have been dumped over and over and over and over again!  Not that, in all fairness, I didn't throw my morals and ideal of "wait till you're married" out the window pretty fast (although not 3 dates fast), but in my defense we had known each other a few years before we started officially dating.  If most people are following a 3 date time frame then how does half the country not have an STD?  They can't all be using protection, cuz there are a lotta babies being made out there.  (Yes, I understand sometimes people do use protection and still end up with babies.)  Maybe most people don't make it past a first date?  So maybe you have a year or two of one date people before you find one who actually is worth 3 dates?  Is that how it works?  Maybe you have several hours of phone conversation between dates, so that counts too?  Still seems kinda fast to me.  Kissing and petting, ok, but the whole 9 yards?  I mean, obviously people have the right to do what they want and what they think is right for them. I certainly don't mean to hurt anybody's feelings if they like to move fast.  Plus, like I said, I am not now nor have I ever been an experienced dater, so maybe I just don't know how it is, but as for me,  "Not I, said the Fly."  lol 

People I have mooned over lol

Actors:
First and foremost: John Stamos
Jason Priestley
Maxwell Caulfield
Harrison Ford
Cary Grant
Marlon Brando
Paul Reiser
.....ok, don't judge....  Gene Wilder....  I don't know why
Jeff Goldblum
Jonathan Taylor Thomas  (back in the day)
Patrick Swayze
Zac Efron  ....what? he's pretty.
David Duchovny
Nicholas Cage
Mike Rowe
Dean Cain (except I'm not sure there's much brains behind those eyes)
Bill Pullman
Matthew Mcconaughey
All 3 male leads on Stargate SG-1
David Tennant  (shrug)
Ryder Strong
Dick VanDyke
Tom Selleck
Robin Williams
Zen Gesner in The Adventures of Sinbad
Jeff Corwin (take of his shirt)


Animated (yeah, I know):
Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid
Tamahome from Fushigi Yugi
Chad from Bleach
Aladdin
Dimitri from Anastasia


Literary:
Aram from Merupuri
Ren from Tiger's Curse
Devin Mackade from The Mackade Brothers
Kiriya from Kare First Love
Shawn Gallagher from Tears of the Moon
Jesse from The Mediator
Dickon from The Secret Garden  (yeah, that's a weird one)
Seth from Wicked Lovely, although in my world he has no piercings or tattoos
Strider/Aragorn from LOTR

Singers:
Joe Nichols a lil' bit
Billy Ray Cyrus back when
Tim McGraw
Garth Brooks with goatee, like on cover of Ultimate Hits 2007
George Michaels sometimes.  not all the time.
Elvis  yeah, I'm cliche on that one

Pick-me-up sign

I was on an exit ramp this morning (the 1 where 7 joins 70...or 470... can never keep those 2 straight!)  and there was a wooden sign on side of the road that said, "Hey America, hang in there, it will get better, we just need to stick together."  That was all.  No Pepsi logo on the side, no Bible verse and church name at the bottom, no "visit this website to donate to the food bank."  Nothing.  Just a little cheering up message.  I thought that was cool as hell.  I told the girls about it when I got to work, and I think my boss thought it was stupid.  :(  I liked it.

Blah bippity blah

I have nothing to talk about.  But darned if that's gonna stop me.  lol 
Youtube.  Great for music, also great for instructional videos, particularly for crafts.  How to square up a quilt square, how to mark your machine for a true scant 1/4 inch, how to do a slip slip knit decrease stitch for knitting, how to tell when your cold process soap is at trace stage, how to do a french knot embroidery stitch?  Yeah.  It's all there.  So great.

New episodes of Destination Truth on Netflix!  WhooO!  Lots of ghosts though.  They're supposed to go after cryptids.  WTH?  Hey, lookie there, according to the great and powerful spellcheck, cryptids is not a word.  Who's in charge of updating these things?  Seriously.  You know what else isn't a word?  Saponification.  Google knows these are words.  Spellcheck sucks.

Just cut Arron's hair.  He keeps making me do this for him now and then, and it hardly ever goes really "well."  lol  I think usually it's a case of, "it's not great, but it's sure as heck Better!"  I think it came out actually really good this time, except he doesn't wanna comb it the way that I think it looks good.  *shrug*  It's his head and his hair...what'cha gonna do?  He's got brake issues on his car, btw.  He couldn't get to work this morning I guess, and he and Jessy were at each other's throats all day.  Jess complained to me for like 15 minutes.  I'll spare you the details.  lol 

I suck at recognizing people.  Saturday I was wondering why a man at the store was smiling at me from across the store, ......turned out it was my co-worker's son, whom I've met before, and he even gave me a lift to Sears (across the parking lot) to pick up my car when it was raining one day.  I had no clue.  Not the slightest flicker of recognition.  And today Jessy's uncle Tom was over to help Arron look at his car.  I didn't say hi to him cuz I thought it was somebody I'd never seen before.  Then he came back later and knocked on the door, and I told Arron his friend was here.  He said, "Who, Tom?"  Me: "I don't know who Tom is, it's your friend who was helping you with your car."  Like 10 minutes later I was like.... Tom?  Peggy's Tom?  Tom whose house I have been to several times?  Dang it!   Although, in my defense, this may stem from my acquired habit of not looking at men when they come in the store.  Ok, that's gonna take some explanation.  Here goes:
I work at JoAnn Fabrics, for those who don't know.  We sell fabrics, sewing and craft supplies.  I'd say that 85% or higher of our customers are female.  Our store-level workforce is 100% female.  Now.  If a man comes in by himself, I'll look him in the eye for more than a split second and speak directly to him and be friendly.  If he is with a woman, I talk to the woman and avoid all contact with the man. Why?  Well, I guess cuz I don't want the woman to think I am trying to flirt with her man or something.  It's sort of a recognition of her territorial rights I suppose.  Not that I'd be making moves or anything even if the guy (any guy) was completely free, but it seems like it's part of the female social workings to show that you acknowledge a woman's "turf."  And frankly, in the JoAnn's setting, it's almost always the woman that is the shopper, and the man is just the tag-along, so there's generally no point in talking to him anyway because he doesn't even know what they're there for.    Not that I'd ignore if the guy spoke to me or something, I just don't go out of my way to draw him out. 
Sometimes I feel very lucky when I see couples together at the store, because there are some men out there who seem to be all up in the woman's business about what she's doing, even though it's obviously HER project that SHE knows what she needs for it.  The man will ask if she's figured in this measurement, or if she's got enough such & such at home, or does she really need a half yard...wouldn't a quarter yard do if she just moved it like this instead, and what other colors is she thinking of putting in that quilt?  And ok, so most of them are just trying to be helpful, and at least they are showing an interest (which is nice, cuz when I proudly show off a freshly knitted sock to Jessy I get a half-hearted, "That's cool.")  But I just don't think I could stand a man being in my business all the time.  It's like how Arron always needs to know what time I'm working and what I'm doing online and he comes out to the kitchen while I'm cooking and asks me what I'm going to do next and what else is going into the stew and how long I'm going to cook it and don't I need to cut the potatoes a little smaller.  Drives me completely insane!!!  Why does he care!?  Get outta my way!  He thinks I care about every detail of his life too.  He makes millions of little announcements about everything.   When he's going to take a bath, and when he's going to bed, and when he's going to go up to his room, and when he's walking down to Circle K.  Don't care.  I think basically he's just WAY more social than Jessy and I are, and he NEEDS to talk to people and do things with people and stuff like that, in a way that Jessy and I just don't understand. 

Breast Cancer

So, not that I'm opposed to people donating to or buying products that donate to breast cancer awareness, but it kind of bothers me that this is ALL you see anywhere you go any more.  I mean, breast cancer, yes, very serious thing, very sad, deserving of research funds etc.  No argument.  Although I do wonder is "breast cancer awareness" the same thing as research to develop a cure, or are they just pumping more pink ribbon products onto the market, turning it into a business, and it's not a lie because the more stuff they put on the market the more "aware" people are of the whole thing, but is it really helping save anybody's breasts?  I dunno.  Anyway.  My real issue is that they are the only ones out there.  There are other cancers that have their own colored ribbons, like lung cancer, heart disease has one I think, and just, I dunno, I know there are lots more out there, but you never hear about them, because everything is breast cancer breast cancer breast cancer.  Leukemia?  Lymphoma? Colon cancer?  Bone Cancer, Brain Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Skin Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Pancreatic Cancer, .... and for that matter, what about Diabetes, Chron's Disease, Cerebral Palsy,   etc etc?  Are any of them plastered on everything from sewing baskets to Pepsi cans?  um, no.  Like I said, I'm not arguing that breast cancer is not a legitimate cause, cuz it completely is, but why has it turned into a billion dollar "industry" almost, while other cancers get so much less attention?