What I'm buying Krista for Valentine's

What better way to express how you feel to that special someone than with a "Love you babe!" foil balloon. With monkeys on it!

Me and Goofy

Rememember that old Disney cartoon where Goofy goes on vacation and hits traffic so bad that his lane is at a dead stop while the next lane over is flying by so he changes lanes but then *that* lane stops dead and the lane he was just in suddenly starts to go fast and goes flying by?

I feel like that every day.

Ignorance (2 of 7)

I used to think that being prideful was just about being arrogant - being egotistical or thinking I was better than someone else. So I've never thought of myself as having an issue with pride - since I don't think of myself as better or smarter than anyone else. But only recently, I've come to realize that doesn't mean I don't actually any problems in this area.

It's just that my pride is wrapped in other things.

Self-awareness is a beautiful thing. I guess this is why Socrates said, The unexamined life is not worth living.

For one thing, I see how pride is directly connected to my anger. When I get really frustrated at something, it's mostly about me being inconvenienced. Like last night when that guy was sitting in the long line of cars at the light in the right-hand lane, and seeing the left lane open, he cut me off by switching into my (fairly empty) lane, even though I was tooling down that lane doing about 55 mph. I can pretend that I'm righteously indignant at his display of poor judgment and how he was endangering lives. But we all know I just wanted to be pissed off because I had to hit the brakes and drop my speed by about 20 mph. He inconvenienced me.

Of course, when something like this happens, the first words that pop in my head are stupid moron. Well, the language in my head is at times a bit more colorful, but that's confession for another day. I guess I'm pretty judgmental. Not in the way I normally think of people as judgmental. I don't tend to be like that from a moral or religious standpoint. It's more like the above example. Or, I'll think someone's stupid if they take 20 minutes to make me a coffee at Books a Million, or give me cheese and no pickles instead of no cheese and extra pickles on my hamburger in the drivethru. It's sad, really, because the ironic thing is that I think that I come across as judgmental in a completely different way. I know I'm often perceived as overly critical and condescending (and that I think I'm smarter than other people). For example, just the other day Krista was sending out an e-mail to a friend in Jackson, Tennessee who lives close to where all those tornados hit. But in the e-mail, she spelled it "tornadoes". I wanted to tell her it was wrong - that there was no "e" in "tornados". I mean - I'd want to know. Wouldn't everybody? I think when I'm in that kind of mode - the "helping people by correcting their spelling or their grammar, or their mistaken grasp of the facts" that people think I'm condescending. Or that I'm somehow smarter than them. I'm not trying to be - I'm really just trying to help. But I know how it comes across. (And, by the way, I've since looked it up and found that both spellings - tornadoes and tornados - are acceptable. Sorry, Boost.)

I can also see how pride is wrapped up in my attitude. I can be negative at times. I'm sure it's not something Krista's ever really noticed. I hide it well.

Not really.

But a complaining spirit totally focuses on myself. What annoys me? What do I not like? What can I not stand? I actually tried to stop complaining for a day or two. A while ago, some good friends gave me one of those Complaint Free World bracelets. I had to take it off after a day - you're supposed to stop complaining, but you move your bracelet to the other arm when you do. I gave up moving the bracelet after about an hour because moving the bracelet every few minutes just got annoying. I think I'm going to have to dig that bracelet out again.

This came as a surprise to me, but I think even being wracked with self-esteem issues is a pride thing. What - you think you're prideful because you have a negative self-esteem and you lack self-confidence? Well, yeah...mainly because when you have a negative self-esteem, you're thinking about yourself way too much. This is why I don't think thinking positive about myself is the right cure for thinking negative about myself. They both involve thinking of myself too much.

So pride, for me isn't about being boastful or egotistic. It's about being a little too self-centered and self-focused when it comes to my daily life. So maybe I can change some practices during this season of Lent and be more focused on others, and more focused on God.

OK, this post went way longer than I planned. I guess this really is an issue for me in more ways than I thought...

Florence is Sleeping

Up early today. And I still seem to be hitting every light on Cox Creek Blvd - what's up with that?

Did they just advertise for the Superbowl during the Superbowl?

A little while ago, we were watching the first half of the Superbowl, and they advertised the half time show.

I realize they want to keep everyone sitting there and not getting up to refill their drinks or take bathroom breaks, but it just struck me as odd...

Weird Stuff on the Web

The internet is a wacky place.

Take a look at this web site for a Dutch department store. Let it load, and just sit and watch. Pretty cool.

And then there's Publisher's Clearing House. They've made the transition to on-line, too. I've been subscribing to MyPoints for a while (have you heard of it - you accumulate points by clicking on web sites or shopping on-line and you can trade the points for stuff like gift cards; pretty cool). Anyway, I signed up for Publisher's Clearing House to get a few more points. I clicked on one of the e-mails they sent today, and they're still trying to get people to buy crap nobody wants. Take a look at this ad below.

Yup. No DVDs or CDs here. The "How to Play Harmonica" comes with a VHS videotape, and the "How to Play Guitar" comes with a video and a cassette tape. Yeah; they're trying to pawn off this old junk that's sitting in a warehouse somewhere collecting dust. How many people don't even own a VCR or a cassette player anymore? We're not on the cutting edge of technology (as much as we'd like to be), but we don't own either of those. Just one more great use for the internet.

Ah, Friday

(Insert witty comment here.)

I cannot believe I missed this!

What could have been more fun last night than a sewage meeting in Killen, Alabama?

The Curse of Following the Rules

Normally, I don't go much over 5 mph over the speed limit. I'm just a rule follower and don't want to get a ticket. But, here I am in Rogersville going a whopping 12 miles over the posted 45. And that white van you see up ahead? That's the Highland Church of Christ (Muscle Shoals) seniors van *still* going faster than me.

*sigh*

Looking on the Bright Side

Just think of all the beauty I would miss if I didn't have to spend 3 hours in the car every day.

Probability

I'm driving down the road; the rain's coming down pretty good. The weatherman just came on the radio and said, "We've got an 80% chance of rain today."

I may not know a lot about meteorology, but I think that's pretty close to 100%.

It's Monday

Three-day weekends are nice.

But then Tuesday just feels like Monday.

Award-winning Advertising

A couple cool commercials from director Nicolai Fuglsig. (Ok, I'd never heard of him before, but I sound really cool, don't I?)

The first is a cool dominoes-type ad for Guinness.



This second is for the Sony Bravia. For some reason, Gena, I think you'll like it.



Of course, I'm surprised they had any to use with the massive stockpile we have from Zaxby's. This last one even has a "making of".

BTW, found out about these from Very Short List.

Snow? In Alabama?

You can't really see it, but it's snowing like crazy right now. I'm on 565 and I just passed under this mile long column of birds. Is it the apocalypse?

Good times. Yup; good times.

I feel like I need to get this story down on paper (you know what I mean) before it leaves me. I'll try to keep it short.

So there I was, Friday night, excited about coming home to a 4-day New Year's weekend and my car stalls a few miles west of Athens. I call Krista and I call roadside assistance (that we pay for with our cell phone). Roadside assistance says they can send a tow, but if I don't want to pay a bunch of money out of pocket I'll have to tow it to Athens instead of Florence. So I decide to pay $10 out of pocket (instead of a ton more) and get the chance to figure out where to get the car fixed in Athens. Krista will just meet me there. Where? The WalMart parking lot is as good as anywhere. I have no idea what's wrong, but if we can't get it done there, there's a place across the street.

So about 25 minutes later, the guy in the tow truck calls. He's coming from Huntsville (!) and he's about 20 minutes away. Good grief. Krista will probably beat him here, coming all the way from Florence. I don't know why they didn't call someone closer, but they said it'll only be $10, so I don't care. So Krista shows up, and 15 minutes later, there's the tow truck. We follow him to the WalMart parking lot get ready to pay him our $10 and he says its $55. Because he had to come all the way from Huntsville. Well, duh.

Now, he's holding my car hostage until I give him $55 cash. Which I don't have on me. So I call roadside assistance. They ask to talk to him, he gives the phone back to me, and roadside assistance says it's all worked out. Like an idiot, I hang up. When I go talk to the tow truck guy he's on the phone with his boss, and he says they're calling the insurance company and he still won't release my car. So I call roadside assistance back and get "your call is important to us; it will be answered in the order it was received" for about 10 minutes. I get on the phone with them (again) and they call the towing company who they say is completely rude and won't discuss anything. While I'm on the phone the tow truck guy says the price has magically dropped to $33. Okay...

The woman I'm talking to at roadside assistance says she doesn't know what to do at this point. I ask to talk to a manager (because if I was going to pay a bunch of money out of pocket, I'd have towed it to Florence). By now we've been hanging out in the WalMart parking lot with my 5-year-old and 9-month-old for a half hour. I get put on hold forever with the manager, and finally I ask the tow truck guy if he'll take a check; he says yes, and I hang up while on hold.

So this night's been a pain and we're looking forward to coming back to Athens for a day trip on Saturday to figure out how to get the car fixed. We're all starving so we hit the Zaxby's drive through. I run in to use the restroom, and while I'm in there, my phone starts ringing. Perfect timing. There's no possible way I can answer it, and by the time I finally get to it, it quits. Unknown Caller. Well, I can't call it back, so I hop back into the car and it rings again. Unknown Caller. I pick it up, and it's Phil, the manager at roadside assistance. No way.

He wants to do what he can to make it right. So he says we can use two of our roadside assistance calls (I think we still have 3 left), and he'll call the tow truck back to take us to Florence. Great!

After waiting awhile, the same guy comes back, tows us to Florence, and I guess because roadside assistance covers up to $50 each time, the towing company will take the $150 and he gives us our check back. So, our car gets back to Florence, we don't have to go to Athens, we get our $33 back, and the fuel pump that needs replaced only costs us $700! What a great time.

My suggestion? Use Cingular's roadside assistance, but be sure you don't use Reliable Towing in Huntsville.

Of course, then, Saturday night I eat something that makes me so sick I feel like I'm going to die on Sunday. I'm so weak I can't do anything besides lie around, much less play Guitar Hero. I sleep 12 hours Sunday night and I barely have enough strength to go out and do something Monday night on New Year's. Even by Thursday when I'm at work I'm only to about 80%. I wonder what that was.

Ah. Thus ends my most memorable New Year's weekend. And that, as they say, is the rest of the story.

And sorry...I guess I didn't keep it short.