Who wants to VISIT??

Here's what I got coming up, starting now and runnign through my birthday- if anyone fancies a visit to the Metro East side of St. Louie.

Aug. 3-5- David's b-day weekend
Aug. 10-12- Going with Bill, David and Justin to Cincinatti to visit Thomas and Beth and ride rollercoasters at King's Island!
Aug. 17-19- THE CUBS ARE PLAYING THE CARDS IN CHICAGO, donno whether I'm headed there for a visit or not.
Aug. 24-26- hanging out around ATown I'm sure.
Aug. 31-Sept. 2- Cubs v. Reds at Busch
Sept. 8-10- Attending the Haasman wedding in Champaign
Sept-14-16- CUBS v. CARDS AT BUSCH
Sept. 21-23- free
Sept. 28-30- free
Oct. 5-7- begins the Halloween season in this area, a GOOD TIME FOR A VISIT!
Oct. 12-14- IT'S HALLOWEEN SEASON, GOOD TIME FOR A VISIT!
Oct. 19-21- EIU Homecoming
Oct. 26-28- IT'S HALLOWEEN SEASON, GOOD TIME FOR A VISIT!
Nov. 2-4- free
Nov. 9-11- free
Nov. 16-18- MY BIRTHDAY WEEKEND!! Good time for a visit!

Those of you in Chicago I don't see on a regular basis, I miss you. Come see me!!!

Heaven in a packet

Here is a Web site worth looking at:
http://www.worldslargestketchuppacket.com/

And I think we all know why I like it.

It features a countdown to what is called "the great packet making," this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. when Collinsville's community members are going to attempt to create the worl'd's largest condiment packet. Filled with heaven.

Collinsville, like me, loves its ketchup. It already holds claim to the largest ketchup bottle in the world. SEE? It even has a fan club, and MERCHANDISE. (Birthday ideas, people.)
http://www.catsupbottle.com/

Look at it, in all its glory.

According to the site, it's on the National Register of Historic Places.
"The World's Largest Catsup Bottle stands proudly next to Route 159, just south of downtown Collinsville, Illinois. This unique 170 ft. tall water tower was built in 1949 by the W.E. Caldwell Company for the G.S. Suppiger catsup bottling plant - bottlers of Brooks old original rich & tangy catsup. "

We got the largest Stag Can around here too...

It's located in Greene County, north of Madison.
http://www.stagcan.com/

But Stag is not nearly as tasty.

Talk about bombing your admissions application

A fellow Eastern Grad sent me this story today via Facebook.

-------------------------------------------
College Application Causes Bomb Scare
by Associated Press
Posted: 2007-07-21 15:09:09

Emergency crews evacuated an Eastern Illinois University building Friday, after a campus postal carrier discovered a disheveled-looking package heading for the college's admissions office.

"There was no return address, it was poorly written, poorly addressed to the university, there were misspellings," school spokeswoman Vicki Woodard.

The stuffed-and-stained envelope was strange enough that police alerted the bomb squad. Explosives investigators X-rayed the package and blocked off a nearby street before they discovered the envelope contained only an application to the 12,500-student school.

click link for entire story

-------------------

Why does this not surprise me?
Call me naive, and tell me I'm stupid because terrorism is a real threat blah-blah-blah, but I wouldn't have believed for a second that this was a bomb.
A- It's EIU, a 12,500-student school in the middle of a cornfield. I'd pick someplace a little larger and more visible to the public eye if I wanted to make some sort of statement using a bomb. Of course, I wouldn't do that int e first place... because I'm not insane.
B- Even stupid people sometimes at least give applying to colleges a chance, and seeing that Eastern is not Yale, I bet a few of them think they can get in. And they're probably right, even if it is for the first time in their lives- there are a few living examples on campus today.

Who would want to bomb EIU?
According to the story, someone from Northern Illinois. But not really, since there was no bomb, and this is all a little ridiculous. I guess if it really HAD been a bomb though, I will say I would cry myself to sleep tonight. (I heart EIU.)

Ahhh, to see Old Main, lookin' all castle-y. (Sigh...)

The Broken Road

It's sometimes hard to look bad on bad things that have happened and try to think of the good that has come out of them. But when I heard this song on the radio at random one day, I looked on the positive side for once.

When Ben and I were together, it was a good thing. He seemed like a different person then, and I still have great memories from that (which, granted, sometimes I wish I could just forget, like that would be easier). But the way it ended wasn't good, not good at all, and although it's getting better every day, the memories still hurt.

The words to "Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts, reminded me that although the ending of that relationship was as unpleasant as unpleasant can be- definitely the worst breakup I've ever had to endure- it was all necessary to end up where I am today, to be the person I am today and to be with the person who I am with today.

The night before he would officially end it with me was a Thursday, and Ben "did not want to "ruin it" for me, though he had already made up his mind and it was obvious to anyone and everyone that something was terribly wrong. Though I didn't know it would be the end, I was upset by the way he was acting toward me, and becasue it seemed like this person that supposedly loved me just a week before couldn't even tell that he had already made my night miserable and may as well get it over with instead of making things worse like he was.

But one person who hardly knew me at the time could tell, and seemed to care more than Ben did. The thing that gave it away was when he saw me crying outside the building as Megan and Bill tried to comfort me and asked if I would be OK. That person was David.

Over time and talking with him more and spending more time with him, it became obvious that David was the better person for me. It seemed impossible (or at least very improbable) that we had spent so much time around one another before and never noticed what was there. It took what I thought was a huge catastrophe to point us in the right direction I guess.

We have more in common and we get along terrificly. If there's a problem, we talk about it instead of trying to deal with it on our own, although we haven't had much of that at all to deal with.

We've been together for a couple of months now, and are getting ready to surpass the amount of time I'd been with Ben. It just feels like I had something this good coming to me after being so wrong about that. I don't know how to explain it, so perhaps the song can do a better job.


Rascal Flatts - "Bless The Broken Road"
I set out on a narrow way many years ago
Hoping I would find true love along the broken road
But I got lost a time or two
Wiped my brow and kept pushing through
I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you

Every long lost dream lead me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

I think about the years I spent just passing through
I'd like to have the time I lost and give it back to you
But you just smile and take my hand
You've been there you understand
It's all part of a grander plan that is coming true

Every long lost dream lead me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

Today's random thoughts

1. Oops I Wapped My Pants will move on to the Metro Sports Volleyball Wapstacular this Thursday, with game 1 starting at 7:30 p.m. If I can remember to get batteries, we will, for the second time ever, come out to our fight songs. And we will look crazy while we do it. Andrew is supplying the eye black. Have Megan and I finally formulated the team to take us all the way? Stay tuned to find out.

P.S. I Love Volleyball Thursdays

2. I love boobies, cuz they fun to lay on. In this photo at Norb's, Megan was generous enough to share hers. Mine are pretty big, but I can't imagine laying on them, seeing that they are attached to my chest. I'm pretty sure it would be impossible.

3. Wearing a Dick mask makes you the Asshole. Or is it the other way around?? Me and the crew hung out at David and Ben's apartment this weekend cuz Thomas and Beth were in town, and we played a lot of drinking games. The other photos can be viewed on my PHOTOBUCKET page. Check 'em out and enjoy, and don't forget to watch one or two of the videos while you're at it (thumper, the game, is a force to be reckoned with). It's always fun when those ookies come home.

4. Who the hell actually eats those peppers at Steak 'n' Shake? The answer: Sarah Whitney, Justin Rohour, David Inlow, David Inlow. Bad idea, as you can see below.

5. Is bad hair contagious? When it comes off and gets passed around the room, yes.

Thanks for stopping by.

James' 21st birthday, in retrospect

Little James turned 21 on July 3. You know what that makes me? Old. That's what. I still haven't gone out with the little booger, but we saw him after the fireworks at Tony's downtown that nightl, and Megan and I bought him a shot each.

This ensued:

This is a good picture. as well.

Still trying to get him out to Norb's one of these nights...

Happy Anniversary

Who here remembers the inland hurricane that hit the area last year? It happened one year ago today.

(photos from TheTelegraph.com)

"Storms pummel area
By CYNTHIA M. ELLIS and STEVE WHITWORTH, The Telegraph
07/20/2006

Powerful storms swept through the St. Louis region Wednesday evening, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power, downing numerous trees and utility lines, and snarling traffic on major highways.

Among the damage in The Telegraph’s coverage area, part of the roof was blown off the Ivy Heights Church of God in Wood River, and fire destroyed Cain’s Bedding Inc., 700 N. Delmar Ave., in Hartford. No injuries were reported initially in the immediate Alton area.

The storms moved in quickly from north to south, bringing wind gusts reportedly up to 80 mph. Trees were blown down all over the area, many taking power lines with them, interrupting service to residential and business customers all over the greater St. Louis region.

Utility officials said more than 260,000 customers were without power as of 9 p.m.

The Alton Fire Department was kept busy for several hours, responding to calls of power lines arcing and possible structure fires.

Deputy Fire Chief Greg Bock said the department responded to some 50 calls as of 9:30 p.m., and the Alton Police Department had responded to perhaps three times as many as that. He said the city had “numerous energized power lines” down, and firefighters and police were watching them to make sure they didn’t spark any more fires.

“There are more electric lines down still energized than we could count,” Bock said. “Pockets all around the city still have no power. It’s chaotic everywhere.”

A house across the street from the Fire Department’s Station No. 2 on College Avenue suffered some of the worst damage in Alton, Bock said. He said a tree fell and landed on top of the house.

“The tree went through the house from front to back,” he said, noting that a female dental student who lives in the house had just left the bedroom and so avoided injury.

Bock said authorities in Godfrey and Wood River were busy with similar numbers of calls.

Read entire article here, on our old site.

I covered the aftermath the next day,

Neighbors helping neighbors
By LAURA GRIFFITH, The Telegraph
07/21/2006

WOOD RIVER -- With the power still out in about 98 percent of the city as of Thursday afternoon, residents of the close-knit neighborhood along Linton Street spent the day outside, cutting up fallen trees with chainsaws and helping one another any way they could.

Crystal Smith, 34, of the 100 block of Linton, cooked spaghetti and meatballs, hamburgers and chicken for her neighbors, including whatever was thawing in her freezer. "Whenever something bad happens, we all get together and help each other out," Smith said. "I can’t chainsaw, but I can cook."

Smith said she was thankful for her neighbors during the storm, when she sought shelter for her children, including her 8-year-old son, Michael, who uses a wheelchair. "We were all together, crammed in the bathtub," Smith said. Rather than staying there, the family ran next door to take refuge in a neighbor’s basement.

While Smith’s children experienced only the loss of their trampoline, others on the street were less fortunate. Mark Maberry, 48, of the 100 block of Linton, lost his 1995 four-wheel-drive Chevrolet pickup truck when a large tree was uprooted, toppled and smashed it completely. Maberry said he was just thankful the tree did not fall on his house. "The volume (of the damage) is tremendous," Maberry said.

Michelle Browder, 35, of the 200 block of Linton, originally comes from Chicago and was impressed with her neighbors’ behavior. "If something like that happened there, it would be everybody fend for their own," she said.

Browder lives in a house that her husband’s grandfather built, one of the first houses in the area long ago. While the original two-story house was leveled during a tornado in 1941, Browder was more fortunate this time around. Her house sustained no extensive damage.

Signs along Illinois Route 143 blew into the road. Near Shop ’n Save, a pickup truck camper lay in an adjacent field. Stoplights on Edwardsville Road (Route 143) in front of the grocery store were bent in the direction of the wind.

Farther east up Kendall Hill, falling branches pulled down a bright white privacy fence. Just east of the subdivision entrance, a large fallen tree limb blocked the westbound lane of Route 143.

Across from Belk Park on Rock Hill Road, corn was blown over in the fields, and one barn was destroyed.

One resident of Rock Hill Road, Armella Brugger, had one large tree that fell through her carport and several others that caused damage to her house, which was surrounded by trees. Her sister, Dorothy Brugger, was outside taking photos of damage to the carport, breezeway, bedroom, living room and greenhouse. "Every tree that was over here hit some part of the house," she said. "It’s going to take months and months to clean up."Most parts of the house remained dry, because the most extensive damage was to the garage, so its residents intend to stay."This place is so pretty," Dorothy Brugger said. "Almost like a park, until this comes along."

...

Today, the sky turned black and we we listened to the scanners, fearing a repeat of last year. It didn't happen, thank God.

So, until next time, we can enjoy lights at night, the warm glowy-glow of the TV, and cool air conditioning as much as we want. Except at The Telegraph, where the air conditioner, yet again, is broken. Yay for the weekend.

Smells like death

Did you ever notice how a smell can remind a person of almost anything? In fact, sometimes its the best reminder.

Lilacs remind me of home because of "Laura the Lilac Tree," which my dad planted in our front yard and so kindly named after me.

My brother has a tree too, but his is far less pretty, althought it does has a scent of its own- the James Fir.

Another scent that brings a smile to my face is that of certain people who mean a lot to me. You can't lay on the couch without thinking about my dad, because the scent of his aftershave is always on the pillow.

At work, when I'm trying to focus on getting some things done, suddenly I'm thinking of David because the guy sitting next to me is wearing the same cologne as him.

One smell, though, haunts me to this day.
I don't know what it is, but it reminds me of a horrible accident I had to cover recently, where a girl fell asleep at the wheel of her SUV and rolled the vehicle. Not wearing her seatbelt, she was thrown clear. The two boys wearing their seatbelts escaped with minor injuries.

When I arrived at the scene, her body wasn't completely covered. Her arm was hanging out, covered in what looked like a flannel sleeve, and a pool of blood below her was still visible. Shortly after more emergency personnel arrived, they covered what was still showing with a Betty Boop beach towel- the only thing they could get their hands on would be my guess.

It was the first time I'd seen a dead body. At least one that had not yet been prepared for a funeral.

The road was cluttered with debris- white tennis shoes, a red plastic crate (possibly for carrying books), a purple backpack. The vehicle, a red Blazer, rested on its top- the windows smashed in and the steel frame twisted.

My body shivered a bit, filled with a creepy feeling I cannot describe.

The smell on the scene that day was sickly sweet, yet bitter. Almost like rusted pennies, or what I would expect blood on scorching pavement to smell. There was, I'm sure, some odor from the vehicle that had been totaled, along with the sweat of the emergency workers and the exahust from the line of cars waiting to pass mixed in...

Whatever it was, I get a whiff of it now and then and the pictures flood back into my memory.

Although her name is printed in the article, I knew nothing about the victim at the time I left work that day except that she was likely 17-years-old. For me, it was better without a name at the time. That way, the accident was just my job- not the tragic loss of a person with family and friends and a life that was taken away too soon.

I never forget the names of the people who've died that I have had to cover- Keith Smith, of Jerseyville, who was hit by an oncoming car while his father worked to tow his car from a ditch; Roger Holyfield, of Dow, who died the day after being Tasered by Jerseyville Police; Gene Ready, of Grafton, who was run over by a woman exiting the Grafton Ferry while he was working; but she's different.

I actually saw her. That makes it more real, if that makes any sense.

Read the article in The Telegraph

A little white house with a picket fence...

Ok, so it wasn't MY house per say. It's my parents' house. And there is no picket fence. But it is white.

They left, and I was in charge for the weekend. I felt incredibly grown up. And I feel incredibly childish that it took my parents' vacation to make me feel that way, despite the fact that I've graduated from college, gotten a full time job in the real world, etc. I mean, I have a 401k, and here I was playing house with my boyfriend.

They left Friday morning and we watched "Friends" all day while I cleaned my room, did laundry, and tried my best to organize one year's worth of clips from The Telegraph. Toward the evening, I showered while David amused himself in the living room with "Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree" and I got all dressed up so he could show me off in St. Louis. We went to see "Harry Potter 5" and had dinner at Pujols 5 at Westport. Ha. They both have the number 5 in them. Ok anyway...

When we went to sleep, we sat there and read books like an old married couple. It may sound silly but it was one of the most important things I think we've done as a couple. After all, it's gotta be something special if we have the same amount of fun no matter what we do, as long as we do it together. He agrees.

Saturday, he played softball and I went on to my violin lesson. (SIDENOTE: I take violin now. It's awesome. More later.) Later, we would meet up again to go to a friend's BBQ and then to Dave and Buster's for Rachelowe's birthday.

More things that made me feel old:
** I brought a covered dish to a friend's BBQ. What's next? Rice Krispies for the kids? That's not far off- Kevin and Abby's little Brianne is due in October. **We discussed making a couple's dinner date with Kevin and Abby. Maybe it's just different because they're married and about to have a family, I don't know.

I cleaned up and did chores on Sunday before going to work, and life was back to normal. Actually, I wasn't liking it. I know there will be a time and a place for all that, but I got a taste of it and it felt better than feeling inadequate and stuck somewhere between adolescence and adulthood.

Harry Potter mania

Does anyone else think Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint are getting kind of goodlooking?


(from the age.com)

David and I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at the Mills on Friday, one week before the seventh and final book in the series is due to come out ("Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"). The movie is definitely more mature than the others that preceded it, but still OK for children. I'd say that it has the ability to appeal to adults more than the others though.

On the way back, we couldn't stop talking about who might die in the last book. A spoiler on wikipedia mentions that two characters J.K. Rowling didn't intend to die do so in this book, and one gets a reprieve. Could Sirius be coming back from the dead? Is Ron going to die!? These are pressing questions that I need answers to. David gets the book on Friday, and by next week it will be in my hands. I will have answers to the questions that taunt me so. Finally. I will miss the series though. Something so sad about things coming to an end.

Volleyball Thursdays

Why Thursdays are the greatest day ever:

So, it turns out that for a year now, Megan and I have drug each and every one of our changing volleyball teams to Norb's every Thursday for drinks. This session, we got the bar to sponsor us. Our shirts sport the Norb's logo, along with individual numbers and our team catch phrase, "Wap it, SON!" The team pic above shows (left to right): Karen Brannan, Laura Griffith, Andrew Johnson, Megan Erwin, Sarah Whitney, David Inlow, Bill Brooks, Justin Rohour. Not pictured: Heather King, Sandy Gordon, Andy Walters.

We are probably the most fun out of all the teams that play. We are also pretty good. We used to lose a lot, but Megan and I finally found a team that wants to stick with it more than one session and we have quite the team chemistry. (Enjoy the Laura sandwich with Megan/Andrew bread shown above. I know I did.

Yeah, we crazy.
Come out to Norb's on Thursdays and find out for yourself.

My boy toy

Look at us, in our Norb's gear


Even though I look like a doofus in the photo, I don't have many other pics of myself and my wonderful boyfriend David. We are both not very photogenic, but I take risks by taking buttloads of photos of myself, which is something he won't do. I'm working on him though.

We have been dating for about two months or so now and spend a godawful amount of time together. You know, people say this so much it's almost cliche, but I never thought I'd find someone with so much in common with me. Maybe that's why we never seen to get sick of each other.

Happy times. More to come and more for you to hear about I'm sure.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste...

So I choose not to waste it.



Every day I have more random thoughts floating around in there than I can keep track of.

This site has the potential to host those ramblings. I'm liking blogspot more than xanga these days and am contemplating a move over here for my personal weblog. Plus, I've figured out how to post photos here. Boo that other site.