Notes from my life of leisure

As I may or may not have mentioned, I leave on Saturday for the first youth group trip of the summer. Don’t be jealous as I ride in a van with 15 high schoolers to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Seriously, curb your envy when you hear about how I’ll be spending 24/7 with the kids as we build bunk beds and install them in the homes of people who have most likely never had a bed before. Actually, you should be a little envious of that last part, because the appreciation of the people who receive the beds is apparently pretty rewarding. Anyway. I say all of this sarcastically, but really, I’m totally looking forward to it. The van rides are always fun, and doing work for people who need it is also fun. The plus side is that the weather will only be in the 80s most of the week. Unlike Juarez, Mexico (which is where we were last year) where it was about 105 every day. The down side is that being on the reservation is pretty depressing. The plus side is that we’ll get to see a lot of cool historical stuff about the Lakota people who live there. The down side is that the history is also pretty depressing. Interesting, but sad.

A vital item that I am taking with me on my trip is my new 30gig iPod. It holds 7500 songs (and also video), and now, thanks to PIC, I have 7800 songs. And this is before I’ve even loaded my own cds onto the computer. I had to get an *snort* external 80gig hard drive because my computer is only 30gigs by itself. Anyway. As part of my birthday present, PIC shared all his music with me and patiently went through and deleted duplicates – it took a few hours. The other part of my present was something that will hopefully prevent me from either getting towed again or getting more parking tickets at the meters. He gave me a meter key. It’s this little weird key looking thing that you put into the meter and lo and behold, turns out there’s money stored in the little key chip and so I don’t need change to park! Yay!

Speaking of parking, PIC’s balcony overlooks a public parking lot, and we were sitting outside on Sunday night, when we noticed these two sketchy looking kids doing something at the edge of the lot. I went in and got his binoculars, and we sat there and watched them for almost 30 minutes. What we deduced was that they were high on some sort of illegal substance, and while one of them was totally mellow and just sat there, the other one was constantly moving – digging in the dirt next to the lot, pacing around, smoking a half a cigarette, throwing it away and then lighting another one. Sheesh. If I were the mellow high guy, I would totally stop hanging out with Twitchy McFidgets because his constant motion would ruin my mellow high. I mean, I was like 100 or so feet away, 3 floors up (and not high) and I wanted to knock his manic ass out. Anyway.

Now that I go to the grocery store in the middle of the day on a work day, I run into a lot of old people. In a recent blog entry, Hope said “I mean can you imagine bumping into a little old lady's shopping cart in the grocery store and having her give you the finger? And you feeling compelled to give her the finger back?” Which made me think. Sometimes -- judging from the dirty looks I get from aforementioned old ladies when I *GASP* politely say "excuse me" and try to pass them as they block the ENTIRE aisle with their cart and take eight million years to decide what they might possibly need from the shelves – I think they might be thinking about giving me the finger. They act like they own the place and anyone else who is trying to get by is infringing on THEIR territory. I’m all about respecting my elders, but I also don’t believe that age gives you an excuse for bad behavior.

And lastly, can someone get a message to my cats? Can you tell them that it’s not cool to a) meow incessantly for breakfast at 6 a.m. and b) climb the screen door/bedroom screen/living room screen just because they want to see the bugs? Because clearly, I’m not getting through to them. Thanks.