…so I have an excuse for the slow posts. I’m not kidding either. I do have a life! Sweet. I’ll try to write in detail about all the interesting things I’ve been up to the last couple of days, but in case I can’t, here’s a quick summary:

Friday - I went to the Keene Karaoke Idol, a fund-raising event similar to American Idol. I was rooting for Rebecca, who works at MC too, and boy, was I glad I was rooting for her. She was absolutely amazing. In total, there were about 20 people, 10 had already been eliminated. 20 - that’s a big number of people with a lot of guts to sing on stage. Good times, especially sitting next to Vanessa and hearing all her comments.

Saturday - Went to Stowe, VT for Dave’s and Sheara’s wedding. I wasn’t invited, but went as my friend Glenn’s mystery guest. It was a perfect wedding for a spectacular day. Did the alpine slide in the morning, went to the wedding in the afternoon/evening, drove Glenn’s flashy red mustang convertible in my high heeled shoes afterwards. It was manual, but I managed to do it for about 20-30 minutes maybe. I will have to note that I did not ask to drive the car, it was offered to me. Good thing he’s not all too particular about how people drive his car. I would’ve been strangled otherwise. Pictures are here. Within the 5-hour total drive (back and forth), was a long and juicy conversation about pasts, presents, and quite interestingly, no futures. Between me and Glenn, we had come up with some disparate, but insightful theories of just about everything (about relationships). Good times too.

Sunday - Sleep, shopping, 4 loads of laundry, 4 chapters of the Hobbit, 1 hour bike ride, emails.

Monday - Lunch with Phil and Andy, bike ride after work + something else I can’t remember.

Tuesday - Ultimate frisbee at lunch, surprise party for Glenn at Arnone’s Family Fun center after work. Had a lot of fun playing in the arcade with Larry, Andy, and Phil. Later on, played put-put (mini-golf) also. Although, with Gisela’s style of playing, I doubt anyone would dream of calling what we did mini-golf. They have go-karts too, but that’ll have to be for next time. Pictures will be posted some time soon.

Nice. I actually covered a lot of it, even though it’s a mostly disappointing summary. I made it out to be like the first Harry Potter movie, minus the innovative interpretations. Oh well. Speaking of Harry Potter. I have yet to buy the book. But I have 4 more in the list, so it will be some time before I get to it.

This is for you Casey, because you asked for it. It’s the very embarrassing grocery store incident.

I’ll start with a little background information:
1. I was wearing a dress I hadn’t worn in a year. So I had forgotten how annoying it is to wear it. It has buttons all the way from top to bottom, so if you’re sitting down, they have the tendency to show a little skin. That made movement slightly limited. I was going to go home to change, but I had an interview in the afternoon and I didn’t want them to think that I changed for the interview.
2. I had gone to the next door store and bought something, which they had put in a letter-paper sized envelope. I didn’t want to fold it, so I was being very careful with it.
3. So… on with the story.

I was at the grocery store, thinking I was only going to get blueberries, and nothing else. I picked out my blueberries and then thought, “Hey, I should get those sweet two-toned cherries.” Two-toned, sha, I didn’t really think that. Anyway, I don’t know what they’re called but they’re much better than the regular ones. So I look for them, but couldn’t find them. I did 2 rounds, mind you, all the while, holding the blueberries and the envelope. Then, I realized I was almost out of Kashi cereal (they go really well with blueberries). So, I walk to the cereal aisle, scan it 2x because I didn’t find it. Ahh, it’s probably in the organic aisle. So, I go to the organic aisle and there it was. I turned around and saw frozen waffles. “Waffles”, I thought, “Hmm, I think I’ll have that for dinner”. So now, I was holding the cereal box, the frozen waffles box, the envelope, the box of blueberries, my wallet, and my car key. My dress was lacking pockets too.

As I was walking, I dropped the box of blueberries. And it just explodes, sending little blue balls everywhere! Oh no! To top it all off, there was this kid, who was running my way and he had this, Oh-no-you’re-in-trouble look. Oh crap, I can’t walk away pretending I didn’t do it. Sure I could pick up the blueberries, BUT, I couldn’t squat with the dress I was wearing. Crappity crap. So, I tried to do the adult thing and report it to someone and apologize. Well, I tried looking for someone, and couldn’t find anyone I wanted to approach. Then I remembered, hey this happened before too, with hamburger buns, pasta, etc. I’ve seen them on the floor a few times, not my fault, but someone else’s. So it must be okay. Still, I tried looking for somebody. When I got back to the scene, there were already some grocery store people who knew about it. One of the kids says, “I’m not picking up those blueberries, I’m on break”. Hmm.

So, guess what I did? I paid for the box of cereals, and the frozen waffles, so add that to the list of things I was juggling, and then left. I felt so bad about it, but I left knowing that someone from the store had already seen it, and would probably do something about it. Plus, none of the blueberries were squashed. They were still perfectly round, none had been stepped on, so if they were fast and did their work well, then they would’ve still been able to save the blueberries.

Then I drove to another grocery store, GOT A BASKET, and got my blueberries. As a plus, they also had the cherries I was looking for. I think I’ll be shopping in that grocery store for a while.

So, my friends, what would you have done in my stead? I felt the way I felt as a kid when I hit our neighbor’s car with my bike. I did not know whether to run or confess, or what. I was leaning towards the running and keeping it secret, except that this girl, named Apple, came running and said, “Oh, you’re in trouble!”. I ended up confessing, but our neighbor was really nice about it and didn’t punish me or anything. Sigh, I don’t seem to have learned anything.

That’s a horrible peice of code right there. I’m so not a geek. Anyway…

So, I have new readers! One of my bestfriends, Pat, has started reading my blog and it kept her occupied until 4am! AND, last week, kf (friend from high school whom I haven’t seen since high school, and whose blog I link to), discovered my blog as well! (I was being sneaky and didn’t tell her I linked to her blog.) And when I sent a link to my blog to Mike (Ella and Sophie, if you’ve been reading my blog, are his kids), he ended up browsing it for a whole 40 minutes. Sweet, people think I’m interesting.

Or maybe not. How many times have I caught myself browsing through my Friendster friends list for hours at a time*? There’s just something really entertaining about reading other people’s lives, or maybe more so, reading about their take on their lives. Things that happen to me aren’t really all that interesting, but I still write about them. The way I write isn’t even all that imaginative, so not at all am I going to take credit for why people read this. I’ll put the blame on human nature. Nevertheless, it makes me happy to know that my friends read me! Yay! Yeah, that’s right, good catch. I have friends.

Moving on to another topic, I’ve had so many things to blog about, I think I should make a list too. I say ‘too’, because kf has a list about things she’s going to be blogging about, and incidentally, 2 days later, rydw i came out with his too. So, here goes:

1. Past weekend’s events
2. Grocery store incident
3. Past interviews
4. Personal censorship
5. Frozen waffles

I think I had more than that, but I can’t think of it. See, so, if, despite what I said in the previous paragraph, you were still thinking, ‘Oh, no, Deeds, you still leading an interesting life’, you really should rethink that. That’s a total of 5 items on my list.

I’m sleepy now. That’s all for now folks.

Ooh, oh yeah, 6. Plein air painting workshop

Woo! 6! In my face.

*Note: At the end of those hours, I almost always end up being depressed about my life, right, TB?

“In the Philippines, the people are enthusiastic on a level that makes the Brazilians look reserved and polite. They shout very loudly when they’re happy, too. There’s a noise that a few thousand of the locals make when they all shout at once to let you know they’re happy to see you that made me finally understand the idea of a wall of sound…”
– Neil Gaiman

“I don’t think I’ve ever been more exhausted at any point in a signing tour than I am right now. (Having said that, I don’t remember ever having felt so loved by so many people.) But I get to sleep until I wake up and that’s so good…

PS. I think I’m now addicted to calamansi juice.”
– Neil Gaiman

Thanks for the heads up about the tour and the blog entries, TB! I wish I could’ve been home during his tour. I’m actually quite amazed that he’s known in the Philippines. I only know one other person who reads his work - this one girl from my high school who loves the Sandman, which, I have yet to read.

My friends here in Keene gave me a pep talk this evening when they had me over for dinner. Well, first of all, I actually came to them and told them I wanted to do something with them. So, they had me come over to hang out at their place. And then, I actually came right out and told them what had been bothering me. That’s huge for me. For the past 3-3.5 years, I’ve had only one friend to tell stuff to, which is never good for anybody, and never good for your friend(s). Anyway, needless to say, I had an awesome night. Good food, good friends, good tv shows, and a big comfy couch.

Last night I went up Mt. Monadnock again. My 3rd time this year. And for the first time, my thighs were actually sore the next day. Oh well, I said to myself and played ultimate frisbee for lunch. I think it might’ve been my best game yet but my legs are so unbelievably stiff right now. So what? I’ll do yoga tomorrow. I’m trying to be Ms. Busy Bee, and so far, it seems to be working.

Here are some other highlights of my day today:
1. I got a card from Lydia (how sweet!) today. Aww…
2. I called up my old roommates who I haven’t talked to in at least 2 months
3. I called up this Filipino couple I met in church and invited them to hike the mountain with my other Filipino friends at work and the girl was so excited and so thankful that I invited her! Yay! I feel like I’m kind of giving back what my friends have been doing to me, so it makes me feel good.
4. Everybody has, by now, said something about my previous post. Awesome! This post is actually for my 5 link buddies as a follow-up.
5. (This one’s from last night so it doesn’t really count, but still) After the hike, we decided to get ice cream at Kimball’s and my friends who grew up here in Keene, weren’t sure how to get there and only had an idea. I had to tell them how to get there. I’m becoming a local - like Daisy with the bus numbers and schedules. Woo!

I had a wake up jolt today. It had finally become apparent to me how miserably I had failed myself. Well, life’s a learning process and some things just need to be learned the hard way. I’m not going to beat myself up over it, but let me just say this, the “think positive” quote was probably taken out of context.

Here is Casey’s post about the weekend. It was fun. I’m only posting to put up the link for the pictures. I’m still waiting to hear from Ate Noreen. She took pictures all the freaking time, but she took good pictures, so it was okay. I’ll make sure to post them once she lets me know they’re up. Anyway, check out the videos too. My voice is incredibly irritating, but just put the volume down and you’re set. They’re pretty funny.

The MacDonald’s had me over for dinner again. It was perfect timing too, after an unbearably rough day at work. Anyway, Mike made homemade pasta with red pepper and basil sauce. Sarah made salsa and cheese quesadilla, bread, and coffee cake. Everything was delicious! I’ve never had homemade fresh pasta before and it actually made a big difference. It was a more tender and sweeter and tastier than the commercial, hard pasta. Yum! I brought over some interesting ice cream flavors from Rick’s which were mostly good - black raspberry with chocolate chips, banana, and watermellon frozen yogurt. The watermellon one was surprisingly light and good.

I got to play with the kids again too. We played hide and seek, which was more fun and interesting because Sophie always says “We’re ready!”, after she’s picked out her hiding place. Ella wins the game though, because Sophie and I looked the longest for her the one time she hid in the coat closet. After dinner, I was supposed to make up a story about anything I wanted, but Sarah fortunately bailed me out, so we read books instead. Ella read 2 story books and I read one about Grumpy Gertie. It was a nice surprise in the end, if you ever get to read it.
Best and worst part of the evening: Sophie really liked my plastic bracelets so I gave her 2 strands of it, and told her than she can give one to Ella. She couldn’t believe I was giving it to her and kept trying to give them back to me. When I finally convinced her that she can have them, she burst out into this being-grateful frenzy and kept thanking me and telling me that they were the most beautiful things she’s ever seen. She was so sweet and funny, I wanted to give her all the bracelets I had and the ones I had at home too! I was still feeling a little overwhelmed by her show of gratitude that I completely forgot to give some strands to Ella too. They were sisters after all, duh. But Ella, being the good girl that she is, handled it very well and made her parents proud. She didn’t ask me for any and was happy for Sophie. Aww. Too bad I was so dense. Geez. Those kids are sooo cute. I can’t wait to see them again!

I’ve been bragging about my bruises at work and wore skirts the whole week. Well, it was hot too. It looks like I got banged up a lot, but this was really just caused by my feet getting off the pedals and the pedals banging on my leg. So, I got the solution for that today. I went to see Andy - the owner of Andy’s Cycles where I got my bike. I got toe clips (like a foot straps) and a bottle holder. No more banging pedals. Yes! He put them on for me and adjusted them for my sneakers, re-adjusted my helmet, and my seat, and I only paid $14 - $10 for the clips, $4 for the bottle holder. Sweet! Next purchase? Bike shorts. They’re too expensive for now though, so I’ll have to wait for a sale.

Anyway, Andy was was something else. I bought my bike 2 weeks ago, and he still remembered stuff we had talked about when I bought my bike. He followed up on where I was keeping my bike, and commented again on how he loved the color of the frame. And then he asked whether my sister was coming up for the weekend and we had talked about renting bikes in Keene. We both don’t think there’s any place that rents out bikes, BUT, he said that we could come by this weekend and my sister can borrow a bike to use, as long as we don’t go off-road and bang up his bike. That’s free of charge! Sweet. Too bad we probably won’t get to do that with other guests coming up. Anyway, some folks here don’t like him because he can be gruff and stubborn about what people should be doing with their bikes when they bring them to the store for him to look at. But he knows his stuff and he knows I’m a good customer, so he’s looking out for me. I’m never going to head over to his competition, but today, I think he’s just earned my recommendations. Good prices and he does everything for you. Free re-alignment and air too. I’ll end up getting all my stuff at his store. Local stores are the best.