Category: Daily Life

These are my daily rants, stories, and what not.

20%

meisajDaily Life

Saturday was that strange occurrence in nature where 20% chance of rain is actually 100% chance of rain at multiple times throughout the night.

These rare mathematical curiosities occur seemingly only on nights I go camping. The last time this happened was back in 2001 when I was camping at Mammoth Caves. 20% chance of rain the forecast had said. The ranger even said that. I only assume when rangers say something that makes it a Fact. However throughout the night three or four separate thunderstorm systems rolled through the area and just flooded out tent. We basically slept in a stream. When we awake everyone else had abandoned their camp sites in the middle of the night to drive to a hotel.

But that was 2001, and had been regulated to a humorous story (one of many to come from driving cross country). Something that happened then, and couldn’t ever possible happen again.

And then there was Saturday.

Saturday Sam and I hosted her parents, brother, grandmother, nephew, aunt and aunt’s boyfriend at our apartment for breakfast. I made French Toast using two day old Italian Bread. We cleaned the hell out of our apartment and it was pretty awesome. Except for the aunt’s boyfriend. He’s never allowed in our apartment again. He’s just an ass. But that’s not the story.

After they left Sam and I made some Cold Veggie Pizza, relaxed for an hour or two and then heading to Brooke’s wedding. It was a great outdoor reception (we didn’t make the wedding itself). Huge backyard, barns, a little stream, an large wooded area to set up tents. Yeah… that’s right, it was a camping wedding. Kick Ass. And right before we left we checked the weather. 20% chance of rain and temperatures in the mid to high 50’s all night long. Perfect camping weather, especially for October.

We set our camp up in a little nook and took to the pot-luck dinner and deserts. It was fantastic. The tables were covered with butcher paper and sharpies were left out for people to draw all over them. Again, simple but awesome. White Christmas tree lights lined the tarps and paper lanterns hung from trees.

And still the weather forecast said 20% chance of rain. But by 7 the wind was picking up pretty good. And by 8, when the band was supposed to start, the rain had landed. They started the bonfires regardless, but most people huddled under the tents. It turned from light rain to downpour pretty fast, and lasted for almost an hour. I went to check on the tent around 9 and noticed water in the tent bottom, specifically by the door. Now this tent was old. We borrowed it from Sam’s parents, so some water inside wasn’t a complete shock.

We checked it out, adjusted the tarp on top, changed it position on the ground a little and went back to the party none-to-concerned. After all the rain had stopped. We sat by the bonfire, drank some beer and ate some cookies. Life was good.

Until the rain started again at 10:30. More downpour. I checked on the tent again. More water. This time we noticed a hole in the bottom near the door. With a little borrowed duct tape and a plastic bag we patched the hole, even as other holes appeared in other spots. Luckily the water was staying near the door, and all our stuff was near the opposite end of the tent. Again we did a little clean up inside, thought we had and went back to the party.

Another hour or so of enjoying everything and we decided it was time to knock off and sleep some. We were up early (especially for a Saturday) and it was midnight. The rain had tapered to just a mist and although it was still wet, it wasn’t much worse than before. We threw the sleeping bags down (one on the ground, one as a blanket) and passed out.

I woke up at 2 a.m. to more tumultuous downpour and drips landing on my feet. There were now pools of water right next to me, just off to the side of the sleeping bag. I could feel the water seeping underneath me but decided to just roll over and go back to sleep. Hope for the best.

At 6 a.m. I woke up and headed to the bathroom. The near door tent area was soaked. When I got back to the tent I laid back down, only to discover after I got up the water completely soaked the sleeping bag. I tried sleeping on my side to limit the amount of wetness that would occur, but it didn’t help. After about 30 minutes of this I decided to just give up and stay up. How Sam slept through it I don’t know.

So there it is. 20% is a guarantee, not a maybe for rain when I camp.

I think I need to plan my next camping trip in the desert.

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It Happened…

meisajDaily Life

So I did pretty well on my summer goals. Just in case you were curious.

I’ve lost 30 pounds since January. Was pretty steady about losing weight all summer. And work started, which means I can’t exercise as much, but have leveled out at 170 pounds. And look pretty good I think. I’ve been doing push ups and sit ups every morning (m – f) and that feels good too.

So I’m dong something right there. I’m also catching up (slowly) in my sketches, but much more regular than I used to. And I’m pretty good at work this year too. It’s busy and stressful and seems like more on my plate than last year…. but I’m good at it. And having that recognized feels great.

So where’s the tragedy. The tragedy is that they finally realized that Admin are supposed to wear ties on a daily basis. I hate ties. I do. I had the disconnect between male professional dress codes and female professional dress code. When leggings and a long button shirt are somehow acceptable work place dress and I have to wear a button down shirt and tie every day there is some sort of discrepancy. But whatever. I look decent in ties (I think) but that doesn’t change my wish to not wear them. Not to mention I don’t know how to match ties to t-shirts.

I’m going to work on keeping this up to date. I’m going to try. So a random first post updating crap is fine. Who knows, maybe I’ll start scanning my drawing back into here. Get that going again perhaps.

Summer of Self?

meisajDaily Life

So this is the Summer of Self? Or maybe Summer of Shape? I haven’t decided what sounds less catchy.

Basically I’m using buying a new car as impetus for making steps to better myself. Both shape-wise, monetary-wise, and generally. New car means new monthly payments (hate monthly payments) and higher car insurance (yay!) but its all within my budget, as long as I don’t go crazy. In the last year all the times I was close to broke was because I just dumped a huge chunk of change on my car getting it road worthy. That’s no longer an issue, but I’ll still be pouring money into it over time now as opposed to giant lump sums.

And I’m back on my “I need to get in better shape” kick. I had told Yousey on my fateful Hawaii trip that I was glad I was in the shape where I can up and run five miles at a decent pace without having ran in the past year or so. I mean that’s pretty good. I don’t care about being ‘cut’ or hugely muscular, that’s just ridiculous, but I would like to be in slightly better shape. So I’m going to exercise everyday, and do push ups and sit ups every morning. Not a lot, not crazy many, but exercise.

I’m also going to try and draw every day to catch up in my Daily Drawings (still behind by a little), and write one blog post every day. Just for the hell of it. And read three books in July. Two of my choosing and one professional book related to the education field.

Suck it Life. I’m mastering you.

Random Life Story Number #3 or 3 Flights of Stairs and a 300 lb Foosball Table

meisajDaily Life

A few years ago (more than a few, but less than a decade), my friends and I were really into playing foosball whenever we could. We got so good we accepted random challenges at bars, and boasted about victories. So one Christmas when I saw a slate top foosball table in my aunt’s basement I got really excited. I told her, and my parents how amazing of a table it was. It was bar/restaurant quality at least.

A few months later when my parents called me up to tell me Tina (my aunt) said I could have it I got real excited. Until then we played mostly on crappy cheap tables when not out at bars. The problem existed though that it was still 6 hours away at my aunts. But it gave my parents a good excuse to come visit (it fit in the van with the seats removed). Graciously I told them to bring it out whenever, that I’d love to have, and something about them being the best parents in the world and to give my aunt my ever lasting gratitude.

They showed up a few weeks later and we started to unload it. I can’t remember who it was exactly that was there to help, Mike maybe. It could have been Rollin or Reggie also, but for some reason I think it was Mike. Regardless it was someone I considered stronger than me significantly. We (we being Mike… I’ll just say it was Mike from here on out, my father and myself) pulled it from the van. I swear the thing had to be over 200 pounds easily. Apparently large slabs of slate are not light. When my dad told me that him and my mother shoved it in the van themselves at Tina I was shocked (but it made the fact that they brought it out to Buffalo all that much more amazing).

At the time I lived in a second story apartment. It came with an unfinished attic that Mike was using as a bedroom. That was were we planned to put the foosball table. For some reason getting it up the first set of stairs was pretty easy. Mike and my father took the top and I supported the bottom. The real problem would be the narrow stairway to the attic. It would be hard to fit multiple people up the stairs at one time, and twist the foosball table up the steps and around the corner.

But we were single minded in our efforts. And again I took the bottom, Mike and my father at the top. We got about halfway up the stairs and my father and Mike decided we needed a break. The problem that arose at this point was that I was supporting the majority of the weight on the bottom, and if i set it down on the stairs I would never be able to pick it up again. With no way to set it down, and no way to prop it up on anything, I just set it on my thighs.

The break went from a few minutes to a fifteen minute break. And I stood there the whole time with the weight of the of the foosball on my thighs. Somehow it didn’t hurt, and I was able to pick it right up when we were set to get going again. And we got it up there.

The foosball table rocked. We used it for years, and then when I moved I gave it to Mike. Who still has it in his house in Buffalo. The memories from that foosball table will last forever.

The bruising that appeared instantly on my thighs lasted about a month.