Hey. Subway guy...
...shutup about your weekend and make my sandwich.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Television Gold
My friend Betsy and I have been talking about this article all afternoon... we think it has the potential to be it's own reality TV show...
"He was shunned by his feathered family when he was just days old. Now, nearly three months on, this ugly duckling has found an unlikely father figure to replace them – in the form of his breeder, Barrie Hayman. The fairytale friendship was forged when Mr Hayman rescued the distressed duck, named Star, from his incubator. He noticed Star was panicked when he started doing a manic ‘waddling dance’ in an attempt to escape his hostile siblings. Since then, the Indian Runner duck has become inseparable from 65-year-old Mr Hayman. The 11-week-old bird follows him everywhere, from the pub to the supermarket, and even watches the rugby with him. Mr Hayman, from Eastleigh, Devon, said: 'He just won't leave me and so now we go everywhere together,' said Mr Hayman, who has been breeding ducks for 18 months. 'I've not trained him to follow me, he just seems to like it and he is one fantastic duck - I've never known any like it before.'He comes to the pub, where everyone loves him and we'll be watching his first world cup together next week."
Some of Betsy's and my ideas are:
-Have the duck and the man sitting on the couch together, watching a movie, eating popcorn out of the same bowl, trading knowing glances at one another during certain parts
- Have the duck swimming happily in the bathtub while the man sits on a closed toilet reading the newspaper and sharing the day's headlines
- Having a picnic outside, where the old man throws pieces of bread to the other birds around, but the duck just eats 'em all... they share a laugh and a smile
-Show the duck help the man wrapping his Christmas gifts - that beak is perfect for the times when you need someone to "put your finger right here for a second"...
I mean I'd tune in every week to see what kind of hijinks they'd get themselves into!
Sunday, September 11, 2011
09-11-2001
It's impossible to turn on the TV today without seeing pieces about 9/11. Everything is very well put together and emphasizes that our country was not broken that day. In Jon Stewart's words: we grieve, but we do not despair. All day I've been overwhelmed by the unity of our country and the outpouring of love from all 50 states.
But I'm also very angry. I'm horrified and very, very angry. I won't go into the politics of it, I won't go into all of my personal emotions about it, but I will go into one big life-changing realization that came to me this evening.
It's so easy for us to say "God bless America" today. It's easy for us to say "I will never forget" today. And it's easy for us to be patriotic and so grateful for the men and women who ran into danger that morning 10 years ago. But what about the other 364 days? Please, please don't misunderstand... this isn't me saying "I'm better than all of you because I'm a prouder American all year long, and I'm always thankful of our brave men and women in uniforms" - that's not what I'm saying. What I want to say is that I want to be a proud American all year long, and I want to be worthy of living in a nation where men and women are willing to run in and rescue us. Think about that for just a second. Police officers, firefighters, EMTs, nurses, doctors, volunteers...
"While we were all scared out of our minds he ran as fast as he could toward what we were scared of." via
I don't know. This whole post seems very cliche and I've come close to deleting it several times. But it also seems like something that I needed to get out. I'm going to turn off the coverage now, and go on with my life. I just hope that I really do start to realize how lucky I am, how lucky we are, to live in the greatest country in the world.
Just always be nice to each other. Always be grateful for your friends and your family. It's a crazy, scary world we live in... and we don't know when we'll need to rely on a stranger to rescue us next.
God bless.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Now & Then
I grew up in a fairly typical suburban neighborhood a little west of St. Louis. From the ages of 8-15 I was practically inseparable from my neighborhood gang. From 10am till 12am we'd do everything together from jumping on the Schulte's trampoline, to building Lego homes at the Paladin's, to making music videos in the Lommel's basement. We'd spend an entire weekend planning our new dog walking company and then forget about it that next Monday morning. Summers were spent playing football in between the Schulte's and the Alford's house and then posting up at our lemonade stand at the end of the street. We'd annoy the hell out of our adult neighbors while playing Capture the Flag throughout the neighborhood all night long. I had my first kiss in a game of Truth or Dare with a neighbor named Ryan. I have permanent scars on my legs from riding on the pegs on the back of a Dyno bike that looked just like this one:
We represented a lot of different personalities and fought like brothers and sisters, but loved each other regardless. Whenever I see any of these people (some married, some in medical school, some now living very very far away) I regress to my childhood-self, and everything seems endlessly possible again like it was in those days.
My best friends out of the group were Jennifer, Heather and Lindsay. Heather and I were the same age, with Jennifer one year behind and Lindsay another year behind that. We always watched the movie Now & Then and then fought over who was who.
We all even tried to save our allowances to try to get a professional picture like this taken, but all that money ended up getting spent at Rave on fake leather jackets. I always argued that I was the most like Roberta (Christina Ricci in the green) because she was so tough and such a hard-ass. They would quickly remind me that I was neither tough, nor a hard-ass, and that I was the most like naive, sheltered, optimistic Chrissy (in the pig-tails). Rude.
Jennifer and I would sleep over at Heather and Linny's house probably 5 nights a week in the summer. They had a screened-in porch that was perfect for the late-night giggles and Backstreet Boys playing in the background. When we were all laying down comfortably but still wanted to play Truth or Dare, we'd just play Truth or Truth instead... ahh the simple joys of being a pre-teen. We'd talk about what we wanted to be when we grew up and how amazing our lives would be, not stopping to think how amazing our lives were at that very moment.
Our parents all still live on the same block but we hardly see each other anymore. Every time we try to get together something inevitably comes up, as it tends to do with old friends.
What I wouldn't give to have one more summer of freedom, bike rides, and movie marathons with this gang. I guess not much has changed, I'm sitting here wishing I could go back in time because it was so perfect, and I can't see how perfect my life is today.
Our Gang (not really)
Thursday, September 1, 2011
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