final easter notes

... you know, for those who may just be getting back to school from easter vacay...

I was telling my mom the other day how i was eating too much candy and will probably have a shite-ton of cavities by the time busy season is over. She responded by saying that I should be thankful for my beautiful teeth… thankful to my parents for dishing out the cash to get good dental care (which I am), and thankful to the government. For putting fluoride in the water.

which i am… so, here is my token of gratitude to the government, for giving me good teeth, even during Easter -- a pictorial homage.

Fitting, no? Mary Alice and I decided more people should be aware of this picture. I agreed. So, here I am, spreading awareness and showing my gratefulness at the same time. Call me The Great Multi-tasker. For instance, right now I am listening to an altogether pointless TFS (Tax Filing Standard…) call and writing a blog at the same time. TGMT.

t minus 4 1/2 hours till madness in char-town..

why american kids suck at academics

Straight from charlotte.com.. find the one that doesn't belong.

Easter Monday | What's open, closed?

Here's how the following institutions will observe the 2008 Easter holiday today:

• Mecklenburg ABC stores: Regular hours.

• S.C. package stores: Regular hours.

• Banks: Regular hours.

• CPCC: Regular schedule.

• Charlotte buses: Regular schedule.

• Charlotte city offices: Regular hours.

• Mecklenburg County offices: Regular hours.

• FedEx: Regular hours.

• Federal offices: Regular hours.

• Charlotte garbage: Regular schedule.

• Post offices: Regular hours.

• Charlotte schools: Closed Monday-Tuesday.

• N.C. state offices: Regular hours.

• S.C. state offices: Regular hours.

• Stock market: Regular hours.

• UNCC: Regular schedule.

• United Parcel Service: Regular hours.

-- COMPILED BY GERRY HOSTETLER

a few Easter church notes

i learned that i have no obligation to believe in god unless i have:
1) physically put my arm through jesus's post-resurrected side, or
2) seen an abnormal amount of lightning bugs in my backyard (preferably after struggling with faith and doubt).

we got there late and had to sit in the very back, but it was a queen's seat, really, because i had a sniper's view of the sign language lady, who keeps me slightly entertained and in awe of how she can sign and listen, sign and listen, sign and listen in this continuous loop so that she is always doing both at the same time. ASL superpowers, must be.

anyway, when we got to the closing, even-if-what-i-said-didn't-mean-anything-to-you-maybe-listening-to-this-pretty-choir-led-music-will-help song, she was still signing to her viewer, in time with the music. and i thought, that's kind of strange.. the words are right up there.. he can read them if he wants to.. (quick mental check of reasoning - yes, deaf.. not blind.. ok). and then i saw him kind of signing along with it too, and she was still guiding him along, and it clicked (finally) that, of course he can read it, but he has no idea at what tempo. and then i went through this quick sad/happy emotion, thinking about how much it would suck to never hear music, how unfair that was to him, how much i have taken and mostly always will take that privilege for granted. then, how cool it was that he could have this, that he could at least kind of hear the song through this nice lady at church, that he could come here every week and be provided these ears to a side of the world to which this god he believes in decided he was not privy.

i'm still not sure what i feel about churches as institutions, but at least there's that.. in the meantime, while i make up my mind.

also, my sister got me a stuffed animal duck that has a towel wrapped around its neck. one side says "SPLISH" and the other side says "SPLASH". and when you press its hand (er.. wing?), it butt-dances across the table/floor, and its cheeks light up all while singing the song. we made it fall off the stairs and laughed hysterically an embarrassing number of times.

also, I AM LOOKING FOR TICKETS TO THE SWEET 16 GAME THIS THURSDAY. TICKETS!! LOOKING! CHARLOTTE! EAST REGION! Thursday! Please!

a few busy season comments..

- tonight I ate a whole pineapple chicken fried rice from Soho. The whole damn thing. I don't know what got into me. I got halfway through and decided I could power through. PUSH, if you will. I know only those who have ever had a PCFR will be able to appreciate it, but that's enough appreciation to make it worth mentioning. I'm sure I will have a monstrous bout of heartburn in about 15 minutes, but it was worth it.. worth mentioning. I should do more things that are worth mentioning. Though this was arguably not worth mentioning. OK, this was not worth mentioning. Maybe I should be depressed that the battle i won over my dinner was the big news of my day. (that and the french woman who died who had esthesioneuroblastoma.. i mean, can you imagine some doctor coming to tell you you had esthesioneuroblastoma??? i most certainly would choose pronto death.)

- so, you remember that show, fraggle rock? well, our building is set up like a lot of other tall buildings, with elevator banks split up by several consecutive floors. Our bank goes from floor 26 to 37. pwc is on floors 35-37. floors 26-34 are owned by the Hearst Corporation (yes, the Hearst that publishes e.g., "CosmoGIRL!" and that owns 20% of ESPN). So... long story short.. don't let Hearst's repertoire of fashion magazines dupe you -- sometimes i feel like i live above my own little 9-story fraggle rock... where hairy, disfigured creatures roam about and snarf on showmars below..

eh, that's bad, but i can't help it.. i saw a parallel.

also, in the time between when i started to write this and now, i also ate a whole bag of skittles. i am afraid i'm slowly fraggle-izing.

also, happy birthday to the coolest person ever born on this day, corny stuff, etc.

jump into the CESSPOOL

This is your official invite to the Cesspool bracket.. I tried inviting everyone the official way, but apparently it's not working.. and then I tried sending out mass messages, but that was way too time-consuming. Join through the CBS tournament link. Then click on Groups and join mine. Brackets need to be in by 11am tomorrow.

gah, look what living in North Carolina has done to me.. I'm not sure what I should be doing right now, but I don't think it's: writing a blog inviting everyone to a facebook tournament pool.

rightio, then.

U Rock!

i don't have much time to write blogs these days (during THE season, as ashley so aptly referred to it), but an advert for this book was in my inbox from amazon.com:note that the subtitle is: How Smart People Brand Themselves for Business Success
wow, seriously?
and yes, it is in hardcover.

the 'artist' column of my 'going out' playlist

all these people are in town this weekend for the ciaa tournament:

fabolous
fat joe
gucci mane
jermaine dupri
bow wow (my class may remember him as lil bow wow)
omarion
keith sweat (oh, so twisted!)
r kelly
doug e fresh
yung joc
lil kim
biz markie

i mean, that is just kind of crazy to me.. i don't know what else to say about it. except that when the acc tournament comes, we'll probably be lucky to attract ashley judd. for the ncaa east, perhaps peyton??!!! oh my god, i'm just realizing i would KILL for some TN tickets..