When I stand in line at the supermarket I don't like to be stared at, or any place else for that matter. This happened this afternoon a girl of about 9 was staring at me for about 2 minutes. It was a long line. I finally said, "You know it's not polite to stare at someone." She immediately turned to her mom and the other four members of the family turned around and looked at me. I said it very nicely. They acted like I swore at her. We countinued to wait in line, they had about 4 items and 5 family members taking up the check out stand. I couldn't get close enough to put my stuff on the belt, until they had finish As they finished checking out, the mother turned to me and stand, not nicely, "you know if you don't want to be stared at you better go hide under a rock". To say I was astounded was an overstatement. When I could think again I said, "Then teach your children better manners". This time it wasn't said nicely.

I was taught not to stare at people and I expect other people to teach their children the same. I probably shouldn't have said anything at all, but to be stared at for that long, I couldn't let it go. The mother was way out of line with what she said though.

When we were growing up I was told I couldn't take items off the shelved, unless mom asked me to. And certainly couldn't eat fruit or items that are weighed at check out for the price before paying for it. And it's not polite to stare or point at someone. I see kids eating the grapes or cherries in the cart all the time now. I guess they don't know that stealing.

Forgive my rant, but I had to vent.

I beat Elfcat today in Fantasy Cycling for the first and probably last time. I moved all my time trial people to my roster from my bench, 13 of my 15 riders got points. I just moved my sprinters back to being active. Another flat and windy stage tomorrow. I wish Lance was in yellow though, missed it a tenth of a second.

The reason I haven't been doing so well in this fantasy challenge I loaded my roster with all rounders and people who can climb. So I should do well in the Pyrenees and Alps. We shall see.

All week I have been down in the dumps because I wasn't on the ride. Today I changed my mind, it's pouring on the route from Lompoc to Ventura. Some riders were on a hold at Rest stop 1 others haven't left camp. The CHP has closed the route due to dangerous conditions.
Today the first 15 miles are up hill until you get to Gaviota Pass, then it's really downhill-fast. I'm following along on the Twitter Stream. Some riders are saying today is completely cancelled others are just saying the route is closed. Don't know yet. One wrote that everything in his tent this morning was wet. YUCK! I just hope nobody gets sick due to the weather.

If you want to you can follow the tweets at Twitter just search for #alc8.

I haven't felt like writing anything lately. Just not in the mood.

I did see Star Trek on opening day. Loved it. It was a fresh new start. Two things took me out of the movie, though. I didn't know I went to Starfleet Academy, since they used Oviatt Library at Cal State Northridge and I didn't know Vulcan was actually Vasquez Rocks up off the 14 freeway, used by every old western movie as a setting. For some reason Chechov didn' sit well with me, I felt he was a bit off. Karl Urban as McCoy was spot on. Scotty wasn't in it enough.

Of course, at work we get to see all the cool toys and action figures. I watched a rerun of the Star Trek Christie's auction on the History channel Sunday night. Where does one put the 6 foot across model of Deep Space Nine? It sold for a cool $250,000. Enterprise D sold for $500,000. The auction was two years ago for the 40th anniversary of Star Trek.

Looking forward in a couple of weeks to Up. I'm not decided on Terminator yet.

Here are the two playlists I gave to Mr. Dreamjeans and Tim to enjoy on their car ride:

CD 1:
1. Good Morning Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds Singing in the Rain Soundtrack
2. Simple Gifts Appalachain Spring John Williams & Boston Pops Copeland Collection
3. Easter Parade Judy Garland, Fred Astaire Easter Parade
4. The Trolley Song Judy Garland and Cast Meet Me in St. Louis
5. I Got the Sun in the Morning Ethel Merman Annie Get Your Gun
6. Morning Has Broken Cat Stevens Cat Stevens Greatest Hits
7. Saturday in the Park Chicago Best of Chicago
8. The Pink Panther Theme Henry Mancini Henry Mancini All Time Greats
9.
On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe (Complete Original Version, Pts. 1 & 2) Judy Garland 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Judy Garland
10. Song Sung Blue Neil Diamond Neil Diamond Collection
11. Down to Earth Peter Gabriel Wall E Soundtrack
12. America Rita Moreno West Side Story(Movie)
13. Bohemian Rhapsody Queen Classic Queen
14. Stairway to Heaven Led Zeppelin The Complete Led Zeppelin
15. Walkin' My Baby Back Home(Duet) Natalie & Nat King Cole Still Unforgettable
16. Heart Damn Yankees Original Cast
17. If I Were a Rich Man Original Cast Milton Greene and Zero Mostel
18. High Hopes Peter Pan Kids Childrens Song of Inspiration

CD #2
1. I Am the Captain of the Pinafore The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company The Very Best of Gilbert & Sullivan
2. Get Happy Judy Garland From Summer Stock That's Entertainment
3. Singin' In the Rain Gene Kelly Singing in the Rain
4. Hello Dolly Louis Armstrong 20 Best Louis Armstrong
5. Buttons and Bows Dinah Shore 16 Most Requested Songs: Dinah Shore
6. Swingin' On a Star Bing Crosby Bing Crosby at the Movies
7. Road to Morocco Bing Crosby & Bob Hope Bing Crosby The Definitive Collection
8. I Remember It Well Hermione Gingold & Maurice Chevalier Gigi
9. We Sail the Ocean Blue Mens Chorus HMS Pinafore
10. That's Entertainment Fred Astaire That's Entertainment
11. Summertime Ella FitzGerald and Louis Armstrong Porgy and Bess
12. Rhapsody in Blue George Gershwin Gershwin: American in Paris
13. This is the Army, Mr Jones Irving Berlin The World at War
14. Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral (That's An Irish Lullaby) Bing Crosby Top of the Morning
15. What a Difference a Day Makes Dinah Washington Compact Jazz: Dinah Washington
16. Listen to the Music Doobie Brothers Best of the Doobie Brothers
17. The John Dunbar Theme John Barry Dances With Wolves Soundtrack
18. Down at the Twist and Shout Mary Chapin Carpenter Party Doll and Other Favorites
19. Cell Block Tango Chicago Chicago the Movie
20. Getting to Know You Gertrude Lawrence The King and I
21. Mamma Mia Meryl Streep Mamma Mia Soundtrack

Sorry, it has taken so long to post anything.

Last week I pulled out of AIDS/Lifecycle 8 because I couldn't afford to take off over a week without pay from work. Plus I haven't been training since I have to work on weekends.
I am still a TRL, I just am not going to be joining everybody on the ride. This was a difficult decision to make. But I think it was the right one at this time.

I know registration and fundraising is down this year for the ride. If you can please help out the cause. www.aidslifecycle.org

Thanks for all the well wishes for my accident. I have some bad news. My beloved truck is toast. They would have had to put on a whole new frame. So they totaled the truck. They are suppose to call me with a buyout offer tomorrow. I hope it will be a good one. Otherwise I'm screwed since I can't afford to buy another truck or car for that matter. Think good thoughts-it does help.

Sometime this weekend I will be posting pictures from the Xena Convention from last weekend.


Thanks!

So I was coming home from my credit union today and wham! I get hit by a car. A seventeen year old girl who claims to not have seen me. And that my red truck was hiding behind a sports car in front of me so she didn't see me. Did I say I have a big 'Red' truck that's a crew cab. She was turning left so it was her fault. She wouldn't give me her insurance info, instead she wanted the cops there. She also didn't want a police report after the motorcycle cop arrived. Maybe because the cop said it was her fault. I still don't see how she couldn't see me in her Infinity G37. After the she called the police she started to make other phone calls. Soon her family was there. I felt out numbered. So I called MB to come.

After everything was taken care of I tried to drive home, not going to happen. So I had to call for a tow. The tow company sent a regular tow truck instead of a flat bed. The accident was around 3:45, I didn't get home until around 7:15. Both tow truck drivers were nice. They both seemed to think both insurance companies may total the truck. Not good, since I am not making didly squat at the moment. I don't know what I am going to do if that is the case. The flat bed driver did give me a bunch of ideas though.

Keep your fingers crossed. This decade has really sucked. Nothing seems to be going our way.

Well not much going on at the moment. Just finished watching Arizona destroy Carolina in football.

On Christmas our cousins were talking about Limpa(Swedish Rye Bread). That got me thinking, I haven't had Limpa in years because the bakery we got it from closed-Scandia. So MB did a Google search for bakeries around here. Low and behold there is a Swedish bakery in Montrose. So I had to take my check to the credit union I stopped into the bakery. They make Limpa everyday. I bought a loaf. It was excellent. It reminded me of my childhood when we had Limpa to go with the turkey leftovers from Thanksgiving or Christmas. Since it seems to taste the best with turkey. So I had my fix and picked up a couple of other pastry items.
The bakery is http://www.berolinabakery.com/. You will drool when you go to the website, I'm warning you now.

That's it for now.

Well, I finished my fourth day of work at Target. I'm pooped. I guess not working for just over a year will do that too you. It also doesn't help that some days I start at 6 am. I'm not actually working at the store, I'm at the warehouse by the Burbank Airport. And I mean right by the airport, the parking lot is right next to the runway. The most time I have spent at the actual store was about 45 minutes. You go in to wrap pallets in plastic to put them on the trucks to take over to the warehouse. The pallets are then unloaded and backstocked. We also pull stuff from the warehouse to take back over to the store. At this time of year it's lot's of toys.

I am the only female at the warehouse. They have a small HD TV in the breakroom and it's hooked up to Dish Network. It's very tiring because it is labor. On your feet all day long and lifting stuff. Yesterday we go in a shipment of free weights. Not a lot of fun putting those away. I've learned I don't like shipments of lightbulbs. Lots of sizes and no two boxes are alike.

Oh, and the heater has been fixed so it's warm here at home now.

Target left a message on my voicemail, my orientation is tomorrow. Which is good since I just got okay'd for the second extension of unemployment.

I had just turned my phone off coming out of the movies. I just saw The Day the Earth Stood Still. It's alright, a good afternoon movie. MB wouldn't see it because she didn't want to get scared. It wasn't scary at all. Kathy Bates plays the Secretary of Defense. Jaden Smith is step son to Jennifer Connolly's character. Her husband and Jacob's father died in Iraq.
Keanu is okay in the part. I think the original is better.

Update on Target. Evidently Target's e-mail was wrong. They haven't set up an Orientation day yet. So I am still sitting at home waiting. I just filed for my second extension of unemployment benefits.

Why would a company send out an e-mail that has wrong information in it?

If you were a fan of Xena here's a webpage for you to laugh until you cry:
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Renee_O%27Connor

I know I did and I needed a good laugh.

It looks like I got the job at Target. I received an e-mail saying my orientation would be on the 2nd. They also told me to wait for a phone call before getting too excited about it.
Guess I will be wearing a lot of red and Khaki.

Well, I didn't get the job at the Kabbalah Center, so Target is pretty much all I have to hope for at the moment. I took the drug test this morning. I tried to go and take it after my interviews but there was no free parking available. Keep thinking good thoughts.
The Target job is a backroom job and not out in the store unless I stock stuff.

I will have a job at Target if I pass the drug and background test. So keep fingers crossed. It doesn't pay much but it is money coming in, not going out. I will find out in about a week.

On another note, I had my hair cut today(before my interview) for the first time in 5 months. I feel so light now. Before I looked like a refugee from the 70's. My hair stylist asked if I really wanted to cut since it looked so nice. YES! Before my natural wave to my hair sets in while drying it was just passed my shoulders. It was driving me nuts.

The Kabbalah Center job I interviewed for they haven't made a decision yet, since one of the people who interviewed me is on vacation. So there is still a chance on that one. Tomorrow I have an interview at Target. I prefer the first one of course, but Target wouldn't be bad. I would have to get use to working all hours though. Other than that not much going on.

I had an interview today for a job. Actually, I interviewed with two people for a job I didn't originally applied for but they thought I would be better for than the job I applied for originally. Confused yet. Apparently when I applied the HR person thought I would be better suited for another position they had open, a sort traffic manager for there production unit. A person to organize there current chaos. I can do that! It's at the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles. The job pays in my price range, the only bad part of it is it doesn't have health insurance. And if I wanted to take the Red Line and then ride the rest of the way to work on my bike they are cool with that. They will pay for the transportation cost. It helps that the HR person use to take long bike rides with a friend back in Germany.

The head of the production department liked me and the HR person liked me. At least I thought so. Keep your fingers crossed since I have now exhausted my unemployment. And I have applied everywhere I can think of.

Last year for the AIDS ride I became a 'Training Ride Leader' a person who leads training rides. This year they have mentor TRL's or as we call them 'Super TRL's. We mentor the new TRL's through the process of becoming a TRL. So this Saturday at the ride kickoff in Griffith Park I've been assigned a newbie. This time around they just watch what we due, next ride they get involved by doing the safety speech and finally they do the whole deal. I help them along the way. We shall see how it goes. Especially since coyotes in Griffith Park have become bold and are chasing people either jogging or riding. Should be a lovely morning in and around the park. Since it's a beginner ride it's only 12 miles by the zoo, Travel Town and out onto Forest Lawn Dr(Hollywood Hills)to Barham and by Warner Bros and Disney Studios, plus the equestrain center and back into the park.

I'm bored. Not that this is different from other times I have stated I was bored. I'm just bored. I don't feel like watching college football for long periods of time. Although I probably will watch the USC game later. Cooking shows make me hungry. Although I did see a fast pizza crust done on Sara Moulton's show this afternoon, but now I want grilled pizza. Oh well!

I took an old milk bottle back to Gelsons this morning to get $1.25 recycling fee back. Then I headed over to the 99 cent store to get paper plates so we could feed the cats on something in the upcoming week. Parking lot was jam packed. Then I headed over to Ralphs to get a 1/2 gallon of milk, then I was out of money. I have now used all of my dollar coins I had gotten over the years at the Ren Faire. Being unemployed is the pitts. Hopefully, this new temp agency I interviewed at this week will have something for me.

Earlier this week I rode my bike up to my credit union to deposit my unemployment check because I don't have enough gas to get up there in back. Since I live in the Valley and my credit union is up in Montrose it's aways. It's 11 miles by freeway and just under 15 by bike each way. The big problem was the weather. I started just before 9 am, and the temp went up really fast. Did I mention most of the way to the credit union is uphill. On the way home, which was downhil, YEAH!, I ran out of water and my Gatorade was getting low. It was really, really hot. So I had to stop at 7-11 for a drink. It perked me up and I got home. But I was tired and overheated. I sat in cold water in the bathtub. The weather channel said it was 97 degrees. I told MB not to let me do that again in that type of weather. It wouldn't have been that bad if it was cooler. Plus I was riding my older hybrid, it's a lot heavier than my road bike. I figured it would be good crosstraining and when I got on my roadbike it would be like riding on a feather.

To all who are thinking why don't I just change my credit union. I like the credit union, they know me there. My family has had accounts there it seems like forever. My parents opened my account when I was about 9 or 10 before it was opened to the public at large and not just Glendale area teachers. Plus it's free. Usually it's not a bother getting up there, it's just lately it's been a problem.

That's my adventures this week.

Well I didn't get that job, but I may qualify for another job that they just posted. Keep your fingers crossed that I get a call back for the other job. It's just so much of a let down when they tell you you aren't qualified and thank you. They are apparently getting a lot of resumes from people from other fields that are trying to get a job. It's a very tough job market out there.