Archive for June, 2007
My cat, Oyster, likes to get inside any room if the door is closed. Either the front door, the attic door, the basement door, the bathroom door - he doesn’t care. If the door is closed, he wants to know why.
So, when he went missing for about 24 hours, I figured that he had escaped outside. I called for him all around the yard, I put out catnip, I waited and waited. I also called his name around the attic, the basement, and under all the couches. I couldn’t find the little guy!
Finally, one of my roomates came home and I asked him if he had seen oyster. He responded, “Yeah, I just let him out of the basement.” I ran downstairs to see my cat looking like a disaster and he was shaking all of his paws and licking them. There was some gook all over him, he was trying to lick off.
Well, there used to be a mice problem in the basement and my roomate had put glue traps down there and never took them out. Oyster had gotten himself in all of the glue traps and was one big gluey mess!
His paws were the worst, but he managed to get it all over himself. He kept shaking his legs and licking to try to get it off. He looked so sad and distressed. Yet at the same time it was hilarious.
SO after a quick google search, I grab some vegetable oil and drench him in it. Amazingly enough he sat very still in my lap while I soaked him with the oil and tried to pull off the glue. Really I was drenching more of it on myself but oh well. I was mainly concerned about him licking the glue and getting sick or poisoned.
But after a couple days he was looking a bit better. Most of the glue had come off and he didn’t get sick at all. He kept shaking his paws for a while though. And now he stays out of the darn basement!
June 24th, 2007
animals, life
I worked at the service desk of a grocery store on summer in Michigan. Among my duties were to tend to the lottery machine and sell scratch offs. It had never occurred to me just how serious some lottery players were.
For example, I was astonished to see a woman buy a $10 scratch off, lose, and then buy 4 consecutive $10 tickets, just to lose all of them. She lost $50 right in front of me.
Then there are the people who play their numbers every week. For whatever reason, these numbers are very significant and will some day help them to win big.
Well, a woman came in and asked for her numbers to be played for a Daily 4. I punched in the wrong numbers by mistake and printed the ticket. She refused to buy it since I had messed up her ticket. So I printed out another ticket with her numbers and she was happy. However, it was policy that every ticket had to be paid for, so I spent my own $1 to buy the botched ticket.
And won $50!
So much for her numbers.
June 23rd, 2007
life
I spent a summer working for a Six Flags in Northern NY when I was 16. It was what all the 16 year olds did since the park was close-by. However, being 16 came with restrictions. I decided to do Rides, but I couldn’t do any ride that went off the ground unless I was 18.
This left me with the kiddie rides. You know, the ponys, mice, motorcycles. Ironically enough, the kids were great - it was the parents that got annoying.
Anyway, there were plenty of us at kiddie rides so they often had us sub for someone in another ride area if they were short. One day volunteers were asked for the swan boats, and I thought that sounded like a good idea. Granted I had never done this before at all.
The idea behind the ride was this: There is a long, slow, motor boat (5mph) that seats 30 people or so. There is a swan on the back that the operator sits in with a stick to move the boat right and left. The boat goes slowly down this little river that flows through the park, there is a turnaround at the end, then it comes back and the ride is over. It lasts about fifteen minutes and is a favorite of families and older people.
So the girls trained me. I took the boat down with another girl a few times and once by myself. Then they opened the ride and people boarded my boat. I gave them the spiel about not jumping out, then I took off the rope, sat in the swan, switched the motor on with my foot (like i was told to!) and took off.
We went around the turn around and I, amazingly, didnt get stuck (its more shallow) and the first ride was going really well. We come back to the dock and I throw the rope to one of the girls and turn the motor off with my foot.
The motor doesn’t turn off.
“Turn it off!” “It is off!” “Use your foot!” “It’s off!” “Well, I can’t pull you in - you have to go again!”
So, everyone gets a free ride. And the second entire ride was done while the motor was in the “off” position - although still running. The passengers were kinda confused and some of the guys tried to look inside the swan to see if they could help. I just kinda laughed and said “this is my first swan boat run.”
When we came back for the second time, a maintenance guy was on the dock and he was able to pull the boat over while it was still running. Everyone got off the boat and it was fine. The girls were all yelling at me but I just shrugged.
What happened was that even though we were trained to use our feet to switch the motor on and off, that is not the right way and the switch just wore out and broke. Great. And, of course, that was the first time it ever happened on the swan boats.
And they never asked me to do swan boats again.
June 22nd, 2007
life
My twenty year old niece, Ashley, was living in Virginia Beach with her fiance. But they were going through some trouble and she wanted to move closer to her family in NY. He was going to drive her up to NY, but she thought that would be weird. So, jokingly, I told her I would pick her up from Michigan and drive her to NY. We laughed.
Two days later she asked me to pick her up.
The next day I left Lansing, MI and started my journey to Virginia Beach. I took advice and avoided DC by going South through Ohio into West Virginia, then East all the way across Virginia.
West Virginia
To my surprise, West Virginia was absolutely stunning! The mountains were beautiful and the curves and geography and everything was beautiful I really enjoyed driving through it. The only stereotypical thing I ran into, was when I stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom.
Three farmer-type guys in their 50s were loitering around the counter and glared at me when I walked in. I asked if there were bathrooms and was handed a huge key and told “round back”. I found my way to one door with one rarely-used yet somehow filthy toilet and a little sink. I did my business, brought the key back, and made my way back to the highway. Harmless of course, just not quite a quick check!
Virginia
By the time I made it to Virginia, I had been driving for about 13 hours straight, alone. It was also 9pm and storming so hard I couldn’t see the road in front of me. The roads were still curvy and mountainous and of course I had no cell phone reception. I started to panic because the road was getting emptier and just as hard to see. And seeing lightning and fog over a mountain is not fun when you’re tired and by yourself.
So, I manage to get off at an exit and stop in at the first hotel, which is of course full. The woman gives me directions to other ones, but pointed to all these back roads. At this point it was still raining so hard I couldn’t read road signs.
I did what any other girl would do, I sat in my car and cried. I called my niece and asked her to come pick me up. Granted, I was 3 hours away from her. After an hour, the rain had finally died down and I managed to take these back roads to another hotel that did have vacancy. I rested. The next day was clear. And I finished my trip.
Now, it’s just a coincidence that my sister lives in Virginia Beach as well. A sister who I hadn’t seen since I was 9 years old. When I was in Ohio, I left her a message, “Hi! I’ll be in Virginia Beach tomorrow. We should try to get together.” She had no idea about the trip at all and was ecstatic for us to get together! It was great to see her too!
The next day my niece and I head out to finish the journey to NY. Once we crossed the chesapeake bay bridge/tunnel, she took over driving.
NY
Somehow we mistakenly believed that the NJ turnpike would take you right to 87N. Well, it does, but you have to cross the George Washington Bridge first.
At this point in time I am driving. And ended up in the express lane. I peer over 12 lanes of traffic and see the sign “I-87 Keep Right”. In bumper-to-bumper traffic, before I was used to driving in that, I go into panic mode and keep my blinker on as I cross two lanes in the express lane, illegally cross over into the local lane, then cross 5 lanes there. I didn’t breathe at all until we were over the Tapanzee.
From 87 on it was a breeze.
And to sum up the rest of the time: five days later I drove down to NJ to visit some friends, then took one friend and we drove back to MI, stayed there a night, then drove back to NJ where I had planned to move to. Two weeks later, another friend and I flew out to MI, packed up a moving truck and drove back to NJ.
And I haven’t driven more than 3 hours for a road trip since.
All the pics: http://lintacious.com/gallery/v/places/roadtrip
June 21st, 2007
life, travel
