..so.. I might be converting...

That's right!! You read it here first folks!

After years of scoffing at the clown-like styling and dorky appearance of DaimlerChrysler's Smart Car and more recently, risking my life in the hills of Mykonos, Greece in that semi-automatic monstracity... I must admit, they have finally come up with a model that is toooo cute for words... and could sway.. even the likes of me!

Now.. don't get it twisted. I am not suggesting that I'm rushing out today to do a trade in... but let's just say when or rather if my granola-save-the-earth persona ever kicks into 5th gear, I might be more than tempted to pick one of these cute autos up. C'mon.. its PINK!!!

Back on the grid!

Yes you read that correctly! I have a new cell phone. Its sleek, cute and so very pink. Oh, and it plays iTunes too. I feel so futuristic. But most important of all it fits in any purse weightlessly. I can't help but love this phone!!! I'm armed and dangerous now. I won't be carelessly dropping this phone.. yeah.. I didn't even believe that.. how about I'll try harder not to drop this phone as much I did with my dearly departed RAZR. yeah.. I'll buy that.

So that was the good news. savour it... done? okay onto other matters..

The not so good news is that apparently my former cell phone in its mangled state, could not be resuscitated long enough to load my address book onto my new phone. *sigh *

Okay, so what does this mean for you? Hmm.. well its actually quite simple. If you would like me to have your number stored on my cell phone, or rather if you do not want me to have a really good excuse that I will use profusely for never calling you, call my cellphone over the next few days from your various phone lines and leave a quick message so that I can save off missed calls to my address book. As an added bonus the first 10 callers will get a personalized ringtone (iTunes baby) of their choice on my phone.

(Hey, I work in marketing,so I can't help but throw in an extra incentive of some sort! Don't judge me! :-P)

when 1 becomes 2...

Freedom means choosing your burden. ~Hephzibah Menuhin

As many of you may or may not realize... my sleek yet highly abused Motorola Razr phone is defunct, kaput, finito --I'm talking smithereens people (evidence featured below). Yeah.. the short story is that the other day it slipped out of my hands for the upmteenth time, hitting the ground sending pieces everywhere.

This poses a few issues for me...
1. I am forced, or rather more than moderately behooved, to be on time or close to one time since I do not have the ready ability to call in route to say "hey I'm running late..."
2. I have very few phone numbers memorized thanks to the modern technology of my cell phone's digital address book. Hence if you haven't heard from me within the last week, this debacle is likely the culprit.
3. While I can still check voice mail, alas, I cannot track missed calls.. so for those of you who have been cursing my name for unacknowledged miss calls.. well shame on you... my cell phone as you can see is not in peak condition.

Surprisingly, the absence of a cell phone in my daily routine has been quite, shall I say liberating? As I'm not worried about making sure its gets charged up at night or whether its in close proximity to me so that I can answer when it rings, or whether the ring tone set to silent, vibrate or my classic "1000 miles" (Vanessa Carlton).

So its been almost 1 week since my phone went out of commission. Part of my delay in ordering a replacement is the labour I must exert to renegotiate the terms of my new phone. But the other side is that, I am not quite sure that I am ready to give up my new found freedom. Which is ironic all in itself as wireless telephone service is thought to be an ultimate freedom of sorts... Eh, who I am to go WITH the grain? :-) Another few days off the grid won't hurt.

We must be free not because we claim freedom,
but because we practice it. ~William Faulkner

.... a different perspective..

Typically, my blog posts are relatively light hearted musings from my random thoughts.. but fans, today I'd thought I'd share an e-mail I recently recieved from my friend Tam who is currently working in Iraq. It truly gave me a different perspective on life in Iraq.

***************************
Hello! I finally got a chance to come up for air. I am in Northern Iraq- Kurdistan right now.

My flight was cancelled so I had an entire unplanned day. I thought I would write you an email to tell you about Northern Iraq because if you watch the news- you would think the whole country was a bomb.

Iraqis take Fridays off-- the stores close and up here they all drive to the country and picnic. So yesterday It was beautiful Friday in the Spring- no shopping- no stores were open. In the North there are beautiful grassy mountains, flowers, streams, not unlike the US.

So we drove to the country to see these famous picnickers. I had always heard about this- but until I saw it for my own eyes- I had no idea. All of Erbil was out in the country having a picnic! Seriously every patch of the road side and country side was full of families picnicking. Their picnic include dancing, drinking tea, eating, playing games, children playing etc.

We went to this beautiful gully and crashed someone’s wedding. They made me Dance the Kurdish line dance and I am now in someone’s wedding video. “Oh who’s that- some American that showed up out of the blue”. They love Americans more than Americans do.

They salute us- they tell us how much they love us because we freed them from Saddam. So as an American- you are like a celebrity. We then found another picnic in a different area- and the guide decided we should invite ourselves for tea. Again- you would have thought I was Royalty- or president Bush himself- they made a huge deal about catering to me, preparing a special carpet and pillow for me to sit on etc. They took photos, video taped me etc. Maybe it was the red hair—who knows.

Today I helped the military hand out candy to kids on the street. This was my first experience walking around with the military- the Kurds love the military! Everyone came out to the street to wave and say hello. We were offered rides by everyone. What an experience! I had no idea that America was actually appreciated! and these military guys really do want to help the people here. They are here not because they are forced or because they have nothing else to do, but because they truly want to help the people here. It is refreshing. I've met so many military that are highly educated and left their jobs to come to Iraq because they believe in the cause.

After being in the North and seeing these people who were once tormented by a dictator- dancing around and eating Dolma in peace-- does give hope to the rest of the country.

Anyway- just thought I would share a few tid bits-other than the car bomb stories and civil war that you hear on CNN- hope all is well with you all!

... its a holiday damn it!

Happy Birthday to me!
How joyous it be
To party like a rockstar
& still look 23! ;-)

In case you didn't know, April 24th is an official unofficial holiday recognized by uuber cool people ALL around the globe!!! Be sure to take your well deserved time off and enjoy the day!

Things I know for sure...

- House plants of any type will commit suicide when in my care (yes this includes cacti).

- Karoyoke is the BEST contribution modern society since the phonograph.

- Winter months are too damned long.

- Pajama pants in public are not cute.

- Working out is NOT fun, but necessary.

- When you shoot someone accidentally regardless of who you are there should at least be police led investigation.

- Sharpies are the BEST markers ever...and they smell really good too!

- Laws should be applied equally for all citizens.

- It is generally not a good idea to drink and hunt... you might accidentally shoot a friend.

- Oprah Winfrey is a superhero.

- Nate Berkus is a hottie.

- Curling is NOT a sport!

nothing tastes as good as being skinny feels...except

have you heard that saying before? Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. I think its complete bullsh@*!!!

First of all, only an overweight or morbidly obese person who becomes suddenly skinny could truly feel this way... or maybe not maybe its more of a battlecry for those on the other side of the eating disorder community. I contend that there must be plenty of things that taste as good as skinny feels if not we wouldn't have an obesity epidemic here in the good ole USA.

ahem.. so I have for you a list...

Things that probably taste as good as skinny feels...

• A fresh out the oven Krispy Kreme glazed donut
• A jumbo slice of authentic NYC pizza complete with extra cheese
• Fresh from the oven, piping hot cinnabon with extra icing
• Baked macaroni and cheese (made with 3 or more cheeses)
• Hot apple pie with large scoop of natural vanilla ice cream
• Candy Corn
• Hot corned beef/pastrami sandwich from Katz Deli with half sour pickles on the side
• Birthday Cake (whether its a costco sheet cake or a gourmet creation its always delish)
• Cheetos
• Fresh from the oven chocolate chip cookies
• Fried calamari
• Starbucks cinnamon dolce latte ~grande, whole milk, extra whip (I have yet to have one but it just looks like its worth the extra 20 minutes on the treadmill)
• Hot, fresh baked bread of any kind with butter ...real butter not that butter like spread crap
• Strawberry lemonade

My skinny and not so skinny blog fans please feel free add to this list...

disturbing trend..

Here in the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area I have noticed a very disgusting trend. At first, I thought it was just something that the teens were into, but I have noticed that the 20 somethings seem to ahere to this practice as well... "wearing pajamas in public". ***boggle***

Now I know some of you are rolling your eyes with your fingers on the key board ready to blast me and saying something to the effect, "ummm.. Bee...didn't Michael Jackson walk into court a few months ago wearing his ...ahem...pajama bottoms?" To all of you out there you are thinking that I say, "just because I groove to the hip melodic beats of Michael Jackson and the extended Jackson clan doesn't mean that I condone him or anyone else leaving their home in david and goliath pj bottoms. Its just not right even when the King of Pop does it". But I'm still a fan .. so there. :-P

I just don't get it. Its bad enough that you obviously rolled out of bed and into the public domain. But is it really necessary to exclaim to the world that you did so. I was especially disgusted at the gym the other day when I looked up the from the hip adbuctor weight machine to be eye to eye with this grunting, sweaty, overgrown teen who was yes, working out in his pajama bottoms. eewwww. I seriously had to quickly divert my attention to the television monitors to avoid gagging from the site. eewww.

Pajama bottoms in public.. I dunno...it just bugs me. What's so hard about slipping on a pair of jeans or sweats to give the illusion of cleanliness and proper hygiene? Its just another thing to add to the list of depictions of sheer laziness at its best...

this man scares me..

THIS MAN SCARES ME!!!

You may recognize him from those late night infomercials where he is shouting excitedly about millions of dollars of government money that's allegedly yours for the taking.

As many of you know I have a STRONG adversion to people in costume, stiltwalkers, clowns, Elmo, Big Bird... live & in person they all freak me out. This guy is no exception. He frequents my local coffee shop quite often, and yes each time I have seen him he is wearing one of those crazy question mark outfits. HE FREAKS ME OUT. He even has a mini cooper that he parks outside of the coffee shop... its pimped out in orange with black question marks all over it. **boggle**

The last time I went to get coffee and saw him in there, we made eye contact and he raised one of his bushy eyebrows at me. I got scared and ran out burning myself with the hot coffee that splashed on my hands accordingly.

Could it be I stayed away too long?

Hey Folks! I'm still here.. alive and kicking.

Ahem.. I am forced make a special shout out to kgreen who introduced me to a very cool, yet addictive web treat. Seriously, if you are a music lover or even a music liker you will quickly become addicted to this site. But please, finish reading my entry before you skip over there... its been a while since you've heard from me. :-)

So anyway, don't let this part of my writings dissuade you, but while fooling around on the aforementioned site I couldn't get my ultimate favorite song to play.

"Hold On" by Wilson Philips.

I absolutely love this song! It is truly the best song ever written. Every hero needs a theme song. "Hold on" is mine. I play it before I go to the gym... I play it in my mind to talk me out of a tasty starbucks grande caramel latte.. I play it in my mind every morning before I start working... If I were Popeye that "Hold on" would be my spinach. If I were Superman.. "Hold on" would be red kryptonyte... If I were a big mac.. yes you got it.. "Hold on" would be that very special sauce.. you get the picture.

Actually don't really sing it that often, I was more than mildly exaggerating there. I truly only sing/listen to it maybe a few times a year. But I think I might be more motivated and productive if I did incorporate it into my daily ritual. I'll get back to you on that.. I'll let you know how it goes.

Okay enough about me.. not really.. but I'm sure you are ready to check out the site.. here it is.. enjoy.. let me know what you think!

www.pandora.com

For those of you not familiar with "Hold on" by Wilson Philips.. SHAME ON YOU... here are the lyrics so you can get your "slamming, classic, hits from the early 90s merit badge"...

I know there's pain

Why do lock yourself up in these chains?

No one can change your life except for you

Don't ever let anyone step all over you

Just open your heart and your mind

Is it really fair to feel this way inside?

Chorus:

Some day somebody's gonna make you want to

Turn around and say goodbye

Until then baby are you going to let them

Hold you down and make you cry

Don't you know?

Don't you know things can change

Things'll go your way

If you hold on for one more day

Can you hold on for one more day

Things'll go your way

Hold on for one more day

You could sustain

Or are you comfortable with the pain?

You've got no one to blame for your unhappiness

You got yourself into your own mess

Lettin' your worries pass you by

Don't you think it's worth your time

To change your mind?

(Chorus)

I know that there is pain

But you hold on for one more day and Break free the chains

Yeah I know that there is pain

But you hold on for one more day and you

Break free, break from the chains

Some day somebody's gonna make you want to

Turn around and say goodbye

Until then baby are you going to let them

Hold you down and make you cry

Don't you know?

Don't you know things can change

Things'll go your way

If you hold on for one more day yeah

If you hold on

Don't you know things can change

Things'll go your wayIf you hold on for one more day,

If you hold on

Can you hold on

Hold on baby

Won't you tell me now

Hold on for one more day 'Cause

It's gonna go your way

Don't you know things can change

Things'll go your way

If you hold on for one more day

Can't you change it this time

Make up your mind

Hold on

Hold on

Baby hold on