10 years!

A day late, but Weiland has turned 10 years old!! Woo-hoo! May you survive another 10 with me. :D

The Scorpion King Part 2

So how is it that my life is SO full of responsibilities takes almost a month for me to get back posting a blog? Well, the sequel is always more disappointing than the original, so here we go.

I wake up from this nap of my about 11 p.m. The next day my roommate was going to move in. I was still feeling groggy, but I wanted to get his room cleaned out so I started moving stuff out. All is going well until I decide to move my exercise ball. I carried it in front of me and I couldn't see when I feel this painfully familiar burning feeling again, but this time in my foot. I thought it could possibly be a joke, but I turn around and there is the little bastard whipping his tail around in circles. He didn't kill me the first time, a mistake I'm sure he means to correct. I scramble to shoo the dogs away since this is my fight. Mano a mano. We have a bit of a staredown and I decide I'm so brave I'm going to throw a tissue over him to blind him and them scoop him up. His tail is still swishing back and forth, but I do manage to grab him. I'm a fool and decide to take a peek at him and my anger quickly fades away to sadness. His tail is slowed down and had fallen, the light fades from his eye, his pincher hands have stopped pinching. Shocking as this may be, I outweigh the guy by a ton or so, so I ended up squishing him when I stepped on him and he gave my one last stab. At last, my friend, we are even.

I toss his remain in the garbage outside and call my sis to tell her what terrible luck I have had. She tells me to go back to the emergency room. Clearly I'm allergic to the venom, and I still have the dose from a few hours earlier wandering around, so I might react more harshy this time. I call up my gal pal Leah and request a ride this time, which she graciously gives. Let me tell ya, the ER isn't exactly hoppin at midnight on a Thursday, so the staff was very amused that I was stung twice not only within hours of each other, but by the same scorpion. Again I'm given the field sobriety test, pumped full of drugs, and left for observation for a few hours. Luckily Leah was with me this time, so the time passed quickly. At about 2:30 I was released and went home and passed out for the next day and a half.

You see, dear readers, I don't need to leave my house to find drama, I seem to come across it when I stay home as well. :)

The Scorpion King art 1

As may of you have heard by now, I was brutally attacked Thursday night. So there I was, sitting on my couch, finishing up a homework assignment for my evening class. I felt a small tickle on the back of my arm. Its starting to get pretty hot in AZ these days, and share this common trait with my lab in that we both shed excessively in the heat, so I figured it was one of many hundred hairs that was stopped mid-flight and stuck on my arm. I casually brush it away only to feel a burning sensation the back of my arm. I looked down since I was confused as to why my own hair would burn my, when this mighty midget comes marching around my arm to confront his attacker. It was a scorpion. Scorpions aren't known to attack people unless threatened, but this little sucker broke into my house, scaled my couch and then my body, yet he looked me up and down like I was the bad guy. I had my best poker face on as I devised my plan to creep into the kitchen to fetch a paper tail and remove the intruder tail first. I made it about halfway when I apparently flinched during the staring contest because he turned around and went back to the back of my arm. No worries, or so I thought. I took about two more steps when I feel him take a left turn and go under my sleeve and climb into my armpit. Ok, now I'm panicking. He's making his way down my side, and I happen to be wearing my "fat" jeans. From what I know about scorpions I know he only needs the slot a size of a credit card to get where he wants to go, so the one inch gap around my waist was more than enough for him to slide through. Now I know many of have seen the recent movie clip of Hillary Duff in War, Inc where she drops a scorpion in her underwear and dances around as though it turns her on. If I were Brett Michaels, I might try this out as well to see if I agree, but I am not. I figure I'm going to be stung a second time, but I need to get the scorpion off my me, so I decide I'll just whip my t-shirt off.

Ok, I just feel like there needs to be another paragraph here, not because its appropriate writing, but the last one was way to long. So, I rip my shirt off and toss it to the ground, and luckily to not get stung again. I shake my shirt out to try and find the sucker, and he's not there. I start looking around for him because I'd like him to leave, and can't find him. My computer was on so I messaged my sister about what happened and how I was just going to write it off and go to class, but she suggests calling the doctor. The nurse who answers tells me I need to get to the emergency room asap to find out if I'm allergic to the venom. Fine. I call the front office of my class to tell them I will not be there, and the woman who answers immediately goes into a frenzy naming off potential side effects. Can I see? Yes. Can I breathe? Yes. Am I naseous? No. Do I have a ride? No. So she tells me if I choose to start driving myself to pull over if I feel strange at all and to call 911 as certain venom can take a person out very quickly. Well isn't this fantastic news. So what do I do? I proceed to try and hunt down my assassin because if I'm dying, he's going down with me. After several minutes my voice of reason kicks in (a.k.a. my sister) and says to forget my enemy for now and get myself to the hospital. I curse his name outloud since I'm sure he's still around and can hear me, grab another shirt, and drive myself to the ER.

Unlike most people's experiences, I only wait 1-2 minutes before escorted back to the doctor. First I get asked if I got a good look at my attacker. I did. I'm asked to describe him carefully. I look around for the sketch artist, to make sure I give him every detail, but my guess is he's behind the one way mirror. Then I get asked a serious of unrelated question (Does my boyfriend beat me, do I prefer coke or pepsi, etc) and then start doing an equivalent of a field sobriety test. In the middle of this test I notice I'm having trouble focusing and my head is a bit cloudy. Oh great. I'm drunk. Not so, it seems. The attacker I described is the only known scorpion in these parts that is poisonous and it seems he got me. There is good news and bad news in this. The good news is they classify symptoms from level 1-5. I'm a level one, so I should be fine...for now. The bad news is that it can take 4-6 hours for the more severe symptoms to develop, so I will be kept in a petri dish for observation. If I happen to hit a level 4 or 5 they have a new experimental anti-venom drug from Mexico that hasn't been cleared for use, but they feel strongly that it is effective. Right. For the next few hours I sit on a hospital bed doped up out of my mind. My stomach is doing backflips and it feels like the scorpion is running laps from my elbow to my shoulder. Apparently this is fine, but if he makes a break for my wrist or chest it means I've jumped up a few levels. Eventually they are satisfied that the worst has passed, but to watch myself the next few hours and to come back if something out of the ordinary occurs. I drive the one mile back home and collapse on my couch for some much needed rest. Actually, I could really use some sleep right now so I'll just call this part 1 and finish it up a different time. Good night, all. :)

The start of a new decade...

If you didn't know this already, I crossed over the twenty something line on Christmas Eve this past year. It was a joyous week of celebration where I made a great new friend, enjoyed the company of my mother for a few weeks, and completed a lot of the "to do" stuff I have been putting off. I don't feel any different being 30, but coincidentally I have a lot of big changes happening this year. If I can actually commit to writing on here, I will keep you posted on all the new experiences this year brings. Cheers!

Well its been a long time

I've been bouncing around the internet world for awhile. I've had a year long affair with myspace, but its lost its appeal. Every person in the world can track you down there, so I'm trying to come back old friend, even though I'm not great about writing. The only thing I've learned in the past year is that Scott Baio is 45 and single, which means he has a girlfriend, but isn't married. How does this equate to being single? Inquiring minds want to know...

Past memories

So I should have posted this a few weeks ago, but I'm lazy, and then I forgot, but I saw something today that reminded me of how silly/strange people are. So, lets rewind back to January. I heard a song on the radio, and I'm like hrm..thats pretty good. I did a search on Itunes and was able to find it and some other songs. The band's name? 30 Seconds to Mars. Ever heard of them? Yeah most people haven't. Anyways, about a month ago I was browsing upcoming concerts and saw that they were coming to town, and that tickets were only $15. Score! So, I decided to take Luis for his birthday. I decided to read up on this band since I didn't know anything about them and discover that Jared Leto (aka Jordon Catelano from My So Called Life) is the lead singer. I was stunned just because I can't think of any actor who has successfully launched a music career. Now, I feel the need to list out solo acts that never made it; Bruce Willis, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Don Johnson, and Eddie Murphy. Has anyone ever bought a Bacon Brothers (Kevin Bacon) CD, or Dogstarr (Keanu Reeves). Nope. So, anyways, yes, stunned. Now forward to concert night. I have a good buzz going on, I bust through towards the front of the crowd. How did I do it? I was looking for my "friend" Julia. Anyways, it was a great show, so i'm like, ok, I'll go do the meet and greet thing. I'm frantically texting my sister to think of what to say (liquor = mind numbness) and she says to ask if his passion is in music or acting. Simple enough. So I cruise through the band, actually stopping and chatting with Shannon (his bro) for a bit. Nothing significant, but I like him. Plus he's wearing eyeliner and I'm a sucker for guys with eyeliner. Anyways I make it down to J.man and he doesn't really look at me, so I sort of shove my CD in front of him. I say "This is the point where I ask you something profound, right?" And he said "No, please don't". Well I'm drunk, but I'm thinking well my questions really isn't that difficult, so I ask him if he prefers acting or singing. He does give me direct eye contact this time, now lets freeze frame this moment. I've never thought Jared was attractive. Well, I mean, I could tell he is attractive, but he's very pretty, and I don't do the clean look. And for those of you who don't know, here are some definitions from the K.Love dictionary. Clean (as in reference to a person) - Nicely groomed hair, clean-shaven, dresses to impress, lots of times falls into the metro category. Dirty (as in reference to a person) - usually has facial hair, piercings, tattoos, dark hair, and tends to wear all black or dark colors. May wear eyeliner or nail polish. Anyways, now that Jared is a musician he has darkened his hair, wears all black, and yes, lots of eyeliner that makes his baby blues pop. He's more my type of guy now, but judging by all the US I read I know this is just for the stage and he's more clean in his day to day life. Anyways, now that reality is moving again he says "It really doesn't matter does it because I don't have any talent". Then he sort of tosses the CD at me and turns away. I was a bit stunned. Was he looking for sympathy? No, I believe he was intentionall being a jerk. Now the liquor wanted me to say "Well that may be true, but thats not what I asked you", but my mind said "Get your ass out the door before security carries you away". So that was it. Anyways, time has passed and I resumed my listening of their music. I received notice that they apparently put out this new video, so I give it a watch. Now its actually a pretty cool video, sort of The Shining feeling, but there is this one part where Jared runs into himself, and they appear to be singing at each other, and then simultaneously scream at each other. I laughed out loud. It looked quite silly. Its hard to explain. Its just one of those things you need to see. Anyways, Jared thanks for the laugh, but I still think you are a jerk.

A word about the gym...

So I hate working out, but I like the gym because this is how you see people for how they really look. They don't care about clothes, hair, or make-up. Well, except for this lady a few weeks ago who came in with full on makeup and huge 80's hair. I actually got up and moved across the gym because the smell of AquaNet and perfume was making me sick. She even worked out with a personal trainer. Of course, the way she lifted weights is the way I lift peas up to my mouth that are on a fork..slowly and cautiously so as not to cause a disturbance in the force.

Well, my fun this day was this girl jogging in front of me. I didn't really notice her at first, but then I looked at her and noticed about every 5 seconds her pants would fall half way down and would expose her *sexy* black thong. Now I have always been against the spandex movement, and actually against the size 2 girls who wear size 0 jeans and somehow manage to make it look like they have a fat roll, but wear clothes that fit and don't literally fall off you body. I watched here in this weird jogging situation for about 1/2 an hour. I was mortified since, although not a plump girl, she should not be showing her thong let alone RUNNING in it. Sheesh!

Well hi!

Oh yes I didn't realize I had fallen off the face of the earth for so much time. I think I just got lazy. Its been a long, grueling day at the office and I'm ready to take off shortly, but thought I'd practice typing again. I'm nursing a sprained foot from Saturday's fun at the Music Festival. I got to hear G.Love and Train, but ended up spending most of my time in the port-a-pottie line. At least it had a view of the stage. In my drunken happiness I sort of slid across the sidewalk, spared my ankle, but mangled my foot. Such is me..such is life. Cheers!

Happy Tuesday

So I haven't seen any hearts or flowers yet today, which is nice. I have however received some online cards and lovely texts. Not much news in the way of Kristie's world. Only 2 more days and I will be with some of my buds I haven't seen in awhile in the city of Austin. Hooray for..uh...what is Texas famous for? Death Penalty? Ribs? Well I hope for the best. Everyone have a great president's day weekend.

In response to Captain Jack's 2/7/06 post which can be found here: http://markzak.com/blog.asp

Hrm, I typically make it a point not share my views on anything people are willing to start wars and/or die for, but I am a walking contradiction, so I never make any sense.
This whole "freedom of speech" comes from a document that governs the U.S. only, not any other country. While I too am all for it, I don't really expect a lot of the rest of the world to adopt or understand it since there are places where women are forced to still cover there faces or people (yes men too) are fined a rediculous some of money if they don't vote. (That last point might cause an uproar, but in the U.S. voting is a right, not a requirement).
That aside, I assume these people that are rioting are looking at this from a religious aspect. I think most if not all religious groups actively speak out against anything that may poke fun at their beliefs. Religion is basically a foundation most of these people have built a life upon, unlike in the U.S. where I think there is a lot of apathy and people look at sunday service as an obligation or a burden, not something necessary, like lets say eating. Remember when the Last Temptation of Christ came out? The Catholic church through a fit and tried to stop it from ever hitting theatres. Or more recently, the Da Vinci code. Again, this book was readily attacked by the Catholic church who would have, I'm sure, stopped its publication were it invading the writer's freedom of speech. JC to these folks is like a father figure, so to speak. If I were to write a book about him eating people, and it gets published as a work of fiction because clearly (i hope) it isn't true, I think you'ld be slightly hocked off at me.
I suppose my point is I understand why they are mad. Heck, Republicans get mad at political cartoons published by liberal papers and yell "false!" all the time. I do think it seems silly in our eyes because they are reacting in violent ways. Keep in mind they are in countries where unfortunately your voice isn't heard unless you make a big fuss. I'd say that we in the U.S. are just as guilty of this silly behavior, but we pick money over violence and are incredibly sue happy. You get burned by coffee? Sue! Somebody said you have an eating disorder? Sue because you have a rep to maintain!
There we go, thats my 2 cents. :)

El beste del oeste!

You look confused. Yes, so am I. I'm on day three of having my house ripped apart. The drilling isn't so bad, but I've noticed the mariachi has slowly gotten louder. Today is a fun new addition, as one of the workers (even as I type) is singing along in his falsetto voice. After hearing Pemma talk about them, I have invested in a pair of noise reduction headphones to help ease my pain. They do work, however I must remove my newly purchased armor when I go to the restroom, go outside, or go anywhere in general. The lead dude has informed me that they will be done tomorrow, and next week the carpet will be changed. Its a different group of workers, so I'm curious as to what musical I'll be exposed to.

Aside from being annoyed, and now retardly broke, I have yet ANOTHER trip coming up. Yes folks, I am looking for that new town to move to, since I started to get that scared "omg..I don't want to be here for the rest of my life" feeling. Up next I'll be going to Austin with some of my closest friends from Cali and Maryland. Now, its been quite some time since this group has gotten together. These were the guys I hung out with back when I was completely insane. I'm now moderately sane thanks to medication. ;) Ok, I really have no idea what I'm talking about anymore. *sigh*

Welcome back, Kristie!

Well its been a few weeks, but now I'm back in AZ. I went on vacation to San Jose for a few weeks to visit the fam, then went down to the New Orleans area with Pemma to volunteer some time for Hurricane Katrina relief for animals. If you have some time, visit bestfriends.org or Best Friend's Network specifically for Hurricane Katrina survivors. Lots of stories to tell from there, I'm trying to find some time to collect my thoughts. Right now its kind of hard though because as I type, my floors are being ripped out. Yes folks, I've decided to do put some new tile and carpet in the house. Its not the entire house, but it is a significant portion. Afterwards I will probably be changing my rediculously bright walls to different and more annoying colors. I'm hoping this makeover will trick my brain into thinking that we've moved again, and I can sit pretty for another year or two. And FYI, I just learned when a telemarketer calls they get REALLY hocked off when you have drills going on the background because you can't hear anything. She actually hung up on me! Ah, fun stuff. Well, back to work (or as much as I can do since its very hard to concentrate).

Don't Trust a Big Butt and a Smile!

What does that mean? Well its just a summary of the past weekend. Friday night I went out for my birthday (which is actually on X-mas Eve). We started off at Ra with 1/2 price sushi and saki bombers. We stayed about 3 hours and my roommate, Brian, and Luis were trashed, but I was fine (thanks to Robb for years of training!) The real fun started at Macayo's. A few other people showed up, and I decided to "act" like I was kissing Pemma. Well it worked, sort of. I threw her back from her chair, cupped her mouth, and was a good 2 inches away. The crowd gasped and she, with her fine laughing skills, starting laughing in my mouth. How is this possible? Its hard to describe, but I could feel the vibration from her laughter. I did not laugh (which was good because I would have dropped her), and that was the end of my show. My roommate ended up suckling on my ear later. Why? Because I told her to go ahead to the club and I'd meet her and she thought I was mad so she was trying to soothe me. I believe she thought she was being sexy, but having a drunk girl slober all over the side of your face is anything but a turn on. Later, Brian fell off of his bar stool. I didn't see why, but I saw the aftermath of friends helping him up so we would not be kicked out. I then helped him finish his tacos (by this I mean grabbing handfuls and shoving it into his mouth) and then it was off to Margarita Rocks. Jen and Mike pumped me full of Vodka, and I was finally in the land of drunkeness. The music was "old school" and this song Poison came on. Brian told me it was Bell Biv Devoe, a group of teens who I had not thought of in years. Then there was a big drunken mess, saying goodbye to samir, eating at Greasy Tony's, and then waking up naked in my room with the TV on. I deduced I had set Brian up in the guest room, was planning to watch TV in mine and was trying to change my clothes, but must have passed out.

The next day, all partied out, I accompanied Jen and Mike to their annual Intel party. I sat and watched this Mardi Gras festivity, although nobody was being festive except my companions. I was happy though, since it was free food and drink. At then end of the night, I stole some masks and noticed the HUGE face outside the building. "How fun would that be to take?" I said. So Mike is all "Lets do it". No, picture this, there is a roundabout with a 6 foot mardi gras face hanging from the top of it. There are 4 valet guys hanging out there, and partygoers all coming out. We pull up in Mike's truck, Jen leads her head out the window and says "Hey, we just want to let you know that we are supposed to take the head". Now, we have no idea if this is company property or the country club property, but the one valet dude looked confused and said "uh..ok". Mike jumps in the back, yanks down the sign, and we take off. It was just like being in high school again (back when I used to steal roadsigns). It was a good laugh that finished off the night.

Ok, that had nothing to do with anything BUT I decided to download the MP3 of Poison. So I estimate at this time these guys were probably around 16 years old, but I was listening to the lyrics, and holy cow are they sexual. My favorite line, however, is when the youngest one sings "Don't trust a big butt and a smile". You know what means? Yes, dear readers, I too an classified as Poison.

Kristielove.com up and running!

Well kind of. Ok, not really, but its better than it was. I posted movie reviews for the following: Assault on Precinct 13, War of the Worlds, George Romero's Land of the Dead, The Skelton Key, Guess Who, I Heart Huckabees, Dukes of Hazzard, Paragraph 175, and yes my favorite, Glitter.

Friday laughs

Well I've managed to make it through another week without too much excitement. So, I encourage everyone to watch Debbie Downer for a pick me up. My favorite line? "By the way, its offical...I can't have children". The delivery of this line is classic. Keep you eye on Horatio Sanz too. He tries to dry up his tears with Mickey waffles. Flawless! (takes a bit of time to load.)

So, over the course of this year, I have lost that sparkle of life people seem to enjoy. I have been, for the most part, a hermit. So what does a girl do? Why chop off all her hair of course! My hairstylist even gasped. I've had her for 3 years now, and while we've played with color, we've never really chopped off this amount of hair. It ended up clogging their little vaccum up. Anyways, after that she put a red base to even out the color, then put a little Manic Panic in to "bring in da funk" a tada! I've gotten nothing but good comments along with "wow, only you can wear that hair and make it look good". (you don't see it here, but in sunlight it looks pink!). So my boring attitude has fallen away with my boring hair, I think. Put the Love back in K.Love, baby. :) 

Walk for Animals! First, thanks to everyone who pledged. Weiland and I raised a little over $300, which equals helping 2 homeless pets! It was a great day FULL of free stuff. Weiland has toys and several boxes of biscuits. I couldn't resist buying this rediculous hat for him. We spent the first hour browsing the stands, eating lunch, and visiting Santa (thats right! Santa in the park!). After some absurd warmup routine we got in the pack near the back, because hey, I walk slow. It was awesome. All the dogs were off, except of course my boy, who got confused and was walking sideways. When we FINALLY made our way, he pulled and made me go fast enough so we were in the lead pack. One lady was like "Wow, he means business!" He's dedicated to walking for his homeless brethren, I suppose. It was a well organized walk, with water stations set up every so often for pooches to stay hydrated. As we rounded the turn, I'm feeling pretty good until I realize we are walking WAY close to the lake. Some girl was like "Don't jump!" and there was Weiland, standing at the edge, eyes all aglow. I actually took note that all the lab owners were pulling their dogs off the edge. Gotta love water dogs. We did find some steps, and when I saw other dog owners letting their dogs in, I let Weiland jump in for a quick swim. Newly refreshed, we finished the race, lounged in the grass for a bit, and headed home for a nice long nap. I unfortunately just realized my official race photo is going to be posted in two days, but I think I threw the website away. No matter, you can see my attempt at capturing this day here: http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=4119026&a=31967262&f=. Thanks for the help everyone!! 

And I'm back!

I'm back from my vacation, and no I did not get the writing done I was planning on, but I got in a lot of staring time with Tobias. It was great. He'd stare at me for an hour, look away for like 2 minutes, and look back at me with a crinkled brow as if saying "who are you?". I get to see him again for x-mas. I'm hoping he'll know how to smile by then because I feel like I bore him.

Other than that all is well. My friend from Iowa, Sarah, came to visit. She didn't have much money, so we only went out of the first night she was here. It was just like old times. Nothing too unusual happened except some guy I gave a good-bye kiss too decided he liked my tongue ring and bit my tongue. I know, makes no sense right? We actually did some landscaping when she was here, and fixed up the house a bit. The yard looks much nicer, and it really showed her there is more to this world than Iowa. Of course I hate to see visitors go, but it will be nice to get a full night of sleep.

Thats all on the news front for now. Events coming up: Walk for the Animals on Sunday! Weiland and I will post photos. Also, Weiland turns 7 on Monday! Make sure to get your birthday cards sent in time!

Oh, boring halloween.

For the first time that I can remember since I've been in AZ did just about everybody I know leave town. No big parties, and no big excitement for this holiday for those of us who stuck around. On a pleasant note, Eric Anderson did come to town for a few days. Other than that, it was a humdrum weekend, but I DID get some movie watching done. Yes, yes, I will be on vacation next week and devoting part of my time to getting my site http://www.kristielove.com/ up and running. Well, HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ANYBODY WHO CARES!

I'm a loser baby...

First, I think Stay is an awesome movie, I highly recommend. It was while watching this film I decided I want to marry a guy like Ryan Gosling. Don't get me wrong, Dave will always be my dream guy, but Ryan seems more tangible to me. While Ryan looks eerily like my ex bro-in-law, he as absolutely fantastic to watch on film!

So I promised (I think) to post regularly on my supposed weight loss. So while I'm still too shy to reveal my actual weight, what started this journey, but I put on 20 lbs over the summer. I've just finished up week 4 (even though I've only worked out 3 weeks since I twisted my ankle last week) and I'm +5 lbs from where I started. Thats right, now I'm 25 lbs heavier. The good news? I had put on 10 lbs in the first 2 weeks, and have lost 5 of that already. Apparently my body is adjusting to the trama I put it through, but this is good news. At least I'm heading in the right direction. I can't find my starting stats for weights, but here is what I'm at now:

Leg Extension - 75 lbs
Leg Curl - 50 lbs
Abductors (inner thigh) - 70 lbs
Abductors (outer thigh) - 100 lbs
Leg Press - 140 lbs
Chest Press - 52 lbs
Seated Row - 50 lbs
Shoulder - 30 lbs
Calves - 105 lbs

So I'm not a lifting champ, but I did manage to go a bit from where I started. For now, I'm stuck on a stationary bike and only working upper body, but hopefully I'll have some more good news in month 2's weigh in. :)