This entry is brought to you by the letter R

I decided to watch Sesame Street the other day, just to see how it is these days. I was pleasantly surprised. I tuned in just as one of the videos they used to play back in my day was ending. They do have a lot of newer, fancy schmancy videos and effects that I'm not too happy with, but what can you expect? Elmo still has his fish, Dorothy, and Oscar still has his pet worm, Slimey. Cookie Monster didn't make an appearance so I can't confirm or refute the rumor about him being some sort of health freak now. And they still have the crappy animations for the Number of the Day.

I love this time of year. One of the simple joys in life is looking at Christmas lights. I've looked at lights a couple times so far. The most impressive display was this one house that had the lights programmed to move with the music that was broadcast from a radio station in the basement of the house. That was pretty awesome. But, I must say that the light display at Tilles was wonderful.

OMG, I hate drama. My group of friends has way too much of it. I think the problem with us is that we care too much about each other. Yes, it is possible. Believe us, we've proven it many a time. We just get into each other's business a little too much. We have good means, but I think it's a little much at times. Since we're on the subject, Lyndsey emailed me the other day. The only thing it said was, "Are you ever gonna talk to me again?" Umm, no. There's your answer, bitch. I finally got all that drama OUT of my life, I'm not going to voluntarily let it back in. For once, I'm standing up for what I want to do and I'm not just going to be the nice girl. After hearing stories from Jen and Jess, she still doesn't think that she did anything wrong. HELLO! Why the hell did I start this blog and stop the LJ one to begin with? That was one of the major problems with our friendship; she was never wrong, it was always me. She's just so self-centered. God, just thinking about her is frustrating and annoying me.

My cats are druggies.

If you have one of those shower curtains that's kinda like cloth make sure to not point the shower head directly on it for a long period of time. Otherwise, your floor will be flooded when you get out. Apparently those cloth curtains are a bit deceiving and don't live up to their name.

One more link

Holy crap, I just finished going through all these photos, and they are truly amazing. They really hurt to look at, but still worth it. The one that really got to me was "A Crushing End" on 10/26. I know I just did that long ass entry about all the Busch stuff, but here's one more link, and this one is really worth looking at. The photos are really close up to the demolition. Don't say I didn't warn you...

http://jgardnerphotography.com/projects.htm

Let the boredom begin

Home sweet home. Yay for Thanksgiving break! Not that I can really say that I'm burnt out from school seeing that I hardly go to class or do any work, but it's still very nice to be able to spend an extended amount of time at home and just be home period. I was starting to get homesick that last week or so at school. So far being home hasn't been that great, though. The first time I see my mom and closest family they are crying (even my Uncle Tom, for those of you who know him you understand) at a funeral ceremony. Fun. At these types of things I like to stay the strong one and not cry. But I've learned that if I see or hear other people crying I start to tear up myself. I didn't cry today, but I was holding back tears pretty hard. I hate crying, it's not fun. After the thing my aunt, uncle, and cousins came over to our place for lunch so that was cool because I haven't seen them in a while. I got to hear funny drunken stories about my Uncle Tom, and those are always good. If there is one adult family member that I want to get drunk with it's him without a doubt.
On a sidenote...There was this flag football game with a bunch of little kids going on in a park in the not-so-nice part of the city today and one of the teams had cheerleaders. They had like actual cheers and uniforms. I thought that was odd.

My tribute to Busch.

"Life starts when the season starts." I don't know where Jason got that, but he puts it in his away message a lot, and I like it.

The beginning of the end started October 19, Game 6. Houston advanced to the World Series and sent the Cards packing. Literally. Everything had to go. The lockers, the seats, the bases, the bleachers, the...everything. Busch had seen its last game. It wasn't exactly the last game most Cardinals fans had pictured, but that was how it was, and we all had to deal with it and let reality sink in. It wasn't easy, and still isn't as I am now finding out. Last Monday at 3 p.m. the wrecking ball fell on Busch. Luckily for some reason Columbia picks up KSDK during the day so I got to witness the horrible event first hand. I figured it would help reality sink in that it was actually happening. I still don't fully believe it. KSDK has a webcam set on Busch and I check it daily, just to see how it's doing. It's looking grimmer and grimmer every day. It hurts to see it. I hate to say it, but I almost wish they would have just imploded it, just to get it over with, like ripping off a band-aid. I have decided that when I go home over break I am driving downtown to see it in person. I need to. I was talking to Mommy and she said she refuses to see any pictures of Busch any less than whole and intact. She doesn't want to have her last memories of Busch be that of nothing but a pile of ruble. I fully understand where she is coming from, but I feel differently.

Speaking of memories, I've been trying to figure out what my favorite memory of Busch is. I've been thinking about it for a few weeks now and I think I've figured it out. The thing is that I barely even remember this memory, but I know that at the time it was pretty awesome. OK, it's 1996 and the Cards are in the NLCS with the Braves. I was lucky enough to be able to go to two of the home games in that series; we won one of them and lost the other one. So, obviously, my favorite memory was from the game that we won. I remember before the game started I got a pressed penny that has the Cards logo on it with "Cards Fever 1996" on it. I also remember that the guy that pressed the penny for me only had a thumb and a forefinger. I was really impressed at the ease that he could press the penny and put it on this necklace thing for me, and all with such great speed. I still have that penny; it hangs from my Cardinal hat that's covered with pins. When the game was over and we won they played that song "Na na na na na na na...HEY! (for you Mizzou kids the one that goes HEY...you suck!), and everyone was going CRAZY. I'm almost wondering if it was the third game that we won, but I seriously have no clue. The Cardinals later went on to go from having a 3-1 advantage in the series to losing in Game 7...and thus my hatred for the Braves begins. So I think that is probably one of my most exciting memories there, even though I can barely remember it. I think the Cards game I got together this summer was pretty sweet though, too, and is definitely up there on my list. All my friends were there just hanging out at the Cards game having a good time. And not to mention a great finish- a 13th inning walk-off homerun by Pujols to end the game with a score of 4-3 against the Astros.

I've been working on this blog entry for a few weeks now and I've put a lot of time and thought into it. In the mean time, I've collected a bunch of websites and pictures that have tributes to Busch. I figured I would compile them all on here to share with everyone else because I know I'm not the only one that will miss Busch Stadium. I hope you all enjoy the websites and photos because they are all really good.

My pictures from the tour of the new Busch Stadium and my last game there.

Pictures from the last game at Busch.

Everyone else's memories of Busch...something Post-Dispatch put together where anyone can send in their favorite memory of the stadium. There are stories from people all over the country in here. It's very impressive.

St. Louis Post Dispatch...who better to put together a tribute to the stadium than the Post? They have a lot articles and photos, including some pretty historic articles.

Busch as Canvas...a huge list of many of the things that people began to write on the stadium as the end of the season approached.

New York Times...an article that appeared in the NYT. You might need to register to see this one, but I think it's worth it.

KSDK...Newschannel 5's "Goodbye to Busch." This page includes the webcam of Busch plus a TON of videos.

St. Louis Cardinals...and finally the Cardinals' actual website tribute to Busch Stadium. It has a lot of videos, facts, figures, and is an overall good source for all Cardinals history.


Here's a little thing I saw on a Facebook group message board:

Not Today

Busch Stadium is not our house.

So I will not waste your time this morning talking about the importance of the Cardinals protecting our house in Game 6 of the NLCS.

I will not broach the obscenity of seeing Houston players spilling champagne on our living-room carpet.

Busch Stadium is not our house.

It's much more important than that.

It's where many of us watched our first game, caught our first foul ball, begged for our first autograph.

It's where Gibby ruled the mound, where Brock ran like the wind, and where Ozzie made all the folks go crazy.

It's where the El Birdos dominated, where Sutter struck out the last batter of 1982, where Mike Shannon has worked since the joint opened in 1966.

The Ol' Redhead managed there. Stan the Man played his harmonica there. The White Rat led us back to glory there.

This is where Gussie drove the Clydesdales, where Willie McGee tracked down fly balls, where Joaquin Andujar summed up his philosophy of life in one simple word: Youneverknow.

This is where Big Mac smacked No. 70, where Tommy Lawless flipped his bat, where GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY...BRUMMER'S STEALING HOME!!!!!!!

This is where the greatest St. Louis team in Busch Stadium's history performed. That's right, the 2004 Cardinals.

They had the best home-record, the best record in baseball. Right on that field. Not far behind them, the 2005 version.

Ted Simmons played there. Kenny Boyer managed there.

And a beloved old man in a bright red jacket told a mournful nation why it was good and right to play baseball after Sept. 11.

My friends, Jack Buck's coffin rested on that field.

Daryl Kile pitched his last game there.

And many of us cannot walk into that stadium without thinking of loved ones who are no longer with us.

Not today.

We don't lose today.

Not against the Houston Astros.

Not even against Roy Oswalt and Roger Clemens.

Not against a wild-card team.

Not in Busch Stadium.

No, it's not our house.

It's simply the place where our memories congregate, where our baseball dreams are stored, where the voices of millions of fans and the ghosts of seasons past await their call to arms.

Folks, it's time to wake 'em up.

LETS GO CARDINALS!

Thanks for the memories Busch.

Broadcast 2 or Grade 2?

So I think I just went to the most interesting yet ridiculous class I've ever had. For the most part Broadcast 2 lecture is pretty boring. He talks about how to interview or write and then shows some old news clips as examples for the rest of the class. But not today. We started off with the usual news quiz, which wasn't too bad. After that we all stood up and stretched. Then we had to repeat whatever word he would say...exact, water, duck, ect. Then he walked around the room showing us flashcards with words on them that we had to say out loud...whine, wine; dew, do; pen, pin; ect. He even complimented the class and said that we must have been taught well when we were in elementary school. After that he had the 25 of us get in a huge circle around the desks. We thought we were going to be doing some sort of musical chair thing, which wasn't too out of the question given the preceding exercises. He turned on some hippity hop music and had us walk around in the circle. Whenever we passed by him we had to walk in an interesting way (I did some twirls) and then make various faces like surprised, angry, and sad. After that we went back to our desks and he handed out the poem "The Unicorn" by Shel Silverstein...one of my favorite poems! (Flashback to 1st Grade when each of us in our class had one or two lines from the poem to memorize and we said it for our parents on some Parents Day thing). So we went around the classroom and each person read a line, but we didn't just read it like normal, we had to be overzealous about it. At the end of class we had to partner up and share a funny or interesting story about our childhood with each other. After that 3 volunteers went to the front of the class to tell us their story. But, there was a catch. The rest of us had to pretend we were overexcited, easily distracted 4 and 5 year olds. Man, it was ridiculous and funny. So basically our classmates telling their stories had to talk very slow, repeat everything they said, answer stupid questions and tell us to "shush". I seriously felt like I was back in 2nd Grade, but that wasn't such a bad thing. He had reasons to do all of the exercises he did (sounding conversational while reading a script, knowing the difference between words and pronouncing them correctly, talking slowly and clearly to a TV audience, which is like talking to unattentive 5 year olds). I know y'all are jealous and wanna be Broadcast majors now, right? haha...

Here's the Picture of the Week for this week. Yeah, I know I'm late on this one, too.
We went to our friend Vince's duplex down the road for a Halloween party and this guy dressed up as Michael Flatley, aka Lord of the Dance. This is a still-shot of the video we have of him doing an Irish jig.

Game 6

NLCS Game 6...Astros 5, Cardinals 1
Alright so this one has been a bit delayed, mostly due to the fact that we barely have one functioning laptop in our house, but also because this has been a bit of a sore subject for me. My boys lost. I cannot say that I am pleased with the way they played in the NLCS, but I can say that we deserved to go to the World Series more than the Astros. We had an amazing year. The Astros had a decent second half, just like last year, and they still finished 11 games behind us. Alright back to Game 6...it was storming in CoMO and our cable definitely went out about 10 minutes before the game started. Luckily Jason was at the game and gave me a couple score updates. I missed the first four innings and that's when I gave up on MediaCom and went over to Katie's to catch the game. It wasn't the most welcoming environment seeing that there were Royals, Cubs, and White Sox fans screaming every time they passed by her room. I seriously wanted to punch them out. After the game was over I couldn't bare to sit there and watch them give the trophy and congratulations to the Astros in our house, so I left. I would be a liar if I said I didn't shed a tear that night. What got to me the most was that it was the last game at Busch. It finally hit me that night after we lost. Not a good feeling, it made me very sad. So aaaaanyway, I guess all I have left to say is, Go White Sox. And, no, I am not just rooting for them because Houston beat us. I'm cheering for the White Sox because they hate the Cubs just as much as we do.
Thank you Cardinals for another excellent year.

Game 5

NLCS Game 5...Cardinals 5, Astros 4
Holy Shit. I can't believe that game. I'm still in awe and disbelief. I'm almost at a lost for words. Almost. Wow, I don't even know where to start. OK. Houston took the lead in the 2nd inning, a bit discouraging, but we answered with 2 runs in 3rd. The main problem the whole game, and this series if you think about it, is that we still weren't banking on opportunities with runners in scoring position. Then the bottom of the 7th Berkman came to bat with two men on and homered...4-2 ballgame. Hopes and confidence increasingly started to fade as the game reached the top of the 9th. Oh shit, Rodriguez and the Mabry are the first two up. They both strike out. At this point I can feel the tears forming in my eyes. I don't even have the heart to watch the rest of the game, instead I just stare at the beautiful poster of Busch we have on the wall right above the TV and think about how Busch has seen its last game. Then a little hope in me returns because Eckstein is up and he is sure to make some contact with the ball and get on base. The Astros are one out away from their first World Series berth and bam, Eckstein singles into left field. That's my boy. Jimmy is up. Eckstein steals, and then Jimmy walks. Oh man, here comes Pujols. If there was anybody I would want to be at bat at that exact moment, it was him. He's been known to come through in the clutch many a time. Rejuvenated hope, despair, disappointment, and faith were all competing inside me. Then POW. And at that moment I heard the most beautiful noise ever, silence. The crowd was dead. No annoying bee buzzing, no train whistle, no cheering, nothing. Disbelief and celebration followed. I was shaking so bad. I knew it right off the crack of the bat, that ball was gone. Not just gone, demolished. I can only imagine how far it would have gone if the roof was open. Apparently the ball got lost in the train tracks in there. And that homerun is the motivation we need to go to the World Series. Jimmy's homer from Game 6 last year got us there. Pujols' monster of a shot this year can definitely get us there. Busch has not seen its last game.

Mom sent this to me.

My Mommy also sent me these amazing pictures from Game 5, there's too many otherwise I would put them in here. Make special note of the graphics on the screen.

"There were 45,000 people, and when I hit that ball, it was like when you press mute on the TV. Nobody could say anything. That felt great." -Pujols

Games 3 and 4

Oy. I really don't wanna talk about it, but I will anyway, just because I've talked about the first two games I feel the need to talk about them all.

NLCS Game 3... Cardinals 3, Astros 4
Honestly, I kept falling asleep during the game. I saw the first few innings then I kept dozing off. Oops. I did wake up to see Nunez get hurt, but then I was out again. I woke up and the first thing Mom told me was that we lost, but almost came back thanks in part to Johnny Mabes.

NLCS Game 4...Cardinals 1, Astros 2

It's really killing me to see my Cards lose by one run...soooo close! It's frustrating. I feel like I'm watching another team out on that field for some reason. It just doesn't feel like they are playing like they did in the regular season, or even last week during the NLDS. Tony and Edmonds got kicked out of the game. Tony put up a hell of a fight and gave those umps a piece of his mind before he went down. The umpires did a horrible job of calling the game.

Tony telling the umps what's up.

I Wanna Rock

Alright, so I've had a lot going on in my head lately, mostly dealing with school. I've seriously been considering changing my major the last 2 weeks. Not just, omg my classes are hard I wanna change majors, like I'm seriously considering getting out of the J-school. I looked into the Communication department in the College of Arts and Sciences and a lot of the classes seem pretty cool. They have classes like Audio Production and Television Studio Production. So basically, it's like the J-school without the news aspect of it. Perfect! The only thing is if I actually do this, I don't know how long it will set me back. I was talking to Angelique the other day and I think she said she just got into the Communications school and she is graduating in May, so I don't know about that. But, I'm not even sure if I'm going to do this. All signs are pointing to yes right now. I've got so much stuff going on with other classes right now. I don't have time to meet up with professors and talk about what all it entails to switch majors. That, and registration is coming up really soon. I found out my day today, October 25. So, I'm thinking I need to have this all figured out by then. Grr! I don't know what to do. The worst thing is that since I have these thoughts going around in my head that I might be changing majors, I have this fuck it all attitude in the back of my mind about my broadcast class, and that's not good at all.

NLCS Game 1...Astros 3, Cardinals 5
I am slightly disappointed in myself because I did not pay nearly as much attention to the game as I should have. I was kinda distracted by the guys because they were finding ridiculous people on Facebook and adding them as their friends for pretty much the whole game. From what I saw Reggie had another stellar game, and my boy Eckstein had a pretty good game as well.

Reggie's pretty much been a stud since coming off the DL.

NLCS Game 2...Astros 4, Cardinals 1
This time I wasn't disappointed in myself, but rather my Cards. From the 1st inning on they just didn't seem to have it together. They were bobbling the ball all over the field and we just couldn't manufacture those runs like we did yesterday (our only run today came from a solo shot by Pujols). The 'stros did have pretty good pitching today, so I think that really helped their cause. I think that's the only way they have a chance to get to the World Series is through their pitching. But I think our pitching can be just as good, and we have a great offense. But, that's just what I think.

I think this picture sums up Game 2.

League Championship Series Predictions:
Chicago White Sox over the Angels (whatever the hell their name is) in 6
St. Louis Cardinals over the Houston Astros in 6 (If my prediction is right, Jason, you are a lucky, lucky man.)

I get to go home this weekend! I've only been home for one day since school has started and I wasn't really around then because that was when we went to the Cards game and took the tour of the new Busch. So I'm excited to say the least. I get to feel the play-off atmosphere, and hopefully go to a bar or something downtown with Mommy Saturday afternoon while the game is on. Of course, the Rams are on Monday Night Football this weekend, so I can't enjoy the football game at home with Mom and Roger :(

Oh yeah! I've started learning to play guitar! It's exciting, I'm pretty bad, but oh well. Jason taught me "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream and a little bit of "Wipe Out", but that one was kinda confusing. So next time you see me, ask me to jam for ya and I will, but don't expect too much of me.

And, the next couple of weekends are gonna rock.

Mood: relaxed
Music: "I Wanna Rock" -Twisted Sister

Oooh yeah...Chhheeese...

I have discovered the one thing that pisses me off more than anything else in the world. Or at least I'm pretty sure I have, but please don't test me. I hate it more than anything when someone talks shit about my friends. I think it's pretty obvious by previous posts that I've had on here that my friends are extremely important people in my life. Anyone that halfway knows me should be able to tell that I treasure my friendships. I had a recent conversation with someone who completely dissed my friends and accused them for the way I am today, like that's a bad thing, like I'm a horrible person. Apparently I'm not a nice person anymore or something. I haven't had that much frustration built up inside of me for a good month or so. I just wanted to beat the shit out of something I was so pissed. Yes, I know some of my guy friends can be assholes, but I'm pretty sure it's safe to assume that all guys can be assholes at times. I've heard a lot of guys say that themselves. I don't exactly agree with some of the things that they do, nor do I have control over them, but I still love them anyway. And yes, I will back up my friends up and down; they are my friends, and that's what you do for each other. I would expect my friends to stand up for me if they were in the same situation. I still just can't believe some of the things this person said about the friends that I have. This person knows how important my friendships are to me, and yet they still said all kinds of shitty things about some of the closest people in my life. I WILL NOT put up with any shit from anyone who talks shit about my friends. Grr. I'm getting frustrated just thinking about this. Yes, I am the person I am today partly because of my friends, but I am my own person, too. I have a mind and personality of my own. I'm not going to deny that my friends have rubbed off on me some; I know they have, but it goes both ways. I see most of my friends as more like brothers and sisters to me, and for someone who knows how important they are to me to put them down really makes me TO'ed and slightly disappointed in them.

Ok, now that I got that off my chest let's move on...

Laura and I built our own fire and BBQ'ed all by ourselves for the first time yesterday. Ok, ok, Jason fanned the fire to help make it bigger, but that was my idea to begin with. We still did it on our own though, and man, those Hunter hot dogs were delicious!

Random observation of the day: We don't have a lot of food in our fridge, however, we do have 6 different kinds of cheeses in there.

Other than that, I am rather excited about the argyle socks I bought to match my slip on brown suede house-slipper looking shoes that I have.

Mood: Extremely exhausted
Music: "Movin' On" -Bad Company

Ahhh, I love October

The seasons are changing from hot and humid Summer heat to a cool and stormy Fall breeze. There's nothing quite as nice as sitting out on our front "porch" in our newly acquired rocking chair. To be able to wear hoodies and fall asleep with my bedroom window open is also great. Halloween is on the horizon along with the excitements of picking a costume that can give me an excuse to be crazy and ridiculous without being thought of as weird. But, most importantly of all October means playoffs, and, of course, my boys made it into post-season play without a problem. First round is against the Padres and seeing as that they finished the regular season just over .500, we shouldn't have too much of a problem with them. Game 2 is today at 3 and I'll probably have to miss a good portion of it due to my over-demanding Broadcast 2 class. I have confidence in my Cards though. With all the hype of the playoffs, reminiscing of last year's playoffs, and then reading Jason's most recent blog, I'm starting to get homesick. And that ceremony they did after the last regular season game at Busch didn't help me much either. I would have given almost anything to be at that game. I can't imagine how I'm gonna feel when it actually comes down to the day they blow it up, oh god, it hurts me just to say such harsh words. But anyway, I got so homesick last year during the playoffs. I wanted so badly just to go downtown and feel that excitement in the air. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go this year, especially if we make it all the way again. I don't think I can go another year of just sitting around in Columbia while everyone is going crazy in the Lou. And as I've noticed a lot recently, Columbia is biased towards Kansas City sports. There's a Chiefs billboard right by our highway exit and all the sporting stores just seem to promote them more. So therefore, it seems like the people here are more favorable to the Royals (which also means Red Sox) and the Chiefs. However, last year back in the dorms I was lucky enough to find some of the most die-hard Cardinals fans I know. When I wasn't working the desk, you could find me in our suite-ies room watching the games and going absolutely crazy. Me, Katie, Maggie, Emily, Andrew, Abby, and Steve was the usual crowd. I could not have asked for better suitemates...girls that are just as into the Cardinals, if not more, than I am! So having them around kinda helped the homesickness go away because they made me feel like I was home; we created our own awesome October atmosphere and shared it with our floor (we got pretty loud) and with campus (after we won Game 7 me, Maggie, and Abby ran around campus screaming at everyone that walked and drove by that we won). This year, we plan on watching what games we can together and making t-shirts. I'm so very excited! :) And I also have Jason and Steve around and they are hardcore Cardinals fans, too. It just makes such a big difference when you are surrounded by people who are as passionate about a team as you are. So, basically, I would like to thank all my kickass Cardinals friends for being so amazing awesome. You guys rock.

Being grown up isn't half as fun as growing up

I had a realization the other day that really freaked me out and is kinda starting to worry me. I'm a junior in college. That's it. It just hit me all of a sudden when I was walking on campus. I'm over half-way finished with college, crazy! I'm not exactly sure when I'll be graduating, but I'm guessing May '07...I should probably look into that. I don't wanna grow up yet; I'm not ready for that. I think about how I'll be out in the "real world" within the next couple of years, but then I say to myself, "Hey, you're still only 19. You're still young," and after I ponder that for a minute I calm back down. But still it's a crazy thought and I don't like to think about it.
My laptop is f'ed up again. Silly piece of shit. It frustrates me. So I'm gonna get off of Jason's and go to bed.

Music: "Learn to Fly" by Foo Fighters
Mood: Sleepy

My mommy thinks I'm a celebrity

I can't seem to keep this thing updated. I could say that it's because I've been busy with school work, but, honestly, I haven't been. Instead, every day I've been busy looking for places to sleep on campus, and I've found a few good places, too. Every night I think about how much work I need to do and that's about it. I just think about what I need to do, but don't actually do it. I'm not really sure what I'm doing with my time every night; I guess just sitting around watching TV and hanging out with the roomies. I should really get down to business sometime soon. Maybe I'll work on that tonight, maybe. School is kicking my ass right now. I think it's safe to say I'm failing my classes, but you can't really judge this early in the game. I haven't had any tests or big projects really, just small quizzes. Got my poli sci quiz back today, and I thought I did decent on it for not doing any of the readings, but apparently I was wrong. I also picked up some of my broadcast quizzes. Opened the first one, 10. Sweet! Opened the second and third one, 2 and 4. Ouch. Eh, you win some you lose some.
I've talked it over with Laura and I actually realized it myself, but I've drifted away from my typical blog entries. My blogs have been too thought out and prepared lately, so I'm going to try to revert back to my old school ways of blogging- complete randomness. So stay tuned for more of that.
Do you ever get the feeling that all black people know each other? All the time when I'm walking around campus (especially in Brady) black people always acknowledge each other in some way (say hey, shake hands, hug, ect.). Half the time I don't think they really know the other person, but they are just acknowledging that the other person is the same color as they are. It's like they think they're some kind of poorly treated minority and they all gotta "stick together." Does anyone know what I'm trying to say? I swear I'm not rascist.
Oh man, Katie, Maggie, and I got to tour the new Busch Stadium because Katie's dad is a foreman with a construction group there. It was amazing! We got to go in the Cards shower and locker rooms, and just about everywhere else in the stadium. I can't even tell you how awesome it was. We also got a brick that they didn't use from the new stadium. The next day a group of us Cards fans from MU went to the game. It was probably my last game at Busch, so sad. And we lost, too, even worse.
Oh! I'm on the Mizzou website now. Check me out here. Now here's the story behind that...
Last year I had some connections through ResLife because I worked the desk. ResLife was working on a new website for admissions and they needed to take pics of some student rooms, and Katie and I let our Hall Coordinator know that if they needed to they could use our room and she knew that it was usually pretty clean. So one day I was working the desk and Beth (the HC) asked me if they could use my room and of course I said yes, so I cleaned the room and everything then waited for them to come. The guy walks in and hands me a consent form and a sheet with some questions on it. Pretty standard I thought. Then, he's like "Alright, why don't we have you sit at your desk and put your hand up like this." I was like, okay... They ended up taking seriously at least 75 pictures of me sitting like that at my desk. After that they were done and left. I was so confused. I had been under the impression that they were gonna take pics of our room because it was so cute. But no, they took pictures of me. So of course I wasn't prepared at all-hair not done, barely any make-up on, ect. Then I found out the website was up so I went and checked it out. They had to of picked the worst pic of them all! I have the weirdest look and smile on my face. I wish I could have picked the one they used, but oh well. I'm famous now :P Angelique is on there, too, if anyone is interested.
There's your Dur fix for today.

Why is Dori a Journalism student?

Well, honestly, I've been wondering the same thing lately. I don't like to write. I don't like to interview people or just walk up to them to talk. I'm afraid to talk in front of people, let alone a camera. I absolutely hate coming up with story ideas. And I hate reading the newspaper and following the news (I wouldn't mind watching the news if I did it because I wanted to, not because I had to memorize everything that is going on with all these strangely named people in obscure countries). So all signs point to majoring in math or something science. Blah. The thing that sucks about going to the best journalism school in the country is that they want us to be well-rounded in all things journalistic. This means that I must go through the reporter aspect of the major before I can get to what I really wanna do. And what exactly do I really wanna do? I have a few ideas. My ultimate dream job would be operating a camera for the St. Louis Cardinals. Ahhhhh, what an amazing job that would be. Other than that I kinda wanna be a producer for a news station. But I really wanna work with the camera in any aspect. I really like editing video to the story (preferrably not written by me). Or I wanna work in the control room where all the TVs and control and sound boards are. Basically, anything NOT in front of the camera. So there you have it. The reason why I am a Journalism student at Mizzou. I might have to read this a few times this semester to remind myself why the hell I'm putting myself through all the hard work.

Back in the summer of '03

I was listening to the radio this morning and the DJ was talking about the best summer of his life, and that got me thinking which summer was my favorite and what made it so great. The best summer of my life without a doubt was the summer of 2003. Let the reminiscing begin...
Summer started right after Project Graduation. Laura, Jess, and I were still pretty slap-happy at 6 a.m. when they let us out so we decided to go to Jefferson Barracks and walk the trail (I don't know how we came up with that idea), and our first trail experience began, and quite an adventure it was. Those obstacle course things can be pretty fun when you're extremely sleep deprived. From then on we walked the trail on a daily basis and became some of the usuals at 10 a.m. Every day we saw our cute old couple, "the coaches", and every now and then the scary guy that wore the garden gloves and straw hat that would all of a sudden be scooting his feet behind us. We also started Sunday Night Tradition. Jess, Tina, Laura, Lyndsey, and I would go to the playground in JB to swing and girl talk and then we would go to Chrissy's for ice cream (remember the Stevester?). Then there were all the graduation parties and the many icing fights and Twister showdowns we got in. I didn't have a job that summer, so I'm not exactly sure what I did all day, I think I slept, so that's always a good thing, too. I did have a boyfriend, well kinda. Matt and I were on the outs and with college quickly approaching we both kinda knew that we wouldn't stay together when we went our separate ways. Me and the girls had a theme/anthem that summer, the song "Manhunt" by Karen Kamon. Jess and I came up with the idea of a Last Blast, one last get-together with everyone before we went away that included swimming and a BBQ. And I remember we were so excited when we were planning it on the 3rd of July at JB while waiting for the fireworks (man, I have a good memory sometimes). Last Blast was soooo much fun. Then like two days later Jess, Laura, Tina and I roadtripped it down to Branson for the weekend and that was a lot of fun, too ("Dur's got boobs!", Bad Charlotte, and the go-carts guy). At the end of summer we went to O'Charlies and got all dressed up for a last dinner together and then went to Jess's and sat outside and cried as we said our goodbyes. It was a summer filled with Tower Tee, Fortel's, good times, heartbreaks, ice cream, but most importantly, my friends. The summer of 2003 was a turning point for me, and I think for them, too, we all just became so much closer that summer, and it's had a lasting impression.

Music: "Joy to the World" -Three Dog Night
Mood: drained

Sunny day, sweepin' the clouds away...

I've discussed this a couple times in the past few days, and I know I've brought it up before in the past. So here's my proof. I will admit that I am slightly wrong, my memory deceived me a bit, it isn't Miss Piggy that sings the song "I've Got a New Way to Walk" in Sesame Street, it's The Oinker Sisters. But...the song does exist and they did dress up like Madonna for the song, so I was right there. Here's proof. Oh, and Kermit was so definitely on Sesame Street, too. :P So there, hehehe...
And this one's for Jess: Bicycle Race (page down and find that song) It kept sounding more and more familiar as you were talking about the song. I downloaded it and I've definitely heard it before. See, you're not psycho.

"Libby!"

My cat is officially nuts. I like to think of Libby not really as a cat, but more like a squirrel. She's very skittish and will run crazily around the house for no apparent reason. She's my little sidekick when I'm home; she follows me around ALL the time, sleeps in my bed with me every night, and wakes me up every morning. She's a pretty shy cat around new people, but once she's comfortable with you she won't leave you alone either (ask Laura or Mike). For some unknown reason the last month or so she's been in a "hunting mode" at night. She'll come into my room late at night meowing really loud, kinda like she's dying or something, and will be dragging an article of clothing, usually a sock, in her mouth. She'll drop it off in my room and look at me like she did something good like just caught a mouse or something. It's hilarious because she's so serious about it. Mike and I were talking about it and like an hour later here she comes in the living room meowing like crazy with a pair of Roger's shorts in her mouth. I was laughing so hard I was crying. You really just gotta see this to see how funny it is.

The pink shirt at the bottom is my mom's. It appeared Tuesday night.
The pair of Tommy socks in the middle are Roger's. They appeared in my room Wednesday night. I think it's impressive she brought up a matching pair of socks and placed them next to each other.
The sock at the top of the pic is mom's. It showed up in my room Thursday night.
All of these clothes come from the laundry room, which is in our basement...

As soon as work gets good, it comes to an end.

This week at work was actually tolerable, almost on the fun side. My megabitch boss was on vacation all week. It was wonderful and unfortunately went by really fast. There was just this feeling of relaxation in the air. And from the lack of bitching going on I could hear the radio more. I spent most of the week in the front packing orders anyway, which is pretty fun because then I'm standing around joking with the guys all day listening to music. So my week at work was pretty good. :) And just the thought that Friday will be my last day makes me very happy.

Some random thoughts going on in my head:
-Worst song ever: "Just a Lil Bit" by 50 Cent. The most unoriginal song I've ever heard. Every line ends with "...just a lil bit." Hell, I could write a song better than that.
-Did you know that deoderant can melt? The solid kind! Crazy.
-I still find it extremely hard to believe that Prince is not gay.
-One thing I liked about LiveJournal was the Music and Mood thing at the bottom, so whenever I remember to I'm gonna write in my own music and mood things. Unfortunately, there is no little penguin to accompany the mood.

Music: "Another One Bites the Dust" -Queen
Mood: exhausted

You don't have to be 40 to like Journey

So the Cards game last Friday with everyone was so much fun. I'm ashamed to say that I don't think I watched a full inning without getting distracted by a conversation with someone. Oh well. I had a blast and it seems like everyone else did, too. And what a great game and ending it was, couldn't have been any better.
The Weezer and Journey concerts were this weekend. Both were pretty good. Weezer sounded really good, almost like how they do on their albums. I was impressed. And Ben Folds played, too. I've never really listened to them, but I've always kinda wanted to. They are one of those bands that I've heard was really good, but never got around to listening to them. And man, he sure can rock out the piano. Journey played all my favorites so that was awesome. But then they played a lot of their new stuff, too, blah. It was still a good concert. I'm glad I went. Whenever the concert was lagging all I had to do was look to our left and see this overweight lady in her mid-forties jam to the music. She had a beer in one hand and a cig in the other. It was great. Ah, nothing quite like watching adults drunkily dance to classic rock music. Oh and Roger bought Mom some Journey shirts and I looked at one of them and held it up to myself thinking "How the hell is she gonna fit her chest into this thing?" I tried it on for her to show that there is no way she could fit into it, and it fits me like a glove. So I got myself a Journey shirt, yay.

Baseball

I've been pondering my most liked and hated teams lately and just exactly what order I hate or like them in. So here's my list:

Teams I Like

1. St. Louis Cardinals. This is an obvious first choice. No need to explain here.
2. Boston Red Sox. Ever since I went to a game at Fenway I have a respect for Boston fans. They are pretty die-hard for not having that great a team (except for the last few years).

Yeah, those are the only two teams I like.

Teams I Hate

1. Chicago Cubs. They just suck. I don't see how anyone could be a Cubs fan. I love our rivalry with them, though. Cards vs. Cubs games are by far the best games to go to. I was mad when I saw that Mastercard commercial with all the baseball rivalries and they didn't do the Cards and Cubs. I think our rivalry is almost as big as the Yanks and Red Sox.
2. Atlanta Braves. There was one point when I cheered for them, and I am ashamed of myself. But I was young and didn't know. Back in the early 90's when they were good and went to the World Series I was a fan. But then 1996 came and the Cards played the Braves in the NLCS and lost. I've hated them ever since.
3. Houston Astros. Another Central Division rivalry. They used to be a lot better and actually challenge us for the Division title. Not so much anymore.
4. Kansas City Royals. The only reason they are 4 and not 3 is because we play the Astros more. I used to be a semi-fan of the Royals, ya know, root for them when we weren't playing them. Ever since the World Series last year I will never cheer for the Royals ever again. All of them turned to the Bo Sox. And they were assholes about it. Don't even get me started on the 1985 World Series.
5. New York Yankees. Come on, everyone hates the Yanks. Rich bastards. Money isn't helping them this season though, hahaha.
6. Philadelphia Phillies. I just don't like them. I think they're cocky.
7. Cleveland Indians. I think this stems back to a game I went to against them and we lost. Other than that, the Major League movies don't help me give them respect.
   

911?!

I'm on my way home and I had my phone open and sitting on my purse so I went to close it and accidentally dipped the lower part into a cup of soda. Yeah, I know, real smart. So I start freaking out, but I was on the highway so I couldn't really pull over so instead I got a napkin out and dried it off. Then when I got home I decided to finally call AT&T to get a replacement phone cuz this one has been pissing me off a lot lately. In the middle of trying to talk to the lady my phone starts acting weird and saying that there is a SIM card error. Great. So there is a replacement phone in the mail, but if they find any water damage they are gonna charge me for the new phone. So hopefully they don't find anything, fingers crossed. Eventually the SIM card started working, but now it's being weird again. There's this screen that pops up on my phone that says Call SOS because of the SIM card being weird. So I decided to call it thinking it would direct me to some Cingular help line to assist me with my card difficulties. The lady answered and said how may I help you and I told her my problem and she said "Oh, this is 911." I was like OMG I'm so sorry. What the hell, why would my phone say Call SOS, that's misleading, it should just say Call 911. But anyway, my phone is now f'ed up and I can't access anything on it. :(

Everywhere you don't want them to be

I was on my way to work this morning and as I was heading down the exit ramp I felt like I had something in my eye. I flipped down my visor then BOOM! I bumped into the car in front of me. I thought I had more room, but I guess I didn't. And guess who was in the lane next to me, the fuzz. Of course they had the window down so they heard the bump so they backed up and got out of the car and came over and talked to me and the lady I hit. There was no damage to my car and there was seriously like almost nothing done to hers, just a little scratch about an inch long and it was from my license plate. She was kinda pissy about it, understandably so I guess, but I literally just rolled into her car, it wasn't like I was going fast. The cops said they were gonna write a report about it or whatever and I'm just thinking the entire time that this was so ridiculous. It was a tiny scratch! Then they went to their car and came back and said that they weren't gonna file a report and that me and this lady should just exchange info. I was just saying the other day that I am gradually becoming a bad driver, that I just don't pay enough attention. And I even thought to myself that I need to get into an accident because that always makes me more cautious for a while. Well, it happened, so know I'm gonna be a little bit more careful. The song that was playing when I hit her was "Slow Ride" in case you were wondering. Coincidence? Maybe. Interesting? I think so.
So now I can officially say that I caused a semi-accident. I did back into that one car in the Casa Loma parking lot a couple summers ago, but I still won't claim responsibility for that one. The car I backed into was parked in a non-existent spot. And the damage was done to my mom's car, not the other person's. I only left a note because there was a stupid cop around that time, too. That same summer I got hit by an old lady, but that one wasn't my fault. And I won't even go into all the times that I was a passenger in an accident.
On a good note, I had a pretty good day at work :)

The megabitch reigns supreme

Just when I thought work was starting to become tolerable things do a 180 on me. After the third day of work I was ready to quit. Then it started to get better all of a sudden and I couldn't figure out why until a couple days ago--I wasn't working for the bitch. Instead of going up and down the aisles looking for items she kept sending me to different departments to do work, and I was completely fine with that. I think it has something to do with the fact that I told her I was afraid of heights. Ever since I mentioned that she had me do other stuff. Wish I would have thought to say that earlier. But yesterday I spent the entire day working for her. Today I spent half of the day, and it was horrible. I just wanna punch that fucking bitch in the face. She snapped at me when I asked her for work to do. Um ok, next time I don't have anything to do I'll just sit there and wait for her to come to me. Damn. I hate rude people. I'm taking a half day Friday I don't care what the hell she says. I'm leaving at 12:30 and meeting up with my girls at the pool.
As Gerg said to me, it never ceases to amaze me how Lyndsey can annoy me even when she's 800 miles away. She's in FL right now and I haven't talked to her since I blocked her on AIM. Jen still has to talk to her though and I hear stuff from her. She won't give up on that birthday dinner. She doesn't want to be friends with me, but she wants me to pay for her fucking birthday dinner. Fuck you bitch. If you want me to make the plans so bad I'll take you to White Castles.
Oh geez, I'm sorry to make this such a bitchy entry, I always feel better getting this stuff off my chest. Hmm, here's to a better week...

"You sound like a seal in heat." Mike to me when I was laughing

I got Dopey of all characters.

I am disappointed with the cereal industry these days. I went to open up a box of Cocoa Crispies and saw to my surprise on the outside of the box that there was a Disney toy inside. So I got all excited and I was about to get a big bowl to pour out half of the cereal to get the toy inside, but then I opened the lid and there was the toy all neatly wrapped sitting on the outside of the cereal bag right there on top. That just takes the fun out of everything. Poor kids these days, they don't get to dig through a box to try to find the cheap toy inside. It's sad. I was disappointed.
Omg, my cat Libby just walked in here meowing really loud with a pair of socks in her mouth and now she is laying on it using it as a pillow. lol.
Ok, I'm done with my randomness for today.

::Evil laugh::

Alright, so I have decided that I will continue to write in LiveJournal, but only for one reason: to fool Lyndsey into believing nothing is wrong. However, the entries I put in there will all be bullshit entries. I think I might make some stuff up or just talk about completely off the wall shit and just see how ridiculous things can get. Any suggestions for what I should write about? Oh geezo, I feel so evil.
Anyway, so Mike and I walked into the house tonight and on the coffee table is this crazy set of candle holders. I think my mom has gone nuts. The centerpiece is a BBQ pit with a candle inside and around the BBQ pit is 4 lawn chairs, each with a candle in the middle. It's hilarious.
I have decided that Z1077 is the worst radio station, ever. One of the kids I work with had it on there all day. So I had to listen to it all day. I was going crazy. Every other song has either Nelly, Ludacris, or 50 Cent in it. You wouldn't think it would be possible, but they literally played one song with Nelly then 2 songs later another song with Nelly in it.

Feels like home

So Steve asked me, Katie, and Laura to go to the Cards game with him on Tuesday. And, amazingly enough, all of us were free to go. Steve gets tix from his aunt for free pretty often it seems. He didn't tell us where we would be sitting until we got there and he gave us the tickets. Section 136, Row 3. Right behind the Cards dugout. OMG, it was amazing! Those fly balls would freak me out, luckily there weren't many by us. I had so much fun, and I got to see my Steve, whom I haven't seen since he left me at school. So it was a great time. I love Busch. It's gonna be hard to see it go. So many memories there. For lack of better words, it feels like home there. :( Oh I've been meaning to ask if anyone would be interested in going on a tour of Busch? Mom and Roger did it before and you go into the locker room and dugout and all throughout the "inside" parts of Busch. And I would like to experience all of that before it ceases to exist. So if you are interested in going leave a comment or IM me and I'll look into that further.