In the few minutes I’ve had to read blogs today, I’ve come across story after story that has given me chills or brought a team to my eye (sometimes both). Stories about how people fell in love, sometimes unexpectedly, or have had life-changing events take place on this day. And as I sit here eating ice cream and watching a CSI re-run, it gives me hope that some day, I might find that special someone, too. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
Archive for February, 2008
Let TV Watchers Rejoice!
My love of television is deeply ingrained in who I am. While most people picture farm kids running around, making hay forts and finding frogs in the nearby crick, I was perfectly content to snuggle into our itchy plaid couch and watch hours of television under a hand-crocheted afghan. It wasn’t until second grade (Valentine’s Day, if I recall. Candice spent the night and we listened to “Ice, Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice.) that cable made its way down our back country road.
I don’t know why TV is such an integral part of my life. Maybe it was a chance to escape. Maybe I felt like the characters were the friends I didn’t have in real life. In any event, it was a well-known fact that I was a TV addict from a young age. Senior year of high school I took a TV production class to fill time and I loved it. That, combined with my experience as a real-life princess, motivated me to major in communications in college. I worked at the campus TV station for two years, before I decided that I didn’t like playing the political game that was campus broadcasting. After being forced into the harsh real world, I accepted a position on the studio crew on the local television news. I didn’t excel at it; one time I forgot to silence my cell phone, another I was playing solitaire on the Teleprompter computer and the computer froze and the script wouldn’t run at 10 p.m. on the dot. Whoops. It was too much of a hurry-up-and-wait career.
Whether it’s Barney and the gang on Mondays or the latest McDreamy drama on Thursdays, there’s usually something that I look forward to on prime-time TV. Until the strike. Although the strike has allowed me to catch up on episodes and series I missed.
It sounds like my nights will be filled again, and I couldn’t be happier. Welcome back, writers.
Because it’s not TV
One of my goals for this year is to try to be a better person. It’s a common goal, I think; many people probably set this goal or resolution each year. With that in mind, yesterday I volunteered to help a coworker carry a box of measuring tapes from one meeting room to another, down a few stairs and a ramp. After stashing the box under the table at our booth, my coworker went to move her car, which she left parked in front of the exhibit area that morning when she unloaded her car. Seconds later she stomped back into the exhibit room.
“My damn battery’s dead,” she said.
“Well, I would give you jump, but I don’t have jumper cables,” I replied. “Good thing our company pays for AAA for us!”
“Oh, I have jumper cables!” So we hunt down my car, which was parked what felt like three miles away. I cleared the junk from the front seat and she jumps in.
Both being farm girls, we assumed we could easily figure out this car-jumping thing. I popped my hood, she hers. I identified the positive and negative terminals; she could only find her positive. That’s when we called in reinforcements in the form of men.
They figured out that you can ground the other cable on a piece of metal (I think, maybe you shouldn’t try this at home), and we started exchanging battery juice.
A few minutes later, a woman casually walks by and points out I have a FLAT TIRE!
Thank goodness one of the men had a portable air compressor just chilling in his car. So once my coworker’s car turned over, they hooked up the compressor to my deflated tire and 15 minutes later I rolled away on a heavily-inflated tire. Unfortunately, my coworker had rolled into a parking spot and promptly turned off her car. Her battery hadn’t sufficiently recharged. Who knew the striking writers were still writing sitcom scripts?
Lessons learned:
1. Turn off your flashers, or at least remember to move your car after unloading it.
2. You might be able to ground jumper cables on a piece of metal under your hood. Don’t take my word for it.
3. Don’t be afraid to flirt for help.
4. Check your tires before you drive from Philadelphia to Lancaster.
5. Don’t turn off your car right after you get a jump.
A couple hours later I kicked my tire and it seemed like it was still okay. I headed for Philly and stopped half way to check my tire and purchase a portable air compressor and Fix-a-Flat. And windshield wipers because mine were a little streaky that morning.
Thank God great minds think alike. I guess they have the same goal for this year.
About the Bowl
From what I’ve observed from my years in agriculture, farm kids fall into two categories: the super-athletic kids, whose parents spend a lot of time running them to sporting events, and those whose parents don’t have time to run them around. I come from a long line of the former, so sports were never an important part of my life.
However, I am impressed by attractive men, so that’s usually how I pick the team to cheer. In my eyes, this year’s Super Bowl came down to Tom Brady versus Eli Manning. I picked Brady, thus I half-heartedly rooted for the Patriots when I flipped between Dexter, Shark and Cold Case. But my heart really belongs to Peyton and I must say there wasn’t anything more endearing than seeing the elated reaction of the elder Manning when Eli completed that touchdown pass that clinched the win for the Giants.
Either way, they’ve all appeared in got milk? ads, so they’re all okay in my book.
