A haiku for Gracie

Sleepy Gracie dog

Your tongue hangs out of your mouth

Just a little bit

Donna Karan 1988

If fashion is an outward expression of ones inner condition, I feel like a pair of sweatpants.

After nine and a half months in a new job, I'm exhausted and questioning how much longer I can stick it out. Of course, we've got this recession going on, so sticking it out is probably the only option if I'd like to keep my house, my dog, and my shopping addiction. But, you know when you start learning something you've never done before, like driving, and you can't imagine it ever being effortless? I'm still waiting for my workplace to stop feeling like drivers ed. I'd like to go into work and feel like I've got a handle on things. Sure, if I took all the things I've learned since I started and went back to where I came from, I'd kick some butt, but I'm never going to stop this train . Forward is the only direction life goes. Thats never been more true than in the news industry. What happened yesterday, last month, last year (hell, an hour ago) is history, and we're only interested in what's new and what's going to happen next. The problem is in life the past does matter, because it informs the present. I'm constantly changing pace. And because of that, I think I'm a little lost at the moment. Getting to where I am was a whirlwind, and what goes up must come down. Hectic was the name of the game for seven months. Month eight was a deep breath. And now month nine is... I don't know... uncomfortable. I'm realizing how ill-equipped I am at working the evening shift, at handling stress, and at doing something that doesn't come completely natural to me.

What I need to do is change out of these sweatpants and into a fabulous pair of jeans. We all know how much I love designer denim.

The wind in her hair

Which one of these things does not belong?

If you, like my brother and C.Ropp, say "the hat," I'll never forgive you. I have fair skin okay?

Gracie tried to blend in with my spring break essentials. She really wants to go SCUBA diving.

Are you for SCUBA?

Clearly Gracie Gumbo is ready for Spring Break 2010.

Too bad she hates to fly.

Count your toads

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Michigan is asking for volunteers to help count the state's frogs and toads.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment announced plans Tuesday for the state's 15th annual Frog and Toad Survey. Michigan has 13 native species of frogs and toads.
The department says there's been a documented worldwide decline in the population of frog, toads and other amphibians since the 1980s. It says amphibians may be disappearing because of habitat loss, pollution, disease and collection.
The state says it conducts the surveys with volunteer observers along a system of 200 survey routes. They're visited three times during spring when frogs and toads breed. Observers listen for
calling frogs and toads at each site.


Ribbit. Ribbit.

Can't nobody hold me down...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -- A monkey that has eluded capture in the Tampa Bay area for more than a year has again escaped from Florida wildlife officials.
Authorities were called to a neighborhood in St. Petersburg on
Wednesday when the rhesus macaque monkey was spotted. It was twice hit with tranquilizer darts, but still got away by ducking behind a drug store and a church.
Wildlife rehabilitator Vernon Yates says the tranquilizers don't appear to affect the animal, though officials have increased the dosage each time they've used the drug on the monkey.
Yates says the monkey is smart, even stopping to check traffic before crossing a busy street.
Officials didn't say how the monkey got loose. They say it isn't considered a threat to humans.


Broken glass everywhere,
if it ain't about the money, Puff, I just don't care (that's right)
I'm that Goodfella fly guy, sometimes wiseguy
Spend time in H-A-W-A-I-I
(Mase can you please stop smoking lah lah?)
Puff why try? I'm a thug, I'ma die high
-Crazy Monkey

New station, new 'tude

At a new TV station, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Got the job over the winter, and have decided to never move during the winter again (much less a Michigan winter). Nonetheless, C. Ropp, Gracie Gumbo and I are settled into our portion of a historic duplex and getting quite cozy.

Things that make me happy today:

Doing well at work and having people notice
Lost
Late night TV (which I've never watched since I used to be early to bed, early to rise...) and a glass of red wine