I'm on a week long furlough - basically unpaid vacation so the company can get it's cash flow in order. This would be fine, except they told me on Friday that my furlough would start this Monday. That shot any potential visit to Michigan in the foot.

Anyway, if you want to come to sunny El Paso, I'm twiddling my thumbs through Friday. (And it actually snowed a bit today! Woo hoo!)

Found this in my Photobucket. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Oops, bought a car!







And, since I work in the newsroom now, I get to enter the poll numbers as they come in tomorrow night. Cool.

Anyone have Skype? I'm francesbcat.

Here's a picture.

So, I haven't posted in a while. Some things have happened.

I went home to Michigan,


There's a new kitten there.


His name is Stanley. He thinks it's nice to meet you.


Things are blooming here in the desert,


which is still nothing like home.


But it's getting better.

Go to 6:07 (2:00 in this embedded version) for some traditional-nasty Irish Step. (Ignore the stompey people at the beginning.) It's a hornpipe! Hmmm, this music seems awfully boring... This won't be cool. Wha? Wait, where are all those noises coming from?! O_o

Ah, this guy seems skinny. And he doesn't have anyone to operate his camera for him, can't be *that* good.

Wait, he put a dance floor in his garage. Nevermind.

P.S. I'm leaving for El Paso over Labor Day weekend come hell or high water.

Okay, I found something pretty awesome - an entire prison-full of guys dancing to Thriller:



And Radio Ga-Ga for Queen fans:



These have probably already been found by everyone, but you can watch them again.

(Any Indiana biker folks doing Amishlands & Lakes this weekend? Call me...)

I have a lot of pictures. Lots and lots.

Post a comment here, and choose where you'd like to see a picture from. Here are your choices: Minnesota (way up north), Mackinac Island, Victoria, Colorado (in a mountain), or Cape Cod.

Comment as many times as you like. As long as I keep getting comments, I'll keep giving pictures.

I called the owner of the hostel in Colorado this morning, and I lucked out and got an answering machine. To give you all an idea of why I may have been feeling guilty about not going out there, even though it would sap at least $225 out of my monies, I have transcribed his return message to me.

12:49pm
Jane, this is Jerry from the hostel. Do you really have the slightest idea what you're doing? [pause] I made plans, I had to be in Denver uh, on, uh May 30th, I was planning on you being here. I made other plans also and you keep breaking your word, you break it over and over again, you make a commitment and then you don't follow through with it. I just don't know what kind of person you are, but I certainly wouldn't want to have any of your- anybody who knows you working for me out here. When you make a commitment you should keep it, number one. I hope this comes back to you some day, I'm sure it will.

Yep. When I was heating up soup in the microwave for a late lunch, Jerry made a potato explode at me. I deleted his message though.

I have many choices! And we all know how much I love choices...

So, I will probably not go to Colorado after all (which I have to tell the owner tomorrow), because I'll end up spending more on the travel than I'd be making there. And, I have not yet found a replacement. I don't have to be in Mass. until the 8th of June. I kinda languish at home, and I'm not making any money. A bonus of still going to CO though, despite tossing away money, would be not telling the poor owner that I won't be coming. If I'm burning bridges by shafting this guy, I'd avoid doing that too...

Here are the choices I've come up with:

Head down to Bloomington, crash on someone's floor, and work at the Telefund

Go to Colorado anyway and the hell with the money (or ask the owner for a bit more)

Languish at home and ride my bike and sell things on Amazon.

If I still had a paid account, I'd make a poll. As it is, I'd appreciate input. Please.

I will be in Glenwood Springs, Colorado from May 15th through June 7th. I will be on Cape Cod in Massachusets from June 8th through August 25th.

Why the multiple places? Let me tell you.

The group of hostels in Mass. originally thought that they did not want me, due to my dates of availability. So, I accepted a position at Jerry's hostel in Glenwood Springs. Then, after a few emails and phone calls, I found out today that I got a position at the Truro hostel in Mass. because someone else had cancelled. Now, this is a week before I'm supposed to go out to CO. Bad timing. I called Jerry about a half an hour ago, and let him know that someplace else had offered me more pay (it will end up being about twice as much by the end of the summer, which is good for rent) to work from the 8th of June through the end of August, and I broke his heart. He was so, so disappointed.

And so, I have no soul. I broke a hostel-owner's heart, who was kind enough to actually give me a job when everyone else was wishy-washy. I'll be there for three weeks, but I can't imagine that they're going to help him that much, and he's going to be short-handed after I leave. I have a mission: I'm going to attempt, even though I doubt it'll work, to find someone to go to Glenwood Springs, and give Jerry the extra pair of hands he needs. Whether they can come after I leave, or replace me entirely, I do not care. I will search.

So, anyone have a friend who likes Colorado and could help alleviate my guilt? The pay isn't much, but you get a room, and it's a beautiful town.

So, I clicked this linkey-link in a friend's lj and entered myself for $10,000 of travel.

You too can click the link, and then be entered. (Also, your entering gives the other person more of a chance...)

http://calsms.com/157/175/1257/3538683/3540272

Yep.

Anyone in Bloomington want to go in on a *cheap* apartment next year? I mean cheap. Like uber-cheap.

Oh, you should probably be a girl?

Hooray! Thank you all so much for the advice!

My mum went into the courthouse today before work, explained our sticky situation, and the lady took care of it for me. :)

It'll keep happening until I actually live in the same county that I have my driver's license in, and who knows when that will be... But I'm glad it was relatively easy for mum to take care of.

Goddammit, I got a jury sumons for Jackson County, Michigan. I'm supposed to be available from Jan. 3-6.

Do I live in Jackson County? No... If I serve it and the duty goes past the sixth am I fucked? Yes.

I was supposed to sign the back of the summons and return it to the county court building within ten days of recieving it (which was the 2nd...) to get a full-time student exemption. My mother didn't open my mail though, and so my ten days are up. How the hell am I supposed to be able to sign something and get it back there if I'm in another state anyway? Arg.

As my mother put it, "We're doomed because you were not home to open your mail."

And another thing... Did they not at one point give the summons from the voter registrations for the county? I know no one votes, and so that's not such an effective way to do it, but now they do it from the county that you got your driver's license in. Which is where I'm not for about eleven months out of the year.

Ah well. I hope mum can rationally speak on my behalf this afternoon to the lady who organizes the jury duty.

Snow angels. Necessary.

(Also, any ass-prints you see between Ballantine and Forest are those of Yours Truly.)

My Beatles Professor is quoted in this week's Newsweek! How neat is that?

You can see it here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10115403/site/newsweek/page/2/

He's in the last paragraph on the page, and his name is Glenn Gass, not Glass. His stage name was Propane when he had a band in Greencastle...

Oh, and he destroyed the table at the front of the room with a triumphant kick during a video of Paul singing at the rooftop concert in '69.

(Granted, the occasion for the article is the 25th anniversary of John's murder. I didn't read the rest of it.)

Hi again, my non-readers. The sister and I went out on the lake with kayaks, and it was quite enjoyable. I laid back on the canoe and looked toward the shore, and it looked like there was a blue line where the water met the land. It was very odd. Oooh! Last night I saw Aurora Borealis at midnight and three. Very cool. It was green to the west, and white directly overhead. It looked like a blanket that someone was shaking. Kind of hypnotizing too. Um, that's about it.