Ashes

Coming home from Thailand to a burning city was not what we were expecting much less Dan having no home to come home to. I was amazing with how well he held things together after learning his house was demolished in the fires. Talk about being helpless.
Saturday a group of us went up to his house and his neighbor's houses to help sort through the ashes for possible memories. Katie puts it best here.
And still he was alight with laughter- so much so that we could here him when he arrived at his house (we were at the neighbor's site). He actually said, "All you can do is laugh at this point" as he stared down at the rubble.

One more week of...

1. Jenni


2. Riding Motor bikes


3. Gracie (Jenni's Dog) biting me


4. painting the centre


5. Removing paint I just painted on


6. my pants sticking to my legs


7. never doing my hair since it will just get messed up from the helmet


8. coffee in a bag (not an IV - I know you were thinking that Katie and Susan)


9. delicious Thai food


10. Fun Thai people who try to call me either Tamerine (SP?) or Donkey

Thailand here I come!

This is Jen and I have hacked into Tam's blog to tell all of you that Tam is on her way to Thailand right now. She is actually on a plane right now that will land in Singapore and then she will get on another plane and arrive in Chiang Mai tomorrow morning. I am SUPER EXCITED to see her!

And if she were blogging right now, this is what she would write:

"I could not be happier than I am right now. It doesn't matter that I am stuck in this uncomfortable airplane seat, wishing I could take a shower and sleep. It doesn't matter that I don't know the person next to me well enough to be comfortable with them leaning on me or that the movies they have picked for this flight are awful. Nothing matters except the fact that I will soon see my Jenni, my hero, my best friend, my everything. It has been a long ten months since we last saw eachother and I have been counting down the minutes until our next meeting. It is almost here and I feel like crying with excitement. The next eleven days together will be bliss because my sister is the coolest!"

Or something like that anyway...

Woohoo! The Leeper sisters together again!!!!

Conversation with Jenni

For those of you who don't know, my sister Jenni teaches English to Thai College Students in Chiang Mai.
Here is a conversation I just had with her:

Jennifer: today we were talking about names in my class and Dear asked what your full name was. i told him your middle name was Dawn and he asked if he could call you donkey as a nickname

it was Hilarious me: gasp!

you told him no right?

Jennifer: i told him yes he could call you donkey

i love dear

me: no!

Jennifer: and i love you my little donkey

me: you basically are calling me an ass

Jennifer: i know but he didn't realize that and it

made it even funnier

me: way to teach your students to cuss

Jennifer: i love language barriers

you're the one whose name sounds like donkey

Delightfully Innocent

I went car shopping and took Wendy along. One of the best ideas I have had all year. She was the pillar of strength all women need when going car shopping. From her "are you kidding me?" looks to "you are not buying this piece of junk, it smells like someone was either smoking in it or embalming bodies." she was the perfect combination of bluntness and reason.
But my favorite quote from this whole experience? Wendy's response to a pushy salesman who wanted me to raise my monthly price by giving something up:
Wendy (insert "are you kidding me?" look) "Listen buddy, we don't smoke, we don't drink, and we are virgins. What else do you want us to give up?"
salesman "Starbucks?"
Wendy "Nope. We don't do that either."

And after a full day of car shopping she even created TWO to do lists for me to complete on Monday. Which without those lists I would still have no car. As it turns out though I do have a pretty awesome car now:





Thanks Wendy for all your help! You are amazing!

Curses

I want to curse the girl who hit my parked car with flat tires for a year, but that would be wrong.
I don't have time to deal with this crap.
Anybody want to give me a car? or perhaps some sort of free transportation that will not leave me exhausted after getting up the Laurel "hill"?

Confession

So I was sitting here wondering why, after working all day and then working on a client and THEN coming home and cleaning, I would still be wide awake and not even close to tired.
Then I realized in an effort to stay awake to clean I bought a soda, skittles and whoppers--basically a recipe for a few hours of a sugar high. I am not the brightest bulb in the lot.
Geeze Louise.
Also I found the video application. Watch out folks!
This one is for my sister Jenni. My Nephews last year and yes Andrew says he wants to see some pigs...they will always associate Jenni with pigs- she used to collect all things pigs.

ugh

I parked my car a couple Friday's ago and came out the next morning to discover someone had "rolled" into it. Awesome. I love that.
I say "rolled" because who can total a car by simply "rolling" into it? Oh right but I forgot, it was my fault because I parked so close (and by close I of course mean at least a foot and a half away). How silly of me to assume that people know how to drive.
So now I am waiting on insurance to tell me officially that it is totaled and write me a check so that I can have yet another bill in the form of a car payment.
Did I mention I love that?

That is what it is for...

Conversation this morning when I answered the phone at work:
me: Good Morning, Joseph Wong Desgin
Guy: Is Bert in this morning?
me: I am sorry, Bert has not come in yet this morning. Would you like his Voice mail?
Guy: Yes, So I can leave a message for him to call me.
me: One moment please
In my head: Uh Yeah dude. That is kinda what Voice Mails are for.

Why do people insist on telling you they are going to leave a message for someone when you have just asked if they what to be transferred to Voice Mail. A simple yes would be okay. I already know that is what will happen. And furthermore why do people insist on telling you the reasons they are calling when they have already said they would like Voice Mail? Dude, I really have no need to know that. But thank you for taking forever to tell me that when you can clearly hear the phone ringing in the background.

My new Fav movie...

Driving Lessons. Watch it. Love it. Watch it again.

Harry Potter and the Ridikulous Uninformed Article

Okay, in my opinion this woman does not make any good points at all and was never that into the series. She was told by her editor to read them and write something agianst them.
The Article is here but do not read it if you have not read the last HP book or ever plan to read it.
Al, you had better leave me a comment. I will be disappointed if you don't. So if you could just do that, that'd be great. mmmk?
"... the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy..." Albus Dumbledore

It's Done

I finished the last book of Harry Potter.
JK Rowlings best one yet. I hope she continues writing in the future...

Eye opening.

I just witnessed the most ridiculous self centered human on the face of this planet.
I work across the street from an assisted living senior home where, more often then I would like, the red fire trucks and blaring ambulances pull up to the doors to retrieve a senior citizen needing to be hospitalized for one reason or another. Today was no different except one pristine silver car that was unfortunately blocked in by both the ambulance trying to get the closest spot to the front door and the fire truck that was blocking the road so as to create more maneuvering room for the paramedics.
I watched as the Blonde Pris gets in her car and attempts in vain to back out of her spot; her poor space judgment causing her car to ram into the car behind her. Realizing there was no use (although if she was smart and not an arrogant fool she would have been able to pull an opposite parallel parking move and gotten out just fine) she, instead of pulling forward off the bumper of the other car, gets on her cell phone and with her hand to her head starts ranting at someone about her predicament.
Fine leave it at that. You are frustrated that you are stuck there. Maybe you are late to a meeting and stressed about the person you just visited. But don't do what I think you are about to do.
Horrified I watched as this POMPOUS and awful person gets out of her car and walks right up to the paramedics who are rushing to get their things together to help a possibly dying person and asks them if the fire truck can move or how she can get out.

SERIOUSLY LADY?!?!?!?!?! Are you really THAT important, that self involved that you don't realize you are making a complete ass of yourself?
I cannot even express how sick it makes me feel to know that there are people like this lady in the world. Yes, she may have had something in her life that was consuming her thoughts. Perhaps grieving for the loss of someone who used to live in that building or whatever she may be dealing with in her life. But nothing gives any other human being the right to act like the world actually just centers around them and risk another human being's life for something as ridiculous as time. Five minutes. That's all she had to wait. Five minutes for the ambulance to rush the senior to the hospital yet her petty little life was more important than another's. Sick.

Happy Birthday to me!

I had my Birthday this week and I am now officially in my last year of my mid twenties.
BUT more importantly, I just received this:

Greetings from Amazon.com.

We thought you would like to know that we are preparing your items for shipment.

YES!!!!!!!!!! Harry Potter is on his way! Happy Birthday to me!

Allie's Quote of the day

"You're a pretty lovable gal Tamara. Its pretty hard not to hop on the Tamara Train and head into giggletown."

How unfortunate and ironic

As Merriam Webster says:
1 : relating to, containing, or constituting irony ironic remark> ironic coincidence>
2 : given to irony ironic sense of humor>
OR
3: As seen on my way to drop Erin off at the Airport. Click on the pic for a larger view...






Just in case you missed it, the sign says "How's my driving" and has a big dent in it. I'd have to say not too good...

Received recently from my Mom

My Mom is not very technology savy so you can imagine my surprise when I received this Picture message from her recently:




Yes that is Jenni and yes she is wearing a racoon costume. And Yes, she is walking with swagger. Notive the extra swing of the tail. For further questions she can be found here.

Meme

RubySoho tagged me for a thing called “meme”, the pertinent meaning of which I now know after reading Aaryn's blog, and I will go on to plagiarize each and every word she wrote in her opening paragraph: As it pertains to blogging, a meme is an idea spread from blog to blog. So. The object of my assignment is to tell the internets eight Random Facts About Myself and then, pssst, pass it on. (I copied most of that from Katie.)

I was tagged with this twice and so were my dogs. Poor Suki and Sam. Poor me.....meme Ha!
Okay well anyway I guess I will go ahead and do it for fear that I may be beaten to the point of near death by three very intimidating women.
Now on to the rules:

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Now that we know how to place nice, we can begin. And mind you, this is your fair warning that you have quite possibly entered . . . the Twilight Zone.

1. I like depressing music. Slow sad music with repeating backgrounds and heavy piano solos or accoustic guitar. Like Yo La Tengo, Postal Service, Dashboard Confessional, very emo I guess. I have a playlist on my ipod full of this kind of music that I listen to over and over and over agian. I even go so far as to say I like covers of old eighties songs in a slow accoustic fashion like Eva Cassidy does or Johnny Cash.
2. Not so much a secret but I hate gum. Even typing the word gives me the heebie jeebies. The smell, texture, the way people chomp it and how it makes people act. I once wrote a five page satirical paper all about it in highschool.
3. I hate my laugh. Its loud an obnoxious and I want to dig myself a hole and bury myself everytime I hear it. I also hate that sometimes it reminds me of my sister Tiffany and all that old anger returns in what, as my laughter would suggest, should be a happy moment. Okay but seriously, on a side note, at least it is not like the guy's in my office right now. His cackling never stops.
   
4. I get extremely anxious and nervous before almost every massage. My heart beats like crazy and my stomach sinks every other minute. Especially new clients but also with certain old clients. Its not that they express they don't like it, they wouldn't reschedule if they didn't but sometimes I feel like I don't do enough for them.
   
5. My big downfall is kitchen gadgets. I want them all. I would go bankrupt if I ever went to the county fair.
   
6. My secret desire is to someday be able to spout out the full rap-like portions of Matisyahu's songs like in Fire of Heaven or King Without a Crown. He is so fast. He is one of my exceptions to #1
7. I have supersonic hearing when it comes to the elevator at work. I can hear people walk in on the first floor and I am on the third.
   
8. I just spilled, or rather dumped, a large amount of cinnamon apple sauce on my crotch. How unfortunate.

And the only person I have to tag that hasn't been tagged yet is Lisa. Oooo and Anne! Have fun!

Aunt Katie is Hot

Seriously how hot is my Aunt?!

DHL=Dog House

Someone is about ready to get the smack-down.
I hate DHL and their opinions that if another company decides that our company should pay for unauthorized shipping, its okay for them to create an account for our company (without telling us) and bill us.
No-sirey-Bob.
Don't basically tell me I don't know what I am talking about you insolent fool.GAH!