Touch Me, I'm Going to Scream

Labor day weekend in upon us and for some reason, I feel so amped, it's like I could jump clear out of my own flesh. Ames is coming up tonight and we're hitting up Chi-town tomorrow. Shhh - don't tell her, but I'm thinking of trying to find the lost race track in Raceway Woods again (same as the ill fated journey all around the 'burbs Miss Katie and I took a few years ago).

I've been on this huge making mix cd kick lately, rocking out to yet another one last night/this morning/today/whatever. Have I mentioned lately that I don't know what day it is anymore? It's just something that comes with the territory of working 3rd...but then again, I never knew what day it was 1/8 of the time anyway on days, so... But I've been all about forming the best sonic scape possible with my music at hand so I have something comfy to wrap myself in while driving from point A to point B. Of course, it's so nice that when I get to point B (or point HH), I don't want to leave the car. So, I've been taking music in with me and just listening to it (no headphones, I'm inconsiderate, yes? but my mixes are proving popular) at the computer, cranking it up the best the puny speakers on my laptop will allow. I'm causing people to come down with bad cases of nostalgia with some of these tunes; they make for great conversation starters.

This music helps me keep me in my happy place and stay invigorated. Manic? Maybe. But I'm getting the sonic warm and fuzzies and it's keeping me itching with anticipation.
For what - clean starts, new perspectives, getting to know people better, fall (which signals the begining of the end of this most challenging year). But I'm excited, the air feels electric and this is the soundtrack to it all.

BTW - even if we don't find the race track this time, I know I'm still getting Benihana out of the deal for driving. w00t!

Did You Just Say 'F**K' at Me, Boy?!?

Fuck. It's a word that's now lost all impact on me. Not that it ever really had much before, but now that I'm on the shop floor all the time and dealing with labor relations issues on a regular basis, "fuck" is as routine as "this" and "that."

Last night, one of my operators came in early and was acting surly to the 2nd shift management. He was spouting off with attitude unparalelled to that of a snotty pre-teen girl. We're talking arms folded, eyes rolling, under the breath muttering, full on bitchiness.

Also, I think he stole ice cream from the cafeteria, but I can't prove it...

Anyway, I'm doing the shift hand off with 2nd and it's mentioned to me that operator-dude wasn't running the lathe. He had told 2nd that he had been instructed to only shave and not to lathe, so that's what he was going to do. He even went as far to tell 2nd that, "you're not my supervisor; she gets here for 3rd." Fine, good to see I have authority?

Well, I get there and we're in the area and 2nd asks him again why he isn't lathing his parts. The response is silent treatment and we proceed onward reviewing the area. However, less than 50 steps away, the decision was made by yours truly to go back and tell him to fire up the lathe and get going at the parts. I get over there and the fellow is reading the job instructions and I ask him, "Are you reading the job instructions to lathe those parts." He rolls his eyes at me and says "Sure." So I told him, "I want you to lathe those parts." He just looks at me blankly. "I said I'm telling you to fire up that lathe and get going on those parts right now." He snaps upright and quickly turns around and goes toward the lathe because he knows that insubordination is bad. However, he's muttering stuff about the Company and I clearly hear him say "fuck."

"Did you just say 'fuck' at me?" I called to him. No response. In a bigger voice I repeated, "Did you just say 'fuck' at me, boy? Don't you say 'fuck' at me!" He turns around, "No." "No what? No you didn't say 'fuck' at me?" "No I didn't say 'fuck' at you!" "Then who did you say 'fuck' at?"
"...No one..." And then I gave him the directive: "I don't ever want to hear you say 'fuck' in front of me ever again. Do you understand?" He looks at me. "Do you understand!" "Yes." "Okay, see you at the start of shift meeting."

The other supervisor asked me if I was all right and I was and told him so. However, this exchange became the topic of the next meeting I had with the other supervisors.

Later today, I had to repeat my prohibited harassment training, which is required of all employees every 3 years. For some reason, I find this kind of a fitting way to end the day - started it yelling 'fuck,' ended it talking about why you should'nt say 'fuck.'

Now that I'm writing this word in official company documents nearly weekly, the word has lost most all effect. Save for that if it's said in front of me by that operator, I get to send him home. Weird...

XXX Acai-Blueberry-Pomogranite Mix

Dusty - Kings of Leon
Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing - Chris Isaak
Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt. 1 - My Morning Jacket
After it All - Cat Power
Love Whip - Reverend Horton Heat
In the Evening - Led Zepplin
Lollipop - Lil Wayne
The Other Woman - Devendra Banhart
Evil Urges - My Morning Jacket
Naked, If I Want To - Cat Power
Blue Veins - Raconteurs
Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt 2. - My Morning Jacket
All Night Thing - Temple of the Dog


Inspired by my vitamin water, night driving, and that guy that looks like a muppet yet is neverthess dead sexy!

A Few of My Favorite Things - Last Week of August 2008

- XXX Vitamin Water: The triple-X is for triple antioxidants in this tasty acai-blueberry-pomagranite mix, not for a Vin Disel movie

- Louisville, KY: one of the most awesome places on earth. "God's Country. Duh"

- Denman Be Bop brush: it's a round scalp massaging brush made of super soft plastic. It's touted as something that can be used to distribute shampoo or styling product through the hair, but I like to use it to rub my scalp. I picked this up at a pit stop outside of Indy and later when Deez asked me what I was up to while driving I told him, "Rubbing my head and listening to My Morning Jacket"

- "Evil Urges:" the song (cd is good too) is trippy and sexy all at the same time

- P-town Climate: Sorry Lou, I'm growing accustomed to 68 degrees and 20% humidity in August

On the Road Again

About to embark on my journey back to Peoria. Spent the weekend hanging with my D.A.B. Allimon and the best doggie in the world, Miss Madders. It has been a truly relaxing weekend and while I'm not particularly excited to get back into the swing of things, it's good to feel refreshed and ready to go at it again. At least I don't have 2 weeks of 12+ hour shifts and weekend work to look forward to. In retrospect, I should have taken all of this week and the weekend off. Oh well, I'll just have another excuse to come back this way - vacation days to use. I still haven't matured to the point of wanting to go on trips to exotic places, chilling with friends I haven't seen for a while and chill weekends in Kentucky.

Picked up some tunes in Ear-X-Tacy yesterday and look forward to having some ear-gasms on the trek home. Think the weather is going to hold, though I do like a nice overcast drive - not as much glare. Heading west, windows down, cool wind in hair - I do love the open road.

Have cell phone charger - will travel. Feel free to call and entertain me as I trek through the vast bussom of Indiana.

14.5 millimeter balls

A conversation in our office this morning between the team lead and planner...I sit right between them.

Team Lead: Hey Steph, I need some balls!
Planner: What size balls you need?
TL: I need the 14.5 mm
Planner: 14.5 mm balls coming up

wait about 2 minutes

Planner: It'll take a day to get them.
TL: Damn, I really need some balls.
Planner: Too bad, they won't drop until tomorrow

(btw - when something drops, that means it's placed in queue to be delivered to a work area)

Me:

TL: Are you laughing at my balls?

Me: ...bwahahahahahahahaha

zzz

Slept for 18.5 straight hours...t'was glorious

Bonus Post: Happy Place

Clicky for happy thought of the day

(nsfw...if you don't feel tingly watching this, you're a corpse)

Weird Dreams from the Couch

Got home from work yesterday morning, changed into my beloved red and blue plaid pajama pants and plopped down on the couch with a big 'ol cup of Today Show on NBC. I didn't even get to blink twice and I was down for the count, aware of the world around me only briefly, around 6:00 before going back to my semi-comatose state until 9-something. But I was aware of the string of odd and vivid dreams that occupied my sleepy time.

First, I was at some old place that was in or around Decatur and staying in one of those old fashioned motels - the kind that are one level and you park right outside of your door. Don't get me wrong, my lodging was nice enough, but it was most certainly old. I dined at an old diner, surrounded by old people, and then went to a really, really old building for some sort of meeting, no doubt with old people. And once I was at this meeting with old people in an old place, we went to this room in the middle of the building where there was this large, foam pyramid that was surrounded by a ball pit. We (the royal we - me and fellow old people) stripped down to spandex unitards and raced to the top of the pyramid. That was the end of that dream...

Next, I was a little boy in a house that was filling with lava - but this was a Pixar cartoon and I was a cartoon boy imperiled by cartoon lava. I stacked my toys in the corner and when the lava came near, I tossed them out the window to save them. I was barely able to save my xbox and lost a controller to the cartoon lava. I jumped out of the window to escape the cartoon lava and met my cartoon father and cartoon dog in the front yard. My cartoon mother was out there and this little lava demon arose from the cartoon lava. In my dream, my cartoon mother used to be some sort of an ice goddess that was married to the little lava demon. For reasons my cartoon little boy brain did not fully grasp, my cartoon mother left my cartoon mother and I to go be with the little lava demon. This was done somehow to save the world...or at least our little cartoon family.

(I swear there was no crack ingested prior to napping on the couch - only 2 cinnamon raisin biscuits from Hardees)

Next dream - I'm in WalMart and there are professional wrestlers in lucha libre masks jumping out of dark colored wooden drunks and changing all of the tv channels in the electronics department to...wrestling.

Final dream - I'm an ingenue in a high necked halter dress...it's black. I have long, straight black hair with bangs and large, green, black rimmed eyes and red lips. I am admittedly hot. And I am being chased by a crazed killer in a car. The dream screams of "Death Proof" but it's not exactly...better dialog and not as much over-talked build up to the action. Everything ends in a swamp and I end up in the lake (meow!). The dream ends with credits rolling and I was, in fact, the ingenue in peril in a Quentin Tarantino film. Things leave an opening for a sequel.

...And after the credits ended, I saw one of the fellows on my softball team remove the dvd of the movie that I just starred in from the dvd player, place it in the container and take it downstairs and put it in a picnic basket, walk outside, and join me and the other team-members for a backyard bbq.

I slept so hard that I didn't go "WTF!?!" until almost a half hour later, while stepping out of the shower. Oh well, they were fun dreams.

Happenin' Tune

"Carmensita" by Devendra Banhart ... heard this a while back and didn't know what it was or who did it, but I'm lovin' it

Other Stuff I Love Today

Biore Pore Strips - 1/3 grooming, 1/3 science experiment, 1/3 S&M potential ... count me in

Fresh Peaches - no explanation necessary

Watchmen movie trailer - ++props for remixing SP's TEITBITE - finally this song is used to promote a worthwhile superhero movie

White 300 count sheets - they have to be white or they just don't count. I won't lie on anything less while updating my blog

Meronoa mens' socks - the kind that are supposedly made of bamboo - they wick foot sweat like a thirsty sponge...one that craves foot juice

73 degrees, 40% humidity, Light breeze from the southwest at 15 mph - these atmospheric conditions work for me

-BTW-

RIP Estelle 'Sophia Patrillo' Getty - hope you're living it up at the big Shady Pines in the Sky

Oh nos! Tornadoes!

So about 5:40 this morning, I'm puttering past heat treat in my scooter when the take cover (aka tornado) sirens go off. After herding my folks into the bathroom (aka the storm shelter) we proceed to just hang out in there for about 25 minutes. It was very uncomfortable - 15 people jammed into a single stall bathroom, sweaty...it was very humid and at least 100 degrees in the space. By the time we poured out a bit after 6, most of us looked like freshly boiled lobsters. On the bright side, the shop was about 15 degrees cooler after the storm and wave two of the front that came rolling through wasn't nearly as bad. At least we weren't hit by a tornado and thankfully, no one had to poop!

Rock Gods are Human Too

I rarely blog about current events, much less, celebrities. Much, much, much less, celebrities that aren't even really celebrities to the masses or the general American public. However, my inner 19-year old is presently way bummed to hear that one of the lead singers of one of my all time favorite bands is facing drug charges. No, I'm not talking about Scott Weiland of STP/Velvet Revolver...again...I'm refering to Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies.

Those of you who knew me back in the day know that I loved (still do) this band. I sing the praises of their live shows, filled with humorous banter and masterful musicianship. I really dig this band not for their catchy tunes, like "One Week," but for the fact that the band is 5 true musicians and showmen who make some damn good songs.

Aside from having an absolutely beautiful and operatic tenor, Page has mad song writing skills. He writes songs that are absolutely bouncy morsels of pop perfection peppered with wry social commentary and sprinkled with the bits of cynicism yet hopefulness - anthems for the bitter, yet motivated if you will. A lot of his songs are about the duality of the psyche - singing about having a whimsical day while at the same time lamenting about the horrors of the everyday.

But personally, I love his stuff because a lot of it contains themes that I deeply identify with - and I'm not talking about all the pipe dreams of what I'd do "If I Had a Million Dollars." Having to live up to the pressure of being the person you're expected to in "What a Good Boy." Absolutely loathing where you live and hoping it crumbles into the ground like in "Hello City." Becoming a passive aggressive asshole trying to be kind in "Break Your Heart." Afraid of people finding out that you don't have it all together after all in "This is Where it Ends." Of course, there's the funny stuff too, like "Alcohol," "In the Car," "It's Only Me (The Wizard of Magicland," about getting drunk and falling down, high school groping, and masturbation. I guess a lot of us can identify with those as well too.

So, fandom aside, I think the most disturbing thing about this is that this guy isn't your average rockstar and BNL isn't your average band. They've always had a more average joe and clean cut image than most any other band out there, save for the Osmonds. Yet this is a group that's never really gone out of its way to profess they are a squeaky clean family act. I guess in the age of drunken benders involving being pronounced dead, head shaving, biting the heads off bats, snorting your father's ashes, crotch flashing, and shark sandwiches, all it takes to be branded squeaky clean is well...not doing any of the aforementioned, which really takes no effort at all. Page was always better known for promoting literacy, recycling, and being somewhat active in social reform. And in all of that is the disturbing fact that there's little relished more these days than watching someone like that be burned at the stake for doing something that's, well, rock and roll. And cocaine is pretty rock and roll. (We're such hypocrites and prudes.)

So my inner 19-year old is bummed because this may mean no new albums, no tours, no performances for sometime. But this also means that if I think the uncommon rockstar is susceptible to common rockstar problems, that I had hero worship and I don't care who you are, it sucks to watch a hero fall from grace.

Question of the Day

Is a fast food breakfast as special when it's possible for you to have it just about every day? Without having to rush to make it there before it becomes lunch time? Debate.

Got Caught in a Tornado on I-55 Friday

Whilst headed downstate on Friday evening, Mama and I were caught in some gnarly straight-line winds on I-55 south of Springfield. The big rigs came to a halt on I-55; we (and everyone else) were pulled over on the side of the road because the rain and hail was too insane to proceed onward. At one point, all the precipitation stopped and then we were bombarded by straightline winds coming from the west. I could see the grass and crops on the side of the road bend over, almost to the ground, and feel the car rocking. It felt pretty freaky!

6.02214179 x 10-23 ^ malignant!!!

I'm having a mole cut off my arm 2 weeks from today. Here's how it went down: Saturday - smooth, flat, freckle-looking spot on my arm. Kind of cute, right? Sunday - mole itches, i scratch it and it hurts, it's a raised bump. Oh, a pimple, right? Ney - it starts bleeding on me. So not a pimple. Monday - it's still there. Tuesday - same story. Today, it hurts when I press on it. And, at the bottom of the raised skin is an elongated, demonic version of the cute, little freckle it used to be.

I'm getting this bad boy chopped off in 2 weeks. Something changes that fast, it's gotta be some skin cancer baby!

I Love the Night Life

I've been at the new job a month now and this week marked my start on 3rd shift. Let me say for the record: I love 3rd shift. This, of course, makes me what a lot of people would call "not right." I could have told you a long time ago that I've never not been "not right." Actually, even when I'm "right," it's just a very mild version of being "not right." But, aside from that, here are my top 5 reasons why I love working 3rd:

1. No meetings
2. Riding around on a Cushman scooter is super fun
3. Everyone just wants to work and be left alone (therefore I just get to work and be left alone)
4. It's now socially acceptable to eat bbq for breakfast and drink beer at 8am
5. More sleep (seriously, I slept 10 hours yesterday and still had time to goof around 3 hours before work)

Some Weeks, You Just Survive

I wouldn't go as far as to say that this week was a bad week for me, personally. It was most definitely a bad week, for a lot of the folks around me, which makes it a challenging week, personally, when sometimes you just don't know what to do for others.

Monday: average day, final staff meeting, can't really recall much about this day

Tuesday: a man was killed by a steel plate in the service level of one of the buildings at work; found out about this around 3 pm and immediately went into fact finding mode; got to hear all of the gory details while in medical and the first responders/emts were going through the post-incident debriefing

http://www.pjstar.com/news/x61384796/Contract-worker-killed-in-accident-at-Cats-Tecnical-Center

Wednesday: woke up early and got several boxes of Lesters (local donut-house goodness) to take into work as comfort food for the staff; the guys investigating the incident both looked like they hadn't slept for days; went down to the service level and did a pre-OSHA visit sweep - stood at the spot where the guy died for about 5 minutes just staring into space; sat around a conference room phone with the rest of the staff and just watched everyone mindlessly eat donuts while getting instruction from corporate and our attorney; enjoyed a subdued going away party and cleaned out my desk to leave

Thursday: was at hospital from 6:30 am to 9 at night; Mama had a partial knee replacement; afternoon excitement came courtesy of Mama's roommate (OSF too crowded for her to get a private room) - a gal my age that had been in a head-0n collision that closed 29 that morning. I take this road to work (well, Friday was my last day of that) and it's freakin' dangerous - everyone driving all crazy-like with no center divider. There's at least one spectacular crash (usually fatal) on this road a year in the mornings, usually in the summer and it results in the road being shut down to clear across the bridge. I went to the other side of the curtain and stayed with the gal until her mother got there; the news had announced that she was dead during the morning news and updates and it wasn't retracted until noon. Highlights of the day included seeing Mama get color back in her face and feeling well enough to eat a fish sandwich, dinner with Dad at the Hofbrau (mmm - sauerbraten, spatzle, and red cabbage), and getting an act of kindness certificate from the head nurse for hanging with the girl that was injured until her mother arrived.

http://www.pjstar.com/news/x120332772/Traffic-back-to-normal-on-Galena-Road-after-head-on-collision

Friday: didn't get into work until around 9:00, but when I did get there, I had 6 dozen donuts for the shop offfice and shop floor; walked around handing out donuts for about an hour and then straightened up my desk for about 45 minutes before being collected to go to another going away luncheon at T.G.I. Friday's - and having a couple hours of enjoyable company and good advice for how to be a supevisor. I got to hear a lot of stories about the strike back in the 90s and we talked about the recent smoking ban. Finished cleaning out my desk, labeling stuff for the next person to occupy the area and left to go sit in the sun and drink beer. Went to the hospital, then to dinner, and finished the evening falling asleep watching "Spies Like Us"

http://www.pjstar.com/archive/x1170287629/UAW-files-unfair-labor-practice-against-Caterpillar-over-smoking-ban?view=print
http://www.pjstar.com/news/x2031783662/UAW-Cat-suspends-workers-who-defy-smoking-ban

That Time I Auto-Sterilized in the Juice Aisle at Wal-Mart

So I'm standing in the juice aisle at Wal-Mart tonight and to my right I notice jabba-the-mama (obese woman covered in tattoos, wearing a spaghettie strap tank top) and her 6 dirty-faced children. Two of them are screaming. One, during the course of screaming fit, grabs a jug of grape juice and sends it crashing to the floor. Three of the kids are standing in the purple mess, the girl (approximately aged 12 years) starts screaming, "My crocs are filling with juice!" Mama-the hutt yells at the kids to stay where they are while she gets someone to clean up the mess. The 12 year old girl, still standing in the juice, proceeds to scold the child that did it. "You're a bad baby! A bad baby!" Images of future juvie hall residents fill my mind. I'm convinced I feel the eggs in my ovaries popping like little bits of bubble wrap. Watching this literally gave me a period.

Crocs!!!

Mama is having knee replacement surgery in June. The doctor recommended she get a pair of crocs to wear around the hospital and to rehabilitation.

The great question of the day is this: are crocs okay with a doctor's note? Or are they never okay? Discuss amongst yourselves.

Playlist for Week Of 5/12:

Wish - Nine Inch Nails (a fave)
The Perfect Drug - NIN (++points for cool mark romanek music vid)
Creep - Radiohead (rawk!)
Bat Country - Avenged Sevenfold (holy guitar shred, batman!)
SexyBack - Justin Timberlake (wiggle that bum around)
Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth... - Primitive Radio Gods (excellent)
Soul to Squeeze - Red Hot Chili Peppers (an all time fave)
Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve (poignant)
Toy Soldiers - Martika (80s!!!)
Playground Love - Air (dreamy)
Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs (all right!)
Paranoid Android - Radiohead (cool vid, but woah! at ball jiggle)
High and Dry - Radiohead (how suiting)
Stay (Faraway, So Close) - U2 (how appropro)
Karma Police - Radiohead (sonic excellence)
Closer - NIN (always end with a a scorcher)

Whattaweekend

Wednesday 7 pm - Sunday 7pm:

lasagna*night driving*love line on 105.7 kpnt*work fill-in-puzzles*sleeping in/today show*driving*stocking up at the winery*mothers day shopping* sushi (in a boat!)* the office*sonic goodness*sleep*skillet breakfast burritos*clarksville*olive garden*shopping*baby mama*raffertys*princeton*reminiscing about back in the day*football tonsils/saltwater gargles*being in awe of suprise 05*pizza*bison at lbl*toms*apple*3.8 second beer chug*farewells*playboy*more sleeping goodness*huddle*travel*mothers day*travel*home

estimated miles traveled: 1000
friends hugged: 12
"i love you mans": 8
beers: ~8
diet cokes: too many
fun: yes