easing back in...

I know, I know, it's been at least a month since my last blog entry. Let's just say that between moving, work, the holidays and family stuff, life's been extremely hectic. So, I'm going to ease on back into the swing of things with a short, funny story from my days as a switchboard operator at a hospital.

I was working the overnight shift on the switchboard at Terrebonne General in Houma and had to dispatch security. At 2 a.m., I got a call from the loony ward. One of their patients had escaped and I get this description to provide to the security guards: he's medium height with dark hair, wearing a Harley t-shirt. I asked for further description and finally got a very sheepish, "Well, he's naked from the waist down."

Naked. From the waist down. Wouldn't you mention this first?

Oh, and by the way, when I got off shift at 7 a.m., they still hadn't found him. He was eventually found in the parking lot by an 80-year-old Cajun lady who was arriving to visit her husband in ICU. She called security from the courtesy phone in the lobby with this message, "Cherie, there is a little man in the parking lot asking everyone if they have extra pants. i don't think he's right and Lord knows what he got ain't enough to brag about."

Needless to say, they kept a recording of that conversation for "training purposes."

ROTFLMAO

Atheism and a can of worms

An old friend of mine, C., is in religious studies. On her blog, she recently posted comments about an interview of Ricky Gervais which features an explanation of why he's an atheist. It's an interesting read and worth your time. (Click here to read the Gervais article; here to read her comments.)

In response to C's blog about the article, I left a comment which evidently opened a can of worms and she wrote an even longer blog post in response. To which, of course, I had a respone. That conversation can be found here.

What are your thoughts about God? do you believe?

Musing about music - take 2

You may remember a post from earlier this year (July maybe?) that I wrote in response to an idea my cousin Clay had on Facebook. Clay was proposing that we stop listening to music made prior to 1990 so that we'd be more open to new music. (You can read my original post and Clay's response here.)

In response to Clay's proposal, I've been making it a point to tune into radio stations with more obscure playlists which is quite a feat here in BR. And so, while I'm not exactly breaking new ground, I have developed an appreciation for artists/groups that I hadn't previously considered. Acts like Wilco, Sufjan Stevens, Regina Spektor, Mika, and Florence + the Machine, have made it into regular rotation on my playlists.

Have you thought about making an effort to add to your playlist? What have you added?

fave 10 of '10

So, I was leaving a comment on Mo Ryan's TV Squad blog post for the best 10 shows of 2010 and realized it had turned into its own blog post. Here you go:

I'm not sure these were the 10 BEST shows of 2010, but they were certainly my favorites.

Not in any particular order:

Glee - Yes, it is wildly uneven, but most episodes leave me smiling. What more can you really ask for?

Modern Family - This show is so good, they even managed to make a family vacation episode funny.

Cougar Town - Jules and the Cul-de-sac Krewe have stolen a little piece of my heart. This show has improved so much that it is almost unrecognizable from the first episodes that aired in Fall 2009.

Justified - Timothy Olyphant kicking butt and taking names as a US Marshall. Walton Goggins as his former friend and sometime adversary. How awesome is that combination?

The Vampire Diaries - This surprised me as much as anyone. Believe it or not, it's consistently well acted, big things happen in every episode and I have yet to see an episode I wasn't entertained by. And that's not even talking about the drool-worthy cast...

Community - So, so funny. The paintball episode alone would've earned the show a spot on this list and it isn't even my favorite episode. I know all the pop culture references are a bit much for some, but they make it all the better for me.

Chuck - Season 3 was a little bit of a let down for me, but I've really enjoyed season 4. And even season 3 was more entertaining than a lot of what's on out there...

Supernatural - Yes, season 5 was uneven and had pacing issues, but when it was good, it was SO good. AND Jensen Ackles will probably never be recognized for his exceptional work as Dean Winchester. For that matter, Jared Padalecki has certainly stepped it up a notch this fall with Robo-Sam. I've been really rather amazed by his completely new character portrayal.

Friday Night Lights - FNL will always have a spot on my top 10 list, even after it finishes its fifth and final season. It's that good. Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton have created one of the most realistic tv marriages it has been my privilege to see - and they make it look easy. FNL has also done a fantastic job of ushering out fan favorites as they graduate and move on with their lives while introducing new characters and making me care about them almost as much. How often does that happen? And, it has Tim Riggins. *sigh*

Terriers - oddly enough, it's filled that spot that has been empty since Veronica Mars. It's fantastic!

Charitable options this Christmas

A facebook post from a friend directed me to this blog about Christie, who truly feels called to help others, specifically a village in Africa. She has suggestions about how you can help, too, so check it out. I'll be keeping Christie and her ministry in my heart and mind this Christmas. Won't you as well?

More interested in helping a secular group? Check out One, which doesn't actually require a donation (although they'll take that too!), just making your voice heard in unison with people across the country and around the world. Another option is Matt Damon's project, water.org, which is dedicated to finding ways to provide safe drinking water to everyone. Kiva is an interesting option; you provide microloans to small start-up businesses in developing nations which can improve the lives of whole families.

My favorite, though, is Heifer Project International. It's similar to Kiva in that it provides a family with a way to start a sustainable business, but Heifer provides families with a way to change the life of not just a family, but an entire community. Heifer gives families in developing nations livestock that can provide continuing food and income sources. For instance, if a family is given a flock of chickens, they can use some of the eggs for food but sell the rest. Then when their flock has grown in size, they pay it forward by helping other families in the community by giving them a small flock of chickens. How cool is that?

Father Knows Best

In the very early 1990s, The Black Crowes exploded onto the music scene with hits like "Hard to Handle" and "She talks to Angels." At the time, I tried to convince my dad that their "Hard to Handle" was superior to Tony Joe White's or Otis Redding's or any of the other earlier artists to cover this song. Needless to say, he laughed at me. I'll let you judge for yourself:

Here's a version performed by Otis Redding:




Here's The Black Crowes:




Here's a link to listen to Tony Joe's version.


What do you think? Which version did you like better? Are remakes (music or other) ever as good as the original?

I got to fix a beauty pageant!

During my year-and-a-half in nursing home hell, I had to plan, promote, publicize and pull-off a beauty pageant for my residents so we could take the winner to the regional pageant. Never having been to a pageant, much less in one, I was kind of at a loss. Thankfully, one of the girls in the office, Kacey, had a lot of pageant experience and was actually excited about helping out.

We got businesses to donate prizes, contacted families to see if they wanted their resident to participate, ordered flowers for the winner, found guest judges and an emcee, ordered crowns, decorated sashes, the list goes on. You get the idea. And of course, since family members and the public were present, we had a party afterwards, which I also had to coordinate and have set up. (At least the kitchen staff took care of the food prep.) Fortunately, it was around Valentine's Day, so we had a decorating theme that was relatively easy to execute for both the pageant and the party.

Thirty residents wound up participating, 23 women and 7 men. Can I tell you how hard it was to make sure that everyone got a prize that was unique to them? That everyone got a question that they would be able to answer? That the aides made sure that the right people were washed and dressed up their Sunday best if they didn't have family to help? Logistical NIGHTMARE. I'm not usually one for lists, but during this job I became one. I had lists of lists of lists.

Are you ready for the funny part? After having gone to all the trouble of arranging guest judges, I was asked to fix the results so that the Mr. and Mrs. Nursing Home we took to the regional pageant were the best combination of appearance and well-spoken, thus having the best chance to win. And no fixing was necessary - the winners would've won anyway, thank goodness.

We wound up taking Jack and Annie. They were so excited - they even got to take multiple trips to Alexandria to be fitted for a tux and formal (at the nursing home's expense, of course), a trip to the salon, and then finally for the event itself. Neither one of them one, but Jack and Annie didn't care. They really were excited just to participate.

I'll tell you what - that whole experience gave me an appreciation for event planners that I didn't have before. The amount of unseen effort that goes into such an event is enormous.