Road Rage Can Kill You

Now here is a case of how you can become suddenly one of those wreck less drivers getting caught up in "Road Rage" with another driver.

It's Thursday 4-30-09 and I am driving myself home for to have my lunch hour like I do almost everyday. I don't live far from where I work so I am able to have that luxury from work. Not a lot of traffic out at that hour and people are usually driving pretty calm and normal. But alas, there is always that one idiot that just thinks he is the most important person on the planet.

About 10 blocks from my home I am driving in the slow lane of a 4 lane major street, two lanes going each direction. The car in front of me is going to turn right and has pulled off to the right side to do so. There is no one in my left lane so I have to pull slightly into the left lane just barley crossing the line to pass the car that is turning. From behind me in my lane, comes a black Mercedes driving at least 10 miles over the speed limit and sees the car turning right and doesn't want to wait so changes into the left lane like I am. That's fine, he is apparently in a big hurry and my car poses no threat to him as I am barely touching the line that separates us. Instead, of just passing by, he decides I need to have the horn blasted at me. So I put up my hands and said "What?" and he flips me off, so okay being the adult that I am, I flip him off too. His culture does not permit me, a woman, to be so aggressive towards him so he pulls up next to my car and rolls down the window exposing his female passenger and tells me to "F*CK MYSELF!" So I tell him to "F*CK himself" and he tries to side swipe my car making me now swerve to avoid him. Then he pulls in front of me and slams on his brakes to try to make me rear end him. I WAS LIVID at this point and rolled down my window and yelled out "Do you feel like a man now in front of your woman?" He again told me to "F*CK YOU" and again slammed on his brakes. I was barely missing him each time he did this and you know if I hit him, it would be all my fault.


Well most normal people probably would have backed down and said it's not worth it but once my Adrenalin is pumping, I sometimes am not thinking clearly and now I want to get a piece of paper out and write down his license plate to report him. When he sees I have a paper and pen, he takes his super Fast Mercedes just about as fast as it can go turning right and driving WAY TOO FAST down the street. My 4 cylinder car is no match for his Mercedes but what does my dumb ass do? I punch my little car just as fast I can to catch him to take down his plate. We are driving 60 miles and hour in a 35 mile zone and for what? My leg was shaking so bad while I was chasing him I could barely keep it on the pedal. And for what????

If I call the police on his license, what can/will they do? There is a culture of men, aged 25-35, who constantly drive this way and have no respect for anyone but themselves. I am sure they would just as soon shoot you as give two cents about you after. I am not a prejudice person but I swear I can become one with this male minority. Being the tough ass independent woman that I am, I don't like feeling I am being pushed out of the neighbor I have lived for 26 years in. I wonder what his woman thought of his behavior? I have little problems with the women of this culture or the young or elderly. But this is how prejudice starts so, I'm doing the next best thing by not reporting him to the police and have him retaliate on me. I'm just reporting him to...

IT IS WHAT IT IS

I am grateful that neither of us caused an accident killing or injuring anyone due to our stupid pride in proving a point and I guess I will try and learn that it's certainly not worth it to loose your temper over something so trivial and stupid. What if someone got hurt during our madness, I could have never lived with myself for that. Please allow me the strength to not allow this sort of stuff to wind me up.

But, black Mercedes license number 5XGC292, you should think twice as well about the people that could have gotten hurt that day. Dude seriously, slow the F*CK down!!!

How NOT To Start Your Morning

The alarm goes off at 6:45 am and as I stumbled from bed, BLAM, right into my cedar chest and ooooo the pain. But work won't wait so I hoped it off and off to work I went. I work on the 2nd floor and need to run to downstairs to the main hospital often so after a few trips up and down, I realized the pain was getting worse. For lunch I decided to stop by good old Kaiser and have them take a look at it. And they were great about getting me in to see a nurse and access whether or not a doctor was needed. Beings that it was purple and swollen, the nurse set up an appointment for me this afternoon to have it x-rayed which I just got home from.

The Verdict!!!! (no this is not my X-ray)

I have a small hairline on the back of the bone where it reaches the joint but a radiologist has to evaluate it further. Not much you can do except wrap it to the other baby toes and stay off of it.
Soooooooo......

IT IS WHAT IT IS

And I am grateful I didn't take out my whole foot. It's not my driver foot and soon I'll be good as new!!!

Is Camping All That Relaxing?

I'm a camper, it's in my blood. Almost everyone I used to camp with has either moved away or died, sad but true. But none the less, I spent 8 days in the woods alone last September and will be doing it again this year. I had reservations to go last Saturday night, and stay up the coast.

It seems more people are going camping these days and I am having a harder time getting reservations when I would like them. So six months in advance, you need to make your reservations. I have 5 reservations this year, 4 for 1 nighters and 1 for 8 days seven nights. My sister and nephew went with me last weekend for just Saturday night, up the coast. The weekend before was in the 95-100 degree range and this weekend about 65-70 degrees. That part is okay, I expected that but what I didn't expect was my family showing up 5 hours late for our departure and in my mood swing, waiting so long, I neglected to bring vital tools to the site. We did succeed in getting the tent pitched and my family left me in charge of setting the rest up as they made a list of supplies we needed.



First, there was the gale wind forces that made holding the tent in place a challenge. But I managed and was just working on the inside as my family went off to buy our food for dinner and more wood. There is a store about 10 miles away. Meanwhile even after I had a full double air mattress, sleeping bags and our bags of clothes, the tent was taking off for three campsites down. I quickly grab my handy box that contains everything needed for camping. What's this.. No tent stakes? You got to be kidding me. Okay, I remember I just bought a huge gigantic bungee cord and put it in my car just for emergencies. Well, this qualified so I let go of the tent and head off to my car. Waaaalaaa, a 1,000,000 foot bungee cord. The tree was huge I had to attach it to so I felt sort of silly hold one of the bungee with my arms out spread reaching for the tent pole, that's moving with the wind. Once I had the pole in one hand and the bungee in another, the challenge to make two ends meet. In the process, the already stressed and bent pole stick came out of the hole and smacked me hard vertically up my leg, not just once but TWICE!! But after a few choice words, I was able to WIN THE BATTLE.


That will work now time to relax and make a nice dinner. My sis and nephew return with some wonderful looking thick juicy steaks to grill up. The steaks are pretty thick so we better cut them in half so they will cook thoroughly. Now, where did I put that knife? It must be in hear somewhere with the camping silverware. If I could only find the camping silverware. You have to be kidding, no bag of silverware, no knife? Can this get any better? And we have mashed potatoes for a side dish, pre-made just heat them up. Hey we're camping right? I do have that spatula I just bought at the 99 Cent Store to add to my box of supplies.

I am grateful that I bought a spatula and bungee cord at the 99 Cent Store and the tent pole whacking didn't draw red (blood) only black and blue. So, we were good sports, all thought it would be part of the primitive experience as we muttered....

IT IS WHAT IT IS

I have to say I have never eaten mashed potatoes with two fingers before and never filleted a steak with an exacto knife, but the meal was a success. Yes those are mashed potatoes.


Not a bad job done for an exacto knife!


The men in a nice warm trailer next door felt sorry for us when we asked him to open our can of beans we had for our Mexican breakfast and he even gave us plastic place settings for 3 so the GOOD NEWS IS, breakfast was also a success.

Stop By To Celebrate

Hold it Right There!!!

Can you believe it, Zola's Movie Pics turned one year on 3-21 and I forgot to toot my horn? (The OTHER BLOG)

Wow has the time flown by, but I am happy to report that I have just started my review of my 636 movie. That's almost averaging two a day. My hope is that you have enjoyed my reviews and have found movies to enjoyed because of them. I feel my reviews have gotten better over the year. When reading some of my earlier reviews, I think you'll agree, they've come a long way. Pages still await me of text I have written but yet to convert to computer. I fear this could take a life time and never catch up as I continue to enjoy great movies. Okay some not all that great, but in the long run, it's been quite the adventure. Movies do entertain and at least for me, they're better than our selection on T.V.. So yes I'm tooting my horn, having a shot and thanks for reading along with me. Here's to many more years of great movies!

April 15th is an Evil Day

Not only is it tax day, but you can really make your day worse when you schedule doctor visits the same day.

But if the day wasn't stressfull enough, I have to sneak to Kaiser at 8:00 and do quick blood work before my boss notices I am missing. (Supoose to be at work by 8:00). And even though I am the first one to get the needle today, I'm feeling confident when I ask her if she is good at this in the morning. But she's extremely nice and I feel confident until she sticks me and, not in the vein I am normally used to, and nothing comes out. So she stick it farther in. Well heck anyone can bleed after that. So I feel up 5 tubes and on my way. I'm pretty close to work and make it by 8:17 just as my boss is calling for me. PHEW!!!!!!! So other than the huge black and blue mark, life is good. But what other hospital could you possibly go to and be to work in 17 mins.?

Now, get my tax forms printed out so I can get them in the mail at lunch. For the first time since I've done the "short form" with my taxes, I was faced with the challenge of doing them solo. So I got my copy of Turbo Tax and away I go. I can figure out any program so I'll get through this too. But, schedule "C" and depreciations and work pages and make sure you put line 42 from last years taxes here, and I paniced. How can you do them 4 times and come up with a different figure each time? I keep good records and easily import my Quicken file to Turbo Tax but thtis can't be right? Now the 5th try gives me results very similar to my last two years of taxes. I've got it printed out, the envelopes are made, I'm feeling pretty comfortable even though I feel rushed..... so what the heck, I download the extension form and take it to the mail today instead. That gives me 3-6 months to figure it out. I won't take that long as I need my refund NOW, before we go and "bail out" another failing company. Once again it will be my weekend project. UGH.

Okay now that is done, I have to get back to the hospital for the Mamogram I have schedule at 12:00. Ofcourse there is havic at work and I don't get out of there till 11:56 make it back to Kaiser by 12:08, and since I prepaid this morning, I did not have to wait in line to sign in again. Walk in put my paper in slot and within 4 mins. I am called. Now just once I would like to see a man have his testicles clamped down in a vice and hydrollically flatten to preform a better image. But.....

IT IS WHAT IT IS

and before you know it it's done and just one of those things us women have to do to stay safe. I'm out the door at 12:22. Again, WTG Kaiser / Glendale. Off to the post office to make the deadline and run the errands for my job and that leaves me 30 min for lunch still. Great. Back to work on time until I realize hey tomorrow is pay day and no one is at work to sign checks tomorrow so I have to do it NOW.......... Quick make sure that everyone gives me a time sheet in the next nano second, and off go to rush through that. Needless to say things don't go as planned and I am working late but that's okay, what you do comes back to you and I did use 21 mins of the bosses time today for my appointments. Call it even and go home to releve the poor aching knot in my neck. I'm looking on the bright side, payroll is one less thing I have to do tomorrow.

April Fools - The Jokes On You

Who invented the April Fools Joke?

Here's how Wikipedia encyclopedia defines it.

"April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day, although not a holiday, is a day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, family members, enemies, and neighbors, or sending them on a fool's errand, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible. Traditionally, in some countries, the jokes only last until noon: like the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, someone who plays a trick after noon is called an "April Fool". Elsewhere, such as in Ireland, France, and America, the jokes last all day."

So as I woke up this morning, my neighbor told me I had a flat tire and of course this is as I am already running late for work. I panicked and then he remarked, "April Fool's." I remember my mother calling me every year when I was a teen and telling me that the boy I happened to be in love and waiting to hear from, she would say "he called, and I just missed him." Seems I just keep missing him to this day! haha

At work, 5 people told me they were all going on vacation and needed their vacation paychecks today and another two told me they quit. My boss doesn't have that sense of humor for me to have walked in and said, "I Quit" so really I didn't get to play a trick on anyone, but....

IT IS WHAT IT IS

and I am grateful that my tire was good, I still have a job and my mother can still call me and provoke an April's Fool joke out of me.