'Tis so much easier to bitch about people who are rude or inconsiderate.
This morning I got up earlier than I would normally because I had an errand to run before work. I stopped at the Publix just down the street since they have a Bank of America atm and I wanted to pull cash to pay for the meds I needed to go pick up from the Student Medical Center. I walk in, kinda quickly... only to realize there is someone who has beat me to the machine.
And she has the world's largest purse.
And she is digging around in it.
And she isn't leaving as I was hoping... but just getting there.
I stand there thinking how lovely this was, since I didn't give myself time to dawdle around, when the woman glanced in my direction and actually said,
"You go ahead."
And moved out of my way!
My smile lit up the entire grocery store as I thanked her, shoved my card in the slot, pushed a few rather loud buttons, grabbed my money and thanked her again as I ran out the door.
She was still digging in her purse.
Someone was nice to others!!
AND...
yes, I have a second nice story... I won't tell you about the horribly long wait to pick up my meds or the incredibly rude driver on the road in front of me, both of which made me 15 minutes late for work...
I didn't bring my lunch to work today. I try to bring it more often than not. But I decided I would have a happy meal today... yes, Jeremy, McDonald's is bad... but happy meals make me happy. And I got a girlie troll (with huge yellow hair) in a dress to add to my shelf at work.
On the way back from McDonald's, I had to swerve around a giant mud turtle! You know, those huge, kinda flat ones with the scary, long, pointy faces...
And he was alive! Just moseyin' along across the road.
So, even though he was huge and scary, I immediately pulled off the road and pushed the button for my hazards, hopped outta the car, and began hoofin' it back towards him while dump drunks went speeding past and I prayed no one ran him over before I got there.
I'm almost to him when a pickup truck appears at the end of the driveway right in front of where my turtle is crawling. I was freaking out that he wasn't gonna see the lil guy (now I call him lil even though he was huge... but he was huge compared to turtles, not to trucks) but then he got out of his vehicle too. And he picked him up. And moved him to the side of the road. Which I was grateful for...
See, there are nice people out there.
Now you tell me your nice stories. Today is nice story day. : )
Friday, March 31, 2006
Monday, March 27, 2006
For those who don't read my blogs on MySpace...
FUCK "where people want to live" ...
Developers covet areas surrounding national parks
By Benjamin Spillman, USA TODAY
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — People who cherish Joshua Tree National Park's desert probably don't want wayward tee shots, pets or trash spoiling the serenity and scenery, but it could happen.
James Kirby of Columbus, Ohio, rappels down a rock in Joshua Tree National Park, Calif., in February.
By Jay Calderon, The (Palm Springs, Calif.) Desert Sun
Development is closing in on Joshua Tree and many other national parks. "It is happening all over the country," said Curt Sauer, superintendent of Joshua Tree, "and it is going to continue to happen."
It isn't difficult to find examples:
•In West Virginia, there are proposals to build more than 2,000 homes at the edge of the New River Gorge National River — including up to 550 homes on a site chosen to appear on the back of the quarter.
•In Florida, there's a proposal to fill wetlands at the edge of the Everglades National Park to make way for 6,000 homes, shops, schools and a movie theater.
•In Ohio, there are plans for at least five subdivisions just outside Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
•In Arkansas, population growth is putting pressure on Hot Springs National Park and Pea Ridge National Military Park, said Ernie Quintana, Midwest regional director of the National Park Service.
'Like beachfront property'
Development proposals in varying stages call for building up to 20,000 homes, several golf courses and a massive landfill for Los Angeles trash just outside the border of Joshua Tree, a nearly 800,000-acre park northeast of Palm Springs.
"Living next to a national park, it is like beachfront property," said Ray Rasker, senior economist for the Sonoran Institute. The Tucson-based non-profit organization helps communities restore landscapes that are beneficial to people and wildlife.
"Just think of what is happening to the baby boomers," Rasker said. "They are all going to retire soon. ... And the demand seems to be to want to have acreage right next to a protected park or land."
The development is prompting concerns about "edge effects." The term refers to the idea that residents near parks bring pets that prey on wildlife, lead to urban-type development that increases storm runoff and often drive off-highway vehicles that bring intrusions and noise.
Money for managing the encroachment is tight. Federal funding for the National Park Service to purchase and preserve land has decreased steadily from $130 million in 2002 to a proposed $23 million in fiscal year 2007.
Developers say it makes economic sense to put houses where people want to live.
Tom Wagner, general manager of the proposed Roaring River development in West Virginia, said the project will complement scenery and bring $1.8 million annually in tax revenue to local governments.
"Our focus is preservation of the resource," Wagner said. "If you look at any of our great outdoor areas, there is a quality of life that people want to have."
Critics want communities to consider fragile natural landscapes when adopting land-use standards.
"We are trying to see if we can have influence outside our boundaries. That has always been a difficult thing for national parks," said Kevin Skerl, an ecologist for Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Skerl said flooding from storms in 2003 and 2004 highlighted the problem. Runoff from developed areas rushed into the park and contributed to about $3 million in damage, he said.
Smarter development methods could minimize runoff by preserving wetlands and flora that help control floods, Skerl said.
Widening urban sprawl
Storm runoff isn't the only edge effect. Views may be at stake, too.
Ridges that tower 1,000 feet over raging white water in the New River Gorge area are one example.
"You see the ridgeline very clearly today, all wooded," said Cal Hite, superintendent of New River Gorge National River, Gauley River National Recreation Area and Bluestone National Scenic River, all in southern West Virginia.
"There will be about 15 houses along that ridge" under one proposal, he said.
In Florida, park supporters say development has eaten up large swaths of the Everglades and drastically reduced native bird populations in the past 100 years.
They also say urban sprawl has prompted an invasion of Australian pine and melaleuca trees and resulted in escaped pet pythons that prey on native wildlife.
"It is just the beginning of what could come," said John Adornato, manager of the Everglades restoration program at the National Parks Conservation Association. The group opposes moving an urban development boundary closer to the Everglades National Park.
Solitude is another threatened value, some say. Nicole Panter of Twentynine Palms, Calif., described Joshua Tree as a place that "makes your heart skip a beat."
Panter left Los Angeles for the solitude of the desert.
"What's been done in Southern California doesn't seem sustainable," she said of urban sprawl that now reaches well into the Mojave Desert. "People don't have to live like that. I don't want to live like that."
Spillman reports daily for The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif.
I don't give a shit where you WANT to live. Sometimes you don't get what you want!! Who wouldn't want to live near a national park? The amazing beauty... and no one living two inches away from you... but the reason you can't is then EVERYONE would... and then it wouldn't be beautiful and there WOULD be people living two inches away... and all those trees and animals... gone.
Assholes. Sometimes I hate...
Developers covet areas surrounding national parks
By Benjamin Spillman, USA TODAY
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — People who cherish Joshua Tree National Park's desert probably don't want wayward tee shots, pets or trash spoiling the serenity and scenery, but it could happen.
James Kirby of Columbus, Ohio, rappels down a rock in Joshua Tree National Park, Calif., in February.
By Jay Calderon, The (Palm Springs, Calif.) Desert Sun
Development is closing in on Joshua Tree and many other national parks. "It is happening all over the country," said Curt Sauer, superintendent of Joshua Tree, "and it is going to continue to happen."
It isn't difficult to find examples:
•In West Virginia, there are proposals to build more than 2,000 homes at the edge of the New River Gorge National River — including up to 550 homes on a site chosen to appear on the back of the quarter.
•In Florida, there's a proposal to fill wetlands at the edge of the Everglades National Park to make way for 6,000 homes, shops, schools and a movie theater.
•In Ohio, there are plans for at least five subdivisions just outside Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
•In Arkansas, population growth is putting pressure on Hot Springs National Park and Pea Ridge National Military Park, said Ernie Quintana, Midwest regional director of the National Park Service.
'Like beachfront property'
Development proposals in varying stages call for building up to 20,000 homes, several golf courses and a massive landfill for Los Angeles trash just outside the border of Joshua Tree, a nearly 800,000-acre park northeast of Palm Springs.
"Living next to a national park, it is like beachfront property," said Ray Rasker, senior economist for the Sonoran Institute. The Tucson-based non-profit organization helps communities restore landscapes that are beneficial to people and wildlife.
"Just think of what is happening to the baby boomers," Rasker said. "They are all going to retire soon. ... And the demand seems to be to want to have acreage right next to a protected park or land."
The development is prompting concerns about "edge effects." The term refers to the idea that residents near parks bring pets that prey on wildlife, lead to urban-type development that increases storm runoff and often drive off-highway vehicles that bring intrusions and noise.
Money for managing the encroachment is tight. Federal funding for the National Park Service to purchase and preserve land has decreased steadily from $130 million in 2002 to a proposed $23 million in fiscal year 2007.
Developers say it makes economic sense to put houses where people want to live.
Tom Wagner, general manager of the proposed Roaring River development in West Virginia, said the project will complement scenery and bring $1.8 million annually in tax revenue to local governments.
"Our focus is preservation of the resource," Wagner said. "If you look at any of our great outdoor areas, there is a quality of life that people want to have."
Critics want communities to consider fragile natural landscapes when adopting land-use standards.
"We are trying to see if we can have influence outside our boundaries. That has always been a difficult thing for national parks," said Kevin Skerl, an ecologist for Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Skerl said flooding from storms in 2003 and 2004 highlighted the problem. Runoff from developed areas rushed into the park and contributed to about $3 million in damage, he said.
Smarter development methods could minimize runoff by preserving wetlands and flora that help control floods, Skerl said.
Widening urban sprawl
Storm runoff isn't the only edge effect. Views may be at stake, too.
Ridges that tower 1,000 feet over raging white water in the New River Gorge area are one example.
"You see the ridgeline very clearly today, all wooded," said Cal Hite, superintendent of New River Gorge National River, Gauley River National Recreation Area and Bluestone National Scenic River, all in southern West Virginia.
"There will be about 15 houses along that ridge" under one proposal, he said.
In Florida, park supporters say development has eaten up large swaths of the Everglades and drastically reduced native bird populations in the past 100 years.
They also say urban sprawl has prompted an invasion of Australian pine and melaleuca trees and resulted in escaped pet pythons that prey on native wildlife.
"It is just the beginning of what could come," said John Adornato, manager of the Everglades restoration program at the National Parks Conservation Association. The group opposes moving an urban development boundary closer to the Everglades National Park.
Solitude is another threatened value, some say. Nicole Panter of Twentynine Palms, Calif., described Joshua Tree as a place that "makes your heart skip a beat."
Panter left Los Angeles for the solitude of the desert.
"What's been done in Southern California doesn't seem sustainable," she said of urban sprawl that now reaches well into the Mojave Desert. "People don't have to live like that. I don't want to live like that."
Spillman reports daily for The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif.
I don't give a shit where you WANT to live. Sometimes you don't get what you want!! Who wouldn't want to live near a national park? The amazing beauty... and no one living two inches away from you... but the reason you can't is then EVERYONE would... and then it wouldn't be beautiful and there WOULD be people living two inches away... and all those trees and animals... gone.
Assholes. Sometimes I hate...
Friday, March 24, 2006
But I don't like vegetables.
So I don't like veggies. You shoulda seen what my parents went through when I was a kid to try to change that.
It didn't work.
Once they just wanted me to eat a pea. One. One pea. I wouldn't do it. I sat at the table for ages rather than put that green slimeball in my mouth.
They hid the pea in my ice cream.
I ate it.
That tells you something about me.
What?
I hate peas... I love ice cream.
Pea ice cream? Ewwww... but I never knew it was there... somehow.
Maybe my parents made up the story.
The point in me telling you that is I'm starting a new diet.
Sheri and Eric asked me yesterday if my eating habits had gotten any better. They remember the 3 or 4 am drive thru visits to Taco Bell where I would (drunkenly) order a gordita with "ONLY CHICKEN AND CHEESE".
Sheri turns to Matt... another one of the Dallas clan who just happens to now live in Orlando... and announces that I only eat meat, ice cream, and chocolate.
But I'm 5'6"
and (here I will break the girlie rule and announce my weight)
somewhere between 120 and 125 pounds.
Now, granted, I used to be about 110 or 115... but that's a little extreme. I would rather have a wee bit of meat on my bones.
Since the meat, ice cream, and chocolate diet seems to work for me... I think I'll market it to the public. I mean, there are no carb diets and liquid diets... and I think I even heard of some kind of cabbage diet once. So what's wrong with the Tracy Diet?
It didn't work.
Once they just wanted me to eat a pea. One. One pea. I wouldn't do it. I sat at the table for ages rather than put that green slimeball in my mouth.
They hid the pea in my ice cream.
I ate it.
That tells you something about me.
What?
I hate peas... I love ice cream.
Pea ice cream? Ewwww... but I never knew it was there... somehow.
Maybe my parents made up the story.
The point in me telling you that is I'm starting a new diet.
Sheri and Eric asked me yesterday if my eating habits had gotten any better. They remember the 3 or 4 am drive thru visits to Taco Bell where I would (drunkenly) order a gordita with "ONLY CHICKEN AND CHEESE".
Sheri turns to Matt... another one of the Dallas clan who just happens to now live in Orlando... and announces that I only eat meat, ice cream, and chocolate.
But I'm 5'6"
and (here I will break the girlie rule and announce my weight)
somewhere between 120 and 125 pounds.
Now, granted, I used to be about 110 or 115... but that's a little extreme. I would rather have a wee bit of meat on my bones.
Since the meat, ice cream, and chocolate diet seems to work for me... I think I'll market it to the public. I mean, there are no carb diets and liquid diets... and I think I even heard of some kind of cabbage diet once. So what's wrong with the Tracy Diet?
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
First blog...
Well, well... I've finally up and created a blogster (get it? monster? blogster? hee hee... okay, so I'm only funny to myself).
Why have I created such a beast? Is it the rising popularity?
Nah... it may very well end up that no one ever even reads this... but it will be a place for me to vent, brainstorm, whatever...
And now I must get back to real work.
Why have I created such a beast? Is it the rising popularity?
Nah... it may very well end up that no one ever even reads this... but it will be a place for me to vent, brainstorm, whatever...
And now I must get back to real work.
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