MI-5

1. Summer is here. How does your life or routine change during the summer months? Pretty much my routine stays the same…because I am boring like that. A couple of summer’s ago I tried working flex (we are allowed to only during the summer)…but 10 hour days KILL me.

2. Have you ever read a book more than once? If so tell us what it is. Heck yeah I have. If I like a book I keep it for future re-reading. Probably the one I have read most is The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton…I have probably gone through about sixteen copies of it in my life…seriously because I read it that often…the first time I read it I was probably in fifth grade or so?

3. How do you do when it comes to being on time for things? Are you ever late? What are you feelings on that. I don’t like to be late…however…I will not get upset if someone is late because I know I have been late myself a time or too.

4. What is your favorite TV show right now and why? If you aren’t watching TV now how about one you had when you were younger? Hell’s Kitchen because I find Gordon Ramsey to be…um…well for lack of a better phrase…an entertaining prick.

5. What would it take to make your weekend perfect? My weekend was perfect! I was in Vegas with BFM taking in a Keith Urban show.

You can be honest….

Well you guessed it…I am back. I am at work (bah!) and fairly well functioning considering I woke up this morning with vacation brain (ie…I feel like I left my brain in Vegas…)

Pictures? Not really. This happens to me whenever I go to Vegas…I tote around my camera…and I take like three pictures the whole time I am there. This time I think I only took two.

I will give you a blow by blow of the vacation…but I just wanted ya’ll to know I am here!

Ok…well I am going to stop posting now. I will be going home soon to get some last minute stuff together…and then I am off to the airport (which is over an hour away). So be good little monkeys (I call Roxy Monkey…did you know that?).

If you are lucky Chrissy and/or Tess will guest post…but I didn’t really ask them…they should know they are always welcome to post when I am gone but I can’t promise anything because they are both busy ladies…

Your homework whilst I am gone (pick one…or none…or more than one):

1. Watch a race…doesn’t have to be nascar…but a race all the same…tell me about it (in the comments or you can email me…).

2.  Tell me about a blog I may not be reading that you think I really SHOULD read. Who do I already read? (see the navigation)

3. Tell a joke…amuse me and your fellow readers in the comments.

Ok peeps I am outtie.

My flight is already delayed by 20 minutes. And it doesn’t even take off for like six hours…urg.

I know you are probably sick of hearing about me and how I am petrified of flying…but this is my blog…and I work things out best by obsessing. Seriously…I work things out best by obsessing either verbally or written…or just obsessing in my head.

So you know…basically I have been a walking talking obsessing machine…about having to fly. And during my obsessing…I came to a realization…(see good things happen when I obsess).

My plane “freak out”…is one part “heights” and two parts “control issue” I think. I am a control freak. I like to be the one to drive because I am in control of the car. I don’t know anything about flying so I am not in control of the plane. I rarely fly (maybe three or four times in my entire life) so there is just this overwhelming feeling of NOT being in control of what happens. I really need to learn to let go.
Then there is the heights issue. I am so freaked out of heights. (Except I am ok at the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas which is weird…and taller than the eiffel tower in Las Vegas which had me so freaked out people on the elevator laughed at me).

So yeah…it is all about me giving up control…something I don’t like to do.

(And yes I know this had nothing to do with leashes…but I like the song Freak on A Leash… and it sounded funny.)

I am leaving tomorrow for vegas…on that jet plane I told you I was scared of…but don’t worry this probably won’t be my last post before I leave…I am actually working most of the day tomorrow. Anyway…here is my checklist:

*****

Enough clothes for five days? Check. (By the way…enough clothes for five days in my new suitcase? Weighs 26 lbs)
Tolietries? Check. (add toiletries…it is now 27.2 lbs)

Gift for BFM? Check

Gift for BFM’s brother’s middle school graduation? Check

Keith Urban Tickets? Check…those puppies are in the carryon!

Camera? battery is charging for shoving into carryon- so Checkish

Cell Phone? Charging for last minute shoving into carryon- so Checkish

Boarding Pass printed? Check

Spare set of clothes for carryon? Check

Order Prelude To The Dream on PPV and dvr it. Check…I think I did that right.

Make sure my shows are dvr- specifically the race at Pocono since nascar has now moved to TNT instead of Fox. Check

***

To do tomorrow:

Remember to shove glasses, sunglasses and extra set of contacts into carryon.

Remember to print documents for BFM to shove into carryon.

Remember book for hours spent at airport…

Go to bank to get fundage.

Get Gas.

Drive to Airport.

Remember to breathe…its only 1 and 1/2 hours in that plane…you can do it! really…you can.

There are nascar fans that do not like Tony Stewart. I have read everything from he’s a whiner to a poor sport to a hot head. I obviously don’t feel that way…and I will talk about why I am a Tony Stewart fan in another post (probably not until I come back from vacation). But I do want to put my thoughts out there on the incidents at Dover yesterday.

As I mentioned in yesterday morning’s post I was sitting at work and unable to actually watch the race real-time (but I did keep track as to what was going on real-time). However thanks to my DVR I had the race waiting for me when I got home…so I watched it. And I rewatched the wreck a couple times…used the slow motion and all that. Kurt Busch is quoted as saying that Tony Stewart “wrecked him flat out.” (See nascar.com article “Stewart’s crew smoking after pit hazard with Busch” by Dave Rodman). After watching the video several times…I don’t think Tony wrecked him on purpose. From what the announcers were saying this little group (including Stewart and Busch) had been racing each other hard…and according to what I was seeing at work using the real-time leaderboard I could see they were swapping positions back and forth pretty regularly). After watching the video- it looks to me that Busch thought he was clear of Tony and drifted up towards Tony (and the wall) thus clipping Tony which sent Tony smack into the way and when Tony’s car bounced off the wall he hit Busch which spun the number 2 car off the nose of Tony’s car. That is what I saw according to the televised broadcast.

Also, it would not make sense (at least not to me…but what do I know) that Tony Stewart…who had been running in the top 10 most of the race (after starting in 30th position) would risk wrecking his car which obviously had been preforming pretty well, to purposely take out Kurt Busch.

So that is my piece on what happen on the track. Here is my piece on what happened on pit road. For those who haven’t seen it:

(photo credit Chris McGrath/Getty Images…taken from SpeedTV.com…I cropped it slightly so you could see better…the original is here).

Basically the person you see on the hood of Tony Stewart’s orange car is his jackman Jason Lee. Who seconds before this picture was taken, was standing in the vicinity of the right front tire surveying right side damage from the on track incident. Kurt Busch, who insisted Tony Stewart wrecked him on purpose, was angry and pulled up into Tony’s car (I assume to have words and/or gestures) and nosed into his car ever so slightly…however…I don’t know if Kurt just didn’t see the jackman or didn’t care…either way…it was NOT a very bright thing to do. He could have seriously injured the jackman…or someone else. Luckily, he did it in front of several Nascar officials (click on the original picture and you will see them standing against the pitwall – they are the ones in white). Nascar ended up parking Busch for the remainder of the race for “aggressive driving” (that term kinda humored me…I admit…it is a race…shouldn’t you drive aggressively? I think it should have been more like “unsportsman-like conduct” or “endangering pit crews” or something of that nature). As Jason Lee said in the article on nascar.com “If he’s got a problem with Tony he needs to take it up with Tony in the motorhome lot after the race, and not jeopardize these crew guys out there.” (See nascar.com article “Stewart’s crew smoking after pit hazard with Busch” by Dave Rodman). I admit that I am looking forward to hearing what further actions nascar will take with Kurt Busch because what he did in the pits…that was dangerous and just not right.

A little over three years ago, BFM, myself, my brother and my sister-in-law crammed into my Rav4 (and I mean crammed) and drove down to Disneyland for a President’s Day weekend escape.  We had a great time…and then all crammed back into my Rav4…this time with tons of souveniors so it was even more crowded…and left the parking lot of Disneyland after an early morning of last minute rides and shopping to make sure the vacation was complete.

Our light had turned green and I proceeding into the intersection behind the car in front of me when someone who was more interested in Disneyland than in stoplights…ran a red light and hit us. We were actually quite fortunate because it was at fairly slow speeds and they happened to hit us solidly in the rear left side tire.

To say that I was upset was a mild statement. I was not pleased. I had a car full of people who had to be home the next day for work. I myself had to work. We were 300 miles from home and was worried we were damaged too much to drive. When we jumped out to survey the damage to the car…I noticed a license plate laying there obviously torn off in the accident and for some reason I thought it was mine and I picked it up and blurted out to my brother and whoever else would listen “OH GREAT! WE’VE GOT PARTS!”  Now it turns out that the Rav4 was inspected and while damaged it was safe enough to drive home and we got home…a little later than we had expected but still got home that evening. The red-light runners copped that it was there fault right there at the scene…and the insurance pretty much handled it.

However…I would not have thought that in the relaying of the story…(oh and how my brother loves to tell a story…and when he is in the mood he can tell some stories let me tell you).  The “Oh great…we’ve got parts…” has become…something I will never live down. At first I was mortified because it gets brought up occasionally.  But I just learned to roll with it…I mean…when we went to the sports car races the other day…we walked over the footbridge that runs over the track and stopped on our way to the paddock to watch some of the porsches race by…and something flew off  of one and landed on the side of the track and my dad grabbed me to get my attention and said…excitedly…”Look Amy…We’ve Got Parts!!!!”

This is something I will not live down. I am sure my grandchildren will hear about it…and they will too bring it up at that time in your life just when you thought everyone had forgotten about it….