boo-wling

Last Wed. instead of trick-treating, I went bowling with the girls I mentor from Mars Hill Senior High. I have been with them since they were seventh graders...my how they have grown up! We went bowling in our costumes and ended quite early as most of them had parties to get to. For the second game I made everyone bowl with their opposite hand. It was hilarious. I also said that I would bow down to anyone who got a strike...and whatdaya know...Wendy got one. Surprise, surprise. ahem...I bowed down.
Here's Wendy and I ...Obviously Wendy was a nerd...and I (not so obviously?) was a little girl named Freja. This costume will make sense in a post that I will do next week...Josh and I are going to a costume party this weekend...Josh is sort of going as my other half...or rather...I, his. I will explain better with pictures next week.

On another holiday related note...I CAN'T believe that downtown GR already has a lit up santa claus on one of the ellis parking garages. really?!

mb

chicago: there and back

What happens when you go to Chicago with your train routes all planned out and then you get there and the line you based all your traveling around is closed for construction? You get two frantic girls making laps (literally) around downtown trying to find a different line to get on...and then eventually take a really expensive cab-ride. I was confident that I would be able to get Wendy I around Chicago using their Metra...but I didn't even get the chance. You have to be able to find a way underground first. Aside from our transportation woes, Wendy and I had a very fun/adventurous day in Chicago together last weekend. We shopped the whole day, ate lunch at Giordano's and then expensively made our way to our final destination...Marissa's bachelorette party. Here's the three of us at her soon to be sister-in-law's downtown condo.We had a great time eating, drinking, and thinking of great dares to make Marissa do later in the night at our various stops. Marissa was surprised with an evening at Chicago's Baton Lounge drag show...yup. It was ahh... interesting? Actually, a few times my stomach hurt from laughing so much. Wendy and I opted out on the rest of the night so that we could catch our train back home (which we made ah-thankyou.) Here's a picture I snapped on our mile walk to the train station.It was a beautiful night! I think our favorite part of the walk back was this guy sauntering up to us to ask us if we would give him some money to donate to his Jack Daniels charity...haahaahaa. In Wendy's words "hey...at least he was honest!"
Actually...my favorite quote of the day (quite biased, but what can I say?) was at Crate and Barrel. My cashier guy said "Michele Bishop. That's a good name. In fact...you could totally be a movie star with a name like that." God bless Crate and Barrel cashiers. I say we all could use a random quote like that in our day.
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REALLY?!?

so, I know I refer to SNL frequently, but I can't help it. There’s just certain skits that seem to stay with me. Usually, there’s not a week that goes by that either Josh or I don’t mention a line in a skit…and then crack up. Or something happens that reminds me of a certain skit. Can’t help it. (I also tend to relate real life situations with Friends episodes all the time – many of you can vouch for that I’m sure. I’m Sorry.)
The GR fire/police department isn’t too far away from where my office building is located, so it isn’t unusual for me to hear their sirens go off all the time. Half the time it seems like they end up on my street for one reason or another. Usually its because the fire alarms go off in the Cooley Law School across the street …all…the…time. Yesterday I left my office just in time to see about 6-7 squad cars pulled up in front of our building and Mel Trotter. There is a parking garage going up on the corner for the law school, and a crazy guy decided to climb up the humongous crane that they happened to be using yesterday. I stood and watched as the police scrambled around yelling at him, trying to safely get him down. (they did finally) How many police do you think it takes to get one crazy guy? Apparently it takes about 15. If you think that’s “crazy”…today will take the cake.
The sirens go off and I think… “here they come again”… sure enough, they pull up right below my window. There aren’t any alarms going off anywhere… my immediate thought is that there must have been an accident…someone is hurt. NOPE. I watch as they talk disgruntled amongst themselves around a light pole. Then one of them walks slowly to the fire engine, grabs a bottle of water, walks back to the light pole and pours his bottle of water on the cigarette holder...in head-to-toe fire gear. They got a call about a smoking cigarette holder. Now I ask this…. “REALLY”?
And in conclusion…(I’m bringing it all back together now)…Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler do a segment called REALLY?!? on weekend update. It’s pretty funny (not hilarious) but I guess memorable enough for it to come back to me today…haha – you should U Tube it if you are an SNL fan.
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You've entered...The Twilight Zone

All I expect from my bi-yearly dentist check-ups is for a hygienist to clean my teeth, brush them, floss them, get the dentist to give them a once over, give me a toothbrush and floss and let me get the H out of there. (did I mention that I HATE getting my teeth cleaned and all that is teeth related? I do.) Why do dental hygienists talk to you and ask you questions whilst they are cleaning your teeth? I can’t answer you, crazy lady, your fingers and sharp pointy things are all up in my mouth. My hygienist always wants to know the intricate details of my life…and remembers them better than I can. She asked me when my husband and I wanted to have kids…and asked what my exact time frame was…(!?) I’m thinking this must have been for medical purposes… She always answers her own questions followed by her life story…so yes, I do know that she is having children and when she is planning on having them… THEN, she actually said to me... "I bet you get asked when you’re having kids all the time since you’ve been married so long…don’t you just hate it when random people ask you that?” Again…I can’t answer you…your hands are in my mouth. I am screaming obscenities inside my head at you though. They need to teach people in dentistry schools what inappropriate means. For all she knows…this could be a devastating subject for me for any number of reasons. It’s not, thankfully, but what does she do when I burst into tears on the swivel chair? Goodness. She also said that she saw me and my husband in home depot a few months back…she has never met my husband and has only cleaned my teeth 3 times…(insert twilight zone music here).
~mb

I predict...

Keri Russell will be up for best actress at the Oscars next year. Her new movie, August Rush, is coming out in November - the 21 to be exact. I cannot wait! It's going to be great I think. Speaking of movies...Josh and I were feeling silly on Saturday night and decided to go to a 10:00 showing of Sydney White...laugh if you will. It was super cheesy, but gave us some good laughs. You may be thinking..."wow, josh is a trooper." Untrue. May I emphasize that WE love that Amanda Bynes. Josh will gladly tell you that She's the Man is one of his favorite movies. Anyways, we were in a theater FULL of high-schoolers. They belly laughed at every scene...we felt old. I guess we are old compared to them. Thats sad. To round out the weekend, we also rented Bridge to Terabithia last night. Did you read that book when you were a kid? I did...what a beautiful story. The movie was great - I cried buckets...so did Josh...thats why i love that guy :)
mb

Racism a Reality

Dear friend,
I just learned about a case of segregation-era oppression happening today in Jena, Louisiana. I signed onto ColorOfChange.org's campaign for justice in Jena, and wanted to invite you to do the same.
http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2310-393941
Last fall in Jena, the day after two Black high school students sat beneath the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from the tree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," more Black students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demanded that the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen." A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DA did nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyard fight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
It's a story that reads like one from the Jim Crow era, when judges, lawyers and all-white juries used the justice system to keep blacks in "their place." But it's happening today. The families of these young men are fighting back, but the story has gotten minimal press. Together, we can make sure their story is told and that the Governor of Louisiana intervenes and provides justice for the Jena 6. It starts now. Please join me:
http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2310-393941
The noose-hanging incident and the DA's visit to the school set the stage for everything that followed. Racial tension escalated over the next couple of months, and on November 30, the main academic building of Jena High School was burned down in an unsolved fire. Later the same weekend, a black student was beaten up by white students at a party. The next day, black students at a convenience store were threatened by a young white man with a shotgun. They wrestled the gun from him and ran away. While no charges were filed against the white man, the students were later arrested for the theft of the gun.
That Monday at school, a white student, who had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses, taunted the black student who was beaten up at the off-campus party and allegedly called several black students "nigger." After lunch, he was knocked down, punched and kicked by black students. He was taken to the hospital, but was released and was well enough to go to a social event that evening.
Six Black Jena High students, Robert Bailey (17), Theo Shaw (17), Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Mychal Bell (16) and an unidentified minor, were expelled from school, arrested and charged with second-degree attempted murder. The first trial ended last month, and Mychal Bell, who has been in prison since December, was convicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery (both felonies) by an all-white jury in a trial where his public defender called no witnesses. During his trial, Mychal's parents were ordered not to speak to the media and the court prohibited protests from taking place near the courtroom or where the judge could see them.
Mychal is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31st, and could go to jail for 22 years. Theo Shaw's trial is next. He will finally make bail this week.
The Jena Six are lucky to have parents and loved ones who are fighting tooth and nail to free them. They have been threatened but they are standing strong. We know that if the families have to go it alone, their sons will be a long time coming home. But if we act now, we can make a difference.
Join me in demanding that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco get involved to make sure that justice is served for Mychal Bell, and that DA Reed Walters drop the charges against the 5 boys who have not yet gone to trial.
http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2310-393941

Do your part to create change.
Thanks.
mb

this one's for you

julie belle. I've heard your plea for an update, and I've responded. If nothing else, just to give you something to read while you sit at work. :)

So, I signed up for a cardio kick-boxing class through the city. I went to a free trial class this past Saturday, and felt a strange sense of deja vu come over me. The instructor, who is a ripped out 60ish year old woman, asked us, "so, have any of you done kick-boxing before?" My first thought should have been, "sure, I did some tae-bo video workouts back in my college days," but no. The very, very first thought I had was doing an 80's tae-bo skit with Julie belle, ben dunbar and betsy barko (don't know her new last name) way back in the day at one of our high school winter retreats. Julie was our "billy banks" if you will, and ben, betsy and I were her class. We wore hilarious workout gear including leg warmers, belts, spandex, side ponytails and headbands and "kicked" it 80's style. What a great, yet odd thing to remember.

Now, I'm guessing when amazing old instructor woman asked if we had kick-boxed before, she probably wasn't looking for a reply like mine. So, I nonchalantly kept that to myself and shook my head with a smile on my face. :)

mb

I just like you so much...

Last week Josh and I had dinner with our friends, and I happened to make a new friend...her name is Grace. She's 5 years old. While we were eating dinner, Gracie yelled across the room from where she was playing "HEY!! What's his wife's name?!" Kindly I yelled back, "MICHELE!" to which I learned she has a cousin named Michele that she doesn't like very much. While the adults were talking, apparently Gracie decided that I would be her new best friend. She skipped over to me numerous times to whisper her new greatest thoughts...I'll share a few of my favorites...
"Umm, Michele, I just like you so much that, that I want to just give you things." (i drove home with a fake flower that I promised I would put in a vase WITH water when i got home, as well as a picture of her and I, standing on rocks, that I promised to put on the refridgerator by request)
"Ummmmm, Michele, Michele, I just like you so much that I think I just want to come over to your house sometimes and have a sleepover."
"Ummmmmmm, Michele, I think I just want to sit down here and show you how I can tie my shoes cuz I've been practicing, I've been practicing real hard, and cuz I just like you so much, see?"
Then at the end of the night, she skipped over with a little case of makeup...the kind that's got super bright, sparkly colors of lipgloss, eye shadow, and blush...but they all look like lip gloss...and proceded to try and put makeup on me..."cuz I just like your hair and face" she said. And I let her...because how could I not? I left their house with one extremely bright purple lip, and one extremely bright pink lip with sparkles on top. I'm so glad Gracie chose to accentuate my most prominent facial feature. Her mom swore to me that it didn't look that bad...amidst smothered giggles...ha! No pictures, sorry to disappoint. However, we did come home to a very big thunderstorm, and as we drove up to our house, Josh said "OOoo, I better park our car under the tree" the tree that always looks like its about to fall over in a storm...and we wouldn't mind it falling on our car...but that's another story. Anyways, just as he says that, look what came down in our front yard, JUST missing our car!
a big piece of tree. our car is fine. darn.
mb

coming back?

I admit, I was a little surprised when all the 80's stuff started coming back. Who would've ever thought that we'd be bringing high-waisted pants back with big thick belts, or side pony tails? Some of it is a little extreme, but a lot of it grew on me to where I actually walk by a big flashy purse covered in buckles and gathers, and I think, "OOoo, cool purse!" It's the new 80's...it's cool...i like it...i wear it.

New 80's started to make me think...oh dear lord...does this mean 90's is next? Who enjoyed the style of the 90's? If you are thinking, "sheeyah, i would kill to pull out my flannel shirt and straight legged jeans with army boots, that i saved just in case" then this post is dedicated to you. So...I'm walking in the mall a few weekends ago, just browsing...doing a little people watching...when out of the corner of my eye I see her. Stripped UnionBay shirt (the red colors one), shorts overalls...with ONLY one shoulder strap buckled...the other just hanging...like only it should, white cuffed socks, black Birkenstock style knock-off sandals, and a thin layer of bangs curled under just so. Did I paint a picture for you or what? I seriously had to turn around to make sure we weren't on camera. You CANNOT get much more 90's than that. If that style ever comes back and I walk by a store and say, "OOoo, if only I could pull off that sock and flip flop combo again like back in the day...well, it was cool once..." slap me. I give you full permission.

mb

i moved!

my time at xanga has come to an end. I decided that i like blogspot better, mostly because anyone has the capability to write comments. Not that I need them or anything... ha...i just want people to actually have the option :)

welcome!

mb