Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Perfect Trusting Strangers

I thought tonight was going be a rather dull and ordinary evening of me watching t.v. in bed all night, but I was dead wrong. I got a tweet from a friend asking if I could bring her coffee to her work. She works in the pharmacy at a drug store and told me to come to the drive thru window so she could give me a gift card to use at Starbucks. We laughed at how awkward and random the situation was of talking to one another through a microphone. Starbucks was in the same plaza, just a couple hundred feet away from the drug store. Before I pulled out of the drive thru to head over to Starbucks, I waited for a woman to cross. She looked at me as if she knew me, but I had never seen her in my life. She came over to my window and asked for a ride.

"Oh, I'm just going to Starbucks for a friend," I explain to her. She squinted her eyes behind those gray thick framed glasses from 1989, giving a tired look.

"Well, can you give me a ride?" she asked.

"To Starbucks?" I asked, confused.

"Yeah."

"It's right there," as I pointed, she looked over and squinted to the building just across the way. She seemed lost and confused.

"Oh, well I'm not from around here. I'm trying to find my friend and I need to get to the mall. Please, could you give me a ride there?"

"The mall?" I asked, knowing the closet mall was about twenty minutes away.

"Yeah, you know where Target and Wegmans is?"

"Oh! Yeah, but I'm really just getting coffee for my friend," I told her (Target and Wegmans were only ten minutes driving down the road).

"Oh please," she begged, "I've been standing outside of Walmart asking people for a dollar so I can get the bus down there. No one would give me a dollar. I'm cold and tired and it looks like it's going to rain."

"OK." I said with barely thinking. I moved my bag and coat off the passenger seat.

"Really?! Oh thank you so much! My name is Karen," she said while stretching her arm out to shake my hand.

"Hi, Karen. I'm Sarah," I said while shaking her hand. My friends coffee would be coming late.

"I really appreciate this. I've been standing outside for so long and you know those people had a dollar. I just want to find my friend. You see, I was just in some trouble and I just got out of trouble and I'm not looking for anymore trouble. I'm just so tired and thirsty...and hungry," she told me as I thought to myself that I must be insane.

"Well, that is a far way to walk, I've done it before. And if it was windy like this and about to rain, I'd hope someone would give me a ride too," I said to her wondering what kind of trouble she was talking about just before.

"God bless you! It's just so cold! Now let me ask you if I could borrow twenty or thirty dollars and I can pay you fifty dollars back? Or one-hundred dollars and I'll pay you back more later."

"You're asking the wrong person," I told her while laughing. I explained to her that I was just about flat broke. All the money I had in my bank account would fill my gas tank.

"Oh, well I understand. You know, it's not worth it. I've been in trouble and ain't nothing worth going back to where I was. You're not worth it. You know I could get six years for taking one-hundred dollars from you?" she asked.

"Wow. Six years for one-hundred dollars?" I asked, not so sure exactly what was happening.

"Mmmmhmmmm, six years. Listen, I'm just looking for my friend. I don't know this city. I got in some trouble here and ended up in jail and I just got out and all I'm looking for is some help."

"Oh. Does she live out this way?" I asked.

"I don't even know. I'm just so thirsty and hungry and tired. I've been drinking tap water out of store bathrooms. I haven't eaten in two days and I'm just so tired. I just need to get over there and look for her." she said while fumbling through her huge red purse. She saw me glance over.

"Well, if you're hungry I might have a couple of singles I could give you, but I'm not sure how much I have. I know it's not much."

"Bless you. Aren't you scared that I might kill you or something?" she asked me while still rummaging through her bag.

"Well, now I am!" I said to her being almost completely serious. "I wouldn't have opened my door for you though if you looked threatening."

"No, no, no. I don't mean anybody no harm. I just want to find my friend and stay out of trouble." I believed her. I might have been crazy, but I believed her. She did seem very tired, exhausted even, and very out of sorts.

"Well, believe it or not, it's not the first time I've invited strangers in my car," I said while trying to see what she had in that red bag. Sounded like a bunch of paper.

"Do you smoke, baby?"

"No, I don't. Sorry."

"Oh no, that's OK. I'll just roll a cigarette real quick," and she pulled out a bag of tobacco and rolling papers, "I shared this pack with a nice woman I met yesterday." The cigarette was rolled and resting between her two fingers by the time I looked back over at her. "Oh shoot, I can't find my lighter. You don't have a lighter do you?"

"I don't think so, no. I don't even have a lighter adapter for my car," I said, actually feeling sad.

"No? Not even one of those car lighter things?" she asked looking toward my dashboard.

"They don't make them in newer cars now. Isn't that weird?" I'm sure she cared.

"Oh wow. They don't make them anymore? What year is this car?" Or maybe she did...

"It's a '97, but it doesn't have a lighter adapter," I said while showing her the plug that would have been a cigarette lighter.

"Oh, I've never seen that before," she said and then continued to dig even deeper into that purse (she didn't care).

"So do you live around here?" I asked.

"Oh no, I'm staying at this place right before West Main Street."

"Oh," I said thinking how far that was, "did you walk all the way from there?"

She looked at my very seriously and then said, "Yes, it's a long walk. That's why I appreciate any help I can get."

"Wow, that is a long walk. I road my bike once from the city to out here," I told her. It was true. Two summers ago I road my bike from my apartment off Monroe Ave to my parent's house in Chili for no reason.

"Oh you did? That's a long way! Why would you do that?" she asked me.

"I don't know, I guess I'm impulsive," I said while laughing, "but I'll tell you that my dad gave me a ride home."

"Oh you're funny!" She laughed. She looked out the window, "I didn't realize how far this was...you can drop me off up here and I can walk."

"It's just up the road, it's really not that far. I can take you."

"Oh well I feel bad. I just need to go somewhere and get a drink, I'm so thirsty. You can drop me off up here, I don't want to trouble you anymore," she said while holding that rolled cigarette.

"I'll take you up here so you can find you're friend. I don't mind." I told her again.

"I really do appreciate this. It's hard to trust people these days and you're giving me a ride to help me and I thank you for that," she said.

"Well, like I said, I just hope someone would give me a ride if I was in your situation."

"Oh, well you can just drop me off that this gas station. I am going to run in there, get a water, find some food and find a light," she said pointing to the gas station on the right just across from Wegmans and Target.

"Alright," I said while turning into the gas station.

"I can't thank you enough for this ride. You have no idea how much you just saved me," she said to me as I pulled along side the building.

"You're welcome. Let me see if I can give you some money to help you out," I said while opening my wallet and finding only a five-dollar bill, "Here, please buy yourself something to eat," I said while handing her the money.

"God bless you! I will!"

"I want you to take care of yourself, alright?" I said.

"Oh I will. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome."

"Oh and one more thing," she turned to me before she got out of my car, "how old are you?"

"I'm twenty-six," I said.

"I'm forty-two. It was nice to meet you!" And off she went.

"Take care of yourself!" I yelled out the window as she walked into the gas station.

I drove back down the road to Starbucks and dropped off coffee to my friend. And that's how I spent my Tuesday night. Ah, to live another day.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

New Look, Still Same Bloggy Taste!

My blog grew up to a more sophisticated looking blog. ::tear::

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Sunday's On The Phone With Monday. Tuesday's On The Phone With Nicolas Cage.

Ever experience that you are living in tomorrow? Thinking it's a Wednesday, when in actuality it's Tuesday? The realization is always upsetting on a weekday and always exciting on a weekend. And sometimes you tell someone your mistake and they tell you that they thought that it was Wednesday too! This happened to me on Tuesday. I woke up thinking that it was Wednesday September 23rd 2009. It was actually Tuesday September 22nd 2009. I didn't realize it was Tuesday until I heard a commercial on the radio for the morning show they play on Wednesdays and that I wasn't listening to the show.

What happened when I fell to sleep? Why did I wake up thinking it was the following day? I posted a tweet about my silly mistake, thinking it was the wrong day. I got a response from a friend telling me that she too thought it was Wednesday. Now this is interesting. It makes me wonder how many other people thought it was Wednesday as well? What if it was Wednesday and everyone else thought it was Tuesday? Or maybe it really was Tuesday, but during sleep we entered the future...Wednesday. Did we do something in our dreams that made us advance in time? Maybe we already experienced the future, not like deja vu, but something more along the lines of a second chance? And when did I become so paranoid?

It all sounds like some semi-good movie, that holds better potential, staring Nicolas Cage.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Coming Attraction: My Dream

I had the most fantastic dream last night. It was so bizarre but real at the same time. It's been stuck in my head all day so I decided to write it down tonight. It turned into a short story with names hidden or changed. It is after all, just a dream. It wasn't real, but the people I dreamed about are very much real and a part of my life and it would be only fair (and less embarrassing for me) to keep everyone anonymous. I'm excited to edit it over the next few days and I'll post it on here sometime soon.

I went to school for writing. Even as a little kid, once I learned my letters I was crazy about writing them. I couldn't spell and I could barely write, but I would write letters on everything and anything I could. My baby book is filled with upside down R's and K's and random groupings of letters that I drew. My mom told me that I couldn't wait to write words as a little girl. I think it's cool that I had such an interest in writing as a 3-year-old. I lost the passion of writing when school began. It became a chore. I didn't get back interested into writing until college when I took a creative writing class. After a few weeks I became excited and was writing semi-decent short stories and better poems. After being in college for about seven years I became a pretty good writer, concentrating on poetry. I'm one class shy of BA degree in creative writing. But I haven't written anything really in close to three years now. Work got in the way and I just forgot about writing. Just never made the time for it anymore.

My writing is usually dark, obscene and often disturbing. Not in a thrilling sense, but in a creative way. I don't think I have ever written a love story, unless you count the story I wrote a few years ago about the one legged hooker who was sleeping with her brother, but there was something about the story in my dream that caught my attention. It seemed so real and made so much sense with it being as random and unlikely as possible. It is a love story. But it has it's own unique qualities. There is only one "scene" from my dream that I am leaving out of the story I wrote tonight...and that would be when actress Charlize Theron was following me in a wheelchair and pelting acorns at my legs. It was in my dream, but doesn't fit with the rest of the story. I do assure you though that the story is full of equally bizarre moments.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Gene: The Instamatic 800

I bought an old camera today from a thrift store while looking for old records. Nothing too fancy about it, but it caught my eye. I've been meaning to buy an old camera just for fun. It cost me less than $4 and besides for some minor wear and tear it just might work. After bringing it home I looked up the camera to see what I was dealing with. What I bought turns out to be a Kodak Instamatic 800, was made around 1965 and sold for about $130 (going for about $70 now online). I'm really excited to buy some batteries and film for this little camera, well it's actually quite bulky. Regardless, I hope it works and I'm excited to share pictures once I figure out how to work Gene. Oh yeah, I named my camera Gene. With a camera this handsome it deserves a name!

Zooey Deschanel, Will You Marry Me?

As if I thought I couldn't fall in love more with Zooey Deschanel, I found out a few weeks ago that she has a band and I am totally swooning over it...non stop. The name? She & Him. The album? Volume One. I fall asleep with the songs in my head, I wake up singing a tune, I listen to it on the way to work, listen at work and listen on the way home from work. If you have a passion for music, I highly recommend getting this album. The music is old fashioned and just so beautiful. I first heard Deschanel's voice when she sang some Christmas tunes in the holiday comedy Elf. Her voice reminded me of old music and I became a huge fan of hers. So when I came across her band I almost peed my pants in excitement. The album couldn't download fast enough! There are a few remakes on the album that are just fantastic, including a Beatles's number! No matter how busy you are this weekend, get the album! Click on the link to check out the band's site and then please proceed to buy the album. Oh, and Zooey is engaged...but sadly, not to me.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Beatles...Rockband

I made a selfish decision yesterday and bought The Beatles Rockband for my Nintendo Wii. Although I wanted to get the limited edition bundle which came with two replica instruments, I kept hearing that the "instruments", controllers, were quite sucky. Total heart breaker, but I figured the game experience would be better if I could actually play so I bought the regular, not so cool, instruments. And let me tell you, the instruments should not be a deciding factor for you because I spent well over five straight hours playing drums on medium yesterday. I'm waiting for everyone to wake up so I can finish the game on medium, perfect my scores, move on to beating it on medium with the guitar and then start it all over again on hard. God, I'm such a dweeb. But the game is so friggin awesome!

The game has a story mode, so you play selected songs chronologically. Before each chapter begins the game gives you a rather quick run down of The Beatles entering that specific year by flashing pictures. I was actually looking for more when it came to this, but it's still pretty cool and fun. After a chapter is complete you can play the songs from that chapter in one sitting, it's called a chapter challenge. I haven't tried it yet, I want to get through all the nitty gritty first. But at the end of every song you collect rare photos or videos that are saved to the game and you can go back and check them out. The coolest thing, that caught me by surprise, is the video playing in the background during the songs. The game did a great job by putting the "actual" footage on there! It's computerized, but it's mimicking the actual footage of concerts or videos. And the graphics look great! And, of course, there is a quickplay mode so you can play whatever song you like whenever you like.

I haven't checked out the song list online yet, but you can buy and download more songs. Which I plan on doing. There is a good amount of songs on the game to begin with, but as any Beatles fan....I want more! Hopefully they'll release as many songs as possible. I highly recommend any Beatles fan to go out and buy this game. Get a system if you don't have one (the game is out for PlayStation 3, XBOX 360 and Nintendo Wii), get the instruments (if you don't already have them the bundle pack that I bought was a pretty good deal- drums, guitar, mic and the game for a total of $151) and get rockin'!!!!

Monday, September 7, 2009

April Smith, I Find You Simply Delicious

About a week or so ago I caught the end of a song that caught my attention. I have the song ID application on my phone so I quickly fumbled to try and figure out who was singing. Song ID could not identify the artist or song, but I caught the DJ say the details right before I pulled into my driveway. I was listening to April Smith and the Great Picture Show and the song was "wow and flutter". I jotted down the info and haven't checked Ms. Smith out until a few minutes ago. I'm in love. I checked out her myspace page, which you should do too! Or you can visit her website. I plan on going out within the next hour or so and grabbing her album. You can buy it on itunes, her website or even on her myspace page, but I like having an actual hard copy. Something just seems better about owning an actual disc. She says she sounds like "The Beatles fronted by the Andrews Sisters" and if that isn't worth checking out, then I don't know what is. I'm just glad that I came across her name and tunes.

But wait. She's so kick ass that she wants to make a new album, but wants the freedom of being able to be herself on the record. So instead of having a label, she wants her fans to support her. She's on kickstarter, a way for good people to do something good. Check out her video on kickstarter, which is informational and quite amusing. It might make you fall in love with her even more...worked for me! You can find out more on her website as well.

And I'll just say "you're welcome" now ;)

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Home Sweet Home

Looks like I might be renting my mom's house from her in the near future. Nothing is finalized, it's just been brought up really. I'm keeping my fingers crossed though. This would be perfect. More details to come. Wish me luck!

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