What Made you Smile/What Ticked you off Today?

[REPO Man]

Labor Day! Coincidentally, my Sister is in labor and at the hospital.



Edit: Sister is still in the hospital, all is well.

Smile: My wife has been at the OBX for the past few days, and will be coming home to this:

Hope your sister gets well soon.

Oh, and cannot believe someone other than me just spoke of the Outer Banks. I always assumed my hometown was one of those things the outside world doesn't realize exist, like maybe it was like being from Oz or Narnia, except OBX tourists just get in the way.

[Luke]

Hope your sister gets well soon.

Oh, and cannot believe someone other than me just spoke of the Outer Banks..

She's fine, she's having a baby.

Half of my friends always go to OBX every Labor Day. It's the Myrtle Beach for civilized adults.

[noiseredux]

Smile: Labor Day sales. We got a new PC this weekend. It apparently can play PC games. I've tried out Zork, Street Fighter X Mega Man, Final Fantasy VII, Castlevania Lord of Shadows, Jamestown, and others and I'm really pleased that I can play things.

[dsheinem]

Smile: Labor Day sales. We got a new PC this weekend. It apparently can play PC games. I've tried out Zork, Street Fighter X Mega Man, Final Fantasy VII, Castlevania Lord of Shadows, Jamestown, and others and I'm really pleased that I can play things.

Holy shit, it plays Zork? At high quality? What kind of bad ass graphics card did you get?

[noiseredux]

It has Turbo.

[prfsnl_gmr]

<yard sale rant>

I am sympathizing with you at the moment. I woke up early on Saturday, and decided to stop by a multi-day yard sale that advertised old video games on Craigslist. I arrived right as it was opening, but I found only a few sports games for the Dreamcast and PS1. I asked if the seller had any other games since he had advertised Sega, Nintendo, Xbox, etc. He said that he did, but that he had not dragged them out of the attic yet. He expected to have them out "Sunday or Monday morning" but under no circumstances would he be bringing them out that morning. I was furious; so, I left without saying anything, and I resolved not to return. Seriously, if you advertise that you have something at your yard sale, you should actually have it there. (Oh well...based on what he had out, they were probably all crappy sports games anyway, and since he had a copy of this book for sale, I very much doubt that I would have received a good deal on anything.)

Finally - to add insult to injury - I got lost trying to escape his crappy, labyrinthine sub-division...(All the houses looked exactly alike!!!)

Oh, and cannot believe someone other than me just spoke of the Outer Banks.

You're not the only one. My family keeps a house out there, and I make it to the Outer Banks every chance I get. (Charlotte is at least 5 1/2 hours away though; so, I do not get there nearly as often I would like... )

Half of my friends always go to OBX every Labor Day. It's the Myrtle Beach for civilized adults.

It has Turbo.

[BoneSnapDeez]

It has Turbo.

Holy shit.

I bet you can even play Rogue on that beast.

[BoneSnapDeez]

<yard sale rant>

I am sympathizing with you at the moment. I woke up early on Saturday, and decided to stop by a multi-day yard sale that advertised old video games on Craigslist. I arrived right as it was opening, but I found only a few sports games for the Dreamcast and PS1. I asked if the seller had any other games since he had advertised Sega, Nintendo, Xbox, etc.

I actually find the yard sales that are advertised on CL to be the worst ones to go to...

Usually it's because the resellers decide to be early birds - they'll show up at 7 am and buy all the games.

My best yard sale finds have been at tiny unadvertised ones that I just found by cruisin' around.

[KitKatCara]

Smile: Found pumpkin bread at the store today. I love fall and Halloween. Pumpkin flavored everything and less weird stares for fishnet and combat boots.

Smile/Frown: I talked to my Aunt today. She was diagnosed with lung cancer Oct. 5th of last year, and was told that she had maybe a month to live. She has been on death's doorstep quite a few times in her life, but this time it's going to do her in. We just caught up for a good hour or so, but then we started talking about her condition.

I recently learned at College that there is not a new form of cremation called 'Alkaline Hydrolysis' or 'Water Cremation'. The process includes submerging the body in a tank and having a hot, pressurized mixture of water and potassium hydroxide to break down the tissue, leaving only bones and a sterile liquid. The bones are processed and are given back to the family as the 'ashes'. When I read about this in an article, I immediately thought of my Aunt.

She already has organized her final plans, but she decided on cremation due to space issues in the family cemetery. However, she isn't happy with the decision of cremation because of her past. When she was a child, 90% of her body was burned, and she became on of the first patients to receive skin graphs on a large scale. She wasn't expected to live, but gave Death the middle finger (her words) and moved right along. Recently, she quit chemo therapy because it wasn't helping the cancer and was just burning her from the inside out. She now has burn scars on the inside and outside of her body. Her aversion to fire is easily understandable because of her past.

I found out this information about a week ago, but I've been afraid of bringing it up to her because it's not really something you just talk causally about. She knows that I am attending college for Mortuary Science, but I wasn't sure how much my mom told her. When I spoke to her I asked her if she would like to hear about something I found out through my college. To my surprise, she was actually fascinated about my career choice. I answered a few of her questions then told her about the Water Cremation. She said she has never heard of it, and was extremely glad that I told her about it. I gave her more information about it and we laughed and cried a bit more then we got off the phone.

I was dreading telling her about it because while I can talk left and right about bodies, it's different when it's someone you know personally. I didn't want to acknowledge the fact that her life is nearing it's end, but her attitude about it is astounding. She isn't afraid of death, she is pissed off that she isn't going to be able to care for her family anymore. She has been so positive about fighting and living that even when her doctors see her, she puts smiles on their faces that last through out the day. I've never met anyone as strong as she is, and in her positive outlook she is putting the family at ease when it comes to loose her. We still are heartbroken, but she is happy. She is one hell of a fighter.

I'm sorry, that got longer than I expected (it seems that most of my posts do) but I feel like I needed to type that out. I've never felt contentment and grief at the same time about the same thing. It's an odd mix of emotions.

[Jagosaurus]

I honestly wouldn't be comfortable going to a strip club regardless of the situation.

^ yeah, this too.

Ehh, one of my college jobs was a bouncer at a strip club.

DUDE HAHA!!! based on our previous college conversation... I know what establishment you're referring to. Makes that so much more funny.