Post #ACSB (written on my flight home 11/17/08)

We came, we saw, we partied like Rock Stars.

Yes, AngryCamp Santos-Blatt has come to an end. I’m on the plane and already starting to reminisce about the events of this past weekend. I’ve been going through pictures and videos, all the while, with a huge grin on my face. I’m just glad to have met such wonderful people over the past few months. Whenever we get together we talk about this connection that we all share (which I have mentioned many times on here already). It’s kind of sad that we are going to have to wait a few months so see each other again, but I think that that anticipation is part of the draw. Everyone is so unique in their own way, and that’s what makes it so interesting, for me at least, to hang out with a such a great group of people.

Tags: #ACSB, love, NYC, rock stars

#ACSB

I’m very excited about this coming weekend. I’ll be traveling to New Orleans on Wednesday, and on Friday I’ll be flying out to NYC for 4 days. It’s going to be great to see quite a few of my new social media friends. We have another function scheduled for January in Milwaukee, but I didn’t want to wait that long to see everyone so I decided to make a trip to NYC.

I’ll be staying with the loving @theambershow and @robblatt. They are so very sweet to host this event, as I’m sure that things are going to be quite crazy and entertaining. I’m sure that when I get back there will be many stories and pictures to share (if it’s anything like podcamp Montreal was).

Tags: #ACSB, Angry Camp, boobs, NOLA, NYC

I hate living in a college town.

The start of FSU Homecoming week is tonight, and this is what we’ve been hearing for the past 3 hours.

Ridiculously Loud Music

Ava keeps waking up and it’s pissing me off.

Tags: FSU, Homecoming, loud, obnoxious

So Different

Something has been made abundantly clear to me over the past few months, my ideologies differs so much from those that I grew up around. That includes my family, friends, pretty much 95% of the people that I’ve known in my life. I just wonder how I could have lived in the same environment as all of these other people, but have such different viewpoints.

These thoughts have been stirred up by the the 2008 election (surprise, surprise). When I log into the different social media/networking sites I frequent (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter), I usually glance at the status updates of the people I’m following, but in the past few days, I’ve been paying a little more attention to what people are saying. Let me give you a little taste: “U.S.S.A.”, “wondering how long before he can say, ‘I told you so.’ Oh, wait. The Dow’s down how much again?”, “HOPE that the country hasn’t had so much CHANGE that we can’t fix it in 2012″, “I so…….disappointed that Osama, um..I mean Obama won”, “NO BAMA”, and “amazed at how many stupid people voted for that socialist POS.” These status updates were posted by people that I’ve gone to school with throughout my life. Granted, everyone is entitled to their own opinions and beliefs, but I was so disgusted by these comments. I thought, for a moment, about deleting these people from my friends list, but chose not to.

I guess I should clarify, it wasn’t just the election that made me realize this, it’s something that I’ve know for quite some time. There are even members of my immediate family that used/use racial slurs on a fairly regular basis. Each time I’d hear these words, I would cringe, and couldn’t understand why these things were being said. The most common response to my disapproval of these words was that I grew up in a different time and I just didn’t understand how things really were/are. WHAT? Are you freaking kidding me? What kind of social injustices did you go through? What gives you the right to call others these horrible names? Even if you had been discriminated against or persecuted, there is no room in society for such words.

When you think about it though, it is pretty amazing that I could be brought up hearing these horrible things, and yet, I’m a very open-minded person. My group of friends from high school, I’d say that 90% (out of a group of 15) of them think the same way as I do, but we are definitely the small minority. I’m just glad that where we live now is more tolerant, it’s not perfect, but it’s better than the alternative.

Tags: ideologies, obama, racism, viewpoints

President OBAMA

I forgot about making a post yesterday, but I’m here today, that has to count for something.

SO yeah, we have a new president-elect. There is now so much optimism and hope in our country today, the world, even.

Tags: Barack Obama, president

Tough Decisions

UPDATE: The vet called and told us that he was able to find a foster home for Stoli. That is extremely happy news.

Today is the day that our pet of almost 5 years is being put to sleep. Stoli, a siamese, has been with James and I since 2 weeks before we got married. He is extremely lovable and so sweet, but he’s sick, and has been sick since we rescued him from a shelter in Louisiana.

Francis, Charlie, and Stoli

Here’s a little back story on Stoli.
I went to a shelter in Jefferson Parish, LA, and I immediately fell in love with Stoli, he looked like a cuddly stuffed animal (that fit in the palm of my hand). He had been surrendered to the shelter along with his sister because they could no longer be cared for. We wanted to get both cats, but we already had one, and James told me that our cat limit was two (I talked him into getting a 3rd one about 3 months later). When we got him from the shelter, his papers said that he was 6 weeks old, which was minimum required age for a kitten to be adopted. Before he was able to leave the shelter he had to be neutered, which is where I think a lot of his problems has stemmed from.

About 2 weeks after taking him home from the shelter he developed a serious case of diarrhea. We had to keep him in a kennel because it was basically non-stop. While this was going on, we were also in the process of moving from New Orleans to Tallahassee, FL, which I’m sure didn’t help his stress level. When we got to Tallahassee and I took him to the vet, I got some horrifying information. The vet said that judging by Stoli’s size (2.4 lbs.) and other indicators, he believed that Stoli was only 5 WEEKS OLD.

I was floored! We had already had him for 3 weeks at this point, so that meant that he had been taken away from his mother while he was still nursing. Then we was taken from his sister at the shelter, and neutered at only 2 weeks old.

The problem has now evolved into him not using the litter box at all! We’ve tried everything, more litter boxes, the kinds with/without covers, box in the corner, different litter. We spoken with Stoli’s vet, who has seen him from a myriad of problems over the years, and he immediately said that there is nothing that can be done about it and that Stoli is not a well cat. On top of the bathroom problems, he also has psychological problems (which sounds odd, i know). He could never be an outdoor cat because of how he freaks out and gets into bad situations all the time, like getting trapped in places that he can’t get out of, and becoming dehydrated.

I just feel so damn guilty! I don’t want to do this, but I have a 2.75 year old running around the house, and she still puts things in her mouth. It’s just so unsanitary, and I don’t want her to get sick. We are not doing this because he’s gone to the bathroom on the floor a few times and we don’t want to deal with it any longer. This is an all day ordeal. The constant washing of things that have been peed on, all the cleaners, steam vacuum, having to cleaning up around 5 times a day…it has taken it’s toll.

So here’s my guilty turned into a blog post. It’s one of the saddest things that I’ve ever had to do, but…I don’t even know what to say.

Stoli, around 3 weeks old

Have you had a pet that needed to be put to sleep when it was relatively young? What were the circumstances? How did you feel?

Tags: death, guilt, love, pets, sadness, stoli

Fermentation!

There’s a new bar that opened up here in Tallahassee, The Fermentation Lounge. It’s pretty much right around the corner from my house. I’ve been there a few times now and I have nothing but great things to say about this place. The co-owners, Scott and Dan, are nothing but hospitable. The beer selection is pretty solid and there’s something for everyone. They also have a good assortment of wines, which I know nothing about, but what’s great is that Dan does, and he’s more than happy to give a little mini wine tasting course.

I stopped by The Fermentation Lounge on Friday, Halloween. There were great beer specials and even a few old carnival tricks being performed. If a Coney Island Lager was purchased, Dan would do the Human Blockhead, which I hadn’t heard of before, but it’s hammering a nail into one’s nose. Ouch! He also did some fire eating, which I don’t really understand how it’s possible.

I took a few photos while I was there the other night, and they guys really like them. I may go by there in the next couple of days and take a couple more for them.

Oh, if you want to find out about “Happenings” at The Fermentation Lounge you can follow them on Twitter.

Tags: beer, Coney Island Lager, Fermentation Lounge, Halloween, human blockhead, pictures, Tallahassee, wine, wine tasting

1 a day

I’ve been inspired by all the tweets I’ve been seeing about NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). For me, it’s a pretty large undertaking, but I just want to try it out. Reading about others who are also doing it will be my daily reminder that I need to take a few minutes to just put something out there. I would love to get back into the habit of posting, which I used to do quite frequently in my “former life” (before baby).

So everyone, sit back, relax, and keep coming back to see what kind of stuff I’m writing about.

P.S. If you see that I’ve missed a day, email me, send me a tweet, call me out, I don’t mind!

Tags: blogging, habit, NaBloPoMo, writing

Back to School

I finally did it. I’m am college student, once again. I have been in the perpetual loop of taking a few classes (and doing extremely well in them, I might add), and then leaving school for a few semesters. I have gotten to the point that I am “this close” to graduating, and I just want to be done with it.

It’s really odd going back every few years. I am by far the oldest student in the class that I am taking this summer. I am reminded of one the most famous lines from the movie Dazed and Confused, said by Wooderson, who was played by Matthew McConaughey, “That’s what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age.” OK, that quote doesn’t exactly fit with what I’m trying to say, but you get the idea. I keep going back to school, and I’m always older and older, but the kids that are in my classes are always between the ages of 18-21, with a few exceptions here and there.

My plan is to stick with it this time because I just need to finish. It would be such a waste of the time AND money that’s been spent so far, if I didn’t continue. I hope to be done with it all in the next few years. It’s going to take a little longer than I would like because all of the school residency requirements. When I’m done I will OFFICIALLY be able to call myself a geographer. Yay!

Tally Tweet Up, recap

Last night we had our first Tallahassee Tweet Up and I would call it a success. It was a modest showing, but it was still a good time, nonetheless. Including myself, there were six people that attended, @portorikan, his wife, @snowhite197, @angelrios, @tetfsu, and @jamesponder. We also had some people show up, but didn’t know who the Tweet Up people were, so we didn’t get to meet them. We should have planned better and discussed how we would identify each other. This was something that I didn’t think about until I was in the parking lot of meet up location. Sorry guys!
Hopefully next time around will we will have a few more people show up, and more gadgets to show and discuss. Thanks to those that did make it out, and I am really looking forward to the next one.

Tetfsu did get a small video that he uploaded on YouTube and you can see it here. I also have a very short video that was captured on my Flip, by portorikan, but I haven’t downloaded it yet. I will update this post with it when I do.