A Good Drunk

I'm in the mood for one. I'm ready to go to a bar, listen to some live music and drink heavily. The Horrorpops will be at the Meridian on October 25...I don't know if I can wait that long.

Anyone want to join me???

Until next time...

Mandy

A Letter to Electricity

This was posted in the "Power Gripes" section of the Chronicle online today. It made me laugh, so I thought I would share it with you...

A guy in the Kingwood area who is struggling with not having his power back on, wrote this humorous letter to "Electricity"

Dear Electricity,

I know we have had our ups and downs, and our relationship has been rocky over the last few years. I realize now that I have made some mistakes in our relationship. Recently I have ignored you and haven't given you the respect you deserve at all.

When we built out new home I used gas furnaces, water heaters, ranges, pool heaters, and even a gas clothes dryer. I never consider your feelings and how this broke your heart. I have abused our relationship and I'm sorry. I know that I haven't been there for you lately. You send me mail once a month and I didn't even appreciate it. I feel guilty now that I treated you the way I did. When I would got your mail each month it would put me in a bad mood. Never did I take into consideration that you may leave me forever. I know you heard me yell at the kids, and the wife about messing with the thermostat and leaving lights on, and I never took into consideration how badly I was hurting your feelings.

I have taken you for granted, you have been with me all of my life and I have never once told you how much I loved you, or appreciated you. Then when I discovered that you had left me in the middle of a horrible storm I became angry much like a jilted lover. I immediately turned to a very abusive lover for comfort, and it was your arch enemy. The natural gas generator. Generator means nothing to me, and has treated me like crap. He complains when I run more than one air conditioner at a time. He complains if we run the washing machine. He complains if we use the plasma. He just gripes all the time. The worst thing about Generator is that he is an addict. He drinks natural gas like its water, and I am growing concerned that his addiction will destroy this family. You electricity are part of this family, and we want you to come home. We miss you dearly. Our heart yearns for your comfort.

Electricity, remember the good times. We grew up together. Remember when we went to my grandpas farm and I touched the fence and you bit me? Man was I mad. But boy is it a funny story now. You were with me on all the important Christmas' when the Atari came and I plugged into the wall. The Nintendo, the Play Station, the X box. You were even there when I was a gangly teenage boy playing on the computer all night (and doing other things that are our secret). Then you went off to college with me. Boy we had fun didn't we, and we snuggled in that electric blanket on those cold nights. You were with me in my first apartment, and even when I purchased my first home. You stood by me when I married and a few years later when the bouncing baby boy came. You were even there for my first fathers day, when I was surprised with an electric razor, and an electric leaf blower. Boy did we have fun with those!! Please come home electricity. I can change. I will change. I will be the man you always knew I could be. This family misses you dearly.

I am going to recite some lyrics to a song that makes me think of you in closing. Maybe these words will remind you of how much I really do love you!!
Maybe I didn't treat you
Quite as good as I should have
Maybe I didn't love you
Quite as often as I could have
Little things I should have said and done
I just never took the time

You were always on my mind
You were always on my mind

Maybe I didn't hold you
All those lonely, lonely times
And I guess I never told you
I'm so happy that you're mine
If I made you feel second best
Girl I'm so sorry I was blind

You were always on my mind
You were always on my mind

Tell me, tell me that your sweet love hasn't died
Give me, give me one more chance to keep you satisfied

Little things I should have said and done
I just never took the time

You were always on my mind
You were always on my mind
You were always on my mind

I was entertained by it, hope you were too!

Until next time...

Mandy

Hurricane Education: What I've learned during our last hurricane . . .

I received this in an email and thought I would share with you.

1. Coffee and frozen pizzas can be made on a BBQ grill.
2. No matter how many times you flick the switch, lights don't work without electricity.
3. My car gets 23.21675 miles per gallon, EXACTLY (you can ask the people in line who helped me push it).
4. Kids can survive 4 days or longer without a video game controller in their hand.
5. Cats are even more irritating without power.
6. He who has the biggest generator wins.
7. Women can actually survive without doing their hair- you just wish they weren't around you.
8. A new method of non-lethal torture- showers without hot water.
9. There are a lot more stars in the sky than most people thought.
10. TV is an addiction and the withdrawal symptoms are painful.
11. A 7 lb bag of ice will chill 6-12 oz Budweiser's to a drinkable temperature in 11 minutes, and still keep a 14 lb. turkey frozen for 8 more hours.
12. There are a lot of dang trees around here.
13. Flood plane drawings on some mortgage documents were seriously wrong.
14. Aluminum siding, while aesthetically pleasing, is definitely not required.
15. Crickets can increase their volume to overcome the sound of 14 generators.
16. People will get into a line that has already formed without having any idea what the line is for.
17. When required, a Lincoln Continental will float, doesn't steer well but floats just the same.
18. Tele-marketers function no matter what the weather is doing.
19. Cell phones work when land lines are down, but only as long as the battery remains charged.
20. 27 of your neighbors are fed from a different transformer than you, and they are quick to point that out!
21. Hampers were not made to contain such a volume.
22. If my store sold only ice, chainsaws, gas and generators... I'd be rich.
23. Price of a can of soup rises 200 percent in a storm.
24. Your water front property can quickly become someone else's fishing hole.
25. Tree service companies are under appreciated.
26. I learned what happens when you make fun of another states' blackout.
27. MATH 101: 30 days in a month, minus 6 days without power equals 30 percent higher electric bill ?????
28. Drywall is a compound word, take away the "dry" part and it's worthless.
29. I can walk a lot farther than I thought.

Until next time...

Mandy

Ike Was a MoFo - Part 2

Saturday, September 13, 2008 - So, we get to the hotel in Brookshire, it was called Executive Inn & Suites. (have you ever had to drive with no back window, it's really weird.) Sadly, all we could get was 1 room. So, in a room with 2 double beds, we had Mom, Megan, Jerob, Jereth, Victor, the two dogs and me. We had some key problems, so the gentleman behind the desk walked with me to the room to figure out what was going on. While he was up there, I asked him if they lost power and he said, in a thick Arabic accent, "No, not for one second. We have our own transformer!" And when he said transformer, he used Vanna White arm and pointed to the transformer that was right in front of our room. So, we have decided if we have to evacuate again, we're going to the place with it's own transformer, but we tend to bring the black cloud with us. Knowing our luck, the next time the transformer will get blown off the pole and land right in our room. Anyway, once we got to the room we discovered that the television was only getting 3 channels...ABC Family, TNT and cartoon network. The adults really wanted to watch the news, but Cartoon Network kept the kids quiet. So, around bedtime, we had to decide on the sleeping arrangements...Megan, Jerob and Victor in one bed and Mom, Jereth and me in the other bed. I've mentioned before that I have a bubble butt that I got from my mother...when the three of us laid down on the bed, both the mother and I had a butt cheek hanging off the side. To top it all off, I come from a long line of snorers...ALL OF US SNORE...EVEN CUJO - THE PUG. I will let you in on one of my 'things,' I like total silence when I got to sleep at night, the rest of my family has to sleep with the TV on.




Sunday, September 14, 2008 - After I woke up, I decided to walk to the front office to see if they had any coffee, what I found was even better...A COMPUTER!!! Every time I wanted to get on it, I had to pay $3.00, but I didn't care. It was a lifeline to the outside! So, when I logged on, I immediately went to the City of Seabrook website. What little hope I had for the city of Seabrook making it through the storm was gone when I read the words, "No one, including the media, is allowed in the City of Seabrook." My worst-case superpowers came out and all I could think was that my apartment and my mother's home was floating away in the Gulf of Mexico. Around 6p, Terra called me and told me that their lights were on and that they wanted all of us, even the dogs, to come stay with them until we could back in our homes...she said she would not take no for an answer. So, Mom, Megan and I discussed it and decided it would probably be the best for our family to go to her house. (It was also getting expensive staying in a hotel.) We went to a pizza buffet that night and the kids and I played Miss PacMan, went home, packed and got ready for the trip back to the south side of Houston.

Monday, September 15, 2008 - Loaded up all three cars, went and checked the City of Seabrook website...it said that people west of Hwy 146 (me) could come back and people east of Hwy 146 (mom) were still not allowed in. We all pile in the cars and off we go to the friendly place on earth...FRIENDSWOOD. Once we arrive, I look at Terra and Lyndon and tell them, "If our friendship can survive this, we can survive anything!


So, Lyndon took me over to my apartment...I didn't know what I was going home to. While we were driving down Nasa Road 1, we saw parts of Clear Lake that looked untouched and other parts that looked like a war zone. The Nassau Bay Hilton got torn up pretty badly. Apparently, the skylight fell out of the top of the building. Then we went a little further east and right down the road from my house there were boats lined up on the side of the road, I had heard that the storm surge pushed them all up on Nasa Road and the people cleaning up the debris pushed then off the road so traffic could get by. So, we get to my apartment and the front of the complex doesn't look bad! Once we get to my apartment, I start noticing all the trees have been blown down, I'm talking roots and all! I get to my apartment and go in...all the windows are still there and there is no water on the floor!!!! I pick up a few more things and we go back over to their house.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - This was the day we had been waiting for. We were finally allowed to go view the east side of 146. Mom and I headed over to her house...Up to this point, all we had seen were pictures of 146, there was a picture that someone took where they were standing on the Kemah bridge and looked north toward Seabrook and all you could see was debris from the bridge back Nasa Road 1. So, as we were driving, all we could do was expect the worst. We pull up to mom's house and there were no trees down - good news! We walk in and everything was right where she left it - no windows had been blown out - good news! We walked around for a minute and thought that everything was fine, then I started noticing that every time I took a step I heard a weird sound, kinda like a 'squish.' We discovered that her house had been in the storm surge, and judging by a few pictures sitting on the floor there had only been about 1 1/2" of water in her whole house. When we walked back outside, her neighbor 2 doors down came over and told her that the surge had, indeed, come in and said when he walked outside the water was up above his knees, but as quickly as it came in it went back out. When we looked at the outside of her house we saw a water mark.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 - Spent the entire day at mom's house with my friend Jeremy pulling up carpet...I have never pulled up carpet before, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. There is a lot of carpet in a 4 bedroom house with a living room and a den...and the padding under your carpet gets EXTREMELY HEAVY when it gets wet.

So through all of this, Terra & Lyndon let all of us stay at their home. They have been great and I don't know how to thank them enough for sharing their home, beds, couches, recliner, electricity and air conditioning with us. I am happy to report that Mom went by her house and my apartment on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 and said that both places had power!

Oh, and a big thank you to my apartment complex...I went to my place on Saturday, September 20, 2008 to clean out my refrigerator and come to find out...they went in and cleaned everyone's refrigerator and freezer out, apparently they were getting complaints from some of the residents that the smell was getting too bad. Even though they cleaned it out for me, it still smelled like a corpse was in my apartment...let me tell you, Carpet Fresh, Febreez and Oust are miracle products.

So, there you go, my experience with that MoFo Ike. I have lots of pictures, I will download and post them soon.

If you live in Houston, good luck with the clean up....and if you still don't have lights, I am so sorry, I hope they get to you quickly!

Until next time...

Mandy

Ike was a MoFo - Part 1

So, I thought I would write about my experience with the asshole that was Hurricane Ike.

Wednesday, Sept 10, 2008 - Found out that Seabrook, Tx was under a voluntary evacuation.

Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008 - Seabrook was upgraded to a mandatory evacuation. I left work around 12 pm. Around 2 pm, I started freaking out because there were no hotel rooms to be found in the city of Houston...it's hard to find accommodations for me, the mom, the sister, three nephews and two dogs. (We have always evacuated together, we won't have it any other way.) Mom called around 3 pm and told me that she booked 2 hotel rooms at a LaQuinta on I10 and Wilcrest. At 5 pm we had packed up our clothes and I grabbed several photo albums and the framed pictures I have of Nanny and Paw Paw...While I was packing the news kept talking about the 15-20 foot storm surge that would most likely hit the Clear Lake area and my apartment is right across the street from Clear Lake... there was a lot more crying after hearing this news. I go and meet the mother and the sister at their house and off we go to the LaQuinta. I will say, this evacuation process was not nearly as stressful as the Rita evacuation, when it took us 27 hours to get to Lufkin, TX...we refer to that one as Hell Drive 2005 or the 2005 Trail of Tears. Anyway, it took us about an hour and a half to get to our hotel. We checked in and sat on our hotel beds, eating pop tarts and watching the news. I wanted to change the channel, but I couldn't...it was like a train wreck, I couldn't look away.

Friday, September 12, 2008 - Woke up, turned on the news and saw Galveston flooding...this did not give me warm-fuzzies. All I could do was watch the news. We went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch and all I could think about is, "I wonder what Ike is doing now, I hope it made a hard turn to the right or left." Isn't that horrible, you don't ever want to wish anything bad on someone else, but I really didn't want Houston to get hit. Oh, I almost forgot, I got my paycheck on Thursday but by the time I got home there were no banks open, and sadly my company does not offer direct deposit yet. So, Friday, after lunch mom and I went to go find something open to get the kids some coloring books and quiet toys. While we were out, there was a Western Union place open, I went in and asked the man if he would please cash my check, once he saw my ID and noticed my address he cashed it with no questions asked, he didn't even call my employer. So, here's a big shout out to the Western Union on Gessner north of I10! After all that, we went back to the hotel to sit, wait and watch the news.

Saturday, September 13, 2008 - 12:30 am we lost power and decided to go down to my sister's room so we could all be together. (If something was going to happen to one of us, it was going to happen to all of us.) I think I slept maybe an hour the whole night. I have never heard winds like that. One of the only things that kept going through my head was, "Please don't let there be a tornado!!! After the winds died down, mom and I decided to go out to her car and listen to the radio. While I was sitting in her passenger seat, I looked to the left and said, "Oh no, Megan's passenger side back window got blown out." We went back in the room to let Megan know about her car. Then we walked back outside and a guy asked if we knew whose Mustang that was sitting there, when I told him it was mine he told me the bad news...My back window was gone. There was glass all on the inside and outside of my little car. When I walked over to the passenger side, that's when I realized what had happened. The little backseat window that's shaped like a triangle was shattered but hadn't fallen out of the window hole and right in the middle of the window was a little hole. Some douche bag with a pellet gun shot our windows out. And it wasn't just our windows, there were about 30 cars in the parking lot that didn't have windows. What kind of jackass uses car windows for target practice in the middle of a hurricane? Later that afternoon, I would say around 2ish, the manager of the hotel comes up to us and asks if there are any men staying with us. When we told him it was just us and the boys, he told us they were trying to get a group of people to watch the hotel, since there was no power and no security it might get dangerous at night. Well, me being worst-case scenario girl, the only thing I could think of was the hotel being under siege by rabid gang members and them raping a pillaging the entire complex. We survived the hurricane, now we had to deal with unsavories coming and tormenting us. My mom decided that we needed to go somewhere else. She got in her little car and drove west. About 45 minutes after she left, I got a voice mail that said, "Mandy, I found a hotel with electricity, you and Megan pack everything up." By the time she got back, the cars were packed and we were ready to go. We went 22 miles west of where we were to Brookshire, TX.

To be continued...

Until next time...

Mandy

We're OK!

Just wanted to do a quick post, my family and I are OK. We are in a hotel outside of Houston with power. I have spoken with the majority of my friends and family and everyone is OK. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! I will post more later.



Until next time...



Mandy

IKE

I'm about to leave my home and evacuate...I hope all of you are safe!!!

Be careful and please say a prayer that my apartment and my mother's home is still standing when we come back on Sunday!!!

Until next time...

Mandy

Two new bloggers.

I have two friends that are blogging now!!! It's very exciting, I love reading about other people's lives.

Both of these new blogs are ladies that I knew back in high school, well actually, one I met in high school and the other I've known since the fourth grade.

The first one is Laura. This would be the Sharpie Tattoo artist. Anyway, I can't wait to read all about her life in Austin. Seriously, you must read her stuff...you won't be disappointed!

The second one is Jennifer. Jennifer and her husband have been trying to have a baby for 12 years...now she's pregnant...WITH TRIPLETS!!! So, if you want to find out what it's like to be pregnant with more than one baby, go check it out. She's even got pictures of the sonograms, you talk about freaky weird...in one of the photos you can see one baby and in the background you can see another baby's feet. It's amazing, although, not amazing enough for me to want to got through that experience.

Until next time...

Mandy