Suffrage

Today is Election Day and also "Day of the Dead" as observed in Mexico. Probably not a coincidence. I digress... This "right" began as a fight for anyone that was not a wealthy white male landowner and was a major victory in U.S. history. However, I think our forefathers would shed a tear or two at what their victory has been morphed into. I don't think our forefathers meant for elections to take quite the mudslinging turn that it did (No, they weren't innocent back then, but nowadays is 20 times worse). They would probably roll over in their graves if they knew that "straight ticket" was an option on ballots. And they would probably die all over again to hear that many (I won't say "most" because I don't really know the numbers...) of our voters haven't researched their votes at all. How many people have you heard say, "Then there was this section about if sew-n-sew should retain his seat as county judge...I voted that he should because I haven't heard anything bad about him..."? I'm guilty of this as well. I also hate how "Educated non-voter" is not a choice. If you don't vote, you are the devil. If you vote, you did your civic service, even if you have no idea who or what you voted for. If you wear your "I voted" sticker, you get applauded everywhere you go. Why? You don't know me. I may have just closed my eyes on the ballot or just voted for the same people my parents or friends told me to. It's not just elections that irk me, it's politics in general. Very rarely is there a candidate that has the same exact stance on issues as you do, yet you always have to vote. Most of the time people are voting for "the lesser evil". Really? If that is the drive behind your vote, why don't you just sleep in on election day? If evil is evil is evil, then how can you feel good about yourself for voting for ANY type of evil? The 2 Party system is so narrow-minded. There are too many issues out there to evenly split into 2 groups. Now, most issues are pretty easily split - Abortion (Pro-choice or Pro-life), Gay Marriage (Against or For), Universal Healthcare (Against or For), etc. But then you get grey areas on some...if abortion was completely outlawed, could you look a rape victim or a victim of incest in the eyes and tell her that by law she must carry her rapist's child for 9 months? Or how do you tell a Native American with free healthcare that their own tribe pays for with their own money that they will now have to pay the "white man" and go to other doctors now? I think these grey areas should convey a need for more than 2 parties in the U.S. They RARELY are black-and-white, clear-as-day, cut-and-dry issues with no middle ground. It's just life. I think we need a better representation of life in our political skeleton.

Now, to clear up any assumptions you may have just made about me, I DID actually get out and vote today. UNEDUCATED. That's right, I voted straight ticket for my party when I could. I kept all the sew-n-sews in the positions. I voted for the propositions based upon someone else's research (Well, except for one of the questions) and I winged the county question because I didn't even know there was going to be one. And guess what...I actually feel fairly badly about it. I wish I wouldn't have even voted. Don't worry, I will NOT do this ever again. I will either educate myself or not vote. But hey, everyone that sees me today will compliment me on my "I voted" sticker because I did the "right" thing. Right?

-Mrs. Kreilaus

Shopping for organization!

With the purchase of the deeper, bigger, more big girl purse, it was determined that a new system of organization was needed. The smaller purse system was not going to cut it:

Enters one snazzy looking wallet:

Jesus definitely smiled down upon me when I found the 3-pocketed wallet of awesomeness. Thanks, J!

Alrighty, I'm thinking 3 posts on here in one night is probably sufficient. Goodnight all!!

-Mrs. Kreilaus

Ardmore & the 69/75 Mystery

So, this past weekend I went to Ardmore to visit Price and Sarah before Sarah pops her little one out (She's due on Oct. 13th...). It was a good visit. I feel the need to inform everyone of the lesson I learned, though. I came to Ardmore with the route I know and it was pretty easy, since the OU/Texas game was about to start/going already. The roads were clear. I believe I made it in less than 3 hours. Route:

Easy peasy.

I caught the end of the game at a neighborhood watch party in their neighborhood and met their dogs.

Adorable. It's true. Sarah and I were on a search for a Thanksgiving outdoor flag in Ross when I discovered that I needed a new purse...like, in the next day or two. My handles of old faithful looked like they were going to fall off at any given moment. So, :

I know; it's glorious. And it's actually cobalt blue, not purplish like it looks in this picture. After cruising the town and dining in some local hotspots, it was time to leave. Sad...I know. Here is the route I was planning to take home so that I could avoid I-35 (OU/Texas traffic returning to Norman):

It was going to be a good route. Only problem I could see was that I didn't know if I should be looking for 69 or 75 signs in Durant. Sarah and her mom said 75, but my map reads 69. I figured that I was a big girl and if I merely followed all of the 75 signs, then I would make it home one way or another because we live off of 75 and clearly 75 runs all the way to Texas...in one way or another. So, I will share with you what I learned and then tell you my small story:
This is the Indian Nation Turnpike. Not 75, not 69, just Indian Nation Turnpike:

This is 69:

and THIS is 75:

Okay, so, somewhere on the way to McAlester/Savannah, in a little town called Atoka, I believe, I was driving along, minding my own business when a sign came up out of nowhere telling me to turn left to get to 75. Startled, I had to cut a car off to turn, but I made it. It was a 2-lane road leading west, when I needed to be going east. I thought that it might lead to a 4-lane highway soon. After going through some hills and some curves, another abrupt sign pops up telling me to turn right for 75. 75 is a two-lane "highway" through the middle of nowhere from Atoka to I-40. I promise. However, for the most part, it is a deserted highway for all that way, so good time is still possible as long as there isn't a tractor or semi slowing you down. To sum it up:

In Durant, I entered onto 69/75. In Atoka, 75 juts off west in 2-lane fashion, but still gets you to I-40. If you take I-40 E for about 10 miles, you can exit back onto 75 N and see it in its 4-lane glory. 69 goes all the way from Durant to Muskogee (and keeps going). For some reason, they decided to build an addition to 75 and call it the "Indian Nation Turnpike" and connect 75 to 69 in McAlester. But, anyway, mystery solved.

-Mrs. Kreilaus

Best Buy, AT&T, and iPhone

So, Best Buy kinda sucks and AT&T kinda rocks. At least, this is their status as of recently. Jon has been wanting to get an iPhone since they first came out, but especially more these last few months because his Motorola Q9 has been on the fritz. While in Best Buy, he asked them if his phone was ready to be upgraded. They came up with a date of October 9th and told him he couldn't have an upgrade (iPhone) until then. He was a little confused as to why he couldn't upgrade slightly early, but didn't push the issue. This is the day I met netbooks. Jon and I had been discussing schedules and we determined the only solution would be him doing his thing and me having to work my schedule to accommodate. This means, I would need something to entertain myself/something productive to do. Enter Samsung netbook, which initially caught my eye. I guess I'm just partial to Samsung after the last 2 phones I've had have really performed well for me.

Blah blah blah....I did a lot, a lot, a lot of research and determined that I wanted one. Badly. I read the reviews, I felt ready to make the purchase and upgrade (downgrade?) my life. We go into town. I go into Best Buy and investigate one more time. I'm ready. The salespeople get me my magic box after I ask a few questions and then I'm ready to check out. I should point out that one of the questions I asked was if Windows 7 Starter was the watered down version of Windows 7 Home Edition. The answer I got was "no". I start to check out and I am told that Word and Excel are only trial versions on my netbook, so I'm going to need to pay $100 to get the real versions. Say WHAT!??! I am also told that if I buy the real version today, it will be $50 cheaper than it usually costs to buy it. I figure, "Fine. Let's do this, but I definitely won't open it until I know for sure." I buy my items after feeling a little rushed and after adding a case, for my netbook Jon and I are out the door. He decides to stop by AT&T and see if he can get his iPhone yet. He leaves me in the car to play with my new toy and he goes in. 10 minutes later, I figure out that he's not just talking about the weather to an associate. He comes back out with his new iPhone and is as giddy as can be.

I don't remember when I figured it out, but I did learn that Windows 7 Starter IS a watered down version of Windows 7 (Ummm...I can't even change my desktop picture!!! I'm pretty sure you've been able to do that since Windows 95!!!!!!!!!!) and when I opened up Excel for the first time, I was specifically informed that it was NOT a trial version, but it did have ads and stuff on it. That upset me pretty greatly because I basically just paid $100 for PowerPoint....for a NETbook that has a miniscule amount of storage space...NOT cool. I go to return and after several people basically call me a liar to my face, they take the stupid $100 access code card back (Most netbooks don't have CD drives, so I was literally returning a piece of cardboard with some numbers on it...wow...).

Now, I still would have gotten my netbook if I had known that Windows 7 Starter is a watered down version of the Home edition and that Word and Excel were going to have ads on them. The point is, I specifically asked POINT BLANK and was basically lied to because they didn't really know. If you don't really know, tell me you'll look into that or that all netbooks are different, but don't lie to me. Or even put yourself in a position to POTENTIALLY lie to me. Not a fan. Oh, and thanks for smoking crack and telling my husband that he had to wait another month before he could get his phone. Shame on you, Best Buy. Shame.

Also, I was going to add pictures of our new toys, but I don't seem to have those pictures on the computer. Shame again! Argh!

-Mrs. Kreilaus

Wild Wedding (Anniversary) Weekend

Let's dive in, shall we?


Thursday: I made an appointment at Mazda to get Layla a 100,000 mile tuneup since we were going to Edmond for Shelby's wedding reception over the weekend. I dropped it off over during my lunch break and after a painful hour of explaining exactly what Jon and I wanted done, I came back to work. The courtesy shuttle guy (Nicknamed "Pops"....) that brought me back informed me that his last run of the day was going to be 3:30, so he'd have to pick me up them, along with another girl near the mall (right by where I work). That's neat because the guy I talked to at Mazda about getting my car done had just told me he would "try" to get it done by close (6:00), to which I replied that he'd better because that's our only car....This is also the week that my coworker and I are changing up our schedules a bit and having me close on Fridays so she can have a day off. This means I've had to really be keeping a close eye on my times and coordinating with my husband's class schedule. ANYWAY, I'm back at work and 3:30 is approaching. I haven't received a call about the shuttle coming yet. 3:30 is here. No shuttle, no phone call. 3:35 rolls around...I call Mazda. They inform me that they are nearly done and they would have "Pops" come get me and put me on the phone with him. I told him that I just thought he said he was going to have to pick me up at 3:30, but if he doesn't have to, I can wait. He mentions that he was just in the area picking up another woman and wishes he would have known to pick me up, too. .....?!?!..... Whatever...he picks me up (I'm just glad he remembered where he dropped me off at this point...) and takes me back to the dealership. Layla has been making a weird noise that my husband thought was the alternator and I told them to check it out for me. After paying them A LOT of money, they inform me that the noise is from the idler pulley and give me a quote for $130 for parts and labor. Ummm....no. Jon and I decide to check with O'Reilly's on the way home to see if they have the part and how much it is. Try $20. We get it and decide to put it in later (it's late). After I got my car back, I needed to go by my insurance company and change up some paperwork since I recently changed my car title. I walk in and wait about 15 minutes before anyone can even talk to me (which was fine...I was a walk-in...). Finally, I go in and start to tell the lady all the information that needed to change and she learns that the internet site she usually uses to make changes is down. So, she calls the phone number and gets a busy signal. Fabulous. She fills out a paper form for the most important changes, but she won't be able to do all of them. I get her business card and am told to call her the next day. Back to work. After spending so much money at the dealership and after hours of searching the internet for fun things to do in OKC (and coming up lacking...) and after hearing that my brother was going to my mom's (meaning his recently dog-attacked dog would be there - so I couldn't leave our dog-attacked dog there...ALSO that the one other person I know in the OKC area wouldn't be home while we were there...), I decided that our fun stay-overnight trip should just be reduced to going to the reception and then home.


Friday: I get to work around 9am and am prepared to work a 10.5 hour day to makeup for Thursdays lack of time due to the car. Oh, and I will be all by my lonesome. A little before 10am, when we OPEN, a gaggle of people starts to trickle in the side door. They ask where the meeting is being held. Ummm...what meeting??? I look on both our paper calendar and our Outlook calendar and we don't have a group coming in today. Luckily, after our store manager and I put some tables up for them and straighten some chairs and the kitchen, they have their shindig. Whew...that was a close one. After they finished their meeting, the main person came over and we put the rest of their dates on the calendar. After that, it was a painfully slow day. Then we hit the time when students were about to come in. A teacher that usually doesn't come to South was starting again with a new student. The teacher was not there 10 minutes before the lesson (like they all are supposed to be), but neither was the student, so I didn't start to panic yet. Then the student showed up 3 minutes before the lesson and the teacher was still not there. So I called the teacher. No answer. GREAT. I get to try to explain all of this to a student and parent who hardly speak English. I let them know the teacher isn't there yet and may have forgotten that the student started today. Finally the teacher calls me back and comes in 10 minutes late for the lesson...with a couple of siblings. After this, a student shows up before a teacher again, so I call to make sure the teacher is coming. "Ummm...no? I told Kim that I would be gone today and tomorrow." Actually, it was me who began this conversation with this teacher and it never was finished. I was only told the teacher would be gone Saturday. I then get to inform another student that their teacher won't be here. I have a sub ready by luck, but the student chooses not to have the sub upon hearing who it is. Strange, he's never had a sub at all, why would he not want a particular sub? This leads me to believe that this teacher is bad-mouthing another one of our teachers. Charming thought, but I don't have time to research this any further. The not coming teacher has another student after this one that hasn't been showing and is actually cancelled after today's lesson. I get another teacher ready to sub, but inform that teacher that this student probably won't show. Well, guess who shows up! Yep...another awesome miracle today. After a STELLAR day, Jon and I get home and he begins to switch out the idler pulley. He comes to bed at about 1:30 am, frustrated that he can't get the serpentine belt back on. Without the belt on, the car cannot be started. We go to sleep and plan to wake up relatively early to get the belt on and to head to OKC. ...


Saturday: I have help from a couple of furry creatures waking up pretty early and decide to take the dogs to a dog wash before we head to OKC. This will A) clean them...they haven't had a bath in months and B) hopefully tire them out so they aren't bouncing off the walls while we are gone. My mother-in-law and I take the dogs and do that with a few other errands. On the way home, we swing by O'Reilly's and pick up a tool to help put the serpentine belt back on. After several hours and numerous unsuccessful attempts, it was determined that the tool was not useful and it couldn't be done with the means that we had. So...

Layla had her first tow truck ride. It was sad, but I imagine it would be 1000000 times worse if she were wrecked. This was at 3pm and I had been planning on leaving at 4pm to make it to Shelby's reception early (It was listed as going from 7 to 9). She was only being towed about 30 minutes away to Jon's family mechanic, so I was still hopeful that he had a special tool and would just pop the silly belt on and we could pick her up 30 minutes after that...Well, that didn't happen. Our mechanic was supposed to call when the car got there and we still hadn't heard from him by 5:30. We tried to call him, but he didn't answer. Around 6 or so, we finally heard back from him and he hadn't gotten the belt back on yet either. He even took the wheel off, the wheel well, and dropped the engine a little and was STILL having issues. This was where I started crying. I feel like I've been such a flake to my friends and family because I am constantly telling people that I can't do this or that because of financial difficulties. I finally decided that I can't do that anymore because I will miss out on all of these monumental events and will never be able to make up for them. Then, it seems after a horrible past few days, I wouldn't even be able to attend my best friend's little sister's wedding reception...and I had already missed the wedding. Jon's parents offered us their car, but we were really skeptical about taking it because if anything happened to it, we COULD NOT afford to fix it. Eventually my emotions won and we decided to take the Taurus (I really don't like taking cars on long trips without a tuneup first). However, as we were going to leave, we realized that we had left the PikePass in the Mazda and we don't carry cash. Also, the Taurus only had 1/4 tank of gas. So, we knew we had a couple of stops to make as it was. Now, we thought we were clever because when I rented the tool from O'Reilly's, the guy told me to enter in my PIN number for my debit card and they would be able to give me cash back when we brought it back. So, we thought we would stop at Shell for gas in the car and foods to hold us over until we got to the finger food/candy bar reception and then stop at O'Reilly's to A) Return the tool and B) Get cash for the turnpikeS. So simple, right? Well, at Shell we were reminded that the Taurus has a sensor problem and doesn't like gas to be put into the car. The pump clicks off after about 0.82 seconds of pumping. Alrighty...I'll battle you, Taurus. I forced down as much as it would take and decided it was really full when on the final pump, it spit gas on my hand. Point taken, Taurus. Jon soon returns from getting food inside and we head to O'Reilly's. Jon runs in and only returns with a receipt and my card that made the original transaction...no cash. Awesome. So now we have to stop at QT to hit an ATM and get one of those stupid fees because it's not one of our banks' ATMs. GRRRR. Jon runs into QT and comes out with a $20 bill. I inform him that we should probably get change in case there were "coins-only" toll plazas. He goes back in and has to buy something before they will give us change. Finally, now we are ready to hit the road. It's 7pm. The reception has now started. We hurry hurry hurry (but not overly speeding because we didn't want to break the Taurus!) and after following the directions to the T, going through 3 toll plazas (one of which was "coins-only"...), and learning at about 8pm that our car was finished, we end up on a long road that for some reason has about 10 semi trucks lined up on it, blocking our view of the side of the road we are supposed to be looking on and blocking many of the turn-ins we may need. After spending 10 - 15 minutes trying to figure out that maze, we arrive at the reception...at 8:45....15 minutes before it was supposed to be over. I walk in right as Shelby and Thomas are cutting cake and feeding each other. After this, the weekend took a turn for the better. We celebrated there for about 30 minutes - 1 hour and then were invited over to Thomas and Shelby's afterward. There, we get to watch standup comedians (one was mediocre, one was hilarious...just like Shelby said :D) and hold Beckham (Lyndsey's nearly 4 month old son), seeing as he had been whisked away during the reception to try to induce...umm...some..."movement" that he hadn't made in the past 3 days. After that, we said our goodbyes at about midnight, came home a different FREE way (When did tolls get THAT expensive?!?!?! INSANE!!!) that I knew all too well and I got Subway at 1am from a truck stop. We were home by 2:30 and slept like babies. YAY!


Sunday: Today is our actual wedding anniversary, so we wanted to celebrate. We began by sleeping in (words cannot EXPRESS how much of a gift this is!!!!!) and then slowly waking up with no plans in stone yet. Jon's parents went to church and returned around noon or noon-thirty, about when Jon got up. We were eating when they got home, so they decided to go out to eat. It was decided that Jon would go with them and pick the car up. After they left, I still felt pretty tired, so I decided to try to go back to bed. When I was asleep, Jon sent me a text message: "I appareantly picked up an extra passenger, and had to turn around and take him back... I am on my way home now," complete with picture:

Interesting.... I go back to sleep. Jon gets home and gives me some bad news from our mechanic - He let Jon listen and the alternator is starting to go out. So, we'll have to keep an eye on that as well. Whatever...I can't deal with this today, let's deal with this later... Moving on...We decide to go to Fox and Hound for food before we went to see "Inception." I wasn't impressed when I saw previews, but we did keep hearing rave reviews and it was the best drama/suspense/action in theaters now. Food was good, but service was mediocre and then we were on to the show. Probably could have done without seeing one of Jon's exes who now works there, but we're adults, so it happens....whatever. (Plus it kinda helped to see her about 6 months pregnant and lacking a shiny ring on her hand...I'm terrible...I know...:roll:) In the theater, Jon and I recommitted ourselves to hating the general public because of the family that sat down behind us after we were there first. First thing I heard from them, "Hey, ___...is that a beef jerky in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" to which the reply was, "It's always just a beef jerky, DAD, because I'm never happy to see you!" Umm... the kid was literally like 12. Parents of the Year. And I personally had to keep myself for jumping down the mom's throat who kept complaining about there being no leg room like Jon and I customized those chairs to lean back further than all the other chairs in the IMAX. ?!?! Whatever...anyway....Jon really liked the movie, but I felt like there were a lot of loose ends/fallacies throughout. Either way, it was good to have seen it, so now we can be part of people's conversations. Pretty good day.


Monday: Labor Day! I vacuumed out Mary's car and built a new corgi, while Jon washed doggy nose prints off the windows. We hung out at the house all day and made a brief exit for pizza and ice cream. Getting back to normal. This extended weekend has been eventful and I wanted to document it and also be able to direct everyone to it so I don't have to tell the story over and over.


THE END ...And if you made it this far, you must really want to know all about us. Thanks!

-Mrs. Kreilaus