A Spectrum

That's what was advertised on a blog with this first video, ya, I totally cried. However, the little girl didn't win. The second video is the guy who did win. He was a cell phone store employee and he could sing like this. Wow.

Technically, I am stealing the title to Trisha's novel but it plays here too. Tom, myself, Kyle, and Trisha went to Six Flags yesterday. We had a blast. There were a lot of people there, the waits on the roller coasters were not really too bad, but the waterpark was jam packed with people. Next time it's the middle of the week for us.

6:30 am. I roll out of bed with a sore throat because it was the first night we had the air conditioning on.

6:45 am. I successfully rouse Kyle, no easy feat mind you.

7 am. We leave. I forget my flip flops.

8 am. We pick up Trisha. Her sister is MIA and we hope not kidnapped or worse.

8:15 am. We get McDonalds. Tom whines that I made him wait so long to eat.

9:15 am. I am whining to use a restroom. Tom reminds me how I made him wait.

9:30 am. We stop at Dunkin Doughnuts. There's no soap and the hand dryer is possessed.

9:45 am. Libertyville is having a parade. Our way is blocked. We spend the next 20-30 mins trying to find our way through the maze that is Libertyville. We hate Libertyville. They have floating balloons in their parade. We wish the balloon handlers would maneuver their balloon into live power wires. We try to scare the horses. We spot Abe Lincoln.

10 am. The park opens.

10:15 am. We arrive at the park and are greeted with 7 lanes of people waiting to get in. Tom gets in the fastest lane. Go Tom. Tom moves out of the fastest lane. I whine that we're not in the fastest lane anymore. Tom gets annoyed with me. The security people stand helplessly. What use are they? Trisha's sister calls, she is not kidnapped.

10:30 am. We park, load up on sunscreen, and head toward the gate forgetting to look where we parked.

10:40 am. Kyle gets in line to buy a ticket. The rest of us get in the security lines to enter. Kyle magically appears in the park before us. He tells us he hopes to puke or maybe it was to see someone puke at some point. We laugh at his jest. We ooh and ahh over the sheer number of dippin dots stands.

11:30 am. We are on Superman: The Ride. The assent upwards is suprisingly fast. I have been on this ride before. The first loop you do is head first and is very disorienting. Tom is on the edge of the car. This is Trisha's favorite ride. This is Kyle's first roller coaster in a very long time. Here follows our dialog.

Lauren screaming: "I know what's happening. I know what's happening. It's head first. It's head first."

Tom violently leaning towards the center and screaming: "Woah, those poles are close!! Did you see that one?!?"

Kyle screaming obnoxiously: "AHHHHHH" "Whoahhhhhh" "Geeeeeeeez" "AHHHHHHH"

Trisha: Laughing so hard at all of us, she's crying.

Around Noon: We eat in a wonderfully air-conditioned expensive restaurant. Kyle loads up on wetnaps.

After Lunch: We decide to go on Raging Bull thinking it will be a long wait and our food will have time to digest. Within 15 mins, we are on Raging Bull. "Kyle, you might get to see someone puke now." The ride ascends, and ascends, and ascends, and ascends, and ascends...then pure joy, for this is my absolute favorite ride. Trisha and Tom are trying not to think of their stomachs and Kyle is acting out some bizarre fighter pilot scene only he can see. We exit the ride and find our picture. All of us are smiling except Kyle who is wide eyed and furiously clenching his teeth.

Next: We head to Batman. The wait is long because only one car is running. We have time to digest and let our stomachs settle. I keep my eyes closed and my head back during the ride and actually enjoy it this time. Most times I don't like Batman. Kyle observes aftwards how the rest of us look jostled a bit.

Around 3 pm. We change into our swimsuits. We realize we don't know where we parked and that I forgot my flip flops. We enter the filled to capacity hurricane harbor. We deposit our stuff on a beach chair. We get in line for the tornado. We decide against all four going at once and opt for two and two. We wait forever. We get our tubes. We watch others ride and decide our two and two plan is the best way not to flip over. We wait forever again. We get to the top. Trisha and I get on our tube. I end up going backwards the entire ride. We shoot down the slide into the vortex, go up one side until we are practially perpindicular to the ground, then shoot to the other side, then back and forth until we shoot out the end and I bail off like no other. What a fun ride but probably not worth all that waiting. Tom ends up going backwards the whole way too.

Next: We head for the lazy river, significantly short wait. We link our tubes together and enjoy the slowness. Tom pushes me into every waterfall, water jet possible. Kyle scrapes both his big toes on the ground and they bleed after. My tube is partially deflated and I keep sinking into it so it's just my head, arms, calves, and feet sticking out. I love that the lazy river is so long.

Next: We head for the water slides that look like flushing toilet bowls at the end. We again wait forever. Tom and I get on our tube. I am in front. We shoot down into the darkness then out into the bowl part. We spin and spin and spin around the bowl at least five times, manuver ourselves so we don't go out backwards. We hit the pool at the end. The tube buckles underneath me and I go down in a flurry of limbs. I feel one of Tom's legs barely scrape over the top of my head as he goes under too. We watch Trisha shoot out. Her tube performs a similar buckling manuver. We get yelled at by the life guard to move. We watch Kyle shoot out and gracefully glide in his tube across the pool.

Next: We head for the wave pool. We let ourselves get beaten by the waves for 15 minutes or so. Then decide that we're spent and thristy. We get Dippin Dots from the one stand out of a 1000 that is out of everything except large cups. I keep spilling mine and Tom's all over the table, myself.

Between 5 and 6: We leave the park. Trisha and I sleep the whole way back to DeKalb.

Around 8: We see Trisha's aparment/storage unit of others, change out of our swimsuits and decide after much deliberation to eat at Applebee's. We eat and relive the day's events.

9:30 pm. We leave DeKalb. Tom is tired but makes it to Rochelle, then I have to drive.

10:30 pm. We arrive back home. Tom goes to sleep. Kyle and I watch the last disk of Firefly until 2 am. Then we crash.

Please enjoy this Underdog cartoon. I especially like the part where it says "No smoking on the premises" and yet two of the characters are smoking.

Tom gave me a Nintendo Wii for our anniversary. I am never going to get any work done. (Insert Evil laugh here). Oh well.

Ah, the good old U.S.A. the world's melting pot. However, my melting pot is of a different kind. It's the fabulous fondue restaurant called The Melting Pot. Tom and I and Eric and Corryn dined there on Saturday to celebrate new jobs, new house and the like. I have been wanting to go there forever. It was amazing. The fondue pot was right at our booth and they sometimes made the fondue in front of us and sometimes brought it out. We went all out and got their "Big Night Out." We had a Cheddar cheese fondue as an appetizer with bread, veggies, apples to dip. Then our entree was lobster, two kinds of steak, shrimp, chicken, pot stickers and veggies that we cooked in a Caribbean spiced fondue plus like five different sauces. Then, of course, the piece de resistance, the dessert fondue which was white and milk chocolate mixed with a streak of Carmel. It was heavenly. Plus they gave us strawberries, bananas, pineapple, pound cake, cheesecake, and these awesome Oreo and graham cracker covered marshmallows to dip in it. Oh, wow, it was all soooo good. We spent two hours just eating. ;) And then two hours letting it digest while we watched Ocean's Thirteen at the AMC 30. I swear where we were sitting was like twice as tall as our house. It was insane. What a great night out!!

Today my job took me to Galena. What a beautiful drive. It doesn't really seem like you are in Illinois up there. Mounds (no mountians), hills, rough terrain, valleys. It's called the Driftless Zone, an area that last glaciation didn't touch. Blame the huge continental glaciers for making the rest of Illinois so freaking flat. It's also crazy that the Galena river used to be home to several 30 ft wide steamboats when today the river is barely 20 ft wide. Back in the day it was 350 ft wide. You can still see the large floodplain that's now grassy areas with paths and benches. Crazy. However, I got a whole work day to drive through the country eat lunch at Vinny's courtesy of work and get paid for doing it. ;)

Well, last week was crazy fun but I am sure glad it's over. Memorial Day weekend we were all over the place and then every night last week we drove 1.25 hours to rehearsal for Choral Dynamics and back again, then Fri, Sat, and Sun performances. I had a blast though. Wish I could do it again. We'll see if I am up to the craziness again.

Work is good. I had like 5 visits from law enforcement type people this afternoon and so got nothing done. I do have two interns to boss around though. (Insert evil laugh here). Thankfully, I get along real well with the one I have to share my office with . The other one is significantly older than us, seemingly a real nice guy, but a terrible communicator. Half the time I don't know what he is talking about or referring to, usually I can catch on to what people are trying to say, but not this fella. Plus, he mumbles. Great, that really helps with the communication.

What would the end of Lost be without a Lost party? Complete with my Darma Intiative Chili (again from last year) and, now serving, Darma Intiative marshmallows. We drove out to DeKalb to watch with fellow Losties. Loads of fun.

Here's some cool "Easter Eggs" and other info from the Finale, Through the Looking Glass.

Charlie is DEAD. He didn't swim out the porthole, although I think he could have.

The funeral parlor Jack visits, Hoffs/Drawlar, is actually an anagram of Flash Forward, sneaky. (Sorry, I typed Fast the first time). I loved that it was a flash forward instead of a flashback and that I figured it out just before it was revealed.



The newpaper clipping clearly indicates a MAN died. The name is hard to make out. J----- ---antham. Not a LOST name that we know of.



The looking glass station's symbol is a white rabbit, referencing Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.



And for those of you who missed it two weeks ago in The Man behind the Curtain (referencing The Wizard of Oz), here is a screen capture of invisible man, Jacob. The rumor is if you put your hand over his hair, his profile looks like John Locke.



Feburary 2008, that's how long we have to wait for the next episode. Geesh!!!!

I am so excited. After two years of missing it, I am going back to Cornersone!!! I will finally get to see Switchfoot and Trisha will finally get to experience it. I counted and even with missing two years, this will be my 9th year at Cstone. It's going to be great!!!

Random Cornerstone memories include:
Seeing a replica of the Mystery Machine van from Scooby Doo. In fact, I just saw one not too long ago in my new hometown. Bizarre.
Kids leapfrogging down a muddy hill.
Five Iron Frenzy.
The halfpipe.
Running into Jordan and Seth, friends from DeKalb, randomly at the main stage. Well, at the time I didn't really know Seth, but now I do.
Running into Jason and Barry from our High School when P.O.D. was playing late at night at the main stage with over 10,000 people, probably more.
Playing 20 questions in a tent out of the rain with random people.
Watching fireworks.
Hearing over 10,000 people eerily quiet during the P.O.D. concert when someone got hurt.
Not having to camp ever.
Stupid boyfriend Tom with a curfew making me leave early from a Five Iron show.

And finally, as tradition dictates, everyone wave to the Bushnell sign.

My brother graduates this weekend from SIU so it's road trip time to Carbondale. Plus, my college roommate Kim lives down there so my other roommate Trisha is coming with us and we all get to hang out again. Let's just say the last time the three of us were on a road trip, someone tried to stick half her body out my sunroof as we were passing a state police officer, I spilled Cherry Coke in Target, I tried to take a picture while driving of my car passing 100,000 and we have video documentation of all of this. Scary things could happen this weekend...

We spent an obscene amount of money today, however, not as obscene as I had prepared myself for and we actually came away with more than I thought we would get. When I say we, I mean Tom. He bought a huge toolbox today for work. If you would like to get an idea of what these things cost, here is a toolbox similar to what we bought. It is black however, with a nice stainless steel top. Yet we were lucky enough to buy it used (It's in GREAT condition though) and for considerably less than that price. Plus, a lot of tools to go in the nice toolbox. And I got to spend 3 hours looking at tools and toolboxes. What fun!

They promised new content in this fancy Pirate player and they finally delivered. Hence, it's back on top.

When you hear me talk about my job, it doesn't sound that fun, but I really do enjoy it. It's a little crazy, but at least I'm not bored. That has to be the worst thing. Tom is bored at his job and none to happy about it. Hopefully, it will pick up soon. Yet, next week will tell the true tale of my job. It's tax bill time. Yipee... angry citizens.. well at least I can shut my door. Apparently, I will also be getting interns soon. That should be interesting since one of them is supposed to share my small office with me. Hmm, I might have to retract this post soon...

Great little video combining Lost and Firefly. They even throw in music from Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean. I wish I was that creative.

My boss is on vacation all this week, but forgot to tell me. Plus, someone just put in a big order for maps and I don't know how to charge them. Lovely...

This afternoon I am watching TV, I switch channels, the TV becomes silent and I hear.. music. It almost sounds like a cell phone ringing in another room except it's not anything that plays on our cell phones. It sounds circusy. Oh, wait, maybe it's outside, who would be playing that in their vehicle? I go to the window. I look outside. "Oh, my gosh!!! TOM!!!!!!! There's an ice cream truck outside on our street!!"

Ha, I live in a town with an ice cream truck. I could have cried, well, not really, but I was super excited. However, said spouse, shot down my giddiness by insisting we didn't need ice cream. Man...it was probably just as well. The driver would have probably thought I was insane, not to mention the neighbors. Way to save the rep honey. Ha, like that matters once they've met me anyway.

Geesh, you make two maps for the State's Attorney and you find out you will probably get subpoenaed for a trial. Like they need my "expert opinion." Ahhhh....

Another fun job task I got to do recently was order business cards. I am not really sure what I am going to do with 500 of them, but I got to pick out fun paper and ink colors. (wink, wink). Ok, maybe that's not all that exciting but it did allow me to walk outside on a gorgeous day. Yipee. On the embarrassing side, I almost took a head dive into the concrete this morning as I was getting out of my car. That was fun. Thankfully, no one was around to witness that. Stupid cuffed pants. This is seriously like the 3rd time I have tripped/fallen in these pants. One rather memorable fall occur ed outside Trisha's apartment in the parking lot. My heel got caught in the cuff and down I went, all my limbs flailing about. Ya, Trisha and Tom got to watch that lovely action. Lucky them.

Today at a meeting someone actually introduced themselves to me this way, well using their name. I really, really wanted to say "Uh, (insert said person's actual name here), was it? or is it Eric Stratton?" But I wimped out and didn't say it. It is after all only my 2nd week at my new job. He turned out to be a hoot and I think it wouldn't have mattered if I said it. (He did go to SIU after all, crazy Salukis). Plus, he took me and my boss out for lunch afterwards. But it was me and 3 guys and the conversation consisted of guns, shooting birds, shooting trap, and an occaisonal comment about our earlier meeting. Suprisingly, I was rather quiet at lunch.

Let's see, so far at work I have accidentally called other people in my office twice while trying to access my voicemail. One was the sheriff, oops. Darn, I can't think of anything else truely embarrassing I have done yet. My first week was really boring because I didn't have anything to do. Now I have some things to do, but I know there will be a lot more to do once I have been trained on some programs. I have some training next week but I don't know when the rest will be. I did help someone figure out a GIS problem. My first suggestion fixed his issues. Yeah, I helped. I also found out that I can wear jeans on Fridays. I love jeans. Happiness.

Ahh, there's nothing like a fresh boquet of stray shopping carts.