6/27/2008 2:42:01 PM
6/18/2008 7:20:39 PM
Dear Tamesha White,
Saturday night/Sunday morning, I was pulled over by an officer in the lovely city of Ladue. The officer took my information and went back to his car to run it through his system. When he came back one of the first things he said was, "Do you know a Tamesha White?" Well, no I don't, but guess what! When my license plates are ran YOUR name comes up with a warrant! This really freaked me out for many reasons, but the officer said it was probably just a typo or something and to call the St. Louis County police to have them correct it.
Well Ms. White, after leaving my father's house the following day I happened to approach my car from its front. It was there that I noticed I HAD NO LICENSE PLATE! The one on the back was still there, but the front plate was gone. Linking these two occurrences together could only lead to one thing. YOU (or a friend) stole my plate, attached it to your own car, proceeded to drive around like a maniac, and got pulled over and ticketed with only my plate NOT YOURS to put in the record.
Two things go through my mind. One, did you think that I would never notice it (or get pulled over myself) and not report that it was stolen? You moron. The police at least know to put your name somewhere on the report when they pull you over, they don't just write down the plate and call it a day. Secondly, how long ago did you freaking steal it??? How long does it take for someone to steal a license plate, smack it on their own car, and get pulled over for a violation? I have no idea. And no, I can't remember the last time I actually saw the plate on my car. A week ago maybe? Two weeks? Just ask yourself... how long ago have you checked out the front of your car? At home I park in front of the garage so I don't walk in front of the car. At work I park facing a cement wall. In most public parking lots I park facing inward (I don't have time to waste on backing into spots) so I usually approach the car from the back end. It's nearly impossible for me to remember the last time I saw it.
But don't worry Ms. White, I went ahead and filed a report so if you ever show up for court maybe they'll tack theft or something onto the list. Really I don't even care about retribution, I just wish I had my license plate back. It's the only one I've had and I love it because it sounds like a radio station. That's so easy to remember! So now tomorrow I have to go back to the DOR (don't even get me started on that one!) and get new, unfriendly plates that don't sound like anything cool. Thanks a lot Tamesha!
So to any petty criminals out there who might be reading this. Please keep your grubby hands off of my stuff and keep your trouble to yourself!
Thanks,
Katie
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6/8/2008 11:05:32 PM
5/19/2008 7:11:32 PM
5/9/2008 6:19:53 PM
I'd stimulate it if I could...
Yesterday Danny and I had President Truman to thank for a paid vacation day. I've never heard of anyone celebrating his birthday, but I'll take it.
After hitting up Racanelli's and Jilly's Cupcake Bar* we headed back to his place for some major disappointment. I was expecting to stimulate the economy sometime this week, but it turns out that I might have to wait a month for a stupid paper check. Since we both used TurboTax and did direct debit rather than printing/mailing the form to the IRS for direct deposit, we have to wait for the checks. According to the schedule I shouldn't get mine until the middle of June, which is a month longer than I expected. Sure, it's kind of like free, unexpected money, but I was still counting on it.
Anywho, my serious lack of funds lately has greatly influenced my apartment hunt. Our lease ends June 30th and I've been stressed out since early April trying to find the best place to live. Danny has to live all the way in Florissant so I was hoping to move somewhere central like U City or Clayton, but everything is either too expensive or available too early thanks to the high density of college students. In the end, I decided to rent from my dad in South City. Yes, it's the opposite end of the city from Danny, but I'll be closer to work and most of our drive to see each other will be straight highway, no hwy 40 either, so it actually shouldn't take much longer than it does from my current house in Kirkwood. At least according to Google maps.
The plus side of renting from my dad is that I won't have to sign a lease, so I can move at a later time when I haven't been stressed to the point where my eye is twitching for weeks on end (I think we're looking at week three here). Also, I just really like the apartments. Dad owns a couple of four-family flats and he has rehabbed both of them. Both buildings still have the original fireplace/mantle/mirror setup so those look really nice even though the fireplaces haven't been in use for decades. He has redone the hardwood floors to gleaming perfection, and he pays a lot of attention to detail such as keeping the original molding and pocket doors. Plus, the bathroom has a claw-foot tub which is definitely my style. The current tenant in my future unit should be moving by the end of this month I believe, so unless she changes her mind and stays, this will be where I'm headed.
I can't believe I'm going to be living completely on my own for the first time in my life. It's going to be very, very strange.
*Ok, if you haven't been to Jilly's Cupcake Bar at Delmar and 170, you really need to check it out. The cupcakes are huge (I had to take half of mine home with me) and they have a bunch of tasty, creative combinations. Danny had a lemon/raspberry cupcake with raspberry filling and buttercream frosting flavored with either raspberry or lemon or both. I had one called "Jilly's on the Beach" which was vanilla cake, key lime custard filling, and mango buttercream frosting. Simply amazing. Go check it out!
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3/31/2008 10:17:05 PM
Sweet sebaceous gland! What's that under your arm!?
So, I really did want to write up a recap of events from Austin, but now the moment has passed and I just don't feel up to it. I do want to share the title of that post though. It was going to be, SXSW: Festival of Beards and Boots. That pretty much sums up the general look that all the "hipsters" were shooting for. All the dudes had scraggly beards and all the girls were wearing some sort of boot. It didn't matter what the rest of their outfit looked like, as long as you were wearing a boot you were automatically one of the cool kids, therefore, I was not. But I'm ok with that because I don't think St. Louis could handle me in cowboy boots.
This weekend was pretty good. I went to the Way Out Club with my sister to see her friend's band play and by the end of the night the passenger side of my car (inside AND out) was covered in puke. That wasn't really a highlight of the night, but at least now I have a "That Time Someone Puked In My Car" story.
Saturday was probably the best because I had a baby shower to attend at 1pm and a bachelorette party that started later that evening around dinner time. And no, they were not for the same woman. :) My friends mother-in-law went all out for the baby shower with a full on tea party theme. There were dainty, crustless sammiches, English style cookies, fancy china, and any kind of tea you could imagine. I spoke with an aunt of hers who told me about how she delivered via home birth and how her doctor was great because he had fingers like forceps. Both her daughter (the one delivered by Dr. Forceps) and I cringed at that one. A little graphic, but interesting and informative nonetheless.
That night I spent entirely too much money, but all of us girls had a nice drunken time. We met up at the hotel room that some of them had booked downtown for pre-drinking and then headed to the Landing. I wasn't expecting much from this choice, but I was pleasantly surprised. We went to Morgan Street Brewery and we all had a really good time dancing, drinking, and rescuing each other from sleazy guys that would creep up behind us and start dancing. It's a little gross when they come up behind you like that, but at least that way the guy can't see my face when I grab the arm of my nearest friend and mouth, "HELP ME!" which is that friend's cue to cut in as if they all couldn't dance without my presence. It's a nice little system.
Today I called in sick because I was planning on being productive and getting stuff done so that I could renew my plates, but that plan fell to shambles after my car didn't pass inspection. I hate my car and just want it to go away and be magically replaced by a car that was made after 2000. Besides that, I really do have an annoying health issue right now that has gotten worse over the weekend, so I was able to make a doctors appointment for Wednesday. I've got some crazy cyst/clogged sebaceous gland under my arm that is swelling at a rapid pace. Luckily I already have a dermatologist and luckily he happened to have an opening this week. The next available date was in May! I'm going to be glad to get this taken care of, but I am not excited about crying in front of a 50-something year-old man, because I can guarantee you that I'll start crying the second I see a needle. That's just how I roll.
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3/17/2008 8:57:28 PM
3/10/2008 7:24:54 PM
Bye bye Griffin
I know it's already been over a week since this happened, but I felt like I couldn't get back to writing anything normal until I mention the sad events of this year's Leap Year. I was at work, waiting for the weekend to begin when I got a call from my roommate saying that Griffin had gotten out of the yard again. My first reaction was to sigh in mock annoyance because this would be the third or fourth time that he's done that. But then everything changed when she said, "No, it's worse than that."
My poor, sweet puppy was hit by a car... right in front of my house. We live on a fairly busy street in Kirkwood that a lot of people use instead of taking N. Kirkwood Rd. to bypass the downtown area, so of course there were a lot of people out and about at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon. When Julie and Kristen walked across the street towards the crowd that had already grown around him they talked to a neighbor guy who was watching over him, the lady who hit him (and thankfully was kind enough to stop even though there was nothing she could do) and a neighbor family whose little girl saw the whole thing happen. They took him to the Webster Groves Animal Hospital and that's where I met them.
Ugh, it was just really, really sad. He seemed okay thanks to the effects of shock and good pain killers, but his back legs were broken, his spleen and bladder were ruptured, and he had a massive blood clot developing in his stomach area. After talking to the vet and looking over the x-rays I went home for a bit to calm down (I had been bawling nearly the whole time I was there) so that I could decide what to do. Unfortunately, I came to the conclusion that it would be best to put him to sleep. Seriously, it was one of the hardest decisions I've had to make in my whole life.
I always knew that someday I'd have a pet that would have to be put down, but I always assumed that that would be in a case where the dog was old and ready to go. It seemed incredibly wrong to be in a position where you put a young, vibrant animal to death. The whole ordeal has made me feel terrible. I know he was in a lot of pain and would have had to go through a lot of surgeries that didn't come with any guarantees, but I still wonder if I did the right thing. Now I have the bitter feeling that in order to be a truly responsible pet owner you need to have at least ten thousand dollars lying around in case of emergencies, but I know I'm not the only one out there that doesn't have that option.
So, after I had calmed down I went back up to the hospital to sign all the papers and say goodbye. Thank God Danny was with me because I don't know if I could have handled that on my own. I knew I couldn't bear to be there when they actually put him to sleep, but I did want to go back there one more time to pat his head and give him a kiss. I was selfishly relieved that they had him on so many pain killers because if I saw him writhing in pain I think I would have lost it. That wasn't a worry though because the most the poor guy was able to do was sleepily open up his eyes and lift his head a little bit to look at me. I stayed there with him for a little bit just talking to him and watching him breathe before I felt that it was time to go. It still breaks my heart (and makes me cry even as I type this) to remember how when I walked away I looked back at him and I saw him watching me leave. But even then he closed his eyes again, as if he was either too exhausted to keep his eyes open or resigned to the fact that his time was up.
I got a card today in the mail from the vet at WGAH who took care of him and I thought that was really sweet. Even though my last visit there was for the worst reason possible, I can at least take comfort knowing that they did a really great job. I definitely plan on making a donation to them and maybe also to the Humane Society where I bought him.
Someday I'll get another dog, but it probably won't be for a while.
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