Fortunately, the insurance with Rubbermaid is cheap - unless your container is red.

Ok, so today, I'm supposed to be cleaning house. I can't buh-LIEVE it's 8:30a, and I'm SO totally awake. I hate being awake in the daytime...or at night, for that matter. If they could make a job where sleeping fueled energy, I could fuel my own country.

I was just about to check out the site for the Bham zoo, because there are some ladies there who are doing a book signing for a children's book I heard about on NPR yesterday, in my 5 second drive home. I can't say that I LIKE the zoo, being the animal freak I am, but at least, um, they're not eating the animals. I was going to say at least they're not beating them, but I can't really vouch for that. Then again, I don't know what they did with that zebra that died. &=(

Friggin' great. Something else to lay awake and think about at night.

Ok, so let me tell you all the goodies I got the other day, on my massive shopping spree.

At Worst Buy:

Korn's latest untitled (CD)
Korn - See You on the Other Side (CD)
Spongebob - Friend or Foe? (DVD)
Scratches (computer game)
Belkin N1 Wireless USB Adapter (yay!)

At the B&N:

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl
*already devouring it, and I haven't even made it to the first chapter - that's just the foreward!

Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith - Rob Bell
*really looking forward to reading - it's about how it's ok to question Christianity, as well as everything in life, not to ever accept anything with a grain of salt.

When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals - Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson & Susan McCarthy
*I can already tell I'm going to have a time of it, getting through this one - the cover of the book (two elephants with trunks entwined) makes me teary-eyed.

Dogs I Have Met and the People They Found - Ken Foster
along with The Dogs Who Found Me
*which I've already owned once, but I loaned it to someone and never got it back. This guy does tons of dog rescue, and it's incredibly convicting.

Silent Spring - Rachel Carson
*I've been meaning to pick this up for years, because this was written back in the 60's, not unlike Sinclair's The Jungle, and spurred an incredible environmental movement concerning our air, water and land (eg. the banning of DDT). The environment, being my other love besides animals, is always an interesting read.

I also picked up a couple of books on bartending:

Big Bad-Ass Book of Shots - Paul Knorr
*which is mainly what we can mix at the bar, shot-related drinks, even though we don't have HALF of what they talk about. *sigh*

International Bartender's Guide - Joseph Sora
*this is more cocktail, martini & non-alkie drinks, but I picked it up, because I'd like to take this bar thing a little farther.

The Ultimate A-to-Z Bar Guide - Sharon Tyler Herbst & Ron Herbst
*turns out, this one is a little more explanatory on what crap is, what this means, and just general know-how of overall bartending.

So, that's it. Sure, it may be a little extreme, but it's been a long while, since I've bought anything for myself. Oh man, let me tell you - I went to have dinner with my friend Dwane last night (thank you, Dwane, by the way - the food was awesome, and it was so great to have the first intelligent conversation I've had in weeks - let's go again soon!), and as I was almost home, I got to a stop light, hesitated briefly, then turned right. Out of freaking nowhere, here comes a cop, barrelling down on me, lights flashing and everything. I was about 3 blocks from home. I got all indignant and fussy, when I realized..."ho-ly shit. I forgot to renew my insurance."

Ok, those of you who don't know me and don't want to know, you might want to skip this part. When I get nervous, I get like super-overactive colon and almost immediately, I get diarrhea. I'm NOT kidding you, when I reached that epiphany, I could have filled the car. Disgusting, yes, and I'm sorry.

When he got to the car, I looked like a doe in headlights. I was trying not to betray my recent-found knowledge but failing miserably. In fact, I'm kinda surprised I wasn't screaming it out, as I ran from the car - "DON'T PULL ME OVER!!! I FORGOT TO RENEW MY INSURANCE!!!! JUST TAKE THE CAR AND LEAVE ME BE!!!!"

So, he comes up and we go through the motions:
"You know what you did was illegal, blah, blah, blah,"
"Sure, but not really, I do it all the time, blah, blah, blah."
"You could have caused a serious accident, etc, etc, etc."
"I highly doubt that, being that it's almost 2 in the morning, yadda, yadda, yadda."

Ok, that's not EXACTLY how the convo went, but if it would have, you have to admit, that would have been pretty friggin' cool. &=) I just yessir'd my way out of there, SOMEHOW. He ended up just "warning" me, which I almost had to pull over on the side of the road and puke, after I drove away. I thought, FOR SURE, I was a goner. Because of course, next week, I'm supposed to take my car into Rob-E-Man's for a complete overhaul - brakes, tires, belts, the works.

So, I would have basically had to wire tin cans to the bottom of a cardboard box and pray it didn't rain next week. Well, I guess I could have asked someone to spring for me one of those sweet rubbermaid numbers, and I would have just had to bail water all the way to work.

"Would the owner of the beige Rubbermaid 22 gallon Duratote please come move your vehicle? You're blocking the ambulance bay."