A few days ago at work, I had to call and ask someone on campus a question. The conversation started like this.
"Hello, this is Gabrielle from the Employment Office. How are you today?" I asked.
"I’m drunk."
It was not the answering I was expecting.
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The video quality sucks, but my commentary kinda makes up for it.
Several years ago I started collecting Pez. After I had collected over a one hundred or so, I ran out of space to display them. That is when I started pinning them to the wall. Eventually, they covered the perimeter of my room, and not long after that two of my walls were completely dedicated to Pez. If I hadn’t stopped collecting, every inch of my room would be covered in Pez. I can only imagine what the ants thought when the found my room. They probably screamed, “Jackpot!”
I don’t know how many I have now, but I am pretty sure it’s something like three or four hundred. A few of them are worth some money, but the majority of them are worth less than what I paid. People ask me why I still keep them. I tell them that one day the world will run out of food, and when it does, I’ll be able to survive a few days longer than everyone else. 
I was very nice to the army of invading ants. I didn’t want to kill them, so I got a piece of paper, scooped them all up and took them all outside. It took about four trips. As they all scuried away, I told them not to come back. And so far, they haven’t.
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During our May Week vacation in Xiamen, China, Phil and I went to the Taiwanese Folk Village. If you missed the original post about it - you can go here . There are several pictures of the place, but much like the video I am about to show you, many of them have that wretched cloud in the center. Somehow moisture got into my camera. I did everything to dry it out, but Xiamen’s humidity won.
We really had no idea what the show was about, but since the admission to see it was included in our ticket price, we decided to watch it even though we probably wouldn’t understand anything they said. Phil told me that we shouldn’t sit on the front row because we’d be easy targets and probably get asked to participate in something. I wanted a good view, so we sat on the front row anyway.
A few minutes into the show, a man came over to Phil and asked him to participate - in Chinese of course. They tried to get me to go too, but I wanted to stay behind so that I could record it. I laughed so hard that I had I tears streaming down my face.
I really have no idea what important story they were acting out , or why they had Phil drink three shots of liquor. Phil later said that it reminded him of Everclear. I just thought it was funny, and that you might enjoy watching it. You gotta love China. They think of the craziest ways to amuse people. They really do.
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I wish there were more things to take pictures of at a baseball game. The Braves have tried to make the stadium interactive, but it’s more so for the kids than anything. And don’t you dare say, "That’s what the beer is for, Gabe!" For some reason, my German blood disagrees with it.
The one thing I noticed as we sat in bumper to bumper traffic for what must have been an hour or so after the game, was how run down the area is around the stadium. I was pretty shocked. I can’t count the number of buildings I saw marked by spray paint. Several buildings were boarded up and looked like they hadn’t been occupied in many years. I know Atlanta isn’t the best city in the world, but I guess I just expected it to look more sophisticated than it did. Those few blocks looked down right slummy. This is not to say that the people living in those areas are bad people. I just wish they cared more about the appearance of their neighborhood. I’m sure it’s been like that for many years and that I’ve seen it before, but I only truly noticed it this time around because we were going so slow.
I wonder if other MLB stadiums are in similar areas? If so, I wonder why.
And now for a few pictures.
You wouldn’t know it from this picture, but I was sitting very close to the left field foul poll when I snapped this.
I was very disappointed in the firework show at Turner Field. It may partially be because of my firework experience in China, but I really felt it lacked the "WOW" factor.
As the fireworks were going off, some guy next to me told his buddy that now would be a good time to shoot someone.
I had a friend who once taped a roach to some sort of firework. He wanted to to see if it would survive the blast. I was very surprised to find the roach alive and well after the pretty show.
Looks sorta like the sky is reigning down some serious lighting.
And here is a video of the less than spectacular firework display put on at Turner Field in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Yesterday, I decided it would be a great idea to donate some blood. I think it was a commercial that prompted me to do it. I’ve never given blood before because people can’t find my veins. They are so very small that you can’t see them through my skin. In the past, when I have had to have blood drawn, they’ve had to stick me multiple times. I’m not afraid of needles or anything, but it hurts! And the bruises I get afterward are horrible. The bruises I get look like someone beat me. But despite all that, I still thought it would be a good idea.
I slightly remembered someone telling me that I couldn’t sell plasma for a while because I had been out of the country, so I decided to check out the information on the Red Cross site. I thought it might be a year or something, that seemed fair. Would you believe I have to wait a full 3 years before I can give blood? It’s because China hasn’t gotten rid of Malaria yet. I totally get it, I do, but three years?
I remember Malaria was one of my top concerns when I went over. Phil and I even considered taking some pills to stay immune, but in the end we decided against it. When we got there, we asked several people about Malaria, and no one knew what we were talking about. I thought that was strange.
Well, I guess i have to wait another 2 years before I can give back to the world. And if I do some more traveling before then(which I probably will), I’ll possibly have to wait even longer to give blood. It really depends on where I go. Hopefully, my blood doesn’t hold some secret cure or something.
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