I Love Traveling...

Today I flew to NY. My flight, that was supposed to leave at 8:55, left at 10:20. By that time I had gone through a large Tim Hortons coffee (I didn't win roll up the rim...), a diet coke, and a bottle of water. So when we landed in NY at 11:30ish, I really had to pee. I practically ran off the plane to the baggage claim bathroom. After I peed and washed my hands I went into the baggage claim area. I had asked the flight attendant which carousel my bag would be on, but he didn't know what I was talking about. Our conversation actually went like this:

Me: Do you know which number our bags will be on in baggage claim?

Him: I don't know what you're talking about. You have a flight number, right? 2030-something? I don't know what you're talking about.

Me: Ok, thank you.

So, granted, I didn't really make much sense. I could have asked which number CAROUSEL our bags would be on. But, really...he works in the airline business. He should know what I was talking about.

Anyway, I made it to carousel #1 (my flight number was listed on the TV screen, so I was pretty sure I was at the right place) and I had been there for less and 2 seconds when a security guard started yelling at me from across the airport.

Security Guard (in an Indian accent): Miss! Hey, You, Miss! Have you seen your bag yet?

Me: Uh, no, not yet, bu...

S.G.: Then you must go to that office!

Me: But my flight...

S.G. No, you must go to the office and report your bags. They did not get here.

Me: Ok, but I just came from Buffa...

S.G.: You will never get your bags unless you go to the office and report them not here!

Me (under my breath, walking to the office): Ok, but, my flight just got here...we aren't even all off the plane yet....

So, of course, as soon as I got to the office my bag was the first onto the carousel from my flight. The man then yelled, as I walked to get it:

S.G.: Miss, are you on the flight from Buffalo? Why did you not say so? Is that your bag?

And he kept talking as I walked away.

I love NY...

Sometimes when I'm talking to someone about something especially interesting, or especially boring for that matter, I think, "Hm, this would make a GREAT blog subject." That's what I just thought in the middle of the conversation I was having with myself while painting the ceiling of my hallway. Here's how the conversation in my head went:

Me #1: I hate painting, I hate painting, I hate painting...

Me #2: But think of all the things you're learning from it. Responsibility, not to put too much paint on the paint brush, not to kick full buckets of paint, that dish soap gets paint out of the carpet...

Me #1: and that drinking before 11 am is OK if you get up by 9 am.

Me #2: I'm still questioning that last one...

Me #1: Shut up. I'm going to write in my blog.


So, this is why I don't get any painting done.

Random stuff about Me.

I got this email from my mom, but then answered the questions about myself, like I was supposed to. I sent it out, but thought I'd post it here, too, so everyone can learn some random stuff about me.


1. What time did you get up this morning? I have no idea what time it was when I got up the first time to go to the bathroom...it was much too early, though, so I went back to sleep and got up and dressed when Mary called at 10:13

2. Diamonds or pearls? Both

3. What was the last film you saw at the movies? Hitch

4. Favorite TV shows? L Word, Ellen, Family Guy, the one where the wives switch places, and the one where the nanny comes in and takes care of the really bad kids and teaches the parents how to be parents.

5. What did you have for breakfast? Gatorade. Then coffee and an everything bagel from Tims.

6. What is your middle name? Catherine

7. What is your favorite cuisine? Chef Boyardee Ravioli. Or lobster. Or fois gras. Or anything I ate in Napa except marrow.

8. What foods do you dislike ? Marrow. And liver. And cilantro.

9. What is your favorite chip flavor? Lays cheddar and sour cream.

10. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Bowling for Soup's new CD. I just got it yesterday.

11. What type of car do you drive? Ethyl. a '96 Saturn.

12. Favorite Sandwich? grilled cheese that's done just right with a lot of cheese that all melted and not burned bread.

13. What characteristics do you despise? slow drivers in the left lane. and not trying to make someone happy when it's easy to do.

14. Favorite item of clothing? my Flying Bison Sweatshirt and my rubber duck pajama pants.

15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation? I'd love to go back to Napa, or go see Italy or Paris...or to Gulf Shores for some crab claws.

16. What color is your bathroom? bright pink. But the ceiling is white now. Thanks Raissa :)

17. Favorite brand of clothing? Flying Bison Brand. And anything from Target.

18. Where would you retire to? I'm semi-retired right now, and spend a lot of time in bed, so...I guess my bed in South Buffalo.

19. Favorite time of the day? Nap time

20. What was your most memorable birthday? my 6th birthday. My whole kindergarten class came to my birthday party and we had a circus theme. After that all my birthdays seem a little fuzzy...

21. Where were you born? Flowood, Mississippi

22. Favorite sport to watch? hockey

23. Who do you expect to send this back to you? Mary

24. Person you don't expect to send it back to you? Momma

25. What fabric detergent do you use? Tide

26. Coke or Pepsi? Diet Coke and regular Pepsi

27. Are you a morning person or a night owl? neither, really...

28. What is your shoe size? 7.5

29. What is your ring size? I don't know, but I'll say 7.

30. Do you have any pets? a beta fish named Marzipan

31. What did you want to be when you were little? rich...

32. If you could have dinner with anybody in the world,who would it be? my family. Or Jesus. Or Malto Mario, if he was cooking.

You know what my newest reason for disliking Bush is? HE ALWAYS INTERUPTS ELLEN! WHY CAN'T HE HOLD A PRESS CONFERENCE DURING THE PRICE IS RIGHT???? I mean, really...I know Ellen probably did not vote for him and Bob might have, but Ellen is funny and I WANT TO SEE HER SHOW DAMMIT!

Ok, sorry...I'll write a real entry as soon as my internet is fixed.

10 Things I've Done

I'm stealing this from Scott, but he stole it too, so it's OK. The other day in his blog he wrote about ten things he'd done that probably no one else had. So, here it goes.

Ten Things I've Done That You Probably Have Not:

10. Got 100% on The State Game. Really. I did.

9. Got sick the day after having my throat blessed. One day after mass the priests blessed the throat of anyone who wanted to stay and stand in line. Esther, Mo, and I stayed and waited so we wouldn't get sick. The next day I thought I was going to die.

8. Bought a pool for my bath toys. Well, actually, one of the rubber duckies came with his own pool, and I make him share it with the rest of them. I think it was the Hideki Matsui duck that came with the pool...he shares with Giambi, Hippo, Cookie Monster, Frog, and Plain Duck too, though.

7. I've been six-years-old for 17 years. It's true. Just ask my parents.

6. I won twice in Roll Up The Rim on one cup of Tim Hortons tea. You know how when you order tea from Tim's they give you 2 cups? Well, at the Tim's on Bay and Bloor in Toronto they give you 2 Roll Up The Rim cups (everywhere around here they give you 1 Roll Up The Rim cup and one plain Tim Hortons cup). I won on both cups. 2 free cookies!

5. Went to College for fun. Ok, I didn't actually go to college for fun. I did occasionally do some work, but I knew the whole time I was there that my degree wouldn't get me anywhere. I mean, Christianity? What kind of job would I get with that??? Yet I stayed there for 4 years...

4. I saw Aaron Boone hit the homerun that beat the Red Sox on October 16, 2003 to send the Yankees to the World Series. Of all the great sports moments I've seen, this was probably the most exciting. Maybe I'll write a blog on that game someday...

3. I traveled all the way to the UK to eat McDonalds, Johnny Rockets, Pizza Hut, and Domino's. I also slept through all the bus tours, skipped the church tours and went right to the gift shops, got kicked out of Windsor Castle (they mean it when they say "Do Not Open"), and sprayed Guinness all over my homestay bedroom...maybe you should be glad you didn't do this.

2. Spent 3 weeks in Mexico with people who have nothing. There were people who were dying of thirst and I couldn't give them water...literally.

1. Have spent hours upon hours bonding with my roommate while I'm showering. Ok, so, my roommate is a fish named Marzipan who lives in a bowl in my bathroom, but I bet none of you can say that, either...

Cookies contain fat?!?!

My homepage when I open Explorer is Netscape.com. It's a fairly informative page, meaning that I get the important news, like "the sport most americans hate" (according to Netscape the #1 most hated is dog fighting. I'd have to agree), as well as fun stuff, like quizzes to see whether or not I'm a good kisser (of course I am, with all the practice I get). Today when I opened Explorer and netscape came up the first story I saw was titled "Girl Scout Cookies' Dirty Little Secret." As a former girl scout and a current cookie maker, I had to read it. It turns out that anyone who is surprised by this secret probably does not know how to turn on a computer, and therefore is not reading anything on Netscape.com.


Girl Scout Cookies' Dirty Little Secret
It's that time of year when Tagalongs and Thin Mints tempt you from street corners everywhere. Girl Scouts are in full swing peddling their cookies, but what they won't tell you is that the delicious tidbits are packed with high levels of unhealthy trans fats, a component of the partially hydrogenated oil used in the cookies that is particularly bad for heart health.


Is this really news? Cookies are bad for you. I'm a little disappointed with Netscape for putting this on their page, and it if wasn't for the fact that they told me I'm sexy (according to a quiz I took the other day), I might have to find a new homepage.

On a completely different note, everyone should check out Raissa's blog. I'd put it over on the side of my blog but I forgot how to do that, so until I see Mike again and have him show me, use that link.

Fifty Nifty United States

Today I got up early and had done everything I was obligated to do by 1. I was really excited and thought I could spend the whole day catching up on stuff...like painting...but I got home and looked at my couch and thought, "well, a short nap during a movie won't hurt." So I pulled Me, Myself, & Irene off the shelf, but inside the box was a home video entitled "Summer 1994." It put me right to sleep. I love my family, but, man, we're boring. Even Louis and Caitlin (10-years-old in the video) doing dances couldn't keep me awake, because the rest of the video (almost 2 hours of shots of the trees and grass around our house) was sofa king boring. So I slept until 4. Then I woke up and and thought, "Well, at least I can make myself a nice healthy dinner and do some recipe research." I checked my email first, though, and mom had sent me this: Place the States. I got nothing done for the rest of the day. But, I can now tell you where every one of the 50 states goes (well, the square ones in the middle I don't always get right, but no one cares about them anyway). Yes, I know I should have learned that in 2nd grade, but I didn't. I'm proud of myself for learning it now. Maybe Ellen will let me come on her show and show everyone how smart I am...last week she had a 10-year-old who knew a lot about presidents, but I bet he doesn't know where Colorado is.

Dave makes me Happy

You know how some songs take you right back to where you were when you heard them the first time? Or, maybe not the first time, but at a special time? All of Dave Matthews songs do that to me. Whenever I hear them I start to feel a little drunk and I can feel the heat of the sun and I'm right back on the lawn at Darien Lake. Maybe that's why I love him so much. His music makes me happy because I was so happy at the first Dave concert I went to. And the 3rd and 4th. The 2nd was only so so. But, anyway. Dave concerts make me happy, and that's why I'm happy today (well, one reason...others reason include lunch at Duffs, grape juice, cookies, sunflower seeds, and a great nap...the rest I'll tell you about in another entry...maybe...) I found out recently that Dave's coming on Wednesday July 27th. Tickets go on sale April 2nd at 10 am. I'm can't wait. Anyone wanna go?

5 Questions

Mike stole an idea from somewhere and had someone as him 5 questions which he answered on The Royal Toybox. He then proposed that anyone who wanted to play his game could leave a comment and he would write back with 5 questions for them to answer on their blog. Here are my 5 questions from Mike:

Dear Cecilia:1. if you could be reincarnated as any animal, what would it be? 2. if you chose "housecat", to whom would you belong?3. what was your favorite age? which was your favorite grade?4. you have received wondrous praise from someone special. who is it, and what did you do to deserve said accolades?5. what is one thing about you that you have never admitted on The Short Bus?

So, I'll answer them. And then anyone who wants to can leave a comment asking me for 5 new questions, and I'll come up with some for you to answer in your blog.

1. If I could be any animal it would be a turtle. They carry their house around with them and when they're sick of people they just go inside. No one thinks they're antisocial...
2. If I were a cat I would want to belong to someone with no kids (an no hopes of having kids) who could lavish all their attention on me. And not some crazy cat lady. I want to be the only cat in my owner's life.
3. Looking back I don't see why I didn't like Kindergarten more, but I seem to remember crying every day when I got there...I guess my freshman year in college was my favorite grade. No one expects you to do well, and there's all that free beer...yum...free beer...my favorite age would be now, 6-years-old.
4. I would like to be praised by God for being a good person...since that probably won't happen, I'll just be happy that mom noticed I did the dishes tonight.
5.Hm...one thing I've never admitted here? Well, I have a problem...it's actually Scott's fault because he put the link to the FEMA Kids Page in his blog, and they have online coloring there. It's so addictive! I can't stop. I even signed up for a membership at coloring.com...

I'm smarter than "They"

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. Well, I disagree. Not totally, I guess. I can see how the saying is true. After a few days I even start to miss work, kinda...almost. I guess because people tend to forget (or block out) all the bad stuff. It's why people have more than one kid, or go to the dentist every 6 months (actually, I like my dentist and would go more often if I could). But, I think the worst thing in the whole world is watching someone you love leave, followed closely by leaving someone you love. I mean, even if they're just leaving for a little while and you know you'll see them again soon the first seconds after they leave are so empty, I find it's hard to do anything. Until I can get my music playing or the TV on and get back into whatever I have to do that day (laundry, cleaning my kitchen, napping, whatever) I'm really sad. But then, after a few minutes, I usually forget how sad I was and can function normally. So, in this case, absence makes the heart grow less fond. Ok, so the time frame we're talking about in my case is, like, minutes, and I'm guessing that the people who came up with this saying meant days or weeks or even years. But, still...I wonder if "They" ever thought about this, or if I'm smarter than "They"...or maybe I just have too much time on my hands.

The dead woman under my bed

A long long time ago when I was little (ok, 2 years ago when I was a senior in college) I was busy doing something (probably sleeping) during prime-time TV, so I taped it. When I had time (or when I should have been studying but felt like watching TV) around 1 o'clock the next morning, I rewound the tape and watched the great prime-time shows I had taped. I think I started with 7th Heaven, then Everwood, and finally CSI: Miami. Well, by the time CSI: Miami started, I was tired and had gotten into bed with the lights off in hopes of falling to sleep. In the very first scene of CSI: Miami a man who was having an affair with his secretary went into a hotel room and heard a buzzing noise. After they checked out all the normal sources of buzzing noises (the heater, the bathroom, etc.), they looked under the bed and found a dead woman with flies buzzing around her. I was immediately turned the TV off and tried to turn the lamp by my bed on, but the bulb was out! I had to get to the light switch across the room to turn the light on without letting the dead woman under my bed get me (if there was a dead woman under the bed on TV, there must be one under my bed...) So I stood up and jumped across the room. I turned the light on and slept with it on. The next morning (well, afternoon, but when I woke up) the girl who lived below me came up to me at lunch and asked if I was OK, because she heard a loud thumping noise in the middle of the night. I told her that I was fine, but I had to turn the light on so the dead woman under the bed didn't get me. Of course she didn't understand, and neither did anyone else in the cafeteria, so I had to explain to them.

Since then Agnes (that's what I named her) has followed me to whatever bed I sleep in. She's always there. That's why I'm sleeping at my parents house tonight because Esther and John aren't home and I don't want to be alone in the house with a dead woman under my bed. Maybe I really am six-years-old...

Forever 6

My parents were talking to one of my friends (yes, I have more than one friend...) recently and asked her how old I was. This could upset me, the fact that my parents don't know how old I am, and I could write an entire blog on it, but I'm not going to. She told them that I must be 23 because she had just turned 23 and I'm a few months older than she is. They laughed and said that they don't ever think of me as older than anyone and that to them I'll always be 6-years-old. Now, that's kinda cute. My parents love me and think of me as their little girl. But, wait! I'M NOT SIX-YEARS-OLD!

So, maybe sometimes I act like I am...my favorite sheets do say "boys are smelly," but boys are smelly. And if I have a choice between grape juice and beer, lately I've been choosing the grape juice. And I sleep with a lot of stuffed animals, including Pig, Elephant, and Piggy. And I go to bed at, like, 8. And my favorite meal is Chef Boyardee Ravioli. But, I can legally buy beer and have been able to for over 2 years (but I get scared every time I hand someone my ID that they might take it away and tell me it's fake...) And I have my own apartment where I pay rent and utilities and everything from my very own bank account with money from my grown up job. So, the apartment isn't really furnished, and I've used the ceiling paint to draw a happy face on one wall and a message to Mary on another wall, but I'm getting it painted...and my bathtub has more toys (as in rubber duckies) than my bathtub at my parents house ever did, and I have Mr. Bubble and Cookie Monster Bubble Bath (which smells SO YUMMY! like blueberries!), but who doesn't love bubble baths with rubber duckies? At least I don't pick my nose anymore...

40 Days and 40 Nights without Diet Coke?

If you're Catholic, and a practicing Catholic, then you know that right now we're in the middle of Lent. Despite my Honors BA in Christianity and Culture, I can't really tell you why we "celebrate" Lent (which when I was little I thought was spelled 'lint,' like belly button lint...that always confused me.) I know it has something to do with Jesus being in the desert for 40 days, so we have to give up something to get closer to God. Well, I gave up pop. Diet Coke, really, but it's the only pop I like, so...Anyway, one thing I did learn at The University of Toronto while I was studying with the priests was that it's OK to indulge in whatever you gave up for Lent on the Sundays during Lent. The first time I heard this I didn't believe the girls who told me. But we asked a nun, and she said that some people believe it's OK because Sunday's are a time of celebration in the Church when everyone should go to mass and drink diet coke. Or do whatever they gave up for Lent. She (Sister Anne Marie) sounded skeptical, though, so I asked Father Donovan the next time I went to his class (of course, this is because I was really interested in his answer, and not because I hadn't done the reading...) He gave me the same answer, but said that he believed it, too. I trust him, so I'm going with it. Plus, I can't go that long without diet coke...