While the man's away...

...the girls will play, or so I thought.  Instead, I spent an abnormal amount of time holding a smoking light bulb and running from an invisible skunk.  I guess I'm lucky my dog is here, however, he'll still be gone for three full days.  Who knows what could happen in the next three days?!

Backstory on the light bulb:
Before buying our house, we knew the current owners strived (What do you mean strived isn't a word?  Get outta here, little red squiggly line.) to be green, in a variety of ways.  They had a composter, a low-flow toilet, and a rain barrel, just to name a few things.  Their master bedroom had space for four light bulbs, yet they kept less than that in there.  Based on all the other energy efficiencies, I figured that was the case for the bulbs.

Fast forward to present day, ya know seven months later when I wished I had a little more light in that room.  But of course, I waited until it was just the dog and I when I chose to  buy and replace the bulbs.  I've replaced bulbs before, these should be no sweat.  I turned the lights off, removed the bad bulbs and put a new one in.  I turned the lights back on, just to see if two bulbs would provide the light I wanted.  It did, so I spent a little time folding clothes and basking in my newly-found light.

Not five minutes into putting my clothes away, the new light goes out.  Seeing as I did not have a ladder to stand on to put the bulb into the ceiling fan, it was obviously not screwed in tight, right?  Without turning the light off, I reach up and twist the bulb slightly to the right.  BAM.  Light bulb explodes, starts smoking, and the smell of burning something (dust?) fills the air.  I bring the remainder of the light bulb down, looking for fire.  No fire to be found, but I also couldn't find the inside of the bulb.  Knowing I had to capture this moment of a broken light bulb smoking with no fire in sight, I took some photos.  

Ok, so it didn't quite explode...but it shattered...and almost killed me.  Yep.

None of which show the extreme amount of smoke in them, c'mon iPhone, get it together.  With it being 11:30 at night and no one to discuss this situation with, I texted my parents:  "Whoever wants to troubleshoot an exploding light bulb situation should call after 9am tomorrow."  Without missing a beat, my dad replies:  "Unplug offending light.  Talk tomorrow."  Later I find out that he leaves his phone at the foot of the bed and the train choo choo sound was too much to take.

The next morning, after the initial shock of almost being killed by an exploding light bulb wore off, I was ready to get the rest of the bulb from the socket (with audio help from both my parents via phone).  Needle-nose pliers and a flashlight in hand, I stood on the bed to get close to the ceiling light.  At Dad's suggestion, I tried to pry it away from the socket (after cutting the electric to that room) with no luck.  In fact, little pieces of glass and metal came shooting out of the remainder of the bulb.  So, much to my dismay, I had to follow Mom's advice:  "Wait until Justin comes home, having two people handle this project will be easier."  Yeah, there's no way Rosie the dog will be able to drive me to the ER with shards of glass in my eye.

As I haven't posted in many months, I'm going to hold off on the skunk story until later this week.  Hopefully I'll have nothing new to report...stay tuned.

Playing Catch-up

Ok, ok, ok.  I know I'm two days behind.  I blame my parents.  Ever since I found out that they actually semi-religiously read my blog, I've shied away.  Ok, maybe that's not the reason.  Maybe I've been a little busy with work, and trying to count calories, read books, and generally be a good person.  Yeah, that's probably the reason.  Or maybe, I just had nothing good to write about rhymes or advice.  Or maybe, it's procrastination.  Yeah, that's probably the reason.

January 17 (two days late):  RHYME
Have you ever actually listened to some of your favorite music?  I went through a weird phase a long time ago, that instead of singing to the music at the top of my lungs, I listened to the words.  I tried to understand what they were singing about.  Most of all, I wondered if the things musicians sang about were actual life issues or just made up, because it was easy to sing about.  

On a less philosophical note, I noticed (among other things), that often the words in popular songs don't rhyme.  In fact, it's not even close.  Take for example, LFO's Summer Girls, ok, that's weird example, but it's one I remember.  "New Kids on the Block had a bunch of hits."  "Chinese food makes me sick."  Seriously.  You can't make this stuff up.  I mean, they did, but I didn't.

January 18 (one day late):  ADVICE
Yesterday, the day I should've (why does should've always have a red squiggly line under it?  It's a word!) blogged, I spent a couple hours in a group interview for student workers.  So, the advice I'm going to share with the five people that read my blog, are things I noticed in that setting.  These things should be common knowledge, but were not in this case.

Be punctual.  Timing is everything.  You have to assume that is your very first impression to the interviewer.  Others can fail with the first impression, but by the time that happens, you were already way behind.  Try to be normal.  Nervousness is normal, especially in this setting.  Although it may feel like it's taking over your entire body, don't overcompensate.  There's nervous, normal, and crazy.  Crazy isn't going to get you the job.  It'll get you noticed, duh.  But, not in a good way.  Maintain some boundaries.  You don't know these people.  They don't know you.  Show the true you that you strive to be every day.  Being yourself will give the interviewers a good vision of what you'll look like in various situations that specific position will encounter.  Above all, think.  Think before you answer questions.  This isn't necessarily the early bird catches the worm scenario.  People that think on their feet are great.  People that think more clearly after given a moment to process are sometimes better. Oh, and wear sunscreen.  No, just kidding, the interview wasn't outside.  But it's a good ending line.  And it makes sense.  And it's good advice.

January 19 (not late at all...Boom!):  SUPERPOWER
While interviewing for other student positions, we asked "If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?"  It broke up the monotonous "Why should we pick you?" and "Tell us how you work in a team" questions.  It also loosened up the candidates.  We received answers all over the board.  One would like to control the weather.  Another wanted to be able to speed-read books (for both academics and pleasure.  One wanted to fly.  A couple wanted to time travel.

After hearing all their answers, I tried to formulate mine.  I often have dreams where I fly high across the land, through the clouds, and look down at people who resemble ants.  Nah, that's out.  I've lately been joking that I want to rearrange the states (putting Virginia and Ohio side by side of course).  Is that even a superpower?  What is that called?  Nah.  I think if I could pay for something for me and just me, it would be my own road.  This one road, that is a one way street of course (because I'm the only one on it, duh) goes from my current home to my childhood home, work, and some favorite places.  Knowing that the construction on this private road will probably drain my bank account, I'll go back to superpowers, in hopes that they are free, somehow.  I would like to be able to snap my fingers (similar to how in I Dream of Jeannie, she twitches her nose) and travel to anywhere of my liking.  That'll save time, money, and packing issues (since I'll have to have my luggage in my other hand, of course). Likely I will go to the normal places, that my private imaginary road would lead, but I'd rather snap.  Yeah, snapping's easy.  Can I contact the people sponsoring the blog challenge to cash in on this superpower?