"Signs" that you are in the oilfields

You drive by this sign on your way home from work: "SMOKE NEXT 26 KM".



Ah, air pollution. Lung cancer smells like rotten eggs.

I am cursed

I seem to carry some sort of phone curse. I wrote before about the escort service call. I had another early morning phone call on my cell phone about a month ago. After letting it ring and ring, I finally gave in and answered it, in case it was an emergency from home. When I answered the phone, I saw that it was an American number. The lady on the other end said, "Wakka wakka wakka!" or something that sounded like that. I think she was speaking Spanish or something. She continued to babble away. I said to her, "I'm sorry, I don't understand you," and eventually she passed me to a man who said, "Hello? Hello?" I responded, "Hi." He continued to say "Hello? Hello?" so I hung up. They called right back, so I shut off my phone. They didn't leave any voice mail.

The curse has followed us to the new apartment. Since we have moved in here, we have received several phone calls from people looking for Louise. They don't want to believe us when we tell them that Louise doesn't live here. The other day, a woman called and started talking to me. When I wasn't too responsive, she said, "Who is this?" I wanted to retort, "You're the one who called me!" but that seemed rude, so instead I said, "This is Heidi." "Who?" She asked. "Heidi," I answered. "Oh," she said, "I thought you were Louise." This morning, the phone rang at 6:15am. Zenon answered it. It was someone looking for Louise. When Zenon said that Louise wasn't here, the person said, "What about Louise's friend Heidi?" It is beginning to get creepy. My theory is that Louise is either an escort or a drug dealer. I'm going to start taking messages for her to find out.

Today was when the curse finally became clear. On my way home, I got a call on my work cell phone from someone looking for Heather. I told her she had the wrong number, and she verified the number she was calling. It is my old office number that I forwarded to my cell phone before it was cut off. Apparently, the forwarding persisted even when it was cut off and given to someone new. I got another call for Heather when I got home this afternoon. It is a good thing that the curse doesn't seem to extend (yet) to Zenon's cell phone, or else we'd never get any sleep. I suppose that this curse is an interesting way to meet new people, if nothing else. They always know how to get a hold of us.

Movin' on up (literally)

This past week was not one that I'd like to re-live. Zenon and I moved into our new apartment. This is the good part. It is exciting! I love living on our own here, having a real apartment and real space for ourselves. I feel so much more like a grownup. The thing about moving, though, is that it sucks. While the outcome might be great, the actual act of moving is awful. Last week, not only did I have to pack and move our stuff into our new place, but our office also moved into a new building. I cannot tell you how sick I am of packing things and lugging them around and living out of boxes. However, the sunny side of it all is this great new apartment. The new office I'm still undecided about, but the new apartment is all thumbs up. My plants look really good here.

What else was I going to tell you? Oh, Zenon and I have a new family member to introduce to you all (no, I'm not pregnant, for God's sake calm down). His name is Elmer McSquiggins and he is adorable as heck. I'll have to post a picture. He is a very large ladybug who lets us use him as a pillow.

That might be the end for now. Oh, I bought a new exercise DVD that will allow me to bellydance my way to greater core strength. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds like fun. I'll let you know if my core gets any stronger as I bellydance away.