Extreme Fakeover: Home Edition

I had a little taste of TV yesterday, when I met Ty Pennington from "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition". I was at LCC, where he and his crew were to show up and film for a "spot" on the show. Lately, the Extreme Makeover crew has been hanging out in the Lansing area, building a house for a Holt family who lost their husband and father to Hepetitis C.
I was on time to the filming, and Ty was late: an hour and a half late, to be exact. 150 students and staff waited on cold concrete benches in the ampitheater, waiting for the event to begin. After a while, anxiety was building, but not around the excitement of seeing Ty. People were just plain bored. The result of this was that, when Pennington finally did show up, people were unable to keep still. They simply wanted to take a picture, shake a hand if possible, and leave. However, this was not a possibility. The camera crew and director insisted on keeping the crowd for an hour, filming the shoot twice, and then several parts of it over again. I found it quite interesting that this is called "reality tv" when it's obviously so scripted and put together. Every step, every smile, every handshake is scripted and timed. I even found myself wondering if Ty's "compassion" is real.
I can hardly wait to watch the episode (which should air in November), to see if I made it onto the show. However, I know that if I did, it will be a simple 3-second crowd shot, and I will have to tape and re-wind it 12 times to actually find myself on the screen. Maybe, though, I'll get my 1 and a half seconds of fame after all.
"Reality TV"? TV, yes. Reality, I think not.

a little experiment...

As I stepped out of class yesterday and stared into the seemingly vast stretch of time ahead of me, I knew that I needed to do something to liven up the next three hours. I called a few friends to see if anyone wanted to hang out, but apparently everyone else's schedule is much more packed than mine (or they were all avoiding me). So I decided to treat myself to a good time by doing a little experiment. Instead of getting off the Cata bus at my usual spot, I got off a bit early, outside of QD [a little convenience store located all over Michigan, for those of you who don't already know]. I pulled $5 from my checking account, and set off to see what I could do with $5 in 3 hours, without a car. I had only my cell phone and a semi-empty messenger bag over my shoulder (which came in very handy).
Instead of going with my first option (5 cheap paperbacks), I ended up with this:

Material:
*5 antique books, including a hymnal dating back to the 1800's
*an old Dymo labeling system
*a mug from an unknown company
*a Barbie book from the 70's
*an old Transformers movie from 1984
*a little boxing guy action figure with 3 arms and only 1 leg
*a Speedway slushy
*a cup of orange-spice coffee

Non-Material:
*3 very interesting conversations
*4 new stores that I haven't been in previously
*1 guy hitting on me as i walked down the street
*a long walk
*played an arcade game
*an extremely fun afternoon

I would recommend this adventure to anyone who lives in a moderately safe area of town. It's also good to have a cell phone, in case you get lost. ("'Stoner Rd.'? Where am I?")

(By the way, GoodWill is off-limits.)

"Tim Ho - what??"

Funny story.
(I seem to start a lot of stories off that way.)

First, I have to tell you that I was going to write about the number of wolf whistles I heard directed towards myself yesterday, and how many times I heard, "Boy, she's fine!" No, I wasn't flaunting ANYTHING. I was in downtown Lansing, otherwise known as "ghettoville". Fun times, I know.
Anyway, funnywise, last night has nothing on what happened this morning. I love it when things happen that are so ridiculous that you think to yourself, "Didn't I see this in a movie once?" This morning was a good example.
I was at a ...well, a clean and reputable coffee house... with a friend. We didn't have a whole lot of time before church, so we went through the drive-through to save time. My friend gave my order first: "Ok. I want a medium butter-toffee hot smoothie...." I kid you not, the guy says, "And what size would you like that? Small, Medium, or Large?" Not wanting to
embarrass him, she says,"Medium, please." and then "Also, I would like a number 3 combo, with orange juice and a blueberry muffin." And he answers, "And would you like anything besides the smoothie?" (What?!) So she repeats it all, "number three, orange juice, blueberry muffin," and he says, "what kind of yogurt would you like?"
I was laughing hysterically. What the heck was that guy doing back there, that's what I want to know. I thought it was maybe his first day, but when we finally got up to the window (after pulling some japanese-fire-drill type action), we thought he looked like a manager.

Man, I love people.

Happy is a Yucky Word.

I wanted to make a comment on misunderstandings, which ties into what happened to me this morning and yesterday as well.

Ok, I guess I really just want to tell you what happened, and also why I wrote the title the way I did. I was listening to Switchfoot (obviously) at work, but everyone was being kind of loud, and it sounded like they were saying "happy is a yucky word", which actually kind of sounds like a song that Oscar the Grouch would sing.

AND...

Both yesterday and today, as I have been on the bus, two different girls have thought I was someone they went to school with, at Waverly and at Grand Ledge. Hmm... so do I really have one of those "universal faces"? Therein lies the question.

Actually, if you really want to hear about misunderstandings, "universal faces", and thinking someone is somebody else, go on YouTube and search "Flight of the Conchords, Jenny". It's worth watching, albeit slightly... weird, I guess. (I wanted to put it in the sidebar for you, but this site doesn't allow me to post single videos.)

Funny Interaction # 8,453,345,342

I have to tell you, first of all, that the number cited in the title is not accurate. The fact is that I have absolutely no idea how many funny interactions I've had. I just tried to come up with a plausible guess-timate... well, funny things happen to me all the time. These past few weeks have been no exception.
There's this guy, "Franklin". (I feel like 'Dear Abby' doing that.) Apparently, Franklin has been madly in love with me since he was in the seventh grade, and I was a sophmore. Let me describe this guy to you. He's fairly goth, with gauged ears, a split gotee, and a questionable sense of humor. In fact, this morning we were talking about children, and he asked me, "So... when are you gonna pop one out?" Hmm... very interesting, eh? Yes, I thought so too.

Several days ago, Franklin asked me, "What are you looking for in a guy?" How obvious is that? I didn't really want to answer him, so I just said, "Well, he'd definately need to be a Christian", and tried to leave it at that. But of course, he wanted to continue the conversation, and finally ended up saying, "I'm going to bug you about this until you give me straight answer." To which I told him, "You can ask as many times as you want, but if you think I am actually going to tell you, you're wrong."
Anyhow, I'd better get to the funny part. So this morning he asked me again, "What is your 'type'?"
When I didn't answer, he said, "Ok. You don't have a type, do you?" And I responded by saying, "You may believe whatever you want on that subject." (Lame conversation, thus far? Yes, I know.)
He looked at me, and then said, "So basically, you're saying, 'Liar! I do have a type.'"
And I said,

"Well... yes."

Hahahahahaha. Ok, maybe that doesn't make you laugh, but I've been laughing all morning. I guess if you know Abby Suiter, it'll make more sense to you.

What do you say to a guy like that? Does any girl know? Probably not. Sometimes even the bluntest (or 'sharpest', most obvious) statement doesn't penetrate their mind. I love them for that... and sometimes I really dislike them for it. Sorry, boys!