Wednesday, July 22, 2009

When a Bargain...

...comes dangerously close to being a crime!!

So if you know me at all, you know I love shopping and I especially love DEALS. About two weeks ago I discovered great one -- a great big pair of beautiful, dangly, turquoise Amrita Singh earrings. Here they are in coral:



These normally cost about $120. I would never pay $120 for a pair of earrings.

In fact, I rarely wear earrings of any kind. I like them, I just never wear them. (This will become relevant soon enough.) But these were so pretty I stopped to look. When I saw they were marked down to $22, I was very intrigued! Then I realized I had a $10 gift credit, making these fabulous babies nearly 90% off!! So I made them mine.

Fast forward to tonight. I was meeting my buddy Rick for dinner in Venice. The evening started out on a few sour notes: I was stuck at work, so I was pretty late. My stomach was upset all day. I cussed directly into the face of a fellow driver who stole my parking spot, then immediately felt bad when he and his friend both looked so sincere in thanking me for it. I found a meter, but only had two dimes and two nickels.

But then Rick and I had a delicious dinner at Via Veneto and everything was sunshiney again. I was giving him a lift back to his office when I saw blue and red lights... uh oh... I looked in my rearview and saw:



Yeah, okay, it wasn't those exact three cops. It was just one and he was not on a Strike Team, nor did he seem corrupt. But he told me he was pulling me over for two reasons.

"One, you didn't stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk. And two, the bigger problem, you had your cell phone to your ear."

Rick and I yelled in unison: NUH UH!!!

The cop seemed a little surprised. He made me show him my call log and saw that my most recent phone transaction was a missed call from Larry at 7:12 pm (I'll call you back later, Lar). Since it was now 7:53, it was clear that I was not lying. But still, he said he was certain he saw me holding something to my ear.

He left us to go back to his car and check his magic all-knowing dashboard-mounted computer doohickey to see if my license was current and that I wasn't wanted for drug smuggling, kidnapping or making cats smoke lighted cigars (it's illegal in Illinois). Rick and I spent the time trying to figure out what he could have mistaken for my cell phone.

Then I realized it -- my new earrings, that I'd worn the day before, had made my poor, fresh earlobes so sore that I'd been rubbing them all day today! I am sure that's what Officer Vic Mackey saw me doing, and thus assumed I had a phone in my hand.

He returned with my license and registration and told me to "be careful" then sent me on my way. Whew!!!




On an unrelated note, I cannot let the Emmy nominations come and go without saying something. WALTON. GOGGINS. WAS. ROBBED. This is not subjective. This is not a matter of opinion. This is a bottom line fact, and it's really, really rotten. The fact that the Shield got nothing is ludicrous enough, but maybe understandable since it was so under-appreciated in its time (but oh, yay for that piece of crap Grey's Anatomy). The fact that Walton Goggins was ignored is just shameful. If you voted for the Emmys, you owe Walton an apology.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Two gorgeous babes

Aren't they both so handsome?? This is Brian and his adorable, brand new nephew Luke. So sweet!!