Is that Blood on the Wall? Or Just a Bad Paint Job?

Since I've been married to JB we have lived in 5 different homes together. 4 apartments and 1 house. We've lived in Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Overland Park, Hood River, and Lakewood together. Most of these places were wonderful - and the one that was less than ideal....well....it makes for a good story.

We moved to Kansas City in August 2007. I got to the apartment complex about 2 hours before JB did - he was driving the moving truck. I walked into the leasing office of the place that JB picked out to get a key and to sign the lease. He told me that the place had just gone through a multi-million dollar renovation. Well, this is true - but... well, I'll keep going.


Walking into the leasing office I met Ricky. Ricky was a male cross-dresser. The funny thing is that JB and I could tell which Ricky looked better as - a female or a male. He/She was able to pull off both. Ricky walked me to our new apartment and showed me around. The biggest problem with the place was simply that the parking lot looked like it hadn't been paved in several years. But - we were told - that would be changing. I think that the day we moved in the place looked better than we were ever going to see it again. We were the only white couple to be found in our building.


Not long into our stay there we started giving our friends the grand tour. Our apartment was in a dorm-style building. The wall on the bottom floor was filled with large shoulder and body sized holes in the wall. At shoulder height there was a blood streak that went the entire length of the hall. The stairwell was home to hair extensions, condoms, trash, and many other things. So much for the renovation. Our apartment itself was actually nice, you just had to forget everything else. The place wasn't all bad.

John and I had free entertainment several nights a month consisting of sitting on our balcony watching the police officers chase down people, break up domestic violence, deal with people shooting out the front door, and many other things. It was our idea of a neighborhood block party. One night we had 18 police cars in the parking lot. Great entertainment! Of course - most of our neighbors were also watching, but many of them also felt the need to give advice to the perps.


One night JB was house sitting for some friends of ours. He told me that if there was anything I needed call him. I woke up at 3:17am to shots being fired. I called JB in a panic. He asked me if I wanted him to come home - and I told him that was a horrible idea because I didn't want him to be caught in the cross-hairs. The next morning it was pouring down rain. I went outside to my car so I could help a friend move. When I got into the car I noticed that the dashboard was covered in water. I looked up and saw a bullet hole in the middle of my windshield. I called JB and told him that I had discovered what had been shot the night before.






Fourth of July the year that we lived there was one of the worst holidays I've experienced. Our next door neighbors decided it would be fun to shoot off M40s INSIDE the building right in front of our door....at 2AM. Our apartment filled with smoke and alarms were going off everywhere. This doesn't account for what was going on outside too. You'd think that you moved to the middle of a war zone. Like the wonderful husband that he is - JB made me comfort food at 2:30am and put on Singing in the Rain for me to watch to settle down. God bless him!


Finally after a year we moved out. No harm but a dent that remained in our trunk from where the bullet tried to escape the car - and many many stories. While we were moving out my purse was stolen from inside our apartment while we were carrying boxes up and down the stairs. Yes Apartments, I will miss you too!

In Honor of Mr. Mook

Very few times in my life have I met people that can willingly enter into a verbal ping pong match with me and hold their own. I think on my feet - and friendly banter back and forth searching for the thing that will catch the other person off guard - I thrive on that. It keeps me entertained and amused. Enter Mr. Mook.

I met Scott on the bus. How many times must I mention that I Love My Bus? :-) My Bus Buddy and I started talking with Scott a bit over a month ago. These two men are gluttons for punishment when they agree to let me converse with them each day. I haven't come up with a nick name for my blog for Scott yet, so I think he'll just have to keep his name.

For some unknown reason Scott read my blog and desired to be a part of it. I told him that most of the time I write about someone it's me making fun of them. Not to hurt them, no, but at least for my own amusement...hence the name of my blog. Two days ago it was Scott's birthday - so in honor of him for his birthday I decided to write about him.

On his birthday he mentioned that at work he had tried to hide the fact it was his birthday. He is the "old guy" in his office (a whopping 34 years of age) and he didn't want others to know it. After the word got out one of his co-workers informed him that he shouldn't be embarrassed, men get better with age. I'd tend to agree with this. I married someone older than me and haven't regretted it for a second. I jumped on Scott's attempts to hide his age and the "men get better with age" discussion and started teasing him about being more attractive than he was at simply 33 years of age. He proceeded in threatening to strut his stuff the next day on the bus by wearing a gold chain and painting on chest hair to attract the ladies. Then he thought of a better idea - how about take hair from his cat and tape it to his chest?

I about died! My bus buddy and I busted into laughter at the thought of our new friend cornering his poor kitty and stealing some hair to be taped to his chest. I was very disappointed the next day when Scott showed up without an ounce of cat hair on him and no gold chain.

So Scott - I told you I'd write about you. Though I threatened to PhotoShop your picture, this is straight from your Facebook. And even though you and Bus Buddy Bret were ganging up on me yesterday - I hope you and he both know that you guys keep me very entertained and I enjoy the company. :-) But Scott, keep on your toes - you never know what I might say next.

Larimer Chalk Art Festival

I must say, I love Denver! For two weekends in a row I have been able to hop on a light rail downtown and head to several free festivals. Last weekend I went to their Art Festival and a free concert containing many bands - including Five For Fighting. And let me tell you - the people watching opportunities are in abundance!





Last weekend I went with JB and a couple of new friends (including my Bus Buddy - I love my bus!) I went to the Larimer Chalk Art Festival. Over 200 chalk artists filled a two block radius with their beautiful art. I didn't know that simple chalk could make things that were so amazing.






One thing JB and I have found is that no matter where you live fun/cheap/free things can be found. This Chalk Art Festival was free! So were all of the other festivals we've attended. Being amused and going on dates doesn't have to cost anything! You just need to know where to look and JB is the best at finding things.





I hope you enjoy the art as much as I did.

You mistook me as your personal slave!

I consider myself to be a helpful person at work. When I see someone who needs an extra hand - and I have the time - I try to offer my assistance. I only have one stipulation: the person should be trying to do their work on their own first. It drives me bonkers when people simply decide they don't feel like doing their own work and bum it off on some else. It is one thing when you're busy and ask for help. It is another thing entirely when a person is histrionic about their work load or would simply rather play on the Internet than do what they're paid to do.

Every business has these people. I have run into a bunch of crazy situations because of this. That doesn't mean that it doesn't drive me nuts. My problem is that I try to be helpful - and I'm known for it now. When in doubt, Sarah will help bail you out! I hope they know that turn about is fair play. :-)

The worst is when a person tries to give me work in the form of a "compliment". "But Sarah, you're always so good at handling these things." Give me a break!

This morning I got to work, looked in my mail box, read a note from FORab, and immediately went straight to TNT's cube to vent. She had put in my mailbox a form that she needed to take care of with a note:

Hey Sarah - Can you please tell them it's the wrong form? Thanks!

How is it that a form that she needs to take care of gets sent to me so that I can talk to the 3rd party about the fact it is the wrong form? I think that she could have simply emailed them in the time it took for her to throw her written weight at me. She is not my supervisor, nor am I her personal secretary. FORab did the same thing last week - she wanted me to email someone to tell them they had filled out a form incorrectly. The form was dealing with something that I don't even have access to work with.

I must remember, her's is the Face of Rabies...

Forget Tagging - Paint with Light!

This is a bit off of what I usually post - but I was quite proud and had to post this. As I have mentioned before, I help work with an after school program. It's a part of JON. It's called Mauricio Saravia School of the Arts. I've been teaching a photography class to two students this time around. Last time I had 10. I much prefer only 2. They're great guys. One is about out of Middle School and the other will be a Senior this year in High School. They are both involved in the youth group as well.

One of the things that JB and I have come across with these kids is that they really like to tag. Graffiti. I know at least one of my students has been arrested for tagging in the past. The other thing I should note is that these boys are very talented. If I had half the artistic ability...

Anyway - I got this idea for my class. Painting with light. Basically you go into a dark space, leave your shutter open for awhile (we did 30 seconds) and you aim a penlight (or something...) at the lens and simply draw with light. It's not quite tagging, but it is very cool. You can also illuminate something for as long as you'd like and it'll show up. You can make it look like your head is floating in the darkness. It's a pretty cool concept.

I just wanted to show off some of the things these guys did. I think we spent an hour and a half all together on these. I know that given more time and something more than a cheap pen light they could have come up with even more things! I hope you enjoy!