Scaryangle Filmstars

What scares you?  Creatures of the night?  Ghosts?  Maybe little creaks and sounds that people tell you mean a house is "settling?"  What if it's not the house?  What if it's a ghost, or restless spirit?  Scaryangle is preparing to show you the other side.  Or at least as much of it as we can find.  Feel free to become a friend, or even click the "like" button for the facebook page.  We'll be filming soon, and posting on youtube and who knows where else?  One day, you might even see a Scaryangle production in your local theater.  Probably a haunted one. 

http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=Denise+Verrico&init=quick&sid=0.4157091591319192#!/profile.php?id=100001485743903&ref=ts

As an author, what frightens me?  I'm not sure.  Have I run from some scary sound in the night before?  Of course, who hasn't?  I can remember playing a game years ago called "Resident Evil 2."  It had a lot of zombies in it and I would play it late at night.  Then, creeping slowly out to the kitchen to get something to drink for a break I would be scared to death, certain a zombie was going to grab me around the next corner!  Was that just nonsense?  Maybe, but keep in mind people who believe in the voodoo religion believe zombies are real.  It's something to look into...or not, if zombies scare the hell out of you!

How about vampires?  Real?  Maybe not.  Can we be sure about that, though?  They exist in our minds.  Take author Katie Salidas for example; she believes in vampires.  Or at least, she writes about them.  They exist in her mind.  And if her mind can give them a reality, how can you be certain that reality won't somehow creep into our reality?  They might be out there, and coming for you!  Read her books and decide for yourself if you believe:

http://www.amazon.com/House-of-Immortal-Pleasures-ebook/dp/B003NSBSVG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=books&qid=1275288064&sr=1-2

A romance, you say?  Perhaps, but one where people are bitten, and blood flows!  How about werewolves?  Those furry, little shapeshifters who prowl the night.  Have you seen "American Werewolf in London?"  Could that really happen?  Who knows?  You might say no, but what if there were werewolves who had come from another planet?  What if they were just shapechangers who hid in our society because they were hunted?  After a bit of cross breeding with our species, who would they ulitmately become?  Monsters of the night, or a creature on the run?  Things can sometimes get blown out of proportion.  Ask Ami Blackwelder.  She'll tell you about "The Hunted of 2060."

https://www.createspace.com/3446561

The world is full of ectoplasms, octoplasms, tv plasmas, horror, humor, and everything in between.  What will Scaryangle find when we go out looking for the unknown?  Will we one day find more than we bargain for?  Find out when things come together.  Filming will begin shortly.  Join us and follow us into the unknown.  For knowledge, for adventure...or maybe just for a good scare, let us show you the Scaryangle on things!

Robert Wacaster

Official Scaryangle Documenter

Read the blog and go beyond the videos!

Ruined Vegas

     Vegas used to be the place to go.  It used to be hot, it used to be fun, it used to be fantastic!  Now, it's been ruined.  People can ruin anything.  A lot of people will tell you Vegas was ruined when the corporations took over.  It wasn't ruined by the corporations, it was ruined by the tourists!  Let's take a look, shall we?

Here's the Dunes hotel.  Don't look for it, it's long gone.  They blew it up.  This was always my all time favorite sign here, and those stupid idiots blew it up!  The Dunes was old Vegas.  From back in the day when lounge shows here were actually pretty good.  The Sands drew in some people, too.  They had one of the hottest shows going!

Oh yeah, Frank Sinatra and the gang!  Pack, Rat pack, crowd, whatever.  See how they all wear suits?  Even Sammy Davis Jr. is wearing a suit.  It looks like it was made from some velvet curtians he found somewhere, but it's still a suit!  Back then if you weren't dressed nicely, they threw you out of the casino.  Now all you need to wear is some torn shorts, and flip flops.  If you went to see this show, it was an event!  People came from all over to see these guys!  I was never a huge Sinatra fan, but if I could I wouldn't mind going back in time to see their show.  It was supposedly spectacular!

     Now Vegas has shows like "O."  I guess the show title is short for "Oh geez, why did I spend all my money to see this crap?"  Who the hell makes a show called O?  Did all the other letters before O have a show too, and failed?  Maybe I'll want to see it when they get to X.

You had to be dressed up to be in the casino back then.  Here's good ol' Frank dealing some bacarat.  You'll notice everyone is in a suit.  Yes, I'm sure this was all posed for the photo, but does that matter?  No, it doesn't matter, quit picking apart my pictures!  I worked hard to find it!  (Actually, I didn't work hard, I just typed "Sinatra casino" into a search engine and there it was.)

You don't have to dress up to come here anymore.  Sadly, you don't even have to behave now.  People come here now and drink, pass out, and get robbed by hookers.  Actually not all of them get robbed by the hookers, some people walk away from a slot machine leaving their credits in it, and then lose their money that way.  Or they leave their wallet on a slot bank, or they drink until they can barely walk, steal a "Wet floor" cone and then pass out on the sidewalk.  Don't believe that last one ?  Well, here you go:

Weddings here used to be exciting!  Elvis was married at a chapel here!  You could come here and elope.  It was romantic, and sexy, and just so fantastically exciting!  Now idiots come here, get drunk, and then want to get married.  Note that he's so drunk, he needs a straw in the beer bottle to help him continue drinking!  Is this a wedding you want to attend?  And afterwards, they'll probably be looking for yellow cones to steal!  (Yes, this is a picture from a movie.  That doesn't mean people don't come here and really act like this!)

The restaurants used to serve steak and lobster for $4.99!  There used to be places that had steak and eggs for $0.99!  What the hell happened?  Now you're lucky to find a cup of coffee here for $5!  They overcharge for the food, and then serve you crap!  Now people come here to try and eat a six pound burrito in an hour and a half!  (Yes, this is an actual challenge you can undertake at the Sahara hotel.)  What the hell?  I want to take an hour and a half to eat a $0.99 breakfast and play some keno, not shove six pounds of Mexican crap down my throat!  And doesn't this gent look handsome while he's trying to eat?  How classy.

Can you hear "Viva Las Vegas" playing on his Ipod?  How classy to wolf down that huge mess with some wires in your ears!  What a pleasure it is to see people like this!

I guess this is where my blog ends today.  I can remember after moving here going downtown to play blackjack.  Now if you go downtown you risk getting mugged.  Even on the strip you could find a $5 minimum blackjack table to play on.  Now you're lucky if you can find one with a $15 minimum.  Money's getting tight, and they want $20 to eat at a buffet.  What happened?  Stupid greedy people!  Most people don't dress up here anymore.  The food costs too much.  The shows suck.  Welcome to Las Vegas 2010.  And they wonder why visitation is down. 

Rambling along

     I've just recently put out two more books.  One is a book of old blogs.  The dumbest question I get about that one is, "Is this blog in the book?"  Yes, the blog I'm writing right now will magically appear in the book I published a month ago.  Must there be such a huge absense of thought here?

     Reading the old blogs brings back a lot of memories.  And since back then, an old friend has moved on from wild, insane, crazy person, to wild, insane, crazy father.  He can't just run around and do what he wants anymore.  Good ol' Chinstrap now has a 2 year old daughter.  He tells me she's quite a handfull...just like him.  I guess if she wants something, she'll point and scream.  At least, that's what Chinstrap told me.  She was pretty sweet when I saw her.  I haven't really seen her since she was a one year old, so she doesn't really remember me.  She's a bit shy around me.  But, the other day Chinstrap invited me to come along as he took two little girls to the Shark Reef inside the Mandalay Bay Hotel.  What the hell, I can't pass this up!

I can post his picture here, he won't mind.  Chinstrap (Matt) has always been a good sport about my blogging.  This little, innocent one on the right is Beilei.  (Pronounced Bay Lay)  Cute, isn't she?  Just wait.

So, off we go to see the "fishies."  Beilei loves fishies.  The other little girl with us is Kim.  She's pretty quiet and well behaved. (at least around me.  I'm sure Chinstrap thinks she's some kind of monster.)  So, we proceed to walk through Mandalay Bay to get to the Shark Reef.  Beilei, as two year olds are prone to do, runs this way, and that way, wanting to see everything.  She decides she wants to play on a craps table in the casino, and Chinstrap has to chase her into the pit.  He keeps trying to tell her that she can't be in the casino pits, that we need to go to see the fishies, but he doesn't seem to realize he's talking to a TWO YEAR OLD!  He'll pick her up, but as soon as he puts her down, she runs back towards the pits.  I'm obviously highly amused.  We finally make it to the Shark Reef.  We have a great time and Beilei gets to see the fishies.  The only real problem we had in there was that I tried to take a few more pictures of Beilei, but two year olds don't stand still.  Everytime I would get my camera pointed at her, she runs off somewhere.  And she doesn't run in a straight line, either.  You'd think the kid was a running back weaving her way towards a touchdown! (Obviously it's been a while since I've been around two year olds, too!)  Finally, when some fish of some kind caught her interest (at least for a second and a half) I get a good picture of her! 

This was right before she pointed at some other little boy and announced, "Stink!"  I guess the little boy wasn't as fragrant as she would have liked.  But actually, the Shark Reef isn't the story here.  After going there, and exhausting the two year old, Chinstrap wants to go to a huge electronic store called Fry's.  That's fine, I love Fry's.  So we drive over and after going inside, they have balloons hanging from everything.  Someone spots the little cutie and asks if she would like a balloon.  OF COURSE SHE WANTS A BALLOON, SHE'S A TWO YEAR OLD!  So they give her a balloon.  I suggest to Chinstrap to tie the balloon to her wrist.  He says no.  He thinks she'll be fine just holding on to it.  Huge surprise, she lets it go.  She did actually hold on to it for at least 15 minutes, or so before she let it go, though!  Now she's upset.  Another guy sees her upset and asks what happened.  I tell him she had a balloon and now it's gone.  So he wants to give her three more balloons.  Is she happy now?  Of course not, she's Chinstrap Jr.!  She likes the three balloons, but still wants someone to get her other balloon back from the ceiling!  Here she is, pointing at the balloon, upset that it won't just come back down. 

I did have a good time, though.  On the way out of the store another guy gave Beilei three more ballons, so she ended up with six of them.  She's really happy, until...  When we're ready to leave, Chinstrap takes the ballons from her and puts them in the back of the car.  Then he tries to put Beilei in her car seat.  Here comes the monster!  Now Chinstrap is dealing with a screaming, tantrum throwing, maniac child!  She wants the balloons!  He keeps telling her they're in the back of the car, but once again he's speaking to a TWO YEAR OLD!  She doesn't want them in the back of the car, she wants them in the front of the car, or on the hood, or who knows what else?  He hands a balloon to her.  She doesn't care, she keeps screaming.  She doesn't want the balloon, she does want the balloon, scream, scream, scream!  Anyone who's lived through a two year old recognize this?  Chinstrap says, "What's the matter?  Why won't you stop screaming?"  I tell him she's probably just tired.  Tired two year olds scream.  So, we head back to his house to drop her off before we find something to eat.

All in all, it was fun watching him with a kid.  This week we're supposed to go to a place called the "Adventure Dome."  Rides, clowns, it's like a mini-theme park.  I can't wait to see the tantrums there!  As an end to this blog, I think I'll post a short clip of Chinstrap chasing his daughter.  She had found someone else's motorcycle while we were waiting for the valet to bring up his car.  I guess she wants a ride?  Most amusing!

Powdered gum

     Today I was reading about Paris Hilton.  She was arrested for possession of cocaine.  The baggie of cocaine fell out of her purse in front of a cop.  This was actually while she was demanding to be "taken to the bathroom" with her purse, I guess.  After it fell out she said she thought it was "gum."  I did a search online because I want to have some "powdered gum" too!  I couldn't find any.  I guess she also decided to say the purse wasn't hers.  It probably had her ID and wallet inside it, but it wasn't hers.  I thought about posting a picture here, but I don't want to sully my blog like that.

     So, now some highly paid Hilton attorney is going to go into court and claim the purse and "powdered gum" didn't belong to this moron.

"Your Honor, she was carrying a friend's purse!  It's always fun to carry a friend's purse around!  What?  Who's purse was it?  Oh, we can't release that information!"

And then he'll claim she thought it was "powdered gum."  I'd like to ask how much of the "gum" she chewed.  It must be some kind of special "Hilton" gum.  Can these people get any sleazier?

     What happens in Vegas...now becomes world wide news!  I guess she was let out of jail after only two hours without even paying any bail.  She was arrested for a felony, but didn't need bail.  I wonder if I would get out without bail if I was chewing some "powdered gum?"  The idiot she was with was busted for misdemeanor "driving while impaired" or something like that.  He had to pay $2,000 in bail to get out of jail.  So how does she just walk away from a felony, but he has to bail out for a misdemeanor?  I guess that's the magic of Nevada!  Come here if you're rich and famous!  If you aren't, don't be caught with any "powdered gum."

     She was busted on the Las Vegas Strip, and claimed to be "embarrassed" when a huge crowd began to form around the car and take pictures.  She was embarrassed just because she had a load of "powdered gum" in her purse, and the driver, or "boyfriend" she was with was failing all the sobriety tests the cop was giving him?  How odd!  I guess the police took her over to the Wynn hotel and security offered to let the police put her in their holding room.  (That would be what's called a C.S.O. if you're curious.  Casino Security Office.)  Yay security! 

     I tried to upload the police report to here, but it wouldn't work just because it's in a pdf file.  It doesn't matter, you can find it online probably everywhere by now.  Freedom of information, hooray! 

     Her "boyfriend" was a guy named "Cy Waits."  And after being arrested, he had to "Waits" to post bail and get out of jail.  HA HA HA HA HA!  I guess he was a big partner in a club in the Wynn hotel.  "Was" being the key word.  He was supposedly "fired."  But how do you fire a "partner?"  I guess by giving him some "powdered gum" to carry around in his purse?

And life goes on...

The Depression

     We're in a depression.  I don't mean I feel down and unhappy, I mean depression like in the 1930's.  There aren't many jobs out there now, and people are broke.  We don't have the soup lines like in the 30's, but people are still broke.  That just means people don't get free soup.  But that's not what I want to write about tonight.  I want to write about the people who don't seem to think:

     I work at a place with a crowd of ungrateful people.  They seem to think that they can't be fired, or laid off.  They can do anything!  If someone tries to lay them off, they'll just go to human resources and complain!  Yeah, that'll fix everything.  This last week I guess a few actually lost their jobs.  Out they went.  What did they do to lose their jobs?  That's not important.  What is important is that when I saw this the thought crossed my mind that I'd better make myself seem valuable so I wouldn't be next.  I guess this didn't occur to other people.  "Yes, they fired Moe, but they won't fire me!"  Come in late, call in sick whenever you want, hide, don't do your job, it doesn't seem to matter.  People don't seem to think they'll be fired for anything!  Even after watching other people be fired for the same things they do, they still don't think they can be fired!  It's...amazing, to say the least.

     And if they do happen to lose their jobs, they seem to think they can just get another one right away.  Good luck with that. 

"Hey Fred, that girl over there is bleeding, can you get some gauze for me while I check her out and see what's going on?"

"I'm on a PERSONAL!  Get the gauze yourself!"

     Neat attitude, huh?  Fred can't be fired, he's on a "personal."  It doesn't matter if someone is bleeding, or injured, or even if they just want directions, he's not going to help because he can't be fired!  He's taking his "personal" break and so doesn't have to do anything, or help anyone.

"Don't tell me what to do!"

     Ok, don't go and get the gauze.  It's always lovely to work with someone who has an attitude like this, isn't it?  If they actually did fire "Fred" do you think he would do well applying for another job?

"Ok Fred, are you through filling out your application?"

"I'm on a PERSONAL!  I'll finish it when I finish it, leave me alone!"

     Wow, he's on the fast track to management!  Who wouldn't want to have an employee like that?  I guess everyone, because here in Vegas I seem to run into quite a few people like Fred.  Then, if they do happen to get fired, or laid off, I get to read all the crap they spew online about how the world is prejudiced against them.

"There's no work here!  I've applied all over, but no one will pay me the $250,000 a year that I'm worth!  There are no jobs anywhere!"

     Sometimes the "Hire me, or else" approach doesn't work on some potential employers.  And even if you are nice, sometimes if you go into an interview with a bad attitude, why would they hire you?

"Hire me, or don't.  I don't care."

     Let's see...I'll choose...no!  I won't hire you!  Have a nice day, and don't let your attitude get caught in the door on the way out!  People just have such awful attitudes here in Vegas! 

Believe anything

People are stupid.  But some people...well, they're just dumber than normal.  Tonight I thought I'd write about the people who belive the most bizare, and weird things.  And no, I don't mean the people who think the moon landing was faked, or the "Area 51" people.  How about a lady who is protesting imunizations, and demands that they not be given to children?  She claims imunizations cause autism.  I saw this on "Penn and Teller: Bullshit."  They're great at finding ignorant people.


     This woman claimed she didn't like immunizations because they have "chemicals and things" in them.  She has no idea what the "chemicals and things" do, and didn't bother to ask a doctor, she just doesn't like them and claims they cause autism.  Believe anything, I guess?

     "The economy is improving and everything is fine now!" some idiot politition says on tv, and all the unemployed people cheer.  "Hooray, they said everything will be fine now!"  What do they base "recession" on anyway?  Is it when the government hands out a bunch of money to businesses after they screwed up their business?  Who knows, and who cares?  What was I writing about?  Oh yeah, people that believe anything:

     This man believed he had a nice haircut.  I have to believe he didn't know that someone cut this into his hair!  How could you purposely have someone do this?  I know it's neat to have everyone point at you and laugh...I mean notice you, but come on!  Must we really do things like this?  And people wonder why we've never been contacted by an alien race.  If you were from another planet, would you want to make contact with people who do these things?

     I've pretty much lost track of the whole "People who believe anything" crap.  I typed "believe anything" into an internet search engine and came up with a before and after of an airbrushed photo.  The girl was pretty in both of them.  So why was all the "airbrushing" necessary?  Oh no, you can see veins in her hand!  Her eyes aren't pretty enough!  Her eyebrows are horrible!  What the hell?  Is she that vein that even being as pretty as she is, she has to have her photos touched up?  She's that scared that people might see what she really looks like?  We might not buy the underwear she's wearing if they don't touch up the photo!  (By the way, no I'm not going to try and find her underwear on Ebay!)

     I believe it's time to end this.  I believe the internet allows us too much information sometimes.  I blieve this blog gives no information at all!  Or maybe it doesn, who knows?  But at least I show pretty pictures now, right?

Uncolored colors

     I always used to blog in colors.  I don't know why, but for some reason I would use a different colors.  I got used to it.  Now, I decide to publish my old blogs and find out that it'll be extremely expensive and I'll have to charge more for my book than any reasonable person would probably pay to have it put out in color!  How...aggravating!  So I went back to black and white.  It's supposed to be the writing that's the important thing anyway, right?  RIGHT?  Whatever.  Here's the cover I made up:

I had driven down to the Las Vegas sign to take some pictures at night for the cover.  I brave all these ignorant, yelling tourists to take a few shots.  And then when I'm making the cover at home, I come across a stock photo that I can use that looks better than the pictures I wasted my time taking.  It's a daytime shot, and I had wanted night, but it just looked better.  What did the night shot look like?  Who cares?  I didn't use it!  Why would anyone want to see the picture I didn't use?  Screw it, look at it anyway!

While trying to take this, a bunch of idiots were running back and forth below it yelling at the top of their lungs.  They had just gotten off a bus, and you would think it was a bus full of sugared up three year olds!  "Yaaaaaaaaaaa!"

For goodness sake, SHUT THE HELL UP!  They made me think of another funny from work.  As I come in to work security dispatch the other night one of the dispatchers I'm relieving tells me that a room right above the front desk was given their "final warning" for yelling down at the front desk with a bullhorn.  I can only speculate what they were yelling.  A "manager" went up to the room and personally told them if they casue any more problems, they'll be thrown out of the hotel!  I had no problems with the people in that particular room all night.  But then...

I come in to work security dispatch the very next night and the person I'm relieving tells me the same people, from the same room were yelling at the front desk with their bullhorn all night again.  And so the same "manager" went up to the room and again gave them another "fianl warning."  I asked if they were given a "final warning" the night before, especially for the same thing, why weren't they being evicted?  Simple, because the "manager" said he didn't remember giving them the final warning the night before.  How do you forget something like that?  I have to wonder how he remembers where he works?

"I'm warning you:  If you don't quiet down, I'll come back and warn you again!"

Do anything.  I think that's the motto where I work.  Do whatever the hell you want.  There are things carved into the plexiglass at one of the security posts near an employee entrance.  That means either a security officer carved the words into the plexiglass, or just sat there while someone else did.  Imagine how safe I feel at work now!  Should I really be piling complaints about where I work on here?  Probably not.  But it does help relieve a bit of stress.  Besides, a lot of what I write I just make up, so who knows if anything here is true, or not?  And even if the bullhorn incident did happen, the manager it happened to won't remember it, and so he'll think it's made up.  I'm home free!  Do anything, sheesh.

Lord of the Vegas Rings

     Last night at work I overheard someone talking about a lady who was saying her rings had been stolen...from her fingers.  Did she know who had taken them?  No.  She was complaining that she had rings on when she had went to eat in the cafe, and then afterwards she didn't have on any rings.  Now...where do I even start with this one?  How do you not realize rings are coming off your fingers?  Granted she was really drunk and screaming "YEEEEAAAAAA, VEGAS!" in the middle of the casino, but still...?  And so since she didn't know what had happened to them, she claimed they had been "stolen."

     Is it really the alcohol that does these kind of things to people here?  Or is it somehow Vegas itself?  One guy had paid a hooker $2,000 to "hang out with him."  He didn't care about the $2,000, but instead was mad that she had taken a $50 jacket when she left his room.  Of course his passport was in the jacket.  When they sent me to talk to the guy, he said she had "just left the room."  Ok, if she had just left, why didn't he stop her and say, "Hey, that's my jacket!  You can't have that!"  Or maybe he could have asked for his passport back?  Ah, who cares?  If he can afford $2,000 for a hooker, he can buy another passport, right?  Hooray, problem solved!

     Not to get off the subject, but $2,000 for a hooker who steals your jacket?  Isn't that kind of...expensive?  And to pay her to just "hang out?"  Wow.  I wonder how much I could get to hang out?  Could he have maybe rented a more expensive hotel room and then paid say $300 to have a hooker steal his jacket?  I'm positive I can find him a fabulous suite here in a really upscale place for $1,700!  But no, he wanted the $80 room and the $2,000 hooker.  I just don't understand society.

     I've just come back from a trip to Idaho and Utah.  I couldn't believe how different the driving is there!  I come back to Vegas and the other night some guy was giving me the finger as he zoomed past me.  I guess I wasn't going fast enough for him.  It was funny to watch him talk on his cell phone, flip me off, and then almost wreck his car as he tried to get on a freeway onramp.  Maybe he was in a hurry to get a $2,000 hooker? 

     After reading all my old blogs that are now going into a book, I realized I haven't written in the same blogging "style" I did back then for a while.  I think they were really funny, and am going to try and get back to that type of chaotic humor.  Besides, blogging is a good writing exercise for me!

You can't go home again - Highland reunion

     I just got back from a trip to Pocatello, Idaho where I grew up.  I went back for a 25 year high school graduating class reunion.  Did I have a good time?  I've been told you can never go home.  I've always wondered about that.  So what did I find when I went back?  Well..I guess I should start at the beginning:

     I planned out my little trip for three days and two nights.  I would fly into Salt Lake City, Utah and then drive a rental car back to Pocatello.  I figured I could fly in Thursday morning, make the drive, and then after getting the lay of the land, still have Friday to run around during the day before the runion!  What fun, right?  Unfortunately there isn't that much to see in Pocatello.  But still, I was excited for my trip.  I got to the airport and had my boarding pass and couldn't wait to get to Salt Lake!

     Nice view, huh?  One of these big planes has to be my flight!  I'm all worked up, but when I get to my gate, there's no plane there.  Eventually, they announce the plane is on it's way and will be on time.  Pretty soon this tiny, little plane shows up and hooks up to the skyway.  It's so small, it doesn't even hook up right to the skyway!  We're told to "watch our step" as we get on because the plane is not quite hooked all the way to the skyway!  I climb on the tiny plane and it ends up being delayed by about a half hour.  And then it was delayed another 20 minutes when we got to Salt Lake City because there was no one to hook the skyway up to the plane there.  I guess no one knew we were coming!  I hate airlines!

     Anyway, I get off the plane and head towards where the signs say the rental cars are so I can pick my car up.  I've already checked in online a few days ago and should just be able to use a terminal and then get my car!  After walking about a mile through this huge airport, I finally find the Hertz desk.  I find the terminal.  I go through everything and it prints out a locating for my car.  I ended up with an SUV.  Now I wander around in a rental car parking lot for a half hour trying to find the damned thing!  When I find it, I can't get in because I have NO KEYS!  Now the trip is going down hill fast.  I go back and wait in a long line at Hertz for the clerk to tell me "Oh, I'm sorry sir, you should have just told one of us you needed keys and we would have gotten them for you."   I thought I was using a terminal so I wouldn't have to DEAL WITH ANY PEOPLE!  Anyway, I get keys and go out to the SUV.  It's really nice and even had satellite radio!  The station was set on an "all 80's" station!  Things are looking up now!

     I grab something to eat at a place called Crown Burger and head for Pocatello.  I notice how polite people are on the roads here.  Even in Idaho, no one was tailgaiting me, most people were going the speed limit.  Going from Vegas to there was like going into a traffic Twilight Zone!  It was really nice to be around people who have manners, though!  I find my way to Poky and check in at the Ramada Inn.  It was one of the cheapest places I could find in town, but it was clean, and quiet, and that's all I needed!

     The tv didn't have HBO, but it did at least have basic cable.  Not a big problem since I hadn't planned on spending too much time in the room anyway.  Time to go and find my old high school!  So I drive up the road touring the town.  Most of the town seems to be under road construction.  It's all blocked off, but nobody seems to be working on anything.  Typical.  Eventually I think I've found my way to where "Bench Road" was.  Now it seems to be called "Chubbuck Road."  It's in Pocatello and called Chubbuck Road.  Or is this the right road?  I follow the road up and can't find Highland.  Now that I'm pretty lost, I drive around and look at the nice houses.  FINALLY, I find Highland...sort of.  The &^%$ing road's blocked off!  I can only look at the stupid school beyond this cement blockade!

     I don't know how to get around this.  I think seriously about just driving the rental SUV over the curb and trying to pass it, but I can't seem to find enough room to actually do it.  PHOOEY!  (Some people reading this might not like a string of profanity, so I'll just use phooey)  I'm supposed to meet a friend for dinner, so I'll just go back to the hotel and wait for that.  My friend is someone I've known since 4th grade.  I never really talked to her in school, but ended up getting to know her on facebook.  (Hi Melina!)  Yes, it's Melina Murphy Lindholm!  I meet her for dinner and we discuss several rumors.  No, I won't tell you the rumors.  Small town stuff.  *chuckle*  She's shocked when I tell her I wonder what it would take to get thrown out of the Ramada Inn.  Not that it's a bad hotel, I just wonder what lengths I'd have to go to for a motel in this small town to ask me to leave.

     Yes, I realize all this is boring.  Skip ahead to the short videos is you want to.  After dinner when I get back to the motel, I notice the door I usually go into to get to my room is broken.  Broken as if someone tried to punch their way through the glass.  FABULOUS!  Now I wonder if the SUV is safe here at night!  Should I call and tell the front desk?  No, I figured they'll find out soon enough.  When I get up Friday morning and come downstairs to check out more of Pocatello though, I can't use the door anymore.  Looks like someone did find out about it.

     So now I have to figure out something to do until the reunion at 7 pm.  I drive around the town again and go into Walmart.  I go into this place called "Fred Meyer."  That one used to be the Pocatello Mall!  Now it's this huge...store!  And right at the entrace is a vending machine that sells lottery tickets!  I'm sure all you people in Idaho are used to that (Just like I'm used to the slot machines in the airport and everywhere else here), but for me, it's really neat to see!  I wonder if a million dollar ticket is inside it? 

     Ok, enough bologna about my tour around Poky.  Yes, it brought back a few old memories, things I hadn't thought about for years, but nobody cares about that, right?  Well, probably nobody reading this.  So, on to the reunion!  I really wonder what's going to happen there.  I haven't seen these people in 25 years, and wasn't really Mr. popular back then, either.  At least I'll have Melina coming to keep me company.  So I show up and there's only one other person there.  The senior cheerleader/homecoming queen.  I try to talk to her, but she won't have anything to do with me.  Why you stuck up...^&%$  (&%^$#&  ()&%%* (I'm sure you can figure out what that means.)  She can't even be polite enough to shake my hand and say "Wow, how've you been?"  So now I'm not real happy.  You can see the homecoming...girl...in the blue shirt with her back to me.  No, I don't know who that is coming in the door.  I was a bit early, and this is right around 7pm when the reunion was supposed to start.

     Scott Rees is there and comes over to shake my hand.  Good guy.  Chris Ostler shows up, he helped organize the whole thing, he shakes my hand and at least pretends to be happy to see me.  He came from Vegas too, and I ask him what he does now.  He's an accountant and mentions it's funny we've never run into each other, but also says he doesn't get to Luxor much.  I smile and tell him we don't really run in the same circles, especially with him being an accountant.

     Another classmate talks to me.  Justine Weenig Rollins!  I do remember her from school.  I mention that nobody I ran with will probably show up.  I throw out the name "Ricky Guyette."  She remembers Ricky!  She's with another girl who's name I don't even remember!  Another shy, quiet classmate like I was.  I don't think too many people talked with her, either.  Oh well, we can't all be popular, can we? 

     Another guy shakes my hand, his nametag says "John."  But John who?  I can't even figure out who he is!  I ask who he is.  John Gansky..OHHH YEAH!  I remember him!  But...where's his hair?  He's comepletely bald now!  Shaves his head?  who knows.  He admits he only knew I was "Bob" from reading my nametag, too.  What fun, huh?  Steve Roberts shakes my hand.  He's changed a lot.  He has a ponytail.  A gray ponytail, and he's walking using a cane.  Wounded veteran.  He says he's now working with other vets, helping them out after they come home.  I'm proud of him, and part of me would like to ask how he was wounded, but I don't want to make him relive something unpleasant like that.  I just shake his hand and tell him it's good to see him.  Sorry, I didn't get pictures of John, or Steve.  Now more people are getting here and they're all breaking up into their little "clicks."  I see the former class president.  My conversation with her went like this:

"Hey, class president, right?"

"Yeah."

     That's it.  That's all there was to it.  Now I'm not real happy.  Nobody's talking to me so I sit down and pout.  I use my phone and text Melina and ask where the hell she is so I'll have somebody to talk to!  (Meanwhile, both Scott and Chris work the room.  I note they talk to everyone!)  I text Melina and tell her I'm going to go over and put my face into the spinach dip.  Next I send her a note that says I see a cop outside the window and am going to moon him!  (Surprisingly, I was told John Gansky is a police detective.  I wonder if he's carrying?)  Melina and her husband finally show up.  By now I'm sitting at a table with some other guys who really aren't talking to a whole lot of people either.  I don't know who the hell they are.  They talked to me for a bit, but I still don't know who they are.  WAIT A MINUTE...I do know one of them!  It's Shawn Gunter!  Where the hell is his hair?  WOW!  A very nice, really short, military haircut.  He looks good, though!  Sorry, no picture of him either.

    

     More video.  You can see the guys at my table.  The people I can recognize here are: Mark Linkholm (Melina's husband), Scott Rees, Shawn Gunter, Melina Murphy Lindholm (I don't know who she's talking to, though...Hydee Allen, maybe?).  And setting at the table in the backround is, I think...Robbie England?  (That's who Melina told me it was), and Dawn Morrell, though I don't know if you can see her too well.  I know she was sitting at that table, too.  (By the way, she did say hello to me and give me a hug!  Thanks, Dawn!)  I didn't get Dawn's picture either.  But the hug did mean a lot!  Thanks, sweetie.

     Now Melina keeps asking me if I know who some of these people are.  I know the names, but can't recognize too many of them.  She points out a girl and says, "You remember Jennifer, right?"  I look over and it hits me, Jennifer Bybee!  WOW, she hasn't changed a bit!  She still looks almost like she did in high school!  (You looked fantastic, Jennifer!)  She comes over and says she recognized me right off, too!  I get her to let me take a shot of her and Melina.

     Last, but certainly not least, Wendy Chase Prescott came over to talk to me!  Loud music, and we couldn't really hear each other too well.  But it was a nice chat anyway.  And yes Wendy, I'll send you a note about hooking you up when you're ready to come to Vegas!  I did appreciate you talking to me.  She looks quite a bit the same, too! 

     All in all, it was a fun trip.  I did see Niki Sherer, but didn't make the effort to talk to her.  I am sorry Niki, you know how pig headed men can be, right?  I know I should have made the effort to say hello.  I promise to talk to you at the 50 year reunion.  You looked great, though!  One final video of the reunion.  I just stood in the back of the room and filmed for a few seconds.  Feel free to see if you recognize anyone.

    

     On Saturday, after the reunion, I drove back to Salt Lake City for my flight home.  I woke up early and was on the road by about 6am.  I visited the Mormon Temple because you just have to do that when you're in Salt Lake City!  (At least I do.  Come on, it's a landmark!)  I went to the Zoo, and checked out an outdoor mall.  Nothing really exciting before I came home, except for one last story.  Skip this if you're squeemish about animals.  *chuckle*  (Yes, I know, now it's like a trian wreck and you have to read it!)  I was looking in the gorilla enclosure at the zoo.  I see the gorilla laying in an odd position right near the glass.  It looks...well...dead.  A sign nearby says they just had to "put down" a gorilla because it had cancer.  No...they did NOT put a dead gorilla in the enclosure!  I can't BELIEVE this!  I take a picture of it and get out my video camera.  I'll just post the picture, though.  While I'm narrating and saying I'm not sure if the gorilla is alive or not, it moved it's arm and scared the hell out of me!  *chuckle*  I guess he was just napping.

     For all my classmates who read this, yes, what you see here is all the video and pictures I took at the reunion.  Not much, I know.  But then I was busy pouting most of the night, remember?  *chuckle*  If you came and we didn't get a chance to talk, don't worry about it.  I'm pretty anti-social usually.  And if you didn't come, maybe you can make the next reunion?  I can then pout and ignore you then.  Take care everyone, and hopefully we'll all make the next reunion. 

Writing the Moops

     What is writing, really?  It's basically using our imagination to tell a story.  That's it.  I see the story in my head and transfer it to paper.  Or in my case, I type it up on a computer and it gets transfered to paper later.  But it's basically just creating characters and then telling what happens to them.  I recently bought a game called "The Sims 3."  I bought the first Sims game when it came out years ago and it was fun.  Well, not fun, but kind of addicting.  It's the same with the third version.  You create some people, and direct their lives.  In a way, I guess telling some video person when to take a bath, or go to the bathroom might sound boring.  But some of the things that happen...well, let me just blog here a bit about the Sims I created:

     Meet Grezelda Moop.  She's fat, blue, and evil.  Yes, evil.  You can give them traits and one of her traits is that she's evil.  I'm still not sure how this plays out in the game, but I'm sure I'll find out.  Or not, it doesn't matter.  It's still fun to make a blue woman who is evil, and insane.  Yes, also the insane trait.

     It seems you need sim money if your sims want to eat, and buy things, just like in the real world!  So, of course, you have to get them a job.  I decided that since she's fat (and blue) she must like to eat.  So I found her a job at a local restaurant.  I figured since she was evil, she should dig in the trash a bit before her first day of work.  How many people do this in real life?  Be careful where you eat.

     Yes, that's a bikini she's wearing.  Actually, it's her underwear.  Being insane, she wears what she wants, where she wants.  Except for work, she does have work clothes.  At least for now.

Meanwhile, her sister Emily lives with her.  I decided to make Emily a nice, friendly, blonde girl.  She's the one on the left in the blue dress with the flower in her hair.  She was nice and went out to meet some of the neighbors while Grazelda stayed at home and yelled at the furniture.  She's a boring writer, so we'll forget her...at least for now.

     So on they went with their little sim lives.  Emily working hard at writing and painting, and Grazelda...well...once while trying to cook dinner she set the stove on fire...

     The game told me she wanted to see a ghost so I sent her to the town's graveyard at night.  She didn't see any ghosts, but she did meet a nice man there.  Being evil and insane, of course she slapped him around.

     Since she was fat, I thought it might be funny to make Grazelda work out.  I had her do some aerobics in front of the tv at first...

     It just made her need a bath.  Next, I sent her to a local gym thinking it would be funny to see her on a treadmill.  It was...after she got going, she fell and was dragged for a bit!

Yes, she's still in her underwear.  But then, after a bit at the gym, she actually lost some weight!  I couldn't believe it!  So I sent her to a "salon" for a makeover to see how much I could actually change her.  She's stuck with the blue skin, I guess a smurf is a smurf, but I ended up changing her hair, and how she dressed.

     And so the Moop family story goes on.  I keep finding new things for the characters to do, (or have done to them) and I think that's what's supposed to happen.  Grazelda made some grilled cheese sandwiches and left them out on the counter for a while.  Her blonde sister was hungry, so I had her eat some.  She ended up puking in the toilet.  If you look closely, you can see the green vomit between her head and the toilet!  Very neat!

     I guess this was pretty much a senseless blog, wasn't it?  I just thought I'd show off my blue woman.  *chuckle*  The next one I write should be about my high school reunion and all the blue women that attend that.  I honestly don't remember anyone being blue in high school, but you never know.  They might have turned blue in the last 25 years.  I'm sure I'll get all excited and post more about Grazelda and Emily.  I'm pretty much hooked watching them go about their lives (or whatever I tell them to do!  *chuckle*).