God I Hate Blogger

I will try to fix those photos later.

Sorry

Willie (the real story)

Ok, well I guess I said in the last post that we had blogged about Willie before. Jaime informs me that I was wrong (something she does A LOT).

So anyway, from the beginning. I was assigned to run the campaign for the piece of legislation we are hoping to get passed in Georgia. We don't do a lot of legislation at Best Friends (there are others doing it, and doing it well), but this is something that is important to an Attorney that works for us, so here we are. I am actually really glad to be doing it. Even though it has been a long time since Georgia was my home, I still feel pretty connected to the place. So to be able to work on things in Georgia that I am passionate about is like double the fun.

SO.....we get the campaign going, figuring things out, and before we know it one of the founders of Best Friends says he thinks he can get Willie to help us out. Francis has spent a good part of the lsat few years focused on the Los Angeles programs we have, including hob nobbing with the rich and famous at our annual Lint Roller Party. So no surprise he knows a guy like that. Different skills I guess (I mean, I got married at the Governor's Mansion, but I don't know Willie).

The deal was set that we (the video folks and I) would meet Willie before his show at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, pop onto the bus, and have him record several public service announcements.

Luckily we arranged that Jaime could also come, and my boss and her husband came along. What we wanted I think was that we could all squeeze onto the bus, but the thing, although nice, was just a luxury coach. Not the biggest of aisles etc.

Here is my wonderful wife in front of his airbrushed custom tour bus....



Please note (if you can see it), the horse art on the side of the bus. Willie has fought for the horses for a long time.

So the actual shoot was really hurried. We had enough time because Willie nailed each take, but there was not a lot of time for chit chat. You know, I think everyone would have their idea of what it would be like to sit down and just chat with him if you know what I mean. Alas, we did not get that, but before we knew it, it was time for him to go on!

We to be honest did not have enough fancy armbands for everyone, so we were unsure of exactly how it would go. Actually we thought that ony some of us would get in! But again, before we knew it, one of his security guys said, "if you're gonna watch the show from backstage you gotta go now." So we all follow and get put just to the right of willie, right off the stage!

Sorry about these photos, they really are bad. Our camera was not so good considering the guy was like 10 feet away....


At points during the show he would tie on one of his many bandanas, wear it for a song, and then throw it into the crowd.



I mean the guy played for like two hours straight. For sure Jaime and felt like true VIP's!

Also, we didn't realize this at the time, but we were also backstage with a personal friend of Willie's who is also a legend.


Don't know if you can see the sliver of face off to the left, but that is Don Cherry. He was a 50's crooner who was most famous for his song Band of Gold. He is also famous for being the only person to have a top ten hit, and finish in the top ten in the US Open of golf in the same year.


So anyway, sorry for the long post, but it really was pretty damn cool!

As I said in the previous post the PSA is now out, and getting media play all over the place.

Willie Nelson!!

We've chatted about Willie before on this humble little blog. I have been working my little tail off this weekend along with many of my colleagues to get this together! The Atlanta Journal Constitution ran with the story on the 23rd, and then the story hit the AP wire which meant outlets across the country from CNN to Rolling Stone picked up the story!

Here is the video, please watch it and go to You Tube to favorably rate and comment on it!

Our first turkey free Thanksgiving (am I a tree hugger?)

The minute we began work for Best Friends Animal Society we gave up meat. It just seemed like the right thing to do. I mean how could I on one hand work for an organization that promotes "kindness to animals" and then slap a big steak on the grill?

Since then I have really enjoyed not eating meat. I feel A LOT healthier, and I think I have lost weight (by doing nothing else except giving up meat). We occasionally eat fish, and to be honest eating out can be hard so sometimes the choices are very limited (for example my family took me to a chicken restaurant called Roasters last week).

Anyway we went off to St. George this weekend to buy supplies for T-giving. Jaime's parents are coming down and Jen and Daron and Jen's parents will also be coming over. We have the tofurkey's and I really am anxious to try it.

One thing I never want to be is preachy. I feel like we all have our own personal convictions in life, and who am I to say what someone should or should not believe in? I mean we should all feel for and advocate for companion animals....who couldn't love a dog? But I suppose there are those people who see turkeys as just dumb animals who don't feel like other animals. That's fine but I would have to disagree.


This is Luna

We will be adopting turkey's for our families this year. The Farm Sanctuary provides a great program to care for those birds that have been lucky enough to be rescued from breeding facilities and slaughter houses. You can even choose which bird you would like to adopt.

Oh I should also mention that my father now believes I am a tree hugger.

I guess I am.

A long week...

I was in Atlanta all week for work. It was a really good trip in terms of work as we now can start formulating plans to get the campaign for SB 16 going. The amount of work is starting to dawn on me and it will be a huge undertaking, but I think we can really do some good.

I flew Spirit Airlines which is a super cheap-o airline where literally nothing is included. Want a coke? Pay two bucks. Not even a barf bag available should you need one.

Doing the cheap-o airline was good because it saved money but the times of the flights were terrible! I had to fly back late last night not landing in Vegas until midnight. Once I grabbed my bag, made my way to the car it was almost 1am, which is 2am Utah time. Three and a half hours back it was close to 6am by the time I rolled in.

Once I got out of Vegas and the highway was dark it started to get a little scary. I got almost no sleep on the flight back and I could feel myself getting drowsy. Once I hti Mesquite I realized I needed to so something to wake up. I stopped at a gas station and grabbed a mtn. dew. Still feeling tired I thought I would go blow the 20 bucks I had in my wallet (thinking a nasty loud casino might just get me going)



So I ended up at the Virgin River Casino and in front of a Monoply 2 cent machine. Honestly in two minutes I won 200 bucks! Quickly cashed out and made my way home. That's one way to wake up!!

Who Says Mormons Don't Have a Sense of Humor?

So I went for the obligatory female checkup today, and I had to chuckle. In a town (entire county even!) that is purportedly over 80% Mormon, on the ceiling above the examination table (positioned so that the patient would have a perfect view lying horizontally from said table) was this poster:

I am not a crazy huge fan of Orlando Bloom, although I have certainly seen less appealing images. I, for one would have preferred something with a vista or mountain scene (a setting sun in the Cook Islands perhaps?) But I still had to laugh. At times this place is so surreally serendipitous.

That's Life.......(and radio)

I wasn't happy at my previous job. It was a whole host of reasons, and I think really I just needed a change from radio. That being said there were certainly other factors about the situation at that time that just made my workplace an uncomfortable place to be.

I wasn't the only one that felt that way, others also did not like the environment and made their decisions to leave. In fact it was enough of the original team that people would mention to me that the show just wasn't the same. Now it really won't be the same.

The show's host, Michael Castner, of E! and KFI fame was fired yesterday I guess. The show from inception had been funded seperately by a generous grant from the board. Now that money was up, and they said that the show needed to make its own money and survive. The "official" word is that it was budget reasons that he was let go. I will say one thing, the show won't be the same without him. No matter what happened he was good at what he did.

Apparently though, he doesn't have any love for me....

Check out Frost's blog at the City Weekly....

Root Canal Day!

Everyone rejoice! The root canal is over.

And yes, it was horrible.

Just for reference I thought I would show these lovely things.



Those are apparently known as root canal files. So after they whack out a big hole in the tooth, they measure just to see how far they gotta dig in. Then they go in with those medieval looking shards of metal and pull out the nervy bit (I should have been a dentist).

I made the mistake during the procedure of opening my eyes. Not something I normally do, and now I remember why. I look up and see one of those files in the dentists hand. Maybe it was just the moment but I swear to god it was an inch long. Oh I should also mention that the novacaine wasn't working so well so when he was shoving a file down in two of the canals it hurt like a mother fu&$#%.