We finally made it through the woods of 100-degree face melting days. This almost perfect forecast indicates smooth sailing from here on out.

Wax on, wax awesome.

From a visit last month to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum on the Strip. Unexpectedly fun.

There is no shame in that I spent my Saturday night editing on iMovie.

TGIF

Awesome 50s-style cover of Oasis' Wonderwall. I did a little swivel chair dancing to it.

Choice blog

Many of you probably already know about the blog in which the writer chronicles her journey of getting an abortion. This has been quite the summer read for me.

The writer is 23 and is candid about her pregnancy, the backward abortion industry and the isolation she's faced exercising her right to choose..

So many people were alarmed by her blogging about such a sensitive topic but I find myself not only learning about the taboo topic but wanting to offer a hug and handshake to this brave woman.

I'm not using this blog as a political avenue or anything. I just urge you to read her posts and think about what we do as a society. She highlights how so many freedoms are coveted until someone tries to use it and the solutions to our problems are demanded but never brought to fruition. She's witty and conflicted and deeply honest and I respect the hell out of her.

I wonder how long she'll keep this blog up and I guess I don't care. It's just refreshing to see something brave and original hit my Google Reader each day.

Flight is booked!

Red eye flight. Layover in Minneapolis. Excitement at 30,000 feet.

I'll be home the second weekend in October and I'm beaming. I keep looking at the itinerary like a mother does to her newborn baby.

I kind of don't have any warmer clothes here so if I look like that fine dame on the plane home, it'll show this place has changed me.

i can hear you now

just when i was about to go around the newsroom switching everyone's ringtones to something quiet and not annoying, i heard the most delightful noise.

my editor has peter gabriel's "solisbury hill" as his ringtone. it is hands down my favorite song, a mix CD staple and a happily purchased ringtone in my phone. all is right in the world.

(because you care, my current ringtone is seu jorge's "carolina" but there are days that i switch it to the spinner's "rubberband man.")

Dolla Dolla Bills Ya'll

As we skid into another Great Depression, I am comforted by one thought. Good thing I ain't got no money for the Feds to take.

I wish I was rolling in Schrute bucks. (The Office season premiere is so close!) That would make my life so much easier.



It is a financial madhouse out there yet everyone in our generation is wigging out about new Facebook. Who am I kidding? I'm coveting my link to the old version while I can.

While on the topic of money, I finally saw Ocean's 11. Don't judge. I loved it and I fell BACK in love with the Bellagio after being in a temporary fight with it. I did take visitors there like 3 times last week. Still magical.

Super Sweet

If only her parents ate their young, THIS wouldn't have happened.

She will be so ashamed of this when she gets to college, tries to look for a job or has to contribute anything more than a sound bite to society. Her family looked so normal, too. I gave up on that show years ago, so I can't remember if I saw the original airing. But I saw her exiled and I wanted to box her ears.

I will admit that how she said "No Mama" made me almost pee my pants. My mother will be here in a week (so excited, just can't hide it) and I'm using that on her at some point.

My mind has been read

I think this very thought too often.

Homecoming

I'm visiting home in a month. I need it so bad.

I need to hang out with people with the last names Lillis, O'Rourke and Schoen or I just don't know what I'll do. The freak factor of this city limits what "going crazy" would be, so I'm at a loss.

I may be visiting East Lansing for a night but for now I just can't wait to fall asleep in my bedroom with light green walls with pink flowers and wake up to my mom cooking weekend breakfast while my dad reads the paper and my brother cackles to Comedy Central.

I'll be there for a wedding but I'm going to jam-pack as many visits as I can. Maggie will be back in the mitten this October. Watch out.

You've got to wake up pretty early in the morning to beat me to a story

About three weeks ago, the city editor asked if I would be willing to adopt a new 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. schedule so we could have someone scour night news and be available to post things to the Web on pace with our competitors. Sans editor, they were essentially handing Nevada’s largest newspaper over to their 22-year-old intern for three hours in the morning. Was this trust or a bitch move to the eager young person who has no family or otherwise consuming personal circumstances? That is a loaded question for which I’m still looking for an answer.

It took like two days for the shock to wear off. Now I’m to accentuating the positives of this new arrangement. So, in no particular order, here is why having a bedtime, too much responsibility and a screwed up eating schedule doesn’t entirely suck.

1. Sunrises over the mountains
2. Nobody is on the road when I drive in
3. I get the best parking spot
4. It’s very cool and calm in the morning
5. All of my east coast friends are on gchat anyway
6. I watch all of the morning news programs and music videos while sitting at my editor’s desk
7. I get the newsroom to myself (Risky business)
8. I get bigger, better stories for the day because I see them first
9. I technically get to leave at 3 p.m. but it never happens
10. I’m ROLLING in overtime hours. I hate forfeiting my stories and just choose to stay.
11. I’ve seen the Burger King people manually switch the menu from late night to breakfast menu
12. No traffic on the way home
13. I can get to the gym and grocery store when they're dead
14. Sympathy from my coworkers
15. One of the best resume builders I could ever ask for

I was tempted to steal a baby dolphin

I'm about to hit you with some cute overload.


FLIPPERS UP

Watch the video attached to the story, too.

Getting back into the groove

It's only 7:30 a.m. on this beautiful Monday morning and I've listened to THIS like 10 times.

May it be so noted

I'm considering donating my body to science after I die.

I want to know how I lived so long (or at all) on snack foods and occasional exercise. Plus, the Splenda tumor I will have from all this soda will be one for the record books.

Take today for instance. I started the day with a bowl of Cheerios. Great, grand.

The rest of the day was a slippery slope of crackers, Fig Newtons and Doritos all washed down with my life fuel, Diet Coke. I blame our cafeteria for not ordering any oranges or bananas this week. I have expressed my rage. to them.

Tonight doesn't fare well, either. I have a four and a half hour drive ahead and I can't really teeter a salad on my lap as I dream my way into California.

So if I die, figure out how I lived at all.

Pretty boy burglary

In my latest bought of celebrity crime stories, my hometown boy, boxer Floyd Mayweather had $7 million worth of jewelry stolen from his Las Vegas home.

The highlight of the story wasn't that I could be lead writer, no. It came when we watched a recent episode of MTV's Cribs where he showcased his lavish home and bragged about his baubles. But as he lead the crew through the front door, he stopped and said "You have to lock the house."

Somebody didn't follow their own advice, now did they?

To quote my coworker, "What kind of woman hoards $7 million in jewelry in her Summerlin home? Floyd Mayweather, that's who."

You heard it here first

Prediction: Everyone will go as The Joker a la The Dark Knight for Halloween this year.

I, however, will be in Vegas for this hallowed holiday and I fear how "slutty (blank) " is interpreted here. I bet going as a hooker or pimp will be popular and lucrative.