Smiles and dream jobs

This video made me smile.

Then it made me wonder.

I mean, that's a lot of places to travel to and a lot of work for approximately five seconds of video per place. And where did he find the people to dance with him?

Luckily, this youtube sensation has a website that explains it all. Stride gum sponsors Matt Harding's trips around the world, where he contacts his e-mail list of fans in every corner to show up and dance with him.

Dream job much?

Day 57: Clark County Class of '02 by the numbers

This past weekend I traveled to Kahoka, Mo., Peter's hometown of about 2,000, for his 5-year high school reunion and county fair.

At one point during the small reunion (out of a class of 67, only about 15 people showed up) the girl who organized it went through a list of everyone in the class and read updates she had gathered about them. Wow. Just, wow. In a surprising, sad, ridiculous way. Here's the (estimated) stats:

Marriages: 15
Divorces: 4
Double divorces: 1 (yes, a 23-year-old has been divorced twice)
Jailed classmates: Currently 2; a guy showed up who had previously been in jail though
Kids: 40? Maybe? There were a lot, that's all I know. Most did not include a marriage. Some had as many as three kids. And some raise kids from their husband/boyfriend's previous escapades too.
Flying J employees: 2 or 3; yes, there were several people who did not come to the reunion who worked at the Flying J gas station about 2 miles away.
Classmates who drove the 195 miles to the reunion on a motorcycle and possibly carried their 2-year-old with them: 1

Now, my class is two years younger than Peter's, but our current stats include one engagement and one baby, as far as I know. That's out of 308 classmates. Two different worlds.

Day 35: Bright lights

I've been back for a week now, but let me backtrack and write about Vegas.

O.
M.
G.
It was unreal. I didn't really have a clear picture of what I expected it to be like, but Vegas definitely exceeded whatever smoky image was in my head. Mom, Amanda, Mrs. Jacobs and I stayed at the Paris, where the inside feels like outside on a partly cloudy French day and the outside feels like you're at the Eiffel Tower except in the middle of the desert (yes, 100+ degree heat).

Speaking of Eiffel Tower, I ate probably one of the nicest meals of my life in the Eiffel Tower restaurant, which is about a quarter of the way up in the tower. A host in a cocktail dress greeted us at the elevator and after we told her we'd never been there before she said, "Oh. Well, you're in for a treat!" Truer words have never been spoken by a restaurant hostess. We sat in a horseshoe shaped booth with a view of the Bellagio water show out the window. The waiter put my napkin in my lap for me and recommended a glass of the best wine I've ever tasted (note to self: Pino Noir).

We saw Cirque de Solei: LOVE. Wow. Just, wow. It was set to remixed, insane Beatles music and it blew my mind. Humans can do THAT with their bodies?? Preposterous! They were like human jumping beans popping up and down on stage, throwing themselves against walls and climbing, twisting, flying, flipping, skating, gyrating.... just doing the most unimaginable things. So funky and fresh.

Overall Amanda and I got carded about 294,930 times. It's okay though. I'm legal and proud.

Our first day in Vegay we were wandering around the Bellagio feeling thoroughly amazed, yet out of place, and I decided, what the heck, I'm shootin' some craps. I had just learned how on the plane ride there thanks to a handy tutorial Mom printed out before we left. While I was losing $5 chip after $5 chip, behind me Mom, Mrs. Jacobs and Amanda could not contain their giggles and whispers. "WHAT?!" I hissed. "We'll tell you later, just keep playing." I couldn't wait till later. I ditched my game.

There was a $100 chip - yes, a single chip worth one hundred dollars - laying on the floor about two feet away from them. What a terrible, wonderful situation to be in. What do you do? Do you pick it up? Do you ask the person standing next to it (a 7-foot tall black guy with crazy white pants and a golf hat on) if it's theirs? Do you ignore it? Tell a casino worker? Step on it then sneakily pick it up? Drop a $5 chip next to it and "accidentally" grab them both? What a conondrum!

In the end, Mrs. Jacobs was honest. She tapped the basketball-player-like guy on the back and informed him he must have dropped it. "Oh," he said nonchalantly. "You can have it?" he offered, holding the chip out to Mrs. J. Was this some sort of joke? She just stared at him, and he said, "Well if I this wins, it's yours," and proceeds to place it as a bet on the 12. The TWELVE! Practically the worst odds on the whole table. Jeez! Less than two seconds later our $100 chip was gone. Lost. In an instant. He shrugged.

Rich bastard. She should've taken it when he offered.

Day 23: I'm going to Vegas, baby!

Yes, I am. Tomorrow right after work (if I can make it to the airport on time... unless I leave work early, I have 50 minutes to drive there from downtown, park in the Economy Lot (it's amazing and only $5 a day), take the shuttle to the airport, check my bags and board. All this in rush hour traffic.) I leave for Chicago, then early Friday morn it's off to Sin City. What a horrible name for a city. I'm really not sure how to pack for a Vegas adventure, so I kind of just threw a bunch of cute tops and a variety of skirts/bermudas/pants in my suitcase and I'm hoping my outfits will all come together somehow. We're only there for three days so I'm sure I'll have plenty (except for that one thing I never wear and didn't think to pack but for some reason really want to wear in Vegas).

Below are some recent greeting cards. Consider it the start of my portfolio. Right now I don't have much of a repertoire to show for the Ali Arts line of card creations because although I've been hand making all my cards since about junior year of high school, well, I've given all the cards away gosh darnit. I make them on a need basis, meaning when it's someone's birthday or a holiday, I make a card. Then I give it to them. Complex, I know. So from now on I'm going to photograph my cards before I send them so I can have some sort of portfolio in case I ever want to go into business (a mini-dream I've always had). Disclaimer: The photo quality of these is absolutely atrocious since I have mine shaft lighting in my room and camera flashes don't do the cards justice.