Miranda...oops! I mean Melinda

I'm sitting up late and waiting for my laundry to get done. I've considered leaving it in the laundry room overnight and going to bed. But I've had my skivvies stolen (no joke!) on more than one occasion so I don't really feel like taking that risk tonight. For a funny true story about stolen underwear go here.

So here I am, googling aimlessly and checking my Facebook (add me!) every ten minutes. I'm on my fourth second cup of coffee (of course) and I am getting rather bored.

Tim's still up with me, he's sitting over there in the living room watching CNN. Naturally I've heard the same 3 stories now two or three times. You know how CNN is right? It's all on rotation. Currently I'm listening to one story that I am so sick of hearing about. You've probably already guessed, but that story I'm referring to is the Michael Jackson's death investigation story. Man. That Larry King is sure eating it up too. You'd think that Larry, being as old and (seemingly) distinguished as he is, would have better things to talk about. Like oh I don't know, the war in Iraq/Afghanistan?...maybe the 3 hikers being held in Iran or even the reality show murderer guy... at least Anderson Cooper talked about those stories right before this. But nope. Instead Larry, looking meticulously fastidious in his usual suspenders and colorful tie, is questioning some unheard of dude about one of Michael's many doctors that may or may not have had something to do with his death. ugh!

*stepping off my soap box*

Guess what I'm listening to? Apparently Third Eye Blind has a new album. Didn't know this until about 20 minutes ago. It's called Ursa Major, it's pretty good, as far as Third Eye Blind goes. I used to listen to them a lot, so this brings me back to my "college days". One thing is for sure, you can definitely tell who you're listening to. Stephan Jenkins has a distinctive voice, and Third Eye Blind in general has a pretty distinctive sound. The song Summer Town on Ursa Major, definitely has a beat that is reminiscent of Semi-Charmed Life. Which I don't really mind so much because that song rocks my socks! OK........

...crickets chirping...

I left for a moment but I am back. I've gone and found Semi-Charmed Life to rock out to. I can't sit here and talk about that song without hearing it! This song definitely strikes the memory nerve. When I moved to Seattle for school, I encountered many things for the first time. One thing that is odd, but I think is cool, is my first experience with REAL radio stations. Good ones compared to Juneau's offerings. I found a station that played top hits (of course) and I listened to that station a lot. This song was on a seriously heavy rotation at the time...

*cue the dream sequence*

In college I shared an apartment with two girls from Moses Lake, Washington. I wasn't arriving in Seattle until 2 days before orientation. But their parents were driving them in a week early to set up the apartment. (side note: AIS didn't really have dorms, they leased apartments around town. I got placed in some apartments about 20 minutes from the school. The funny part? My particular place happened to be one of about 15-20 apartments leased by AIS in a complex made up mostly of retirees and middle aged professionals. haha those poor old people) My two future roommates called me one day before I left Juneau to ask what things I'd be contributing to the new digs. My answer? pretty much nothing, I had a microwave. This didn't seem to upset them. Apparently their parents were providing the essentials.

Actual apartments people!! I googled them!

Now, I'm not sure you can tell from my previous history lessons on me. This information will be needed at a later point in the story so pay attention: I might have been what you would have called "preppy" or maybe even "girlie". My personal tastes at the time included the colors purple, pink, blue and white. So when I'd gone to Bed Bath & Beyond with my aunt to pick out my new bedroom supplies these are the colors I went with.

Finally the big day arrived and I walked into my very first apartment. I opened the door and met my new roommates. Melinda and Megan....and their parents....and their siblings...and their boyfriends. I only got a few moments to drop off my stuff in the entry way and then we ALL went out to dinner. (It's funny. Now knowing Seattle the way I do, it turns out that we couldn't have picked one further away. I didn't realize how absurd this was at the time, but we went to dinner about 40 minutes away...because we just drove until something looked good. It's a wonder we found our way back.)

After the families dropped us off and left for their hotel, I finally walk into my new place and get my the tour. They kindly let me have the second, smaller bedroom for myself. Being the best friends that they were, they decided to share the master bedroom with 2 beds in it. Awesome. Sort of. I really liked that I got my own room but for some reason my room had a weird wall. Let me explain: this wall wasn't really a wall, it was an accordion style door that ran the entire length of the wall against the living room. I am not really sure why this door existed but it did.

Speaking of the living room. As soon as entered it I got a taste of my new roomies' preferences. On the wall above the fireplace was what would be Halloween decorations in any other person's home. However we were a month away from said holiday, and just to clear things up? The plastic spider and web were still up when I left for Christmas vacay. Our couch was a chaise style (kinda cool actually) black and I think beige...but the actual color escapes me now. I was able to deal thankfully I didn't have to live with the rest of the decor that clued me into their "goth" style. Most of the skulls and other nonsense was in their room.

Megan dated a nice guy named Lloyd. He was kinda quiet like Megan, and compared to Melinda they hardly made a sound. She was loud and obnoxious (nice most of the time, but obnoxious). Melinda's boyfriend I never saw after the first night because he went back to Moses Lake.

I remember I'd begun to get settled in and Melinda apparently had a problem with my "perkiness" and the brightness of my belongings. I couldn't help but overhear her complaining to Megan outside of my open bedroom door (hard to miss, which I think was her point). "She's just so bright! I mean look at her room it's like rainbows and sunshine! blah blah blah!" haha it's kind of funny now but at the time I was offended. It wasn't like I was imposing my style on them (cough cough), it was all confined to my room. Thankfully, Megan felt the same way as me and told Melinda to cool off.

We got along fairly well, I don't want to decieve you with such a silly story. That was just one of my funny anecdotes about Melinda.

Megan wasn't my roommate for long. She got "sick" after breaking up with Lloyd and decided she missed Moses Lake. She dropped out and it was just me and Melinda. and.... Lloyd. Apparently in Moses Lake, it's OK to share your bff's bf. Because Melinda and Lloyd hooked up and he practically moved in. We didn't get a new roommate since we were still only about 2 or 3 weeks into school and no one new was enrolling at that point.

Which leads me to story number 2:

I began to get comfy in my surroundings. Lloyd, as I mentioned, was thuper nice. He always made a point to include me in what ever. I'm not sure Melinda appreciated that. Lloyd hung out a lot and the two of us would play Nintendo together while Melinda was at work or even if she was there. I usually tried to give them some space....

So one evening I was playing video games with him and we were having friendly conversation when Melinda came home. I decided to leave them alone and head off to my room. He told me there was no reason to leave, but I never liked the whole "third wheel" feeling, so I declined. A few moments later I was lying in my bed about to put my headphones on when I hear the two of them talking. I missed the first part of the conversation, but came in somewhere around Lloyd saying "she's not so bad"....silence....and then Melinda shrieking/laughing "You like her don't you?!?!" followed by a hissing shh sound. Lloyd didn't appear to like her tormenting teasing him about this considering the short proximity (remember, weird wall/door folks?). This convo piqued my interest so I perked up, but alas, her shriek had all but ended it. All I heard after that was "you do don't you?" and "shut up".

Just to make another thing clear, she was teasing him because she found this hilarious. She wasn't threatened, or at least didn't sound it at that moment...

Alas, my friendship/roomateship with Melinda ended not too long after that. I went home in December for winter break and came home to a new girl, Andrea. I walked into my apartment to find that Andrea was moving my things into the big bedroom, in fact she was just about finished when I walked in. She appeared normal in the looks department, and it didn't look like I'd be hearing any complaints about my color choices... however, the bitch was touching my stuff! I asked her what was going on, and where Melinda was.

Apparently Melinda dropped out over break, and being the beginning of a new semester the school was moving her in. Andrea had actually moved in over the break as Melinda was moving out. Maybe as one last dig at me (or maybe she was jealous after all!) Melinda told Andrea I'd wanted the big room all along so to go ahead and move my stuff.

Really I didn't mind too much. I got over the initial shock of it all, and it didn't look like we'd be getting a third roommate so I got the big room to myself (whew!). Plus I was actually excited to meet her because she seemed more like me.

Little did I know that I'd soon really miss Melinda...

But that my friends is a whole other story.

*side note*

About 4 years ago I walked into Pagliacci Pizza on Mercer Ave in Seattle. I was pushing my baby boy in his stroller, he must have been just a couple months old at the time. I walk up to pay for my order, and who should be the cashier??? MELINDA! Of course, I couldn't quite remember her name (I called her Miranda...oops!) in fact I started typing Miranda several times in this post before I realized my mistake. haha. She recognized me, but couldn't recall my name, so I reminded her. She actually came over to my table shortly after. We caught up for a minute or two. Turns out after she'd dropped out she'd never gone home to Moses Lake. She got married to someone a few years before our encounter and she also had one or two kids. And yes, I asked whatever happened to Lloyd (I couldn't resist!)...she looked at me weirdly "Lloyd? Wow I haven't thought about him in years!" She didn't know what had become of him.

*end side note*

I mentioned to Tim earlier that it is sad I have no pictures to document this short time in my life. I moved to Seattle in early October and was gone by the following February. And even though this was a rough period in my life emotionally, I still have some fond memories. I didn't make life long friends with my first roommates, but I will always remember them. I have only one picture of my dear roomie Melinda. It is her senior picture that for some reason she felt the need to give to me shortly after we'd met. Sorry folks, outta respect for her I won't post it. Since I don't speak with her I can't get her permission. Too bad for you, cuz it's a doozy!

Night y'all!

Totally Awkward Tuesday!

Have you ever had an awkward moment? You are probably thinking who hasn't?... But how many of you take your awkward moments and then tell the world about them? Well, I'm about to do just that, I'm going to follow the lead of one of my really awesome friends out there in blogger-land. Tova has taken your average Tuesday and turned them into Totally Awkward Tuesdays, which is an idea that I really like because let's face it: I have many awkward moments. Many of them would probably create much amusement for you all, so consider yourselves lucky! If this works out well, I may just do it on a regular basis.

For the last couple of weeks Tova has actually gone back in time and talked about awkward moments of years past, specifically middle school crushes. And oh. my. gosh! Were they funny. But guess what Tova? I have one of those too! (and by the way, I had the same creepy stalker type crushes as you girl! But those stories are for another post)

A post or two ago I briefly mentioned a long time (my all time favorite!) crush I had on D.P (I will never forget him... You think I am still too obsessive about him don't you?). The crush developed in 6th grade when we reunited in middle school (we'd previously been in the same 2nd grade class, but I didn't have those feelings then).

D.P was the ultimate. He was popular, super cute (in my opinion) and totally unattainable (for me). He was going out with a girl named Gretchen (bane of my 6th grade existence).


Jeez! Hold on, the awkward moment comes soon, I'm just giving you the back story!


So a couple years go by and we're in 8th grade. Every couple of weeks the school threw what they called weekenders, which really were just after school dances with half the gym reserved for basketball and the other half for dancing...don't question it, that's just how it was. I religiously went to these weekenders hoping to score a dance or two with anyone willing...within reason (of course). I had this one fantasy about D.P that went something like this:

D.P walks up to me in the dry ice infused smokey air. At the same moment that D.P reaches out his hand to ask me for a dance, Brian Adams' Everything I Do starts playing (um hello? All time most romantic song! duh. oh BTW? This was roughly 1993/1994). D.P smiles as I take his hand in mine and we dance for a glorious 5 and a half minutes (if you haven't figured it out yet, I also chose this song for it's length...if you're unfamiliar with it, the song has the longest instrumental ever!). As the song comes to an end, D.P doesn't quite want to let me go. So he holds on to my fingers until the last possible second, lingering for just a few more seconds...

And (dramatic pause) end scene...

Okay, so this fantasy had pretty much been going on in similar form since 6th grade, and I'd given up hope of it ever happening.

Flash forward to the 8th grade prom. It's some kind of masquerade theme or mardi gras... some such thing, you can picture it can't you? I'm as decked out as my mom would let me get at that age, and I am going solo (well, with my best friend and her boyfriend...if being a 3rd wheel counts). So I'm sitting at a round table with a group of my girl friends, gawking at all the beautiful people. Scope out D.P and pretty much stalk him with my eyes all night.

A while into the dance I notice D.P walking toward our table.


I'm sitting next to a girl named Shelby, and I lean in to whisper loudly "Oh my gosh, D.P's heading this way! Hyuck!"


Yes, I used the Goofy laugh because that's how I imagine it sounded.


D.P stops at our table and says "Would you like to dance the next slow song with me?"


I stare at him for what seems like an eternity, waiting for Shelby to answer him. I hear nothing so I slowly turn to Shelby trying to figure out why the hell she's not answering him! I mean come on girl!


Only when I turn to face her, she's staring at ME like I'm the crazy one.


Then it hit me.


Oh. My. God. (did he mean me?!)


So I say it out loud... natch.


Did you mean me? Hyuck! (yes..I did)


D.P is probably not sure what he's gotten himself into at this point....but he nods his head.


"Oh sure! Yes. Great!" (Did I really just say Yes! Great!??? I might as well have said You Betcha! Okee dokey!)


So D.P says "ok, see you on the floor for the next song."


So at this point my girlfriends are like, "what are you WAITING for?" And I'm not sure, but I think they may have had to pry me out of my chair.


A minute passes like molasses, it's so slow. But finally. FINALLY. It's time.


So I walk out onto the floor feeling extremely out of place because I may have gone out a tad too early. Also, the thought of him ditching me on the floor isn't entirely far fetched as I picture him doing exactly that. What other reason would he have for asking me?? (to this day I still don't know why...just in case you are wondering)


But thankfully, there he is. He smiles and walks up to me, at the exact moment the song starts. (perfect timing!). And just what song do you think starts playing? Yup. You got it. Good ol' Bryan Adams.


So we start dancing (there IS a God!). And I find myself thinking 3 minutes into the song, that yes. This could very well be the best moment of my life. Look at all those people, his friends, staring at us. I am sure most were wondering why he was dancing with me, as was I.


*But he did, and here we are, so there! *


So the song ended and he said to me "thanks for the dance." And that was it.


*Sigh*

So you're probably wondering where the awkwardness comes in. I mean sure, there were some awkward moments, but where's the real awkward stuff?

Well. Being that this was the prom, it goes without saying that this was the end of the school year. Hence, yearbooks. So I get my yearbook and like most young girls I go through it with a pen and make notes on the pictures. Or maybe this is just me...


*Get to the point...*


If you were to look past all of the "have a fun summer, see you in high school" notes (and one that says Bologna tastes good with mustard...I kid you not) and find the P section of the 8th grade part of the book you would see D.P's head with a big pink heart around it. From this heart is an arrow pointing to the margin of the page. Now friends...this is a direct quote (yes I did go and find my 8th grade yearbook, just for this post you lucky readers!): "He asked me to dance at the prom 5/20/94. And I did!! It was awesome, I think I am in LOVE!"


Silly right? Harmless right?


Well, like most kids, I carried it around to all of my classes with me that week. Hoping to get as many signatures as I could.

So what do you think happened? I leave it in my English classroom. I don't even notice that it's missing till the next period. I quickly get permission to run back to the other room to get my misplaced book.

I knock on the classroom door as I enter the room, while I'm thinking to myself how lucky it is that I sit near the door so I won't have to walk into the middle of the class to get the yearbook. As soon as my eyes find the desk it should be on, I realize it's not there. In fact it is a few desks away, in the hands of several other students and they are reading the EXACT page I quoted from a minute earlier. The worst part? D.P was sitting in the same classroom I was standing in at that moment. And these kids were reading ALOUD... aloud! I about died as they started snickering when they saw me standing there... I calmly held out my shaky hand and asked for my book back. The girl that had it, said "why don't you ask D.P for it?" And she handed him the book. *Biatch* (oh yes I went there!)

He barely looked at me as he handed back the yearbook...silently I might add. And I got out of there as fast as I could.

Talk about your awkward moment! As I sit here thinking about it, I remember it fondly, even though that is only because of the near perfect dance scene! The embarrassing moments I could do without though.

Now it's your turn to shine! Or not to shine...that IS the question, isn't it? Talk about one of your awkward moments on your own blog, then link back to mine. THEN tell me about it with a link to your post in my comments section. I'll then post your link at the bottom of this post for all to see. It's one big awkward party folks! Sorry it's almost the end of Tuesday, for some of you it might already be.... I'll let it pass if you want to have Totally Awkward Wednesdays...

PS. I am TOTALLY going to scan some pics from the 8th grade prom tomorrow. Yes as a lot of you know, I keep everything. So I still have them. Woo Hoo! Stay tuned for those, you won't want to miss them!

*udpdate 7/13/2009*
Sorry for not actually posting any pictures folks. I found them, but my scanner at home leaves something to be desired. : ) But guess what? Someone participated! Check out my friend and her awkward moment!

Tiffiny

You've Got a Friend

Winter spring summer or fall,
Hey now, all you've got to do is call.
Lord, I'll be there, yes I will.
You've got a friend.
~James Taylor~

Well here we are. It's a quarter after 10 tonight and I was cleaning out my yahoo inbox. I've had the same email address for more than 10 years. Let me tell you, I'm real bad about deleting emails. I'm the same way about emails as I am about letters, birthday cards and other mementos, I save them ALL. I always find myself thinking maybe I'd really like to see them again some time in the future when I'm reminiscing. Tim calls me a pack rat and that may be, but he's not getting his hands on my stuff! haha. Actually he's talked me into purging a lot of things like birthday cards from my 2nd birthday and what not, but he's never seen my inbox. hehe.

I have my mail box split up into numerous folders. One for family, my wedding, bill payments, pictures, and friends (and this one is split into sub categories like friends from this job, friends from high school, friends from that job and so on... referring to points in time where I met these friends). It's weird how I organize my chaos, really.

Anyway I was going through one of these sub categories tonight as I am rockin' out to some Huey Lewis and the News (oh yeah, I said it. They're my all time guilty pleasure, ssh!) when I came across several old emails from a small group of old friends that I am lucky enough to have called my pals for a long time. I'm feeling all lovey dovey and nostalgic tonight, so sit back and relax while I talk up my school chums.

With the exception of Rebecca, the names have been abbreviated out of respect for the friends I'm about to talk about. If they read this, they'll know who they are. And for all you others out there, you don't really need to know their real names now do you?

First, there's Rebecca, and if you are an avid reader of this blog, you've met her once before. She was my best buddy in school as you may remember.

Then there was A.B, I didn't meet her until high school when she moved to town from Florida, but we became fast friends.

J.D.M, well J.D.M honestly wasn't much of a friend until after high school when we realized we had much more in common than we thought, however he hung out in the same group as me then. He dated A.B for a time and teased me relentlessly.

His best friend was B.M. I harbored a small crush on B.M for a while. I'd known him since middle school and he was a nice guy. Although, at times I questioned my thoughts because he was good friends with the one guy that made times tough on me.

I had other people I palled around with, but these four are the center of today's story.

I will begin with A.B. She was a lot of fun, and I'll admit that most of the time I was jealous of her. She was cute and had no trouble getting boyfriends, something I wanted very badly at the time. We met one night when I was with Rebecca at the local Coast Guard hangout (Buoy Deck!). Rebecca's mom worked there as a bartender and we were hanging out in the game area. A.B's dad was in the Coast Guard and Rebecca's mom was actually the one to introduce Becca and I to A.B. She was the new girl in town and she wanted us to show her around. A.B lived in Juneau about three years before her dad was stationed back to Florida. A.B actually graduated from our high school a year early so she would not have to attend her senior year at a new school. I admired her for doing that because I wasn't as motivated to do something like that. At times I struggled to even attend some classes. I missed her a lot my senior year.

When A.B moved back to Florida we lost touch, even though I looked for her off and on over the years. Then finally through the magic of myspace, I found her again! She's recently had a baby girl who is the cutest thing ever!

Rebecca I've talked about before, she was my best friend. At times her and A.B didn't always get along and I think a lot of it was that they were both popular with the same boys. A lot of our guy friends in our little clique at one time liked both girls. Ha. So there was a little tension at times. Even though they didn't always get along, I was always friends to both of them.

Of course, Rebecca and I still talk. I love her like a sister and she will be in my wedding (when that finally happens). I will never lose track of her because I would be devastated to do so. She has a little girl that just turned two. Her Auntie Candice loves her and wishes her mommy would bring her for another visit. Hint Hint.

J.D.M is a good example of a boy that at one time or another liked both girls. I believe he dated both at one point. Just not at the same time. As I said, he gave me a hard time, he wasn't mean to me but he really liked to pick on me. Secretly, I may have enjoyed it, because lets face it, at least he was paying attention! J.D.M and I were only friends by association at first. It wasn't until the first Christmas break after graduation that he became one of my very good friends. Somehow he was talked into picking me up for a party and we were catching up in his truck. On the ride to the party we found out we had something in common and he was shocked. Of course I didn't share all the details of my story with him, just the basics. That was enough.

When J.D.M was stationed in Japan with the Marines, I talked to him via email and even on the phone (I bought international calling cards quite a bit). Over time we got to know each other very well and I grew to love him. I mistook that love for a time, to mean that I was IN love with him, but I figured it out when he came home from Japan. By this time I had left school in Seattle and was in Juneau again. I was so excited for him to come home. I had these big plans to confess my love and I was sure I had a chance. He'd told me that I was one of his only friends to talk to him while he was away, he loved me too. When he brought me a gift from Japan (which I'm pretty sure I still have....hey, I'm a pack rat remember?) I may have said something, I can't remember how it went down, to be quite honest. Well it turns out that you can love someone without actually being IN love with them, I was 18 when I figured that out. J.D.M let me down gently, and we parted as friends. Don't worry, it wasn't long before I moved on and found a new young love, and one that actually returned the favor!

J.D.M has been back and forth from Iraq quite a few times now. I understand he just returned from his third tour. Lives in CO now with his own family. I haven't talked to him in a while, we sort of lost touch between his deployments and life moving on. We emailed briefly last summer about our 10 year reunion.

B.M was that one guy. I had this one frivolous crush on a popular guy in school (DP forever!! lol) but that was just silly school girl stuff and let's face it, DP was the most unattainable crush for me there was. We did dance together once, but that, dear readers is another story. But B.M, I'd known him for years. In middle school he used to tease me, but in a normal way. It's funny because we only started hanging out in the same group because he was friends with J.D.M, and J.D.M dated A.B in 10th grade. B.M's family were friends with Rebecca's family (Coast Guard circles) and when B.M's family moved away one year, he moved into Becca's spare bedroom to continue the school year. Since I practically lived at her house, I saw him a LOT. He was like a brother to Rebecca and I secretly loved going over there because I knew he'd be there.

He was nice to me then, but really kept to himself most of the time. I found out later that he'd considered asking me out at one time, but decided it wasn't worth the risk of embarrassment. I mentioned being chubby right? B.M was too, but in an acceptable way. He is tall and all...and well, a boy. I guess he was worried about what people would think about the two chubby kids dating. To this day I don't think it would have been as bad as he thought. But the psyche of a teenage boy's mind is not something I'm about to ponder right now.

B.M has just graduated law school. I am so proud of him. We don't talk a ton these days, he's been busy with school and recently became engaged to a really gorgeous blond girl I've never met, but have seen pictures of on Facebook. He's doing real well for himself, and I am excited for him. I may have scared him off a few years ago by telling him that I wish we'd been more at one time. I don't know why I insist on dwelling on what "could have been" but I tend to do so. There was a spark at one time between us, but our lives led us down different paths. C'est la vie. I don't think I truly scared him off, but he probably questioned my sanity, considering I hadn't seen him in more than 5 years at the time.

So was there really a point in introducing you all to the characters from my early chapters? Not really. There is no story per say. But at least the ground work is set for future ventures into my life.

I was reading the emails I mentioned earlier and found one where we were all professing our love for one another and how we really need to keep in touch. It goes to show how naive we are just out of high school, our hopes are high that things won't change that much. I don't think we fathom what really happens. I remember we had this big plan to go to Vegas once we ALL turned 21. Rebecca was the youngest of the four of us, but when her 21st came and went we were spread across the country actually, the world. It never came to fruition. I'm still holding on to that dream though, wouldn't that be funny if a bunch of middle aged friends reuniting after 20 years? Wow. um 20 years isn't that far away come to think of it...yikes!

There was another email written more recently (well, if you consider 2006 recent) and that love was still expressed in. In this email was a phrase expressed by one, but I think, felt by all: "I love you all and miss you more than I even know. I hope this finds you all well and in good spirits and health. God bless you all!"

I think I reciprocate that sentiment.

Ok, this picture is really kinda hilarious and perfect! I decided to pour through my old pictures to see if I could find one suitable for today's blog post. Low and behold I found a picture from years ago, taken at a party. In this picture is all four of the friends I discussed tonight playing Twister (conveniently, I am the one taking the picture so you can't see me. This is a strategy used many a time by myself to avoid unsightly photos) From front to back is J.D.M, A.B, Becca, and B.M. It is the perfect pic because their faces are hidden. Well, except for J.D.M and Becca, but that's ok I think. The picture quality isn't great, I took a picture of this picture with my cell phone because my scanner isn't hooked up to the laptop and I don't really want to figure that out right now.

Good night and remember Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best: "To have a good friend is one of the highest delights of life".