The Governator

Just got the Republican National Convention schedule emailed to me, and I was excited to see that the people kicking off the Convention on Monday the 1st will be President Bush, Laura Bush, Chaney (well who cares about that so much...) and Arnold Schwarzeneggar.
AWESOME!!!!!!!
The Governator and I will lock eyes, and he will be drawn to me in my cheap seat waaaaay in the back of the Convention. He will somehow see that I am actually a fun and interesting person to hang out with...
He will find a way to exchange email addresses with me.
He will introduce me to Maria.
We will smoke cigars together, sip Boones Farm and laugh about politics and such things. We of course will laugh with our booming AAAA HAA HAA HAA HAAA laughs.
And it's Boones Farm because we will agree that we don't need some pretentious expensive wine to show off in front of everyone. Perhaps an occasional shot of Patron to keep it real. Yeah, REAL FUN.
I will do my awful Arnold impression. He will do his squeaky Shawna impression and I'll be mildly insulted.
At the end of the Convention on Friday we will part with sad faces and promise to stay in touch. He will fly to Cal-eee-foor-nee-aaah in his custom Gulfstream and I'll get on the stupid commerical airliner with my coach class ticket.
Then he will periodically send me jokes on the email. Maybe a text message once in a while.
I'll email him suggestions on fixing the Cal-ee-foor-nee-aaah economy.
He'll ignore them.
I'll tell everyone that I'm good pals with Arnold.
And they won't believe me.

At Christmas when he sends a card, I will frame it.

And we will exchange tamale recipes.

Oh, And There's the Batmobile...

Shay was the only child in the country who went joyriding in a Batmobile on Wednesday night. I can say that with conviction because I know there aren't very many Batmobiles.
Steve's boss won this in a collector car auction last weekend, before the Pebble Beach car show. He paid more than a couple of bucks, I understand...

It's about 20 feet long, almost 8 feet wide, the chassis is from a truck that rides kind of like a Corvette. It has a 350 small block under the hood and a very quiet exhaust which is actually cool in my book. I'm tired of the loud stuff.
The Viper alarm system is much like a curb feeler for the entire exterior of the car. If anyone gets too close, it wakes up. There are cameras around the car on all sides, and monitors for those cameras all around the driver's seat. A computer, for crime fighting ( of course ) and an Alpine stereo that thumps Batman music. The lights behind the seats blink to the beat of the music. And what would a Batmobile be without an air suspension? It lifts up and down at the touch of a button. The guns pop up on the hood and shoot "lasers" which is actually strobe lights.

Shay and Steve went for a ride after dark, gaining some hilarious looks from people on the street and in the cars nearby. Now Shay's waiting for the chance to get dropped off at school in it.

Pebble Beach

Pebble Beach my ass! More like sharp rock beach. There was no sand, just a rocky shoreline that meets up with VERY VERY VERY expensive pine tree encrusted properties.
The car show itself was quite an experience. Lots of super rich people who were interested only in themselves and their million dollar cars. Couldn't have a conversation with anyone because I wasn't a billionaire. BOOOORINGGGGG!!!
And it was cold. Colder than a typical day at home in the winter. The average was 50 degrees and I don't know how we survived. Actually we wouldn't have survived if Steve's boss hadn't offered the use of his suite for the most of the day. We couldn't sit out in the weather.
Here's a couple of hilights though. First thing in the morning, before the "public" was invited into the show, I ran into Jay Leno. This little tiny old lady had stopped him for a photograph and she shoved her huge handbag at him so he could hold it while she fumbled for her camera. Notice the "thrilled" look on Jay's face as he held her purse:


Then, I ran into Kyle Petty (Richard Petty's son) I took his photo but didn't bother him. He seemed to enjoy the attention, though. I guess I should've said hi. Here he is, posing with someone:


The heiress to the Merle Norman Cosmetics corporation was there, she had three cars entered in the show and all three got trophies. She's a billionaire, and she was dressed like a grandma. A red outfit with red shoes. I know I'm not the fashion queen, but she looked icky. Ralph Lauren would agree, he was there. I saw him only momentarily. I only remember the older pictures of him where he was a silver fox. He didn't look like his old pictures.

So I rubbed shoulders with some of the richest people on Earth. Found out that they weren't that outgoing. Hmmm. They were sooo into themselves. I figured it would be a big celebration, being one of the most prestigious car shows out there. Turns out, it was a way for them to kind of give each other the "snake eyes" from across the golf course. I did enjoy myself, of course. I don't go ten hours in one direction to have a horrible time!! I got to see a display of about 20 Concept Cars from the 1950's, and it just blew my mind.


I also got to see a display of Concept Cars from 2008. That equally blew my mind:


I saw women wearing hats the size of umbrellas, men wearing old-timey suits to match their old-timey cars, and kids in lavendar three piece get-ups.
The awards girls were dressed up like flappers and speak-easy gals:


And the people crammed onto this golf course like it was a Motley Crue concert in 1988:



Steve enjoyed himself, once he was in the suite and watching all the activity from a nice comfy room:


We had someone take a photo of us, to prove we were there. Kinda dark photo, though.


We traveled seperately after the show was over, because I needed to hurry home and get to work, and Steve was driving the transporter with his boss's show car in it. On the way home I stopped by the James Dean Memorial which is located in the middle of nowhere. It was put up down the road from where he crashed his car and died. I got pictures on my cell phone, and I haven't learned how to load the pictures onto my computer yet. He truly couldn't have wrecked in a worse place. It is at least an hour to the nearest town.

Now that I'm home I have to focus on work because I don't know if my boss remembers that I'm traveling to Minneapolis at the end of the month. A whole week away from work and home!!!

The Car

So. The Honda didn't work out. Once we started talking price with the guys they got greedy and started adding on and it got to stupid levels.
The following day, I drove into a small used car dealer in town and intended on selling them some advertising. I looked around and saw immediately that they had some cool little cars that were actually quite cheap.
Long story short; I've got a Pontiac G5, and I have a commission coming from the ads they signed up for.
I immediately took the insurance off the Camaro and parked it on the driveway with a "For Sale" sign in the window.
On Thursday, my ex husband was arrested on his Felony Warrant for not paying me the gazillion dollars he owes from our divorce. I found out on Friday morning about it, so I immediately drove home to park the Camaro inside. I didn't want him taking revenge on my poor old car.
When I got the house, he'd already been there. The car was completely covered in gouges. I filed a police report, explained to them why my ex would do such a thing, and then spent the rest of the day driving toward California for my weekend in Pebble Beach. All the way there (ten hour drive) I thought about the car and I came to the conclusion that I need to keep the car and fix it up.
So that's the plan. We're going to repaint, fix all the little things that need attention, and then have it for Shay when he turns 16.