You think you had a bad day? I think not.

So, my friend Dawn is the unluckiest person in the world, and I'm really not sure why. She is a wonderful person yet bad things keep happening to her, well at least this week they did.

Her week started with her fiance's grandmother falling and going to the hospital. Then she came home from work to find her dog, Pumpkin (mommy of my puppies Tubby and Lulu), had blood in her eye! She took her to the vet who couldn't do anything and sent her to a veterinarian opthamologist! I never knew such a thing existed until now! So, after spending quite a lot of money on her beloved pet she got eye drops that she needed to give her for a whole week. This may sound trite to some, but anyone with pets knows how anytime you leave them alone, you wonder if they will be OK. Well, after all this crap happened while Dawn was at work on Wednesday she heard fire trucks going down the road. This may not even phase some people but a few years ago when Dawn lived in another part of Philly she came home with her friend Dayna to find her road blocked off by fire trucks and firemen stomping around the yard of the house she rented. The bottom floor had an electrical fire (directly below her bedroom). To her great relief a neighbor knew she had pets and went into her apartment and brought the dogs outside. Once again, if you have pets you can understand the emotional trauma this causes. When the apartment next to me caught fire, there wasn't even smoke in my apartment but it was so hard for me to even leave the dogs alone at all. Magnify that by like a million!

Anyway, so Dawn heard fire trucks and although it frightened her immediately, she tried to remain calm and tell her self she was being silly her dogs were fine, it wasn't her apartment, she needed to calm down. At 5pm I guess they had the news on and they got the first report of a fire on the 200 block of Washington in Conshohocken. It only took her a few minutes to realize that holy s#*t! She lived on the 200 block of Washington in Conshohocken! She immediately left and drove to her home and this is what she found


Now, before anyone gets too worried, no, this was not Dawn's building. The building that is burning was under construction to be high end apartments. Last Wednesday the construction workers sparked something and the whole place went up like freaking kindling (it had little in it other than 2x4s and plywood). There is now nothing left of that structure except elevator towers and ash. Dawn's complex is the buildings behind the fire. It is set up as a square, with four "L" buildings making up the corners, her building happened to be the furthest one from the fire so it sustained no damage. The 2 closest to the fire however, they weren't so lucky. The building you can see on the far right of the picture is a total loss. Parts of it were left standing but it was such a danger that they had to demolish it. Another building, not shown in this picture, sustained some pretty heavy damage as well, and I'm not sure if people will ever be allowed back in even to gather things that might be left.
When Dawn arrived she had to park blocks away and walk down to the complex. Even though her building wasn't in any immediate danger the firemen and police would not let her inside to get the dogs. Obviously distraught, Dawn found a way in anyways and got Pumpkin and Rudy and left. She and her fiance were staying at his parents house. They weren't allowed to get anything from their apartment so they had to go out and buy clothes for the next few days and anything else they might need. Sunday they were allowed back into their apartment. I haven't heard from Dawn yet so I don't know how she is doing but she has enough to keep her occupied for the moment. She has a job interview today, and later this week she flies to ummm...somewhere far away to take her test that will make her an optometrist.
So, everyone think good thoughts for Dawn! She is probably pretty darn stressed and needs a little extra good karma, if you have any please send it her way.

If you want to see some pretty scary footage of the apartment fire go here, or simply type in to Google "Conshohocken Inferno." Yeah, inferno.

If you don't have anything nice to say...

So, for those who surf the web a decent amount, this small rant may hit a chord with you. I rarely use my blog as my platform to discuss the world at large or my problems with it, but today that is what I'd like to do.
How many people have had this scenario happen to them (or something similar): you are on the Internet and decide to read, lets say, a news article. Well the article gets you to thinking and you have comments about it, so since it is the Internet and everyone on the Internet welcomes your comments, you may leave one, or go to a forum and leave your opinion for others to read and enjoy. As boredom persists you are curious if others had similar comments to you, so you go back to that web page and see what other people have written and there it is...someones very rude comment directed at what you had written! Not simply "I disagree with your point of view on this subject" but "That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard, you are an idiot for saying it, go die." Now, I have exaggerated a tiny bit (really not that much) to make my point. These types of things bother most people and can enrage some to leave angry, belligerent, and childish comments in return ("nuhuh, you're the stupid idiot!").
Unfortunately, I am not perfect (I know, shocker, right?) and I have at times let these ridiculous comments bother me to a point that I realize I am being foolish for letting this stranger get to me at all. I was discussing this with Zack and he gave me an interesting insight into the world of the Internet dork.
Most people know that Zachary plays World of Warcraft, but luckily he still maintains a job, a relationship and in general does not let it consume his life. He will go online to forums and discuss the game with other players, one thread, he tells me, is actually called "bored at work." He has told me about this thread a number of times and the silly, fun, time filling links and posts people will add to it. He has also informed me about trolls. These are people that just out of boredom will go somewhere and post a comment/message that is the exact opposite of what the general consensus is, basically just to be an ass. To stir up trouble and then when people write angry and emotional rebuttals, they mock them and I'm sure are quite proud of themselves that they can anger strangers and feel superior to someone on the Internet.
You can probably assume from my tone that I find this completely deplorable. Alas, what can be done? The Internet gives people the anonymity and courage to be complete jackasses to complete strangers with no risk of retribution.
I like to think of it this way, and although I will see these "trolls" and they will probably make me angry, I have a new way to look at it, and maybe it will help other people out there. Whenever I see that someone is just trying to bate me, or tick people off in general, I will wonder why they are doing it. Is it because they have no true friends to value their opinions? Because they don't have a fulfilling job and are angry at the world? Or are they an Internet pariah who lives in their mother's basement at 35 or 40 years old and does nothing but searches the web for people to make feel inferior because they do not share their vast knowledge of World of Warcraft (for example).
Now, I realize that my blog is public. I can easily set it to private if I didn't want strangers to read it or leave me comments, and I can easily avoid reading comments/posts elsewhere on the Internet. But I like to use the Internet as an opportunity. Where maybe someone will happen across my blog, find it amusing or interesting, possibly tell me so, and go on their merry way. Having filled a few minutes of their life where they had nothing better to do.
Well I guess that is just me in a nutshell; I spread sunshine, while others try to spread gloom. Just call me Rainbow Brite.

The Bronze Gods

YAY for America! Our men's gymnastics team did it! So many people said that they weren't even going to make it to team finals and what happened? We got the bronze!!! Eat that Germany, Korea, and Russia! We even gave the Japanese a pretty good run for the silver.

I'm so amazed and excited for our friends that I don't even know what to say. So, I will just reiterate what I had to say before the Olympics started because, my friend has an OLYMPIC MEDAL! Do your friends have Olympic Medals? I think not!! YAY KAI WEN TAN!!!!!!!

Brett Francis

Another baby Roeder was born yesterday. His name is obviously Brett Francis, he was 5lbs 13oz and 18 inches long. He came into the world around 11:30 a.m. I'm told. There was a little stress in the delivery room, although he did cry when he first came out, he was having trouble breathing. Brett is currently in the NIC unit, so Sandra couldn't even see him for a while yesterday (boo! but hopefully she got a chance to get in there last night). Everything seems fine, but he will have to stay there for a few days. Sandra is doing well also, when we saw her yesterday she was sitting up and fidgeting around. She will get to go home Saturday probably, and we are all hoping that's when Brett can go home too!