Today is the 17th anniversary of my becoming an American.
It was my senior year of high school and I was 18. (for the mathmatically challened, that makes me 35)
We didn’t really celebrate the event. My brother was born in Alaska and is thereby a US citizen from birth, and my parents are not citizens of the US.
So I think that next year, I am going to have a huge party to commemorate it. Next year, I’ll be able to say that for literally half of my life I have been an American.
Archive for April, 2006
Anniversary
14
Apr
My name is Gabriele…
12
Apr
…and I am a junkie.
An NPR and PBS junkie to be exact.
I can already see you running around with your hands waving in the air. “Gabriele’s a leftist, pinko commie! Gabriele’s a leftist, pinko commie!” Not to worry.
Keep in mind that I am a Bible-believing Christian. I am not easily swayed by liberal talk. And I weigh all things by Biblical standards.
Keeping that in mind, however, NPR does provide more in-depth (and generally less-slanted) stories on most subjects than many other news providers in my area. I like hearing both sides of an issue or more detail on a story. Because there are no commercials on NPR or PBS, the stations don’t have to pander to advertisers. They can spend more time on an issue. NPR goes into much detail on a variety of subjects (many of which help me play Trivial Pursuit!) from current events in national and internation news to Science Fridays to Music History and everything in between.
But this entry isn’t so much about my addiction to in-depth news as it is about terrorists and the death penalty.
Weird Things
07
Apr
The other night I was in the grocery check out line behind a blond lady who obviously believed EVERYTHING was about her. She kept running around at this frenetic pace, trying to make sure all of her stuff was on the check out track. Then she couldn’t find her checkbook, and the credit card she kept trying to use wouldn’t work. She kept telling us random stories too. It was actually kind of entertaining for the rest of us in line behind her.
It’s a Good Thing
02
Apr
My boss, Jonathan, has a fabulous plan for marketing/schmoozing. He buys four season tickets to events that he and his wife enjoy attending together. Whenever they attend, Jonathan invites along one of his clients and their date. That way he never has to spend time away from his wife while entertaining his clients.
Over the past two and a half years some of the clients have had to cancel last minute. That has made me the beneficiary of some of those tickets. Hockey games, opera, musicals, theater, baseball. It’s been great!
On Thursday, Jonathan gave me four tickets to see the Diamond Backs play the Yankees at Chase Field in Phoenix. So my friends Jessica and Martha and I drove on up there for the game on Saturday afternoon. The drive up was extremely slow because of multiple accidents along the way. But that’s ok, because we chatted and Jessica read to us much of the way up. She reads very well out loud so it was quite enjoyable.
Because we had one more ticket, we took along the 11-year-old daughter of one of my Phoenix co-workers. Brianna turned out to be delightful young lady. (I think she was quite brave for going out with three women she had never met before.) At first she thought we were just strange – not so far off the mark, actually. By the end of the afternoon though, she thought she’d be able to tell her mom that we were OK and that she’d had a good afternoon with us.
It was a beautiful day! About 85 degrees and sunny. The beauty of Chase Field is the retractable roof. In the spring the roof is open. In the summer, when it get to be a thousand degrees, the roof is closed and the A/C kicks in. So we were able to sit and soak up the sun. Jessica even got sunburned – the weenie. 
