Warning: Rant Ahead

Have you heard about the health care debate? It turns out it's getting pretty heated out there. People are bringing assault rifles to town hall meetings, using questionable rhetoric and more, but nothing is more disturbing to me than this video of a pastor who preached during this sermon that he wanted Obama to die, for his daughters to be left fatherless and for his wife to be left a widow.

As a Christian, I can't believe that someone is using my religion to spread this kind of hate. I disagree with the politics of many, but I would never wish for their deaths. The fact that he cloaks this hatred and vile sentiment in Christianity makes me sick. What have we come to?

An open letter to Stillwater drivers

Dear Stillwater drivers,

Stop sucking please. Please review all traffic laws, including those that say you shouldn't weave in and out of traffic with only inches to spare. Also, please note that it is completely unnecessary to speed 30 mph above the speed limit in order to dart in front of me so you can turn when there is absolutely no traffic behind us.

And to the driver of the Explorer at Miller and Duck today, please review the section of traffic laws that says when the light turns green, the person going straight gets to go first. I know this is difficult, and a complete throwback to that one day of drivers ed you took years ago, but it would be so much easier than just flying through the intersection with me honking at you and everyone else flipping you off.

And to the man in the Honda behind me at the red light at Lakeview and Main today, please note that while it is convenient to turn right at a red light, if the person in front of you isn't turning, YOU CAN'T EITHER. Honking and flipping me off might make you feel better, but it still won't get me to run a red light so you can turn faster. Please change your behavior, because next time I'm definitely sitting at that light until it turns yellow while flipping you off, k?

Love,
The girl in the blue Jetta

An open letter to M.B.

Does anyone remember this? My very own real-life reporting controversy? Well, I thought it was over, but I recently received a message from MB, asking that I remove his name from my blog post. There were a few other choice tidbits, but he asked that I not include his message on my blog. I will, however, share my response. This blog is a documentation of my life, and I will not censor my life for your comfort.

Dear MB,
I do realize the power that the internet has. But what you need to realize, and what seems to be missing from your message, is any culpability for your role in this situation. When this situation arose, I didn't get a message from you asking for the article to be removed. Rather, you provided your mother with inaccurate and incomplete information that she then used to attempt to have the article removed. This put my credibility at question, and I'm sure you can understand how I would protect my reputation and credibility vigorously.

Was I angry that you claimed to have no previous knowledge that the article would be published when our phone conversation and facebook messaging showed the opposite? Very. If you refuse to admit that you were informed of the potential for publishing during the phone interview, I can't prove otherwise. But I can, and did, prove that you were informed through facebook message two days before the article was published. If you had any objections, that would have been the time to voice them.

There are quite a few things about this incident that anger me, but the greatest is the fact that you seem incapable of accepting any culpability for the potential damage to your job prospects. I was not the one who was arrested and charged with a felony. I reported the facts that I gained through public records. I reported the fair and honest truth. You were not misquoted or misrepresented. To claim that I "want to destroy any future career hopes" you have or "seem intent on ruining your future," that is ridiculous and offensive to me. The only thing that could ruin your chances of getting a job is your own mistake.

I will replace your name on my blog post with initials, because I do ultimately want every one of my fellow OSU graduates to succeed. We are all part of the same university family. I will not remove the post, because I feel it is important to leave my defense of my reputation online.

Do not, for any reason, view this removal as justification of your actions in trying to handle this matter. Your behavior has been incredibly immature and unprofessional. Giving your mother incomplete and inaccurate information, allowing your mother to handle the situation for you, leaving me this juvenile message with accusations about my desire for you to fail in your professional life?

Grow up.

Sincerely,
The Naked Wife

Higher Liar, Pants on Fire!

Yesterday, I got a phone message from Barbara Allen, the new O'Colly adviser. She said something along the lines of "I've got a situation here that I wanted to talk to you about."

Of course, I was interested immediately...and a little bit obsessed and worried. Neurotic much? What could it be? I gave them my newsroom key back, didn't I? I never fired someone that could now claim sexual harassment, did I?

As it turns out, I wrote a story many months ago for my public affairs reporting class. And this article was published on the front page of the O'Colly. Go me!

In this article (which is supremely bad-ass, let me tell you what), I write about MB, an OSU student who was charged with felony marihuana possession after OSU police found 1/5 of an ounce in his dorm room. Felony because he was on a college campus, and Oklahoma law allows police to charge felony possession if the person is within 1000 feet of a school or park.

I used the public arrest record to find his name, and then found MB on facebook. I figured he would be perfect to talk to, since he was a member of the NORML facebook group and all. We facebook messaged a few times before I called him for an interview.

Flash forward to the present. Seems MB's mom found the article and asked him about it. He claimed he never knew the article would be printed in the O'Colly and that I tricked him. So his mommy called the O'Colly to have them correct this error. She even forwarded our facebook messages that showed I never mentioned the O'Colly when I contacted him.

Too bad I ALSO have those messages. Here are a few key messages that dear ole MB forgot to show Mommy:

MB: Dec. 6, 6:00pm "hey, hope that info helped ya out. You think you could email me the final report or somethin, I'm just curious to see what ya find out about this. Thanks"
Me: Dec. 10, 12:00 pm "Yeah, the story is going to run on Wednesday in the paper, hopefully. If not, I can send you a final result."
MB: Dec. 16, 12:22 am "hey, i never got a chance to get the paper on wed. ive been checking the website and it doesn't seem like it has been uploaded yet. if it's not going to get on there can you send it to me. mb@okstate.edu, thanks"

Me: Dec. 16, 1:29 am "sure, i'll send it to you now. the version in the paper was cut down a little bit, so i'll send the full story. thanks again for all your help!"


Umm, maybe this would be a good time to 'fess up to Mommy? Just claim you were too high to remember giving the interview. Heck, that might even be the truth.

I am not your wife!

Today when I popped open my email, I saw a really strange message with the subject line, "FYI Mike Connor confirmed." The email was about Michael Connor being confirmed by the Senate as Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Umm, whaaa? It was then that I realized that the email was not from my father (J. Tim West), but from Timothy J. West, my longtime email buddy who refuses to quit sending me emails intended for his wife, who shares my name.

Over the last 18 months, Timothy has sent me lots of messages, including important ones about how he forgot his cell phone and this email was the only way to communicate to his wife how they would be meeting up later that afternoon. He's also sent me information about his son's soccer schedule (Go NWAL-Arlington!).

So I did what any normal person would do. I sent him a very polite email explaining that I wasn't his wife (which he really should know) and that he probably wanted to fix this error so that his wife could receive these messages.

And I kept getting the emails. So I kept writing back.

And I kept getting emails.

Eventually, I just gave up on him. I figured that he obviously was technologically/intellectually challenged because he never wrote me back to acknowledge his error and he KEEPS WRITING ME.

The scariest thing about this post? I googled the guy and he's the freaking Congressional Liason for the United States Geological Survey.

The man who can't figure out that he isn't emailing his wife is responsible for being the voice of a major governmental organization to Congress.

*Face palm*

P.S.Good news: the motorcycle riding asshole waited until 6:45 this morning to jet out of the neighborhood at warp speed 4 on his ridiculously loud motorcycle. I remained calm, but I really wanted to go grab a huge stick and throw it into the spokes of his front tire. (Does it still count as road rage if you aren't technically driving? Hmm...)

Viva Mexico!

If I seem to drop off the face of the earth, don't worry. It just means that I've been arrested for theft, vandalism or perhaps manslaughter.

Let me explain: I realized why Mitch and I haven't been sleeping. One of our idiot neighbors has a motorcycle....a LOUD one. And to prove he's Billy Badass, he likes to accelerate really quickly and drive in circles through the neighborhood. Awesome.

We discovered this when we were moving in, but I brushed it off because it was Sunday and it was beautiful outside. He was just enjoying the afternoon. Benefit of the freaking doubt, people.

But this morning, when it was 6:25 in the flipping AM, it was NOT ok.

I know where you live, I know what you drive. I can't be held responsible for my actions with no sleep.

But the police probably won't see it that way, so meet me in Mexico!

Hit the Cut-Off Man!

Our Library softball team had a doubleheader today. What an exciting adventure, right?

Wrong. It was actually an adventure in controlling my anger so that I didn't swing a bat at my teammate.

Don't get me wrong, I love most of the people on my team, no matter the skill level. Honestly. I LOVE having fun playing with these people.

Except for one. The one who continually ignores me when I'm standing there yelling for him to throw me the ball. The one who seems to think that his throw to home plate from the fence is a better decision than throwing it to me. THAT, my friends, really frustrates me.

But, I did have a lovely dinner with John and Bonnie....so I guess we're even, Friday.


Imagine this scene, but with me as Tom Hanks...and with a LOT more profanity. It's coming, people. I swear.