*cough*

Okay, so I completely just hacked up a lung while on the phone with a Senator's office. Note to self: bring cough drops to work. I've had this itchy scratchy hairball-in-my-throat thing for about a week now, and it's rather starting to bother me.

I did have an interesting weekend, though. I went home (again... why is it that whenever I go home, it seems to be two weeks in a row. Can't we plan better than this?) for my cousin's college graduation party. Always entertaining, given that my family is completely batshit crazy. The Craziest Quote of the Night award goes to my grandmother for this gem:

My mom was explaining to my grandmother, my great aunt, and my second cousin why Elaine's husband Bill wasn't at the party - because he met some woman on the internet and ran away with her to Arizona. They are more appalled by the fact that he met her online than that he cheated on his wife. My grandmother says: "How could you meet someone online? You don't even know who they are! They could be Chinese!"

Yes, of all the things that could possibly go wrong with someone you met online, the worst she could think of was that they could be Chinese. Not an ax murderer, not a serial rapist, not a child molester. Chinese.

I also got to endure the usual disapproving "you need to get yourself a boyfriend" from Aunt Rose, because apparently, at 24, I should be married and popping out babies by now.

ANYway, Saturday I went to a Philadelphia Soul game with my dad (and no, we did not see Bon Jovi). Indoor football is so cute! The field's so tiny! And the fans are so close to the field that "ball intercepted by a spectator" is an actual referee call that stops the play. Aww! (As it turns out, if a fan catches the ball and then throws it back to a player, it doesn't count.) I think half the fans went home with a football. The scores are ridiculous, though. I mean, the field's only 50 yards long, so it's not that hard to score, and the Soul won 62-61 (it was a nail-biter at the end there).

We missed the beginning of the game, though, because there was a Jimmy Buffett concert at Citizens Bank Park, and so the entire sports complex was PACKED. I've never seen so many tents and RVs in one place in my life. Apparently, people come just to tailgate. It was ridiculous - aside from the obligatory Hawaiian shirts, leis, grass skirts (some worn by men), and parrot hats, people brought SAND. Actual sand from the beach. And inflatable pools! I mean, seriously, people! It was the most insane thing I've ever seen. And you should've seen the parking lot when we came out. It had rained, of course, washing the mounds of sand all over the place, and the entire parking lot was a vast wasteland of trash and the remnants of tents and portable grills. It seriously looked like a hurricane had come through.

We also watched The Other Boleyn Girl this weekend, which was good (although not my dad's first choice for a Father's Day activity).

It's been a busy day in work today, as we are minus one secretary. Our temp, who has been here since Charlene left, had her last day on Friday, but the new girl doesn't start until next week, so we're on our own. Consequently, I haven't had much time to catch up on my usual sites and blogs. I should, however, mention the very sad news that Tim Russert died. I still can't believe it. He's been such a fixture in news and in politics that it's hard to imagine it without him.