I was browsing through information on my all-time favorite drink, Mandarine Orange Arizona Green Tea, and ran across this article that explains the benefits fo all natural tea over mass-marketed teas when it comes to health.

More ominously, many tea brands are tea in name only. Long ago, they ceased to be brewed from tea leaves. Powders and concentrates that aim to resemble tea are the base ingredient now. But not the biggest one. That role is reserved for corn syrup and caramel, rendering most iced teas on the market today brightly-packaged, much-hyped, and sadly overpriced sugary water. A bit of tea powder is typically thrown in to tap into the “tea is good for you” sentiment. After all, allusions to the many health benefits of tea are an important selling point for these products.

Jostling for your attention is a new product called Anteadote, an iced tea made with a progressive bottling process that extracts oxygen, the cause of food spoilage. With oxygen gone, so is the need to laden the product with chemicals or preservatives. The result is a product that is as pure as any tea freshly prepared.

I will probably still purchase a few bottles of Arizona Green tea, and some chai tea from Safeway. But for the most part, I will stick to making my own tea.

Got turned down from all the financial institutions I applied for the $8k loan with. Capital One had the excuse that I didn’t make enough money to buy the car. What the fuck?

I called the owner today and told him about it. I told him I wasn’t having any luck with any of the financial people, but if it were at all possible, I would come down today and pay them the $2k down payment for the car, but I just don’t have anyone to finance me the rest of the amount. He told me not to get down about it, if it works out, it works out.

I’m half hoping he’ll call me back and try to work out a deal with me. But my luck just isn’t that good. I’d much rather deal with him anyway rather than some corporate bullshit.

So no car, just going to focus on working on the broncos and drive them till I have enough established credit in a few years I guess. Really stupid that I’m 25 fucking years old, have not debts, had one credit mistake last year, and now I’m fucking screwed out of buying -anything- for stupid shit.

I ran my credit report again over the weekend. Apparently the one debt I had over course of last year that I paid off, I must have paid $5 too little, because I still had an overdue balance of $5. Instead of billing me for the $5 and letting me know so I could pull the change out of my fucking couch to pay it off, they let it sit overdue and messing with my credit again.

So I called them up, bitched out the guy on the phone and told him I wanted it paid off now, and that it was ridiculous that they would ruin my credit over $5. He said it would cost me $12 to pay it off over the phone with an electronic check today. I asked him if he seriously thought I gave a shit about $12 for something that’s fucking up my credit like this?

I felt bad for him afterwards, but goddamn. That’s stupid shit. I already sent out a letter to the credit company letting them know of the mistake, hopefully they will be able to remove it.

I’m watching the live webcast of Farm Aid 2005. I’m surprised it’s not on tv, I tried to find it but, it’s not anywhere.

I just saw an incredible young girl named Kate Voegele who really blew me away. Somewhat of a pop acoustic singer, but she has an amazing voice. The way she used her voice is kinda how I’d like to end up with my music, perhaps a little more on the bluesy side.

A very bluesy musician named Susan Tedeschi totally kicked some soul ass.

Another seemingly political hippy musician named James McMurty totally kicked ass.

Apparently there’s a band called the Second Ammendments which is made up of 5 congressmen who like to play music together once in a while. Made up of elected members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The only Democrat, Rep. Peterson, plays guitar and is the group’s lead singer and front man. Rep. Thad McCotter of Michigan is the band’s lead guitar player; Rep. Dave Weldon of Florida is the bass man; Rep. Jon Porter of Nevada plays the keyboards; the drummer is Rep. Kenny Hulshof of Missouri. I found that somewhat amusing

I’ve always been a huge supporter of Farm Aid growing up in a struggling farming family. I hope one day I get the chance to headline there with Willie Nelson.

While reminicing with my father about some of our old country favorites today for his birthday, I’ve learned how my parents first met, and how he proposed.

They first met when she was a teenager, still underage, and him in his 20’s. They were going to see a Kiss concert here in Uniontown Maryland. When my father went around back with some of his buddies, my mother was trying to sneak into the concert through a window. He was actually dating my aunt at the time, who later married my uncle Ronnie. So he helped booster into the window for the concert.

Later when he proposed, he had given her a Kenny Rogers and Dottie West album with the engagement ring taped on the back. And she sat there reading it and looking it over. My grandmother saw it and kept saying “Donna, turn it over! Turn it over!” and he proposed.

Dads birthday is tomorrow and his birthday present arrived broken.

And I got turned down for 5 car loans today. All saying I need a co-signer. Attempted to call an aunt, hope she calls me back. She’s really my last resort.

Ah….this is how my year has been going

Couldn’t sleep well last night. I don’t know if it’s my nerves being too anxious to hear back about this loan today or what. But I did manage to dream:

Oddly enough, it either started out in the back room at work, where the soda machine went crazy and spit out all its quarters, and then started spitting out all its sodas for free, or that was just a whole separate, yet small dream entirely.

Eventually it led to some sort of gypsy-like caravan. Led by someone that looked like Modig from Ravens Cry Grove who is this awesome guy I met at Trillium this year. I guess since I kept telling him he reminded me of a norse god, it’s appropriate that he’d be in this dream.

I’m not sure what the purpose of this caravan was….I want to say they were wandering protectors, fighters. A woman, also a strong head figure within the caravan, was a strong warrior. During ritual she would light the sacred fires for “Modig” while he spoke his liturgy, using her sacred staff, and this sacred lava type fuel which they kept calling “Odin.” The lava was the most sacred part of ritual, only given by the highest honor.

The woman was eventually killed during battle, and the honor was given to me to be the keeper of “Odin” and light the sacred fires during ritual for “Modig.”

During my first ritual, I held a small flat bowel, filled with water, and walked deosil around this great circular stone slab that was raised high into the air, and eventually lead to a great raised walkway that led up to somewhere. The stone circle was covered with a thin layer of about 3 inches of water which continually spilled over the edges of the slab, but seemingly came from nowhere. Once I reached the center of the circle, I took the sacred staff of the warrior woman, and lit the sacred fire of Odin. “Modig” then started the ritual, garbed in beautiful samurai type clothing.

And I think this is where I woke up. But it was still a beautiful, if not simple dream anyway.

Now I haven’t actually participated in a Norse style ritual, I’m hoping I get the opportunity soon.

Went and took a look at my mustang last night. Didn’t want to drive it because I didn’t want to get too attached like I did with the 2005. It’s a 2002 and is mocha in color. I’ve put in 3 loan applications today, and will probably put in another at my bank tomorrow morning before work, and then as a last resort, go to a credit union Saturday morning. Any good luck wishes are well appreciated.

Fridge is working again, and still worked when I woke up this morning, hopefully no more troubles with it now.

Added a radioblog to my journal this morning so I can listen to music at work. No radios get reception here and my cd player is broken. They’ve disabled any sort of drives or music capabilities company-wide, so this is the next best thing. Plus I can customize it as needed.

I suppose in the end, the only two important things are my father, and the health of Penelope. So it makes me feel somewhat selfish to be stressing about the other things as well.

I will try to work through them, one by one.