A Few Items of Business

Last week I was getting something out of the fridge in the garage, minding my own biz, talking to Jeff on the phone, when my stomach was forced to flip 43 times because I saw:

a black widow spider on its little web by the garage door.....and....wait for it....there was an EGG SACK on the web!!!!  It took me a few minutes to digest this fact and then decide if I was brave enough to take care of it by myself (verdict: not brave enough).  While I waited for Jeff to come home that afternoon and be the one to suck it up with the vacuum, I was tortured over whether or not the thousands of baby black widow spiders were ready to hatch and welcome themselves into the world, or more specifically, my garage.  Luckily they didn't, and Jeff came home ready to jump into action and really wanted to have our house sprayed but I talked him out of that one.  Anyway the black widow is dead and gone, and we are resting easy.

Moving on.

Tangled.  We saw a lot of that movie during Binky Detox, and that and Cars 2 are only shows we really watch (having had all I can take of Yo Gabba Gabba).  Usually we flip it on while we're waiting for Dad to come home in the evening or while we're greeting the day, breakfast, getting out of our jammies, etc.

Anyway.  I think Tangled is an adorable movie.  But just one question: did Flynn Rider have to cut her hair so short when he was essentially saving her life?  Couldn't he have left it shoulder-length or something?  She is stuck with the Meg Ryan a la You've Got Mail -- forever.  Sorry, Rapunzel.

And after I'd watched it the first time, I realized I couldn't remember all the details of the original Brothers Grimm version, mainly just that she has long hair and a prince comes to visit her by climbing it and there's a wicked witch.  So I looked it up on the source of all some summarized truth and was a little horrified.  Here's the gist:

- Husband and pregnant wife.  Pregnant wife is craving the Rapunzel root their neighbor (Mother Gothel) has growing in her yard.  Pregnant wife is apparently going to die without satisfying her craving so the husband steals it, and they get caught.  As penalty Mother Gothel gets ownership of the unborn baby.
- Mother Gothel and her adopted daughter Rapunzel go hide out in the tower for who knows what reason.  Mother Gothel only visits by night, so when the prince is wandering around and hears Rapunzel singing, and subsequently climbs her hair for a meet-and-greet, their daily companionship is able to grow to a secret love.
- Rapunzel is not the quickest whip so she accidentally lets it slip when she asks Mother Gothel why her dress is so tight at the waist (implying pregnancy!).  Mother Gothel chops off Rapunzel's braid, and kicks her out of the tower.  Note: in my cousin's human development class in college, she learned that most teenage pregnancies are conjured up during afternoons when both parents are working.  Truth rings here.
- When the prince comes for his usual visit, Mother Gothel drops down the braid she kept, he climbs it, she drops the bomb on the prince, and then pushes him out of the tower.  He falls into some rose bushes or something with thorns and is blinded.
- Later, these two lovers are just sort of meandering through the countryside, the prince hears her singing, they are reunited, she cries, her tears restore his sight, they return to the prince's castle and live happily ever after.

So what is the moral of the story?

1. Don't steal your neighbor's produce or from their garden in any way.  You could lose your firstborn.
2. No matter how dreary your life is, and how few people you get to associate with, don't give up your virtue, not even to a prince.  It will get your beautiful hair cut off and put you in a very difficult position.  If he loves you, he should remove you from the tower himself and make an honest woman out of you with a wedding (and why didn't he, anyway??).
3. Sometimes you are blessed with magical tear ducts.

And I had been wondering why Rapunzel had lost her magic hair but was able to revive Flynn Rider anyway.  Disney took that one from the original.

The moral to me is that the Brothers Grimm were a little dysfunctional.

The End

Babies

I felt the baby kick for the first time yesterday and thought, "OOooooh, that's so cute!"

I'm 16 weeks and cruising.  I don't have many complaints right now, except for the blistering heat that sucks the life out of me the moment I set toenail outside.  I do it because Jude would probably spontaneously combust without outdoor activities, and it DOES help him take a better nap, but saints above, I can NOT wait until the fall.  And I know Orange County does not carry the nation's highest temperatures, but since they bleed us in taxes, I expect gentler weather.  In fact, I'd like a tax rebate.  And I tip my hat to my sister Elizabeth and my sister-in-law Erica who both had babies in August or September while living in Las Vegas.  Yikes.

I'm mulling over paint colors for the baby's room.  I have always felt compelled to use a color, but now I'm thinking WHITE!  I feel I spend so much time cleaning the house, only to have most of it undone very, very quickly.  White is clean and fresh.  Sometimes I think ANYthing to help promote the feeling of tidiness and simplicity is something I would so appreciate.  Also, the room the baby is going to get has the best light of any bedroom in the house.  It has been used as the guest room, and we're not in there much, but every time I am in there I think, "Aaaahhhhh."  Such a happy feeling in such a bright, cheerful spot!  I realized SOMEone in our family should get to be in there every day, instead of the sporadically arriving guest!  So we are moving the guest room down the hall, and baby brother gets to be in the happy room.  As for the white v. some other color paint debate, no final verdict.  I don't want it to look like an operating room, just FRESH and clean and cheerful.  (Consolation prize for guests: You may not get the lightest room in the house anymore, but you DO get a room with wainscoting Jeff is installing with his own 2 hands!  A true labor of love, since he has so little free time!)

We haven't dug our heels in with too many names yet.  We've got a few ideas, but lightening hasn't struck yet the way it did with Jude (but even when it does strike or we decide, it's in the vault again until we meet our little pledge).

Consistent Cravings: Rubio's Wild Salmon Tacos, Saag Paneer, and my Revive smoothies have just become the latest one.

Like last time, you may call me the biggest cry baby on earth.  It's shameful how little it takes to get my tear ducts flowing.  Talking about things close to the heart, of course, hearing sad news, but also a lot of movies, which is kind of lame.  The preview for Les Mis last week when Jeff and I snuck out on a "school night" to see Bourne Legacy (which I LOVED!).  I had Jeff start Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close without me since I still can't get very far into the book, but when I entered the room during a certain scene, I was almost instantly sobbing and Jeff had to turn it off.  When Rapunzel is reunited with her parents on Tangled I can't help it.  And last night I watched Super 8 and was torn to smithereens inside when he's watching home videos of his dead mother.  My eyes were puffy this morning. After the baby comes, I give myself a few months and then it's Camp Toughen Up.

And last but not least, the bump pictures.  I'm in that phase where it just looks like I've let myself go; there isn't a clear basketball yet in most of the clothes I'm wearing.  Tadaa:

Hunger Games

After a couple of crazy weeks we finally got to go see Hunger Games last night. My thoughts:

(sidenote: Jeff just came in, looked behind my shoulder, and said, "Your thoughts.  Will you put in my thoughts too?" "Sure, what are they?" "I don't know I'm still thinking about it."

- Jennifer Lawrence was perfect.
- In the books I was totally on Team Peeta.  I wasn't so convinced in the movie.  There was just something missing.
- Cried a few times.  I wasn't expecting it to be a tear jerker.
- I had read somewhere during casting that Robert Downey Jr. was up for Haymitch, and after that no one else would do.  Plus Woody Harrelson's plastic hair was atrocious.  But in the end he was pretty funny and I was a believer.
- I laughed every time Stanley Tucci/Cesar the host would give background info, "For those of you who don't know, those are deadly blah blah blah" when it was so clearly, "For those of you who didn't read the books, those are deadly blah blah blah".  I know that happens in every movie, it was just much more in your face and it cracked me up.

All in all I give it 4 stars!  Sign me up for the next one!

Jude and I had some fun with PhotoBooth this week.  We normally don't venture into the office because he turns into a whirling dervish and can demolish important things quick as you can say "Bob's your uncle," but he worked with me a bit this time.

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, I've never been a give-me-summer-or-give-me-death girl, but this year I am thrilled to my finger tips about the pool and beach weather that is coming our way!  Jude is going to love it and I am going to love it with him. Peace!

Watchables Part III

Jane Eyre -- THIS Jane Eyre.

There are about a million versions of Jane E. out in the cinematic abyss, but this one takes the cake! I can not stop thinking about it. With such a dark story it's easy to overdo this one. This version didn't give the feeling of such extreme darkness but also kept up the intensity of the story. Oooohh I really was sucked in.

Watchables Part I

All streamable on Netflix....

1. Nursery University

I love NYC, have been there a few times, and have lamented in my head that the chances of living there at this point in life are probably zilch. That all changed when we watched this documentary on a handful of parents "from [a few] weeks of life" joining the rat race to get their 3 year olds into private preschools so they can feed into the best private kindergarten, and into the best private elementary, jr. high, etc. etc. OH MY GOSH. Preschool, no matter how you slice it, is a game of ABCs, numbers 1 through 10, Gogurt squirting all over the kids' hands and none of it into mouths, and free-play. These parents are acting like it's taking their medical boards. This is, of course, why the documentary exists, because it's too much fun to watch them sobbing about how they're so down to earth but will move to Boston if they don't get into their top preschool choice. Watch it. My favorite family was the Jewish I-Banker dad drinking his Sprite Zero for dinner with his Argentine wife who thinks all this anxiety over preschool is absolutely insane.

2. The Kennedys

I watched this about a month ago. Joe Kennedy is perhaps the most greedy, conniving stage parent, I loved Bobby, and Jack/Mr. Prez was just about as likable/detestable as I'd imagined. Katie Holmes did a great job. My favorite part about it all: The Boston accents were good! We had to watch a low-budge movie in high school about the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Kennedy accents were so bad it gave me a twitch for weeks afterward. I can't stand detectable fake accents. For this reason I will NEVER see a movie where Anne Hathaway is waxing British, and it's also why I fastforwarded through the scenes with "Carlotta" in Friday Night Lights. I'd rather poke my eyes out with a pencil eraser.

3. Forever Strong

Kinda cheesy, but uplifting. My brother tried to get my parents to move to UT when he was in high school so he could play on the Highland High rugby team, which is the team featured here. If you want to watch something on a Sunday with a subtle Mormon agenda, featuring that "poor" guy from Gossip Girl, one of the minor characters from Angels in the Outfield, the scorned ex-wife of Dean in Gilmore Girls, the Sam hobbit in LOTR, the dad in the modern Brady Bunch movies, and the female love interest in Tommy Boy, this movie is the one for you!

This Weekend, etc.

Friday night: Fell asleep on the couch, Cafe Rio, fell asleep on the couch.

Saturday: Errands, errands, work for Jeffrey, laundry for me, Mom came over like a rock star and held down the fort while Jeff and I scarfed Indian food and watched Midnight in Paris.

Ok now this movie, I loved. It was just what I wanted it to be, minus Rachel McAdams' unfortunate lower abdomen placement of her belts (shame on you, costume director). Is Marion Cotilliard the most beautiful woman on the planet? Yes, she is. And is Owen Wilson a great Woody Allen that is not TOO Woody Allen? Yes, he is. I think that one might go in our DVD library when it comes out.

We have had some success in our garden this year with strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, and we have eaten 1 artichoke. Actually, Jeff ate the artichoke. I am more an artichoke "dip" girl. When my mom was pregnant with Sarah she craved canteloupe and artichokes. I'd come home from Joy School and sit at the table with my cottage cheese while she dipped artichoke leaf after artichoke leaf in a gram of mayonnaise and down the gullet. I was mystified. I have never really cared for them. Anyway, we have another artichoke but Jeff wanted to let it flower to see how it would look. Voila:

Doesn't it look a little Invasion of the Body Snatchers?

And my fresh-from-the-bath-going-shirtless-in-his-jammy-bottoms-on-a-hot-summer's-ev'n baby J. I love him.

Put it on your queue.

My friend Sarah recommended the movie Flipped.

So Netflix sent it over and we watched it Saturday night.

We both loved it.

So now I join my voice with Sarah's and say to you, hurry up and watch it.

A Rampire

That's a new special word I made up for Vampire Rant.

Ok. So since you've all been dying to hear it, I'll pony up.

Recognizing that many people view the Vampire phenomenon as fun, escapist reading, a clever idea, etc., my rant stems and froths into a brew of loathing, disappointment, and annoyance for the sake of THE CHILDREN [cue ringing stiff, artheritic fingers in the air].

I'm going to try to be concise.

The writing is monotonous, flat, cheesy. But come on, how many Harper Lees and JK Rowlings and Lief Engers are there in the world, anyway? She wrote something, edited it a million times over, and got it published! She has KIDS and she wrote a book. That's a whole lot more than I've done. I'll give her that for sure. BUT, the following will always bother me:

Although she knew that a large slice of the Fan Club pie chart consisted of tweeners, those young, impressionable, awkward things who are growing up in an increasingly sickened, misguided world, she paints the picture of an awkward girl, aka someone they appreciate and relate to, obsessed from head to toe with one thing and one thing alone. She has no other thoughts, no other ambitions, no other interests besides those that lead to "Be the vampire's woman." When he leaves, it's totally great to shut off and shut down. It'll be worth your time, because he'll come back. And when he's back, you drop it all and run to those chilled, "marble" arms and six-pack. How about a life of conversations that always end in a declaration of "You are my reason for living." [Cue stares and foreheads touching.] "I'll give you anything you want, it's yours when you say the word." [Cue make out.] Instead of using the devotion of her multitudinous, young fans to paint a picture of a thriving, interesting, interestED girl with a thought of her own swirling around in there, who can ALSO have happy romantic rushes and zips, she painted a picture of a flat lining girl who won't touch anything non-Edward with a 10 foot pole, for no apparent reason other than the fact that she's a heroine/ninny combo.

And just a couple of other things that didn't hit home until seeing it on a screen:

Book 2: When your teenage daughter goes missing for hours, and there's a huge search going on for her in the middle of the night, and a big, buff man carries her limp body out of the forest with his shirt off, wouldn't your first reaction, as a father, be to beat him to a pulp instead of thanking and hugging him?? I think so. Jeff pointed that one out.

Book 3: When your obsessive feelings for the ice man are being confused by another guy who never wears a shirt, THE MOMENT you see the other guy in ANIMAL FORM, ALL ROMANTIC POSSIBILITIES END THERE. Wrong. ALL SORTS OF WRONG. You don't snuggle him and scratch his ears while he's a wolf-man and implore him to be careful in battle, and then kiss him later. No. It's just wrong.

The End.

OMG I literally laid eyes on Edward AND Jacob on Friday night. Sq-uh-WEEEEEEEEELLLLLL!

We went with a group of new pals and it was actually really fun. For someone who hates the books***, and felt really uncomfortable when Bella would launch those convulsive screaming fits in the 2nd movie, the 3rd was an improvement, and it's just fun to be there because there's no lack of enthusiasm, and the boys just don't really know what to do with themselves. Jeff, however, decided to start clapping when the werewolf laid a smacker on Bella and was really proud of the reaction he got.

I have an announcement to make. We have cable now. (!!!) Our internet is paid through the HOA fees, but we still have to call Cox and have it set up. Before Jeff even called to do such a thing, we had reaffirmed that we were not going to sign up for cable, DVR, etc., because we're not home a ton, we have Netflix, and it'll be nice to save the money. I heard bits and pieces of the phone conversation from the next room, was just goin about my business, and then I heard, "how much?? Really??" but with a tone to his voice that said "Suckered in". I went into the room and gave him a wide eyed look and he looked alarmed. A few minutes after that, I heard the phone flop down on the couch and he said something to the effect of "I FAILED!" which translated into "WE HAVE THE WORKS!" Apparently there's a screaming package deal for 3 months and then of COURSE after that it hikes way up, so we're telling ourselves we'll cancel it after 90 days. I pray for the fortitude to carry through. Do you know how much FUN it is, though, to turn on our lovely HD tv, so generously bestowed by my in-laws, and have a wealth of entertainments at my fingertips? Oh, it's amazing. I'm sure you DO know, don't you. And now we have Dateline back.

Moment for a No One Will Probably Care as Much as I Do:

I went to a BEEBEE SHOWER a couple of weeks ago for one of my oldest friends Katie Weaver. I mean Katie Waldron -- do you find it hard to call girls you grew up with by their married names? Anyway it was great and I've been craving the mini cinnamon rolls which were served ever since. I looked at pictures of it on her blog last night and guess what. I HAVE LONG HAIR! There was a picture of a girl from behind, she was wearing a striped shirt, her hair was air drying against her back, it was long, WAIT, THAT'S ME!!! I didn't realize it had become so long. Scraggled to the max, but long. I was so tickled with this outside-looking-in realization, and part of that realization is that maybe I should take some scissors to it to unload some of the chewed up qualities to the ends.

And with that, I shall close my blog post with a couple of other "incidentals" as my mother might say:

- My husband is so funny. He absolutely has always been bothered the girls out in the world who will chop a cookie (or high caloric food item) in half...or 3/4....or 15/16, and leave the rest on the plate. Woops, he married one of them. We had pizza the other night and before I could even get to my usual tricks he was having himself a great time:




He always cracks me up. I have my most fun with Jeff, and I don't take it for granted for a minute, this fact that we get to be in our own little bundle for the rest of it all.

*** I'll do this Twilight rant later, I am out of time.

21 Days

Until my brotherly comes HOME!

I have pondered this moment for a while now. Poor man Cam comes home to people who are perhaps a little bit frighteningly excited to see him. He knows we're excited, but really, I don't think he knows. And while he knew Harry before he left on the mish mash, Cameron will get off that plane to 2 new brothers-in-law and one chubbalicious niece that in May 2008 was but a loaf with yeasty rising.

OVERWHELM

I imagine we'll all break into sprints to hug him, Sarah will knock us all over and climb over our bodies to get to him first, Mom and Elizabeth will be overcome and sobbing, dripping all over the airport floor, my nephew will tackle him, my 1st niece will turn shy and hide behind sobbing mother, my 2nd niece will be like, "Uh, who is this nerdy boy? Does he have any treats for me?" and my Dad will scrap composure by a thread but give him a big, long, long hug with hearty pats on the back. I picture Jeff and Harry waiting patiently for the rest of us ninnies to have had our hugs before giving him their own. Jeff will probably say something like, "Hey! It's me -- your mystery relative!" to which they will chuckle.

And then we'll all look at each other and say, "Now what?!" We'll find his bags, stuff them in the car, argue over who will be escorted back to the homestead in the same car as Cameron, and after he's released, and each of his sisters and 1st niece will get cracking on baking anything to fatten him up, we'll let the cultural indoctrinating begin with the most important thing he's missed in the last 2 years:

I can NOT wait to see my brother again. To know him is to love the crap out of him.

Things to Blog:

1. Exciting: We are in escrow (or es-ca-row to Gilmore Girls watchers)! We bought a house in Ladera Ranch and closing ceremonies are currently set to take place May 21. It doesn't feel quite real, but we are stoked over the concept and keep telling ourselves that we actually did pull the trigger! We lookedandlookedandlookedandlookedandlookedandlookedandlooked so it's also strange that we won't have to spend any more saturdays or frantically rushed lunch breaks looking at properties. Pictures forthcoming.

2. Last Saturday we went to Lake Elsinore with some friends and straight from there to a clerkship reunion for Jeffie in Pasadena so those whole things I was thinking about buying edible things with which to replenish our cupboards sort of escaped my mind along with my free time. So we ate Ebelskivers because I had a bought a mix for Easter but never made them due to the overwhelming volume of candies and sweeties floating around that day. They were pretty fantastic. Since I'm my mother's daughter, I sink into a deep well of self-loathing and anxiety if I don't eat and feed green vegetables every day of the calendar year, but Sunday, we lived dangerously.

3. Sunday night we also watched a movie. 12 Angry Men. This was a movie Jeff had picked. Often Jeff picks French films. I have a funky relationship with French films. And by funky I mean not great. I've actually seen quite a few foreign films in my day and they're all you know, different, but French films are just...more different. And then within their little pool they're almost all the same. It's like they get the same actors and they put together 2 hours of footage of "Here are some people and some things happen to them and they're mostly emotionally destructive things and very awkward things and then Le Fin!" The only French movie that made me cry tears of joy (that I can remember right this minute) is Le Chorist. Ah, Pepino! Back on point: sometimes Jeff's movie choices are not my favorites, but I watch them with him because I'm always hoping I will love them, plus is marriage not a give and take?

I loved 12 Angry Men. I loved it. I have been thinking about it so much I have a hankering to watch it again. If you have not seen it (I hear there's another version? We watched the original with Henry Fonda), do not delay. Watch it, and watch it good.

4. I'm grateful. Life is good.

Last night and during the day we had a Christmas movie marathon.

It started off with Sherlock Holmes. I didn't think it would be easy for them to go wrong with coal dusted England + RDJ + JL, and they didn't go wrong. I was pleased as punch! We ate Christmas candy during the first 20 minutes, too, until it was gone, and that added to the movie by way of sugar rushed enthusiasm.

Then we went home and after a while dad ran out to the still-open blockbuster, and retrieved fatal attraction. We just got a clearplay and praises be! With a bunch of people with differing views on the merits of R movies, this DVD player with a filter opens up a reservoir of cinematic options heretofore untapped.

Fatal attraction. Whoah. My mom's former stake president encouraged every married man to watch that movie. Just for fun. I will never at Glenn Close the same again (although after her role as the queen in hamlet she wasn't doin so great in my opinion), and sheesh! Michael Douglas really DOES look different pre-face lift(s)!

Then we watched Julie and Julia. Jeff had flown to Utah only hours before and he was the one who had really wanted to watch it. BUT I really liked it, really did, and I'll watch it again in the name of lurve.

Now we are off to the mall. My office is just across the hands bridge at south coast plaza so we are working the parking thang. Transponder to the parking lot rescue!


-- Post From My iPhone

So Lazy it Invoked Fear

Last year we cared.

This year we sickies convalesced with the Eaton fam in front of the only Hitchcock ever made with Paul Newman and Julie Andrews.



We had some trick-or-treaters. Fewer than in years past, but still, children and a few of the Northwood High School junior class showed up to pillage.

I gave the 17 year olds cans of string beans.

Happy Halloween and praise the skies for pushing the clocks an hour back!

Victory

Jeff watched it with me last night.

Bits

Would you believe me if I told you I made an entire meal and didn't want to fling myself from the Brooklyn Bridge at any point whatsoever?  

What what, y'all, I did!  

I'll go a step further.  I cooked a PORK LOIN WITH SAGE AND APPLES.  In a crock pot.  I suppose I always thought crock pots were cool, but now I'm a little bit in love with them.  It is just the baby step I was needing.  The unsightly guilt bricks of "As far as I can see I'll be cooking Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Chocolate Chip Cookies until I'm 90" have started to disintegrate.  

After some ginger brocc at Pei Wei on Friday we got back in time to catch 90% of The Beach on tv.  Remember that one?  Leo Dio when he still resembled Peter Pan?  This particular film was a little too much of a marijuana-infused Lord of the Flies for a minute, there, and the White Witch really needs to stretch herself and get out of the villainous "creepy steel eye looks" roles, but the best was the internet cafe al fin.  Our baked hero is back in civilization and sits down in front of a 50 lb., turquoise bubble-behind Mac Monitor, and then he logs into his EXCITE account, and THEN he downloads a picture from an email that takes 5 minutes to chonk out!  I thought it was funny and was partly and irrationally offended, since the movie was released around the time I was ordering my high school cap and gown and Elizabeth was returning home from London with the Felicity haircut.  It wasn't that long ago, was it?  

Just lie to me.

Is it Monday again?

It is.

This week I've been reading all the blogs written by lovely mommies taking their lovely kids to first days at school.  These lovely moms cried tears of nostalgia and woe or felt woefully guilty about feeling no nostalgia whatsoever.

I did not start school this week.  It may surprise you to know I am FINISHING a quarter of "school" this week.  One Paralegal class down, boom boom pow!  It's been 10 weeks already!  I can tell you in a most definite way that there will be no tears shed over this wind down.  No, this sunset on Civil Lit I will not result in me wailing in a lonely corner amidst a pile of soggy kleenex, empty Frito baggies and whipped cream cans strewn about.

I can tell you about something that has watered my eyes lately:

- A few days ago I remembered anew the story an unnamed sister tells about the long ride home from her junior prom.  She'd invited a guy from a neighboring high school that she'd quietly admired for years.  Years.  They made it almost all the way home before she realized her hand, which she'd thought was resting on the seat beside her, had indeed been on his leg.  Woopsie-Daisies. 

- Oh one more, one more!  My cultured, intellectual Dad, my cultured, intellectual brand new brother-in-law, and my cultured, intellectual boyfriend all somehow ended up watching a movie over waffles on Saturday night.  Of their own volition!  "You're my own personal brand of heroine."  Give me a break.  I'm begging you for a break.

So how come it was so much crazy fun??  Maybe it was so wrong it was right.

 

He is Legend,

and I am scared.

Scared enough to almost wet my pants after parking and walking down the eerily quiet, abnormally long street to my humble abode.

Anyone have some Excedrin PM to spare?  I might not be sleeping tonight...........

Saturdee

Already this past month I've spent more time outdoors than I did in the whole of 2008.  

Yesterday we went kayaking through the Newport "Channel" and had a whopping good time.  I'm always glad when someone pushes me to just get out off my bottom and do these things, because they're always more enjoyable in execution than they seemed in theory.  I only wish we had some pictures, but alas.  

Then I ran some Saturday errands that had been thrust to the back-burner for quite some time.  It felt good to get some things out of the way, because the horrible truth of it is at the end of a long weekday, the idea of going somewhere, parking my car, going in, doing whatever needs to be done, and then walking out, digging around in my purse for my keys, and then covering nearly every inch of the parking lot trying to remember where the      I parked, is not always something dreamy enough to actually make it happen.  Again, when it does it's never as bad in execution as it had been in theory.  But anyway I got some things done while I had some spring to my Saturday step.  Done and done.

We saw Harry Pottah with some friends.  I am most pleased to say I give this one 2 thumbs up. I hear the 5th was good, but mine eyes have never beheld it.  The others were very fohgettable. Good job, guys.  You've hit your stride.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

I would that his movie were out today. I wondered for a second why Hollywood took so long to remake Sherlock Holmes, but then I realized they needed Robert Downey Jr. to sober up and Jude Law to distance himself from the nanny scandal. Time takes time.

I can hardly wait. (!!!!!)

Deco 411

I remember when my mom and I met Sarah in our London hotel, she was a little deflated. The place wasn't as bright and shiny as it had been 6 years earlier when she and Elizabeth were guests, and she wondered out loud if we should change to another hotel. "NO," said I. Not only did I not want to lug my wheel-deficient duffel bag (what was I thinking?!) one inch further, but it was a hotel we would only need for sleeping. I didn't plan on wasting one waking second of our Euro time in our boarding locale, be it a hostile or Gwyneth's.

So has been my life in Huntington. I haven't spent much time at home. Even when I was unemployed, I would sleep in and then go window shopping (glutton for punishment?) or bake cookies at my parents' house to keep from going crazy. My apartments in college and in Vegas were never decorated much because I suppose I didn't plan on staying that long, and didn't want to spend the money. Kapeesh?

After 1 month in Irvine at my beauteous parents', I'm at large in HB once again. I don't know what it is about this apartment, but I feel like I've got to at least make it something of my own. I went to TJ Maxx today in search of a wall hanging. What a disaster. I am nothing if not a yo-yo buyer, and it's the retail world's own fault for creating such generous return policies at every turn. I found a couple of things I might like but I couldn't picture liking them for the long-ish haul. I finally decided on something, waited in line about 3 years to pay for it, realized the price tag had fallen off it and it was the last one in the store, and I was already starting to hate it so I said, "Oh, that's ok, I think I'll just pass on it for now," and skeedaddled.

I went to Target and bought an awesome clock I've been eyeing for a few months. It's huge. And if I hate the way it looks in 2 weeks, I can't get rid of it because it's functional. I have this weird thing with clocks ever since I saw the movie Walk the Line. Yeah, this is totally mortifying what I'm about to say but at least I'm not saying it from the pulpit on the first Sunday of the month: You know that scene when Johnny Cash is trying to get his first record deal in that tiny studio? The producer isn't buying it and he cuts them off early. When Cash argues he didn't let them "bring it home," the producer just cuts in with,

"If you was hit by a truck and you was lying out there in that gutter dying, and you had time to sing one song. Huh? One song that people would remember before you're dirt. One song that would let God know how you felt about your time here on Earth. One song that would sum you up. You tellin' me that's the song you'd sing?"

Anyway, that was a good part of that movie. It beckoned us to the land of self-reflection. Yeah, I know, I know, lame.

Anyway, I bought a clock because I'm taking decorative baby steps.

Why do I blog again?