I’d like to say that I haven’t posted since Monday because I’ve been soooo busy. I’d like to say that but it’s not true. What *is* true is that I got a new laptop and had my hair done last night and HAD to spend two freaking hours watching American Idol just because. By then, I was plumb out of creativity. So this morning I had a thought! (amazing, innit?) During my copious free time in front of a screen at work, I would write my blog post, save it to Google Docs and then upload it tonight. So, here it is.
Behold: Wednesday Whatevers
American Idol
Despite my better instincts, I’ve once again been pulled into watching this hideous show. I’m in need of some “community” and nothing creates that better than hanging on the edge of insanity that is being an AI fan. Trust me. Been there, done that, apparently doing it again. I was reading a recap over on Television without Pity and this snippet by recapper Jacob (who had a serious love/hate thing with sekrit boyfriend back in the day and was the reason I got banned like four hundred times over there) just cracked me up:
“One time the sun rose. Another time, the judges deliberated. Then it was nighttime. The lights were off in the Kodak but the judges kept deliberating. They held pictures of people we don’t know or care about in their hands, while children held hands in rooms and hotties and freaks alike sat around and acted weird. There were people in Room One. Like Kara said something was “genius” one time, and Randy said some shit, and somebody else didn’t impress Simon.”
That’s pretty much what it was like for two hours. What was I thinking? No wonder I always skip Hollywood week. I popped into the forums over on TWOP and quickly remembered why I never much ventured out of the DC forum. Those people are MEAN! Seriously. Mean. That vibration is just a bit too low for me to wade in. Blargh. I’ll wait until I have a favorite and then see what transpires from there.
Roger Ebert
Have you guys had the opportunity to read the article on him in Esquire magazine? I’ve never been a big fan (I’m not at all a moviephile) but knew who he was, of course. And I only vaguely remembered that he had some serious cancer issues but wasn’t at all aware that he’s had most of his jaw removed as a result. He is on my Twitter feed and I have to say that I find him to be one of the best ones out there. He’s on enough to be present but never too much so that you’re like “shut up already”. (As an aside, remind me to tell you about Prince tweeting. It is hiliarious.) The article in Esquire was really eye-opening and reminds me how some people find the joy in living even when some of the most basic things (in his case speaking, eating and drinking) are no longer possible.
He blogs over on the suntimes website – check it out. He writes about all kinds of stuff.
This, from the interview, is quite perfectly lovely:
“I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.”
Go read the Esquire article – it’s not overly long and gave me a great sense of appreciation of his life, his work and beyond that, gratitude for what I take for granted each day.
Prince on Twitter
Listen, I was digging on Prince before anyone knew who he was – wayyy before Purple Rain. So I feel I have a right to tee-hee about him tweeting. First off, he typed in all caps. And what he was saying sounded oddly stilted. Like the new kid in school came over to your circle of friends and just started shouting really loudly about nothing at all. I figured it had to be the real Prince because I suspect that his social interactions with others are just as stilted and awkward as those tweets. (It’s kind of cute, actually. Like watching your child learn something new.) While he’s not quite up to Roger Ebert twitter standards, I predict that it will be a good medium for him. After all, he was speaking like that a long time ago. (“I would die 4U” anyone?)
And finally, now that I am home again, here is craptastic news: the pool at the gym (you know, my happy place??) is busted. Good thing my friend Christine strong-armed me into getting on the treadmill. I was so distraught, I almost cried right there. (Not really but I could have!) It won’t be fixed for at least another week. However will I lure myself to the gym now? (sigh)
How do I know this? Because I AM CLEANING. Yes, friends. It has come to this. This weather has driven me to the brink of insanity and I’ve read, blogged, surfed, shopped and watched some bad movies. There is nothing left to do but clean. I can’t even believe I am saying that.
Family members are now coming out of a state of shock, I know it. I have a (deserved) reputation for abhoring all manner of cleaning and only do it when I am expecting people to come over (and then I do it half-ass). I’d like to blame it on my mother and her crap example of being domestic and I’d do so with some impunity since she’d not around to argue with me but I just can’t. She worked her ass off taking care of me and my invalid (blind and then double amputee) dad all while working a full time job. So, she gets a monster pass and I have to own this one myself.
I am at home in clutter (although I am becoming less tolerant of it as I grow older) and don’t feel compelled to have a sparkling house all the time. Never has been a priority. Which is sad, I suppose. In my fantasy life (the one where I share in carnal pleasures with Cookie and Sparkela*) I love cleaning, am thin, tall, intelligent and full of joy all the time. (And insane but quietly so.)
Nope, I’ll never be someone who enjoys cleaning. I’d rather work overtime and pay someone to come do this for me. I suspect it has something to do with my challenge of living in this dense third dimension. Perhaps if I did it more, I’d become more grounded. Good hypothesis – wonder if our scientists will carry out some research.
Okay, back to cleaning the kitchen. I’m rocking the tunes (which helps immensely) so it’s not too bad. Currently playing on the iPod of love and cleaning: “Working day and night” – MJ. Great song. Always gets me moving.
Happy Monday!
(*tm by The Gal Herself)
I decided to go back and review all my Valentine’s Day entries on ye olde Snarkypants to see what I’ve said in the past (because I am just that infatuated with my own writing). When I wasn’t blathering on about the Goddaughter of Love (who seemed to be the focus of many posts), I was writing about things and people I loved. I decided to continue in that tradition today.
Things and people I adore and the reasons why
(circa February 2010)
1. Thing: raw milk – mmmmm! This is my newest yumminess and it is awesomeness in a bottle. I got just a half gallon of it to make sure I liked it and once I had a glass, I was hooked. I think my body LOVES the Vitamin D in there because I totally crave it now. This last time I ordered a gallon so we’ll see how long that lasts.
2. Person: My friend Christine who has the dearest heart of almost anyone I know. She’s sweet, fun and just seeing her face and her smile always makes me feel loved. I remember meeting her about 4 years ago and just really wanting to be friends with her. I gave her my phone number and when she called, I was so so happy. She’s one of my closest buddies and always a good woo-woo guinea peeg.
3. Thing: my laptop – my constant companion, holder of all my Cookie photos, podcasts, and internets (which I love with the heat of a thousand million white hot suns) – bury me with it because I can’t go anywhere without my computer. Not even Heaven where I hear there’s unlimited internets.
4. Person: my muse – for a bunch of reasons but especially because they help stir up that creative second chakra energy even while laughing at my 12 year old Cookie crush. A world class champeeen woo-woo guinea peeg who halfway pays attention to what the guides say (heh) and who gives me all the worship one High Priestess of Woo-Woo deserves. :)
5. Thing: I’m going to put my cats in here even though they aren’t “things” per se. They are as follows: Miss Lucie, my snuggle bunny and Miss Sophia, my independent love. After spending almost six or seven months learning how to adapt to each other, they are finally on the road. In fact, the other day I witnessed a miracle: Sophia jumped up on a chair where Lucie was snoozing and instead of there being a small hissing incident, Sophia proceeded to lick Lucie’s head and Lucie let her. True, it was for about 10 seconds but hey! It’s progress. I love them both, even if Lucie can’t quite figure out why peeing in her box is preferable to the plastic surrounding it (for just that reason) and Sophie thinks that going out into the sunroom in the winter is like going outside. We let her have that fantasy. It’s cold out there anyway.
6. Person: Couldn’t let this one go by: My two sekrit boyfriends: David Cook and Hal Sparks. Love Cookie’s voice, arm porn, sweet nature, laugh and (ahem) fanbase. Love Hal’s intelligence, quick wit, ability to be totally comfortable with who he is, arm porn and his accessibility. It was immediate love with Cookie but Hal totally won me over. I feel very balanced in my love/lust for these two men.
7. Thing: my really wonderful california king size bed that I share with just Sophia. Duty snores and has weird bedtime habits (or maybe it’s me who has them) so we sleep in separate rooms. Pretty much always have because only children who get married really late in life prefer it that way. Mostly because I can read when I want, toss and turn, sleep sideways, and generally let my guard down there. You’d have to be pretty amazing for me to sleep in the same bed with you for any length of time. (Hal or David would win hands down. The rest of youse? Aww hell naw!)
8. Person: Neighbor Greg – he may be a redneck who smokes and drinks with the best of them but we have been beyond blessed to live near his family and be a part of their life. He drives me crazy by explaining EVERY FUCKING THING to me (it always starts out “Now, what ya wanna do is ….” and what I mostly wanna just do is roll my eyes and scream). Yet, my inner voice knows that if I listened once in a while, I’d learn something. Plus, he came over at 10:30pm one night to get a mouse that died in the living room while Duty was off on a work adventure. (ICK!) Can’t beat that. He’s a good man.
And now, I think I will take myself shopping for some socks with hearts on them. I love them! heh
At least the sun was out for a bit today and I got my nails done all pretty and ate a yummy muffin. So, even though we are awash in snow, it’s a good day.
Saturday 9: It’s a Beautiful Morning
1. Are you a morning person?
Depends on your definition of a morning person – my mom used to be up at 5am routinely, weekends included. If that’s your definition, then no. But I’d say that I like the mornings and am probably at my sharpest then into early afternoon.
2. Tell us of a news story that truly shocked you. This one shocked, horrified and made me so very, very sad for everyone involved: Soldier father accused of waterboarding his four year old daughter because she couldn’t recite the alphabet. Bless that little child’s heart and what she must have gone through. There are no words that adequately describe this whole scenario.
3. What was your very first job?
I worked in a fast food restaurant where I made lots of friends, kissed a boy while standing in a freezer, ate so many french fries I gained some poundage F-A-S-T and went home every night smelling of grease. All I wanted was a job where I smelled the same when I left as when I began.
4. What characteristics do you despise?
In myself or others? For others, I’d say phoniness, arrogance and lack of sensitivity. For myself, I’d say my lack of motivation sometimes, my bitchy side that I (try to) keep under wraps and my spoiled “I want what I want when I want it” side.
5. To where would you retire?
Requirements: warm but not hot, near the ocean, excellent bookstores and good shopping malls, no fuckin’ snow – where might this place be? I’ll go there as soon as I turn 65.
6. Are you named after anyone?
There was a woman my mom knew who was just lovely and she wanted to name me after her. We saw her once in a food store and my mom mentioned that she was who I was named after. (She really was very pretty. Lisa Lanciotti was her name, I believe.)
7. How do you release anger?
Tears, always tears. This way my body has of releasing anger has caused me no end of difficulty in the work environment. I had one boss who used to WIG OUT! every time I cried. He and I had such a horrific dynamic together – and I felt helpless and frustrated almost all the time I spent there. After a while, I’d just go into the bathroom, cry and get it out, wash my face and go back to work.
8. Do you use sarcasm a lot?
Oh hell no! Why would I do something like that? Puhhhlease. (Short answer: yes)
9. What is your least favorite thing about yourself?
I just listed a bunch under question 4 but if I had to pick one it’s my indecisiveness on most things and my difficulty in completing personal tasks. (At work, I do things like that just fine. No problem at all. In my own life? Not so much. What’s that about, you think?)
As his royal Badness would say … let’s get nuts!
You may just find me looking for the purple banana soon because this being stuck in the house crap sucks! I prefer it when it is MY decision to stay in and fart around. Not so much when the decision is made for me.
SB#2 was livestreaming all 3 hours on Stephanie Miller this morning so it did give me something to do from 9-12 today and I now have a gay boyfriend from the chatroom (waves to Tim in Madison who will dress me all fancy and stuff or else share bitchy gossip with me.) After that, it was all downhill – checking weather forecasts, watching the rest of an Intervention episode from yesterday, vacuuming, watching Max brave the snow to pee … you know, fun stuff like that. At least tomorrow there’s a dim hope of getting the cars unburied and having the ban on all cars lifted so I can go out among the real world.
God help me. And shutup all you people from cities where this is a normal occurrence and you are prepared for it. This is not normal for Maryland so I can whine all I want.
Dearest Darling Queen Mimi had the nerve to claim COOKie as her own sekrit boyfriend:
P.S. We have the same secret boyfriend. Mr. Cook is mine. Just sayin’…..
and I feel I must set her straight.
Did she:
* dial for four hours straight the night of the finale?
* stand online for four hours in the August sun to meet him for three seconds (most of which I stuttered through)?
* attend every concert within three hours of here this summer? (Four of them, to be exact)
* drag her ass 3.2 miles in the rain for brain cancer research?
* buy copies of his cd to give as gifts?
I rest my case. I’d go on but I’ve already embarrassed myself beyond what I normally do for this blog. Can’t have you peeking too closely into my inner world, you know.
Therefore, I claim him as my sekrit boyfriend even though I am neither younger, blonder nor thinner and cannot possibly be what seems to be “his type”. That’s why it’s a sekrit – he never has to know!
I was pondering this while I was snowbound this weekend: would it be easier to be Cookie’s girlfriend or Hal’s?
On one hand, Dave is young and fun – like a puppy. He’s got a tender heart and there’s really no one who has met him that doesn’t like him. He falls in love easily, I’m betting. (Especially if you’re this chick. Really, Dave. What were you thinking?) But, you’d have to contend with a ZILLION jealous fan girls waiting to either say crap things about you or steal him from you. Being his girlfriend is not for the insecure. (So, yeah. That’s not me.)
Hal, on the other had, at 40 has been around a bit. And while there’s a bit of puppy playfulness about him, there’s also an awesome mind full of facts and ideas and funny stuff. This intrigues me. I couldn’t hope to keep up with him but it would be interesting trying. So, while I’d be lured by his mind, his humor and his arm porn (second only to Cookie’s), there’s the fact that he’s hard core straight edge which means no drinking (see? I couldn’t get him drunk and take advantage of him), no smoking (fine with me) and … he’s vegan. Now, he’s not pushy about any of it from what I can tell but there’s no way he’d hang with cookie-snarfing me. Just no way.
What to do? What to do? In my case, nothing. I’ll just continue to adore them from afar and revel in pictures of arm porn, fanbases and smiles. Oh, Gal, btw – Hal actually DOES sing but it’s some thrash metal and I cannot judge how good it is because I am old and it all sounds like noise mostly. Check this out – it’s the acoustic version of “She waits” – it’s really, really good. Not metal at all.
Bottom line: I love them both (one a little more than the other, as you know) and am happy to be a fangirl of the highest order. And yes, I’m dragging my ass for hope again this year (hopefully NOT in the rain!).
Even though those of you who live in places where snow is very common laugh at us, two feet of snow here on the east coast is a pretty big deal. Hell, two inches of snow here is a pretty big deal so you can imagine what two feet did to us! I didn’t overly mind it (only because I wasn’t the one doing all the plowing and shoveling) and even ventured out today for a while. The main roads are snow-covered but passable. Wonder how it’s all going to be tomorrow. And – bonus – another foot is expected on Tuesday night! Whee! I’d love a snow day from work.
In non-snow(gasm) related news:
* watched Queen QuittyPants speechify at the Teabagger’s ball the other night and laughed when I saw she had written some notes on her hand for the “impromptu” Q&A. Bwah! I love it. She’s a character, that’s for sure. A scary, manipulative one but a character just the same.
* must learn not to get into “political discussions” on Facebook. They make me crazy. Best just to play on my side of the yard and leave it be.
* Have you guys ever tasted raw milk? It. is. SOOOO. good. Seriously. I could drink the whole half gallon in one sitting. It’s like my body just craves it. MMMM. I get it from an Amish farmer and it is heavenly.
* I am beyond bored despite having the entire interwebs at my fingertips. I need some excitement (of a non-weather related variety). I think I will work on Practically Intuitive and see what comes out there. I have finished my ten readings for Slade’s mentoring program and just have to write up a bit more about that and send it off to him for certification. YEY for finishing something!
Speaking of finishing, here’s a picture of the books on my nightstand. Wonder which one I’ll finish first?
And …. the only picture you’ll see of LucieCat and Sophia sitting anywhere near each other – taken yesterday as they “helped” me make the bed.
Recent Comments