Picture This

I love photography. I have for most of my life. I like to take pictures and to look at them. If I have a choice of art to peruse I'll choose photos. I especially love photos of people but certain landscape photos are gorgeous, too. I'm not so much into the industrial thing. I love to look at people's wedding albums and other family albums, which is why I think Flickr is ridiculously fun.

Now what's odd is that I only have one solely photo blog in my long list of daily reads. I go to a lot of blogs that use photos - Dooce, Blurbomat, Rob R-H, Sundry - but, you know, mostly I go to those for pictures of the pets and the children not for an arty factor. I love Chuck Fridays over at the Doocery.

The one photoblog I've got is Chromasia. I love what this guy does.

I'm smart, no really

Why does logic sometimes just elude you?

Like one time, right around the time JAM was going back to school to become a fancy engineery type guy, we were making mac and cheese. Someone had told me to put a wooden spoon in the pot when you put the lid on so it wouldn't boil over. JAM is all jumping around in our postage stamp kitchen and he's excited by this new development. He removes the lid, picks up the spoon and turns to me intensely, "I wonder what properties of a wooden spoon keep it from boiling over?" Um, yeah. Good luck with that whole college thing.

But it happens to everyone.

Did I tell you what I did when I was recording last month? I'm in my little isolation booth and DJay has decided I should sing back up for a portion of one song. I sing through the first track then Jay and Alex go into the control booth where I can't hear them and I'm waiting for the go ahead. I'm totally stressing because it's going to be really hard to sing this second part. I have no idea how they'll do this so that the backup part I'm about to sing will match up with the first part. My rhythm will have to be perfect and I won't have a reference at all and my rhythm is almost never perfect. I'm very nervous...until they playback the first track for me to sing along with. Recording studio.

Today was a subtler but equally ridiculous example. It started yesterday when I went to the ear doctor for another visit to assess my progress with the icky infection thing. By the way, while there I had a melt down, total meltdown over health insurance and rules. Melt. Down. If I was a nuclear power plant you'd all be dead. Not good. So I felt shitty all the rest of the day. He'd cleaned out my ears and put 2 different kinds of meds in them, nothing as bad as the August visit but plenty. I was tired and sad and kinda mad and totally sick to my stomach. This morning I pried my ass out of bed and went to floor barre and I felt nauseated all through the whole thing. Which all made me feel even shittier because damn I do not want to have some other illness, some other thing to slow me down. Fortunately as I reflected on trying some of my mom's patented remedy - denial - I stubbed my toe on some logic. He cleaned out my ears and then blew some other stuff in there and then topped it off with a swab of goopy crap. In my ears. The place where balance lives. And we all know what happens when balance departs, so does your stomach.

Logic, it's your friend, if you can only keep your grasp on it.

Speaking of things

You know how everybody has a thing. Well, a lot of people have more than one thing, frankly. It's something quirky but it's sort of a signature. I was on the phone with my mom this morning and one of her odd things just jumped out at me. Both my parents have them.

My dad's is directions. He read somewhere a while ago that men use mile markers and route numbers for directions and women use landmarks. He's taken this quite seriously. I've never been able to get anywhere with his directions. Took me years to figure out why. At first I thought it was that I had not enough information, then I thought it was the wrong information and finally I've got it sussed. Way. Too. Much. Information. It's doable if you have a navigator but if you drive alone, as I usually do, you're fucked.

Example: You'll go over a hill, pass a lake on your left and a graveyard on your right, then a shopping mall called the Vernon Square mall and around the corner will be an intersection with a Dunkin' Donuts set back from the street on one corner, a fire station on the left, a gas station next to that and a hair salon with a lawyer's office on the last corner, you'll take a left there until you get to the corner with a Starbucks, a boating supply store, a TCBY and a clothing store, mostly casual clothes...

Can you see the issue? You can't read ahead, there's too much information to memorize and if you're reading as you go by the time you've read what's on all four corners you've missed the turn. Once I figured out why I kept getting lost I just started eliminating all but one thing and hoping really hard I hadn't eliminated the crucial one.

Mom's thing is food. Today we're talking about relatives and addresses and I'm on the bus then walking so we keep talking. I'm the one who asked what she did today. She went to Pine Garden for Chinese Food. It was the Old Man Friend's monthly old men's lunch. She is subversively creating a "kid's table" of the people who bring the old men. They used to just get takeout and come back later, now they sit at their own table. And as of this afternoon I know what everyone at that table ate for lunch. Everything. Not just, "Oh I had the beef and snow peas and I tried some of Millie's sweet and sour pork" but also what soup each person had, what they had to drink and whether or not they had an egg roll.

I didn't really register that this was my mom's thing for a long while but then it was pointed out to me that it's genetic. Mom sent me a package of letters. Bits and pieces of things she'd written to me over the course of a couple of weeks. In those bits she'd included a description of a party she'd been to where she detailed everything that was served, what is was served in and a review of how it went over with the crowd. Also descriptions of the plates, napkins, tablecloths etc. She had also passed along in the package a note to her from Aunt Rena. Rena's entire note was a description of a party she'd been to, what had been served, who had eaten what, the quality of the napkins... I still giggle just thinking about it. To paraphrase M., Crazy: You don't just lick it off the wall.

Don't know what my odd thing is...well, the one that fits this set of odd things. Maybe that's for the best.

Current obsession

I can't let go fo the Lee Tergesen thing. (No, not Lee Tergesen's thing, if I had hold of that you wouldn't be hearing from me at all so just count your blessings.) He guested on the Unit this week so he's sponsoring this installment of Hot People.

Was there ever really any doubt?

My life is rated NC-17!



Your life is rated NC-17!

What is your life rated? (MPAA Scale)

Take Other Caffeine Nebula Quizzes

Just some cuteness for your day

Max in a rare moment free of fear and confusion.

Ellys

Sun night at Freddy's. I tried to poach a picture from her site but she's made it sort of impossible so just go and see the pretty pictures for yourself.

Sunday, October 1, 2006
8:00pm
Freddy's Bar & Backroom
485 Dean Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(the corner of 6th Ave. & Dean Street)
718.622.7035

Please tell everyone you know in the area.

Getting this off my list

Here are a couple of linky things I thought you would like.

1. Fussy recs a Library Thing that Maggie's book found for her.

2. You know how I'm always excited about Mad About You? Well it turns out Pamie and Stee are living that. I knew they were happy but until she wrote about running her first marathon I didn't get the parallel. All three posts are great but it's the third one that makes you melt just a little inside.

Old school hot

Here's an episode of Hot People brought to you by my teen years.





Collecting this picture I found yet another disturbing thing about the internet. When you Google "oxford blues" most of the pictures are of baby strollers.

Finally for real

I bought and moved into this apartment almost 4 years ago. At the time I had a bunch of checks left over with my old address. So I used those, scratching out the address and writing in the new one. Eventually those ran out and I got new checks. Which felt good until I realized the zip code was wrong. I don't know if it was before I realized my zip was wrong or if the bank failed to note the change or what. I remember it being the bank's fault but I do not love my bank so I might be revising history there. The end result was that I couldn't get new checks without paying for them. So I've been scratching out the zip code and replacing that for a few years. Today I got my new checks. The address is right. The zip code is right. I'm not going to have to scratch anything out when I write a check now. Now? Now I live here. For real.

Any second now I'll be able to breathe out all the way.

Right?

Dinner with Da Family

And I don't mean the Corleones.

According to Melissa's other blog today is Family Day. The purpose is to highlight the importance of eating dinner with your family regularly in order to grow happy, healthy humans who are addicted to nothing, not cigarettes, not alcohol, not starvation, not puking, nothing at all, they won't even want to eat the same dessert twice in a row, that's how unaddicted they'll be.

I eat dinner with my family almost every night. It's me, on the couch, eating something out of the receptacle in which it was cooked, being stared down by all three pets. So, for variety's sake I'm eating "family" dinner tonight with the Music Family.

MarkyB is playing at 7 tonight and C-ann will be there with the MBaby. I'm looking forward to it, it makes me not want to smoke cigarettes or puke.

Have a nice dinner tonight! Say hi to your family for me.

I declare anew

In 5 years I want to be making my living with work I've published and by performing in schools and on other stages.

In the next 3 months I wil have a short story published. I will have re-written and assembled beautiful new Shakespeare marketing packets and distributed them to 10 top schools on my list of targets. I will have completed another draft of the Chekhov and have the script ready for production and/or publication. My house will serve me with a spacious storage closet, an efficient filing system and a cheerful appearance. I will have a 2 song demo CD complete with cover art and copies pressed with a plan for the recording of a full-length CD in place and ready to be implemented.

Great Idea Receptacle Part ?

I came up with a great tv series. Usually I just have ideas for storylines for current series but this is brand new. I think it has its origins in the conversations that ProfDoc and I had when Dawson's Creek was going off the air and we wanted to come up with a new series so we could still see Josh Jackson once a week.

I don't have a name for this one, yet, it'll probably be the name of the baseball team in question, or a play on the name. It's Bull Durham meets Mystery, Alaska meets Ed.

So, picture a quirky small town, probably in Pennsylvania or Ohio, a la Stars Hollow or Everwood or Stuckeyville. Our hero (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is a father of 2 (one teen girl, one younger boy) who sells landscaping equipment. One of his clients is the local minor league baseball park. JDM wins the lottery. The one thing he splurges on for himself? The local minor league baseball team, whose Manager is his old high school friend/enemy (Scott Patterson). Once we establish this connection it becomes more of a buddy show about these 2 guys.

Once he owns the team his wife, who has been waiting for this opportunity, takes half the money and leaves him, he pays off all their debts etc and he probably ends up living on the edge in terms of finances to keep the team going. His daughter finds herself immensely popular with the boys in town, the jocks who want a chance to try out for the team, while her long time geeky admirer sells peanuts or assembles stats or something for the team. There's a Statler & Waldorf type pair who come to every game. I'd like them to be female and to own small businesses in the town. One might be JDM's financial advisor. They might be sisters or they might be "sisters". It'd be good to have a solid, long-term love relationship for the boys to live up to.

I see women hitting on JDM but him never being able to close the deal. SP, on the other hand always gets the girl. Or a girl.

There should be a woman who tries out and ends up being able to play on the team. Like Bad News Bears, you know? My first instinct was to have her be a catcher but there are way too many bad, sexist jokes to be made there. I think she'll be a shortstop, she'll be faster on her feet and able to make quicker decisions under fire. Though there might be a long term flirtation between her and JDM I'd rather she not sleep with anyone she works with.

I need someone to do the math for how much debt JDM might be in, how much the team would cost at first and then to run and how much he'd have to win in order to have plenty of money and then accidentally end a little closer to where he started. With that information I think I could write the pilot. Screw that I can probably write 5 episodes and outline 5 more.

I see it on the CW probably, it might make a nice summer series, which would be perfect because it'd keep us in the minor league season.

Then, THEN I'll need someone who knows where I can pitch it.

Oh, this is so beyond the comments section

Chili said:
"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say "the boy with the arrow in the bottom picture." I can't remember his name off the top of my head and I should because the girls have decided that Mythbusters is as cool a show as Good Eats. As a consequence, TiVo has been tasked to get them on a regular basis."

On this count she is right. She also helped me out with some seriously simple logic so I could find out his name. On the show they call him Tore, but I wasn't sure how they were spelling it. Turns out his real name is Salvatore Belleci. If he were my boyfriend I'd so be calling him Sal. (Hear that? Call me Sal!)

Then she goes on to say:
"I, personally, am hot for Jamie. Though Adam regularly gets my laughs, there's something about Jamie's cool, calm, slightly snarky attitude (and that moustache) that just works for me."

I'm not even going to touch the moustache comment. Have you seen the moustache? Go back and look at the previous entry. Stare long and hard at the moustache. Then picture him drinking a tall frosty milkshake. Chocolate. Then get back to me on the moustache. OK, well I guess I did touch on the moustache, couldn't be helped.

Jamie, as a whole, though, not a choice I can get behind. I think, perhaps, that Chili hasn't seen enough episodes. I thought he was possibly the better choice of the 2 core busters when I first started watching, too. Adam is...um...perky? Gleeful? Devil-may-care? Oh who am I kidding, he's got an exuberant childish side that would get old in a matter of seconds for me. I do, however, admire his teaching style and his willingness to admit and take responsibility for his mistakes and...sorry, this isn't about Adam.

Jamie will occasionally get a huge kick out of something and he'll do this understated giggle sort of thing and it's charming, I'll admit that. However, more often than not he can't take a joke. Dish it out? Check. Take it? Er, no. He has all the worst traits of an only child (no idea if he really is but he gets the honorary title if not). He can't stand it when someone else plays with his toys. He doesn't like to discuss his designs with anyone and if something goes wrong he won't get feedback or talk to the group he stomps off and sulks. Let's go with an example.

They're building a Civil War rocket. They're testing it in the shop. Jamie is in charge of the release valve that lets the nitrous oxide (I think) enter the propulsion system. When the test is done Adam lets him know he can stop the nitrous flow. He does and there's a huge pop and stuff swirls around and everyone jumps like 5 feet. Adam yells, "Are you OK?" Jamie replies, "I knew that was going to happen." Be that as it may, if Adam had done that we'd have been treated to a 10 minute safety lecture on how everyone needs to know what is happening with dangerous and flammable substances blah blah blah mythcakes.

In another episode they're testing Coca Cola as a cleaning agent. Adam cleans the bathroom with a commercial cleaner. Jamie is slated to clean with coca cola. So Adam dirties it up with auto grease. It's a joke, it's a stupid Adam joke, and it's not the end of the world. Jamie walks in, sees the mess and immediately delivers a lecture about how Adam needs to ask Jamie before he does something like that to Jamie's stuff because what if the grease doesn't come off and then his whole shop bathroom is ruined, beyond repair. I think I delivered this same lecture about a beloved pair of jeans. I was 11. And I have the excuse of being an only child.

So, OK, it's not like she said she wanted to marry the guy or anything but I had to set her straight. It was killing me. I don't care how much you like the lip tickler, his attitude ruins it.

Hot ass mythbusters

I believe I've mentioned that the week has been somewhat depressing. The sort of thing that kind of presses you into the couch and won't let you up. The overview is that there were 2 deaths I shouldn't speak about then Miflohny's friend C died and then a distant relative of mine also passed. I'll probably head down to FL in the nearish future for a memorial.

While pressed to the couch I ended up watching much of a marathon of these yahoos. It's just enough science for me without going overboard and there's plenty of Peter Pan-like idiocy to lighten it. It's the sort of show I think that everyone I went to college with would love to be part of. I could cast each of us as one of the Mythbusters team. I'd be the girl on the computer, then the girl holding the fire extinguisher, then the girl applying first aid through tears of laughter.

The episode that really lifted my spirits was the one about flatulence. Flautas, I believe, is the technical term that they used "so as not to offend any viewers". They had to catch a fart to measure its contents, of course. There was a complicated apparatus built that involved Adam sitting in a bathtub full of water under a funnel and using his hand to direct the bubbles into the capturing tubing. Hee! Then there's a bean eating sequence. I can't go on, you've got to watch it yourself. It's too good.

Technically this is also a hot people entry because...well, because different strokes for different folks. Can you guess which one I think is snuggly?

Help please

I'm exhausted. Last night from 12:30 to 3 my phone was getting text spammed with the same message from the same address over and over. I tried to text back for them to stop, which involved me actually learning how to text, but the message came back as undeliverable. Eventually I turned the phone entirely to silent. I couldn't figure out how to get the phone to just be silent for text messages.

The damage was done, though. I was awake and I was pissed and a little freaked out so it became Phobia Phest and I couldn't sleep for a long time.

Let's assume this happens again. 'Cause I mean, why wouldn't it? How do I make it stop? Is there a way to block an address from sending the phone stuff? Turn texting off on the phone? I don't know what to do. The only thing I want to do (find Ernesto at Dimensional dot com and his green energy and stuff one up the other's ass repeatedly and with gusto) is probably going to take more time than I have and still won't stop the messages.

Suggestions in the comments, please.

Er...foiled

So, I was going to put a quick post in here, something uplifting because it's been one hell of a bummer of a week but I can't get the pictures I want to work. So, uh, hi! My week's been a bummer. Like with a death count in, probably the top 5 of my lifetime weeks. I'll talk more about it later. And hopefully have funny flatulence stories to cheer you tomorrow.

But, hey, here's a funny picture of a cat to keep you coming back until I do.

Jaws!

So, I read a little bit about James Woods and his new show, Shark. I thought I'd give it a try. By the opening credits I still wasn't all that sure. However in the 2 minutes after the opening credits I've discovered that Spike Lee directed the pilot and Melissa Leo is guest starring. This one could be a contender.

Seattle Hot

Per Chili's request I give you some Pacific Northwest surgical hot.

Sadly it's almost impossible to find a hot guy pic of T.R. Knight. He's a good looking guy, he was smoking hot at the Tony's and I got nothing poachable. Ditto Sarah Ramirez. It's OK, the pickings are still anything but slim.


Let me tell you it's hard to find a non-soft core porn picture of Katherine Heigl (I'm sure that's not at all disappointing to some of you). I'd like to congratulate the casting folk at Grey's for not typecasting a guy either. Justin Chambers used to be a model, too, and he and his wife of 13 years have five kids.

My verdict after seeing the season opener is that Shonda Rimes is the mid point between Aaron Sorkin and John Wells.

Oh and my prediction for Izzy is as follows: They should give her a career in forensics because she's always hanging out with the dead bodies and she likes to get to the bottom of stories and she can't be trusted not to marry the occasional live patient. They're gonna give her a placement in psych, though.

Growing like a hot person

People said Weeds was going to be all that. You know, I thought, sure, it'll be fine. turns out I'm a little in love with it. It's smart and conflicty and has good characters and it's a little wacky with while still being painfully real.

ProfDoc is a big fan of Mary Louise Parker. She and I have bantered back and forth about Sorkin's choice to to add her to the West Wing and her work there. I might have to revise my MLP position some. In the 6th episode of the first season MLP's widowed character watches a videotape of her husband making love to her and it just breaks my heart. I could watch it over and over. MLP makes a couple of simple and compellingly honest choices in the scene that a over the top good.

I highly recommend the show, and my plan to win you to the dark side starts with pictures of the hot people involved.

P.S. to ProfDoc: That thing I keep forgetting to tell you is, "Look, Denny is in Weeds, too, he's a busy guy!"

This is sort of gratitudy

We're talking donations now. I'm not going to get into why these particular foundations, just going to lay them out there.

Here's one I love. I find it a little difficult to choose, the choices are so vast and my resources are pretty limited.

This came from MKAEP. Her goal is tiny. I feel certain that if we put our minds to it we can double it.

"Dear Friends and Family,

I recently accepted the challenge to raise funds to support the 2006 Komen Oklahoma City Race for the Cure® on October 14, 2006 in the fight against breast cancer. One in eight women will be stricken with breast cancer in her lifetime and the more we raise, the more the Central Oklahoma Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation can give back to fund vital breast cancer education, screening and treatment programs in our own community and support the national search for a cure.

Please join me in the fight by pledging in support of my participation in the Race or contributing generously to the 2006 Komen Oklahoma City Race for the Cure®. Your tax-deductible contribution will fund innovative outreach and awareness programs for medically underserved communities in Central Oklahoma and national breast cancer research. It is faster and easier than ever to support this great cause - you can make a donation online by simply clicking at the bottom of this message where it says "click here". If you would prefer, you can also send your tax-deductible contribution to the address listed below. Whatever you can give will help! I truly appreciate your support and will keep you posted on my progress.

Thank you so much for your time and support in the fight against breast cancer! Every step counts!

Sincerely,

Misti Pryor

To sponsor my participation online, click here.

Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
Central Oklahoma Affiliate
1900 N.W. Expressway, Suite R325
Oklahoma City, OK 73118"

Here's one I'll be adding to my list in the next few days:
Save the Children
54 Wilton Road
Westport, CT 06880
In either of the children’s names (they will ask you to pick one)
For mail and phone donations please add code: 72730-M (Saving Newborn Babies Fund)
1-800-728-3843


We usually give here in lieu of a clutter gift to Auntie Blanche. I mean, who doesn't trust ex-President Carter?

Now, a request, I'm looking for one or 2 new (to me) cancer organizations to support. I've heard that the American Lung Association isn't efficient with it's use of funds. I want something that supports lesser publicized cancers - lung, brain, kids... It can be research support or support of patients or anything as long as the organization uses its money wisely. The sooner the better on this one, too. Thanks!

I've done some stuff

But not much, I think. Let's see.

This is from Suzanne.

Here is a list of 150 things -- I have done the things in italics.

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain a very small mountain but a mountain nonetheless.
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said ‘I love you’ and meant it much good may it do me.
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped - not...gonna...happen. It's not the first drop that bothers me, it's the unanticipatable number of rebounces before they take you down.
11. Visited Paris looking forward to going again.
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea - with my fear of drowing, yeah, this is gonna happen.
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise Did this a lot as a teen, living on the Atlantic it was a kick to go to the beach and see the sun rise over the ocean.
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa - I've not been to Italy yet, really looking forward to that.
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables, yes, thank you mom.
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars, and I'm pretty much committing my life to never having to do that again unless a house with an enormous, screened skylight is involved.
20. Changed a baby’s diaper, fairly recently too considering I neither teach nor have my own kids.
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne, all...the...time, it's my drink of choice.
24. Given more than you can afford to charity - working on this one for this Christmas.
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope.
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment it's probably good that this one doesn't make you admit what you consider the worst possible moment: funeral, wedding, sex, birds & bees talk with a child?
27. Had a food fight, at a Bat Mitzvah even, very mature.
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger - Hmmmm, probably but I can't think of who so I can't, in good conscience, report it.
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly could, I was an angry teen.
32. Held a lamb, they're NUBBLY! This Jehovah's Witness kid in my 2nd grade class brought one in. I still remember how cool it felt.
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run - Ha!
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer - I need to do this and fucking soon.
40. Visited all 50 states - not even close. Want to work on that.
41. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
42. Had amazing friends Have.
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country - does dancing with a new classmate in NY when I first moved here count? But then on second thought I actually have done that in the UK.
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love - again with the probably but can't get specific so can't say.
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your cds
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke, sometimes I wish I had my own karaoke machine. One of my idols, Allison Janney, has a karaoke machine she brings with her everywhere she goes.
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain, rain, snow, sleet, hail, dark of night; kissing is one of the best inventions of all time.
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater and I'd really like to do that again.
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business and it's going pretty fucking slowly.
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken - is this actually possible? Discuss.
69. Toured ancient sites. Hadrian's Wall, The Acropolis, Stonehenge. I don't suppose Jim Morrison's grave fits in this category.
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced - not technically but...
76. Gone without food for 5 days - not entirely but my teen years were pretty lean.
77. Made cookies from scratch, if I felt better I'd be doing that right now.
78. Won first prize in a costume contest, I'm counting this but technically it was my dog that won.
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice - also really looking forward to doing this. Anyone ever seen A Little Romance?
80. Gotten a tattoo - am interested in this but where can I fet a tattoo that won't blimp out when/if I do and won't hurt so bad that I cry?
81. Gone white water rafting - um, also no. But thanks.
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage, looking forward to doing that again soon.
85. Been to Las Vegas - soon, my trip got postponed.
86. Recorded music, for three different CDs actually.
87. Eaten shark
88. Had a one-night stand
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house, I'm counting this because my apartment costs more than a lot of homes. I love New York, though, so totally worth it.
91. Been in a combat zone - does Belfast in 1995 count?
92. Buried one/both of your parents - lots and lots of grandparents but fortunately no parents yet.
93. Been on a cruise ship - see above re: drowning and hear my NO!
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children. - not technically but I continue to spread my questionable influence far and wide.
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour - Does Red Molly and most of the E-Records crowd count?
98. Created and named your own constellation of stars
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived. - I'm just going to guess that a really bad relationship doesn't count so I can't have this one.
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray - This one seems particularly timely.
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone, collar bone and my nose a few times.
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol - really would like to do this.
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild - mushrooms are gross!
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet - Do you people know me at all? Of course not! I did house sit for people with a snake, but I was young and needed the cash.
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours - probably as a teenager...or in my 20s..or possibly last weekend.
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days - accomplishing this would likely ruin my goal of trying never again to camp. Ever.
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi Yum!
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach I live in New York City.
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions - I am a reunion junkie. I want to have reunions with every group I've ever been a part of. I am in an eensy small minority.
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language I live in New York City.
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream Very briefly but more than once, which is cool.
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care I've watched people die it's not all quite the same but it's close enough.
143. Built your own PC from parts - Bwa ha ha ha ha!
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair Face painting for JDRF.
146: Dyed your hair
147: Been a DJ
148: Shaved your head - want to but have been told that I don't have the head or the wardrobe for it.
149: Caused a car accident, I'm a shitty parker.
150: Saved someone’s life

OK, so around 63 things, with room to grow. Not so bad.

On My Desk

Apparently you're supposed to do this gratitude thing every day. It can be anything from Chocolate Chip Ice Cream to World Peace (don't hold your breath). I'm going to throw you a few pics from the rotating group that grace my laptop's desktop every day in lieu of a wordy list.








So, uh, yeah, more than 5 and a sort of odd grouping but...eh.

Grateful

So, apparently Oprah is telling everyone to make gratitude journals. Five things a day to be grateful for. Feels like today's a good day to start with that.

1. All the kids, the Athlete, Blondie Girl, MusicBaby, Alita, the Chilis, Steph, Bud, Bricklayer's son, QuewlKat, LilyB, all of them.

2. New York City. Love it, warts and all.

3. The pets. Em is all sacked out, blocking my exit, stuck to my ankle like glue.

4. It's stupid but TV, it makes me feel better.

5. You, if you're reading I'm grateful for you, so thanks and all.

Now, click on the comment section and give me 5 things. If I can do it so can you. It'll be good for you, I promise.

We're related so keep the comments clean

This is my cousin, Mike. He's a freak and sometimes he's a pain in the ass (totally on purpose) and he's high-freaking-larious. Just love him. Go check out his blog, from whence I poached this photo.

Three things

1. Quote of the day:
- Rose, you're a stalker.
- I prefer boundary challenged.
Yeah, Rose, me too.

2. Why is the last quarter inch of the bottle of Listerine less oomphy than the rest of the bottle? Is it because it's mostly backwash? (Yes, I do drink out of the bottle. Don't you?)

3. If you regularly fall off your clogs does that cancel out the healing properties of their expensive, high tech rocker soles?

The Sork

You may never have seen Sports Night. You may not know why The West Wing changed drastically after Season 4. You may not know that that Navy lawyer movie with Demi Moore in it was originally a Broadway play. But I hold that if you listened to some dialogue from any of those pieces you'd hear the similarities, the music of it. And I know you'd recognize some of the issues close to the writer's heart.

Aaron Sorkin is that writer.

If you know me at all you know how much I love him and what he does. (OK, he's a nutjob I don't think I'd want to live with him or anything but I want his work to be available to me at all times.) I'm all about rules and etiquette and being kind to those around you and yet, I'm willing to forgive him so much. I am not willing to forgive the powers that be at NBC who decided that schedules and money (and the sanity of the rest of the team) were more important than the stories he tells.

The West Wing shows it most clearly. The 3 creators of the show were Sork, his partner, Tommy Schlamme and John Wells, best known for the creation of ER. When Sorkin was fired from the West Wing (he wrote all but one episode prior to his departure) Wells took over the helm. And, though I've only been able to watch a couple of episodes after Wells' became the pilot, I can say that if you can stomach it, it shows the basic differences between Sork and Wells.

Sorkin finds what is dramatic in the everday.

Wells finds what is everyday in the dramatic.

Sorkin - A hurricane shifts course and directly hits a US Navy fleet. The President gets on the phone with the one person in the communications room of the lead ship, a young private who is both injured and frightened. Despite a room full of advisors, knowing that he can't change an act of God, the President stays on the phone with the boy as long as the line stays open, reassuring and guiding him.

Wells - A medivac helicopter crashes on an ambulance bay killing a disliked character.

Tonight Sorkin is back. NBC, having lost West Wing and Friends and pretty much anything else anyone was watching, have had to return to their genius team of Sorkin and Schlamme. Due to my Netflix membership I was able to preview the pilot episode and it's just as good as I thought it would be. Maybe even a little better.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip takes place backstage at a sketch comedy show a la SNL. The content is less sketch and more backstage. There are the strong women, the damaged men, the newbies, the old hands, the sage leaders. All the witty banter. All the sociological issues that Sork continually explores. And he's doing it in the very medium that he's criticizing. I mean, talk about making the problem your solution!

I've curbed the potty mouth long enough. It's motherfucking brilliant!

Just go watch it. If you're the one vote that doesn't get cast and this show gets canceled I am telling you, heads will roll!

Trickle Down Transportation

It turns out that when all the international diplomats come back to town and their comings and goings tie up streets so badly that the traffic report looks like hurricane coverage the natives will take the subway.

All of the natives.

To Whom It May Concern: All of the natives don't fit on the subway.

Daredevil

I used to play the trombone.

Fronting

I know I'm not alone in being baffled every time our illustrious president does anything but lately, man, I can't read the print for my head shaking.

I keep thinking of the last Czar of Russia. Czar Nicholas was the son of a decorated and directed military leader, a strict father with military interest and experience who took pride in doing the job by the tried and true rules. Some time after his father's death the world went to war and Nicholas joined in on the European front. A bit later the Japanese joined and Nicholas had a panic attack and willy nilly started splitting his troops up and fighting them too. So now the young, inexperienced Czar has his troops spread thin, his supply lines too long and his expertise is dwindling fast. He ends up with a country ruled by a small number of the elite who are unable to pay the resentful, poverty-stricken serving class. Is any of this sounding remotely familiar yet? Revolution ensued and Nicholas and his family were gruesomely dispatched by the next group to take power.

I'm no history expert, especially military history, (please do not take the above paragraph as a full and complete description of the fall of the Russian aristocracy) and I'm certainly not saying that I want to see the Bush twins strapped into jewel-encrusted corsets and shot then bayoneted until their $50 nail tips and $200 hair highlights are a distant memory. I am wondering, however, is a third front really a good plan right now? Really? And I'm not even counting Korea, Israel/Palestine, the War on Drugs or the War on Terror here at home.

In the meantime I also grow incensed by Bush's whole "God loves us best" stuff. I was led to believe that God loves everyone best. It's sort of the allure of God is it not? The more he says it the more he turns America into the lead character in that Free To Be You And Me story, Ladies First. In case you don't remember the tigers ate her righteous, frill-clad behind in the end.

We can always use hot people

Anybody want to guess what motivates my choices of particular hot people for any given day?

What did you do today?

I dressed up like this and both terrified and delighted small children in a tony neighborhood.

Huh, wa, errrrrrr...

I just saw this play at the Atlantic and I want to talk about it but I kind of don't know what to say.

Basics: It's called Birth and Afterbirth. It's by Tina Howe. According to the conversation I overheard in the ladies' at intermission it was written in the 70s but this is its first production.

I feel like I'm supposed to know more about Tina Howe. I think JAM maybe did a paper on her when he was at NYU but I don't think I ever read any of the paper. I have the vaguest memories of reading her plays and not having a bleeding clue what was going on. But in that way where you feel like you know that something important is going on and you should be able to work it out but you're just not quite smart enough.

Howe, at least in this play, seems to be a sort of Eugene Ionesco + Caryl Churchill + David Mamet sort of a pudding.

Yes, I know that sounds both impossible and unpalatable but it's the truth.

I spent the whole first act feeling exactly like I felt when I read her plays (if I did indeed read her plays and I really think that I've read at least one and it definitely wasn't this one). There was some symbolism going on but it was all very out there but no one was really paying attention to the complete weirdness of it (Ionesco). It was funny but in a cruel and sometimes horrible way (Mamet). But it at least seemed clear that we were supposed to be empathizing with the chick (Churchill).

How would you like a little plot to go with your confusion?

Very basically a family celebrates their son's 4th birthday. The first act is the early morning with just the 3 of them and the second act is the evening when a childless couple joins them for a birthday party.

Weird shit happens. The mother keeps scratching her head and handfuls of sand fall out of her hair. The childless woman goes into some sort of fit which is supposed to simulate the childbirth she's afraid to go through. Oh and, the 4 year old is played by a full grown overweight man. I want to know where they got those pajamas they had him in, I'm so getting a pair for my next boyfriend.

By the end I think I did get some of it but not in a coherent, or fully realized way. I suppose that might be OK with Ms. Howe. Maybe she just wants to give people impressions and leave them to work out the details on their own. As an artist I love to do that to people. As an audience member that makes me want to thwack the artist over the head with something heavy, like, for instance, the fucking video camera that the annoying dad in the play was obsessed with.

I don't think that the director was able to clarify the world of the play. It's not the real world but it's got one foot in it. Not an easy task. As a result the women in the play weren't, I think, fully grasped by the actresses. Moments were very good but the throughline was wobbly. Which, of course, made me want to try out one of the roles. Now, get out your cigars, your notepads, your trains and your tunnels: of the 2 female characters I'm more drawn to the mother. She's got a beautiful struggle going on within her and she ought to make the audience both despise her and despair for her sanity, you know, in a loving way. Plus, dude, her hair is rigged with sand and she loses a tooth right on stage in the last scene. The other woman also has a lot to work with and, if I'm not just overlaying all my blog reading on the part, her arc is about miscarriage and adoption and loss both because of her own choices and her circumstances. It's not a bad part, I just don't want to do all the roll on the floor comedy.

Like I said, I don't really know what to say about it. I went alone and didn't have anyone to bounce it off of so I needed to vomit forth what I thought.

Quote of the Day

"Lorelei Gilmore, disappointing mothers since 1968."

Have I done this one before?

The Information Cul de Sac

We've spoken here briefly about the work being done on my building. It's good work, it's going to keep the building from falling down. That, in my opinion, can't be a bad thing.

When I say that the equipment rests outside my window I want to make sure we're clear. Outside every window in my apartment rests a window washing type of flying scaffold. In my bedroom, one of these windows is, without exaggeration, a foot from my head. Every morning the guys come up and walk the perimeter of the roof clearing the debris from the previous day's work.

Three points of order: 1. I have sheer curtains with no blinds. 2. Sometimes I do not wear a full set of pajamas to bed. 3. In the information that the management office put out we were assured that the work would take place Monday through Friday.

It's been raining a lot lately. I've been wondering if the weather was putting the work way off schedule. Apparently yes. This morning, a Saturday, before I was out of bed the brick guys showed up.

I hate the guy who runs our management office. On his very best day he's adequate at his job and a lot of the time he's just plain awful at it. I'm thinking that if I had explicitly told the people I work for that they would only have work done on weekdays and then that changed I would have at least posted a sign for those people to tell them to wear pajamas and refill their inhalers.

Treat Me Right

There's a new store in the 'hood. It's a pet food store called Who's Your Doggy and it's perfectly situated on a mostly residential street that dead ends into the local park. It is, in fact, directly in my path as I walk to the park, which I do almost every day. I don't usually go alone, of course, I go with Em.

Em loves the new store. There's a display of high end big chewy treats just inside the door at dog level. It's like a salad bar for dogs, they can choose their own favorite, which amuses the owner no end. Emily is impressed.

I am weak.

So far I've purchased at least one thing about 50% of the time we've passed the store. Consider the fact that a good 30% of the times we pass are before the place opens. I am putty in the old girl's hands, no matter what I keep telling myself about how great I am for supporting local businesses.

It's like I had kids who go to a school a block from an ice cream parlor. I'd have thousand pound kids...really happy thousand pound kids who love to walk to school.

Situation: Dire

We are in dire need of some hot folk this week. Voila!

Release

In the spirit of realizing when I'm overthinking something I'll quickly explain why I've been off the blog for a day or so after being so prolific. There's one thing I want to write about that I'm just not sure about and it's sort of blocking the path. It should. It's big. So I'll lay it down in outline, and in the interest of sending good energy out to someone special.

Last night Miflohny let us know that her good friend C, who I've talked about before, is receiving hospice care. Without going into specifics, she is likely quite close to leaving. She's fought so ridiculously valiantly and been blocked unfairly by so many things. For a long time her death would have been unfair. Now? Now. Well, now.

JAM's dad, ET, is a minister. Very soon after I met him we had occasion to talk about his work with parishioners who were near death and whenever I deal with this part I can see his face when he talks about the importance of letting someone know that it's OK for them to go so they don't feel they need to stay for the sake of their loved ones.

I wish for C whatever she wants or needs. I wish her well and I know she will be sorely missed. She's also one hell of an example for those of us fortunate enough to have spent time with her.

Someone says it better

Just one more thought in the vicinity of this anniversary. Laid Off Dad didn't think he was going to write about the 5th year after 9/11 but eventually he couldn't help it. His reason is simply put, "I'm frustrated and angry, because despite my best attempts to put this all behind me the anniversaries are somehow getting worse."

Yeah, what he said.

He also talks about his visit to Ground Zero. I have not wanted to go and look at the hole. I've seen pictures, I've seen bodies carried out, I saw the rubble live in September of 2001, it hasn't felt right. A couple of times I've had visitors who wanted to go so I stay at the memorial at Trinity Church and point them toward the crater.

Last December there was a surprise baby shower for C-ann out in Hoboken. I took the Path Train from 34th Street. I don't take the Path that often so I didn't think about it much. I got in the first train back to NYC without looking at the destination because I didn't think...let's just leave it at that.

The World Trade Center bound Path Train comes up into open air inside the hole and the track hugs the wall, moving around 3 sides of the foundation before it gets to the platform. It is indescribable really to be slowly motoring around that ground as though you're taking a guided tour.

One of the main foci the media gave to Monday's anniversary was the rebuilding of the WTC. The thing I didn't say on Monday is this: Leave the hole. It's the most honest memorial to the event and the people who are, literally, part of that foundation now.

Five Alarm!

Chili's got a new job, baby! A teaching job. At a college and shit!

Huzzah!

Go on, go over there and give her a pat on the back. You know you want to.

You're too late!

I voted at 7:45 this morning. There was no line and the volunteers were efficient and pleasant.

That's pretty late for me. My first NYC voting experiences were in Park Slope. Ignorant and not an early riser I voted in the evening which is a mistake. You can wait for over 2 hours in a crowd of sweaty, self-important, increasingly cranky grups to vote in Park Slope in the evening.

In my last apartment I assumed it'd be the same so I started voting in the morning. I'd get up at 6, when the polls open, pee, put on pants and truck over 3 blocks and get my vote in. Often, probably 9 out of 10 times I voted in that district, I was the first voter. Which means I was the first person those volunteers practiced on. Which means that it's entirely possible none of my votes were ever counted. But I did vote.

In this new district (a full 5 blocks from the old) I started with the same routine. Not only was the line for my district short, the whole room was pretty much deserted. So last time I got crazy and went on my way to work, leaving about 45 mins early. I waited in line. For 5 minutes. With 3 people ahead of me. I can deal with that. I don't need to be first.

There's another reason I vote in the morning, though, one that's a little more satisfying to me. I've been assualted by pamphlets and posters and hand pumping politicians for at least a month now. Today I can finally in good conscience rebuff them with a dazzling grin, "You're too late, I've already voted."

Eyes Front

Tomorrow, here in NYC, we vote. It's a good reminder to keep our heads up and to keep the long term goals in mind. To that end please remember that This Is Not Over and I hope that you, even inadvertently, complied with Sars request.

In No Particular Order