I'll play your favorite song, I'll play it all night long

Right now, I'm watching "Mostly True Stories: Urban Legends Revealed" on the Discovery Channel. While I love urban legends, I can't stand the narrator. He's all creepy and ominous, and I keep thinking I'm watching, like, "America's Most Wanted" or "Unsolved Mysteries" (worst. shows. ever.)

Also annoying: The "DRAMATIZATION" title they put up whenever something weird happens. I think most viewers would kind of automatically assume that they're not really showing the reactions of a dad who just found his baby in the oven, or whatever.

I haven't been doing much this week other than working. Good for my bank account, not so good for my brain.

"Prison Break" on Monday night was so great. I totally called Kellerman shooting the guy he bought the gun from. I'm so bummed that there are only four episodes left in the season! After that, I'll be waiting very impatiently until August.

Man, August sounds so far away, but it really isn't. I can't believe that February is already over.

Last night, I got some good writing done - kind of. There's this miniseries in my mind, but so far I'm just doing summaries instead of putting it in screenplay form. I need to buy a screenwriting book, again (I had one, then I guess gave it away when I thought I'd never write one). I know there are computer programs that do the formatting stuff, but MS Word's evil ways have kind of grown on me.

Though, in doing that writing, I don't really have anything prepared for tomorrow night's writers club. Eh, I'll do it this afternoon, aka tomorrow afternoon right before the meeting.

I have my first book club meeting this weekend! I'm excited, but kind of nervous that I'm going to come off as dumb or something. I did finish the book last week or the week before, but I haven't thought about it in terms of the discussion guide that the leader e-mailed to everyone. It (Cormac McCarthy's "The Road") was a quick, easy (if depressing) read so I'll probably just wait until Saturday to go over it again.

Strangely, I have a bunch of busy weekends coming up. Next weekend, I'm going on a day trip to a casino with my grandpa, and the weekend after that, my aunt will be in town. I wish EC was coming with her, of course, but she has work and her car causing her money problems, and it's really time for me to go out to see her, instead. I wouldn't ever want to live in Arizona, but I'm definitely up for another trip.

You feel a burning in your body core, it's a feeling that you can't ignore

I know I don't generally blog in the early morning hours, but I am kinda crazed from the four glasses of soda I had awhile ago. Yes, I know I was going to quit, but... anyway, to backtrack a little:

Thursday

I didn't get anywhere writing any kind of story, but I did manage to get out a few poems. None of these made it to the poetry reading I went to that night, but I enjoyed myself very much anyway. It was in this little coffee place downtown, and it got quite full of people. The poet who frequents my writers club was there, kinda running the show, and I didn't know anyone else - except maybe this one girl (okay, she's probably in her late 20's which I guess makes her a woman but I call everyone a girl) who I think works at the daycare/private school I worked at a few years ago.

Friday

I went to work for a long day... oh, such a long day. Well, a long day by my standards. I got there a bit before 9:00 and left about 4:15. It was one of those things where my boss needed help dealing with like 100 different things. Really, I don't know how either of my bosses can stand doing that - they'll set aside random things until it's in a huge pile of annoying crap that all needs to be dealt with at once.

Today... actually Saturday, because right now today is technically Sunday

I had a pretty leisurely day of reading, and I watched the last couple episodes of "Invasion." I hate that there's no second season! Damn cliffhangers.

Tonight was KA's play, and some of us went to see it in a group - me, MB, LS, MH, and we did run into LT and DS at the theater, and all sat together. The play was Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park" which was pretty amusing. Not as amusing as LS's comments about how MB needed to hook up with this one dude, but still pretty funny.

After the show we went to Chili's, and that's where all my willpower died, and I totally cancelled out at least a week's worth of being semi-healthyish. Four sodas (the waiter just kept bringing them - what was a I supposed to do?) and LS and I shared some fab nachos. I almost had a real drink, but things were silly enough as it was. Oh so silly and way too much fun.

Tomorrow... actually today because it's after midnight, as I have already stated

We may or may not have family over for dinner, which I may or may not miss part of or entirely, because I may or may not crash CC's Oscar Party. Maybe.

This very moment

I want to sleep, but that may not be technically possible. Also, I need water like nobody's business. Unfortunately there's plenty of it outside. Damn rain, just when things were getting so beautifully spring-like. Eh, what you gonna do.

This is beautiful, hold my hand

Well, so much for my blogging more regularly, right?

Monday, LT and I finally went to see "Hannibal Rising." It was okay, but not spectacular (hey, just like the book). Really, I'd only recommend it to hardcore Hannibal fans. The whole movie is basically two hours of him murdering (in painful but creative ways, I must admit) the war criminals who ate his sister. Fair enough.

Monday night was also "Prison Break." I have never laughed so hard in my life as I did when Sara locked Kellerman out of the car. Ordinarily, I'd feel bad because I love his character so much, but - he's evil. Though, I did have this great dream last weekend about making out with Paul Adelstein.

I worked Tuesday and yesterday - not for very long, but I did. Nothing remotely interesting about it, especially yesterday, when I had the worst project ever. I think our accountant's office actually sits around, thinking up Hell Assignments for me. I basically had to go back through four years of phone bills, made all the more confusing because, well, you know how phone companies have to change their name like every year (Sprint became MCI became Sprint again became MCI/Verizon, changed to only Verizon - oh it hurt my head so. Don't get me started on AT&T/Pacific Bell/SBC). I'm not going to the office today, but I'll be back tomorrow. Sigh. At least I'll get a paycheck (albeit a small one) then.

Tuesday night I had to take my brother to school, and he's not there for very long, so in the meantime I hung out with JH. We got yum drinks at Starbucks (chai lattes are my new god) and went to Mervyn's for awhile. It was pretty awesome.

Today, I intend to write. That's it. I realized that if I ever seriously intend to be a writer for a living, and I do, then I should actually write stuff. Crazy how that works out, huh? I need to stop this procrastination shit.

Other bad habits I'm trying to eradicate:

- Soda. I went for a little over a month without any, then started having like one each week - but that will never work for me. I don't do things halfway. Either I quit something (like soda) totally, or I end it up having it at least once a day. So, I'm back on the wagon now. Ugh.

- TV. Okay, television I'm going to have to learn how to manage halfway. I'm just not cool enough to be one of those people who's all, "Oh, I don't watch TV." La-dee-da for you. Anyway, this week I'm watching TV as I normally would, and keeping track of the hours I watch. Then I can go over it and decide what I really need to watch, and what's just crap (more than half of it, I'm sure).

- Bad food. I'm continuing to force myself to have cereal for breakfast instead of sandwiches, etc., which is really hard because milk pretty much grosses me out. I'm having fruit or yogurt for snacks during the day instead of chips and such. I had a major triumph the other night when I had an orange instead of a second cheeseburger. Oh, and it smelled so good!

- Not exercising. I still haven't been doing aerobics - it's so damn boring and I have to rearrange my room to do it - but I have been using the Gazelle everyday. It's got to be better than lounging around on my bed, right?

Okay, something funky and annoying is going on with my cable. I'm listening to the music channel and it sounds all static-y and underwater like. I can't stand static on TV or the radio, or when a radio station goes back and forth between two channels. I mean, it physically bothers me. Am I an alien, or just picky?

Speaking of aliens, I wish I was working more and had enough money to buy "Invasion" on DVD instead of renting it piecemeal from Hollywood Video. It's a great show, but I wish I knew someone else who watched it. When I do buy it, I fully intend to get my mom into it, even if she finds my crush on William Fichtner really funny (actually, so do I). How old do you have to be before you stop having celeb crushes?

I bought some Sunsilk creme ("For poofy hair") on sale (99 cents) at Raley's, hoping it would be a great miracle product - but it doesn't work. I don't know why I always think items out of the clearance bins will be good...

Listen to the sound of the world, then watch it turn

Ah... another lovely, lazy day.

Yesterday was quite nice as well. I "slept in" until seven, had breakfast, then got ready to go a few places. Mervyn's had a sale on so I checked it out, and actually found some new clothes. There were some cute things that just didn't work, but I did get two new tops and some underwear, all for only $25 because of the sale, for using my Mervyn's card, and I had a coupon. The cashier really amused me also - she was probably only 20 or so, but kept calling everyone "dear."

Because I just don't have enough accessories (end sarcasm here), I weakened to my impulse and bought two necklaces at Target. They're both super-cute. One has three different-length strands of silver-toned necklaces, and the other is like a silver chain with brightly-colored globes. I looked for the one that reminded me of Lucky Charms that I saw when shopping with JH a couple weeks ago, but they didn't have it. Aw.

In the vein of buying stuff I did actually need, I went to Payless and found two pairs of tennis shoes that are adorable. One is pink and white (they are slightly too big, but I can deal) and the other pair is - wait for it - green and purple. They're less ugly than they sound, and they are super-comfy. Seriously, it's like not wearing shoes at all! I don't even care that they don't match a lot of things. Hey, Ryan Stiles never lets that stop him from wearing crazy shoes. I also looked for a new pair of plain-ish black shoes, but everything I saw was either fugly, too sporty, or pointy. My feet don't do pointy.

I finished my spree with a peach pleasure smoothie from Jamba Juice. Yum. After that, I didn't do anything remotely strenuous with the rest of the day. I cooked this Bertolli frozen meal for dinner - chicken alfredo, which was just divine, and my mom made doughnuts for dessert. I finished "Helter Skelter" and moved on, maybe somewhat appropriately, to ghost stories. By the time I was freaked out, it was time for "The Simpsons," and Friday night is when "Nanny 911" and "Trading Spouses" are on.

Oh, man - yet again, Nanny 911 brought us a same-initial family. They were either the Mills or the Millers, and the kids were Matthew, Madison, Mason and Maxwell. The one kid being named Mason made me laugh, because that name makes me think of two people: 1, The guy Hannibal Lecter convinced to eat his own face; and 2, My godmother's pitbull. Yes, I know a pitbull isn't a person; that's why it's even funnier. Ha, a kid named after a dog! No, not really, but I'm going to pretend that he was.

Today, I slept in even later (7:15) and eventually got out and went to the library, where the librarian and I both got freaked out by this book in the sale section that started playing music by itself. Bum bum buuum! On the drive home, I also scoped out the cafe where there's a poetry reading thing this coming week. There's one tonight at a different place, but I've decided to skip it.

Oh my god - I think our ghostie is back! Seriously. A week or two, my dad and I were eating dinner, and my mom was out. While eating, the dogs start barking and run to the door, and I hear (or thought I did) the door opening and my mom telling them, "Shh!" Neither of us were able to see the door from where we were, so I got up, but... she wasn't there. Her car wasn't even in the driveway. And the same thing - dogs barking, door opening sound, "Shh!" - happened to me today, while I was in the laundry room! Um, not cool?

Reading ghost stories last night reminded me that I want to write a scary story, or book, or movie (I'm not picky). Besides just enjoying writing in the first place, I'm curious as to whether I can actually pull it off. Being a lover of horror movies and scary stories, I know how fine the line is between "actually scary" and "actually hilarious." I do think that most horror benefits from humor at the right moments, but at the wrong time, it just gets silly.

Because of being sick earlier this week, and my natural laziness, it's been quite a few days since I've been on the Gazelle. Oops. I guess I'll force myself to do that while catching up on "Invasion." That show gets better with each episode (though the last one I watched was super disturbing, but I guess murder-suicides and amputations tend to be), so I'm totally bummed that I'm halfway through the only season.

Okay, if I don't end the entry now, I'll just keep talking. And no one wants that. Plus, my dad is baking some oatmeal cookies, and if I keep procrastinating, I won't get in any exercise before I do them, and probably not for the rest of the day, and my new, smaller jeans don't want that.

Once more, make room for just one more

So whatever my sickness was, I guess I recovered pretty quickly. I still felt feverish on Tuesday morning, so I stayed home, but got really restless sitting there, doing nothing. With lack of anything else to do, I decided it was a good day to put away all the Christmas decorations in my room, and put out some more spring-like stuff.

I'm glad I got it done, but it wore me out! Since I was also unofficially "spring cleaning" I had several huge piles of stuff all over, and was doing some gymnastics trying to move around the room. I also brought in the vacuum to get at the carpet in the closet, which left me out of breath. Once I had everything put away again, I totally collapsed in bed. Sick day indeed.

Yesterday I went back to work for a fairly productive half-day, then went to Barnes & Noble to get the book I need to read (Cormac McCarthy's "The Road") for my book club. The meeting is only a couple weeks away, so I know I should start it like now, but I'm all involved in re-reading "Helter Skelter." Anyway... after B&N, I stopped by Hollywood Video so I can continue "Invasion." I also bought two giant Twix bars... mmm. Hot guys and chocolate on Valentine's Day - way better than having a boyfriend (except for the "not having anyone to make out with" part). I did get a cute Valentine card from my parents, and when I went into work this morning, I found a bag of See's milk chocolate hearts from my boss. Aw.

The weather these past couple days has been just incredible. Warm-ish, blue sky, fresh air - definitely the kind of days that make me glad I live here and not anywhere else. It's supposed to start raining again next week, boo. Today, I began an early celebration of my four-day weekend* with the Best Junk Food Lunch Ever, of jalapeno-cream cheese tacquitos and Terra Chips. Chomp.

*That phrase always makes me think of the episode of "The Simpsons" where Homer stays home, for whatever reason, on a Thursday, and Marge comes into the living room with a message from the plant. "They said if you don't show up for work tomorrow, don't bother coming in on Monday," she says. Homer's all, "Whoo hoo! Four day weekend!"

I do have some plans for the weekend, I guess. Since there's a sale, I'll go by Mervyn's tomorrow to see if they actually have some new clothes (but I doubt it). Saturday night, there's a poetry/open mic thing that I may or may not go to - as always, I retain the right to flake. And Monday, LT and I will - as we were supposed to this last Monday when I got sick - see "Hannibal Rising" and hopefully eat something yummy.

I have writers club tonight, and don't have anything prepared - but it is only two. I did pull off a miracle of finishing something in an hour-and-a-half on the afternoon of the last evening meeting - maybe I can do it again. Or maybe I'll dawdle, do nothing, and go tonight being all, "Oops, my bad."

I'm not asking for all your time, a song or two would suit me fine

I can't really remember what I did this weekend. I suppose it must have been mostly nothing.

I remember today, at least, but it wasn't so great. I dragged myself to work this morning, and stayed only half an hour because I was feeling sick to my stomach. I came home, crashed on my bed for a couple hours, and that feeling went away - only to be replaced by a fever that has yet to completely subside. It's better than it was, but I'm still feeling pretty cozy, even without my usual winter accessories of a sweater, and two pairs of socks.

I was (am) totally bummed about being sick, because LT and I were going to see "Hannibal Rising" tonight. I've been a Thomas Harris fan forever, so I wouldn't miss it in any case - but seeing Dominic West (squeal!) in the preview really won me over.

FX keeps showing previews for a new show, "The Riches," that starts in March. I'm not entirely sure what it's about (except for rich people, obviously). I wasn't that impressed by the commercials, which aren't nearly as fun as the ones they had for "Dirt," but awhile ago I saw one that featured Minnie Driver. Okay, I'm in.

I haven't kept up with "Dirt," unfortunately. It's one of those things where I missed a week and... once I got too behind, I just didn't want to bother going back. I'll wait for a marathon, or the DVD.

On the job front, I've decided not to take the tutoring job I was offered. Yes, the pay-per-hour is good, but there are only four hours a week. That is, four hours that actually count towards your check; the two two-hour sessions each week, but any other prep work/grading done outside of that isn't taken into consideration. Um, stupidest idea ever?

Also, I really need to be firm about not taking jobs I'm not interested in. Every time I do, I only end up being unhappy. Every job has its negative points, but I want something where I'm not feeling harassed every day when I wake up and get ready. I'm starting to get that feeling now about being back at the office. I feel guilty about it, because their hiring me for special projects has gotten me out of a hole of complete brokeness, but I'm beginning to remember why I left in the first place. Hence, my new aggressiveness in job hunting. Well, as aggressive as I ever get, anyway.

Okay, I'm sitting here trying to find an amusing way to end the entry, and I see a pretty disturbing commercial. This guy is standing at the top of an apartment building (or condos?), ready to jump, ranting about reality TV and not knowing his neighbors, and some dude in a Volkswagen drives down the street and is all "Hey! Dude! Three 'V-Dubs' for under $17,000!" And this is enough for Suicidal Guy to climb down peacefully. Um... yeah. They should have some kind of disclaimer - "Cheap cars not good subsitute for therapy."

I love commercial disclaimers, especially stupid ones. Like the deodorant one where the lady does a fancy dive from her balcony to get into her dress without leaving white marks. Come on, who would actually try that?

I also like dumb warning labels on foods. "This product will be hot when heated." Seriously? I mean, really? I was hoping it'd still be frozen on the inside, so I can chip my tooth on it or something. Hey, Hot Pockets don't have a dealy on their box saying, "This product will be frozen when frozen." I smell a lawsuit coming on!

What I wouldn't give...

... for 24 full, consecutive hours, where I could be absolutely alone, and have nothing to do! I've been busier lately, and while most of it has been nice, I'm the kind of person who needs downtime so I can recharge.

Today, for instance, was as busy as I thought it'd be, if not more so. Observez-vous (Disclaimer: That was probably not real French):

6:30 Wake up
8:30 Arrive at work
(work)
11:30 Leave for interview
11:55 Have interview
12:30 Have lunch, window shop, and visit a friend
1:30 Another "interview"
2:15 Grocery shopping
3:00 Prepare food for party, do various chores, have a snack
4:30 Shower again, get dressed and ready again
5:30 Leave for birthday party
6:10 Arrive at party, somehow before the birthday girl herself
(fun stuff)
9:15 Leave party
10:00 Get home
10:23 Blog
11:00 Pass out (probably)

And there you go! While not every day of mine is like this (I would go certifiably crazy in about a week), I'm still feeling kind of "Argh!" I do know people who keep pretty much this busy all the time, and I so don't get how they do it. Maybe I'm just lazy, but there are times when I just need to daydream, or read, or (wait for it) watch TV.

While tomorrow isn't as action-packed, I've still got things to do. Books are due back at the library (I finished three out of four, anyway - I suppose I'll renew the one I haven't started yet), I need gas in my car*, and I have a whole binder full of junk from the tutoring place to look through.

I know the program will be good once it gets rolling, but there's a bunch of annoying things to do beforehand. Annoying things that will cost me money, such as a LiveScan fingerprinting (can't they just look at the old one and see I don't have a record? I haven't committed any crimes since last year, promise!), and a TB test. I have to find a place to get a TB test, since I don't have Kaiser anymore. Damn, I miss having free/cheap health stuff.

*I hate my gas gauge. On the ride to DM's house tonight, it kept going back and forth between, like, 1/3 of a tank, and 1/8 of a tank. And on my way home, it dropped nearly to the E and the gas light came on. I don't think the car could actually be using that much gas (cause if it did, there would probably be a huge black hole in the sky... oh, wait...)

Anyway, on to fun subjects: DM's party was pretty amusing. It was more of a family-type thing, with a bunch of kids running around. I'd say I miss having those in my family, but I really don't. My friends' wacky families - funny. My own wacky family - just too wacky. I finally got to meet DM's boyfriend, and we introduced a couple more people to 'Apples to Apples.' I think I'll have that game buried with me when I die, ha ha.

Other cool thing: Today I got my bracelet kit from Make the Connection, a website/organization that is working to educate people on the connection between HPV and cervical cancer. I ordered the free kit from their website sometime this last fall or summer, but they received so many requests that they ran out, and only recently started fulfilling "orders" again. You may be able to get one of these, so check it out - and barring that, just read the website, which seems to have some pretty thorough and important information.

I think I will try to sleep now.

Why do you waste my time, is the answer to the question on your mind

How great was Monday night's episode of "Prison Break?" First, Sara went crazy and tried to kill Kellerman, which was kinda hot, and then Sara and Michael made out, which was totally hot. I can't wait for the episode when they finally do it. I'm such a 16-year-old that way.

On Tuesday, I went to work for a pretty short day, then went grocery shopping. I got stuff for orzo salad: orzo, bell pepper, broccoli, yellow squash, pumpkin seeds, garlic olive oil... mmm. I made it yesterday, but messed up in that I tried to cook all the pasta in a too-small pot, so it got too sticky, and it needed more spices. I also bought a couple of frozen skiller meals: Stouffer's garlic chicken pasta (definitely not as tasty as the Bird's Eye brand), and Bertolli's chicken alfredo. I can't wait to try that one.

Yesterday, my mom and I went to see "The Messengers." We had the entire theater to ourselves, which was pretty much the creepiest part of the whole thing. Really, the movie was like a cross between "The Grudge," "The Birds," and every stupid TV movie where the family is annoying because a teenager did something dumb in the past. It wasn't a terrible flick to sit through, but a disappointment nonetheless. At least Dylan McDermott is a hottie.

And last night, I went to an art exhibition at the building where my writers club hold its meetings. There are shows there about every month or so, and I've always meant to go to one, but I made it a point to go last night because the paintings are so beautiful. I got to meet the artist and talk to him for a minute. Most of his work is landscapes and other scenery stuff, and I guess he works on the smaller paintings onsite, and does the large ones from photographs. That must be so nice to be able to go somewhere beautiful and then recreate it on canvas.

It was funny... there were some other art students there, of all ages, who had some work on display in the gallery. One of them was an 11-year-old girl who had two drawings up, and was embarrassed because her mom made her take a picture standing in front of them.

With the bosses out for the week, I was able to make it to yet another writers club meeting this morning. We had a group of five, including the poet lady who cracks me up. She's having a novel published, and brought her galleys to show us. It was so neat to see them, and, to me, inspiring. I want that in my future so badly!

I took my brother to school tonight, and since was only there for an hour, I spent some time browsing around Target. There were so many pieces of jewelry that I almost bought. I love the 80s-style stuff that's coming out - bright colors, pastels, preppy-looking bracelets and necklaces and headbands. Like I was telling JH when we recently went to Mervyn's and Target, the headbands are cute, but it's a trend that I don't know if I'm ready for quite yet. Headbands are just way easier to deal with when you have straight hair, which I unfortunately do not. Boo.

Tomorrow, I'm a busy little bee. I'm going to the office in the morning, and then I have two interviews in the afternoon. Well, one interview, and one kinda-interview with the tutoring company I worked for last year. They have an open spot at an elementary school in Antioch and the new regional director got in touch with me about it. I was quite blunt about my searching for a more substantial job (the tutoring would only be four hours a week), but he says the program will only last five or six weeks. Being oddly unconfident (is that a word? it is now) about my ability to land something else in that time, I'm probably going to take it.

And tomorrow evening, I'm going to DM's birthday party. Mostly a family thing, but a couple of the other girls are going. I signed up to take a veggie plate, so I'll have to remember to hit up Raley's on my way home. I can't decide whether I should just buy something they already have put together, or do my own thing. I was thinking celery, baby carrots, broccoli, bell pepper, and of course ranch dressing. Unless I find some magical platter that contains everything I want, I'll probably put one together myself. Mmm, ranch dressing.

On that note (okay, ranch dressing has nothing to do with it), I'm going to go remove my badly chipped, purple nail polish. I don't know where this week went.

Strike me down, bless my heart, your face was always fairer

So, the Superbowl is over for another year (and yes, I finally did figure out who was playing). The only part of it I saw was the halftime show, which seemed pretty rockin. Anyway, to backtrack (as I tend to):

Thursday, I went to work, and got home at a pretty decent time. Decent enough for me to produce my four pages for writer's club in about two hours (including printing time - my HP is such a slug). There were only four of us, but it was very pleasant. There's also some new artwork up in the building that is just beautiful.

After work on Friday, I went by Raley's to buy some groceries. I don't know what's up with that store, but all of a sudden there's a bunch of cute guys working there. I'm pretty much okay with that. I also stopped by Hollywood Video to start on season four of "The Shield" (I've only watched the season premiere so far, but I'm liking Glenn Close a lot more than I thought I would), and to continue "Invasion" (weird, but good - I might buy this someday, I think my mom would like it a lot).

Saturday was nice, both weather and activity-wise. JH and I went to lunch at Chili's, and had supposedly different salads (they looked so much alike! I had the new mesquite chicken salad, which was delish and fresh, but huge and messy). We did some shopping at Old Navy, where I bought these socks that were so obviously designed for me - pink, argyle, hearts. It was like god himself talking to me, through a pair of socks (yeah, going to hell, I know).

We also looked at Mervyn's but neither of us bought anything. They still have all the same clothes they've had since Thanksgiving or thereabouts! Lack of merchandise was definitely not a problem at Target, though I was good and only bought necessities. Being good is no fun. In the evening, between making my recipes for girls day (zucchini squares, and flan), I played cards with the family, and semi-watched "Cops."

Despite my fears that I was terribly late (I was running 10 minutes behind my planned schedule), I was actually the first one at MB's house. It was good times, though a couple of girls weren't able to make it. We had quite a crowd as it was - seven girls altogether, and CC showed up later on. Apples and Apples went on for hours, but that's definitely not a bad thing. We also had a few Valentines-related games that were pretty amusing. One of them was that we could not use the words "chocolate" or "hella." It was hella hard! Seriously!

With everyone's contributions, we had a brilliant lunch. My zucchini squares were, I'm pleased to say, very well received. MB made a salad and heated this Stouffer's chicken alfredo, which I totally want to be my last meal - Stouffer's food is so great. LS brought chow mein, which ruled because it had broccoli and was fresh (I mostly stay away from chow mein, it usually looks weird and ugly). For desserts, DM brought brownies and a red velvet cake with pink frosting, and I presented my flan - eventually. I don't know if I overcooked it slightly, or if it was just too cold, but it did not want to budge out of its bowl. But then it did, and people started to eat it, and it tasted good.

The flan also got me what I think is the biggest compliment ever. I'm always glad to hear any flattering remarks about my food, but MB's grandma - a little, old Italian lady - told me it was the "best flan she'd tasted in her whole life." Aw!

Half the girls left around either 2 or 3-ish o'clock, leaving me, MB, LS and CC. Who knows how we got started on it, but we started talking about high school and our old classmates, and all the goodness and badness involving those things. It was so much fun. CC and his fiance were having Superbowl stuff going on back at their house, so MB and I went over there. I followed her, which is a good thing because I totally mis-remembered where his house was.

There was snacking (chips and various dips, ribs that were so tasty and falling off the bone tender, mmm!), the halftime show, "Gay, Straight or Taken," and later on we got to playing the TV edition of SceneIt. Naturally, being a couch potato, I was totally kicking ass. This also reminded me that I still have yet to use my own TV SceneIt, oops. I'm still lusting after the HBO supplemental pack - someday, someday...

I almost didn't go to work today, but I forced myself, and actually had a pretty easygoing day. There was one project that annoyed me: transcribing stuff from some audio files. They were only five minutes each, but it took me some time to figure out that it's so much easier to listen to a few/several words, stop the file, then type it - than it is to try to type everything as you listen, then go back and re-listen to fix mistakes. My bosses are going to be out of the office all week, so unless TH comes up with a bunch of stuff, I won't be there too often this week. Tomorrow I'll probably do a half day, but after that I don't really know. At least I'll be able to do the morning writers club meeting on Thursday.

Right now, I have some major munchies. Potato chips in the kitchen, chocolate in my room - oh, I sense imminent diet disaster, ha. Oh, I had my first soda in three weeks yesterday. It was diet, zero calories, but I don't know if it had caffeine or not. It's not really caffeine that I'm intending to quit, but it's been nice to not feel like zombie if I don't have a soda with lunch.

I don't know if that, or my new exercise regimen (if you could call it that, we all know I'm not strict with myself), has been improving my sleep lately. I'm dreaming again, though I haven't written many of them down. I had some interesting ones last night that I think were inspired by my conversations with friends about high school. In one of the dreams, there was this huge party at my house, full of people from school, but then I got annoyed or upset about something, so I was telling everyone they had to leave, and I was really scared that they wouldn't. I don't think that really needs in-depth interpretation, huh?

Tonight: "Prison Break," aka my reason for living, and I'll undoubtedly be forced to watch "Nanny 911" or whichever one that is. I bought some appetizers at Raley's on Friday, and I'm afraid I might be tempted to make and eat them tonight instead of making it tomorrow night's dinner. Appetizers for dinner is a highly underrated concept, but goodness knows I'm doing my part to change that. What about you?

They won't come back, you know it's always the same

Oh, Gavin. Why this lady when I was single the whole time?

In the "Now I've seen everything" category:

Late last week, I was driving home on a back road, and there was a man there riding his horse. They were on the very edge of the road, but as I got closer, the guy walks the horse into an empty field - not, as I first think, just to move out of the way of traffic, but to answer his cell phone.

I've seen drivers on phones, even bicyclists on phones, but before then I hadn't seen a horseback rider on a phone. Now I've seen everything!

Except maybe a scuba diver on phone while underwater, but that would be really disturbing.

Where do we go from here, stop dreaming about that shiny gun

Last night I had a little (okay, huge) tantrum/pity party. Not exactly an auspicious way to end January (where the hell did the month go, anyway?). I'm over it. As soon as I get over myself, we'll be all good.

I was making a shopping list last night, for a couple recipes (zucchini squares, flan) I'm making on Sunday, and I realized: I have no idea what teams are playing at the Superbowl. We all know I'm a sports dum-dum, but usually, I at least know who's going to show up. I only tune in for the commercials, and tight football pants. Hee.

There's more to say, but I'm out of time.