The music that they constantly play, it says nothing to me about my life

I don't know exactly how cold it is outside, but there is a shivery breeze coming in and my fingers are frozen! "Close the window," I'm sure you're saying, but without fresh air I pretty much can't live. So yeah.

I haven't been up to a whole hell of a lot. I worked on Monday and then very briefly yesterday. I did buy two new tops at Fashion Bug - the pink New York one I almost bought at the big sale a few weeks ago, and this comfy magenta tank top with some buttons on the front. I love FB's tank tops - I already have three plain ones (pink, black, white).

Since I got home pretty early yesterday, I started going through my room in the fun process of "What to Give Away, What to Throw Away." Now I have a bunch of bags of stuff to take to the Goodwill, and I actually had a bit of stuff to throw away - mostly collage stuff. I'm so over that. I even threw away a couple collages themselves, but I'm going to keep at least two of my favorites.

Because I have hella really full days coming up, I just couldn't drag myself into the office today. So, I stayed home and did a few hours of work here. I was planning on going into work early tomorrow, but now I have an interview at ten-thirty, so I'll go in after that. And then I'm leaving work early (well, 2:30) to hang out with LT. I'll be back in the office, probably unfortunately all day, on Friday, and on Saturday I'm working at LL's shop. And I'll probably do something on Sunday as well. Phew!

I'm starting to get antsy about my movie quota (you know, how I said I'd see 20 movies in the theater this year). It's the end of March and I've only seen three so far - I super need to get caught up. And I don't even remember if I ever decided how many books I should read, but I'm definitely behind on that. I haven't even started the second book for my book club that meets in two weeks. Eep.

I'd go to see a movie this afternoon, but I think I might take my brother to school so I can go sign up for this cooking class I want to take. Hella money, but I think it will be fun. And I think LMC registration for summer classes starts pretty soon. I'm considering either speech or sign language. It will be really weird going to school for more than one day/night a week - I haven't done that in four years.

I'm still doing morning pages, but they have - as I thought they might - suddenly become much harder to do. I had some really important dream around 5:00 that I was just sure I'd remember, but I fell back asleep and when I started morning pages around 7:30, of course I had forgotten all of it! All I remember is: There was a bus. That's it. I dream about buses a lot, actually, which is funny because I pretty much never ride them. Unless you count my casino trip a couple weeks ago, I think the last time I was on a bus was in 2004, when I worked at the daycare and helped take a group of kids to the bowling alley.

Obligatory TV notes:

"Prison Break" Yay, Kellerman returned! Boo, Kellerman was suicidal! Yay, Kellerman's gun jammed and he's not dead! Other stuff happened in the episode, but I forget most of it due to my obsession with A, Kellerman being crazy (more so) and B, Mahone being SO CUTE when talking to his ex-wife on the phone. I'm scared about what will happen in next week's season finale, and already eager to get my hands on the season two DVD.

"The Shield" I accidentally found out who killed Lem! Damn spoilers. I knew there was a reason I hate Shane so bad. Um, but I still have to watch all of season five before next Tuesday. But let's not kid ourselves, I have no life, I can totally do twelve episodes in... five days (supposing that I go to the video store tomorrow, which I have to because I have stuff due back).

I'm so tired, take me now, this time forever

I know it's been a few days, but I'm still around. Vaguely frustrated and weirdly disorganized, but still around.

I only worked two days this week, over at Boss M's house. Once again, I was faced with the Basket from Hell. The Basket from Hell is like, two feet by three feet, and three feet tall, and it was stuffed with receipts dating back from this week, all the way into November. I had to organize said receipts first by category and then by date and then... my brain fell out. I stuffed it back in, and ran away!

But my aunt is here from Arizona this week, and that at least been pretty good times. I've been cooking every night, for some reason (granted, one day it was grilled cheese sandwiches, and tonight it's going to be frozen appetizers, but that still totally counts). I made quiche on Tuesday and last night, this yum potato casserole. It's all gone. Sniff.

We've done a bit of shopping this week, but not too much. I'm trying to be somewhat frugal as I have a couple bills to pay, and a couple classes I want to sign up for in the next few weeks. Some awesome things I did buy this week:

- Some Freeman Totally Juicy body scrub that I thought I'd have to order online for like $5 or $6, but I found it at the Grocery Outlet in Antioch for $2! Sweet.

- This cute owl figurine made out of shells, from a hospice thrift store... I need to post a picture of him, he's so cute.

- Pretty handmade photo album from a thrift store that I think I'm going to use to put together a gift for someone.

- Two body mists from (and apparently by) Target - one is called "Duchess" and the other is called "Tuesday." I have been wanting to buy new scents lately. Not because I don't have enough of them, that's for sure, just... I don't know; I'm feeling very girly lately. I've also been on the hunt for new shades of lipstick (nothing that pleases me, so far) and I'm planning on getting a haircut soon. Haircuts are no small thing with me - they only happen every couple of years, seriously (the last one was in the summer of 2005).

That's honestly all. I'm still writing my morning pages every day, but unfortunately my daily exercise habit disappeared sometime mid-last week and has yet to reapppear. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was naughty and had a soda the other day. God, was it good.

I'm now going to try to reclaim some of my lost sanity by cleaning my desk.

Make a toast to all your trouble, you got trouble

My return to writer's club on Thursday night went pretty well. I think I'm actually unstuck on Evie's story now, and I'm hoping to finish it in maybe two installments. Good god, I've been living with that story forever... last summer or early fall at least.

It's really neat, one of the ladies in the club is now working on fictionalizing her life story (which she has been writing for some time, but more as a family history for her descendants). I used to consider doing the same, but my life was not interesting enough so I abandoned it. Uh, the project, not my actual life, ha.

Also writing-related: I have been writing morning pages again. We'll see how long this lasts. I've had an easy time of it so far because I've been dreaming so damn much, but I'm sure soon I'll be sitting there struggling to fill up pages.

I took Friday off of work and spent the morning cleaning, and the memorial/birthday service for my grandma was in the early afternoon. It was small but very nice, and afterwards everyone came over for the traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner... ugh. Corned beef is too weird, but I totally noshed on fingerlings. I love potatoes, especially cute tiny ones. It was like a mix of white and red potatoes and they got very tender, and all drowned in butter... mmm.

Because I've been obsesssing ever since seeing it a couple weeks ago, I went to Barnes & Noble on Friday night and bought "Peyton Place." And because I am a book nerd, I finished reading it last night. It surprised me how much I remembered from the book. Even with my favorites, I often forget fairly important stuff, but nothing in PP really slipped my mind. It may have been some years since I've read it, but when I had it before, admittedly, I probably read it at least once a month. It's that good.

I was somewhat confused when I discovered that Mike Rossi had been renamed Tom Makris (actually the other way around - author Grace Metalious was sued by the real Tom Makris for using his name and image in the novel, so it was changed for the movie/TV series and in later editions of the book). The book I bought also has an introductory thing about the book and about Metalious, who died hella young (39) from cirrhosis of the liver due to alcoholism... which quite frankly just makes me suspect she's another one of the crazy ladies I was in a past life (see also: Zelda Fitzgerald). Ha.

Yesterday EC's mom was here, and a couple of my dad's cousins, for some leftover corned beef and cabbage. Wah. But it was pretty amusing times.

Still feeling shopping urges last night, I went to Best Buy and bought "Invasion." I've already got my mom into it. Hee hee. It was more money than I probably should have spent, but it's such a great show. And I somehow rationalized it to myself because I hadn't bought seasons one of both "Weeds" and "Rescue Me" at Target the night before. I almost did - they were both on sale for $19.99 each, which is pretty sweet. I'll possibly regret that later, but, eh.

Tomorrow I have to go to one of my boss' house to do filing. Oh my god, I'm going to hate it! But at least I'll have EC's mom coming over in the evening to look forward to, and "Prison Break." I don't think I'll be needed in the office too much this week, so I can spend some time with my aunt.

I am going to be helping out LT's mom at least one day this week though, as she works in closing up her shop. That is really sad. I can't imagine having a business that I love and then having to close it (though mine probably would, as I am not at all practical or business-minded). That's what I like about writing - you can do it while you have another job - not as nearly as much as you'd like, but you can do it, and it's an astoundingly cheap hobby. The bare essentials are only pen and paper; computers are wonderful but you could do without. Luckily I don't have to, because my handwriting is generally illegible.

On that note, I need to go update my dream journal before too much time goes by for me to make out the words from my real jouranl.

I wanna be rich, don't wanna be poor, it's lost its allure

I have a ridiculous amount of cleaning to do this morning, but I wanted to pop in and tell everyone that you should watch FX's new series "The Riches." Brilliant!

The show follows the Malloys, a family of Irish-American travelers (similar to Gypsies) that move around the country, grifting and stealing to make a living. The hilarious opening scene has dad Wayne (Eddie Izzard) successfully impersonating a no-show classmate at a high school reunion while his two daughters make off with the wallets of all the other attendees. They make their escape just as everyone starts to notice, and naturally run into the supposed no-show. "Don't worry," Wayne tells him. "You were a hit!" Indeed.

The family is making their way to pick up mother Dahlia (Minnie Driver), who has just been released on parole. They get many of their purloined goods (gifts taken from a wedding party) stolen by a crooked cop, but that doesn't stop them from trying to have a good time at Dahlia's welcome "home" party, the guests of which include several families of travelers.

Things come to blows when Dale, the head traveler now that his father is too sick to manage the job, insists that Wayne and Dahlia's daughter Didi has to marry the dull son of another traveler. Wayne responds to a pretty harsh beating by stealing all of Dale's money before the family leaves the party.

The Malloys can't seem to stay out of trouble - when filling up the motorhome with premium gas, Wayne is harassed by the patriarch of another family, who wants in on whatever profitable deal Wayne is doing. There's a fight that leads to a car chase that leads to the death of two innocent passersby - the Riches, who have just bought a house in the luxurious Edenfalls, where they don't know a soul.

Dahlia, who is having a hard time coming to terms with being free again (as well as dealing with heroin addiction) doesn't want to try living an ordinary life - at first. Her love for her husband and for her children (particularly Didi, who understandably doesn't want the life that Dale has envisioned for her) convinces her to stay. Wayne wows some Edenfalls golf snobs, and Dahlia finds a friend in the jaded lady neighbor, who gives Dahlia one of her pain pills and isn't surprised when a thick wad of cash falls out of a lawn chair cushion.

Though the dysfunctional family is hardly a new concept for TV, I think "The Riches" will at least present it in an original way. Wayne's glib, seemingly effortless cons are fascinating to watch, and Dahlia's trying to hold it together while actually falling apart will no doubt bring drama to balance out the wacky humor. It reminds me somewhat of HBO's "Big Love," where a family of polygamists tries to blend in to suburbia, but I'm betting that "The Riches" will end up being a lot more fun.

I know, I need, I feel, we're going higher and higher

I've been listening to KWOD pretty much every day at work, and I swear, every day they play Tripping Daisy's "I Got a Girl." Which I am totally not complaining about, because that song rules. Seriously, the only thing I don't like about KWOD is that I don't think Nick Monroe is there anymore, and him singing along to the end of the Toadies "Possum Kingdom" was the funniest thing ever.

Recap of this last week:

Saturday, I randomly went to Fashion Bug since my mom was going, and ran right into the Greatest Sale Ever. Almost everything in the store (except the already cheap "Priced Just Right" stuff) was "Buy one, get second item for a dollar." A dollar! I really should have looked for more jeans, but didn't feel like taking my pants off (heh) so I just got tried on tops. I ended up getting four, for only forty dollars! Sweet. Two of them are 3/4 sleeves with some pretty, sparkly lace (one pink, one cream), another is pink with butterflies, and the other is green with shamrocks and says "Everybody loves an Irish girl." Well, I've got my outfit for St. Patrick's Day set.

Sunday, I went on a trip to Thunder Valley Casino with my grandpa and hella other relatives. I was worried about getting bored, but the day passed by pretty quickly. Granted, eating for a straight hour at the buffet killed some time. Hey, if I'm paying $17, I'm so chowing down. I didn't eat that much, actually, but I tried a little of anything that looked good. Mmm, so many pastas. I also tried some lamb chop (delicious!) and for dessert I had this bread pudding that would have been so great if not for this weird raspberry layer in the middle.

The gambling itself was okay. I stuck mostly to the 2-cent machines, one of which was really lucky (until I left, and came back to find someone else had left all their bad luck on it). I had lost some but then won some, so I really only lost $5 gambling. Not too shabby. They had a "Smoke Free Slots" room, but all the games there were lame.

Amusing: All of my relatives complained about how the drinks you get from the waitresses while gambling, are not free anymore. I had been planning to have a drink at the cool-looking bar after dinner (piece of pizza and some steamed veggies), but when I was done eating, I was so full that I knew I couldn't finish anything. Oh well.

Monday, I went to work late, left early (isn't that always how it should be?) and did some shopping before meeting with LT for coffee. Mervyn's had a sale on and I found two more tops - one is purple with a buckle at the collar, and the other is a Younique top that I can't explain, but is super-cute. I also went by Bath & Body Works but - prepare yourself! - left without buying myself anything. I did get a maple sugar lip gloss (ugh, coma much?) for my mom though.

Yesterday, I went to work, and got saddled with the Spreadsheet from Hell. I started it around 10:00 and worked on nothing else all day, until leaving at 5:00. And it still took me a few more hours today to finish it! I was not pleased with this assignment, as you can imagine.

And that's really all I've been up to this past week. Still coming up: writer's club tomorrow night, which I intend to kick ass at. I've been either not there or not had anything to share at the last few meetings, and I can't let that keep happening.

Friday is (was?) my grandma's birthday, so the fam is going to get together for a little dealy at the cemetery. We're going to do the corned beef and cabbage on Saturday, though... oh, how I hate corned beef. And cabbage. I dig boiled potatoes, though. Saturday may or may not also be when a couple of my dad's cousins come over for a barbecue, and EC's mom will also be here.

I bought some gas today... $50 and my tank didn't even get full-full. That's... not right. I can't tell you the last time I fill-filled the tank, though - I just haven't had the money. I probably should've kept going the few more dollars and/or minutes it would've taken to do that today, but I was on my way to work, and worried about getting there in time for a meeting (which naturally didn't start on time anyway).

I feel like spacing out in front of the TV, but I don't think there's anything on tonight. Wednesday? Nah, nothing on. "Prison Break" wasn't on Monday, and that made me sad. I did DVR "The Riches" so maybe I should watch that (note to self: "The Shield" starts again in less than three weeks, and you need to watch seasons four and five still! Start that pronto!). I'm also getting caught up on "Bad Girls," courtesy of BBC America and LOGO. They're both showing the same range of episodes around the same time, so if I miss it once I can usually still catch it, which is pretty nice. Though, the ones on LOGO don't have closed-captioning, which bugs me to no end. Shouldn't wherever the shows go, the captions follow?

I'm off. I'd say I won't let so much time go between this posting and the next, but I probably will. Hee. Just remember to keep your fingers crossed for me about Weekend Job (I should hear back early next week), and about Written Test. Okay, you don't have to keep your fingers crossed the entire time. You could do, say, five seconds at the beginning of each hour, or - yeah, this is dumb, I'll stop.

When the kids had killed the man, I had to break up the band

I've had a mostly uneventful week. Wake up, go to work, come home, lather, rinse, repeat. Or something like that.

I didn't go into the office today, but I did have a job interview. It's only a seasonal weekend thing, but it could nicely supplement what I make during the week, and/or sustain me while I keep looking for something permanent. I got an e-mail today about a written test for a city job I applied for hella days ago. Sweet. I always kick ass on written tests.

Tomorrow: Friday. Good paycheck. Whoo!

I have nothing interesting my life going on, so I'll rant about commercials that are bugging me:

- The "1-800-Dentist" one where the recently-divorced lady calls in. She wants to do a little self-improvement - not, as it turns out, to feel better about herself, but because she wants a new husband ASAP! She even asks the receptionist if, after they've fixed her grody old teeth ("You don't want to know," is her response to being asked how long it's been since her last dental appointment), they'll find her a man. Ugh. Is it any wonder the first one dumped her, with her lack of dental hygiene.

Side-rant: All the actors and actresses you see in the 1-800-Denist commercials have great teeth. This irks me the same way that commercials for women's razors always show the woman in question, shaving an obviously hairless leg. Anyway.

- It's either Sylvan, or Kumon - some tutoring place - where a little girl is getting quizzed with multiplication flash cards. She does pretty good until she gets the "13 x 4" card, which confuses her...

...as it SHOULD, because don't only kids get taught the multiplication tables through the twelves? That's what I remember from elementary school, but I digress. Come on, who really needs to know the multiplication tables that high up? That's what calculators were invented for: because math is boring and no one can be expected to remember or use too much of it.

On the other hand, I could just be feeling bitter because the commercial makes me feel dumb for having forgotten the 12's of the multiplication tables.

Also commercial related: I read an article the other day, I honestly forget where, about how those disgruntled cavemen from the Geico commercials are getting their own series. I can't wait for this - not because I actually want to watch it - but because I SO called this a year ago (or whenever the commercials started) and my family was all, "Yeah, right!" The appearance of this show will give me a lovely opportunity to say "I told you so!" I don't get nearly enough of those...

I'll never change for you, at least I can tell the truth

Last night, Fate had another "amusing" joke at my expense (after a long week of really bad, obnoxious jokes). LT and I were browsing around Barnes & Noble, and I found a book there that I look for EVERY. TIME. I'm in B&N, and it's never there, but last night - when I had no money - it was there! Grace Metalious' scandalous "Peyton Place," AKA the best book ever, that I haven't read in probably three years because my first copy (from a used book store) fell apart.

I know, in three years, I probably could (and should) have bought it from Amazon or something. But damn! The one time I'm not prepared for it... I almost checked to see if they had Kate Braverman's "Lithium for Medea," but they probably would have had it, and I probably would have died right there in the Fiction & Literature aisle.

Outside the sun is shining, seems like heaven ain't far away

I heard an ice cream truck today! Whoo hoo for the approach of summer! Actually it's supposed to start raining again this week, but whatev.

I just saw an article on Yahoo! News with the title being something like, "Ann Coulter makes homophobic slur." How is this "news" exactly? Ms. Coulter (is she married? For the sake of men everywhere, I really hope not, and I'd also prefer that she didn't breed) has long been known for her disturbing anti-gay comments. They should've just called the article, "Once again, Ann Coulter proves herself a bigoted bitch."

Earlier, I found a mini-article in the newspaper about the return of "The Shield." In reading it to find out its return date (April 3! My DVR* is set!), I inadvertently learned that LEM IS DEAD! (I've just barely started season four on DVD). Not Lem! He was always my favorite guy on the Strike Team! Well, favorite Actually-Probably-Nice-Guy; Vic is my favorite Corrupt-But-Means-Well-Guy, and Shane is my favorite Actually-Evil-But-Hot-Jerk-Guy.

*I have a grudge against my DVR right now, because it deleted the first installment of "The Lost Room" that I recorded back in December. I was totally going to watch it! Someday. Because I can't stand missing parts of stuff, I went ahead and deleted parts two and three. Damn, now I have to find a DVD (is there one?) or wait for a repeat on... Sci-Fi? Whatever channel it was on.

Last night I tried to watch "Ultraviolet," but it's both 1) A comic book thing and 2) a vampire thing (though in the movie they called them hemophages... whatever that means), so I was pretty much completely bored, and falling asleep. Even the few minutes of joy I got from seeing William Fichtner in a dorky sweater (I have a dorky sweater fetish, for those who don't know) were not enough to keep me interested, and I think I fell asleep about 10. I slept until 7, which I know seems like a long time, but didn't feel like it. I think it's my new sleep mask - it's so soft and comfy, but it's all white and doesn't block out the sun. How... annoying.

I was going to watch "Beloved," to see if the movie would help me "get" the book any better, but it's like three hours long! Oh, my brain. Oh, my old lady bedtime.

I try to get a grip but I find I always slip on fingertips

My posts have been very boring lately. My sincerest apologies and blah blah blah.

Last night we watched this last Monday's episode of "Super Nanny." The kids (and one of the parents) again have terrible matching names: the mother was Karolee (ugly name any way you spell it) and the kids were Khalin, Kolbin, and Kadance. I don't know why no one pointed out to her that she had the KKK kids, and she had another one on the way. Yuck.

While updating the template a few minutes ago, it took forever and then Blogger told me "Your blog published with errors." Kind of a nonsensical warning, because it did not tell me what the errors were. Good lookin out there, Blogger.

I had a really bad day on Thursday, and I'm not just being a drama queen (for once?) I was given an assignment that generally takes at least a week to finish, with instructions that it had to be completed in three days. Good lookin out there, boss! This was especially annoying because my role was like middleman between our sponsors and between the art designer and web programmer... not a place I would ever like to find myself again, thank you.

To add insult to injury: I was all excited, because when I went out that day to pick up my lunch (Nations!) I got a call about setting up a job interview the next day (Friday). This gave me motivation to get through the next couple hours, but then lady called again having to cancel, and no idea if/when it would be rescheduled. It was pretty much the extra-hard final kick in the ass after a day of getting... well, kicked in the ass.

Yesterday was better. Things got done, though naturally we get some super-last minute stuff from the sponsor, which makes me look like a stupid pain when I have to pass it on to the programmer, who's already pissed (I don't know why. He gets to charge a rush fee for getting things done fast, while I only get my normal pay for pulling everything together). But things were really done (as much as I could get done) by one, and then I totally ran away...

...to Costco, only to find that I had forty-five minutes before the pharmacy would re-open after the lunch break. Damn labor laws. All wasn't lost; I cadged some free samples (hey, my parents are Costco members, that totally validates my yoinking freebies), and had lunch from their snackbar dealy outside. When the pharmacy finally reopened, I picked my up my meds, thereby effectively spending one-third of the paycheck I received earlier in the day. Isn't our healthcare system great?

(I know this is a really rant-y post, but bear with me, I'm almost done complaining.)

I don't know if I have talked about this yet or just thought it, but I seriously need to set a deadline for leaving the office. I do feel bad about it because they really like me and have given me work for a long time, but if I stay on, I'll probably be there forever, doing the same damn menial things, learning little, and learning nothing that is useful or interesting to me. Okay, I think I did write this. In that case - now we switch to the happy part of the post!

Um... wow, this is going to be the short part.

I wasn't able to go to my writers club on Thursday, but I did stop by Barnes & Noble to pick up a book about screenwriting formatting. I know writing what I'm working on will likely never come to anything, but that doesn't mean I can't write it, right? The only enjoyment I probably had this week was working on it. So there.

Today I finished reading Toni Morrison's "Beloved." It's a good book, I know that much, but I'm not sure I understand it. I've only seen bits and pieces of the movie, so that didn't make it any clearer for me. I still have two other books I haven't started due back next Saturday, so I'm unlikely to be able to read "Beloved" again before it's due. I would like to read more Toni Morrison, though. "The Bluest Eye" is one of my favorites, as strange and depressing as it is.

LT and I were supposed to do something Wednesday, but then I had to work a lot, so we're going to do something tomorrow night. Something cheap - being broke is so ugh. I'll be getting a good paycheck next week, though, because of all the extra hours on Evil Project and also refunds for a couple things I had to buy*. Luckily that check will come just in time, as I have some bills, and an anniversary present to buy.

*To dip back into the rant-y side of the post: I get so annoyed when my bosses tell me, all casual-like, to buy stuff and that they'll reimburse me. Yesterday, they ask me to find half-a-dozen books on a topic they're researching and buy them from Amazon. I'm not the one with a BMW or taking month-long vacations to Singapore. When I buy those books, it's going to be with one of your credit cards. The majority of my paychecks are less than what buying six $15-$35 dollar books (I've already been researching) would cost. Okay, once again, end rant-y.

I told you the happy part of the post would be short. I don't think I have anything to add to it, except that I plan on doing absolutely nothing today! Well, with the rest of today; I did have a couple hours of work (grumble, grumble) I did before lunch. Lunch was quite yum. I cooked this rice mix I bought awhile back that has orzo, basmati rice and wheat berries. It smelled so yum when cooking - like Cream of Wheat! Then I mixed in some stuff I sauteed in olive oil: garlic, diced onion, chicken, parmesan and jack cheeses. I totally forgot that I'd wanted to add the chipotle cashews, but it came out pretty good anyway. I think it needed some more spices (salt and pepper), and tomatoes and or bell peppers would have been good, but it was nice, squishy comfort food.