Curtain has fallen, now you're on your own

I watched two movies with Gyllenhaals this weekend: "Secretary" (Maggie) and "Zodiac" (Jake). I didn't enjoy "Secretary" nearly as much as I thought I would; I didn't even make it until the end, actually. I'm usually interested in movies/books/whatever where two truly screwed up people have a weird relationship, but this movie didn't do it for me.

"Zodiac" was much more my cup of tea! David Fincher is in my top three favorite directors* and I wish I'd seen this one in the theater. It's long, yes, but it doesn't feel that way. I'm not as familiar with the Zodiac case as I am with some of the other serial killers, which is weird for two reasons: Because I'm a true crime freak, and because I live in the bay area. Time to play catch up on Crime Library!

*The other two in my top three - David Lynch, and the third is kind of a rotating tie between Hitchcock and Kubrick, depending on my mood at the time.

I had a rough afternoon, and I think all the tension that got worked out in my all-too-brief Saturday evening massage is back! D'oh.

As it turns out, I don't think my books from Amazon are going to make it here in time for my weekend away. What can I say, I'm a sucker for the super saver free shipping. It doesn't really matter; I still have a respectable stack of "new" books to read that I can pick from. My only concern is that the thing I bought for my mom's birthday arrives on time. I suppose we'll see.

Because of my new work schedule, I've been eating weird lunches (well, lunches at weird times; I'm not eating anything gross... usually). I have breakfast and dinner at the usual times, but "lunch" is now falling anywhere between noon and three, depending on when I get home. And it's something not-quite-filling, like my terrible "feast" today of some Pringles and one orange Hostess cupcake.

Did I mention that my new office is terribly close to a fire station? Well, it is... which would be great if I could see actual firefighters from my window (I can't), but I get to hear sirens all day.

I got my car smogged the other day, and luckily it passed; I got gouged enough on the price of the test. I probably should have shopped around, but it's so close to my old office where I had to stop anyway, so there you go. The mechanic looked like the actor Ben Foster, but with an almost Amish-y beard, and he (rightly) made fun of my huge fakey diamond keyring.

I hate that big pair of facless lips on the Dairy Queen commmercials! He's scary. He's definitely the reason I don't go there often. Also the fact that my mom used to work there hella days ago (I was three or younger at the time, I believe) and she says it was kinda gross. Granted, she has some of the her-side-of-the-family OCD/neat freak thing, but if she says it was gross, it probably was. And likely still is. I'm down with their ice cream, but I'd be hesitant to eat any of their "real" food. Where I really want to go is the Sonic in Tracy! Note to self, plan that trip soon.

Been eating in the ghetto on a hundred dollar plate

I am watching "Secretary" while blogging this. I figure, any movie where Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader do kinky things is a movie I need to see. James Spader is not as beautiful as he was when he was young, but he's still a pretty good looking dude. Anyway.

Interestingly, Jake Gyllenhaal also arrived in my mailbox at the same time, in "Zodiac." I would watch that tonight, but it's hella long and I need to go to sleep sometime.

DM's party on Friday night was very fun. There were nine of us at the height of the thing, but only five of us slept over - not as if there was much sleep going on, of course! What would the fun be in that? There was Apples to Apples, Table Topics, and some sex trivia game that was actually very neat. The last led to us making a list of things we needed to Google, such as: "Merkins" (ha!) and "Punky Brewster's boobs." Not that we ever got around to Googling such terms (or at least I didn't...)

I ended up making not brownies, but this chocolate pseudo-mousse with Nutella that I've made before. However... I didn't buy enough Cool Whip at the store, and to have enough stuff, also mixed in some vanilla pudding. The result was a runny but very delicious dessert, if I do say so myself.

I came home Saturday and had just a few hours of downtime before leaving for a very cool fundraiser. I did have two issues: One, finding the place (MapQuest was not quite accurate on this point; so much for my thinking it was vastly superior to YahooMaps) and two, in the subdivision where it took place, there was only parking on one side of the street. Guh? Things being as happenin' as they were, I had to park way around the corner, but with the way my car looks, believe me, I don't have to worry about people bothering it. Poor Betsy, she needs a spa day more than I do!

I did get a massage at the fundraiser that was pretty blissful. I also collected quite a few beauty samples I plan to take with me on my mini-vacation next weekend. Ooh! And I finally ordered one of those "Spin Spa" brushes, but I don't think I'll have that in time to take it with me.

In retrospect, it's somewhat of a foolish purchase. I'm already convinced that my shower has become a time warp. For a long while, I did very well at not spending too long in there, but lately I've been staying in longer and longer without even realizing. D'oh?

Wow, boring entry! I'm finding it harder these days to keep it interesting. I've also noticed that I start so many sentences with "I" or "I'm" or "I've." I mean, jeez, you'd think this blog was about me or something. Tee hee...

The more I look, the more I think that I'm starting to disappear

Imagine my surprise after I put on my makeup this morning and realized I had a face full of glitter.

Well, not glitter, exactly. More like a light sparkle, or a "subtle shimmer" as commercials for sparkly things put it. That pressed powder I bought isn't the one I usually get, and this one has teeny-tiny sparkles. Not so much that I look gross-glittery, but it was still startling. Kinda like when you take a sip of a dark soda, thinking it's Dr. Pepper and it turns out to be Pepsi (sadly, this has happened to me before, and with me getting halfway through the drink before realizing it).

So, on Sunday morning (this is me abruptly changing the subject; all my attempted segues sucked) I did some things I've never done. Dirty, shameful things. Just kidding! (But I bet I had you going for a minute - what kind of girl do you think I am?) Actually, I went to church services on Sunday. This is the first time I've done so since I was probably five or six years old, and the first time I've gone to services that were not Catholic.

Over the past year or so, I have struggled with realizing and coming to terms with the fact that I am an atheist. As someone who always thought they did - or at least thought they should - believe in god, this was not easy for me to deal with. But even as I was figuring all that out, I knew that I really wanted a church-like community of people to belong to; people who were open-minded, open-hearted, tolerant and respectful of all people. And I think I might have found it.

While I am very far off from deciding whether I will join the church or even attend regularly, I had an absolutely wonderful experience. The people I met were so friendly and did everything they could to make me feel comfortable and welcome. It almost scared me, really, the way they accepted me as one of their own, with no questions or judgments about who I am, what I've done, what I do or don't believe. (Offhand, the only scarier thing I can think of is when people know everything about you and what you've done, and still accept and love you.) I should hope to be scared more often.

Don't worry, this isn't becoming a Churchy McChurchalot blog, but I like to mix in the important life stuff with my usual trivial crap once in awhile.

Speaking of crap, why are there no good TV shows on Wednesday? Seriously, I think it must be a law of some sort. I can't think of any favorite show of mine that was ever on Wednesday night. You think they'd provide us with something to get over the midweek slump. Eh, I need to catch up on the last couple episodes of "John from Cincinnati" anyway. I saw Austin Nichols on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" a few nights ago. He looked really cute (Austin, not Jimmy, though he's not unadorable himself) but he's awfully skinny, and his hair is getting taller and freakier by the minute.

My horoscope in the CC Times today told me that I would want to overindulge, overdo, and overspend. True, true, and true. On the plus side, there's not much food in the house to overinduldge on. I'm still screwed on the other two, though I'm trying to budget well so I'll have plenty bucks for deliciously overpriced room service food next weekend. I ordered my book club's next selection (Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex") from Amazon earlier this week so I'll have something to read.

Tomorrow may be the last morning writer's club meeting I can attend for quite awhile, so I've gotta print out my pages. Then I'm going to look over my recipes to make a decision on what I'll be taking for the sleepover Friday night. Then... I'll probably keep doing more stuff until I pass out, exhausted. Yay productivity?

I know that my emotions are something I just can't tame

Yahoo headline I'm looking at right now: "How can Lindsay Lohan save her career?" Shouldn't the question really be, "How can Lindsay Lohan save her life?" Off the top of my head: Stop driving drunk, dumbass! It's unfortunate that someone who can easily get the help she needs, throws it away while plenty of people who could benefit from rehab can't afford it. Not as if I think any type of substance abuse/addiction is easy to conquer, but you have to be willing to work for it; and clearly, she isn't.

Anyway!

The office I'm working in now is kinda creepy. Yesterday I was doing some work at the computer with the manager showing me stuff, and I thought, "Wait, was that an earthquake?" Turns out, the floor just tends to shake when people walk, or move their chair... or breathe too hard. Um, I know where I don't want to be during The Next Big One.

The staff at this office are all really nice, but I don't think it could possibly get more dull if it tried. Okay, I'm exaggerating a little, but... yeah, not interesting. My contact at the employment agency has already been informed of this.

And, I did have my top-secret interview today. I think it went well, but it will be a couple of weeks before they make their decision. This job would be completely new and scary for me, but I've been trying to do new and scary things lately, so I figure it's only right to include a major job change in that theme.

I started watching "Running With Scissors" earlier, but it didn't really hold my attention. I felt so dirty when I looked up the kid who plays in the kid in the movie, because I'm all, "He's so cute!" and he is four years younger than me. Ew! But I'm almost 25 so he must be 21 or really close... I'm hoping. I don't want to be a Dirty Old Lady until I'm actually an old lady. I have this hilarious but scary vision of myself at 70, all Botoxed up, and hitting on 20-ish pool boys. Maybe being old will be fun after all.

There's a loaf of banana bread baking in the oven right now... mmm, bananas. It's actually peanut butter-banana bread; I felt like doing something different. I am concerned about how it will turn out, not just because of the PB; we kinda ran out of flour and I had to use 1/2 cup of quickbread mix to replace it. But, at least it was banana quickbread (is that one word or two?) mix.

I'm supposed to be taking some food items to a friend's sleepover this weekend, and I haven't decided what to make. I'm almost 100% sure that I'll whip up some brownies (chomp!) for dessert, but snacks are a trickier proposition. Do I just buy mucho chips, or try to make something? I'll have to dig through my recipe book. Man, that thing needs some new recipes too.

I know I just bought a purse at Ross on Friday, but... I was in Target this afternoon and saw me in purse form. No joking! It's argyle! An argyle purse! Purple, black and white. I'm really digging purple lately, it's purty.

More girly: A couple weeks ago, I bought loose makeup powder instead of the pressed kind I usually do. My reasons: It sounded fun, like one of those great infomercials... and, it was $1 cheaper loose than in the pressed powder compact. Now I know why; loose powder sucks really bad! It makes a mess, not just on my dresser, but on my face.

Forgive my particularly shallow entry that is only interesting to myself; better stuff is probably coming soon.

But possibly not.

I wake up in the morning and I wonder why everything's the same as it was

Right now, I am sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting impatiently for a call or e-mail about a job that I applied to a couple weeks ago. I got a response this morning and sent the lady an e-mail back about setting up an interview time. I won't say too much about this job yet, except that it's quite different from basically every other one I've had. It sounds really interesting and neat, but I don't want to get my hopes up too high.

I have almost too much job stuff going on right now. Today I started temping for a business I got connected with through a local employment agency... not fascinating stuff, but I can deal until we find the exactly right thing for me. There was another business I was going to have an interview with tomorrow, but my contact at the agency isn't in today, so there's a hold on that.

Oh, and I haven't left my regular office job, yet; I'll probably be there another week or two finishing everything up.

Before it slips my mind: This coming weekend is Blogathon, an event I participated in last year (but can't this year, alas). Participants earn money for the charitable organization of their choice by blogging every 30 minutes, for 24 hours! It is pretty amazing and I wish I could take part again.

Rebecca will be blogging for the Surrey Food Bank this year, so you should stop by sometime Saturday and give her some comment love; that was one of the major things that kept me going last time. You can also do a search on the Blogathon site to see who else is blogging, and where their proceeds will be going (neither the bloggers nor the Blogathon organizers get any money - they are awesome volunteers that way).

I had an extremely interesting Sunday, which I'll tell you about after I mull it over a little bit more.

I've never been so lost, I've never felt so much at home

I was looking forward to today as the first Saturday in four months where I didn't have to be at work at 6 A.M., and could sleep in until I pleased. It didn't quite work out that way. When still on the weekend job, I slept from about 10:30 to 4:30; last night, I went to bed at 1:30 and woke up today at 7:30. That's still only six hours - not enough! Eh, maybe tomorrow.

Only two of us were present at Thursday's writer's group, which was definitely a bummer as I was totally excited to have finally gotten my new story into motion. We each shared what we'd brought, but I'm definitely taking it back in two weeks when (hopefully) everyone will be there.

I had yesterday off from work, and went to Fashion Bug in hopes of adding some Nice Work Tops to my wardrobe. They had their amazing "Buy One Item, Get Second Item for $1" sale on, but the clothes themselves were unsatisfactory. The unexpensive stuff was mostly ugly, and the expensive stuff was... well, expensive. And because it's summer, everything was capri pants; really, there was only one pair of real jeans* in the place, and they were on clearance for $10 because of a busted zipper.

*Of course, there was more than one, but except for the bad-zipper pair, they were all the "plain" jeans with no decorations. Moi, wear plain jeans? Just kidding, I already own all the plain jeans and hence didn't buy more. I guess I'll have to wait until fall stuff comes back in for pants. Le sigh. Oh, I did try on one of those full, swishy pairs of pants that is supposed to look like a skirt when you're wearing them. Not only did they not do that, they made me look fat. I mean, I am fat, I just don't want to look fatter than I am.

Having been thwarted in my attempt to clothe myself there, I walked over to Ross. I haven't been there in a long time, and found it surprisingly full of awesome looking clothes! Really, I went on three trips to the dressing room, trying on something ridiculous like fifteen different tops in all, which the attendant found quite amusing. "Aren't you tired of taking your clothes off?" she asked. (Boy, if I had a dollar for every time I heard that question. Ba-dum bum!)

In the end, I got four new tops. I will only bore you with the description of one: it's black with pink/white/silver graphics and says "Beverly Hills Polo Club, circa 1982." Really, it was the 1982 (my birth year) that sold me on it. In a moment of weakness, I also succumbed to the purchase of a Kathy Van Zeeland purse. I have no idea who that is, but she slaps her name on a cute handbag.

I made some Quigley's last night, with a twist. We didn't have regular semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips, so I used a combo of white chips, butterscotch, bittersweet, and some teeny-tiny semi-sweet chips. To my relief, they came out okay, though I didn't get to try any until this morning. Right after I popped them in the oven, I went over to hang out with LS and SJ* which was mostly amusing. We bummed around the house for awhile and ended up at Chili's for Texas Cheese Fries and these strange little cheesecake shots. The fries were good, and the shots were cute but also weird.

*I guess her initials are SW now that she's married, but I have a hard time reconciling that I'm old enough to have a friend my age (or close) who's married. I'm totally in denial about turning 25 in a few months. After all - as Jessica Simpson once pointed out - 25 is almost in your mid 20's.

I don't have plans to do anything today, which I know I should enjoy while I can. Things are about to start getting a lot busier, at work and otherwise. My next two weekends are already spoken for; granted, one of them is my vacation that I'm totally excited about! And next weekend a few of the girls are having a sleepover, which will also rule. The day after that (whew!) there's a fundraiser for an organization that I'm just starting to get involved with. I'm about 7.5 months late on starting it, but I do intend to fulfill my New Year's resolution of helping people other than myself.

You're outta sight, every day and all night

Ah, my weekends are now again free! Well, free to not have anything to do, and I'll have less money to do anything with, but hopefully that's temporary.

I went to the office Monday, but took yesterday off. It was pretty sweet; I slept in until 7:30, cooked a yummy lunch, bought (too much) stuff at Michael's, and had a yummy dinner. One word: Fritters. So good! There were so many that we have leftovers, and I almost like them better today; they're not quite as crunchy, but they are oilier. Mmm, triple-bypass surgery, here I come!

I make fun of my mom for buying so much stuff at Michael's, but I spent almost 10 times as much as she did yesterday! (Don't panic about my budget - yet - she only spent four dollars.) I got a bunch of beads and quite a bit of pretties for cardmaking. Almost everything was on clearance, but I did get a lot of it.

My car is parked around the corner, and I feel naked without it in the driveway. We're getting our street repaved tomorrow* and we can't park or drive down the street between 7 A.M. and 5 P.M. Coming home earlier, I figured, I'm not going out again, and I don't want to wait until later when everyone will be all pushy-shovy for spaces. Also: I can't parallel park, and don't like to run the risk of having to do so. I need whatever that ugly luxury car is that parks itself.

*Out of all the things the city could spend money on, I don't see why they're repaving our neighborhood's streets; sure, it's a nice gesture, but the streets are only four years old. They're not pristine, but there are no potholes or big cracks.

I think it's been awhile, so it's time for... "TV Notes!"

- "Prison Break" Season 3 doesn't start until September 17, which totally bums me out; both seasons 1 and 2 started in August. The season 2 DVD set is released on September 4, which gives me slightly less than two weeks to gloat over it before the new episodes begin. And gloat, I shall.

- "Big Love" The second season is making me laugh way too much, especially these last couple episodes with Anna, a Serbian waitress that Bill was interested in. There's nothing so great as when you can watch a TV show and scream "He's cheating on his WIVES!" Who says polygamy isn't hilarious? I also had a major LOL moment when Margene said (about Anna), "At first, I thought she was just some Russian tramp." So did we, Margene; so did we.

I also must say that I love the show for not obsessing over Margene's pregnancy. Way too often, pregnant women on TV get nothing but baby-centered storylines. Maybe this will change when Margene starts showing, but so far, we continue to get quality tidbits that portray her as a woman in her own right, apart from her children and husband and sister-wives.

I don't usually give shows a third paragraph in "TV Notes," but I have to add that I hate Rhonda and want her to die. I don't even care that her life sucks and she nearly had to sleep with an old man; she's just mean, annoying, and a pathological liar. You know who should kill Rhonda? Wanda. Just because it would sound so funny: Wanda killed Rhonda! Okay, I'll stop.

- "The 4400" I don't know if it's just my imagination, but it seems as if Tom and Diana are awfully affectionate this season. I'm pretty much praying that the show doesn't take the cheap route and make them get together, even though they would make the PERFECT couple! Even better than Grissom and Sara! Um, anyway; I'm still enjoying the new season thoroughly, even though Isabelle just isn't as fun when she's not evil. I loved when Tom stumbled into the small town populated entirely by people who have taken Promicin, which was surreal-creepy; almost something out of a Stephen King story.

- "Burn Notice" I wish this show was better than it was; it would make watching it, so much more enjoyable. The potential for a good series is there, but it's just not happening. It's too bad, because Jeffrey Donovan is so talented and great; he deserves much better (and so do we).

- "Everything Else" That's not the name of a new show you missed; I just wanted to point out that I'm behind on everything else.

I know the past will catch you up as you run faster

My eyes have been bothering me the past couple days, especially when using the computer. This is most unfortunate, as like 99% of my office job (and a way-too-high percent of my free time) is spent on a computer. Eep. I probably need new glasses by now; this prescription is at least a couple of years old. I don't even want to think about how much buying new glasses without insurance would cost.

Well, tomorrow is my last day at my weekend job. If it seems sudden to you, it also seems somewhat sudden to me. I gave my notice Wednesday morning and let the boss know I would be available through the end of July so he could find someone new, do all their background checks, and so I could help train them. But instead of finding someone new, the guy who usually takes the afternoon shift is going to work a split shift on the weekends. Wow, that would drive me nuts.

Funny thing: On my first weekend at this job back in April, the printer and cash register were all crazy and not working. Today, my last weekend on the job, once again: the printer and cash register are all crazy and not working. I don't know what the heck the register is up to, but the printer being whacko is partially my fault. I was turning it on and off, on and off, to try to get it to work, and didn't notice that the printed pages were looping back into the feed dealy. This is like an old dinosaur printer that looks like it could eat my fingers, and I don't want to totally break it, so it's going to sit there jammed and useless until someone else fixes it, by which time I'll most likely be gone.

There are a few staff members I'm hoping to see tomorrow to say goodbye. There are a lot of awesome people that work there.

I finished "University" yesterday afternoon. I thought the ending was kinda blah, but the book served its purpose of scaring me: On trying to fall asleep last night, I kept thinking about things that happened in the novel and would freak out. The more I tried not to think about one thing, the more I'd think about another thing. I was already having issues falling asleep because of the fireworks*, so this was definitely not a helpful development.

*Brentwood has no 4th of July fireworks, but waits to do them until the Corn Fest... whatever that's about. Also: I like corn well enough, but what I really want to go to someday is the Garlic Festival in Gilroy. It's probably way too crowded, but I love me some garlic. Stupidly, I didn't buy a loaf of garlic bread at Raley's the other day. I suck.

I was in the office all alone yesterday. I could've taken everything home, but at home I tend to slack off. I spent most of my time trying (and eventually succeeding) in putting together some animated banners for a client. We're (and by "we're" I mean more like "I'm") also making a sales page for them that I'm going to finish up on Monday. I have all the graphics done, but I have to regurgitate a bunch of text from tis big-ass brochure/binder deal they gave me. It's not even on their website, so I can't copy and paste... rats.

Yesterday my mom bought me some FruitStripe gum! You know, the striped gum with the cute Zebra on the pack? He's so cute. I love this gum - it just takes me back to being a kid.

I can't adequately explain how much I'm looking forward to my vacation weekend in August. It's going to be all about being alone and relaxing, and trying to regather (regroup?) my frazzled sanity. I've been fantasizing about having my own place so much that it is ridiculous. Mental note: Improve job situation immediately, or win the lottery. I'd settle for either, but preferably both.

There's this new Wendy's commercial that starts out with that weird guy in the red pig-tailed wig saying "Fantasizing about celebrities is wrong... unless that celebrity is bacon!" And they show this disgusting-looking double cheeseburger with something like six slices of bacon the top. Cholesterol city much? I love bacon as much as the next girl and I couldn't touch that. I've never liked Wendy's, though; it's the square burgers that put me off. If they put them into similarly square buns a la White Castle, it might be a different story.

Today I watched "But I'm a Cheerleader" courtesy of Netflix. So cute! It's been on my mental list of movies to see for a long time, but then I saw a YouTube clip of Eddie Cibrian in that movie (two words: tight shorts) and it became an urgent necessity. Clea DuVall ain't bad either.

Tonight is "Cops" and early bedtime; tomorrow is work and my book club meeting in the afternoon. I am all set to actually participate in the conversation this time!

Say a prayer for us, I never saw his face

I don't know if I noted this in a previous entry, but I took Betsy the SuperJeep to the car wash on Saturday. She was positively grimy. Anyway, I thought, "It's July, we're in the middle of a heat wave; it won't rain." Betsy had but a few days of glorious clean-ness and then, whammo, it rains on Tuesday night. Not enough to do anything other than spot up the windows, but rain nonetheless. Naturally, the sucker in me had paid extra for that Rain X stuff, which clearly does not work. Anyway.

Besides work, I haven't been up to much. I watched "Swimming Pool" (good, but confusing) on Tuesday night, and also made a few bracelets. I haven't done that in awhile; I will go through a jewelry-making craze, like, every few months for about two days and then ignore my beads for another few months. It was nearly a necessity this time, as the majority of my jewelry is packed in a large box in my closet that I don't even want to deal with.

More fun girly stuff: I got my latest Avon order yesterday. How I love seeing those boxes with the big blue stickers arrive! Because most of my lotions and perfumes are packed away, I also considered this new stuff a necessity. Between the free shipping and all the sale prices, I barely spent $20. A couple lip glossies, my moisturizer, Luxe Fever perfume, Hollywood Pink lotion, and this body souffle that smells like marshmallows. Mmm.

I stayed up late last night (eleven) finishing the sordid tale of Katrina and PrisonBoy. Now that the first draft is complete, I should probably come up with a title for that. I wrote more than I could take to writer's club this morning, which is a benefit in that I'm already set for the next morning meeting in two weeks. Sweet. It's been so long since I've written anything - close to a month - and it felt so great. I wasn't even tired afterwards; actually, I was too keyed up to fall asleep until close to midnight.

I've been wondering if there's a connection between my dreaming and writing. I haven't dreamt much in several weeks, about the same time I've had trouble writing, but last night I think I dreamed all night long. It was my birthday, but I had to keep calling people to remind them of that. Um, harsh? Just to prevent this from occuring in real life, please note that my birthday is October 7, which falls on a Sunday this year. Whatever that's about.

After writer's club this morning, I went by the library to pick up two books I put on hold: Max Barry's "Jennifer Government" and Bentley Little's "University." I got University at the kinda-recommendation of Jeff Kay, who writes one of my favorite blogs: the West Virginia Surf Report. I have loved reading horror novels forever, and he said something about this one having a particularly shocking scene. Though I can no longer tolerate super-gory movies, I'm still usually okay with books, and thought, "I need to read that!"

Mind you, this book came into my possession less than two hours ago and I am nearly halfway through it. I wouldn't say it's exceptionally well-written, but I can't put it down. At the same time, I don't want to read it. I'm pretty much terrified of what's going to happen next. As for the shocking scene, that could mean practically any scene in this book. I'm seriously scared. I think I might wait to finish it until tomorrow - Friday the 13th! My favorite holiday after my birthday (yes that counts) and Halloween.

Oh, but going back to the gory movies thing: Eli Roth (director of "Cabin Fever" and the "Hostel" movies) was on a recent episode of "On the Lot" as one of the guest judges, and the obnoxious Adrianna Costa revealed that Eli Roth is actually freaked out by real blood. I find that both hilarious and fascinating. I wonder if he makes such bloody films because he's trying to get over the fear, or if he knows he'll never get over it, but forces himself to deal anyway?

I write about a lot of things that bother me, mostly to make myself face the issue, whatever it may be. I think it's the same reason I like horror novels and movies; you can get completely terrified in a totally safe, detached way, then put the book (or DVD) away and go stuff your face with cheesecake or whatever. Speaking of which, we have a sampler in the fridge that I need to go pick at...

Kiss them goodbye, you shouldn't have to jump for joy

I slept so good last night. I pretty much passed out while trying to watch the end of "Next Food Network Star," and woke up this morning at... 6:30. Actually, eight-and-a-half hours of sleep is pretty good for me. I did try to fall back asleep, but gave that up pretty quickly and went ahead and wrote my morning pages.

Yesterday was pretty interesting, as far as Sundays go. Work was appallingly (is that a word?) slow, with only four customers coming through in seven hours. Yikes. I got to finish "Running With Scissors," anyway, and had a lengthy battle with a cricket. I hate crickets! I never did get rid of the thing, but it went back and hid in a place where it didn't come out again. Yugh.

In the evening, the family went out to the Texas Roadhouse in Tracy for dinner. My first thought upon entering was: Damn, it's hella crowded! My second thought: WTF is up with all these crunchy things on floor? The crunchy things ended up being peanut shells. Seriously; at every table, there's a cute little galvanized bucket of peanuts, and you are supposed to throw the shells on the floor. What I wonder is, do they leave them there all the time? That's got to attract bugs or something, doesn't it? Or do they sweep up at night and scatter "fresh" shells in the morning?

Anyway - the food was excellent, definitely good enough to make me overlook the few down points. It was so loud in there that you had to shout to be heard by the person next to you, and trying to get the attention of our (admittedly overextended) waiter was kinda hard. I had a pork chop (crunchy outside, juicy inside), fries (brilliant!) and veggies* (plain but very fresh). Their bread rolls are absolutely delish, and they had these little appetizers called "Rattlesnake Bites" that were good - cheese and jalapeno in a little fried puff. Aw.

*I tried the cauliflower! It's a vegetable I've always avoided, just because of the way it looks; you know, like a little brain. To me it tasted just like broccoli, but naked, and not as stringy.

And of course I had to have a drink: the Rattlesnake Margarita that was, I think, cranberrry and raspberry; all I know is that it was one of the best drinks I've ever had, and it went down way too easily. I declined a second one, which I now kinda regret as I didn't have to go into the office today or anything. I'm glad that the drive to this place is actually not scary, and I'm looking forward to the thought of going there with friends sometime.

I thought I had lots of errands today, but I really didn't. I only went over to Target to get a couple necessities, a couple birthday cards, and... socks! I have only, like, ten pairs of socks right now, which is basically unheard of for me. I am the sock queen. My goshdarn budget only allowed for a couple pairs today, but they're cute; one is argyle (pink, orange, gray), and the other is that weird green-brown color with a sparkly pink heart and crown. There appear to be words on the design, but hell if I can read them. They could say something really dirty for all I know (or at least that's what I'm hoping).

Looking at greeting cards today reminded me of this great website I saw on Neatorama recently.





Some ECards has a great collection of rarely appropriate but often hilarious cards. Some other favorites of mine included: What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Suicidal; I'm Too Horny to Be in Public; and I Probably Don't Have Any Children. What I really dig about these cards are the weird sayings coupled with the old-fashioned pictures.

I'm going to make the most of my Kinda-Day-Off and watch my Netflix movies ("Swimming Pool" and "The Shape of Things") so I can mail them back tomorrow. I've found that I don't use Netflix as much to watch things I think I'll enjoy, as to see how quickly I can get through my queue. In my first month I got through 8 discs; about two a week, which isn't bad. Also not bad: they lowered the price of my '2 At a Time' plan. Yay for saving $1.07 each month!

You never know what you will get, you never know what you'll forget

Something amusing (at least to me) that I forgot to write about last entry: Yesterday I had to call this electrical contractor for details on some project (bor-ing) and he sounded exactly like Dominic Purcell (Lincoln on "Prison Break"). It was pretty awesome. It reminded me of when I was still working on radio stuff, and once in awhile had the occasion of calling one of our affiliates in Idaho to talk to the program director, who sounded exactly like Dean Winters. That was also pretty awesome.

In getting ready for work on the weekends, I always have the TV set to the Food Network. At 4:30 they have this neat show called "Into the Fire" that profiles various restaurants, and at 5:00, they start with the infomercials. Every week for the past month or so, I have been "treated" to one for a Time Life collection of soft rock hits (ugh!) that stars the dudes from Air Supply.

I could change the channel, I know, but then I would miss the video that always makes me laugh: Rupert Holmes' "Him." The female background singer makes these really crazy, intense faces that always make me giggle. I suppose I'm just weird. I found the below video on YouTube, but it's just not quite as hilarious as on the one on the infomercial. Warning: This is 3 minutes and 30 seconds of your life that you will never get back, if you hate 70s music as much as I do.





Work was very slow today, which was great because 1. I looked awful (Hotness outside + my bad skin as of late + no lipstick = ew), 2. I finished season 2 of "Arrested Development," and 3. I got to start reading "Running With Scissors." The book isn't as all-out funny as I thought it'd be, for whatever reason, but it is good and also very sad at points. I can't comprehend being so self-absorbed as a parent that I would be remotely okay with my 13-year-old child being sexually involved with someone twenty years older. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who isn't squeamish.

I was going to go out this evening to stop by the library and put gas in my car, but I don't think now that I will. I probably have enough gas to get to-and-from work tomorrow. There's actually a gas pump somewhere at the park, but it's only for company vehicles. Well, they're no fun.

I need to do laundry. That's no fun, either.

Questo caldo arrivi alla fine, non riesco a dormire

I had so many dreams last night, but now I forget pretty much everything... except that in one, I was driving past the scene of an accident, and saw a police officer carrying the body of a woman over to his car. It was sunset and the sky was really beautiful and almost dark. Whatever that means.

It has been way too hot here the past couple days. I think I'm going to have to use the air conditioner at work tomorrow, which will prove interesting. It works (or at least it did those two days in May or June when it was also freakishly hot), but it doesn't work well. It doesn't put out much cool air, but just moves air around. D'oh?

Speaking of d'oh, I stopped by the 7-11 for my favorite snack there today, and picked up a 6-pack of Buzz Cola. I love shameless marketing schemes. You know what they need to put out (if they haven't)? Duff Beer. I don't drink beer, but I would like to have a Duff. Then I could re-enact the great episode where Patty (or Selma?) takes the kids to Duffland and Lisa gets drunk from the water in the Small World-esque ride they go on. "I am the lizard queen!" Word.

LS and I went to Pick Up Stix for dinner last night. I haven't been there in forever and forgot how good it was! I had sweet and sour chicken, and she had tofu and broccoli. I tried the tofu and it was actually quite good; kinda like "really soft chicken," is what I think I compared it to. Mmm, soft chicken. Hee. We stopped by Target and Sally's Beauty Supply (Sally's is awesome, but all the stores are tiny... like, only five people can comfortably fit in there!) before we went back to my house for dessert. Also for some craziness from my little cousins. They're adorable, but always remind me that I could never have kids; I don't have the energy, or the patience to deal with them when that energy is gone.

I was at the office both yesterday and today, but I am planning to work from home on Monday. Yay sleep! I was sleeping so well when I woke up this morning, it was such a bummer to get up.

I watched the second episode of "Burn Notice" today. I wish this show would get good, but I don't think it's going to happen. Jeffrey Donovan's adorable face and hot bod notwithstanding, I don't know how much longer I'll be able to deal with the annoying camera shots, redundant narration, and the excess of random bikini-clad bimbos. Yes, I get that we're in Miami and that a lot of women probably walk around in their swimsuits, but we've been there before (and had a much better time) with McNamara/Troy.

An online friend was telling me of her interest in BN because of Bruce Campbell, and it took me way too long to realize that she meant the 'Bruce Campbell who was in "The Evil Dead"' Bruce Campbell. Duh! I didn't like that movie, but he was kind of a hottie back then. Now... he's kind of old. I mean, there are worse old guys, but there are better ones too (Two words: William Fichtner). Bruce still has a sexy voice, though, I'll give him that. And he totally gets smacked around by a chick in episode two of "Burn Notice," which is pretty hot.

I have a book club meeting next week, which probably means I should start reading the book - "Running With Scissors." Especially since I'm the one who suggested it be put on the reading list.

I haven't been getting anything done as far as writing lately, and I have a big, annoying suspicion as to why: I haven't written morning pages in, I don't know, close to a month or so. Which is dumb of me, I know; they got me over a bad patch in March and got me back into writing regularly, and so I gave them up why? My main reason (excuse) was that it's hard to set aside 10-15 minutes each morning when I am already a slowpoke about getting ready for work, and besides, I was writing again! Ah, stupid old me. Well, if I don't start them again soon, I probably never will, so tomorrow, it begins again! (And no, I can't start today; they're morning pages, smartass.)

I'm the one who's gonna show when there's nobody

Happy Birthday, America!

As I predicted, there is a "Law and Order" marathon on TNT. Ah, I knew they wouldn't let me down. Bonus: The previous episode was an old-ish one that starred Vera Farmiga. Kickass!

In honor of Independence Day, the main meat of my post today will be dedicated to that great American institution: Divorce! (end sarcasm here) Seriously, everyone wants a divorce all of a sudden: Criss Angel's wife, Salman Rushdie's wife, Johnny Knoxville's wife, and Wayne Brady's wife. I can understand the first three*, but Wayne Brady? On the plus side, this leaves a very convenient opening that so many women (including me) would be happy to fill.

*To be fair, I don't know much about Salman Rushdie; he might be a cool guy. But Angel and Knoxville? Pfft.

You've been around so long but you still don't know what to do

I'm sleepy. Also heading towards broke-ish if I don't watch it. Those two weeks where I had almost no hours in the office did not help at all. Eh, what you gonna do. Well, I know what I'm not going to do; spend my mid-day weekend shopping or going to the movies. Oh well.

A big part of the reason I'm left without careless spendables this week is that I paid the cable bill today. D'oh? But! After taking so much from me for so long (end annoying, and false, claim here), Comcast is finally giving me something back:





A promo poster for Showtime's "Meadowlands." I actually only watched the first episode yesterday, but I am already a fan. It's about a British family, the Foys, that is relocated under the witness protection program as the Brogans, and soon find out that the new community they're in - the Meadowlands - is full of other citizens who are there for the same reason.

When I went into the Comcast branch near my work office today, I asked them what they do with the posters when they're done, and he said that if people want them, they can ask and then get them once it's time to take them down. Sweet! They also had a poster for "John from Cincinnati," but that was already signed up for - boo! I don't think the one I'll be getting is the same as the picture above, but it's very close; the family in front of their new house, wearing these sexy-scary eyemasks they wore while being driven to the Meadowlands.

Like I said: One episode, and already a fan. Besides being in bad need of a British fix while waiting for "Waterloo Road" to return to BBC America (will it ever??), it is wonderfully trashy. There's the local cop who bashes in the head of the neighborhood handyman who was flirting with the teenage Brogan daughter; the nosy, middle-aged neighbor lady who gets off using a pair of gloves sent to her by the teenage Brogan son (he always wears gloves due to some as-yet mysterious fire); and the blandly bitchy witness protection agent who sends one of her minions to scare the bejeezus out of the Brogan ladies when they dare to venture out for shopping in the nearest town. I'm in!