My ever-loosening grip on the commonest courtesies slipped

I always feel bad when I go for more than three days without blogging - kind of like my blog is a kid or pet that I have been horrendously neglecting. And now here I've gone for nearly a week!

Okay, I just saw some disturbing commercial where a (cartoon) red bear and blue bear run down the beach, heading for... a porta potty? And they have a choice of soft Charmin paper, or "strong" Charmin paper. My thoughts on "strong" toilet paper, whatever that means:

1. Clean is good, but I ain't scraping myself with sandpaper

2. Did Terrence Howard invent this? Ha!

I had an extra-busy weekend. Sunday I was running around all over the place... Walnut Creek, then to Pittsburg for a potluck lunch, and back to Brentwood for my book club. We didn't follow the discussion questions too religiously, which is good AFAIC; they were like advanced English essay questions! And it's been too long since I've been a serious student.

Which leads nicely into my next topic: The first meeting of my speech class was tonight. We had to decorate a paper bag with stuff about ourselves and present them. Yikes. It was weird, I was really nervous until I actually got up there, and I think I did okay. I wore my old watch with the timer so I could keep track (the presentation had to be between two and four minutes) but I forgot to actually use it, duh. Weird second part to that assignment: we had to get taped and have to self-critique. I hate seeing myself on video and hearing my own voice!

Hmm, I thought I had more to say than that! I'm just trying to get through the week to have an awesome three day weekend... dinner with the girls on Saturday and trying to catch up on TV. And, watching "Blades of Glory" on DVD! I went to the store right after work yesterday to buy it, whoo hoo. I also got a couple of (hopefully) scary movies from Netflix today: "Vacancy" and "The Number 23."

Oh, and if you haven't seen it, "Premonition" with Sandra Bullock is a big disappointment. Julian McMahon takes a shower but they don't show anything - kinda crap is that? This could have been a great movie but the ending totally ruined it.

I went for a walk last night that was quite nice. We went into a new-ish like shopping/business center near my neighborhood, but there's not many places open yet. The architecture is interesting, though, with columns and stamped concrete in some places, and some of the buildings are painted with square designs. I like squares; they're like rectangles, only little and cute.

I could write more, but I need to get to bed soon. Instead of writing morning pages, I'm now doing evening pages instead. Hopefully it will soon start to do its magic and get me writing for real.

When you finally disappear, they'll say you were never here

I'm going to go on a walk pretty soon, but I wanted to make a few notes about the short* clip of the season three premiere of "Prison Break" today:

- I'm scared!

- Why is it the best show ever?

- 50 year old William Fichtner = sexier than 35 year old Wentworth Miller

*The entire clip was something like 17 minutes, but I watched a little less than 10; I don't want to spoil it for the actual premiere in four weeks...

Oh, and I pre-ordered the season 2 DVD from Amazon last night, saving myself at least $20. Sweet! Once again I gave in to the "free super-saver shipping," even though it will delay delivery by a few days. D'oh...

Life is ours, we live it our way

Whew... I had one lazy day (Saturday) and since then it's been crazy-busy again. On Sunday, I went to church in the morning, was home briefly (well, a few hours) and then went out with LT and MB. We had dinner at Baja Fresh - Mexican food, my most hated cuisine! I had a chicken quesadilla and I have to admit it was pretty good. Their guacamole is also, to my untrained-in-guacamole taste buds, yum. Their mango salsa is definitely not as delicious as the one my dad made yesterday. Chomp!

After BF we stopped by Peet's for awhile and went to MB's house to watch some DVD's. "Family Guy," which I'm ashamed to admit I laughed at more than a few times, "Coupling" (apparently!) and "The Simpsons." I keep meaning to see that movie, but who has the time?

Yesterday was Monday, bleh. I was going to stay later at work, but there was nothing to do. More so than usual. I did stay half an hour later today; I was going to try for longer, but I was starving and had already eaten my 100-calorie Hostess cupcake pack. Those things are so unsatisfying. The whole time, I was fantasizing about one of the real, full-sized cupcakes with the big puff of cream in the middle, and the cute swirl on top.

We needed some paper plates from Target, so I stopped by yesterday afternoon and also bought... socks! My collection has become seriously depleted by the sudden holing (holiness? holifying?) of several pairs. I got three 2-packs of "Nick and Nora" socks for like $3 each, and two bright argyle Xhiliration pairs. Yay for un-naked feet!

My hybrid (part online, part in person) class has started, and I spent some time last night freaking out about it. I think part of it was that all of our assignments were listed at once, which appeals to me in the anal-retentive planning way, but also alarms my procrastinating/lazy side. Mostly I'm afraid that being out of school for so long has made me dumb, or at least made me forget my good student habits. Oh, who am I kidding - I was always studying and writing papers at the last minute.

I went for another walk tonight, but shorter than last Thursday's stroll because it's so hot this week. The Gazelle finally got moved back into my room, and I used that last night while catching up on "Big Love." It really irks me that I bugged HBO* for months about how it was stupid for them to move it from Sunday to Monday, and that for the last two episodes of the second season, it's back on Sundays.

*Well, mentally. Since they are so awesome, it's my natural assumption that HBO is reading my mind at all times. It would certainly explain why Bill Paxton is always getting nekkid.

Speaking of cable, the Comcast office in Pittsburg never did call me about my "Meadowlands" poster. Either it's still up, or they lost my number, or someone else took it. Well, phooey on them. Eh, it's not like I paid for it. Still, it would've been great because I love that show so much. I have two episodes left to watch, which I'm almost afraid to do - what if it never comes back? (Duh: DVD!)

For dinner tonight we had this awesome pineapple sausage and bell peppers. Brilliant. My mom made this, but I've been cooking a lot lately too: orzo salad and roasted potatoes on Saturday, and sauteed veggies last night. I've still got a ton of eggplant, zucchini and jack cheese left, so I'm hoping to do something with that tomorrow.

Cooking more is only part of my attempt to not get fatter and/or get less fat. I've been keeping a food diary - not in an obsessive, counting calories and grams and all that crap way, but just to track my habits and see where they need improvement. When I get home from work in the afternoons is my worst snacking time!

Right now I am listening to Alanis Morrissette's "Uninvited," which I like a lot, but wish I didn't associate with... what's that stupid movie? "City of Angels"? Nicolas Cage, what were you thinking? I hate Meg Ryan. She needs to go away. But then, I also associate this song with this hot musician I had a class with several years ago because I heard him play it (well, the piano part) once. Gosh, he was cute. His band is still together, but their music isn't to my taste. Neither is his current hairstyle (the less you know, the better).

All you are now is only just a dream

I'm having a hard time typing right now because of the band-aid on my left ring finger. I got a really ugh paper cut and I'm not sure how (though the obvious answer would probably be "from paper").

Today, I'm getting caught up on laundry and TV. I'm finally up to date on "The 4400" and watched a couple episodes of "Rescue Me." That show can be so outrageous sometimes that it takes a firefighting scene to remind me of what a great show it actually is. The last episode I watched even had Dean Winters (my true love!) in it, but only for a few minutes, and he was being kinda creepy. I guess ghosts tend to do that.

At the store yesterday, I bought a couple cups of yogurt. One is the Wallaby organic kind, and says "Creamy Australian Style," which I guess means, "Soupy Australian Style." It tasted okay, but I'm not a big fan of having to drink my food.

I made a healthy-ish lunch today: an orzo salad with eggplant, bell pepper and broccoli. Because I have never had good luck with trying to saute eggplant, I baked it the way I usually do, cut it up in smaller pieces, and put it in the salad that way. Delish! For dinner I think I'm going to do roasted potatoes with onions, parsley* and cheese. Chomp.

*I bought parsley for the guacamole I made about a week ago, and it came in such a huge bunch that I don't know what else to do with it. Then today I read a recipe from my favorite Mr. Food cookbook and found one that is very similar to the potatoes I make, and so I guess I'll give it a try. I hate to see food to go waste. Like those Food Network competitions where they make those grandiose food sculptures, and the damn things never get eaten! Even the ones where there aren't non-food items holding them together.

It also annoys me to no end when they realize they've made a mistake in putting it together. Don't they practice beforehand? I'm just saying, if I were going on television to construct a five-foot tall Snow White cake (or whatever), I'd have damn sure been making them at home so I would know whether or not her head is too heavy for her body.

My attempt to sleep in today didn't go well. I woke up at 6:50, went to the bathroom, and tried to crawl back into bed like I'd never gotten out. Didn't work! I could feel myself falling back asleep once, but got so excited about it that I woke up again. I finally got up at 7:30 because my stomach was growling, and had a bowl of frosted mini-wheats. Yum!

I hope I can find the words to say, never again

Earlier, I tried to open my computer's Control Panel to change the desktop wallpaper, and it gave me a really weird error from some program called "Dr. Watson's Postmortem Debugger." Um, postmortem?

In an attempt to eat better, I've been forcing myself to eat cereal in the mornings instead of junk food. As an experiment, I bought a small container of vanilla Silk (soy milk) at Raley's earlier this week, and it's actually really good! It tastes like the milk that's left over after eating Lucky Charms... mmm. Well, it really only tastes like that for the first few bites; then it's just like regular milk, only without a weird aftertaste. I'm not a fan of drinking milk at all, which is weird because otherwise I'm all about dairy - especially cheese! I've even warmed up to yogurt, as long as it's not strawberry or vanilla.

I'm not having cereal tomorrow, though. My parents bought hella bagels today, and tomorrow I'm going to have a yum cheese one for breakfast, and an apple. That's healthy-ish, right?

Today feels so much like Thursday, but only because the real Thursday (tomorrow) is going to be my Friday. Though I'm not feeling that hot this week (I'm not sick - just worn out) I worked an extra hour each day so I can take Friday off. Sweet! I will probably run some errands Friday morning (bank, put gas in the car, maybe Target or Longs for necessities), but other than that I have no plans for that day or Saturday.

I was thinking the semester started next week, but it actually starts tomorrow. Um, oops? But I don't have my first class meeting until two weeks from now anyway. Hopefully the $60 used book (I'm still bitter about that) I bought through Barnes and Noble will be here by then.

Last night my mom and I watched "Trilogy of Terror," this bad late 70s movie with three (duh) tales, which I guess are all based on Richard Matheson stories. And, actress Karen Black stars in all three vignettes. She's been in an awful (and I do mean awful) lot of horror movies over the years, but I gotta hand it to her, the lady is still working today!

Anyway: "Trilogy of Terror," bad movie, especially the sleazy, hammy actor who blackmails "Julie." But: Last few seconds of the movie? Scariest image ever, of "Amelia" holding a knife and baring these freaky pointy teeth. Ack! Here, just so I won't be alone in my scaredy-cat-ness:




photo source


I thought I might have a nightmare, but I didn't. I did dream about an earthquake, and apparently there was a little one last night! I don't know if it could be felt here, but that's still odd. The dream involved living at my old house, and getting everyone together to play "Apples to Apples," but there was a DVD involved - kind of like SceneIt? And I couldn't get it to work. Yeah, that sounds about right.

Yesterday, I finally began reading Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex" for my book club meeting in a couple weeks. So good! Who knew that incest and hermaphrodites were so fascinating? No, really, he is a great writer (I already knew that from "The Virgin Suicides") and it's somehow a fast, easy read without being at all dumb.

I'm disappointed to say my own writing has definitely not fared as well lately. My determination to start doing morning pages again kind of disappeared after about a week, and I've produced very little. Well, I'm an idiot. Though, my interest in an "old" project that I was excited about then didn't follow through with, has been re-kindled when I found some outlines in a big stack of paper I went through the other day. Maybe I'll tackle it on my upcoming three day weekend... or maybe I'll just sit in front of the TV, trying to catch up on like 20 hours worth of TV shows.

I finally watched the pilot episodes of FX's "Damages" (good; I actually like Glenn Close after her part on "The Shield," and I have wanted to marry Tate Donovan since the first season of "The OC") and BBC America's "Hotel Babylon" (good, but I hope it gets more scandalous and naughty).

In non-shallow news: The memorial service for my former tutor last week was very nice. It was good to hear more about her family and the volunteer work she did. Though I honestly don't remember her too well, I did get a bit tear-y at times; I don't know, maybe it's a girly hormone thing, but I have a hard time not getting upset when other people are upset. It was also inspiring because, though she was a Presbyterian, she had many Muslim* grandchildren who spoke during the services. I am not a fan of any one religion on its own, but I'm always happy to hear/see when people of different faiths can get together.

*Speaking of which, I am extremely upset right now about an arson fire that totally gutted a mosque over in Antioch. They have had harassment problems since (if not before?) 9/11, which is obviously just ignorant of the harassers, but I just can't believe someone would stoop so low. Why is it that so many people only want freedom of religion for their own religion?

I am angered at the thought that someone who (most likely) lives in my community did this to their very own neighbors. I mean, this is the bay area, supposedly one of the most liberal and open-minded places in the country. I hope the person(s) who committed this crime is caught and punished to the full extent of the law. Along with freedom of speech and of the press, the right to believe, or not believe, is one of the values that makes the U.S. the greatest country in the world (insert upbeat patriotic theme song here?)

Argh!

I know I said I don't feel like posting right now, but I couldn't let this item featured in the daily IMDB column go unremarked on:

Howard Refuses To Date "Unclean" Women

Hustle & Flow star Terrence Howard refuses to date women who don't use moistened tissue on visits to the toilet - as they are "not completely clean." The Oscar-nominated actor insists potential female suitors must not rely solely on toilet tissues in the bathroom, and even goes to the trouble of advising any partners to make the switch to baby wipes if they don't already use them. He tells Elle magazine, "If they're using dry paper, they aren't washing all of themselves. It's just unclean. So if I go inside a woman's house and see the toilet paper there, I'll explain this. And if she doesn't make the adjustment to baby wipes, I'll know she's not completely clean."

It's really inspiring (as in, totally not) that, of all the important issues in the world that Terrence Howard could take a stand about, it comes down to feminine hygiene. I hope he never has daughters - clearly he has no respect for females or their bodies (am I the only one reading latent homosexuality in this?) The majority of women in the world are already way too self-conscious about their vaginas/vulvas, and to hear a "celebrity" spouting such ignorance is really not helping the problem.

Factoid, Mr. Howard: Many of the products designed to clean and/or deodorize that area irritate sensitive skin and destroy the good bacteria that keeps things in balance. I'm all about keeping clean, but pulling out the baby wipes every time you pee is just not a necessary part of it.

Also: I'm now quite curious as to his own grooming habits. Since he's obviously disgusted by the human body, I'm guessing it involves some weird ritual of bidets and showers and washing himself while wearing heavy-duty rubber gloves so that he doesn't touch anything "gross."

I could go on, but I've wasted enough of your time and mine on this ridiculous misogynist.

I used to stand for something, but forgot what that could be

I'm still around, but I haven't really had the time and/or wish to blog. I know you're all really disappointed about that!

Right now, I'm kind of annoyed that I had to spend $70 for a new car battery yesterday, and $60 for a used textbook today. Why is it so much more fun to spend money on stuff you don't need?

Enough gloom and doom... I've just got a bad case of the Mondays. On top of that, would you believe I'm such a lightweight that I had a hangover this morning from the half of a beer I drank at the Renaissance Faire yesterday?

"You'll have to excuse the mess, but we live here."

Nick at Nite is showing the great old episode of "Roseanne" where Becky and her friend get drunk. So many hilarious stupid lines:

"Where's your bathroom?"
"Oh, we don't have one. We use a wok."

"This is my sister Lardene. Larlene. Dardene!"

In other TV news, I am pretty much totally behind on every show I'm watching. The only thing I'm caught up with is "Hell's Kitchen," and the third season finale is on Monday. Ack! I'm not sure who to root for; Rock is a pretty good cook, but kind of a jerk. And Bonnie is just too much like the stereotypical dumb blonde for me to take her remotely seriously.

My legs ache right now and I don't know why; I sure wasn't exercising strenuously.

There's a morning writer's club tomorrow, but I shan't make it. I worked an extra hour longer than usual today, and will do so again tomorrow, so I can leave early on Friday to attend a memorial service for a woman who tutored me a long time ago (like the early 90s - ancient history right?). I haven't seen her since then, but she was very kind and I'd like to pay my respects.

I cooked dinner for the fam tonight: baked sesame chicken, which was good but would have been brilliant if not overcooked; and my red potato casserole with cheddar cheese and green chiles, and I also mixed in some leftover frozen bacon bits from a bag of potato skins.

Wait, I just realized that it's 10:30; what am I still doing awake??

All dressed up with no place to go but home

My intention of getting much more input at writer's club on Thursday night was once again thwarted, as only two other people showed up. Argh! I'm moving on ahead with the story; I worked on it a little bit this weekend, actually...

Speaking of my weekend! It was pretty nice; relaxing and quiet, if somewhat dull. I found my way there fairly easily, although I was briefly trapped in this weird circle of one way streets. I hate one way streets! I hate any street where I can't make a U-turn. Anyway; I got back on track, and got to the hotel exactly at check-in time. After calling my parents to let them know I arrived, I didn't speak to anyone for the rest of the weekend (well, through Sunday morning) except for room service and housekeeping.

The room service was delicious, if overpriced. It's not so much in the actual food price in how they gouge you, but in the "eating in your room" (my term, not theirs, which sounded way nicer) fee, and they add in the 15% tip for you, and - if you're like me - you feel guilty about not adding more on top of that. My meals:

Friday's dinner: Spinach salad with pears, cherry tomatoes and more stuff I can't remember - which is a shame because it was delicious! Probably the tastiest thing I ate over the weekend.

Saturday's breakfast: Special K (I actually asked for Corn Flakes, but was too hungry to correct them at this point) with a sliced banana*, and a huge but un-great blueberry muffin.

*Their menu actually said, "Sliced banana," but it came whole and I had to slice it myself! What a ripoff. Hee.

Saturday's lunch: Pesto Pizza, which is as it sounds; a huge individual pizza with pesto sauce, big gobs of mozzarella (mmm!), and sliced tomatoes.

Saturday's dinner: Open-face steak sandwich with mushrooms (too many) and crunchy onions, and a side of parmesan-parsley fries. Tasty, but tricky to eat; open-face sandwiches always do mock me so...

Sunday's breakfast: French toast with "candied" (aka, sprinkled in sugar... I think) pecans and a side of bacon.

Besides eating, I didn't do much. I read Tess Gerritsen's "Body Double" (scary!), watched "Goodfellas" for some reason (that movie is annoying), wrote a little bit, and put a nice dent in my beauty samples collection. I lost count of how many face masks I tried (okay, only three).

To sum it up: Expensive weekend, but definitely worth it for the "breather" I got. I definitely feel more able to cope with my not-that-likeable job than I did before I left, and I appreciate the company of my family and friends more; I was lonely this weekend! And I'm a person who likes to spend a lot of time alone. I suppose moderation (blugh! My least favorite thing ever) is the key.

Since we're already on a roll with the food theme, it was great to come home yesterday and have dinner be a delish barbecue. Chicken wings, real chicken, steak, hamburgers, baked potatoes, and... grilled zucchini! Best grilled veggie ever.

I was hoping to stay at work an extra hour longer than usual today, but there was nothing to do. There are these long-ass reports that I print out whenever I'm not busy with something else, but I printed so many today that the printer started throwing a tantrum. Just as well, as I needed to stop by Target before going home. Besides boring stuff, I picked up some... school supplies! I love school supplies! With only one class this semester, I did restrain myself: one binder (purple with stripes and sparkly butterflies), one notebook (colorful stripes and polka dots) and one folder (lime green with colorful hearts, some sparkly).

Because my lust/love for school supplies often goes unsatisfied, I might buy stuff for Project Ready to Learn this year. I'll have to go over my checkbook after I pay a couple more bills (cable, DMV renewal) this week, but I'm pretty sure (and hoping) I'll be able to do so. This way, I can have the thrill of shopping, without the oft-ignored useless crap sitting around my room. It's a win-win, people!

I'm out - "Hell's Kitchen" is about to be on, and where Gordon Ramsay goes, I shall follow.

I went back to Ohio but my city was gone

Wow... I actually forgot that I already posted today until I signed in a moment ago! Duh.

Anyway, I finally have the answer to the question I've been pondering for so many years! And by years I mean, like, minutes, since I first saw the quiz on the HBO website.




Which "Big Love" Sister-Wife Are You?


I was totally expecting this answer, though I do have more than my fair share of Nicki's bitchiness and also a smidgen of Margene's naivete.

It's a girl!

Much thanks to Tiff (No Accent Yet) for the link to the Gender Genie, a site that analyzes your writing to figure out whether you are male or female. And the Gender Genie has confirmed what we already knew: I'm a big ol mushy girly-girl.

Well, maybe not overly girly, but still definitely a chick. My scores:

Blog entry (I used my July 24 post)
Female Score: 926
Male Score: 839

Fiction (I used a 600-word portion of my latest story-in-progress, "A Grave Mistake")
Female Score: 907
Male Score: 732

Well, now that we have that figured out, onto other things:

My parents got a big bag of the Terra Chips I love at Sam's Club yesterday, and I am slowly (well, not slowly) and steadily demolishing it. I could live on those. Not for long, granted, but I could.

Vacation tomorrow! Thanks to some longer than usual days earlier this week, I can only work for two hours in the morning. I'm gonna come home, get some stuff shipshape before the open house on Sunday, pack my junk and be on my way!

Did you ever read a book that you really love, and it's one of your favorites, and you don't read it for a long time... and when you do again, you find you don't like it as much as you thought you did? This has happened to me three times in the past couple months, as I re-read V.C. Andrews "My Sweet Audrina" (I used to only hate the ending; now I hate all of it) and Kate Braverman's "Lithium for Medea" and "Palm Latitudes." I hate falling out of love with stuff.

I have writer's club tonight, and I'm taking the same stuff I actually took two weeks ago. Only one other person showed up at that meeting, and I would like a little more input than that. Plus, I haven't had time to write anything new.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and I'll be back on Monday-ish to tell you about how I sat around, read, ate, and indulged in too many free beauty samples. (Granted, this is like most other weekends, except this one will be a lot more expensive.)