Friends

07:59 pm - And I tell you that you are Peter
A response to Saturday's post:

Sadly, as I'm sure this anonymous commenter will attest, there are still many Christians who refuse to verbally confront and condemn the gay people in their workplaces, communities and families. My parents, for example, go to church every week yet I have never heard them criticize a gay person. Not even their out nephew! Let us pray for their souls, Anonymous!

As noted in the previous post, when he is not telling gay co-workers they engage in "bad stuff," the proudly heterosexual Mr. Vadala composes songs in the American musical theatre tradition. This is all well and good but I would suggest that young Mr. V explore hipper, more modern musical genres so as to reach more members of his generation. I offer herewith a humble "dance track" remix of his YouTube video to get the ball rolling. Sing unto Him a new song!

He was fired for your sins.

(23 comments | Leave a comment)

aliwilliams

11:46 am - Novelty is the spice of life
Bright and shiny brand-new things:

1. View! I moved about eight feet to a new desk at work, but it's next to the window so: upgrade! Unfortunately it's a south-facing window (which, as you learn when exploring NYC real estate, means lots of natural light, oh gosh!). So the blinds stay down for much of the day. Still, pleasant, bright.

2. Job! Well, a part of it. I'm taking over editing our Sex & Dating section, in addition to my other duties. I consider this a tragic joke the cosmos is pulling on my terminally single self. But Kat is the designer for the section, so we'll call that: upgrade!

3. Title! I'm now officially Allison Williams, Senior Editor. Any distraction, ditziness or lethargy on my part will henceforth be known as "senioritis." Came on the same day that a good friend here at work was unexpectedly laid off, which sucks. So we'll call that: bittersweet upgrade.

4. Tights! I bought green tights this weekend. I've never owned green tights, I guess because I was wary of the Peter Pan associations, but I threw caution to the wind and you know what? I dig 'em. Wearing them today. Upgrade!

5. Apartment! Ok, knocking on wood, nothing's signed yet, this could all change…but things look good for my new place on E 7th Street between First and Second Avenues. In the East Village. This is hard for me to take, because I've always been a West Village girl, and even the word "west" makes me happier than the word "east," and I'll miss the smaller streets and the good cheese shop and the easy commute and, you know, everything.
Um, yes, this is indeed a little melodramatic for a move that's all of, uh, a mile? If that? But I will have to leave my wonderful apartment and roommate, and pay a shitload of money to live in my new place (I looked up what I could rent in my parents' new Bend neighborhood for that price: "3B 2 Bath House with 2 Car garage, fenced yard, lawn service, harwood floors Furnished.") So we'll call that one: even.

(2 comments | Leave a comment)

08:49 am
As regular readers of this blog know, I watch a lot of Sesame Street since I had my daughter. Before that, not so much, at least, not since my own childhood. But I am part of the original Sesame Street generation: it turns 40 this year---this week is the beginning of the new season---and I turn 40 (gulp) this coming summer. I was pretty much raised on Big Bird and Snuffy and Oscar, learning letters and numbers with them, and I love that my own kid is doing the same, now. (Although right NOW she is watching Barney, which I hate. I know, I know, that's mean. But I can't help it.) Personally, I will be THRILLED for the new season to begin, if only because we have watched all the ones from last year multiple times. As much as I love Neil Patrick Harris as the Fairy Shoeperson, and Sandra Oh as the Cookie Fairy, I'm ready for some new material. Although I never really get tired of Prairie Dawn. I just love that girl.

In other news, how much did I love Taylor Swift on SNL this weekend? I thought she was beyond fab, especially her monologue. If you missed it, it's here:

There was also a great send-up of the Twilight movie, although I kind of missed a lot of the joke because I, um, haven't seen it. I know, I know. I really should, especially with the second one about to come out, for professional research reasons if nothing else. I mean, it's a great thing when a YA book does this well. But honestly, I'm kind of suffering from Twilight burnout even WITHOUT seeing the movie. I mean, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are everywhere these days, and I feel like every time I turn around there's another series about vampires on TV or in the new releases on the bookshelf. And I am just not a vampire/werewolf kind of person. It probably makes me seem wholly unimaginative, but I like stories about real people and real life. This is why I never got into Harry Potter, either (and why my husband maintains I am a Muggle. But whatever).

Finally, on a more serious note, I'm sitting here watching a segment on domestic violence on GMA, and it's breaking my heart. They're talking specifically about teenage girls, and what they are calling the "Rhianna effect," i.e. that since she came forward and talked about being beaten by Chris Brown on Friday night, calls to domestic violence lines---and specifically teen targeted ones---went up considerably. This is an issue close to my own heart, because I wrote a book about a girl in a similar relationship, and since then I have literally gotten hundreds of emails and letters from girls telling me about their own stories with abusive boyfriends. It's a terrible, terrible thing, that this happens, and I so respect Rhianna for coming forward and shedding some bright, needed light on the subject. I was never in an abusive relationship. But several of my close friends, in high school and since, were, and they were not weak women. They were strong and smart and just got overwhelmed. It happens. But it doesn't HAVE to. There are resources and help out there. So if you need it, speak up. Tell a friend, a parent, a clergyperson, a teacher. Tell SOMEONE. Please. The number for National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline is 1-866-331-9474. Their website is here.

I hope you all have a great day.

(25 comments | Leave a comment)

November 8th, 2009

slightlyoffaxis

10:15 pm - Going to the cottage and we're gonna get married.
So, things are progressing with the wedding. Details are not 100% set yet, but I feel confident enough that I can start letting people in on the details.

When we first got engaged, everyone kept asking me when we thought we'd be getting married. Jesse and I had a quick conversation on the way home from the park about it, and I'm really glad we did, because people started asking for the date almost immediately. Now, we have something more concrete than "oh, I dunno, sometime next September." The date is set: September 5, 2010. That's the Sunday of Labor Day. It's 301 days from now, but hey, who's counting?

Even better than the date, we have a place, too. (Well, almost. We have a "confirmation" for a place, but not a contract. I'm not sure why there's been such a lag between the two, but the people at the venue assure me that it's all happening, so I have no choice but to trust them.) The place: Washington Irving's Sunnyside in Tarrytown, NY. It's Washington Irving's actual house—a cool cottage more than a mansion—and it's situated right on the Hudson River. It looks a little something like this:

The wedding itself will take place more on the grounds than in the house. The ceremony will be in front of the house, with his wisteria-covered front door as a backdrop, followed by cocktails on his porch, which faces the River. Then the dinner/reception part will take place in a tent that the property keeps around full-time, set further back on the grounds.

So yeah, all of that pretty much takes place outside the cottage. (Pray for good weather. I looked at the Farmer's Almanac for next year and it said a summertime drought. Works for me. Sorry, farmers.) There is one time that the cottage will be open, though. For one hour during the cocktail hour, costumed guides will be available for tours! You can thank my mom's gentlemanfriend for that, since it's his gift to us. You can ask Jesse for his feelings about that, but I am totally psyched.

Obviously, I'm pretty happy about all this. Sunnyside has everything we were looking in a venue—and, more importantly, doesn't have anything we hate about some wedding places. For example, we like that our site fee is going to a not-for-profit organization instead of a Wedding Factory trying to hard-sell us the Wedding of Our Dreams ®. We were trying to get away from the whole ballroom thing altogether. We were looking for something a little more open and casual. Hopefully, this will feel more like a backyard barbecue than a formal black-tie affair (except in the backyard of America's first internationally famous writer).

We also found a caterer. I know that doesn't sound Earth-shattering, but for me finding a caterer was harder than finding a venue. (Sunnyside was the third place we looked at, and nothing else really had a chance after it.) The caterer we've chosen—and again, same deal, the contracts aren't signed yet so this could all change—actually got married at Sunnyside herself. If that isn't a sign that we found the right person, than I don't know what is!

I'm also pretty pleased that our wedding will have a special guest:

irving2

Make sure you say "hi" to Washintgon Irving's bust!
Current Music: kick drum heart - the avett brothers

Tags: somebody's getting married

(9 comments | Leave a comment)

09:47 pm - We are duly-appointed federal marshals
I had an inkling that maybe Precious was making some limited-release bank when I went to buy tickets to that and The Men Who Stare at Goats after work on Friday, and before 6PM the former was sold out until midnight at Union Square. So Sara and Marisa and I settled for just Goats, an entertaining mess of a movie starring George Clooney as a "psychic spy," based on a crazy true story, etc. Clooney is quite good, as are, to some degree, his famous co-stars: Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, though none of them are really given enough to do. The problem is that Grant Heslov, a longtime Clooney collaborator, does half-hearted imitations of Clooney's favorite directors (the Coens, Steven Soderbergh) rather than merging those sensibilities into some kind of unique vision. The Men Who Stare at Goats is often amusing for its easy ridiculousness, but it tells its story without shaping it beyond a potentially interesting flashback structure. With all of the narration and the total lack of built-up tension (comedic, dramatic, or otherwise), it's more like a series of anecdotes, which seems kind of lazy when you have four extremely talented actors and capable filmmakers. It's like they had a list of scenes to do, but not much more. The experience of watching it is enjoyable but ultimately unsatisfying.

Salvaging our double-feature plans, Marisa and I ducked into The Fourth Kind, which also mixes two familiar styles without a lot of success: slick Milla Jovovich exploitation movie and convincing starless exploitation movie a la Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity, etc. The movie's conceit is that it has real footage of and interviews with victims of alien abductions, and that they've also created dramatizations starring Jovovich and crew to accompany it. The "real" footage is fake too, of course, and though they do a halfway convincing technical job of making it look realistically freaky, I'm not sure what they wanted to accomplish by mixing the two versions of the story. It's novel, but not that effective. There are a few solid scares and Jovovich is really a pretty decent genre actress by now, but it isn't really worth a feature film.

The next day, Marisa and Sara and I went back to actually see Precious, which can go on a list of all-time least appropriate movies I've seen/heard New Yorkers bring their babies to see. This is probably the champ of the non-horror division in that respect. Actually, Precious has other elements of horror beyond bad parenting in the audience: there's all that awful parenting on-screen, embodied by Mo'nique as a vivid movie monster (like a lot of notable movie monsters, she eventually elicits some pity along with all of the disgust and hatred). I usually don't respond well to movies that I perceive as exercises in miserablism, but the unrelenting crumminess of life in Precious actually worked for me moreso than in something like Babel or 21 Grams, because the circumstances of the characters' lives did feel like circumstances rather than screenwriterly machinations. And there's some humor in it, mainly from the classmates Precious meets when she gets transferred to an alternative school. Still, despite good performances, especially from awards-worthy Gabourey Sidibe as Precious, and a gripping slice-of-awful-life type of story with strong emotion, this wouldn't be on my shortlist for best movies of the year -- it's a little too overdirected and occasionally a touch hammy. But I can see Lee Daniels, the director, doing well on Miss Saigon, which he's supposedly tackling next.

Then Marisa and I went way downtown to meet up with Maggie, Kyle, Katie, and Jeremy for The Box, the newest Richard Kelly flop. I say that affectionately: it's kind of adorable that someone thought Richard Kelly could make a movie suitable for release on 2,500 screens. Don't get me wrong: of the four movies I saw this weekend, I easily enjoyed The Box the most, and my review will be up on PopMatters later this week (EDIT: here we go). One of the things I like best about it is how Kelly takes a simple (if speculative) premise -- a couple given the opportunity to push a button that will kill a single stranger, for which they will be paid one million dollars -- and elaborates on that until it's one of his nigh-apocalyptic, semi-comprehensible sci-fi weird-outs. It actually has some of his most cogent storytelling, although there's still plenty of WTF to go over afterwards, so I'm glad to have seen it with people who had lots of good questions and theories. And can recite the various Shutter Island trailers even when the picture is blocked out.

After the movie, Marisa and I covered a solid 150+ blocks, riding the subway from Battery Park up to Harlem to watch SNL with the boys. I should try walking that sometime. It can fill in for my unrealized idea to walk all the way across Saratoga some day in the summer when I was in high school.

Now then: Is everyone set for the end of the world via 2012 this weekend? (A great reason to see Fantastic Mr. Fox first.)
Current Music: The Sinister Turns - The Last Time

(6 comments | Leave a comment)

10:05 am - Venture Brothers: Return to Malice

Tonight at midnight on Adult Swim. Served up just the way you like it.

(13 comments | Leave a comment)

November 7th, 2009

12:30 am - Bad Stuff: The Peter Vadala Story (a post with music)

A senior thesis idea for communications major Peter Vadala has turned into a campus-wide "Culture of Life" project that will soon evolve into "College Musical," a movie intended to spread the message of God's grace to secular audiences.

The project started out simply as a script that Vadala was writing for his thesis. When Vadala chose to actually create the movie, the project grew to include nearly 30 musicians, vocalists, actors and technical crew.

At first Vadala's script focused on abortion, but as he revised, he decided to focus on an anti-pornography message. Vadala said he can understand the issue, since he has met men who struggle with pornography.

( That Guy Isn't Me )

(58 comments | Leave a comment)

November 6th, 2009

08:54 am - The Friday Five!
1. This was the first week of what I'm calling TOFFT: Time Off From Facebook and Twitter. I won't say I've been able to avoid them altogether. At least once a day, I check in and see what's going on, and maybe update. But I USED to be on multiple times a day, updating and checking, and since I've stopped I actually feel better. I think that for me, all that updating and stuff drains the same energy I need to write, and I really need that for writing these days. So if you've been trying to contact me via Facebook or Twitter, I apologize. I'll be back sometime. Maybe in the new year?

2. Someone left a comment the other day, worried about Coco and wanting an update. You ask, I give. (Unless it's on Facebook or Twitter.) So Coco is doing really well. She's basically back to normal, which means following my daughter around vigilantly, waiting for dropped bunny crackers, attacking Monkey for no good reason, and bringing me her chicken to throw whenever I sit down. (In fact, just as I wrote this, she instigated a wild play session with Monkey has them racing back and forth across the house. I wish you could see it.) Anyway, we go back to the vet next week to get another set of x-rays, and that's when we'll see if her spleen is still really enlarged. I am thinking good thoughts. If her outer behavior is any indication, though, she's fine.

3. I was at the mall the other day, on November 2nd, when it happened. The clerk wished me a Merry Christmas. I couldn't help it: like a reflex, I said, "It's too early!" I mean, honestly. In the clerk's defense, though, I WAS buying a Christmas book, Olivia Helps with Christmas, which, incidentally, I now know by heart a mere three days later. I'm sorry but November 2nd is just too early to be wishing anyone anything but Happy Thanksgiving. Am I wrong? Oh, probably. Yet more proof that I am a cranky old woman.

4. In other news, my daughter continues her obsession with her little plastic Jesus Christ action figure. I can't figure it out, as she has TONS of other toys, but she insists on taking J.C. (as we call him) everywhere with us. Now, I am not a religious person. I was not raised in the church, nor was my husband. But we do live in the Bible Belt, so I am very aware that faith is a thing people take seriously, and I do not want J.C. being dragged to Whole Foods or our playgroup to offend anyone. So I went out the other day looking for another action figure that maybe wouldn't be so, um, sacred. I found a Cleopatra, which I thought was great. But Sasha was less than impressed. I mean, she LIKES Cleo okay, but really just as a buddy for J.C. to hang with while we build him block houses. I guess I need to keep looking. Meanwhile, I'll just do my best to make sure J.C. is properly treated. The other day Sasha left him on a table at this clothing boutique, where he was surrounded by lingerie. Not good. I'll work on it.

5. Finally, I'm excited to report that my office is really starting to come together. The bathroom is almost painted, this really nice blue, and the main room is a kind of apricot, the ceilings a bright white. We've ordered cabinets so people don't have to see all my clutter the minute they walk in, and I've pruned down my book collection a bunch so I don't have to haul boxes and boxes of stuff over there and fill it up the second it's done. There are still a few things I need, though. Like I'm thinking I really want to buy a time clock, the kind we used to have at the restaurant, and put it up right by the door. Then I can fill out a time card with my name (and maybe a little heart next to it, like I used to at the Burrito) and clock in whenever I sit down to write, then clock out when I leave. I'm thinking this might help me feel more professional, which I have not been feeling at ALL lately. Mostly because I'm in this weird no-man's land (no woman's?) where i don't have a full time job, but am not a full time stay at home parent either. It's a great thing to be able to hang with my daughter so much, and I wouldn't change it for the world. But it's hard to do all this--writing, blogging, updating, answering emails, just keeping up in general---in only twenty hours a week. I mean, I CAN do it. But I get kind of crabby, and that's not good for everyone. Maybe if I'm clocking in and out, it'll feel more like a real job and I won't feel so guilty about everything I'm not getting done. We'll see.

Have a great day, everyone!

(27 comments | Leave a comment)

November 5th, 2009

sunnydlita

02:54 pm - my brother, my very own Ari Gold

2:23 PM Daniel: i thought about your career

and i decided something for you

me: oh yeah? everybody's getting laid off this month

Daniel: u should write

TV pilots

2:24 PM tv dramas are always just about characters

just write dialogue

thats it

i was reading about josh shwartz

and he was at USC

as an undergrad

and he wrote a script for a class

and it won an award

and he wrote a pilot

and sent it out

and it got bought

for like 500,000

and he wrote another one

me: did it get turned into the oc?!

Daniel: and it got bought too

2:25 PM they got turned into nothing!

they were just pilots!

and he made a million dollars just by that

all u have to do is write about the characters

like what they are like

and write one episode

and it gets bought!

thats crazy!

and then he wrote the OC

and it doesnt even seem like anything!

its very cliched and derivative

i feel like i could have wrote the OC

me: yeah but you liked it, right?

Daniel: he wrote it in college rebecca

2:26 PM stop procrastinating

and then he wrote gossip girl

its about nothing!

me: yeah but it's so awesome for some reason

Daniel: u dont even need to know about anything

like to write a medical show u need to know medical stuff

or historical fiction u gotta research that

or sci-fi

me: yeah, procedurals are so boring

Daniel: gotta research

but this

u just write about stuff!!

its easy!

u have to do it

2:27 PM like pilots get made all the time

and they dont get picked up

u get paid no matter what

2:28 PM they buy the script from u

and u get paid

doesnt matter if its successful or nto

and if it is successful

then they want more scripts from u!

and u get paid to read other scripts

and to rewrite them

or doctor them

me: ahhhhh that would be my dream job

i would actually rather write for tv than movies

Daniel: kevin smith got paid like 5 million to revise the superman script

and that was back when he was a nobody

after he did chasing amy

me: okay i would TOTALLY take that

Daniel: and they never even used his script

2:29 PM me: 5 million, really? that's a ridiculous amount

Daniel: nicholas cage got paid 20 million for that movie

and it never got made

so did tim burton

for superman lives

it was pay or play or something

me: oh yeah, thank goodness that didn't get maid

Daniel: they get paid regardless of if the movie got made

me: made, yikes

2:32 PM Daniel: yea i was thinking

wow ur a dummy

anyways

seriously rebecca

write pilots

me: agh you're right

Daniel: u can do one about all your ideas

i know u have so many

asian high school student

dealing with the pressures of the model minority

coming out of her shell

boys

drugs

drinking

me: hahaha, no one wants that stuff

Daniel: the pressuers of that

me: SOOOOO cliche

Daniel: and with the pressures of family obligations

2:33 PM how to balance both

rebecca

its cliche

but

i bet it sells a pilot!

its like my so called life

me: i would rather write felicity! i've never seen my so called life

actually i realized that i kind of want to be jj abrams

Daniel: they made all-american girl

it got picked up

me: he went from felicity to alias to lost to STAR TREK

Daniel: rebecca u arent jj abrams

2:34 PM me: i'm no margaret cho!

Daniel: NO

do you see the trash that gets picked up on tv?

i mean

me: yeah, a lot of it sucks

like smallville

Daniel: even abc family

u could write a show for abc family

me: actually i love abc family

Daniel: i bet they would pick up your asian girl show

me: greek.... i wish i could do a show like greek!

Daniel: rebeecca

stop being crazy

me: do you think they'll pick up my college show?

Daniel: ok fine colelge

me: i have a pilot that is like felicity + politics

2:35 PM Daniel: REBECCA!

gosh ur so dumb

felicity + politics?

whos your audience???

middle aged lesbians?

me: ummm, smart political young people?

hahahaahahahahaha

Daniel: REBECCA

how many smart political young ppl are there

me: who watch abc family?

Daniel: you wont even sell that script let alone get a pilot made

MIDDLE AMERICA

write a pilot about teen angst

u need to get the teens aboard

2:37 PM me: it's so cliche!

Daniel: REBECCA

me: plus, that doesn't work: look at that model show with mischa barton that got cancelled right away

Daniel: jeez you're so dumb!

me: on the other hand, one tree hill still exists

Daniel: who cares!

it sold!

dawson's creek was a big hit when it came out

so was the OC

they were huge

write one about an asian girl

asians are big right now

think of all the plot lines

2:38 PM parents dont approve of her white boyfriend

he rides a motorcycle

he drops out of high school

but hes secretly really smart

but doesnt believe in himself

me: omg a monkey robot could write that!

Daniel: she helps him

shse conflicted because her parents dont like him

she runs outside to him in the rain

thats a nielson 3 right there

2:39 PM me: man... maybe you should write it

how do you know those nielsen terms?

2:40 PM Daniel: rebecca i cant write it

im not a writer like u

im an idea man

in the very first episode

she just moved to texas

or something

from LA

omg thats perfect

and u can have LA flashbacks

bring in asians

me: that's like the opposite of 90210

Daniel: that will bring in the asian demographic

2:41 PM her hip LA life

and then her life in texas

senior year of high school

and then her ex bf comes visit her

and he fights her new bf

who wears flannel

and has a motorcycle

like chad michael murray

its perfect

so many plotlines!

me: aaaccckkk

Daniel: she can be fashionable if u want

she doesnt have to be geeky

2:42 PM me: actually i had a very similar but opposite idea for a movie

Daniel: and then end of 1st season

she starts doing presecription drugs

to study

and her biker bf saves her

me: like a satire of azn culture, these two asian twins move from wisconsin to california

Daniel: and thats how the parents start begrudgingly liking him

REBECCA

me: NO JESSIE SPANO moments!

Daniel: stop being such a hater

ur such an azn hater

stop trying to write satires of it

and critiques

and criticisms

u want to make money

and be a millionaire

USE IT

2:43 PM leverage it!

dont try to marginalize it!

you are lucky most azns are too dumb to have done this already

its golden

all u need is 1 pilot

me: who's an azn hater now?

Daniel: and a synopsis of what happens the first season

and sell the script

me: how do you know this stuff?

Daniel: thats 3 years of your salary right there

2:44 PM me: yeah, that would be nice... buy me some time...

Daniel: serious

just sell out first

2:45 PM and then work on your "artistic" endeavors

just write some trashy drivel

just do it rebecca gosh

ur 28

me: ugh, i know

Daniel: noones going to be talking about some 35 year old writer who just wrote some teenage script

they want like that girl that wrote devil wears prada

some young gun

writing about her experiences

your clock is ticking

2:46 PM get with it

jeez

u live in new york

how are you such a puddle of goo

just think of a show that would be a guilty pleasure for you

and think

what would happen at the end of that show

what would NEED to happen

so that i am forced to watch next week

and just write it!

jeez

2:47 PM fill it in with some cheesy dialogue

me: you make it sound so do-able!

2:48 PM Daniel: IT IS

was the OC that special?

i mean

i seriously think i could have written that

me: i don't know, i don't remember the pilot

Daniel: who cares

its like a copy of every other show

dont try to write a veronica mars

or a glee

cuz you'll never finish

2:49 PM write something that you can finish!

jeez!

me: okokok... but AFTER i sell out i can try to write a west wing!

Daniel: ugh

whatever

ur so lame

the lamest person in new york

2:50 PM me: it keeps me humble!

Daniel: whatever u lamer

bye

im getting lunch

me: ok thanks for the "pep" talk

Current Location: United States, New York, New York
Current Mood:

amused
Current Music: "Don't Stop Believin'" - Glee cast

Tags: frivolity

(2 comments | Leave a comment)

November 4th, 2009

slightlyoffaxis

10:27 pm - This is a low.
So, I've been dealing with the post-vacation blues for the past week. I'm not in Paris anymore. I want to somehow become independently wealthy so I can travel full-time. I'd spend my days walking around new cities and my nights writing, instead of sitting stationary at a windowless desk for the exact eight hours that the sun is up. I guess not helping matters is that these next few weeks are the doldrums before Thanksgiving. I just have to go to full weeks of work and eat healthy and be good. No fun at all.

There are some happy thoughts, though. This new Weezer album is pretty solid, and it's got "The Prettiest Girl in the Whole Wide World" on it (which I've liked ever since college when I got some kind of bootleg that credited the song to the Rivers Cuomo Band). I'm looking forward to November movies, especially The Fantastic Mr. Fox and 2012. Thanksgiving week is going to be nonstop excitement, with Balloon Night and my high school reunion bookending the actual holiday. And hopefully I'll have some news I can tell y'all about the wedding soon (though I'm so bad at keeping secrets that if I've seen you I've probably told you already). I'm just waiting for some darn papers to come in the mail to make it official before I can start really telling everyone.

Until then, there are always happy memories of October, right? At least there are ( October movies. )
Current Mood: funk
Current Music: weezer - the prettiest girl in the whole wide world

Tags: holidays, movies, thanksgiving, the blues

(12 comments | Leave a comment)

08:39 am
One thing that totally bums me out about fall and winter is the days being so short. When it starts getting dark at, like, 4:45, I just want to crawl back into bed and put my head under the covers. (That's sort of my default setting in fall and winter. I know, it's not healthy, but whatever.) Anyway, since I'm all about looking on the positive side these days---or trying to---here's a bonus to the time change: it's not QUITE so dark at 6am now. You can sort of see the sun coming up. A little light in the distance is always a nice thing.

In other news, I know the LAST thing I needed was another show to watch, but I've been totally sucked into The Big Bang Theory. We've been watching it on DVD from the beginning of the series, and it's just become another thing that makes these early dark nights that much better. I've been trying to figure out why, exactly, I like it so much, and I think it's that the premise is not like anything else on TV. The characters are unique, and so well drawn. I think in this time of reality TV (and believe me, I watch more than my share) you can forget how good a well-written, well-created show can be. I guess as viewers we've come to see people like Santino from Project Runway and the girls from The Hills as "characters," but they're not. A real character is someone like Sheldon on the Big Bang, so well drawn and distinct that there's no one else like them. Although, honestly, I kind of have a thing for Howard as well. I think it's those belts and mock turtlenecks. Who can resist?

Speaking of reality TV, last night I caught a bit of the Real Housewives of Atlanta reunion, and I just felt...I don't know. Discouraged? We learned this season that NeNe is writing a book, and Kim has a hit single with "Tardy for the Party." But if you watched the show, you saw that Kim didn't really SING that much on her song. And you saw that NeNe's book is actually being written by someone else. So can you be a singer without singing much, or a writer without writing much? Maybe I'm just bitter because I'm at that point in my own novel where I'm kind of tearing my hair out a bit, and I get bothered by people who don't have so much trouble. But that's MY issue, not theirs. In fact, I should just delete this whole paragraph so I don't seem like some cranky old woman. But instead, I'll just lighten the mood with a picture of my new crush:

Ah, that's better. Now I'm going to go drink some coffee and work on my attitude.

Have a great day, everyone!

(36 comments | Leave a comment)

November 2nd, 2009

07:01 pm - My children need wine
As Marisa mentioned, we got a lot of embarrassed looks when we mentioned that we were going to Disneyland Paris, and I do understand, it seems like going to France and then eating at McDonald's. However, it is not actually like this for several reasons:

1. McDonald's is everywhere. While Disney might generally be everywhere, there are only four Disney amusement parks. IN THE WORLD.

2. While it might seem like a waste of time to go to Disneyland while you have Paris at your disposal, think about it the other way: would it be better to go to the place that is by most accounts a horrible wasteland populated only by amusement parks for the sole purpose of going to said amusement parks? Or to go to the amusement park located a 40-minute train ride away from one of the best and most attractive cities in the world?

3. Of course, that last one only makes sense if you accept the thesis that amusement parks are awesome. And I do. Obviously there's something a little antiseptic about the Disney experience, but if you've ever been to a Six Flags, you should probably be downright eager for something a little more antiseptic.

4. When we talked about engagement rings in the past, Marisa would be like "don't get a ring, take me to Disney World." Girl really loves Disney World. I thought some unfamiliarity would make a fun variation on that request, so I took her to Paris+Disneyland. Which is even better than taking a kid to Disney World, because she's far less fussy.

So: last Sunday we took the train out to Disneyland Paris (formerly EuroDisney). Because of EuroDisney's reputation as a mid-nineties boondoggle (I still cherish the Simpsons gag: "Euro Itchy and Scratchy Land, open for business! Come on, my last paycheck bounced! My children need wine!"), I sort of assumed it wouldn't be particularly crowded on a Sunday in October, even though I knew that the park has rebounded and is actually a huge tourist destination now.

I was wrong. It was crowded. People were everywhere. Parents, children, surly French teenagers. Few rides had wait times less than half an hour. We hightailed it from the main Disneyland Park to the secondary Walt Disney Studios park, hoping more of the families would be chilling at the one with more kid rides, but there were crowds everywhere. Still, the only thing we really wanted to do that we had to skip was the Finding Nemo coaster, which didn't seem to dip below a 90-minute wait. Otherwise, we hit pretty much everything else in our twelve hours.

Here are the actual rides we went on:

Pinocchio: A classic kid-friendly Disney ride in the tradition of the Snow White and Peter Pan and Mr. Toad type rides, though I have to say, the Pinocchio characters look particularly cool as 3-D animatronics.

Aerosmith Coaster: I have little love for Aerosmith and had low expectations for their rollercoaster, especially after hearing the stuck-in-early-aughts rock pumping through the queue PA (remember "Butterfly" by Crazy Town? Eh? Eh?), but it turned out to be one of the day's highlights. I'm sure hardcore rollercoaster enthusiasts prefer the outdoor, huge-drop-from-fantastic-heights ride model, but I have to say, I'm a big fan of the Disney dark-indoor version; it eliminates pretty much any aspect of fear and amplifies what I like best, which is going fast and upside down.

Twilight Zone Tower of Terror: This ride did not exist when I went to Florida Disney in '93, so it was my first experience with something I knew Marisa really loved. It was lots of fun, although the Twilight Zone connection is tenuous at best; the aesthetic is more haunted gothic mansion, and from what I've seen of the show, it traffics in a drier, more cerebral sort of creepiness. This was one of two rides where we used the "Fast Pass" system. I had always assumed this was a thing where you pay extra and get to cut the line, which sounded horrible and classist to me. But it's actually more like a reservation, where you go and swipe your ticket at a ride, and you get a ticket with a half-hour time range several hours later. When you return at that time and give them that ticket, you get to basically cut the line (or at least go into the much shorter Fast Pass line). This is a cool idea except for a few kinks: (1.) the lag times being like two to four hours; (2.) some rides not having Fast Pass; (3.) not being able to get more than one Fast Pass ticket at a time, which makes sense but means that the time-saving is somewhat negated by other rides also having long lines. Basically, this system would work really well if there were three or four rides with substantial lines, and there are more than that.

Star Tours: Back in '93, I had only seen the Star Wars movies maybe twice apiece at best (more likely, once all the way through and other times in bits and pieces), so I mainly remember this ride not being as exciting or effective as the Back to the Future version over at Universal Studios (though it was, at least, better than Body Wars -- hold on, we're about to crash into something extremely soft!). This is probably just hazy recollection, but the Paris version seemed smaller, in a good way -- the car seemed more mobile and convincing, though I bet it's actually exactly the same as its U.S. counterpart. Also, as a twelve-year-old with only basic knowledge of Star Wars, I failed to appreciate how funny the conceit of this ride is, that you're going on a rickety tourist excursion out to Endor or Hoth or Dagobah, and the ill-equipped droid driver gets you caught up into the Death Star run for A New Hope. So despite the fact that the ride itself is now a little worn and rickety, it was also delayed-reaction fun. Even though the wait was way too long for something that's probably been here since the park opened, at least we got to see droids and Admiral Ackbar, though they missed all kinds of opportunities for him to yell IT'S A TRAP.

The Pirates of the Caribbean: On the other hand, this seemed much bigger -- higher ceilings, more elaborate sets -- than I remembered from my Florida go-round, and once again I'm not sure if that's just faulty memory or slight tweaks to the Paris version. Though I've heard that Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbosa and Davey Jones have all been added to the U.S. parks, they made no appearance that I could see here, just a faux Sparrow announcement on the queue. What they do have is a Pirates of the Caribbean restaurant inside the ride (well, sort of -- you can see the boats taking off from the tables, and the line people can see you, but you're not like, actually inside the sets. Still, it seems pretty cool, probably moreso than where we wound up having dinner).

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril: I assume this is meant to be a ride based on the feature motion picture Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom because the title sounds too close not to be a European version of that movie, and because the coaster looks vaguely like the runaway mine cars from the Temple of Doom climax (or rather, from one part of Temple of Doom's forty-minute mega-climax). But it's hard to say for sure, because the ride offers no kind of story or even much Indiana Jones-related mis en scene. Not every rollercoaster needs a hokey backstory (Aerosmith, for example), but if you're going to base something on a particular movie, it's a little more fun if you give us something that has to do with said movie. The coaster itself is plenty fun, but a little generic and Six Flags-y for Disney.

Phantom Manor: Or, the Haunted Mansion. The Phantom Manor wasn't my favorite thing at Florida Disney, and the Paris version was, to my recollection, more or less the same. They didn't even make any Nightmare Before Christmas additions for Halloween, apart from a French version of the soundtrack playing outside the Manor.

Snow White: Another one that more or less matched my memories from thirteen years ago. One weird thing about this is that while it retells the story of the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves movie in ride form, Prince Charming is only peripherally involved, even for a dude actually called Prince Charming. There's no real explanation of who he is or what he does, which is weird because he only does like one thing. Also, when Prince Charming does turn up at the end, only Dopey, Happy, and Doc are there with the happy couple. Marisa was like, "the rest of the dwarves didn't survive."

Space Mountain: Mission 2: Going on Space Mountain in Florida with my dad and brother was actually my first rollercoaster experience, and if I recall it happened sort of by accident, in that my dad just assumed we wanted to go on, so I just sort of went on even though left to my own devices I probably would've hesitated a bit (assumptions really get a bad rap sometimes; this one got me over rollercoaster fear, and a few months earlier another one led me to seeing Sneakers. I remember showing my mom a print ad for Sneakers because I thought the tagline was funny; she assumed that I really wanted to see it, so she told my dad to take me to see it, and we went, and it was totally awesome and remains one of my favorite movies ever). Anyway, I didn't see much of the ride because I had my eyes closed for most of it. Now my vision has degraded to the point where I still didn't see much of the ride because my glasses were off, but what I could see looked super cool and this was pretty much the most fun ride of the day.

Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast: This is a hybrid ride/game (though without any prizes -- they should really have token little-green-alien prizes at the end): you take a slow ride through several brightly colored Buzz Lightyear environments and try to shoot a bunch of Emperor Zurg targets, laser-tag-style. Design-wise, it seems to be based more on the Toy Story-derived Buzz Lightyear Saturday morning cartoon, and I have mixed feelings about that; far be it from me to begrudge some little kids the opportunity to enjoy Buzz Lightyear outside of his toy role, but the Buzz character is such a well-conceived spoof of cheesy Saturday morning Star Wars knockoffs that it's kind of a shame to see that material treated seriously. Then again: I do love Emperor Zurg. We did this last, as this was another Pixar attraction with waits well upwards of an hour until about an hour before the park closed and the littlest kids were probably on their way home, and almost didn't get to ride as we got to the front of the line only to watch the ride malfunction for about ten minutes.

Between Snow White and Space Mountain, we went to claim our dinner reservations. Marisa asked if I would take her to the Cinderella-themed restaurant even though it was a bit more sit-down-y than you'd usually associate with eating at an amusement park, because it was the only one marked as "romantic" on the Disney web site. I said, sure, if that's what you want, let's go to the quasi-fancy Disney dinner. We stopped by on our way into the park, made reservations, and came back at 7:15. Before sitting down, we had the opportunity or, as Marisa would tell it, the obligation to have this photo taken.

When we got inside the actual restaurant, something was amiss. It was nice enough, but there were tons of kids around. Not unusual for Disneyland, but not particularly romantic either. Then, shortly after we sat down, theme music blared and someone announced the arrival of Sleeping Beauty and whatever the prince from Sleeping Beauty is named.

This was not a fancy dinner. This was a character meal. I know what a character meal looks like. I had breakfast with Minnie. (That makes me sound like so much more of a player than I was when I was twelve-and-a-half.) I think they need some clarification on this being the "romantic" restaurant in the park. If you are a five-year-old girl with a crush on Belle or Cinderella, then yes, it is deeply romantic. If you are relatively grown-ass adults, even able to summon a childlike sense of wonder, you will probably feel a little bit embarrassed or awkward chatting with Disney princesses while waiting for your veal (I feel a little bad about eating veal, but at least it provided a second Itchy and Scratchy Land reference for the day: "I'll have the baby guts"). That said, it was certainly a unique experience, and Marisa seemed pretty delighted to take pictures of me with the girl mouse from Cinderella (since she's more of a servant than a princess, I have to assume she prepared our dinner, too).

So that was Disneyland Paris. I can't wait for TokyoDisney, where I'm assuming the rides will be beamed directly into our brains with a three-inch laser.

disneyland tower of terror marisa excited

(8 comments | Leave a comment)

petit_chou

11:30 am - Show me yours and I'll show you mine

Jacks and the City
Originally uploaded by littlecabbage

A friend of mine just did the same thing on her LJ, and I'm nothing if not a desperate copy cat. What were you for Halloween this year? Did you make a jack'o'lantern? Ur Halloween pix, plz show me them.

Last year, as you know, Mike and I went all out. This year, for a number of reasons, we just weren't feeling it. This was disappointing, given that we're both enthusiastic fans of Halloween and costuming, but for some reason, the magic just wasn't there. Many, many people expressed shock and dismay that we were so unmotivated. We were told we were not allowed to attend the karaoke night we were going to if we didn't show up in costume, which only served to make us MORE resistant to costuming (after all, half-assed, dispirited costumes are so much more insulting than no costume at all, aren't they? Aren't they?). The only pumpkin I carved this year was with Miss Juliet. It was undeniably awesome, but I only got to enjoy looking at it for a couple of hours.

Then, on October 30, when I came home Mike said, "I kinda want to go to Halloween Adventure. Is that crazy?" Yes, I told him, yes it is crazy, but whatever. Let's do it. It was sure to be a mob scene, but as long as we were prepared for the fact that we'd have to wait in line and the supply would be picked over and all that, what's the harm? So we grabbed dinner and then stood in line for 30 minutes in order to be LET IN. The place was, predictably, crowded and full of frantic shoppers and exhausted employees, but it wasn't as heinous as one might expect. Pretty quickly, Mike spotted his prize: a bee costume. Years ago he began claiming he wanted to be "Da Bee" (like Strong Bad. You know, da bee? From nature?) for Halloween one year. This year, it was to be a reality. Me, I entertained a couple of ideas, but many of them required more effort and more specialized supplies than I had available to me. Ultimately, I decided to rework my Zatanna costume from the previous year and make it into something slightly different.

Ringmaster
Originally uploaded by littlecabbage

After sitting for Juliet on Saturday, I popped into a couple of fabric stores in the Garment District. I came away with five yards of red tulle, three yards of black tulle, and a bright red feather. Coupled with the cheap felt top hat I'd bought the night before and a pair of red gloves, I got to work. There's nothing like sewing a bustle while wearing only a corset and your underwear. I kept making Mike come out to the living room to try on my dance shorts (onto which I was stitching the skirt) so I could pin the tulle up into a passable bustle; his willingness to assist in such a girly endeavor is part of what makes me love him the most. But I hate him for having nicer legs than me.

We gobbled a quick dinner from Burger Burger, and then I started the lengthy getting-girly process (shower, pin hair, wig cap, heavy black eye makeup, fake eyelashes, lip stick, concealer and powder, glitter, tights, corset, skirt, shoes, bow tie, wig, jacket, pack bag, gloves, etc.). If there's one thing I love, it's walking around in the city on Halloween. We got on the 4 train with a gaggle of X-Men who were in startlingly good costumes (the Nightcrawler and the Rogue were particularly well made). We walked the wrong way for several blocks, but I tell myself it's okay because my costume made a very well-dressed, classy older lady laugh out loud and then call out, "That's just BEAUTIFUL!"

We got going in the right direction and eventually spotted Baly (who was "covered in Bs") and Saj (who was...um...wearing some of her clothes that were vaguely vintage-ish) out front talking to an Evil Teddy Bear. Inside, we found Mike and Rebekkah (the hosts) dressed as Zorro and...a Spanish lady? Or something? Whatever it was, she looked great. And then we spotted the FIVE people in Snuggies. FIVE. SNUGGIES. And they didn't even all come together. People, that is not a costume. F minus.

Bono Bee
Originally uploaded by littlecabbage

We sang some sweet karaoke tunes. I assisted on someone's pick of Roxette's "Joyride," and kicked out my own choices of both "Tainted Love" and "Two Princes." Mike nailed Lady Gaga's "Lovegame" because he is hilarious and awesome, though he missed an opportunity to A) sing "let's have some fun this bee is sick," and B) sing Blind Melon's "No Rain." Oh, hindsight. We left after a couple of hours and rode the train home with an awesome Casey Jones who went out of his mind when I recognized him. A drunk hamburger asked if I was Zatanna, which led me to ask him where the hell he was LAST year.

Next year, better Halloween plans. I'm glad we didn't "miss" it this year, but next year (even though it'll be a month after our wedding), we're doing it properly.

Now, it's your turn. Hit me with some photos, yo.

(15 comments | Leave a comment)

06:59 am
Somehow, it is November. NOVEMBER! That means Thanksgiving is, like, three weeks away. And don't even start about Christmas. I can't even begin to go there. Whoa.

We had a good weekend around here, mostly because my little Coco dog came home on Saturday after three days at the emergency vet. Whatever obstruction she had (we suspect it was an acorn, but will never know for sure) has passed, but the vets are kind of concerned because her spleen is very swollen. This can mean many things, some of them very scary, but we are hoping it's a reaction to the obstruction and will return to normal. Fingers crossed on that front. Meanwhile, we are spoiling Coco rotten, letting her sleep on the couch, and basically smothering her with attention to the point that she is running from us. (Okay, me.) Oh, and I also bought her a new bed and am sneaking her food from my plate. So sue me.

In other news, NaNoWriMo started yesterday, and I've gotten a bunch of messages asking if I am participating. I am not, but mostly because I'm already working on a novel and therefore can't start something else. But I DO love NanoWriMo, if only because I know for sure that for the entire month of November I am not the only one plodding along trying to write every day, climbing up that hill, sometimes on all fours. Some people run marathons. Some of us write novels. They are both crazy exhausting, soul-testing life-changing activities. Of course, some people write novels AND run marathons. But I don't even want to know about those people. At least not right now.

Finally, I've been doing a lot of thinking these last couple of weeks about my web presence and how I can better manage it all. I've written here recently about how I have been having a bit of trouble juggling the novel and the blog and updating all these various sites. I thought about giving up this blog and going solely to Facebook and Twitter, as a lot of folks have done....but people really seem to like the blog, so I think I'll zag instead and cut back on the other stuff. So if I'm not on Twitter or Facebook as much, you'll know it's because I'm trying to save my brain for that marathon I'm running. So to speak.

Have a great day, everyone!

(52 comments | Leave a comment)

November 1st, 2009

05:42 pm - Funny how it all falls away
I had a pretty dingy moviegoing weekend, the kind of disappointment that more typically occurs when I try to see three movies in a February or March weekend. Hopefully this is just a palate-cleanser for the November movies, which aren't as promising as some years past, but could well have three or four really worthwhile titles.

But before awards-baiting really kicks off in earnest, on Friday night Marisa and Nathaniel and I went to see the barely-promoted new Jared Hess movie Gentlemen Broncos. Though it's a textbook case of the hype-phenom-overexposure-backlash cycle of the modern indie crossover, I still adore Hess's Napoleon Dyanmite, but I'm starting to wonder if his talents might be a bit more limited than some of his contemporaries. I've never thought of Hess as deriding his characters, at least not his leads, but he does have a tendency to collect freakish characters at the expense of the story he's actually supposed to be telling. In Gentlemen Broncos, he has this perfectly promising story about an awkward, home-schooled teenager (Michael Angarano) who has his bizarre sci-fi novella stolen by an established and pompous writer (Jemaine Clement) and also produced into a low-budge movie by an ambitious fellow writer (Halley Feiffer). All three of these characters are interesting and all three actors given fine performances -- especially Clement, who is completely fucking hilarious as the jackass sci-fi guru who's such a bizarre caricature that he becomes weirdly original, bearing no resemblance to any kind of real-world writer. Feiffer, too, who I know almost entirely from Noah Baumbach's recent movies, takes some bizarre gestures and comes up with a vivid, funny character. I would've been happy to watch these three characters interact for ninety minutes.

But Hess keeps proceeding with that Napoleon-style blackout-sketch rhythm, introducing weird characters without much actual character, refusing to resolve anything or have scenes really follow in a logical procession, and indulging in a lot of simple-minded gags. This worked for his earlier movie and even for stretches of Nacho Libre; it doesn't work here, at least not to the huge extent that he does it. So there are some really funny scenes and performances, but they're frustratingly adrift.

Then we traded a Nathaniel for a Sara and went into New York, I Love You. I just submitted a review for PopMatters; I'll link when it's up. For now, I will say, that I really enjoyed Paris, je t'aime, and I damn near hated the New York version, and I really didn't want to. But except for a few segments involving Natalie Portman (seriously -- she stars in one and directs another, and they're two of the better moments), it's pretty much awful. You can make a fun game out of suggesting directors, New Yorky and not, obvious and obscure, who might've contributed better work to an anthology than the mostly pedestrian-at-best crew they went with.

On Halloween, Marisa and I made our annual trip to see a Saw movie with Dave, in this case Saw VI, after a very sad Saw V for which Dave was in Hong Kong. The sheer existence of this many Saw movies undermines my ability to evaluate them, but this was definitely not the pits of the series. For me, the first three are more or less interchangeable (the first has an edge because it's simpler and actually has sort of a cool twist), and then the fourth and fifth ones go off in this more boring legacy-of-Jigsaw direction, which the new one is forced to deal with, but they do a better job of steering it away from the tediousness of the last couple. Which is not to say this is a good movie, or that any of these Saw movies would really qualify as good, but Saw VI at least distinguishes itself in some enjoyable ways. For example: it gets political, which I found weirdly satisfying. Jigsaw supports the public option!

What I don't get is why they created this semi-interesting slasher villain, Jigsaw, then killed him off in the third one, forcing the series to rely on flashbacks (which VI has in spades, which is good because this means more Tobin Bell, who plays easily the most thoughtful pure slasher of all time) and Jigsaw surrogates, mainly this horrible cop character Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), who has been kicking around the franchise since Saw III and got an undeserved promotion circa Saw IV. In terms of screen time, Hoffman has been Jigsawing for just about as long as Actual Jigsaw, and Costas Mandylor, I'm sorry to say, is one of the most charisma-free actors I've ever seen in the lead of a major motion picture, much less in a franchise for three movies in a row.

Despite the major box-office downturn, I'm pretty sure Saw VII in 3-D will be out around this time next year, and I bet they'll squeak out a Saw VIII in 2011. After that, maybe they'll leave it to rest and/or DVD. Even though I keep going to these movies mainly because they are fun to watch with Dave and Marisa, I'm sort of pulling for them to make it to Saw X on the big-screen, in what would be way less time than it took for Friday the 13th to get to Jason X. None of this reboot bullshit. More Roman numerals!

Also on Halloween, we had people over for candy and scary movies, only we didn't watch any scary movies, and Ben & Lorraina brought pie and Amanda and Nathaniel bought pumpkin cakes and Kyla brought cookies and Rayme brought cheesecake, so basically we all sat around going into sugar shock. It felt a little lazy to do this without the work of trick-or-treating first, and I definitely had a sugar hangover this morning, but it was still pretty great.

Speaking of Halloween, though, as well as anthology movies, we watched the unreleased-until-DVD horror anthology Trick 'r Treat with Nathaniel and I reviewed it.

I'm still working on a Disney post. I've had some setbacks. Maybe by the time I finsih it, my film will be developed.
Current Music: The Fiery Furnaces - Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)

(Leave a comment)

12:19 pm - Venture Brothers: Perchance to Dean

Tonight at midnight on Adult Swim. You'll be glad you did.

(17 comments | Leave a comment)

October 30th, 2009

08:06 am - The Friday Five!
1. I'll go ahead and apologize right now for any typos or nonsensical sentences that might follow in this entry. I am running on just a TAD too little sleep today. Last night, my dog Coco started acting weird, like her stomach was hurt and she couldn't get comfortable. We watched her for awhile, and she really didn't seem like herself, so I packed her up and took her to the emergency vet. (Our dogs ALWAYS get sick after hours or on weekends. It's, like, their thing.) Anyway, two hours later, it was decided that she MIGHT have an intestinal blockage and needed to stay overnight. I came home, worried, collapsed into bed....and then my daughter woke up about an hour later, for no reason I could tell. I finally got us all back to sleep, but I was worried about dog and child and so now feel like I have been hit by a bus. I can catch a few winks when babysitter comes in six and a half hours. Not that I am counting or anything. The good news is, Coco seems to be on the mend and will hopefully be home later today. I bet she is tired too.

2. Halloween is tomorrow, and while I've had Sasha's costume planned for weeks, I just recently realized I might need one as well. Honestly, though, I'm not much of a Halloween person. I did it up in elementary, middle and high school, and some of college, but since then I've kind of sat the whole thing out. Now, though, I have a kid who is very aware of Halloween (thanks to Gabba Gabba, among other things) so we're doing a few more things to celebrate. We'll carve a pumpkin tonight, and head out to a more populated neighborhood to hit a few houses tomorrow. I figure I have a LOT of candy-filled Halloweens ahead of me. This might be my last year to keep things relatively simple. And I am all about simple these days.

3. So, Friday Night Lights was awesome on Wednesday night. But my joy in the return of Coach Taylor and Tim Riggins was tempered by knowing that so many of my FNL loving friends didn't get to watch, because they don't get DirectTV. Sure, the episodes will run on NBC later. But it still stinks. I mean, COME ON NBC! Can't you, like, run the eps a week behind, on Friday night, or someplace you have something totally crappy on right now? (I know you must have something crappy on, but I am not about to point fingers. That's bad karma.) This show needs all the support it can get, and better sooner than later. Just my two cents. Don't make me go off in more of a rant!

4. This week, I also finished my latest audio book, The Kids Are Alright, by the Welch family. I've been listening exclusively to nonfiction, but decided to take a shot at a novel next, so I downloaded The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski. Honestly, I'm having a harder time with it on audio than I have with any of my memoirs or nonfiction stuff. And I don't know why. Maybe because in the car it's so stop and start, as I run errands, and nonfiction lends itself better to that? I have heard SUCH good things about this book that I don't want to ruin it by listening rather than reading. On the other hand, I have so little time to read lately that it could take me years to finish it. Sigh.

5. Finally, a confession: I started this entry back at about 6:15am. For the last hour, I keep coming back to this number five, trying to think of something to write. But I'll be honest. I have nothing. I am so tired and my brain is mushy and I think I need to crawl back in bed for a few minutes and reset. So can you do me a favor, and insert something witty, thoughtful and full of closure here? I appreciate it.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

(24 comments | Leave a comment)

October 28th, 2009