We All Go a Little Mad Sometimes

I walked to work today. It's a nice walk, only about 20 min so it's not going to kill me to walk there, work on my feet for a few hours and then walk back. Unless, like today, it's raining when I leave. Ok, so the rain didn't kill me. It really wasn't all that bad. I had a coat - a pea coat that will probably still be wet tomorrow. My hair was soaked, but I was mostly dry. Still, it was Raining! May I remind you people that it IS December. Right after Chrismas shouldn't it be snowing? Especially in Utah where our license plates say "greatest snow on earth." I'm starting to not believe our darling prez when he says global warming doesn't exist.... Cuz I totally believe everything he says....

In other new, Christmas was good. Now it's over. Work is boring again. Actually, that's a lie. I worked today and it wasn't too terribly not busy. We had a lot of returns. I feel stuffed, at too much, but that's what holidays are for. Now it's time to relax for a few months. Yay.

I have a date on Tuesday.

My cynical-ex-boyfriend, Todd is getting married. He doesn't seem to have time to talk to me anymore. I'm a little unhappy with him. I don't care if he wants to marry the little blonde, BYU co-ed, but I don't like him ignoring me. I'm right now giving him the benefit of the doubt and saying that he's probably been too busy witht he holidays and being engaged and he'll talk to me when things slow down. We'll see. I wonder if he reads this. If you do, Todd, call me or e-mail me or something!

Jacob is back from his mission

Brad is getting married it two weeks

I'm not entirely sure I've mentioned either of those two here before. Oh well

This has been an update on my life. Truly random thoughts from me, the center of the universe. Do you realize I've been doing this blog thingy for almost a year now. Isn't that neat. Yes, yes it is. You (all my readers fictitious or otherwise) are totally impressed with my coolness!!!

Yippee Skippee

I just finished my last final! YAY! Now all I have to stress about are my grades, which will be posted sometime between now and next semester. I already know my French grade (B+, not bad) but all the rest are still to come. I think I will not worry about them. After all, at this point there's nothing I can do about it.

I feel really good right now. Finals are done, I don't have to buy anything more for christmas presents, I don't have to work until 3 so I can go back to bed. Life is good.

PAUSE

It's getting to be that time of year. I know that the radio started playing Christmas music as soon as halloween was over (WTF is up with that anyway?) and most stores had their red and greed decorations up around the same time. I've been wrapping presents in paper covered in santas and snowmen for a few weeks now too. But I refuse to aknowlege Christamas anytime before Thanksgiving. Now I'm down to my last Turkey Sandwich and there's only one piece of pie left over, I can say it's begining to feel a lot like Christmas. But it's still freakin' early!

It's also nearing the end of the term. This means, burnout, finals and cramming in everything that has been put off till the last minute. The last minute is NOW! Last week I went to three Jazz concerts for my Jazz class. I've had all semester to do this, I had to have it done by Wed. I went to the first one the Sunday prior. So school has gotten crazy. The Toystore has started Holiday hours so I'm workin until 9:30 now instead of 7:30 and I also have a shift on Sunday. Shoppers are getting more needy too. Everyone needs stuff wrapped, they want certain items that we might be out of and they want them NOW. The store is making something like $3,000 a day. Life is hectic. And I have to shop for presents to give people. Thanks to Amazon.com I'm mostly done with that. I just have a couple more people to buy for and I think I'll probably do that at work.

The point of this blog (in as much as it has a point at all) is to say that my life has gone insane. And Christmas is still a month away. It's only going to get worse and then in January it's going to come to a screeching halt. That is, until classes start again.

Story Part Deux

One sunny day, Joanna's neighbor came over to borrow a cup of sugar. Joanna's neighbor was a beetle named Gweneth. As Gweneth was leaving she said to Joanna: "Have you met the new neighbor across the street?" Joanna shook her head. Gweneth said: "His name is Marvin, apparently he's a monkey. I don't know what a monkey thinks he's doing here living among the slimy and crawly, but then again, beetles don't really talk do they? So I guess anything can happen here." Joanna nodded to Gweneth quickly shut the door. A feeling of dread cept over her and she started to shake. Every worm knows that where there are monkeys there can only be bananas. Joanna was going to have to face her most terrifying fear!

Tune in next time for the exciting conclusion to our story. Same worm place, same worm channel.

All Hallows Eve

I love halloween. This year I dressed up as Jem. Very few people seem to know who Jem is. Jem! was a cartoon in the 80's about Jem and the Holograms (her rock band). Jem herself wore a lot of pink and had magic earings. Anyway, my costume kicked. That is all.

Jem! is truly outrageous

Die Villian Die

This is just a random rant of mine. X96 has a segment on their morning show once a week during which they list things that they (and listeners who bother e-mailling them) think "must go." Things that just bug the crap out of them. Really it's just an excuse to complain about things that nobody really wants to do anyting about. So, because I can and because I feel like ranting, Here is my own personal list of Things That Must Go

1. Blanket Text Messages. I have a friend (he shall remain unnamed here) who send a message to everyone in his phone whenever he gets bored. It's stupid. The message is always the same "what's up" and it's annoying. I wouldn't mind if he actually wanted to know what was up, but he never does. It's uber lame.

2. Speaking of text messages, Forwarded Text Messages. It's spam for the phone! All those annoying "pass this on or your foot will unluckily rot off" e-mail type forwards have made their way into the cell phone realm. As if the e-mails weren't annoying enough.

3. People Who Advertise in My Comments Space. If you don't know what I'm talking about, look at the comments for the entry right before this. I didn't manage to delete the crap about private road construction before someone commented. I have deleted other messages left as comments on other postings. If you're going to advertise on my blog (that few people read) you should at least pay me for it.

That's actually all I can think of to complain about right now. I guess I'm more content with the world than I thought. Notice how they're all technological? I should become amish and then my life would be perfect, right?

ZzZzZzZzZzZz

I'm in the union building right now and there's a girl sleeping on a couch near me. She's snoring REALLY loudly. I just thought I would share that because if someone else were here we'd probably be laughing about it.

Arches

What an awesome weekend. I went down to Arches National Park with my parents and some of their friends/coworkers. We had the group site at the campground so all 14 persons there had a nice place to pitch their tent. Arches is a lovely place, really - not my favorite park, but lovely. The geography is gorgeous, breathtaking, majestic. Really, if it wasn't so touristy and ... I almost want to say trendy, but that's more just the aura of Moab in which the park basks.

So what we did: After my class on Friday we drove down so we got to the campground around 4:00. After we set up the tent and unpacked some stuff my parents went on a little hike that started somewhere in the campground and went around to a bunch of arches. I heard it was really pretty. I decided to stay around camp and climb some rocks. There was one chimney in particular that I was determined to get up. It was probably too narrow for a sane person, but you know me. My first attempt I got maybe a quarter of the way up and got stuck. The second time I was successful, but it was not easy. This little crack in the rock was maybe a foot wide. That's not much when you're trying to squeeze more than just a skeleton through it. About half way up I rested and held myself in place just by flexing my glutes. In a situaton like that, it's not much good trying to use your legs, because you can't bend them so they're useless, so I basically pulled myself up with my arms. When I couldn't go up anymore I decided that I would go down the other side. It started out wider and therefore easier, but then it went more narrow that my way up. I ended up "walking" my way down above the crack (where it was a bit wider). By walking I mean I had my feet on one rock face and my back on another so I would step with my feet and then push up with my shoulders and upper arms so my back could catch up with my feet. By the time I got back on normal ground, I had worked every muscle in my body- I know because they were all sore the next day.

Yesterday seven of us decided it was a good idea to get up at 5:30 and hike to Delicate Arch for sunset. It was actually quite fun, but you're not going to see me awake that early again for a very long time. After returning to camp and breakfasting, my parents and I decided to hike down Courthouse Wash. Good idea if you want to get away from people (we didn't see a single other hiker the entire way) and are up for an adventure. Bad idea if you want an actual trail (who hikes on trails anyway?) or if you have a problem with quicksand and fighting your way through thick groves of willow and tamarisk. It was not too bad for the first 3/4 of the way, but then it got impossible. We were pushing through thick vegitation and going around in circles. By the end of it we were tired and frustrated. I didn't NOT enjoy it, but I wouldn't exactly say it was fun. Definately an adventure and certainly interesting. The wash itself is very pretty in an atypical way. You don't have the majestic canyon wall hovering several hundred feet over your head (typical Arches scenery). The wash is much more open. It's full of trees and, in a few spots, there were really beautiful waterfalls and neat little swimming holes.

Last night, after we recovered from our adventure, the whole lot of us (14 that is) had dinner at the Moab Brewery. Good beer, good food, good company. Of course beer+hiking all day+ getting up at 5:30 = exhaustion. I was asleep by 11:30 and I have never slept so well on a camping trip.

This morning we packed up, putzed around the windows area of the park and then drove home. One of the best parts of camping is getting home and taking a shower. Those are the best showers ever- after being sweaty and dusty and dirty for days it's so nice to get really clean.

I'll post some pics after they're uploaded from the cameras.

Homecoming

This week is homecoming week at the U. Nobody knew about it. I read all about it in the Cronicle (the campus paper) yesterday and that was the first time I've heard of it. According to the article, in the past homecoming was a week that really brought current students and alumni together for on campus events and the U suddenly became less of a commuter campus. This year, poor planning has left many students totally ignorant of the events, half of which (including homecoming dance) are off campus. There are no banners around campus. I think I remember seeing a flyer on a bulletin board covered in flyers. The only reason I know that it's homecoming week is because I read the article in the Cronicle about how much is being overlooked this year. I myself am not going to any events. The only thing I'd be remotely interested in is the homecoming dance on Friday. It's being held at Trolley Square, $10 a head. I'm going camping instead. Darn. I'm thinking it's probably ok though, because not many people are likely to go so I shouldn't miss much.

That's all for now. I'll have the next installment of Joanna the Worm as soon as I am bored enough.

Story:

Once upon a time in a kingdom far far away there lived a very pretty worm named Joanna. Joanna was like any other worm in most ways. She crawled through dirt and ate whatever it is that worms eat. The thing that made Joanna unique was that she had an abnormal dislike of bananas. She could not bring herself to go withing several miles of a banana, or a banana peel or banana bread or banana muffins or dancing bananas or singing bananas or banana phones or banana bunches or anna banana (her third cousin four times removed on her mother's side). Even the mere utterence of the word "banana" made her dry heave in as much as worms can dry heave. Fortunately for Joanna, her kingdom was very cold so there weren't a lot of bananas about. Once in a while someone would throw a banana peel in a compost heap nearby causing much pain for Joanna, but that didn't happen often.

To Be Continued.....

Big Ass Show

Every year X96 a "local independent" radio station puts on a Big Ass Show. It's kind of like the Warped Tour only much smaller and usually more emo. It was today, I went, it was awesome. We didn't stay for all the bands- we left before Story of the Year, Our Lady Peace and The Used- but the ones we were there for rocked.

First one we saw was Morning Wood. It was the only chick (lead) band there. After that we sawKasibain, they were ok. Arrakis got bopped in the nose by some nasty little fat goth moshers. Then we sat at the edge of the crowd for Hawthorn Heights (not a big fan of them).

Then we saw 30 Seconds to Mars that was wicked good. Jared Leto is so freakin' hot. The music was good, the energy was good, the crowd was good. They were the best band we saw today. After them we got some food. The plan was then to see Rise Against, but they were missing two band mates and were doing an all acoustic performance. I love Rise Against, I saw them last time they came here, but they're much better plugged in. They sucked with just the two acoutic guitars, so we walked off. Next was The Bravery. They rocked.

After them, we were all very tired and felt like our arms were going to fall off. Funny how that happens at a concert. You get close enough to the stage and you either use all you muscles keeping people from collapsing your rib cage or you are unable to put your arms down. Good times.

Poetry Gods

If anyone reading this does not know who Billy Collins is, you should. Unless you have no reason to. He is, in my humble opinion, the greatest poet alive. He served two terms as the national poet lauriet and is simply brilliant. I met him on Saturday (yay!)

Billy Collins was at the main library on Saturday for a reading. I was so excited when I heard about it. Of course I went down. His reading changed much of the general feeling of a lot of his poetry. He has a brilliant sense of humor and it comes through much stronger when he reads his poes rather than when one just sees them on the page. It was, in a word, awesome.

After the reading he signed books. Of course, I had him sign mine. As often happens at these things, he chatted with me a bit when I got up to the table. I was so incredibly star struck. Isn't that odd? How much of a nerd am I that I get so giddy about meeting an old, bald, poet. I was seriously experiencing the kind of mania that normal girls would get if they met Brad Pitt or Jonny Depp or their favorite boy band (gag me with a spatula). Needless to say, it was super exciting and I'm still a little euphoric about it.

WTF mate!!

Last night I spent $40 on gas. Forty Fucking Dollars!!! What the hell is up with that? I'm never driving again. Or at least not often. I actually have only been driving a few times a week lately. I take the bus to school and usually walk to work (I can take the bus there too if I want). Gas prices are rediculous though, it's unbelievable.

Back in the System

It was back to school for me Wednesday. I'm taking a whole bunch of general ed classes. By a whole bunch, I mean four. I'm taking Begining French, American Civilizations, Absurd Theater and Survey of Jazz. All of them are pretty neat except American Civ has the potential to be extrememly boring. It's a basic history class that more or less everyone has to take. History is not my strongest subject, but sometimes I find it interesting. The Professor explained that we would be focusing on politics and economics. Not excited.

Working on my French homework last night I discovered that speaking it makes my head ache. It's like trying to speak out of my frontal lobe. I may be doing something wrong but that's the only way I can make myself say things correctly. I'm excited to be learning French though, it's something I've kinda wanted to do for a while.

In other news, I worked all day today. The owner's 9 yr old daughter came in with a bunch of her friends about an hour and a half before we closed. She tried to fire Derek, the assistant manager. She failed miserably, it was a little funny. She is an absolute demon though. Don't like her one little bit.

Blood will Get Blood

Our monkey president decided to grace the great state of Utah with his presence today. Being the patriot that I am, I went down town to protest with (as the radio tells me) about 3,000 others. That's a pretty good turn out considering I live in one of the reddest states in the union. So all those people were locked in a "free speach zone" bedecked in their old hippie attire, carrying signs, listening to speaches or harrassing drivers. Our wonderful SLC mayor showed up as well and spoke a very moving speach. I'm glad I voted for him.

I was glad to see so many people out to fight against the war and they lies of the current administration. I was also struck by the futility of it all. the "free speach zones" set aside for such protests are far away from anywhere they would really do any good. Mr Bush didn't even drive by Pioneer Park. That really scares me, actually. In theory the whole right to free speach should apply everywhere in the USA, right? But isolating people with "radically liberal" opinions seems to me to be blotting out that whole part of the constitution. Yes there were three thousand people there, but the president, the person who was the cause of the whole demonstration, could easily be totally oblivious.

We only stayed for about an hour and a half. When we were walking back to the car, we happened to see G.W. himself (and his enourage) drive past. There were a few people with signs returning to their vehicles, like us, and others who simply gave the tinted windows of the limo dirty looks or obscene gestures. As it past us, we saw the president waving happily as a trained monkey. He is so totally oblivious.

One final bit of politics. For anyone who still reads this and would like to be just a little political, there is an anti-war rally on Sept 24. There are marches and rallies being held all over the country. In dear old Salt Lake people are meeting at 11am at Pioneer Park and marching to the county building. I'm thinking I'm going to go.

Quick

Life is getting crazy. It's fun!

Moving On

After days of theapy, I've recovered from the sidewalk sale. Actually all it took was a nice 14 hours of sleep and I was fine. Now I have time to get everything in order for school. Granted, I've been accepted since, like, February, I've had lots of time to get things done. Unfortunately for me, I love to procrastinate. So I registered for classes yesterday. (School starts in three weeks to give you an idea of the time line). My schedule isn't as bad as it should be for registering so late. I'm taking American Civilizations (blah), Survey of Jazz (should be interesting), Absurd Theater (why not?), Begining French and maybe Writing 2010 - I have to talk to the writing dept and see if I cant wave it cuz I basically took it at the Fort.
So that's what's new with me.

The Toy Store Is Eating My Soul

.... or at least my weekend. This weekend is Foothill Village's anual summer sidewalk sale. This means that everyone at the toystore is working from 9 am to 8 pm, much of the time outside in the rudy hot sun. It's yucky. Today it rained- that was fun. We had to scramble to put tarps over all the merchandise so that it wouldn't get wet. The good news is that the temperature dropped a bit. Anyway, I'm tired. I hate toys. I hate sidewalk sales. I'm going to bed. At least tomorrow is the last day of torture.

One of those Weekends

I had fun. On Friday, my friend Allessa turned 22 and naturally we all celebrated with a fancy dress party. In other words, we got all dressed up and then got smashed. I got myself a brilliant dress for the occasion. I, unfortunately, don't have a pic of the whole thing so my readers will have to use their imaginations. You can see in the pic the nice polka-dotted sleeves (they actually started out long, but I cut them off), of the same material there is a ruffle along the bottom and a big freakin' bow. (that sentence was a little awkward) It's awsome.

Saturday I had a party myself. A pool party. I bought a 6' wide kiddie pool at Smith's just so I had an excuse. It was a good time.

Life is good.

I still have a boyfriend. I like him a lot. I am still fighting the commitment phobia though. If I ignore it, will it go away?

Fancy Dress Coctail Party Friday. (Allessa, Arrakis and Me)

Half Blood Prince

Yes, I have been caught up in the Harry Potter madness since day one. Before that actually - I read the first three books before they came out (advanced reading copies for the library at which my mother works). Anyway, I spent the weekend sick at home so I took the opportunity to read the latest in the HP instalment.

I rather liked it. It didn't follow the typical Harry Potter formula (Harry goes to school, Voldermort attacks in one form or another, Harry wins, everyone is happy). It had much more focus on he-who-must-not-be-named's history and was perhaps not as exciting. All the characters are more mature and I think the way it reads is also. There were a few cringable moments though. Like the last conversation between Harry and Ginny I had flashbacks to Spiderman.

I have to say that the person who dies at the end.... I heard the rumors that a faculty member was going to croak, but I never though it would be this one! Wow, that was gutsy. I'm not going to give away who it was, but WOW that was something. And the way it happened, that was kinda surprising because...... well, I can't really explain it without giving it away. Maybe after people have had more of a chance to read it I'll do a second part to this post.

This Rocks. I think I should do it.

http://www.qwantz.com/posterchild/

I'm Melting, Melting

It's hotter than Hades here in SLC! It was officially 103 yesterday, 100 the day before. Mon it was officially only 91 but according to the thermometer on our back patio (in the shade) it was 98 at 7:00 at night. Today it was at least 100 again. My car has no AC. I don't like this. It's too hot to walk anywhere (your shoes will melt and all the hair will combust) and it's too hot to drive anywhere (unless you are blessed with a cooling system in your automobile). Unfortunately, I haven't been able to just veg in the basement. You know, things to do, people to see.

Been a Bit

I'm afraid it's been a while since I updated this thing. To my devoted public, I apologise and I hope you will get over it someday. I've been a bit busy though really.
Somehow I managed to, more or less accidentally, find myself a boyfriend of sorts. He's not my typical type (gorgeous but arrogant and very cynical, whereas he is nice and sweet and not fantastically good looking. He's not ugly by any means, but.... he's got a great personallity) and I'm not entirely sure how crazy I am about him. I do like him quite a lot, don't get me wrong, it's just very different for me. He may be too nice, but that may not be that terrible. Anyway, the course of action I am currently taking is to just sort of play it by ear until I figure out what's going on and what I want. Also, I'm totally unused to the not-single mentality. Oh well.
In other news, I've had a musical last couple of days. Thursday I went to the first in the Gallivan Center's Twilight Concert Series. Free music good. Playing was a band called Cracker. They started out not too bad but got progressively more honky-tonk as they kept playing. Last night I went to club Ego's (dive) and saw my cynical-ex-boyfriend, Todd, play with his band. Todd is a fantastic drummer. The band could be better. It's the last opportunity I'll have to see him play as he's moving to NM in a month or so. It's also the first opportunity I've had to see him play as he's played 21-and-older venues and, as any regular readers I might have know, I have not been 21 very long. Tonight I'm likely going to Salt Lake City Jazz Festival ditto for tomorrow night. Tomorrow Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is playing - I'm quite a fan.
Anywho, that's good enough of an update for now. Ciao!

I Wanna Be a Part of It, New York New York!

What a week it has been. I've been (as many are aware) in New York City. Everything was fabulous but I have to admit that I am glad to be home and have a second to breathe.

So last Thursday my mother and I took an 11:30 pm flight to JFK which meant by the time we got into the city it was 8 am. We imediately crashed and slept until about 11 then we unpacked and got lunch. We stayed at Linda's (a friend of my mom) apartment (nice not to have a hotel). After Lunch we decided to walk down to the New York Public Library which took several hours as the library is on 43 st and we started around 102. We met Linda for dinner and then the three of us saw Spamalot. Holy Crusades Batman! That was a good show. Tim Curry and David Hyde Pierce, how could it be bad? Bloody fantastic.

Saturday then we spent a few hours at the MOMA. Not nearly enough time. There's so much to see that we didn't have time to really fully appreciate most of the art there. As it was we quickly saw everything on floors 4 & 5 (really good stuff - Dali, Van Gough, Picasso, Pollock) and about half of floor 3. So we totally missed floors 1,2 and 6, though 1 is mostly entrance and gift shop. Saturday night we went to The Blue Note (a rather famous Jazz club) and saw Terrence Blachard. We went to the earlier show and walked around Greenwich (pronouced gren-itch) a little. One of the big differences between NYC and SLC (there are several) is that there, the sex shops display thier dildos right in the front window, whereas here they keep them in a back room behind a curtain or heavy door and you really have to look for it.

Sunday we went upstate to Linda's house that she has up there. She actually lives at the house (she usually rents her apt, we were luck she didn't have any tennents when we were there) and commutes 2 hours to work in the city. The country was lovely. At dinner, we had fried cheesecake for dessert. It was certainly different.

Monday we went shopping in Soho and China Town. We window shopped a bit on Park Avenue too.

Tuesday my brother, Luke, his friends Julie, Jessie and Collin, and Collin's mom, Ramona, arrived. We met them at Battery Park and we all did the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The kids were all exhausted as they also came on the red-eye. After lunch we did a bit of shopping at south seaport and then the kids wanted to go to China Town and Mom and I decided to go back to the apt. On the way to catch the bus, we passed Ground Zero. It looks just like a construction sight- sort of a big hole in the ground. The kids weren't impresses. Last time I was in New York (way back when I was 13) we went to the towers. I remember standing inbetween the two towers and looking up- they just kept going. Linda actually used to work in Tower 2 so we had gone up to her office on the 44th floor. It was impressive how something so huge and solid could have totally disappeared so quickly and it was just more real actually being there. That night Mom and I saw Sweet Charity. Christina Applegate (played Charity) was really quite spectacular. She's not the strongest singer or the most impressive dancer, but she has HUGE presence.

Wednesday the whole lot of us went to the Metropolitin Museum of Art. They had a special retrospective of Max Ernst which was fascinating. Also there was a Chanel exhibit that was kinda fun. That afternoon we saw Wicked (v.v. good. Not much like the book but very excellent anyway). That night we saw Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with John Lithgow (v.v. funny). After the last show we all walked over to Lindy's for their "world famous cheesecake" which wasn't all that fantastic.

Thursday I stayed at the apt in the morning while everyone else went to the Museum of Natural History. I met them there at 1:30 for lunch. The kids seemed to like it much better than the Met, but I wasn't too impressed. It's got some interesting stuff but it's just a bunch of stuffed animals, dinosaur bones and rocks. Much of which you can see anywere though perhaps not on such a big scale. Connected to the museum is the planetarium and I did enjoy that. They have a neat Big Bang thing -they put you in a dark room, explain the BB and then make a lot of noise and flash some lights. When you exit the room you go down a spiraling ramp that has on it a timeline of the formation of the universe. I found it very interesting. Thursday night we ate at The Bubba Gump Shrimp Comany. Then we saw The Lion King. It was fascinating, really, the way they did it with the puppets was really different and plain brilliant. The show's been almost always sold out since it opened in 1998 (I think that's the right year). After the show we got Ice Cream.

Friday Morning we packed. At Noon we all went on a guided tour of NBC studios. From there we walked up 5th Ave and popped into to Tiffany's. We had Lunch around 3 at the Carnegie Deli. It was the most expensive meal we had while we were there (I think). The sandwiches are huge so we ordered one sandwich and one dessert for every two people. The cheesecakes there were MUCH better than at Lindy's and the portions are HUGE. After Lunch we went to FAO Schwartz. We left that night- 9:00 flight. I got home last night at 2 am.

It was a really lovely trip. I love New York, I really do.

Cinema

I saw two movies this week. Probably the same two as everyone else. Tuesday night I went to Mr and Mrs Smith. I have to say I liked it quite a lot. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are both very hot and they had nice chemistry. It was a funny movie with lots of explosions and shooting. It was brilliant. Last night I saw Batman Begins. Also very good, though there were a few more plot holes. If YoU hAvE nOt SeEn It, YoU mAy WaNt To StOp ReAdInG. Like they forgot to give the antidote to the scarecrow's poison that was making half of Gotham crazy insane. And how did the Bat manage to call swarms of bats to him? Yes, he had a sonar thingy in his boot, but come on! That so wouldn't work and he's still afraid of bats thoughout the movie so making a dramatic getaway with them flocking around his head should have been traumatic beyond all reason. The Scarecrow was awesome, I have to say. And the (sequel alert!) Joker bit at the end was exciting. Kinda like when, at the end of X2, you saw Peonix in the water. Christian Bale was brilliant as Bruce and Michale Cane IS Alfred. Good show. Plus it had more character development than you expect from a big summer movie.

Gay Day

Yesterday was Pride Day in Salt Lake. I woke up early to go to the parade down town and then to the festival with my friend, Arrakis, and her friend,Kris, his boyfriend, Chris, and their friends, Eric and Brian. It was a lot of fun. The festival is great for people watching- guys in dresses and stillettos, girls with mullets and a few of those people that you just can't be sure what gender they are. The protesters were fantastic too. There were the expected guys protesting homosexuality on the whole (Homo Sex is Sin! God Will Judge You), and people protesting the protesters. My favorite were the two signs protesting shrimp (website: www.godhatesshrimp.com).

May The Force Be with You

So, at work (I bet you all miss hearing about the toystore) we have these little Joe Bender things (little magnetic posable people guys). We have four or five just floating around the front counter, generally on either of the two steel posts that seem to help hold the ceiling up. One day I was working and had nothing particularly to do so I made two little light sabers (from ribbon, tape and stickers. I'm very crafty) for the two benders that were findable at the time. The red bender with the pigtails got a blue light saber and the blue guy got a red saber. It made sense at the time. Over the next week, their positions changed as an epic battle was fought on the pole. On that Saturday, another bender (this one blue AND green) showed up and Lucy asked me how I made the light sabers. So I gave a demonstration and made a purple light saber. So then we had a random Jedi, Samuel L Jackson (Mace Windu!! Insists Clint) and a random Bad Guy. Sometime last week, someone (pretty sure it was Clint) made a cloak for the bad guy. Now we have a random Jedi, Samuel L Jackson (Mace Windu!!! It bugs Clint to call him by the actor not the character) and Darth Sidious. It's kinda neat, but sad that we a) took the time to do all that and b) are so amused by it. Oh well, that's what we get.

Celebratory

Ah, the morning (wait, it's 12:30 pm) after my birthday. Last night Todd (wonderful kid, really, love him to death) took me out to a bar and bought me a few drinks. I enjoyed them all. Many thanks to Todd too because I think he dropped at least $30 last night. Then Alex, Cheng and Cris came and bought me some more drinks. I can remember everything I drank (good sign). I find the names of some of these things very amusing. This is what I had (in order even): Adios Mother Fucker (AMF), Kamikazi, Sex on the Beach, Southern Comfort shot, Pink Taco, Elephant Hill (Heffevisen), Mai Tai. There's a nifty little web site where you can check what's in those (except for the Pink Taco which may be a Greenstreet original). www.barnonedrinks.com Well, Horray for being 21. Cheers, mate.

Round and Round and Round

Carnivals are wonderful things. You have to be in the right mind set to thouroughly enjoy them. You have to think that it's novel and exciting to waste money, experience motion sickness and risk your life on rides that could easily fall apart and kill you. This last weekend there was a little carnival in a mall parking lot. I decided to go with a few friends. One of them, we'll call her Thing 1, went all out with me and wasted $17 on a wrist band that let us go on unlimited rides. We took full advantage and went on everything once and one (the Gravitron) twice. Horton and Cindy Lou Who only bought 4 tickets and only went on one ride. It was brilliant. I thought it was well worth the $17 bucks and am only disappointed that I didn't have enough cash to buy over-priced cotton candy and try to win a giant teddy bear by throwing a baseball at rigged milk bottles.

One Week

I turn 21 in exactly a week. :)

Desserted Weekend

Raise your hand if you think this sounds fun: Sling a 30 lb pack on your back and hike for a few hours, as long as it takes to go a little bit over two miles plus a half hour digression for a wrong turn. After finding a nice overhang to sleep under, walk up a canyon for a bit until it gets dark, look at stars a bit and will the clouds (blocking your view of the cosmos) to go away. Wander back to your overhang, stretch out in a sleeping-bag on the ground and sleep. Wake up a little stiff from a combo of carrying a big pack and sleeping on the hard ground. Try to make tea and realise that the camp stove you brought is totally out of gas. No hot water. Eat a bagel for breakfast and wash it down with some water. Make lunch. Hike for four hours (stopping every now and then to climb a big rock, in the process scrape up your arms and legs - it wouldn't be an adventure if you didn't get a little roughed up right?). Eat lunch. Notice that you've already drunk more than half of the water that you brought with you on your little day hike and that it's that time in the afternoon where there is virtually no shade. Head back to camp. Finish your water on the way. Get back to camp, drink a lot of water and crash. Vow never to move again. After enjoying catatonia for an hour or so, get up and wander around the canyon. Eat dinner - the exact same thing you had for lunch (cheese-in-a-can and salami on totillas, it's not gormet but it packs well and it's light). Wander around the canyon again. Watch the sun set and the stars come out. It's cloudy again. Go back to camp and sleep on the hard ground again. The clouds clear up, but the full moon rises. Full moons are nice but sort of ruin star gazing. The good news is that from where you're sleeping when you wake up in the middle of the night for no real reason, you have a perfect view of the Summer Triangle. Wake up around 6, eat breakfast (totilla with peanut butter. You have dehydrated food but can't make it without hot water. Now you're out of tortillas). Throw stuff back in your pack and hike out to the car.
So, guess how I speant my weekend. Yes, I went backpacking with my Dad. We went back to one of our favorite places for outdoor recreation- Capital Reef- and trekked up Spring Canyon. The first time I camped up in that canyon I was only 5 or 6. It was an amazing time. Yes, we ran out of food and maybe got a little dehydrated on Saturday, but that just made it more fun. There's something exciting about being able to pretend you might be testing your survival skills. Everything about it was beautiful though, it really was. The days were a little warm (in the 90s), the nights were perfect (low 70s high 60s), the canyon was green for the dessert. Bonus: we took my dad's convertable so the drive (4 hrs) down and back was very fantastic and glamorous. And windy. Wicked good time! Pictures:

Tree!

Somehow I had the brilliant idea to climb up a cliff. Ok so it really wasn't very hard but it was pretty high. Dad had the brilliant idea of taking a picture of my ass while I was climbing

This is where we camped. That's me stretched out behind the green things. After hiking 16 miles or so I crashed.

Me on top of a very big rock.

Same rock, different angle.

Canyon in which we camped

Tea Pics

Me in my retro fabulousness

My Grandma, Me, and Mom all duds up

Tea Time

Happy Weekend everyone! For once I'm not working today (being Saturday). The reason for this is that I had a fancy tea to go to with my mother and my grandmother. It was an afternoon of tea and fashion, but not today's fashions, but the styles of the 40s-60s. They had a few people modeling old clothes. They had retro hats for rent. We were all encouraged to dress to the decade. So, as I never pass up an opportunity to get dressed up, I turned myself into a total anachronism. Pictures will show up here soon.

I guess it's been a bit since I've posted. I hope you can all forgive me. Then again, perhaps you've not even noticed, I sure you all have other things to do and simply got on with your lives. If not, you really should find something else to do and do it when I am slow in updating my blog. I s'pose I should give a shout out to all the moms out there as Sunday was Mother's Day.
So, a few weeks ago, my little baby brother (ok, so he's only three years younger than me) took his girlfriend to Prom. This is not unusual, but they went dressed entirely in duct tape. Below is a pic. Aren't they cute, muggin' it up a bit, but cute. FAQ:
I thought duct tape was silver, how did they get so colorful? Ha! sucker! Duct tape actually comes in just about any color you could want these days. Including clear. Although silver is not unicorporated in the outfits.
Is Everything REALLY made of duct tape? Not quite, shhh don't tell, he's wearing a real quasi shirt. It actually has the sleeves cut off. and the hat just has a duct tape band. She's not wearing duct tape shoes, but he is. The flowers (boutoneire and bouqeuet) were duct tape also.
Is it just duct tape or is it duct tape over clothes? With the exception of his shoes and the aforementioned objects, it is all 100% duct tape.
Wow! Were can I find a person crazy enough to go to prom in all duct tape? Who knows, who cares.

Decked out in Duct Tape

Happy May Day

What is May Day supposed to be anyway? When I was younger, it meant making maybaskets with my grandmother and leaving them on the neighbor's porches. My grandmother told us that when she was little, she would do this and if a boy answered the door he was supposed to chase her and if she were caught, he would have to give her a kiss. My neighborhood has always been a little lacking in children my age, so this part of the tradition wasn't really held up.
Turns out that May Day started with something to do with labor. These days the only people who celebrate it properly in the US are commies and socialists. England, of course, does a proper job with morris dancers (http://www.rathergood.com/morris_dancers/), maypoles and madrigals (sung from rooftops). As for me, I like the Irish holiday Beltane which is almost the same thing but really very different. It's very pagan (as Irish holidays often are) and involves fire. Big fires. And the official start of summer. I like summer.

Saw It

Saw the much anticipated (by me anyway) Hitchhikers Guide last night. Have to say it is bloody brilliant. Apparently I'm going again tomorrow with the Family. Smashing good movie though.
I'm feeling very British today. Apart from seeing the movie, which is very British in many ways, I just finished reading Bridget Jones' Diary. The book is a bit better than the movie. I wouldn't recommend reading it. I thought it might be interesting. It wasn't really. Now I have a hankering to re-read Pride and Prejudice. It's the same story after all and Austen has a much better grasp of literary everything.
That was a bit of a digression, I was just trying to explain my odd British mood. So pip pip cheerio, fancy a spot of tea, right. Bloody hell.

This is American Music Take One

Last night I went to a free Violent Femmes concert at the U. The festivities started at 5:30 with a decent opening band that played for an hour or so. The next "band" was a guy in a pink shirt with a guitar. I didn't like him much, but he didn't play too long so.... Then it was the Femmes. I have to say they kicked. One of the best concerts I've been to. I was up close in the part of the crowd that jumps around and runs into eachother and really gets into the music. I'm black and blue this morning and a bit sore- always a sign of a good concert. The atmosphere was great, the crowd just the right size and the weather was perfect (it was all outdoors).
There are a few things, though, that I feel need to be banned from concerts. Or at least from the kinetic part of the crowd. I don't care what happens back where people just stand there nodding thier heads. First is synthetic fibers. When you're jumping around and sweating and having a raucus good time, the last thing you want is to get thrown against someone wearing scratchy polyester. Second is small children. Arrakis was right up by the stage and she said there were a bunch of 12 year olds* up by her who didn't know the music of the VF at all and were constantly in danger of being squished. I was a bit farther back where people were bouncing and kicking and flailing and there were these four prepubescent girls with braces who maybe weighed 200 lbs between the four of them. They did not know the music either and got pushed down every two minutes. According to concert etiquite when someone falls, you stop kicking and help them up, so these little girls disrupted the violence quite often and threw off the groove a bit. Finally, long hair should be pulled up. When you're jumping around coating in sweat (yours and eveyone elses) the last thing you want is to bump into some chick with waist length hair and get it all stuck to your arm.
It really was a good show though. I had a rockin' time and when you're really into the music and the crowd, those little above-mentioned annoyances don't really matter much.

*by 12 year old I mean a kid shorter than my shoulderblade who could be just about any age under 17.

Geekin' Out

It is well known that only 10 % of the human mind is used to process visual information. Less well known, but equally true, is that the remaining 90% is used for storing penguines.

www.thefilmfactory.co.uk/hitchhikers/global/index.html

hitchhikers.movies.go.com

I'm so bloody excited about this movie, it's not even funny. Friday!

Word of the Week

Today I have a word stuck in my head. Just like you get songs stuck in your head and they just keep repeating themselves, today I have a word. I can't figure out for the life of me when I last heard it, but it's a very lovely word. Not the most useful word in the dictionary but it's less obscure than Megalomaniacal. Anyway, the word is Histrionic. Isn't it pretty? It basically means melodramatic.

He Started It

Do you suppose spending too much time in a childish place (read: toy store) causes people to act more childish? Or maybe those people are just childish to begin with and the environment brings it out in them. I'm talking about Clint - who I work with at toyland. Yesterday we both worked the all day Saturday 9:30-6:30 shift (although he didn't show until 10:15). In that time he pulled my hair, threatened to cut my hair off with the scissors we use for wrapping, threw several balls at my head, thunked me with a package of clay, threw not a few art kits at me, and scribbled on my arms with a giant pen. All this on top of the usual bantering and bickering that we always seem to get caught up in (much to the amusement of Lucy). Near closing, Allison (the manager) walked out of her office, looked at my arms and looked at Clint and laughed. Derek has often referred to this kindergarted kind of flirting as our "romantic moments." Somehow I get the feeling that Clint and I are a favorite topic of 'office gossip' (in as much as the toystore is an office). As for me, I think it's fun, but it's not like I like the kid. And he has a girlfriend who he claims to be rather in love with.

Blustery Day

I have mountains in my front yard. They're not really mountains but more foothills. Anyway, near the top of one of these hills there is a big rock that Highland High School has painted with an H. We call it the H rock (very original). Anyway, earlier today I decided to treck up to the H rock (quite a walk up a very steep hill). When I got up there I sat on a smaller rock and looked down at my house and out at the valley. It is really windy today and I was getting very windblown. When I decided to leave I realized that I had four choices. I could walk into the wind, with the wind, just sit there and be blown but not go anywhere or walk perpendicular to the wind and end up in a ravine or someone's back yard. What a metaphor huh? Obviously the last option is a bad one. If I walk with the wind, it's easier. There is no resistance but I have to go pretty far out of my way and probably take a good half hour longer to get home. If I walk against the wind it's harder but more direct and possibly more fun. If I just sit there, it's boring and nothing gets done. And eventually the wind turns cold and I feeze to the rock and never get anywhere ever. Any way you look at it I end up with sexy wind-blown hair though. Of course, some people think there's the fifth option of changing the direction of the wind. Seems like a good idea, but it's a lot harder than you might think. And if you're thinking straight then you're going to think that it's pretty damn hard so if it's harder than you think it's gotta be DAMN hard. I decided to walk into the wind.

ah the trends

What's so great about MYSPACE anyway? For some reason it kinda bugs me. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's too trendy, but that didn't stop me from buying and i-pod (mini, green, I love it) or from jumping on the blog bandwagon (obviously). And Myspace, if I try to justify it, is a great way to pretend to communicate (since that's what we do on this internet thing). I mean, I could blog, e-mail, IM, everything I would ever want to do. I just don't like it. And for me, it wouldn't really be all that usefull because none of my friends are on it. Exept Arrakis, but that's new. I know many of my friends would have nothing to do with it anyway, most of them don't know about it and if they did, they wouldn't use it. So what's the point? I have this little blog to dispence my random drivel to anyone who wants to hear it, I have two e-mail adresses that people can use to e-mail me, and I have Trillian which means I have Yahoo! AIM and MSN all in one messenger. MYSPACE would be over kill. Besides that, I don't especially like the people I know who are on Myspace (Arrakis excepted). That may just be coincidence. Besides, I've heard rumors that it turns people emo.

Alice in Wonderland

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

What a tragic poem that is. I suppose in the end it's the oysters own fault they got eaten. Silly little things. It wasn't very nice of the Walrus and the Carpenter to lure them out of the Ocean though. I like the Carpenter a bit more he's just really quite stupid whereas the Walrus is more malicious. Of course, I don't condone stupidity either. If you would like to read the whole poem, go here: http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/walrus.html

Walkin on Sunshine

Tuesday was a really good day. It was one of those days that stay with you and make subsequent days good. Yesterday was a good day too, though nothing special happened. Today is not bad even though I had to work this morning and I dislike working mornings. But Tuesday was prime. We should all have more days like Tuesday. Nothing bad happened and a few exceptionally wonderful things did happen. I just thought I would share that.

Attempted Noir

I saw Sin City this weekend. I really didn't like it much. Now, before you go and say that I don't appreciate such stylized films, let me defend myself. I actually really liked the style and I thought it had tremendous potential that it didn't quite reach. The black and white with the highlighting was really neat and well done. The things that they chose to highlight were well chosen and added to the film. What I didn't like was the rediculous dialogue that sounded like it was taken straight out of the comic book and slapped into the script. Now, I have nothing against comic books, but you need to do a little bit of revising before you try to put it on screen. I also thought it dragged on a little too long. It was just over two hours and throughout the last half-hour/45 minutes I found myself checking my watch every 5 minutes. If they had cut out the pedifile bit with Bruce Willis (I have nothing against Willis, I just was very disturbed by the 19/71 age ratio, not to mention the yellow guy, that was yucky) it would have been much better. Basically it was trying too hard to be sort of classic Film Noir but fail pretty much after the first scene. Plus the blood looked like bird shit half the time. That just was odd to me.

DED

The Pope died. What was he, 100? It was going to happen pretty darn soon anyway, wasn't it. For some reason, this has spurned quite a bit of conversation amongst my friends, none of whom are Catholic and all of whom are sarcastic. One reffered to his death (along with the Florida lady) as a big plublicity stunt. A few contemplated a fashion trend of pope hats and robes. The theory was that he would lose significance but then I pointed out the whole spiritual devine appointment sort of thing (how do you get to be pope anyway?). Some of the more political ones cynically wondered who G.W. would appoint as the new pope. Personally, I don't care all that much. He was old, we all shuffle off this mortal coil at some point. So move on. The pope is dead, long live the pope. (Ok, that's just for kings isn't it? Oh well, it doesn't make any sense anyway. How can anyone (pope or king) live long if he's dead?)

P.S. Sorry if I offended anyone. Take solice in the thought that I am going to burn anyway so I might as well blaspheme a bit on my way.

To Be Taken with Absolute Seriousness

I have a confession. This has been weighing on my concience for a while and I need to get it off my chest. I am not really human. Nor am I a super-intelligent alien from Planet Zoorg of the Kerbity System. I am in fact.... A Goldfish!!!

April Fool!!!
Ha ha you totally fell for it.

Bunny Time

Easter amuses me. Since I grew up without religion, it has never really meant more to me than free candy and eggs- none of that Chist dying for my sins and then disappearing from his cave. Now, I get the religious part of it but I am delighted at all the pagan fertility symbols that go along with this spring holiday. I mean, eggs and bunnies, does it get more sexified? It such a contridiction of the holier-than-thou-don't-sin religion thing and the pagan woo-hoo-it's-spring-let's-make-babies. I love it.

Gosh Darn it All

Don't you just hate it when you go to the doctor and he says that you look just fine but he wants to run some tests anyway and so you go down to the lab and they stick a needle in your arm and take out some fluid and then they make you pee in a cup and you go home with a bright freakin' green bandage around your elbow and then a few days later your doctor's office calls and tells you you have iron-deficiency anemia and that you have to take ferrus sulfate but they don't have ferrus sulfate at your local pharmacy so you have to drive all around town to find it and once you have it then you have to take it because as fun as it is getting really dizzy every time you stand up, it's really not that fun and even though you don't really have a problem with ferrus sulfate - it doesn't mess up your digestion like it does with some people- you just dont really like taking pills so then you have to tell everyone about it in a really horrible run-on sentence? Yeah, I hate that.

Spring Time

For those who don't know, today is the first day of spring. Weatherly speaking it doesn't really mean anything. Astronomicaly, however it's important (or something like it). The Vernal Equinox is what happens today. This means that the Earth with it's tilted little axis not pointing away from the sun nor toward it. This makes it so we have almost the same amount of daylight as nightdark (yes, I did make that word up, but it's a good word). Personally though I'm not that whoop-dee-doo for equinoxes. I much prefer solstices. I mean, the Winter Solstice is neat cuz it means that the days are going to start getting longer. Plus there's all the pagan stuff about re-groth and new beginings when the sun stops sinking. And the Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year, who wouldn't like that?

Happy St Patty's Day

This is a Totally True Story!!!

Hello, my name is not Alice and I'm a pathalogical liar. My older brother, Stan, says that's just a fancy way of saying I'm a big fat liar but since I don't have a brother named Stan, I don't really care. The other day I was waiting at the corner bus stop for the bus to take me down-town and I met the strangest looking stranger I have ever seen in my life. You know how some people look so much like animals that you can easily guess what they were in a previous life (that is if you believe in reincarnation. Myself, I know I was Cleopatra once). This guy looked very rabbittish. He had a short little button nose, squinty little eyes and a white mustache. Even his ears were a little longer than they should have been. I couldn't help staring at him. He was wearing a pinstriped suit with a pocket watch and was very out of place in the neighborhood. He asked me where the bus was going I told him down town, by way of the fair grounds and the new library. I don't think he completely believed me, which isn't fair because the bus was going down town. Granted, it was going by way of the aquarium and Liberty Park. Pathalogical lying includes half truths too, I guess. Anyway, as we got on the bus I noticed that he had on one red sock and one white sock. The bus driver said "Fare please Madam" and the man said, "But I already paid my fare."

Hooray for Me

So the little letter thingy I sent into the paper (mentioned in Uneducated Masses) was in the paper today. This makes me think highly of myself, not that I really needed the ego boost. Go look at it and recognise greatness: http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_2606429

Hard Day's Night

Last night I went to see 1964, the Tribute (a Beatles tribute band) with my-cynical-ex-boyfriend Todd. It looked a lot like a date, I mean, he made me dinner first and then we went. But that's not the point. It was a lot of fun, 1964 is a pretty good bunch of Liverpudlian immitators. It's about the closest thing I'll ever get to seeing the Beatles in concert considering half of them are dead (>sniff<, George). They played mostly older stuff. A lot off of Hard Days Night nothing from Abby Road (probably my favorite album) or Magical Mystery Tour and only one or two off of Sgt Peppers, Revolver or Rubber Soul. But, if you're really a Beatles fan, you like the early stuff as well as the old. It was a good time.

Yay Dr Seuss

Vocabumalary

I have a new favorite word. It's totally useless but wicked awsome. Some day I hope to use it correctly in a real conversation. In the mean time, I want everyone to sit back and enjoy the magnificence of this word:

MEGALOMANIACAL

I suppose you might want to know what it means. Well, it's an adjective and it means: "belonging to, exhibiting, or affected with megalomania." I guess for that to make sense one needs to know that megalomania is "A psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence" or "An obsession with grandiose or extravagant things or actions." Now, can you see why it might be hard to slip my fabulous word into casual conversation?

Uneducated Masses

So, I'm reading the Trib this morning and I'm scanning the opinion page and my eye lands on this bit of tripe:

Brainwashed Students

Each year in America, thousands of young people enroll in colleges in pursuit of knowledge which will hopefully enhance their lives and enable them to contribute to society in a positive manner. Unfortunately, many of them will be exposed to radical socialist professors who brainwash their young, naive, gullible minds with distorted information. As a result large numbers of people are being dumped into our society who are very anti-American with flawed educations and dubious worth to themselves and our nation.
Manfred J. Nelson
Salt Lake City


Needless to say, I was a bit offended. So, being one to take very little sitting down, I decided to write a response. I just finished sending it into the Trib. This is what I wrote:

In response to Manfred J Nelson’s rant on the brainwashing of college students (Forum, March 6), I feel compelled to stand up for myself and my peers. I like to think than my mind is neither naïve nor especially gullible, as Nelson stated. My college experience this far has helped me develop and fine-tune my analytical thinking and my ability to recognize empty rhetoric. Far from being brainwashed in college, I’m learning to think for myself and guard my mind from the careless opinions of others. Last time I checked thinking was not an ‘anti-American’ activity.


There was so much more I could have said, but I felt that keeping it consise and to the point was more poignant. But, honestly, what does Nelson want? a country overrun by idiots? He should lock himself up and throw away the key, that way he wont be exposed to 'radical socialist' ideas. Anyway, by the time most people get to college, they have already made up thier minds about their politics and such. And in Utah anyway they're more likely to get their heads filled with uber-conservative bull shit than anything else. I don't like this Nelson guy!!!

Goober twins: Cosmo on the left, Rosie on the right. They think they're cute

Gooberrific

I'm house-sitting my Grandma's condo this week. She has two very spoiled kitties who can't be left alone for too long. Well, they can, but they don't like it and, like I said, they are very spoiled. They really are sweet felines though, I call them the Goober Twins. They don't look like twins, but they did come from the same littler. Cosmo is huge and fat and an attention whore. You can't sit down without him jumping in your lap. He's got some siamese in him too, so if you do something he doesn't approve of you REALLY hear about it. Rosie, his sister, is a sweet little calico. She's more aloof and wild than Cos. When she does decide to be a nice 'lap' cat, she prefers to sit on either my chin or neck. She's a good little goober. Anyway, last night they kept themselves busy by hiding my car keys under a dresser. That made it fun for me when I tried to leave for work and discovered I had no way of unlocking or starting my car. Ok, so I could have broken a window and hotwired it, but that's a little sketch. Anyway, I looked under half the furniture in the condo before I found them. Cosmo and Rosie followed me around and were rewarded by many little baubles they had hidden under various couches and bookshelves. It'll all be back under furnature by the time I get back there.

This weekend I packed up some stuff and traveled down to Durango, CO to visit some people down there. I hate to say it, but being down there again, I'm really glad I left. Not that Durango is not a great place, it's just not for me. There's nothing there and what little there is, is massively expensive. It was a fun trip though. My dear friend Arrakis went with me which made the 7 hours (one way) in the car highly tolerable. It was nice to see the friends I made down there, but it is also nice to not be there anymore. Sunday morning, Arrakis and I did the down-town-tourist thing and I found a gorgeous ring in this little swank jewelry store. It was a gold band with inlaid opals and a decent sized diamond. It was only $3600, so if anyone has some extra cash on them, I have a birthday coming up .....in June..... What else did we do? Not much, just kinda hung out with people. Good times.

Some People

I know y'all (whoever reads this) just love hearing about the toystore! So today, a lady came in to exchange a broken water wiggly that she bought a few days ago. After the exchange, she showed me her reciept and said "I got all this stuff here the other day and I forgot to get it wrapped" and then looked at me like I was supposed to do something about it. I told her that the store policy was that we couldn't just hand out wrapping paper. She huffed and puffed and said "What do I have to do, go get all the stuff and bring it back here so you can wrap it?" I wasn't sure how to respond to that so I shrugged. She was storming off looking for her son by then though, so it was ok. After locating her toddler, she said to me, "I guess I could buy eveything again and then return what I already have." I told her she could if she really wanted to (in a very 'customer service' sort of way) and she went off in search of her items. Fortuantely her child crapped his pants just then so she chose to leave the store. Now, at some point, wouldn't it have been easier to just get some wrapping paper and wrap it herself? I mean, how hard is it really to get wrapping paper? There's even a Hallmark store in the same strip mall as the toystore, they sell that kind of thing don't they? Maybe not, but still, how hard can it be to find some? Certainly easier than either re-buying 10 some-odd toys and then coming back to the store to return the same 10 some-odd toys that she bought earlier or going home and finding 10 some-odd toys and coming back to the store and getting them wrapped. She didn't come back durring my shift, but I don't know about the rest of the afternoon. I really think she was serious about coming back to get her stuff wrapped.

James Joyce

This last Friday I went and saw a production of James Joyce's The Dead a Musical. I read The Dead (the "short" story) my senior year of high school for Mrs Lake's English class and I hated it. Typical of Joyce it is riddled with tedious detail (three pages to explain what was eaten for dinner), obscure sybolism and many (old Irish) political references. I went to the play because I was morbidly curious to see how they made this story into a play, a musical at that. I have to say that the play was better than the story, but is still wasn't good. The first scene was more like a musical review. Everyone is at a party, there's some political discussion, every character has to sing at least one song. The songs were not bad - sort of traditional Irish sort of music- but it just went on and on. The problem with the whole thing is that The Dead (the story) is 30 some odd pages of detail and very little action or plot for that matter. This becomes a problem when you try to take it and put it on stage. The play was something like 90 minutes with no intermission. The lack of a break was a good idea because, given the opportunity, many people would have left durring the break.

Just a bit of silliness really

So, the thought occurred to me for a fleeting second that the title of this blog might give the impression that I think I am the center of the universe. I don't really think that. In fact, I'm even of the opinion that our solar system is heliocentric. How can I be the center of the universe if I'm not even the center of our little star system? Not to mention the Milky Way! Although I have to say, it would be a bit too much being the center of an infinate, yet expanding, thingy.

Toyland Toyland Wonderful Girl and Boy land

Ok, so working in a toystore is often very fun. I mean, I get paid to play with toys all day, what could be better? Except I don't really get to play with the toys all the time, only when I have nothing else to do. This happens more often than you would think, especially recently. For some reason people aren't too keen on buying toys in January and February. But I digress. I like my job most of the time and if there is one thing I can really complain about, it's the music they play in the store. Some of it is almost tolerable, like we have a Harry Connik Jr sings Disney (or something like that) CD that isn't horrible. But there are some CDs in circulation that are dreadful. For example, right now I'm (unfortunately) listening to a bunch of children sing Elvis songs. I'll admit I'm not HUGE fan of The King to begin with but when children are singing his songs.... Shoot me now!

Swing Life Away

I just got back from a kick ass concert. The headliner was Rise Against, also playing were Tsunami Bomb, Alexisonfire and Only Crime. Tsunami Bomb and Rise Against totally rock my world and Alexisonfire is extremely decent. I'm not super hot for Only Crime but they're not bad. I got there about halfway through their set so.... Anyway, it totally rocked. I've been wanting to go to a concert for ages (not too many good bands come to this neck of the woods and I'm not wasting my money on crap) and so I got my loud-music-lots-of-sweaty-bodies-in-very-close-contact fix. Good times man!

<3 <3 <3

I dislike Valentine's day. Nothing could be less romantic than an official day to be romantic. That's not quite an original thought; it was in a comic strip yesterday, but it expresses my sentiments more or less exactly. Romance really should be spontaneous, not something you HAVE to do on a certain day in order to keep your significant other from dumping a glass of water on you head. What's worse than the holiday itself are the insipid people who get upset if they're boyfriend/girlfriend don't do something extravagant for them. It's all utter nonsense really. V-day is a holiday invented by the jewelry, card, and candy companies to make those in a happy relationship broke and those who are single feel like crap.

Deep Thoughts....

.... are highly overrated. Mostly because I can't think of anything deep right now. I'm normally not a shallow person, really I'm not. I'm, like, totally pensive and, like, way insightful. Just not tonight. I am also bored which is why I'm posting this tripe. Speaking of tripe, does anyone (anyone at all) know what it's called when a person takes on the honorable title of 'dame'? It's the female version of being knighted and I can't seem to find out what the proper term is. I've be saying that a person gets damed but that's not an actual word. Although Not-Jason says that if I believe in it, it will be.

Brimful of Asha

This Song has been stuck in my head all day. It is a silly song. It makes no sense. But it is a fun little ditty (or something like that). Look, lyrics!

Brimful of Asha
-Cornershop

eka sadi asha jena sadi sooka bella nah dinner bonothia ha kimmir kar ke.
There's dancing
Behind movie scenes
Behind the movie scenes
Sadi Rani
She's the one that keeps the dream alive
from the morning
past the evening
to the end of the light

(chorus:)
Brimful of Asha on the 45
Well it's a brimful of Asha on the 45
Brimful of Asha on the 45
Well it's a brimful of Asha on the 45

And dancing
Behind movie scenes
Behind those movie screens
Asha Bhosle
She's the one that keeps the dream alive
from the morning
past the evening
to the end of the light

Chorus

And singing
illuminate the main streets
And the cinema aisles
We don't care bout no
Government warnings,
'bout their promotion of the simple life
And the dams they're building

Chorus

Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow
Everybody needs a bosom
Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow
Everybody needs a bosom
Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow
Everybody needs a bosom
Mine's on the 45
Mohamed Rafi -45
Lata Mangeshkar -45
Solid state radio -45
Fer-guh-son mono -45
Bonn publeek -45
Jacques Dutronc and the Bolan Boogie, the Heavy
Hitters and the Chichi music
All India Radio-45
Two in ones -45
Argo Records -45
Trojan Records -45

Chorus

Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow
Everybody needs a bosom
Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow
Everybody needs a bosom
Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow
Everybody needs a bosom
Mine's on the 45
seven seven thousand piece
Orchestra set
Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow
Mine's on the RPM!!

Chorus

Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow
Everybody needs a bosom
Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow
Everybody needs a bosom
Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow
Everybody needs a bosom
Mine's on the 45

.... maybe it does make a little sense?

Good Day

Ladies and Gentlemen, Hobbos and Tramps! I am pleased to announce that Cassie the Great has made a miraculous and nearly complete recovery. She is continuing her ever vigillant work saving the world one cumquat at a time. She would like to thank all the people who are shorter than her for no specific reason and would like those who are taller to know that she looks up to them.

Walking Pnumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu

Being sick is such a waste of time. Since Friday night I've been fighting with a nasty nasty cold/sinus infection/general yuckyiness. On Saturday I attempted to go to work and just ignore it. I lasted about a half hour in Toyland before I gave up and came home and slept all day. I finally managed to muster enough energy (and voice) to come in yesterday. A measly 6 hour shift and by the time I got home I was ready to die and so I passed out for a couple hours before dinner. I'm at work again right now (shhh don't tell 'cause I'm technically not supposed to be online) and surviving slightly better today. I'm here for 5 hours this time which, in theory, should be easier. Tomorrow I've got a 9 hour shift though. That should be fun. If you don't hear from me for a while you will know that it is because I have been drained of everything but the mucus that will still be clogging up my nose so I can't breathe properly.

Sing Sing Sing

Me lookin' hot. This is a pic I sent to my Grandma of me all dressed up to go swing dancing a couple weekends ago. My grandma grew up in the swing era so she loves that I go once in a while. Since she is in NY and could't actually see me off, we sent her this pic. I like the pic so I decided to share it with all of you.

Marvin the Paranoid Android

DON'T PANIC

Can I just say how excited I am for the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy movie coming out in May. I'm a big fan of the books and from what I've read about it, the movie is going to be grand. Douglas Adams himself did most of the screenplay. It's not going to follow the plot of the books exactly, but that's to be expected to a point. I mean, the tv show didn't follow the books which didn't follow the radio show which was how it all started. And Alan Rickman (think professor Snape/Dr Lazaurus) could not be more perfect for the voice of Marvin. The only thing I don't like of the pre-release crap I've seen is Marvin himself. He's played by Willow in a costume (fine) but he's ROUND!! Marvin is supposed to be rather square and boxy. He ought to have a bucket head so that Zaphod and Ford etc can call him "bucket head." Besides, circles are funny and Marvin is not funny (ok, he's hillarious), he's depressed and cynical and crabby.

Another Random Thought

Whenever life gets you down, mrs brown, and things are hard or tough, and people are stupid obnoxious or daft and you feel that you've had quite enough....
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving and revolving at 900 miles an hour, that's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned, a sun that is the source of all our power...
_Galaxy Song by Eric Idle

Random thought

Rock the Casbah!

Full Moon

Last night I had an adventure. I went snowshoeing by moonlight with my cynical-ex-boyfriend, Todd. It's amazing how much easier it is to breathe outside of the dredge that is filling the Salt Lake valley- once we got out of the smog, it was really a very clear night. If you (whoever reads this) have never experienced snow in the moonlight, it is something both beautiful and eerie. It sparkles purple and everything is heavily silent. I highly recommend it.

Stairway to Heaven

The other night I was evesdropping (people have interesting conversations and the guy was talking really loud) on a conversation about a chick who makes coffins for a living. How morbid. I think if I, for some bizzare reason, did that I would have to invent an entire character to go with it. I would become someone eccentric and odd. I would wear only blue (not black because that would be too obvious). I would never quite look people in the eye when I talked to them, I'd stare at their left ear or something instead. I would speak very softly and and not very often and what I would say would be really abstract and metaphorical. People would be totally creeped out by me but they would then think to themselves: "Well she makes coffins, that has to effect a person after a while. Poor girl, she's too young and pretty to be this crazy."

Everybody's Working for the Weekend

My weekend was wasted doing inventory at the toy store that is my place of employment. Saturday I was there from 8 to 8 counting little Schleich animals and books and bouncey balls. Today I was there from 8 to 3:30 countingn more books and then some more books and then videos. It was a blast, let me tell you. The best part is that I didn't get to spend any time with my peeps because I had to, you know, sleep when I wasn't at work. Sat night I did go to dinner with a couple friends but I was home by 11. Does this mean I'm getting old and responsible? Not bloody likely.

Second Star on the Right

So today, I saw Jessica Brownlee... Wait, I should change her name to protect the innoccent or something... I mean I saw Jennifer Bennet. Yeah, didn't talk to her or anything, not sure what I would have said. For those who don't know (most people) "Jennifer" was a very good friend of mine up from seventh grade until our Jr(ish) year of high school. Turns out though that she is a backstabbing, cold-hearted, self-serving, bitch. She fucked me over a few times before I decided that I would be so much better off without her. And since I haven't seen hide nor hair of her in over a year, I'm much happier. Anyway, I saw her in Subway. She was way ahead of me in line and I easily avoided her by staring at the menu as she walked past. This way I only had to experience the cold air of evil that hangs around her person for a few seconds. If I had talked to her, it would have suffocated me. It sounds like I'm holding a grudge, doesn't it? That's really not the case. I am at peace with myself and rarely spend a second thinking about her as it releases too much negative energy into my system. I just state things the way the are. Jessica... oh, I mean Jennifer is the worst person I have ever known. I aspire to be completely unlike her, she's my inspiration or something like that.

Moonbeams

I read an article the other day about lying and the internet. Apparently they're related. The jist of the article (I didn't really pay attention actually so I'm making this part up) is that using the internet makes it so you can't tell if someone is lying. The article also gave tips on how to tell if someone is lying. I can remember 2. One was that if they give a lot of details, it's probably a lie, the other was something to do with pronouns. So if I say to you "Cassie can't come to the gala you are throwing just for her, she has to experience the euphoria that the winter moon creates when his reflected photons shine on the craggy rocks of the mountain." It's obviously a lie because I used pronouns (her, she, his) and details. I also refferred to myself in the third person which is a bad sign in any case. Another big clue that the statement is dishonest: no one (as far as I know) is throwing a gala for me. I wouldn't expect anyone to really but if you have nothing better to do, I guess I could pull myself away from the moonlit rocks.

Shoot the Moon

So this is my blog. I've never done this before but I think I have just the right sort of personality for it. I'm not sure what to do with it, I'm thinking that I'll just add stuff when I think of it. Random thoughts, just like the title says. I guess the best place to start would be my personal motto of sorts: Everyone Knows Apples are Red. I'm rediculously smitten with that little phrase. I like it because it doesn't immediately make sense but it also is a great thought to live by. It kinda communicates the thought that what "everyone knows" is not necessarily true and that one should take everything with a grain of salt. Or at least that's how I interpret it. If anyone looks at this, I would love your thoughts on the subject.