Weekends like this past one make me glad to be back at work on Monday. Friday night, we had a going away party for Rachel & Andrew. I've tried not to think too much about them moving away, but it really makes me sad. I'm really going to miss them being in Monroe.
Saturday morning, I got up at the crack of dawn (before the crack of dawn, actually) and drove eight hours to Nashville for the wedding of Ian & June. It was an absolutely lovely wedding and I'm very glad I was able to attend. I also got to spend some time with Levi & Oriel, which is always a good time. Of course, I had to make the LONG drive back home yesterday, which was trying on the ol' spirit. I don't regret going, but somewhere around Birmingham yesterday, I was definitely doubting my sanity. I made it though, maybe not in one piece, but all of the pieces of me made it and I got home with a little time to regroup before starting back to work today. Nashville is a cool place though. Since I was there, I thought it was appropriate to listen to a little country music and CCM. A lot of country music is about sad situations and a lot of CCM is about how God lifts up those who are going through sad situations. Problem solved. So I switched back to my normal music for the rest of the drive. I had gotten some books on tape for the drive, but I coudn't concentrate enough to listen to them, so I gave it up.
Now I'm trying to figure out who I can get to go to the beach with me sometime soon. I need a little beach time.
*It is a spectacularly rainy day today. I wish I had my camera to show you just how spectacular it is. Lovely.
*Life is pretty good right now - staying moderately frustrated and very busy at work and moderately busy but not very frustrated in the rest of my life: planning the occassional party, getting ready for the occassional roadtrip, and other miscellaneous mundanities.
*Watched a few episodes of the British version of The Office. After about 10 minutes of adapting to the accent enough to know what was going on, I found it to be...interesting. Not as funny as the American version, but probably only because I get American stereotypes. The Brit version definitely had more high-brow jokes (Latin references and such that would be lost on most Americans), but it also had more crude jokes ("more" in terms of quality rather than quantity). I didn't expect the episodes to have the exact same plot lines. That was bizarre. Pretty funny, though.
*Am I allowed to say this? Best quote of yesterday (I won't say by whom or about whom): "He's 25% gay, you know? I mean, he wouldn't kiss another dude, but he would definitely buy a Kenny G album."
*Right up my alley: Wikiquote. I must say though, Wiktionary is no dictionary.com.
There are several websites I check almost everyday. I don't know if it's out of actual interest, general boredom, or my brain on autopilot, but it's part of my morning routine.
Every weekday, I take a look at usatoday.com. Of course USA Today is your all-American McNewspaper. I peruse the headlines to see who is blowing up whom in the Middle East, who is murdering their spouse in the midwest, how much the DOW plummeted the day before, and which washed-up celebrity is celebrating their birthday. The thing I like about reading the USA Today is that it seems relatively un-spun. Honestly, I don't read a lot of actual articles, I just like to hit the high-points, so Spin wouldn't affect me too much, but I like the genericness anyway. If it's Spin I want, I head on over to Right or Left. (Both of which I enjoy, BTW.)
Post-USA Today, I always check out The Monroe News Star to see what's what in the big city. Sometimes (rarely) it's full of interesting happenings, but generally, the Breaking News is that it's going to be another Hot One today.
Once I see that it's going to be another Hot One, I click on over to weather.com to verify, and to see just how glad I should be today that I have an indoor job. The last few days there has been a headline regarding Tropical Storm Beryl, but for some reason, each time I see it, I read it as Tropical Storm Bery!, then I'm disappointed that there is no actual exclamation point at the end of the name. I think that punctuating tropical storm names is a good idea. Better yet, why not use adjectives? You know, like "Slippery Pete" or "Sleazy Joe" or something. That way, they wouldn't have to retire Hurricane names for the truly desctructive ones - they could just change the adjectives: "Remember when Dang Ol' Mary came through here back in '85? She ain't got nothing on Abominable Mary!" Someone tell me you have a number to the National Hurricane Service! I've got to get somebody working on this.
Of course, I always check my e-mail, too and you know what I've learned? If you send e-mails, you're much more likely to receive e-mails. Funny how that works, huh?
Okay, I've got to get back to work. I've had a major sweet-tooth today and have been eating candy like it's...well, candy, so I'm all hopped up on sugar. Maybe I can get some work done before the post-sugar crash hits.
I was looking back at my blog archives for a certain link, and I was reminded that I had once declared July 15th to be Big Hair Day. Since we're only a day away and we're in the midst of some impressive humidity (prime conditions for big hair), I thought I would celebrate once again:
July 15th: Big Hair Day
Since I grew up in Texas in the 80's, I am partial to big hair. I'm not talking about Marge Simpson hair, or Dolly Parton Hair, but I have a place in my heart for the type of hair that a lot of Texas women have that's just a bigger version of everyone else's hair. I was in Dallas over the weekend and I was reminded of the difference between Texas women and the rest of the country: it's all in the hair. The combination of 95% humidity and lots of hairspray can do amazing things to a woman.
Since I've moved back from the big-hair stifling land of the northwest, where they brainwashed me into thinking that a woman doesn't have to fix her hair or wear lipstick or carry a purse, I've re-embraced my Texas roots. While I don't consider my current hair "big" (of course, I have my big-hair days), and I hardly ever use hairspray, I certainly have more of a Texas hairstyle than an Idaho hairstyle, and man, is it refreshing.
*Someone* wrote on my calendar that July 15th is "Big Hair Day". Southern girls, don't be embarrassed when the humidity makes your hair defy gravity. Embrace it! Enjoy it! If only for one day, pretend you're a Texan. It's more fun than you might think.**
**If you find yourself tempted to bleach your hair, you've taken the Texan thing too far.
I can hardly believe that I've been in the new house almost 5 weeks. All that stressing seems so far past. I knew it would be this way: once I get all my stuff arranged, I can't imagine living anywhere else. All that to say: life's back to normal and even (dare I say?) kind of boring right now.
I feel like all I've been doing lately is working, reading and going to the gym. I really want to spend some time outside because I've grown to love outside more than inside, but it's hotter than James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub these days (oowww!), so I'm becoming one with the air conditioner.
I'm reading this great book that my dad gave me called The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon. It is such a pleasure to read. It's something between a cookbook, a theology book, and maybe a memoir, too. Capon is an Episcopal priest, an amateur chef, and quite the humourist as well. I'm not even a third of the way through it yet, but so far I've learned: an onion is a beautiful thing, I'm in desperate need of new knives, and I need to spend more time enjoying the process of cooking. A more thorough review will follow once I finish the book, but I recommend that you go ahead and buy it and start reading it now. Even if you've never envisioned yourself as a chef - professional or amateur - this one is well worth the read. And don't skip the introduction or preface! They're good, too.
Remember the wonderful dating tips from Date to Save? Well, there's more where that came from.
Who needs eHarmony when you can Flirt to Convert?
I recently fulfilled a goal I set last summer and read a Russian Novel: Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master & Margarita. It took me a while to really get into it, but once I did, I found it intriguing, intelligent and pretty darn funny. Three stories run throughout the book: one set in Stalinist Moscow, focusing on MASSOLIT (a professional writer's club) and The Variety Theatre. This section of the book contains a lot of political satire (much of which is lost on me, I'm sure, but did get at least some of it). Oh, yeah: then Satan comes for a visit and sets the city in disarray. I usually don't like books/movies where Satan is one of the main characters (go figure!) but this one was different - this Satan (called Woland) wasn't scary in a spiritual sense but in a political sense - like a communist government that can make your life hell in an instant for no apparent reason.
Another story line of the novel has to do with a banned book on the story of Pontius Pilate and the crucifixion of Yeshua Ha Nostri. This plot is tied in with the first one by yet a third: the story of The Master (who is the author of the banned Pontius Pilate manuscript) and his lover, Margarita, who sells her soul to Woland so she can be with The Master.
That's probably not the best recap of events, but that's it in a nutshell. The story is an interesting mix of history, satire and, at times, even has a whimsical, almost sci-fi feel about it. It even had a few laugh-out-loud-funny parts along the way (mostly delivered by Bohemoth, a cat who is one of Woland's minions). I imagine the story is more than a little bit autobiographical - either that or it's just incredibly ironic that The Master & Margarita was not published until after Bulgakov's death in 1940, and even then, an unsensored version was not released until 1973.
I'm a big proponent of reading introductions and footnotes. Unfortunately, the translation I read did not have footnotes. I found footnotes to another version online and read them after I finished the book and they really helped to put a few straggling pieces together in my mind. I have a feeling if I were to immediately read the book again, I would get even more out of it. But I'm not going to right now - too big of a stack of other books to be read. Someday, though, I'll read it again.
Last night, I went with some friends to see The Devil Wears Prada. I give it two thumbs up - in a girl movie kind of way. Not everyone will enjoy it, but for someone like me, who is fascinated by the fashion industry, it's quite entertaining. Plus, Anne Hathaway makes really white skin look good, which is a small victory for people like me (ha!).
Best lines from the movie: "I'm on this new diet plan: I basically don't eat anything and if I feel like I'm going to pass out, I eat a cube of cheese. I'm one stomach flu away from my goal weight!" and something about "two is the new four, zero is the new two, and six is the new fourteen."
It's not the kind of movie I'll buy on DVD and watch over and over, but I would definitely watch it again. Great acting, true to the book (which, yes, I read a couple of years ago), fun clothes, cold-hearted boss: what's not to like?
I was thinking about writing a novel. Yes. I've got ideas. They may not be great, but I've read books (cover-to-cover, mind you) that I know for a fact I could top in both plot line and finesse. It would probably have to be chick-lit because, let's face it, I'm kind of shallow sometimes (and I like to be widely-accepted), but I could definitely weave in a much deeper meaning with brilliant plot-twists, depth of character and moral lessons. It would be funny, too. Side-splittingly at times, and understatedly so at others. I was thinking it would be one for the ages. Canonical, even. (The first canonical chick-lit.)
Everything was shaping up for me to start writing my masterpiece. Then I recalled an incident (circa 1990) in which I actually wrote a novel. I was in junior high wherein all things are dramatic for no apparent reason. Even to me - and it doesn't get much less drama-queen than me - every minor event seemed like the crux of history. Yet, even in the midst of such a life, I couldn't muster up enough drama for a great plot. I still wrote the novel, of course, which has, sadly, vanished without a trace, but I have a feeling it wasn't quite best-seller material.
They say the third time's a charm, so I figure with one novel (maybe more like a novella) under my belt, I would basically have to write two more to get it right. That's going to be a problem. See, I don't have time to waste writing a second novel, which will be doomed from the start, only to trash it in favor of The Charm (which is my working title, if only because it's the aforementioned Third Time.) So I'm afraid my short-lived dream of being a novelist is over.
My other work, Reflections on the Life of a Single Twenty-Seven Year Old Presbyterian Banker Living in the Deep South (semi-autobiographical) is still a work in progress. Of course, with a title like that, it would have wide-spread marketability. Trust me, though, it's not quite as exciting as it sounds. (Although, you, Dear Reader, might like it. You read my blog, for crying out loud!)
I think I should stick to reading instead of writing, which, BTW, I have been doing and will have some book reviews to post post-haste.