Monday Randomness

• There are definitely dog people and cat people. I am a cat person. I do not understand dog people. Really. There is NO REASON your dog has to go places with you. If your pet is part of your social circle, you need to rethink what you're doing.

• I'm trying to finish up projects. By that I mean giving away bits of beads and ends of yarn and even an almost-completely-but-not-quite-finished-and-no-way-would-it-fit-my-kid now-anyway sweater.

• I finally found a new everyday lipstick. So pretty (it's more purple in real life):

• The bottom rack on my 12 year old dishwasher is rusting in (a lot of) places, so I finally called Maytag to find out how much it would cost to replace it - $174 + tax + s&h. A new dishwasher? Starts at $299.
  
• Just for fun, I have a friend's family portrait as my desktop picture. It cracks me up every time I open my computer.
• I've been helping the girl with her homework instead of doing mine. Her homework is way more fun - science fair project! Revolutionary war time capsule! I wish I was doing that for school.
  
• Time for dinner!
  

Fonts

Did you ever get a letter and you just can't believe the font someone used.

I got an official letter from a Very Official Organization and I swear, the font for their letterhead reminds me of those books you used to get in elementary school, with the kind of wide printing on the cover.

Kind of like this:




Who thought this would be a good idea?

Weather Related

I'm very tired today. I think part of it is that it snowed AGAIN last night and part of it is that I'm just tired from not getting enough rest. But I think most of it is that fucking snow.

And Another Thing

What is going on with people that they feel like their (normal colored) teeth aren't white enough?

Everyone on t.v. reminds me of that episode of Friends where Ross overwhitens his teeth. It's become the norm.

WHY???

Please, Make it Stop

I cannot believe that this is STILL running through my head (thanks, grocery store!):

Hands to Heaven

I also cannot believe that I know most of the words.

Of course, until I looked it up, I thought it was a song by Jack Wagner. I'm not sure what is more shameful.

Really.

So, maybe Irene can explain this, but why on EARTH is the commercial for Botox all about "Express yourself!"

Isn't the ENTIRE FRICKING POINT of botox to be expression-LESS?

ugh.

Holidays

I wasn't feeling well Friday, and didn't feel much better Saturday, so E and G went to visit the in-laws without me. I felt kind of bad, because I hate when people cancel plans, and I don't want to seem disrespectful, but when I ended up laying on the bed instead of packing, E said, "Just stay home."

So I did. And watched a TON of dvds and t.v. and did some laundry and napped. Which, of course, fucked up my sleep schedule, so I was up until 1am and slept until 9am. I'm usually up by 8 at the very, very latest on the weekend, so this of course is going to mess me up tonight. Yahoo.

Speaking of yahoo - I'm so relieved I finally got a job offer. It's not for a ton of money, which is o.k., but it is exactly in the field I'm hoping to be in after I finish this never ending march through higher education. Because even though I LOVE school, I am ready for this to be done. I can't even muster the energy to do my homework. At all.

I've diddled around the past few hours, burning cds and packing up G's Easter basket. I don't get into Easter (obviously) but I do like buying gifts!

OH! The other night, G and I were chatting and I was grilling her about her life, and I asked her, as I do periodically, if she had any questions she wanted to ask me. She got very serious and said, "Yes. I want to know if there is a Santa Claus or if it's you and dad."

Ah. Well.

She's 11, and very smart, but also very into her imagination and has created a belief system that incorporates magic and faeries (but, interestingly enough, no belief in an organized religion-type god).

I asked her what she thought. She said she wanted to believe in Santa, because she believes in magic. And she knew that there was no Tooth Fairy (since the grandparents would give her $20/tooth if she happened to lose one there, and she'd get a buck if she lost one here - whatever, I'm not shelling out $20/tooth) and no Easter Bunny (there are, however, leprechauns) but the idea of a world with no Santa was too much.

So I hemmed and hawed and prevaricated and she finally said, "Your non-answers are telling me the answer - that there is no Santa Claus."

She was so sad. I was so sad.

E? Was thrilled. "HELL YA! Only one present to buy from now on!!!"

Squeeeee!

After a gazillion interviews in the past several weeks, I finally got a job offer!

Yahooooooooo!

Tomorrow's Only THURSDAY???

I had one of those long ass days that seem like they're never going to end. The ones where your to do list keeps getting longer and longer, because as soon as you finish one thing, you remember that OTHER thing you forgot to do, and then you try to squeeze it in, because it's only going to take 5 minutes (10, tops) and then 25 minutes later you're running late for the appointment you were going to be early for.

On the other hand, it stopped raining and didn't snow. So that's a bonus.

I ran into Target to get a few things for the Christian Easter (we are already steeped in candy and boiled eggs from what we call, for lack of a better phrase, Albanian Easter. What? We boil and dye eggs, too. And there's candy. AND we tie red and white strings on our wrists. It's all the same thing.) and walked out $87 later with I'm not sure what. It's like I fog out completely. I think they're pumping something in the air there.

Anyway, we're heading to the in-laws' for Easter. I'm being kind of fatalistic about it all. I figure it could be worse. . . . . . . . . . I mean, it could be, right?

Times Change

So I had a job interview in my old college town of Ann Arbor this morning and driving around, I noticed that there were no drunk people rambling around and only 1 bar looked even remotely open. At 9am on St. Patrick's Day! What the hell?

What is wrong with kids these days? Where is the carousing? Where is the boozing? Where is the puking in the street because you had Lucky Charms and tequila for breakfast at 7am???? (Not that I ever did that. It was actually on the side of this guy's car. Because I am classy.)

Seriously. It was kind of depressing.

Books and Words and Stuff

Julie was asking about books that have ravished you. I haven't read anything lately that has swept me off my feet, but I have just started The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, and while there hasn't been much ravishing, there's definitely more than just a peck on the cheek going on.

The book is poetry, almost, since there are a lot of words (foreign and foreign-to-me) that I sort of glide past, enjoying their cadence and the ebb and flow of the text, rather than actually understanding the meaning. It's not necessarily pretty and dainty, but it's lyrical and keeps pulling me along.

I've been reading bits of it, maybe 10-15 pages at a time, and while I don't necessarily spend my time away from the book wondering what's going to happen to the characters, I do spend a lot of time running phrases and the feelings of the words through my brain.

It's been a while since I've read something not-frothy (or not-horribly written school stuff) and I forgot what pleasure I can get from a good book. As opposed to a book that's supposed to be good (Seriously. Atonement sucked ass.). It's a nice departure from the Shopaholic series (which is 1,000,000 times better than anything Candace Bushnell can pull out of her ass).

One more thing that this book has highlighted is the joy I get from some names. I'm more than a little in love with the name Hypatia, and it sings to me sometimes while I'm loading the dishwasher.

I think that's why I like to write. Because I like to name. It's an excellent excuse to trot out particular favorites (Cordelia) without burdening a pet or a child. Because seriously, people, naming your child something "interesting" or "cool" or that's spelled differently (wrong) does nothing except show people that you have no creative outlet and only burdens your little Jai'mee with the knowledge that their parents are morons and they themselves will never live up to the hype of their name.

Sure, Come On Over. It'll Be Fun!

Hooodiggity.

It's been a couple of days.

Last night, we had a friend of mine and her new boyfriend over for dinner. Fine and dandy, except, of course, I left everything too late and was scrambling all day Friday trying to clean, shop, pick up drying cleaning, get hair cut, do homework, etc. I hate doing that, and yet it's like I'm powerless to get my shit in gear any sooner. Go figure. I'm trying yoga (twice this week so far!) and while I'm still not a fan of the meditation/relaxation thing, I can sit quietly for a few minutes!

So the hair cut was good, and I am now growing out my hair and have a kick ass new hair tool to use:



I know it looks like an alien orthodontic probe, but it is instead a miracle worker for curly hair. I think it's cool because you can scoop up some hair and give it a twirl and tada! Instead of tiny tight curls you can have looser curls. Which is AWESOME. And will be even more awesome when I figure out exactly how to use it. Because now I end up with weird sausage curls in random placed. Kind of pretty. If you squint.

So, last night, dinner.

Was chaos.

Because? Our "friends" (not my friend and her new boyfriend, other people) are in the midst of splitting up / reconciling / being batshit insane and decided to involve us.

Basically, there was a conversation between my husband the guy, wherein the guy spilled A LOT of dirt about his and his wife's relationship and other sundry issues and my husband was supportive, saying stuff like, well, maybe you should go to counseling, and maybe she just seems all kinds of nuts, etc.

So this bozo decides to spin E's remarks and make it like E was saying all these crazy ass nasty things about his wife. Yeah, he did. Nice bridge burned there, buddy.

And then the wife? Called and dragged E into it. During dinner. Because who knew, when answering the phone, that this crazy was going to spill out from the other end?

So, my friend and her new boyfriend were very cool about it, and we chatted about crazy people and relationships and they seemed o.k., but I kept apologizing for the crazy disruption (you know, since E was completely pole-axed by the phone call and couldn't get himself together for a few minutes) and hoped that they liked being in the midst of madness and drama. Which is pretty much the antithesis of our usual Friday nights.

Delightful, really.

At least the steaks were good. And there was chocolate cake - which looked good. And chocolatey.

OH!

And this, which I HIGHLY recommend:



Seriously. It's good cheap wine. And was surprisingly apt for last night's frivolities.

Randomy Randomness

**Ah, yes. My good friend procrastination. I've been putting off finishing this job because . . . I don't want to get paid? Yeah. I'm an idiot.

**It's been so long since I've had anything dry cleaned that the place I used to go to closed down some time ago and I didn't realize it until 9am this morning when I was sitting the parking lot going "Cookie Store, Random Shop, Empty Store, Ink Stop. I swear there was one hour Martinizing right here somewhere." But I found a new dry cleaner that was having a 50% off deal on dry cleaning orders over $30. You bet your ass I took as much as I could hold into the store!

**So Reaper was not, in fact, on last night. It's on tomorrow night. I was livid. I sat there, cursing CW, Entertainment Weekly, my own misreading eyes and stupid ass One Tree Hill, wondering why the fates were so cruel.

**And seriously? One Tree Hill? That's what you have on during Reaper's old time slot? How is that right? I detest Chad Michael Murray. He was wretched as the stupid rich Chilton boy whose name escapes me on Gilmore Girls (as if Paris would have liked him. I mean, it's Paris Geller, not Paris Hilton. Paris Geller has standards.) and he seems wretched on his new show.

** You know what I hate? Fish.

Woozy

So the girl has not been sleeping well the past couple of nights, which means she's been in bed with me. Once she's in, she's out like a light. I, however, have been getting next to no sleep because I can't sleep when she's in the bed with me. I mean, I drop off and then get jolted awake, but even when I'm sleeping, I'm stuck in one spot so I don't toss her off the bed (again. Yes, I did that once. Scared us both to death.).

I'm glad I'm on break, since I'm so sleep addled I can't focus very well. I did about an hour's worth of brain-involved work, an hour's worth of writing (yahoo! writing again!) and some random household stuff. Then, at dinner, we had the t.v. on, because we enjoy being white trash sometimes. We were watching an episode of Scrubs that I have seen, at minimum, 6 times. And yet, because I'm so delirious, even after watching about 20 minutes of the show, when I walked into the kitchen to answer the phone (Purple Heart - no, we don't have anything this go round) and then walked back into the dining room to eat, I looked at the t.v. and said, "Wait. Why is everyone mad at Carla?" BECAUSE OF THE LAST 20 MINUTES OF THE SHOW, MAYBE???? (Because Kelso made her be the bad guy and say no to everyone. Just in case you're curious.)

On the plus side:

REAPER IS ON TONIGHT!!!!! HOT DIGGITY DAMN!!

I Really Fucking Hate Some People

The Girl has one of those extra curricular activities on Monday nights, and usually E does the dropping off and picking up. Tonight, though, was my turn since E was working late.

Drop off was fine. Her entrance is at the back of the building, next to the parking lot. You enter a drive way, drive past the main part of the building and then veer left to get to the parking spots and her entrance. All well and good.

Except.

When I went to pick her up, some idiot was parked smack fucking dab in the middle of the veering lane. Seriously. It's not like people (me) coming around the corner could easily see this dumb fucking tool stopped in the middle of nowhere. There were 2 other cars there when I got there. Prime parking EVERYWHERE. But no. Dumb fuck decides she'll just stop there. And it's not like she couldn't see the painted lines indicating parking spots because while it did snow here, the lot was cleared and it was broad fucking daylight.

So I gave her the massive stink eye and hoped she got some sort of divine retribution.

I HATE Cats. I Really Do.

Friday I took the girl to the doctor since she's had this dry cough for about a month (I am ALWAYS on top of stuff - once I didn't take her to the doctor when she had a fever for about 4 days. The nurse gave me a "I'm calling DSS RIGHT NOW look" for that one.) and after much pestering from my mother, I worked my way through the fuck-fest that is trying to make an appointment and got her in.

She didn't see her regular Dr., but another random one. He was nice. Brisk. Efficient. We were in and out really quick, which made me happy.

Turns out it's her allergies (which I kind of forget she has - usually in spring and/or fall she'll get really congested and I end up taking her to the Dr. who says - give her zyrtec or claritin - and I go, oh, yeah, she's got allergies!). So I changed the furnace filter (which was DISGUSTING) and cleaned the whole fucking house and bitched about the stupid ass shedding cats and vacuumed and changed and washed all her bedding and worked really hard not to open the door and kick the cats out.

I hate them. I'm now on a mission to keep them off anything fabric laden. It's easier to get rid of cat hair by swiffering hardwood floors than it is to vacuum the same spot over and over and OVER trying to get rid of disgusting cat hair. Also, they are irking me with their lazy cat ways. THEY should be dusting or swiffering or vacuuming, not me.

How hard is it to shave a cat?

Then my friend came over yesterday and we played rock band and devised ways to further disrupt a particular law school class (set up an email account in another friend's name [who NEVER talks in class] and email the professor all sorts of questions about the topic; stage a fight over some ridiculous legal principle; start calling each other on our cells) because we are adults and that kind of thing is a lot of fun.

Now I'm debating finishing the laundry and trying to figure out what nail color I want and also what kind of hair cut I want - I finally made a hair appointment. I'm thinking of growing my hair out, like this:



or even like this:



but then part of me wants this:



Or maybe part of me just wants to be Annie Lennox.

Thursday Night

Every once in a while, I watch South Park because I'm up and in front of the t.v. late enough and it reminds me of how fucking hilarious that show is. I love Cartman. He's so foul.


****
Today a friend and I had lunch at a Hard Rock Cafe. I can't remember the last time I was in one, but man it was loud. I did get to watch a Simple Minds video. It was "Don't You Forget About Me," which is o.k., but it's no "Up on the Catwalk." Man, do I love my 80s dance tunes. It really made me nostalgic for extremely tiny skirts and booze and cigarettes. Sometimes I really miss smoking.


****
And now I'm tired and going to bed. Where my child is waiting because she's having anxiety about not being able to fall asleep. Awesome.

It's a List!

So usually I lurk at most blogs, because I use Bloglines and it's just easier to go, "Hey, yeah! I totally agree!" then actually click on a link and make the same comment on the blog. Also, that's just a stupid comment.

Anyway, at Friday Style, there's a list making frenzy about basic/must have wardrobe items, and since I love lists, and I've been thinking mightily about my wardrobe, I thought I'd join in.

Here's my list of my basic/must have wardrobe items:

1. A black (and brown) suit. Good for interviews. Good for a job. Good for a funeral. Nothing like multi-purposing things.

2. Slate blue sweater set. I can wear the shell with each suit, plus the whole thing with other random khaki or black or grey pants. I love this sweater set, even though I am NOT a fan of sweater sets.

3. Black sweater. I have a couple of these - various necklines (deep v and then deeper v) and various materials (cotton and silk). Perfect with my . . .

4. Khaki pants. My favorite pair have a slight hole just above the knee, and I still can't get rid of them.

5. Black zip up cardigan. I wear this ALL THE TIME. I hate even putting it in the wash unless I know the black load is going to be done right away.

6. French blue button down shirt. Works with the suits and the zip cardigan and the khakis and with . . .

7. Black pants. My staple. I wear these a lot.

8. Grey a-line skirt. I love this skirt because it's got this cool bias stitching on it. Works with pretty much everything, including . . .

9. Magenta sweater. Great on a cloudy day.

10. Scarves. I keep a scarf or two tucked in my bag because I CONSTANTLY drip when I eat. Maybe a bib would be better.

Anyway. I think I dress pretty boring right now, but I'm making steps to dressing more fun.

What's on your list?

Yes, I Did

Yesterday in class, I said, "Dick in a box."

Greatest law school moment EVER.

F-f-f-f-fashion

Many, many years ago, my father used to own a men's clothing store. He would make men's suits, and still has the sewing machine and hemming machine (blind stitch machine? I know it has a name) and the ability to hem and alter pretty much anything I get FOR FREE, which is awesome, and which is also WAY awesome, because petite clothes sometimes aren't as petite as you'd like, and also, sometimes stupid designers don't even MAKE things petite, as if we are all 5'7" tall.

Still.

Unless I specifically remember to ask him to go extra long on the hem, I end up with perfectly hemmed clothing, but perfectly hemmed not in the slightly longish fashion that is in style now, but perfectly hemmed in the just hit the top of your shoes fashion favored by, say, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.





I need Frank's hat.

Sunday and Time for Bed

** I've got a few interviews coming up in the next few days. I'm not a fan of interviews (who is, really?) but at least my nails are done and my suits are prepped and ready. If only these giant patches of dry skin on the backs of my hands would disappear.

** I hate when I make lists and the same things keep being moved from week to week because I just can't even stand the thought of doing them, but they need to be done.

** Which leads me to: We're debating doing away with our landline, but some paranoid part of me feels like it's important to have a landline because . . . of a possible emergency? Just a weird, vague unease. I know a few people who don't have landlines, and that seems to work for them, but still.

** I want to learn Korean. I need a good podcast. Any suggestions?

Good Times

I'm supposed to go to a chili party tonight, but I already have a severe intestinal disturbance.

Oh, the irony.

It looks like it's a night in front of the t.v. with the Sopranos.