Friday Bonus (Two Weeks)

CLASSIC. The drama, the soapiness, the amazingly terrible hair and clothes... hello, '80's, what were we thinking?!? Can't get past the complete catchiness of the song, though - I'll always look back fondly on the summer that this song was our (unofficial) theme for Girls' Camp. True story.

Enjoy! (Oh, and I didn't realize this until the second - or third - time I watched it, but the GUY is the one wearing the brooch.)

(ETA:  Go you YouTube and check out "Last Christmas" ORIGINAL or WHAM or GEORGE MICHAEL.  Good times.)

And, FYI, if you've got some time to kill you can go browse around for covers of this tune - some of the videos are bizarre! And hilarious! And in some ways, even more '80's-tastic! (I KNOW - who would have thought that could even be POSSIBLE?)

Don't you just want to go put on leggings and feather your hair? I know I do. Merry Christmas!

I Totally Forgot...

... to blog about my first and only experience buying cigarettes. (Monday.) CREEPY. I was going to also include the story of my first and only experience buying beer.

Remind me to get on that, OK? I've got to go finish judging entries for the elementary school Reflections contest now.

Thanks.

Mankind Is My Business

In which we shall see: Absolutely no blood. Just kazoos and *drool*.

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So, last weekend I had this blind date. The cold sore dropped far enough that my eye was no longer bloodshot and swollen shut, and careful makeup pretty much hid the rest. Already, my night was in the black. In reality, this "date" was actually an opportunity to get two of my friends to meet, but when I got tagged as a third wheel I insisted on even numbers just so I wouldn't feel so... odd. (Sorry.) I figured it would be a chance for me to practice, you know, talking to a boy, and that we'd probably spend most of the time gabbing as a group anyway. Not so much...

Gotta say, my non-date date was an AWESOME date. My two newly-met friends started talking, and MNDD immediately engaged me in conversation, neatly pairing everybody off. He was so easy to talk to, and interested and attentive, and I didn't feel anywhere near as stupid as I usually do trying to have a conversation with a guy. He's way too young for me, of course, but he was cheerful and funny and gentlemanly and cute and his story about getting arrested in Chicago and spending the night in jail is an absolute mind-blower! (So not kidding. It was AMAZING.) Later, one of my two friends told me she was sure we'd dated before, we looked so... cozy. That? Right there? Is a good date...

...in spite of Jason. Or, I suppose, Jason was the exception-spice that made the evening that much more tasty... (All right, ignore the metaphors. Go ahead.) We saw a play, then walked half a block to IHoP for hot chocolate. We were seated, asked for waters and hot chocolates, and before our server had left the table we found out his name was Jason, he'd just broken up with his fiancee, and he was willing to sing pretty much any Christmas carol we wanted - as long as it was sad and depressing. We got him started on "Blue Christmas" before he headed off to place our order, and we had our very own Elvis the rest of the evening. Nothing says "Happy Holidays" (or, "Your life isn't as bad as you think") like a depressed, bitter, singing pancake-house waiter! (How do we get that on a Christmas card?)

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I'm still trying to find an MP3 or YouTube video to share, but in the meantime, listen for a version of "Mele Kalikimaka" with a female vocalist and a whole chorus of kazoos. It is EPIC. It's edging up my list of favorite Christmas songs, and may end somewhere next to this one:


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Fellow Gleeks: Take a moment with me here to revisit one of the most beautiful things about a really great episode (today's) -

Have you ever seen anybody RUN like that before? *melts into a puddle of goo* Someday, I'll have a picture of that moment. And a YouTube clip to watch over and over. And computer wallpaper that plays those five seconds on a continuous loop. Merry Christmas, indeed.


(And until I get that picture/video clip/wallpaper, enjoy this placeholder from the pilot. Thank YOU, Matthew Morrison!)

Today, I Broke a Nail

Today, I woke up with my eye glued shut thanks to pus from a sty or pinkeye or something. I washed it out with the only eye drops in the house, which turned out to be allergy eye drops, and they dilated the one pupil until I could barely see.

Today, I came in to work wearing an eye patch.

Today, I nicked my wrist on a broken glass as I was unpacking a bin, and bled copiously all over the floor. Fortunately, I was wearing a sweatshirt and that soaked up a lot of the blood running down my arm. Also fortunately, I had a pile of dusty tissue paper handy (from the non-broken glasses) that I could use to try to staunch the flow (which was fortunately flowing strongly enough that I don't think I'll get an infection from the dust and dirt. Score!). Not so fortunately, I couldn't find anyone else in the building to help me. I wasn't dizzy or freaking out or anything - but when you're pressing a handful of old, blood-soaked tissue paper to a wound you can't actually see because it's on the other side of your arm and you just HOPE you're applying pressure to the right spot, you kind of want someone around for a little moral support, you know? The costume shop was completely empty, and everyone in the front office was on the phone and so couldn't come to my aid EVEN AS I WAS WAVING MY BLOODY ARM AROUND IN THE LOBBY. (That was descriptive, not British swearing.) Eventually, I got it all taken care of myself (although I had to go back to the - empty - costume shop for band-aids) and even got my sweatshirt into a load of laundry. (As soon as I started the machine, one of the costumers walked in. Oy.)

Today, I really needed cookies.

Today I burned myself with hot glue. I pulled the droplet off my hand, and it took the skin with it.

Today, I spent much of my time in the bathroom scraping mucus out of my eye and carefully dabbing Neosporin over the swelling (even though you should apparently NEVER use Neosporin that close to your eyes). Then I found out that there's a good chance the sty/pinkeye/whatever is actually a cold sore (ON MY EYE) and that thanks to the herpes virus I've had all my life, I will probably someday need cornea transplants if I don't get the shot that can (FINALLY) kill the virus. Also, Neosporin doesn't do squat for viruses. Also, if I ever need the cornea transplant I will have to pay for it myself because no insurance is going to cover it, seeing as I have had the herpes virus all my life. Plus I have a cold sore ON MY EYE and a blind date in two days. (Insert applicable joke here. Make sure it's bitter.)

Today I had leftover pasta from the Cheesecake Factory for lunch, and I did not get sick or food poisoning or anything. Who would have thought?

No News Makes for Boring Headlines - Sorry

No news is usually because there's way too much going on to actually have time to talk about it, even though it's not particularly newsworthy. Maybe I should take classes on tabloid journalism, so that I'd always have something to write about here. Anyway, in this case, no news is because:

- Changeover week at the theatre. Old show out, new show in - usual schedule: 10 days. This changeover: 4 days (because my boss refuses to work Thanksgiving). We did a great job with prep beforehand though (IMHYAO), so no-one's tried to staple anyone else to the hydraulic lift. Yet.

- Thanksgiving! Yay! (except see above). We're borrowing a tradition from my friend Sara's family and doing "pie all day" - after Sunday's Music and the Spoken Word, though, I suggested we do a "Pay It Forward Pie Day" (because I am extraordinarily dorky and I also really liked the broadcast). Every time you have a piece of pie on Thursday (and you can have one whenever you'd like) you either: 1) write down something nice you'll do for someone else that day and put it in a jar, or 2) go find something nice to do for someone else and then write it down and put it in the jar. Apple pie for breakfast - Mom and I are ready to go.

- My sister and her family are coming for the holiday - they'll be staying in the basement with me, which means that most of the last few days have been spent digging through the mountain of storage boxes that filled the Big Room (this is it's actual name) and sorting and re-packing fewer boxes to go in the storage room (also it's actual name; not to be confused with the Food Storage Room - apparently, we're a very literal group). It's... kind of amazing, really - furniture arranged, kitchen area cleaned, carpet vacuumed... it even looks like someplace I'd want to live. (If it wasn't in my parents basement, that is.) I'm excited to see the kids (for the .03 minutes I'll have to spare thanks to Item #1) and my sis and Mom and I are dragging Dad and the b-i-l to New Moon Friday morning. (Truth be told, the guys are not all that reluctant. HA.) Most people are a little surprised and even alarmed that I haven't seen the movie yet - it opened THURSDAY AT MIDNIGHT, after all.

- The plan was to have all my family Christmas presents ready by Thanksgiving, since I've got my sister's family. That... didn't QUITE work, but hopefully the things I'll take care of later will be light and mail-able.

- I'm judging the Reflections Contest entries for the local elementary (my old school! I still totally know the song!) in Film/Video, and Music. I remember writing a song for a Reflections contest, and singing it into a TAPE RECORDER, and moving on the next round and singing it for actual people, and thinking I was pretty cool. Who knows, maybe I was.

Wow, I feel old.

- And.... Still determined to give up fiction come January (decided to use December to re-read favorites and get caught up on books I'd had "back ordered"; the family wants to start another weight-loss contest, which is great, except that the prize has been suggested as a family vacation and some are leaning towards a year-long competition with a vacay in January 2011 so that people have time to save up... and I fully expect to be in England, so - no good. I definitely need to lose the weight, though. I started eating chocolate again after a few weeks away, and it MESSED with my digestive system - evidently, I should only be eating very expensive chocolate, which does not make my tummy nearly as unhappy. I broke tonight (after vacuuming a few miles of carpet in the Big Room) and had ice cream for the first time in over a month, but only because it was Schwann's Chocolate Chip, purchased at my instigation and in honor of the holiday. These days, an ice cream sighting like that in our freezer is as rare as spotting a single, upwardly mobile, aesthetically pleasing man over the age of 30 in the Salt Lake valley - and twice as satisfying. (Zing!) After Thanksgiving and Changeover are over I'm getting things back in order and getting back into my jeans. And finding another/additional job. And getting back to work on my book project. And sorting out my filing cabinet. And getting into grad school, with grants and scholarships to pay for it.

I've got to get up for work in about 5 hours, so I'm off - tomorrow I'll finish Marley's chains and politely turn down a print bid and probably paint stuff and OD on Glee songs, since those are pretty much all I've got on my Ipod right now.

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I ganked this quote from a friend's blog - I'm working on both. (I'm not saying this post is in any way indicative of either, but I'm trying!)

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

— Benjamin Franklin

Bonus Content #10 - Character Values Trump Sexiness

Wow. Somebody in the mainstream media is finally getting it right. This article is targeted as advice to women about what to look for in men, and it's good stuff for both sexes to consider working on (urgh, just cannot find a way to end that sentence without a dangling preposition!).

In conclusion, when I build a house it's going to have to include both a den and a laboratory.

Bonus Content # 9 - Sesame Street In Da House

I'm not really one for gansta rap, but...



Happy 40th Birthday to Sesame Street!