and all with some combination of people that included lisa. impressive.
1) whale rider. cast: lisa & i with a DVD, friday night.
whew. this one totally threw the kleenex box at us. as lisa says, "as soon as they brought on the whales, that was it!" we were both weeping like girls. (funny, that.)
i really liked the movie, and enjoyed seeing the new zeland landscape, a foreign culture and their music. the story was great, too. in an interview with the director in the special features, it was suggested that every little girl should see this movie. i agree... though make sure they all have tissues at hand. (as it turns out, though, i saw this film the night before i got my period, so i was overly emotional and may have cried more than the average girl would. i suppose we'll never know for sure.)
2) mystic river. cast: mary, lisa & i at wynnsong, saturday afternoon.
i knew a little bit about this story beforehand, and usually if i know something about a film ahead of time i end up not being very moved by it. (that case was proven by whale rider... i knew very little and ended up crying my eyeballs out.) i did pull out a tissue at one point during mystic river, but on the kleenex rating scale, i'd only put this only at a 1. whale rider was a 3 kleenex movie. something like sophie's choice or terms of endearment is a 4 or 5.
as much as i enjoyed the film, i think i have been relatively unimpressed with clint eastwood's directing skills in every movie of his i've seen. for some reason i just never seem to feel really drawn in to the characters' lives. the storytelling impressed me, but i just didn't feel like i was living in the story. still, i think tim robbins did a fantastic job and should get the best supporting oscar. sean penn was great, too. and while i don't think he's going to get his leading oscar, i do believe he should get some award for being so damn hot. hubba hubba.
3) in america. cast: mr. & mrs. pinky, lisa & i at the madstone, saturday night.
a ½ kleenex movie. or maybe i was just out of tears by this point. damn... my eyes are swollen from crying so much in 24 hours.
i liked this movie. it was all heart. Djimon Hounsou... damn, what a great scene, when he shouts that he's in love with everything that's living. however, one scene does not an oscar make, and tim robbins will certainly kick his ass.
pinky was telling us about an interview she saw with the director last week... turns out this is supposedly some sort of autobiographical movie. i had no clue. it's too "perfect" to be that accurate, though... i mean, everyone lives happily ever after. (except Djimon, but in a weirdly supernatural way i guess he lives happily ever after, too.)
if i had to rank the 3 movies, i think it would probably be in the order i saw them in: 1, 2, 3.
i think i'm going to watch seabiscuit tomorrow (and hopefully won't cry at all), and if there are any hours left before beth's oscars party, maybe i'll try to catch a screening of cold mountain. or not. time feels very warpy right now. i could use a good dose of realism.
i think this is the 5th snow we've had this winter, but really... i've lost count.
the above picture was taken with the crappy digital camera we have at work.
yes, i'm at work.
the rest of the world is at home eating cheese fondue, and i'm at work.
today is betty hutton's 83rd birthday, god bless her.
tonight on divaville i'll take the whole 2 hours to feature her zany, beautiful voice.
the playlist will be here.
it's going to be a lot of fun. charo will be joining me on-air and i expect a lot of giggling frivolity (if the weather doesn't fall on our heads and force us to cancel the whole thing).
dinner at nana's tonight was good, though not quite as good as i remember it being, oh so long ago. i have memories of extravagant ingredients, lavish service and pure luxury. but that was probably 3 years ago or more, and guess i must have a selective memory.
don't get me wrong, the food at nana's was fine. more than fine. in fact, the dessert was truly kick-ass (blueberry gingerbread with brown sugar cream and lemon sauce)... it was the best thing i had all night. ray had lobster for his main course, which he really enjoyed, and i had tuna, which wasn't terribly remarkable. the risotto we split as an appetizer was very good... but of course, that's what scott howell is known for.
still, it was all good fun, and a wonderful experience (and thanks to my sweet boyfriend for ending my 5-day birthday celebration with a bang) but next year maybe i'll just suggest something more simple & casual like pop's. or maybe we could go the other direction and go to four square or second empire or something. heh heh. (i told ray i'd treat him to arby's for his birthday... he really likes their BLT. :-)
anyway, while i was enjoying the tasty gingerbread dessert i was reminded of kevin. no one has really heard anything from kevin in months, he's been so engrained in politics. more power to him, i say. i'm very proud of him... doing his best to oust GW this fall. good work. but i do miss him a lot.
so ray & i just up and decided to swing by and pay him a visit on the way home from nana's. it's not really on the way home at all, and it was approaching 10pm (which, for a baker such as kevin, is late) so we decided to call first. he didn't pick up the phone, but in our message we said we were coming by and to expect some banging on the door in about 15 minutes. to his credit, when we showed up he gladly opened the door for us.
we sat & chatted for about 20 minutes or so --long enough to make sure he was still alive and happy-- and we caught up on the details of what he's been up to. it was a nice (if short) visit; ray & kevin now have a lot of political passions in common (though they come from distinctly different platforms); it was fun to hear them talk of their individual exploits at the durham county board of elections building. what geeks. ;-)
when i got home i discovered my tape of 'the west wing' ran out halfway through the episode. dammit. if any of you saw tonight's program, PLEASE tell me what happened after CJ picked up the hoynes zip disk off the floor? i must know. (it'll be a few days before the television without pity site posts their summary, and i don't think i can wait that long!)
last night's neilson-ism occured when the symphony was rehearsing a ravel piano concerto. the piano soloist doesn't come to rehearse with us until next week; for now it's just the orchestra alone stumbling through this music, which sounds more like gershwin than ravel. it's got some strange harmonies that the musicians were having a hard time with, following by long pauses where the piano solo will be inserted later.
the musicians were huffing & puffing through a difficult passage and as soon as the next pause came, alan said:
"...and then the piano comes in and we're off the hook."i went online last week and bought a birthday present for myself. it arrived last night: 12 bags of cheese puffs.
these aren't any regular old cheese puffs. they're barbara's natural jalapeno cheese puffs. i used to be able to find them at whole foods, but lately they're only carrying the plain variety, not the jalapeno. so a couple months ago i googled them up to see if the jalapeno variety was available anywhere else. the only place i could find them was ShopNatural.com, and they were out of stock at the time.
but they had a little button to click to request an email notification when they came back in stock, so i signed up. and last week i finally got that email. i hesitated for 4 or 5 days, thinking, "hell, i don't need no cheese puffs!" but in the end i caved in. they're that good.
they arrived in a gi-normous box and ray was very curious to know what was inside. when i said, "cheese puffs," he thought i was nuts. at first he didn't really want to try them, but after i read the blurb on the back he caved in:
...the finest sharp cheddar and the tangiest marbled blue cheese. Then we add real jalapeno peppers to turn up the heat. We use only natural ingredients... no hydrogenated oils, artifical preservativs, flavors or colors of any kind. So there's no reason not to go ahead and munch away!"they're damn good, i tell you. ray noticed with some alarm that the expiration date on the bags is june 2004, but that's of little consequence. i'll be surprised if they last me through march. i've already finished one bag; it's going to be hard to keep me from eating one a day!
so now that the house is reasonably whipped into shape i've started to wonder what my next project will be. i do want to build a long, low cabinet to go under the painting in the dining room, but that's a pretty huge deal and i'm not sure i'm up for it yet. i also want to finish painting the trim, but i'm damn tired of painting right now. i think i'm going to take a break from the house stuff for a couple of weeks. so i think my next project will be movies.
beth throws an oscars party every year, and i have quite a bit of movie viewing to catch up on. i missed a lot of films due to the inordinate amount of home repair going on this fall & winter. so i've got plans to see "mystic river" friday and "in america" on saturday. i won't have time to see "seabiscuit", and i'm not terribly disappointed about that. i also haven't seen "LOTR", but i suspect peter jackson is a shoo-in for best director anyway, so why bother? (i'm not a big fan of the whole fantasy genre, anyway.)
i think i've seen most of the other major contendors. usually beth gives prizes to the people who guess the most (or least) winning films, so by the party on sunday i hope to be in pretty good shape. i'm hoping for heaps of awards for "lost in translation". anything "the house of sand and fog" could win would be nice, too.
dinner at the pizza palace totally rocked last night. i cannot rave enough about their calzones. especially right now, because i'm eating the leftover half as i type this. yum yum yum.
i knew all day long exactly what i was going to order, but when lisa & mary held their menus and half-heartedly considered the calzone i of course egged them on to the point where they both broke down, weeping, under the pressure. mary wanted to know if she should also order a salad with her calzone and i said, "NO! the calzone is as big as your torso." the waiter laughed and agreed. it's damn big. a big, fine calzone.
during dinner we were discussing the word flibbertigibbet (probably because our server likely thought he was waiting on 3 of them), so of course into my head popped my favorite movie of all time, joe vs. the volcano. angelica (the 2nd meg ryan character) very boldly tells joe (tom hanks) that she is a flibbertigibbet, hand poised coyly at the side of her mouth.
i mentioned to lisa & mary that i've developed a yearly tradition for myself with joe, and i hadn't yet watched the film this birthday. lisa immediately suggested we finish our second pitcher of beer and go watch the DVD at my house. which totally thrilled me. seriously. i love this movie so much (i once got hired at a video store because i wrote it down as one of my favorite movies and the manager couldn't believe my moxie)... to watch it with close friends is really a fulfilling experience for me.
as a birthday tradition, the movie really kicks me in the pants. as soon as i start to mope, "oh shit, i'm getting old," i hear patricia (the 3rd meg character) say:
My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement.i try to stay awake. it's hard sometimes, though. for me, this movie reminds me to take a leap every once in a while. it also reminds me that everyone walks down a long & crooked road... but if you're lucky you get a jolt to help you get off that road. and onto a boat to the south pacific.
that sounds like total fruitcake psychobabble, i know. and it probably is. but even though the movie really works well on that deeper level (just look for the long & winding road; it appears as the sidewalk to the medical supply company, the cracks in the plaster in joe's house, the lightning bolt that strikes the tweedle dee, and the path up the volcano), it's also an utterly goofy romantic comedy. one of my very favorite character actors, dan hedaya, plays mr.waturi, joe's boss, who is heard yelling into the phone, over and over, "I know he can get the job, but can he do the job?" the sheer repetition of this line reduces me to giggles every time.
then there's ossie davis as joe's limo driver, marshall:
Marshall: What kinda clothes do you got now?lisa's favorite part is the luggage salesman (played by barry mcgovern):
Joe Banks: Well, I got the kinda clothes I'm wearing.
Marshall: So you got no clothes.
Luggage Salesman: This is our premier steamer trunk. It's all handmade, only the finest materials. It's even watertight, tight as a drum. If I had the need, and the wherewithal, Mr. Banks, this would be my trunk of choice.this film also features nathan lane, abe vigoda & lloyd bridges. why it never got more press is beyond me.
Joe Banks: I'll take four of them.
Luggage Salesman, solemnly: May you live to be a thousand years old, sir.
it's a total love-story/fairy-tale, but also manages to dig a helluva lot deeper. it's a really great film... and here's why:
joe says blearily, after days stranded on a raft, "Dear God, whose name I do not know... thank you for my life. I forgot... how big. Thank you... thank you for my life."go watch it.
this morning i've eaten 2 donuts and 5 pieces of bacon, and i don't care. it's my birthday, dammit.
i'm 35 today, and a long time ago i would have thought that this would mean that i'm definitely a grown-up. but i don't really feel grown-up. in fact, i'm not really sure how being grown-up would feel... but i'm pretty sure i don't feel it.
i like that my life is different than others', with a different list of priorities. i drove past a golf community this morning, with giant houses built 20 yards from each other, and thought, "i'm glad i didn't end up like that!" also, there's a tour group at the station this morning, and one of the participants brought her screaming baby with her. i'm also glad i didn't end up like that.
35 seems a good time to assess your position in the world. 40 seems a better time to do it, though, so i'll shut up and save it for 5 years from now.
i had a nice time with charo yesterday afternoon at fearrington's folk art festival. i appreciate folk art but am not the avid collector that charo is... she bought something like 9 pieces yesterday (but got a good deal on all of it). it was a beautiful day, and we had fun chatting with the kooky artists.
then lisa & i saw "the triplets of belleville" which totally rocked. i knew little about it (other than it was animated and half the people at my party were raving about it), so i was surprised to discover that there is no dialog. regardless, the storytelling was superb. the characters were quirky and loveable. especially the dog. just good fun all around. still, i'm sure "finding nemo" will crush it at the oscars next weekend. alas.
when i was little my mom used to make us popcorn on the stove, using bacon grease as the fat to pop the kernels. ray & i decided on a whim to try it ourselves last night. i forgot how hard it is to make popcorn outside the microwave. we burned a good portion of it, but the ones that didn't burn tasted good! i remember mom popping batch after batch, then dumping it all into a paper grocery bag. she'd roll down the edges to the height of the pile of popcorn so we wouldn't have to reach in so far to get to it. by the end of the night the bag was totally soaked with bacon grease. it was heaven.
this morning i had a really nice birthday love note waiting for me on the bathroom sink. i'm going to make myself a stir-fry out of the leftover bell peppers for lunch. i think some of my co-workers are scheming to present me with a cake this afternoon. tonight i'm going out to dinner at the pizza palace with mary & lisa. it's going to be a great day.
i had such a good time last night!
i'm not sure how many people came. somewhere between 40 and 50 is my guess. all of my best friends in the world, many people i don't see often enough, and some total strangers who i felt lucky to meet. it was a good crowd.
plus, no hangover! a small miracle, as i clearly remember slurring during several of my conversations.
some things i remember:
i remember john getting irate about the warning sticker on ray's scale.
i remember scott taking my white board and writing up a little asparagus survey and posting it over the toilet.
i remember sarah's incredible black & white outfit.
i remember sharing some wine with chris & christiane in the bathroom.
i remember talking about 1950s-era houses with ruby & brian.
i remember being amazed at how many people phil knows.
i remember lisa laughing. a lot.
i remember clogging with charo to "jump in the line."
i remember tony insisting everyone bring a log from inside the house to the outdoor fireplace.
i remember a line of people waiting to see saturn in ray's telescope.
i remember talking with 4 neighbors about the pros and cons of having children. (i said they have something i'll never have... and they said i have something they want back.)
i remember joe laughing evilly from the couch. i also remember his eggplant caviar.
i remember lisa m shooting hoops.
i remember sean being dumfounded that i talked about gene kelly's ass on-air last week.
i remember annie stealing lisa off for a ride in her VW.
i remember realizing that everyone in the room has an indiana story.
i remember mary staying until the very end and giving me a lot of groovy presents.
but mostly i remember this incredible feeling of warmth when i looked around and said to myself, "i am so lucky to have so many wonderful friends."
and i truly am. i'm getting a little teary now, just remembering that feeling. i feel blessed.
the cats woke me up at 6:15, which totally pissed me off. they never, ever fight, but this morning it sounded like they were hissing and bashing each other into the walls. thankfully i fell back asleep around 7 and slept for another couple of hours.
bad news, though... my left hand is now falling asleep at night like my right one used to. i don't understand this, because the pain in my wrist that sent me to my orthopaedist last month was not at all carpal-tunnel related! perhaps in addition to the diagnosed ligament problems there is also secondary carpal tunnel syndrome. that would totally suck. but i've noticed my left hand falling asleep a little when i'm knitting, too (boo!), and that's totally symptomatic of carpal tunnel.
*sigh*
today we're cleaning cleaning cleaning. i have a feeling there's going to be a lot of people here tonight. which is good --i hope to see a lot of old friends i haven't hung out with in a while-- but is also slightly terrifying... mostly because i sometimes have difficulty forcing myself to circulate as much as a hostess should. i should carry a little stopwatch that beeps every 10 minutes or something... "move on! next group!"
heh.
mary & lisa took me to costco last night to buy party food. we got a lot of fancy stuff. (i mean, we'll have potato chips, but we'll also have stuff like steamed asparagus & puff pastries.) they also insisted on knowing what i was going to wear, so afterwards i did a mini fashion show for them. they raided my closet... i think i tried on 4 or 5 outfits before they finally wholeheartedly approved of something. it was actually kind of fun.
tony & mary anne have driven up from charlotte for the party (!!) and they're staying at charo's house. i went over there after the fashion show to have a little dinner and catch up with them before they headed out to the lambchop show at the cradle. i think they offered to come by this afternoon and help us clean, too. they're insane.
ok, i've gotta go vacuum and stuff. i'm really excited about tonight!
the woman taking my order at los portales last night knew even less english than the woman i'm accustomed to. when i ordered a glass of water with my tacos, i just knew she wasn't understanding me. so i wasn't too surprised when i got to XDU and found i had a glass full of that milky stuff that mexicans call water.
but it actually tasted really good! it was terribly sweet, though. it reminded me of chai tea. i would have prefered clear old water... i wonder if i just ask for "agua" (sesame street taught me that) if i'll get what i want? help me out here, phil.
this morning i got my drivers license renewed. i stopped by the branch on miami boulevard in durham, but they had the door locked and a sign posted telling us to visit their mobile service center. it didn't say where the mobile sevice center was, though, so i walked up to a gaggle of men in the parking lot and asked. turns out they were it. but they hadn't finished setting up yet, and he didn't know when they'd be done. so i decided to go to the branch on capitol boulevard near work instead.
i waited for an hour and a half at this branch (which wasn't too aggravating, since i'd brought a copy of bust with me for entertainment... the only tricky thing was arranging the magazine so that the vibrator ads weren't prominently displayed to the elderly lady sitting next to me) and i smiled when i heard my number being called by the sweetest-looking of the employees... a middle-aged black man who was humming beneath his breath. i commented on it and we had a nice friendly chat about what a nice day it was outside, and how he wanted to go ride his motorcycle.
i asked him if i could try to take the eye test without my glasses and he said ok. the machine apparently tests one eye and then the other, because he said "read the second line" (which i did), then he flipped something in the machine and said "now read the second line again" and there was nothing there. i said, "there's nothing there!" but as i pulled my head back i could see that there was, in fact, something there. ooops.
every time i go to the eye doctor he says, "you see double, don't you?" and i say, "no." and every time he says, "no... you do see double, it's just that your brain has adapted to it and it does a good job merging the two images into one." when he gives me the card to test my depth perception i never see any of the fuzzy circles jump off the page like i'm supposed to. i had 3 operations on my eyes when i was a small child (to correct the crossed-eyes i was born with) and have worn glasses ever since... mostly to help train a lazy eye, i think. my eyesight isn't really all that bad. it's just that my eyes have to work together in order for me to see anything. so my license once again says i have to wear glasses when i'm driving. which is good news for you. ;-)
for lunch today i did something i have never ever done... i went to hardees and got a hamburger. first of all, i never leave the station to go out for lunch, so that was new. we're just so far away from everything that "going out for lunch" simply takes too long. but the gorgeous weather lured me out. i'm glad it did.
secondly, i rarely eat fast food, so that's unusual too. but something seemed appealing about hardees today (probably their slogan about how "the last place you considered going for a burger will now become your first")... and i have to say, it was really quite good. surprisingly so. plus, my GI tract seems pretty happy, so all the better.
oh! and i just heard from charo's beau... he's invited the french atmospheric engineer and her boyfriend to my party, and they're planning on coming! yay!
on my way home from work last night i stopped off at cozy to see if they have any more of the yarn i need for my baby-blanket project. i need more dark purple and they only had one skein (d'oh! i need 2 or 3 more!), but they kindly ordered more for me (with an admonition to "buy more than you think you'll need next time... you can always return it."). sometimes the people in there are nice, and other times not. still, where else can you buy yarn in durham? my knowledge is limited in this area.
i also stopped in at international delights for some take-out. i really don't go there very often... the ketchup-nazi frightens me terribly. (also the sign that says "do not talk to us while we're cooking your food" seems a little rude.) but i do love a good gyro, and their felafel is to die for too, so i got a little of both to snarf down before i headed out for the night.
charo & i went to see the duke symphony's spring concert. this is not something we'd typically do together, but her new beau plays bass in the ensemble and he'd invited her to attend. we had a nice time, giggling and smiling at him while the music played. musically speaking, though, i was reasonably impressed with the orchestra's string section, and the woodwinds seemed pretty strong, too. but -ugh- the brass left a lot to be desired. oh well. it was free.
afterwards we met up with charo's beau at francesca's, and we had the most wonderful time. he brought along a few of his friends: a french woman who is studying atmospheric engineering (whatever that is), her animated and funny boyfriend, and an israeli student who is studying the migratory patterns of birds.
such a lofty group! but we all just chatted happily about summer camp, hot dogs, scooters and duke basketball. we shut the place down and i was sorry to say goodbye to those new friends. i should have thought to invite them to the party on saturday.
speaking of which, if i've somehow stupidly forgotten to invite you to the party, please let me know... after offering my apologies i'll gladly send you all the pertinent info.
anyway, last night was the first time i've really spent any time with charo's beau. he is super-duper sweet, smart and funny. and so smitten with her. i'm really happy for them both... i hope they're together for a long, long time.
shortly after i got home my brother called. i was in such a good mood from the lively conversation at francesca's that i feel like i just yammered away on the phone at him, but i think it was one of the most fun conversations he & i have had in a while. i went to bed after that with a huge smile on my face. i feel happy.
oh, tonight is (tacos-and-)divaville night. the playlist for tonight's show will be here. it's on WXDU 88.7, from 6-8pm... so listen, ok?
my eye is better today. after the 4th hot compress the sty burst (ewwww!) and most of the swelling went away. it's still red, though, mostly because i'm still using the compresses. better to be safe than sorry, i guess. i used the "stye" stuff twice, but really didn't like it much... it's mostly vaseline, i think, and it fogged up my vision even worse than the sty itself.
i scored at the dollar store today. ray & i keep breaking glasses in the dishwasher, so i was really happy to find a groovy set of tumblers & rocks glasses called "circleware" that are really hip. $1 each. they had tons of anchor hocking stuff, too. every once in a while i find some stemware from crate & barrel, or some glassware from oneida. i do love my dollar store.
my house has 2 fireplaces, but until today i only had 1 set of tools... i cashed in on home depot's 50% off sale on fireplace equipment. i bought a brass set, which is definitely not my taste, but i had some unfortunate brass pieces from a previous purchase years earlier, so i just went for it and decided that coordination was more important than individual style. (but is it??)
i got so much cleaning & organizing done yesterday that i'm no longer stressed about the party on saturday night. (though a mysterious new zit appeared overnight.) i've got a few things left on my to-do list, but nothing that can't be done friday night or during the day on saturday. i was feeling so relaxed last night that ray & i even sat down & watched some TV together, which we haven't done in ages. (in fact, i don't think we've shared the couch since lisa got him addicted to buffy.)
this horoscope seems apropos:
Through an act of grace you don't fully understand, mind-forged manacles will have vanished. So what should you do next? I suggest you celebrate. Throw a "Get Out of Jail" party for yourself. Then run wild for a couple of days.
this has nothing to do with anything (other than my obsession with david byrne), but i just thought it was hilarious that in his bio on the bonnaroo web site david talks about a dream he's in with carrie bradshaw & mr. big.
he's got a nice story on there about standing at a wet urinal wearing bread shoes, too. yet somehow i still love him.
on sunday night i started to notice a pain in my right eye, right below the lower lid. by monday i could see a little lump developing right where an eyelash should be. and this morning i woke up to a totally puffy, red, swollen eye. it's lovely. i feel so sexy. (don't click on that link if you're the queasy-type.)
recommended treatments for styes seem to be hot compresses (15 minutes, 4 times a day), vitamin c, zinc (up to 75 mg/day), and this over-the-counter product imaginatively called "stye". i plan on doing all of these things today.
the combination of not being able to see well out of my right eye, plus ANOTHER FREAKING SNOW STORM were enough to have my boss tell me to stay put today. with pleasure. this morning i've been cleaning the house, dusting, putting things away (there were still 2 boxes i hadn't unpacked since moving in last may) and generally just making things tidy.
but before this purging/cleaning frenzy began, charo came over with a borrowed station wagon to help us haul a big pile of old lumber to the dump. (this is all leftover debris from the bathroom renovation last august... it's been sitting on our back driveway, rotting away since then.)
it was actually a fun trip (given that it was 7:30am and i had an eye swollen shut). the people at the dump on club boulevard were very nice, and the whole load only cost me $2 to get rid of! i wish i had more stuff to haul over there... it's a very cathartic experience to throw 200 pounds of crap into a huge dumpster.
last night i finished the painting i was working on. i really like it!
i think this is our 3rd snow this season. it's getting tiresome, even if it is beautiful.
it started to fall last night. for several hours before we went to bed we watched the snow coat everything in sight. and it caused me to have the most terrible dream.
in my dream (or it could have really been happening, i don't know) i heard a hoot owl. it sounded really close, and as i was sleeping it occurred to me that i'd never heard hooting so close before. i started wondering whether the owl could possibly be in my attic. memories of scampering squirrels floated through my head.
then, in my dream i woke up and started walking through the house to see what was up. 6 or 7 trees had come down during the night and all had fallen through the house in various ways.
some of the shorter trees had barely hit the house, their tops only poking through the windows. some of the skinnier trees had crashed, as gracefully as possible, through the roof, creating reasonably mild damage (at least compared to hurricane isabel). but there were at least 2 big trees that had created terrible holes in the roof, allowing the hoot owls into the attic.
i was so glad to wake up from that dream. the house is fine. but i'm feeling totally disoriented... that dream felt so real.
my appointment with my alopecia dermatologist has been cancelled due to weather. i'm more than a bit relieved... i was hoping to have found myself a new doctor by the time this appointment rolled around, but i put it so far on the back burner that the impulse had totally cooled.
it looks like the roads aren't too bad. i'm going to try to go to work here in a couple of hours.
* painted my 60"x28" canvas black. (will finish the art-work this week.)
* painted bathroom yellow. i hate it.
* painted bathroom trim, doors & ceiling hi-gloss white. i love it.
* painted ledge for front hall.
* painted bookcase hi-gloss brown.
i've been a paint fiend today.
i'm praying for 6" of snow tonight so i'll be able to stay home tomorrow (as i've already been directed to do, should this weather event actually materialize) and complete some other projects. but overall, items are getting crossed off the to-do list at a nice pace. i'm starting to feel more relaxed about having people to the house on saturday for the party.
well, i fulfilled my promise of getting 8 hours of sleep last night. i didn't wake up until almost 11am. when i saw the clock i grinned. and my worst zit is drying up. so there.
i decided to start the day by making the sheer curtains for the closet in the bathroom. then by 1pm i was working on the slipcover to the old, peach-colored chair i'd bought at habitat hand-me-ups well over a year ago. i've hated that peach since i saw it, but i knew eventually i'd have the energy to re-cover it. today was the day.
it's definitely not a professional job, but it's better than it was. it took me 6 hours to do, which totally bummed me out. it was exhausting. probably because i really had no idea what i was doing. (that, and i chose a corduroy fabric, and it was hard keeping the cords straight.)
when i was done with that, i made the coffee table in the den into an ottoman (by adding foam & fabric), and then it was time for dinner.
earlier in the day ray & i had settled on a new valentine's tradition. we decided we'd make dinner together --it had to be a dish we'd never cooked before-- and we also decided we'd split the cost of one red rose. so at 9pm we started cooking pork chops with apricot stuffing. we also had red new potatoes and sauteed asparagus. and a bottle of shiraz. (he also surprised me with a heart-shaped carvel ice-cream cake.) it was all very good!!
we're going to watch gene kelly in "brigadoon" here in a minute, but it's likely i'll fall asleep before it's over (even though 'almost like being in love' makes me swoon).
it's really amazing how exhausting this day has been (and how little i have to show for it... at least given my warped sense of productivity). maybe i'll try to knit during the movie; at least that will be one more thing accomplished. ;-)
i stayed up too late last night. i couldn't help it. survivor got me all worked up, then i got carried away with knitting. i finally started getting ready for bed around 12:30, but suddenly decided i'd just had it with the pile of papers taking over my desk, waiting to be filed. so i just sat right down on the floor and started sorting. (pinky must be inspiring me.) the filing didn't take too long, but by the time i turned the lights out it was close to 1:30, and i thought, "uh-oh. tomorrow's gonna suck."
but so far it hasn't. we're in the middle of a big fundraising mailing here at work, which means loads of volunteers come by to stuff envelopes. there's always a lot of laughter when the station is full of people who love music so much. one of the new volunteers, jim, cornered me near the donuts and we ended up happily chatting (and eating) for a half-hour or so. it's a nice time to be here.
i'm putting myself under a lot of stress, though, to get an ungodly number of home-improvement projects done before the party on the 21st. the house is in perfectly fine shape right now to host a shindig, but i'm self-imposing a list of Things To Do, regardless.
wait... "perfectly fine shape" might have been an overstatement. i really do need to paint the green-tiled bathroom. right now there's only primer on the walls, and i've had a gallon of paint sitting on the floor in there for about 4 months. that really should be taken care of --and i will, this weekend-- but the rest of the stuff i'm planning is just stuff that will make me crazy trying to get done.
however, i find that if i compile a huge "to-do" list --and i'm talking HUGE... like "what-the-hell-are-you-thinking??"-huge-- i become extraordinarily productive and efficient. every minute becomes accounted for. i LOVE it. more than that, i love crossing things off the to-do list. it's immensely gratifying.
so, perhaps it's the accumulating lack of sleep, and maybe it's the self-imposed stress, or maybe it's the dr. pepper i had yesterday... but i now have 2 zits on my face. my complexion has been clear for a couple of years now (more or less, anyway), so this is disturbing. no more soda... that was surely my first mistake. and i'll try to get a full 8 hours of sleep tonight. the massive "to-do" list, though... i don't know. i think i'll risk acne for productivity.
i read this on-air today:
"Tchaikovsky's most nerve-racking time was when he had to conduct an orchestra. He was terrified of literally losing his head while conducting, so he would hold on to it with his left hand while beating time with his right." 1this is the same man who conducted the first concerts in carnegie hall in 1891. of course, that made him so nervous that he spent the entire week crying in his hotel room.
1 from "Lives of the Musicians... Good times, Bad times (and What the Neighbors Thought)", by Kathleen Krull
dammit. i always intend to post this link before divaville, but i consistenly forget. i need to take some of that stuff that helps my remembery, whatever it's called. anyway, here's the link to tonight's playlist.
i had some good calls tonight... one of my regular fans, richard, phoned to tell me that he never thought he'd like wayne newton, but thanks to my show he's really gaining quite an appreciation for his fine voice. ha HA! my plan is working! worldwide wayne domination!
i haven't posted any photos in a while. i like when other people post photos on their blog, so here's something:
we didn't always look alike, though.
and i wonder what ever happened to those boots?
oh lord, i forgot to talk about how excellent last week's tacos were. i know it seems a silly topic, but i live for los portales' tacos. every thursday, after work and before divaville, i drive by and get 2 or 3 chicken tacos. i've been doing this for probably 9 months, and last week they were better than ever before.
they're soft tacos, of course, in home-made corn tortillas. they have real chicken (sometimes you even get a bone or two), lettuce, tomatoes and 2 kinds of funky white cheese... one kind looks like feta (but is much more mild) and the other is a runny white cheese. i have no earthly idea what either of them are, but they're both so good i don't care.
anyway, last week, there was very little cheese on the tacos, which was disappointing, but what they lacked in cheese they made up for in fresh cilantro! mounds and mounds! i gasped when i got to XDU and opened up the box. oh god, they were so good.... *drool*.
tonight's tacos didn't live up to last week's, but they were still very yummy. no fresh cilantro, but several tasty jalapenos.
i'm finally learning how to ask for water. sometimes the nice hispanic ladies want to give me some kind of mexican water-beverage that isn't really water. i just look at them, and say "plain water" and move my hand in a flat sideways motion and that seems to do it.
i really need to learn some spanish.
it's been one of those days where things keep making me smile.
first it was finding a good parking place at UNC hospital. then it was watching a small boy's delight at being in a glass-walled elevator. and the nice lady sitting next to me on the tram made me smile with her talk of the approaching snow, even though i myself am not excited by it.
i got pissy, though, when my GYN once again voiced her desire to see me 'get married and get rid of the IUD'. that's the second time she's said something like that, and i think i might just write her a letter. not everyone has her agenda... some people can, in fact, be perfectly happy without getting married and having children.
but then i got happy again when i popped into marshalls on my way home and stumbled across 2 totally swank chairs. also a nice, big mirror for over the fireplace. score!
i also got a chuckle out of the fellow who helped me buy a cut of artist's canvas at hungates in the mall. one of the cashiers called for his help over the intercom: "bob... customer service at the front!" and bob literally hollered back, "i'm doing customer service in the back!" then he looked at me and we both smiled.
i have gotten so much done today. a lot of shopping, but a lot of putting-together, too. i now have 3 new chairs (in addition to the 2 from marshalls, i also finally broke down and bought the Most Comfortable Chair On Earth from morgan imports), i have stretched a big (60"x28") canvas for my dining room art project, i've hung shelves in my bedroom, and i just feel like i'm on a roll. every day this house gets better, and i get happier.
i woke up with a headache. actually, it wasn't so much a headache as an eye ache... a terrible throbbing, directly behind my right eye and squidging out to my right temple.
after 2 cups of coffee (one of my co-workers insisted it would help) things ran pretty smoothly. my boss is leaving town tomorrow for two weeks, so a lot of time was devoted to assurances that we wouldn't burn the place to the ground in her absence.
things started to get really exciting after work. the durham symphony started a new round of rehearsals tonight. (i work as their stage manager & music librarian as a second job.) i've been doing this job for 4 or 5 years and tonight was the hardest night so far.
i got to the arts council building only to discover the key to the rehearsal room was missing. a problem easily overcome, though, as the off-duty sheriff-cum-security-guard had a master key that he lent me. so i opened up the space and almost immediately noticed that there were no music stands in the room. there are usually 60.
so, master key in hand, i started walking around the area looking for a whole mess of big bulky music stands. when i couldn't find any, i moved on to the next floor. no dice. the 3rd floor... nothing. i even unlocked the performance space to take a look, but i couldn't figure out how to turn on the lights.
i went back down to the sheriff and told him my problem... essentially, that 60 musicians were going to be showing up in approximately 20 minutes, expecting to have something to place their music on, and given the current state of things they were going to be sorely disappointed.
well, he really didn't seem to care. but i didn't leave his desk. i needed help... he wanted to surf the 'net. i eventually won...
...because in the course of my search i had seen that the light was still on in the arts council's executive director's office. so i went and knocked on her door (nothing like going straight to the top!) and informed her of the problem. she promptly phoned the building manager at home, grilled him as to the whereabouts of the 60 missing music stands, and then ordered the sheriff to help me move them. (they were hiding in a 3rd floor meeting room that i would have never thought to look in.)
time was ticking away before rehearsal started, and as we rode the freight elevator packed full of stands the sheriff suddenly starts to become friendly. he wants to know where i live ("duke park"), if i have a husband ("a boyfriend"), how long we've been together ("4.5 years"), and what my boyfriend does for a living ("um... are you married?? do you have kids??"). jeebus! it was a friendly interrogation, but it was starting to weird me out. it wasn't until we were done moving all the stands (2 trips in the clanky frieght elevator together) that i even thought to ask his name. "reese." then he asked mine and i should've lied. but i didn't.
after that exhausting ordeal the evening started to go a little more predictably, but the first rehearsal for a new concert is always hard for me. passing out all of the music, making sure musicians aren't missing parts, organizing the music from the prior concert that people are only just now returning when they should have done so two months ago... it's a lot of paperwork. sheet music work. and on top of all of that, i'm also lugging around stands, chairs and tympani... all with a busted foot. so when i finally got a chance to sit down and eat my 3-hour-old veggie sub i was thankful. i was also thankful that i had about 30 minutes towards the end of rehearsal to relax and knit a bit. hopefully next week i'll be able to do even more knitting, as the music (and music stand) issues should require less attention.
one of my favorite things about working for the durham symphony is interacting with the conductor, alan neilson. he looks like a conductor, with wild sprays of white hair going every which way, and acts like a conductor in that he often says goofy things that make perfect sense to him but leave the rest of us scratching our heads. two things came rolling out of his mouth today that made me laugh, so i decided to start compiling a list of "neilson-isms" (sort of like "ormandy-isms").
today's entries both occurred during the first run-through of stravinsky's firebird suite. this is tricky music, with strange time changes and syncopations. it's a familiar-sounding piece to most of the players, but is still difficult to sight-read. after a particularly difficult passage that resulted in a lot of confused questions from the musicians, alan got a little frustrated and said:
"you know, this music has been played before. it can be done."
"wow. does anyone have any notes left over??"
my foot is not broken. i had several x-rays taken today, and none of them showed any fractures. no ligament damage, either. so whatever went "SNAP!" when i slipped on the ice must've either healed itself quickly or i just had rice krispies in my boots.
my doctor totally likes me. he had a medical student following him around today, and just before he entered my exam room i heard him say to her, "do you know what she does for a living??!" it was kind of cute.
anyway, he told me it could take up to 6 weeks for all of the brusing to go away, but he didn't even schedule any kind of follow up appointment for me, nor did he give me a wooden shoe to wear. so there you go... my impulse to not see a doctor was spot-on. this time, anyway.
ok, i just have to talk paint. i spent the entire weekend with a paint brush in my hand and i still have the aches and pains to show for it. but it was so worth it. i've lived here for about 9 months now, and i had yet to feel like i loved this house. all this time it felt like the house owned me. the tree through the roof, the furnace, the bathroom remodeling... that's a lot to go through in such a short span of time.
anyway, it sounds totally cornball to say it, but the paint makes all the difference in the world. i now love this house. this room feels so warm and cozy, and i finally feel like i'm in control. i could sit here in the living room forever. it's perfect.
i've painted a lot of rooms in my life, but this one... just... feels... right. it's now my house, my color, my space. i really truly feel like i'm home now.
except now the kitchen totally stands out. it's screaming for a new color now, too. dammit. i wonder how long i'm going to be able to stand it. (it can't take more than a day to paint, right??)
i heard that groan, lisa. ;)
it's been one helluva weekend. many, many thanks to lisa, charo & ray for their help!
tired now. must sleep...
* does bush have someone in samoa looking for osama? it just seems logical.
* whose awful idea was this? charo & i saw it at the carolina theatre tonight and the most entertaining thing about the whole evening was counting the minutes until intermission (during which we left the building). we had to go drink cosmopolitans at magnolia grill afterwards just to erase the whole experience from our minds. terrible, terrible.
* who names paint colors? i think i'd like that job. i'm painting tomorrow, and i've chosen as my colors pumpkin butter, cinnabar, and fencepost. but i could have just as easily chosen herbal scent (?!), baked scone, or joyous.
two of my friends are emailing me a lot today because they're bored at work.
i'm sending them links to try to keep them entertained, and now i'm getting links from them, too. here are some of them:
links i sent:
* top left pixel
* the believer magazine's motel reviews
* ephemera now
* astronomy picture of the day
links i got back:
* charo & tina's moist towelette collection
* watch me eat a hot dog
* orkut
this morning i got breakfast in bed. well, i got bacon in bed. ray is learning how to cook bacon just how i like it (flat and crispy), and he enjoys trying to get it just right. consequently we've been eating a lot of bacon lately. it was nice, though, to have hot meat in bed this morning. (heh heh.)
i need to start posting my divaville playlists here. i think that would be a good thing to do. promotion of the show and all. (thursday nights from 6-8pm on WXDU!) so here's last night playlist, and here's a link to a page about the show. enjoy.
i'm thisclose to buying a new domain name and moving everything i've got (including this blog) to a new host. my web life is just so scattered right now. everything resides on, like, 5 different servers. it's totally dumb. i'm considering moving to dreamhost.com, mostly because i like their "about us" page. oh, and their plans seem very good, too. :-) if you have any suggestions on web-hosts, though, please pass them along. i'm thinking i'd like to really get moving on this and maybe have whole new website going by the end of the month.
gosh, isn't that funny? like i don't have enough on my plate right now. one of my co-workers just stood here, slack-jawed, when i told her i was painting this weekend. she said, "you are the most productive person i know. i want to be like you."
i'd like to be a little less like me, though... i want long evenings to sit in front of the fire and do crossword puzzles. i want romantic jaunts to the mountains. i want crazed weekend shopping trips to NYC with my girlfriends. but there's just too much damn crap around the house to do.
my problem, i think, is that it still hasn't really sunk in that i own my house. i mean, conceptually i know i own it... but for some reason i feel like i need to fix it up FAST in case i have to move out soon. i'm having a hard time embracing the idea that i might actually live in this house for more than, say, 3 years. (that's about the maximum amount of time i've lived in any one place.) this rapid-paced fix-up is wearing me out. plus, in the last week i've only managed to get one more square knitted for the baby blanket. i'll be glad when my 2nd job with the durham symphony starts up next week and i can just sit there and knit for 3 hours while they're rehearsing.
of course, depending on what dr. nunley says at my foot-appointment on monday, i may not be working with the symphony for a while. i really need the money, though. now that the squirrels seem to be gone, we're being invaded by mice... i'm trying to figure out whether i should just let the cats deal with them, or call an exterminator. the cats are a much cheaper alternative. cuter, too, i'll bet.
so, at the urging of my over-protective little brother (who i love a lot) i emailed my orthopaedist a picture of my foot and asked him what i should do.
That is a fair amount of blood in the foot and I definitely think you need to have it checked. If it is a distal fracture, you are right, we would not do anything but put you in a wooden shoe, but if it is a more proximal fracture which it could be, it actually could need surgery. Let me see you this Monday, February 9 @ 12:00p and we will get an x-ray.James Nunley, MD
this is the doctor that has been working on my wrists, too. and apparently he listens to me on the radio all the time. i don't know if he treats his other patients as well as he treats me (i mean, he scheduled an appointment for me --himself-- over email!), but given how much i generally dislike my other doctors i'll happily revel in this special treatment while i can get it.
well, it's become clear that i, indeed, have broken my foot. i'm sure lisa is reading this right now and saying under her breath, "yeah, i told you so, you idiot." lisa's always good for a pep-talk. :-)
but, you know... over the years i've broken a zillion bones in my feet and ankles. if there's something to break down there, godammit i'll break it. i graduated college on crutches, for chrissakes. so when i heard that little 'snap' when i slipped on the ice last week i wasn't worried... i've been through this before. but i really wasn't in very much pain at all, so i questioned whether i'd really broken anything. my foot turned purple and green, but still i wasn't really limping. just look at that photo... it's plainly obvious that something happened inside my foot, but whatever it was wasn't causing me much more than very mild discomfort.
well, yesterday i was moving things around on in my office and i tried to catch a book as it tumbled off the shelf... i put weight on my foot in a weird, twisty way and it HURT. like the blazes. ow ow ow.
so, yeah. ok. it's broken.
still, i'm not going to the doctor. they never cast feet or toes. you may want them to, but all they'll do is give you an ace bandage, the fuckers. so i'm just going to wait it out... try not to run any marathons in the next couple of weeks, or go to cheerleading school or anything. i should probably try to avoid wearing any high-heels, too, but dammit if that's all i've been buying lately. i don't think i can bring myself to wear tennis shoes to work again... *shudder*.
after all of this, i suppose i shouldn't have been surprised when i read the first line of my free will astrology horoscope today:
Red alert! Your behavior is beginning to have an eerie resemblance to the guy who regularly stands on a street corner in Beijing and offers himself up as a punching bag.
i was wearing my wrist brace as i read this, too. i'm sure i'm quite a sight... it must look like the left side of my body is falling off. purple foot, black-braced hand. what a mess. maybe i can try drooling out of the left side of my mouth for full effect.
this is what happens when you turn 35, right? i mean, my birthday is in a couple of weeks... this is just a precursor to all the horrible body-things that are going to happen to me this year... i'm sure of it.
in an effort to forget about my impending physical failures, though, we are planning a birthday/housewarming party for the 21st. write it in your calendar. i'm frantically sprucing up the house in preparation for the big event (as much as a semi-crippled individual can, i mean). i am actually going to paint this weekend... i hate sea-green and i have never in my life been inspired by white walls, and i've got both. so they're all getting covered with 'pumpkin butter' (not literally) this weekend and i couldn't be more excited.
oh yes, and there will be no squirrels at this party... all the critters living in my attic have apparently been caught (and no one else seems to be interested in taking up residence there). there's been no activity in the traps since the 31st. that's 4 days. now all i have to do is figure out how to get rid of the mice without poisoning the cats.
i dreamt that 8 or 10 people (including myself) got into into my friend kevin's house. we weren't a well-formed group... we were stragglers, all just looking for a place to hang out for a few hours... nothing sinister, no harm intended. we somehow let ourselves in to his house and just hung out for a while. some people were napping, others were talking in small groups. i was in the kitchen, cooking something.
when kevin came home, he wasn't too happy about us being there... but he felt outnumbered, so rather than fight us all off he just sat down in front of his TV and silently fumed. when i noticed he'd come home, i happily plopped myself down beside him and kissed his cheek. it was only then that i saw how upset he was. so i took it upon myself to try to evict everyone.
it was hard. no one wanted to leave. a couple of people had pizzas delivered. i was getting upset, so i decided to do something radical: i sabotaged the electrical system.
i went outside and asked a big burly guy to start cutting into the main wire that feeds electricity to the house. we both knew it would spark, so we were standing by with fire extinguishers. the sparks flew every which way and the fire grew instantly out of control. our extinguishers were no match for it.
then i woke up.
i think i was having this dream as i was trying to fall asleep. i was extremely cold... my feet were ice cubes and i was shivering a little bit, even beneath my down comforter. i was in this half-conscious state and remember thinking "i'll warm up in a minute"... but i never did. i was sort of in a semi-lucid state for what felt like an hour, dreaming this weird dream about fire and not able to get up and put socks on my frigid feeet.
i finally did push myself out of bed, though, and put on some slippers and a light jacket.
TAPE, for a brief moment, reminded me of a film david mamet might make. david mamet films are always highly focused on dialogue, and movies that are pure, uninterrupted dialogue are extremely interesting to me. TAPE was extremely interesting to me.
as roger ebert's review points out, there is no soundtrack, and there are no 'big gassy meaningless events.' it's just people... talking. and i love films like this. my dinner with andre, mindwalk, death and the maiden, mamet's vanya on 42nd street and oleanna, or even linklater's own waking life... they're all just basically people sitting around, talking. i always walk away from these movies feeling very satisfied. challenged. privileged to be taken, through their words, into the depths of these people's minds.
i've seen a few stage plays which consist only of 2 or 3 people stuck in a room, talking... but they never satisfy me in the same way as these movies do. the movies are magic, somehow, and the plays seem forced and flat. of course film has the advantage of being able to change the POV with a variety of camera angles, and you can't really do that in theater... but there's also something intangibly significant about putting dialogue up on a screen... to me, it makes the story more powerful than by just having actors stage a discussion in a playhouse.
lisa and i were talking, before the movie, about TLC's program, date patrol. a crew of 4 or 5 'specialists' take one floundering would-be dater and restyle them into a hardcore dating machine. they offer interpersonal advice, grooming advice, fashion advice... but what's most interesting to me are their lessons on how to have a conversation.
this is, apparently, a skill that is not innate in us. we have to learn how to have satisfying conversations. some people are quick to pick up the intricacies of it, while others need a reality-show ambush lesson. mimicking seems to help your conversation partner feel more at ease. raising your eyebrows indicates interest. don't forget to ask, "yes, and...?" questions. there are a whole slew of guidelines that have been set up to ensure a good flow of communication between two people.
my resolution last year was to throw a dinner party every month. i decided i'd invite 4 people to the house for dinner with ray & i. the challenge was to put together groups of people who would automatically generate interesting conversation. and when it succeeded it was extremely fulfilling. the discussions weren't always deep or philosophical... the topic itself didn't interest me as much as the idea of people being open, honest, and sharing their personality... that's all i cared about.
now that ray and i are in the new house and trees have stopped falling through the roof, i really want to start doing the dinner parties again. i miss them.
* check the squirrel traps. both are empty.
* take photo of injured foot. notice the spectacular color while pondering the relative absence of pain.
* make blueberry pancakes and bacon for breakfast. yum.
* contemplate, for the umpteenth consecutive day, paint colors for the living room, dining room & front hall.1
* go see 'monster' with lisa.2 forget to turn cell phone off.
* examine list of oscar-nominated films with day-timer in hand. many films to see, little time to see them.3
* knit while watching presidential candidates' debate with tom brokaw.
* finish puttying joints in bathroom baseboards.4
* assemble new bathroom cabinet (pictured, with the toilet i installed all by myself, thankyouverymuch). be thankful for leftover pergo glue; elmer's wood glue has gone missing.
* finish bathroom baseboards with bright white high-gloss paint.
* feel ambitious; paint window trim and door, too. accidentally back into fresh paint.
* shop for towel bars online.5
* go to sarah's for the survivor premiere. ehhhhxcellent.
1 painting party at my house this weekend! i could use some help, if you're feeling generous with your time.
2 an extremely compelling performance by charlize theron. i thought the movie as a whole was weaker than her singular performance, though. she'll surely get the academy award for best actress. but christina ricci's character drove me bonkers. how historically accurate is this film?
3 anyone want to go see mystic river, in america, 21 grams, master and commander or the cooler with me?
4 i like their t-shirts.
5 did you know that towel bars can cost hundreds of dollars??!? it's ridiculous!
