Der Waffle Haus

2007-03-30T21:49:00.000-07:00

2007-01-29T16:45:00.000-08:00

2007-01-29T16:39:00.000-08:00

2007-01-21T00:09:00.000-08:00

2007-01-19T23:13:00.000-08:00

2006-12-04T19:56:00.000-08:00

Women who get it done

Me as Vampire

2006-10-29T22:53:00.001-08:00

Me as Vampire
Originally uploaded by AdieAngel.

Dawn & Nicole

2006-10-29T22:53:00.000-08:00

Dawn & Nicole
Originally uploaded by AdieAngel.

This Blog has Moved!

2006-10-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

So, I don't know if anyone still checks this blog anymore, but I've decided to use my MySpace blog for current ramblings and thoughts. I figure, I'm on MySpace more, and I haven't updated this one in so long I don't even know if anyone's still got it bookmarked. So here's the address for my new-ish blog. Please look at that instead, if you're still interested in reading my crap. Thanks.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=63186698

I've been a bad, bad girl.

2006-01-02T10:58:00.000-08:00

You know when you KNOW you've done something wrong and you want desperately to make it right but it's SO wrong that you don't know if doing something will make it better or do more damage than what has already been done? Well, maybe my situation isn't quite that bad, but it's bad. I'm ashamed to admit that I owe the following people phone calls, over the course of the past, oh, TWO MONTHS or so:

Cujo: 3
Georgie: 2, and 1 email (including a birthday phone call - I KNOW!)
Korn-Dog: 1
Cailita: 1
Teresa: 2, and 1 email
Nicole: 1
Stefanie: 1 email
Chad: 1 email
Caroline: 1 email
Kim: 1 email

Look at me! I'm just a horrible person. What are my excuses? School, yes. Sleep, yes. The craziness of the holidays, yes. Those are all genuine REASONS - not just excuses - for my totally isolating behavior. I KNOW I've not written these people, or talked to them. I'm SO BAD. I KNOW THiS. And, for what it's worth, I am sorry. It's just that... you miss one call, for example. You tell yourself that you're going to call back. It's a really bad time right now, but you will. Then a week or so goes by and an email comes at another really bad time and you can't... then you realize that you forgot to call that person back and you just know that now they'll probably be mad at you for not calling and now not emailing so you avoid the situation until suddenly two or three months go by and you're going to spend a week with them after ignoring them and you wonder whether they'll even be willing to spend time with you at that point. See where my mind is?

Okay, so. Yea. Heh. Um...

It's the holiday season. I bet you know that already. Heh. So, I'm at home now. In Tahoe. Ish. My parents live about 20 minutes east of Tahoe in Nevada. We just got home yesterday from two weeks in Tucson with my 80 year old and increasingly hearing-impaired grandmother. It's been insane. There was luncheon after luncheon, Christmas parties where the youngest person in the room - besides me - were my parents, and shopping. Lots of shopping. But let's start from the beginning (yippee, you're thinking, eh?).

I flew in on the 14th of December, just two short days after finishing a stressful editing final project for my TV Comedy class (I worked with three undergrads, or "undies", as we call them) wherein we shot and put together the same sitcom scene in four generations, detailing how the comedy and roles of women have changed in comedy television since the 1950s. It was fun, but everyone in Boston has the sniffles and it was about 19 degrees out when I left. Heh. Then, I had a 7:30 AM flight out, and my shuttle was meant to pick me up at my apartment at 5:00. AM. Yes, the buttcrack of dawn. I sat there until after six, frantically calling the shuttle company, who decided - apparently - to go back to sleep and turn on their voice mail instead of DOING THEIR PREPAID JOB, so at 6:15 I called a Taxi and was rushed to the airport just in time to catch my flight. Whew! So, I made it home in one piece, although they lost one of my suitcases (the one with the clothes, not the one with the presents. Ironically, I'd told my roommate the day before that I hope - if one gets lost - it be the present one or I'll have nothing to wear. Ah, karma). So, I was home for a couple days before my mother, brother, niece and I jumped in the car for Tucson. My father, who was visiting friends in Utah when I arrived, was to meet us in Tucson. We drove to Vegas on the 18th and stayed at the Sahara. We didn't arrive until 8pm so we basically ate REAL Mexican food (which I'd missed in Beantown - which, surprisingly, not known for their Mexican) and went to bed. The next morning, we hightailed it to Tucson (altogheter about a 16 hour, two day drive) to take my bro and niece to the Tucson airport so they could fly out and visit my sister in New Mexico for the holidays. Then it was just me, my mother, my grandmother, and later my father, until the 30th, when my brother and niece came back.

So, Chrismas was kind of low key. I got a neat alarm clock thing that you stick your iPod in to turn on to your music. It's pretty cool. I also got "The Grimmerie", which is the book about the musical "Wicked", which I'm a bit obsessed (just A BIT) at the moment. And Madonna's new CD, which is basically dance music. Which isn't bad, if you're in the mood. Anyway, we spent New Year's Eve in Boulder City, NV, right across the Hoover Dam and south of Vegas (all of Vegas was sold out or multiple hundreds of dollars a room), and were sadly in bed by 9pm. We got home last night to a flooded county, a power outage, no Internet access (gasp) and dead plants. Oh, and Santa Claus came! So, my niece has spent the morning playing with her princess dolls and Disney Bingo and her Magic set while my father has been cleaning up the back yard (he's been building a shop out back and the tools and stuff blew all over the back yard) while Mom and I have been resetting clocks and unpacking. It's now snowing up a storm, after raining all morning. There's a storm advisory warning, roads all over northern CA and NV are closed, winds up at the ski resorts have clocked in at over 150 mph, and I'm still in my pajamas.

I'll be leaving here on Friday to go down to LA and see if I have any friends left. :) I'll be giving those I do have their Christmas presents, and hopefully hit up the Fashion District and some delish restaurants.

Wow, this is long. Gotta get in the shower and start my day.

Miss you all, even if I don't call you back to tell you!

:)

-AA

And to think, I had a dog named "Buffy" first (no relation)!

2005-11-13T16:02:00.000-08:00

Let me tell you. It's difficult to foster a burgeoning obsession while attending grad school. You cannot devote nearly the necessary amount of time to the obsession itself, and the watching time you devote to said obsession is severely hampered as well. To what am I speaking? Well, thanks to a combination of persistence, boredom, and procrastination, I finally got around to watching Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, for really the first time. Crazy, huh? You'd think that someone whose obsessive history includes X Files, Firefly, and shamefully - yes, even Star Trek - that I'd have gotten around to Buffy a bit sooner. But there's always been this block in my mind about Buffy. First off, it was on the WB, and when I first moved back to the US, I had this block when it came to the net-let. I was a big-four girl, all the way, and it wasn't until I started watching Gilmore Girls in 2002 that I became even remotely familiar with the WB. I missed out on Dawson's Crack (quite willingly), Felicity, and the aforementioned Buffy/Angel crase of the late 90s and early 00s.

So, first, it started off as a network thing. That's fine. Everyone has their network preferences (I'm an NBC kid, myself). But then it got personal. As a die hard XF fan (I hesitate to call myself an "X-Phile", mostly because I hate that term and phoenetically, it sounds just like the name of the show), I resented the place that Buffy took in the lives of those XF fans who just weren't satisfied. I looked at XF like the old faithful friend and Buffy the newer and flashier friend. You weren't getting what you wanted from ol' faithful, so you jump ship to BTVS. So, I stuck it out with XF, through the abduction of Mulder and the introduction of Doggett. Through mystery pregnancies and a staunch denial of romance, even though - HELLO - she was, again, PREGNANT. Yes, I suffered through it all. By the time the show ended, most of the people I was friends/fans with had left XF for Buffy, and that really frosted my cookies. So, I avoided Buffy some more.

But then, ah, then. Then there was Firefly. And I have to admit, it was Cujo's insistence that I watch Firefly that started this whole big snowball rolling. But Firefly got me into Joss, and Joss got me into Buffy. That was it. Basically, I wanted more Joss, and Buffy is the only way to get him (unless you were lucky enough to see him on Veronica Mars last week, in all his smarmy - the character, not him - brilliance). So, Leia lent me season 1 on DVD. It's a nice little starter package for Buffy initiatives. It's half a season, so there isn't much to watch, and it's cute and fun and small. I pounded through that so I could watch it before I left LA, and it wasn't until I got to Boston and set up my Netflix two months later that I finally decided to buckle down and watch the big damn series that started it all.

So, here I am in the fourth season. Faith is crazy, Willow is on the cusp of becoming a lesbian, and Angel has gone on to his own series. And I love it. I'll say it, here and now. This show is awesome. It's better (gasp) than X Files. It's true. Sad, but true. It's got heart. It's got passion. Sure, XF has those, but the latter series was so involved in the plots that the characters fell to the side. But Buffy is ALL about characters. It's about feelings and problems and fears and emotion and loss and sadness and glee. It's not about will-they-won't-they antics or "the greater good". It's about a girl with a gift, trying to live her life. And then there's all that vampire/demon stuff.

But my tale of obsession doesn't end there. Oh, no. That would be letting you of EASY. No, it goes deeper. I mean, it's not like I'm going to Buffy conventions or dressing up like Evil Willow for Halloween (although the thought had crossed my mind), but I did find this web site that intrigued me. It's a little thing called The Buffy and Angel Crossover Guide. Until I found that, I had no intention of watching Angel. It was all evil law firms and demons with lots of makeup, as far as I was concerned. And, frankly, the jury's still out on Angel in the long run, but for now, I've been watchig Buffy and Angel back-to-back (like the guide suggests) and they complement each other so perfectly, I can't imagine watching Buffy without Angel. In fact, the best Buffy episodes of the season were on Angel, when she comes to visit him. Good talks happen.

Plus, David Boreanaz is HOT! :)

It's all very nice. Like McDonalds, I'm Lovin' It (yes, I went there).

So, there you are. A little window into my life. I'm a Buffy girl now. I'm THIS close to buying that big, seven season, 40 disc set that comes out on Tuesday. I'm also this close to getting a cool shirt that says something Joss-y and snarky on it from Cafe Press. Hold me back!

Oh, and I gotta say. Sarah Michelle Gellar has always bugged the hell outta me. I don't know if it's her weirdly shaped nose or her constant perkiness, but she was the focus of the Buffy fandom and, as someone who resented the Buffyverse, I disliked her immensely. But in Buffy, she's actually VERY good. Sure, Buffy's self involved. She's a teenager. Who wasn't, at that age? And she's got to be pretty cool to have such great friends. So, while I'm not going to rush out and rent those masterpieces that are the Scooby Doo saga, I still like her a lot more than I used to.

Finally, somewhat OT (after all, Angel producer Tim Minear was an exec. Producer of WF. Come to think of it, he was a story editor on XF, too.) I got these awesome bookends on eBay not too long ago. They should be arriving any day now. Here's what they look like, and if you've seen Wonderfalls, the extent of their awesomeness should be immediately evident. I'm so excited!

Miss you all!

AdieAngel

So, good news

2005-11-10T17:29:00.000-08:00

Hey, guys. I totally forgot to tell you guys, but I spoke with one of my professors a couple weeks ago and asked her if I could TA for her next semester. She said yes (yippee!) and not only that, but I'm to be her TA for next fall, too. I am so excited! She's my favorite teacher, and incredibly smart and strong and everything good. She's the one who - I believe I may have mentioned her before - looks kind of like Susan Sarandon.

So, in a few weeks, she's going to sit me down with her current TA who will teach me what I'm suppsed to be doing next semester. It's only 10 hours a week, but it's still a good resume-builder and a little cash in my pocket. Plus, I'll have my own office hours and get to work out of her office when I have them. So, tres excited.

Finally, another picture. Cujo was super cool and made me a neat "Jayne" hat (see: Firefly). So, while dilligently avoiding my paper on Friday, I started knitting a scarf to go with it (as this is still the only thing I know how to knit). Here's a picture of Jayne's hat, and me with my hat and most of the scarf.

Here's Jayne in his hat.

This one's me, with my new hat and half-made scarf.

Bye, y'all!

AdieAngel

Me, and stuff

2005-11-09T08:32:00.000-08:00

Bet you guys never thought you'd see me again. Well, Paloma kicked my ass in the metaphorical sense and told me that I was being a bad girl and had to update my blog. So, here I am. Why did it take so long, you ask? Well, part of it is my procrastination... issue... but lately I've actually had the very real excuse of being in a constant state of "midterm-itis". I've had one or two papers, tests, or reports due for the past three weeks. Which SUCKS, let me tell you. I've come to appreciate the fact that, when you work, often you can come home at the end of the day and be done with it. Here, I only technically "work" at school for about 12 hours a week, but spend at least twice that amount of time reading or writing (thankfully, no 'rithmatic).

But it's still fun. In one of my classes, we study the evolution of comedy so naturally we have to watch a LOT of comedy. It's a three hour class, so we watch clips from up to ten series a week. It's pretty cool. We just finished the 80s, so we watched stuff like The Cosby Show, Saved By the Bell, Night Court, and the like. It was a fun little flashback for me. Most of the kids in the class are undergrads, so this was stuff they watched when they were, I dunno, in the WOMB, but it was nice for me.

So... I don't really know what to say now. Does anyone have any questions? My roommates and I are getting along great. Dawn and I have made an agreement to go to the movies together once a week, either Friday or Saturday. I've been spending a lot of time with a few people in my program. We went on this Halloween party thing called a "Boo's Cruise" (get it?), where they gave us two free drinks (well, $10 each, if you cound the price of the ticket) and my friend snuck in both a flask of whiskey (ew) and a bottle of Jack Daniels (double ew). But we drank it and drunk we got. It was fun. Here's a picture:

On the left is me. I went as Elphaba from "Wicked". It was apretty cool costume. But in the words of the immortal Kermit the Frog, "It's not easy being green". Chris, next to me, is a Football Hooligan (he had a bald cap, but it was cheap and you could see his hair through it, so he left it at home). Then Regina, who's some kind of greek goddess. I think Athena. And Lisa, who went as an evil fairy (she had black wings). They're all in my program with me.

Oh, and my roommates came along, too. It was so fun. Dawn (in the middle) went as a, well, we aren't sure what she went as, but it's something like a French tart/waitress/maid thing. And Kim (on the right) had issues with her costume and was trying for Audrey Hepburn but couldn't keep her hair under her black wig and couldn't figure out how to put her hair up like Audrey's. She had the dress and the gloves and the cigarette holder, though. It was pretty cool. Here's that picture:

Um, what else. So... I helped my friend Chris (the aforementioned Football Hooligan) by appearing with our friend Nicole in his Video Production short, which was a mock cooking show called "Power Outage", and I pretended to be someone from a local school disctict teaching Nicole, the host, how to make healthy lunchfood for their kids (so, I had a lot of acting to do to mimic the "concern for health" factor). I showed her how to make a "Bologni Boat" (is that how you spell Bologni?), which is essentially ham and cheese and mustard rolled up and put in a hot dog bun. My character used ham instead of bologni because, as she says, "I'd rather have my children eat lard". And Nicole kept calling it a Ham Boat and I kept correcting her. It was all part of the show, where we intentionally pick at each other and our hatred becomes more obvious as the show goes on. It sounds weird, but it's pretty funny. I watched it. But I hate seeing myself on camera.

I, uh, visited my grandmother in Pennsylvania for Labor Day. I went to my cousin's in Waltham to get my car (get this: by train: 3 hours. Actually: 9 miles. Grrr.) and drove to PA. It took 9 hours. But it was a nice little drive and it was wonderful to see my grandmother. She's awesome. Before I left, I went to the Farmer's Market at Faniul Hall and got some apple butter for her. She liked that, and it was both delicious and sugar free.

I've been spending a lot of time in Brookline (just south of BU), which is this cute neighborhood with a lot of mom-and-pop stores and delicious food. There's Indian, Chinese, Schwarma (!!!), and a Trader Joe's. It's great. And, um, we did part of the Freedom Trail downtown on our way to Mike's Pastry, this delicious authentic Italian pastry place in the Italian District. My goal is to eat at every single Italian restaurant in that district. Although, I must admit, I haven't eaten at a single one so far.

Okay, so I'm gonna stop now. Must read. But I'll talk to you guys again, soon. I hope. :)

Adrienne

A Few Pics

2005-10-03T11:37:00.000-07:00

Hey, all. I'm only going to post a few pictures for the moment, as it's nearly noon and I have a paper due in five hours and still have three pages to write. I promise I'll write more later, but for now, here are those pics:

This is the view of our street from the front stoop of the apartment. See? Not so scary during the day. The pinkish auning is our insanely overpriced laundromat, and the blue next to it is an incredibly mediocre cafe/restaurant called Angora 2.

Here's our street from in front of the laundromat. The door directly under and to the right of the door that is under and to the right of the sign is our door. Not the closer red/brown ones. The red brick building next to the white one. That's us!

These are the lovely flowers my parents sent me on my birthday. Aren't they beautiful? And I just threw them out yesterday, so they lasted a while. Granted, they were dead when I tossed them, but still relavitely presentable.

This is a slice of my cake. Sorry, Cujo. I forgot to take the picture of it until most of it was gone. But it was a cute cookies 'n' creme ice cream cake with white cake and the green frosting is actually vanilla ice cream. Cool, huh? It was a California/Hawaiian theme. Cuz I'm so into the tropical atmosphere, huh? :) It was deeee-lish.

This is my roommate Kimberly's room. I snuck in while she was at class to take the picture. She still has some work to do (mostly hanging art, etc.), but it's coming together nicely, I think.

Here's the other side of Kimberly's room. She'd kill me if she knew I posted this and her bed isn't even made. Ha! Let's just hope she doesn't remember that I have her this blog address back in June...

THIS is the disgusting bug we found on Dawn's wall on Saturday night. It's called a House Centipede and it's - I kid you not - three inches long. Dawn bravely killed it with the Swiffer, but not before it found its way down the wall and onto the floor. EW!

Finally, this is my roommate, Dawn, who just poured a bunch of rum into her Coke Zero to get over the fact that she just killed the biggest bug she'd ever seen. She then preceded to call each member of her family - waking some up - to tell them about the horrific creature. I woulda done the same thing... It was NASTY.

That's it from me! Enjoy your Monday, folks!

Adrienne

"O, Dem Golden Slippers", it's my birthday

2005-09-18T23:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know that song is in the public domain (Thanks, Dan Rydell), but since this is a blog and the intellectual property lawyers probably won't be crawling up my ass for this, I'm just going to sing it:

Happy Birthday to me
Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday to meeee
Happy birthday to me.

So, that's it, folks. I'm officially 26 years old. The big 2-6. I'm in my late twenties. Oy vey.

I had a good day, though. Slept 'til noon, watched a bunch of Buffy (I'm just getting into it for the first time - I'm on Season 3 - And I think I feel another addiction coming on), and then friends came over and we ate pizza and watched the Emmys (go Patricia Arquette, Felicity Huffman, and James Spader! But oooh - what the HELL was Patricia wearing?) and now I'm going to hit the hay so I can get up early for class tomorrow. All in all, a nice birthday. Not on the top of the list, but certainly not on the bottom. I got a nice gift from my roommies, a cute little cake, some cards, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my parents. Life is good.

Oh, and anyone who still wants to donate to the "Adrienne's over-the-hill" birthday fund can send money - preferably cash - to my home address (anyone who needs it has it and anyone who wants it, email me :). I'm kidding.

No, I'm not.

Yes, I am.

Sorta.

I stole this picture off Yahoo's Emmy site. What is up with Patricia Arquette's dress? I'm going to be very disappointed if the girls at Go Fug Yourself don't discuss her attire. Not to mention her "flock of seagulls" hair. I wanted her to win, but almost didn't want her to, just so she wouldn't go back on stage with that hideous getup. Sigh. Celebrities. Can't live with 'em... but no one to envy and admire without 'em.

G'nite y'all!

Adrienne

Boston 1, Papa Eichner 0

2005-09-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, so here we are again. Day 2 of my Boston life. So, after unloading all the shit from the Uhaul and from the car, including that heavy-ass tv (sorry. potty mouth), we threw the mattress on the floor (we bought one in Maryland but the box springs were all to' up, so we waited on that), blew up the air mattress, and hit the proverbial hay. The next morning, we did many Target runs, returned the Uhaul, found a box spring on Harvard Ave., and I had the opportunity to meet Kimberly. She reminds me of Samantha Mathis. She's cool and short and blonde (but not a bimbo) and hails from Atlanta (although she's originally from Misery - er, Missouri). She speaks fluent German and her father is a retired Colonel in the Army. Hoo-Ya!

Anyway, we spent another sweltering night in the apartment before I took my father to the airport. I hadn't gotten rid of my car yet, so I still was able to tool around in my little Dory "Pepe" Escape. I miss her so, now. But, anyway. I took my father to Providence Airport (which was about half price compared with Boston, for those who are searching for cheap flights - hint, hint - and only an hour away) and we said our goodbyes. It wasn't until the car ride home that we spoke on the phone and both started blubbering - and me while driving (my dad talks tough, but he's a big ol' softy)! It was the saddest I think I've been since I got here. I kept the car for another couple days, and spent the entire weekend putting my room together. We found random furniture from used stores, and this one woman who was selling furniture out of her house, as her four sons had all just moved out and she had a crapload of stuff to get rid of. I got a super-cute little desk for $30.

On Sunday, the 4th, I took my little car out to my cousin's house on the outskirts of the city. He is my uncle Dave's son, and I haven't seen him since I was probably 13. He doesn't speak to my uncle, and is widely suspected to be gay, although no one can confirm this. I got to his place and went out to dinner with him and his roommate, and I tell ya, after spending almost 3 hours with the man, I still can't tell if he's gay. He and his roommate know each other so well, I couldn't tell if they were just really good friends (their bickering reminded me a lot of me and Cujo :) or if they were a couple. All I know is that they're both REALLY into online gaming and playing Dungeons and Dragons. Yeah. But they were cool to watch my car and they have a REALLY cute dog that's part Chow and part something else (I'm thinking retreiver). I offered to dog sit. :)

So I'm currently in Boston, carless. I got some tokens for the T (the local transportation moniker), but ran out of them two days ago so I have to go get a student semester pass this afternoon.

Continuing on. We had orientation on Monday (Labour Day, for those keeping track at home). It was for the entire Comm graduate group, and there were a lot more people there than I had figured there would be. I think a lot of people were just coming in off the street for the free food, which was on the front lawn of the College of Communication. Slacker college kids. Although, if I were them, I wouldn't be able to pass up free food, either. Me and Dawn and Kimberly just kind of stuck together for the social thing beforehand. There seemed to be a lot of barbie's in our program, which is scary, to say the least. I thought I was OUT of Hollywood. Oh, well. It's more fun if there's someone to make fun of anyway.

The next day, classes started. I had my first class, "The Telecommunications Industry", the professor of which is also the head of the TV Management program (my program). She's super cool. She looks like Susan Sarandon and is funny and terribly brilliant and not at all a bitch. So cool. The class consists mainly of a review of radio/tv/cable/satellite etc., so far, but I think it's going to delve into unknown territory soon. I hope so. All this retread from Comm 20 is a little tiring.

In the afternoon I had my Sales & Marketing class. The professor is an adjunct prof., who actually works in sales at the Boston UPN affiliate. He's a Boston native, way relaxed, and very easy to talk to. That class is bigger, as there are undergrads in it, too.

Okay, that's enough for now. Tomorrow I'll go over my second day of classes, our crazy couch-buying adventures, the Comm mixer that was less fun than the liquor run and train ride home, and the blessings that are digital cable (which we finally got yesterday - I MISSED YOU, JON STEWART!).

Talk soon!

Adrienne

The True Hawaiian Family - Don't Believe the Hype!

2005-09-15T21:57:00.001-07:00

These are just a couple pictures of my brother's family. He makes surfboards in Hawaii and he and his super-cool wife have six, count 'em SIX kids. Here's the entire group, tired and ready to go back to the land of blue seas and pineapple after driving from Nevada to Tennessee for my niece's race. The motorhome behind them, only broke down twice and cost them $2,000 in repairs! Woo hoo! That thing is so TOTALLY going on eBay, like, yesterday.

My brother's brood, plus my cousin "Jesus" (his name's actually Scott, but doesn't he look a little like Jesus? He's the one of the left).

Probably THE best picture ever of my three nephews together. Travis (6), Joshua (4), and Ryan (12). How adorable are they??

You only turn seven once. Duh.

2005-09-15T21:54:00.000-07:00

Hello, again. I decided to throw a few more pictures up.

Earlier, I mentioned helping out at my niece Jessie's 7th birthday party. Here are a few pictures from it. She's the cute one :). Just kidding. She's the kid closest to the window.

Jessie's Hawaiian-themed party

This is the sugar water, aka, Hawaiian-style punch that I made for my niece's party. It's part Hawaiian Punch (Rockin' Blue Raspberry) and part lemonade. Not bad. A diabetic's nightmare, but not bad.

My cousin Audio Thief (his DJ name) who decided to help out with the party by boldly playing Nintendo DS the entire time. What a guy. ;)

My new adventure. Or, Boston streets SUCK!

2005-09-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, kids. I'm back. Can't say for how long, but here I am, nonetheless. I'm going to start small because I know people don't like to read obscenely long blog entries. I know: I'm one of those people.

Okay, so below are some pictures of our apartment. I didn't take pictures of my roommates' rooms or of them, mostly because they're both in their PJs and doing homework and were about to kill me for trying. It was actually pretty funny. But we're doing a birthday thing for me this Sunday (my b-day... and the day of the Emmys! Woo Hoo!) so there will be pictures taken. Anyway, each picture will be labeled and pretty self-explanatory.

So... what have I been up to? Well, I spent almost a week at my grandmother's place. We had a party for her 80th birthday, which actually isn't until late this month, but it was the only time the entire family could get together. Here's a picture from that experience. This is just about a third of my family, but it's by far the picture in which everyone looks the least drunk :).

My mother flew back to Nevada on Monday the, uh... hold on. Lemme look at a calendar. The 22nd. On the 24th, my father and I drove down to Frederick, MD, where we spent time with my aunt and uncle and cousins who live there, and we painted the free furniture that my uncle gave me (sage green, natch :). This took about three days longer than we expected and my father still thinks he can see the spray paint streaks on the chest of drawers. I say, who cares? It's free! Anyway, we were there about a week and on the 31st we drove up to Wilkes-Barre, PA, to visit my aunt and uncle and cousins there. They are the family whose daughter, my cousin Sarah, passed away last year. They seemed to be doing pretty good, considering. Sarah's room is still pretty untouched, although it's sort of being used for storage for my cousin Emily's old bedroom furniture. It's so weird seeing pictures of her all over and knowing that she's never going to get any older than that. Sorry. Tragedy relapse there.

Anyway, on the 1st, my father and I got through the final leg of our excursion. We drove up to Boston and got here during rush hour, and couldn't find parking and my father was freaking out because there are no street signs here and he kept saying, "I hate English cities because they don't make any sense and Boston was designed by stupid Englanders and nothing makes sense and I hate this! Grrr!" He actually grrrrd. Then I met Dawn, one of my roommates. She and her sister and mother were already here, and Kimberly, who I met a day later, was here but staying in a hotel with her mother until the 2nd. Anyway, Dawn's cool. She's from Oklahoma but went to school in Arkansas. She doesn't have an accent. She's very sweet, and has red hair and reminds me a lot of my friend Majique. She is a film major.

Anyway, I'll stop there for now. More will follow in the next couple days. Don't forget to check out the pictures below!

Miss you all!

AdieAngel

Our apartment from the outside

My street (it's a little scary, but during the day it's fine. I swear!)

Here's the living room and the pantry/refrigerator (it makes sense when you see it)

Here's the living and dining rooms, as seen from the entry hall

The kitchen

Here's the bathroom

This is the view of Dawn's room from my bedroom door. She was inside, so I didn't take any pictures of her room. Tomorrow, friends. Tomorrow.

Here's my room from one angle

And here it is from the other

Jay and Silent BOBlles! Are they awesome or what?

Here are my shelves. They're so college-y and packed already. Oy, veh. I may have to get more already.

H2O Resistant

2005-08-19T19:01:00.000-07:00

Visiting family in PA. Awesome time. Just got out of the pool and am completely water-logged. Shaking my head like a drenched puppy. About to go get another Smirnoff Ice, but wanted to say that we made it safely and my grandmother doesn't have Internet access, nor do any of her neighbors (wireless), so I'm relegated to borrowing my cousin's Internet connection every now and again. But I'm here. Email me. Call me. I'm in and out, but get reception, and will be here all week (although tomorrow's my g-ma's birthday party so I probably won't be around much, cell-wise). I'll post pictures Sunday or so. Things are great. Love my mom's side of the family. They're nuts, too, but in a good way :). Miss you all!

Georgie - Email me. I want to hear all about what's going on. Driving took a toll so I didn't make any calls. :(

Cujo - I have the key and your D. Sedaris book, which I finished. I'll mail them both out to you Monday. If I send you my g-ma's address, can you send any errant mail my way? Will email you soon. Ooh - halway through "Wicked". Love it so far. Elphaba is awesome.

Paloma - Congrats on the new gigs! Wanna hear all about your first day on Monday!

Stef - I'll email you back soon - promise. Just getting settled here.

-Adrienne

Travel Update: Hitting more bugs than people. Which is good, right?

2005-08-17T22:26:00.000-07:00

I see now why they're the "fly-over states". Seriously. Actually, it's not that bad. I'm sitting in a "Microtel" room in Lincoln, Nebraska (the state capital!), my Wendy's caesar side salad in one hand and my laptop balanced on my lap, watching VH1 (Top 40 Awesomely Bad Raunchy Songs) while my father snores in the bed next to mine. We've spent the last two days driving, 12+ hours a day, covering over 700 miles a stretch. We drove through barren Utah yesterday, where we could find nothing but Mormon chapels and cheap gas ($2.42 is the lowest we've found so far). This morning, we passed through the awesome Colorado Rockies, then Vail and it's faux-Swiss signage and deluxe time-share condominiums... through rainstorms with massive, full-beam rainbows, and at one point it seemed as though every bug in Nebraska was AIMING for my windshield.

We've listened to over 350 non-repeating songs on my iPod, while tracking our progress with my dad's handy new GPS program on my laptop. Nights, two so far, we've found cheap rates at fairly good motels, complete with wireless Internet access. It's two hours later here and thus nearly one AM, so I'm going to sign off for now. I wish I could say I'm taking tons of pictures to post, but my camera is packed deep inside a suitcase in my fully-loaded little car. My cousin took pictures of my father and I in the Mirth-mobile (Thanks for the temp name, Wayne & Garth) just as we were pulling out of our driveway. We actually managed to fit all my crap inside the car, or on top, or in four heavily strapped down and/or bungee-corded bins on the little rack attached to the back end. I'm truly amazed at how much crap we have stuffed in the little thing. I can only hope that no bored mid-westerner gets greedy and steals the stuff off the roof while it sits in the motel parking lot. Fingers crossed.

So, I'm signing off for now. Hopefully, I'll be writing tomorrow from somewhere near Akron (I think that's how you spell it), Ohio. Ryan & Nikki, I'll give the O-state a shout out for you. Even though Nikki is, well, THERE now. But whatever. I'm tired.

Hope everyone over there in that dry air (it's hella muggy here, although only about 72 right now) is doing well!

Miss you!

Adrienne

Oh - and by the way. After discovering, much to my expecatation, that every Wal-mart in America DOES, in fact, look exactly the same, I was fortunate enough to snag a copy of "Sin City" on DVD. That was in Colorado, though. I imagine if I'd gotten it in Utah it'd be about 5 minutes long, due to all the stuff they'd have to take out. Is that stereotyping? I know, I know. But stereotypes are based on some bastardized version of truth, right? Like I said, I'm tired. Lates.

Just a note

2005-08-14T23:24:00.000-07:00

Hey, guys. I haven't forgotten about you, I swear. I'm super tired right now... (I'm seriously typing this with my eyes closed), but I'm going to try and write tomorrow about my grand post-LA adventures in northern Nevada. My brother's family of 8 left yesterday morning, and my niece celebrated her 7th birthday this afternoon, so I was chasing around chattering 2nd graders all day. I'm beat. And I'm the last one up at only 11:30, too. Sad. Anyway, like I said I'll write more tomorrow. Maybe even put up a few pictures.

'Night!

"A guy walks into a talent agent's office..."

2005-08-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

This is just a short post. I forgot to mention over the weekend that I went out with Leia and Mr. Gray to see a fantabulous and hilarious movie called "The Aristocrats" (not "The AristoCATS", Alexander*. That's the Disney one). This is a documentary about the genesis and retelling of the most famous joke no one outside of the comedy world has ever heard of. It is/can be the most disgusting joke you've ever heard, or the most vulgar, obscene, or depraved. It can be simple (like Emo Phillips' version) or long and complex (like Bob Sagat's version). Either way, whoever tells it, it's hilarious if you get it and just throughly revolting if you don't. This movie brought together over 100 of the best comedians in the business (including the dreamy Jon Stewart and the awesome George Carlin), who tell their own version of the joke.

There's a South Park clip floating around the Internet (I'll link to it below) in which Cartman does a rendition of the joke.

After the screening, the director himself, actor and comedian Paul Provenza, came out and did a Q & A that dragged on forever (or at least it felt that way, as my bladder was about to explode at the time), but was fascinating. He talked about how AMC Theaters won't screen it due to its vulgarity, but then it opened huge in NY and LA last week and they've started calling him. He spoke about his favorite version of the joke, Bob Sagat's sick sense of humor, and the process of getting all of these people in one film. Interesting stuff.

Oh, and as we were leaving, I almost ran into Nia Vardalos, who's shorter and skinnier than I imagined. I wanted to shout out, "I loved Connie & Carla!" (because, shamefully, I do), but I didn't because she was busy and because I really don't do things like that around celebrities. I just say I will and then don't.

Anyway, hope you're all having a fantastic Monday. I went to the doctor's office this morning, and if you were worried before, now you don't have to be about contracting Tetanus, Hep B, or Tuberculosis from me, as I'm now vaccinated against all of them. Yippee.

Here's That South Park Video (it's the fifth one down)

Adrienne

*Alexander is short for Alexander Dumas, which is another way of saying "Dumbass".

Creepy coincidence, or just really good timing?

2005-07-31T11:23:00.000-07:00

You all know my recent fascination with the actor Bruce Willis. I’ve mentioned it a few times, so it’s no surprise to you guys.

Cujo, my roommate, has liked him for several years, like, I mean, really liked him, as far as actors go. And I’ve always thought he was cool. I liked him more in some stuff (like “The Sixth Sense” and” The Fifth Element”) than in others (“The Whole Ten Yards”, etc). I mean, it wasn’t like Colin Firth or Gerard Butler, where he went from barely being on my radar to being a full-on focus. I’d always liked Mr. Willis. So, when this “Moonlighting” thing began and Bruce was on my radar even more than before, Cujo looked at me with a combination of “See? I told you he was cool!” and “Hey, I saw him first!” sentiments. And that’s cool with me. She’s got dibbs, I know that.

But I digress. So, today I took a day off from the world, and spent the majority of my late morning and afternoon and, well, evening, too, just watching movies and packing boxes. I have a stack of movies that I own that I’ve never seen, and want to watch before I leave so that I can determine whether or not I should take them with me to Boston (I had to make some pretty deep cuts in my DVD collection today, including classics like “Mary Poppins” and, regrettably, “A Mighty Wind”. It was pretty bloody). Among these movies was “The Last Boy Scout”. I bought it on the lot for like $3 and I’d never seen it before. I popped it in, and it’s not bad. Not Bruce’s best work, but he’s definitely got that gritty cop-slash-ex-cop thing down pat.

So, I turn off the DVD player and “Pulp Fiction” is on. Good movie. It’s actually at the part where Bruce Willis rescues Ving Rhames from the horrible assault on his rectum that he had been receiving (Key quote: “Zed’s dead, baby. Zed’s dead.”). Coincidence? Maybe… But whatever. I continue on with my day, watching “The Last Shot” and going out for groceries. I come home and flip through the channels once more. What’s on? “The Bonfire of the Vanities”, starring, you guessed it, Mr. Willis. Okay, cool. I’m a little startled but in a good way (although this is one of the worst movies he’s ever done, it’s cool to see him and Tom Hanks act together, as they’re both awesome). I watch a few minutes, figure out it’s on later tonight, and decide to set it to record. Fine.

I go make some dinner. Watch a little “Wonderfalls”. I’m switching channels again. Showtime. THE FRICKIN’ “Whole Ten Yards” is on! What the EFF? Is there some kind of Bruce Willis movie contractual obligation that the cable networks are exercising all at once? Are Bravo, Showtime, and The Love Channel (sigh, I know) in cahoots, somehow? But that’s not even the kicker. I head into my room to sort through my junk drawer (one of many, I’ll admit) and am flipping in here. I don’t get the premium channels in my room, so I figure… well, I don’t really even think about Mr. Willis. But as I come across TNT, what do I find? THE END OF “The Last Boy Scout” is on! Now I’m a little freaked out. Has anyone else noticed a recent surge in Bruce Willis movie demand? Does he have something coming out soon - besides the DVD release of Sin City in August – that I don’t know about? Does Bruce hold a monopoly on random Saturday movies and did I somehow miss this by going out most Saturdays? I’m so confused.

Anyway, I just wanted to share in this startling coincidence. Either this is a promise of things to come (I obviously know what people want to see if what I’m interested in is actually on television – does that make sense?), or some network execs are reading my blog (either way, that’s cool, too). Has this happened to anyone else? If so, please share.

Update: It’s Sunday, late morning, and I’m sitting on the couch, scarfing down breakfast so I can get to the Laundromat, and what do I find? “Hudson Hawk”! Bingo! Just cuz I’m curious, I do a little flipping down the TV guide. I discover that, later today (in case anyone’s planning a Bruce Willis weekend as I, apparently, am), “The Jackal” will be on USA and “Mortal Thoughts” will be on Cinemax. Oh, and TNT is rebroadcasting “The Last Boy Scout”. I wonder if his guest appearance on “Friends” will pop up sometime this evening…

Peace Out!

Adrienne

White Boy! Oh, my sweet White Boy! How sorry I am!

2005-07-27T12:39:00.001-07:00

I don't know if he reads this, or if he even has the URL, but I thought I'd write a little ode to WB since I was foolish and stupid and forgot to call him on his birthday. A present and (belated) card will follow, forthwith:

An Ode to WhiteBoy

Way out there near New York City
There lives a man who is quite witty
He's brilliant, lean, and wholesome, too
His birthday present's overdue

So here's this poem to hold him 'til
I have a box with which to fill
His lovely gift and funny card
That hopefully he won't discard

And look upon the gift with glee
For while it's late, it's still from me
And miss him much I surely do
And also sweet Mecaila, too.

So, pack away your tears, White Boy
For soon you will be filled with joy
For I will, too, be in the east
And we can meet and have a feast

But in the meantime please enjoy
This late but sweet poetic ploy
To get me back in your good graces
And erase all awful traces

Of my timely laziness
That with a shout I do confess
Has thwarted all attempts to say
To you, my friend, Happy Birthday!

Okay, this took a really long time to write, so I hope he enjoys it. Happy (late) Birthday, Aaron!

-Adrienne

PS - I'd also like to thank The Rhyme Zone for all the helpful words. I literally could NOT have done this without them.

Oh, oh, oh. It's a Sin.

2005-07-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

I know I'm jumping on the bandwagon kinda late, but I just saw Sin City last night. Man, is it good. I could go into the controversy about all the senseless violence, the negative portrayals of women, poor little Alexis Bledel (who really should stick to Rory Gilmore-esque characters) trying to act with the rest of them, etc. But I'm not. I understand all of that, but that's not what I want to talk about. I won't even drool over Bruce Willis (his voice was tres sexy) or complain about Benecio Del Toro's obviously fake nose. I just thought it was amazing.

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to buy this movie boot-legged on the street for $5. Paloma talked me out of it, saying that this type of movie is important to see in perfect color, since color is so important - nay - intrinsic, to the storyline. I thought at that time, as I skulked away from that box of DVDs with only War of the Worlds and Batman Begins in my bag, that I was only going to witness such visual splendor on DVD next month. But then, a miracle. Cujo informed me that the AWESOME New Beverly Cinemawas screening Sin City for two nights only, and last night was the last night. The last time. So, I dragged her all the way to West(ish) Hollywood in rush hour traffic, over Barham Pass and around the crowded Hollywood Bowl, for one last chance to see this supposed visual spectacle.

And boy am I glad I went. The camera work was breathtaking. The color (and lack thereof) a perfect accent to some truly beautifully shot stuff. The plots were great, although the second story (first?) with Mickey Rourke was a little slow for my taste. The costumes were amazing, and the heroics of the lead characters (Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, and Bruce Willis) were admirable, hearkening back to the olden days when men killed and died in the name of love.

The violence was, at times, gruesome, but necessary. The brutality of the villains was matched only by the ruthlessness of our heroes. And the women, while stacked to the nines in whips, chains, leather, and lace, were portrayed both as victims and modern-day "Valkyries". It was great. I can't wait to get the DVD.

Oh, and did I mention Bruce Willis was wonderful? Fantastic? Brilliant? Well, he was. And thank you, Mr. Rodriguez, for making me actually like Jessica Alba in something. An amazing feat. You rock.

-AdieAngel

"Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand..."

2005-07-25T16:12:00.000-07:00

So, I know I've been negligent these past few weeks, but I haven't forgotten you guys. I actually have a reminder on my Outlook calendar that says, "Update Blog" every day. But between the desire to pack (note: Haven't actually started, but the intention is there), Georgie's visit, getting a new apartment in Boston, and watching loads of Moonlighting and Firefly, I haven't been able to update. For now, I just want to add a few pictures with what I hope are fairly interesting and/or amusing comments.

The first picture, going chronologically, is from Comic-Con 2005. Kevin Smith spoke for an hour and had some very interesting things to say. He talked about the genesis of the name, "Clerks 2: The Passion of the Clerks" and the reaction in the Christian Community (key quote: "Hey, I love Jesus! I love Jesus more than you fuckin' do!"), the upcoming "Degrassi: The Next Generation", three episodes of which he wrote, directed and starred in, and introduced the director of "Donnie Darko" and the upcoming "Southland Tales", Richard Kelly, who talked a little about his upcoming film. Here is a picture from the event:

Next, we have a dark but still pretty sweet (IMO) picture of the cast of "Serenity" (and creator Joss Whedon), the filmed adaptation and/or continuation of the cancelled "Firefly" series. The entire cast was on hand save Alan Tudyk, who is on Broadway in "Spamelot" right now. They talked a lot about the movie and how it compares to the series, and showed a pretty awesome clip. Nathan Fillion was especially wonderful (there's that word, Cujo) and funny and lively.

Here is my "Serenity" booty from Comic-Con. There was this big booth done by the SF Browncoats, a fan-community who support the show and did a great job with a charity auction. I still never found out if I won anything, but the lack of a phone call when one was promised is a pretty big hint that I didn't. Regardless, they gave us a sample of the music from the upcoming movie, and I got a cool little "Firefly" badge (and a keychain and pin - not pictured). Also, I got a comic that is the first of three adaptations of the movie, but I haven't read it yet. To be fair, half of it belongs to Cujo.

Finally, this past weekend, a group of us went over to our friend Paloma's house because it was hot and she has a pool. Plus she's really nice and has a cool mom. But more for the pool (j/k, P. You know I luv ya!) This is a hilarious picture of Manannah #1 and Paloma doing their "Katie Holmes" faces. Scary, the accuracy, huh? Oddly enough, not as scary as the woman they're impersonating.

Finally, I need a show of hands to see who's NOT reading the new Harry Potter? No one? Yea, my hand's not up, either. I'm about 150 pages in. It's better than five so far, but I haven't gotten far enough to determine whether it's "good" or not. But I'm eager to keep reading. If for no other reason than I have this friend who is determined to spoil the end of it for me. I want to beat him to the punch.

So, kids. Put down your laptops and pick up your Potter... I'll be over on the couch contemplating what sweaters I should pack for Baahhhston.

Lates!

AdieAngel

Day Two of "Gymgate" (or, "Two days in a row! Yippee!")

2005-07-12T20:49:00.000-07:00

Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow...

You light up my life...

2005-07-11T21:57:00.000-07:00

This is a picture I stole from this web site. Imagine this, times 1,000. That's an idea of what it looked like at the SOM screening.

My hills are about the only parts of me NOT screaming in pain...

2005-07-11T20:59:00.000-07:00

So, I just got back from the gym. It's the first time in four months that I've gone, and I'm officially in, like, seven different kinds of pain (hits include, but are not limited to, "My arms shake when I try to lift them" pain and the classic, "it hurts to breathe" pain). Ohh, I can't wait until tomorrow. I got a one-month gym membership on the lot, during which time I vow to go at least three times a week (which limits it pretty much to MWF, since they're closed on weekends) or until I collapse from exhaustion, whichever comes first. I figure I should take advantage of the gym's close proximity while it's still available to me, and my job will end in exactly 19 week-days from today (that leaves me another 11 gym visits between now and then). As we're going out on Wednesday for my friend's birthday, I'm obligated to go again tomorrow night (assuming, of course, I can move). Ohhh, boy. As Sam Beckett would say. Not looking forward to that.

But I digress. This post was supposed to be about my fabulous "Sound of Music Sing-A-Long" weekend. You may think it's cheesy, and frankly I don't care, but when close to 12,000 people stuff themselves into a theater just to see a 40 year old movie and sing along to it, you know it's not just you.

Saturday night, my friends Paloma and Principessa and I went to the Hollywood Bowl to see the cinematic classic, "The Sound of Music". You know the one... "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?", "Edelweiss", "These are a few of my Favorite Things...", and the warbular classic (is that a word), "Climb Every Mountain" (perfect bathroom-break song, IMO). We got there at six, spread our semi-homemade dinner across the benches in front of us, and chowed down. There were Leberwurst sandwiches, tri-cut steak hoagies (is that right, Paloma?), Wienerschnitzel (and not the hot dogs - look it up.), Potato salad, and pink lemonade. Mmmm... And chocolate. Lots of chocolate.

Anyway, the show kicked off with a costume competition, wherein hundreds of people dressed up as various characters and set-pieces from the film, like Maria, Captain Von Trapp, Maria's various favorite things, and the award-winning carburator (Remember when the nuns pulled the carburator and spark plugs out of the Nazi's car so they couldn't leave and the Von Trapps could get away? No? Then you haven't seen the movie enough. Go, now! Run to the 'Buster and get it!). After that ended, they explained the little goody-bags each audience-member was given (which included fake sprigs of Edelweiss, a hard-to quantify "will-o-the-wisp" that looked more like a deformed Casper, a swatch of curtain-like fabric, and a popper for when Maria and the Captain kiss for the first time.).

Then, when it got dark (as the H'wood Bowl is outdoors) the movie began. It was wonderful. It was electric. It was beautiful. It was everything good. Well, except for Principessa's nosy and not entirely - or at all - sober neighbor to her right who got a little to friendly for her taste. But even that we took in stride. I had the most fun I've had in a long time, and can't wait to be back next year. I'm definitely going to go. No matter where I am, what I'm doing, I'll take a week off to visit LA and see this damn show again. It's that good. I didn't get home until after 1:30, but it was worth it.

The most beautiful and magical thing about the night, though, was the sea of light. Let me explain. Now that smoking is no longer allowed indoors (or in outdoor theaters, apparantly), lighters during slow songs have become all but unpopular. Today's kids prefer the less hazardous option of opening their cell phones during the slow songs. This creates a spectacular glistening sea of thousands upon thousands of little blue lights and white windows on a black expanse. It was breathtaking. If only I'd brought a camera (my camera phone would NOT do the sight justice - although I did take one picture that I'll try to upload, below). They did this at the Rilo Kiley concert a few weeks ago - the first time I'd seen it - and again on Saturday night. It's the most beautiful use of modern technology I've seen since the Lord of the Rings.

Anyway, that was my weekend. I spent the rest of my free 48 hours going to see the crap-tastic "Fantastic Four", and re-organizing my DVD collection while watching endless hours of "Firefly" on Sunday (I want to have seen all of them by the time we get to Commie-Con this weekend and see the Serenity clips and cast). Best weekend in a long time. Honestly!

If I don't write soon, I promise I'll return with a recap of this year's Comic-Con (or as Paloma's mom refers to it, "Commie-Con" next week. I hear Kevin Smith is going to be speaking again this year, and there's a big "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" presentation that promises to be amazing.

You can kind of see the lights below the screen, there. It was SO beautiful in person! Maybe someone on line took a better picture. I'll try to find it to show you...

Peace out, ya'll.

-AdieAngel

The Big Political Blog Entry (hopefully 1 of 1)

2005-07-08T09:38:00.000-07:00

Hi, everyone. I'm back because this is disturbing. My aunt, by all accounts a very lovely woman, sent me this horrible email that is credited as being said by Andy Rooney, the curmudgeonly "60 Minutes" commentator. First off, I sent back an immediate reply telling her and her crazy Republican friends that this is, in fact, a false rumor, and that anyone who believes this is sick and crazy. I can't WAIT to hear the responses. My opinions are in italics, below:

BRAVO ANDY ROONEY!!!!

Right on, Andy Rooney!

Andy Rooney said on 60 minutes a few weeks back: (for those of you that don't know Andy Rooney, he is an 82 year old US TV commentator)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I like big cars, big boats, big motorcycles, big houses and big campfires.

So do I. I also love big gas bills, big pollutants, big penis envy, big bragging about your wealth, and big forest fires.

I believe the money I make belongs to me and my family, not some governmental stooge with a bad comb-over who wants to give it away to crack addicts for squirting out babies.

I agree, my money belongs to me. Which is great, because it's not like I went to a public school, or a public university, or was lucky enough to have an income while I was unemployed, or... Oh, and I just love supporting those stereotypical crack addicts! All of which are Democrats, I hope you know.

Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.

Right. True. But guns are DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY for killing. They have no other purpose. Cars are for driving. Bats are for baseball. A weapon with no other purpse besides harming another person is not a good thing. Duh.

I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, that is why there are no girls allowed. Girls belong in the Girl Scouts!

This, I actually agree with. Sorry. Although I do think it sucks that Boy Scouts don't like the gay. They make everything so much more fun! Maybe they're all just too afraid to face their own sexual anxieties. But Girl Scouts rock! I think, not only should girls NOT be allowed in Boy Scouts, but that Girl Scouts should go the other way (since they're in now way affiliated with the Boy Scouts) and start accepting gay boys. It'd introduce a whole new generation of chicks to the concept of the "fag hag".

I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion.

I'm sorry. But if you think that YOU DON'T WANT TO DO IT, that's an opinion. When you start saying that NO ONE should do it, that's a phobia. "I don't like having sex with men." vs. "No one should have sex with men." See the difference?

I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers. The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America. Try to have things like the United Caucasian College Fund, Cloud Magazine, White entertainment Television, or Miss White America and see what happens. Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door.

This would be true, if whites weren't the majority, and weren't the racists to begin with. Think about it. If white people had their way (and I guess, being white, I'm begrudgingly included in this group - since we're stereoytping today), there would be NO minorities in media. It'd be all-white, all-the-time. It's sad when networks have to TELL producers that they need to be more "race conscious". Invent a minority character to begin with, and there wouldn't be that problem. Besides, white people don't have to read that "black" stuff if they don't want to. Or participate. Or watch. Or listen. But if it didn't exist, where would black people turn for information that focuses on them?

I have the right NOT to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off. When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black, that is not racial profiling, it is the law of statistics.

True. That is your right. Doesn't mean I have to like you. Or talk to you. Or be in the same room with you. Or invite you to parties. Differences of opinion are what makes this country so great. DEAL WITH IT. Also, racial profiling does exist. Just ask my friend who was stopped by cops for getting into HIS OWN CAR outside a club and asked for his registration - while still PARKED, mind you - just because the cops wanted "to make sure he was getting into the right vehicle." Riiight.

I know what sex is, and there are not varying degrees of it. If I received sex from one of the subordinates in my office, it wouldn't be a private matter or my personal business. I would be "FIRED" immediately!

Not if you were the President. Of the company, I mean. One of those little perks. Although I'm sure if you were an idiot who ran the company into the ground, you would be. Unless your daddy was a previous President. Of the company, I mean.

I believe that if you are selling me a milk shake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen you should have to speak English!

While I agree that when you decide to become and American citizen, you should learn the national language (If I moved to France, I'm sure as HELL learning French.), if I'm SELLING YOU SOMETHING, if YOU WANT SOMETHING I HAVE, suck it up. This is how I talk. If you don't like it, shop somewhere else.

My father and grandfather shouldn't have to die in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come over and disrespect ours. I think the police should have every right to shoot your sorry ass if you threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you can't understand the word "freeze" or "stop" in English, see the above lines.

It's not like America was founded by immigrants or anything. It's not like we're considered a "melting pot". It's not like people moved here to escape prejudice or persecution, only to face it here, too. Nooo...

I feel much safer letting a machine with no political affiliation recount votes when needed. I know what the definition of lying is.

Whatever.

I don't think just because you were not born in this country, you are qualified for any special loan programs, government sponsored bank loans or tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop, trinket store, or any other business.

I don't think that because you WERE born in this country you should be entitled to them, either. This isn't a first come, first serve country. I like to think we're a little more discriminating than that.

We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document and open to their interpretations.

I don't care who says it. People over there or over here. The Constitution evolves with time, and can be interpreted in different ways based on new ideas and technology. If you want to go back to strict interpretation, grab your musket and start shootin' them redcoats before they take your land!

I don't hate the rich. I don't pity the poor.

I don't hate the rich. Everyone wants to be rich. I hate how the rich abuse their power and squander their wealth, though. I hate how they think laws don't apply to them and that they are entitled to more. And I don't pity the poor. I want to help them, not out of pity, but out of a moral obligation to do so.

I know wrestling is fake, but so are movies and television, and that doesn't stop you from watching them.

Okay... what was the point of this? Don't believe everything you see on television? Doesn't that support the notion that, because TV isn't real, it shouldn't be censored? Hm?

I believe a self-righteous liberal or conservative with a cause is more dangerous than a Hell's Angel with an attitude.

I've never met a Hell's Angel with an attitude, but I think that when someone loses the ability to think like someone else, liberal or conservative, they can become dangerous.

I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the next operating system that's better and put your name on the building. Ask your buddy that invented the Internet to help you.

Funny you mention Bill Gates as the big entrepreneurial example. Since he stole the Windows platform from Xerox (See "Pirates of Silicon Valley"). Basing your fortune on someone else's work... that's wrong, isn't it? I guess only if you get caught...

It doesn't take a whole village to raise a child right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the kid and smack their little ass when necessary and say "NO."

At least you didn't say, "two parents of different genders". That's something, right?

I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement. And . . . Please stay home until that new lip ring heals, I don't want to look at your ugly infected mouth as you serve me french fries!

Now, that's just gross. But I agree. Tattoos and piercings are a personal choice, not a political statement. I guess we don't disagree on everything!

I am sick of "Political Correctness" and of all the suck ups that go along with it. I know a lot of black people, and not a single one of them was born in Africa, so how can they be "African-Americans"? Besides, Africa is a continent. I don't go around saying I am a European-American because my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was from Europe. I am proud to be from America and nowhere else.

Why not? Are you ASHAMED of your European heritage? I'm a proud descendant of British, French, and German people. If you can't be proud of your roots, at least let others be proud of theirs.

And if you don't like my point of view, tough!"

And if you have to hide behind Andy Rooney's name to get your opinions heard, then you're pathetic and obviously not someone important enough to have their own opinions matter.

That's it from me. As you were.

-AdieAngel

Some walk by night... Some fly by day...

2005-06-23T15:05:00.000-07:00

You all saw this coming, didn't you? I mean, c'mon. Didn't you?

You've either known me long enough or read enough of this blog to know that I (usually) don't go through long periods without an obsession of some kind. Sure, I had that one long stretch for a while without one, but looking back, I do remember the only truly great experiences I had at Gilmore were the times that I could read the X-Files recaps, done by the awesome Jessica (co-blogger of Fugging It Up), and post on the message boards over at Television Without Pity. I'd get this excited giddy feeling inside and the day would just seem that much brighter. And now, after Colin Firth has finally slipped to the wayside, I've found myself a new obsession. Moonlighting. Tragic? Perhaps. A bit old-fashioned? Definitely. Unexpected? Again, do you know me?

Here's the thing. Whether you like it or not, think I'm crazy or completely justified, my favorite part of X-Files was always the interplay between Mulder and Scully. While the cases were interesting, and the paranormal aspect of the show a definite bonus, that was what was at the forefront of my viewing experience. I'd watch every week in anticipation not of a new monster-of-the week to be unveiled or a conspiracy to be uncovered, but for a touch, a look, a glimmer of something more than professionalism between the two leads. Call this my "hopeful romantic" nature. I've always been drawn to shows where people fall or are truly, truly, hopelessly in love, whether they deny it or not (See my track record: Moonlighting, Lois & Clark, Ross & Rachel in Friends, Dana and Casey in Sports Night, Jamie and Paul in Mad About You, Luke and Lorelai in Gilmore, even Ray and Debra in Everybody Loves Raymond, for goodness' sake! And, of course, the Files.). While people were arguing about whether or not it was in the characters' best interests to become "more than partners", I always understood it as a matter of when, not if. Anyway, we saw how all that worked out (don't GET me started - miracle pregnancy? staunch denial and then a year later - guess what? they'd been together all this time and didn't bother to let the audience know?? WTF??)

What I always wished for X Files, though, was that there was more of an even keel to the coverage of the characters vs. their cases. I know that's not what the format was about and I made my peace with that fact a long time ago. But now I've found Moonlighting again, which has most of what I wanted in X Files in the first place. Granted, their cases are lame, and it's more 80%/20% than 50%/50% personal vs. professional than I was looking for, but the basic concept is there. Two people, Maddie and David (Cybill Shephard - who makes me cringe today but I still love her on the show - and Bruce Willis) work together professionally but flirt crazily (admit it or not, Mulder and Scully flirted like nobody's business - see eps like "War of the Coprophages", "Dreamland", "The Goldberg Variation", to name but a few, for examples) and managed to keep the audience in anticipation of what was to come. I've read recently of all the drama that went on with Moonlighting when it originally aired in the mid-to-late '80s. On-set fights, chair-throwing, constantly behind schedule, not making deadlines, constant re-runs, pregnancies, movies, writer's strikes, etc. I don't think I could've been a serious fan of this show at it's original airing (granted I was 6-10 years old, so I wouldn't have paid that much attention, anyway), but watching it all in retrospect, without all that background static, this show is just brilliant. The dialogue (and you know I'm a sucker for good dialogue - Aaron Sorkin and Kevin Smith are my favorite writers, for goodness' sake!), the tension, the banter, the fights - oh the fights! They're all there! They are what X Files would have been if it had been about the characters and not the cases! I love it! So, that's where I am now.

Trouble is, I am one episode away from finishing the first two seasons, only two weeks ago purchased on DVD, and want desperately for the third, fourth, and yes even the subpar fifth (from what I've heard) seasons to come out on DVD. Or video. Or for download for that matter. I'm not picky. I just want to see where it goes. I'm almost desperate to see where it goes, sadly. But there ya go. That giddy feeling is back, which is nice. Gets me through the day. I hope being in real love in the real world feels half this good.

Oh, and Bruce Willis was H-O-T back in the "dizzay", as I like to say. When he still had hair and wasn't as... I dunno... Serious and brooding as he is now. I, of course, had to go back and watch the Die Hard Trilogy all last weekend, along with a future plan to see his wonderful M. Night Shyamilan (Wow, I butchered that, huh) films this or next weekend. I even rented "The Story of Us" (I know, I know). My friend Georgie commented that I shouldn't want him because he's a Republican (which isn't good, IMO), but I just look at it this way - I like, first of all, who he was in '86, Republican or not, not necessarily who he is today. And it's not like I'm ever actually going to get with him or, heaven forbid, discuss POLITICS with the guy if I did. The guy's a Bush supporter, for goodness' sake! Ew!

Okay, that's all from me. My obsessive, sad, strange little corner of the Internet universe. Catch ya later!

Ooh - I'm going back to San Diego this weekend - LOVE IT! I'll be sure to take some pictures of the beautiful beach for you to drool over and be insanely jealous of! :)

-Bridget

Perry White fades to black.

2005-06-16T14:05:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Stef, for pointing that out to me. So, so sad. Lane Smith died on Monday, you guys! I take back everything bad I wrote about Lois & Clark. The show was brilliant. His best work (yes, even better than "Son-In-Law"). Not only was he the fantastic Perry White, but he starred in such classics as "My Cousin Vinny", "The Mighty Ducks", and "Air America". He will be missed. :(

Sigh. Why do we keep losing the good ones while John Tesh and Britney Spears are still around? Sorry. That's mean.

-AdieAngel

"Together forever and never to part. Together forever with you."

2005-06-16T13:48:00.000-07:00

My parents are not cool. Now, now. Let me qualify that. My parents are awesome. I get along great with them, pretty much most of the time. They’re a little crazy, but whose parents aren’t, really? My father was cool when he was younger. He’s even kinda cool now. Still. My mother is a great teacher and a wonderful person, but - and I mean this with a great deal of affection – she’s a total goober. Where do you think I get it from?

Anyway, I mean specifically, my parents are not cool when it comes to music. Never have been. While my friends were growing up listing to The Doors, Bob Dylan, and The Beatles, I grew up with the unenviable musical influences of Michael Bolton, Johnny Mathis, Barry Manilow, and the ultimate, Rick Astley. Of these artists, the only one who I can still stand is Rick Astley. While hearing Michael Bolton makes me cringe, and both Johnny and Barry make me throw up a little, just a little, in my mouth, I can still pop in Mr. Astley’s music and be transported back to 1987, when he was the biggest musical influence in my life. Thanks, Mom. This was before Tiffany, before Madonna, before Belinda and New Kids on the Block and Vanilla Ice. Rick Astley was my introduction into modern pop music, such that it was.

It was the only album that, as I grew up and our musical tastes grew apart, both of us could listen to and be completely satisfied with the music selection. Here’s an average conversation in the car with my mother when I was 16:

Mom: How about Barry Manilow?
Me: Ew! Mom, like, totally TLC.
Mom: No. Okay, how about Enya?
Me: Are you trying to kill me? The Fugees.
Mom: I don’t want that rap music in my car. How about John Michael Montogmery?
Me: Country? Uh, no. Okay, fine. Alanis Morissette. She doesn’t rap.
Mom: No, she just screams. Ooh. Okay. Rick Astley?
Me: Yea!
Mom: Good!

Then we’d start our little “Never Gonna Give You Up” dance, which we both, it turns out, still remember to this day. Sample: “Never gonna give you up” (point to the sky), “never gonna let you down” (point to the ground), “never gonna run around” (turn yourself around – like the hokey pokey!) “and desert you” (point over your shoulder). You get the idea. It goes on to the end of the chorus, where you punch outward when he says, “and hurt you.” Hey, it’s pretty complex for a seven year old to have remembered.

Anyway, recently, my mother found THE album, “Whenever You Need Somebody”. And, of course, I put it in my iPod and listen to it in my car with the windows down and the volume up. It’s so much more fun to embrace the nerd-dom of the past than to try and lock it in the corner and pretend it didn’t happen.

But what really sparked my trip down Mr. Astley’s musical memory lane happened several months prior. When I was at Gilmore Girls, one of the PAs would stream music all day on her computer, and one day “Never Gonna Give You Up” came on. I ran out of my office and, like, freaked out. It had been YEARS since I’d heard that song and we all got up and danced and it was great. Then, just a couple weeks ago, over Memorial Day weekend, my mother dug out the CD while cleaning out a cabinet and she put it in and we taught my little niece the dance. We had a great time. And now I’m here at work, listening to Rick Astley with his sweet baritone and cheesy lyrics. And reminiscing. Sigh.

So, that’s it for now. As an aside, it’s a scary thought that now my mother is in charge of raising a whole new kid with bad, bad music. But I’m doing my best to introduce Jessie to the good stuff. And this, while dorky, is definitely “the good stuff”. It’s classic. It’s old school. It’s something everyone knows, even if no one admits it. And it’s something different from the over-processed, badly written bubble-gum pop that she’ll eventually start listening to. I’m also trying to get her into good musicals/movies early. In the past few months, I’ve introduced her to Spaceballs, Funny Girl, Rainbow Brite, Troop Beverly Hills, Flight of the Navigator, my mother got her obsessed with Magnum, P.I. (they can’t all be GOOD classics), and Grease. Hopefully I can sit her down to watch The Sound of Music before the end of the summer. Classic.

So, in closing, embrace embarrassments of the past. They made you what you are. Even if you're a nerd.

-AdieAngel

We can't be Super all the time. Especially not, it seems, in the mid-nineties.

2005-06-15T16:59:00.000-07:00

I read some of my old posts today and, man, has my writing gone downhill in the last few weeks. I'm so sorry about that, guys. I'll try to be more prolific from now on. It seems I'm best at that when I'm reminiscing, rather than discussing the events of the day. So, I think I'll get back to that. Let me see...

Recently I've started watching "Lois & Clark" again, as the first season has finally arrived on DVD. I used to love this show. I believe I mentioned that. But watching it again with eleven years' experience and a relative increase in cynacism under my proverbial belt, this show just isn't that good. I know, I know! Sacrilige! But it's true! I've watched about 10 episdoes, and so far we've had smart kids tying Lois up in a Jello-like rope substance, an invisible man who became so so people would notice him for the first time, and a heatwave caused by the nefarious Lex Luthor to get Superman out of town. Now, these stories may not sound bad. And, truly, they're not horrible. I mean, the sentiment behind these shows still stands, at least for me. But they're not, well... great. They're... eh. They have an element of that tongue-in-cheek, campy feel that doesn't exist as much in today's world of modern superheroes: angsty web slingers, pining adamantium-clawed half-beasts, and brooding dark knights. Now, I've never read Superman comics, and maybe it's just that superheroes take themselves too seriously nowadays, but it seems like they're making fun of the world of Superman, as much as they are paying homage to it (which was the same feeling I had about the movie "Down With Love", as compared to the Doris Day/Rock Hudson sex comedies of the sixties). The characters seem one-dimensional and akward, the special effects are lame, the action sequences are painfully choreographed, and the sets garishly fake.

In addition, Dean Cain is just not that good an actor. In 1994, I couldn't recognize it, but now it's painfully obvious. He's hot, but he's in so far over his head you can barely see that Kent-esque jerry curl on his forehead. It's no suprise that he hasn't really worked much since (didn't he play Scott Peterson in some Lifetime movie recently?). Teri Hatcher is okay as Lois Lane, but in some scenes, you can tell that she's barely controlling herself from mouthing the lines right along with her co-stars. It's kind of funny, actually, watching her try to emote convincingly when others are talking and she's on camera. She's definitely taken these ten years to mature (duh) and broaden her acting abilities, at least to the point where she seems comfortable on camera without being the center of attention.

Now, there are definitely good things about this series (Did I mention how HOT Dean Cain looks in the suit?). I enjoy the fact that so much of this series was shot on the lot, which means I can play that little game of "ooh - I walk past that on my way to lunch!" or "Hey, Smallville is Stars Hollow now!" or "I recognize that Burbank skyline!" That's always fun. In addition, I still get a kick out of the interplay between Lois & Clark. How she pines for Superman in front of Clark, who clearly must hide both his disappointment and his amusement as she drools over him in one context and chastises him in another. I always thought those actors had chemistry, and they look so purty together. Two attractive people frolicking about. And then, most obviously, there is the nostalgia factor.

The fourteen year-old inside me still shivers in anticipation for the next episode, and longs for Lois to finally open her frickin' eyes and see who Clark really is while still loving him for himself and not for the suit he wears when he flies. So, overall, I'm glad that I bought this DVD set. And I'll most likely get seasons 2 and three (I've already mentioned the road to Suckville that Season four veered off to). But I can no longer hold on to my "sense of childlike wonder" (Thanks, Ryan) when it comes to this show. Oh, well. Time changes everything, doesn't it?

And now, back to your regularly scheduled program...

-Bridget

Sisterhood of the Traveling Grad Student

2005-06-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

So, did everyone else go out and get their flag on last night? Woo Hoo! Oh. No one? No one else? Uh...

Okay, so anyway. Neither did I, in case you're wondering. I went to see "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." I did. And I'm not ashamed to admit it. Hey, it was free. Whaddya want? I'm not going to turn down a free chick-flick, even if it does look cheesy. And, you know, I actually enjoyed it. I mean, I wouldn't say it deserves an Oscar, or anything, but it was cute. That's a word my mother uses when describing okay movies. "Cute." That's what it was. I really like America Ferrera, though. And I don't watch Joan of Arcadia - and I guess I never will, as it was cancelled by the Les Moonves and his CBS Lackeys (sounds like a good name for a rock band. Maybe not.)- but Amber Tamblyn is cool. Her storyline was my favorite.

Anyway, I'm writing to talk a little about school. As most of you (okay all five of you readers) probably already know, I'm moving to Boston in the fall to pursue my master's in TV Management. I'm both nervous and excited about this. I've never been to Boston before, although a friend of mine lives there now and tells me that it's a)freezing in the winters, b)sweltering in the summer, and c)oh, yea? did she mention freezing in the winters? I'd room with her in the fall but she's moving to DC about, oh, a WEEK before I move there. Just our luck, eh? Which leaves me the daunting task of finding roommates and a place to live in fewer than three months with no way of getting to Boston until then and thus no way of actually looking at the apartments or, in most cases, meeting these potential roommates. Yeah.

Luckily, the College of Communication has an email list that you can get on if you're looking for a roommate and would like to find someone with similar interets and career goals. So I signed up. And I've gotten some emails. People all sound really nice, but I just can't help the feeling that what's probably going to happen is I'll respond to one person and then they'll find someone else, or I'll respond to several and they'll all want me and I'll have to turn someone down. The latter situation is actually my fantasy one, as that would probably never actually happen in real life. I'm more likely to experience the former. But, anyway. I haven't had a roommate I haven't actually known in like three years, and those who know me know that my last roommate, before Cujo, was no picnic, either. So, yes. It's definitely hard to find someone who you can click with, someone you have to LIVE with, without ever meeting them. Or by getting to know them only slightly before you make this huge commitment together. It's like an arranged marriage, in a way. A scary way.

I don't really have a point to this message other than to post my concerns. If anyone has suggestions on how to make this easier, or maybe what to say to keep myself from sounding freakish or disturbing in any way for a potential roommate, that'd be great. And, of course, if you're looking for a roommate, or have a fantastic and affordable apartment available for rent in the Boston area, I'd love it if you could let me know. Thanks!

-AdieAngel

Flag Day!

2005-06-14T10:22:00.004-07:00

As the crazy Republican in the room next door reminded me by yelling into the phone, THROUGH THE WALL, today is Flag Day, and I decided to honor the day by posting flags from my favorite countries, states, groups (in one case), and cities (also in one case). Note: The Canadian flag is trademarked and would require permission to post, so I'm not going to, but please rest assured that Canada would be on this list if their flag wasn't so damn new and their country so litigious. Oh, wait. That last part is the US.

Berlin

Italy

Germany

France

EU

Egypt

New Zealand

GB

Scotland

Bahamas

Australia

Massachusetts

Pennsylvania

Washington, D.C.

California

"You're on-line with the feline of Avenue B."

2005-06-13T23:09:00.000-07:00

Hey, guys. Me, again. While The Daily Show is on commercial, here's a picture of the Rent set I took with my camera phone. It's kind of crappy, and I had this picture of one of Maureen's posters, but it won't transfer off my phone, for some reason. So, here's this one. This is New York Street, dressed to look like the San Francisco set that they used to double for New York circa 1995. Whew! Anyway, there ya go! G'nite!

Batman, Rent, Brangelina, Tex without the Mex, and the Trials of MJ (and that's not Spiderman's girlfriend)

2005-06-13T22:28:00.000-07:00

So, I don't have much to say this evening. I can give you a little rundown of the more major events of the past week, if you'd like. Here ya go!

1. Saw a screening of Batman Begins on Wednesday night on the lot. It was so crowded by 6:20 (for a show starting at 6:45), Cujo and I barely got into the supplementary screening in a completely different area of the lot. My co-worker, Morris, was ahead of us in line so he saved us two relatively good seats. The movie itself was pretty good, actually. Much, MUCH better than the last two, and definitely gives the first two, the Tim Burton-slash-Michael Keaton ones, a run for their money. What I liked so much about this new one is how grounded in reality it is, by comparison. The Scarecrow is not a fantastical comic-esque villain, but a very twisted scientist in a scary mask. They show the beginnings of Batman's life, his arsenal, his "toys", in a pretty believable way. And Christian Bale was HOT. Oh em gee. He is so fine, that one. To quote my friend Principessa, "I love me some Christian Bale." Oh, and you were asking about Katie Holmes? You weren't? Oh, well. She's in it, yes, and not too good. But, blessedly, she doesn't have a whole lot to do, does it capably, and has absolutely NO chemistry with Bruce at ALL. PLUS, she's way too young to play an Assistant D.A.. But that would be TOO real for them to cast someone, y'know, THE RIGHT AGE FOR THE ROLE. But, yea. Generally, I liked it very much. I actually plan to see it again, when it comes out and I actually have to pay for it. I'd give it two thumbs up. As Ebert and Roeper would say.

2. After the movie, we snuck over to the set of RENT (which I saw them tearing down today, sadly) and they were actually rehearsing a scene to shoot, so we didn't have to wait too long to get some action. Practically the entire cast was there, milling about. Rosario Dawson, Jesse L. Martin (shout-out to Stefanie - Roswell Grays, baby!), Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascall, and Wilson Jermaine Heredia. Oh, and the director, Chris Columbus (of "Harry Potter" 1 & 2 and the classic, "Baby's Day Out" fame). They were filming a scene in which the song "Another Day" is sung, near the end of Act 1. In it, Mimi, Angel, Collins, and Mark are standing on the street singing, "No Day But Today" and Roger is on the balcony singing "Come Back Another Day". It was so surreal to see the actors RIGHT THERE when I'd seen them on stage so many times, them or other actors in the same roles. It gave me chills. I haven't seen Rent since 2000 (saw it five times between winter of '98 and spring of '00), and I still know every lyric and can imagine the entire play in my head. Sigh. It's so good. If you want to check out the trailer, which just came out last week, you can do so Here (requirs Quicktime or something called "AOL Player" which I ain't NEVER heard of).

3. Okay, so what else, what else? I hung out with Principessa on Friday for the first time in (I think) over a month. We went to dinner and ice cream and then to Best Buy to look at laptops (I need one for the fall so I don't have to lug my bohemoth of a computer all the way to Boston). It was so great to see her. She has one of those wry, sarcastic and totally hilarious, fall-on-your-ass-you're-laughing-so-hard senses of humor (sense of humors?) that I missed.

4. On Saturday, I hung out with my friend, um, let's call her Leia since she loves Star Wars, and we saw Mr. & Mrs. Smith, a movie that, despite all my expectations, actually didn't suck. I won't go into it as much as Batman, but the action was good, the chemistry was, well, if they weren't "doing it" then, they were certainly thinking about it, and the dialogue was quite funny. Another two thumbs up (for a Thumbs Down, don't see "High Tension". I haven't seen it, but I read about it and it's basically a cross between Dean Koontz' Intensity and DON'T READ THE NEXT TWO WORDS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED Secret Window. Shudder.)

5. Finally, on Sunday evening, Cujo and I went to dinner with my friends of the "Mother freaks out" Saga fame, Joker and McBeer, along with Chatterbox. We went out to Pasadena to celebrate both Joker's birthday and their recent engagement. Yay for them! This restaurant, something with an X, was super expensive and had this sort-of East Asian-slash-Latino flare thing going on. I had what was basically a seafood stew, only it was given a fancy name to make it worth the $23 pricetag. And that was just the entree! I probably won't eat there again (at least not unless I've eaten at, say, Taco Bell first, and would then only be hungry enough for a $16 appetizer), but it was an experience and money well spent for a good cause. Then we came back to the apartment and Joker opened her presents and we dug into the brownie/cake that Cujo had made her. Deeeelish. Then I went to bed at like 11 while watching Lois & Clark. All in all, a lazy, rockin' weekend.

6. Then today, after doing absolutely NO work until about 3:30 PM (and then had to go into a 4pm meeting), I had luch with a fabbo friend of mine, Tex, who was on the lot for a job interview. We used to work at a talent agency together and I miss talking to him. He should be back on Thursday for a second interview so we might have lunch again. He's one of the funniest people I've ever met in my life, and I only wish I could do more to help him find a job. Unfortunately, he wants to work in Film, and my feet are squarely in the TV side of the pool. But I wish him the best of luck. It would be so cool if he got a job on the lot. Then we'd definitely see each other more often. At least until I go to grad school and will be across the entire country. Oh, well. Can't have it all.

Okay, it's 10:30 and I have to finish this episode of Moonlighting before the Daily Show comes on and Jon Stewart can tell me how I'm supposed to feel about this Michael Jackson thing. LOL. Actually, I was disappointed that he got off because I know there was something funny going on, but looking into the history of the accusor, they were not the right people to bring his doings to light. They were some shady people, people. So, I'm not saying it's RIGHT, that he got off, but I understand the reasons for them letting him go. Anyway...

Oh, and if anyone can recommend to me a bitchin' laptop for under $1300 with a DVD burner, Intel Centrino processor, 100 GB Hard Drive, 512 MB memory, and a 15.4" Widescreen Ultrabrite monitor, that'd be great. I'm still wavering between HP, Toshiba, and Dell, all of which have pluses and minuses. Help! I only have two months to make this decision!

Later, guys.

Wow. I wrote SO much more than I thought I would.

-Bridget

White's the new Yellow

2005-06-09T11:47:00.000-07:00

I'm just vain enough to support a charity because someone I have a crush on does. Sad, but I am. Anyway, I say any way to get involved, or at least interested in getting involved in something good, for whatever reason, is a good thing. I say that so I can sleep at night and justify my diminishing-but-not-quite-gone crush on Colin Firth as being more than just for my own benefit. But whatever. I'm writing because of this charity thing that I've been looking into. It's a campain called Make Poverty History, and they basically want to convince the G8 at the summit in Edinburgh in July to do more, like forgive dept to third world countries and combat AIDS in Africa, to make poverty history within our lifetime. A noble cause, to be sure. And a cute bracelet to boot. I've been a supporter of this thing for a couple months now, and I've noticed that the US is getting in on the action. Brad Pitt and his Hollywood chums are getting together to support One, the American sister-program to Make Poverty History. They even have their own nifty bracelet, too. Mine's cooler, though, cuz we all know that, generally speaking, the British are cooler than us. LOL.

Anyway, that's all well and good. If you want, you can look at the nifty ads that they're doing. Here's the American one, and the superior, IMHO, British "Click" one.

White bracelets are the new yellow. LOL.

Speaking of trendy, who WOULDN'T want this shirt?

...

Making a total 180, I'll post a little later on my thoughts on Batman Begins, as well as my trip to the Rent set last night(Rosario Dawson, Anthony Rapp, Jesse L. Martin, oh, my!), but for now, I leave you with the best t-shirt that I'm too much of a wuss to buy: The Jesus Shirt

Later!

-Bridget

Jesus loves you more than you will know. Woah, woah, woah.

2005-06-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

Well, I just heard the most depressing news. Anne Bancroft, star of stage and screen and most notably, The Graduate's seductive Mrs. Robinson, passed away yesterday at the age of 73. That's so sad! I feel just horrible for her husband, Mel Brooks. They were like the cutest couple. Did you see them on Curb Your Enthusiasm? Hilarious! They were one of the few Hollywood couples that have stood the tests of time(Up there with Newman and Woodward). Sniff!

Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson... we'll miss you.

-Bridget

Gettin' dirty, doin' the Supes, and the loss of Cruise control

2005-06-07T12:50:00.000-07:00

Wow, do I have a headache. Okay, sorry. Here we go. I thought I'd post something chipper to counterbalance my hate-fest from yesterday. Sorry to any casual readers who don't want to hear me vent. Hopefully those rants will be few and far between. Anyway, last weekend, my niece raced again in San Bernadino and came in 2nd overall. Which means she qualifies for Loretta Lynn, the Superbowl for amateur motocross racing, an event which takes place in early August in Tennessee. If you want to see Natalie's Results thus far in the qualifier races, you can click the link.

Now, I've never been into dirt bike racing, I absolutely HATE Nascar (sorry to all you rednecks out there), and I'm a much-professed "indoor girl", but I'm proud of my niece and her accomplishments, so I'm sharing them. Yay, Natalie!

Oh, and as an aside, I played that Killers song, "Believe Me, Natalie" for her last weekend, and she flipped. She'd never heard a song with her name in it before and loved it. Well, technically, she thought it was "weird". But getting a kid who only listens to Christian rock to even start thinking about The Killers, I think, is an accomplishment.

So, today, the BEST show in my sphere of television-viewing experiences in 9th grade (is that a specialized category, or what?) comes out on DVD and I'm SO going to get it at lunch. It's Lois & Clark! I'm so excited! Granted the second and third seasons were my favorite (before it took a sharp turn to Suckville in Season 4), I still really liked Season 1, too, so I'm all stoked. I can tell you what I'll be watching all night tonight! Also, my MOTHER'S favorite show of my youth and one of mine, Moonlighting, just came out last week and by Thursday it was sold out at two Targets and a Best Buy that I checked. Dang. I got a rain check from my local Best Buy, but it's $5 cheaper at Amazon, so I might just get it there instead. I love this TV on DVD thing lately! It means I can finally erase all of my old tapes, which include any number of the following shows: "Lois & Clark", "Earth 2" (I know, I know. Sigh.), "X Files", "Mad About You", "Friends", "Everybody Loves Raymond" (again, I know.), "24", and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (once again, I KNOW), among others.

And, finally, if anyone doubts that Tom Cruise is, indeed, crazy, you need to check out the various stories about him, Oprah, $cientology, and his new girl-toy Katie over at Defamer. All I have to say about the situation is an indirect quote from my friend Marvin: "Until he grows two ovaries and pops one out, he needs to shut up about post-partum depression." I never thought I'd say this, but GO, BROOKE SHIELDS!

Everybody do the Cruise!

"Engage your closest cubicle-mate in some two-handed wrestling, throw your arms in the air (pretending that you just don’t care is optional) and yelp about the intensity of your feelings for each other, jump up and down on your boss’s couch—hell, go fucking nuts and pin your assistant’s hands behind her back and march her around the office like a grudging love-slave. You won’t want to be left out of the new sensation Cruising across the Hollywood nation!"

Later, skaterz!
-Bridget

Why working in a corporate environment sucks. Or, self-important assistants can kiss my ass.

2005-06-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

I am so effing frustrated right now. When I started this job four months ago, I was told, SPECIFICALLY, that I could have comp time in lieu of overtime (as my boss is, apparently, a tightass about overtime), and I could keep my own schedule and get paid the same amount every week as long as I worked 40 hours that week. As a long-term temp, the downside is that I don't get paid if the office is closed for a holiday, like this past weekend's Memorial Day. Fine. I get over $100 less a payceck, but that's only happened three times total so I'm not going to complain.

But just a few weeks ago, the office's payroll was moved from a laidback person to the tightwad assistant in the legal department, and since then I've had problems with my timecard that I've never dreamed of. But whatever. But this morning, even after I EMAILED HER LAST WEEK about the arrangement I made with her boss, and noted the email on my timecard, she STILL had to call me over and lecture me about my timecard. And, what's worse? Okay, the office closed early on Friday, which was nice, but no one told me that I wasn't going to get paid because someone who gets paid five times as much as me decided that he didn't want to be around to supervise us. So, not sure if I was going to get paid (I had, under the old boss, gotten paid if I left a couple hours early, like everyone else), stayed until 4:00 (instead of six). I found out on my last, smaller paycheck, that I did indeed get docked for those two hours, and on top of that got lectured for not taking lunch. She's telling me about how the top guy is going to get in trouble and the company is going to get audited and all I can think of is a)I work my ass off every day, I shouldn't have to put up with all this bureaucratic bullshit, b)I'm outta here in two months so the auditor and the lawyer can just bite me, and c)this new arrangement SUCKS ASS. AND it's not what I signed up for when I signed on. Now, when I give my notice in three weeks, I have another reason for quitting to use as ammunition. I'm so effing pissed off.

Ultimately, I am going to get paid for the extra hours I missed last week (I flew back on Tuesday morning and didn't get here until lunch) because it had been previously arranged, but there's no way I'll ever get those two hours' worth of pay back for leaving early AT SOMEONE ELSE'S INSISTANCE. I totally would've stayed until six if someone told me I wasn't going to get paid if I left. But, oh, well. Sucks to be me, I guess. But this whole thing is just getting to be ridiculous, and my friend who sits next to this crazy payroll assistant tells me how she complains about my timecard all the time. She can just GO AND BITE ME. She actually WALKED me over to the board with all the federal laws on it to SHOW me that I need to take a lunch after five hours. Okay, I get it. But if that means I have to work an extra half hour at the end of the day because you guys can't just effing pay me for the actual hours I work, then eff the lot of you.

She's a bitch. Course I'd be too if I was some lawyer's assistant at 45. That'll NEVER be me.

Sorry. I seem to use this arena to vent a lot, which is probably bothersome to any readers out there. I'll try to be funnier and less volitale later. Now, I just need to sit here and vent. Grrrrr...

-Bridget

I don't own emotion. I rent.

2005-06-03T10:50:00.000-07:00

Hey, guys. So, I just found out on Tuesday that they're filming exteriors from the upcoming movie "Rent" right outside on New York Street on the lot. How cool is that?? This is, like, my FAVORITE play of all time. And what's more, a lot of the original cast is coming back for the movie, including that Law & Order hottie Jesse L. Martin (who played Collins on Broadway). This is so exciting! I might run over there during lunch and snoop around a little. I did on Tuesday, and it looks so much like how I imagine that part of New York to look in winter(having never been there, myself. I know, it's a crime), right down to the license plates, graffiti, and snowy streats. AND, I found out this morning that the cast and crew have set up their own little blog for the movie, which is due out in November (so far away). The link to the blog is here, in case anyone's interested. I know I'll be checking in over the next few months. It looks like they'll be keeping a LOT of the original music, too, which is great. What more can one ask for than the original cast, original music, and original location? Like the McDonalds commercial, I'm lovin' it.

-Bridge

Poor Willy Wonka

2005-06-03T10:34:00.000-07:00

This is sad. Can anyone confirm this?

Gene Wilder Dead at 71.

Geekdom rears its head. Again.

2005-06-02T10:38:00.000-07:00

As promised, I'm back to tell you about how much FUN being a geek can be sometimes. Now, since Star Wars: Episode One came out back in the day, I wanted one of those fun lightsabers to play with. Who cares if I was in college and was supposed to be above all that? Not me. Shoot, I had friends who had lightsabers. I felt left out without one. But I wanted one of those cool ones that made the "Kksshhh" sound when it hits something, not just lights up. And I wanted Qui-Gon's light saber, which was purple and, as I recall, hard to come by. But then the sound ones were discontinued or recalled or whatever. Apparently they were sparking and exploding or something. And I didn't want one of the loser ones that just lit up. No, sir. It was all or nothing, as far as I was concerned. I moved on. I got over it. When the second movie came out, I was just so disappointed in it that I didn't even think about getting a lightsaber. But then the third one came out, and the super-cool sound-y ones were back. Granted, they still didn't have Qui-Gon's, but I was over that. I wanted an Obi-Wan. Well, I want Obi-Wan, too (aka Ewan McGregor), but I'll settle for a $20 replica of his lightsaber. For now.

Anyway, when we were at Hangtown, I mentioned to my little niece that I wanted one and she, being a six-year-old only child who wants everything and most often gets it, also did. So, I promised her I would buy her one. And this past weekend, when we were at Sam's Club in Reno, they had this two-pack where you could get Obi-Wan's Lightsaber and Anakin's Lightsaber for $30. Cool, huh? So, I got it. We got home and, while my parents were at the concert, went out into the front yard and dueled. I was SO MUCH FUN. I haven't had that much pure-geek-fest-giddy-don't-hold-back fun in a long time. I felt how that Star Wars kid must've felt when he was fooling around with his light-saber-esque toy with wild abandon, before his life was destroyed by the Internet. My blue lightsaber clashing with her red one in an infamous battle, our palms vibrating with the mechanisms, our faces reflected in the pitch black darkness by blue and red glowing staffs. It was cool.

Each saber has their own pros and cons, though. For example, the cool thing about Anakin's is that it changes colors. It's got a white/clear collapsable staff, and both a red and blue light inside, so you can push a button and be Anakin or Darth Vader (or as Jessie likes to call him, "Dark Vader") at your discretion. On the downside, it doesn't vibrate like Obi-Wan's, and the colors don't show up very much in the daylight. Obi-Wan's is cool, classic, vibrates like a cell phone when you hit something with it, and is blue. The sucky thing, though, is that every time it hits something, it flickers, which is confusing when you're in the dark and you need the light to see your target. And, obviously, it doesn't change colors. Like I said, pros and cons.

My father made me bring both of them home with me on Tuesday because my niece kept hitting EVERYTHING with hers, causing dents and leaving marks on both the saber and the things she hit. But this weekend I'll see her again for yet another race in San Bernadino, and we will re-match. Oh, yes, we will rematch.

Sigh. Sometimes I hate being a grown-up.

TiVo rocks, grades suck

2005-05-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

Hey, everybody. So, I'm at my parents right now. I'm going home tomorrow morning, and plan to stay at work late into the night to make up for my late arrival. On the plus side, I get to get up at 5am. You can sense the giddyness, can't you? I know you can. So, this weekend, my mom and I made up with a giant hug and a bouquet of roses (sponsored by me). I think things are okay now. Heh. Check back.

Anyway, yesterday, after church (That's three times this year so far. I think it's some kind of record. Go, me.) I spent a large part of the day hooking up my parents Replay TV, a TiVO-esque device that they've had for, oh, A YEAR, and are finally getting around to seeing how it works. Never mind that they've been paying a subscription fee for that entire time, but whatever. Then, after a quick trip to Sizzler for steak and all-you-can-eat fried shrimp (tres white trash of us, no?), we went home to watch Team America: World Police, which I blatantly stole from my roommate after she left for her trip home (Key Quote from my Father: "It takes a special kind of person to like a movie like this.").

Then, this morning, after the delicious waffles my father made, the 10:30 AM trip to the horrible yet colorful island of Madagascar, and the last-ditch attemps to get their computer to work after my father "pushed a button and messed the whole thing up", I sat back and finished my book, The Devil Wears Prada. This book, by the way, is what my life would have been like had I stayed at Gilmore Girls for the entire season. So, while it frustrated me to read it, I really enjoyed the fact that it was the character Andrea (Or Ahn-dre-uh, as the evil Miranda calls her) going through it and not me. LOL.

Anyway, I went over to school with my mother this afternoon to help her grade some papers. She's a 10th grade English teacher (Yes, the regular English classes - I know. Shudder.) and is stressing because grades are due and finals are in three weeks and she has mountains of stuff still to grade. And I thought she was kidding. I was there for nearly three hours, and got through two (of four) classes and only 5 assignments from those two classes. And all I had to do was see if they did the work and give them a check-plus, check, or check-minus. Man, I hope I'm a college professor when I decide to do that for a living (waaaaay in the future). There's no way I could a)put up with 10th grade loser-English (I'm an honor's English snob, what can I say?), b)sift through mountains of poorly-written, poorly-constructed papers, and c)come home exhausted and weary that I have to get up in the morning and do it all again. Count me out.

This evening, my brother, niece, parents and I had delicious salmon and noodles and broccoli under the evening Nevada sky. My parents have this kick-ass (yes, that's how I describe it) view of the mountains from every window of their house in Carson Valley. The mountains around Lake Tahoe. They're still snow-capped and absolutely breathtaking, especially at dusk. Sigh. I so don't want to go home tomorrow...

I'll write more later, and tell you about the duel-of-the-century light saber battle I had with my six year old niece (or, as she likes to call them, "light savers"). It was a draw, but barely. Kid's pretty good, for a padawan. Oh, gawd, now I'm talking like a 'wars geek. Somebody shoot me.

-Bridge

Oh, bother.

2005-05-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

So, I've decided to go home this weekend. I know many of you must be following my personal trials and tribulations of my "Kampf" with my mother, so I thought I'd let you know. I still haven't spoken to her. I've been meaning to send her an email, but that probably involves a lot of thought, possibly some crying, and a lot of groveling and demands for an explanation. And I'm at work, so I don't have time for all that right now. Coconut Fred is calling.

Anyway, on a happier note, I just signed up to see an advance screening of Batman Begins, next Wednesday. I'll be sure to post my thoughts on the film once I see it (in the more general way that only a signed contract with the devil who made the film allows for). In the meantime, I leave you with the above new quote (awesome), and this hot hot hot picture of my future husband (and next time, I SWEAR I'll get up the courage to actually SPEAK to him):

Ooh - both he and Colin have starred in movies with Renee Zellweger! That just proves that she is the luckiest girl in the universe. Except for when she married that country singer. And when she was in "Price Above Rubies". But generally, Renee has the ideal career, and the hottest co-stars, don't you agree? Lucky bitch (Just kidding! Love you 'Ne'Ne!)!
-Bridget

Ode? Or odor? You decide.

2005-05-24T15:39:00.000-07:00

By my mother doing the unforgivable in comparing me to my sister as a result of our little tiff, I've decided not to drive north for the weekend. That being said, I wrote this:

An Ode to My Mother

My mother is whip-snapper smart
And has arguing down to an art
She’s pretty as a daisy
Even if she is crazy
I still love her with all of my heart

-Bridget

Parents just don't understand. Well, mothers, anyway.

2005-05-24T11:15:00.000-07:00

I know this is my personal business and I probably shouldn’t be sharing this in a semi-public forum, but I just need to vent and if there’s any place to do that, it’s here. I have spent the last several weekends, as you may know, with family. That is a double-edged sword. Family has the ability to make you ecstatic and frustrated, happy and incredibly angry. They know you too well (and where your buttons are) and worse, know what you’ve done. And yet, you love them. You go out of your way, driving 12 hours in three days, roughing it up in the middle of a heatwave, babysitting six year olds, not getting a proper shower, dealing with the teasing, the goading, the petulance… all because you want to spend time with your family. And I’m fine with that. I’m fine with trekking out to San Bernadino and back because I love my nieces and brothers and father and want to see them. I’m fine with leaving work early to drive 12 hours in three days because I love my parents and cousins and siblings. I’m fine with using up my last few precious weeks in California because these people are worth it.

But there are times... Like this weekend. Memorial Day Weekend. The official beginning of Summer. I had it all planned. I was going to go up to Tahoe to visit my parents and spend the three days with them. Then, the unexpected happened. My friend, let’s call her the Joker, and her boyfriend, asked if the invitation I’d extended months ago was still open. If they could join me in Tahoe and we could spend a day at the lake, or go out gambling and dancing in Reno. I would love this. As much as I do love my parents, I just spent the previous weekend with them, and I’ll be spending the weekend after next with my father, again, in San Bernadino for another race. Taking all this into consideration, I thought, sure? Why not? It’ll be super fun, I haven’t spent a lot of time with Joker and McBeer in a while (his nickname comes from his real last name being a type of beer), and I’m going to miss them, too, when I move east. I told them that I’d have to clear it with my parents first, but it shouldn’t be a problem. Especially since the offer had been extended months ago for them to come up and never officially turned down. And my parents new about the offer and had been fine with it.

So, I call my father. And he’s totally cool with it. Great. One hurdle down. Mom’s at work, have her call me… etc., etc. I get a call from my mother last night, and she’s freaking out. Why do I want to bring people there? Don’t I know my father is going out of town this weekend, and if I bring friends, she’ll be all alone? Aren’t I upset that last weekend she had to share me, and now she’d have to do so again? Don’t I know that she’s just had family at the house and it’s a disaster and she’s been working so hard lately she hasn’t had time to clean?

I say, a) Who cares if the house is in disarray? Certainly not Joker and McBeer. They’ve been there before, they’re not, like, Martha Stewart or Bree Van De Kamp, for goodness sake. b) We just spent last weekend together. I don't see you driving 12 - 14 hours to visit me. It’s not my fault that you left early to go back to work last weekend. It’s not my fault that Dad has suddenly decided to go out of town. It’s not my fault that you have concert tickets for Saturday night, effectively leaving me to baby-sit a six year old after driving seven hours to see you. Maybe I’d like something to do while you’re off having fun. Maybe I'd like to spend time with friends I haven’t seen in a while. Maybe I don’t want to put up with your attitude and possessiveness about me when I’m not even sure I want to spend the weekend with you, at this point. She ended our conversation with, “Fine. Whatever. [click].” She hung up on me. She’s never hung up on me. Well, if she’s gonna play it that, way, fine. She tried calling back later, but I didn’t pick up the phone. I don’t have to put up with that crap. My friends are not welcome in her house, it seems, and if they’re not welcome, that’s an affront to me and I’m taking offense.

So, I called my father this morning while my mother was safely off at work, and he doesn’t understand either. Get this. To his knowledge, he has no plans to go out of town this weekend. He has no idea what she’s talking about. He thinks the house looks fine. A bit disheveled, but fine. And, he doesn’t understand where my mother would find all the free time for me and her to spend together, since school is over in a couple weeks and she’s got stacks of papers to grade in the meantime. So, given all this, I’m seriously, seriously, considering not going. I don’t want to drive a combined 14 hours for that kind of attitude when everyone except my mother I’m going to see a mere 45 minutes away from me in two weeks’ time. I don’t want to have to leave two hours early from work that I should get done just to face that. I have plenty of things I could do here. Laundry, for one. Getting my car fixed. Applying for scholarships. Finding a place to live in Boston. Paying bills. Watching the 18 hours of television saved on our TiVO that I haven’t gotten to yet. I have ten weekends left in this state. Ten. Believe me, there are things I could do.

I still haven’t made up my mind. I’m not looking for an apology from her, and I’ve already told Joker and McBeer that they couldn’t come up. I just have some thinking to do. And some venting.

Thank you.

Sweet, sweet, vicarious victory.

2005-05-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

Hi there. I am only going to put up pictures of this weekend and last weekend, for now. Apparently, after I left work on Friday, people decided to start sending me scripts that I couldn't receive until this morning, which have to be read and reported on by this evening. So I have a lot of catching up to do. But I wanted to share that last weekend, at Hangtown in Sacramento, my niece, Natalie, WON her race (results for amateur competition aren't up yet, but they should be soon. You can check the Women's Motocross Association web site for results soon). First place, baby! Big ol' trophy, and everything. I don't actually have a picture of that, since I forgot to bring my camera to the trophy ceremony, but my brother assures me he will email some pics to me shortly. Go, Natalie! In the meantime, here are a few pictures of two weekends ago in San Bernadino, along with a bonus picture of my super-cute niece, Jessica (my other brother's daughter). Enjoy! Will write more later.

This is a picture of Natalie that I stole off some Women's MX web site. I don't have any nearly this good. :)

Here's a pic of Natalie halfway through her six races on May 14th, at Glen Helen. Happy, but tired.

After she won her second moto in first place on the 21st, her dad (my brother, SurferSteve), hopped on her bike for the victory lap - and so he wouldn't have to walk all the way back to the motorhome all the way across the park. Yay!

Here's my little sweetheart niece Jessie-Belle. She came to both races and was the only non-racer under the age of 25 in our party. Given that, she was a good sport. I called her Butch because she had so many fake tattoos on, she looked like a biker chick. She didn't like that much.

"You were the chosen one!"

2005-05-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

Oh, man. Oh, man, oh, man. So, I saw Star Wars III last night, along with half the country (Gross for yesterday alone is supposed to be upwards of $40 million). It was actually pretty good. I need a little distance to decide for sure, maybe see it again after watching the other five again, but I already know I liked it more than the other two new ones. There were some nitpicky issues that I had with it, mostly to do with how the end of III meshes with the beginning of IV. But, like I said, it's nitpicky. All in all, I thought it to be sad, beautiful, and a fitting finale for the new movies. And Ewan was hot. H. O. T. All caps. He had this little patch of grey above each ear, as it's supposed to be a few years after II, and BOY did I like that. Maybe I have a daddy complex or something (ew), but he looked GOOD with a little gray.

I went with a group of people, three of whom I am friends with. Other members of this group, it would seem, have their own "How obsessed with Star Wars am I?" stories to tell. I'm just like, "Uh... I've seen all of them. I can hold my own at Star Wars Trivial Pursuit, but don't ask me where I was when Mos Eisley was attacked, or anything (was it attacked? wait. which one is mos eisley?)." But I really enjoy the original trilogy (that's IV, V, and VI, if you live under a rock) and pop in the VHS every now and again (I refuse to buy the DVD's because of the changes that I feel are bullshit and detract from the historical value of the film - they replaced the original Anakin Jedi Ghost guy with Hayden Christianson at the end of Jedi, for eff's sake!). Just a little background.

I can't think right now of specifics of the movie, in case you're coming here looking for a review. If you thought the first two were okay, or even horrible, and are debating seeing this one, I'd say go ahead and see it. It's got nice closure, and the cheesy annoying, badly written and over-dramatized scenes between Anakin and Padme are blessedly kept to a minimum. As an aside, I also think the actors gave themselves more freedom to actually ACT than in the last one - not nearly so wooden (Because we all know Lucas just sort of points and says, "Okay, act." and we know that's not what actors like to hear.). Some of the dialogue in those scenes was still pretty crappy, though. But, like I said, those scenes are blessedly short.

I also thought Ani's turn to the dark side was a little sudden. Actually, no, that's not accurate. We all saw signs of his path to the dark side since the second movie. But I thought his abandonment of all the Jedi principles he'd learned since he was, what, 8? They were gone in a flash. That was a little hard to believe. He didn't really struggle with the fact that he was tasked to kill Obi-Wan, instead just going from absolute trust in HIM (Not the Jedi Council) to absolute distrust. But the final scenes were hauntingly beautiful. One could actually get a glimpse, through the Chancellor/Emperor coming to power, of how Hitler might have done it. At one point, Padme sits in the senate and says, "So this is how liberty dies." I can just hear echoes of the German Reichstag members (that's their Parliament, by the way) saying the same thing. Sad. Sorry - history buff.

Anyway, those are my first-glimpse thoughts of the movie. I think I'm going to see it again. I saw the first two twice each. I should see this one again. Maybe on IMAX. That'd be awesome. But I'm really looking forward to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. How hot is Johnny Depp? Even with the goofy haircut and false teeth? Oh, yea.

Anyway, best get to work. I'm leaving LA early today so I can drive up to Sac'to for my niece's race. I have to stop at the airport and pick my brother up, too, so it should be an adventurous evening/weekend. Thank goodness I have some David Sedaris audio books, a lot of Garbage and Postal Service, and the completed works of Bobby Darin to keep me company. Yay!

Have a good weekend, ya'll! Go see Episode III, then go home and pull out the old VHS (or Laserdisc, I'm not picky) of the original trilogy and have some geeky fanboy (or girl) fun!

- Bridget

Spam-a-lot? No thanks-a-lot

2005-05-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

I'm not referring to the play, people. I hear that's fabulous. I've just been spammed. Is this some sort of initiation test? My last entry, the barf one, got 97 comments, and they were all for marketing scams, penis enlargements, or "send me money, I'm not trying to dick you" messages. Yea, right. Sigh. I'd seen this happen on other blogs... I just never thought it would happen to me. I feel violated. Not really, but it was a bugger having to delete all those comments, one at a time. Taking valuable time away from my lunch hour of watching Justice League episodes. Damn. Carry on...

Sally: So, a man can be friends with a woman he finds unattractive. Harry: Nah, you pretty much wanna nail them, too.

2005-05-18T11:31:00.000-07:00

That quote really has nothing to do with this at ALL. I just thought about it because my gay friend says he'd NEVER have a relationship with his other gay friends, and I started thinking. If men and women can never really be friends, according to Harry Burns, because the sex always gets in the way, how does that work for gay men? That's why I put that up there. I'll let you know if/when I get an answer to that query.

Begin original post:

I was just thinking that I really need to update my blog because I don't want anyone who reads this to think I have some sort of weird vomit obsession, or something. I don't. Ew. That'd be gross. I was going to wait until I downloaded my pictures of the race in San Bernadino last weekend (my niece came in 3rd overall, but it's her least-favorite track. Next weekend, at Hangtown in Sac'to, she'll blow 'em away!), but I figured I should put something.

After having an e-mail conversation with someone about Sports Night, I thought I'd write a little about that. Anyone who hasn't seen this show, needs to run - not walk - to their local video store or Best Buy or computer to access their Netflix and get this awesome series on DVD. This show was the BEST show on ABC's schedule for two years, and continues to be one of the highest ranked cancelled shows, in terms of quality, of any show EVER. Also, see Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me, and Firefly for similar quality. My idea is not to praise these shows, as I believe the work speaks for itself, but to discuss a tangentially related issue that I have.

Okay, we all know I'm weird. Keep that in mind when you read this. I have issues with people from my beloved shows moving on. Logically, I know that actors need to work and they're just doing their job, etc. But it's so... oddly uncomfortable to see actors from a show that I loved just... move on. This is why, even though I love Peter Krause, I can't get behind Six Feet Under because he will ALWAYS be Casey McCall. Same with Felicity Huffman. Now, I love Desperate Housewives as much as anybody in middle America, but I just can't get behind her character, Lynette, like I did with Dana Whitaker. Same with Jeremy Goodwin aka Will (Josh Malina) on West Wing or Natalie Hurley aka Terry (Sabrina Lloyd) in Numb3rs.

Now, don’t get me wrong. TV Land is too big and too varied for this to bother me on every show, with every actor. If it did, I don’t think I could watch TV at all, and that’s just unacceptable to me :). I feel perfectly happy for people who’ve managed to find success on more than one show. I love that half the cast of Melrose Place is working again, or Rob Morrow (Northern Exposure/Numb3rs), Teri Hatcher (Lois & Clark/Desperate Housewives), Tim Daly (Wings/Eyes), Matthew Fox (Party of Five/Lost) or Terry O’Quinn (Millennium/Lost). I think, for me, it’s just the people whose shows were so ruthlessly cancelled. It feels like they decided not to fight for the shows anymore, that they’ve given up hope that there could be a resurrection, or a movie, or even a TV special. They’ve simply… moved on. And it frustrates me to see them reading such OBVIOUSLY sub-par dialogue compared with what they’d been exposed to in the past.

A few more examples of this distressing phenomenon are as follows:

- Katie Finneran from Wonderfalls is set to star in Fox’s summer series, The Inside.

- Mandy Patinkin from Dead Like Me just had his pilot, Quantico, picked up by CBS.

- Callum Blue, also from Dead Like Me, will appear on the fall WB series Related.

Distressing, I tell ya.

Oh! Oh! One more thing! Remember Nina? Aw, c’mon. You remember Nina. Evil Nina. Evieeeel Nina!? From 24? She’s back! The other day I watched a pilot called The E-Ring (Which was horrible, by the way. In addition to the sexually suggestive name, it’s dialogue was totally clichéd, and Dennis Hopper is SO trying to pull a James Caan by switching over to TV as the patriarch of a maverick and unruly team of newbies – with the exception of the hottie Benjamin Bratt) and NINA was in it! Trying to play a GOOD GUY! A HOUSEWIFE! And what’s worse, her character is ex-CIA. Hello?? How could Benjamin Bratt’s character trust her for a second? I wouldn’t. Plus, in real life she’s married to Xander Berkeley, who plays an asshole in everything. Like when Kryceck started dating Catherine on CSI. You knew, just KNEW, that was going to end badly. And it did, oh yea. Sure, I was expecting her to walk in on him frenching David Duchovny, but some random woman was just as good. Betrayal is betrayal. Never trust Krycek. It’s like a rule.

Anyway, that’s all from my warped brain today. I actually had something great typed out, but Blogger ate half of it so I had to reconstruct it from my mal-nutritioned memory. The above is what you get. I bet you wish you’d waited to get the motocross pictures, huh? Too bad, suckers. Welcome to my insanity!

-Bridget

Hurling, Spewing, Blowing Chunks, Honking... it's all the same. It's all gross.

2005-05-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

"Hey! Garth, get it together, man. 'Cause if you hurl, and I catch a whiff of it, man.. I'm gonna spew. And if I blow chunks, chances are someone else is gonna honk, alright? And that's gonna set off a parastolic reaction, alright? " - Wayne Campbell

I know this is disgusting and I really should do some actual work in my last half hour of the day, but I just gotta share. Someone in the bathroom threw up. Now, this, overall, is neither particularly exciting nor disgusting. But I'm getting to it... She (and I know it's a she because it's a ladies' room - unless we have some sneaky bastards thowing up in ladies' rooms for kicks) missed the toilet. And, to make matters worse, left it there. Now, I'm no prude (would one who is grossed out by vomit be considered of a prudish nature?), but that's just wrong on so many levels. What kind of person barfs in an office bathroom and leaves it there? You're going to say a sick one, aren't you? Walked right into that one. But still, this is disgusting (I'm loving the italics today). Who barfs in an office bathroom and doesn't clean it up? I thought people who made it to the studio are of genearlly a higher caliber than those who frequent the public toilets in the Underground stations of London. But I guess not.

I'm a sympathetic barfer and I nearly through up after a few short seconds. Shudder. Oh, and ew.

Just... in the interest of full disclosure.

-Bridget

See? There are some athletes in my family...

2005-05-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

Oh, I almost forgot! I wanted to share something super cool with you guys. My niece is racing here in SoCal this weekend. She's 13, a total spitfire, and is the #1 Motocross racer in her age group in the state of Hawaii. Did I mention she's only 13?? She's a great kid, to boot. My brother has a web site that I wanted to share: Natalie's Info. She's racing, like I said, this weekend at Glen Helen Raceway. If you want, come out to see her kick some serious tail! She clobbered the competition last weekend in Reno, NV, coming out in First Place, with a trophy as tall as she is! Anyway, just wanted to brag about her...

Carry on...

"You're over me? When... when were you... under me?"

2005-05-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

Would it be wrong to say I'm over Colin Firth? I mean, I'm not OVER, over him. I still think he's amazing and a fabulous actor to boot (not to mention the only REAL Mr. Darcy, no matter who else plays him, past or present), but now that I've finished that book and have seen most of the movies, I think I'm beyond the "Stalker" phase of my personal relationship with him. I know one person in particular is happy to hear this, as he's been bugging me to dump him as my number one crush for a while now. Problem is, I don't really have a new one. A new obsession, I mean. Movies coming out this summer look uninspriring, series television is drawing to a close, and the book I'm reading is good, but let's face it, chicklit, with no hunky guy to drool over. I'm lost in a sea of faces and don't know which one to choose.

This same thing happened before. I went through a period where just nothing, nothing, enlightened me to the point of obsession. Remember earlier when I said I got through these "periods of obsession"? Well, the truth is, they're not periods, so much as phases, where one sort of blends into the next. I had a dry spell somewhere around November of 2003, and it lasted just about until Mr. Darcy showed up on his white horse. Sure, I had mini-ones in there. For things and/or people like going back to the ol' standby X Files for a few weeks, or crushing on the Phantom himself, Gerard Butler, but no one really to obsess over. No one to watch every film of, download horribly cut-together screensavers, and put at the top of "celebrities I'd love to [bleep]", or secretly write my name alongside his with a little heart in between. Okay, I didn't do that last thing. But I thought about it. What can I say? I'm an obsessive personality, but currently without obsession.

This is why I don't smoke. Because I know if I did, I couldn't be a casual smoker, I'd be one of those 3-pack-a-day-ers. Ew. Obsessive personality.

Get a life, you say? Stop daydreaming, you say? Bring it on. I've tried that. My entire senior year of high school went by without an obsession and without a care. But mark my words, obsessions are good to have when things around you are just out of focus. When you're not sure about where you're going to be living in three months, when you're probably the heaviest you've ever been but don't know for sure because you're afraid to step on a scale, when you know that in three months, you're going to have to quit your job, leave your friends and family, and fly 2,000 miles across the country to start a new life and become massively, severely, in debt. Maybe it's times like these when you NEED something secure to fall back on. Something you know won't disappoint because it's entirely imaginary. Something that you can have your fill of without getting hurt, and then move on to the next without any bad feelings. That's when you need someone like Darcy to ride into your life with his wet white shirt and too-long sideburns and sweep you off your feet, even if it's only in your head. And now I'm losing that. It's slipping away. I need something new.

Hm. Christian Bale is hot. We shall see...

Thanks for reading.

AdieAngel

I'm a San Fran Fan

2005-05-09T20:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon, I returned from a crazy, whirlwind, and often hilarious weekend up in the bay area of Northern California. Visiting friends in both San Francisco and Berkeley, a few of us flew up on Friday, got little sleep, ate a ton, shopped a little, and got really drunk. It was an absolute blast. I don't have a lot to share, really, as the memories are all kind of jumbled together at this point, but it was so great to see other people who are also starting a new chapter in their lives, with grad school, graduation, or a new job, and sharing how we'll plan our lives to intersect in our relative new environments. I only wish we could have stayed a little longer than we did. There is so much in San Francisco that I haven't seen yet... the entire time there we were saying, "Ooh - let's do THAT next time." There are tours of the city on Segways, people. How cool is that? I'm eternally indebted to both Kinky K and Georgie for doing all the driving. I feel like I should pay them a little for wearing down their breakpads so much this weekend. LOL.

Stream of consciousness time: Freeways suck on Friday, four hundred miles an hour, stuck between a screenwriter and an In Touch reader (and not knowing which is worse), the fight to get in (and out) of the back seat, planetary restaurants: Jupiter and Venus, the most expensive root beer ever, things that are hot (but SO not), sandwiches with entirely too much avocado, yummy strawberry pancakes, sundaes look much better at the start than at the end, double your order, double your pleasure, cute boys hang out at B of A, yellow and blue storefronts, action figure frenzy, italian seafood, some wine actually isn't that bad, irish lemon drops, test tube sex on the beach and glow-in-the dark bracelets, Bridget the Raver (for 20 minutes), that last vanilla Stoli and Coke is what did it, poor Kinky not making it through the night intact, strugging to find flowers on Mother's Day (even though they'd been ordered), scrambling to find an open fast (but not fast-food) restaurant in Berkeley on a Sunday (harder than you'd think), the race to the airport, Miguel Sandoval in line B, Guinness sneaking up behind us (yum), losing a contact lens on the 110, falling asleep before Gray's Anatomy.

Ah, good times. I leave you with this: San Francisco. Lovely, isn't she? I'm going to miss the west coast...

I actually took this! Granted, it's really from when I went last November and took a boat ride under the bridge, but it's still SF and it's still lovely...

To Fan or not to Fan...

2005-05-05T15:50:00.000-07:00

In addition to the official fandoms I became a part of earlier in the week, I am now an official fan of Germany (yay, Germany!), Garbage (the band. I don't think there's a country with this name), and The Killers (also a band, duh). So, until this very moment, I'd only suspected myself of being a fan. Now that I have a little sticker on my blog, the fandom has been confirmed. Yay.

This fanlist thing is fun. It's like sticker collecting, but on the Internet!

The Battle for Hotties

2005-05-05T10:41:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago, my friend Georgie and I had a titan-esque "Battle for the Hotties" IM debate, in which lines were drawn and tough decisions had to be made. I wish to include the results of said battle below. This is what I do when I'm supposed to be working hard...

AdieAngel
David Duchovny
Colin Firth
Jake Gyllenhaal
Ewan McGregor
Gerard Butler
Josh Holloway (“Sawyer” on LOST)
Callum Blue (“Mason” on DEAD LIKE ME”)
Hugh Jackman
Hugh Grant
Dylan McDermott
Brad Pitt (I took him, begrudgingly)
Matt Damon
Don Cheadle
Bradley Whitford
Bradley Cooper (“Will” from ALIAS)
James Denton (“Mike” from DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES)
Tim Daly
James Spader
George Eads (“Nick” on CSI)
William Peterson (“Gil” on CSI)
Gary Dourdan (“Warrick” on CSI)
Eric Close (“Martin” on WITHOUT A TRACE)
Gary Sinese
Anthony LaPaglia
Kiefer Sutherland
Scott Patterson (“Luke” on GILMORE GIRLS)
Tom Welling (“Clark” on SMALLVILLE)
Bill Pullman
Michael Buble
Harrison Ford circa Indiana Jones
Liam Neeson
Alan Rickman
Mel Gibson (sans religious overtones)
Bruce Willis (my gift to Cujo)
Peter Krause
Jesse L. Martin
John Corbett
Ethan Embry
Mark Harmon
Johnny Depp

Georgie
Keanu Reeves
Jude Law
Hugh Dancy (yes, the one from ELLA ENCHANTED – I know, I know, I don’t get it either)
Tyron Leitso (“Eric” on WONDERFALLS - he was a tough one for me to part with)
Orlando Bloom
Dermot Mulroney
Dennis Quaid
Topher Grace
Michael Vartan
George Clooney (I had to give him up for Bradley Whitford)
Dominic Monaghan (“Charlie” from LOST)
Eric Szmanda (“Greg” from CSI)
Enrique Murciano (“Danny” on WITHOUT A TRACE)
Jason Bateman
Ed Burns
Adrian Brody
The entire WB Network (except for my 2)
ALL hot musicians
Noah Wyle
Ralph Fiennes
Oliver Wood (I have no idea who this is)
Daniel Radcliffe
Clive Owen
Colin Farrell
Josh Charles
John Stamos
Justin Theroux (evil Scottish guy on CHARLIE’S ANGELS 2)
Josh Lucas
Chris Evans (he’s in the upcoming FANTASTIC 4)
Nick Stahl

Before anyone says anything about how I have more than Georgie, I'd like to point out that not only did he get the entire music industry, save Michael Buble (although in retrospect, I should have at least asked for Jakob Dylan, too), but the whole WB (except for my two guys). So, we broke about even, I'd say. Although I'm still a little upset I had to give up Ralph Fiennes. That was a tough one to let go. Wow. And, realizing now that neither of us added Johnny Depp to our lists, I'm going to steal him before Georgie can claim him. LOL.

That is all. Back to work...

-AdieAngel

Gilmore Giddyness and Grief

2005-05-04T12:49:00.000-07:00

As I was just sucessfully added to the Gilmore "Luke & Lorelai" fan list (I know, I'm a dork, what's it to ya?), I thought I'd dedicate this entry to the Gilmore Girls. So, here's a secret. I don't think it matters much any more. I used to work on this show. I was an assistant to one of the producers. Yes, I got to go to the table reads. No, I didn't hang out with any of the actors. Yes, I quit because everyone over there is psycho. No, I don't hate the show. In fact, I still love it very much. I'm not going to get into it too much, but I have a little anecdote that I think is fun for anyone who's a Luke/Lorelai fan.

I'd been there about a month and we'd had by that time about three table reads thus far. But, in the case of the characters Luke and Lorelai, they had been kept apart during that time for whatever reason you can think of. They hadn't seen each other since practically the night that Luke kissed her on the front porch of the Inn. So, this table read was the first one where the characters interact. And being that everyone was still happy to be back to work, it was fun. The whole cast was there, along with all the writers, producers, and senior staff. This is normal.

My favorite part, though, was watching Scott (aka Luke) and Lauren (aka Lorelai) interact while reading their lines. It was classic. From what I could tell, Scott seems to have had a little crush on Lauren. During the reading, he wouldn't make eye contact with her, and he got all red and his voice got really low. It was SO CUTE. He had to stop and roll his eyes at the dialogue, and look at Amy (the showrunner) and sort of sigh and smile and then look at Lauren and she'd smile and they'd laugh and then he'd push on. It was SO CUTE. It was when they were reading the scene where Luke comes back after being with his sister and gives Lorelai the necklace to match the earrings he'd given her the year before, and they'd almost kissed before the marching band breaks the mood. Any real fans who read this would recognize the scene.

Less than a week later, a PA joined our ranks, and she was a huge fan of the show. I told her about this moment and she wished she could be there. It remains the best memory of working there for the few months that I did. (If you read the early entries here, you can see some of the worst memories of working there, although names had been changed to protect the evil. Oops, I mean innocent. But not really. Innocent.)

Oh - another quick L&L related story. One of the perks of working there (I couldn't go to set much because I was practically chained to my desk in the production office) was watching the dailies. Aka outtakes. Most of them are pretty boring, but every now and then you'd find a jem. One such jem was during that very same aforementioned scene. Scott and Lauren are supposed to have their talk, then lean in to kiss and are interrupted by the band. Someone off camera, at every take, would shout, "BAND" really loud and the actors would pull apart. Well, one take, no one yelled "band", and the actors are just getting closer and closer and no one is saying anything and finally Scott looks up and over the camera and yells out, "Is someone going to yell 'band', or what?" Then someone off camera yells, "Cut!" and Lauren smiles. Scott starts marching toward the camera, yelling, "Jeezus! I almost had a heart attack! We almost kissed!" He's waving his arms about and his face is all pink. SUPER CUTE. That's all. I wish I still had that on a tape or something. It'd be fun to share. Maybe I can "locate it" once the show goes off the air... in two years.

Anyway, that's all from me for now. Lunch time!

-Bridget

Edit: Here's me at the door to the Gilmore production office on my last day. The crown on my head is the one Rory wore to her grandparents' party when she turned out to be the only girl in a crowd of elegible boys. My last episode on the show, called, fittingly, "The Party's Over".

procrastination rocks!

2005-05-03T12:57:00.000-07:00

Hello, all. Just typing something quickly, as I am meeting my roomie for lunch in a sec. I've joined a crapload of fan listings down on the right side of the page... something to give this page a little more color, and keep me from doing my work. So, feel free to take a look. I'm not officially members of any of them yet (it's supposed to take two weeks - I guess I'm being vetted, or something), but their pictures were pretty so I thought I'd take a chance and put them up. Can you sense a theme? "Hopeful Romantic" as I like to call myself (Thank you Kathleen Turner, before she went bad like potato salad). Anyway, off for a bite. I'll write something more substantive after lunch, as I've been neglecting this blog for a week and that just won't do.

Bye!

The Sun Shines on San Diego

2005-04-26T11:18:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, me, my roomie, Cujo, and our friend, Mac, went to visit our old stomping grounds, San Diego. Isn't she beautiful? The three of us went to school here, at UCSD. Mac was an exchange student from Scotland, and is now here in LA visiting (acutally, she's still down in SD with friends this week, but will be up in LA starting this weekend for the remainder of her stay). We stayed at this great little hotel right on the beach in Ocean Beach. We ate dinner in La Jolla, took a trip down memory lane with a self-guided tour of campus (the Sun God, below, is a popular and cool piece of art on campus), had a bonfire at La Jolla Shores, hung out in Pacific Beach, and walked around the gardens and museums of Balboa Park. It was super fun, and, as always, I left wanting to stay. Below are pictures for your (and my) enjoyment. The first is Cujo and Mac on the longest pier on the western seaboard in Ocean Beach. The second is the view from Ocean Beach, about 20 feet from out hotel. Sweet! The third is the infamous Sun God. Ahh, SD. How I love thee...

What A Shame. I had to live HERE for five years.

The Sun God

Duckface gets shafted... again...

2005-04-22T16:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, more Colin Firth random thoughts ahead… just a warning.

I found something funny a couple days ago. I very well could be the only one, but I wanted to share because that’s what this blog is for anyway, right? Okay, so. Remember in “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, there’s this character called “Duckface”, played by Anna Chancellor, who has a crush on but is dumped by Hugh Grant? Well, watching “Pride and Prejudice” last week, I noticed that that very same actress, aka Duckface, played Caroline Bingley, who wants to marry Mr. Darcy but then doesn’t when he hooks up with Elizabeth. Strike two for the poor, poor girl. But THEN, I was watching “What a Girl Wants”, and in it, Colin Frith’s character is engaged, and we find out that it’s the very same Duckface! Aka Caroline Bingley! And he ends up dumping her, AGAIN, this time for Kelly Preston (although she’s not really a step up, IMO)! Poor, poor Duckface. I hope, one day, she gets the guy. But just not my guy. He’s mine. As I said. That’s all. Later, perhaps I’ll go into some of the more incestuous relationships in English (and American) cinema (ew, not like that). Like, for example, how Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson hook up in “Sense and Sensibility” but then are brother and sister in “Love, Actually”. I find that weird. Maybe I’m the only one, though, because Cujo doesn’t seem to have a problem with it. Oh, well. Another topic for another day.

Dood. I just went on IMDB to find a link to Anna Chancellor, and she’s frickin’ six feet tall. She gives Allison Janney a run for her money. Damn. Okay, I’m really going now.

-Bridge

Idle hands, and all that...

2005-04-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

Once again, Blogger has eaten my hard work by deciding to do routine maitenance right after I tried to upload a new entry. So, all was lost. I will try to piece together what I said, but I have a feeling it won't be as witty. It's always that way, isn't it? Anyway, here we go...

I've decided that I need a hobby. I mean, I have hobbies. Like reading, watching movies, shopping, cooking, etc. But I need a hobby that enables me to be both crafty and productive. Like, my roommate is super into knitting. I mean, she's like crazy-knit-girl. She has a blog of her own (below, and to the right) on which she posts, among other things, her complex designs and projects. She knits lace, people. That's tough shit. I admire her tremendously for finding a hobby that interests her and for becoming so good at it. She and our friend Paloma get together and talk about over knits and under knits and when to pearl what row and it's mostly all greek to me. I tend to tune them out and turn up the volume on the telly, or go do some homework.

I tried knitting. It's fun, I guess. I mean, I don't hate it. I know how to make very cool scarves, and I even know how to pearl. I'm working on a ribbed scarf as we speak, but I've been working on it for at least a month, now (although the person for which it is intended will be in town in about 3 weeks, so I best get my ass in gear), and I don't see myself going much further for a while. Eventually, I may make a hat. But I'm just not that into knitting. I'd rather buy things that other people have knitted. :) I also tried cross-stitching for a while. I learned how to do it in Girl Scouts, and thought I'd give it aother go. I got pretty good, but the problem is that, once you stitch something, it's not done. Then you have to actually put it on something. Like a pillow, or a baggie. I have yet to get to that part of it. Oh, I bought all the materials. Even this cute little sewing machine that no one seems to know how to work. But I didn't get farther than that.

Perhaps I'm just an inherently lazy person. Perhaps I just haven't found something I'm interested in enough to devote enough money to supplies for it. Maybe it's better this way, since I'll be starting grad school in the fall and won't really have time for a hobby. I don't know. All I know is that, when Cujo and I sit in front of the TV at night, she knitting and me just, well, staring, I feel like she's being productive and I'm not. If anyone has suggestions, I'd be up for them.

...Although, I did get this hard-ass puzzle at B&N the other night and I've been working on that lately. Three days and we've just gotten the edges done. It's one of those "millions of little pictures make up one big picture" of the Simpsons, but the little pictures repeat and are covered in colors that I know weren't the original, which in retrospect is a bit of a rip off. But now that I've started, I have to finish. Just about 923 more pieces to go! Wish me luck!

-"Bridget"

worth mentioning

2005-04-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

I just want to mention to anyone who should read this that being an Englo-phile is not totally, 100% out of the realm of possibility for me. I actually spent 3-8 years of my life living in England, in a town called Wycombe, where I went to high school and where my parents lived while I was at college. so I'm not like a total loser who just really wants to be English, okay? There's a precedent. Or maybe I just tell myself that to keep from sounding like a loser. but I guess typing this doesn't exactly justify myself, completely, but whatever. No one's reading this anyway, right?

-Bridget

Garbage and Stories of O

2005-04-21T00:09:00.000-07:00

I am simply LOVING this new Garbage CD, Bleed Like Me. I've been listening to it at work, in the car, and now at home. It rocks! It's so much better than their last album, which was good, but certainly not groundbreaking. This one is definitely getting back to their roots a little bit, and I'd compare it more to, I guess, their first album, than anything else. If I were you, I would espcially check out the songs "Boys Wanna Fight", "Bleed Like Me" and the new single "Why Do you Love Me". It's all soooo good.

Also, my friend Marvin, aka Tracy Samantha, aka Paloma Pinon, wants to start an erotica book club, in the spirit of my recent foray into the genre in the form of (oh, gawd, she's taking about that damn book again) "Mr. Darcy takes a Wife". I don't know how I feel about this. And it's not so much that I'm a prude (although there are aspects of prudeness about me, I'm sure), but that, well, first off, I guess I'm reading one of these books right now, and I want my next book to be something a little more... plot oriented and less, well, sex-oriented. I don't know what it will be yet, but I'm leaning towards Helen Fielding's Cause Celeb or Carrie Fisher's new book (the title of which escapes me).

Secondly, it feels a little weird about having an erotica BOOK CLUB. You know? Reading that type of book is kind of a private, guilty pleasure thing. And sharing it with people, even your close friends, not only defeats the purpose, but can be embarassing, too. I mean, what are you going to talk about, since there's no plot, really? I'd imagine, anyway. The positions? The toys? I don't know. Would conversations be full of "Remember when he... I know! Or that time when they... Oh, yea." That just doesn't seem like a very productive conversation, IMO. But that's just me.

Marvin is going to read the book first, (we're starting with the supposed classic "The Story of O", but they only had one copy at the bookstore so we're going to have to share) and then pass it along to me and Cujo, so I'll let them read it first while I'm finishing my own little love-fest. And then we'll see where it goes. I have to admit I am curious to read "Story of O". It's something that you always kind of wanted to read but were too embarassed to actually be caught buying, checking out of the library, or reading. Maybe when I get it, I'll put a little cover on it (like I did with a Star Trek book I was reading at work once and didn't want anyone to know - hey! One of our clients wrote the damn thing!). :) I'll be sure to update this blog on the book's juicy bits as they develop.

K, must hit the hay. G'nite all! Thanks for listening to me ramble...

-Bridget

Myth vs. Reality

2005-04-20T14:40:00.000-07:00

Me, again. Yea, I'm all OVER this blog today. Anyway, I was walking back from the cafeteria and going through the gate to get onto the lot (I work on a studio lot - have I mentioned that? Can't share which one, although I'm close friends with a certain bunny and duck that you might have heard of), and I had this thought that I wanted to share with whoever is out there in the ether.

When I was in school, I used to come up to LA and take the studio tours. Paramount, Universal, Disney, Fox, Warner Brothers, Sony... I wanted to see it all. And when I first started in this business, I would beg my bosses to let me personally bring something to an office if it was on a lot, instead of hiring a messenger to do so. I thought that people on the lot were... special, somewhow. That's the wrong word to use. That they'd accomplished something by being there. They had exclusivity. They were allowed to COME AND GO as they PLEASE, from a guarded fortress-like place. It was magical. It was mystical. I remember taking those tours and looking at people and thinking, "What do they have that they can be here?" As a youngster, I would always imagine the movie business (and, by extension, the TV business) as old white men in Armani suits, smoking cigars behind closed doors and making important decisions.

I suppose it is that, to a degree. I never put much thought, however, into the little people. With time and experience, I've come to learn that getting onto the lot isn't about "that special something". It's more about working hard, getting to know people, and getting a job, just like any other.

I have worked at XXXXXX Studios for almost a year now, and you would be suprised (well, maybe not, if you're a seasoned veteran of this industry) who is on this lot. There are people from all walks of life, who just happen to be in this profession. People from Ohio, Iowa, Michigan. People from Australia, Germany, and Mexico. They're all over. They are regular guys. The friends you hung out with in college... the quiet types who wrote furiously in their notebooks and dreamed of one day being the next Kevin Smith. They've gone to college, have student debt, want to direct or write but for now are content just to be here, on the lot. It's so WEIRD to think that, had I stayed in Biology instead of swtiching to Communications, I would continue to look upon those lucky enough to be here with reverence.

My mother and aunt recently got a tour of the lot, and they, too, were both amazed at the magic of the movies, but also suprised at how... normal... everyone was. The eccentric ones, the actors, the directors, etc... the ones you hear about on Enteratinment Tonight and Access Hollywood. They're around, somewhere. Behind those closed doors, smoking those cigars or napping in their trailers. They rarely come out to play. The rest of the people... they are still in training here. They still have to deal with paperwork, timecards, deadlines, stopped up bathrooms, andoffice politics, just like everyone else out there. It just amazes me, constantly.

That's it, for now. Must chow down on my yummy onion rings before the "lunch bell" rings in - ooh - 20 minutes! Just enough time to throw an episode of XXXXXX in the VCR before I have to get back to slaving away.

So, from the ether, this is "Bridget Jones, searching for tuna." Just kidding. That's just a line from the movie. :)

AdieAngel

Quick aside...

2005-04-20T12:28:00.000-07:00

Can SOMEONE please explain Ron Jeremy to me? He's SO unattractive. Yet I hear he's like the biggest male porn star ever. Are men threatened by attractive men and thus love to see some "average schmo" bedding these beautiful women? Is that it? Cuz I just don't get it.

If someone could explain Paris Hilton to me, too, that'd be great.

Thanks!

Back to work...

A new Mr. Darcy...?

2005-04-20T11:22:00.000-07:00

So, there’s this guy, right? Matthew McFayden. He’s set to play the new Mr. Darcy in the upcoming Pride and Prejudice feature film, co-starring Keira Knightly as Elizabeth Bennet. While I am looking forward to this movie, I find myself bothered by two things: First off, this man might usurp the fabulous Colin Firth as the most popular Mr. Darcy on screen (which I find most distressing), and second that there’s been this super-cute Brit out there in the world for 30 years and my friend Nhat, a self-professed Brit-boy-whore, hasn’t mentioned him to me at all. WTF? Let me down, Nhat…

Oh, here’s a pic of the bloke so you guys can judge for yourselves whether he’s fit to don the wet white shirt:

I should really start working now, shouldn’t I? Bad Bridget.

Fitzwilliam or Mark?

2005-04-20T10:55:00.000-07:00

Fitzwilliam Darcy or Mark Darcy? Tough call, really. And even more so than Bridget's dilemma because they are both, in fact, fictional. So neither has the advantage there. Damn.

Still, I believe I'll have to go with Mark. Because, not only does he exist in this century, and although fictional, has a much better chance of existing than Mr. Darcy, he is also just a bit more loose than Mr. Darcy seems to be. Although, if you've read the much-mentioned sequel I'm reading, he seems to loosten up a lot after the (cough) wedding.

-"Bridget"

Bloody Blog...

2005-04-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

So, I fixed the blog. See below. Yesterday it was acting all hinky and I had something glorious all typed out and it just disappeared, so I had to start again and that time I put it in Word first to make sure it saved and copied it over, but then had to re-enter all the hyperlinks first and somehow half the message got erased during the editing process. I just got so frustrated yesterday that I said "fuck it" and quit. So I've finally fixed it all.

Not much from me today. I've been waking up later and later every day. Today it was 8:33am. Which isn't too good, as I am meant to be at work at 9. But as it's not a hard and fast rule (in that, I can come and go as I please, so long as the work gets done and I'm here at least 8 hours), and I stayed over an hour late yesterday, so no one is angry with me (thankfully). I really have to stop staying up until 2 and getting up so late. I don't know what's keeping me up... possibly the fact that I bring home so much work that I need those necessary personal hours thereafter, forcing me to stay up longer.

I like my job, but I cannot wait to move to Boston and put this work stuff behind me for 18 months or so. Or less. I could get bored. We shall see.

At any rate, I must get to it, so I want to leave you with a new blog quote, which is also to become my email signature, but I wanted to share with my readers first (well, my one reader thus far - Hi, Thuy!). It's up in that little pink box in the corner. Love it!

That's all from me.

-"Bridget"

Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy? Seriously?

2005-04-19T12:53:00.000-07:00

Hello, all. So, anyone who knows me fairly well, knows that I go into brief obsessive periods, wherein one person or event fascinates me completely for a time, only to have it forgotten soon after in favor of something new and exciting (usually with a rather dashing leading man attached. It is at this time that I wish to share my current fixation with you, gentle reader.It all started innocently enough. After being possibly the last person on the planet to finish "The DaVinci Code", I was looking for something to read that lent itself to an altogether different genre. I was torn between the rather pompously named, "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius”, and the interesting-sounding, "Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife: Pride and Prejudice Continues". After due consideration, and an attempt by my roommate to read the latter which, to her dismay and my delight, had too many “naughty bits” to keep her from blushing in embarrassment and me, I dare to say, blushing in excitement, I opted for “Mr. Darcy”. Since I started this book just two weeks ago, not only has my sexual education been considerably widened, but I have also begun to revisit other Jane Austen and Austen-like projects.

I have, in the past week or so, watched the 5 hour BBC presentation of “Pride and Prejudice” in its entirety (and, believe me, imagining Colin Firth as the title character in this rather lascivious book has definitely helped paint a pleasant picture in my mind), Ang Lee’s gentle interpretation of “Sense and Sensibility”, “Bridget Jones’ Diary” for about the hundredth time and also starring the delectable Colin Firth, then “Bridget Jones 2”, then “Love, Actually”. Keeping in the theme of Colin Firth and/or Hugh Grant and/or Jane Austen and/or Richard Curtis and/or Andrew Davies, I fancy myself becoming rather British, in both voice and character and much to the dismay of those around me.

So, that is where I stand at present. I have still two-thirds of the book to go, and in the meantime several director/actor commentaries on the aforementioned movies to listen to, so I imagine this particular focus will remain for at least the next few weeks. If anyone knows of a Mr. Darcy-like man who is looking for an amiable companion, or has any idea as to the whereabouts of Mr. Firth (so I can stalk – er – visit him), please contact me forthwith. In the meantime, I’ll be over here in my little office, attempting to concentrate when all I can think of is that look that Mark Darcy gives Bridget when she’s trying to get dressed under a sheet to hide her “wobbly bits”, and he says, “Bridget, I happen to have a very high regard for your wobbly bits, in all circumstances.” Does this kind of man really exist? Somehow I doubt it, although there is a great deal of hope in my heart.

For a laugh, check out this Bridget Jones article (as any genuine “Bridget” fan should know, the books were first a series of articles, a la “Sex and the City”), where in she interviews Mr. Darcy. Er, I mean, Mark. Ah! I mean, Mr. Firth. It’s absolutely hilarious!

Bridget Jones Reaches Fever Pitch

On the DVD, this scene is replicated as a special feature, starring Renee Zellweger (as Bridget) and Colin Firth (as himself) with equally hilarious results. Even if you are not a fan of the second movie, I suggest Netflixing the DVD for that extra scene alone. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised.

That is all from me, Adie “Bridget Jones” Angel

Vows and Velvet

2005-02-12T00:45:00.000-08:00

I have no idea what that means. I'm actually kinda tired, so forgive me. I've never really written on this blog before, and I doubt anyone's going to read it, but I just wanted to put something here so I didn't feel like I was neglecting this little guy. He's still just a puppy, this blog!

Oh, in case ya'll didn't know, the title comes from the best show ever to air on Showtime, DEAD LIKE ME, which was recently cancelled (although WB is seriously considering picking it up). It passed before it's time, and will be missed. Sniff.

So, I'll play catchup in the next few days, but just wanted to post today that tomorrow me and a friend are going to Chinatown ("I'll take you down. I'll take you down to Chinatown.") to celebrate the lunar new year. It's the year of the something. Dragon, fish, I don't know. I don't really follow that stuff. But there's good eats in store, so I'm there :).

Sigh... isn't Gerard Butler dreamy?

-AdieAngel

2005-01-20T14:22:00.000-08:00

Here's my boyfriend of the moment. Yum.

Testing, Testing...

2005-01-20T14:00:00.000-08:00

This is just a test to see what this looks like.

Oh - I decided to move the posts from my old blog onto this new one, since some of the stuff I wrote was actually pretty funny and there are some thoughts I'd like to re-address at some point, so I thought they'd be good to be here for reference's sake, if nothing else. Enjoy!

another one bites the dust...

2004-10-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

well, four, really. last night four of our crew members were fired. apparently, the actors looked too good. it was our director of photography, who's pedigree includes the west wing. so he and his crew had to go with just two weeks' work under their belts (after firing the last crew). that makes 17 in four months. wow. just... wow.

it's a madhouse, i tell ya!

2004-10-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

this is a nightmare. i can’t believe i didn’t leave sooner. i can see it now – someone’s going to get shot and I think it’s going to be a PA doing the shooting. my soon-to-be ex boss is the second in command on this crazy vessel. our third in command is frazzled to the point where her hands physically shake during the day, and she shushes buzzing noises in phones and yells at production assistants for talking too loud. today, she complained to the production coordinator, essentially the fourth in command in our little office (although much lower on the totem pole of the entire show) that there was garbage on our carts. our carts are those little golf carts that we run around in so we don’t have to drive or walk everywhere. when i walked in this morning, there was a half-empty water bottle in one cart, but other wise they were spotless. but, apparently, the third has nothing better to do than complain, did so to the pc, who then did so to the pa, who is already about to quit because she can’t stand the third in command. so, the pc and the pa are about ready to bite each other’s heads off, arguing about whether or not the carts should be cleaned before or after the pa arrives in the office at 5am (“but the cleaning supplies are inside”, “maybe they should be kept with the carts”, “so, I can’t even put my purse down before I start scrubbing?”, etc.). anyway. it’s a madhouse here. people are so on edge.

have I mentioned that I’m the 13th person this season to quit or be fired? can you believe it?? at least i'm in excellent company...

oh, by the way. my boss had to go to a funeral today, so i'm free for a couple hours. yippee! first she goes on a stressful location shoot, then i quit, no someone dies... i wonder if she's had this coming to her karmacly. sounds like it. maybe tracy samantha's curse is working...

revenge of the reticulans

2004-10-13T10:41:00.000-07:00

today is 10/13. 10/13. ten thirteen. get it? no, probably not. most of you are normal, everyday people who have no idea what 10/13 is. would it surprise you to know that this is the name of chris carter's production company? he, illustrious creator of x files, millennium, the lone gunman, harsh realm (the latter two of which lasted only a few episodes, thankfully). honestly, if you knew me, you wouldn't be surprised. it's also chris carter's birthday. and, incidentally, fox mulder's. but you wouldn't know that unless you were obsessive (I prefer "focused"), like me. but i bet if you ask that x files fan friend of yours - you know the one, everybody has one - they'll be able to tell you what it means. no problem. they'll probably even admit to you that that is or was at one point their pin for any number of atm cards, login passwords, etc. it used to be mine, but not anymore. while you're at it, ask them about 11/21. this is another x files secret number. so, not so secret. but, if you watch carefully, it's not a coincidence that many important things on the show tend to happen at or around 11:21pm, or on november 21st. this is chris carter's wife's birthday. this has also been my atm password at some point. anyway, just a little nerd-dom i thought i would share...

not enough people are dying of the flu nowadays...

2004-10-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

so, any hopes of my leaving at a decent hour were dashed last night after we began to smell the acrid stench of burning plastic coming from the vents above us. being that we’re on the top floor of a 2 story building, this was not a good thing (not that it would have under any other geographical circumstance). the lot's fire department was called and came out, and we were scuttled out of the building while three – count ‘em three – fire trucks full of big guys in gear came out to investigate the smell (we hypothesized that the fire dept on the lot is so bored that they'll use any excuse to go on a company field trip). after about 10 minutes and an all clear (not from the fire dept., mind you, but from my micromanaging boss, who had her nose pressed up against the glass door the entire time as the threats to our safety were clearly inconveniencing her work) and went back inside, and the work that i was trying to get done before 7 would now be done late. i sat at my desk until 8:15, waiting to be dismissed. i finally just went in and asked her if i could leave. by that time, set was 15 minutes away from wrap so i didn't bother going. man, I’m such a slacker.

today i have a meeting with my boss' boss. and that woman's boss. i'm trying to figure a way to get my point across, my reason for leaving, without personally attacking the woman i'm leaving. it's going to be a fine needle to thread, indeed. this meeting is scheduled at the same time that my boss has one, so hopefully i can slip away before she returns. i will probably be a few minutes late to mine so i can ferry her off to her destination. i hate all this clandestine stuff, but i can't just go to meetings during work! that would be like taking a lunch, or something! madness!

and can i just vent for one second? okay, so more than that, but... i don't know if you're all aware, but there is a national shortage of flu vaccines in this country. it's been that way for a couple weeks now, as far as i know. luckily, i have one of those bosses who can't take no for an answer, no matter what. so i just spent the first hour and a half of my day calling every pharmacy within a five mile range of the studio to find anyone who has this vaccine. thank goodness i found one or i'd be here all day. this is just the kind of thing that keeps me from doing my job. that and blogging, of course. but the blogging thing is really recent. heh.

i suppose i should get to work now. less than three days to go! yay!

then begins my herculean task of making myself useful to society....

-AA

what if you surround yourself with dumb people?

2004-10-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

back again.

the other day, when i believe i may have been drunk, i was discussing with my friends cujo, tracy samantha, and, um, well, ryan (who needs a nickname, by the way - how 'bout busby?) the concept of meta. see, i learned it on this web site that i will not mention (cough)Television Without Pity X Files Forum(cough), and i was discussing how something was 'meta' and i tried to explain it. in my drunken stupor, i don't believe i was entirely successful. so, i found a definition through google (gotta love that google!) and it is this:

A prefix used to denote a higher level of thought about the subject, e.g. metascience (where we consider how we approach science), meta-ethics where we consider how we define normative behaviour. Each level in a complex system can be considered as a meta-viewpoint upon the previous level of emergence. Relates to category or type theory and higher-order logic.

www.calresco.org/glossary.htm

oh, yea. i love me some meta.

also, some random thoughts to close out the day...

two quasi seinfeldian questions:

1. why is it that some people, when leaving a building in a sea of people, elect to stop right in front of the door, thus blocking all those people behind them? do these people suddenly forget that there were in a crowd just moments ago? is the shock of sudden freedom so great that they must stop to smell the fresh air? do they have to light that cigarette in the middle of the funnel’s apex? these people confound me. off to the side, people.

2. yesterday, i was driving next to a cop on a motorcycle. i’m keeping pace with it, but everyone else behind me was keeping like, way behind. like if they go the same speed as the cop, he’s going to pop a euey and arrest them for speeding. what's that all about? anyway, as traffic began to slow down, the cop changed lanes and sped away. before doing so, however, he drove right past a trashed minivan with, among other things, a busted taillight. now, i know cops are the good guys and what not, but why is my friend tracy samantha getting pulled over for a headlight out and this guy skates by a busted - not just burned out but altogether broken – taillight? what is that? i saw on csi where this guy got arrested because he was pulled over for a broken taillight and the cop found a murder weapon in the guy’s car. turns out, the real murderer, who works at a car wash, busted the light and planted the weapon because he wanted to frame the guy and knew he’d get pulled over with the light out. lemme tell you, if that csi episode had taken place in glendale (and wouldn’t that be a great show!), the guy would’ve gotten away scott free! jeez!

some favorite quotes:

“in order to feel safer on his private jet, actor john travolta has purchased a bomb-sniffing dog. unfortunately for the actor, the dog came six movies too late.” -tina fey, saturday night live

“it’s taken me a lot of years but I’ve come around to this: if you’re dumb, surround yourself with smart people. and if you’re smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you.” -isaac jaffe (robert guillaume), sports night

i think that's all for me. psycho boss might actually let me out at a decent hour. might head down to set and see what i can see. only four days left! must make the most of it. it's too bad i can't stand her, actually, because the rest of the show is great. mostly. and i so rarely get to set that it's like the last four months were just a wasted opportunity. guess i have a week to make up for it...

-AA

this is the dawning of the age of... something

2004-10-11T14:40:00.000-07:00

today is the dawning of a new day. i'd say it is the dawning of the age of aquarius, but i honestly don't know when aquarius is (february?) nor do i believe that today is as important as said dawning, as there is a song about it and everything. there are no songs about this day (although, technically there probably are, as it's columbus day). actually, today is not the day that's important. but the past few weeks are, and the past week, especially. so, i'm going to start.

since my last blog entry (if you've noticed, i sort of abandoned the whole 'let's take a walk down my obsessive memory lane' thing), i stopped working where i was and started working somewhere else. without giving too much away, i work for a company that owns everything (including you), on a tv show that nobody watches, for a woman that could make hannibal lector beg for his mommy. i've worked at this job for almost exactly four months, and this friday is my last day. i turned in my notice on monday, citing irreconcilable differences. i thought saying my boss was psychotic was a little too on-the-nose. since i gave my notice, said evil boss from hell has been the nicest woman ever. she said please to me three times in one single sentence today. it's so werid. a co-worker says that she always gets super-nice after someone quits, possibly as a way to make them regret their decision because - look - everyone's so nice around here! not so much.

but, anyway. my friends have heard me bitch and moan about her long enough, so i won't do that here. this blog will become, while still a receptacle for random thoughts, a journal of the search for a job. ever look for a job unemployed? neither have i. ever looked for a job when you reeeeally don't want to work? me neither. ever look for a job when you can barely afford to stay afloat as it is? well, yea. so, this'll be fun!

in the meantime, i have meetings set up with my boss' boss to see if we, i guess, can get to the bottom of the problem. i have a meeting with the (insert studio name here) job recruiter to see if there's anything out there that i might be right for. and i'm going to join a temp agency that specializes in supplying temps to the entertainment industry. apparently my agency skills make me at least somewhat employable in that regard. too bad i don't want to work at an agency - i think i'd be good at it!

after i finish up here, i plan to go home for a few days… lie in my parents' bed all day, crying for opportunities lost and gained, drinking hot chocolate, and watching soap operas while wondering why i didn't just marry rich and be done with it like those glamorous soapy women.

next time on the blog: i plan to actually talk about something interesting, instead of playing catch up on my life. i hope you’ll join me.

-aa

ps – you cannot possibly comprehend the wit and wonder that is “team america: world police” until you see it for yourself. “america! fuck, yeah!” I’m totally getting the soundtrack! carry on…

shelly long story short

2004-05-18T17:04:00.000-07:00

today, class, we will be discussing the wit and wonder and frankly a little scariness that is the shelley long film library. when i was small, about 8 or 9, my holy trinity of movie actresses was bette midler, lily tomlin, and shelley long. now, given this trifecta, you can guess the movies that i was in love with as a child. they are, c’mon, say them with me: big business, outrageous fortune, and the piece de resistance, troop beverly hills. and, tangentially, the money pit and all of me. i thought these movies were, as they used to say, the cat’s meow, the bomb, the… shiznit, as it were. to this day, these movies rank among my most favorite of all time. i think i was too young to understand a lot of what was in these films (case in point: did you know the two guys from moramax who were sent to find and bring down the jupiter hollow visitors in big business were gay?? i mean, they slept in the same hotel room and ate dinner together and practically walked around with their pinky's out and still i had no idea until a friend of mine of similar persuasion recently pointed it out to me.), but i loved the downright zaniness of these actresses, and their willingness to put comedy over beauty.

my favorite of all of these was troop beverly hills. i loved this movie. i wanted desperately to be a wilderness girl. the girl scouts just weren’t wilderness enough for me. and i’m a self-described “indoor girl”. it’s the first time i’d heard of rodeo drive and boy did i want to shop there. i even wanted red hair! it’s the first in a long line of obsessions that included characters with red hair. to this day, i wish i had the complexion and eyebrows for red hair. no such luck.

anyway, i don’t remember a whole lot (my memory is as bad as sam beckett in quantum leap with his swiss cheese brain), but i remember thinking, above all else, shelley long was awesome. i was disappointed to learn, several years later, the following story: a friend of mine was (kinda long and pointless story ahead - beware) best friends with tom hanks’ niece. he used to live next door to ms. long (i know, right? oh, my gawd!), and these kids were playing in his back yard one day and their ball went into ms. long’s yard. the only memory this girl, my friend from college, has of shelley was her screaming at them from the balcony, telling them to get the hell of her lawn. not a pretty picture, i must say. but oh, well. she was awesome to me. that’s all for today. tomorrow, we delve into shame when we discuss beverly hills 90210. please comment to make me feel better about myself. you know you liked it, too. i can see it by the guilty look in your eyes…

-AA

office politics and dawning obsessions

2004-05-17T15:24:00.000-07:00

i have been advised by several people against sharing any significant work-related anecdotes or stories, as big brother may be watching and i wouldn’t want to lose my job. ergo (am i using that correctly?), i’ve decided to scale back on the obviously insane amount of work discussion i was writing. instead, i’ve decided to focus on minutiae, which can be much more fascinating (at times).

those who know me at all, know that i can be obsessive about things. mostly (okay, entirely) media related, i’ve carried obsessions for one show or movie or person or another for as long as i can remember, from shelley long movies back when i was 9 to my most recent matrix craze (that came to an abrupt conclusion on the day that i saw the third movie, which, to my surprise, both sucked and blew). i’ve decided to, in my own special and somewhat warped fashion, pay tribute to each one of these obsessions in a wacky, crazy, i love the 80s nostalgic kind of way. so, what i’ve decided to do is make a list of all the obsessions that i’ve had over the years and each day i will reminisce on each one. i’m not proud of some of these, and down right embarrassed over others, but their entertainment value, such as it is, helped me to become the quasi-person you read before you. so, without further ado, the list:

shelley long movies
beverly hills 90210
batman returns / michelle pfeiffer
beauty and the beast
death becomes her / goldie hawn & meryl streep
naked gun 2 ½
romancing the stone / Kathleen turner movies
jurassic park
star trek: the next generation
the x files
lois & clark
friends
mad about you
sports night
the x files (again)
the west wing
everybody loves raymond
csi
secretary
24
the matrix

i’d like to add a couple things before i close this entry. first of all, strangely enough, i don’t really have an obsession right now. i don’t know if nothing on the screen has sparked my interest lately, or if there’s just nothing that good on tv right now, or that i may actually be too active to be obsessed with any one thing. i don’t know. but if anyone has an idea, i’m game (and no, i don’t think buffy is gonna happen, no matter how hard you try and convince me!). secondly, i know you might be thinking, gosh, this girl had no life! and i’m not necessarily going to deny that, but keep in mind the following things, in my own defense: a) i was (an still am) an only child of working parents, so i didn’t have siblings to keep me occupied, b) i lived on military bases, where either me or my friends moved away a lot, c) i have, as a result, a wide vocabulary and array of interests that stemmed from each period, as well as an extremely healthy imagination, d)these obsessions (or “focus points” as i like to call them) lasted from weeks to years, depending on which ones. there’s a lot of real life stuff that i’m not talking about in between, so please don’t think that this is all i devoted my life to at the times they occurred. you’re probably already thinking what a nerd i am, but nonetheless, this is still my cathartic experience, darn it, and you are not going to rain on my parade! so, tomorrow, get ready for the ride of your life when we discuss such classics as troop beverly hills, outrageous fortune, and the money pit!

ttyl

-AA

day of change

2004-05-14T17:42:00.000-07:00

today is a day of change. and a day things remain the same. is that poetic, or what? let me explain: today, my beloved compadre, a man who has sat tirelessly in the cubical next to me for, oh, several weeks now, is leaving. he's off to seek fame and fortune in the entertainment finance industry, leaving us peons here to suffer alone. this great guy, let's call him "adam" (because that's his name), has worked at our little company for over three years. he may or may not be related to the owner (he doesn't want to make a big deal about that), and has had, over the course of his tenure, at least three different bosses.

worse than this pain in my chest at the thought of adam's departure(heartburn? possibly) is the fact that there will be no one to replace him. our offices are moving to a new building in about a month, so we are scaling back everything, including our work space. so, his "boss" will be sharing an assistant with another "boss", and i will also be given the task of taking on an additional "boss" (so as not to give their occupation away. okay, we're cia, but you didn't hear that from me!) to cover someone else, less well liked, who's also leaving.

where were we? oh, change. right. so, anyway, that's why things are changing. two people are leaving, and desks are being swtiched around and it's all very confusing. also, my "boss" just left for a week-long business trip to new york, along with six other "bosses" in the office. it's going to be dead here next week! even more so than usual! and it's usually pretty dead! so, that's a change, too.

finally, i've decided to make a change. we'll see how long this lasts, as usual, but last night i was fortunate enough to snag a copy of the awesome documentary super size me. i know a guy who knows a guy. let's leave it at that. cia, remember? we can get anything. anyway, this movie really made me think about my eating habits and weight (as if the thoughts had never occured to me before... right...) and i've decided to go to the gym tonight. okay, honestly, i was planning on going to the gym tonight even before i saw that movie, but now i'm definitely going to go. no slacking off for me. i've got a family reunion in ten days and dag-gummet (that's right!) i'm going to lose those six pounds i gained since i lost fifteen pounds last fall. if only i hadn't eaten that hamburger at lunch (not fast food, though. that's something, right?). and that ice cream good-bye cake about ten minutes ago (it's adam, people! he would have been insulted if i hadn't had a piece!). but now it all stops! i will resist the cheese! i will eat salads! sigh... we'll see...

i know i said that some things remain the same, but i didn't know what i was talking about. okay, i probably did, but i've since forgotten and this is already longer than it should be. so i'm going to sign off. again. maybe someday someone will read this and laugh. that'd be nice. but again, this is for me, right? catharsis?

later, skater

-AA

trying something new

2004-05-14T16:28:00.000-07:00

hey, there.

so, here's the deal: update 5/17: i have been advised by people with a little more perspective than me to get rid of the stuff that was in this section before, when i started this blog. so that's what i'm doing. i love my job. i love my boss. i am not at all coaxed or coached to say what i am saying now. i am very busy. because i am so busy, it is only in my extremely rare spare time that i am able to write in this journal. hopefully i can do this every now and again, but don't expect every day because, as i said, i'm extremely busy and have a very active social life on top of that so i can't be counted on to be here at all times. that being said, keep reading. :) you should here from me every now and again (perhaps, perhaps, on more frequent occasions than i've stated, but it's not because i'm extrememly busy (which I am), but because i'm taking time out of that busy schedule to write to you. we now rejoin the message, already in progress:

anyway, enough about my boss. the reason i'm telling you all this is explain that i have started this journal for one reason: to give me something to do. so, some days, you will see me posting many times, as thoughts drift 'in and out of the transom of my mind' (where's that paraphrased quote from, film buffs??). other days, i might actually have something to do at work, or might just not have anything to say, and you won't hear from me. either way, i'll try to stay interesting, but i can't make any promises. these journals are really just for ourselves, anyway, right? a catharsis? so any comments would be appreciated, but not necessary.

that's all from me for the time being, while i try to figure this whole thing out and see how far i can stretch it without it costing me anything. ha!

talk later

-AA