I LOVE TWO OWENS

I have forgotten to mention my deep and abiding love for the soccer star Michael Owen, which we will explore at a later date, but I have affection for another Owen, Owen Wilson, which we will delve into now. Mostly because of his comic brilliance and wry humor, I find a need to...how to put this delicately...jump his bones? Yes, I believe that "jump his bones" would suit. Anywho, in the standard of the universe to put ridiculously hot men in my path, Mr. Wilson paid my workplace a visit this past weekend. He sat at my bar with a friend of his and ate a LARGE amount of food. Good for him. Nice guy, tipped well over twenty percent, and even didn't mind the minimal questioning I submitted him to (I asked him if he would be making another film with Wes Anderson anytime soon, to which he replied that he had just wrapped acting in Mr. Anderson's latest, due out this winter...yeah, we're buddies now). He's taller than I thought he'd be, and his nose isn't anywhere near as...odd...as it is made to appear in movies. Did I mention he was a nice guy? Well, he is. And so goes my life.


CELEBRITIES I HAVE MET SINCE WORKING IN SANTA MONICA

Roseanne's boss from her show
Helen Hunt
GALE HAROLD
Julia Louise-Dreyfuss
some guy from some movies
OWEN WILSON

I have highlighted the HOT people...oh, and David Hasselhoff. But I wouldn't call him a "celebrity". Celebrities are celebrated. Hasselhoff is mocked. And his wife was a BEEEOTCH!

SALTY FACE

It's a little embarrassing that I had tears careening down my face as I walked out of the theatre after seeing The Notebook, starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. They both turned in stellar performances in this lovely romantic tale. I had gone in expecting one thing because of the way a woman at my work reacted to it after seeing it, but the complete opposite happened and it ended the way all romantic tales should. So why was I crying? Because it was touching and sad and heartrending and reminded me of all of the things that I want out of love. Sigh.

I am going to see Fahrenheit 911 this week. I work next to one of the only theatres in town that is playing it, and the lines have been ridiculous for it. It is sold out for the next six days. There are people walking the lines with petitions and voter registrations...I feel like we're in the 60's again. I signed up to volunteer for Kerry's campaign. I don't know how much a vote is really affected at a grassroots level, but I have to feel like I'm doing something, to feel like I am trying. Because if I just sit on my butt yelling at the TV and cursing Bush, without trying to affect any kind of change, I'd have to count myself a hypocrite...and I abhor hypocrisy. We have to make a stand against this man...stand up for a right to be led by a rational man (well, ideally, a rational woman, but we'll get there eventually) as well as our rights to have some peace in our lifetimes. My little niece is 20 months old, just learning all of her words (back-pack is her new favorite word) and I realized today that in a couple of years we'll have to start explaining words like "war" and "hate" and "Republican" to her, and I am hoping to put off that day as long as possible. I'll try to explain to her that she is lucky to have been born American with all of the privileges that that entails, but along with that luck comes a huge responsibility. She'll need to come to her own understanding of concepts like peace and truth and justice, but once she does, she'll need to apply those beliefs in a way that is best for her and the ones she loves, as well as what is best for the majority. We have a responsibility as citizens of the country that is the "watchdog of the world" to be the watchdog of the ones in charge. Because the real power lies in the hands of the people, and we can affect a great change. We're coming for you, W. Start packing those bags. Or have your wife do it, if it's too complicated.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Your silence most offends me...

Shakespeare...William Shakespeare.

FORTY DOLLARS FOR A SALAD???

My sister, my niece, and most importantly on this day of "Daddy", my brother Brooks and I all went to a cute little restaurant in Malibu called Marmalade Cafe. It has a quaint, small-town-Mary-Englebright kind of feel, with a pretty extensive menu. One of the specials was the Marine Salad, a melange of crab, lobster tail, and shrimp on a bed of lettuce. My sister and I both ordered the salad, not realizing that the thing would be big enough to feed a third-world country. Whew. Huge. I ended taking almost the entire thing home, which is good, because what I paid for it, it has to last me until December. Very yummy though. No one could accuse them of skimping on the crustaceans.

I'd like to send a special "Hello, I love you!" to my Daddy, on this special Hallmark day. My father means the world to me. He's the bar by which I judge all the men in my life, and the kind of person I will always strive to be. Every decision I make carries the weight of a small nagging voice in my head automatically saying "What would your Dad say? Would he approve?". Not to imply that my Dad was overbearing by any means. I just respect my father completely, and I always try to make decisions that I know he'd be proud of. He's the smartest man I know, one of my best friends, and probably the person on this planet that understands me the best. Thank you, Dad! I love you.


AWESOME MOMENT OF THE DAY

I played the old joke on my sister where you say to a person, "Hey, you've got a dick-for on your forehead." and the person's supposed to say, "Huh? What's a dick-for?". Get it? I know, it's juvenile and silly, but most people know the joke. Apparently not my sister, though. She walked right into it and actually said the desired response...classic.

THE COLONIES

I have the memory of an elephant. I retain the most ridiculous knowledge in the most ridiculous quantities. I can still remember television line-ups from my childhood, including theme-songs and plot-lines. Anywho, my eight-grade history teacher had a great device for helping us remember the thirteen original American colonies from south to north. Ready?

Georgia and Stan Cody Never Considered Virginia to be a Medical Doctor in a Deli because Nothing Jived in Pa's Connection of Riding in a New York Mass of New Homes.

Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire.

Clever, huh? And I will remember that for the rest of my life, I imagine. Way to go, Mr. Stan Cody. Best teacher I have ever had. He used to dress up to as characters from history as we were learning about them in class. Johnny Appleseed, Abraham Lincoln, a Union soldier, a southern belle...he was just so committed to making the info interesting and the cynical students in the class that would laugh at his efforts just didn't phase him. He demanded a lot out of us, and got it, because he didn't set his class standards low. He had us memorize a list of 75 important dates and events in American history, and we had to list them, in order, without the prompting of a year or reminder of the event, and we had to do that EVERY WEEK. I learned more about American history from that man than I imagine I will ever learn. He was one of those truly dedicated, truly original teachers that one remembers for the rest of their life. Wherever you are, Mr. Stan Cody, La Paz intermediate...Thank you!!!

QUOTE OF THE DAY

I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, be buried in thine eyes...

Benedick, Much Ado About Nothing

Will-he-or-won't-he Shake-a-spear

BACK IN THE DAYS WHEN I WAS YOUNG...

When I was younger, like teenage years, I really had no desire to have a family or kids. I don't know why. The whole idea just didn't appeal. Maybe I was channeling the negative feelings I had from my own parents divorce in to whatever ideas I had about my own family of the future. I don't recall when exactly all of that changed for me, but I guess one day I started looking at babies and thinking..."Want...child. Must...produce...offspring." I don't want kids for another five years or so, but the need is definitely there. Not to mention my Mom's been not-so-subtly-hinting that she's ready to be a grandma, but that's neither here nor there, because I am not ready to be a mom yet. I am enjoying being an "aunt" though. I get to watch my Lilypad grow and learn and experience and it's teaching me so much about the way it might be with my own kids. A lot of work, for one thing. Never, ever knock all the work that a housewife does until you've either watched a precocious two-year-old for an entire day, or run a marathon while baking a cake, because they are just about equivalent in energy expended. You thought you liked to sleep? Imagine surviving on about five hours a day, like my sister does. My poor sister, from the same "love to sleep" school of thought as myself, gets absolutely no shut-eye to re-charge her batteries before heading out to work the next morning, but it's all worth it to have the Lilyput. Okay, so she's lost all of her coordination and tends to beef it over the gate in the living-room, and sometimes I catch her wearing inappropriate granny-panties, but she cannot be blamed for these things. You too would find life's tasks more difficult if you we're woken twice nightly by a crying baby-girl.

alright, kids, let's start talking about our next president. Notice I say "next" president, because if Bushy-britches gets re-elected, I might have to stage a coup. That's right, secret service, a COUP. I don't have any weapons or any kind of army, but a coup will be staged none the less. Now, personally, I liked John Edwards, but I understand that he just didn't have the backing this time around. That's fine, he's still young and I expect to see his face again. If this were an ideal world, I would hope to see him on the ticket with Mr. Kerry, but we cannot count on that. I am still trying to figure out Kerry's current strategy of lying low and not really making any statements for or against anything. I suppose he's just keeping his mouth shut and waiting for Bush to dig himself a bigger hole to fall into. Now that I think of it, good strategy, that. he can pretty much chill until the end of the summer and then start running ad's saying things like 'So, you know the current President? The really incompetent one? The one that will later be known as having been one of our worst? You know...the one with the entire book of stupid things he's said sold in the comic section of bookstores? The one that other countries talk about when they talk about hating America? Yeah, that guy. I am waaaaay better than that guy. And here's why...". That might make for a cluttered bumper-sticker, but it's still one that I'll buy. I also like to think that I can show my support by continuing to enjoy my favorite condiment...ketchup. Ketsup? Ketchup? Is there a difference? I don't know. I just know that I love it. Crave it. I sit down when deciding upon meals and figure out what I could dip into ketchup, and then go from there. How I got from presidential elections to tomato paste, I don't know. But this is how my mind works, people. It's a constant battle.

WORDS OF THE DAY

Try these words out-loud. They are enjoyable.

INDUBITABLY
EXTEMPORANEOUS
RAGAMUFFIN
CONSTANTINOPLE
COUP

NEVER TRUST THE SPELLCHECK

So my previous post mentions how my Dad had come in to town and it started with the title "Daddy's Here". Now this is the way that I spelled 'Daddy's', but the spellcheck told me that it was wrong and that I should change it to "Daddies". I knew this wasn't right, but it was late at night, and there was a small voice in my head saying, "Well, hell, it's a COMPUTER for pete's sake. I guess it knows better than I do". So I posted it with the computer's version of the title and proceeded to be shunned and mocked by my family the next day after they read it (it doesn't help that my big sister is a elementary school teacher and my father is a college professor). Ridicule! Mockery! Shame! I was forced to edit the post the next day and prove to them by example that the computer was partly to blame. I will take 79% of the blame, being that I am a reasonably intelligent and rational being and therefore should have stood up against the computer in defense of my own grammar, but that's neither here nor there. End of the day, lesson learned. Disaster averted.

I am currently awake, which is a rarity for me at this point of the morning. I don't think rational people should be up before ten in the morning, but I understand that there are circumstances that warrant such tom-foollery. I am appalled when I drive by people at 7:30 am that are running or some other strenuous activity. Don't get me wrong, I love to run and try to do so every other day. But I wait until my body has woken up so as not to send my muscles in to shock. I can just picture them (my muscles...cause they talk) saying, "What the? We were just...sleeping? And now we're RUNNING? Haeeelll no." I guess I just spent too many years waking at the crack of dawn to go to school, and I think it's going to take a couple of decades to catch up. My dad used to harp at me for sleeping in on the weekends, and now he sleeps till noon when he can, so pfffft to that. Sleep, my pretties...sleeeeeeeeeep. It's my...third favorite thing to do. Any guesses on the first two?

Allrighty, fresh and tidy. PS, if anyone out there can offer me any advice on my migration to the UK, I would appreciate any and all help. Especially in the job arena.


MOVIE OF THE DAY

Dude, I cannot WAIT to see the new Harry Potter. Perhaps I am a little more obsessed with the series than a 23-year-old should be, but fooey on that 'cause I am still a kid at heart. And in my opinion, you'd be hard pressed to find fantasy that is more skillfully written and a world that is more actualized than the one that created by JK. Props, you lovely English mama, you.