THE HOLLY-DAYS

Allrighty, here we go.

Christmas was lovely, aside from me making myself sick with anxiety...no, literally SICK. I somehow gave myself stomach cramps and a fever at one point. If only I could have harnessed this power as a child to get out of going to school. Now THAT's a superpower.
But, I enjoyed seeing my family, of course. Got to see cousins and soon to be cousins and aunts and uncles and cats and dogs and all of that loveliness.
Oh, the presents that I made; in that I had zero buckeroos to spend on XMAS gifts, I had to get crafty, and I wanted to do something to show my family appreciation for all of their support and love. So, I made "Open a Memory" boxes. I painted boxes and crafted a message for the lids, and on the inside I had written down on pieces of paper my most favorite memories of the person for whom the box was intended. When I could find them, I included small trinkets that had to do with the memory, and so forth. Everyone that got a box seemed to like it, so I guess the idea wasn't a total bust.

Other than that, same old holiday stuff. Spent time with my Dad and Sandi and Andrea (my stepsister) before they had to return to the land of cold and despair (North Dakota). My Dad should be back in town in a week or so, and I'm looking forward to seeing him again.

On a completely different note, I guess you could say that I am seeing someone new, now. He's quite nice, and we are taking things very slow, which I like. I am enjoying spending time with him and getting to know someone new. I am actively applying my new "He's Just Not That In To You" knowledge, and so far, it's working pretty well. No more sitting around torturing myself, wondering if I should call him and could I be doing more to further the relationship and blah blah blah...
If he wants to see me, he can call me, and I might be available, I might not. I like him, and I think he likes me, but I refuse to make any excuses for him, nor will I be sitting by the phone waiting for his call, wondering what I "did wrong" if a call doesn't come. A girl wants to be pursued, ya' know?


ipod REPAIR OF THE DAY

Big lovin' to my big bro for fixing my ipod and it's ailments. Whenever something goes wrong with one of my technical devices, I just sort of whine and hand it to Brooks, and he hands it back miraculously repaired. Genius.

WWMD?

The new theme of the holidays seems to be What Would Meghan Do? The males in my life, friends and family, have apparently decided that I am the go-to-gal when it comes to telling them what to purchase for their women folk. I have gotten at least two at-the-mall-panicked-help-me calls from my best friend, Tim, and my ex-whatever Matt. It makes me feel good to know that they value my opinion, I guess.

My big Bro is, so far, the hero of the gift-giving realm, 'cause he got me an itunes gift certificate. I am, as we know, OBSESSED with my ipod, and I have been waiting to get some tunes that I really covet. Rock on, Brooks!

I am spending this lovely Christmas Eve at my sisters house, watching Lily tear through presents. She has a vague idea of the whole "Santa" thing, in that she knows he's coming tonight when she goes to sleep, and she knows he's bringing her presents. Santa in theory seems to be better for Lily, because when she sees Santa in person, she runs for the hills. I guess Santa can be pretty scary to a three-foot child, because all they can see are big red knees and a man with a lot of white hair peering down at them. Ahhh!

I will travel south tomorrow to see my Mom and Dad and the rest of the fam at Mimi's house. Looking forward to seeing my cousin Matt, whom is getting married this Spring to a girl who will not have to change her last name, because it's the exact same as his. Now I know this sounds like a trailer-park romance, but it's just a coincidence...or is it? =) We told him to make sure he does a solid check of the family tree, just to make sure we're not mixing any genes that shouldn't be mixed, ya' know?

With money being more than a little tight this year, I was forced to go Martha Stewart on my family and make my gifts this year. I got pretty creative with them, but I'll wait until after XMAS to tell you about them, in that I don't want to spoil the surprise.

I hope everyone out there that celebrates a holiday this season is spending some time with the people that they love, or at least, loving people that have no one else to love them.

LOVE OVERSEAS OF THE DAY

To all of the brave men and women that are currently serving their country in Iraq and are separate from their loved ones this Christmas, I send you my love and my heartfelt gratitude for the sacrifice that you are making. Please, come home safe, and come home soon.

PINWHEEL

Does anybody remember a show in Nickelodeon called "Pinwheel"? I think I watched it when is was around six or seven years old. There were puppets and live actors. Every time I mention it, people look at me like I am totally looney...please tell me I'm not going crazy.


YUMMY CREATION OF THE DAY

My sister and I made Chocolate-Chip Cookie Holiday Wreaths, held together with a chocolate "cement" and garnished with pecan-clustered pine-cones. Super-freakin'-yummy.

STALKER NOTIFICATION

He wrote back!! How funny is that?! He's newly married and on the way out the door...to Hong Kong (?), but he read what I posted on this blog and sent me a "stalker notification" form. Very funny. I don't think I could have confused the poor guy more, but that's fun, too. He said he only had time to write a couple of lines because he was on his way out the door, as I said, and ended writing a couple of very concise paragraphs. I told him I was afraid to find out what he considered a lengthy reply, if a few paragraphs equaled "a couple of lines". Whew...good times. Random, but good times.

ODD CELEBRITY SIGHTING OF THE DAY

So, I'm at a traffic light, on the way to my sister's house in the valley, and up next to me pulls...Vin Diesel, in a black SUV. He didn't look happy, but then, neither would you if The Rock was suddenly claiming all of your stoic-tough-guy-with-short-to-no-hair-except-the-rock's-a-way-better-actor-roles.

GOOGLE EYES

Google your high school crush. It's fun. I hadn't thought about mine in, oh...six years. But I got curious last night and entered his name at google. Maybe I am a total tool for doing so, but I think I found an outdated email for the guy, and I wrote to him, (insert dork voice) "Uh, Hi. I don't know if you remember me but blah blah blah."

As far as I can see it, one of three things will happen.
1. "Return to sender...address unknown...no such number...no such zone..."
2. (him at his computer) "Meghan? meghan meghan meghan...nope. Doesn't ring a bell."
3. EMAIL NOTIFICATION: This is an official notification of an online stalker restraining order. Please cease and desist all contact with the complainant blah blah blah blah blah blah...

Tee-hee. Ah, high school. Good times.

MEN ARE JUST NUTS OF THE DAY

So, I've been talking to this guy for a couple of weeks; really nice guy, saying all the right things, wanting to take me out. For once in my life, I decide to take things slow, get to know the guy before I launch into any deep emotional or (cover your eyes, Brooks) sexual attachment. Things are moving right along, we're planning a date, which, due to circumstances beyond my control has to be post-poned a time or two, but we're making jokes about it and maintain the contact practialy every day; and then suddenly two days ago POOF!! He disappears, like the GOP from urban neighborhoods after the election. I don't even want an explanation, because I know there isn't one; not one that would make any sense, anyhow. (sigh) Men say that women are crazy, and we are, but our "crazy" makes way more sense than their's does.

BARBIE HAIRCUTS

I don't quite know how to do the link thing, so I imagine Brooks will do it for me, because whenever I mention such things and then check my site later, it's magically done, as if I employed little shoe-making dwarves...
Anywho, there's a funny blog by this girl named Alli, and lately she's been telling of her disturbing relationship with her Barbie's; One-legged Barbie, Shaved-Head Barbie, Co-Dependant Barbie, and such. It reminded me of my Barbie-hair-cutting obsession. I guess there was no link in my brain as a child that would have informed me that once I cut my Barbie's hair down to the nub, it would in fact, not grow back. Wha? But, Barbie gets married and has a corvette and a cool two-story apartment...shouldn't she be capable of simple hair-growth? Then, of course, about five years too late, they came out with a Barbie that had hair that would grow back, as if to mock me. That's fine, Barbie Nazi's, I didn't need your fancy-shmancy "hair-freak" Barbie when I was young enough to play with them. I'll just take my latent anger out on sub-par chia pets and casually sleeping friends.

AMUSING GAME OF THE DAY

I know this sounds odd, but if any of you have Yahoo email, "forget" your password and have them assign you a new one. I really did forget mine, and the one they gave me was so off the wall hilarious that I never forgot it again, and I now use it for the rest of password-requirements. I wish I could tell you what they gave me, but I'm not that stupid. Suffice it to say, it was so random and bizarre, I still laugh every time I type it. There are some sick Mo-Fo's in the Yahoo camp.

364 UN-CHRISTMAS DAYS

I wonder if it would work if one day, a huge group of people just decided to hold Christmas on...I don't know...June 8th? I mean, aside from some people's religious connection to the day, it's really only marked by the purchasing of copious amounts of gifts for one's friends and family, and the placement of decorations around one's home and around the neighborhood. We could SO pull something like that off in the summer. If we just amassed enough of a following to go along with it, and everywhere you went, there was suddenly Christmas music playing, and there were lights in the trees, and holiday sales, and a booth to meet Santa, your brain would slowly start to go, "Uhhhh...yeah. Okay. Sure. Why not?", despite the unusual date on the calendar.
Maybe it would be fun to move the day every year, so we could never quite be sure of when it was coming, and we'd be tooling along in our everyday lives, and then one day we'd go to the grocery store and suddenly they'd be selling egg-nog and pointsetias, and that would be our cue that we'd have a month or so to buy gifts and make plans to see family, and then we'd wake-up one morning and the news person would announce that it was Christmas and we'd all cheer and feel the love! Hooray!

Maybe the possibility of Christmas being around the corner at any moment would foster a feeling of non-stop good cheer and a holiday spirit of giving and love.


"MY HEART GOES OUT" OF THE DAY

My heart goes out to the mother of Scott Peterson, whom will now spend the rest of her life, and his, wondering where she went wrong. Agonizing over how she never really knew her son, and how she could have raised such a monster.

THE DEATH PENALTY

I don't believe in it. That is to say, I just don't think that there are any circumstances under which a life has the right to take the life of another. Don't get me wrong, if anybody dared to hurt someone that I love, I'd want to tear them apart with my bare hands, but my desire for revenge wouldn't be justification enough for me to actually do so. I'd want them punished; severely. I'd want to know that they would live every day of the rest of their natural life behind bars, in a five by five cell, caged, like an animal; never to see the ocean again, or mountains, or have an amazingly prepared meal, or climb the steps of the pyramids, or stand under the eiffel tower, or hold the ones that they love, retaining no part of the life that held dear.

Prison is a cold, harsh, horrifying place where the rights of the individual are stripped away and it truly becomes survival of the fittest. Whether it be through sexual assault, or even just physical violence, life is hell...day in, day out, with no escape, and no pity.

I don't know what his jurors will decide, but I think a better way to punish Scott Peterson for killing his wife and unborn child than to let him off the hook by killing him and ending his sentence, would be to commit him to life imprisonment; throw him to the wolves in the maximum security wing, and let them show him what they think of a man that would murder his wife and child. Every day of his life would be a walking hell, and before too long, he'd be praying for death as a release. Put the real punishment comes in not giving him that release, in telling him that he must LIVE his hell, with no escape, in penance for the hell he put Lacy and Conner through. Life will go on without him, outside his cage. And he'll soon be forgotten, like yesterday's news. But Lacy and Conner will live on in hearts and minds, cherished by their loved ones, and remembered in their tragedy.

YES, I KNOW OF THE DAY

Yes, I eat fish and chicken and yes, those are lives as well. But the food-chain is the natural order of life. Bigger things eat smaller things to survive. It's how we evolved and developed a greater intelligence. The laws of natural selection are different than the laws of man, and there is no nature in murder.

A DIFFICULT MONTH TO SAY THE LEAST

This has definitely been a trying month, I have to say. I won't go into details because the finer points aren't really important, but apart from losing my job a month or so ago and having to tap-out my savings to stay afloat whilst finding a new one, I just got hit with an $800 car-repair bill for my Mustang. Ouch. I really just have to laugh at this point. Apart from losing a limb before the New Year, I just don't anticipate things getting worse. But I am trying to stay positive and look at life as on the up-swing. I have found a new job which, I am hoping, will turn out to be better than the one I left. And the best news of all, turns out I'm not alone. I mean, I knew this "in theory"; family, friends, and such. But it is proving true in application, to the nth degree, and that element of all of this mess gives me a lot of joy in my heart.

My sister has been beyond lovely and infinitely supportive during this difficulty, and I can honestly say that I wouldn't be making it through this without her. Everytime I feel the need to have a big boo-hoo about the circumstances surrounding me, she's there to make me laugh, share her similar stories, and remind me that everything is going to be okay. I don't know if she'll ever understand how much her support means to me, but I am going to do my darndest to make it up to her and my other hero, Brooks, as soon as I am able.

My parents and grandparents have been amazing as well; my Mom with un-flinching emotional support, and my Dad stepping, once again, as SUPERDAD to save the day. I could launch into all the ways he's helped me, but that would require a much larger blog.

Suffice it say, my family are the most amazing bunch of souls in the world, and I love them so dearly, my heart just wants to burst. I could be A LOT worse off, the least of which being I could be alone right now, with no one to catch me when I fall. But that's not the case. I'm a lucky girl, and infinitely grateful.


LEAVE THIS BLOG AND VOTE OF THE DAY

Okay, my brother has been neck and neck with this Cromasia photo blog for the blog awards thing, but evil Cromasia has pulled ahead (I think he's sleeping with the judges) so everyone, PLEASE GO VOTE FOR BROOKS!! You can vote once every 24 hours up until December 12th. My bro reeeeeaally deserves this award, which you will see if you review his log compared to the ones he's up against. You can click the link from my page to his blog "Brooks Blog" and see for yourself, or you can just trust me and go straight to www.2004weblogawards.com, and go to the "Best Photo Blog" link. GO. NOW! Thanks!

THE SURREAL LIFE

So, I went to see a little cabaret show this evening because a friend of mine from college was singing back-up in it. It was playing in an upstairs lounge on top of a restaurant in Hollywood; small place, cute atmosphere. And the cabaret itself was a nice attempt from the kind of performer that is fun to watch, more because he really enjoys putting on a show than because he has an enormous amount of talent, as such.

Anywho, the cabaret was like a "divas I LOVE" revue from a colorful gay man's perspective; Liza Minelli, The Golden Girls, Lady Di, Fran Dreshcher(yeah,?, and Ellen Green, whom played "Audrey" in the stage production and movie of Little Shop of Horrors. She's famous for originating the role on Broadway. So, the guy's cabaret schtick was to perform some of the songs done by or about the aforementioned divas, and then the audience would vote on their favorite diva, and he'd perform another song involving the winning diva as an encore. Blah, blah, blah, the show was kinda cute and entertaining, and the winning diva at the end turned out to be Ellen Greene. So the cabaret guy says. "I have a real treat for you guys tonight, because Ellen Greene is actually here, and is going to perform for the encore."

Totally assumed he was joking, and started looking around for someone dressed in a blond wig or something, ready to be "Ellen". Yeah...turns out ELLEN GREENE really was there, and she makes her way up to the stage to sing. Now, keep in mind, I did Little Shop TWO times in community theatre when I was young, and we lived, breathed, slept, ate, drank Ellen Greene's "Audrey". Sang along to the tape, acted along with the movie, etc. And there she was, singing "Somewhere That's Green", Audrey's torch song, tears streaming down her face, five feet away from me, and I looked at my friend Tina, whom had attended with me, and she and I both had this "Wha?? Is this really happening??" look on our faces. VERY SURREAL.

What's even crazier, my friend Cara, the girl that I knew in the show, had to sing another of Audrey's big songs, "Suddenly Semour", with Audrey herself watching in the audience. That would be like someone having to sing "The Sound of Music" with Julie Andrews watching them from ten feet away in a semi-darkened room. Ha HA. No.

This evening will probably go down as one of my FAVORITE Hollywood moments.


NOTE TO CABARET PERFORMERS OF THE DAY

Yeah, when someone is kind enough to compliment you on your performance, don't lose interest and turn away in the middle of the conversation, as Mr. Diva did to my friend, Tina, this evening. He was obviously floating on cloud-nine because of the whole Ellen Greene thing (turns out he knows her; stalked her, then became her friend...odd), but, Honey Child, one should never dismiss people based upon a percieved importance. Little did Mr. Diva know, he snubbed a lady with numerous casting and industry connections. Don't burn your bridges before you've crossed them.

DUDE, I'M A MESS SOMETIMES

I took the CBEST today, the California Basic Education Skills Test, so that I might qualify to be a substitute teacher. I made a promise to myself that I would be out of the service industry by my 25th birthday, and this is my step towards that goal. Subbing offers a flexible schedule with good pay, and I much rather be interacting with little kids to make the rent than slinging liquor. I like bartending because you get to meet a lot of interesting people (the frequency of such meetings likely to increase at my new place of work on Sunset), but the hours and the demand can get a little wearing.

Anywho, that's not the point. The point is the test that I took today, or rather, the ridiculous sequence of events that led-up to me actually sitting down to take the test. This is a standardized test with many rules and regulations (can't leave the building once you start, no calculators, no electronic devices, no clown noses, etc.), so I arrived early to avoid any complications. Let's preface this story with me having to wake at 7AM to get to the venue, so I wasn't exactly thinking as clear as I might have on a normal day. I park my car and decide to only take my pencils and my admissions ticket so as to avoid any "Hey, you have an electronic device!" conversations. I walk up the steps of the high school housing the event just in time to sign-in...and realize I've left my I.D. in the car. I RUN back to my car, grab my I.D., and RUN back to the school. Whew, just in time. I find my assigned room (sorted by assigned seat numbers) and grab the first desk by the door. I settle-in, ready to focus, and the first thing I focus on is the fact that I don't have my CAR KEYS!!! AHHH! (rental car, small key, not used to it, blah blah blah...dumb) but it's too late to run back-out and find where I might have dropped them on my run. OKay, I'm thinking, I'll sort it out once they pass the tests out, maybe take a bathroom pass. Some lady comes-up to my desk in the middle of this mental conversation and says "These seats are assigned by number." And I say, "Yeah". And she says, "Yeah, you're in my seat." D'uh,. the desks are labeled with a number I chose to ignore. Okay, wrong desk. Look around...whoops, wrong room. Okay...I'll find my room. Go back out, find the chart, find room number, had the right number, had the wrong ROOM...can't find room. Require assistance to find door buried behind lockers in my line of vision. Okay, felt stupid, shook it off. Sat down, endured explanation of test taking procedure (Open book, answer question, pencil-in answer...could you repeat that?...!!...), then once "testing" began (we had four hours for 50 reading, 50 math, 2 writing), immediately ask for bathroom pass. I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate until I found my keys (suspected they were still in car door. Contents of car; IPOD, cell-phone, wallet). Ran to the front desk, explained my situation, acquired ESCORT to my car to find the keys, which were, in fact, in my car door, and then ran back to the school to take the test. Whew. I have NEVER lost any keys prior to this occasion, and the idiocy of such a situation is still haunting me.

But, the test went well, despite my looking at some math question and thinking WHA???, but I plowed through and finished before time. I think (hope) I did well, and am anxiously awaiting scores, which won't come until January. Hell of a way to spend a Saturday.


MANTRA OF THE MONTH

NOTHING BUT GOOD THINGS. NOTHING BUT GOOD THINGS. NOTHING BUT GOOD THINGS.

VOTE FOR BROOKS!!

Hey, go vote for my brother's blog for best photo blog at 2004weblogawards.com. (Hope that's right, Brooks will change it if it's not). He is the master of all Blogness, and must be rewarded for his knowledge!!!