COOL WHIP

Cool Whip is yummy. I eat Cool Whip like it's ice cream. If I could only eat one dessert for the rest of my life it would be mud pie...topped with Cool Whip. I like Goldfish crackers as well. Parmesan flavor is the best, but I certainly won't shake my head when offered Cheddar Cheese flavor. One day I'll have the nerve to dip some Goldfish in some Cool Whip, because I already know that I like things that are sweet and salty. (In that previous sentence, I did a last minute edit that I'd like to mention. The word "nerve" used to be something a bit more edgy, but I have recently been told that my Grandpa now reads my blog, so such language is no longer desirable. Love you, Pop!)

My niece, Lily, made a cute little hat at day care today. It's a little red beenie-thingy with a paper-plate and "meatballs" attached to the top. She puts the hat, sings "On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese, I lost my poor meatball, when somebody sneezed.", and then she "sneezes", and the hat falls off, and the "meatballs" hit the floor. Then she does it about sixteen more times because she likes that we laugh at this. CUTE.

I tried a similar scenario with a hidden steam-pipe and "I'm A Little Teapot" at work today...not very successful.


PERSONAL MIMI MESSAGE OF THE DAY

I love you, Mimi. I know everything is going to be okay.

AGE GRACEFULLY

Women are so beautiful! Compare our form to the male's, and the soft curves and flowing lines make us so much more pleasurable to look at, on the whole. (Don't get me wrong, there are MANY things about the male form that I think are fantastic, but that's not the subject today). I guess it just makes me so sad when I see women bemoaning the changes in their bodies and faces as they age. Maybe this is the hubris of the young, but I look at wrinkles as signs of experience and maturity. My mother, for example, is a BEAUTIFUL woman; always has been. But she is too worried about losing her looks and feeling less worthy with every appearance of a new wrinkle. She's 59, but she looks not a day over 43...EVERYONE says so. It's kind of a joke for me, when I introduce her to friends and co-workers, I let them meet her, then ask them later how old they think she is; NEVER FAILS, they guess at least fifteen years younger than the truth, then are AMAZED when I reveal it. I even had a male friend tell me once that if I ever wanted to seal the deal on a marriage proposal, all I'd have to do it take the guy home to meet my mom, because he'd take a look at her and assume I would age just as well and propose on the spot!

But she doesn't hear it when we tell her she's beautiful. She believes her anxiety over her loved-ones. The whole experience has prompted me to make a promise to myself to enjoy every new change that aging brings me, to age gracefully, and to be proud of my years and my continuing beauty; no matter how it evolves.

What brought this up? I saw Sandra Bullock at my local Starbuck's on Sunday, and she was absolutely stunning, but I could tell that she'd had a little "work" done on her lips. I was so disappointed, because she always comes off as being anti-Hollywood hype; but I guess the pressure for the A-listers to stay competitive and vital causes them to see themselves differently than we do. Shame.


CHEER OF THE DAY

E-A-G-L-E-S!!! EAGLES!!! Let's do this, boys. No more fooling around.

I DID NOT VOTE 4 BUSH

Lance Armstrong's cancer foundation has these yellow-plastic bracelets that say "LIVESTRONG" on them. They are promotion for the foundation and have become a little bit of a trend, mostly out of support for Lance, but also as support for the foundation.

My brother, Brooks, found some black-plastic bracelets at some on-line site that say "I DID NOT VOTE 4 BUSH". I am wearing mine for his 40 million dollar inauguration bash tomorrow. Our troops are using scrap-metal and shrapnel to reinforce their hummers, to protect themselves from enemy gunfire, but it's good to know our second-term president will have some top-notch decorations at his party.

This bracelet is my long-distance protest.

And, on a completely different note, I have apparently picked-up an annoying conversational tick. My dad was kind enough to point out this new development during our last phone-call. Turns out, I dropped "Know what I mean..?" a grand-total of 35 times during the course of our talk; he knows because he counted. While I was happy to be made aware of this because it's certainly not a very professional way to speak, my mind was thinking an additional thought after being told; "So, basically, my dad hasn't really been listening to a word I've said, and rather he's been counting the number of times I've uttered a phrase. Hmm." Ahhh, parents. Joy.


WAVE OF THE DAY

Runners do this cute little thing when they pass each other on their run; they give a friendly wave. This wave is a sort of "Hey there, other person running, we're passing each other now and we're both running and isn't it cool that are both runners and isn't this exhausting and good luck on the rest of your trip." I am an avid runner, and often find occasion to employ this wave. Oh, and runners don't wave to walkers..oh no...that would be just silly. They're just WALKING, after all. =)

GLORIOUS EXHAUSTION

I haven't been this tired in a really long time! Man, does it feel good. "Wha?", you say? It feels good to be tired because my fatigue is due to four very long days of work, and I haven't worked in a while. It feels good to be DOING something again, ya' know?
Friday, I worked until one AM, then worked the next morning at ten AM until about 8 PM, and then woke-up at six the next morning, went on my seven-mile run, took a shower, was at work by 9:30 AM, worked until 6 PM, stayed out until 11 PM, then worked again this morning at 7:30 AM. Delicious!

I know, I'm a freak. It's okay.


NEWEST TURN-ON OF THE DAY

I met a guy that has the most amazingly beautiful posture, and, it turns out, that is REALLY hot! Who knew? But now I have to stand-up super-straight whenever I'm around him...c'est la vie.

LIFE IS RANDOM

My gorgeous sister had a tragedy occur at her elementary school yesterday, and I won't go into the details, but a little girl, a first grader, lost her life in a freak-accident. So many factors had to fall into place for what happened to have happened, but they did, and now everything has changed, and not only are the families directly affected by the incident completely shattered, but the other students, the ones that knew her and the ones that saw it happen, are being forced to deal with a concept that their young minds are probably having a very difficult time grasping.
Marisa was understandably upset when she came home yesterday, and wanted immediately to just hug her little girl with all of her might.

Life is just so chaotic and rough, sometimes. It breaks my heart to think of the path that this family had planned to travel, and that all of their plans must now inevitably be altered. How do you get over burying your five-year-old?

My heart goes out to everyone that is dealing with tragedy today, in whatever form.


FAVORITE PIZZA OF THE DAY
A bit off topic, I know, but I had to lighten the mood.

Honey Wheat Crust, from CPK
Cheese
Pineapples
Mushrooms
Sauce

-to all of you "No fruit on PIZZA!" people out there, I say; SHUSH!

SIDEWAYS

Saw a great movie last night called "Sideways". It's a small sleeper comedy about two friends, played by Paul Giammati(American Splendor) and Thomas Hayden Church(Lowell from TV's "Wings"), both of whom delivered spot-on performances. Paul Giammati was especially brilliant in his subtle potrayal of a man caught in a never-ending spiral of his own anxiety and self-loathing, trying valiently to show his soon to be married best friend a good time in California's wine country in the week before his wedding. It was a little slow to start, but once you get used to the pace of the humour, the laughs are sharp and plenty. Lovely performance by Virginia Madsen as well...aging has done her good. Especially nice to see Thomas Hayden Church working again, too.

Anywho, highly recommended, and don't be surprised to see Giammati win the Golden Globe (and maybe Oscar...I don't know, that's a tought one...but I don't see any other really strong contenders, so could be) for his performance.


SONG LYRIC OF THE DAY

"And if you want me, you know I'm here, waiting for you. I'm just a cross-hair, I'm just a shot away from you..."

Franz Ferdinand

SUPER CONGRATS OF THE DAY

One of my most cherished and best friends in the world, Tina, just shot an episode of "Medical Investigation"; her first major gig. She gets to die in some awful manner, convulsing and freaking-out! So cool. I couldn't be more proud of her...she's ridiculously talented. YAH TINA!!

READ WITH YOUR EYES, DUMBASS

So, as part of my "stop watching so much freakin' TV resolution" I decided a good way to occupy my time would be with some volunteer work. One of the organizations that I signed-up with is the LA foodbank, handing out food to the homeless on Saturday mornings. I got an email, detailing instructions of what time to show-up and driving directions to get there and I was all set to go tomorrow until I actually re-read the freakin' email (one I've read at least five times before) and just by chance noticed that I was scheduled for a Saturday in FEBRUARY...yeah, not tomorrow. I had just on a whim re-read the thing one last time, but I was totally all set to go down tomorrow morning. I would have showed up and they would have been, like, "Yeah, you're a little early." Good times.


YUMMY COOKIES OF THE DAY

My sister and I made Cranberry Hootycreeks. Pecans, white-chocolate chips, dried cranberries, oatmeal...YUM.
CLICK HERE for the recipe.

HOPE YOU DON'T GET HIT IN WASHINGTON!

A judge in Washington (the state) has just ruled that a pregnant woman must stay married to her now incarcerated husband because she is currently carrying his child. This man has had a history of abusing her and had beat her on numerous occasions while she was carrying their first child. On top of that, the man is not even contesting the divorce from jail; yet the judge made this ruling. He decreed that because the child would be illegitimate when born if the mother was not married to the father, through his interpretation of the state law, the couple must remain married until after the child is born.

What terrifies me the most about this is that if it gets through the court of appeals, a precedent will be set that a pregnant woman can not divorce her husband in the state of Washington, regardless of the abuse she might have endured at his hands. The judge that made this ruling said he made his decision in the best interest of the child, but how can it be in anyone's best interest to leave a child (and it's mother) in an abusive situation? How will this judge be able to justify his decision to the thousands of women that will feel that they are trapped in an abusive marriage and will be forced to stay in the marriage, simply because they might be carrying a child.

This is going to backfire so heavily on this judge. Women will lose their lives, as well as unborn children, because there will be many women that figure they'll have to abort their child to save it's life and her own.

Marriage is a pact, and contract, and a union. Abuse violates that contract. Abuse of any kind. Legitimacy was an initial concern of our ancestors because an illegitimate child meant that there could be a question as to whom had a rightful claim to inheritance. Not a lot of land and money passing to the children these days. Think maybe we can stop using this word to describe a child born out of wedlock? Just a suggestion.


DAMN THAT'S CUTE OF THE DAY

So, I am watching my niece, Lily today and I was planning to take her up for her nap at around 11am, because her Daddy said she woke-up pretty early today. She was watching Rolie-Polie Olie about five feet away while I was writing this post, and I noticed that things were suddenly very quiet in her corner of the room...yeah, turns out the cute-thing has just curled-up on the floor and fallen asleep. Poor thing must have been more tired than I though! I picked her up and said let's go take naps, baby, and she sleepily said, "Yeah...bed." Damn, that's cute.

IT'S THE FUTURE!!

Happy New Year, ladies and jelly-spoons! It's the future! It's 2005, for Pete's Sake. Where's my jet-pack? Where's my meal-in-a-pill? Where's my robot that vacuums the floor...oh wait. They have those now. All right, where's my robot to massage my back...right...got those, too. Hmmm.

It's the future!!

I make a resolution every year, and seem to stick to it pretty well, but this year, I was having trouble coming-up with something to resolve. I ended-up making a list.

1. Watch less TV. Yes, I am a vidiot...I was raised in the tube and it factors into my day in more ways than I would care to admit. I resolve to not watch TV before 5pm. Eeek. Oprah!
2. Journey to make new friends. It is my goal to make one new friend for every month this year so that by next year, I will have a good sized baseball team, with a few alternates.
3. Get off my duff and kick the career into overdrive. Nuff said.

I suppose these resolutions are a bit dubious, but I don't drink, smoke, do drugs, nor am I concerned about losing any more weight, so I don't have anything intense to give-up for the new year.

2005 is going to be a good one, though. I can feel it!

"I'LL BE SEEING YOU SOON" OF THE DAY

London, baby. I'm coming for ya'. I promise.