The cure for Insomnia...

...was American Idol last night. Skip the Lunestra next time you can't sleep and then watch the MOST BORING performances EVAR. Even Mandisa, Chris and Taylor, whom I still deeply love, were a TOTAL snooze.

Bottom three (hopefully): Lisa, Ace (who did the world's WORST version of "Drops of Jupiter") and Bucky. Lisa should be cut.

Paper cuts, files and boxes...oh my..

Egads. It's the Great American Moving Day here at work...and we are all chocked full of aches, pains, cuts and much swearing. I even was hit by a flying piece of glass from a broken jar...thank goodness for thick hair (and a thick head)...

My weekend was one of those glitzy, fun and unexpected crazy ones...with one of the best moments being that Kitty let me clip her nails.

I know. Crazy Cat Person Alert, right? But let me 'splain...

This was Kitty, circa 2004, just a mere 5 months after owning her (or does SHE own me??):

"...Kitty was QUITE a spirited young thang this weekend. I took her to get her nails cut. They were beginning to resemble meathooks. Last week, I flopped her over my shoulder as I do, and her little hooks went into my back, one by one, not on purpose. Felt like fishing hoooks. Not nice at all. She is not very keen on other people touching her, specifically if they are holding anything that might touch her for purposes of either doctoring or coifing. Kelly, myself, and Guadalupe (not her real name, to protect the innocent) had to hold her down to get just ONE nail chopped. I should have taped the bizarre, nocturnal monster noises that were coming out of her for Halloween to scare the children. She was writhing much like the character Reagan in the "Exorcist." They had to put a little leather black hood on her head as it was starting to spin...*well, she was trying to bite the woman's hand off.... (Kitty looked like the "Gimp" from Pulp Fiction) After everything, the very shaken Petco worker was shaking her head and muttering what sounded like prayers, in Espanol. All this in a matter of three minutes!"

A few months back, a friend of mine helped me clip her nails...he held her by her scruff while I chopped. I couldn't do it. I was a mess. I was sure that Kitty was calling the authorities about what a bad cat mom I am. My friend INSISTED that this is the better way, that taking Kitty to a "professional" is much worse for her. But what about me, right??

This weekend, Kitty was sound asleep. I steathily walked to her and started talking about how much we HATE Petco AND the vet, and how much nicer it would be if I could just do the cutting...

I picked up one of the furry, Ugglike paws and talked her through it. While I cut, she tried to nip at me once and then looked at me like, "(Sigh)..okay. Fine Mom. Just do it." And it took all of a mere minute and we were done.

So that's that.

To sum up the weekend:

too much Snake Pit on Friday;
A morning of coffee and "Hair";
Noshing and yumming at Jinky's on Saturday --if you have NOT frequented one of the Jinky's (there are three)...YOU MUST -- followed by an amazing Fryman Hike with Bunnie, twice;
Nail expedition in between;
A fun night with J-Boonesbrat;
Much couching on Sunday, one of the best lounging days in eons;
And MORE Snake Pit on Sunday, where I also won a music trivia bet (GLOATING) ... Sorry, V, I couldn't resist:)

Happy Monday Folks and Flakes!

Robbie made me do it...

So after I sent my Cupid-coupling idea to Robbie, he insisted I post and start rumors...





Since there are the Brangelina's and the Vaughnifer's...what can we call them??

Should I feel bad?

Idling about...

Another night of Idol. Decent one, at best. Stand-outs last night were Mandisa (who I have loved since the moment she "forgave" Simon for making a rude comment to her and who has proved week after week that she has voice, spunk and spirit); Paris, who captured the time-period and the voice of her piece; Chris who, as always, is not just hot but can sing the SH__ out of anything in ONLY the way he can. I mean, who has the balls to take a Johnny Cash song that's been newly made popular again, (in this instance, "walk the line") and make it into his own, ROCKED-OUT version, without straying too far from the original? I would buy a copy in heartbeat! Taylor, who normally blows me away, did a lukewarm version of "Who do you love," but still, he's always a pleaser. I was not too thrilled with anyone else.

My choice for cuts? Nerd-boy, Lisa and Bucky.

Enough is enough...

This is not going to be about the fact our President has made dire mistakes in judgment, in decisions, in speaking and in general. I am not going to discuss the fact that over and over again, our President thinks he is God and makes God-like decisions, as if he is speaking in tongue from a place, far-far away. I am NOT going to speak of the fact that his term in office has made him SO unpopular or that his "fan" ratings have markedly sunk like the Titanic, slow and cold.

I am hardly one to spout ANY political epitaphs of any kind, but really...could our President PLEASE step off and let someone else take over?? Watching him speak and answer questions like a child about to pee himself has just gotten to be more than I can bear. Watching press conferences, State of the Union addressess or the like have just started to make me cringe and as a slightly vain woman, I just can't afford the furrows of disbelief that show their pinchy selves on my face when I hear some of the doofus-like remarks or stammers that occur when our President is faced with questions...ANY questions.

There are definitely threats that we face daily as American citizens...our President or lack thereof, should not be a part of it.


While this is meant to funny, its a little mortifying:

http://www.bush-whacking.com/audioclips.htm

SPRING SPRING SPRING SPRING

Okay. Really. I know. Its hardly been "winter" here, so why all the fuss??

The first day of spring is TODAY!!! And yes, this means its a vernal equinox. This is when the sun sits directly above the equator on its apparent trip northward. The beginning of spring for us is the beginning of autumn for people in Australia and the southern parts of Africa and South America. Poor things!!!

Erin Go Braugh has NOTHING to do with lingerie….

While I am not Irish, I have attended my fair share of Irish events (okay, parades) and have SEVERAL friends with Irish heritage and names that last 25 breaths --(ex: "Mary Katherine Brigid Appolonia Megan Alphonsa Margaret".) My darling niece and nephew are, by way of their mother, Irish. Because of this, since they were children, my family liked to help them embrace. My mother, who always did feed festively when the occasion was right, would try her old-school cooking hand at corned beef and cabbage, just to keep the kids focused on their heritage.

Being Irish is EASY. Anyone can be Irish. Chicago is an easy city to be Irish in, too. Don a pin that says, "Kiss me I'm Irish," while slurping down a beer and you, too, can be the MOST popular lass on your block.

With this in mind, I found myself wondering about Irish ideals and what they really mean, so here is my hand at a little Irish research:

Does Kissing the Blarney Stone REALLY give do anything special??

Yup! Kissing the Blarney Stone, at Blarney castle, in Blarney, Ireland, gives you the "gift of gab." If you give it one kiss, you can talk a lot of "blarney" and people will still believe you! Did you know that you have to lie on your back and bend your head waaaay down to even reach the stone? And when you do, you will be kissing something that has been kissed by thousands of people a year for 500 years! Eeew!

Erin Go Braugh has NOTHING to do with lingerie….

Yup, the luck of the Irish must be with you! Erin Go Braugh means "Ireland Forever."

The term "honeymoon" originated from an Irish tradition. The word for honeymoon in Gaelic is "mi na meala", which means "the month of honey". Irish monks used to produce a fermented honey brew called mead and would give enough to a bride and groom to last them a month after their wedding. It was believed that this drink enhanced fertility and was the best way to ensure a good beginning for a new marriage.

The original Guinness Brewery in Dublin has a 6,000 year lease. A full seven percent of the Irish barley crop is used solely for the production of Guinness beer

Mmmmm. Beer.


(this is the Chicago River. It is dyed green for the week of St. Patty's day...)

Fun Fact:
Green River is a bright green, lime-flavored soft drink produced by the Clover Club Bottling Corp. of Chicago. The drink was developed in 1919 by the Schoenhofen Brewery of Chicago as a non-alcoholic product for the prohibition era. It was popular for decades as a soda fountain syrup. .

Facelift

Much like other people in Hollywood, I decided to give ye olde blog a little refresher...your comments are welcome :)

More like, Stevie Blunder

Last night, the Idol peeps had to sing Stevie Wonder songs. Sigh. Awful. Just awful. Granted, his songs are difficult, but again, SONG choice people. The stand-outs last night were Mandisa (not her best, but good enough); Paris, who came back from very blah weeks with TOTAL energy and the fierceness she'd started out with; Taylor, of course and Holy Bald-headed god, Chris blew EVERYONE away.

Really lame, I am.

And speaking of lame, if Chicken-Little-Lisp-Boy does NOT get eliminated, I will SCREAM!

Not Billy Idol

Tuesday night, Mandisa, who has rocked the house for the past two weeks, did it again with her powerhouse version of "I'm Every Woman." There were many reasons it was amazing but mostly, the girl can sing the hell out of everything with energy, a booty-shake and a smile. Kelly "Cal-I-MARI" sang a very tart-y version of "I'm the only one" which did not exactly showcase her voice (as its just okay) but her others, um, ass-sets. Simon called her a "naughty little minx..." Yea.

The other girls? B. B-for-BOOOOOOOORING. Prediction: Bye to Kinnick and Lisa.

The boys? Bald-headed babe Chris, sang a Staind song. Now, while he is ferociously hot, sings with amazing heart, has a great, um, body (EVERYONE loved his shirt), Staind is a little depressing. Nonetheless, it was really good. Gray-haired guy, Taylor Hicks, did a very seizure-like performance of "Bringing it to the Street" -- but really, AMAZING. He is the Bo Bice of this season.

Predictions? Bye to Will "Peter Brady" and Gedeon. I really like Geddeon, but something is missing there...like the fact he says he's 17...dudes, he's at least 25!

Now, I shall go bury my Idol head in the sand until next week...

A dear and introspective friend sent this....

...just thought I'd share.

STRESS

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water?"
Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.
The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it.
If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.
If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.
If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.
In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."
He continued,
"And that's the way it is with stress management.
If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later,
as the burden becomes increasingly heavy,
we won't be able to carry on. "
"As with the glass of water,
you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again.
When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."
"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down.
Don't carry it home.
You can pick it up tomorrow.
Whatever burdens you're carrying now,
let them down for a moment if you can."
So, my friend, Put down anything that may be a burden to you right now.
Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while.

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply be kind to others.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
* The second mouse gets the cheese.
* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
* We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

Okay...ONE MORE post about the weather...

***this cracked me up...

Richard Roeper
Chicago Sun-Times
3/7/06

OSCAR COVERAGE ....

Friday. The skies are cloudy above Los Angeles, and actual rain is
falling. On the local newscasts, they're treating the rains like a three-foot
blizzard: team coverage, tips on driving safely, etc. I half-expect one
of the anchors to say, "If you don't have to go outside, don't." Many of
these reports are delivered by weather-women and traffic reporters who look
like they just walked off a Stuff Magazine photo shoot, or men with porn
star names. One local weatherman is Dallas Raines. There's another named
Johnny Mountain.

Seriously.

What a tease!

--I don't what's worse: seeing a beautiful day out the window OR being outside in the beautiful day and knowing you must return the hell (okay, its not THAT bad) you call your job --

Why Can't This Be Love...??

I am barely holding up. My.Eyes.My.Eyes.

A little piece of my old school rock and roll, band-aid, musician-loving, first-crush-of-music-heart died today...

My first rock and roll crush...



and...sigh. Here he is over the weekend...




-- I think we broke up.

A little fall of rain, can hardly, hurt me now…

My person has been impaled by snow, bludgeoned with hail, noshed with sleet and cold winds, practically knocked unconscious by snowballs, stabbed with icicles, blinded by salt trucks mixed with slush -- I was once the girl, that even dressed to the nines, never carried an umbrella, jumped in puddles, made snow angels in my suits and sang in the rain. I used to jog down the lakefront in Chicago during the most hellacious conditions, but today marked my first official weather wimp-out moment:

As lunch time approached, I found myself looking at weather.com, following times of possible precipitation like a hungry hawk, ready to lunge. My plan was to walk around the golf course that is right across the street, the walk I usually take with two of my office pals, but today I thought of going it alone, only -- I was afraid I might get wet.

What??

Have I become light in loafers about weather?? Am I suddenly afraid I might melt?? What happened to my all-weather person who, much like the mailman slogan, "through rain, sleet or snow…", ALWAYS delivered?? I have a rain thing-y poncho garb thing with me, proper shoes and gear for this -- to quote Derrick Zoolander, "Who am I??"

I don't know what to call this moment, but I fear I may have lost my concept of weather -- for instance, I have been telling people who are in sub-zero temperatures that its been "cold" here. Cold??? COLD??? This is hardly Antartica. I have a friend coming to visit me tomorrow. She is coming from 25 degrees….and I told her to make sure she had some "warm" clothes!?

Has my inner thermometer been replaced by one that doesn't go under 50 degrees?? Have I slid into L.A. weather oblivion??

After seeing the "threatening looking clouds," I'd decided NOT to go.

(BTW...its NOT even raining.)

Little fact: The title, "A little fall of rain" is actually the title of one of the most beautiful (and weepy) songs from Les Miz.

Just a little Idol chit-chat...

So, the past two nights I tried hard NOT to watch, but I just couldn't help myself.

Tuesday night, the girls sang and once again, tripped, fell and picked BAD songs. For instance, nameless contestant girl who tortured us last week with the HORRIFIC song that was specifically written for Idol, came back with equal amounts of sadisticness by choosing a Mariah Carey song. WTF??? Mariah is SO on right now and while I might fling my nose in the air at her lack-thereof of fashion, the girl has pipes and Idol girl failed MISERABLY. Two good ones? Ayla, who was sincerely invisible to me the week before and once again, Mandisa, who closed the show with the same wonderful energy as last week.

Now for the boys of Wednesday night. Sigh. The boys this year are light years better than the girls, but again, SONG CHOICE. My favorites were gray-haired guy (taylor hicks) who did not pick the best song, but still has more soul than a closet of shoes and the closer, the hot, bald BABE who sang the SH** out his song, which I with much embarrassment, don't know the name of. But you see?? I don't even know the name of the tune, but still...his showmanship blew everyone out of the water. All in all, the boys were SO much better. A few clinkers, a few blah performances but all in all, good stuff.

That's all!

Perpetual City

It been over two years. Actually, today its two years and a few weeks since it ended (last episodes -- Part Une and Deux - February 15 and 22, 2004).

Somehow, even the watered-down, swear-naked, sans sex talk or scenes that are on regular TV STILL manages to works its glorious magic (ain't nothin' like the real thing, though!).

Yes. I am talking about (drum roll, please) -- "Sex and the City."

Last night, the rerun was the second to the last episode, properly called, "An American Girl in Paris: Part Une" In this episode (*SPOILER ALERT*) Carrie has decided to leave the fabulous city she loves as much as her three friends to move on to greener pastures -- Yes, PARIS!!!

I was having such a hard time, overwhelmed at the memory of watching this same episode in its finale weeks AND remembering how compelling each character was to watch at this point in the game. As Carrie gave her friends her final goodbye speech at their final New York City dinner, Charlotte started to cry. I had to flip over to South Park to bring myself out of near combustible tears. That worked for the moment as Cartman was giving each of the boys costumes for the boy band he'd put together so they could perform at malls.

I inched back to "SATC" and decided to take my medicine. I guess besides having seen the episode a zillion times, missing the show to death, etc. and still feeling a void since NO show has really been this good with stories or writing since, I also lived those similar moments with my own friends when I left Chicago…

Bunnie and I were just discussing friendships and how no matter how good, how bad, how busy, in love, in hate or in chaos you are, you'd better be sure that you tend to those friendships, keep them close and nurture them. *It's an inescapable truth, especially for women, that we need our girlfriends. Sometimes we really need their support more at times, but it's the ongoing feeding of the relationship that keeps it intimate and special.* Good friends are hard to come by, but will be your lifesavers when you least expect it, the shoulder when there are no others and your cheerleader when its ALL so good or OH so bad…

I am grateful for the ones I have. They all know this. I am glad SATC reminds me of how lucky I am…

Now, if I ONLY had a Big -- but that's a story for another day.

*Bunnie's words