See you never, old blog!

The time has come for the surprise (non-baby-related) news!

Check it out here, then tell your friends!!

I'd Be Thankful for Some Suggestions

Hey!

I'm hosting my first Thanksgiving as a married lady tomorrow and BOTH our parents are coming. Fingers crossed!

I'm pretty prepared in the food department, but it just occurred to me that I'd like to make a Thanksgiving-themed playlist, so I think I'm going to need some suggestions, stat. I'm thinking it should be festive yet chill music that does not necessarily need to be Thanksgiving specific, e.g.  Adam Sandler's "The Thanksgiving Song." A few titles I came up with so far include:

• "Lorelei" by Fleet Foxes
• "Down in the Valley" by The Head and The Heart
• "Moon River" by Patti Griffi

Help me out, gang! What have you got for me?

Major Letdowns: A Real Julie and Julia Situation

Don't you hate it when you get really excited about something and then it turns out kind of "meh"? That is such a pain! It bothers me so much, that if I start to get too excited about a new movie or book that's coming out, I try and tell myself to dial it back it bit, that it won't be as good as I think. Well, that's happened to me a few times lately, with a couple of different things.

Please note that the plot line referenced by the right side is okay, while the plot line referenced by the left side is rubbish
(i.e., a bad made-for-TV movie).

1. Once Upon a Time. I really wanted to like this show. It's the one where the former doctor from House is a private investigator who ends up charged with helping all the fairy tale characters figure out they're trapped in this time-space warp in Maine. The premise seemed cool, and I'm a big fan of fairy tale/folklore study (Maria Tatar has my dream job). But it is not that great. In fact, even though some parts are pretty entertaining, others are just plain annoying, specifically the fairy tale part, i.e., half the show. If you ever read or saw the movie Julie and Julia (sorry, Amy Adams!) you know what I'm talking about. When literally half of a thing is pretty terrible, the rest of it just doesn't seem worth it.

2. In the Next Room. I saw this play on Monday night and was very excited because I had heard so many good things about it. It's a comedy that takes place in the home of an early 20th century doctor who uses "the next room" as his medical office where he treats women by massaging their lady parts with a vibrating implement, specifically to loosen the "congestion" in the uterus. (Apparently this was a real thing.) So, as it seemed to be both a sex comedy AND a comedy of manners, I expected it to be pretty good. And the first act was; it cracked me up. The second act, however, went down a different road entirely, allowing for long-winded monologues on mother-child love and spousal intimacy. Let's just say that mess got real serious real fast, and I was not in the mood. Anyway, if it still sounds neat to you, you can check it out this week at Horizon Theatre (although the show is put on by Synchronicity). I wouldn't say don't check it out; I would just say be aware that it's not all jokes and vibrators.

3. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I just finished this audio book that was a dual history on some of the most prolific cells in scientific research today and the woman (mostly forgotten by history) from whom they came. For the most part, the book was very interesting, gave me a lot to think about, and told me a number of things that I didn't know. I was really bothered, however, by the way the author, Rebecca Skloot, inserted herself into the story. I mean, I understand why she did it. In the course of her research, she ended up befriending Henrietta Lack's only living daughter and becoming very close to her. Subsequently, she ended up including a lot about the time she and the daughter spent searching for the material to write the book, and all of that definitely could have been left out (e.g., I don't spend a lot of time to describing to you my drive over to the library from which I borrowed this audio book). I just feel as though she got so close to the story, she could only see what was important to her, not what might be important to the reader. The book was okay, but if you aren't that interested, the Henrietta Lacks wiki should suffice.

What shows/books/movies have you felt let down by lately? Or better yet, what has not let you down? I'm clearly looking at all the wrong stuff.

Larry, Carols, and Mo!

OK, Atlanta friends, I seriously want to go to Larry, Carols, and Mo this year and you should too! It is the Fox Theatre’s Larry Douglas Embry playing sing-along carols on the Mighty Mo organ FOLLOWED BY my favorite Christmas movie, The Muppet Christmas Carol (as previously mentioned in this post).

 What is it about old previews that make them seem so ridiculous/dated? The voiceover?
The "coming to videocassette this fall?"

What could be more festive this holiday season?

Tickets go on “sale” (they are free, you just have to pay the ticket master charges) on Monday at 10 a.m. The event itself takes place on Monday, Dec.  12 at 7 p.m.

Falling for Fall

I had an a-mazing weekend. I didn’t get anything productive done, but life’s not all about working hard, okay?

Saturday JP and I met up with some friends at Chomp and Stomp in Cabbagetown. It’s an annual chili cook off, bluegrass festival, and 5K race, although we only took part in the chili and bluegrass elements. The weather was perfect (sunny, upper 50s/lower 60s), the music was great, and the chili was delicious. Actually, some entries were delicious and some were just okay (I’m looking at you, chicken and green chili chili!). But we had a super fun time regardless, and we will definitely go back next year. I wanted to take of photo of JP and me holding up our chili spoons, but after a few rounds o’ chili they were stained that never-to-be-clean-again orange and just looked gross. Sorry!

Then, yesterday, JP and I drove up past Clayton to the Ellicott Rock Wilderness. I wanted to go on a hike and take in all the beautiful fall foliage, and that’s exactly what we did—with a typical JP twist.

First of all, it took two hours to get to the site we planned to hike, which I feel is a little far, considering there are beautiful sites just outside of the city. After the first hour in the car, I asked JP why he was so insistent we visit this particular spot, and he said, “You told me you wanted to see the best leaves, so I’m taking you to see the best ones.” I’m pretty sure I said I would like to see “some” leaves, but whatever. The truth is revealed, of course, when we arrive and he pulls a previously hidden fishing pole and tackle bag out of the back. His defense is that he would not really be fishing because the pole he brought was not his fly fishing rod but instead just a regular fishing pole. ???

However, despite the fact the site was a little far and JP stopped every quarter-mile to take a little fishing break, we had a lot of fun. The day was gorgeous, the trees looked great, and it was really nice to get out into nature and just hang around. I feel really relaxed today, and I seriously doubt I would feel this good if I had spent yesterday doing laundry and hanging around the house. Getting outside: I recommend it!

Did you have a good weekend? I hope you took advantage of the great weather!

Too Much Time: November Goals

So I’ve basically decided not to do any plays through the end of the year. There’s nothing coming up that I’m really interested in (Xanadu? No, thanks.), so I might as well utilized this time to take care of some stuff that got pushed to the wayside for the majority of the 2011 while I was wedding planning and dealing with family stuff. And to hold me to my intentions, I’m going to start posting monthly goals of the crap I need to take care of each month.

NOVEMBER GOALS!!!

 Hopefully, by the end of this month, I will be the lady in white...making all my goals...

1.     Finish writing thank you notes

You guys, I have so many left, it’s embarrassing. I’m not even going to discuss it here. However, I’m really going to aim for finishing them by the end of the month (with a super-secret backup goal of the end of the year)

2.       Pay down wedding debt

I’m not going to lie. Although my parents paid for half my wedding, I had to cover the other half, and I either didn’t save enough in advance or I went outside my allotted budget when things got down to the wire. Probably a little of both. So now I have a few bills left to pay. And I need to KNOCK THEM OUT. Nobody likes bills hanging over their heads, so I’d like to pay these down as soon as possible so I can start saving for fun stuff again. Which leads me to my next goal:

3.       Don’t buy lunch during the work week

$10 here or there doesn’t seem like much, but it can definitely add up. So while I’m on this self-induced payback plan, I’m going to cut costs where it doesn’t hurt by bringing my lunch every day.  Can I do it? Probably, but only time will tell! See you never, debt!!

4.       Attend five yoga classes

“Take up yoga” was one of my 2011 goals. I don’t want to get into yoga for its focus on mindfulness and relaxation—I can’t really see that working for me—but I do think it would make me more flexible, limber, and strong. 

For a little over a year now, I’ve been a pretty committed gym member, running a few times a week and attending a few strength classes regularly. However, I read somewhere that to be truly fit you have to have cardio endurance, strength, AND flexibility, and y’all, I am just not flexible. I can’t even touch my toes. It’s sad. Anyway, hopefully yoga will help me out with that.

5.       Work on TOP SECRET blog project (i.e., not being a human incubator)

More information to come this month.

So that’s it for November’s goals. Is there anything you want to knock out this month?

My Favorite Halloween Story

OK, so if you know me personally (as most of you do) and were around me last Halloween, you may have already heard this tale. If so, too bad; it is a festive story and I’m telling it again. If not, good for you; it still cracks me up.

So last Halloween, I decided that the best way to overcome my awkwardness over large groups/social situations would be to attend an older crowd party in Woodstock hosted by an acquaintance. Typing this now, all my mental naysayery about how it “would only be weird” sounds more like reasonable decision-making at work, but alas, I often ignore my own good advice.

ANYWAY, so it was the costume party of a 40-something man I know through community theater. A lady friend (Heather) and I were going together, so we decided to attend as “double rainbow”, a viral video from earlier that year. We each wore a shirt blazoned with a felt rainbow that read “All the Way” across the front and “What does this Mean?” across the back. Looking back, this was a poor choice.

The guy/all his friends were older, thus unfamiliar with the “viral video” we spoke of. Nobody “got” what we were supposed to be, so in their eyes, we were just a couple of wacky ladies wearing matching rainbow shirts. I should now note (and here’s where I really should have thought this through), that the host’s sister is a lesbian and approximately 80% of the female guests were as well. And there Heather and I were, rocking our rainbow shirts, a concept costume, which we (at first) didn’t know that nobody got.

About an hour in, we realized people assumed we were a couple. This was fine with me; Heather’s a cute lady. But as we really got talking to people, though, we started hearing some unusual things.  One woman was like “All the way! Exactly! I’m so proud you can be who you are.” And: “You’re right. What DOES this mean?” At first we were confused, but then we realized what she must have thought and just laughed. But then this other woman (who I believe had had a few too many cocktails) stormed over to us and started hassling us pretty aggressively.

“What are you trying to say with those shirts?” she said. “I mean, are you lesbians?”

“Oh, no! We’re not, but our shirts aren’t about Pride. They’re from that viral video—double rainbow?” I explained.

“Are you trying to tell me the two of your came here in matching rainbow shirts and that has ‘nothing to do with Pride?’ I think you thought you were being real funny. Well, guess what? I don’t think that’s funny at all.”

“No! We didn’t think it would be funny like that, we just thought it would be funny because—well, because it—”

“Because, because, because! I keep here you saying ‘because,’ but you haven’t explained to me what you’re trying to say!”

It was definitely a yikes situation. She was pretty drunk/country and would have been up for a brawl if another lady hadn’t stepped in at that point.

Anyway, when I went home that night, I immediately sent that guy and his sister the link to the video. I didn’t want their friends running around saying what a hater I was! I’m not a hater—of ladies who love ladies OR Halloween! 

Do you have any wacky Halloween tales?