Though I guess it was silly to think I'd be able to fall asleep 1 hr after getting home. After a totally shitty work day (9 hrs) and hell commute (1 hr / pouring rain / single car spinout just 3 cars ahead of me). And a totally daily dietary intake of: A turkey panini, scoop of pasta salad, yogurt parfait, bottle of Dr. Pepper and 1/2 cup of coffee. At the very min, I need to be hydrating better.
The cats were stuck inside all day, because of the rain and me not getting home till 10:45p, so it's going to be an early morning - with them crying to go out as soon as the sun is up, if not sooner.
I just had a protein bar and a xanax - hoping the combo will chill my brain out of overdrive; not that I could tell you a single topic its used for obsessive hyperanalysis.
[HUGE WORK RELATED RANT DELETED. Suffice to say I am NOT amused.]
Thank goodness I don't celebrate the holidays (not even giving to charity this year - that's how TOTALLY bah humbug I am!). Thanks to my insane work hours, I couldn't shop for presents if I wanted to. I haven't been in a store in about 2 weeks - so no music/displays to trigger the "holiday spirit". And by the time I get home, everyone's lights are off. Just seems like "whenever" to me.
Not even seeing It's A Wonderful Life changed that. What I ended up noticing was how relevant the movie is to this year - themes of foreclosures, layoffs, closed factories; Mr. Potter = big banks in general; Mr. Potter also = Madoff (when he steals the $8k); old man Gower's son dies from the flu pandemic; etc. I guess I'm Mary Hatch, in the world where George never existed.. where she's an untrusting old maid. Or maybe I'm Ma Bailey at that same time... she looks pretty pissed to have someone ringing her doorbell!!
Anyone else remember SNL's alternate/lost ending to the movie? I think of that all the time.
Moving on....
Physical Therapy at 11a (need to remember to ask for a Depo booster while I'm at the office). Probably followed by a 10 to 12hr work day.$1 says the first 1/2 of that day is spent unproductively waiting for a laser to be free... then the 2nd half will be spent trying to do 10+hrs of work in 5hr or less. Fine when it's my call, and when I think I can do it - but neither of those are currently in play.
In other news....
The kitties are all doing well. Boo has been trying to be friendly but she's too busy growling at everyone to join us. She's still "pooping inappropriately". She might do better if I'd change the litter boxes but I haven't had time (at least not while the temps were warm enough to dump the used litter outdoors).
Moshi, Skritches and Espressa are all currently sleeping on the bed (where I am now). I wish I had a camera in here last night - Skritches was being tooo cute.. curled up & covering her eyes like the light bothered her (she's blind!); then sticking her tongue out while having a dream. We're getting better at reading each others cues... when she wants petting; when I want to give it; etc.
Spoke too soon. Espressa woke up and is currently doing "clacky mouth" (where she smacks her lips REALLY loudly), which means she wants me to pet her.
I might have a kitty, or opossum, or raccoon taking shelter from the rain/cold in my garage... something set off the motion light around 1am tonight. Speaking of which: Haven't heard noises from under the house in over a week. Yay!
More rain is expected Thurs thru Sun. I'm thinking about canceling my Sat plans (9a cooking class in LA), even if it means no refund ($75). And that probably means the Tamale Fest,.. the OUTDOOR tamale fest, which already looks like it's going to suck (rescheduled; not much PR; lack of participants; photos from prior years look pretty sad), will not be the place to be seen either. That night is the Daisy Lane Parade. If it rains, but isn't too cold, I'll still go... ditto for cold but no rain. But combo? Oh hell no, I'll stay home!
Spring plans are starting to pop up and look like they'll conflict and/or simply be too hard to work out with 4 cats. Let alone that I don't know if I can leave the kitties for 3 days (Miss Exotic World convention - early June?), I don't know if I'll be up for pole dancing as soon as April (Jamilla DeVille teaching in Vegas), and now CirqueCon has announced that their 2010 event is 3 Cirque shows in New York, and previewing the newest show at Cirque Headquarters in Montrea, sometime in April/May. I realllly want to go to CirqueCon but that's 4 days, plus travel, and maybe addons. The timing is bad, it will cost a fortune, and I'm back to issues of cat care. I wouldn't worry about any of this so early but some of the CirqueCon special events are going on sale soon and only for a few days... so it's commit or miss out. I hate pressure.
I'm gonna try sleeping again. "If I fall asleep right now, I'll still get 6.5 hours of sleep...." (cats crying to go out, come back in & go back out not included)
It's our first significant rain fall. That means a year of baked in oil is now on the surface, on the water, making hydroplaning even more probable.
I just checked Sigalert and there are currently 5 solo spinouts, in various stages of clearing, on my drive to work.
And it's COLD.
I wanna go back to my nice, warm, plushy bed. Good luck getting me to pull a 12 hr shift today... HA!!
Started at 3p at the home of Curt & Mark, which is the consummate party home. I've raved about it before - outdoor full bar, pool & patio, gazillion beautiful rooms. I love their place. The food was catered and I ate about a gabillion proscuitto wrapped dates (cheese & almond centers). There were also chicken meatballs with cranberry, orange & jalapeno; cucumber slices with crab; baked parm cheese (so it becomes a cracker) with ceasar salad; little toast slices with ??? and roast beef; romaine lettuce with cream cheese & cranberry; and a full bar. Niiiiice!
The next stop was Nino's Restaurant, a mere 1/2 mile away. Some people drove but, feeling that half the point of a progressive is walking to each stop, I trotted over. What a mistake. About 1/2 way in to the walk, my knees started snapping & popping and I considered giving up. I made it to the restaurant but that was it for my knees. We got 2 drink tickets each. I asked for prosecco (italian champagne) and the staff said, "we don't have that brand", so I went with amaretto sours. YUM!!
I scored a ride back to the 3rd house, Brad & Brad's, where desserts were featured. I sampled every chocolate petit four (turned out the designs had nothing to do with the flavors... and that I don't like "honey" flavored white chocolate) and ice cream; thought of Laurie when I saw large red velvet cake; and decided I really need to buy Brad & Brad some premium coffee because whatever they're using is icky bitter (beggers can be choosers!).
The party was going till 9 but I was burned out by 8. Some old drag queen (who kept insisting he was "38"... maybe in DOG years... he was at least 60 in human years) had been abandoned by her group (they decided to leave, she decided to stay) and was clearly planning to hit me up for a ride. So, I ditched her. Just as well because the 2 block walk back to my car nearly had me in tears from pain... in both my knees and lower back. Damn, my body sucks!! (Earl had a good time making fun of me... and after I helped him try to hook up with someone... the nerve!!)
So I'm home early and sober. And, other than the Brian Setzer concert (and maybe a theater viewing of A Christmas Story), my holiday "celebrating" is done.
"They" say we're getting a rain storm tomorrow, a day off, then 2 or 3 more days. I hope so - we need it.
Ah, crap, I just caught Skritches eating the wishbone from the chicken I ate last weekend. Gotta go.
pho and a root beer
update: I had pho for the first time about a month ago. That night, I had flank steak. Next time was chicken. Then I skipped pho and had filet w/rice (recommended by another diner but they but be lacking taste buds). This one was fried chicken pho with egg noodles (instead of rice noodles). My fav so far.
just in time for the Zaturday showing
and even though the movie is 2hr and 10 min long, and I was there 10 min early, and street parking is for only 2 hrs, I did NOT get a ticket!!
- Boo is fine. She came home around 6:30am. She cried. I let her in. 10 min later, she wanted back out. I think that was when we started the cycle of her crying, me yelling "shut up!" and falling back to sleep. x5, till 11am, when I let Moshi out. Then they both came back in. Then Moshi went back out and, wisely, just before I left for work (11:45 - early for me), Boo decided to go out too.
- Got off work at around 1am tonight. Sucks to get home, turn on the TV, and see that it's already 1:30am. As long as there's work, I'll be in the office for a MIN of 10 hrs a day for the rest of the year... working toward an impossible deadline (but my dept has to make sure that the blame falls on the sw team instead of us).
- ASL Sign Language Question: Should "Damn, I wish I was your lover" be signed as:
- Damn, I wish I will (implied "be") your lover
- Damn, I wish I am (literally signed) your lover
- Damn, I wish I (implied "am") your lover
- I really really want to go to Vegas. I don't know why. NYE would be fun but it's not worth the price (2 nights, with partying at the Orleans is over $450... during the summer, rooms were $18/night... 1,250% more expensive = NOT COOL!!)
- Today I ordered this awesome Bottle Top Tripod. No more trying to take pics of myself in the mirror - now I can set it up on a table and user the timer. Other sites have the same tripod for a slightly cheaper but my link has FREE SHIPPING (which I didn't know when I ordered), so $10 is total cost. WIN (DOUBLE WIN since I didn't know about the free shipping).
- Oh. Wait. Does my new phone even have a tripod connector? Ah, F it... if it doesn't, I'll use the old one. Or my digacam.
- Roku, the Netflix play (which is WiFi compatible) is down to $80. $100 for an HD version. $130 for an HD version that broadcasts to remote TVs. I'll probably buy it on Thurs (payday).
- Hoping-hoping-hoping I wake up in time, and remember, to see It's a Wonderful Life on a movie screen tomorrow. If I don't, I won't have another chance this year.
- Things I always like: Candles (I want one wall in my future "bar" room to be a total fire hazard: covered with candle wall sconces - cause that's what you want around booze!), windchimes (metal and/or wood; tuned)
- Current mental fantasy obsession: How to fit both a jacuzzi and glass stone fire pit (plus seating) in my 12'x12' backyard. If I figure it out, I'm gonna have it built!
- My sinus infection is better but the coughing has started. I'm hoping to end it before it gets out of control.
- Jamilla DeVille won the International Pole Dance Federation's "Instructor of the Year" award. Yay!!~~!
- Gay Progressive Dinner Party on Sunday... and Earl will be there. Should be fun! (maybe I'll be nice and take a pic of Earl while he's AWAKE... I'll have to act fast (even when I went to his house for dinner & a movie, he fell asleep on me!))
- I am totally on board with Crankypant's rant about the Grammy nominations (you have to be in her hood to view that link). Today I heard that the Silversun Pickups are up for Best New Artist. I've been hearing them on the radio for at least 3 years now. "best NEW artist"... WTF?
- Just saw Micheal Buble on Oprah. I really like his voice. Why don't I own any of his CDs (or mp3s)??
- Zero 7's "The Road" is a beautiful song. Beautiful. I got the CD (supposed to be an advanced copy but I think it didn't work out that way) when I renewed my KCRW membership. LOVE the CD (except 1st & last tracks, both strange instrumental mixes). Also got & love the Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix CD (my drive to work, plus putting on makeup in the parking lot, takes EXACTLY the length of the CD). Mixed on Band of Skulls, which sounds like Jack White (who I don't really care for). Haven't listened to the 4th CD yet - don't know what it is. Long story longer: I'll link the Zero 7 youtube vid at the bottom of this - but, fyi, there are no visuals in it.
- update, 2:42am: Just saw that Zero 7 will be playing a local, small, venue on the 16th. A Wed. There is no way I will be able to get off work to go. FAIL!!
- It's 2:35am. I'm going to bed (or going to pretend that I am). Hope you all had a good Friday night. I'd love to read about it my comments!
