Sunday, May 27, 2007

now i *really* want some pie

I took myself to see a movie today. I could not bring myself to see "Pirates" or "Spiderman" (I have newly acquired issues about paying my hard earned money to see unnecessary sequels. I loved the first Pirates and hated the 2nd. This one is longer (is that possible??) and more of same. As much as I love Johnny, Orlando, et al, I can't do it. Strangely though, I do really want to see Ocean's 13. Also an unnecessary sequel, but spending $$ on a movie with George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon together always seems like a worthy investment...)

Yeah. So I decided to go and see Waitress. I never really watched Felicity, so I didn't have much of an idea about Keri Russell. We were just talking about the movie at lunch one day and I was curious about it. Keri plays Jenna, a waitress in a roadside diner - somewhere southern. They all seem to have accents and call each other 'hon' etc, but I am not sure where they are. Doesn't matter. She is stuck in a marriage and a life she hates and then, to make matters worse, she finds out she's pregnant. She doesn't want the baby, but is going to keep it. She starts hiding money so she can leave her husband, Earl, but that doesn't quite work out. She has an affair with her (married) doctor (played by Nathan Fillion of Firefly fame. I didn't know he was in this, but seeing him was an added bonus!) who is the total opposite of Earl - cute, funny, all that stuff. She gabs with her two waitress friends (one who dates a guy named "Okie" who espouses spontaneous poetry), befriends the cantankerous owner of the diner (Andy Griffith), and bakes completely amazing pies with names like "I-Hate-My-Husband Pie" and the on-screen making of which was enough to make my mouth water. Especially the very sexy and intimate scene where she's showing Doctor McYummy how to make a pie.

Waitress is funny, cute, kind of predictable (there were 2 plot points I could see coming from miles away) and there is of course a happy ending - but it was a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I liked all of the actors very much, and my sweet tooth liked the pies... Too bad there is no such thing as smell-o-vision (or taste-o-vision?)

The only bad moment had nothing to do with the movie itself - 3 old ladies came wandering into the theater by mistake, about 5 minutes or so before the end of the movie.

"OH NO! THIS IS THE WRONG THEATER!" one exclaimed. They then stood in the (open) doorway, talking loudly to each other. "IS THIS THE WAITRESS?" "YES, BUT IT HASN'T ENDED YET." "WELL, I'M GOING TO WATCH IT. JUST DON'T LOOK." Maybe they were all going deaf? I am not sure. They got the idea that the rest of us maybe wanted to hear what happened during the last five minutes of the film when the whole theater shushed them.
"WE'RE MAKING A LOT OF NOISE!" one of them told her friends. They were shushed again and then they decided to wait outside.

Geez. I hate people.
Anyway. I wonder if anywhere around here delivers pie?

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

And the winner is...

First, I want to apologize to whoever it was that called me last night between 8 and 10 central. I was watching Apolo & Julianne kick some boy band butt on Dancing with the Stars and I let the machine pick up. But I still love you. Please call me back. :)

Loved the dancing, hated all the montage-y crap that they filled an hour with. Who cares about Kelly Monaco? Everyone knows John won the first season anyway!!

And please, ABC, fire Samantha Harris. She's annoying and quite possibly the worst interviewer ever. Give her job to John Ratzenberger. Or Jimmy Kimmel's parking lot security guard.

Cuz We Know What's Good...

American Idol has been dead to me since last year (although I can't seem to get away from it. I still know who the finalists are and I know who Sanjaya is too. Damn them!)

Still, it seems my home state is following my one-woman crusade to end American Idol's 15 minutes of fame:

By the way, Illinois people don't care about "Idol" so much. The list of states where people are Yahoo-ing "Idol" is topped by Hawaii, Washington, Arizona, Alabama and Maine. Big Illinois is nowhere to be found.


(from an article on Yahoo!)

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

the 17-year itch

Oh, god. Supposedly, the Midwest is going to be swarmed by cicadas. These big, ugly creepy crawlies come out every 17 years, mate and then die. They are harmless, but loud and, as I say, ugly.

I don't do well with bugs. I don't care if they are outside or inside, or doing good things (like people say spiders do). They creep me out. My favorite bug story, which I will share and then leave this yukky topic, is from when I was in Italy a few years ago. I spent a summer abroad at Loyola, my alma mater. We have a campus there, and I was "taking class" but fortunately, the 2 teachers I had were as delighted to be in Rome as I was. I took Italian Literature and Italian 102 and the classes were easy-peasy. Our dorm building is in Monte Mario (where Giuseppe Benetton lives)and is a very simple building. No AC or heat (not too brilliant in June when we were there) no screens on the windows. Our room was sparsely furnished and got no breeze whatsoever. We had an old fashioned wooden shade on our window and usually slept with the shade up and the door open.

We had a computer lab - maybe 20 computers in an L shaped room. Huge windows at our back. One night, Cara and I were on the "good" computer (so called because we could access the AOL instant messenger on it, but none of the others. This is how we "talked" with our families. This was 2000, and the IM programs were not as widely used as they are now.)

Anyway. We're sitting at the computer and gabbing away and suddenly I hear a kind of plopping sound. The kind something airborne makes when it comes through the open window and lands. On the floor was this gigantically ugly bug. It was an Italian bug, and unrecognizeable to me, except that it was huge. "Oh my god," sez I. "That thing is disgusting." Cara told me to go and get the porter. "YOU go get the porter," I said back, but she didn't want to lose the spot at the computer. Damn! So I got up and picked my way around this thing. It was big and black and the size of my fist. The porters over at Loyola were not so good with the English. Only one of them was able to communicate fluently with the students, and he was not on duty when I approached the desk. I got up there and managed to say "C'é un.... bug? Molto grande!!" He didn't understand. One of my fellow students made a not-quite-under-his breath comment about stepping on it with my foot, but hello? I was wearing flip flops and not about to step on this thing. I got the idea across to the porter (god only knows how...) He gave me a sympathetic look like, "silly girl!" grabbed some paper towels, scooped the thing up, and threw it away.

It is kind of sad that this is one of my most vibrant memories of being in Rome... that and climbing to the top of il duomo in Florence (and the 5 gelatos we had after), and visiting LaScala in Milan....

Friday, May 18, 2007

She's Coming...


19 days, 13 hours and 30 minutes, I will see her do this
here

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Tyra, Tyra, Tyra....




Girl! What were you thinking? Eliminating Renee (aka NeNe) in favor of Jaslene and Natasha??? Please!!!! I loved the Cha Cha Diva Jas (shout out to my Chi-town home girl and all that) but Renee did the best commercial, she was completely gorgeous and funny, and had the most going for her out of everyone. She could have walked circles around those two on the runway at Sass and Bide. I can't believe that after all the to-do about Dani's accent 2 cycles ago that nobody had issues with the fact that the final 2 could barely string a coherent sentence together. If the judges watched the episodes, they'd hear Jaslene's extremely crappy grammar and diction. For a good laugh, I will tune into the Tyra show and watch Natasha be a correspondent. Give me a break.

Overall, this cycle was a little disappointing. The judges, while certainly not as useless as, say, American Idol, never have any helpful advice for the girls. How can you improve if you don't have any clear direction? Remember, these girls are in model boot camp. They don't know what they're doing. And please, please, please, lose the Twig and make Mr. J a judge. He sees the girls all the time. He can tell you who's a diva on set, who's doing what, who's learning and who isn't. Give them challenges where they can actually learn something. (I do like though, that the public has no say in who wins. These are the people who made Taylor Hicks American Idol and Dubya the President.) We don't know what makes a top model. You guys do. Keep it that way.

Next Cycle, pick some girls with a little spark, okay? Watching the photo shoot with past contestants reminded us that the show used to be lots of bitchy fun - the fainting chick, Kim "11 more to go" Bree "bitch stole my granola bars" and Jade etc. Those girls had personality and modeling skills. And please, no more kumbaya Tyra as Dr. Phil moments. The episode where the girls aired their grievances and TB helped Renee get in touch with her feelings was just crap. No psychobabble. More Nigel Barker.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Tony's!

Tony Nominations were announced today. I have only actually seen 2 nominated shows (Company and Grey Gardens)and of course I am not as invested in it this year as I was last year, but that's okay. The awards will be announced on June 10th. I will have to get caught up on shows on my trip in July (there's about a day in that weekend when I am not seeing Gypsy.... for now...)

Monday, May 14, 2007

just my luck...

Friday afternoon: I have made my 20 minute dash to the train station and have carefully chosen a seat. I take out my very important reading material (The 100 Most Beautiful issue of People) and am settling in for my trip home when.... dun dun dun... the World's Worst Mother and her little bratty child (mentioned in an earlier post) come into my car and sit...wait for it.... directly across from me! I could NOT believe it when they sat down there and by that time, it was too late for me to move somewhere else. Instead, I pulled out my iPod (which remains my best friend on these train trips! Best purchase I ever made. Seriously.) and put on some soothing music (a little Renee, a little Patti... ahhh).

For a while I thought it would be okay. They were sitting with a friend of the mom's and the adults were chatting and giving the kid swigs from a bottle of Pepsi (I wasn't allowed to have pop until I got to high school. Okay, maybe that's an exageration - but not by much! Now of course, I can't get through the day without a coffee in the morning and a diet coke at lunch. I fail to see the logic in giving a 3 year old lots and lots of pop. Maybe it's b/c I am not a parent?)

The adults talked and completely ignored the kid. He started yelling to get their attention. Nada. So, he threw himself on the floor, crawled under the seat and started climbing around on the seat behind them - and all over this other passenger with her laptop. The passenger behind me muttered something semi-under her breath like, 'don't pay any attention to him, or anything.' The climbed on lady was nicer about it than I would have been. The mom didn't even apologize to her. She kind of got up and tried to get the kid to sit down, but she didn't do much. She should have gone over and picked him up, but she didn't want to interrupt her conversation. The kid wandered off and went to the upper level of the train where he climbed around up there and dangled himself over the side. Do you think the mom paid any attention then?? She did not. But she could see she was annoying people, so she packed up their stuff, got the kid and left the car. Why discipline the kid and improve the behavior when you can go off to another carriage and annoy different people??

Oooh, it bothers me so much. You can't be angry with the child, because he's too young to know any better. But it's just startling the lack of respect for other people from the 2 adults who were with him. He's going to grow up thinking it's okay to do whatever because there were just no boundaries.

Have I mentioned lately how I am never having children?

Sunday, May 13, 2007

thanks, mom

...for bringing me into the world...for teaching me the difference between right and wrong and imparting important values and lessons to live by (i.e "cuteness counts" "don't run in heels" etc)...for reading to me when I was a kid...for teaching me to knit (several times) and not giving up on me when I got impatient with it...for listening to me talk/grumble/whine/bitch/moan about work/friends/school...for always being there when I needed her the most...for making a mean spaghetti sauce....for our morning coffee breaks...for being my email buddy...for playing Pavarotti for me when I was growing up....for being my opera buddy...for always being willing to take in a concert from Luis Miguel, to Andrea Bocelli, to Patti LuPone, Renee Fleming, Cecelia Bartoli, Audra McDonald...for having a sense of humor...for being kind and generous...for loving cake...for being a shopping 'bad influence'... for not killing me when I am in hypochondriac drama queen mode...for saying "take that job or I'll kick your ass!"

for all this and more than I can say here - thanks mom, and Happy Mother's Day

Friday, May 11, 2007

trainspotting

So. I'm a commuter now. It's a whole new world for me. The people I see on public transportation in Chicago are so much less exciting than the people Sarah sees out and about in NYC, but I've already had some great train adventures on my rides to 13.

This week - on 2 separate rides home, I've seen 2 guys sit down, kick back and... open cans of beer. On the train. Is it me, or is that a little weird? You can't wait half an hour before starting happy hour?

Mostly, the commuters are quiet, business types. They are reading newspapers, listening to music, typing on computers. Some are on the phone (don't get me started). But mostly, they keep to themselves, they are polite and they are quiet. Yesterday, I'm on the earlier train home and I decided to sit on the upper level. I must have felt something in my bones.... right where I would have sat were 2 ladies (take note: 2 adults) and a little boy. He was (oh gawd, I'm so bad at this) maybe 4? For a while, he was sitting (not very quietly, but whatever) with his grandmother. I think he was eating something. For the rest of the ride, he ran around the car, up and down the steps, yelling and playing and being a noisy child. All this time, neither adult attempted to make him sit down, be quiet and stop getting in the way of passengers who wanted to get out (one lady hit the kid in the head with her bag - on accident - as she tried to go around him to leave the car). The grandmother asked him a few times to come and sit with her, but he didn't and that was apparently okay with them. I could see my fellow passengers kind of looking and being quietly annoyed. But nobody said anything. If I'd been down there with them, I probably would have done the usual loud sighing, eye rolling and muttering comments under my breath. No worries though, I said not a thing - just vowed to never ever have children.

Why do people think everyone else needs to be entertained by their child? It's not cute okay? All I wanted was a nice quiet relaxing trip home and I ended up with a big headache. What a brat. Thank god that's not my regular train. They got off at my stop, too so there is a chance I can see them around town. Can't wait.

On a happier note. Sometimes, I bring my knitting along and knit on the train. One afternoon, I was working on (what else?) a scarf, and the conductor stopped to chat with me about it. So did another lady as she was getting off. Something about knitting just draws people together. When I was knitting on the way to NYC in February, I made many new friends on the flight, just talking about knitting.

Getting to 13

When I accepted this new position, there are a few things I gave up - namely, a nice, convenient, safe (for the most part) 15 to 20 minute drive to the office, a parking spot in a covered garage, and a 2 block walk to the office.

Because driving downtown every day would just pretty much SUCK, I turned to public transportation. And this is where getting to 13 is not as nice or convenient. I have 2 options.

1. Metra. There is a station in the MG and the train goes straight to Union Station. It takes half an hour to get downtown. From Union Station, I walk about 20 minutes to the office. This is currently the option of choice. It's great now, but in the winter I may go for...

2. CTA. Otherwise known as the 'EL' Yellow line from home to Howard St. Station. Purple line "Express" (hahaha) all the way downtown. Stop about a block and a half from work. This takes forever. Afternoon trains are mucho crowded and noisy. I hardly ever get a seat until we're well out of the Loop. EL trains are S.L.O.W. and are much skeezier than Metra trains. It all kind of balances out though - taking the EL keeps me on the train longer, but lets me off close by. The Metra has a shorter ride, but I am doing all that walking.

Oh well. At least I'm getting my cardio.....

Calling All Gen-Xers... (and Gen Next-Ers)

Some of my former colleagues are taking part in a panel discussion at the North Park Symposium next week, concerning the giving/volunteering patterns of those in Gen X and Gen Next(I always called it Y, but whatever).

If you have a few minutes, go here and fill it out. It's 12 questions and totally anonymous.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

My Achy Breaky Heart...

Golly gosh, I hadn't given Billy Ray Cyrus a single thought since we line danced to his song "Achy Breaky Heart" in eighth grade (I think I can still do the dance, actually. A little scary, huh?). But then he appeared on Dancing with the Stars this season (my number 2 pop culture guilty pleasure, right after ANTM). Believe me, I had my doubts. I mean, the man danced a cha-cha to a song called "I want my mullet back" - it looked like he was going to be this season's Master P (for fans of the show, you will know - this is not a good thing). Every single dance he did - waltz, jive, mambo, tango looked exactly the same. On several occasions, he just made stuff up.

So the man can't really dance. And yet, he stayed on the show. He almost made it to the semi-finals. He made his poor partner, Karina (who almost won the contest last year, with Mario Lopez) CRY. But somehow, he managed to win the crowd over with his aw-shucks southern charm and his personality (and can I just say? he's pretty cute, too!) He endured comments from the judges "deliciously awful" "that was crap" "the crowd is addicted to you" and, perhaps my favorite from Bruno Tonioli "you're like a crazy bear that got lost in the swamp" - who knew they danced? And yeah, okay. To be fair, he was pretty crap. But I think the show will miss him.

I am kind of bummed he's off the show (even though really, it was no surprise. And before you ask, no, I didn't vote. For anyone. I haven't voted all season.) I mean, he was entertaining, if nothing else. And we will forever be deprived of seeing his freestyle routine.

But, as someone once told me "life goes on" (no, it wasn't John, Paul, George, Ringo or Patti) and I am now throwing all of my support to Apolo.

Monday, May 07, 2007

party time!

Last night was the closing night party. We had it www.onesixtyblue.com I was debating whether or not I should go - I was sure I'd get lost (and I did! But thank god for this)
and of course, there is the eternal question of what the heck to wear.... but I went, I mingled with my peeps, met some new and lovely people, and best of all, had some completely fabulous food.

Now I get to say I've been to onesixty blue, and really, what more could a person ask for?

Got home at a decent hour and worked on my knitting. I am still just doing squares - mostly scarves. Have a bit of difficulty though since a) it's spring time, and scarves aren't really necessary and 2.) I only have the one neck. But oh well. I have moved on to different kinds of yarn (ribbons for the summer months) and I have started work on a blanket (which, of course, is a R.E.A.L.L.Y big scarf). Knitting goals are to learn to purl (anybody have any purling advice for a lefty?) and to do something other than squares...

Thursday, May 03, 2007

new look, new name, new blog!

Well, well, well. Long time, no blog. I've been a little busy.
First, to explain the changes- the title reflects the ushering in of a new era. My new job takes me out of Evanston and puts me right in the heart of downtown Chicago. A swanky office location between State and Michigan Av --- but on the 13th floor. If I was a superstitious person, I'd say it was a sign. But I am not and although I hate elevators, I kind of like being on the 13th floor. A lot of buildings around here just go from 12 to 14, because of the perception that 13 is unlucky. I think it's been pretty lucky for me so far. But this is just my second week here, so I guess it is too soon to tell?

There will be some other changes around here, too. With my lovely tax return, I am going to get a new computer at home (and HIGH SPEED!!!yeeehaaaa!) and will do many fun and blogtacular things with it.