Quarantine

Tuesday morning I woke up with a kind of sore throat.  No big deal, I thought, I'll drink some tea and I'll be fine.  Cut to four days later, and this is the first time I've ventured from my apartment for more than a few minutes.

The sore throat turned into a big deal.  By Wednesday morning sore throat had recruited it's friends congestion, soreness, and exhaustion.  Thankfully I did not have work scheduled for this week, so I was able to spend the entirety of my illness on my couch.  Watching Pushing Daisies and My Boys.

It was actually a pretty nice week, besides feeling like crap.  But it was nice to have an excuse to just lay around all day.  It's not like I don't ever do that, but at the end of the day I usually end up feeling guilty that I haven't gotten anything accomplished with my free time.  But when you're sick, no one expects you to be productive with your time.  Most people would actually prefer that you stay at home rather than spread your illness to the general population. 

It's pretty great freedom.  Sleeping and drinking tea and watching TV.  And people checking in to make sure you're feeling any better.  So what I haven't seen outside in 40 hours?  Every part of me aches when I move, so why do it?

Only problem with 3 full days of laying around, feeling icky?  The boredom.  Once you watch that Netflix disk of My Boys and finish that season of Pushing Daisies, TV really loses its powers of distraction.  Read a magazine?  Already looked through it three times.  Book?  Haven't been to the library in weeks, and can't muster the energy right now.  I guess I'll just take another nap.

So when on Friday you finally wake up with the ability to breathe through your nose and it doesn't feel like swallowing razors to talk, it's so much better than feeling better.  You're ecstatic at the prospect of being able to get out of the apartment!  See sunshine, and friends, and maybe even do a little cleaning!

A Life With Music

I grew up with music.  It's always been a very important part of my life.  That's not to say I grew up in a musical family.  The extent of my family's musical achievements were many of my mom's made-up songs and a few attempts at instrumental lessons that mostly ended miserably for me.  But we did listen to music a lot. 

Any car trip, no matter how long or short, we'd have the radio or a tape playing (CDs later, of course).  Christmas Eves and mornings were incomplete without music in the background.  And even while my sister and I were doing our schoolwork (we were homeschooled), we almost always had the radio on.

Music still plays a very important role in my life.  I fall asleep to music almost every night, I hate to drive anywhere without music playing, even as I sit here and type I've got my iPhone on shuffle.

But it's not just having music playing that makes it important in my life.  Some songs have special meaning to me.  Death Cab for Cutie's "Passenger Seat" is one of the most romantic songs I've ever heard.  I know what song I'm going to play at my wedding for the father-daughter dance (Kendall Payne's "Daddy"), and I'm not even in a relationship.  There are some songs that I have to repeat a few times before I can move on to the next song on the playlist (Saving Jane's "Autumn and Me" and the accompanying hidden track and Jon McLaughlin's "Questions" are two big ones). 

A lot of times certain songs really speak to what I'm going through in my life at the time I hear them.  Sometimes I'll hear a song and wonder if the songwriter knows me, because there is no way this song isn't about me (deep down I still think Jon McLaughlin wrote "Praying to the Wrong God" about me).

I also love to sing along.  I can't really sing on my own to save my life, thanks to an annoying little combination of tone-deafness and complete lack of rhythm.  But when I'm singing along, I do alright.  I almost can't not sing along when a song I love is on.  Sometimes I'll cut off a conversation with someone to sing along with a song on the radio.  Yesterday I was shopping with a friend and a great James Taylor song came on over the store speakers, and I found myself quietly singing along.  It's one of my favorite things.

Despite how much I love music, I'm not "good" at music.  I'm pretty much useless when it comes to finding new music to love.  If someone gives me a few dollars to pick some music for the jukebox, I'll usually pick one song, get overwhelmed with the choices, and have someone else pick.  I have mostly my sister to thank for most of my current music library.  She knows music.  She knows good music.  She'll be telling me about her new favorite band, and then a month later they're everywhere (Fall Out Boy, the Fray, Kings of Leon are just a few bands she's done this with).

So every few months I'll find out from her what her new faves are, and I usually love them all.  I have a few other friends with great taste, that I can always count on for some great suggestions.  It's been about a year since I've had a significant music library update, so I'm feeling a little out of the loop right now.  Any suggestions of can't-live-without songs or artists?

Thinking About Earthquakes

I grew up in the Midwest, where the most severe natural disasters were tornadoes and blizzards.  Even so, the closest I ever got to a tornado was repeated viewings of Twister (and nightmares, but that's a whole other blog post).  My knowledge of and experience with earthquakes was limited at best, closer to nonexistent.

I can think of two instances in my childhood that might be considered earthquake encounters: a book I read when I was about 12, in which the main character was in San Francisco during that big earthquake in like 1870 or something; and an episode of Adventures in Odyssey where Eugene and I think his name was Tom were in LA during a road trip and were in an earthquake.

As you can see, many of my childhood experiences were facilitated by fictionalized accounts via film, radio, books, and tv.  And you wonder why I want to work in this industry...

Anyways, I never really cared about earthquakes besides entertainment value, because I lived in the Midwest and those like, never happen there.  And then, three and a half years ago I moved to Southern California and earthquakes became a very real possibility in my life.  I was actually kind of excited.  I wanted to experience an earthquake!  I mean, who wouldn't be pumped to feel the earth shaking?  I couldn't wait for an earthquake, despite everyone telling me that we were due for "the big one."

The first "real" (meaning it wasn't one of those 2.5's that you think is a large truck driving past your apartment) earthquake that I experienced was a 5.2 while I was working on the 10th floor of a 15-story building.  Now, buildings out here are built to withstand earthquakes, specifically, they're built on rollers so as to roll along with the earth in the event of a quake.  Which means that the building will continue to sway, back and forth, for several minutes after the earth stops shaking.

I was unprepared for the swaying building.  I was also unprepared for the inescapable movement of the earth.  I wouldn't say I flipped out, but I did not do well keeping it cool once the shaking ended. There's just no describing how it feels to have everything around you shaking and there's no getting away or stopping it, no matter how small the shaking is.  I definitely was pretty shaky myself for about a half hour afterwords.

Another weird thing about earthquakes is how the earth shakes differently sometimes.  There are rumbly ones that really are just like a large truck driving past and you barely notice the slight rattling of the window panes.  And then there's the kind of jumpy ones that will bounce you around for a few seconds.  My favorite was the jerky one, at 4am a couple months ago, that felt like a giant tugged on the ground under my apartment a few times.

That one was cool, but also kind of annoying, and I've discovered this is true of every quake I've been through, because when an earthquake starts, you never know how bad it will be.  Will it be that little rumbly guy?  Will it be just a few giant tugs and then be over?  Or will it keep going, and growing, until buildings and roadways begin to crumble and we're living like refugees among the rubble?

Because everyone is always saying, "the Big One is coming! We're overdue for the Big One! Only a matter of time before we fall into the ocean!" That's the thing about earthquakes, you never know if it's going to be the Big One. And that's why I'll probably never fully enjoy one, even though they seem like a fun concept.

Some Reasons Why I'll Probably Never Be a Spy...

Despite the fact that it's really all I've wanted to do since I was about 18.

1. I've never had any discernible upper-body strength, and probably never will.

2. It is literally impossible for me to learn a new language. Four semesters of French in college and... j'ne sais pas more than a few phrases.

3. Claustrophobia.  It's a bitch, but according to quite a few recurring stress-dreams, I definitely suffer from it.

That's really all I can think of, but probably enough to disqualify me from the most exciting life I can think of.

A Whole New Wardrobe

I love cute dresses.  And cute tops paired with cute skirts.  I love cute clothes.  I just can't afford them.  Every girl goes through a season in her life when she is completely dissatisfied with most of the clothing she owns, and all she wants is an entirely new wardrobe.  I am going through that season right now.

And then I find the website modcloth.com. They have some of the cutest dresses, tops, skirts, and accessories ever.  And of course I can't afford most of it.  So my solution is to make wishlists.  It's just like shopping, only I don't actually get any of the things on the list.  But if I ever have an extra $30 to $80 (the average cost of a dress, with a few reaching the hundreds of dollars), I can just go to my wishlist and pick a dress I've already pre-selected as cute.  It's a great system!

Only one problem: after a first sweep of adding all the dresses I found cute to my list, the grand total came to 399 dresses.  That is way too many to choose just one from!  And that's just dresses, not even including tops (130), skirts (41), accessories (150) or shoes (17).  The good news is, a lot of the dresses are very similar in style and color.  I went through the list and narrowed down all of the dresses in the same style, same color, same pattern, or just way too expensive.  I managed to get it down to 220.  Still a ton of dresses, but at least it's not more than one dress a day for a year and couple months.

I will probably never end up buying more than a few of those dresses.  If any.  I'm not much of an online shopper.  I prefer to be able to try a dress on, or at least see it in person, before making the commitment of paying for it.  I also hate to pay shipping.  If ModCloth had a physical store, I'd be all over that.

I'm also more of a bargain shopper.  My first stop at any store is the sale rack, and if a cute piece of clothing is too expensive, it immediately loses it's cuteness in my eyes.  But the site also has clothes on sale.  One of their cutest pieces, a vest dress, is on sale for about half it's original price.  Still slightly more than I can afford right now, but I'm seriously considering it.

Maybe one day I'll own each of those items on my wishlist, but I'm not holding my breath.  A small percentage would be enough to completely revitalize my currently boring wardrobe.  But a wishlist is just that, a wish. Not holding my breath.

Apartment in Transition

I've lived in the same apartment almost since I moved to LA, over 3 and 1/2 years now.  I've gone through about seven roommates and a puppy.  Earlier this year my roommate and I realized that we were embarrassed about the state of the carpet. It hadn't been changed since at least a year before I moved in, and 3 years, 7 roommates, and puppy can really wreak havoc on already-old carpet. So we decided to ask our landlord about changing it.

We caught him a good time, right when he was trying to rent out the empty unit next door and realizing that people like hardwood a whole lot more than carpet.  My roommate and I are two of those people who love hardwood, and jumped at his offer to hardwood the entire apartment.  A month later, the disgusting carpet was a distant memory.

Not long after the flooring was finished, we found out that our apartment building (which had been on the market for the better part of 6 months) was "in escrow."  Neither of us knew what escrow was, but presumably it meant it had been sold.  As evidenced by the parade of inspections that happened over the next 2 weeks.

And then two more weeks went by, and we didn't hear a thing. And then on a Wednesday night, my roommate noticed our sink had been leaking and then we found a cockroach, and it became imperative that a landlord come IMMEDIATELY and take care of the situation.

So the next morning I call our landlord and find out, he doesn't own the building anymore.  Now, we had never received anything telling us that we officially had a new landlord and who that was and how to contact said landlord in the even of a COCKROACH INVASION. So former landlord gave us the number for the realty company, who gave us the number of the new landlord, who was told he wouldn't become the landlord for 2 more days.

But it turns out that our new landlord is AWESOME.  He came over to fix the sink and rid our world of evil that takes cockroach form, and also to let us know all of the great ideas he has for the place and see what our thoughts were for possible improvements.  And his ideas were AMAZING (insulation and a new a/c unit to keep place cooler in summer? Yes, please!) and he seemed fully willing to do our ideas as well and basically, our apartment is awesome now.

It all started with a fresh coat of paint, and my roommate's friend who is an amateur interior decorator.  The fresh coat of paint was joined by two dark gray walls, rearranged furniture, a few new lampshades, and a couple of strategic new pieces of furniture.  Add to that new shades and curtains and some art on the walls (instead of full-sized movie posters), and it looks like adults live here.  I love it.  We're probably going to have a house re-warming party, because it literally is like a whole new apartment.

All that's left is to include my room in the apartment update.  I already rearranged and got rid of a papazan chair I love but doesn't fit in the room anymore.  But I'd like to add some color to the walls, put a few things on the walls, and generally make it look like a room I've lived in for 3 years and not some place I'm crashing for now.  We'll see if the budget can cover that kind of makeover.

Bottom line, I love my practically new apartment!

Food Blogs

I love food blogs. Especially dessert blogs. Pretty much anything with pictures of delicious-looking and adorably designed cakes or cupcakes or pies or cookies, I'm a sucker for it. I look through the photos, imagining situations in which I would use a cake decorated like a happy cloud with a rainbow scarf, or cupcakes with cartoon character faces on each one. I look at the incredibly beautiful, intricate, and creative wedding cakes and try to decide which one I want at my wedding some day. I imagine that I can decorate something that beautiful, and even seriously consider taking a cake decorating class, just to see if would actually be able to pull it off.

But, there are some cakes and cupcakes that, though I appreciate the artistry, I don't think I'd ever be able to enjoy them. Those cakes decorated to look like non-cake food, such as egg salad sandwiches or hamburgers or steaks on the grill, never ever look appetizing to me. Even if they're made out of the sweetest, most delicious cake ingredients in the world, I still wouldn't be able to bring myself to eat it.

Mostly, probably, because of how realistic they all look as whatever food they're not. If I want to eat delicious, sweet cake, I don't want to be putting what looks like mashed potatoes and peas in my mouth. Conversely, maybe I see a mouthwatering hamburger, and when I take a bite, it turns out to be cake?

It's all a matter of not getting what you're expecting. And I don't like that. One time in Sunday School some girls offered everyone a choice between Sprite and Club Soda, but had switched the contents of the bottles. They were trying to demonstrate that people tend to go for the bright, flashy outside instead of what's on the inside. But I know I like Sprite, I was expecting Sprite, and it didn't have anything to do with the out appearance of the bottles. So when I asked for Sprite and got the nasty surprise of disgusting club soda, I was pretty pissed. I didn't get what I was expecting.

And its the same with those cakes. Even if someone were to say, "Look at this cake that looks like steak on a grill, would you like a piece?" and I accepted, still, somewhere, in the back of my mind, when I'd take a bite I'd be expecting it to taste like steak. That's just too weird for me. So, just a tip, if you want to bake me a special cake, don't make it look like dinner food. I won't like it.

Creepy Spiderman

You might not realize this from the title of this blog, but my name is MJ. This really shouldn't be that big of a deal, but for some reason it's a huge deal to comic book fans. I mean, I understand that Spiderman's girlfriend Mary Jane generally goes by MJ. I just don't understand why whenever a fanboy hears my name they automatically think of her.

Three times today, three times, someone said my name and then mentioned Spiderman in some way. One of the guys even had the audacity to tell me that he is Spiderman. Gross!

Kind of got me thinking about cheesy pick-up lines though. Now, I am extremely oblivious to being hit on. Not that it happens very often, but usually what happens is this: a guy will initiate an awkward interaction, and I'll try to be polite while wondering why this person is being so awkward, and then later I'll tell a friend about the interaction, and they'll explain to me that I've been hit on.

The most common sneak-attack flirting is some comment on my name (besides Spiderman, I often get Michael Jackson or Michael Jordan, because, you know, I look like a dude?), or they'll see my (sterling silver) ring and ask if I'm engaged. To which I'll reply, no, and then they'll semi-jokingly ask, well why are you wearing a ring on your left finger if you're not engaged? And I'll sometimes answer and then they'll just kind of awkwardly leave.

I think my life is made up of one awkward interaction followed by another followed by another. Maybe it's not the guys that are awkwardly flirting, or failing at the pick-up lines. Maybe it's me that's failing at... not being awkward. Ah well. I have fun, and usually have some great stories!

Tattoo Thoughts

I have a tattoo. I got it almost 2 years ago, but I didn't write about it because I didn't want my family to find out over the internet. But now they know, and I don't think they know about this blog, so here we are.

My tattoo is a small blue flame behind my right ear. I got it because of the Madeline L'Engle quote "We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light so lovely they want with all their hearts to know the source of it."

I heard that quote in church a few years ago, and it quickly became my favorite. It perfectly summarizes what I feel my mission is. When I decided to get a tattoo, I wanted to get something that represents that statement, especially the "light so lovely." What better to represent that light than a flame? So that's what I got, and I really don't regret it.

This past weekend a friend of mine was trying to decide what tattoo he should get next month. We didn't come up with anything that he wanted, but I had a few good ideas. I don't plan on getting any more tattoos (those things HURT!), but if I did, here are a few that I'd seriously consider.

Now, the way I came up with these was because I suggested coming up with a favorite quote, Bible verse, or life motto and tattooing based on that. So, yeah, the ideas:

1. A small piece of cake on my hand below my thumb, almost on the wrist. (Because one of my life mottos is "everyone deserves cake on their birthday")

2. A grocery list on the underside of a forearm. (No deep meaning for this one, I just think it'd be clever)

3. Another forearm list - "Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly." (Based on Micah 6:8)

I think I had one more good one, but I can't remember it now. Anyways, since I'm not planning on using any of these, if you loved one of them, feel free to mark your body forever with it!

Holiday Weekend

I had a great holiday weekend! I went to the beach, helped bake patriotic cupcakes, watched an amazing fireworks show with some great friends, slept laaaate on Monday, played sand volleyball, and went to the premier of a short film I pa'd. I'm so tired today, and a little sore from volleyball, but it's already Tuesday! Thankfully it was beautiful all weekend, warm and sunny, because today it is cold and drizzly and awful. All I want to do is take a nap. But I'll try to be productive with my time.

1 Year

It's been over a year since I last updated this thing. Yes, I've been busy. I've also been supremely lazy when it comes to creativity. This needs to change. I'm hoping returning to this, and being intentional about keeping it up, will boost the other areas in my life that are lacking creativity. Or at least give me something to do for a few minutes every day.

Some things that have happened in the past year:
* I quit my reception job
* I took a month-long trip to TN, KY, OH, MI, and GA
* I was mostly unemployed for over 6 months
* Henry went to live with my sister in Nashville
* I started a running group with some friends
* I cut 12 inches off my hair and gave it kids with cancer
* I joined a homegroup that I LOVE
* I became a tour guide at WB, a job I've wanted to do for years, only to discover I'm not very good at jobs dealing with the general public. I got laid off after 6 weeks.
* I got fired from background work
* I'm back to temping at WB

Hopefully in the future I won't have to update you with bullet points. I will keep up with this. I will.

The End of An Era

I'm watching the final episode of ER right now. I haven't watched the show in probably about 7 years. Maybe one or two episodes here or there, but once I went to college I dropped my dedication to the show for my higher scholarly pursuits (such as Gilmore Girls, the Simpsons, and Futurama). But there's something sentimental about a show I literally almost can't remember not being on coming to an end. A show that I was dedicated to during my four years of high school, despite that being only a blip in the life of the series.

Every single major character that I loved and knew at that time is no longer a regular on the show. Some of them are dead. Some of them are only here tonight, an homage to the roles many of us fell in love with years ago. I don't even know these new characters. I know the actors from their other shows (John Stamos from Full House, Linda Cardellini from Freaks and Geeks, etc.), but I have no idea the characters themselves nor their relationships, personalities, nothing. Maybe one day I'll catch up on those 7 years. Probably not.

Some thoughts while I watch:

1. Rory Gilmore is a med school intern?!

2. What happened to Laura Innes' (can't remember her character's name) crutches?

3. Have those two admin guys been on the show for the whole 15 years?

4. John Stamos was a grown-up when he was Uncle Jesse. How old is he now?!

(The preview for the Hannah Montana Movie just came on, but the scene with my feet in it is first and I always miss it til it's over.)

5. Lissel!! Lissel is totally front and center in this scene!!

6. Remembered Laura's character name: Kerry (only because Dr. Carter said it.)

7. That baby is totally not crying. Definitely smiling.

8. Horrifying. Further confirmation that I will never have kids.

9. Do John Stamos and Linda Cardellini's characters have teenage children?

(Woo Wolverine trailer!)

10. Crap, this is going to go on for another hour. Can I stay awake?

11. Wow, crazy that I walk past that ambulance bay nearly every day. I wonder what they'll do with it now?

(LOVE this new Hulu commercial with Seth McFarlane)

12. Thandie Newton is British?

13. Alright, we're at 1:26. Where the hell is George??

14. Wow, this episode is turning me off of having children, growing old AND getting married. Thanks ER. Thanks a lot.

15. Crap, she's going to break up with him. Or ask him to marry her.

16. Wait the woman that just died isn't the woman who broke her arm at the beginning? They can't have have two older-than-death women on the same episode.

17. Only 5 minutes left, and they've got an explosion coming in? I guess we're going to end on a high note.

And that's the end. Good show. I don't they could have done a better job.

You Never Know

Yesterday was probably one of the weirdest days I've ever had. Despite getting nearly 9 hours of sleep, I could barely get out of bed when my alarm went off. By the time I did get up, I was running late and spent the morning rushing around to get ready and out of the apartment in time for work. Ten minutes before 9:00, I was out the door and hurrying through the rain. Thankfully it's a short walk, and I can usually make it in 10 minutes, it just doesn't give me time to get my coffee or breakfast once I get there.

So, as I'm walking to work, talking to my mom on the phone, a bus drives past me, through a puddle, and sends a wall of water showering onto me. I was soaked. I'm pretty sure I screamed into the phone, but then I just started laughing. It was all I could do. My coat had absorbed most of the water to my upper body, so really just my jeans and boots had it worst. My mom asked if I needed to go home and change, but I was already late and by some miracle my feet were dry despite my sopping boots. So I continued to make my way to work.

Once I got to work, I started getting the chills from my wet jeans and just all around wasn't feeling well. I began to rethink my decision not change into dry clothes and nearly called it a sick day and went home.

But I stayed, and around 10am I got an email the rallied my spirits a bit: Joseph was asking me to read the scripture in church in 2 weeks. Well, that's one thing that I love to do and don't get the opportunity often, so I was pretty happy about that.

And then, around noon, guess who walks into my lobby? You'll never guess (unless you're one of my book club girls and got the email I sent as soon as he walked in). It was, wait for it, Jason Mesnick. That's right, the Bachelor (or Bastardachelor as I like to call him... but not to his face) walked into my lobby 2 days after "the most dramatic After the Final Rose Special in history!" airs! I was flipping out. I really wanted to be rude to him, but I knew I couldn't because that would probably get me fired. So I just pretended I didn't know who he was. Probably the nicest thing I could do, because he said he's getting harassed by everyone these days. But the best part was that Bonnie was on tv while he was waiting and she talked about him the entire time. Amazing!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, but the morning was eventful enough for the whole week. Frachel and I were planning to run after work, but decided not to because of the rain. We still wanted to hang out though, so I ended up helping her make dinner then she, her boyfriend, and I had dinner together and ended up hanging out and watching shows til past 10. It was so much fun.

Also, this afternoon at lunch I saw Drew Lachey.

Update: ZachWatch '09

I saw him yesterday!! It was at Jamba Juice. I smiled and said hi and he said hi back, it was amazing! Josh (who plays Morgan) was there too, but he wasn't paying attention. So now that verbal contact has been established, what's next? Conversation? Physical contact? ;-)

Also, a guy I work with is pretty sure he saw Zach at CVS last night. So, all in all, it was a pretty good day for ZachWatch '09.

I hate to admit it...

But I'm actually enjoying Twilight. Its just the teen fiction/romance/fantasy that I love (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Harry Potter, etc.) Definitely not the best I've read, and of course there are major flaws in the story and storytelling. But it's still a whole lot of fun and quite an enjoyable read.

A game I like to play

Sometimes when I'm walking around on the lot, and a tour cart drives by, I'll put on my sunglasses and sort of try to hide my face so the people on the tour think I'm famous. But then I wonder, if I've succeeded in fooling them, and they really do think I'm someone famous, who do they think I am?

That is the game I like to play. I also like to play my own version of "GeorgeWatch '08" called "ZachWatch '08" where I keep an eye out for Zach Levi. That's a fun one too.

New Project!

Well, I finally did it. After months of encouragement, I have finally started a photo blog. It's not just any photo blog, it's a 365 photo blog! I'll post one photo a day for one year, and the rule is that some part of me has to be in each photo. It also has to relate in some way to what I've done or what has happened that day. We'll see how it goes. Check it out! MJ365.

What is this world coming to?!

The other night I was watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith on FX (don't ever watch movies on FX by the way, the cut out imperative scenes and have commercial breaks every 2 minutes), and I kept seeing two of the worst commercials I have ever seen.

The first was for some fast food (I think it was Arbys) chicken fingers, and this is what the commercial was: A man is eating his chicken fingers at an outdoor table with is dog tied to the table, watching him eat. The dog whines at the man, so he gives the dog A WHOLE CHICKEN FINGER. The dog holds the chicken in his mouth for a moment and just looks at the man, indicating he wants to dip the finger in barbecue sauce. So the man lets the dog dip his chicken finger and then the dog swallows it whole.

...

Are you trying to kill your dog, sir?! Is Arby's trying to convince us that feeding your dog a whole piece of fried chicken smothered in barbecue sauce is actually good for him?! I never feed Henry anything but dog food and dog treats, with the occasional carrot thrown in there. I can't imagine how fat and sick a dog would be if his owner actually fed him from the table like that. Ew. It's pretty much abuse, and it makes me so angry to think that a restaurant is using to sell their chicken.

The other commercial was for electronics for toddlers. I think it was from Playskool, and it pretty much shows two 3-year-olds running around with their damage-proof DVD player and digital camera, dropping them and banging them on things and throwing them in puddles. But, good news, Playskool made them out of brightly colored plastic and rubber, so they're fine no matter what!

Really, Playskool? Really? You think irresponsible, clumsy toddlers need expensive, up-to-date electronics so much that you're making child-proof versions now? I kind of always thought that if a kid isn't responsible enough not to break something of value, he doesn't get it until he is. How spoiled are children these days that instead of teaching them to respect the value of their toys and games, we just make the toys unbreakable and let the kids go to town? Why do toddlers even need portable DVD players and digital cameras, anyways? Whatever happened to dolls and make believe and those fake cameras that click and flash but don't actually take pictures? How good would pictures taken by a 3-year-old turn out anyways?

I know, I sound like a grumpy old man right now, but all this over-saturation of media at such a young age just seems unnecessary and makes me angry.

By the way, I promise this won't be a "one post per month" kind of blog, I just got super busy with work and life and always had more important things to do. I'm thinking of doing a "one post a day" challenge like Good Buddy Ben, just so I'll actually write more. I'm not saying I'm going to do it, I'm just considering for now.

I live a life of danger

It's true! I almost die nearly every day.

The reason for this is not nearly as exciting as one might think. I'm not some sort of spy, involved in international espionage (as much as I'd love that). No, it's pretty much just because I live in LA. It's hard to go anywhere without some crazy, unaware driver nearly running you down. I also increase my chances of death by riding my bike to work.

I work less than a mile away from my house, it actually might be less than a half mile away, so I ride my bike. I used to walk, but then I got a beautiful bike (after the most frustrating ordeal with Target) so I ride that now. And I have to say, drivers in this town aren't very bike-friendly. They're not too walker-friendly either, for that matter.

I just got bored with this post... It was so much better when I was planning it out in my head. So I'll just leave you here. If you get a chance, check out the SCL post from Friday. It's pretty much amazing.

Look what I found, just lying around!

Hey Friends! (If indeed any of you are still reading this) It's been a while, hasn't it? I kind of forgot about this little guy, but in my pursuit of a good blog site that's not facebook or myspace, I remembered this little treasure that I started a few years ago. Things are pretty different now, I really don't feel the need to be anonymous anymore. But I do need a place to get out my thoughts and ideas, so this seems like the perfect place to do it.

So, let me introduce myself with a few fast facts.

1) I live in LA (that's Los Angeles for those of you initial-impaired folks), and I'm the only person I know that actually loves it here. I guess that could be because I've never lived in New York, which everyone seems to like better. But I like to think it's because this is where I'm supposed to be right now.

2) I have beautiful 6 month old puppy named Henry. Don't ask me where the name Henry came from, my mom named him and it just kind of stuck. I love him, even though he's not good all the time, and I can't imagine him not being around.

3) I have a passion for film, and my ultimate goal is to direct, but I have a lot of other aspects I want to be involved with. I especially want to do voice-over work, and I'm getting back into writing (as evidenced by restarting this blog).

4) I like to make lists.

5) I'm working as a receptionist right now, and I've gotten to the point where I have what I like to call "appropriate response dyslexia." This is where a person says to me, "Good morning," and my reply is "You're welcome." I just say the wrong thing, and it takes me a few seconds to figure out what the appropriate response is. Sometimes I'll just say "insert appropriate response here" if I really can't think of anything.

6) My absolute favorite TV show is Chuck, and my top 3 favorite movies are She's the Man, Beauty and the Beast, and The Princess Bride. I couldn't tell you my favorite book, because I love to read, and I have too many books that I love to choose just one.

7) I'm a girl geek. And pretty proud of it.

8) And probably the most important, I love Jesus more than anything. I don't talk to him enough, but he still takes care of me. More and more I'm realizing how much I need him in my life, how much I need to actively pursue him, instead of passively relying on him to help me when I need it like I've been doing my whole life.

Of course theres more, but that's another thing you'll learn about me, I always forget what I was going to write about halfway through a post. Which is probably good for you, because otherwise I'd probably just write forever and you'd get bored. Really fast.

So I'll end here, but there's a lot more to know about me, and a lot more that can be written here, so come back. And maybe I can learn more about you, too!