Believe in magic, or I'll kill you!

9:37PM - "Drop everything" movies

The Onion AV Club did a roundtable about what they call "drop everything" movies--movies that, if you flip by them on cable, you drop what you're doing and end up watching them right through to the end. Not necessarily your favorite movies, or great masterpieces of cinema, just something that's watchable in a way that you don't want to change the channel. So I got to thinking about it, and here are some of mine:

-The Brady Bunch Movie
-French Kiss
-The 40-Year-Old Virgin or Knocked Up
-Clueless
-Tommy Boy
-Hairspray (the musical version)
-Dazed and Confused
-Dave
-Mean Girls
-Rushmore
-The Birdcage
-Pleasantville
-Overboard!
-Noises Off (this is never on TV: why?)
-Pretty Woman
-Walk Hard

And here are drop-everything movies that Kenny and I are both powerless against:

-I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
-Hot Fuzz
-Super Troopers
-Ferris Bueller's Day Off
-The Breakfast Club
-Oceans 11 and 13 (12 is awful)
-Office Space
-The Shawshank Redemption
-The Simpsons Movie
-Boiler Room (which we both agree is a terrible movie, yet we can't stop watching)

What are yours?

9:46PM - Hubris

2 weeks ago

Deb from work: So, you gonna get a flu shot?

Me: Nah, I figure, I never get a flu shot and I never get the flu, so may as well leave well enough alone.

Deb: Yeah, me too, but I think I'm gonna go ahead and get one this year. *shrug*

Today

Me: God fucking dammit *sneeze, cough, rub aching neck*

8:41PM - Writer's Block: On the (Job) Hunt

Oh lord, everything. More specifically, it's staying confident enough to talk yourself up in interviews while getting 15 "Not interested" emails every day. Answering this question makes me REALLY glad I have a job.

9:19AM - I'm fine, BUT...

I send virtual hugs out to anyone else who's ever had to Google "vomit AND carpet AND clean" at 3:30 AM. I think Kenny has food poisoning, BLECHHHH.

9:03AM - Your opinion, please, on making amends

I've been thinking lately about how to resolve certain things that I'm ashamed of in my life, things that weigh on me. And one of those things is that I'm very bad at ending relationships with people. In particular, there are three people I had singing/friendship relationships with in New York who I simply dropped. Just stopped calling and emailing, went incommunicado. There wasn't a big scene in any of the cases--maybe one "Hey, where are you? Call me," voice mail or email, but one of these things was a partnership that had been going on for at least four years.  My reasons for ending the three relationships were like this: in the first case, I found the woman very judgemental and bossy, which was infuriating, but was too scared of her to say so. In the second, the woman had seen me flake out so many times and I could feel her starting to get frustrated with me, and I was embarrassed. In the third, I was ready to move on but didn't know how to say so and thank her for all her kindnesses (which were many) and move on honestly.

I still feel bad about having just ended the relationships without talking to any of these people. When I lived in New York I was afraid of even going to these peoples' neighborhoods because I might run into them and had no idea how to explain myself.

I wonder now: should I call them and apologize? I would like to clear the air, to say, "What I did was wrong and I'm really sorry and you didn't deserve that," but I know there's a school of thought that says making amends is selfish, that it's bringing up something painful for the other person so that YOU can feel better, that it's better just to let the other person get on with their life, and if they think you're an asshole, well, maybe that's cause you behaved like an asshole.

What do you think?

11:14PM - Moar spreadsheets!!!

It's nice to know that whatever goes wrong at work, it can always be assuaged with the promise of more spreadsheets. Today we had an isolated, one-time shipping issue that had nothing to do with me. And the way to fix that is what? Oh yeah, to make me keep a spreadsheet of everything we ship, from one single piece of paper to 20 boxes of tools going to Japan. Cause clearly, if I write down the stuff we ship, nothing will EVER GO WRONG AGAIN. Thank god we figured that out!

7:10PM - It's French, bitch!

It bugs me when people are revealing something and they say "Walla!" and have no idea that the word is actually "Voila!" I don't know why they should know that, but for some reason I feel like at a certain point all adults should have read that word somewhere and made the connection.

1:32PM - Hair care and cosmetics companies--pourquoi?

I've always sort of wondered why hair, skin-care and cosmetics products often list their instructions in English and French. I figured, if you think about all the people who'd be in the market for that product, does it make sense that the "second language" of those people would be predominantly French? I mean, maybe. But not likely. I think it's to make the product seem more "klassy" to us rubes who buy it. "Ooh, French people use it--it must be fancy!!" I mean, not that we consciously think that. But maybe on some level.

9:13PM - Meme--my 3 most memorable moments of 2008

1. Making the trek from New York to Texas—I was really sad during our last days in New York. But that drive, our moving-truck-and-car caravan from New York to Chicago to Dallas, with Kenny and Tim and I, that was one of the most exciting roadtrips of my life. It was a welcome reprieve between the tumult of packing up and the insanity of finding someplace to live in Texas. And a nice reminder that the United States is really beautiful, even when you’re mostly on the highway.
 
2. Our wedding—we couldn’t have asked for a nicer day. The gorgeous weather, the glorious singing, every single guest behaving perfectly, my mom’s reading at the ceremony, my dad’s toast, Tim dancing with Eric…for being planned from out of state and us moving two months before, it came together like some kind of miracle. And now I’m legally bound to the cutest man alive.
 
3. Is it a cheat to put a bunch of moments that fit into a certain category? Now that I don’t live in New York anymore, I’m much more glad I did certain things there in 2008—seeing Mandy Patinkin with Amber, finally going to a live talk-show taping (Regis and Kelly), New Year’s Day brunch with Kerissa at Junior’s, the last opera I saw at the Met (Tristan und Isolde), Brian’s Oscar party…when I go back to New York I imagine I’ll feel much more like a Midwestern tourist, and it’s nice to remember that I did actually live there for eight years.

1:12PM - Dear Dr. Flist (singers' edition)

Okay, does anyone know what could be causing this problem I sporadically have? I'd ask a doctor but it's so weirdly specific to singing that I wonder if someone else has had this and knows what it is.

When I am: 1. singing in a church choir, 2. holding music, and 3. singing for a good long time (like 20-40 minutes or so), I occasionally have the following problems:

• I start to feel very warm, like, "Holy shit, I'm suffocating in here, someone please open a window" kind of warm.
• My hands get numb and then start to shake--initially it's hard to turn pages, and then I have trouble holding onto the book at all. Like I lose some motor function in my hands.
• I feel panicked that I'm going to faint but never do.

This has only happened to me three times, but it always freaks me out; I sang half of a Rutter Requiem from memory once because my hands were shaking too badly to turn the pages.

Does anyone know what this could be? My theories are maybe dehydration, or it's a weird posture thing (e.g. locked knees), or a panic attack (but why only in a choral setting and not solo?). It's just odd because it only happens in those very specific circumstances; I've done full-length operas and recitals where this didn't happen at all.

12:09AM - Writer's Block: Wild Rumpus

Yay for this question for letting me think about books I loved when I was a kid. I have two:

1. Anne of Green Gables. Who wouldn't want to be her? She's so bright and full of life and everyone adores her. Also, I loved the weird trouble she'd get into, like accidentally getting her best friend drunk while trying to have a fancy tea.

2. When I was in elementary school I happened upon this book from a 1950s series about two friends named Ginny and Geneva. It's totally old school, but *so* wholesome--the kind of series where being a latchkey kid is a huge scandal. Anyway, I would have settled for being either Ginny or Geneva--I was besotted with the idea of a world where you play checkers in a treehouse with your next-door neighbor, or your mom teaches you to make pie after school. Then again, if my mom had ever tried to teach me to make pie, I'm sure it would have ended in tears. :-)

12:58PM - ROFL--frugality apparently has its limits

I watched an episode of Oprah a couple weeks ago on saving money in these tough economic times. One of the money-saving tips mentioned on the show was that you could cut your husband and kids' hair at home. Kenny doesn't spend that much on barber visits, but I always have to nag him for months before he'll go, so I thought learning to cut his hair at home would be great. Kenny agreed and we bought a $20 haircutting kit with one of the gift cards from our wedding, and I did a bunch of reading and watched  some YouTube videos on how to cut a man's hair. Seemed easy enough!

Well, you can see exactly where this is going--you've got the "I Love Lucy"-style shenanigans in your head right now.

I cut the back of his hair with the clippers, and cut the front and the top with scissors. So far, so good. Even Kenny agrees it was going very well up to that point. Then I put the guide for around the ears on the clipper and did one ear. It looked a little weird, but I thought once I blended it, no problem. Then I said, "Okay, now I'll put the left ear trimmer on and do that one."

"What ear?" Kenny replied.

"The left ear," I said, moving to his other side.

"YOU JUST DID MY LEFT EAR, ALLISON," he said.

Ahhhhhh....whoops? Turns out you should not mix up the ear guides. Long story short, Kenny has a buzzcut now! It looks fine but I think it might be a while before I get to break out the home haircutting kit again.

6:39PM - "You can't sue me, I'm already being sued! Double indemnity!"

If you, like me, are a fan of "30 Rock," you'll be interested to know you can go watch the season premiere on Hulu right now!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/40482/30-rock-sneak-peek-do-over

(It's super good, BTW. Usually I think their season premieres are kind of lame, but this one is very, very funny).

12:03PM - This woman is hilarious

I'm a huge fan of the "Target: Women" series by Current TV's Sarah Haskins. In case you haven't seen any of the videos, here's my favorite one so far. If you do a google search, there are a ton of other ones--on yogurt commercials, cleaning products, Sarah Palin, etc.

3:48PM - Our computer is nearly dead

Of course one month after we finally get my laptop paid off, it starts to die. It freezes up every couple of minutes. I took it to the Geek Squad last night and the guy I talked with charged me $200 for a "memory upgrade" that did NOTHING. We took it back this morning and luckily saw a different guy who said (in so many words) "This computer is fucked and you either have to erase your C drive and re-install the operating system, or just replace it." At least we got that advice for free.

As you can imagine, it's tough to conduct a job search with no computer! I'm writing this from the local library, which is okay and will have to do for now.

11:41AM - Fiction whiplash

Yesterday I read The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, which put me in a mood that was hard to shake off. The writing is very beautiful, but honestly it freaked me out so badly I'll probably try to forget it ASAP. Post-apocalyptic tales always get to me, but this one is the most terrifying one I've ever read. I got the heebie-jeebies from Into the Forest and The Road makes that book look like a lovely fairytale full of hope.

Anyway, after that I finally watched the Sex and the City movie. Sheesh, was that disappointing. Glad I didn't pay to see it in the theater. I really liked that show, but by the end of the second hour of the movie I was like, "Isn't this OVER yet???" Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

8:59AM - Am I missing anything?

I think the job search is going to take longer than I anticipated because of the economy. Here are the things I'm doing to find a job:

-Put resumes on Monster and CareerBuilder

-Apply to jobs listed on directemployer.com that sound interesting (I check Craigslist every day too)

-Applied directly to companies I'm interested in working with (University of North Texas, American Cancer Society, etc.)

-Interviewed with four employment agencies (will probably sign up with two more)

Anything I'm not doing? I only know a tiny handful of people, so it makes networking difficult. Any suggestions? Unconventional ways you found a job? I want to feel like I've done everything I can.

9:50PM - The job hunt: fun as ever

Some of these job listings are just absurd. I just want to call them up and say, "Hi, I think there's a typo in your job listing--you want someone bilingual with at least six years of experience, some of it supervisory. And they need to be familiar with the exact database program your company uses, which is not that widely used. And you're paying TWELVE DOLLARS AN HOUR."

Also, I hate how many of these jobs have twenty different responsibilities attached to them and the job title is "receptionist." Last time I checked, receptionists mostly answered the phone and did light office support, they didn't do billing, payroll, security and budgets.

9:37PM - If I could do an iTunes meme every day, I would

4) “Fa Fa”-Guster

5) “Uptown Girl”-Billy Joel
 
Search....
"sex", how many songs come up?  8 (a couple of these are “sextets,” though, LOL)
"love", how many songs come up?  83
"you", how many songs come up?  211
"death", how many songs come up?  3
"hate", how many songs come up? 7
"wish" how many songs come up? 7

1:19PM - Whenver I feel the slightest touch of post-wedding blues, I watch this video and laugh till I wheeze