Happy Howl-O-Weiner

Ha ha ha. I'm a hot dog. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. So funny, I can't stand it.



I'm moving out.

Musical Prophecy

A friend emailed this survey to me the other day and I appreciate it for being a bit of a variation from the usual questions that are asked over and over again. (But I'm a sucker and do them every single time - so y'all can keep sending them.) I already answered these with different songs but it's kind of fun.

The object of this survey is to answer the questions with the title of the next song that plays on your ipod. In high school, my friend Angie and I would predict our love future by asking the radio a love-related question and turning up the radio to find out what would happen. I remember The Eagles' Desperado coming on when I asked about my immediate love life. Coincidentally, the following weekend, the guy I was seeing at the time, was swimming in our friend's pool and just started singing that very song. My eyes met Angie's and we both knew - my relationship was doomed. He was a dork anyway.

Here goes:

How are you feeling today?
Do You Sleep - Lisa Loeb
Apropos- not nearly enough or I wouldn't be groggy!

Will you get far in life?
So You Say - The Bird and The Bee

How do your friends see you?
California Stars - Billy Bragg & Wilco
I want to live in California again. Desperately.

Will you get married?
Welcome to the Jungle - Guns N Roses

What song describes your lover?
Some Surprise - Gary Lightbody and Lisa Hannigan

What is the story of your life?
Can't Help Falling In Love With You - Ingrid Michaelson

What was high school like?
Time To Pretend - MGMT

What should you tell to the people who are jealous of you?
Law of Nature - Juliana Hatfield (They're not all going to make sense.)

What is today going to be like?
Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order
Or not. Dream on, Matt.

What is in store for this weekend?
Honky Tonk Women - The Rolling Stones


What song describes you?
Just Like Heaven - The Cure

To describe your grandparents?
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)- C&C Music Factory
Awesome.

How is your life going?
First Day Of My Life - Bright Eyes

What song will they play at your funeral?
Take Your Mama - Scissor Sisters (nice, a party!)

How does the world see you?
Shy That Way - Tristan Prettyman with Jason Mraz

Will you have a happy life?
O Valencia! The Decemberists

What do your friends really think of you?
How High - Madonna
Ha!

Do people secretly lust after you?
Hey Hey What Can I Do - Led Zeppelin
Contrary to popular belief, I do not stay drunk ALL the time.

How can I make myself happy?
You Are What You Love - Jenny Lewis

What should you do with your life?
Don't Drink The Water - Dave Matthews Band

Will you ever have children?
Love Will Come Through - Travis
Sounds promising.

Sunday Stroll

After yesterday's rain, I really appreciate the sunny spendor of my Sunday. I took the dog for a walk and a swim. It's a weird weather day. Really warm for October, but the colors of fall are really vibrant throughout my woodsy neighborhood.

Here, my ever-graceful Golden Retriever, swimming at the local beach.










As beautiful as it is today, I am ready for some cooler weather. I just bought these ridiculous slippers at Target the other day. I love them. Aqua is my signature color, (I guess, I just kind of decided that right now) and I love the little owls. I don't care if these are fashion no-no's. If you could only see the rest of the ensemble that goes along with these slippers behind closed doors. I am seven.

Golden Retriever Rescue

Molly wants to know if you'd like to rescue a dog. Specifically, her.

Just a little bit of time-travel

A friend of mine shared this site and I spent way too much time playing.

Here are some photos of Matt and I traveling through time, taking yearbook photos along the way...

Oh God. Stephanie must be dying.

Last week, I decided to write my dad an email to tell him that I love him. We're not a very schmoopy family (hence email and not calling and saying it). After the age of five, I probably only said "I love you" to my parents at my wedding and after funerals.

This morning, my dad emailed me back, saying I love you, too. Minutes after I read this email, my mom calls.

Mom: Hey, what's up?

Me: Nothing. I'm working.

Mom: It's a holiday.

Me: Not for me. Everyone else is off but I decided to come to work today and not honor slavery, racism, and the genocide of the Americas.

Mom: What?

Me: Nothing.

Mom: So, did you email your father?

Me: Yeah?

Mom: Well, what was that about? What's going on?

Me: Nothing. I just wrote to say I love you.

Mom: Are you depressed? Is something going on?

Me: No! I just love you guys!

Mom: You know, it's really weird that you wrote that. We're worried about you.

Me: ZOMG! I'll never say it again! I just wanted you to know I love you!

Mom: Well, it's weird.

Me: Whatever. I need to go back to work.

Mom: Okay.

Me: I love you, too.

Mom: (SIGH) I love you, too.

Okay, so just let the record show that I do love my parents, but so help me, I will never verbalize it again.

A dog's life.

Matt and I spent the last two days at his cousin Dave's house in Berlin. Dave and his wife Kelly are opening a deli so Matt went down to help him with some final touches on the shop while Kelly and I, along with Kelly's mother, went down to the outlets at Rehoboth Beach for some shopping. Molly had a great time, too, playing with Dave and Kelly's poodle puppy, Bindi. Molly has had a week full of doggie love - doggie daycare, some time with her cousin Lucy, and some time with her cousin Bindi... she is going to be asleep for the next two days.

Little Red Luvahs

When I was two years old, I had a pair of red, patent leather Mary Janes. There are pictures of me wearing them with everything because I loved them so very much.

Anyway, I'm oldish now and cannot go around wearing darling little shoes like that anymore. But I CAN wear THESE:



I LOVE THESE SHOES!

That picture showcases the deep red color. I wore them today with my brown-black pants. I received tons of compliments on them - even from my physical therapist... but then of course he had to tell me that I should absolutely not be wearing them.

But they're so PRETTY!


The color isn't quite right in this picture but still... DARLING!

Unlike my 401k, my shoes have not depreciated in value. Sure, there's a little scuff that needs to be buffed out, but I love them more everytime I wear them.

My weekend

1. After Thursday night's NKOTB concert, I am in a serious nostalgia daze. I'm currently working on the soundtrack to my life (so far). This is going to take a lot more time than I wish to spend, but I'm doing it anyway.

2. I watched three movies this weekend. Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Iron Man. (Good, Great, and Good.)

3. I caught up with the VP debates that I missed (DVR'd them since I went to the concert) and I've concluded that I have a crush on Joe Biden. I know... Shut up.

4. I did (a shit-ton of) laundry today and while I was folding socks and underwear, I wondered if my entire life is going to be mediocre and forgettable. It's my greatest fear and I'm writing this down now to serve as a reminder to write about it sometime.

5. I am DESPERATE to silence the NKOTB ear worm that developed after the concert. It was fun and all, but I kind of can't function when I'm struggling with the loss of whatever coolness I may have possessed before Thursday night.

New Kids on the Block - 19 years later.

Nineteen years ago, I was an eleven year old living in Fort Ord, California.

I hated Fort Ord, California. My parents were in the middle of a divorce (that never happened), I missed my friends from my elementary school in Maryland, and I was having a hard time in my new middle school. The silver lining in my little sixth grade world was the New Kids On The Block. Go ahead, laugh... but you'd be hard-pressed to find a little girl back then who wasn't in LOVE with those five boys.



[image from www.people.com]

I always felt as though I had an extraordinary love for this group at that time, but I'm sure lots of little girls thought, "I am their biggest fan!" Oh, sweet, innocent infatuation! Joey was my favorite. I learned through my reliable resources of Bop, 16, and Tiger Beat magazines, everything that I could possibly know about this boy. I haven't really thought about these things in years, but I was pretty surprised last night to discover that a whole lot of that info was safely stored in the sixth grade stalker files of my brain.

Last night, I went to the NKOTB concert at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC.
So many memories came flooding back. My first concert was New Kids On The Block. My parents weren't going to buy me the tickets so I had to be resourceful. My brother's high school was having a raffle for four tickets to see them at the Oakland Coliseum. Each raffle ticket cost $1. I was desperate to win those tickets! I found some girls to go in halvesies with me so that I could purchase twelve tickets. One of those girls, a classmate named Georgia, won the tickets! We went to the show with her sister and father. It was a dream come true. I remember writing a letter to Joe McIntyre and handing it to the usher to give to him after the show. He stuffed it in his pocket (probably with about 17 other letters) and it likely ended up in his trash can in his apartment, somewhere in Northern California.

I did some really ridiculous crap as a star-struck kid. I made a tape of myself singing New Kids songs (with a little bit of Tiffany and Debbie Gibson mixed in for variety) and sent it to the record company. Who knows where that thing ended up. I found the address in the liner notes of the cassette tape and I imagine some receptionist laughed her ass off before chucking it in the trash. (Meanwhile, I was waiting in anticipation for my record deal and trying to figure out if I'd get a tutor on the road, or just tour during summer vacation.)

There was another good year of loving them before I moved on to my next phase - heavy metal. Ha! Yeah... I went through a lot of bad shit to get to the good stuff that I listen to now. :-)

The group got back together for a little while in the early 90's. I think I was in 10th or 11th grade when I met four of them. They were signing autographs in the mall at Waxie Maxie's. It's funny now to think that only 4-5 years had passed and I was sooo nostalgic about meeting them. I thought that was definitely going to be the last NKOTB chapter in my lifetime.

Last night, Verizon Center was a sea of 25-35 year old women, screaming and wearing their NKOTB tee shirts. I did not quite go that far. It would have been one thing while we were IN the venue, but there was walking back to the car to deal with and I wasn't about to walk the streets of Washington DC wearing leggings and scrunched socks.

There were some fun girls sitting in front of us with "Step By Step" tee shirts. Each one had a "step" on the back of their shirts.

Remember?



Step One - We can have lots of fun
Step Two- There's so much we can do
Step Three - It's just you and me
Step Four - I can give you more
Step Five - Don't you know that the time is right?
Huah!

I will say that I am impressed with how good these guys look after all of these years. (Danny actually came out and did some crazy breakdancing stuff. I'm 30 years old, having physical therapy on my back this morning... he's pushing 40 and spinning on his head.) It was somewhat disconcerting; however, when they were acting all SEXY. During the old hit songs, they were mostly using their old choreography, but there were moments in the night where the jumbo screens were treating the audience to gratuitous ass shots. They were doing hip thrusty things and crotch-grabbing a la Michael Jackson. Oh, speaking of MJ, Jordan comes out to sing a solo ballad, (I think from Step by Step) with his shirt unbuttoned and some giant fan blowing his direction. I was all in my eleven year old head thinking, "this is DIRTY!" And yet, when they were innocently dancing around in suits like the Temptations, I had a flashback to the Thunder Down Under show in Vegas and thought, it wouldn't be a shame if ONE of those five boys - er - men took his clothes off. (Wrong one, Jordan. Thanks, anyway.)

I apparently had good taste as a child because Joe grew up to be quite hot. Or maybe it's my secret wish to be with a Broadway singer/dancer that makes him so appealing to me? Did I just confess that outside of my head? [www.playbill.com] But seriously, shivers from 1990 emerged when he sang Please Don't Go Girl and I wouldn't be above downloading his adult voice singing that song. I listened to the original yesterday and it's just FUNNY that I thought that CHILD's voice was "hot." Or whatever word we used back then.

I was teased a little bit about going to this show but I'm not embarrassed. Sure, I'm a tiny bit of a music snob now, but this wasn't about going to see the greatest band that ever lived. For a few hours, I got to be an innocent, sweet eleven year old girl again (corrupted by flashes of Jordan Knight's flesh).