after a lifetime of hating heart on anything, period, i find that i now not only can i tolerate them, i sometimes really like them. especially these wax paper and crayon hearts that my boyfriend's kids made for v-day:
i am going to learn how to draw, or try at least. i think, like most things, the trick is to just start trying, so today i did:
and lastly, don't order cds after more than three drinks:
how did that happen?
some randomness: the weekend's here again, been loving youtube--since we have no tv--mostly watch family guy, american idol and colbert report clips. but when i rented the whole family guy it really sucked. jack had good news at work, maybe very good. snow is so pretty today, not dirty like last weekend. i like the scrape of the snow plows in the streets. ever seen snow bigger than an suv?
you have now. from last weekend. when i found out that the earth will be destroyed by an asteroid in 30 years unless the u.n. stops it, ?. we might be psychic. my sister is about to publish her very first book. for once in my life i'm not tired. the princess bride, how i love that movie. i think i need to get out today. there are no guarantees.
i watched sophia coppolo's marie antoinette last night. it was a gorgeous movie, real eye-candy. it was like turning this room into a feature-length film.
glad i didn't make the boy watch it with me, it's really something girls can appreciate much more. i mean, he's not so into shoes and hair and pretty dresses...
the movie's web site's very darling also.
there are no guarantees in life, are there? i ask.
there are no guarantees, he says.
but he doesn't know it is a trick and his answer is the wrong one.
it's dark and dreary here. it's raining, when it should be snowing. i've been here all winter, and i can count the number of times it snowed on one hand. i feel really jipped, i have to say.
to cheer myself up i am eating m&m cookies (my favorite) and watching my favorite version of alice an wonderland. i love this one so much. it first came out when i was in grade school, and my teacher sent home a newspaper with the movie script in it, so i was able to read along to the movie.
when i was little, i loved reading more than anything else, especially tv. maybe that's what made it so enchanting for me? and my mom taped it, so my sister and i watched it many, many times throughout our childhoods. Natalie Gregory will always be the real alice to me. sigh.
anyway, after almost buying the old vhs's on ebay many, many times, my mom surprised me with the dvd. it's released everywhere i think, and through the looking glass is included:
good a time as any to recount some of my other favorite alice in wonderland things of all time:
i love:
this very comprehensive alice in wonderland site, but i especially love the film and tv productions across the years section.
i love:
this picture of drew barrymore being sort of a bad alice with her cigarette. i used to have a signed copy of this when i was younger. i used to have a huge crush on drew. (i love all of the pictures of her by mark seliger, actually all of his pictures are worth looking at. the one below is in his book, physiognomy, which i love and want...)
i love:
the alice in wonderland vouge photo spread by annie leibovitz witch shows natalia vodianova in all of these fabulous alice gowns by famous designers reenacting the scenes. and i'm sure you've seen this, but if not, you have to look. now. right now. (i did want annie's new book also, but after browsing it in borders, totally changed my mind.) my favorites are below, but it's really hard to pick.
i love:
the statue in central park, which took my a long time and several trips to find it's sort of hidden out in the open, if you will:
(this picture is from the central park website, i've actually never seen this statue not covered with children...)
i love:
this photography book by anna gaskell. although her wonder photographs are much more influenced by alice than of alice.
i have to take pictues, print, and mail them today for that photo swap and i don't want to. it's taken the fun out of taking pictures and made it more like a homework assignment that i procrastinate in the worst way.
oh, well, here are some pictures from my old cell phone. it's been replaced by a shiny new model, but you know i really don't like the new one any better. i guess i was more attached to my dinkly old phone tha i though. although i won't miss it powering off arbitrarily due to the crack to the thing holding it together. oh, well.
my sister in the hospital a few years ago, oooh, she's going to be mad.
oysters on the half shell at acme, new orleans style.
1/4 of a mufaletta and abita amber beer.
baby bowling with bumpers and a rolling lane in baton rouge, la.
sign posted in the new orleans airport.
i'm not a demanding girl at all, really, what i wanted for valentine's day was those pink and red and white m&ms, which i used to bake some cookies. i burned up my mixer in the process-- apparently you can't electric mix sugar cookie dough. although when i was looking for a new one online, i saw one that came with "dough hooks" -- does that mean i could mix up dough with it? that would be worth paying $70 for a mixer.
pretty, aren't they? (i have to admit they look somewhat better than they taste.)
my brother and his girlfriend are moving into their first apartment this weekend. it reminds me of my first apartment. i had nothing in it. i mean a little twin bed and my mom's old dresser and some cheap bookshelves and that's it. a tiny tv on a little glass table from goodwill. and two floor pillows from pier1. and i was as happy as can be.
they are also having my nephew's first birthday party, which i will miss. i really hate being so far away at times like this.
i do want to buy them some things for their apartment. which got me thinking to what i want out of life in terms of money/career: what i want is to have enough money to live comfortably--small apartment or house, cable bill not making or breaking you, a vacation every year, and be able to treat people to dinner and presents whenever i want.
enough of that. the blizzards here! here's what it looks like outside at 8:30 am:
i read the newest issue of glamour today, with liv tyler on the cover. i adore liv. and doesn't she look so pretty in the mag?
there was also an interesting article by jennifer baumgardner called why more girls are dating... girls. i couldn't find it on the web to link yet, but i did find an interesting post about her book look both ways: bisexual politics.
without having read the book, i think she sums up my viewpoint on the subject of people and their relationship: if someone finds real, true, lasting reciprocal love and understanding in another person, who cares about the details?
i found that with an opposite-sexed, same-raced person, but i like to think that that was just a coincidence, albeit a coincidence that probably makes my life a little easier and less open to controversy. i like to believe in jennifer's ideal of "being attracted to individuals." i like to think that i would have been open to anyone.
i fell in love with a nightgown at target (?!) yesterday. since i couldn't find it anywhere on the website, i took my own picture:
this nightgown makes me inexplicably happy. it's so soft and pretty and grown-up.
i also bought a set of pink and white measuring cups and matching measuring spoons for $1.99 from the v-day section. perfect. and a mixing bowl, since i've been using my one and only pot for the job and it's getting swirly scratches on the inside from the electric mixer.
by the way, lost horizon was so good. i curled up on the sofa with cookies and a blanket and watched it friday night. so much blizzard on the screen and i could relate (it's so f'n cold here!). i love old movies, so charming and wholesome, even the silly ones. one odd thing: apparently the movie was lost and restored with 7 minutes of film still unaccounted for. so the soundtrack continued as usual but still photos were substituted for film. this didn't take away from the movie though.
also, i got a new blog that i love love love. it's lovely and beautiful and all pretty, wonderful stuff that i wanted to collect all in one place. so if i ever win the lottery i'll be ready.
(this banner title is probably a draft.)
seriously, i love collecting and cataloging things, i spend way too much time doing this. i also found a site (via) where you can collect all of the books you've ever read into one place. you can search by isbn or title, add the books to your "library" and rate, review, add notes, and even a spot for when you read it!
this is so my thing, the only drawback is it's limited to books currently on amazon.com, so if you have lots of books from childhood, ebay, or thift stores (all the very best kinds), you're out of luck finding your exact book and may have to make due with a different edition.
anyway, if you're crazy like me -- and many people are or they wouldn't have a whole site for it, right? -- you much check out bibliophil. it's also free, free, free.
{seriously, i wasn't going to add this because it's depressing, but right after katrina when i couldn't go home for months and assumed every, single thing i owned (and at that time i had a lifetime of saved things, now i don't) was gone, i missed my book collection so terribly.
all of my life i'd treasured these books. experiences in books made up so many of my memories and infleuenced me just as much (more?) as real life. it panicked me that i might not even be able to remember some of the book titles to be able to replace them. my mind wasn't working well then. thanks to bibliophil, next worst-disaster-in-u.s.-history i won't have that fear to worry about.}
i'm getting a new phone. and it is very beautiful, shiny, and red, and free.
i just dropped my honey off at the airport and made my way home. i barely ever drive, and it's so weird driving with snow piled on the sides of the road. it's also weird to go outside for 5 minutes and have your hands feel like they're gonna fall off.
i noticed that i am a very safe driver, almost dangerously so. i drive and average of 5 miles over the speed limit, less sometimes, and keep at least two cars lengths behind the car ahead of me like my daddy taught me, and kinda slow down in anticipation of curves. i am also a nervous driver -- i hate even the tiniest bumps in the road, cars too close behind me, merging, and especially the boston tunnels. i love traffic (unless i'm in a hurry) because it means i can sometimes go 5 miles an hour without getting into a wreck. i also keep driving instructions in my lap because sometimes i just forget where i'm going.
all that said, i've only gotten into one really bad wreck, when i was 18. it was completely my fault, my mind wandered and i ran right through a red light. when the police officer asked me if i thought it was green at the time, i simply said the truth i didn't even see the traffic light.
my driving music staple, a perfect circle thirteenth step, finally went dead, but i found another perfectly suitable driving cd: echo & the bunnymen songs to learn & sing. and it inspired me to watch donnie darko tonight.
i never learned to cook. we basically live on lean cuisines, cans of soup, and going out to eat.plus i hate raw meat -- buying it at the store, having it in my freezer, and especially touching it.
last night, i "cooked" a whole dinner of salads, corn chowder and biscuits. and it only really took about 30 minutes. well, for the corn chowder it was two cans of snow's corn chowder, but it totally counts as cooking because i heated them on the stove in a pot instead of the microwave. i slowly mixed in milk at very low heat. and i even modified the "recipe" by using only 2/3rds of the milk listed and some butter and pepper. folks this is good for me. and it was d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s.
but the real accomplishment: i made homemade biscuits with flour and everything instead of the canned pillsbury kind. i remember when i was little my granny used to have a big jar of flour and she'd just make a well in it and scoop a handful of crisco into the center and just mix it up and scoop it out and make the best biscuits. i didn't do that. i used this recipe. but they reminded me of my granny's biscuits.
i've bought cookbooks in the past, but didn't really find them helpful and only used a few cookie or cake recipes out of them. i need some very basic instructions, and i found a couple at the bookstore the other day that are aimed directly at me: i don't know how to cook book and how to boil water. i haven't bought them yet, first i'm going to see if the cooking urge continues. because it might just be a stage -- until recently, i've never wanted to cook. maybe having so much spare time has inspired me. (or maybe the two years of living on lean cuisines and cans of soup.) besides, it's really amazing how you can type simple and recipe into google along with whatever you are looking to make and find some easy recipes.
usually people complain about having not enough cabinet space, i have entirely too much. i have one whole cabinet devoted to a box of garbage bags. another to a christmas platter someone gave us. and finally i have enough stuff to have a baking supplies cabinet.
see the cute little heart tins and sprinkles? i'm going to try to make something for v-day. maybe even bring some to the neighbor.
but the best part, now i have an excuse to buy these measuring cups from fred flare:
i have exactly one plant (since scooby died) and i am ashamed to say it is not doing very well. it is doing so badly, in fact, that i tried to dispose of it a few days ago after a considerable amount of sunlight and watering failed to revive it at all.
i stopped literally in the middle of pitching it into the garbage, because right in the pathetically drooping center was a bright fushia bud. i don't know why or how a bud grew up from the sad little plant, but i fancy that perhaps the leaves sacrificed their nurishment to the little bud, now a little flower.
take a look, it's quite inspiring:
i have a variety of boring little things to do today, such as go to the bank, wash some dishes, you get the point. but right now, i am drinking a second cup of coffee, eating the most fabulous toffee oatmeal cookies made by my neighbor and watching lost horizon.
i should wait until jack gets home and make him watch it with me, since last night i sat through the dreadful (but still very scary (to me alone probably)) burnt offerings. that movie was awfu and cheesy instead of scary, but maybe anticipating watching it several days ahead of time had me ready to be scared, or maybe it's the reminicence to both amityville horror and the shining. dunno.
the cookies were quite a story. a few nights ago, we were sitting in bed and heard a fantastic outside of our back door. upon investigation, we found our incredibly pregnant upstairs neighbor shaking, sobbing and sweeping. apparently, she was carrying groceries and a glass bowl up the stairs when her dog (a very big dog) took off and made her trip and break the bowl.
she sorta broke down and it wasn't the bowl breaking, it was the problems with painters, hating that she is alone (her husband's been out of town for a month!), having to walk the dogs all the time, the cable people not coming, pregnancy, exhaustion, and on and on crying the whole time. we are not friendly neighbor people, so you know she had to be upset to tell us all of this.
anyway, the next day she brought over about three dozen giant cookies to thank us (jack technically) for letting her cry on his shoulder. the whole thing was normal i guess, but bizarre for us. but as i am getting addicted to these cookies, i think i will have to: be very friendly, rent jack out to her, or try making my own oatmeal toffee bars.
i have to share the three cd's i just ordered from bmg music because it is an absolutely hilarious list:
queensryche operation mindcrime II
[i've been waiting for this to come out! i got #1 for my birthday last year and if you don't know it, you should buy the cd, turn out the lights, and listen to the whole thing. it is great, great, great.]
conway twitty 25 #1s
[because i love, love, love listening to my boyfriend sing hello darlin, and with the cd he won't be able to pretend he forgot the words.]
guns n' roses appetite for destruction
[because everyone should just have this, it is a classic and my old one is too scratched.]
if you think that's bad, i have to tell you that right now i am listening to this:
William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet: Music From The Motion Picture
[ i think i am regressing to my teenage years.]
i have been busy editing a poetry book. it'll be published on lulu.com soon, i'll post it then.
i don't know why i waste time wondering what to do with my life when i love this type of work so much. and i've known it for so long. copyediting, rearranging, researching, so fun.
anyway, i can't wait to buy this book, it reminds my of nick flynn's some ether, which is wonderful by the way.
keeping with the superbowl tradition of manliness and stupidity (did you see those grown men patting each others asses?), here is my brother's newest tattoo.
this is one that you don't want to screw up on when describing to the tattoo artist -- cry now, laugh later would be even more depressing.
speaking of manly stupidity, quite a few of those pro-football player guys are quite intelligent actually. i made a wager yesterday that at least one nfl football player has a college degree in biochemistry, and i was absolutely right. and i believe i read that last night's mvp completed a degree in speech communication in three years with a 3.61 gpa. that takes a decent brain (and loads of hard work).
i am nowhere near trying to have a baby, although i constantly debate to myself when will the right time be. sometime i think never, especially after watching last night's movie schindler's list, which i hadn't seen before, how could i bring a baby into this scary, heartbreaking world?
but if/when i do, i know they will be lovely, lovely creatures as evidenced by my nephew and niece below. each at about almost a year -- aren't they the cutest?
and, boy, do have the cutest nursery picked out! i saved these pictures from child magazine a while back. i just love the bright colors.
some other darling touches are this chalkboard paint/stencil in by the apt in domino, and the coolest high chair ever (although pretty darn expensive) from modern nursery, and, oh my god, this bird nest bassinette! (from child.com):
i came home from a week in new orleans to find that scooby, apparently, missed me greatly:
check out his before photo and you will see that, although my boyfriend is wonderful in many, many ways, watering plants is not one of them:
a scooby chia pet is hardy. and easy. one of the few things i've ever been able to grow in my life, but, alas, his time has come.
