Falling Slowly

I was so happy to see Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova win best original song at the Oscars tonight.

Tired

I worked too much OT this week. It feels fulfilling to be almost completed with another project, but I can't help but notice I'm tired. I made a resolution about more friend time/less work time. It's pretty safe to say my efforts have been genuine, but the actual outcome is pathetic.

Looking forward to my trip next week to New York City. I'll see good friends, and meet a couple interesting filmmakers.

Humorous work things:
I was busted getting candy from the HR department.
Jennie is a closet Dixie Chicks fan.
A wonderful work friend brought me lunch.
On the way to work, Steve had to climb through my driver's side door.
I talked with Micheal Bacon a bunch of times on the phone.

Good Stuff

I think it's important to have a place to go that makes you feel good. For me it's the Town Talk Diner.

I feel good the second I walk in. The bartenders are good looking and nice people. The food is amazing. And I've gone there enough to receive special treatment like free drinks, taste tests and a very friendly (flirty) reception from the staff.

The cute bartenders are usually pretty attentive and that's a nice boost for a single gal.

Other things that were nice this weekend:
Sleeping 8 full hours one night.
Running the Valentine's 5K with Amy and Liz.
Minnesota Pot Luck dinner at Dale and Kerstin's.
A reunion with an old friend.

Raunchy Payback

I like celebrity gossip. I try to rise above -- but I love it and think it's hillarious.

A few years ago, Jimmy Kimmel started making a tradition of closing his episodes by saying "Apologies to Matt Damon, but we ran out of time" -- but Matt Damon was never actually scheduled to be on the show. He did this all of his season three, eventually invited Matt Damon on to the show and then totally punked Damon. Matt Damon was PISSED!

This started a gag and Matt Damon was the butt of all Jimmy Kimmel's jokes and red carpet pranks.

A couple weeks ago Sarah Silverman presented a special clip to her boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel.

I love how payback from celebs usually involves produced video, music and background dancers.

Saturday Evening

It was a wonderful night.

My work, thoughts, friendships have been heavy for a while now. It’s life. I get it, but at the same time it’s wearing and leaves me wishing for something light and hopeful.

Last night the fog lifted. Some girlfriends and I headed downtown to meet up with Diana’s college friend. He happens to be on a crew of a touring Irish dance show and invited us out for fun with some members of the company.

I bought myself one drink and was taken care of for the rest of the night. 6 girls went out. 6 girls met boys. 5 girls got kissed. 3 girls ran into each other this morning in a hotel lobby. 1 girl had a polite coffee this morning with someone potentially special. 5 girls met in a bar for lunch a few hours ago to laugh and debrief after a great night out.

“You’re not groupies, you’re band-aids…” I kept giggling the notorious "Almost Famous" line that Penny Lane says to defend her and her friends after hooking up with musicians.

I haven’t had a funny and sparky night out in a long time. It was overdue.

Recently Played iTunes

I was looking at my recently played songs on my iTunes and thought it was hillarious.

Feist
The Futureheads
Nancy Sinatra (These Boots Are Made for Walking, of course)
Kanye West
Kiki & Herb

HA!
Kanye West followed by the super successful American drag cabaret duo, Kiki & Herb!

I wonder who would be most afraid of who? My feeling is that Kanye would have no idea what to do with Kiki & Herb.

My New Neighbor

Some of my favorite things about living in Uptown Minneapolis are:

-Relatively safe neighborhoods
-Easy access to coffee shops, bars and good food
-Many friends within walking distance
-Pretty progressive environments
-Lakes that offer a number of 5K runs or walks
-Good rental options

I usually really enjoy living where I do. My apartment is affordable, nice looking and comfortable. But the last few weeks a VERY sexually active new neighbor has been waking me up at night. Girlfriend is BUSY! It's an odd situation because I usually am awaken to "love" sounds any time between 2:30 and 5am. I'm used to living in the city. I'm used to hearing things. But this one is funny because I am woke up from a dead sleep (as early as 5am in the morning) to hear my neighbors love life.

When I vented this to a group of male and female friends I couldn't believe the response. Most of the ladies said, "Ohh God that's horrible. You should leave a nice anonymous note, letting her know it's a little noisy in the middle of the night. She probably doesn't even know they are loud." Then almost immediately the dudes replied, "don't you dare tell her you can hear them. That's rude and YOU'RE the one who's uncomfortable."

REALLY? If she was watching TV too loud at 4 in the morning I'd tell her. If she was vacuuming I'd probably storm up the stairs and demand she stops. What wouldn't I tell her this is waking me up?

This response was interesting to me. I got to wonder about the guys point. Then I wondered about the girls point. Then I got to wondering why it was so split down the middle of the sexes that girls would tell the sexually active (and noisy) neighbor "I can hear you at night and you might want to keep it down..." and the guys would rather put a pillow over their head and try to ignore it.

Last night I didn't know what to do. I decided to get up and make noise in my apartment because perhaps it would scare my neighbor if she heard someone moving around. It didn't scare them. Nothing stopped. Thumping, talking and love sounds kept flowing...

This story is to be continued...

Bill Haverchuck

I'm pretty sure I knew about 10 kids like Bill Haverchuck while I was in high school. Child of a single parent, awesome, earnest, mortified, smarter then most others, made fun of, sad, sweet, so much more then meets the eye.

This is one of the best scenes in Freaks and Geeks.

5 Facts

This was a blog entry topic a friend of mine recently did. I thought I'd steal the idea.

1. I am extremely good at getting up early -- especially under pressure.

2. A guilty pleasure of mine is celebrity gossip

3. I believe a broken heart can turn your senses upside down and is possibally the worst feeling ever. I'm serious.

4. I count calories.

5. Every morning I drink an emergen-c and every night I drink an emergen-c.

It's cold out and I'm a little stressed.

When I'm stressed out, I can't sit still. I need to walk, workout or keep moving. When I slow down I get anxious and feel like I'm a racecar in red.

Tonight I bought Diana a hot chocolate -- and she walked with me. It's freezing and she was a good friend to bundle up and walk with me. The last two nights -- I've done it alone.

But tonight was much better with company and talking a bit.

I also ran into my neighborhood friend.

I’m still pretty into deleting. I thought this might calm down after ringing in 2008 – and crossing the symbolic lines of a “new beginning.” But the deleting hasn’t calmed down. It might, actually, be worst.

I deleted an old friend. He’s terrible at returning phone calls, he’s a dreamer and traveler and is currently wandering around. I’ve emailed. I’ve left messages. I’ve texted. The response is slow and I always am ticked off until I hear from him. And then after I hear from him, I’m happy and forget about the 3 weeks of wondering why my friend is such a scrub. So I deleted him. I pride myself at always making the effort to be in touch. So it will be interested to see when I hear from him next. It will have to be by his own initiation.

My brother has been deleted for a while as well. Not much to say. He’s in a terrible place and spreads bad juju all over. I needed a break, so I’m taking one.

I also have deleted a big portion of my closet. It’s just stuff. It’s T-shirts I don’t wear. It’s clothes I wore when I was a bigger size. It’s things I think “well maybe I’ll wear that again.” It’s gone (well nearly gone, it’s in my trunk ready to go to good will).

And when I look around my apartment I wonder, “what can I sell”, “what can I give away?”, “what can I throw away?”…

The deleting still feels healthy. It feels empowering to let go of things that are heavy. I guess it concerns me, a little, that I’m deleting people. But sometimes you need people to find you, reach out to you, make you feel you are just as important to them as they are to you. You know?

I started knitting fingerless gloves. They’re pretty cute and turning out nicely. Found a good pattern.

Since a bunch of my friends are blue and happy to stay in their apartments during the winter months, I’ve found that Tony is a great winter friend. His lovely wife is a S.A.D. person in the winter and prefers early bed times – so he’s been meeting up with me during the weekend to have fun. Two weekends ago it was the crazy evening ending at Jason’s. Last night it was meeting at the Red Dragon and walking to the VFW to hear the Motorhead guy sing karaoke.

I learned that cute Nate is a closet Whitney Houston fan, as I heard him sing along to “How Will I Know?” and “Where Do Broken hearts Go?"... I also heard him sing almost every word to "Stay" by Lisa Loeb. It was fantastic.

My friend Jason said that "whatever you do as you ring in the New Year is an indication of what you’ll do all year."

This New Year’s Eve I was at a fantastic show at the Varsity Theater with two best friends, I received text messages until 4:30am from someone who wanted to “visit” me (THAT IS NOT MY JAM), I made a couple thoughtful resolutions, I deleted an old ghost from my cell phone address book, I slept soundly, I woke up, and then started the New Years Day “All Day TV” ritual.

Last year Diana, Jason and I watched back to back episodes of Project Runway and then a movie (I forget which).

This year, Diana and I watched 6 episodes of Freaks and Geeks in Jason's apartment.

Jason was sick in his bed all day and it continued into January 2nd. I’m hoping this isn’t an indication of what he’ll be doing all year.

Freaks and Geeks has got to be my new favorite show. It reminds me of My So Called Life. It’s really tragic that people didn’t appreciate these shows while they were on TV.

Victims in the cruelest PE game: Dodge ball


Bill dresses as the Bionic Woman for his last Halloween


Lindsay Weir, once a mathlete, now freak tag-along


Freaks on left, Geeks on right

Ahh the viral blogs of 2007. I watched a lot in 2007 -- I'd share them with my co-workers and then giggle.

I started this list last week.

I'll start with my very favorite and then more in no particular order.

***Otters Holding Hands***

I needed insulin after I saw this. This video makes me feel that there is hope in this mixed up world.

__________________________________
Leave Britney Alone

I wish I could forget Chris Crocker, but I can't.

_____________________________
CPDRC inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in Cebu, Philippines at THRILLER practice!

It feels a little sick to watch this.

______________________________
Wedding Thriller Dance


Same theme song...

______________________________
NORA: Practice Makes Purr-fect

I love her.

______________________________
I Got a Crush...On Obama By Obama Girl

Someone spent a lot of time on this...hmm...

______________________________
Daft Hands - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger


______________________________
Feist - 1 2 3 4

I guess this doesn't count as a viral video, but I love it... I first found it on youtube, it was on my myspace page for a while and I'd frequently click on it. It makes me happy. So it's one of my picks -- and since hardly anyone knows about my blog...that's just fine. :)

Chocolate Rain kid kind of creeps me out. I believe he's probably a sweet boy -- but this voice shouldn't come out of him.

This video has over 12 million views. Video is killing the radio star.

"Chocolate Rain" Original Song by Tay Zonday

This makes one of my top 10 favorite viral YouTubes of 2007.
Ohh wow...



More to come as I count down.

I’ve been pretty bored lately.

The boredom could come from the cold of the winter. It also might be the fact that a number of my friends are low when it gets dark and chili, so I’m spending more time alone. But I am bored.

“If you’re bored, you’re boring...” one of my cousins tells her kids when they complain.

But I’m not boring, I know this. I have a ton of projects at my apartment that I work on, I invite people over, I workout at the Y about 5 times a week (and say hello to the regulars there), I’m usually busy all weekend long, I see friends, I see family, I see book club girls, I see stitch n bitch-ers, I’m not adverse to doing things alone (I’ll head to a party on my own, or the coffee shop, or grab some food) AND I’m working on the most challenging work project I’ve ever been part of. When I break down my shoots from this last summer and fall – they are certainly not boring...and the travel I got to be part of was extremely fulfilling. All of this is exciting. Yet still, at the end of the day, I’m flat.

The work stuff is slowing down and I’m craving to keep the busy pace.
The friends are retreating inside for “movie nights” and I want to keep pounding the strip.

I think I need something new, which could bring up some big changes.

Deleting

Lately I’ve been really into deleting.
Emails, email addresses, phone numbers, photos, old letters I’ve saved…and actually most of my closet.

Anything I don’t need, I’m quickly getting rid of.

One thing I REALLY don’t need to hang on to are things that make me feel bad or stir up old ghosts. That’s where deleting the phone numbers, emails and photos come in. I don’t need to see numbers in my phone of old friends that I always call first and it takes months to get a call back. I don’t need phone numbers of my ex’s family members. And I don’t need ex-boyfriends or flings contact info anymore either. It’s trouble to have anyways.

This might sound bitter, but it isn’t. It actually seems really positive.

Get rid of stuff that makes you feel bad. That should be obvious.

I've dialed out for a while. The last month has been busy.

My time has been spent:
Filming a DBS Brain Surgery in Atlanta
Running the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot with Nadine
Christmas Knitting Projects
Watching Episodes of The Office (US version, I've never watched)
Seeing Shows
A Couple Dates
YWCA
Drinking at Town Talk Diner
Book Club
Stitch n Bitch
Avoiding the Cold

I’m cranky today.

As a budget conscious late 20-something, I’ve been trying to stick with a ritual of making a large batch of something delicious on Sunday’s and eating through it for lunches during the week.

In the spring and summer it’s usually salads. In the fall and winter it’s soups.

I made the worst soup ever yesterday. It was a huge pot of Potato, Garlic, Leek soup. It tastes super gross and feels like baby food.

However, I spent enough money on the groceries that I can’t toss it and the point isn’t to give it away. So I’m planning on gagging it down.

At lunch today, the colleagues I ate with were eating fantastic hot sandwiches from the skyway. I was eating my baby food.

Wahhh.

Here is physical evidence that I cleaned my closet last week.