The boy's birthday

Well, it was the boy's birthday... a while ago. I am bad with staying up to date, apparently. Regardless, he is now 26. That means that I will be 26 in a couple weeks here. When did that happen?!

Just to keep you informed on my life lately: read, gym, nap, play Sims, sleep, start over. Seriously, kiddos, it's feast or famine over here. Either I am working way too hard or mind-numbingly bored. What can you do?

The only upcoming event is that we will be moving to a better apartment at the end of the month. We will have more than one bedroom! We will have a kitchen and a dining nook! We have arrived.

Maybe. :)

Holy crap!

Through the beauty of things like facebook and myspace, I get to freely spy on people I used to know pretty well. There are people in life that you went to the same parties as or were peripheral in their circle of friends or vice versa. I always wonder what happened to these people. Some of this could be the cabin fever of summer vacay. Whatever.

I am shocked that we are the people with jobs and children and spouses. In my spying of the last few minutes, I had to drop my jaw and say, "Holy mother of God, he's got a wife now?" or "I'm sorry; she has what job?!" When did the guy who routinely puked on the back porch get a job in politics? When did the girl who I would have sworn had several STDs get a normal looking husband, job, house, and matching babies?

How did we all make it? I mean, I had my wild side back in the day too. I have since mellowed and am now entrusted to mold young lives. Maybe these kids all just had a similar wild streak. I assume that no one is now saying, "What do you mean I'm wrong? I challenge you to a game of flippy cup!" or "Well, let's see how you play beruit with my house rules!" These people have probably all grown up too. But when did that happen?

I have to connect this to my job of working with children. I hope that they all grow up before they have responsibilities, but there are no such guarantees. Maybe we all just do this? Maybe we all grow out of it? Who's to say that these people don't just put normal pictures up on myspace and they choose not to advertise doing kegstands with baby.

I'm just saying it makes me re-evaluate my views of important people. I bet they had their hair held back a good many times too.

I'm a feminist now.

The process is basically over and just starting all at the same time. My name is officially changed. I sat for over an hour in the social security office, during office hours naturally, and sat through well over another hour in the DMV. While these things are always a joy, it definitely got my anti-men hackles raised.

Don't get me wrong. I dig men. I dig my man in particular. I never even had an experimental girl phase in college though I was in a sorority. (More male stereotypes...) Normally, I just figure that I personally don't have it that bad and that most women I know don't have it that bad. There are bigger political fish to fry.

But...

Why did I have to sit in the freakin' DMV and social security office while the hubster did nothing? Again, this isn't against him. It's not his fault, and in his defense, he was working hard at work. ... You know, like I'd be doing if I had any job but teaching. Where is a woman supposed to get this time off? I would have needed to do the social security office thing first anyway because they need to do security clearance that takes several days before you can change your license. So are they just assuming that I can take two days off of work to do this or are they just assuming that I don't have a job?

To be fair, no one forced me to change my name. To be more fair, you can mail this stuff in and it will take several more weeks than I ended up taking. But when you've got hours to wait in line to change your name, a girl's got some time to think.

I've only had a couple "real" instances of gender discrimination. Most of those were when I worked at Fleet Farm in the automotive department and I handled those fine because in the end, I know that I am knowledgeable, smart, and good at most jobs I've had (including that one!). I had no insecurities. Maybe this one bothers me because I didn't have to do it. I was the one following an old, old tradition. Who can I really be mad at?

The moral of the story is that I'm not sure who I'm mad at, but I didn't like waiting in those lines. And I'm pretty sure I was there because I have a vagina. That's the same as feminism, right?

Insomnia rears its ugly head again

Insomnia has always plagued my life. It's been really bad the past few days/nights. I am adhering to the philosophy that when I'm tired, I'll sleep. Of course, I've been tired for days...

Anyway, I am going to update on what I've been seeing and reading. I finally have the chance to catch up a little on things, and I wanted to do reviews. Because everyone cares what I think.

Okay, this movie was awesome. I love Tiny Fey and anything she does. I thought Mean Girls was a new kind of movie and I dig it. This one is fun and intelligent too. But Amy Poehler is surprising me. I don't know if I just didn't notice her before, but she's super funny! And pretty in this photoshopped picture, too. Seriously, she has a banging body, but I never noticed before.

Regardless, this movie has allowed me some new favorite one liners and had me actually laughing uncontrollably in a movie theater which hasn't happened in a while. It's not "good" the whole way through, but it's a good comedy and those are pretty rare these days.



Naturally and of course, I saw the SatC movie. I loved it. Again, I don't know that it was "good" in a quality sense, but I think it captured perfectly what the audience wanted. Also, I was hysterically and uncontrollably crying in a theater which hasn't happened for a while either. My stifled hysterics reminded me of my seeing Titanic when I was young and impressionable. Now, that's some crying, my friend.

On a side note though, I wanted to see if Greg Behrendt (sp?) was a writer on the movie too. He's the guy who wrote the line, "He's just not that into you" which has become a national phenomenon as far as lines from shows go. They don't show writers on the end credits. Is that a crime? I mean, this movie that was the epitome and the end of SatC wrenched a few souls out there, not just mine. And I don't get to know who wrote it? It's sacrilege.

Regardless, I was more than pleased. I mean, this is like when the make comic book movies and all the nerds freak out. I was the queen of the analogous nerds and I didn't hate it at all.

Also, I'll say this: I don't frequently feel connected to the universe or to people around me. Things like graduations and other similar ceremonies make me notice the pomp and circumstance (pun sort of intended) of such situations. Who cares? Why are we all here walking in a line across a stage? But I had a feeling of connectedness as I waited to see this movie and as I sat there with a bunch of people spellbound during the movie. There were girls dressed to the nines, excited to have an occasion to wear those freakin' Gladiator heels that are so in. There were gay guys loudly ranting about their Cosmos they had before the movie. But there were also tattooed biker chicks and seemingly heterosexual males that weren't dragged there (like my hubs - who will admit to liking the show anyway). There were kids, there were grandmas and grandpas. People of all kinds felt this show and these characters like I did. It was like being in line for the last Harry Potter book -- you just feel connected to an idea and a communicated truth and it was super. Warm and fuzzy and all that. :)




Now, to switch modes entirely, the hubs is making me watch Oz from beginning to end. I kid you not, this show haunts my dreams. We just finished the first season and it's the most disturbing thing I have ever seen. Seeing people pushed to extremes is sad and harsh. I don't even know what to say about it because I feel like I don't want to give away plot, but realize I am apparently the only person in America to have never seen this show and it's like ten years old.

The characters are well portrayed; some of the people I know now from other things but I can't like them anymore. The dad from Juno? He's a meanie rapist.

I mean, this is where I am: can you imagine being someone's butt rape slave? Because I can't. I waited an entire season to see this guy lash out and react, to stick up for himself, to do something, anything to stop what was happening to him. And when he did? Seriously, I had nightmares. It wasn't good to see him go crazy. He's just a crazy, broken man. Seeing people broken and battered and left alone is sad.

It also reminds me of high school. Not so much the butt rape part, as the forced roles that affect the rest of your life and weird arbitrary rules that are clearly meant to break your spirit, but isn't that the same thing?

Regardless, I have to keep watching because the hubs loves it and I made him watch the whole series of Sex and the City and frequently make him watch feminine crap, but man-oh-man. It's rough and reminds me of what HBO used to be.




I finally finished reading this monster of a book at about 4 today. You know how there are books where you almost slow down reading at the end because you want the book to keep going? This is not one of those books. It's good, don't get me wrong. There's some great imagery and a poetic sense of wrapping histories together to create the one relevant one. But... I mean, there's only one relevant story, right? I just feel like I didn't need the 250+ preceding years of history of this one character's family and multiple national sociopolitical histories to get the story.

Again, it's beautiful. It ends well which is critical for me. I recommend it, but I couldn't read it during the school year because I had a job and reading this thing was like a second job. Most people already have a job, so this book wouldn't be ideal. :) It does make me want to read Virgin Suicides (same author) because I do like his writing style and I hear that one isn't 700 pages (a slight exaggeration... slight).

One phrase: the emperor has no clothes. This was the worst movie ever. This could be because I just didn't get it. I had that moment. I knew it won awards and was "awesome" and kids and adults liked it. I was watching and thought, "Man, what is the point of all this?" I quickly hushed myself because many, many people thought it was important and vital and moving. Then I realized it was totally an emperor has no clothes situation. I kept waiting. Was there a moral? Am I supposed to like any of the characters? Am I supposed to hate them? But I just never got there. I ended up waiting for the (in)famous "I drink your milkshake" line and even then, I had built it up too much.

In the end, I wish I hadn't bothered. I can summarize the movie for you. Daniel Day Lewis basically is mean and says "I'm an oil man" a lot and then figuratively (apparently) drinks another man's milkshake. The end.

I guess I've seen other things and read a bunch of books recently. But I realize these reviews aren't good, and are more insomniac rants about things I've seen. That's no good. :) I'm going to go to bed and wait for sleep to come. It is 5am after all and I successfully wasted an hour in rambling at you.

Updates

My nosering is finito. I was over it. Now I need to do something drastic to my hair; I feel too boring.

I have officially begun the official name change process. At least the social security office has now crossed Jorgensen off my records forever. Weird.

Smoothies are my new obsession, so if you have a Magic Bullet (the blender, not anything dirty) friendly recipe, send it my way.

I got some new cute shoes. They are colorful heels. Now I have something to wear to the SatC movie.

Peace out, my friends.

My dog crapped on my Memorial Day... but more so my car.

I wanted to go to the Grand Canyon this weekend. It turns out that although it is in the same state, it is super far away. Gas is expensive, etc. Instead, the fam (ha, we're a fam!) decided to go to Mt. Lemmon to go on a hike instead. For those of you who are familiar, don't make fun. For those of you who aren't, it's totally the same as the Grand Canyon. Totally.

The drive up is a pretty one. The biosphere literally changes from rocks and heat to cool weather and evergreens. It's only about thirty miles up, but the whole world changes. Usually, my dog, my man, and I enjoy the scenery. This time, Tiko the dog changed everything.

He was very excited to be going anywhere. Life was pretty crazy there for a while and he probably spent more time in the crate than good puppy parents would allow. Now, I've gotten off school and Tiko doesn't need to be in the crate. [One of my side goals for the summer is to get him trained enough not to have to be in the crate while we're away. We'll see. Last time, he ate two books, pooped on them, and then spread it around the living room. That took him about 15 minutes. It might be a long, long journey to freedom for us both.] However, apparently, my company and our tiny apartment isn't enough to keep Tiko from going crazy. We could sense his cabin fever and he could sense we were going somewhere fun.

We walked him before we left, I swear. He peed and everything. Then, about ten minutes from where we were planning on walking him, he started desperately trying to get in the front seat. [He's too big to fit on either of our laps now, so he lives in the back.] I remember saying something like, "Don't be annoying, Tiko. We're almost there." And then about three minutes later, I smelled it. Sick baby poo. You know what I mean.

Since Tiko has a sensitive stomach, I assumed foul play. Sometimes he eats random stuff he finds on the ground and it doesn't bode well for anyone. So I hoped that he had had a desperate situation and it was just life. Nope. Perfectly healthy poo except that it was about half his weight. Just to clarify, huge mounds of poo covered a good portion of my backseat.

We got to the general store that's most of the way up the mountain just a few minutes later, though the smell made it seem quite a bit longer. We bought some carpet cleaner and paper towels and found that our little puppy was just fine. No problems. He just didn't want to wait any more. In fairness to him, he didn't know how much longer we were driving; maybe he held it as long as he could.

After the cleanup was conducted, we realized it was a frigid 65 degrees out (we have become Arizonians) and we were too cold and ill prepared for such a cold hike anyway. The air was let out of our sails.

On the way home, I thought it'd be fun to look at some of the really expensive houses that are in the foothills of the mountains. I was wrong. A psycho had a psycho dog (fitting, really) that attacked my car mid-Y-turn. I have little puppy scratches all over my car now and I really want to sue, but I feel it would be fruitless.

I have a black car with scratches on it and poop stank stuck inside it. I have a black car. In Arizona. In summer. I am sure that will smell fine in a matter of moments. In the meantime, I have bought a car-specific bottle of Febreeze to spray each and every time I am in the car. Now it just smells like Febreeze and dog poop.

I feel like there's probably a moral in there somewhere, but I'm too stinky to find it.