Quodlibets

Addictions

• Knee socks.  I can't seem to get enough pairs, even though I only wear them half the year.
• Diet Coke.  Enough said.
• Underwear.  I've always loved pretty patterned undies, and never liked plain white ones.  I recently switched brands, so I'm avidly collecting new patterns.
• Books.  Is this a surprise?
• Sex and the City.  Another non-surprise.
• Burt's Bees chapstick.  I've tried other types (multiple other types) but nothing gives it up like Burt's Bees.
• The internets.  I can live without it on a vacation, but if I'm at work or home, I'm practically attached by an umbilical cord.
• Donuts.  There are very few food items that I'd claim to be addicted to, but donuts are definitely one of those few.  Cannot get enough.
• Shoes.  I collect shoes the way I collect underwear and socks, which says something.
• Purses.  Ditto the above.
• Yellow items.  I got this awesome bright yellow spring coat this year, and I know it makes me stand out like crazy, but it's so yellowy awesome.
• Beverly Hills, 90210.  I'm not in the closet about my love for this show.  2 episodes a day, every weekday.  I generally lose interest at a few points--the later eps especially--but I can almost always turn it on and watch happily.
• Sam.  Is that sappy?  But I'm still happy to see him after a long day of work, and I still get a little thrill when I see him from far away.  It may be sappy, but after 6 years, it's damn nice.

This is a requirement

No Progress Report today.  And no list either.  I STILL feel majorly crappy.  As in, I feel no better than I did yesterday (perhaps even worse), and at least as bad as I did on Saturday.  I'm sick of being sick.  And I'm too sick to think of a list topic tonight.  I'm hoping beyond hope that this is the turning point and that I'll start feeling better tomorrow.  I've done nothing but lay in bed all day (literally, lay in bed; not even on the couch) and I'm tired and stuffed up and I hurt.  And my right eyelid has suddenly begun twitching.

What was going to be a lovely 4 day vacation from work has turned into an at-least 5 day recuperation.  I'm thinking this is in fact the flu, not a common cold. 

Anyhow, I feel as if I might just fall over sideways and pass out.  My brief excursion (an hour and a half) onto the couch has exhausted me.  Perhaps I'll just go back to bed.

Places I'd Like to Visit (for the 1st time)

• Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark)
• Greece
• Japan
• Toronto, CA
• Austin, TX
• New England
• Washington DC
• Mexico
• Kentucky (horse country!)
• Ireland
• Scotland
• The Grand Canyon
• Vienna, Austria
• Sicily
• Charleston, SC
• The Kutztown Festival (Penn.)
• Boston, MA
• Niagara Falls
• Lake Como, Italy
• Berlin, Germany
• Geneva, Switzerland
• Portugal
• Amsterdam
• Prague
• San Diego, CA

What I've done today

• Felt like crap-ola.  I've got what promises to be a lovely cold.
• Laundry.  Oh so fun.  Although I did wash my three new bras, which is fun.  New bras!  Fun!
• Napped.  Yes, after 9 hours of sleep, I needed more. 
• Took drugs.  The legal, cold medicine kind.  Although, also the kind they keep behind the counter of the pharm, because you might use them to make meth.  Not me though, I'm taking them so that I don't continue to feel like crap-ola.
• Ate a delicious lunch of Minestrone soup, from a very good Italian restaurant that delivers.  We had it last night for dinner (thanks Mooj!), and I didn't eat the soup.  It made a great lunch for a sickie.
• Went to the grocery store, which besides being crowded as hell (pre-Easter, I'm sure.  The hams were selling like hotcakes.), is also being remodeled.  While ultimately that will benefit us, it's not great now.  And anyway, who wants to shop for food when they feel like shit?  Not the best motivator.
• Watched 12 episodes of Sex and the City.  Finished the series yet again.  Now I plan to start at Season 1 and watch all the commentary.  Poor Sam.
• Watched the new trailer for the SatC movie.  OH.  MY.  GOD.  I don't want to spoil, so I won't say anything, but just....OH MY GOD.

And, there you have it.  I haven't read or done crosswords.  No computer games and no sewing.  I'm a terrible sickie, and I've felt terrible most of the day.  I suspect today was rock bottom day, and tomorrow I'll begin to climb back up to normal again.  I sure hope so, anyway.

The list of epithets

Things I was called by a crazy lady on the bus today:

• ugly
• fat
• white
• bitch

And then she told me that I was dumb?  racist?  something, I can't remember what, for voting for Obama (I have an Obama pin on my jacket) and that I should vote for my own kind.  This crazy lady was definitely a minority (although she was yelling at the bus driver too, telling him that he was from Africa, a n$%$@er, and that he should go home because this country wasn't interested in him) person, though I couldn't tell you which.  In the course of her rantings (ongoing until she was kicked off the bus by the driver), she said she wouldn't vote for Obama but for John McCain, and the reasons, though hazy (the product of a ranting crazy woman, really), seemed to be racist. 

Whatever.  Interesting bus ride.  The whole bus was holding its breath until this woman was kicked off.  Nobody was sad to see her go.

Thoughts about John Adams (the HBO production)

• Watching the first two parts of the mini-series has made me realize how much I know about the history of the War for Independence (I believe that is the accepted name for the war, as opposed to the Revolutionary War.  Could be wrong, but I think it makes more sense, but it's also a lot easier to call it the Rev.).  It's probably because every single year of school, history classes seemed to start out at the "Revolution" and end somewhere after the Civil War.  I barely remember getting to WWI, let alone WWII.  Because of that, I know a LOT more about the War for Ind. than I do about than WWI.  And I've never really sought out literature and film from that time period, as I have about both the Civil War and WWII.  So my ignorance of WWI is pretty much a product of the school system.  But I'll give the schools this:  I know my p's and q's about the War for Ind.  For instance, the first scene of John Adams occurs around the Boston Massacre, and it was evident to me exactly what it was before anyone in the series spoke it.  I even know that the dead African-American that John Adams held was named Crispus Attucks.  I mostly know all the players in the Continental Congress, because I was taught so well, and I have a freakish memory.
• I love the portrayals of these men in this production.  I was telling Sam that there's very little out there that I have watched that made the men human like this series does.  I mean, 1776 doesn't count.  Because dude, no one was breaking into song while discussing the Declaration of Independence.  It's more likely that they were tired and hot and had bald heads and wore poncy wigs that got rather askew in the heat of the moment.  In the Making Of, Giamatti (who is brilliant, by the way; I wasn't sure about his casting, but now I think it's insane.  Laura Linney was a given, of course.) says that he loves that the series puts these men in scenes without their wigs, because it's all the more interesting and real.  And it is, it really is.  It's a look at these guys as I've never seen them in a fictional production.
• It's still inconceivable to me that a group of men got together and did this.  I mean, when you watch it, I don't even know if you can get a sense of how radical it really was.  They just MADE this up as they went.  It's very hard for me to wrap my head around the way their brains came up with this stuff.  Were they geniuses?  And if they were, has there ever been this concentration of geniuses in one place at one time doing this sort of thing?  In the Making Of, someone says we were very lucky that these guys were where they were when they were, and that's gotta be true.  It's very hard to think about this, even though in the scope of things, it wasn't that long ago.  Or put it this way:  I have an easier time with the Protestant Reformation than I do with the American Revolution.  The reasons for the Reformation seem much more in line with the end results than the results of the Revolution seem in line with the reasons for it.  I'm not saying England didn't have its head up its ass about the colonies, but the Church was much, much worse.  And the Reformation, while downright bloody at times, and radical (to say the least), didn't start out that way.  I could go into a whole great lot of information about the Reformation (compared to the Revolution), as the Reformation was the topic of my senior thesis at SMC, but I won't, because you're already bored.  Needless to say, the Revolution still boggles my mind, 20 years after first learning about it.  (And way more than the French Revolution, which ended up being STUPID.)
• I really like the overall portrayals of the individual men.  They have personalities.  They're individuals.  They're not just all wooden stock portrayals of stalwart men.  In so many historical (ie textbook) versions of the Rev., the men are interchangeable, save for maybe Benjamin Franklin, who is always portrayed as kooky! and off-base! and a maverick!  But this is...this is different.  The men are more nuanced.  I like it.  Adams is grim about what has to be done.  Sam Adams can barely hide his zeal for radical action.  Jefferson is imbued with a sense of ennui.  Franklin is serious about the whole deal, but political.  George Washington is...well, worried.  Again, the portraits are nuanced, so this isn't all.  But the fact that they're not all just one way is a victory in and of itself.
• It should be interesting for the series to move over time, because Adams was a spry bugger, and lived to be 90.  Which means he dies in 1826.  So he sees a LOT after the Revolution.  His history doesn't stop when the Revolution is over.  It'll be neat.  I'm excited.  I'm sort of a history nerd, if you hadn't noticed. 

Things I have eaten today

Look, I've got nothing, so I had to just make this Bush-league list to stay in business.

• Bagel with vegetable cream cheese
• about 8 bite-sized prunes
• Bagel with very thin layer of peanut butter (thus ensuring that one side of the bagel doesn't hog all the peanut butter; in my very scientific studies, I've found a super duper thin layer is the only way to go)
• a Diet Coke
• string cheese
• mini-pickles
• samosas (and delicious, spicy green chutney)
• Chicken tikka masala
• Paneer butter masala
• naaaaaaan
• rice
• copious amounts of water

Progress Report Monday #16

Reasons I Might Not Sew Tonight:

• I had an eye exam today, and the whole dilated pupil thing is annoying and achy.  I don't know how you deal with that crappy thing, but for me, there's little I can do but watch TV for a few hours while my pupils get back to normal.
• I sewed A LOT last night while watching John Adams (on HBO).  I'm not sure how you all feel about historical miniseries dealing with the Revolution, but I LOVE this one.  I love history anyway, and this history might be some of my favorite.  Love the portrayal of Jefferson.  Almost like a sullen teenager.
• I'm hoping to cajole Sam into a game of Rummy.  I forgot how much I loved card games, but when we pulled out the deck of cards on Saturday to get rid of the boredom, I remembered.  Rummy is one of my favorites, and we're fairly evenly matched, as far as skills go.  I did win our one match, however.  Just to let you know.
• I might end up going to sleep kind of early.  I've been sleeping rather poorly on Sunday nights, which leaves me with a giant sleep deficit on Monday.  Combine that with the dilated pupils, sinus pain, and slight headache from not seeing well, and I'm just plum tired.  Ready for bed.
• Seriously, I'm just tired.  I'm so tired, that's all I can think of.

The Last Coupla Days

• Sam went on a tear playing Rummy, but I beat him finally.
• A nice walk down Broadway.
• Intense chicken finger craving.
• Grocery shopping (for chicken fingers, among other items)
• Conquering Rock Band guitar on medium (going better!)
• Sewing
• The Simpsons movie (okay; some good laughs)
• baby clothing shopping (for Sam's best friend's impending child)
• two meals out (Pasta Bowl and Frances' Diner)
• toenail painting (bright pink.  spring fun!)
• Sex and the City episodes (happening right now)
• trashy magazines (every few months I need a fix)
• crossword puzzling
• spicy salsa and nachos
• Civilization Warlords
• coming up tonight:  chicken fajita cooking, John Adams miniseries

In Honor of this Evening's Activity

One thing Rock Band needs is more chick singers.  If my sister's right, and Rock Band is in fact more of a girl game than a boy game, the girls are sorely missing out on the action.  I'd happily purchase some chick singer packs, to add to the game.  Here are some ideas:

• Janis Joplin
• Heart
• The Cranberries
• Liz Phair
• Sheryl Crow
• Fleetwood Mac
• Jefferson Airplane
• Alanis Morrisette
• The Breeders or Belly
• Luscious Jackson
• Elastica
• No Doubt
• Fiona Apple
• The Pretenders
• Sleater-Kinney
• Rilo Kiley!!!
• Veruca Salt
• Melissa Etheridge

That's a start, anyway.  I'm sure there's many more.  I'd also like to say right now that I have hopes that the makers of the game will add a keyboard for the next version of the game.  Hello, there are so many good bands that have lots of keyboard.  Keane and Ben Folds Five spring to mind immediately.  Also, I want to reiterate a plea for Paul McCartney songs.  Oh, how I long to do "Band on the Run" and "Live and Let Die".