Catching Up

Now that things are finally winding down on project Voldemort, I figure it’s about time to start updating the blog again. This past weekend was a fun weekend vacation with the girls. We stayed a couple of nights at THE hotel and then a couple of nights at my place.

As always, it was a lot of fun to see the girls again. I love the fact that we can get together and it always feels like no time has passed.

So the first night we ended up staying in the hotel and just catching up. We hung out at a tiny little bar called the Orchid Lounge in Mandalay Bay. There were a couple of guys playing music but for the most part we had the place to ourselves most of the night. No trip to Vegas (at least when you are visiting me) is complete without a trip to the Peppermill, so we headed there for a very late dinner.

Saturday night we went to the Comedy Stop at the Trop and watched a comedy show. I thought it was pretty good, although the first show I saw there was a bit funnier. Still, it was a good time. Afterward we headed out to Firefly for a late dinner.

On Sunday, Baby headed home and I brought Mimi and ThreeL home with me. On Monday I took them to the wig outlet. We spent a couple of hours there and had a great time. Here are some of the pictures from our photo shoot later that night.

So next week I am headed out of town for a business trip. Should be interesting. I am headed to Canada which means that I have to go dig out some winter clothes. I swear I have never been to Canada when it wasn’t winter.

So it seems that I am spending quite a bit of time on Facebook these days. I like it so much better than My Space. Frankly, I am surprised at how many people I have been able to find. Then again, it isn’t always such a great thing to be found. Having work friends and school friends in the same place is a bit weird.

And finally, I was able to get tickets to a couple of Keane shows in May. I am excited to be able to see them in a new city too. I have tickets for both LA and Chicago. I am going to the LA show by myself, but in Chicago I’ll have Mimi and Dave with me. It will be strange to go to a show with another Keane fan. It should be a real treat!

Making Peace with the Computer

Been a long time since I have made an entry here. I think that with all the long hours at work that I just couldn’t seem to find the energy or enthusiasm for spending any more time than I had to on my computer. It became the enemy.

So here I am now trying to make peace. I was on vacation last week and thought I might try to catch up on the blog then, but I couldn’t make myself turn the computer on all week. I did a whole lot of sleeping and cleaning and reading and basically anything that didn’t involve a lot of technology.

I wish I could say I was done with this project, but I still have some time left on my sentence. I thought I would be done by the end of this month, but I am now hearing it won’t be until the end of February. I would be surprised if at some time that didn’t extend into March. Perhaps I am being a bit too pessimistic.

Still, I know I should be glad I still have a job at all. That’s the rub of it I suppose. Even though I want off of this project, there doesn’t appear to be any other work to replace it with yet. And sitting around with nothing to do is never a good thing.

So, let’s think. What news do I have? After a brief hiatus, I have started walking again. About every other day or so I walk a few miles. It’s nice to get outside for a bit. Plus, the weather seems to be cooperating nicely now. We should be in the low to mid 60’s this week. Last weekend I was walking down the strip and walked through the new hotel, Encore. It’s nice, of course but actually kind of small.

This is another Steve Wynn hotel and the sister property to the Wynn hotel. Like the Wynn it also has moved into the new direction of not having a theme to it. I will say however that both properties do appear to have more of an Asian/ Indian flavor to them. Not really surprising when you think about it.

Other than that, I am supposed to take Harmony roller skating as her birthday present. I am still trying to find the time to pull that off. It should be fun if I can ever manage to get it done.

Thanksgiving

Well here it is Thanksgiving again. It feels like a million years since I wrote on the blog, but I have some time to kill while waiting for Heidi to give me the green light to come over. So here I am with warm pumpkin bread and cold white wine ready to go. I’m bringing a movie over too. This year’s pick is The Money Pit. Heidi and I were talking about it last week for some reason (I think it had something to do with the turkey scene) and I went out and bought it for today.

This is also generally the weekend I set up the Christmas tree with this year’s theme. Unfortunately the market tanked and my visions of Russian Christmas have to be put on hold this year. Instead I have come up with a new theme. This year’s theme is Harmony. I picked it because I realize I have to go trolling through Christmas past and use the ornaments I already have. How traditional of me, right? So all my ornaments are going to have to live in harmony on the tree this year. The other reason I chose this theme is because I have decided to let Heidi’s daughter Harmony pick out the ornaments and decorate my tree. Lord only knows what she might come up with but I suppose that is part of the fun. I have visions of feather boas, silver bells, shoes and purses and maybe even a few origami ninja stars thrown in. It should be interesting.

The rest of this weekend will once again be spent working. Not exactly a fun time, but I find it a lot easier to get through work when the phone isn’t constantly ringing. I really just want this year to be over. And this project. And this job. But enough of that…..

This is also the first Christmas I won’t be heading back to Ohio. Instead I have managed to convince my Dad (buying the plane ticket helped) to come spend Christmas with me. My sisters are relieved to have one less house to visit that day, so it seems to be win-win for everyone. I wish I didn’t have to work while he was here, but hopefully this awful project won’t totally kill my Christmas spirit.

Operation Christmas Cookie is still going to go on in the next few weeks, but I doubt I’ll be able to do as much as last year. Still it’s fun so I will make the time to do it between conference calls to India every evening. The other thing I am keeping my fingers crossed about is the possibility of seeing Keane perform in LA. Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning and I am going to try my best to get one. The concert is on a Sunday which means driving back here early Monday morning. I have already told my project lead that I am going to “be sick “that morning if I get tickets. Somehow I doubt the world will end if I miss my normal 6 am Monday morning conference call, right? This is likely my Christmas present to myself so everyone else can just deal. Plus, with the vacation embargo being enforced on this prison sentence, I’m taking time when I can get it. If I have to manufacture a little stomach flu for a few hours, then so be it.

Nice holiday spirit I have these days, right? I keep reminding myself everything will work out eventually. I know it. So for today, I am thankful of the break in work, thankful that I am going to spend a fun day with my adopted Las Vegas family that doesn’t make me cook, and thankful that my favorite band is coming across the pond this year.

Leaky Sponge

I’ve done a lot of absorbing this week. I was called up for active friendship duty and if I wasn’t exactly happy to do it, I answered the calls as best I could and provided support as best I could. In truth, all that was required was that I listen. Input seemed largely optional, but I answered questions when asked and kept my ears open and mouth shut.

I feel like total crap today. It’s hard to figure out this state I’m in since the drama happened around me and not actually to me. Still, I can’t help but feel affected by all that touched me. After absorbing all of this sorrow and disappointment, I am now at a point where I have to do something with it. At the moment, it appears to be leaking out of my eyes. The contents of my stomach don’t seem very happy to be there either.

I tried for normalcy today. I went to breakfast. I went to the grocery. It feels a bit like sleep walking. Life is going on around me and I am disconnected and caught up in my own head space. It feels like depression. Given the past 7 days I shouldn’t be surprised, but I think the events themselves aren’t the cause. I wonder if what I am feeling is simply loneliness. If I personalized the events of the last week as if they were my own, who would I have been reaching out to? Certainly there are the usual suspects of friends and family. I spoke to both this week but I don’t think it is my long distance support system that is the source either.

Regardless, tomorrow is another day. I feel better by just forcing myself to articulate even this much. I’ve spent today trying to get some extra work done. Would you believe I actually had to make a deal with myself to have this little breakdown now rather than wallow all day? Scheduled breakdowns. Now that’s organization.

Lost and Found in Las Vegas

I have had the strangest week. I don’t think I have the energy to go into the details. Besides, it would sound unreal. I am stressed out and most of the drama isn’t even mine. How fair is that?

Here are some of the highlights. And please understand these are only a few.

Lost
Remember my new work friend in Las Vegas? I think I mentioned her a couple of months ago. I received a call from her over the weekend and learned about a strange tragedy over her now missing fiancé. A couple’s argument escalated into him leaving the house last Friday evening and has not been heard from since. I mean it. He just walked away from his entire life dressed in a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops. There has been no phone communication, no money movement, nothing. There are a million things I am leaving out, but again; I just don’t have the energy.

Found
I got an email from Steve this week. Out of nowhere. Just checking in to say Hi. I haven’t heard from him since he disappeared back in January. I don’t even know how to process this information given the drama of this week….

Lost
Heidi had her exam this week for the Police Department. It came down to 43 seconds. She missed a qualifying time by less than a minute and was once again denied her dream. I helped her drown her sorrows with a really yummy bundt cake. She is evaluating if she is going to try again. She told herself this was the last time, but how can you give up a dream like that?

Found
I finally found someone on Facebook that I have been looking for. We are friends now. Then again, we aren’t exactly chatty, but it doesn’t matter. I found him. AND ThreeL finally joined FB too. I knew it was only a matter of time. Still, she didn’t really want to be found. Now we just need her to add a picture.

Lost
Word around the water cooler is that we are going through a reorganization by year’s end. I am pretty sure my job is safe, but others won’t be so lucky. Still, it never hurts to have the resume dusted off and ready to go, right?

Seriously? What the heck is going on with this week? I have now started to randomly email people and just ask them to go ahead and deliver their news. No more waiting for the bombs to drop. Just go ahead and get it all off your chest and tell me. Now is the time to hit me with it. You found out you were adopted? You’re testifying in a trial and then headed into Witness Protection? Considering that sex change after all? Go ahead and lay it on me….

Perfect Symmetry

So today the new Keane album was released. It’s pretty good. It’s also very different from their first 2 albums. It has a retro 80’s vibe to it. If you didn’t care for that quirky electronic sound then, this isn’t the album for you. The deluxe album includes a couple of interviews with the band as well as demo recordings of most all the songs. The demos are recorded by Tim who is the primary songwriter for the group. Tim isn’t terrible, but I can see why they leave the singing to Tom. Still, hearing Tim sing reminds me a bit of David Byrne from the Talking Heads.

There are also a couple of videos available on YouTube. The video for Spiralling reminds me of the Max Headroom days of old. How’s that for an old 80’s reference? The video for the single “The Lovers are Losing” is total crap. There, I said it. I may love the band but that doesn’t mean I have to love their bad videos. The video makes no sense. Skip it. You have more important things to do. Here is the video for Spiralling.

So my Keane fund is slowly but surely growing each week. Since the guys are kicking off their European tour, I have plenty of time to amass my concert fund for later next year. It’s nice to have something like this to look forward to. I am still hoping to see them in some new cities. I know eventually there are going to be some repeats, but there are still plenty of places to go!

Wiki- Wacky- Woo!

So I learned something new today, isn’t that great? I was talking to Mimi on Facebook and we started talking about planning our next girl’s vacation. During our discussion she asked me if we should set up a “wiki” to keep track of our discussions. I had no idea what she was talking about.

She sent me a link, which I will of course share with you. It is a really cute demonstration of how to use a wiki. Pretty simple concept. I offered to go ahead and set one up for our vacation planning.

And I did. Mimi, Baby, and ThreeL should be receiving an email from me inviting them to join. So just do it.

In other Facebook related news, more people want to be my friend. Isn’t that nice? Three more people from high school have found me. One of them was even my college roommate my freshman year. You heard it right, Maren has found me. We have traded a couple of messages already. The other 2 who reached out are from that fringe group, meaning we knew each other, but I wouldn’t have called us close friends. Still, it is nice to see the old high school rules don’t seem to apply any longer.

So that’s it for now. Thanks again Mimi for providing the inspiration for my first topic for this month. Let’s go on vacation!!!

For the Love of Foo

Well, the big day finally arrived. Last night Heidi and I went to go see the Foo Fighters concert at the Joint. This was my birthday gift to Heidi since she is turning 30 this year and the Foo Fighters are her favorite band AND she has never seen them in concert.

So, back in July I found out that they were going to be in town and I decided to get the tickets. I really wanted it to be a surprise, but there was no way she was not going to hear about them coming to town, so I decided to tell her about it.

I actually don’t know too many songs by them other than the stuff that gets regular air play, so I had to start doing some research and prep for the show. I went out and located copies of their set lists from their most recent shows and decided to put together a playlist for me to “study” for the show. That was what? 8 weeks ago? I’m glad I decided to do it; otherwise I think I would have known about 3 songs.

The concert was at the Hard Rock Hotel at the Joint. I know I have mentioned this place before for other shows, but this show was super-packed. Then again, I think the band is so big now that they play in really huge stadiums. It was a real treat to be able to see them in a place this small. They are playing again tonight too.

So let’s start with the opening band. This won’t take long. The name of the group was Year Long Disaster. They probably played about 8 songs and I don’t think I could have told you a single word. They were boring because nothing they did was original. Everything they played reminded me of someone else. Yawn.

So the guys finally took the stage just after 9 and rocked it for the next 2 ½ hours. I think what I liked best about Dave Grohl is how funny he is. I enjoy their goofy videos, but I guess I never gave too much thought to the personalities of anyone in the band. All I knew about Dave was that he was the drummer for Nirvana. And I didn’t like Nirvana. There. I said it. Couple of songs and that’s it.

So here then is the set list for the show. They changed it up a bit from the one I had prepared, but all in all, I think my prep work paid off nicely. For the acoustic version of Hero listed below, I included a You Tube video that was recorded at our show. With the number of cameras I saw last night, I knew I wouldn’t have too much trouble finding a video today. The video contains some bad language, so I wouldn’t recommend playing it at work unless you have a head set.

1)Let it Die
2)The Pretender
3)Times Like These
4)Cheer up, Boys
5)Learn to Fly
6)Young Man Blues
7)Long Road to Ruin
8)Stacked Actors
9)Low
10)Hey! Johnny Park
11)Monkey Wrench
12)Skin and Bones
13)Marigold
14)My Hero (acoustic)





15)Cold Day in the Sun
16)But Honestly
17)All My Life
e:
18)Gimme Stiches
19)Generator
20)Everlong
21)Best of You

The show was fantastic. I would love to see them again. Plus, Heidi had a great time which was the whole point. She ended up with a t-shirt and a poster. Here is a picture of us at the show.

Color Career Counselor

So lately I have been feeling a bit restless with my career. I think the basic problem is that I feel less creative and more administrative. It leaves me feeling in a bit of a career crisis so I find myself looking at career counseling information. I came across this interesting test today so I thought I would share.

I enjoyed it because it was all about colors. All I needed to do was pick my color preferences and then it spit out a short report on my best occupational categories. This is not the first career test I have taken, but I will say that the results seem to be consistent with others I have taken. I suppose that’s a good thing, right? Except for the tiny problem in that it tells me I should be doing exactly what I’m doing. Rats…that’s what they have all basically said. So if that’s true, then why the restlessness?

I guess I have to go back to the first paragraph. I am not as creative in this job as I have been in other jobs. I guess I just miss it. It was a bigger contributor to my job satisfaction than I anticipated when I took this job.

Anyway, you can take the free test by going here. They will try to sell you a more in-depth test, but I skipped it.

I’m not sure of all of the categories available, but my results pegged me as a Creator and a Social Manager. For the Creator, I was given the following description:

These original types place a high value on aesthetic qualities and have a great need for self-expression. They enjoy working independently, being creative, using their imagination, and constantly learning something new. Fields of interest are art, drama, music, and writing or places where they can express, assemble, or implement creative ideas.

Among the occupations listed were Web Designer, Technical Writer, Corporate Trainer, Author, and Editor. In other words, all aspects of what I do now or did in the past. I am still waiting for the warm fuzzies I should have for making such great career decisions. In the meantime, I am looking at some technical classes offered here for things like Flash and Captivate and Photoshop. To feed the need for learning new things, these make the most sense. Plus I think I am too lazy to learn these things on my own, so I would rather go sit in a class for a day or two and just get it done.

Thundercloud

This is no commentary on the weather. But if you’d like an update, we are finally getting down out of the triple digits for the year…although not this weekend. The week has been in the 90’s but we are warming back up again today. Whatever. Honestly, you can feel a difference between 100 and 110 I assure you. And after 3+ months of it, 100 feels nice.

No, this is about my mood. For many reasons I seem to be walking around with a thundercloud over my head. I came out to the blog today and saw that my last entry was August 29. I scanned over the contents again and realized I had absolutely nothing new to write about and another entry would just resemble that one. Why not just copy and paste the stupid thing and call it a day? See? Thundercloud…..

What used to be a place to come and examine my thoughts has recently become a place to come and realize I have nothing new to say. Does my life have to be filled with adventure daily? No. Lord knows if it was I would just find ways to complain about that too.

I suppose part of the angst is that I can’t complain about work out here. No, I pretty much guaranteed that would be a bad idea. Still, I suppose it’s for the best for all of us that I don’t give myself an open platform to really whine. It must be my self-censorship that is chaffing me in bad places.

So now that I am sitting here thinking about bad moods, I am wondering realistically how long I can actually hold on to it? Have you ever really tried to hold on to one? I suppose if it is really focused on a person or situation it might be easier. But what about just a plain old bad mood? I know what you’re thinking…why would you want to hang on to it? I was just thinking that it might be an interesting experiment to see what’s possible. Unfortunately (for the experiment) I am already distracted and not nearly as cranky.

Here are the top 5 reasons now working against my bad mood today:

1. It’s Friday
2. It’s pay day.
3. I just made a fresh pot of coffee and am drinking it out of my “Cake or Death” mug.
4. Money was transferred into my Keane concert fund today.
5. My cherry pants/ hoodie combination actually matches today. Not that it matters, but it just happened so I can totally classify this outfit as “effortless.”
   

It feels very Seinfeld-esque to spend time talking about nothing, but since it makes me feel better, why not? And speaking of Jerry, have you seen the new commercials with him and Bill Gates? They are really kind of cute. Still, I would have to say my favorite commercials are still the eTrade talking baby and the Tide Stain stick talking stains. THOSE are hilarious. The job interview is my favorite.

Fine…I can’t even keep a bad mood going. I don’t know if I should be upset about it or not.

Cleaning the Inbox

I think this will probably just be another list of random topics. I think of it as cleaning out the Inbox before the long weekend. The first step is just getting started.

Ok, first up….I made a new friend this week. Isn’t that nice? And she doesn’t even work for the spa. In fact, she works for the same company I do and she recently moved here with her fiancé. We met for dinner this week just to get acquainted. You never know with these things, right? It could have been awful. It wasn’t. She is really nice, a little younger than me, and totally up for exploring the city. It’s nice because all the other people I know here don’t want to go out and do this stuff any more. So I think we are going to the Elvis museum on Monday. Maybe Liberace. I don’t know yet. AND, I have a new person to haul over to the Peppermill. Yum!

What else? Well, my Facebook experience seems to have exploded over the last month. What’s up with that? Suddenly everyone that ever thought they knew me is reaching out to say Hi. It’s nice, of course. I guess the timing just seems a little odd. I’ve had the page for a while but it really just took off all of a sudden. Still, I like it a lot better than MySpace. As much as it makes me want to cringe to say it, Facebook seems a bit more age appropriate. Ugh. These days, I only use the MySpace page to keep up with different bands.

And speaking of bands…..Yay!!! I was able to see Keane this week. They were having a radio interview in London earlier this week so I tuned in online so I could listen to it. Little did I know that the studio was set up with web cams so I was able to see them too! They were there to talk about the new album and I was able to hear a few of the new songs. Apparently, they are really feeling the old 80’s electronic sound because all 3 of the songs I heard had it. I wouldn’t say I’m in love with it yet, but I’m sure it will grow on me.

I think I may have mentioned it in an earlier blog, but listening to the songs reminded me of specific songs from the 80’s because of that weird distorted sound. I mentioned that Human League song, but I thought of another one today. I am also reminded of Nu Shooz, “I can’t wait.” That whole electric part that is so catchy, remember? Anyway, I am still anxious to get the new album in October.

Along the music lines, Baby sent me a CD this week. It’s funny, really. Well, it would be if you had been involved in the conversation that led to it. But since it won’t mean anything to you, I’ll spare you the details and just say that I have a fun new CD to listen to with some of Baby’s favorite songs performed by females. Baby- I am really digging the DM cover of Enjoy the Silence! Awesome!

And finally, Heidi is moving once again. And again I am helping her. Hopefully this will be the last time for a while. Tonight and probably part of tomorrow I will help her shuttle stuff from the old place to the new place. Luckily, they are just down the street from each other.

That’s it. Have a great weekend!

Update on Perfect Symmetry

I have a Keane update. Their new album is going to be released this fall and I can’t wait! I received an email from the web site about 2 weeks ago with the opportunity to download one of the songs. It’s called Spiralling. Spell check goes nuts over that one, but that’s the way it goes.

Anywho, another email today gave me the good news that the single is now available on iTunes. With a completely biased attitude, I highly recommend that you go and listen to it. When I first heard the intro I was immediately reminded of old 80’s synth sounds from bands like the Human League. Specifically, it reminds me of the song (Keep Feeling) Fascination.

Perfect Symmetry is the name of the album and the release date is October. Please take all the necessary precautions and prepare yourself to listen to me go on like an idiot for months to come.

Busy, Busy Week

Last week I was back in New Jersey for work. I meant to have this entry written a lot sooner than today, but as usual, time gets away from me. Here are some of the highlights:

Chicken and Waffles
My friend Lily kept mentioning a soul food restaurant that she wanted to try but wasn’t sure where it was. Among other things on the menu, they offer fried chicken and waffles. How weird is that? Anyway, on Tuesday ThreeL came up for dinner and said there was a restaurant she wanted to try call Delta’s. I asked her what kind of food they served and she said it was a soul food place. HA! So any guesses on what I ordered for dinner? It was really good!

It looked so strange on the same plate that I had to take a picture of it. It’s a really crappy picture from my phone, so there is no sense in posting it here. Have I mentioned how much I hate that phone?

So the next day I told Lily I found her restaurant and the whole team went to dinner there that night. I decided to try something different. I don’t think chicken and waffles is something you should eat twice in one week, right? Anyway, it was a big hit with the team, so I have no doubt we’ll all be back the next time we come to town.

Young Frankenstein
I decided to stay the weekend again, so ThreeL came to pick me up on Friday afternoon and we hung out until it was time for the Olympics to start. I love the Olympics! I watch almost no sports, but I try to watch every minute I can of the Olympics.

The next day we got up and headed in to the city. We had tickets to see Young Frankenstein on Broadway. It was really funny. They had a lot of great material from the movie, but did an exceptional job of adding songs for this musical version. I think Dad would have enjoyed it.

Keane Fund
One cool thing that happened last week was an email from Keane. Isn’t it nice when they email me? They were letting me know that their 3rd album is coming out in October. It’s cool, although I know they won’t be touring here until sometime next year. Anyway, in addition to the email, they gave me a sneak peek of one of the singles and let me download it now. It’s called Spiraling and it’s pretty good. It reminds me of an 80’s song, so that’s cool with me.

I opened up my Keane fund with the money I have not been spending on cigarettes, so I should have plenty of time and funds to see them in a couple of cities next year. I am going to try to keep the scenario in place of seeing them in different cities, but I won’t be stupid about it. Although one special trip I would consider making is to Chicago. Other than that, I think I may try to stay on this side of the US.

Ok, I think that’s it. I probably left out 6 things I wanted to mention. I’ll have to try again later. Quick shout outs to a couple of people:

Mimi- Happy belated birthday! I know I talked to you on Sunday, but I meant to call on Monday too. I hope you had a great day!

Dorian- I know you aren’t going to read this, but Happy Birthday to you too! I can’t believe you are 12 already.

Mom- Congrats on locating the Internet. I hope you enjoy getting to know this side of me.

Katie- Hi Katie! Nothing new. Just saying hi. You were singing to me yesterday, so I just wanted to say it was good to hear from you.

Cake or Death

This weekend I went to go see Eddie Izzard’s new show “Stripped”. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the name, he is a British comedian and one of my favorites. If you aren’t familiar with his stand-up, you may be familiar with his recent film and television work. He has had a recurring role in the Ocean’s 12 and 13 movies, and he just wrapped his second season on The Riches which shows on FX.

If you are familiar with his stand-up, then you realize the strange and wondrous diversity between his stage and film work. In short Eddie is a transvestite, however; not just any man that likes to occasionally dress as a woman. In his own words he is an “executive transvestite.” In my own unfunny retelling, it means he likes to do normal guy stuff just with fantastic make-up.

Anyway, he was playing this weekend at the Palms. I bought my ticket several months ago so I had forgotten where my seat was located. I was delighted to find that not only did I have a floor seat; I was in the third row. Yay!!! I was so excited. My friend Jeff was in town with his family and they also had tickets to the show. I sent him a text from my seat and gloated over my good fortune. He responded by saying they were one row away from the back wall (hee hee).

The routine was great. Eddie’s preferred method of comedy is sort of a weird conversation with miming. He gives the impression that he is still working on the material when he pretends to make notes on his hand about jokes that fall flat with the audience. It’s a crazy stream of consciousness that can be a little hard to follow. You often think that he has gone off on some random tangent only to have him bring it back to his point. His comedy is a weird blend of anticipated audience ignorance and intelligence. Clearly, Eddie is well read and super smart. There are times when he expects people to get the reference and times when he knows that no one gets the reference. He is fascinated with world history and religion as well as pop culture and his comedy reflects that.

Some of his funniest work in my opinion is in the show “Dressed to Kill.” It is his most celebrated show to date and he won 2 Emmy’s for writing and performance. For more information I would recommend his web site as well as his Wikipedia page.

After the show, I bought some Eddie swag as well. I ended up with a Program and a coffee mug. I love the mug! It says “Cake or Death” on it. This is a bit from “Dressed to Kill” about if the Church of England ran the Inquisition. Very funny stuff.

Ok, new Top 5 List. Top 5 Favorite Eddie Izzard comedy bits:

1. Deathstar Canteen (Circle)
2. Engelbert Humperdinck (Dressed to Kill)
3. Do you have a flag? (Dressed to Kill)
4. Jesus and the Dinosaurs (Circle)
5. Noah’s Ark (Stripped)

4th of July

Another year, another 4th of July. Unlike last year, my mood was considerably more pleasant. Once again I spent the day with Heidi and her family. It was so nice to spend the day in the pool, especially since the temperatures were over 110. About the only time I left the pool was to reapply my sunscreen. (SPF 50 these days)

The fireworks display in the neighborhood was off the scale crazy again this year. The Strip does not generally offer any sort of fireworks display; they tend to save that for New Year’s Eve when we aren’t in the middle of fire season. Smaller neighborhoods do put on some shows, but I swear they are few and far between. I have stated before that Las Vegas does not have a very strong community feel to it and holidays such as this have a way of showcasing that.

What seems to end up happening is that people buy their own fireworks and end up launching them in their neighborhoods. It is completely insane. While we have our little stash of “safe and sane” fireworks that look more like large sparklers, there are crazy people out there with professional fireworks that sound like missiles being launched overhead. Once again, it felt like we were in the middle of a war zone. The noise of the launch was scarier than the noise of the firework itself.

It was with a horrified fascination that I stood watching a man, who was surely in the running for this year’s Darwin Award, casually stand directly over the firework as he lit them. These fireworks probably stood as tall as his knees. He would stand over them as he tried to light them and then walk away to get another one without even watching the result. Adding to this spectacle were his next door neighbors sitting in lawn chairs less than 20 feet away from the launching point. Can you imagine what could have happened if these things had tipped over? The kids were terrified of the noise, so we went back inside and out to the backyard. Last year we found ashes in the pool. This year I kept waiting to see my license plate come falling from the sky. Luckily that didn’t happen, but there’s always next year.

Autumn and the First Day of Summer

So picking up where I left off from the last blog, my sister was finally coming out for a visit. After months of coordinating and looking for dates and flights, what happens? I have to go out of town for a business trip. So, I arranged to fly back on a god awful early flight so I could try and get home at around the same time she was flying out. Turns out my flight was delayed a bit, but it all worked out fine. She ended up waiting on me at the airport.

Our itinerary was very easy-breezy. We only had a couple of events actually scheduled for the 4 days she was going to be here, so it left a lot of time to just sit and visit. I have far too many pictures for this one blog, so I will pick and choose just a couple. First up, the webcam. Autumn brought a webcam with her so she could call home and see the kids. To make it more fun, we put on my fun Halloween wigs before we called them. Here is how that turned out. Actually, after the kids’ initial reaction, Autumn had to take the wig off so the kids would do more than just stare at her. It was kind of funny.

Autumn also brought me a birthday present. She made me a fun little doll which I named Pepper. We decided to take Pepper to the Strip and take some fun pictures of her. Here are a couple of the better ones. I think her favorite stop was Sephora, naturally.

On Saturday night, we headed over to the MGM Grand to see George Michael in concert. Ok, let me just take a moment here and tell you what a big deal this was for me. I LOVE HIM!!!! The very first cassette tape I ever purchased was Wham! Make it Big. George Michael is the only celebrity to whom I have ever penned a fan letter. The first time I saw him in concert was back in 1991. It’s been 17 long years of no US tours. Finally, the wait was over!!!! Here is a picture from the first concert.

For this concert, Autumn and I ended up being reseated to better, closer seats. Not sure why, but it was great. We got all dolled up and I basically dipped her in glitter because we both needed to sparkle. Getting ready was a fun process and reminded me of all the times growing up when I would experiment on both of my sisters with hair and make up. They were like my living Barbies.

Sorry sis, but I think the rest of the blog is going to be about the concert. So, let’s talk about the stage. For this, I will quote directly from the program since it describes it better than I could. “The centerpiece is a curved, armchair-shaped video screen that stretches forward and merges with the floor of the stage.” And speaking of the program, I tried to grab a couple of pictures from it so I could show you what I mean. This first picture is when he first appears on stage. I’ll show you the set list in a minute, but basically he starts singing the song Waiting from the Listen Without Prejudice album. The last line of the song is “Here I am.” It was at that point that the screen slid open to reveal him. And as they say “The crowd went wild….”

So here is the set list. I loved everything except his version of Roxanne. It came from an album titled Songs from the Last Century. I owned it, I hated it, and I got rid of it. Some songs just shouldn’t be remade. Roxanne just isn’t a torch song to me.

First Half

Waiting (Reprise)

Fast Love/I’m Your Man

Father Figure

Hard Day

Everything She Wants

One More Try

Different Corner

Easier Affair

Too Funky

Star People

Interval

John & Elvis video

Second Half

Faith

Spinning The Wheel

Feeling Good

Roxanne

Kissing A Fool

Amazing

Flawless

Outside

Praying For Time

Careless Whisper

Freedom 90

He had 2 encores. He ended the second half with the song Outside. He even came out dressed as a police officer. It was fantastic. The first encore was for Praying for Time and Careless Whisper. After that, he left again, but since the lights stayed off and he had never acknowledged the band, I knew it couldn’t be over yet. Sure enough, he came back out and said that the audience was going to pick the last song. Honestly, it was amazing the hear everyone on the same page with this. Right on cue, we all shouted Freedom.

Throughout the concert I would say there were 3 distinct times that the audience sang so loud that he never had to sing a note. Those songs were Faith, Careless Whisper and Freedom. It wasn’t until the end of the show that I realized he never sang I want your sex. Honestly, I never even missed it. I am so glad I had the opportunity to see him again. I hope he doesn’t wait so long next time.

New Jersey

So last week I headed out of town for a business trip to New Jersey. I took off a couple of days early so I could hang out with ThreeL. We headed out to Virgil’s for lunch and so I could get my peanut butter pie fix for the year. Wow, that stuff is so good. We followed that up with a trip around the corner to Sephora. From my perspective it was a pretty awesome weekend.

During the week, I had to deal with boring business meetings and torturous shoes. I swear I went through almost 4 boxes of band aids before the end of the week. The shoes I was wearing weren’t even new; it’s just been a long time since I had to wear any of them.

On Wednesday, the group decided to go out for a bonding activity and headed to the Liberty Science Center. It really was a lot of fun. We started off with a trip in to the IMAX theater to see some story about mummies. Those kinds of things always mess with my head, so from the moment I walked in to the place, I was having trouble with my eyes and then my stomach. Once the movie started, I kept having to find a fixed point to stare at otherwise I would have been in really bad shape.

From there, it was off to see the different exhibits. In one area they housed a bunch of insects and lizards and snakes. I think the title of the exhibit was “Eat or be Eaten.” One of the girls in my group called me over to see an exhibit of gigantic cockroaches and asked me if they got that big in the desert. I took one look and told her, “those are Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches.” She looked over that the little plaque on the wall and saw that I was right. She asked how I knew what they were. TV. What else? There was an episode of CSI New York that had them on. These are the bugs that people glue jewels on the back, stick a tiny gold leash on them and them pin them to their jackets. Ugh!! So disgusting! It makes my skin crawl to think about it. Try and Google them and you’ll see what I mean.

The poor kid that was there to answer questions tried to defend them and tell me how clean they were. Yeah, whatever. I still don’t want one as a pet let alone walking around on my chest. Jesus, I want to go take a shower right now.

So after that we headed upstairs to another move theater, this time for a 3-D movie about the Sun. Ho-Hum. I think I saw it on the Discovery Channel (although without the 3-D effects.) We moved on to another exhibit, this one about different types of Fear. It was really fun. There was a booth where you could get strapped to this gurney looking thing while standing and then it falls back and catches you on a mat. There is a camera that records your expression the entire time you are falling.

Next to that was a booth set up for fear of loud noises. Again, there was a recording device to record your startle response. For this one, you just sat on a stool in front of a mirror and waited. At some point a noise that sounds like a gun shot goes off. After that, the mirror that you are facing turns into a screen that allows you to see your startle response.
We spent a couple of hours there and it really was a lot of fun once my stomach started to settle down. The last stop was the gift shop, of course. I ended up with a coffee mug. I think I have decided to try and stay away from t-shirts and hats from now on. I never seem to wear either one, and I don’t plan on giving up coffee any time soon, so it makes more sense to stick with the mugs.

I left town on Thursday super early so I get home in time to meet my sister Autumn at the airport. This was her first visit to see me since I moved. We were both beyond excited. But that’s for the next blog.

Save Yourself

How much time did I spend as a kid thinking about the man, the money, the house I would have one day? Disney wasn’t much help, was it? All of the fairy tales about the disadvantaged girl being rescued and whisked away to her castle and financial freedom seems a lot to wish for. I can’t even be bothered to buy a lottery ticket.

I saw the Sex and the City movie this weekend and there was a scene where Carrie was reading Cinderella to Charlotte’s daughter. After the story finishes, she remarks to the little girl that her life won’t likely turn out the same as the story she just read. It seems like a cynical thing to say to a 5 year old who just wants to be a princess, but it doesn’t make her wrong.

I guess what I am wondering is when I knew that no prince was going to come rescue me and that I was going to have to save myself. Sure it’s a fun girlfriend kind of topic to talk about finding the billionaire that realizes he can’t live without you, but winning that kind of love lottery that comes with an endless supply of money seems like the worst sort of delusion. Why do I need someone else to rescue me?

Part of this attitude also comes as I sit and anxiously watch the economy as I’m sure most all of us are doing. Gas prices, food prices, housing fiascos, all make the rescue fantasy a lot more appealing. Still, as I sit and watch my dollars cover less of my expenses, the last thing I want to do is drag someone else into my nightmare. Misery may love company, but my attitude is to keep that part of my life my own burden to bear. I created my situation, so I don’t expect anyone but me to fix it. And I am fixing it. I have to fix my financial resume the same as I would for a job.

It feels like I am embarking on a weird diet. Changes have been made to cut costs where I can and this summer should be an interesting experiment in living more frugally. I have never been a big supporter of the word “budget” but it is a necessary evil now. I have a very uneasy feeling about becoming a bargain hunter. It’s like trying to become a vegan after a lifetime of meat. One of my most ridiculous and dangerous expenses is smoking. Soooo….once again I am going to quit. I have a trip coming up for work followed by a visit from my sister. That should give me a whole week of smoke free time to get me started. That first week won’t be the problem. The problem will come once I am back in my routine. Smoking is my stress crutch.

So maybe it’s time to pull out the post-it notes and start plastering everything with reasons why I am quitting. If you want to chime in with any, feel free. Here are some of the more obvious one to me.

1. Health…Duh. It‘s bad for me. Breath, skin, lung capacity, blood pressure, cancer…honestly, it’s beyond stupid to know I am consciously killing myself every day.
2. Money. I am estimating to save almost $150 a month. A month!! When you add it up and look at it on paper, it’s amazing to see where you are just hemorrhaging money.
3. Smell. It would be nice if my stuff didn’t smell like smoke. Even if others don’t notice it, I do.
4. Alcohol. Granted my consumption is very little. However, it will decrease even more if smoking is out.
5. Savings. I am saving money to buy a house. So now I have to ask myself the hard questions for every dollar I want to spend. Do I really need this? Can I find it cheaper? What will happen if I don’t buy it?
   

So, there it is. I have a rescue plan. Still, like anyone starting a new diet, you have to be realistic. Going cold turkey with this budget idea will backfire on me if I don’t schedule a “cheat” day now and again. I’m not talking about the smoking part here because there is no such thing as a cheat day. No, this is thinking about the other things I like to buy like books and music (I know you all think shoes should be listed here too, and I don’t blame you). Since there is no way I am going to do without either, I have to be better about planning it out.

I’m not exactly sure what that planning will look like although I have some ideas. I know when the books I am anticipating are coming out and in most cases I get sent coupons for discounts regularly, so maybe it means I don’t buy it the day it comes out but wait for the coupon first. I also have a library card, so I could go the route of checking it out rather than buying it. Or buy it second hand. Ok, I think I am starting to hyperventilate…..I’ll have to think about those options later.

As for music, Keane is coming out with an album at the end of this year and I’m sure the tour will be sometime the following year. Since I know its coming and I know I will go see them, I should start setting money aside for it now. How cool would it be to put that “smoking” money into the Keane fund? Now that’s what I call motivation.

So, we’ll see how it goes. Putting this all out here on the blog makes me feel more accountable. It’s a bit uncomfortable to share, but maybe I need the extra exposure to keep me honest. It seems ironic to me that my “save myself” plan involves letting other people know, but I suppose even if no one says a word to me about it, I’ll still know that you know.

PS. Happy Birthday to Bruce and Lori!!!

Blank Pages

Is there anything more daunting to a writer than a blank page? I am going to try and multi-task for a minute and write something here while part of my brain tries to figure out how to start my latest spreadsheet. God, I hate spreadsheets.

I started off with hand written notes and now I am itching to put it in a Word doc. It’s just more busy work and a blatant excuse to avoid Excel once again. Why haven’t they invented some sort of brain scanner yet to just dump what’s in my head onto paper? I just can’t see the right organization yet in my mind.

Maybe I am just letting my frustration of other things take up too much space in my head today. It’s been one of those days where trying to track down information all leads back to me to figure out. What is the point of having resources to go to when all they do is shrug their shoulders, tell me to ask 6 other people, or tell me they are looking to me to figure it out?

There are just a lot of tiny pieces to this giant puzzle we are trying to put together. Right now if feels like one of those 3-D puzzles that people just stare at forever trying to find the dinosaur or wolf on a mountain or whatever. As I recall, it took me awhile to get the hang of how to see what I was supposed to see. There’s a lesson there somewhere, I’m sure.

Today I feel like I am looking at the blank page titled “cow in a snow storm.”

Moo….

Heading west was all that was left…..

This past weekend I took a trip out to Los Angeles. Once again, I loaded up the car rather than fly. Luckily, like the trip to Phoenix, this was a relatively short drive. A friend of mine came in to town and we decided it would be fun to go ride roller coasters for the day. We headed out to Six Flags Magic Mountain and proceeded to do just that.

For those of you that have never been to the park, this is a great place for roller coasters. In fact, it often ranks as THE coaster park in the US, although it seems to trade titles every so often with Cedar Point in Ohio. Currently, I think Cedar Point holds the title. Still, I’m not about to take a “quick” trip to Sandusky any time soon, so LA was it.

I realize this may sound a bit whiny, but it was so HOT at the park. The Southwest is breaking some temperature records right now for this time of year, so although I wasn’t melting at home under triple digits, the upper 90’s in LA was still pretty uncomfortable. The good news was that since we hit the park on a Friday, the lines were relatively short. The other whiny description of the park is that they call it “Mountain” for a reason. At many points during the day it felt like all we were doing was walking uphill. It was quite a workout.

So after collapsing in exhaustion Friday night, we decided to do something a bit more low key on Saturday. First, we headed out to Universal City and walked around City Walk. This is a funky little shopping area located right outside the Universal Studios park. After that we decided that since we had come so far, it only seems right to head to the beach. We decided on Santa Monica. It is a cute little town with lots of shopping, restaurants, and of course, the pier. After finding parking we headed out to the pier and then down to the beach. The water was ice cold and felt great since even on the beach the temps were still in the 90’s. We walked out to the end of the pier and watched the boats sail by. There were also a number of people fishing off the pier. I am really hoping they were doing it for fun and not hoping to snag dinner, although I can’t be sure. I just can’t imagine eating anything that came out of the water so close to shore. I realize it’s the Pacific Ocean, but it just doesn’t seem very um…clean, I guess. Whatever.

We drove back here on Sunday and chilled out until it was time to take her to the airport. We went to dinner at Firefly (of course) and a good time was had by all. Seriously, come visit me so I can eat there again. I love it. My next big event coming up is a visit from my sister in June. We are going to go see George Michael in concert and I am sooooo excited I can hardly wait.

With this last trip I have now headed out in all 4 directions from here in the last 5 months. Ohio for Christmas, Reno in April, and Phoenix a couple of weeks ago. Heading west was all that was left. Now what??? Apparently, it’s time to start over again. I have a trip to the East coast coming up in June. It’s a work trip, but I have a feeling I’ll still be able to sneak in a visit to ThreeL. Get ready! I am already trying to figure out how I can make it out to Virgil’s for dinner.