Hometown: The Roch, MI (aka. The Crotch, aka. Crotchscratcher, aka. Crotchmolester, aka. Rochester)
Currently Living: Clawson, MI
Height: 5'8
Weight: Ha ha, yeah right
Favorite Color: Blue (preferably navy)
Profession: Researcher
Favorite Nickname: Trick, Sloan
Favorite Drinks:Vodka Tonic, Guinness, Diet Dr. Pepper, Dirty Martinis, red wine
Favorite TV Show: Friends, Sex & The City, Project Runway, The Amazing Race, Iron Chef America
Least Favorite TV Show: A Baby Story, I Love Lucy, Martha Stewart, Everybody Loves Raymond, every hour long drama
Favorite Books: The History of Love, Beloved, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Fight Club, A Prayer for Owen Meany, The of Being, SurUnbearable Lightness vivor, Empire Falls, The Corrections, The Bell Jar
Favorite Movies: Little Miss Sunshine, Anchorman, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Wordplay, American Beauty, Life is Beautiful, Amelie, Breakfast Club, Singin In The Rain, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sleeping Beauty, Dancer in the Dark, Duets, The Virgin Suicides, The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Austin Powers I, II & III, My Best Friends Wedding, Moulin Rouge, Tommy Boy, Billy Madison, The Shining, Gone With The Wind, Bridget Jones' Diary, Chicago, Love Actually
Guilty Pleasure Movies: Xanadu, Dirty Dancing, Overboard, Groundhog Day, Steel Magnolias, 10 Things I Hate About You, Bond movies, Footloose, Clue, Murder By Death, High Spirits, A Cinderella Story
What I Do Too Much: Check email, crossword puzzles, complain about my job to friends and family,
Obsessions: sushi, Indian food, ranch dressing, toenail polish, song lyrics, hands, awards shows, symmetry, avocados, maps, dreams, This American Life, the display in my car that tracks my MPG
Pet Peeves: loud eaters, slurping, gulping, arrogance, snoring, bad grammar, repetition, late mergers, ripping cardboard, the word "chunky", intolerance, couples in a restaurant sitting on the same side of a booth, pop-up ads, privacy manager, men that drive without shirts on, being foolish, unfairly jumping to conclusions, being made fun of, cat-calling, people who type too hard
Greatest Fear: crossing bridges
Relaxing Activites: late night drives to sing by myself, headstands, hot baths,
Wish I Was: Ansel Adams, Jenifer Aniston, in love, living alone
Prized Possessions: ring from my grandparents, flower pot of my Grandma's, electric blanket (temporarily broken), tongue scraper, my bed
Craziest Thing Ever Done: getting a tattoo, strip Jenga
Things I Eventually Want To Do: skydive, buy a guitar, learn how to play the aforementioned guitar, take flying lessons, travel to France, write a novel, learn how to play the harp, tap dancing lessons, run a marathon
Tuesday, December 28, 2004 These are the days that bring you meaning, I feel the stillness of the sun and I feel fine....Quite a few days to catch up on here. I'll pull the "I wasn't at home for three full days, living out of my car and sleeping on other people's couches, and therefore blogging was far from my mind" excuse. I think that should suffice.
There were mulitple moments on Christmas Eve and Day and the day after that one or more of my family members would turn to each other with their hand over their heart, and emit an "Awwww," in a sweet, bursting with love kind of way. Like when my nephew gave his gift to his mom and the excitement and happiness of giving and receiving was equally overwhelming for both of them (or like my mom said, if someone would have said "Boo", we all would have started crying). Or when my other nephew brought his newly constructed ferris wheel down for everyone to see. Or when one of the munchkins got a spare when bowling, they would all have a big jumping up and down group hug at the end of the lane. There was just so much cuteness, I couldn't even stand it!
So yes, my Christmas was excellent. I always used to kind of think Christmas was such a chore because it was always such chaos. And it always seemed like so much work to try to get everything actually working, between food and giving gifts. It was just mayhem. But somehow, I don't care anymore. Or maybe, it's just less chaotic. It seems more enjoyable now to just kind of sit back and take in the crazy, funny moments as they unfurl and enjoy those just as much. Some of my favorites of the last couple days:
~ When Suzy and I were driving out to Amy and Dave's on Christmas day, there's one house in her neighborhood that is the requisite "crazy person" house. Ya know every neighborhood has one. But one of the hallmarks of this house, is their fondness for lawn decorations. Every holiday brings about a new flock of inflatable Easter bunnies, or anything that can be used in conjunction with a garden stake. They clearly spend more money per month on lawn crap than I fork over for rent. So as we approached the house, in anticipation, Suzy and I had a drum roll and Clark Griswoldesque, "Joy to the World!". And when we rounded the corner, it was more gloriously hideous than we could have imagined. And we sat in the car in front of their house for a full couple minutes laughing at the Santa seated on the porch sans head. But as Amy pointed out later, although he's headless, he still has a beard. Go figure.
~ We had the 2nd annual family bowling fest on Sunday. And much like last year, I swear that others watching our family would likely think that we're all a little crazy. Because in the final frame, Suzy had the opportunity to steal the title away from Kevin. And after getting the strike on her first throw, all 14 of us seriously went crazy. We're talkin' every-person-in-the-bowling-alley-looking-towards-our-lane-with-a-look-on-their-face-conveying-a-"what-the-hell-are-they-screaming-about?"-moment. And inspite of Suzy picking up the spare, she was still 2 points shy of claiming the trophy. Yes, the trophy that we have. Lisa has some serious practicing to do next year to 1. break 80 and 2. to make sure her arm doesn't feel like it has been ripped out of the joint the following day.
~ My nephew Jake has a CD player that he loves and listens to non-stop. So he got a whole slew of new CDs from his aunties and Santa, and on Christmas Eve was singing along, unable to "control the VOLUME OF HIS VOICE!" So we were all privy to his renditions, consisting largely of, "Don't be so quick to, walk away."
~ Warning: always check the temperature of a hot tub before hopping in. Especially if it's only ~15 degrees outside. Because cold water in a hot tub makes it that much more miserable to get out.
~ My niece Emily got a Prince and the Pauper Barbie doll from her auntie Suzy for Christmas. And when you push a button on her, she sings a song. And lemme tell ya. I'm sure that Suzy and I were ready to rip that damn thing off the doll by the end of the weekend. I'm sure it's magnified by about 100 for her parents by now.
~ I think Catchphrase is a game designed to create hilarious moments. Especially when your mom is yelling out the answers from the other room. Especially when you're playing with an 8-year old who can come up with better descriptions for words than you. And even smart, inside joke descriptions too.
Well, I hope everyone had a lovely holiday, and is enjoying their days off. It's nice when the only things on your to do list consist of things like, "take a nap". Or "finish reading my book." It's a beautiful thing. Kisses.
10:21 AM
