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Archive for the ‘Television’ Category

Getting back to real life has been more difficult that I anticipated.  It’s been six weeks and one day since my surgery, and I’ve been back at work for more than three weeks.  I may have hit the ground a little aggressively, but there were some things I could not help. I could not help that I HAD to go see Libby run in the New York Marathon the first week in November.  It’s not my fault that it got cancelled last year. Libby had to train twice, and the least I could do was rebook my trip.  Plus, I really wanted to go, and I needed to see Betsy and Andrew and meet sweet baby Cash.  I can’t help it that being in New York necessitates a lot of walking.  Going to New York left me in the Boot for an extra week, but I was able to get around surprisingly well, and I don’t think the extra boot walking caused any lasting damage.

I’ve had the opportunity to see a lot of music this month, which I was not expecting.  The first weekend I was back in Charleston, someone gave me a ticket to the Robert Earl Keen show at the Charleston Music Hall, at the last minute, so I had to go to that.  Then Michael Franti was at the Music Farm and I went with my sweet friend Anita.  Finally, The Avett Brothers played at the Coliseum last week, and those tickets were purchased this summer.  All three shows were fantastic.  I’ve seen REK and The Avett Brothers at the Georgia Theater, and it’s hard to compare any show to a Theater show, but the Charleston Music Hall is a really cool venue if you ever get a chance to see it, and the Avett Brothers are a completely different band than they were in the Georgia Theater days.  When I first saw the Avett Brothers in 2007, it was three guys, and the entire show was high energy Bluegrass Ska music.  Now there are seven or eight band members, and it’s a much more professional production.  It’s nice to watch a band grow up.  The show last week was one of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time.  It was well paced, with lots of old music, and lots of new music, and we stood up the entire time.  The only thing I did not understand was the couple with the baby in the Bjorn in front of us.  Or the other couple with the two boys, aged maybe four and six.  The two boys were clearly miserable, with the four year old plugging his ears the whole time.  How is that fun for anyone involved?  And they stayed almost the entire show.  It’s not normal for kids to stay out til 11 on a school night, right?

Speaking of music, I’ve been enjoying the new Katy Perry album.  Hate all you want, she’s fun.  Also, I love Eminem.  I tolerate Rihanna when she is playing with Eminem.  I love that this new song is about seeming crazy.  I realized the other day that a casual observer would think I spend all day talking to myself.  But the reality is that not I’m talking to myself, I’m talking to the inanimate objects around me.  Example, I’m pulling sheets out of the dryer, and they are not dry,  “Dude!  You aren’t dry at all!  Look at this, you’ve gotten all wadded and tangled up, you are never going to dry that way.  Get back in there.”

The weather has been crazy, yesterday it was 83 degrees, 90% humidity.  This morning it was 50 degrees, 60% humidity, with winds 20 mph.  The former is a lot hotter than you’d think, and the latter is a lot colder than you’d expect.  I’ve completed all of the levels of candy crush, and now we wait for an update.  In television news, you should be watching The Blacklist.  That is the only new television show I can definitely vouch for as amazing.  If you watch Homeland and Scandal, you should be reading this weekly blog series The Heroine Watch.  It definitely enhances what otherwise has been a season of extremely depressing and upsetting story lines.

I can’t wait until I can run and go to yoga and play tennis again, I’m hoping to be able to start doing more in the next couple of week.  I’ve been walking a mile in the morning and a mile at night, and standing up at my desk during the day, and I’ve been able to do that with occasional pain.  The range of motion in my ankle is limited in all directions, but I believe that it is getting a little better every day.  I still have some numbness in my big toe and on the outside of my heel, but the scar is healing well.

Until then, Briscoe and her pink gorilla are making sure my yoga mat feels loved.

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In my bedroom at my parent’s house in Augusta – I can hear the train whistle blow at night. In my bedroom in my apartment in Charleston, I can hear the cargo ship horns blow. Trains and ships make me happy.

Chocolate coconut milk freezes pretty quickly, and also thaws quick. And half frozen chocolate coconut milk is a spectacularly enjoyable treat. If you freeze it even more it becomes a tasty frozen treat you can eat with a spoon. Like if Italian ice and a frosty had a love child. Try it out. I drink zico – the plastic bottles are easier to drink half frozen, but the cardboard cartons are easier to it open for frozen deliciousness.

New Girl and the Mindy Project. So much happiness. And 1600 Penn.

Eating Krispy Kreme mini crullers with Nutella on them. And eating Nutella with a spoon. Basically anything involving Krispy Kreme or Nutella.

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Since I haven’t been able to work out for all of 2013, and I have very limited interests that don’t involve physical activity, I’ve picked up some unfortunate habits. I’ve been watching Homeland, which leaves me with conflicting emotions. First, it makes me feel like I’m not contributing to the real world in any significant manner and second, the fact that terrorists can apparently be lovable is confusing and upsetting. And I want to be friends with Dana and Mike, but no one else. Maybe Virgil and Max. I’m about halfway through with the second season, so don’t ruin it for me (even though television consistently breaks my heart and I’m sure showtime will ruin it for me eventually). My thoughts are crowded by this story, and it could be a while before I can adequately absorb all of it.

Homeland is a socially acceptable obsession, and I’m afraid my next confession is going to be much more damning. I’ve been playing candy crush. It might be slowly deprograming my brain. I can’t ignore the possibility that this game is like one of those Trojan horse email viruses that slowly infiltrates your computer until it has all the right pieces and can take over the whole system. This might be the next mutation of biological warfare. While homeland crowds my thinking, candy crush overrides my thinking to a point where I start seeing orange pear shapes and green squares and red jelly beans over your face when I’m talking to you. Thank god you run out of lives eventually. Luckily, I suck at this game, so I burn through lives fairly quickly. Otherwise I might never shower or have time to feed my dog. What’s my dog’s name again? Jelly bean?

My last bad habit is I’ve been eating a lot of brownies and Easter candy. But I don’t actually feel that guilty about this habit. I think it is just the generalized girl paranoia about not working out and instead eating brownies, but after a couple of glasses of wine, that goes away.

As a bonus, I want to alert you and possibility remind a few of you who might remember, that Anne Hathaway’s Oscar dress was my senior prom dress. No lie. I can’t decided if this makes me feel cool, like I was really ahead of the times, or if this makes me feel horribly old, because my senior prom was so long ago the fashion has come back around and is in style again. Maybe I should just pretend like my taste in clothing is timeless and leave it at that. I hope I still have that dress somewhee

Photographic evidence –

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Before I moved to Charleston, I assumed the tourist season was the summertime.  We all know what happens when you assume.  Tourist season last all year, but the peak is in April and October.  Hotels are booked six months in advance in blocks for weddings, and whereas in the summer time people are strewn about the various beaches, in April and October, everyone is on the peninsula.  The peninsula is not a large place. Peninsula is a hard word to spell.   apparently Conde Nast readers voted Charleston the #1 city in America, and the #1 city in the world for 2012.  Y’all should come visit.

 

 

I had my first tennis match of the season thursday night.  I got killed.  But I played well, and my opponent was just much better than me.  At least the sky was pretty.

 

 

In other news, Briscoe finds working from home to be extremely taxing, but she is really striving to be helpful.  I think.

 

 

 

 

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Saxophones and Stories

Has anyone else noticed how the saxophone is making a comeback in pop music?  When I think about the saxophone, I think of Carley Simon and Stevie Wonder in As Time Goes By, or the Saturday Night Live theme song.

But recently, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry have been bringing the saxophone back, in The Edge of Glory and Last Friday Night, respectively.  And I have to say, I kinda love it.

It has been raining here for the past couple of days, and I miss the sunshine.  But yesterday was my birthday, so I have to say it’s been a great week so far.  I ordered the new iphone, which is a huge step for me.  I really love my blackberry, but I feel like my blackberry lacks a certain cutting edge, and I’m being left behind electronically.  It won’t be here for another week, so I’m going to spend some quality time between now and then with my little bb that has been with me through so much. Sniff, sigh.  If I don’t like the iphone I’m going to take it back for the droid.  Life is full of so many difficult decisions.

Have you seen the television show Happy Endings?  I’m in love with it, I think it is hilarious and I want to be friends with the people on the show.  I also believe Community and Parks and Recreations have started the seasons off strong.    But, if you didn’t watch Awkward this summer, you seriously missed out.  Literally the best new television show I’ve seen in a long time.  PFM.  I love television.

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On Tuesday, Jennifer and I went to Career Day at Angel Oak elementary school, to tell 4th-6th graders about being a lawyer.  We made up a little skit trial about the dog eating a kid’s homework and had a fake robe and a gavel and some candy.  I bought the candy at CVS on my way to the school, for dirt cheap because it had hearts all over it and it was February 15th.  I also bought some sweettart gummie hearts.  For myself.  Well, career day was definitely an experience, but the kids got to pick which careers they wanted to learn about and we lawyers really couldn’t compete with the bird of prey trainer who had a real life hawk on his arm, and the police officers who had handcuffs and a siren, the chef who cooked things and the firefighters who brought the damn real live fire truck.  There were a few kids who wanted to be lawyers in the first two sessions, but the third and fourth session had one kid and then two kids, and all three of them seemed a little confused as to why they ended up in this session. 

This morning, I discovered the gummie hearts in the candy bag, and thoroughly enjoyed entirely too many of them.  As I was eating them, I was thinking, these are going to make you feel sick, stop! Stop! STOP!  But my mouth was saying, THESE ARE AMAZING!  I COULD EAT THEM ALL!  Well, my mouth won the day, and now I feel vaguely awful.  I need to go eat some lunch to even out all this sugar. 

The high today in the low county is 78 degrees. I am so happy.  The entire weekend is suppose to be amazing.  Last night there was a full moon, and I had some wacko dreams. 

So, I was paying my verizon bill online today, and it never ceases to amaze me that EVERY TIME I pay the bill on the computer, seconds later my text message alert goes off, and it never fails, I pick up my phone and think, hmm, who is text messaging me?  And EVERY TIME, it is just verizon telling me my payment has been received.  At what point, do you think, I’ll come to expect that text message and not fall for the fake out text?  It makes me concerned I have brain damage or something.  I do really love text messages, the noise is so fun, and you just never know who it is going to be!  Sigh. 

I have a few recommendations for new television shows.  Hawaii 5-0 is everything the promos say it is and more.  I didn’t want to watch it.  I thought it was going to suck.  It does not suck, it is awesome, and has awesome actors.  Pretty people, pretty scenery, good stories.  A+. 

Harry’s law is awesome, it is like a cross between The Practice and Boston Legal, two of the greatest legal shows ever.  It also has an amazing case, and some awesome humor.  Love it. 

The weekend is going to be huge.  The Southeastern Wildlife Exposition is all over the place, the weather is going to be spectacular, and Kate and Trav are coming tomorrow.  It is so exciting, I’m going to have to start early.  Love y’all!  Be good.

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The best thing about a Monday holiday is that on Thursday you think it is Wednesday and Friday is here before you know it.  I got home on Monday from a six day long trip to Chicago for work then to Charleston for pleasure.  It was pouring down rain and I was so happy because I had the perfect excuse for laying on my couch all Monday afternoon with the fluffy puff and catching up on all my season finales.  Seriously, Grey’s Anatomy hit me kinda hard.  NCIS left me hanging (I don’t really like being left hanging all summer – wrap it up – I won’t care that much in September).

On a sad note, someone stole part of my herb garden.  I had three pots – one with mint (it was a BIG pot), one with Lavender (it was a MEDIUM size pot), and one with oregano (it is a LITTLE pot).  I had these three pots on the side of my yard so they could get enough sun.  Well, while I was gone, some one stole the two big pots.  Which is weird if only because the BIG pot – I can barely pick up and carry ten feet.  And I’m strong.  And the other pot is heavy too.  Plus the little pot was the actual thrown pottery pot of value, and the only one portable enough to carry off in your arms.  And if they pulled a truck up and threw the big pots in the vehicle, why not take the little one?  I don’t get it.  But now I’m fresh out of mint and lavender and my life is less complete.  Sigh.

But on a happier note, I had an awesome new friend that I met during a period of logistical difficulty this past weekend send me a super awesome package that I got yesterday.  It was amazing, and hopefully I will tell you more about the contents of the package in the future, if I can stop neglecting this blog.

I also got some fun mail on Tuesday, but I’ll wait to tell you about that later.  Suffice it to say, as cool as email and bbm and gchat can be, there is nothing better than pulling up to your house after work and seeing something interesting sticking out of your mailbox.

Yesterday and today have been the first truly hot and humid days we’ve had this summer.  When I got in my car after work this afternoon, my sunglassess fogged up completely.  I had to roll down the windows to unfog them.

This time every year I have to relearn my jogging routes that involve shade.  My winter routes involve sunshine, so it’s always an adjustment.

I had dinner tonight with Robin Anne – tomorrow is her birthday!  HOORAY!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBIN ANNE!  We had so much fun, it was a perfect evening.

YAWN!  So happy tomorrow is Friday.  Sweet dream friends.

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*I wrote this post a week and a half ago and it didn’t get posted due to operational error.  So I’m reposting now.  I did reread it and I think it still makes sense.

A while back, at the beginning of the year – I said I was going to reflect on things I learned in the past decade.  That still hasn’t happened.  I think it is partially too big of a task to complete in one sitting, and that I’ve become overwhelmed by it, thus paralyzing my writing completely.  So I’ve decided to just start writing down little things I’ve learned, then maybe over time I’ll have enough for a whole – WHAT I LEARNED IN THE (I’m not sure what you call 2000-2010 – so I’m going to call it my 20s) – MY TWENTIES.  This could take a while, and a lot of these things I learned this week, but I haven’t turned 30 yet, so I’m going to go ahead and count it.

1.  Last night, while watching Lost, I realized that over the years I’ve learned that on television, when you are injured – either by a savage  beating, being hit by a car, falling off a cliff, ingesting poison, shot in the chest, hit in the head with a two by four or a baseball bat – if after such an incident, you begin to bleed profusely from your mouth – you are going to die.  I’ve also learned that a lot of times the above mentioned events occur to television characters, and these characters do not bleed profusely from the mouth and survive these catastrophic events with little trouble.  Being hit in the head with a rock can kill you in real life.

2.  Briscoe really likes cats and thinks they want to play with her.  Cats do not want to play with Briscoe.

3.  Feeling good about your physical appearance only takes you through the first fifteen minutes of a cocktail party.  After that, you better feel good about yourself in some other way, or it’s going to be a long night – for you, and the people around you.

4.  I don’t like to work out when I’m hung over.  I know that people say it makes you feel better, but part of me thinks those people are just masochists who feel the need to punish themselves for the great time they had the night before.  Maybe this is just my rationalizing excuse for why I don’t like to do it.  When I am hung over – I like to lay on the couch and watch television or go to brunch and eat lots of food and drink a bloody mary.  I can’t fight who I am.

5.  When you hate your job, it manifest itself in other aspects of your life in an unpredictable fashion.  I personally stop eating and sleeping, but that’s just me.  Many people suffer complete opposite reactions.  That being said, I think there is a requirement that at some point in your 20s, you should have a job you hate, that lasts for longer than a year, where you learn a lot, but hate ever minute of it.  I think this partially because I think it helps people with the incentive to find the right job, and appreciate to the fullest extent the rarity of having a job you don’t hate.   It helps you to be empathetic to other people’s plight.  I also believe that work is work, and regardless of what you do, there are going to be times you don’t enjoy it, because, well, it’s work.

6.  Along those same lines, I instantly dislike any article of clothing I wear to work.  Dislike is the wrong word.  Once I wear something to work, it becomes work clothes, and I won’t ever wear that article of clothing outside of work.  It’s been tainted.   It is sad really.  Many a great outfit has been ruined.

7.  Friends who will mow your lawn or lend you their lawn mower are the best kinds of friends.  They are in the same category of friends who will make you a cake from scratch for your birthday and bring you gatorade and saltines when you have the flu.

8.  Speaking of saltines, I feel very strongly about the fact that the best way to survive a stomach bug or a horrible hangover is saltines and ginger ale.  Ginger ale is a gift from the gods.  Seriously.  Everyone should have saltines and ginger ale in stock in their house, because you just never know.

9.  GIS maps of your neighborhood can provide hours of entertainment.

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I watched the pilot episode in real time in September on 2004.  I can’t believe it’s really going to be over.  This video really sums it up.  I’m trying to not get too excited because I’m afraid on top of being sad it is over I’m going to be disappointed with how things are wrapped up.  Gah.  I feel like this television show has been something of an abusive relationship – I have wanted to walk away from it so many times in the past six years, but something always happens that drags me back into it!  And the more answers I get the more questions I have!  I need to keep busy between now and tonight.  Apparently they are showing it at the same time regardless of your time zone so that every one finds out what happens at the exact same moment.  I’m going to concentrate on breathing.

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Y’all, I’m honestly embarrassed by how long it has been since my last post.  But I do have a few excuses.  I am also well aware that no one wants to hear excuses.  But, 2010 has been kind of crazy so far.  I left my old job, had a few panic attacks about what I was going to do next, and started a new job that I’m really happy with so far.  Somewhere in all of that, I went skiing, spent a week doing hard manual labor for the junior league attic sale (I know the best way to fill up a dumpster with trash), raked over ten huge paper bags full of leaves out of my yard, drank a few liquor drinks and washed a few sandwiches down with beer at the Masters, and celebrated Paige and Jack’s wedding!  I’ve made new friends and spent quality time with old friends, and I can say so far that this year is really shaping up. The flowers have been absolutely unbelievable this year.  I’ve never seen the azaleas show off so.  And guess what I saw today?  A HONEYSUCKLE!  My favorite jasmine of all times!  I got really excited.  Briscoe just kind of looked at me like, Lady, get a grip. You know what else has been amazing this year?  The pollen.  A week or two ago it was basically raining pollen.  There was a yellow cloudy haze hanging over the entire city.  Pollen accumulated inside my car in amazingly gross amounts.  Briscoe turned yellow.  You could literally sit and watch it fall like, like, um, I don’t want to say snow, because it doesn’t look like that, it’s more like dust falling, lighter than sand, but not like snow.  Maybe sort of like ash?  But lighter.  Someone said it looked like someone had dusted for finger prints all over Augusta.  I think that is the best analogy I’ve heard so far.  It falls, but it blows around.  I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’ve never seen it as bad it was this year.  And it turns EVERYTHING yellow.  It’s almost like a nightmare. ANYWAY, the yellow pollen is apparently not the pollen that makes you feel bad, because if it’s big enough to see, it’s too big to inhale, and the pollen you inhale is much too small to see.  The small pollen has been slowly killing me.  I’ve decided to coin this illness as the yellow lung.  No more complaints of allergies.  I’m dying of the yellow lung.  I like to think my voice sounds cooler with the deep raspy tone I’ve recently developed, but we all know I’m not rational about such things. I infinitely prefer the noise my window unit air conditioner makes to my noise machine when I sleep at night.  Like, a bazillion times over.  One day I’ll get my upstairs connected to the central air, but right now I’m sort of loving the window unit.  Is that bad?  Does recycling atone for my window unit sins? My new favorite television show is Mercy.  The people on this show are ridiculously good looking, total alcoholics, and complete trainwrecks.  But I have to say they all seem to have a super sense of humor.  I love a dark drama that also makes me cry laughing.  It happens rarely, if ever.  My other favorite show is Cougar Town.  I didn’t want to like it, but I really REALLY love it.  LOVE. I hope you all had a very pleasant Monday, and that Tuesday is an even better day.  The lamb and I are going to sleep tight.  Sweet dreams!

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