You're so Vain, You Probably Think this LJ is About You

 It feels weird to be posting an update (of any kind)...the last time I wrote something in an online journal, I had not gone to India or Nepal or Bhutan. My brother-in-law was alive, as were my kitties Ohno and Jiji. The last time I posted was two jobs ago. We were still reeling from my father's death. JP was relatively well and mobile. I only had 1 nephew. We had a president I was not ashamed of. Truly, a closed chapter now.

The world turns and I'm just hanging on for dear life. But I thought I would try broadcasting again. Into the ether and whatever handful of folks still remain out there. :) I miss live journal and the days when it was okay for us to have opinions that were not drawn along political party lines. As liberal as I have always been, I have been accused of not being liberal enough. The irony stings and frightens me at the same time. 

I'm older, but not wiser. I drink more. I am sadder than I used to be. None of this feels scary, though. It just feels like a natural progression. I feel angry sometimes and it almost makes me happy to know that the fire hasn't been put out yet. 

JP and I still laugh and poke fun at things...it gets us through the day. I worry that when he goes he will take my ability to laugh at the absurdity of life. Without that, I don't know what I will do.

I still have my family. The Kid and his wife now have four kids, all as dear to me as if they were my own. They are funny little things, each one so distinct and unique, I look forward to knowing them now and finding out who they will become. I am acutely aware, as I was with the Kid, that I cannot make this life easier for them and hope that their heartbreaks will be few and far between.

Work is work and I am lucky to have a steady job. My mom, Davy Boy, and JP could be better, but I have them now and am determined to enjoy being with them as long as possible. The last of the original four kitties, Kyo, has seen better days but as long as he eats and plays fetch, I know he is okay. 

Wow, this is way more depressing than I had planned. But it feels good to get it out. If I am not a total lazy ass, I will download some pics of my three months in India and travels to Bhutan and Nepal...

My brother and his wife are expecting their first baby! I am so excited for them. This kid, who my brother, JP, and I are now referring to as 'the wee baby Seamus' (for you Archer fans), is going to be SO spoiled...

Haven't posted in awhile - life has been kind of hectic lately. I just got back from visiting my brother and his wife in Yuma, AZ. I love going out there. We usually just hang out, visit their local haunts, and cap off the visit with a drive to San Diego. I love returning to SD - I have plenty of good memories that overshadow the bad. But something about that drive through the mountains and the desert...during the day, it's no big deal. But at night, it comes close to breaking my heart. Even after all these years.

The McNay Art Museum was gorgeous (and free!). Their collection is small, but it is one of the most beautiful spaces, ever. Unfortunately, I forgot my phone in the car so I didn't take pictures. They have a gorgeous Chagall that I am in love with, but hands down, the greatest thing we saw was a pop art piece done by Roger Shimomura. It was several different anime characters mixed with the Power Puff Girls and spaceships and in the center was the artist dressed as Jan Cogo from SF Saiyuki Starzinger, holding a paintbrush. ♥ ♥ ♥

I am easy like a Sunday morning, people.

Today I got my hair cut (finally!) and we saw The Other Guys, starring my sekrit boyfriend Will Ferrell. It was hilarious and weird all at once. But what else do you expect with Mr. Ferrell?! Good times.

Tonight we went to the Magik Theater (local children's theater) to see Snow White and the Seven Amigos. It was awesomely funny, being a little amateur and slightly offensive. But if you were to mix Snow White with a dash of The Magnificent Seven and dress it up with sombreros and Speedy Gonzalez style accents, you will have the gist of it. Still, the actors (who also put on Shakespeare in the Park every year) show that comedy is their strong suit. I wouldn't mind seeing it again.

Came home and had a nice long talk with the Kid, wherein we discussed the theory of barefoot running, argued over the correct pronunciation of "Chagall," and quoted a good portion of The Matchmaker.

All in all, it's been a good couple of days. ^______^

No meteor shower last night - while we were waiting for it to start, clouds moved in and that was that. The Kid put it best in his text when I complained to him about it later: Goddamn nature fuckin' shit up...

LOL!

Spent all day with my mom, buying last minute Christmas stuff and then hanging with her and my dad and JP watching Pirates of the Caribbean on blu-ray DVD (early birthday gift from my man). Also took my mom to see New Moon and verily, she swooned. She thought it was very romantic, even though we giggled through the silly parts. I still contend that you cannot spend three quarters of the movie parading that underage beefcake Jacob and his fine ass abs chest biceps everything and then flash Edward's scrawny, pale upper body. That shit is rough!

Anyhoo, meme!

Day 04 → Your favorite book

At this moment in time, I want to say Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic. I have always loved this book, how it is so lyrical. It reads like poetry in some parts, like colorful snapshots strung together to make a story. I picked this book because although I love Shakespeare and Austen and Hemingway and Alcott, they are a world apart from me. They are the gods on the mountain while Alice is more the monk on the hill. I would love to be able to write like her. It's just lovely.

So, you know, like maybe I bought something I hadn't planned on, but when the Universe speaks to you, you should be smart enough to listen.

(Almost) every year, I try and make a trek out to Yuma to see the Kid although for the past couple, he has traveled to San Antonio instead. However, with flights getting so cheap, I thought visiting him might be a good idea. Well, as coincidence would have it, I learned that David Cook was performing at the San Diego County Fair in June. So, I have decided to kill two birds with one stone. HOORAY! Unfortunately, when I made the decision, the tickets had been on sale for over 24 hours, but I still got right center, 10th row seating, so not too shabby.

Am very excited about this latest turn of events...hope it all works out.

In other news, I am officially on strike from my body because it SUCKS ASS. I got about 3 hours of sleep last night thanks to this super cough. I am going to go take an allergy/cold medicine cocktail and knock it the fuck out...

So, now that ya'll know about my dark and demented dream world of late, I figured I would talk meaninglessly about shoes! Hurrah!

Well, the Kid's wedding is in less than two months. I have the dress (two, actually, and by some weird coincidence, they are both black and white). I just have to decide if I want ankle length and gauzy or mid-calf and empire waist/accordion skirt. Both are very pretty and I love them so much, I might just do a costume change mid-way through the event. LOL!

But on to the serious stuff. I am doing silver jewelry and shoes and am trying to decide amongst fancy, not-so fancy, or comfy. The only rule here is the sandal must be sparkly! I figure I can spurge on shoes because the two dresses were clearance rack finds. wOOt!

And since I am talking about shoes anyway, I have to admit a long-held, secret desire to own a pair of nice cowboy boots. I never have, mainly because up until a few years ago, you would NEVER see me in jeans (Texas, what have you DONE to me?!). Plus Western-style tends to run narrow and my wide foot tends to not like that. But now? I think I am ready. In my crazy-ass dreams, I think I would wear these (they come in wide width) or perhaps I could pull these off...but then I wake up and wonder if they make faux cowboy boots that would run a little cheaper.

This completely delusional shoe dream was brought to you by Zappos and Bootstar!


^_________^

Have been running around like a mad person, working and spending my time off either helping mom at grandma's house or just being with her because she is a little down.

Busy, busy little bee, as my father used to say whenever he would come across me engrossed in a book/homework/project.

At grandma's, I found a pair of pretty, old fashioned champagne/martini (?) glasses that are shown in a picture of my grandparents toasting each other. I thought they would make a nice wedding gift for the Kid, along with a copy of that picture. Also found some Texas-themed glasses for him, seeing as he loves all things Lone Star State-related.

My mother gave me some of my grandmother's costume jewelry, but the best thing I found that no one else seemed to want were a couple of partially disintegrated notebooks that included, among other things, a hand-written family tree going back a few generations and some notes on my grandma's life. I am going to transcribe them and hand them out to anyone who is interested. I'm very excited because I had interviewed her in the past and, like an idiot, lost the notes and the paper I wrote. I also found a diary of my aunt's from the late 1940s, but we gave that back to her.

It's hard going through grandma's things, but funny too, as we are finding all kinds of stuff that takes us back to childhood and happy memories seem to be scattered throughout the tiny, rundown old house.

This Sunday we went to see 27 Dresses, which was cute and predictable fun. I then took a couple of movies to my mom's house and hung out with her. We watched The Queen and Marie Antoinette. I was disappointed in The Queen because I had really high expectations (it had been nominated for lots of awards). I found it rather snooze-worthy. Which is pretty damn insane, considering my overdeveloped interest in the British monarchy. Helen Mirren was great, though. Made me feel sympathy for the Queen, which can't be an easy thing to do.

Marie Antoinette was lovely eye candy, but not much else. All those desserts! LOL... I actually thought it was a depressing movie, mainly because you already know the ending. However, Sophia Coppola gets all my love and a box of chocolates for using New Order on her soundtrack for the movie. I dug around and FINALLY found my New Order CDs so I could hear Ceremony. *lurves*

I am so old, for reals. Somebody, please humor me and tell me you love New Order, too! ^_~

Good: The Kid surprised us by driving from Yuma to spend a week with the familia. Yay!

Bad: I have yet to spend more than a few minutes on nanowrimo.org before being booted off the site and/or the site crapping out entirely.

Good: Whatevs, I should be writing anyway.

Bad: The story, she sucks! Hardcore. You ever start writing something and just go, "Aw, hell naw..." I don't want to start all over again because there's nothing else I feel like writing and I have almost 6K words. I am not being modest; I can toot my horn with the best of them. This is stinky crap. But, oh, well. Carry on and whatnot.

Good: I asked for and received part of next week off to spend with the Kid and the fam.

Bad: Apparently, excitement over NaNoWriMo + seeing the Kid again + work crap = massive depression. Yeah, crying at the drop of a hat, not wanting to even drive to my parent's house because all the emotion is just too exhausting. I am such a basketcase, it's almost comical. If I were a fictional character in my story, I would off myself in the first scene. I am so annoying.

Fehhhhhhh.

Heh...

The last time I was in Yuma, I bought my brother two HIDEOUS shower curtains for his apartment (and blamed my mom for the choice). Well, ever since then, he has moaned about the lighthouse and flowers, respectively, and hinted darkly about knowing who was *really* responsible for the whole fiasco. So, as an end to our little bathroom drama, unbeknownst to him but knownst to me, I sent him this.

Tell me THAT is not a thing of beauty and a joy forever! It was that or a Badtz Maru one and I tremble to think what he would do to poor Badtz. LOL...

And yes, I am home again. Took a page out of iammine's book and am having a mental health day. Oh, how my ragged sanity needs it! The local dollar theater is showing Howl's Moving Castle and I might pop in for a $.50 movie. FIFTY CENTS during the weekday! Can ya dig it? I also need to shop for some presents (lots of people born in March, I'm just sayin'...)