CIC

My dear friend Susie reminded me to watch the Series Premier of "Commander in Chief" this past Wednesday starring Geena Davis and Donald Sutherland. Whoa. What a fantastic show. Geena Davis gave off this awesome spark and energy that made me believe that she IS the right choice as the first female President of the United States (in made up tv land...not in real life). I think this may be my new fav. The hard part was that I had to miss "My Name is Earl" to watch CIC. I may have to get TiVo. YES...there are still people in the world who don't have TiVo.... stop it.... stop laughing....and didn't your mom tell you that it's not nice to stare?

Monkey bars or Monkey business?

I was out for drinks with friends last night, and I was talking about how excited I am to go to Vegas this weekend for Cherill's wedding. There will be so many people from my childhood there. Many of them I haven't seen since junior high or high school. I was talking about my first "boyfriend" Cory (I mentioned him in my "Mr. G" post) and how he and his wife will be there. I haven't seen him since I was 15. Anyway. I said that I remember that I really liked him because he was the BEST guy on the playground on the monkey bars. That boy could swing and spin and put on quite a show on those monkey bars. Christine laughed and said, "man, if we all just picked our current boyfriends or husbands based on how good they are on the monkey bars, wouldn't we all be better off?" Sheesh... she's got a point. Dating is full of monkey business...and wouldn't it be much easier to line them up on the playground and hold try outs on the monkey bars?

Close call at the mall

I went shopping for new dress to wear this weekend at Cherill and Scot's VEGAS wedding. I tried on nearly every dress in the entire department store. I had thoroughly scoured through all of the "little black dresses"....and nada. I am the Maid of Honor, and Cherill told me to find a dress that I like, that she wasn't going to make me buy some dress for her wedding that I will never wear again. That is all of the direction I got. So after what felt like an eternity of trying on dress after dress, I am sitting down on the floor in the dressing room. Frustrated that I haven't found something that will work. Then I hear a knock on the door to my dressing room. A eager and a wee bit annoying voice seems to be directed my way, "Are you in there?" And I say, "are you talking to me?" She says yes and tells me that she wants me to look at the dress she is wearing and wants me to tell her honestly if I think the dress will work for a morning wedding the next day. Crap. What if it's hideous? Will I have the guts to tell a stranger that she has bad taste? Hell, yes I do. So I open the door to find a petite little gal... who is sweet as pie. She tells me that the wedding is at 11 am... and outside... and wanted to know if the white with black dress that she picked out would work. It would. She has good taste... and I told her so and off she went. After she left, it occurred to me that I was only looking at black dresses for a wedding, next to a gorgeous pool, outside, in Vegas, in the morning.... and I will be standing next to the bride. I can't wear BLACK. Sheesh. Thank GOD that pushy girl wanted my opinion. As a sidenote, when I opened the door to talk to her I had on the ugliest dress ever.... that didn't flatter me at all.... which I didn't realize until AFTER I shut the door. Anyway. I picked out a fantastic pink silk dress.... that will look beautiful. Whew.

Birdie

I was talking to someone who will remain nameless...but will she never read this blog... so I am gonna rip on her. Ha. She was talking about how she and her ex husband were trying to reconcile, so they were in the car together, talking things out. And he reached over and grabbed her crotch. So you can imagine at this point of the story, that I am sitting there with eyes as big as saucers and my mouth is just beginning to fall open. Then she looks at me with these eyes of a victim and cries in a whinny voice "He choked my birdie, MY birdie, he CHOKED my little birdie." HUH? So at this point my mouth is wide open and starting to getting dry from having it open so long. And my eyebrows are furrowed so that I have a crinkle in between my eyes. Birdie? She calls it her birdie...and OUT LOUD. Oh my. All I could say was "Damn, you just said birdie."

Fall

I love Fall. I love the way the air smells. I love that it's 75 degrees in the day... and almost cold at night. One of the most beautiful neighborhood drives is the one down University near Wash Park... the huge trees as they change color and hover over the street. Pretty. I love sweaters and jeans. I love love love Halloween. Erin was talking about her Halloween plans and it made me start to get excited for this time of year. Halloween was always a big deal around my house when we were growing up. My mom is very crafty and she would always sew us kids a new costume... whatever we wanted. The night of Halloween she would always make chili, corn bread and hot chocolate. Mom would answer the door and give out candy to Trick or Treaters...and my dad would take us out Trick or Treating. One year when I was about 8, I wanted to go Trick or Treating with my friends alone just around our small neighborhood. Back then, we knew every family in every house. In fact I can still drive the neighborhood and point to the house and say the family name. Anyway, I went out with my friends, and my dad, who was 31 at the time, followed close behind, but never let me see him. A group of high school bullies from another neighborhood came over and pushed me down and took my candy. I ran home crying. My dad saw it happen and "went and taught those boys a lesson about picking on little girls, especially HIS little girl" (awwwwhhhh) as he told me at a later date many years later. He came back home and handed me my candy in silence, as I sat on my mom's lap and cried. He had a few bumps and scraps on him (there were a lot of boys)....but he looked like my Knight In Shining Armor.

"Jimmy's under the boards. Jimmy's in the open. Jimmy makes the shot."

Remember the Seinfeld episode where Jerry and George are talking to Jimmy who keeps referring to himself in the 3rd person? "OH yeah.......Jimmy played pretty good." Anyway. It just occurred to me that I keep talking about all of these Emilys in my life... and it must sound like I am Jimmy. I'm not. I have 3 close friends all named Emily. And one of the Emilys has the same middle name as me. Power to my E girls.

Phhhhlease!

I just got done watching the premier of "The Apprentice" Martha Stewart style. She starts the show off with a brief overview of her climb to fame from the basement of her house to the penthouse of business. There's a shot of her waltzing through the Creative Department of her magazine "Living". She is smiling and waving to everyone from the mail room schmuck to Executive Directors. Acting like this is an everyday occurrence and she actually likes the people who work for her. Here is where the "Phhhhlease!" comes in. Years ago my friend Emily P planned and executed a high-powered event where Martha Stewart was the Key Note Speaker. As part of her job, she was the handler for Miss Martha. She described Martha's behavior as pushy. (Em, if you read this and I am not telling the story completely right... tell me... I will post a correction.) Anyway, Em told us that the rental car that was arranged to pick Martha up was unacceptable to her and at the wee hours of the morning, when all car rental companies are closed, Martha demanded a different car. And another story of note was that Em gave some left over doughnuts to some of Matha's staff and Martha didn't want them to get "her" extra doughnuts and threw a fit. Regardless, the impression she left on Em and the other people behind the scenes was that she is tough, mean, often barked instructions to her staff while talking through her teeth, and certainly was not the sweet motherly type she tries to portray in public. So when I saw her acting like a sweetie pie... I laughed out loud and hooted at the TV. But in her defense, her time in YALE (Martha calls it Yale, not jail, because she "always wanted to go to Yale") may have softened the old villain and made her a nicer person. Maybe. I am not buying it. The teaser for next week's episode showed Martha saying "Women in business don't cry, my dear." Ah yes, that is the gal I know you are. You go girl. No one likes a faker.

Ahhhh Premier Week

I love it when the TV networks unveil their Fall line-up. I get out my cart and start shopping for my new fav shows. I enjoyed NBC's new show "Surface" the other night. It had me on the edge of my seat and I didn't want to leave the room the entire episode. Now that is hard to do. "Lost" lost me after about 5 episodes, it was the same show week after week. And since "Surface" is the same Action/Thriller genre.... it might have the same fate as "Lost". I missed week 1 of "The Biggest Loser" but didn't this week. I love this show. I often find myself tearing up watching them win and struggle all in the same hour. I can (hell, most women can) relate to their challenges with body image and weight. The big winner so far is "My Name is Earl". Hilarious. So funny. "And I pulled out my good boob!" If you didn't see the show this doesn't make sense to you. I have made a mental note to use this phrase out loud in VEGAS in 2 weeks. Anyway. I usually don't like too much blue collar comedy and stupid people annoy me. However, this show is so well-written and I really liked the characters. In fact so much that I wanted to hug each of them and invite them in for a beer. Besides, I think that if the lead, Jason Lee, was not dressed as a bum, he would be HOT - white - HOT. I am really looking forward to catching "Inconceivable", although, if babies are dying...this won't be my kind of show. We will see. The WB2 has moved the re-runs of "Friends" back an hour and now is running "Sex and The City" at 10 pm. I have seen and can quote every episode of "Friends" so having SATC in that time slot is refreshing to me. SATC is a smutty, dirty and sexy show, so the episodes have to be edited for content. I counted about 9 minutes of advertising in the 30 minute show last night. I am not sure how I will feel about my fav show SATC being chopped up to be a G-Rated show. It's called "Sex and The City" for pete's sake.

Vast Array of Nakedness

I joined a new gym about a year ago. The station paid for our gym memberships...so I thought, hell, I will go there instead of Ballys. Free is my favorite kind of membership. So since the gym is across the street from the studios, started working out at lunch for the first time in my life. Let me tell you something about corporate woman who work out at lunch. They have NO problem walking around & holding conversations with strangers at the gym... while completely NAKED. NONE. They will be naked and strike up a conversation, then bend over and put lotion on their legs. STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT. And the lack of personal space is horrifying. It's disgusting.... and still shocks me everytime I am at the gym. And.... I must wayyy over share here.... but these naked women are the ones who have stopped or never started doing the maintenance down-under. So they have these gi-normous bushes that make me gag. I think these woman are probably the same ones who wear their socks and tennis shoes with their dresses to walk to lunch. I would rather bleed into my new hot heels than wear tennis shoes with my outfit. Yea, I am pretty sure they are the same kind of woman.

Secret

Today I saw this woman walking...more like prancing down the street. She was in her mid-40's with black tightly permed short hair. She was swinging her arms and shaking her money maker so much that I thought to myself.... what does she know that I don't know? What is her secret? Why is she so damn happy? HUM.

Much Ado About Nothing...much

I have lots on my mind, but nothing that is substantial enough for a complete post. So I will babble.

The Wheel of Fortune auditions were fun however uneventful. Mom and I showed up at 10:30 am waited in line, filled out an application then never got called on stage in the random drawing. Apparently all applications will be included in another random drawing to fill slots in the 2nd round of auditions.

That night was Polly and Rosa's birthday party... Emily K out did herself on the decorations. She cut out hundreds of paper birds and hung them from the ceiling with fishing line. Amazing.

I got home and looked in my big fish tank in the living room to see a small, pink, frog shaped jumpsuit floating from a plastic plant... Apparently my frog shed his skin. Gross.

Now tonight, I am sitting in my room, drinking tea, watching the Emmy awards. I am always eternally entertained by famous people when they aren't scripted. Alan Alda was nominated (holy crap... I just heard a gun shot outside my window... I am freaking out... anyway) for an award... and when he lost, they cut to him and he was jutting his chin out in disapproval and was tearing up his acceptance speech. I am still laughing. OH MY... William Shatner is just about to sing the theme song from Star Trek... trekkies everywhere are touching themselves inappropriately right now. Gross.

And lastly, to wrap up this post, I am dreading having to go shopping for a new dress for Cherill's wedding in Vegas. I hate to shop.

Auditions

For weeks I have been thinking about going to the Wheel of Fortune auditions here in town this weekend. When my friend Becca told me that she and John are going, I starting thinking more seriously about it. Then, last night, I got a voicemail from my dad saying that several months ago he registered me, my mom, my bro and himself for the auditions when they came to town. And he heard back from the WOF folks via email...but the email was only addressed to ME. It said that they wanted me to come to the auditions this weekend. Sealed the deal for me. Who knows, it might have been a mass email that just happened to have my name on it. Regardless, I am SO there. If I show up tomorrow, and it's a zoo... I am OUT...but I have to at least try. Yes Pat, I would like to solve the puzzle, Emily Wins Big at Wheel . Nice. (ok ok, I am a dork)

Maria

I just got an email from my college room mate/team mate Maria. She doesn't email often, she calls, so when I saw her address in my in-box, I smiled from ear to ear and opened up the note from her as quickly as my right clicking finger would click. There are only a few people in my life who "get" me and appreciate my quirks. Maria is one of them and I love her for it. We could sit in a vacant room for days and entertain each other with dumb games and stories. In college, we actually made up a game called "Womanly Woman" where we would say, "Womanly woman?" and the other person would say "Yes?" and then the first person would say "Drink 12" and you would have to take that many sips of your beverage. The most important part is the person who had to drink must always say "thank you." It's so stupid that I am laughing as I type. Her husband Brian actually got into the madness and will play that game with us too. Except we call him "Manly, Man." Ha! It's so dumb, but so funny (at least to us). Anyway, Maria and I have always kept in touch. And even if we hadn't spoken in months, we can always pick up where we left off and laugh and cry and laugh some more. She's a wonderful Wife, Mother, Christian, Teacher, Coach, and most importantly... Friend. Sometimes I miss her so much I can feel myself get choked up... especially after a visit. I go through withdrawal because I miss her so much.

When it rains it pours

It's raining out right now.... pouring actually. I love the rain.... but only when I can stay inside and watch the storm in a nice, warm & cozy place. Besides the actual rain, the saying When It Rains It Pours works for this part as well. Yesterday morning, I was thinking about my ex-boyfriend Lance (this all before I heard from Robert). We keep in touch via email. He lives in LA. We dated for a year and 1/2 long distance. His acting career took off and he moved to LA from Atlanta. We got so serious that I interviewed for, and got a job at a LA radio station and was ready to move. The break up part is too long and I don't want to tell the story right now. Anyway, I sent him an email to catch up. I heard back from him. He said that my timing is amazing. He is in St. Louis on business and is going to be driving back to LA on Friday, and wanted to stop in Denver for a night and would like to see me. Two ex's in one day...and both from LA. When It Rains It Pours. Who knows if that is a good thing.

There's just something about first loves

Last night around 11 pm I was laying in bed half awake, half asleep, and the phone rang. My land line, not my cell. I jump out of bed and run to the phone. Late night calls always make my heart stop. On the other end I hear a familiar voice yell "LOU!" I know right away that it's my high school sweetheart, Robert. My nickname in high school was Emma Lou, and Rob was the only one I allowed to call me Lou. I am in shock to hear from him and start saying, "Rob, is everything ok? Why did you call? Are you ok?" And he kept reassuring me that he just wanted to see how I was doing. Robert lives in LA now with his lovely wife and 2 boys. He is happy. Just wanted to check-in I guess. We talked about old times. Laughed. Caught up on the current things going on in our lives. It was nice. Odd. But nice. As we are getting ready to get off the phone I say, "Rob, why did you call, really?" And he said, "Ah Lou, there's just something about first loves, I needed to know you are ok." Hum. Well, I am ok, in fact, I am great.

Responsibility

Bush: 'I take responsibility'
Tue Sep 13, 2005 7:36 PM BST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush took responsibility on Tuesday for any failures in the federal response to Hurricane Katrina and acknowledged the storm exposed serious deficiencies at all levels of government four years after the September 11 attacks.
"To the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush told a White House news conference at which he openly questioned U.S. preparedness for another storm or a "severe attack." Bush's rare admission of "serious problems in our response capability" came as the White House stepped up efforts to repair his public standing. Bush will address the nation at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT) on Thursday from hard-hit Louisiana, his fourth visit to the disaster zone since Katrina struck. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush would use Thursday's address to "talk to the American people about the recovery and the way forward on the longer-term rebuilding." The president's approval ratings have hit new lows, partly due to fierce criticism of the slow response to the August 29 hurricane, which killed hundreds and displaced 1 million people in the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.
Fifty-four percent of Americans disapprove of Bush's handling of the response, but 57 percent say state and local officials should bear responsibility for the problems, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC poll.

Got my fix!

I think I have officially gotten my Dave Matthews fix for at least a short while. After seeing them in ABQ a few weeks ago, I got to see them at the infamous Red Rocks on Sunday night with Cherill, Scot and Kristie. The tickets were as great as I thought they were gonna be. The show was amazing. Dave played my favorite song "Lover Lay Down", which was a huge treat. I love the energy at a Dave show, everyone is walking around with this shit-eating grin on their faces. I danced and danced and cheered and cheered and whistled and had a fan-freaking-tastic time. I came into work today and Ashley says, "Yea, so my friend walked into The Hotel Monaco yesterday for a lunch meeting, and Dave Matthews was sitting at the bar. She sat down next to him and had a drink with him. She said he is super cool." I hope that if I ever saw him somewhere that I would have the guts to talk to him. I think I would. Yea, I know I would. I want to ask him who Grace is. He talks about Grace in a lot of his songs. Is Grace a person? Or is he referring to his own gracefulness? Who knows. I met Celine Dion once backstage in the early 90's. She was struggling speaking English (her native language is French). And I (at that time) spoke nearly fluent French...and I froze up.... and didn't speak French to her or translate for her. Still shaking my fists in the air on that lost opportunity. Now I can't remember a lick of French... well... except the bad words. I remember those.

The fish that didn't get away

This past weekend was my family's annual camping trip. I must use the word "camping" loosely. My parents rent a house with bedroom for each of us, digital cable, showers, a kitchen, the whole sha-bang. So it's not really camping, it's staying in a sweet ass house in the middle of no where. Anyway, we went to Steamboat Springs this year. We fished a TON! I love to fish. It's therapeutic for me. The people who own the house we stayed in have a private pond that they stock. So on Friday, we went over there to fish. I caught 2 nice sized fish. For the record, we are a catch and release family. Then we fished all day on Saturday and in the morning on Sunday before we left (I had to take off early to get back in town in time for the Dave Matthews Band concert at Red Rocks). About 3 minutes before we were gonna leave, I caught the biggest fish of my life. It was between 18-20 inches long and at least 3 lbs. It looked like an alligator thrashing around in the water. So fun to catch...and even fun to watch him swim away after I let him go. I wished I had my camera.

The next time you make a mistake, think of this....

I kid you not, today on The Price Is Right, one of the showcase showdowns was a trip to New Orleans and a boat. I realize it was taped a few weeks ago, but wowsa.

Who would have thought?

Several weeks ago my garbage disposal made this whinny noise, a grinding noise, then stopped. It wouldn't turn back on. DAMN! I have been busy...and haven't had time to put a new one in. I know I can put a new one in because I watched my roommates Em and Jenn do it once. Well, the kitchen was starting to stink from the food down there...and I am sure as hell not gonna put my hand down there to clean it out. So, I just got down under the sink, turned the damn water off, pulled everything out from underneath the sink, put a bucket underneath and lined the inside with plastic. I am running my hands around the side of the disposal to find where the screw is so I can take the damn thing off and bring it with me to Home Depot to get a new one....and I hear a clicking noise. I hit some button on the side that is some sort of re-set button...and now it works. Don't get me wrong, I am so happy that I didn't have to replace that stupid thing...but who would have thought it has a re-set button? Man... I wish more things came equipped with a re-set button.

Kanye West Attacks Bush

About 4 months ago, I was trying to cut a commercial at the radio station and we wanted to confirm the pronunciation of Kanye West's first name. No one in our station knew how to pronounce his name. No one. Today, he's a local celebrity here at the radio station. Everyone was hooting and hollering about Kanye's appearance on the fundraiser for Hurricane Katrina victims this past Friday. For the record, I am not laughing at this horrible event, or even how upset that Kanye was while he is saying what he is saying. I am laughing at how Mike Myers is completely blown away by his statements, how long they left him up on the screen ripping on our President, and how when they cut away from Kanye to Chris Tucker... the look on his face. I applaud you Kanye.... we are all thinking that.... but you had the guts to say it.

Me in Mexico 

Pet Peeves

I have several pet peeves. Here are today's installments.

1. I can't stand it when people mis-use the words "your" and "you're". Your = is possessive; your shirt, your tv, your boyfriend. You're = you are; you're funny, you're right, you're a nutcase.

2. When people say "real" instead of "really". Bad way; You're real funny. The right way; You're really funny.

I guess the quickest way to drive me nutso is to write "Your real funny."

Makes my teeth grind just thinking about it. Hahaha!

Horrified

I am horrified by the recent hurricane Katrina that hit the Gulf Coast. I actually had a friend tell me "they knew it was coming, they (the people who didn't leave) got what they deserve." HUH? What an uneducated statement. Yes, some people choose not to leave. They have seen many hurricanes, and choose not to leave. HOWEVER, most of the people killed, starving and/or stranded by this category 4 hurricane were too poor to leave. It's so sad and I haven't been able to sleep since I saw the pictures of the real-life horror. I wake up blinking and rubbing my eyes trying to wash the picture of the body flooding in a fountain near the Super Dome out of my head. President Bush, where were YOU? Oh yes, I remember, you were golfing. I am calling for your impeachment. I have seen enough.

DMB in ABQ

This past week (Tues - Thurs), my friend Kristie and I made a road trip to Albuquerque for the Dave Matthews Band concert. We decided to go to ABQ because Dave didn't include Denver on his initial tour date announcement. I didn't want to go 2 summers with no Dave. SIDEBAR! He didn't tour here last summer because of the infamous knife incident. Last fall some idiot threw a knife on the stage towards the end of the show at the Pepsi Center. So anyway, we wanted to see Dave in concert this summer. The 7-hour drive down was fun. We chatted and had a ton of fun. The show was amazing. Dave looks great, he's buff and hotter than he's been in years. He played "Don't Drink the Water" as the opening song. That song is about the massacre of the Native American Indians by the settlers, so it was quite moving to hear that song in an area so rich with Native American History. On the day of the show, my car got a flat tire while visiting a friend there.... man... we were lucky that it didn't happen while we were going 85 mph on the highway. We both were quite tired after the vacation and the ride home was painful. I came to the conclusion that I am a grown ass woman with money, and I never want to take a road trip anywhere that I can fly to. After we decided to go to ABQ, Dave announced a 3-night Denver stop at the wondrous Red Rocks. I got tickets in the 18th row for Sunday, Sept. 11th. Tickets close to my seats are selling on ebay for $1,500 a pair. I paid $68 a ticket. OUCH. Still.... I am going to the show...and I will enjoy the fact that my tickets are worth so much... I will soak up every second of it and lick up the happiness running off my fingers. And....I won't return my finacial advsiors calls until Monday, Sept. 12th.

I haven't heard from HHP for over a week. Sigh.