"Life's Just a Cocktail Party on the Street.."

Mystic River.

Go see it!

I have one or two small gripes, but for a very critical Virgo eye like mine.... that movie is Friggin' SUPERB!

I got ripped on a couple of these by leaving off an "s" and spelling a name incorrectly... but...

FINAL SCORE = 140.5

WEWT!!

(( though I'm not really sure what that score says about me.... hahahaaha! ))

Some people seem so obsessed with the morning
Get up early just to watch the sun rise
Some people like it more when there's fire in the sky
Worship the sun when it's high
Some people go for those sultry evenings
Sipping cocktails in the blue, red and grey
But I like every minute of the day

I like every second, so long as you are on my mind
Every moment has its special charm
It's all right when you're around, rain or shine
I know a crowd who only live after midnight
Their faces always seem so pale
And then there's friends of mine who must have sunlight
They say a suntan never fails
I know a man who works the night shift
He's lucky to get a job and some pay
And I like every minute of the day

I dig every second
I can laugh in the snow and rain
I get a buzz from being cold and wet
The pleasure seems to balance out the pain

And so you see that I'm completely crazy
I even shun the south of France
The people on the hill, they say I'm lazy
But when they sleep, I sing and dance
Some people have to have the sultry evenings
Cocktails in the blue, red and grey
But I like every minute of the day

I like every minute of the day

-- Pete Townshend

Holy shit! I don't post in my journal for four days but all of YOU people surely did! It's gonna take me four more days just to catch up on all of your posts, do your little quizzes, go trick or treating... and THEN I'll be four MORE days behind!! But hey, doesn't sound like I'll be bored any time soon, does it?

Survived Jory's 8th birthday. :) Pics for those interested!

Finally saw Kill Bill last Wednesday. I need to see it again. I loved the Uma/Lucy fight scene in the snow. BEEYOOTIFUL! Big fat snowflakage! And Gogo! MmmmrrrrrOW! Gotta love Gogo's knee socks (and about a million other things about that hot little chickie)!

Flipped the page in an Entertainment Weekly magazine yesterday (I always read magazines during my lunch break at work) and happened on THIS and just HAD to scan it to share with the world. [It's Renee Zellweger for the hopelessly "babe-challenged"]

"I'll buy that for a dollar!" hehe

(a gold star to whomever can place that movie quote without cheating!)

Guess I better get my ass to reading the four days of happenings I missed out on from all of you.

Toodles!

http://www.japander.com

Japander:n.,& v.t. 1. a western star who uses his or her fame to make large sums of money in a short time by advertising products in Japan that they would probably never use. ~er (see synecure, prostitute) 2. to make an ass of oneself in Japanese media.

... I liked the Nicolas Cage ones myself. hehe

The Word of the Day for October 24 is:

brouhaha • \BROO-hah-hah\ • noun
: hubbub, uproar

Example sentence:
The unexpected arrival of the company president caused a huge brouhaha in the office, sending everyone scurrying to tidy their desks and try to look as busy and efficient as possible.

Did you know?
There is a bit of a brouhaha over the etymology of "brouhaha." Some etymologists think the word is onomatopoeic in origin, but others believe it comes from the Hebrew phrase "bārūkh habbā’," meaning "blessed be he who enters" (Ps 118:26). Although we borrowed our spelling and meaning of "brouhaha" directly from French in the late 19th century, etymologists have connected the French derivation to that frequently-recited Hebrew phrase, distorted to something like "brouhaha" by worshippers whose knowledge of Hebrew was limited. Thus, once out of the synagogue, the word first meant "a noisy confusion of sound"—a sense that was later extended to refer to any tumultuous and confused situation.

Morning smiles like a newborn child... innocent, unknowing.

Thank the goddess it's Friday!! WOOT!

*does the happy Friday dance* <--- reminds me of how Jory and I used to actually dance a happy Friday jig on Friday mornings when I would drop him off for preschool. hehe. Other parents would show up to drop their children off and here's me and Jory dancing around the play yard. haha! I love being a mom! And it's so ironic that my pregnancy, unexpected as it was at the time, was probably one of the most harrowing and uncertain times of my entire life, historically. Funny how things work out in the end, isn't it? I was pressed to make several major life decisions at that time (decisions that would affect not only my life but the lives of several others) and I tell ya... every time I hear my child's laughter, see him acting goofy, hear him singing his favorite song... have to ground him for lying to me (heh)... watch him riding his bike or reading a book or trying to figure out one of the answers on his math homework, I feel reinforced in every single decision I made back then and I know they were the right ones. Hallelujah!

If I do nothing else right for the rest of my life... at least I've got that!

Today is my dad's 65th birthday. I was thinking about it on the way in to work this morning. It sounds so weird to say that my dad is 65 years old!

I got a bit sentimental thinking about how he's not going to be around forever and that I really should make a bigger effort to try to see my parents more often than I do. It's that whole 'cats in the cradle syndrome' where you know you should do it... and you really *want* to... but other things always seem to get in the way and then in the end when it all comes down to it, you're left regretting that you hadn't made it a bigger priority.

I don't want that to happen.

==================================

My dad in three words: He fucking rocks!

==================================

I remember coming home from school or work or wherever in jr. high, high school and beyond, and finding guys I knew hanging out there. In the beginning I would get a flush of excitement thinking they were there to see me... waiting for me to get home. It didn't take long to realize that they'd come to hang out with my dad and shoot the shit. I'd come up the walk, smile brightly and say hello, and they'd hardly even look up from their conversations with my dad. They'd come there to see him! Pretty funky!

My girlfriends too, have always loved him. He's a very "people" person who never meets a stranger and with whom most people feel instantly at east. Growing up, he never bullshitted me and unless I was endangering myself or someone else, he always let me do whatever I wanted. Anytime I've ever gotten into trouble or really fucked up (and yes people... I have had some *real* fuck-ups along the way), he's *never* asked me questions or said "I told you so" or even lectured me. Somehow my dad has always understood that there's noone else in the world harder on me than MYSELF... anything extra from he or mom would be completely unnecessary and, in most cases, detrimental. Mom *still* hasn't figured that out... but Dad has somehow always known it all along.

He's always let me make my own decisions, whatever they were, and then supported me in them, even if he didn't agree with them. I wish everyone else in my life was like that!

And he's always said, "It's only money...", no matter how big the expenditure or how unexpected. Dad's always been more about living life to the fullest and enjoying it than collecting a bunch of crap along the way.

Here's to you Dad! Happy Birthday! And... if only a tiny portion of the qualities that make you such a kickass individual have rubbed off onto who I am today, I consider myself extremely blessed. I don't think I'll ever come close to being for Jory what you have been for me, but I'm damned sure gonna try. At least I have a great person to model myself after.

I love you.

Rhonda

I know you want what's on my mind
I know you like what's on my mind
I know it eats you up inside
I know, you know, you know, you know

I'm awfully hyper for only getting four hours of sleep last night. I imagine when I finally do bottom out it's not gonna be pretty!

Stumbled on Find Your Spot today and took a quiz to find my own best place to live. Pretty neat. Here's the first page of recommendations for me:

Bellingham, Washington The Victorian Seaport
The annual Ski to Sea challenge held in this breathtaking port city includes snow skiing, running, biking, and kayaking
Population: 61,000 | Average Home Price: $169,000 | Precipitation: 36" | Snow: 7"

Olympia, Washington The Evergreen Capital
Set on a magnificent peninsula in the South Puget Sound, this spot was originally called "black bear place" before being renamed after nearby mountains
Population: 207,300 | Average Home Price: $169,000 | Precipitation: 51" | Snow: 10"

Provo-Orem, Utah Living and Learning at their Best
These twin cities in central Utah are home to some of the world's top collections of dinosaur bones
Population: 190,000 | Average Home Price: $175,000 | Precipitation: 12" | Snow: 30"

Ogden, Utah Where Utah Comes Together
This scenic "Crossroads of the West" is set between Utah's Great Salt Lake and the magnificent Wasatch Mountains
Population: 77,000 | Average Home Price: $127,500 | Precipitation: 17" | Snow: 63"

Cincinnati, Ohio The Queen City
This big Ohio city with the small-town feel is home to baseball's first professional team: the Reds started in 1869
Population: 1,650,000 | Average Home Price: $150,000 | Precipitation: 39" | Snow: 19"

Hickory, North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountain Home
This area in North Carolina is known as the nation's furniture manufacturing capital
Population: 342,000 | Average Home Price: $143,000 | Precipitation: 41" | Snow: 9"

Another Monday... already?! The world seriously needs to get the whole "work week" thing swapped around. We should work on Saturdays/Sundays and have Monday - Friday off. Works for me!

So... what's on my plate this week? Well my boss is on vacation so that's one good thing! Tomorrow afternoon I have a parent/teacher conference with Jory's 2nd grade teacher. Those are always interesting. He's being IQ tested to evaluate him for his school's gifted program. I should hear from them in a couple of weeks for an appointment to go in and go over the results from that. I imagine that will prove pretty interesting as well. There's nothing trippier than having offspring, that's for certain. :P

Thursday I'm taking the day off. Shopping... hair appointment... Basically all things girly. Wheeeeee!

Jory's 8th birthday (holy shit!) is this Sunday, but he's having a couple of friends over at his dad's house on Saturday in celebration. The whole pizza party/video game fest thing that truly geeky children covet... Hopefully he doesn't get in any shouting matches with his guests over the "right" way to play Halo. ;)

It's almost Halloween! I dont really have any plans this year. I wanted to go to the New Orleans Voodoofest, but we're taking off work to go up to Georgia for the changing of the leaves the week after that and I have Jory over Halloween weekend this year, so... I'll probably just go around with him on that Friday night and lay low most of the rest of the weekend. At least the weather here is finally cooling off. It's actually bearable! And puts me in SO much better of a mood.

I hate Florida humidity...

After jinxing myself with those feigned coughs on here on Thursday, I was totally sick all day yesterday. It SUCKED! I spent what seemed like the entire day blowing my damned nose, and to top it off, my Friday night was shot to hell! Blah!

But!

Now I'm back!

... From outer space.... I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face... I shoulda changed my fucking lock... I shoulda made you leave your key... If I'd have known for just one second you'd be BACK to bother ME!! ...

*ahem*

Whoa. Okay... I think I'm all right now...

What's for breakfast?

"I'm not aware of too many things
I know what I know if you know what I mean..."

Oh

my

god!

What an amazingly beautiful day! Now... just trying to figure out how the hell to get out of spending it inside this office... *coughcough* Do I feel a bit feverish to you?

And hahaha! I saw one of Budweiser's "Real Men of Genius" commercials on TV last night during the baseball game. (...And I though the radio spots were hilarious!)

Grr... just went to try to find it at adcritic.com and it's now a PAY site?!?! WTF? Those limey bastards!

Ahhhhhhh! Where'd my weekend go? Seems like it was just Friday and then... I blinked... and I'm back at work again. WTF? ;)

First I must report that I'm a shitty Gator fan for totally writing them off against LSU. They actually (to my pleasant surprise) pulled off a win this weekend. They looked like a completely different team from the one that played last week. Talk about inconsistency!

Saturday night I stayed up so late playing Everquest with Carl, Nolan, Leanne and Danny that I was nodding off at the freakin' keyboard! Good god!

Sunday, Mike and I drove to meet my sister and her husband halfway between our towns so we could have a couple of drinks and shoot the shit. It was a nice visit. I <3 my sister and just don't get to see her often enough. Three hours is TOO FAR!

Carl and I have really been burning up the wires sending music back and forth to each other recently. I've been having a lot of fun with that. We cue up the same mix in winamp and listen to it together, making comments here and there as we are each doing other stuff on the computer. It all started with Nolan's last set broadcast on pulseradio.net (which, by the way... he's spinning again this coming Saturday on pulseradio. Sometime between 5 and 8pm. Not sure who else is spinning with him or who will go first.) I'm sure Carl, Leanne and I will be tuning in again! Maybe David too!

Speaking of David... He rocks!! I looooooooooooooooooooooove making new friends. Thank you Carl for introducing us!! :)

On a really concerned note... I'm worried about Keith. :/ He's going through some very difficult times right now with his family and he and I have hardly spoken at all this past week. I hate not being able to "be there". It really sucks. Hopefully now that Mark's back in Mississippi he's taking good care of him. Keith really needs a good friend and some serious distractions right about now. Keith... if you read this... *greatbigbearhugs!* I miss you so much.

As part of a teacher workshop my office hosted yesterday, I got a chance to visit Shands Hospital's Hyperbaric Chamber. Those things aren't just for treating scuba divers with "the bends"! I had no idea!

From the Shands website:

The painless therapy often is used to treat burns, carbon monoxide poisoning, slow-healing wounds or the diving-related decompression illness known as "the bends." Gas gangrene and other tissue-destroying infections also are among the conditions helped by hyperbaric treatment.

The nurse speaking to our group talked about "dives" they do to treat air/gas embolisms and how the "depth" they go to causes a nitrogen narcosis equal to the consumption of 6 martinis, so they call these "6 Martini Dives". LOL. The patient wears a mask with 50% oxygen, but the attended does not, so the attendant inside the chamber with them is actually more 'narc'd' than the patient! It's a good thing there's 3 nurses running the show and the attendant inside makes none of the decisions once the treatment begins!

Most importantly, however... where do I sign up? And can I forego the oxygen mask, please?

====================

Well, it's FRIDAY! Wheeeeeeee!

And thank god for that! If Carl and David keep me up any later on a weeknight before work the next morning, I'm going to perish fitfully. I NEED SLEEP!

The weekend: Watch the Gator game on Saturday (it's LSU... the Gators are gonna lose :(), go hang out with Nolan and Jory, meet my sister and her husband for dinner on Sunday. Lots of Evercrack!

RHO FACTOID: I love music and know the words to just about everything and I love to sing along and annoy everyone around me.

RELATED ANECDOTE: Today on the way home from work and from picking Jory up from school, he was belting out the lyrics to one of the songs off of Audioslave's new album. He named the band as soon as they came on the radio and back-seat danced to the music. The next song was Godsmack and he named that band right off too. Go Jory! He appears to be getting quite adept at distinguishing who is who! The best part for me is seeing him so totally enjoy music. He may not know all the words or all the RIGHT words (which is the most entertaining part of it all), but that doesn't slow him down any. He lets loose from the backseat of our car with a vocal freedom I don't think I've ever known... and from a Mom who made a point of playing all different kinds of music to her growing belly all through her pregnancy in hopes of inspiring her child to love music just as much as she does... well.. i'm pleased! I think it just might have worked!