Mid-Life Crisis

Ten on Tuesday

This depends a lot on where I'm spending the vacation...

Ten Things You Like Doing on Vacation

1. See the local sites, preferably things I can't see at home.
2. Visit historic homes and stately mansions.
3. Walking tours.
4. Take pictures during all of the above.
5. Go to a show if I'm visiting a city.
6. Have a leisurely breakfast while reading a glossy magazine.
7. Go to the movies in the middle of the day.
8. Have breakfast in bed and watch a favorite movie.
9. If it's a beach vacation, sit under an umbrella reading with only the sound of the water and very far away children laughing and having fun.
10. Read, read, read...and read.

I'm pretty boring. Needless to say, I vacation alone a lot.

A Spicy Memory

Remember Mama Mia? No, not the song, or the Broadway musical, or the movie. I'm referring to this commercial...

If you were over the age of five in the early '70's, you probably have some memory of that commercial.

To this day, when my siblings gather for a meal that includes my mom's delicious but hard-to-digest meatballs, someone will invariably say, "that was a speecy-a-spicy meat-a-ball!"

Nevermind that our memory of the commerical's wording is a bit off, or that our sense of humor remains at second grade level...the truly amazing thing to note is that after more than thirty years, we still remember it!

Sad to say that Howard Zieff, the man who directed that Alka Seltzer commercial, passed away this week at age 81 from complications due to Parkinson’s disease. He's remembered also as the director of several Hollywood films, the most well known being Private Benjamin staring Goldie Hawn. You can read the full NYT obit here.

RIP Mr. Zieff. And thanks for the memories. 

I'd Love to See This...

I'm a Petunia?

I am a Petunia What Flower Are You?

You Are a Petunia

You are a tried and trusted friend who will be there for your friends when they need you. But you have a tendency to be nervous about doing things that go against the norm.

True enough.

However, I don't quite get what those particular qualities have to do with a Petunia.

I Couldn't Have Said it Better Myself

Although I fully recognize the power of blogs, I’m still internally calibrated to the steadiness of books. My typical blog experience involves bursts of distracted and anxious skimming, during which I worry that I’m reading the wrong sites, and that the real pith and energy of the Web is happening a few clicks away; at the end of each day a line of grimly unread tabs stretches across my screen like a prison lineup, sad proof that the great rushing stream of life has, once again, passed me by.

Sam Anderson, New York Magazine

This is exactly why I've come to re-appreciate my love of books. Reading something printed on paper, in a book or a magazine, forces me to concentrate on that one story, that one topic. I don't just see it and read it, I absorb it. Although lately I don't always remember what I read two minutes after reading it, I feel like it's stored away in my brain, ready to be called up if I really need it. Reading something in print makes me feel smart. And I feel like I've accomplished something when I'm done.

On the contrary, when I read something on the internet, I feel like it ends up in some temporary storage area of my brain, like the email trash folder that gets periodically flushed and returned to it's empty state.

Don't get me wrong, I love blogs. I'm addicted to them in fact. But I love to look at them more than actually read them. And my experience reading them is exactly the same as Anderson's. It's like being on some weird drug trip. By the time I'm able to pull myself away from the computer, I feel totally drained and not at all better for the experience.

And I can't wait to do it all over again.

I'm a little bit late but...

It's about a week and a half late for an Oscar play-by-play, but this is so funny that I had to share it:

From I'm not a girl, not yet a wino:

"Ok, so I'm watching the pre-show on ABC. Didn't it look like Clooney's girlfriend totally didn't get his joke about Cary Grant? I also suspect she might be wearing the pastel bedspread from their room at the Sleep Inn." (more)

This girl is laugh out loud funny. And smart. I'm happy to add her site to "Some Funny Sh*t" because the guys are way out numbering the gals on that list.

Ordinary Miracle

While you're waiting for that big miracle to happen, it helps to appreciate the little ones.

You can quote me on that.

Nostalgia

"A wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period..."

Merriam-Webster Online

Greetings From MTK

There's not much to do out here on "The End" apart from looking at the sunset. It's quite a show though, is it not

She Makes Dreams Come True

Rosie O'Donnell posted this video on her blog a few days ago, saying it was her favorite segment from her tenure on "The View." As a fellow lover of musical theater, I totally get why she feels that way. This video moved me in a way that I can't really put into words.

Take a few minutes and watch it all the way through.

When Will They Ever Learn?

"Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?"

Pete Seeger

Oh Yes, He Won!!

Apolo Ohno and Julianne Hough - Dancing With The Stars Season 4 Champions!

Apolo Anton Ohno is the Season 4, disco-ball-trophy winning, Dancing With The Stars champion! Yes!

I'm uncharacteristically ebullient today because finally something I care about had a HAPPY ENDING!

Okay, so I got to see him win that Olympic gold medal thing. In person. In Italy. That was pretty cool. But that was over a year ago. Starting about a week after that, my life started to go horribly awry. Things haven't quite turned around yet, so it feels really, really good to have something to smile about. Not that I'm actually smiling right now. But I'm thinking that I feel like smiling, and that's a major improvement in itself.

I really love Dancing With The Stars. It's so colorful, fun, and spangly. It's glamorous, in the most tacky way possible. I must admit that the whole circus atmosphere wears me out after a while, (especially when there's a lot of drama, cause you know I'm NOT into the drama). And yes, the judges do bug the crap out of me. Still, I'm always sad to see it end because it brightens up my decidely un-spangly life.

I'm going to miss my weekly DWTS fix.  I got a little happiness transfusion seeing what Apolo and Julianne came up with every Monday, what horrible song they were stuck with, and what amazing thing they managed to do with it. I'll miss the sexy costumes, the parade of hairstyles, the spray-on tan, and the dramatic makeup. Oh, and I'll miss Julianne too.

And speaking of Julianne, never has one woman (girl?) been envied so much by so many. As much as I hate to admit it, I'll miss swooning along with the other love starved fans over the unfolding drama of the couple's faux romance. It was like one of those cheesy Harlequin Romances come to life.

So now it's over and I must return to the dull routine of my daily life. There's nothing left but the memories...

Oh, who am I kidding. I've got the whole season saved on my DVR. I can watch it anytime I want. I'm just being dramatic because I can't think of anything else to say to end this post. I guess I'll just have to go with the obvious...

Apolo and Julianne, you ROCKED!!

(Oh yeah, I'm gonna totally regret that later.)

Ten on Tuesday...on Wednesday

I was drawing a blank due to my pounding headache, so I looked at everyone else's lists and got some ideas. So many ideas that I had to do twelve...

Ten Movie Characters You Love

1. Atticus Finch
2. Willy Wonka - the Johnny Depp version
3. Silent Bob
4. Every character Doris Day ever played
5. Felix Unger
6. Donkey from Shrek
7. Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc.
8. Forest Gump. How can you not love Forest?
9. Norma Rae
10. Kathleen Kelly from You’ve Got Mail
11. Harry and Sally
12. Bunny Watson from Desk Set

Ten on Tuesday

I have such a bad headache that I can't come up with a list for this week's "Ten on Tuesday" topic, "Ten Movie Characters You Love." I happened upon this old "Ten" that I never posted for some reason, so I'm using that one instead:

Ten Movies That Have Made You Cry

1. Good Will Hunting - It hit home. That's all I'm gonna say about that.
2. Titanic - the part where they find each other again on the staircase after they die. *sniff*
3. Fiddler on the Roof - the part when the daughter and her new husband pass by her former home on the way out of town, and the father ignores her because he's disowned her. OY! I just sobbed!
4. Schindler's List - I only saw the last ten minutes but I still cried like a baby.
5. Dumbo, Bambi & ET - I have separation anxiety, what can I say.
6. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - when Spencer Tracy gives that speech about how much he loves his wife (played by real life partner Katherine Hepburn). When they pan to Hepburn she's crying real tears, because she knew Tracy was ill and wouldn't live much longer. He died shortly after shooting ended.
7. It's a Wonderful Life - "To George Bailey, the richest man in town." Omg, that ending gets me every time!
8. To Kill a Mockingbird - "Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passing."
9. The Way We Were - the very end when Katie and Hubbell meet in front of The Plaza Hotel years after breaking up. You know, when she brushes the hair on his forehead? *sigh*
10. Driving Miss Daisy - "Hoke...You're my best friend." Getting old makes me sad.
11. Life is Beautiful - Ack, this one was sad from beginning to end.

He's a Dancing Machine!

Dancing, dancing, dancing
He's a dancing machine
Ah babe
Move it baby...

That disco-era Jackson Five song has been going through my head ever since I saw Apolo Anton Ohno shake his booty for the first time during the Season 4 Premiere of "Dancing With the Stars" last week. (I took some poetic license with that quote. The actual lyrics are "She's a dancing machine.")

As a long time fan, I shouldn't admit this, but I really didn't think he could pull this off. Not the dance steps so much. I figured as a natural athlete he would master those. I just couldn't imagine him adding the flair that is necessary to make a ballroom routine anything other than painful to watch. (Think Tucker Carlson.) My sister told me she saw a video preview of the new season on one of the daytime talk shows, and she thought Apolo showed a lot of promise. I was skeptical.

I've stalked followed Apolo's career since 2002. I've attended many competitions and a few events off the ice where he was in attendance. In all that time I've never seen anything to indicate he was anything other than a very reserved person. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen him smile. So imagine my surprise on Monday night when he stepped down onto the dance floor, swung his arms wide open and smiled. I think my jaw actually hit the floor. I had barely gotten over that shock when out came the swiveling hips and the fancy footwork. Whoa! Sure, there were some missteps, but still...he was good!

I've also never seen him look so happy and relaxed. It was so much fun to watch. After all the tension and drama surrounding my four year career as a short track fan, the DWTS experience looks to be a refreshing change. It's as if someone opened a window and let a cool breeze blow in.

Oh, and I shouldn't forget to mention his partner Julianne Hough. Julianne is sexy, adorable, (is that combination possible?), and a hell of a dancer.

Here's the video of Apolo and Julianne dancing the Cha Cha Cha in Week One:

Let's Hear it for the Boy...

Today I'm Grateful For...

1. Kleenex Tissues with Lotion
2. Extra Strength Tylenol
3. My Mom's Chicken Soup
4. Cable Boxes with Remote Control
5. Not Throwing out all my old VCR tapes that I thought I'd never have a chance to watch...

Oh yeah, I've got a whopper of a cold. Ugh.

Let's Pretend It's Still Tuesday...

Ten on Tuesday: 10 Things You Have a Weakness For

1. Books

2. Broadway Musicals

3. Chocolate Chip Cookies

Photo: B&LElie on Flickr

4. Romantic Comedies

5. My Nieces & Nephews

6. Oyster Crackers

Photo: SaintAlia on Flickr

7. Decorating Magazines

8. Blogs (reading more than writing)

9. Kit Kat Bars

Photo: Lee Rock on Flickr

10. Hot Young Men (did I even have to say this one?!)

He wuz Robbed

I'm not just saying that because I saw him naked and he has a great butt. I swear.

I don't care what anyone says, Emmitt Smith is not a better dancer than Mario Lopez. For a big guy, Emmitt can definitely move, but not like Mario can. And where Mario really had it all over Emmitt was his ability to take on the appropriate persona for the various dances. Emmitt was cool and confident, but he was always just Emmitt.

Let's face it, Emmitt just has more fans. If the past two seasons of Dancing with the Stars has proven anything, it's that there's a whole lot of football fans in this country.

I hate football. Bah!

See also:

Mario Lopez Official Site

YouTube Clip of Mario Naked on Nip/Tuck

(Note: You must sign in and be over 18 to watch the clip)

Let This Groove Get You to Move

I was processing photos from my niece's sweet sixteen party today, when I got the urge for some backround music. As I'm working on the pics of everyone gettin' their groove thing on, this song popped into my head, so I searched for it, and here it is...

Earth, Wind and Fire ~ Let's Groove

It's hard to work the Photoshop when you're bouncing up and down in your chair.

He's Kind to Animals

Jay Hernandez for PETA

You gotta love a guy who loves his dog this much.

(click on arrow in lower left to play video)

More Jay:

For a full page replica of Jay's PETA print ad, click here.

For two more photos from the PETA photoshoot go to furisdead.com, or click here and here.