After three days home sick, I'm finally back in the game. Back at work and off the meds, I'd say I'm about 95%. That's not bad considering how terrible I felt on Tuesday morning - achey, sweaty, cold, congested, the skin around my nose so dry that it hurt to sneeze. We didn't have any tissues in the apartment, so I was stuck with toilet paper - owie.
After calling in sick and writing a quick self-pitying blog post, I spent the rest of Tuesday sticking diligently to K's Plan: stay warm, stay hydrated, stay medicated and don't exert any unnecessary energy. My adversaries - boredom and an endless internet, that pile of laundry in the corner and the paper that isn't going to write itself. Allies - my snuggly blue robe, Dristan Cold medicine, season one of Dexter and, most of all, K.
K doesn't work on Tuesdays, so he was available to bring me hot chocolate, a scone, soup, a sandwich and a quesadilla. (As you can see, I didn't lose my appetite.) He even went to the store and got some moisturizing lotion-infused Kleenex, which are amazing, by the way. We saw on tv later that same day that some environmental groups are currently campaigning against this type of super-soft face and toilet tissue, saying that the ultra plush varieties are made from the pulp of really old trees (decades or even centuries). Is it not possible to make ΓΌber fluffy tissue out of recycled paper products? If not, we definitely need to work on it.
Anyway, I spent all of Tuesday reading, sleeping and watching Dexter. And more of the same on Wednesday, except K was at work so I had to refill my own water glass and make my own food. Later, I found myself in a bit of a conundrum. I had previously purchased a ticket to see Audrey Niffenegger read from her new book in Andersonville. I convinced myself that it was reasonable for me to go: I'll bundle up and sit in the way back and if it goes long, I'll just leave early... And so, after 45 hours of Sticking To The Plan, I finally broke step.
I woke up this morning feeling much better and so, so happy for it. I might have burst into song but K was still sleeping soundly and I didn't want to wake him. We'd both been woken up a few times in the wee hours of the night by our new neighbors' six-month-old baby. Well, we weren't woken by the baby actually - more like the baby daddy. When the baby woke up, the dad would start singing really loudly. It was muffled like the adults in the Peanuts movies, but really exaggerated, sort of like - dare I say it? - Barney the purple dinosaur. This would keep us awake for fifteen minutes or so at a stretch. Then we'd fall back asleep for a while until the next performance.
Despite the relatively poor night's sleep, I am having a wonderful day. Being sick even for a few days is a humbling experience and makes me so thankful to be healthy and alive. Leaving work at 5, I felt so good that I decided to go to my regular yoga class, but halfway there, I remembered that my gym was hosting some sort of art event in the studio. So neighborhoody, which normally I love, but sometimes I just want my gym to be more gym and less community center. Oh well, I suppose I can make room in my heart for local artists. I can always just curl up on the couch and watch Dexter. I may be getting a little too good at Plan K.
Showing posts with label tv. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tv. Show all posts
Friday, October 2, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Lemondrops and Gumdrops
As a child, my sister M was a huge Barney fan. Huge. Yes, I'm talking about the big purple dinosaur. And until you have lived with a huge Barney fan, you cannot know the toll it takes on the entire household.
At first, it was actually kind of cute. M would carry around her stuffed Barney, which was almost half her size, and sing the 'I Love You' song. Don't worry, I'll spare you the lyrics. She would patiently look forward to PBS' daily airing of Barney, filling the rest of her time with more wholesome (and by that I mean less annoying) things like coloring and playing on the swingset.
Then one day, someone bought her a Barney video. And things quickly spiralled out of control. In addition to the half-hour tv show, we were now subjected to a daily screening of the half-hour video. My brother and I - we would have been about eight and thirteen at the time - were constantly shocked and dismayed at how M would always want to see her video at the exact moment when it would be least convenient for us.
Say, for example, that I had come home from school and eagerly finished my homework in order to watch the new Punky Brewster with a clear conscience. Well, it was pretty much guaranteed that M would step up to the plate and request Barney. Ah yes, the same video with the same dinosaur, the same peppy kids and the same catchy songs. Again. I would plead with my dad, but he was always a sucker for an adorable toddler. "She hasn't watched it yet today," he would explain. "You're the oldest, don't you think you could just be nice and let her watch it?"
I usually did. Not that I'm bitter about it or anything, but I still to this day can bust out a handful of songs from that video. One of M's favorites - and also one of the most irritating - was called 'Lemondrops and Gumdrops.' Fear not, I will again spare you Barney's lyrical genius.
Fast forward to the present. M is a newly minted college freshman and I vowed last week to send her a care package - the first care package I have ever sent. For a moment, I thought it would be clever and funny (and slightly mortifying for her - all the better, mwahaha!) to go with a Barney video theme for the package. I could include all the goodies mentioned in the Barney songs I know, starting with lemondrops and gumdrops of course, and maybe throw in a mini Barney.
Then I realized that this would take much too much planning, and I can be pretty lazy sometimes. Plus, I knew that Swedish Fish would remind her of home and I really wanted to include them but couldn't see a way to make them fit with the Barney theme.
So today I mailed a perfectly swell non-themed care package to M. Snacky contents: Swedish Fish, trail mix, a single microwave popcarn packet, and a big ol' package of Nerds.
Non-snacky contents: yellow nail polish and a new file, a couple of little Burt's Bees products (because M's hands get very dry), a journal, two funky erasers shaped like a lobster dinner and piece of strawberry cake, bacon-flavored toothpicks (what?), mints, gum, and monkey head covers for keys to make them funnier and also easier to tell apart.
I also threw in a card and a random picture I found the other day. It is of M and our other sister AL, about eight years ago, and they have stuffed their shirts with croquet balls. My, how quickly they grow up - and sprout real breasts of their own!
Anyway, I hope M likes the package and that it makes her feel important and loved. With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you... Ooops, there they are. Sorry, I just cannot seem to banish those lyrics from my head.
At first, it was actually kind of cute. M would carry around her stuffed Barney, which was almost half her size, and sing the 'I Love You' song. Don't worry, I'll spare you the lyrics. She would patiently look forward to PBS' daily airing of Barney, filling the rest of her time with more wholesome (and by that I mean less annoying) things like coloring and playing on the swingset.
Then one day, someone bought her a Barney video. And things quickly spiralled out of control. In addition to the half-hour tv show, we were now subjected to a daily screening of the half-hour video. My brother and I - we would have been about eight and thirteen at the time - were constantly shocked and dismayed at how M would always want to see her video at the exact moment when it would be least convenient for us.
Say, for example, that I had come home from school and eagerly finished my homework in order to watch the new Punky Brewster with a clear conscience. Well, it was pretty much guaranteed that M would step up to the plate and request Barney. Ah yes, the same video with the same dinosaur, the same peppy kids and the same catchy songs. Again. I would plead with my dad, but he was always a sucker for an adorable toddler. "She hasn't watched it yet today," he would explain. "You're the oldest, don't you think you could just be nice and let her watch it?"
I usually did. Not that I'm bitter about it or anything, but I still to this day can bust out a handful of songs from that video. One of M's favorites - and also one of the most irritating - was called 'Lemondrops and Gumdrops.' Fear not, I will again spare you Barney's lyrical genius.
Fast forward to the present. M is a newly minted college freshman and I vowed last week to send her a care package - the first care package I have ever sent. For a moment, I thought it would be clever and funny (and slightly mortifying for her - all the better, mwahaha!) to go with a Barney video theme for the package. I could include all the goodies mentioned in the Barney songs I know, starting with lemondrops and gumdrops of course, and maybe throw in a mini Barney.
Then I realized that this would take much too much planning, and I can be pretty lazy sometimes. Plus, I knew that Swedish Fish would remind her of home and I really wanted to include them but couldn't see a way to make them fit with the Barney theme.
So today I mailed a perfectly swell non-themed care package to M. Snacky contents: Swedish Fish, trail mix, a single microwave popcarn packet, and a big ol' package of Nerds.
Non-snacky contents: yellow nail polish and a new file, a couple of little Burt's Bees products (because M's hands get very dry), a journal, two funky erasers shaped like a lobster dinner and piece of strawberry cake, bacon-flavored toothpicks (what?), mints, gum, and monkey head covers for keys to make them funnier and also easier to tell apart.
I also threw in a card and a random picture I found the other day. It is of M and our other sister AL, about eight years ago, and they have stuffed their shirts with croquet balls. My, how quickly they grow up - and sprout real breasts of their own!
Anyway, I hope M likes the package and that it makes her feel important and loved. With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you... Ooops, there they are. Sorry, I just cannot seem to banish those lyrics from my head.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Let's Remember to Pack Our Lunches
In my last post, I laid out my desire to sit down with K and work out a household budget, version 1.0. What I didn't mention was how nervous I was about the whole thing. You see, K has been pretty touchy about money for as long as I can remember. He detests talking or even thinking about money matters.
Part of it is that K made some very stupid financial mistakes when he was younger, and these still occasionally come back to haunt him (us) in a variety of ways, including his still not-so-hot credit score. Just a couple of weeks ago, a collector contacted him regarding cellphone debt he had racked up almost a decade ago.
This has happened a few times with very old debts, and I do not understand what the creditors are thinking when they have let years and years go by without contacting K to ask him to pay his bill and then suddenly come slithering out of the woodwork to present us with this mystery debt. This makes no sense and it shouldn't be allowed to happen this way. Seriously, get real.
So K has made some mistakes, and now, all these years later, I think he is embarrassed by them. When money issues come up, I think he feels guilty and insecure. But instead of saying that to me, his tendency is to get agitated, as if his putting on a bad attitude will make it all just go away. It's all right, K, no one is perfect.
K has gotten slowly but steadily better about being mindful about his (our) finances, especially over the last few years. As I mentioned, he is generally not a frivolous spender, though from time to time he'll still ask a perplexing question like, "Can we get that flat screen tv?"
This week, he was mercifully open to discussing a budget with me, and retained his cool throughout. We used pen and paper to tabulate our expenses and came up with target amounts for each item.
We agree that the stand-out area where we should be able to cut back our spending is food. He loves to cook and we both enjoy eating tasty tasties, but we've let ourselves go in terms of expensive ingredients (that might only be used once), eating out too frequently due to our shared enthusiasm for trying new restaurants, and making too many meals at home so that sometimes we end up having to throw away uneaten leftovers. Up to now, we haven't held ourselves accountable for this unnecessary spending and waste.
For the next two months, we are going to plan our meals and track all the money we spend on food items. Combine this with our other strategies to cut spending (shop around for car insurance, switch cable companies, cancel a couple of subscriptions, etc.), and we hope to have an additional $200/month to pay down our debt. That's nothing to shake a lunchbox at.
Part of it is that K made some very stupid financial mistakes when he was younger, and these still occasionally come back to haunt him (us) in a variety of ways, including his still not-so-hot credit score. Just a couple of weeks ago, a collector contacted him regarding cellphone debt he had racked up almost a decade ago.
This has happened a few times with very old debts, and I do not understand what the creditors are thinking when they have let years and years go by without contacting K to ask him to pay his bill and then suddenly come slithering out of the woodwork to present us with this mystery debt. This makes no sense and it shouldn't be allowed to happen this way. Seriously, get real.
So K has made some mistakes, and now, all these years later, I think he is embarrassed by them. When money issues come up, I think he feels guilty and insecure. But instead of saying that to me, his tendency is to get agitated, as if his putting on a bad attitude will make it all just go away. It's all right, K, no one is perfect.
K has gotten slowly but steadily better about being mindful about his (our) finances, especially over the last few years. As I mentioned, he is generally not a frivolous spender, though from time to time he'll still ask a perplexing question like, "Can we get that flat screen tv?"
This week, he was mercifully open to discussing a budget with me, and retained his cool throughout. We used pen and paper to tabulate our expenses and came up with target amounts for each item.We agree that the stand-out area where we should be able to cut back our spending is food. He loves to cook and we both enjoy eating tasty tasties, but we've let ourselves go in terms of expensive ingredients (that might only be used once), eating out too frequently due to our shared enthusiasm for trying new restaurants, and making too many meals at home so that sometimes we end up having to throw away uneaten leftovers. Up to now, we haven't held ourselves accountable for this unnecessary spending and waste.
For the next two months, we are going to plan our meals and track all the money we spend on food items. Combine this with our other strategies to cut spending (shop around for car insurance, switch cable companies, cancel a couple of subscriptions, etc.), and we hope to have an additional $200/month to pay down our debt. That's nothing to shake a lunchbox at.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Apollo, Apollo
On the too-rare occasion that I find myself watching an episode of a little show called 30 Rock, I usually laugh so hard I puke. Ok, not really, but I do miss a lot of hilarious jokes because I'm still laughing at previous ones.Not long ago, I caught an episode in which Jack is turning 50 years old and he's just come across a list that he wrote in fifth grade of goals he hoped to accomplish by his fiftieth birthday. They include "go to Disneyland, ride in an airplane, kiss Peggy Fleming, live in a house with stairs, beat up a Russian," and that old stand-by, "hit mom with a car." Oh Jack, you are terrible.
If I am not mistaken, I too made a list - in sixth grade, I think it was - of things I wanted to accomplish in my lifetime. Wouldn't it be fun to find it and see if I've actually made any headway? I'm spending this weekend at my parents' house in Utica, so I will have the chance to try to dig up that list.
Jack has accomplished all but one of the childhood goals on his list by age 50. (He has not yet managed to befriend Batman.) But despite his many accomplishments, Jack realizes that he is not really that happy. Isn't it nice to know that the realization of happiness is a complex and ever-evolving personal process? So I will be sure not to take it too hard if I have not completed many of the items on my own list. Still, it would be fun to check off at least one or two...
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Mixteco Mission and Reverse Parallel Lives
Upon moving into our current apartment two months ago, K and I soon noticed that there are a couple of restaurants within a one-block radius of us that are constantly jam-packed with people.
One of them is Glenn's Diner, a fun and quirky place (they have a cereal wall!) specializing in seafood. K, our friend J and I stopped in for a delicious late lunch on moving day - they just happened to have three empty stools at the bar - but we have not had a chance to try their dinner menu because every time we've tried to go there has been a line out the door. K and I are generally not reservation-making people, but we will have to make an exception for Glenn's, the only "diner" I've ever been to that necessitates reservations for a party of two!
The other staggeringly popular restaurant on our block is Mixteco Grill. Time Out Chicago says, "Mixteco doubled its dining room capacity recently, but that's done nothing to quell the crowds it gets, even on otherwise sleepy Wednesday nights. Summertime is only bound to make the crowds (and thus the waits) worse..." Oh no! K and I have popped in two or three times to see if they could seat us for dinner, but the wait was always upwards of an hour, so we never saw it through. Once K even called several hours in advance but was unable to get a reservation. I think Time Out is right: as the weather warms up, Chicagoans will be more willing to traverse the city for good food, and it will become increasingly difficult to get into Mixteco. So I hereby resolve to secure a table by the end of this week. The plan: do whatever it takes. I really hope the guac and mole live up to their reputation.
In other, unrelated news, I watched "The Big Bang Theory" again this week - I'm very impressed with this show and it is growing on me. In the new episode, Leonard and Kuthrapali attempt to take Howard's mind off of his broken heart by convincing him to go with them on a weekend trip to Las Vegas, where they remain for the majority of the half-hour show. So in the few weeks since I started this blog, "The Big Bang Theory" has addressed the topics of comic books and Vegas - and so have I, albeit in reverse order. It makes me think that my favorite sitcom characters and I may be leading parallel lives. Well, reverse parallel lives, anyway. Is this some sort of cosmic connection? I guess I'll just have to keep watching.
One of them is Glenn's Diner, a fun and quirky place (they have a cereal wall!) specializing in seafood. K, our friend J and I stopped in for a delicious late lunch on moving day - they just happened to have three empty stools at the bar - but we have not had a chance to try their dinner menu because every time we've tried to go there has been a line out the door. K and I are generally not reservation-making people, but we will have to make an exception for Glenn's, the only "diner" I've ever been to that necessitates reservations for a party of two!The other staggeringly popular restaurant on our block is Mixteco Grill. Time Out Chicago says, "Mixteco doubled its dining room capacity recently, but that's done nothing to quell the crowds it gets, even on otherwise sleepy Wednesday nights. Summertime is only bound to make the crowds (and thus the waits) worse..." Oh no! K and I have popped in two or three times to see if they could seat us for dinner, but the wait was always upwards of an hour, so we never saw it through. Once K even called several hours in advance but was unable to get a reservation. I think Time Out is right: as the weather warms up, Chicagoans will be more willing to traverse the city for good food, and it will become increasingly difficult to get into Mixteco. So I hereby resolve to secure a table by the end of this week. The plan: do whatever it takes. I really hope the guac and mole live up to their reputation.
In other, unrelated news, I watched "The Big Bang Theory" again this week - I'm very impressed with this show and it is growing on me. In the new episode, Leonard and Kuthrapali attempt to take Howard's mind off of his broken heart by convincing him to go with them on a weekend trip to Las Vegas, where they remain for the majority of the half-hour show. So in the few weeks since I started this blog, "The Big Bang Theory" has addressed the topics of comic books and Vegas - and so have I, albeit in reverse order. It makes me think that my favorite sitcom characters and I may be leading parallel lives. Well, reverse parallel lives, anyway. Is this some sort of cosmic connection? I guess I'll just have to keep watching.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Comic Book Challenge: An Update
This week I'm endeavoring to introduce myself to the world of comic books (read about it here). So far, it's been an entertaining and eye-opening experience. Here's a break-down of my week in comic books:
Monday: Today I read Hack/Slash issues #1-3. The series opens (literally, the first page) with the main character getting her little toe cut off by a psycho slasher - woah! Yeah, it's a little gruesome, as you probably guessed from the title.
One thing that's caught me slightly off-guard is the length of time it takes to read a single comic book - in my case about 25-30 minutes. To the uninitiated me of just a couple of days ago, a comic book looked super-thin and my thought was 'It's all pictures - how long can it take?' Turns out it takes a while! I am still 100% committed to reading all 21 issues of Hack/Slash and the first 16 of Spawn, but I may have overextended myself in thinking I could do it in just one week...
Tuesday: Between working late, my taxes and my volleyball game, I hardly had any time to read comic books today, but managed to squeeze in one - Hack/Slash issue #4.
I also took it upon myself to kick back with a glass of wine and queue up yesterday's episode of "The Big Bang Theory" on my DVR. Oddly - or not so oddly, considering the fact that the show follows the lives of four supernerds - comic book banter was a cornerstone of this week's episode.
At one point in the show, Penny, the show's only non-geeky main character, asks the four aforementioned nerds to pick up some "comics" from the comic book store for her nephew's birthday. Her neighbor, Sheldon, is obviously irked and responds with a quick lecture: "I think you mean comic books. Comics are feeble attempts at humor..., found traditionally in the optimistically named 'funny pages.'"
And that's why I've always felt that it is too risky to try to talk to comic book readers about comic books. You never know what you might say to offend them. Another Big Bang case in point:
Penny: "What about this one for my nephew?”
Sheldon: "A superb choice..."
Penny: "Great."
Sheldon: "... provided he has already read Infinite Crisis and 52 and is familiar with the re-establishment of the DC multiverse.”
Penny: "What's a multiverse?"
Sheldon: (to Leonard) "Get her out of here."
Wednesday: Today I read Hack/Slash issues #5-8. It was fun to sit at the dining room table with K and read comic books together. He said he could get used to this.
I find myself slowly getting attached to the characters of Cassie and her partner/sidekick Vlad. Yes, Cassie is a sexually confused, smoking-hot virgin, no doubt contrived to appeal to the 13 to 20-year-old boy-man demographic, but she is also portrayed as a powerful but sensitive woman who has meaningful relationships. And I like that.
Thursday: Well, I've finished Hack/Slash issue #9 and I'm still going strong. One thing I really like about the series is that it leaves a lot of unanswered questions about the characters and their back-stories. I think I might be - dare I say it? - a real follower now.
Clearly, this Intro to Comic Books project that I assigned myself was too ambitious for only one week. But I'll keep plugging away at it and hopefully finish by the end of next week. And in case you're wondering, a multiverse basically consists of a bunch of alternate universes and story lines, and allows writers the freedom to explore what-if? questions and alternate versions of their characters. I think.
Monday: Today I read Hack/Slash issues #1-3. The series opens (literally, the first page) with the main character getting her little toe cut off by a psycho slasher - woah! Yeah, it's a little gruesome, as you probably guessed from the title.
One thing that's caught me slightly off-guard is the length of time it takes to read a single comic book - in my case about 25-30 minutes. To the uninitiated me of just a couple of days ago, a comic book looked super-thin and my thought was 'It's all pictures - how long can it take?' Turns out it takes a while! I am still 100% committed to reading all 21 issues of Hack/Slash and the first 16 of Spawn, but I may have overextended myself in thinking I could do it in just one week...
Tuesday: Between working late, my taxes and my volleyball game, I hardly had any time to read comic books today, but managed to squeeze in one - Hack/Slash issue #4.
I also took it upon myself to kick back with a glass of wine and queue up yesterday's episode of "The Big Bang Theory" on my DVR. Oddly - or not so oddly, considering the fact that the show follows the lives of four supernerds - comic book banter was a cornerstone of this week's episode.
At one point in the show, Penny, the show's only non-geeky main character, asks the four aforementioned nerds to pick up some "comics" from the comic book store for her nephew's birthday. Her neighbor, Sheldon, is obviously irked and responds with a quick lecture: "I think you mean comic books. Comics are feeble attempts at humor..., found traditionally in the optimistically named 'funny pages.'"
And that's why I've always felt that it is too risky to try to talk to comic book readers about comic books. You never know what you might say to offend them. Another Big Bang case in point:
Penny: "What about this one for my nephew?”
Sheldon: "A superb choice..."
Penny: "Great."
Sheldon: "... provided he has already read Infinite Crisis and 52 and is familiar with the re-establishment of the DC multiverse.”
Penny: "What's a multiverse?"
Sheldon: (to Leonard) "Get her out of here."
Wednesday: Today I read Hack/Slash issues #5-8. It was fun to sit at the dining room table with K and read comic books together. He said he could get used to this.
I find myself slowly getting attached to the characters of Cassie and her partner/sidekick Vlad. Yes, Cassie is a sexually confused, smoking-hot virgin, no doubt contrived to appeal to the 13 to 20-year-old boy-man demographic, but she is also portrayed as a powerful but sensitive woman who has meaningful relationships. And I like that.
Thursday: Well, I've finished Hack/Slash issue #9 and I'm still going strong. One thing I really like about the series is that it leaves a lot of unanswered questions about the characters and their back-stories. I think I might be - dare I say it? - a real follower now.
Clearly, this Intro to Comic Books project that I assigned myself was too ambitious for only one week. But I'll keep plugging away at it and hopefully finish by the end of next week. And in case you're wondering, a multiverse basically consists of a bunch of alternate universes and story lines, and allows writers the freedom to explore what-if? questions and alternate versions of their characters. I think.
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