Not a-musing

Damn my flighty muse.  She's the one who makes me cast on for a sweater, or blanket, or scarf on the hottest day of summer even though I already have a million other projects crying for attention.  She's the one who makes me suddenly want to cook something fancy and gourmet even though I'm the only one home to eat it.  And lately, she's the one who puts words and stories in my head and pushes them out of me via a pen in my right hand even though I'm in the middle of some very important things, like getting laundry together so I don't have to go naked, or typing up two and a half hours worth of meeting minutes that are due today!  That rotten muse. 

Her latest:  I was washing my hands and about to leave the bathroom, when this sentence came to my head, "Frank was an asshole from the very beginning, which Kay knew but chose to ignore."  What followed was an old story, for which I have had a closing line, but not an opening.  Muse, don't you know I have a meeting to listen to and transcribe?  Don't you know I have a huge meeting on Friday, the details of which need to be ironed out and finalized?  Don't you know I don't have time to be writing no short stories??  I guess she doesn't.

Denmark? Reallly??

We won at Trivia again last night. (Yawn) I'm really trying not to get all smug and cocky, because I feel a comeuppance coming on.  Last night, though, we couldn't help ourselves.  The category for the round was Islands.  There were some easy ones:  On what island can you find Guantanamo Bay Naval Base?  Sardinia is located off the western coast of which country?  But ol' question number five had us stumped but good.  

The US purchased the Virgin Islands in 1917 from what country?  

I know!!  Okay, sure, there are probably a lot of you out there who know the answer.  None of you were at our table.  And apparently, none of you were at Barney's Beanery in Santa Monica last night.  We debated.  I thought France (based purely on conjecture and that one of the islands is St. Croix and that sounds French).  Another teammate said Holland, based on dutch names of towns and such.  None of us knew for sure and we tried to be deductive about it.  "Martinique is nearby and they speak French there."  "Bahamas are nearby and they speak English and use dollars"  "There's a British Virgin Islands, too."  In the end, we put Holland down but did not check the "Double or nothing" circle.  

The answer is, of course, Denmark.  And absolutely no one--NOT ONE TEAM--got it correct.  Yet nearly everyone--all but two--doubled down.  The quiz master was reading the scores and it went something like this:  "(team name) Unsuccessful double down, zero points (team name) Unsuccessful double down, zero points. (team name) Unsuccessful double down, zero points....." until it just became ridiculous. We were cracking up.  When he finally got to our team, one of the only two with scores, we couldn't help but rejoice.  I've never been so happy to get five points.  

Then some Opie Cunningham-looking dude gave us the eye and said, "that team has to go down."  Sorry to disappoint you Opie Cunningham, but this was the third time we've placed First in a week.  We are on fire (whispered because I don't want to tempt fate).  

New adventures in laundry avoidance

Yes, another weekend and I am finding ways to avoid doing my laundry.  I had planned to do it yesterday, but I woke up with a migraine and was useless for the rest of the day.  I did nothing more than lay in bed and avoid direct sunlight.

Today, I felt much better, but still did not feel like getting out of bed.  So, I read a few chapters of my current book, played some mahjong solitaire on my Kindle, and picked up an old journal from the nightstand.  Sometimes I like to reread stuff and see where I was back then.  This particular journal,  from around 2000-2001, was one in which I wrote story ideas, snippets I'd thought of, great titles, and some beginnings of stories with plotlines vaguely formed.  I re-read them and realized why some never went anywhere.  But one had a good start and I already knew how it ended.  So, I grabbed a pen, and started writing. I used some of the already-written piece and added on and on until a few hours later, I had a pretty good story going, but still no clean clothes.  

So, I took a shower and gathered my baskets.  I mean, I can't put it off forever.

You Dim Sum, you lose some

Yesterday, I was not feeling it.  I was frustrated and cranky, so even though I have a ton of things that I need to do for a big meeting next week, I ditched work and went to lunch with my boss and her family for her birthday.  We went to Ocean Star in Monterey Park for Dim Sum. I'd never been before, so while I was on the phone with my boss, I looked it up on Yelp.  Note to self: Do not look at the photos on Yelp.  There are 200+ photos from this place and while most of the food looks fine, people just love to photograph the chicken feet, which are just gross no matter how good the lighting or angle.  The boss and I kept going "ewww, look at that one!"  Lots of folks out there with (chicken) foot fetishes.  The food was good and cheap, though.  My favorite was the shrimp har gow, and some seaweed wrapped shrimp thing, but everything was delicious.  

Next, still not feeling the work thing, I went a few blocks down the street to watch a culmination at one of our schools.  There is nothing cuter than kids singing for their parents. They get so excited and embarrassed at the same time.  It was pretty adorable.  Afterward, we were served refreshments from around the globe.  

Then I got lost coming home because there are all these freeways and I didn't want to sit in traffic...yeah, I found my way back though.  Another note to self:  the stupid bar method class doesn't get out until 5:30, so good luck finding parking on your street before that.  (grumble grumble skinny bitches taking up all the parking on my street grumble grumble)  

It's hard not to get too cocky

Another night of trivia, another first place win.  One might say we got lucky, beating Tremendous Wang by one point, but I say we're just a bunch of smart women.  And honestly, wouldn't you say Tremendous Wang is just asking to get beat?  What's wrong, guys? Was Hugh G. Rection taken?  It would make sense if they had a guy on the team named Wang.  Our team name, when we settle on one, will be clever and awe-inspiring.  We're in a flux right now.  The name we used is a little too obscure and/or offensive for regulation play.

Do these tire tracks make my ass look big?*

I have been thrown under the bus so many times today I'm beginning to feel like road kill.  First thing this morning, before I even made it into the office, I was taking a conference call from my cell when one of the participants, who wasn't prepared for the call, tells the boss that he hadn't received any emails from me regarding what the call and his subsequent presentation would entail.  That is just a big fat lie.  True, the first email I sent got bounced back, but I then called his assistant personally, explained EVERYTHING to her, then resent the email to him by replying to one of his previous emails.  I even have his reply thanking me! Apparently, his assistant went on vacation and didn't leave him any notes about my call.

Why am I such an easy target? Do people think, "Oh, she's just the assistant. We'll blame her."  Well, be forewarned.  Do not mess with Laurie Ann. I save every freaking email I think might possibly come up and bite me in the ass.   

*nope, my ass is just big on its own.

Questionable Censorship and other Sunday Sundries

I spent most of yesterday hanging around the house reading The Help.  Everyone who highly recommended it was absolutely right.  I can't stop reading...well, obviously I can because I wouldn't be typing this right now, but you know what I mean.  At 6:00ish, I decided it was time to cook some dinner (actually breakfast and lunch, too) and get lunches together for the week.  After that, I settled in for a night of bad television because there's nothing on and I don't have cable.  But do you know what was on?  For the second night in a row? POINT BREAK!!!  I think you remember (or if you don't, I'm telling you now) how much I love me some Point Break.   As you may also know, its 20th anniversary was this July.  In several articles about this film, it has been mentioned that the F bomb is dropped 115 or so times.  That's a lot for two hour movie...that just goes on and on. 

Since it was on network TV, I expected a lot of censorship.  What I didn't expect was the kind of censorship.  Nudity? That's a given.  The shot of the ex-President mooning the security cameras was blurred, as were several other shots, like the naked gals at Warchild and Bunker's house.  All the F bombs, of course.  The word "shit" was out, even "bullshit."  That whole scene in which Johnny and Tyler wake up on the beach and he's late for the raid was cut...because he says "shit" about 20 times.  Oddly, the line in which Johnny asks, "you not into kinky shit, are you Pappas?" was also cut. I think they could have just dropped the word shit, but whatevs.  

But what wasn't out?  Goddamn, and Jesus Christ.  Apparently, shit is a dirty word (George Carlin told us so) but taking the Lord's name is vain is A-Ok!  And on top of the 115 F bombs, cussing the Lord's name was their second favorite expletive.  I guess the censors don't care about good ol' Christian values.  I don't necessarily have an issue with that kind of cussing, mind you, but in the absence of all the other bad words, it stuck out and was kind of uncomfortable.  Even with all the cutting, it still managed to be 2 1/2 hours of network television time.

In other news, it was Metal Detector day on the comics page.  And I guess the ol' metal plate in head joke is still hilarious.