Heading up north!

I'm heading on a little winter escape with my dad today!  We are going north to Wisconsin to visit his cousin's and have some outdoor fun.  We have cross-country skiing, snow-shoeing, and downhill skiing planned.  Fingers crossed that we don't break anything.

One thing I know we will be doing...we'll be stopping at a Culver's on the way so I can get my grubby paws on some Dairyland Cheese Curds!  Yummmm!

Those ads were SuperBORING.

I liked the actual game, as I was rooting for the Saints due to the fact I am a sports socialist, but man...the commercials were, overall, very LAME.  Not only were they lame, but I found them problematic in the sense that they were showing all these emasculated men who were acting like they are just at the beck-and-call of the women in their lives.

This flowchart nicely sums it up.  Am I being overly sensitive?

Things I find funny.

In Chicago, if you have two unpaid parking tickets and the Department of Revenue comes across your car, they "boot you", which means they put this contraption on your car:

 

rendering it useless.

The other day, I saw a boot on a BMW.  Two thoughts came into my head, 1) "Oh no! Maybe that person lost their job and couldn't afford to pay their parking tickets!", followed quickly by 2) "Jackass...probably thought they were 'above' paying parking tickets..."

Is this normal?

"Hard livin' is forgiven in the end"

So, if you follow my tweets, or know me in real life, you'd know that I am unabashedly in love with the band Rilo Kiley. If I won/was bequeathed a substantial amount of money, I'd consider throwing a party to celebrate and I would pay Rilo Kiley WHATEVER THEY WANTED to play at the party (and would give them ALMOST total creative control, provided they played my fav's...which is like all songs of almost ever album.

I would hold the party at Lincoln Hall in Chicago, or the State Theatre in Detroit (f-u Live Nation...I'll never call it Fillmore). Although I adore Schuba's with every bone in my body, I don't think Jenny, Blake, Pierre, and Jason would have enough room on that stage to really give it their all. Actually, the stage at Lincoln Hall might even be a little too small for the awesomeness that is Rilo Kiley live. Perhaps my pal JT could make the tenth wonder of the world, the Auditorium Theatre, available for the bash. She might consider it, being a pretty decent RK fan herself.

I always think it's interesting to hear how people decide on their "favorites". Truth be told, I don't deal well in absolutes and generally have a difficult time selecting favorites. For instance, if someone asks me "what's your favorite color?", my answer is usually "For what?" I mean, if we're talking clothes, I gravitate toward blue (to bring out my eyes), green (to set off my Irish-ness), or red (to bring out my...nose?) but I often am drawn to pink for many other things. If you ask me "What's your favorite food?" that's like asking the octo-mom to pick her favorite kid. I mean, how does one pick a favorite FOOD? I can only pick a favorite candy when I'm making people play the "if you were stranded on a deserted island, what candy would you bring?" game. For the record, I pick M&M's in theory, but get really flustered when people ask me "Peanut or plain?", as if those are the only options. What about peanut butter or almond or dark chocolate or omg my head just exploded from all the CHOICES.

A couple years ago, after seeing Rilo Kiley live for the second time (first time was when I saw them open for Coldplay at DTE Energy Music Theatre. I actually bought the ticket when I found out RK was opening, as I'm a "meh" Coldplay fan), which was the first time I saw them as headliners, I turned to a friend who was at the concert with me and said "This is like a...a...RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE." They've never disappointed since.

The band is amazing not only due to the brilliance and depth of their lyrics, their aptitude for writing great hooks, and their dexterity with their instruments, but also because I WANT TO BE JENNY LEWIS. That girl oozes sexuality out of every pore in a way that makes me go "That is exactly who I want to be when I grow up" (nevermind that Jenny Lewis is about six months older than me). JL not only fronts Rilo Kiley but also tours in support of her two solo albums, Rabbit Fur Coat (watch one of my fav songs here) and Acid Tongue (one of my fav songs here).

I can't even begin to make a list of favorite Rilo Kiley songs, because each of their songs serves a different purpose for me. If I'm feeling down on life, there's no better remedy than "a better son/daughter" ("but the lows are so extreme that the good seems fucking cheap, and it teases you for weeks in it's absence...but you'll fight and you'll make it through, you'll fake it if you have to..." "you'll be positive though it hurts!"). If I want to pretend like I'm a man-eater (and oh, how I wish I was a man-eater), "Portions for Foxes" is a perfect fit ("I keep on talking trash but I never say anything", "baby I'm baddd newwss!"). If I want to get all liberal and shit on yo' asses, I might hum you a bar or two from "Execution of all things".

In short, if you've never listened to this band, please enrich your life and do so. I love them so much that every time I talk about them, I have to immediately listen to them. I've had my car for about six years, and I don't think there's ever been a time when Rilo Kiley CDs haven't occupied at least 50% of the slots in my six-disk changer (this is possible because I have bootleg CDs of their not-released-on-disk songs, like the brilliance of "The Frug".) I think I would recommended their albums to beginners in the following order: Execution of All Things, More Adventurous, Under The Blacklight, Take offs and Landings, but really - just listen!

I promise I won't think less of you if you don't love them, but I will likely think less of you if you say Dave Matthews Band is your all time favorite.

Fun with Oscar.

As part of my pledge to blog every day in February, I am going to give my reviews/thoughts on the ten movies nominated for Best Picture.  Not only could this potentially open up great dialogue with you, my devoted readers, but it will also guarantee I have at least ten things to blog about.

Two birds.

One stone.

Dead!

I'll give you a fair warning that I'm very much an "in the moment" movie watcher.  For instance, there are maybe only four movies in the world that I can quote off the cuff, and none of those movies are considered cinematic masterpieces.  They are Heathers ("Did you eat a brain tumor for breakfast?", "F**k me gently with a chainsaw"), Grease ("Sloppy seconds ain't my style...", as well as pretty much all the words to every song), The Cutting Edge ("TOE PICK!"), and Clueless ("You're a virgin who can't drive", "It doesn't say RSVP on the Statue of Liberty!", along with many random expressions).  I am not one who catches on to movie references very quickly, as I tend to see them, process them for a period lasting anywhere from ten minutes to two hours, and then kinda forget about them.  I am more likely to become obsessed with the location, clothes, or general attitude of a story more than what the characters actually said, or maybe even the plot/point of the movie.

For instance (this isn't a spoiler since it wasn't nominated for Best Picture), I saw Nine with my parents when I was home for Christmas.  Upon getting up out of my seat at the conclusion of the movie, I said to my mom "Let's pretend like we are really fluid, sensual, 'poetry in motion'-type women as we walk out of the theater", which then prompted me basically pretend like I was a burlesque dancer as we walked out to the car.  My mother was laughing, and my dad, per usual, was a bit oblivious to the whole "social experiment".  I'm positive some people were looking, probably in wonderment and amazement at the uber-sexy creature (me, duh) walking out of a seemingly ordinary movie theater in Downriver, but since they were all either under 21 or over 60, it didn't really matter.

That being said, expect these movie reviews to be completely devoid of any cinematic analysis or really, any intelligence, but more about what the movie made me want to do, read, buy, wear, eat, save, visit, etc.  If you want a reputable movie review, go visit one of my favorite tweeps, Roger Ebert.

Unbelievable and offensive.

Last night, while grading midterms, I had the television on for background noise and heard a promo for this week's 20/20. Here it is:



My reaction? Not favorable. I believe my exact words were "Are you fu**ing kidding me 20/20"? "The Woman Who Didn't Stand By Her Man"...that's your byline for this story? How horribly and sexist is that?! (in case you were wondering, VERY!) No offense to Tammy Wynette, of course, but that song came out in 1968. Give it a rest!

Are we still in a place where a woman who decides to leave her cheating husband is abnormal or breaking societal norms? Shouldn't the byline be "The Woman Who Took a Stand Against her Cheating Man?"

What I do on Monday nights.

You know. Give challenging midterms to college students and then go see things like this:



For the record, that IS NOT me singing. I'm sorry I'm kinda far back with the vid, but as you might be able to tell, I had some energetic dancers in front of me.

Learning curve.

Why is it that I have successfully posted HTML badges to my blog in the past, but yet always have to reteach myself how to do it? Is posting badges on my blog one of those things that refuses to stay in my mind, sort of like information about wine and what I wore yesterday?

In middle school and part of high school, I used to write down what I wrote, EVERY DAY, because I was fearful that I'd wear the same outfit in one week, or wear the same thing every Monday. Of course there is nothing wrong with wearing the same outfit twice in one week, or having a special "Monday outfit", but I went to high school with girls who made Regina George look like a sweetheart. These girls remembered that shit, and were quick to remind you. Since this is my blog and I write the stories, I could lie and say "But I rejected their unreasonable behavior and wore the same flannel shirt every day for a week" (it was the early and mid-90's) but where's the fun in that? It's much better to reminisce about how you let a bunch of (we find out now, thanks to Facebook) bible-thumping-affirmative-action-hating-pro-life-preaching girls make you feel inferior about your clothes and then laugh at how far you've come as you snidely make fun of all their lame Facebook status updates.

I have a horrible memory for clothes, which is sorta hilarious when I think about how much I like clothes. During the winter, after I layer on my scarf, hat, gloves, and coat over my clothes, I often walk out the door and wonder "What am I wearing again?" This has baffled many women I've met, as some of them can remember what outfit they wore on a date with a guy who's name they can't remember, or what they wore to a party that resulted in them throwing up out a cab window.

On what side of this outfit debate do you stand on? Do you link certain memories with specific articles of clothing, or are you more about wearing clothes just because you can't go naked? By the way:

Re-enlisting.

In an email I received from NaBloPoMo, they had this to say: "Welcome to February, typically one of the more popular months for people to commit to daily blogging. Yes, it's the shortest month of the year, but I think this month's popularity may also be due to the fact that people like to complain about Valentine's Day and it takes them an entire month to really get it all off their chest."

What a novel idea! I really don't care to get anything off my chest regarding Valentine's Day, however I think blogging every day in February would be a delightful endeavor. There's lots of inspiration to be found in a month where we struggle to survive sub-zero temperatures and attempt to avoid cheesy jewelry commercials. In college, a group of guys I hung out with used to have a "F**k February" party, where everyone got a bit dressed up and drank alcoholic beverages out of trash cans. Super amazing fun.

Also, February brings the return of LOST (OMG! LOST!), the final weeks of the movie award season, and the 2010 Winter Olympics! February might be my favorite month!

Thank goodness it's not a leap year.

Welcome to NIMH

So, I can't really remember if I blogged about this much, but I had a little mouse invasion last November. It was gross and whatev, but my building managers seemed to TCB (take care of business) so I was, in theory, a-okay with it. In actuality, I have pretty much been extra jumpy since. The mice invasion occurred one week prior to the gunpoint mugging, so basically I have no escape from my jumpiness.

Thankfully, I've always been a jumpy person, in a way. I'm not really easily spooked but I am always hyper-aware of what's going on around me. I think it's from growing up with a brother and all male-cousins on one side of my family.

So, you can guess how I feel about having a "pet(s)" living in the wall between my bedroom and bathroom. Um...not really friendly feelings toward it/them. It/they was/were super loud and annoying for a week, I called the building manager, they offered to open up my wall and "get 'em". Umm...gross. I had visions of them cutting a hole in my wall and PANDEMONIUM breaking out, with mice (hopefully) hiding in every corner of my apartment. I hedged and said "Well...why don't we see if they leave before we take drastic measures...?"

Things have been quiet, but now we've gotten word that they trapped a RAT in the boiler room last week, and a girl in an apartment on the floor above me possibly had a rat in her apartment two nights ago (she apparently was missing part of her bathroom wall, which is crazy that she never got that taken care of before). They patched her wall, but OMG. Why why why!?

I'll tell you what I think...there is a building across the alley that has been vacant for probably about two years. They might as well post a neon sign that says "RODENT LODGING!" on it. Seriously, it's a BIG CITY. You can't let vacant building sit in a highly populated area! Our property manager said he was going to call the Alderman, but I think I'm also going to take charge on this one. There's nothing I like better than a little fight against the government. Ha!

Yes please.

I've provided you with some samples of men who have an open invitation to my house, with the primary purpose of serenading me. Enjoy!

To satisfy my British, slightly-mountaineerish man fetish: Neil Halstead



To satisfy my tortured indie heart fetish: Greg Laswell



Also: Sufjan Stevens


Also: M. Ward


To satisfy my inner rocker girl: Brian Fallon from The Gaslight Anthem



To satisfy my desire to get religious with it: Mat Kearney



I'm positive there is more, but that's all for now. :)

Laugh attack.

I swear I'll get to more substantial posts soon, but in the mean time, I wanted to share something that made me laugh:

http://www.tightsarenotpants.com/manifesto

Creepy!

While working on some stuff for school, I had Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on in the background.  This commercial came on, and at first I didn't really notice it, until the line "...and when our transition into eternity begins..." I looked up from my computer to listen.  To be honest, I thought it maybe was a parody that Jimmy put together, but after a sizable amount of time went by, I thought "this is real...and I'm totally creeped out".  I punched in the web address (catholicscomehome.org) and OMG.  I'm going to have nightmares.



What do you think?

Twenty-Ten, Twenty-Ten!

A friend of mine, who went through a lot of man-drama last year, decided, along with some of her other friends who went through massive man-drama (like divorces), that the slogan for 2010 is "No Men in Twenty-Ten".  I chimed in and said "Well, I didn't have any man-drama, so I'm not comfortable with that...the last thing I need to do is swear off men..." She replied "Alternatively, we also like 'Raining Men in Twenty-Ten."

Sign me up, STAT!

No time like the present...um.

So it's four days into January and I'm still not finished with my New Year's Resolutions.  Quite frankly, I'm having a hard time narrowing it down.  There are quite a few things I *have* to finish this year, like study for and take the GRE, find a job that provides benefits, etc., and a lot of things I'd like to do, so I'm trying to strike a balance so I make sure my resolutions are a manageable goal (can you tell I've had far too many organizational classes?)

Does anyone else put this much work into their resolutions?  (by work, I really just mean thought)  Is it possible that all my thinking is setting me up for failure?  Is there a huge disconnect between thinking and action?

Time will tell my friends!  Do you believe in resolutions?