Brixey Banter

"time is nothing to me but a series of bookmarks that I use to jump back and forth through the text of my life"

Hey everyone!

It's already Friday! Can you believe that? Man, I can't!

I'm sitting here watching Resident Evil because there is nothing on tv and it's still snowing outside. More like heavy flurries than the big, juicy flakes that were coming down all blizzard-like earlier. Snow. Gotta love it, I suppose.

I might take Mom's suggestion and order a pizza for dinner! Ha!

I wonder how many times I can watch this movie (rather, have it playing in the background) before I hate it? Michelle Rodriguez is so dumb.

This week has been just another unemployed week in my life. I spent some time with Jon. He's so cute! I went to see him play a double header basketball game on Monday and then went back on Wednesday to watch the KU game. I won't discuss the outcome of the basketball games but at least he was super cute to watch. I'll probably go watch again on Monday night.

Since it snowed, we might do something tomorrow. We'll have to see what the weather does.

I just finished 16 cover letters a bit ago. I'll go tomorrow to get them printed along with my resumes and send them out on Monday. I'm going to try to get another 16 before then too, maybe tomorrow or Sunday. Might as well push full speed ahead at this point. I have nothing to lose!

I made a few posts on the craft blog.

Go check them out!

I still have to finish the weiner mobile entry! I'm also thinking about making a second mobile for another lucky couple having a baby in the near future. I might have to make a trip to the hobby store before I start on that one though! I'm running out of felt and embroidery thread!

Even after seeing this movie like 50 times, I still don't get Milla's weird dress. It's just...weird. Are those short legging things built into the dress or did she put those on afterwards? I mean, that is one short, high slitted dress.

Sweet! The doberman scene! So gross to watch how they made the dobermans look so nasty on the special features section. Plus, did like one dog die and then gnaw another dog when it came back as a zombie because those dogs are pretty chewed up with rotting flesh all over them?

I wish they had added more Milla kicking ass scenes to this movie. It would have been awesome.

Oh. So last night I read Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. It was pretty good! I mean, it must have been since I started it around 6 pm and finished around 2 am! I tried to stop reading it around midnight but it was kind of creeping me out and I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway. I'm glad I finished it because I wasn't nearly as creeped out in the end, once I knew what was going on. Very clever plot. I guess I'll see the movie at some point.

And for some reason, I misspell island every time I type it.

I can't stop thinking about 1001 books!

1% Well-Read Challenge

I should do this. It starts at the beginning of March.

I'll be done (hopefully) testing by then. And (hopefully) will have a job. And (hopefully) my own place to live.

Plus, I have 20 books marked TBR (to be read) on my spreadsheet. Hmm...something to think about.

irritating book reading.

Here's how my 1001 BTRBYD list goes:

I read a book by some author. Years later I find the 1001 list. Of course, that author is on the list, just not that particular book.

Joyce Carol Oates (I read The Gravedigger's Daughter not Them)
Nevil Shute (I read On The Beach not A Town Like Alice)
Paul Coelho (I read The Alchemist not Veronika Decides To Die)
Margaret Atwood (I have read TONS of Margaret Atwood but not Alias Grace or Surfacing)
Cormac McCarthy (I read The Road not All The Pretty Horses)

You get what I'm saying...

Guess I have some more reading to do...according to the new, updated list, I've only read 52 books on the new list and 11 on the old list. Darn!

Books read recently.

Well, I have been doing a bit of studying and trying only to read at night. We go to bed here quite early (I'm usually in my room - well, Wyatt's room - at 8 or 8:30 pm). When tv sucks, I read.

Here's the latest three:

The Pact by Jodi Picoult

Saturday by Ian McEwan

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

I'll start top to bottom.

I love Jodi Picoult. I have no idea why. I don't really like books with lawyers and courtrooms but there is something very human about her novels. I kind of feel like they are a bit girly but I love the emotion she can draw out in me. I cry with every book I read, The Pact being no exception. I will admit, I thought that the subject matter was a bit...weird. But I have heard she draws her plot ideas from real events, so it makes sense. I thoroughly enjoyed this book although if I had to suggest a Picoult book for anyone, I would go with My Sister's Keeper...still my favorite. I wonder why since I SOBBED for the entire last 50 pages of the book.

Next, Saturday. Um. I have now read 3 McEwan books and watched one movie (of which I won't read the book because I HATED the movie) and I am just not very impressed. I feel like I am pulling my own teeth reading his books. I actually am annoyed with reading...it's like watching an episode of Lost these days. It's excruciating. I haven't liked any of the characters and I just can't seem to understand them. Maybe he's too deep for me. I don't know. Whatever it is, there are 6 more books I am supposed to read according to the 1001 list and I'm not sure I can do it! Urgh.

Luckily, the dude who wrote the 1001 list came out with a new, improved and updated list and 3 of those books are on the removed list. However, so are two that I've read! Damn! Actually, most of the books I've read are on the REMOVE list! Damn!

Okay. American Psycho. Weird. Also excruciating but in a completely DIFFERENT way than Saturday. No, it was just unbearable in the details. It was disgusting and twisted and just plain wacky. I have absolutely NO SYMPATHY for Patrick Bateman. He's a freak. However, the book was wickedly detailed...so much so that you have to wonder what kind of guy Mr. Bret Easton Ellis is. Creepy? Who knows? There were parts that I read that I actually gagged after reading. It was like passing a car wreck on interstate...you can't help but look. Or in this case, read. I had watched the movie and to be truthful, I don't think it was a bad thing to imagine Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in my head the entire time. Light at the end of a bloody tunnel? I would not recommend this for the lighthearted...nor the easily disgusted. Nor if you are on the edge of insanity. Stay away! Read Jodi Picoult!

Less Than Zero was nothing like the movie. I mean, it was...but it wasn't. It was more graphic and more troubling and repressed and depressing and all those weird bad things that come with the 80s and Hollywood spoiled kids. I suppose. It was surreal to me that the characters were so absolutely unrestrained in their sex lives. It didn't matter if the person were male or female as long as they offered sex. And drugs...how many different drugs can you do before you overdose? Who knows? The weird part is that the book, in all it's nastiness, was still an interesting read. I was disgusted by it like I was American Psycho. I read it fast (okay, it IS short) and was able to understand what it was about. I got it. But I didn't get it. So that's that. With THAT said, I WILL read more of his books.

My current book is The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. I started it last night but after two paragraphs I was ready to sleep. I must have been tired to only read two paragraphs. I'll let you know how it goes.

For your own spreadsheet of 1001 Books To Read Before You Die (Updated) go here.

Note that only three of the books I read were on the list...poor Jodi didn't make it :(

The third week of 2008.

Things that suck:
Hitting some random ass key on keyboard and making entire post disappear faster than the wink of an eye.

Suck.

Anyway, I was writing about how well the dinner party went on Saturday night. The food (tacos with crock pot roast meat, cheese enchiladas and dips) was good. Everyone seemed to have a great time playing games and hanging out even though we were packed like (non smelly) sardines into my tiny little living room. I hope to do it again soon. :)

Friday afternoon I went to my hot doctor and got a prescription for sleeping pills. For the past two weeks, I have been failing miserably at FALLING asleep. HOURS upon HOURS go by with me getting up repeatedly to do things so as to not just LAY there. My eyes burn from exhaustion, but my brain refuses to give in to well needed sleep. It got to where at least two days last week I was lacking both major motor and brain skills needed to function at work. I was just utterly exhausted (felt a whole lot like architecture school during finals...or rather, anytime of year in arch. school!). I have slept peacefully the last two nights (not before staring at the ceiling for over an hour each night before giving in to taking a pill). I'm not really into taking pills to sleep. I mean, look at Elvis! Sure, probably at first he just needed something to help comfort his brain and let him sleep, but those evil little pills can take over your life if you're not being careful!

The fact is that I've suffered from various types of insomnia my entire life. In high school, I seemed to be allergic to sleeping at night. Therefore I did the majority of my sleeping/resting after getting home from activities. In college it was a different story: I could fall asleep anyplace or anywhere...but only because I lacked sleep for 5 consecutive years. After college, I have the same problem as I am currently suffering: being tired but not being able to turn off my active brain. It's stinky.

I did take hot doctor's advice and let my body/mind rest ALL DAY SUNDAY. I did absolutely nothing useful except one load of dishes and dying my hair. I didn't nap much at all, just relaxed and zoned out. Then, of course, evening fell and my brain went into overdriving thinking of all the things I should have been doing all day instead of "being lazy" as I seem to see it (instead of "being relaxed").

Otherwise, minus Saturday, which was full of Mexican food and alcoholic drinks, I have been very good with dieting. Last week was a bust with exercise, but I started again last night. I got two new pairs of pants from Ann Taylor Loft and one of them is a bit tight (had to order online). I'm hoping not to return them and to fit into them in a couple of weeks. We'll see!

I should be starting on redesigning my bedroom tonight, if I have enough energy after my workout. I'll keep you all posted on how that is going! :)

Oh...also, I finished The Devil in the White City. I would recommend it to anyone who has any interest in the building of American cities (i.e. Chicago World's Fair), turn of the century architecture, general history or love of serial killers. It was great...very well written. So well written, in fact, that it's hard to believe it's a true story! It's almost unbelievable! I'd recommend it to anyone. Plus, it's fun to learn facts about so many things you didn't know came about all within a small window in history!

Done with that book...

I finished "I Am Legend". I mean, it was really short.

I enjoyed it thoroughly but it had one of those Planet of the Apes kind of endings that I don't really like but whatever. It was an excellent read.

I can't wait to see how it is adapted to a movie in 2007. It should be full of great special effects...I was so sad about the dog...I like my science fiction movies warm and fuzzy in the end so I'm sure I'll hate it if it's not, but whatever...you can't always get what you want!

Gotta get directions for my 5 hour car ride tonight.

My new digs.

Just a quick hello before I leave for the evening...I figure what with me leaving for Boston tomorrow night, I probably won't get another chance to write until Monday at the earliest.

Last night I took a load of (9) boxes to my new apartment. Lambertville was like a freakin' movie last night! I've never seen anything like it! Every parent had to have been out with their dressed up child, dressed up themselves. There were people EVERYWHERE. There were lines to get candy at tons of houses, people at the houses were dressed up, there were haunted houses everywhere you looked. It was just insane. I even saw a 6 foot tall white rabbit walk by and I'm certain I wasn't influenced by LSD. It was like a Halloween extravaganza. Martha Stewart would have been envious of the town's spirit.

Unfortunately, the freight elevator, much to my chagrin, isn't usable at night due to its location in the tenant on the first floor so I had to take the boxes back today during lunch to get them upstairs. I guess my plan will be very similar during lunch next week every day. Moving day is Saturday. Woo hoo! Andrea stepped up to the plate to help so I'm very thankful to her.

I started reading "I Am Legend" because I saw the trailers on tv for it and had never heard of it. I know, I know...I'm a huge vampire lover yet had never heard of one of the top 10 vampire novels of all time. Sad but true. Anyway, I started it last night and it's a great book. I love it. It's so different.

I gotta run. I have a ton of errands to run before I can go home to pack. Ugh. Pack. Blah.

Bye!

HP 5 = Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Several things have occurred since I last wrote...nothing monumental of course, but that's life, right?

Last Wednesday, I played tennis with my new pal, Mike B. It was super hot (in the 90s) and we were both gross and sweaty afterwards. I'm sure I was quite stinky too. In fact, we were both stinky, in our game and our stench!

Thursday night, I was utterly exhausted after work, so I went home to relax and read some Harry Potter 5. After dinner, a big storm hit and just like that, all my lights went out simultaneously setting off lots of car alarms in the parking lot and the fire alarm in my apartment. This alarm isn't just any alarm. It not only beeps annoyingly loud, but also says "Fire! Fire!" in some weird computer ladie's voice. And it wouldn't stop! Nor would the lights come back on. I looked outside and everyone in the other buildings had light, just not mine! After a frantic 10 minutes of "Fire! Fire!" and a ghastly beeping that drove both kitties to hide sufficiently enough under the bed/sofa that I couldn't find them for a bit, I called MZ to come over. Julie called me back and I ended up packing up both kitties in their carriers (I only heard one litte "meow" of objection from Venus...otherwise, both were more than happy to be put in there, knowing that they were going to escape the hellish noise soon) and all their kitty cat belongings so that by the time MZ arrived, both girls were carted away in the hatchback of his car (I can only imagine the kitty wailing he had to endure on the way to his house). They spent the night in the extra room at Julie and MZ's house. My place still had no air, no electricity and we finally managed to get the alarm to stop, but only after MZ ripped it off the ceiling. His look of surprise was memorable as he held the detached alarm and said "It's still going on!" even though it wasn't attached anymore to the wiring in the ceiling. He finally got the batteries out. I might add that the stupid alarm is still going off when the batteries are in it.

When we went outside, thank goodness the rain had let up, we could hear the sounds of several alarms going off throughout my building and the one next door. It was terrible!

I can only guess that a transformer connecting our building was struck by lightning or something because by the time I went back by the next morning, after spending the night at their house, the lights were on and the house was cool, although the trash was stinky.

Anyway, poor Julie's train was supposed to be in by 9 pm that evening and she didn't arrived until almost 9:45 as her train broke down 3 miles from the station.

Friday night I went to Target and bought lots of cheap makeup including a lip gloss called "Snog" (keeping my fingers crossed for its usefulness) and both a lipstick and nail polish called "Night Before". I also bought lots of cute, cheap Hanes undies. So cute!

The weekend was pretty much the usual. Saturday we went to the shore. Julie, MZ, Gregg and myself at lunch at Surf Taco in Belmar and then went back to the beach until about 4:30. Julie and I left (Mike and his friend had joined us and Gregg and MZ had both left) and changed clothes in the Kraus' garage where we saw a big bird in their backyard. And MZ's dropped and wet undies in the driveway. Poor Julie had to retrieve them and take them home after calling him and saying "Did you forget something?" Funny stuff.

Julie and I stopped at the Peking Pavilion on our way home since it reopened after a big fire a few years ago. It's a pretty neat place. We ate appetizers outside. Then I went home and read HP 5.

Sunday was a big day of nothingness. I went back to Target to get wrapping paper and trashbags, bought a new pair of Tevas as my old ones were getting scruffy and I seem to live in flip flops when not at work (and sometimes while at work) then home to read the rest of HP 5. I took a big nap and when I got up, wrapped Mom's late bday presents and watched Ultraviolet on cable again, remembering how bad it was the first time and hoping it had improved. It did not.

Yesterday was a boring work day but last night I actually started studying! I'm so proud of myself!

No volleyball tonight but I'm taking Julie out to the shore. Tomorrow I have no plans except I think I'll go see Live Free or Die Hard because anyone who knows me, knows that I love Bruce Willis and all Die Hard movies, watching them anytime they are on tv...love me some Bruce. I did start reading Harry Potter 6 (Half Blood Prince) so I'll be needing to finish it before July 21, when book 7 comes out. That should be quite easy, even with having a test in there, because it took me a week and one day to finish HP 5 and I've already read both 5 and 6!

Anyway, back to work! Ciao, y'all!

ps The diet? Not going so well...haven't been grocery shopping recently. I think it's a bust. I've lost one pound in 3 weeks. Oh well.

"i'm hiding out in the big city blinking"

i finished flowers for algernon last night. and i cried for a good 10 minutes afterward. well, more like sniffled. plus, when charlie started to show signs of reverse affects of the operation and began going back to the old charlie i was teetering on the edge of beginning to cry. the whole "put some flowers on algernon's grave" (not in so many words) really got me going. venus was concerned and came and sat on my lap (she always does if i cry...it's very reassuring) in truth, i'm pretty sure i cried more over algernon than charlie.

the house is clean. i got home at 6:45 or so. stopped by travis' (ha! i'm talking about you!) for a yummy piece of chocolate cake with caramel frosting made by his mommy. oh. and a strawberry crush. nothing like a good sugar rush after work to get you going. on home to be all cleaning lady and such. the kitchen floor is still dirty. but only because i'm not going to clean it until after mr. landlord fixes the leaking freezer. this could take eternity. seriously. or rather, he'll fix it on his own again and it still will be broken. come on buddy. get over it. just hire someone. i mean the fridge is like 20 years old and too freaking big for the hole it fits in between the wall and cabinet. i guess it's kind of like a retrofit thing...badly cut cabinet to fit massive old refridgerator. although one thing i have learned from it is that i really really like having the fridge part on top and the freezer part on bottom.

oh. and i wouldn't advise anyone to shower at my house...it's not that it's still dirty it's just that everytime i take a shower i lose 1/10 of my hair. if i don't, then it ends up coming out later with the hair dryer. thanks to mom, i'm probably well on my way to having less and less...(just kidding mom). i really wish those morons hadn't stolen my dust buster.

it's funny because before i fell asleep last night i was laying there thinking about charlie and algernon and all the great things i could say about the book to make me feel very intelligent. however, it's like as i slept, osmosis of some type has sucked any said intellect right out. all i'm left with is babbling nonsense.

i got a ton of ironing done last night. i like to iron all at once for the next week or so because even though i like to iron, i do NOT like to do it early in the morning. i ALWAYS knock the iron off the ironing board i obtained from my great grandmother. you can imagine how old and wobbly it is.

i'm feeling very low on the intelligence scale today. somewhere around old charlie. maybe i'll come up with something clever at the day wears on. plus i'm meeting fe out for drinks and dinner tonight so you never know what misadventures will happen from that rendezvous.

harry potter madness.

yeah i'm reading it. what's it to you anyway?

i've made it to page 258. that's the chapter named something about riddle or whatever...got the book yesterday afternoon and began reading around 6 yesterday. made dinner and dyed my hair and all that jazz. stayed up till 10:45 reading. made brownies too. so i guess i covered a whole lot of ground in about 4 hours. (minus all that time doing dishes, getting the dye out of my hair, etc). it's good. obviously people are saying "it's the same thing" well duh. it is. it's the same characters and the same idea and the same author. it's the 6th in a series of 7. what do you expect? a completely new novel about somebody completely different? no, you expect some kind of finale...or rather, leading up to some kind of finale. this book so far has dumbledore giving harry a history lesson on tom riddle, otherwise known to us potter fans as "he-who-shall-not-be named" or "you know who", voldemort. it's actually quite fascinating to me that rowling can keep interest going even into book #6. please no response on this...i don't want to debate this issue.

in other news, leslie newton (soon to be smith) will be moving to blue springs. her future hubbie got a job with the blue springs school system. way to go josh! good luck to them. the wedding is saturday and i am ready. well, i got a dress anyway. and a date. so i guess that's ready.

oh yeah. so rusty and i ordered our plane tickets for vegas and we are on the same flight out there and back (even though he's leaving out of little rock). we're very excited! it's always fun to fly with someone you know...even though we probably won't even get to sit next to each other. oh well. but that does mean we are getting to vegas on saturday night and are trying to figure out what club to go to...very fun stuff.

other than that i have been my usual boring self. i was pretty worthless this weekend only accomplishing pillow washing, kitchen cleaning, living room cleaning and various random activities leading up to nothing. i did make dinner last night so there's a good one for me.

scott is going to be in jeff city this week and i think i get to see him tomorrow night. yay!

well, making a model. better get back to it.