the real third thing

OK, first things first, a big ole HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! to Amy. I'm sorry I missed your dinner last night and also that I didn't get your card/present out to you yet, but know that if I were there, and I baked, I would have made you this cake. ----->

Expect something in the mail soon. And I'll call you later today when I get a break. :-)

Next... seriously. I did something really, really horrible, and karma is kicking me in the @$$. Krysten, you will have no words:

My wallet got stolen. That's right. I'm in Baltimore, MD, without any money, credit cards, or identification. Madison went to my apartment last night - thank goodness my landlord could let her in, and thank goodness that I have a passport AND knew exactly where it was. She's going to overnight it to me at the hotel. Bank of America can't get me a new checkcard for about 6 working days (wha?) so I have to go to the Bank of America here in Baltimore to get some cash (I wonder if I can do that with no ID? I might have to wait until that gets here) and then they're going to mail my new check card to the Bank of America in Chicago (I'm flying there on Thursday), and I have to go pick it up in person. That should be no small feat as I'm working by myself in Chicago. *roll eyes* By the time I called American Express someone had already charged almost $900 at Home Depot, and by the time I called MBNA someone had used my Mastercard at McDonald's. Seriously. Also, I had about $300, maybe more, in cash. I got a couple hundred on my way to the airport on Friday, and I keep an "emergency" c-note (given to me by Uncle Al and Aunt Sandy) tucked away, and my dad had given me another one at Christmas that I hadn't taken out yet. *bangs head on table*

We had a fire drill or fire scare yesterday... evacuated the entire Convention Center. I took my laptop and my purse with me (as it was this same show 2 years ago that I got my computer bag stolen right out from under my nose in the Speaker Ready Room-- damn physicists). So, we come back in after about 20 minutes outside, and the flashing lights are still going off, so I'm starting to get a little dizzy, and there are about 15 people waiting to get in the SRR. I let them in, dump my stuff on my desk, and start helping people. They finally get the alarm off, and it's pretty busy in there, so I call for back-up, and Tom and Daniel come in. About 7-10 minutes after I walked in the door, I think to myself "Self, you shouldn't leave your purse on top of your desk like that," and I turn around to put it under the desk... and WALLET GONE. I was in the room the entire time, and with 2 co-workers part of that time. Damn physicists. At least they didn't take my iPod.

So.... any donations to the Jamie-is-a-Sucker Fund can be sent to the Marriott Baltimore Waterfront, or the Chicago Hilton on Michigan Ave.

OK, television. Due to the massive amounts of stress and phone calls that ensued after my SRR closed at 7pm, I missed The West Wing. Don't tell me ANYTHING... and someone who loves me please download it for me? I opted for HBO instead of ABC so I missed Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy as well.

The Sopranos was freaking AWESOME -- there were 10 minutes of previouslies, haha, and a really punchy cliffhanger ending with no "next week on The Sopranos" scenes. First scene showed Carmella taking to Adriana and I was like "huh?" and then she kind of faded away and Carmella was alone. Very creepy. I read that one of this year's recurring themes will be Carmella talking to people that Tony has had killed. Very cool, very effective... but still not as creepy as the fish.

The new show, Big Love, was actually really interesting. The opening theme song is The Beach Boys' God Only Knows, which was, you know, "the song" for a certain fellow in my life, and one of my favorite songs, ever, so that was cool. I was IM-ing with Evan while we watched, and he was all "I knew this would all come down to jealousy" and I was like, um, YEAH, have you ever met a woman? And then he said he'd like to see a show about a woman with multiple husbands and I was like hahahahahaha! Would never happen. Anyway, Bill Paxton's character Bill has three wives: one in her 40s, Barb, played by the lovely Jeanne Tripplehorn, who is the "Boss Lady" and bore him three children (middle school/high school age), and is the only one who works outside the home. She got cancer and had a historectomy, so then he married Nikki, in her 30s, played by Chloe Sevigny, who has two kids with him, elementary school age, and then he married Marge, in her late 20s, played by the adorable Ginnifer Goodwin, who has a toddler and an infant. They left their "compound" and live in three houses in a row, share Bill on a tight schedule, pool household funds, and have "family dinner." Super weird set-up. His dad is being poisoned by his mom and his brother is a tool, and over at the compound, the "Prophet" (what is this, Carnivale?) is played by the uber-skeevy Harry Dean Stanton. HBO is just brilliant, how they make us identify with mobsters, morticians, circus freaks, writers who buy $400 shoes, and now polygamists. It's quite fascinating, really.

OK, I'm going to go find someone to buy me a cup of coffee.