spring ... and taxes ... and stuff ....

I had a crappy, crappy day (damn you, IRS!) so I decided to "spring" up my blog template. I'm not all that great at html, or design, or really anything, today, so here you have it. What I can do with what God gave me (or.... didn't).

Krysten, I'm sorry I haven't sent your birthday present yet... hopefully I have some goodwill leftover from flying last year's to you in person. *slump*

I think tonight might be an eat-too-much-Chinese-takeout night.

Your favorite not-quite-a-superhero,
Batgirl.

Top o' the Mornin' to yeh!

Well, the big, bad migraine has finally passed. It passed with the help of a FOUR-PART injection: 2 shots in each hip. Um.... ouch. I got 2 steroids (depo and dexamethasone), reglan, and my personal favorite, toradol. It took several hours to kick in, but I feel quite lovely now. Am am WIDE AWAKE.

I went for sushi with Madge and Dave, and then we watched Marie Antoinette. I'm not a huge fan of Kirsten Dunst but she was surprisingly quite good. It had less plot and more character study, which I don't always love, but I liked this film a lot. I downloaded the soundtrack when I got home.

Aaand, tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day!!! (And the day before Krysten's birthday, natch.) Mine will involve brunch with the gang, green beer whiskey, Aggie football, and The Departed, Waking Ned Devine, The Committments, and/or some other Irish-themed movies. I will require O'Scottie and Ree-an, per our annual agreement, to speak in an Irish accent all day.

Oh, on the Colbert Report last night, he said that genetic scientists are now saying that England and Ireland have been populated with "the same people" for well over a thousand years, meaning the greatest Irish pride -- other than Notre Dame, I'm talking about their pride in not being English -- is kind of a moot point. Umm... *snort*

Gwoemul

Everyone must go to your local moviehouse this weekend and see The Host. Seriously, one of the most classically fun experiences I've had at the movies in a long time. It's an good ole iconic creature-feature, but it's got a great plot, humor, family drama, fantastic music, and is just a rolling good time. I haven't read a bad review of it yet, but my favorite comment so far is that it was "part Jaws and part Little Miss Sunshine."

In less awesome news, I've had a migraine off and on for about 4 days. And a fever. Not sure what is going on but if I'm not better tomorrow I'm going to have to drive myself to the clinic for a shot of something stronger.

Oh yeah, and beware the Ides of March and all that.

kids say the darnedest things

Uncle Al found this in a cabinet that belonged to his parents (my grandparents). It was apparently written by a 9-year old me and a 4-year old cousin Justin (I'm guessing a 2-year old Jule was just too young to be a part of our grand plans at this point). You see, dear readers, I was not always the maven of grammar and spelling you now know and love. At nine, I was rather daft. Just ask Stanta:



In case you can't read it, "Dear Stanta, We left some things in hope that we will someday we will be your helpers. Yours sincerly, Jamie & Justin." I wonder what things we left? And practically a full month before Christmas?? I wonder if my 2 misspelled words and awkwardly constructed sentence is what kept Stanta from assigning me a helper-ship?

When my grandparents passed away, we found many such gems. I love that they kept these things. My mom gave me a few as mementos. Not to be outdone by Uncle Al, I found this in my scrapbook and photo'd it as well:



I can't decide if my favorite part is that the outside of this folded sheet said "I hope you get well soon!!" meaning that I was needling my sick grandfather to jump on my do-good bandwagon, or that I started to sign my last name and then erased it. At least I had the mental capacity that he probably didn't have another Jamie calling him "Peep." Check out that dog I drew. Brilliant.

Well, that's probably enough embarrassment for one day. In other news, Amy & I are going to see The Host tonight and I can't WAIT, and Chanelle & Krysten can get off my back; I finally (somewhat) updated Food, Glorious Food.

a word on passive-aggression

I was just scrolling down through the blog posts that happen to still be on page 1, and I noticed a new comment on my mascara post. It says this:

Anonymous said... You took the Target employees word as gold? How old was she, 16? You then went home and freaked out on your blog instead of investigating for yourself. You do have an Internet connection,correct? Are you an adult?

OK. Allow me to retort with a few points:
A) This is my blog; I can write about and freak out about whatever the hell I want to. You don't have to read it.
B) The Target employee was in her 30s-40s, and yes, I am accustomed to treating people as if they are knowledgeable about their job until proven otherwise.
C) If you don't know me, why on earth do you care about my freak-out level of mascara?... on the flip side, if you do know me, please have the courage (and common decency) to post your name instead of hiding behind "anonymous."
D) C'MON! [GOB]

links a-poppin'!!

Nathaniel has been visiting from LA this week and we have been running around like crazy. Here's a bullet list of the highlights: Momo's, Best Cellars, The Dallas Arboretum, Sushi on McKinney, Zodiac, Food from Galilee, Secretary, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Meridian Room, cupcakes at the Johnson's, The Lounge @ The Inwood, a midnight showing of Silence of the Lambs, Dream Cafe, Gloria's, Lucinda Williams, Libertine, Ozona. Today he went to see 300 with Bill and Nathan while I met the girls for lunch and currently we're zoned out on the couch. He was flipping channels but I think he settled on the Bourne Identity. That is, until I make him turn it off for Iron Chef America. Helloooo, Battle Breakfast!!

"I love Jesus but I drink a little."

I normally hate imbedding videos without anything witty, clever, or inspiring to say, but this is absolutely priceless and totally worth 6 minutes of your life.

I'm going to need a hacksaw.

It pains me to say it... but I put 24 on hiatus. I watched the first 4 episodes with Tom back in January, and then the next 3 with Jack Daniels about a month later, and then when I tried to watch #8-9 last night, I was so lost and confused that I had no idea what was going on, and I was so daunted by the fact that I was still 5 episodes behind that I totally wigged out. Plus, I needed my DVR last night to record Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer on TCM, and when it asked me "which of these three scheduled programs would I like to delete" (24, Heroes, or Gene Kelly)- well, I just made a snap decision and chose 24. I will have to watch it this summer when it comes out on DVD. It really is the better way to watch it. Plus, how excited can I really get about a 24-iverse that doesn't include Tony Almeida????

Speaking of Gene Kelly, I watched "For Me & My Gal" last night and did a little swooning. Ladies, start your DVRs. Gene Kelly is TCM's Star of the Month.

anatomy of a *swoooooon*

I know Krysten and Gina will back me up on this; I'm watching Harvey on TCM and oh, Jimmy Stewart!!!! *sigh* They just don't make 'em like they used to.

"In this world, you have to be oh-so-smart or oh-so-pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."

Atlanta

I promised Erin I would update today, because apparently she likes to read about my life, even when nothing is going on. I'm in Atlanta, one of my least favorite cities, mostly because there are only chain restaurants to choose from. It's especially hard right now, because I gave up meat for Lent. Dude, there's meat everywhere in this city!

In better news, I'm staying in a nice hotel, and I just made Gold with Marriott so I'm up on the fancy floor. This hotel is a Renaissance, and I love staying in Renaissances because they have Lather bath products, and as you all know, fancy bath products that I can't afford are truly the way to my heart. I almost never get my room serviced when I'm traveling for work (unless I'm somewhere for more than like, a week) but I totally am every day on this trip, just for more lavendar and lemongrass soap.

So, yesterday one of my union guys came up to me, and I haven't seen him in a few months, and he was all "Yo Jamie! What's different about you?? Your face is redder!" and I was all "...ummm, thanks, Junior." And then he was like "no! I've got it! Your hair is lighter and that's what makes your face look redder." To which I say.... awesome.

Well, my hair IS lighter. I got it cut and colored last week. I was going to post a picture but I left my camera at home. Plus, now I'm totally self-conscious about my ruddy complexion.

I'm ready for this show to be o-v-e-r... I have some serious time off after this show and I. cannot. WAIT.