Break, week 2

Note: The following is ridiculously long, but still fun. J

Me-Ow!!
While channel-surfing today, I came across Bravo’s “Sexiest Moments in Film: The Seducers.” The discovery that we now had Bravo was one thing; the accompanying discovery that I happened upon a show BURSTING with Sexy Men was a far better one. So, partially using that tail end of that show and partially my own inspirations, here is my list of my favorite sexy men, in no particular order (because, seriously, how can you choose your favorite hot man?? Impossible!):
Viggo Mortensen – I love him with his stubble; he is beautifully hot in LOTR and in Hidalgo; plus, an accent
Tobey Maguire – the show used the example of Spiderman, and I’m going to stick with that. That upside-down kiss with the partial mask: HOT!
Hugh Grant and Colin Firth – they are together because of Bridget Jones’ Diary, the example movie and because I think they play really well off each other to
magnify the attractiveness. Both get points for their accents.
Harrison Ford – particularly in his role as Indiana Jones. I mean, he’s attractive as Han Solo, but I prefer Indie. I even like his real-life pierced ear.
Orlando Bloom – yes, yes, I know he gets ridiculed all the time for looking feminine, but, damn! I like him both in Pirates and LOTR; kinda a ying-yang form of
himself. I’d even like him in Troy if his character wasn’t such a pansy.And he has an accent!
Jake Gyllenhal – I wish I’d seen more of his movies. I LOVE him in Jarhead (it doesn’t hurt that he dances around nearly naked). He makes me want to bite his neck, he’s so delicious.
Heath Ledger – I’m actually a little wishy-washy on him. I loved him in 10 Things I Hate About You, but I’m not as sure other times. But he’s got the curls and the accent, so he’s in.
Hayden Christensen – It’s his eyes that get me. I mean, even if the movie is bad, I love the intensity of his eyes in Ep. 2 so much that I will watch it repeatedly.
Christian Bale – He’s got this funny thing with his mouth that just draws me in, I don’t know. Makes me want to kiss it. And he’s really muscular. Purrr.

I’m sure there are a lot that I’m missing; this is just the list I came up with while the show was on (believe me, it was hard to stay focused with the hot men flashing onscreen). For instance, I know I’ve left off Michael Rosenbaum and Ewan, but we’ll just have to save them for another time.
Looking at this list, I’ve tried to come up with some summary. I definitely like accents in my celebrity fantasy-lovers; the characters I tend to prefer are absorbed in some sort of consuming work (or mission ;)) that involves a lot of quick-witted butt-kicking, but, if you can get them away from all that, they are generally just good, simple guys. Who are also ridiculously attractive.
I wonder – is there some way I could use a program to scramble all those faces to come out with my ideal celebrity crush’s face?

Christmas
I really enjoyed Christmas this year, but it was really simple. Just my family, hanging out. Christmas Eve we attended and, coincidentally, ushered at, all three services at my church, so it was nice to do a lot of nothing Christmas morning.
What was my favorite gift? Was it the new bath bucket full of bathy things (like a squishy ducky scrubby)? No! Was it the $50 Borders Books gift certificate? Not this year! Would it be the Chipotle gift cards? Nope! It was…. A plastic tiara from my father!
That’s right, folks. I am now officially recognized as the princess in my household. Now you had all better step up and show your appreciation, too… or else! :)

Dentist
By now, I have been to the ‘normal dentist’ three times and the oral surgeon once…and had nothing yet changed, with exception to a normal teeth cleaning.
My oral surgeon said I have the tooth development of a 15-year-old. Uh, thanks?

Sheaves of Wheat
There is a Van Gogh exhibit in town at the art museum of all of the Van Gogh wheat pieces, including his sketches and many of his influences. My dad and I went, just the two of us, and, besides being incredibly busy, it was really fascinating. I have always been a big fan of Van Gogh, and it was wonderful to see his artwork in person! Some of his pieces, like my personal favorite from the exhibit “The Reaper,” just reached out and sucked you in. I mean, wow. It felt like an otherworldly experience sometimes, and I learned so much about the artist and all of his influences and the way he influenced others, like his pal Gaughan, or even Pissarro. Everyone should get out an appreciate some art this break!

Bookworm
Knowing how bad I am at spending gift cards and anticipating days spent in bed while my teeth heal, I blew all of my $50 for Borders at a store we were surprised to find was closing and having a sale. Here is what I bought, for the curious:
How to Paint and Draw For three dollars, why shouldn’t I get back into old habits?

Eats, Shoots and Leaves I felt obligated. It is THE guide to punctuation, after all.

The Experts’ Guide to 100 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do Thumbing through, I found I didn’t know a shocking number of those things, which range from tying a tie to taking a compliment to throwing a dinner party. So I’m gonna learn.

What in the Word? Interesting facts/word games about the English language, which I have always been curious about. Word facts, that is.

And, finally, the just-for-reading-fun books:
The Iron Tree I’ve liked some of the author’s other books, so why not lose myself to hallucinations while I’m doped up.

One Good Knight Because Mercedes Lackey is cool. And it has a dragon. See above.

If you have gotten this far reading from start to finish, you deserve a medal. Apparently, I had a lot to say.

On the Homefront...

Honey, I'm home!Not that home is exactly what I was expecting...or rather, it is, but not what I was hoping. I was hoping for different; it isn't. My cats are both gone, now, buried in my garden in the backyard, near where they liked to sniff and watch the birds. Sometimes I expect so see them sleeping in my parents' room, or by the door on the cool tile. But they aren't here.

It's just us, with our same ole' house, making a mess and climbing all over each other. I had to evict my brother, who, for some reason, prefers my room to his own.

My brother and I were assigned to clean part of the kitchen we don't use very often, and as we were moving some of the normal clutter, two giant cockroaches skittered out. I freaked, like nothing else, uncontrollably running away, leaving my also grossed-out brother to vanquish the bugs while I was overcome with insane nervous laughter. So we now name my brother Ryan, Bug-slayer!

Body World
The Body World exhibit is in town (you know, the 'plasticized' human remains; there is a cameo of them in the Miami scene of 'Casino Royale'). It was really interesting, and only mildly sickening. I mostly just tried to convince myself that the figures were all models, man-made out of plastic, instead of what they were; human remains, God-made, and injected and otherwise modified with plastic to make them eternal.

Anyway, the display taught me a lot about human anatomy; intellectually, it was compelling. I also am strongly motivated to not get cancer of any kind, particularly lung or breast cancer, and not to smoke, or drink excessively, or allow myself to weigh 300 pounds. Wow. I mean, there is nothing like seeing, up close, the difference between a healthy lung and a smoker's lung, or the plastically-saved fat deposits of an obese man.

Honestly, my only problem with the display was the lack of equality. There were only 4 female posed specimens...compared to at least 17 male posed specimens, judging by my informal count. That is a huge discrepancy! Especially when you consider that two of the female specimens were on display directly because of their reproductive capabilities; one was a pregnant woman, the other was showing the normal configuration of reproductive organs. I have a HUGE problem with that! And, on top of that, all of the organs (note: separate from a body) that were female were noted as "female lung", etc. This is ridiculous. That maintains that the man is standard and much more notable for his normalcy, and the woman is the outsider. And, the biggest and most important differences are only related to her reproductive capability. I want to know more about MY anatomy! It was very frustrating.

Christmas
When I got here, our Christmas lights were up but didn't all work; half had a faulty switch. We still don't have a tree. They 'waited' for me to get home, but we still haven't gotten around to getting one yet. And it is around 60*. So it doesn't look much like Christmas around here, but I'm excited. I have all the gifts I need for my family, and I'm enjoying being around my family. My dad (who hates turkey) even bought us a bird and stuff for stuffing and mashed potatoes.
So Merry Christmas!

Teeth
I come home, first thing I get is a dentist appointment. But, at least it was my old dentist, the one I liked, who lets us watch a movie on the ceiling above the dentist chair. And, surprise, for the first time ever, I have wisdom teeth. Four of them. (I'm actually not too surprised; the last dentist claimed I had 3 caveties...my dentist,...none...so what's a few lost teeth here or there). Oh, and one is "level four"-which sounds like a warning level on Star Trek to me-and that means it is impacted and I have to get them all removed. So...guess what I'm doing over break?
Oh, and by the way, I'm terrified, never having had teeth pulled or surgery of any kind performed. Wee!

I love Scrubs

If you have time to put up with the slow upload rate, you really need to see this. It is a Charlie Brown Christmas dubbed over by the cast of Scrubs. It is full of Amazing!

http://tv.netscape.com/embed/480/LXLAHYMOARMYDYZCHXHU

It just takes awhile to watch. Worth it!

She's goin' to Disneyland!

Amy just left. As in, she just pulled away with Beth and all her stuff, and I'm here, alone, in the dorm room, now looking entirely desolate because all of her decorations have been stripped away, all her junk is out, everything, from the floor rug to the tv is gone.

And I'm left here lonely as all get out.

Amy could get on my nerves sometimes (often?) -- she couldn't stop talking, we always watched Disney movies, and she'd stay up until all hours of the night, and I have bruises from yesterday when she 'playfully' smashed me into the car -- but I'm going to miss her. She was a nice friend, so eager about everything.

And now I'm all alone in this room that used to seem so cramped but now seems way too big.


I wish someone else was here.

Whew!

I just wrote 10.5 pages for two essays for one exam within two hours. Ow, my hand.

But afterward I mailed an application for another internship and bought my mom a Christmas present. Hurray!

Now I have to find a way to get the DMN to mail my intern information home and not here because I won't be here and the darned DAs won't forward the mail. Ah well....

I don't know what I'm doing

I've had bits of this post floating around my head for awhile, but they've taken time to coalesce into one coherent post. I'll try, but it's still a bit foggy.

I don't know what I'm doing.

Honestly. Filling out intern applications is excruicating, and I send them in with little hope of a happy ending (Post-Dispatch just shot me down, but I'm not too surprised). I don't feel like I have any creativity right now, at least not in the writing angle. I have no real urge to write articles...this became especially clear to me when my teacher told me that the reporting instinct never leaves...as he talked about how much he'd wanted to go find stories during the big snow.

All I had an urge to do was hang out and maybe play in the snow. I was glad I didn't have to do any homework.

And I threw myself for a loop when I realized I sorta enjoyed editing Adam's paper (it was really good, btw, you should read it). But I didn't expect to enjoy editing it so thoroughly.


So I don't really know where I am right now, where I'm going. I'm sticking with my major of course, but keeping my eyes open for other opportunities...just what,I don't know, but I guess I'm hoping it will call to me when I find it.

Along this line of thinking, I enrolled in two one-hour more or less fun 'life skillsy' classes: financial success and dealing with stress, both of which I'm concerned with regarding a future career. I decided, particularly with the stress course, to branch out, and experiment a little. That doesn't sound like much, but the stress course involves yoga and meditation.

Not a big deal, but that's just the beginning. As many of you know, I've started knitting, to see if I like it. I'm really considering getting a membership at the Craft studio, playing with clay and glass beads and whatnot.

Basically, it's about this. I looked up the other day and realized I'm fairly close to graduation (without a strong idea of what I want to do anymore) and no real hobbies. I have no idea how I will spend my time when I am not engaged in work, post-graduation. That's a big empty hole to fill. I mean, I have no strong dedication to a tv show or collection or webcomic or hobby of any kind. Nothing. Nada. I'm interested in things, sure, but in a contained way. Nothing too excessive, where I have to spend too much money or effort or time. All those things were dedicated to school. And when school ends, I don't know what I'll do.

I mentioned this to Dan the other day, and guess what he said to me? He said, sure, you have hobbies...in fact, you should go get yourself a giant shoe. A giant shoe, I asked him? Yea, he said, a giant shoe where I could raise lots of orphans and be the little old lady who lived in a shoe, with my knitting and event planning and sewing and drawing little pictures of lions and zebras.

I know he was kidding, but it distressed me. I mean, almost made me want to cry...I don't want my peers to think of me as only a mother figure.....but, even worse, I don't want to become my mother, who is the closest thing to the little old woman in the shoe...works at a daycare, worlds greatest mother to every five-year-old (except maybe her own kids)...She quit journalism to work in childcare. ...And while I'm actually fairly good at those things, I don't want to be my mom. Working with kids all the time is exhausting, and, while I'm good at it, it isn't fulfilling at all and the parents are nasty.

So I'm terrified of becoming that.

But I don't know what I want to become.....

(Sidenote: I'm not enjoying knitting. I'm going to finish this scarf and then not touch it again for a long long time...does that help make me sound less old?)