Arcs

So random questions and text and messages from the brother or cousin types aren't a rarity at all.

"What Looney Toons episode was Bugs Bunny a chick? And was it Wayne or Garth that thought he was hot?"

"jumping trashcans should be an Olympic sport"

"Who would win in a fist fight, Nietzsche or Wittgenstein?"

(My money is totally on Nietzsche btw)

So when I got a "Whats your address?" from Patrick it seemed far too much of a normal question. He was either going to drop by that night or I was going to get a puppy in the mail or something.

"Why....." I replied. He laughed at me and then told me he had just finished his CD and wanted to send me a copy.

his CD?.... Erm - I wasn't aware that Pat had a recording contract and if he did I'd be amazed because though the man can move mountains and is worthy of almost every praise possible, he can't carry a tune in a bucket. Perhaps he was exploring beat poetry so I asked -

"What?!"

Apparently he and a few other music connoisseur friend types were engaged in a bit of a competition. It started as a music exchange but then Patrick wanted to "make it interesting" so he made up a theme and they were supposed to make a CD according to that theme. They all send them to each other (the other two are out of state). Patrick had a whole point structure outlined and they all rated each other's stuff and Patrick crowned a winner. I'm not sure what the prize was, bragging rights I suppose, but I thought

What a delightfully constructive creative thing.

And though I laughed at the competitive aspect of it all, I found it fascinating. Mixes with a story, an arc. How delicious. So even though I wasn't part of the contest I still found myself constructing a story in my head with my days worth of iTunes.

The theme Patrick nominated was a "Love to Meltdown" breakup-type mix and heaven knows a silly girl like me has plenty of love songs and break up songs. Its all of my favorite artist's specialty as a matter of fact.

I thought about it for a week or two and got to work, just for fun, and agonized over where a certain song fit in the story arc or what song best tells that part of the story. It was loads of fun. No wonder Patrick was so lit about it.

I decided to do some field research and some of my readers (read: friends) may have gotten a random text asking for their favorite love song and break up song. It was for this. Silly, I know. But like I said before, we Long/Dees types specialize in Charming Random. It's how we roll. :D And I want you to know that I listened to every song that was suggested to me as creative input even if it didn't fit on the arc I'd thought up.

So for those who contributed I figured I owed you a playlist. I found all but one song on iMeem and it's #1 in the line up. So if you're feeling saucy and want the whole experience there it is. I think its one of the strongest songs in the first half of the (meaning my) CD. I was really bummed it wasn't there. Don't people know this is one of the best songs on that album? Gosh!

So if you were wondering:


I'm also incredibly curious to see if I actually told a story. Like, can you see a relationship in between the treble clefs and why they broke up and why it wasn't just a break up but a meltdown?

I've Been Tagged

Well Jennette has started this particular round of randomness and she is one in a million

Seven random things about me huh? Well - do you read my blog?
Of course you do - or else you wouldn't even have read the question -
I'm FULL of random/weird facts so I'll do my best to conjure some more

7) I have a secret dream of seeing someone try to sing a Korn song during karaoke. Like what would the prompt text be? "Gutteral barking - 4 measures"?

6) I've never been to Sea World

5) If I don't read at least one book a month I get crabby. Like needing-a-cigarette kind of grumpy

4) I wish Emma Thompson was my best friend (along with my real best friend. We'd be the happiest and giggliest trio of women on Earth I think).

3) When I found out that there was a Famous Dave's BBQ opening up in Rancho I called them to ask if they were going to have the on-tap saspurilla that I had at the Dave's in Kansas City. When they said that they didn't and probably weren't I asked to speak with the manager and/or owner. When I got him on the phone I proceeded to give him a 20 minute pitch as to why he needs to call up the Kansas City location, get the name of their distributer, and put it into his business plan and after a few chuckles he agreed to look into it and asked me if I wanted a job. I said no, just saspurilla. I made an appointment in three weeks to follow up with him and you best be sure that I will.

2) Out of all of the cast of Firefly I think that I wish I was Zoe I'm probably more a Kaylee and no matter what I'm doing, if I think about Jayne I always laugh.

1) As of late I've got such a yearning to travel and get off the continental United States that it oft times dives me to distraction and to parousing the Peace Corps website.

I think these games are fun and everyone should participate so I am electing to open up my 7 tagging options to whomever needs a blogging idea. Consider yourself tagged *tag!*

I will follow up with you in 3 weeks and don't think I won't

Flick Flicker

I love movies. Its heriditary.

They're how I escaped from hot summer days as a kid and how I deal with cold, sometimes lonely, nights now.

So consequently I love the Oscars and always have. I remember watching them every year since I was a girl. When I'm grown up and have a place and a descent television I will throw the Oscar party every year - Tracy: You have the 4th of July and I'll take Oscar night - and I just couldn't let another day go by without some Oscar recognition.

My friend had this list going and I thought in honor of Sunday's Festivities I'd disclose my Oscar sampling.

1928 - Wings, Sunrise (one for best production, other for unique and artistic)

1929 - The Broadway Melody of 1929

1930 - All Quiet on the Western Front

1931 - Cimmaron

1932 - Grand Hotel

1933 - Cavalcade

1934 - It Happened One Night

1935 - Mutiny on the Bounty
1936 - The Great Ziegfeld

1937 - The Life of Emile Zola

1938 - You Can’t Take It With You

1939 - Gone With the Wind

1940 - Rebecca

1941 - How Green Was My Valley

1942 - Mrs. Miniver

1943 - Casablanca

1944 - Going My Way

1945 - The Lost Weekend

1946 - The Best Years of Our Lives

1947 - Gentleman’s Agreement

1948 - Hamlet

1949 - All The King’s Men

1950 - All About Eve

1951 - An American in Paris

1952 - The Greatest Show on Earth

1953 - From Here to Eternity

1954 - On the Waterfront

1955 - Marty

1956 - Around the World in Eighty Days

1957 - The Bridge on the River Kwai

1958 - Gigi

1959 - Ben-Hur

1960 - The Apartment

1961 - West Side Story

1962 - Lawrence of Arabia

1963 - Tom Jones

1964 - My Fair Lady

1965 - The Sound of Music

1966 - A Man For All Seasons

1967 - In the Heat of the Night

1968 - Oliver!

1969 - Midnight Cowboy

1970 - Patton

1971 - The French Connection

1972 - The Godfather

1973 - The Sting

1974 - The Godfather Part II

1975 - One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

1976 - Rocky

1977 - Annie Hall

1978 - The Deer Hunter

1979 - Kramer vs. Kramer

1980 - Ordinary People

1981 - Chariots of Fire

1982 - Ghandi

1983 - Terms of Endearment

1984 - Amadeus

1985 - Out of Africa

1986 - Platoon

1987 - The Last Emperor

1988 - Rain Man

1989 - Driving Miss Daisy

1990 - Dances With Wolves

1991 - The Silence of the Lambs

1992 - Unforgiven

1993 - Schindler’s List

1994 - Forrest Gump

1995 - Braveheart

1996 - The English Patient

1997 - Titanic

1998 - Shakespeare in Love

1999 - American Beauty

2000 - Gladiator

2001 - A Beautiful Mind

2002 - Chicago

2003 - Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

2004 - Million Dollar Baby

2005 - Crash

2006 - The Departed

2007 - No Country for Old Men

So here is my total:

Total number of films: 81

Total I’ve seen: 37 (45 %) Whoo Hoo - yay me :D

For the record:

I was a bit irrked that my girl Cate was nominated twice, deserving in both, and got snubbed. And being pregnant too. I mean - come on people! She showed up, she looked magnificent, she is one of the most talented human beings on the planet and she works harder than most of Hollywood put together. Give it up already. Geesh -

Though - I did see La Vie in Rose and was blown away by Marion, like tornado force winds blown away. She is a brilliant brilliant talent. I haven't seen Michael Clayton yet so I don't know if Tilda is, but she was Jadis (aka The White Witch) and as such will royally freak me out for the rest of my life so that made me cringe. She one of those super intense method actor/performance artist types so I'm sure it was a cognative and solid performance - and still. Cate all the way.

My Five Life Classes

So my fantastic friend Shell tagged me for another one of these blog adventures.

I'm supposed to devise a list of 5 courses I would take to improve my life.
It’s more fun to be in classes with friends, so include one class from the person who tagged me that I’d also like to take.
Then I'm supposed to tag five friends to go back to school with me.
I am tagging Nicole, Hannah, Rachel, the other Liz - plus anyone else who wants to do it cause I'm truly curious but those are just the regular bloggers I know and would do it if they so choose.

Well first and foremost I would take World Religions & Philosophies 501 with Shell.

But I would call it Understanding 520

Her description sounded like the most delicious class ever.

"I've taken world religion and philosophy both before so I want the advanced course. I want the advanced version of this class. I want field trips to monasteries, Shinto shrines, kaballah centers, Hindu temples, sabbath with a rabbi, visits with theological leaders and religious greats. Schedule seminars, which include a review of major doctrinal beliefs, introduction to scripture, and a question & answer period, with the Dalai Lama, Jehan Begli, Billy Graham, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Pres. Gordon Hinckley, Archbishop Williams, Yusuf Motala, Louis Farrakhan, Bishop Tutu, Mary Manin Morrisey, Arun Gandhi, and more Given the religious pursuit that I find myself in, having this class would provide me with the factual information I need and the spiritual experiences I crave."

Shell - I am TOTALLY there with you. And I think we could rock that Tibetan Monk Orange robe ensemble together.

Course #2 - The Mother/Child Relationship 345

But it would be team taught by Bear Grylls, Jane Goodall, Steven Hawking, Theodore Roosevelt, a Shaman named MoonTree and many others. It would be a Survivalist/Naturalist course.

I would learn everything I need to learn, biology, oceanography, cartography etc about 1) how nature works, 2) my relationship to her, and 3) how to survive with her. We would have MANY awesome adventures where Bear would show us how to navigate something and Jane or MoonTree would explain why it is the way it is and outline the layers of life and influence that goes into scaling a waterfall or shark fishing etc. We'd sail and hunt with Orcas in Alaska and shadow elephants in the Serengeti and dive and live on and around the Great Barrier Reef. It will be marvelous.


Course #3 - How to be Financially Secure and not have to Be or deal with Douche Bags 435
I've thought about this and I've reluctantly concluded that to be financially secure you have to either manipulate other people or associate yourself with someone that has no problem manipulating other people and both of those options seems totally unpalatable to me, so I'd like to know how to navigate that particular conundrum. Because one cannot be totally at liberty to write or create if you're too worried about the electric bill or your car getting towed ya know? You kind of need that mental check mark.

Course #4 - Eating with Dairy Allergies 205 (aka "No More Happiness")

I need recipes and ideas on how to get around the American's diet obsession with milk and not end up chewing on celery and pita bred for the rest of my life. Mama needs some flavor people! I just can't get over how either cheese, butter, or cream have a stake in everything we put in our mouths on a regular basis. These are strange waters, I need some help.

Course #5 - Micro Macro Miracles 580

This would be a course where I could learn things that I can do, support and think about in my small daily life that would cause real change in the areas of the world that need the most help. I cannot go over to Darfur and feed all of the 2.5 million starving victims of the genocide that's going on right now. I can't fix that problem by myself but I can do little somethings that will help and I want to know what those are. I already use canvas bags and recycle with gusto to respect the earth as much as I can but I want to help people too and not feel overwhelmed by the fact that I can't do it all. There has got to be SOMETHING ya know?

So there it is. My class schedule. Thats what I would do and were I would be going if I had a chance.

I'm It

Whoo Hoo! Game time....

Rules (cause we love rules):
1. The player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.

2. At the end of the post, the player tags 6 people and posts their names, and then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog for the rules.

So, the Lovely Rachel has charged me to disclose 6 quirks and or strange habits about myself via blog (that I haven't already) and pass on the love.

This might be tough...
Um -

6) When I come across something I have a tendency to classify them in one of three different categories; "LOVE!", "Lame", "Loathe". I very rarely feel neutral or "meh" about something. If it's "like" worthy then I pick it apart for something to love so I can classify it in LOVE! And even if there is a morsel that is lovable it qualifies in the LOVE! category. I don't like to loathe things so that's why I designed Lame. I think there are only about 10 things that have a place in Loathe and stay there (abusive people, pedophilia, apathy, liars - those kind of things). This is my approach to everything. Music, food, places, people, books, plate tectonics (LOVE!). I think its a marvelous thing to feel and to feel wonderful so I look for it as often as possible.

5) Tendency #6 leads me to my #5 which is that I have a tendency to speak in superlatives. It is totally unintentional and I have no desire to dilute the meaning of a word or the awesomeness of what I am speaking to, but because I just love things it comes out as "my favorite!" or "the best!" or "awesomest thing ever!". And when I proclaim that I really mean it. Even if its for that space and time of 15 seconds that I pull that particular subject out of the LOVE! file. I've been working on being more keeled in my speech but for those of you that so patiently deal with the fire hose of "Bestest thing ever ever!" - that's why.

4) I have randomly occurring anal-retentive tendencies: My closet is organized according to type of clothing and where it falls in the color gradient. The shoes and purses are separated by blacks and browns on respective halves of it. The shoes don't point to magnetic north, but I have considered it. My movies and CDs are alphabetized. Most bottles in my bathroom are arranged in descending size order and the bills in my wallet always are in numerical faced order. Oh - and I refold clothes in stores.

3) I take particular joy in waving and smiling at people waiting on corners for the crosswalk sign to change when I'm stopped at a light in my car. They always look bored and half afraid that someone will talk to them and super anxious to just cross the street. So I wave and smile to simultaneously 1)realize their anxiety 2) let them laugh at themselves 3) and let them feel like a person not another something that cars avoid.

2) There have been times when I was showing friends where I grew up in Pasadena that after I've taken them on the brief neighborhood tour that I've introduced them to my trees. There were 3 or 4 trees around my home that were always special thoughtful spots for and to me. So yes - I've introduced people to trees. No I did not hug them but, like magnetic north, I have considered it.

1) I've always dreamed of being one of the kids on Kids Incorporated and then growing up to be one of Janet Jackson's back up dancers or having a regular spot as a Solid Gold Dancer. When I'm not lost in some kind of space in my head and I'm just driving I find myself choreographing and dancing to whats on the radio. I am an unfulfilled ballerina/hip hop diva - and honestly, I'm ok with that. Community college ballet classes are just wonderful and remind me why my budding Solid Gold career began and ended in front of my TV in my living room. But there is, and always will be, a pair of worn out character shoes and ballet slippers hanging up somewhere in my heart.

I think that I'm going to tag: Kim, Tracy, Shelly, Mari B, Hannah, and Nick. Cause I'm dying to know. Seriously.

Pavlov's Army

We've all had some insane jobs. Some we talk about, some we laugh about, and some we shamefully admit to. It's just part of growing up. On a recent trip to Target I realized how much of some of my past jobs haven't left me. Even now that I'm a supposed grown up and stuff.

Whenever I'm at the frozen yogurt machine at Souplantation I still find my 21 Choices training kicking in and my peaks are still very peaky.

I still face the bills in my wallet like the ODV (Out Door Vending) Nazi at the LA County Fair made us do before us exhausted troop of sunburned band kids could go home.

When I pick up a shirt off of a table at a store I still refold it and size it like my years working on Main Street at Disneyland indoctrinated me to do.

Most of my time served in the retail penal colony was served there. Yes - I've worked at Disneyland. Yes I still go as a guest and it still feels magical and I agree, The Disney Co. is the Great and Spacious Building.

I really liked working at Disneyland. Aside of feeling married to my availability form, being grossly underpaid, and the sore face muscles from smiling (per our instructions to be happy) it was very very fun. No day was ever the same and I adored that. One day usually felt like a week because of the variety of things that went down in 8 hours there. There were always some kind of emergency or Pass Holder Insanity (PHI on the radio) to mitigate, and all that we needed to handle "with discretion". Or the awesomely sweet moments with children who still believed and were looking for their friend Cinderella. They always got first priority and I always volunteered to take the picture. It was all amazing.

Merchandise was way more fun than almost any other division. But one thing about "being Merch" that was almost enviable was the capacity we had to put our hands on just about anything in the known universe with a few phone calls if a guest needed it.

Squirting nickels - we got em.
14k gold mickey mouse lipstick cases, check.
Velveteen pirate's cape - check.
Campfire chili and fried chicken, - yes,
Rag-Time dancing shoes - got those too.
Glow in the dark lipstick - let me check with Fantasmic
Topiary Alice in Wonderland figures - straight back and to the left
Moroccan Mint tea - across the street at Markethouse

It was amazing if you kept your eyes half shut to the frequently intoxicated management, the local gay couple having a shout out backstage (daily occurrence) and the constant smell of gun powder, ammonia and melted ice cream wherever guests weren't (IE-backstage).

But this kind of we-have-everything-in-the-world-and-you-need-to-put-it-away was strangely one of my favorite aspects of the job and I got the most battle experience in the biggest jungle of Disney memorabilia of them all - The Emporium.



My favorite part of Emporium duty was go backs. Partly because I wasn't tied to a register or to a table to keep straight, or beanie babies to straighten up over and over again. I got to put back the boxes and boxes of random stuff that collected behind the registers and scour the store for out of place items. It was like one giant, lolly pop, twisty pencil puzzle with an Aaron Copland soundtrack.

It sounds tedious but I really loved it. Not only did it pacify my slight OCD tendencies to straighten things but it allowed me to get lost in my head a little bit. When I saw something that was out of place I would wonder "Now how did that happen? Why would someone abandon a crystal Sleeping Beauty Castle figurine for an Ariel tank top? Did Ariel mean more to her growing up? Was she a red head and identify more with her? Was she clumsy and afraid she might break the castle before she got to the car?" and so on and so forth. I would imagine conversations people had with each other. Mostly made up the precious conversation snippets I would pick up from other people in the store. The funniest ones we between parents and children about appropriate souvenirs:

"I know you love Goofy - but I don't $75 love Goofy and neither should you"
"If I was Snow White I would sing a song and make every squirrel here come and bite you"
"It just seems kind of wrong to put Tinkerbell on a 3x shirt - I mean - what are people thinking?"
"You don't need a Tigger key chain. You don't even have keys."

I would politely offer help or insight when I could but most of the time I was in my own head. And today when I was picking up salad dressing and candles at Target on my lunch I noticed a pair of socks, a can opener and bar of soap on the crystal light isle. Instinct kicked in and I reminded myself that I didn't work there and it wasn't my responsibility to keep Target go-back free. But I did find myself constructing a scenario where those things being there would have made sense. How pink lemonade crystal light might have reminded that particular shopper that it was their best friend's favorite and that his can opener, navy blue socks and back up bar of Ivory were at his house so he didn't need to get them here.

And after laughing at myself for a second I realized that I did that a lot and then asked why and I found myself in my Main Street costume and oval name tag holding my box of go backs with "Meet me in St Louis" in the background. It was a pretty enlightening 45 seconds in the grocery isle of Target. And this, consequently led me to marvel at the little quirks I still have that are just residue from my past jobs and how everyone must have them. So now I'm curious - what are some of your habits, dear reader, that you've adopted (willingly or unwillingly) from your past?