My Twenty-Something Quasi-Soap

...reports that Barbaro, the horse that was seriously injured in the Preakness last year, was put down this morning after complications following another surgery. As eulogies abound across the Internet, I shall go against the grain (at the risk of sounding extremely cruel): It was a flippin' horse. Get over it. It should have been put out of its misery months ago. People had raised 1.2 million dollars for that freaking horse to help pay for all of the operations and equipment that it would need. We have sports writers eulogizing a freaking horse while we're losing American soldiers, human beings, every day in Iraq. But then again, in a country where dogs were saved before humans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I'm sadly not surprised. Trust me. I don't hate animals. I sometimes talk to my cat as if it were human. But I know it's just a cat. But honestly, people. Let's move on quickly from this. Barbaro was a horse . It was in pain. Let it go, and don'...

Yes, boys and girls, today's my birthday and I'm 24 years old. That sounds overwhelmingly old and young at the same time, if that makes any sense. A near quarter-century on Earth is overwhelmingly long and short at the same time. I mean, when I was born, there was no widespread and (relatively) inexpensive use of the following: -Cable TV -Home computers -The Internet -Cell phones -Digital cameras -Portable video game systems -Cordless telephones -iPods A few weeks before I was born, federal regulation of airline fares ended. The American video game crash happened in 1983, and 24 years later, all I want is a Nintendo Wii. People listened to records, MTV was not a household name, and can we talk about the clothes? Let's not. Although we hold so much nostalgia for the 80's, we really can't say much for the fashion. But in the grand scheme of things, 24 years is not a long time. I guess that's a good thing. I shouldn't be so worried about my age, because honestl...

...to research shoes anymore. As part of a project for work, I've been researching the price ranges on different brands and lines of shoes in order to find the best breakdown of Bargain, Moderate, High-End, and Luxury shoes. I was cruising the Nordstrom website (cause they always have fabulous shoes), and I saw them: Michael Kors suede slingbacks. In chocolate and black. *drool* and *sigh* My inner shoe diva has been reawakened, and I have fallen in love with these beautiful, beautiful shoes. They are sooooo worth the - *gulp* - $130 price tag. Honestly, in the grand scope of shoe prices, they aren't bad at all. I. Want. Those. Shoes. It's settled. I must win the lottery or marry a very rich man. (Or I could take my Christmas money with a little extra from my own piggy bank and buy them. Or wait until after the first week of Shoestring rehearsals. But I can't use my credit card.) I don't even care that I have no reason to buy these shoes being as that I rarely have ...

Today does not feel like 2007. Maybe because it was 57 degrees outside when I went on my lunch break. Or maybe it's because I spent the first 33 1/2 hours of the new year on the couch, wallowing in self pity. Either way, it feels more like 13/4/2006 instead of 1/4/2007. I am very tired. Probably more emotional drainage than anything else. Additionally, last night was Wednesday, which meant I was out at the bar with my boys doing the karaoke thing. Now I am 2 weeks away from my birthday, and I have no idea what I want to do for it. I am also getting impatient over not having snow. No, you are not hallucinating. Generally, I am a true hater of all things winter. My philosophy on snow has recently been that if it doesn't snow hard enough for me to get the day off of work, then it's not worth it. But I want to go snowboarding. Again, not a hallucination. I did try skiing about 9 years ago (geez louise, that's a long time ago!), and it wasn't exactly my cup of tea. But I...

General Malaise and Discontent has progressed over the past two weeks and developed into a Black and Foul Humour of the Most Unfortunate Variety. I thought I was going to elaborate here, but it's really not worth it. All I know is that I have been angry and hurt for two weeks now, and I don't know when or if that will be fixed anytime soon. I do know, however, that I am perfectly justified in feeling the way that I do, and anyone who may believe otherwise does not know the whole story. And now I am typing hard enough to potentially damage the keyboard, so I must go. Bah fucking humbug.

...are two good phrases for me right now. I've been thinking about too many things lately. Bitching and venting a lot. And how the hell did it get to be December already?!? Is anyone else irritated by the incessant Christmas music playing everywhere? I keep thinking that it's just too soon for all that mess, but Christmas is really not all that far away. Which is usually a lot more exciting to me by this point in the month. But alas, I am too stressed and pissed and irritated and tired and frustrated to be in the Christmas spirit. General malaise and discontent. At least Shoestring starts soon. Auditions for my new batch of babies are this Sunday and I can't wait. I have a feeling life will be a little easier once I have Shoestring to focus on. (Which actually makes no sense since I'll be busier than a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest.) But looking ahead, I think 2007 is going to be a very big year. That is all for now.

...and reflecting on the fact that I watch too much television. It's true. I live for September premieres. And sweeps (yay November and May!!). But the true marker of me watching too much television is my irritation with a recurring fantasy that usually involves ripped clothing and being hoisted upon washing machines. (Ok, so it's really not an irritation. How can your own personal "Desperate Housewives"-esqe daydream be an irritation?) Unfortunately, my fascination with the art/business of tv keeps me glued to the couch on Sunday nights and the DVR working overtime on Thursdays. And it's 1:30 in the morning. I really need to go to bed now.

...meaning that I'm back to blogging once every 6 weeks or so as opposed to every day. Which kind of sucks because I won't be able to look back at this a year from now and see what my daily thought processes were. But then again, I really don't have the time to be blogging all that often. Especialy since I can't blog at work. I read the NY Times a lot, but I don't blog. Catching you up on everything, then: -Kansas City was boring. I didn't get drunk at all, no major drama ensued, and the pics from the wedding were...interesting. Interesting in that "wow, she looks like a hooker" way. But she really is a awesomely sweet person and I'm totally happy for my uncle. -Went to Chicago last weekend and actually took a real vacation. I didn't think about work, I didn't think about the boys, I just hung out. And I found out what happens to you when you lose your keys on a roller coaster. They weren't my keys, mind you. But I was the first to repo...

In a few minutes I'll be headed out for coffee, to pick up some cash, and then off to the train station so I can get to the airport. It's time for another Adventure in Kansas City. Yay. My uncle's getting married, so the whole clan is getting together to see if he'll actually go through with this. I'm excited to see him and my cousins, but I'm not looking forward to all of the requisite drama that will ensue. It's not a family get-together if there's no drama or other ridiculous stories to bring back. I was going to provide links as exhibits of such shenanigans, but I don't have the time. Wish me luck, and pray that I don't get too drunk. Although, alcohol is going to make this whole ordeal sooo much easier. Is it Sunday night yet? Here we go...

That is a very sad fact. We had a massive heat wave at the end of July, and then summer started ending. It got cooler at nights, too cold in the office for air conditioning (so I froze to death). And as everyone was ready to go out on a high note with the Labor Day weekend... ...Ernesto crashed the party. Rain and wind and more rain and more wind just made yesterday miserable. So we stayed in and watched Rutgers' season opener against UNC, which we won. And it was good. Then we had some friends over, played the Mean Girls drinking game, took a late night munchie run to Wawa, and then I passed out on the couch. It was a great night. Today the skies are clear and the sun is out. It's too chilly to go to the beach, but I'm not much of a shore kind of girl. The water grosses me out...it really is dirty. Dirrty Jerz represent! Yup, summer is over, and there's a lot of things that I did not accomplish. We didn't go back to DC like we wanted to. We didn't go to Rehobot...

I'm tired today. I was good until 4th of July weekend, did a lot of stuff, and now I feel like I haven't caught up on sleep. Nothing very interesting to blog about, but I figured I'd let the blogosphere know I'm still alive and all that...just don't have anything exciting to blog about. The job is going all right...I guess. It's been kinda boring the past few weeks or so. Maybe that's what's making me tired. Blarrrgh. Tired, hot, and quiet. Except for painting the living room on Sunday. That was a "Disaster Twins Go on a Home Improvement Adventure" moment. Which is why I keep saying I need my own reality show. But then again, life right now isn't exciting enough to garner any ratings. Off to catch up on the backlog of "Project Runway" in the bootleg TiVo and convince myself that I really am excited about where I am in life right now.

My awesome job is now even awesomer because it's permanent now! Yay benefits, vacation days, and a pretty nice raise! Which means shopping, trips, and more shopping! Yaaayyyyy!!! Now I can get the gigantic dent taken out of my car and get the paint redone before my car really starts to look rusty. As much as I love my little tank (it's really just a Corolla, but it takes a hit like a tank), it's starting to cost me more money to keep it in good condition. But then again, you really can't complain when your car runs for 105,000 miles on the factory installed spark plugs. Yesterday, I could have gotten away with a free $300 brake job on my car. They forgot to add it to my bill. I was halfway down the road when I realized that if something went wrong with my brakes, I couldn't blame the shop because I had no paper trail. So I had to go back and point out the error so I could shell out my $300 and have my proof. But I got a coupon for a free oil change since I was so ...

...I have not fallen off of the face of the earth. I actually attenpeted to blog a few times in the past month, but I got distracted by sparkly things. "Sparkly things" is actually a facetious way of saying that there was too much life going on to try and process it all in a blog. And I didn't want to kill the keyboard on my laptop. I have a habit of typing harder when I get angry or upset. So let's see...my life over the past month, in a nutshell: -the boy situation is completely and totally over. Maybe someday when he takes his head out of his ass he'll realize his mistake. But by then he'll be married to someone who's really boring and looks like Condoleeza Rice. -Just because the situation is over doesn't mean I can't be bitter. -Still at the same place where I was working a month ago. Same company, different department, still a temp. Which sucks. But it's a job and I still like my job. -"The Real World: Bayshore Edition" is still...

I seem to have this habit now of posting on Sunday nights. Probably because it's something that allows me to prolong the arrival of the Day After Sunday (even though it's technically already here). I am very tired. April has not been a good month to me. Between the rain, a freak snowstorm in the middle of the day, being stuck at work all by myself for a week, half of the Shoestring kids coming down with some type of ailment at various times right up to the last rehearsal, my director coming down with bronchitis, the very real fact that my currently sweet temp gig is definitely ending in two weeks, my own apartment feeling like an episode of "The Real World," blowing 25 bucks on Mega Millions tickets and not getting a piece of the quarter billion dollar jackpot, the "check engine" light glaring at me every time I'm in my car, my allergies kicking my ass during the day, my asthma waking me up in the middle of the night, and still checking my e-mail every ...

I want to go to sleep so I can forget everything and live in a world that I won't remember. But sleep brings me to tomorrow that much faster, so I have to deal with it all. It's not fair. Tonight was like...watching tv with rabbit ears, or listening to a radio station as you're leaving the reaches of its airwaves. You can see the picture or hear the song, but the static keeps you from connecting with it. I should have known better. I should have known that it was all too good to be true. I mean, everything was great, I was so happy, everyone was happy for me, and then I get static. Stupid Japan. There I sat, thinking I had the power to change the course of someone's life, thinking that I just might be important enough to make a person change his mind, praying that something as daunting as some major exam that's 6 months away would make someone stay. But I'm not that important. And I'm stupid to think I'd be that important. Not when there are so many oth...

I'm going to make a t-shirt that says that. And I will wear it to work. Maybe. I feel too good for it to be Monday! I've just got this post-Saturday sparkle that won't go away. And I hope it never does. I just need one more day to bask it its gloriousness, and save it up so I don't lose it in all of the work craziness. And the Shoestring craziness. If I didn't use my extra day to bask in the gloriousness of the post-date sparkle (oops, I let something slip!), I'd use it to do do more of what I did to get that sparkle. And you can all get your minds out of the gutter right now! I won't have any dirty interpretations of my words going on here, no siree! Not on this blog! I am too happy and girly and excited and all that other stuff for you all to be mucking things up with dirty thoughts! I think I'm making my roommates sick with all of my silliness. Little do they know that there's plenty more to come. I hope. Let me go before I say more stuff that wil...

It's Monday. Already. Early Monday, but Monday nonetheless. Damn. I need to pick up a new notebook. I think I might start writing again. What I wrote yesterday just kinda came out of nowhere...and there's more. Somewhere. Whereever it is, there's more. Right now I just feel slightly cranky. Like a 3 year old who refuses to go to bed but her eyelids are drooping and she's rubbing her eyes and acting extremely pouty. I just don't want to go to work tomorrow. I want to have a real Spring Break and spend a week having fun. I don't even have to leave the tri-state area - there's plenty of fun to be had around here. All you need is a bar and someone to chat with. As was proved last night. I digress. Oh, I'm just so tired! I need a break. Better go to bed...work will be here before I know it. But I'll have the promise of more fun times with the important person before this weekend. And there's only a few more days till St. Patrick's Day! Suddenly, t...

It's March. Already. I started my spring cleaning...the car was first and I must say I did a splendid job. I still need to hose down the floor mats and scrub the upholstery and give it a good Febreezing, but it's a lot better off than it was yesterday. It's a gorgeous day out today. I have to be back out of the house in about an hour since I'm going up to the city to see a play with an important person. ::Silently smiling to myself as I know the suspense is killing you all:: Hmmm..... one hour more or less to shower and dress and what I'll wear is anybody's guess but in the end I must look my best lest the hour I've used on dresses and shoes proves simply that I don't know how to make the right moves so the minutes will pass and the shower will splash and I'll drive in my car and I know I won't crash and then I'll take the train and I know it won't rain, in the end I know my journey won't be in vain though vanity is surely a forgivabl...

Grey's Anatomy is quickly topping the list of best shows on TV. So is The Boondocks . Roses are awesome, especially when they're for you. I feel a cold coming on, but I'm not allowed to get sick till at least the beginning of May. I don't know what to do. Besides pray. I must go shopping this weekend. And get a manicure. I don't usually say things like that..."I must get a manicure..." But now that I'm not at the mall anymore, my nails are actually growing and they need professional help. "Next week, on a very special Desperate Housewives , it's time for a desperate intervention." If you watch Desperate Housewives , you'd get that joke. Yup, roses are awesome and so is pinot noir. God, I hope I didn't curse too much. Or looked like a total idiot. But I got roses... ...I'll keep you posted. (And once again, you're all frustrated. "Dammit, it's bad enough she barely has time to keep us all entertained on a regular...

I had a crazy thought this morning as I was getting ready for work. I realized that it will be ten years ago this August that I started high school. That is a scary thought. Meanwhile, back in the present, I have been busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest with Shoestring and work. I looooove my job, and I looooove my Shoestring babies, but man! - am I one tired person! I'm busy and happy and tired. But not too tired to keep up with most of my tv shows and watch Freaks and Geeks. I heart that show. So yesterday was Valentine's Day, and I had mostly forgotten about it until a few people at work got roses and presents and stuff. I bought candy for my Shoestring kids. When I got home, there was a box sitting on the kitchen counter for me. Huh? A present for me?? My roommates, whom I love most dearly, bought me a present for Valentine's Day! I got the Desperate Housewives game and a book of Napoleon Dynamite Mad Libs. How awesome is that? So an otherwise crappy ...