For those of you who remember last summer's great ankle debacle caused by the total inability of an individual to clean a puddle of water, it's come back to haunt me!!
The last few months my ankle has been bothering me more and more, which led me to favor it-- had I thought about it, I would have fixed it but... that's not how things work! Instead, I went to step over a sweater nearly two weeks ago and my knee suddenly felt like there was a screwdriver under the kneecap!
I got in to the orthopedist surprisingly fast, and he set me up with six weeks of physical therapy. He confirmed my suspicion (and Iggy's) that it was due to my ankle never healing properly. I'm hoping to get reimbursement for at least part of it from worker's comp since the case was never closed by a doctor and DeKalb Medical never followed up on that.
Anyways, prayers, positive thoughts, good mojo, all that jazz is totally appreciated! I would really rather not have surgery on my ankle!
Showing posts with label stupid people. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stupid people. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Thursday, August 12, 2010
So Angry I'm Shaking
It's been a while since I've been this angry, possibly since I worked at the airline-- I just tried to call in suspected child abuse to the DeKalb County DFCS and they laughed at me. Passed me around the office and LAUGHED at me. Apparently I shouldn't have wrestled with this decision, gathered evidence like I've been taught to, and called with precise facts about the symptoms of abuse. Apparently I shouldn't have cared that I'm a required reporter and therefore required under penalty of law to report any and all suspected child abuse. Thankfully Jeremy was here, so if this thing goes to court I at least have a witness that I tried to call and was laughed off the line. "Well, tell the child's parents to call us for help." was the response. I'm sorry, but if the family is going through a hard time, calling DFCS to get laughed at is not what I'm going to tell them to do.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
G-Fail
I'm warning you now, this is a review of G-Force, the guinea pig movie Disney put out this week. It is clean, but unkind. This movie deserved no kindness. Also, I miss writing movie reviews.
This week is movie week, so today, tomorrow and Thursday we're taking the kids to a movie up at N. DeKalb. Today we had a choice between G-Force and UP!. Since I'd already seen UP!, I volunteered to see G-Force thinking that surely with a cast like this had to provide at least a little amusement. I mean, come on, Will Arnett, Bill Nighy, and Tracy Morgan? COME ON. It was a disaster. Utterly. There was nothing that saved this movie and its desperate attempt to pander to the adult audience it knew would be dragged to this puny excuse for a summer kids action flick.
The evil computer program that has to be stopped is called "Clusterstorm"-- no, that's not actually supposed to be clusterf*ck (favorite phrase of airliners 'round the world), not at all. THEN they decided to just dig a little lower than the pond scum of writing and "homage" Die Hard with a "Yippie cai-a, Coffee Maker" when the head guinea pig is riding a coffe maker gone mad. THAT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY. To homage a cultural cliche, you have to pass three tests-- those who know the cliche first hand have to be amused at the feint, those who know the cliche second hand half to be amused at the feint, and most importantly it has to be funny on its own. Die Hard came out when I was 3 and I'm the oldest counselor (aside from Richard, who is my age) there. My friend Sarah, who's older than I am, has never seen the movie but knows the cliche. When "Die Hardest" came out two years ago and THEY used the line it was FUNNY because it was BRUCE WILLIS saying it. These kids don't even know who Bruce Willis is because the only kids movies he's done he was voice talent. For the dog.
Even with the stellar cast, the writing was so awful and the music so poorly managed (for a summer blockbuster, they licensed three songs for repeated use-- "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas, "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga, and "Jump" by Flo Rida ft. Nelly Furtado) that not even Bill Nighy could save it. Will Arnett wasn't given a single funny line (since when does THAT happen? The man is funny reading, "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret"!) and even Tracy Morgan's big funny of the movie ("I can't believe the MOLE was the MOLE!") was so covered up by unnecessary action sequences that it was lost in the melee.
In the end, this is a pure and plain example of what used to be known as Shrek (meh) or Madagascar (which has grown on me greatly) Syndrome-- movies that were made for kids but pander to adults by using cultural cliches. It will now be known as G-Force Syndrome. Adults don't go to kids movies expecting a movie for themselves; that's why babysitters, Friday nights, and The Hangover exist. I would totally see this if Bruckheimer (who is KNOWN for his extraneous action scenes, hellooooo Top Gun, Con Air, The Rock, and ARMAGEDDON) had made it for adults, the plot was complex enough that it would have worked, but as a kids movie... eh.
In fact, Mr. Bruckheimer, would you please remove yourself from the movie world? We were willing to forgive and forget with Kangaroo Jack, but twice? TWICE? Why?
/rant
Tomorrow is Night At the Museum 2 which I'm excited about. Now that Ben Stiller is past the first Madagascar, he's pretty good at making kids movies!
This week is movie week, so today, tomorrow and Thursday we're taking the kids to a movie up at N. DeKalb. Today we had a choice between G-Force and UP!. Since I'd already seen UP!, I volunteered to see G-Force thinking that surely with a cast like this had to provide at least a little amusement. I mean, come on, Will Arnett, Bill Nighy, and Tracy Morgan? COME ON. It was a disaster. Utterly. There was nothing that saved this movie and its desperate attempt to pander to the adult audience it knew would be dragged to this puny excuse for a summer kids action flick.
The evil computer program that has to be stopped is called "Clusterstorm"-- no, that's not actually supposed to be clusterf*ck (favorite phrase of airliners 'round the world), not at all. THEN they decided to just dig a little lower than the pond scum of writing and "homage" Die Hard with a "Yippie cai-a, Coffee Maker" when the head guinea pig is riding a coffe maker gone mad. THAT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY. To homage a cultural cliche, you have to pass three tests-- those who know the cliche first hand have to be amused at the feint, those who know the cliche second hand half to be amused at the feint, and most importantly it has to be funny on its own. Die Hard came out when I was 3 and I'm the oldest counselor (aside from Richard, who is my age) there. My friend Sarah, who's older than I am, has never seen the movie but knows the cliche. When "Die Hardest" came out two years ago and THEY used the line it was FUNNY because it was BRUCE WILLIS saying it. These kids don't even know who Bruce Willis is because the only kids movies he's done he was voice talent. For the dog.
Even with the stellar cast, the writing was so awful and the music so poorly managed (for a summer blockbuster, they licensed three songs for repeated use-- "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas, "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga, and "Jump" by Flo Rida ft. Nelly Furtado) that not even Bill Nighy could save it. Will Arnett wasn't given a single funny line (since when does THAT happen? The man is funny reading, "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret"!) and even Tracy Morgan's big funny of the movie ("I can't believe the MOLE was the MOLE!") was so covered up by unnecessary action sequences that it was lost in the melee.
In the end, this is a pure and plain example of what used to be known as Shrek (meh) or Madagascar (which has grown on me greatly) Syndrome-- movies that were made for kids but pander to adults by using cultural cliches. It will now be known as G-Force Syndrome. Adults don't go to kids movies expecting a movie for themselves; that's why babysitters, Friday nights, and The Hangover exist. I would totally see this if Bruckheimer (who is KNOWN for his extraneous action scenes, hellooooo Top Gun, Con Air, The Rock, and ARMAGEDDON) had made it for adults, the plot was complex enough that it would have worked, but as a kids movie... eh.
In fact, Mr. Bruckheimer, would you please remove yourself from the movie world? We were willing to forgive and forget with Kangaroo Jack, but twice? TWICE? Why?
/rant
Tomorrow is Night At the Museum 2 which I'm excited about. Now that Ben Stiller is past the first Madagascar, he's pretty good at making kids movies!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
In Plain Sight
The hint of the day is this:
People think that names don't mean a lot, and surely names like Jennifer or Jessica or Mary may not make a big impact, but if you're thinking about naming your child something like Hamlet, or Reagan or Goneril, or even, I don't know, OPHELIA.... don't. That kind of thing, it just ain't right. The girl at my camp, whose parents purportedly DID name her for the Shakespearean character Ophelia, wanders around crying and talking to herself. If you don't know why that's significant, stop reading this and go read something worthwhile. I do have to wonder why she and her sister (twins) weren't named for King Lear's daughters instead, after all one is whiny and one is demanding, but whatever.
That's all I have to say, perhaps it also says a lot about my afternoon... because it ought to.
People think that names don't mean a lot, and surely names like Jennifer or Jessica or Mary may not make a big impact, but if you're thinking about naming your child something like Hamlet, or Reagan or Goneril, or even, I don't know, OPHELIA.... don't. That kind of thing, it just ain't right. The girl at my camp, whose parents purportedly DID name her for the Shakespearean character Ophelia, wanders around crying and talking to herself. If you don't know why that's significant, stop reading this and go read something worthwhile. I do have to wonder why she and her sister (twins) weren't named for King Lear's daughters instead, after all one is whiny and one is demanding, but whatever.
That's all I have to say, perhaps it also says a lot about my afternoon... because it ought to.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
What a weekend!
I'll just give a quick rundown of the weekend since I've told the story a few times now...
Thursday was the girls' preformal (date party) and the theme was Storybook Couples/Characters. My favorite was India and Houston who came as Calvin and Hobbes!
India's tummy was furry and she kept asking me to pet it, which was kind of hilarious. I also met Houston (her boyfriend) for the first time; he's a really sweet kid and I had fun talking beer and some academics with him. The girls were very well-behaved, but someone's date got way out of control and started a fight with the bouncer! I had to step in at one point, and was apparently pretty scary which is good-- it means word will get around that you don't screw up at an AOII event anymore! The girls are always great, but their dates have ruined stuff for them so many times, it's just not going to happen now that I'm here! The place we went to was called Cypress Pint and Plate. It was pretty good, but definitely on the pricey side-- they charged on average $2-3 more a beer than we do at Palate! $10 for a Hitachino White? Whaaaat? The food was pretty good, though, and the atmosphere was very well constructed. I wouldn't mind going down on a Monday night for their twenty cent wings and buying a couple beers then. After I broke up the fight with the bouncer, I came home and couldn't sleep because I was so wound up/ticked off. I wrote the chapter an e-mail explaining that I knew it wasn't their fault, but they needed to impart to their dates the severity of the punishment should they screw up on Friday at formal.
Friday we were on the Henry Grady River Boat at Stone Mountain for formal and it was AWESOME!! The girls and their dates were the most well behaved Greek organization the security folks could remember, and not only did we get our security deposit back, they actually *wanted* us to come back next year! The weather held out and was perfect-- nary a cloud in the sky and the moon was full and high in the sky, we couldn't have asked for anything better. I wore one of my grandmother's dresses, a really cute vintage number from the '40s. Everyone loved it, and so did I. I'm fairly set on having vintage dresses for my nice events from now on, they fit better and are just so pretty and so well made. They're quite expensive, though, so I'm thinking that it might be easier on my pockets to buy the vintage Vogue patterns and use similar materials.
Above is the view from the riverboat just before sunset of the forest surrounding the mountain.
Today was Susie's bridal shower, which was lots of fun. There was a woman there who is a "grace period" foster mother and I think maybe once Jeremy and I settle in and have our own who's a bit older, I'd like to do it, too. All you do is take in babies who are given up for adoption for the 10-20 day grace period Georgia gives a mother to change her mind so that the adoptive family doesn't have the baby and then get it taken away just as they've gotten it. All told, this woman's had 75!! She had her newest one who was only two weeks old with her, she got passed around and was a little shocked at the number of people there. Everyone was great fun, and my Mancala and Jenga went over well with Susie who loves those games as much as I do :) Her bachelorette party is in a couple weeks, I think, and should be a blast. I'm so excited to get to know Susie better, and Joanna as well-- I think we're all going to be really good friends. And it's appropriate, really, since Emily and I are very close now and met through a mutual friend, that I should be good friends with people I have met through her!
Work tonight was rough for a while, but not too bad-- and I really like working with Peter. If Shale gets in to medical school and heads on up to Philly, I'll probably talk to Jill about picking up Saturdays; they're a good money-making night and Peter and I just get along really well.
I'm so exhausted and have finally wound down enough to fall asleep maybe, so I'll leave you with a picture from my last trip to Florida-- my favorite billboard ever. Heck yeah, Chick'fil'A.
Thursday was the girls' preformal (date party) and the theme was Storybook Couples/Characters. My favorite was India and Houston who came as Calvin and Hobbes!
India's tummy was furry and she kept asking me to pet it, which was kind of hilarious. I also met Houston (her boyfriend) for the first time; he's a really sweet kid and I had fun talking beer and some academics with him. The girls were very well-behaved, but someone's date got way out of control and started a fight with the bouncer! I had to step in at one point, and was apparently pretty scary which is good-- it means word will get around that you don't screw up at an AOII event anymore! The girls are always great, but their dates have ruined stuff for them so many times, it's just not going to happen now that I'm here! The place we went to was called Cypress Pint and Plate. It was pretty good, but definitely on the pricey side-- they charged on average $2-3 more a beer than we do at Palate! $10 for a Hitachino White? Whaaaat? The food was pretty good, though, and the atmosphere was very well constructed. I wouldn't mind going down on a Monday night for their twenty cent wings and buying a couple beers then. After I broke up the fight with the bouncer, I came home and couldn't sleep because I was so wound up/ticked off. I wrote the chapter an e-mail explaining that I knew it wasn't their fault, but they needed to impart to their dates the severity of the punishment should they screw up on Friday at formal.
Friday we were on the Henry Grady River Boat at Stone Mountain for formal and it was AWESOME!! The girls and their dates were the most well behaved Greek organization the security folks could remember, and not only did we get our security deposit back, they actually *wanted* us to come back next year! The weather held out and was perfect-- nary a cloud in the sky and the moon was full and high in the sky, we couldn't have asked for anything better. I wore one of my grandmother's dresses, a really cute vintage number from the '40s. Everyone loved it, and so did I. I'm fairly set on having vintage dresses for my nice events from now on, they fit better and are just so pretty and so well made. They're quite expensive, though, so I'm thinking that it might be easier on my pockets to buy the vintage Vogue patterns and use similar materials.
Above is the view from the riverboat just before sunset of the forest surrounding the mountain.
Today was Susie's bridal shower, which was lots of fun. There was a woman there who is a "grace period" foster mother and I think maybe once Jeremy and I settle in and have our own who's a bit older, I'd like to do it, too. All you do is take in babies who are given up for adoption for the 10-20 day grace period Georgia gives a mother to change her mind so that the adoptive family doesn't have the baby and then get it taken away just as they've gotten it. All told, this woman's had 75!! She had her newest one who was only two weeks old with her, she got passed around and was a little shocked at the number of people there. Everyone was great fun, and my Mancala and Jenga went over well with Susie who loves those games as much as I do :) Her bachelorette party is in a couple weeks, I think, and should be a blast. I'm so excited to get to know Susie better, and Joanna as well-- I think we're all going to be really good friends. And it's appropriate, really, since Emily and I are very close now and met through a mutual friend, that I should be good friends with people I have met through her!
Work tonight was rough for a while, but not too bad-- and I really like working with Peter. If Shale gets in to medical school and heads on up to Philly, I'll probably talk to Jill about picking up Saturdays; they're a good money-making night and Peter and I just get along really well.
I'm so exhausted and have finally wound down enough to fall asleep maybe, so I'll leave you with a picture from my last trip to Florida-- my favorite billboard ever. Heck yeah, Chick'fil'A.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
So much to say
Jeremy left a few hours ago to head back to Daytona after a very fun-filled week, the greatest accomplishment of which is that my car is finally legal!
He came in Wednesday, and we went and hung out at work (which was a total loss, with two tables) and after work went out to pick up the exhaust manifold from an AutoZone in Lilburn which was an adventure in itself... It wasn't just in Lilburn, it was out in like NORTH Lilburn (which is a big haul, for those of you who don't knwo) and we ended up getting home at like midnight. We were home around 1230a and went straight to bed.
Thursday, I had to go out Ptree Industrial to the Hyundai dealership to pick up the last gasket we needed and then ran all over the place on the way home to pick up other stuff. I spent so much money this week, and even though I needed to do it, I'm just still kind of in shock because it was a great feeling having a cushion! But, I won't have to pay any tickets, so I guess it evens out :D
Thursday night, we went and got Jeremy fitted for his tux and got the wedding party set up after a trip to Sears to look at tools and multimeters; I got an idea of what I can buy him for birthdays and Christmas and Valentine's for the next few years, which is kinda nice since he's so hard to buy for. I'm hoping I have enough money left to get him a gift card to Target for the webcam-- he misses talking to Valerie, and I know he's dying to talk to Ana, too! After Sears and Men's Warehouse, we came back in to town for a Single Malt Scotch tasting at Palate. I'm not big on Scotch, so it was more for Jeremy. I had a glass of wine and a snack. The tasting was a lot of fun, our distributor (Bill) is very educated on the industry and has been doing this for years. After that, we went to El Tesoro to try and catch Bo and grab one last snack before we went home, and had the Oaxaca with serrano peppers and other spicy things-- I was very happy Jeremy said it was the spiciest thing he'd had in a *long* time! He loves spicy, but he's still stuck on this green chile pizza he had in India, so I keep trying to find something that has comparable spice! We came home and watched the season finale of Burn Notice, which wasn't quite as action-packed as I'd expected, but it set up a really interesting premise for next season, which thankfully starts in June! This is why I love watching shows on USA!
Friday was a little less hectic. I went to register the car, where I dealt with this woman who wouldn't give me the sticker for my plate because I didn't have the same address or the same last name as my mother! GAH! I've been doing the registration for both of our cars for the last seven years, and never in my life have I had the same last name as my mother. We went through this ten minute thing about how I needed to be her power of attourney or have the same last name and address or get this paper notarized saying I had permission before she finally admitted I could pay for the tags, get the receipt, and they would mail out the sticker on Monday-- yes, this means that the car is registered. The sticker is a formality so that the cops don't have to bother with looking it up if they have better things they can do. I was waiting to get pulled over so I could say, "Sorry I don't have the sticker, officer, but I don't have the same last name as my mother." Ugh. You would think by now, people wouldn't be stuck in that mode. I mean, there are women who don't change their last name when they're married (like my mother, who was a published author and poet at the time), there are divorced parents, there are parents who have re-married after a divorce or death of a spouse-- it's just not uncommon to find a child who doesn't have the same last name! Plus, does that mean if I found someone with the last name "Sizemore" I could waltz in there and take their registration?
When I got home, we killed a few minutes, and then hopped on the bike (Jeremy brought up a helment for me) and went to lunch with my godmother, Gail, who's going to be doing our wedding service. I hadn't seen her in a while, so it was really great not only to have her meet Jeremy, but to hear a little about the old neighborhood and how everyone's doing. We went to Top Spice, which was sooo yummy-- they do Thai and Malaysian food, and the lunch is way more affordable than dinner. Jeremy had, I think, the Spicy Basil Leaf, and I had the Beef Rendang which looks a little unappetizing, but was very good. Plus, we got to knock off another restaurant in town for Jeremy!
After that, we came home and got in the car and went to little Fernbank, where we briefly went through the exhibits (they're pretty old and kinda small-- they do have one of the Apollos, though; I think it's VII which was the last unmanned mission?) and then out in to the Forest and Nature Trail which was greatly expanded from the last time I was there with Dill! The chickens are still there, and they have a beautiful black and white rooster who looks very French countryside and prances around, and the old rust-colored hen was still there chatting to herself. We went on about a 30 minute walk, which was very pleasant and quiet and it was very beautiful outside! Post-Nature Trail, we hopped up the street to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History where we saw their cool new exhibit on fossils and the dinosaurs, which included fossils you could touch and moving models of how they think the dinosaurs would have moved! The exhibit was really cool, especially if you're a geek like us!
Around 7, we headed out to the ASO for the first time in I don't recall how long! I used to go with Gail all the time, but when I started having my own performances I stopped being able to go to theirs. I said something to Valerie that night about how happy I was Ana liked music so much, it reminded me of the ASO for Kids program they used to do (still do!) on the weekends. We went to all of them, even right after my mom had Casey. He was about seven weeks old and she'd tried to get rid of the tickets but couldn't, so she went thinking that since it was a kids concert, she'd just step out if he started crying. Instead, when the first violin started their warmup note, he turned his head around and watched the entire thing in complete awe. I think babies and small children are naturally drawn to music, possibly because of language, and if you really encourage that connection they'll grow up close to music. I played an instrument, but I was always more of a dancer-- Casey can listen to anything once and play it.
Anyway, we went to see Jennifer Koh, who is a really extraordinarily talented Korean violinist-- apparently she's being billed as the Korean Midori. The ASO was as fantastic as I ever remember them being, and we were second row orchestra right, so we were right in front of the low strings (which was kinda cool since Jeremy plays cello). The first piece was absolutely perfect, they played the intro to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and it was just stunning. The second piece, which was the one written for Koh, was... interesting. She was stunning, the orchestra sounded fantastic, and the ASO singers (several of which are church friends of my mother's) sounded great, but I just don't take well to choral pieces written for music (if that makes sense) especially when it's modern English poetry put to the music. The third piece was another special commission, more poetry to music, which was supposed to be "celebratory" according to the composer and ended up more like a joyful dirge. Thankfully, there was a solid turn-of-the century piece at the end and we all left feeling good about the night. We went and got some late night snacks and then went home and finished Lucky Number Slevin (which was fantastic, by the way) and hit the hay.
Saturday, we rode the bike up to North Georgia and rode through Red Top Mountain and Kennesaw Mountain, and through part of historic Marietta. There was a little confusion on the way back, and we ended up halfway to South Georgia, but we weren't too far gone before Jeremy finally figured out I was trying to get him to turn around because he'd missed 20E! It was a nice day out, though, so neither of us was too put out, it just took a while to work my shoulders back in to place after nearly five hours on the bike!
Last night, we just went and picked up a pizza at Kroger, and ran through Krispy Kreme, and then came back and packed and watched some HGTV and FoodTV. Oh, we also watched The Relic, which was supposedly based on a Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child book and pretty much NONE OF IT was related to ANY book I've read by Preston/Child, much less Relic or Reliquary. It was also made in 1997, but looked like it was made in '91, with Tom Sizemore and Penelope Ann Miller looking all sorts of mis-dressed and running around yelling and screaming. It was good for cheese, but nothing terribly special-- I wouldn't recommend it.
He came in Wednesday, and we went and hung out at work (which was a total loss, with two tables) and after work went out to pick up the exhaust manifold from an AutoZone in Lilburn which was an adventure in itself... It wasn't just in Lilburn, it was out in like NORTH Lilburn (which is a big haul, for those of you who don't knwo) and we ended up getting home at like midnight. We were home around 1230a and went straight to bed.
Thursday, I had to go out Ptree Industrial to the Hyundai dealership to pick up the last gasket we needed and then ran all over the place on the way home to pick up other stuff. I spent so much money this week, and even though I needed to do it, I'm just still kind of in shock because it was a great feeling having a cushion! But, I won't have to pay any tickets, so I guess it evens out :D
Thursday night, we went and got Jeremy fitted for his tux and got the wedding party set up after a trip to Sears to look at tools and multimeters; I got an idea of what I can buy him for birthdays and Christmas and Valentine's for the next few years, which is kinda nice since he's so hard to buy for. I'm hoping I have enough money left to get him a gift card to Target for the webcam-- he misses talking to Valerie, and I know he's dying to talk to Ana, too! After Sears and Men's Warehouse, we came back in to town for a Single Malt Scotch tasting at Palate. I'm not big on Scotch, so it was more for Jeremy. I had a glass of wine and a snack. The tasting was a lot of fun, our distributor (Bill) is very educated on the industry and has been doing this for years. After that, we went to El Tesoro to try and catch Bo and grab one last snack before we went home, and had the Oaxaca with serrano peppers and other spicy things-- I was very happy Jeremy said it was the spiciest thing he'd had in a *long* time! He loves spicy, but he's still stuck on this green chile pizza he had in India, so I keep trying to find something that has comparable spice! We came home and watched the season finale of Burn Notice, which wasn't quite as action-packed as I'd expected, but it set up a really interesting premise for next season, which thankfully starts in June! This is why I love watching shows on USA!
Friday was a little less hectic. I went to register the car, where I dealt with this woman who wouldn't give me the sticker for my plate because I didn't have the same address or the same last name as my mother! GAH! I've been doing the registration for both of our cars for the last seven years, and never in my life have I had the same last name as my mother. We went through this ten minute thing about how I needed to be her power of attourney or have the same last name and address or get this paper notarized saying I had permission before she finally admitted I could pay for the tags, get the receipt, and they would mail out the sticker on Monday-- yes, this means that the car is registered. The sticker is a formality so that the cops don't have to bother with looking it up if they have better things they can do. I was waiting to get pulled over so I could say, "Sorry I don't have the sticker, officer, but I don't have the same last name as my mother." Ugh. You would think by now, people wouldn't be stuck in that mode. I mean, there are women who don't change their last name when they're married (like my mother, who was a published author and poet at the time), there are divorced parents, there are parents who have re-married after a divorce or death of a spouse-- it's just not uncommon to find a child who doesn't have the same last name! Plus, does that mean if I found someone with the last name "Sizemore" I could waltz in there and take their registration?
When I got home, we killed a few minutes, and then hopped on the bike (Jeremy brought up a helment for me) and went to lunch with my godmother, Gail, who's going to be doing our wedding service. I hadn't seen her in a while, so it was really great not only to have her meet Jeremy, but to hear a little about the old neighborhood and how everyone's doing. We went to Top Spice, which was sooo yummy-- they do Thai and Malaysian food, and the lunch is way more affordable than dinner. Jeremy had, I think, the Spicy Basil Leaf, and I had the Beef Rendang which looks a little unappetizing, but was very good. Plus, we got to knock off another restaurant in town for Jeremy!
After that, we came home and got in the car and went to little Fernbank, where we briefly went through the exhibits (they're pretty old and kinda small-- they do have one of the Apollos, though; I think it's VII which was the last unmanned mission?) and then out in to the Forest and Nature Trail which was greatly expanded from the last time I was there with Dill! The chickens are still there, and they have a beautiful black and white rooster who looks very French countryside and prances around, and the old rust-colored hen was still there chatting to herself. We went on about a 30 minute walk, which was very pleasant and quiet and it was very beautiful outside! Post-Nature Trail, we hopped up the street to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History where we saw their cool new exhibit on fossils and the dinosaurs, which included fossils you could touch and moving models of how they think the dinosaurs would have moved! The exhibit was really cool, especially if you're a geek like us!
Around 7, we headed out to the ASO for the first time in I don't recall how long! I used to go with Gail all the time, but when I started having my own performances I stopped being able to go to theirs. I said something to Valerie that night about how happy I was Ana liked music so much, it reminded me of the ASO for Kids program they used to do (still do!) on the weekends. We went to all of them, even right after my mom had Casey. He was about seven weeks old and she'd tried to get rid of the tickets but couldn't, so she went thinking that since it was a kids concert, she'd just step out if he started crying. Instead, when the first violin started their warmup note, he turned his head around and watched the entire thing in complete awe. I think babies and small children are naturally drawn to music, possibly because of language, and if you really encourage that connection they'll grow up close to music. I played an instrument, but I was always more of a dancer-- Casey can listen to anything once and play it.
Anyway, we went to see Jennifer Koh, who is a really extraordinarily talented Korean violinist-- apparently she's being billed as the Korean Midori. The ASO was as fantastic as I ever remember them being, and we were second row orchestra right, so we were right in front of the low strings (which was kinda cool since Jeremy plays cello). The first piece was absolutely perfect, they played the intro to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and it was just stunning. The second piece, which was the one written for Koh, was... interesting. She was stunning, the orchestra sounded fantastic, and the ASO singers (several of which are church friends of my mother's) sounded great, but I just don't take well to choral pieces written for music (if that makes sense) especially when it's modern English poetry put to the music. The third piece was another special commission, more poetry to music, which was supposed to be "celebratory" according to the composer and ended up more like a joyful dirge. Thankfully, there was a solid turn-of-the century piece at the end and we all left feeling good about the night. We went and got some late night snacks and then went home and finished Lucky Number Slevin (which was fantastic, by the way) and hit the hay.
Saturday, we rode the bike up to North Georgia and rode through Red Top Mountain and Kennesaw Mountain, and through part of historic Marietta. There was a little confusion on the way back, and we ended up halfway to South Georgia, but we weren't too far gone before Jeremy finally figured out I was trying to get him to turn around because he'd missed 20E! It was a nice day out, though, so neither of us was too put out, it just took a while to work my shoulders back in to place after nearly five hours on the bike!
Last night, we just went and picked up a pizza at Kroger, and ran through Krispy Kreme, and then came back and packed and watched some HGTV and FoodTV. Oh, we also watched The Relic, which was supposedly based on a Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child book and pretty much NONE OF IT was related to ANY book I've read by Preston/Child, much less Relic or Reliquary. It was also made in 1997, but looked like it was made in '91, with Tom Sizemore and Penelope Ann Miller looking all sorts of mis-dressed and running around yelling and screaming. It was good for cheese, but nothing terribly special-- I wouldn't recommend it.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Boredom strikes again...
The last week or so has been a little crazy and a little boring all at once. I had a fever for the first time in years, which was strange, and I didn't realize it for a few hours. Last night at work was a little slow, and we had the rudest most ill-behaved people in I've seen yet. They barely tipped me 10% because they were ticked that we didn't have more specials and I wouldn't let them take an open bottle of wine with them. I've been asked several times about whether we do cork and carry (meaning, if you start a bottle and don't finish it, you can take it with you) and the answer is no.
These two argued with me about it, they kept insisting City of Decatur had passed the law (where it frankly doesn't make sense to me that they would, we're not a "walk around with an open container of alcohol kind of place) and that they'd been doing it everywhere else, and got totally bent out of shape when I told them that it wasn't our policy and the City of Decatur hadn't notified us, I couldn't double check with anyone because there was nobody to double check with, we'd just had a staff meeting and we would have been notified, and no, we wouldn't make more money, because we have a retail license to sell bottles of wine to take home and they were welcome to do that if they liked.
Then, they left, finally. And left one of the hallway doors wide open, which made the hall even colder than it was before and forced up the heating. I was really ticked off. This was the same woman (the cheap Tara Reid knockoff) who ordered six bruschettas to go when they were on special, and who tried to order more of the specials to go another time over the phone and got irritated when we wouldn't let her take them out. I really hope they never come back again. They spent $50 and tipped me $6. Jerks.
One of the knitting clubs was back last night, though, and I always enjoy them-- one of them just found out she's about six weeks pregnant which is really exciting. Even the new one who came off a little rude warmed up and was really sweet by the end of the night. I think next Monday, Megan and her crew should be back-- they're the crazy fun ones.
Speaking of work, it's time to head out. I'm not expecting much from a Tuesday night, so if we don't have anyone in I'm going to start designing the surprise I'm making for my bridesmaids and Ana.
These two argued with me about it, they kept insisting City of Decatur had passed the law (where it frankly doesn't make sense to me that they would, we're not a "walk around with an open container of alcohol kind of place) and that they'd been doing it everywhere else, and got totally bent out of shape when I told them that it wasn't our policy and the City of Decatur hadn't notified us, I couldn't double check with anyone because there was nobody to double check with, we'd just had a staff meeting and we would have been notified, and no, we wouldn't make more money, because we have a retail license to sell bottles of wine to take home and they were welcome to do that if they liked.
Then, they left, finally. And left one of the hallway doors wide open, which made the hall even colder than it was before and forced up the heating. I was really ticked off. This was the same woman (the cheap Tara Reid knockoff) who ordered six bruschettas to go when they were on special, and who tried to order more of the specials to go another time over the phone and got irritated when we wouldn't let her take them out. I really hope they never come back again. They spent $50 and tipped me $6. Jerks.
One of the knitting clubs was back last night, though, and I always enjoy them-- one of them just found out she's about six weeks pregnant which is really exciting. Even the new one who came off a little rude warmed up and was really sweet by the end of the night. I think next Monday, Megan and her crew should be back-- they're the crazy fun ones.
Speaking of work, it's time to head out. I'm not expecting much from a Tuesday night, so if we don't have anyone in I'm going to start designing the surprise I'm making for my bridesmaids and Ana.
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