Author: sychela

Categories
Fiction Nonfiction TV

The Valentine’s Day Episode of “Glee” Was Really Not So Bad

Anyone who knows me knows I’ve kind of fallen off the Glee train. What started out as this super fun show about high school kids singing and dancing, has turned into a mess of tangled/unfinished plot lines, overly cheesy characters, and some uncomfortably bad acting.

But the Valentine’s Day episode was a pleasant surprise in many ways. **Spoilers below…although is that kind of redundant?**

For one thing (and everyone knows that this is key), the teachers were, for the most part, absent from the episode. The appearance of too much faculty/staff of McKinley High always brings the episodes down. Too much teacher-singing and I tune right out (no pun intended). But Tuesday’s episode focused on the students and their romantic escapades, and I appreciated that.

One of the arcs in the show right now is that Finn has proposed to Rachel and she finally said yes. So they’re now navigating their new relationship, and in Tuesday’s episode, Rachel’s two dads have found out about the engagement and are surprisingly supportive. They even invite Finn’s mom and step-dad over for dinner, where the four parents reveal that they are leaving Finn to spend the night with Rachel! OMG you guys, high school students having sleepovers!

One continuity thing that bothered me here was that they had dinner, drinks, dessert; Finn’s parents took off; Rachel and Finn “went to bed,” meaning she took a shower and went through her nightly beauty routine (which she says is longer than her morning routine); she and Finn get into an argument; somehow kiss and make up*; and are snuggling in bed (scandalous)…at which point he looks at the clock and says, “It’s 7:30.” Meaning 7:30pm, meaning they get up, get dressed again, and head out to the Valentine’s party with all their classmates. Meaning…this dinner party started at what, 4:00pm?

But then we find out a twist! The parents do NOT approve of Finn and Rachel getting married straight out of high school, and are instead trying to reverse-psychology the two into realizing on their own that it’s not a good idea. Which, of course, backfires and they decide to hurry things up and get married in May. Oops!

*They somehow kiss and make up – I am disappointed that the writers skipped straight from the two of them getting into a fight over what the future holds for each of them in NYC…to everything being snuggly and back to normal. Why did they skip the making up scene? Seems like a cop-out, and also, this would have been an amazing time to show us a rational discussion and apology between two “adults.” Maybe if I’d seen how each of them had handled their part of that coming back together, I would have more sympathy for them and see them more as adults. This could have been a great “role model” moment for teens.

The students, although all vaguely somewhere between 15-18, are all portrayed as adults, making adult decisions we’re supposed to go along with (“Let’s get married” or “I’m switching schools to go to school with my boyfriend even though my parents paid for me to go to private school for 12 years of my life”). I cringe uncontrollably when, in glee club, couples are paired up to sing songs to each other about undying love, when they all keep trading off partners with each other. (I did like Quinn singing “Never Can Say Goodbye” to all three of her glee club boyfriends…but that was in one of those metaphorical spaces, we weren’t literally watching her performance in glee club.)

(And what is glee club anyway? Is it a class? Is it before school? After school? Sometimes it seems like no one else is around, sometimes a bell rings at the end of it. What is this weird time-glee continuum we’ve been dropped into?)

Thirdly (?), I find myself fascinated with Karofsky’s story. David Karofsky is a football player who used to torment Kurt for being (flamboyantly and fashionably) gay. In one episode last season, Kurt finally confronted Karofsky in an empty locker room, asking why he focused so much energy on bullying him, and Karofsky “hate kissed” Kurt in a moment that, I’m pretty sure, shocked most of the viewing audience. Not in a boys-kissing-boys kind of way, but in a I-did-not-see-that-coming-at-all-and-now-everything-makes-sense-and-I-feel-sympathy-for-Karofsky-now-that’s-so-weird kind of way.

Karofsky has since moved to another school – the details are fuzzy, sometimes I feel like I must have missed weeks of episodes because I have no idea where this person came from (Sugar) or that person went (Shelby). But for Valentine’s Day Karofsky came back and was revealed to be the person sending “Secret Admirer” Valentines to Kurt. He tells Kurt that he has feelings for him, and Kurt actually turns him down with finesse, which I appreciated.

Oh and! If we’re talking about same-sex couples, I like Brittany and Santana together. Is that officially a thing? What’s going on there? When did that happen? I don’t know, but whatever, I like Santana when she’s happy and focusing her catty energy on people we can all agree are the enemies (like Sebastian the Warbler).

One last thing that I liked a lot: Mercedes’ rendition of “I Will Always Love You,” which they say was planned before Whitney Houston’s death made it incredibly relevant. (I believe them that it was already planned, since the entire episode is based on “the greatest love songs ever” and this one just fits right into the storyline.) They even let Mercedes sing the entire song, which doesn’t always happen, especially when someone’s doing a solo. She did a great job with it.

I realized that my intent in writing about this episode was to applaud it for being better than its mediocre brothers and sisters. Then I accidentally heaped more criticism on it. Oops. Oh well. Guess I should just watch something “better” that I know I’ll like more. Arrested Development is very good so far.

Categories
"Other people" Awesome Celebrities Memoir Nonfiction Theatre

An Expert at Life

Almost a year ago, I had this great experience with a wacky usher at the theatre. She inspired such quotes as “The carny life is a rough life,” and yes, Drew and I still say that to each other on occasion.

Well, she’s been at the theatre again the last couple times I’ve been there, and she’s been the most helpful usher in the entire world. That is sincere. She’s also been slightly less talkative, partly because she’s gone in and watched the show both times and so we’ve only had pre-show and intermission to chat, and it tends to get busy then.

But I did hear some stories last night, among them “Situational Comedy” and “My Time in Taxco.”

So, I wasn’t sure of the definition of situational comedy, so I Googled it. Then I got onto the wiki page for sitcoms. Sitcoms are popular in the US and the UK, but fare poorly in Australia and Canada. Some successful Australian sitcoms are My Name’s McGooley, What’s Yours? and Our Man in Canberra. Canadian sitcoms include Snow Job, Check It Out!, Mosquito Lake, and Not My Department.

I found this interlude amusing, and I still don’t know whether that counts as situation comedy. But I also don’t really care anymore.

She’s right, you know. This is not meant to be a swipe at Bay Area theatre, but you cannot see 7 shows in 5 days all over the Bay and not have them blend together. There needs to be more spacing out. For me, two per weekend is kind of my limit.

Everyone knows the exception is when you go to New York and have to cram a season’s worth of shows into a week. But really, that’s not ideal either. That was maybe the best thing about living there – seeing everything at a more leisurely pace, and waiting for discounts and free tickets to appear.

Anyway, those are your lessons for today. Canada and Australia aren’t as good at sitcoms as the US and the UK; and if you try to see too much in too little time, it all blends together. You’re welcome!

Categories
"Other people" Awesome Nonfiction

Pacific BioScis Laughs

Here’s something kind of crazy. In January I posted a picture (among other pictures) of a cardboard box with a weird “code” on it. Because I think I’m funny, I tagged that blog post with the “code” in the picture. I never thought about it again.

A couple days ago I was obsessively looking at my stats (hard to stop, even when it’s been a few days since writing something) and I noticed that someone had Googled that phrase and gotten here. I suddenly realized I should have Googled it (didn’t I enjoy finding out what a Gerchanovsky was?). So I did.

The first link listed was the LinkedIn page of this particular person. Oh, how I hate LinkedIn – does anyone else get nothing but notifications from them, with zero ways to turn them off?? – but I guess it’s good for something. Like discovering Gerchanovsky. Or this other guy. Whose name I’m deliberately not typing out.

Anyway, he’s an Executive Asst at the company that occupies the office building right next to ours. So I guess at some point, in all my stealing boxes from work to pack up the apartment, I managed to get a couple that belonged to them, in particular to him. And then I brought those boxes home, and then I made fun of his name.

But you know? I really really like when mysterious things become suddenly explained. Especially things you’ve forgotten about, that never really mattered that much anyway.

Categories
Awesome Being a girl Dreams Drew Family Love Memoir Self improvement Sentiment

Seven Years

There’s an old wives’ tale that every seven years all the cells in your body have regenerated and replaced themselves, so every seven years you’re like a brand new person.

There’s another saying that relationships suffer from the “seven year itch,” and that you need to be careful at that point because that’s when many people re-evaluate their relationships, and break-ups or divorces happen.

(There’s also research to suggest that the “seven year itch” has become the “three year itch,” and that’s the year you really need to watch out for. Yikes. Three years? Apprently attention spans are shrinking…)

Internet rumors and Yahoo answers aside…this is on my mind because today is Drew’s and my seven year anniversary. It’s hard to believe that it’s only been seven years. I feel like it’s been forever. I couldn’t even buy alcohol when we first got together, and since then we’ve been through college graduations (a certain classmate graduating with each of us, in two different years!), two cross-country moves, pets, no pets, jobs, no jobs, tough times and easier times.

There were times for each of us that we weren’t sure it was going to work out. But that was early days, when we were both still figuring out the intricacies of relationships. By now we’ve learned how to weather storms and that most arguments are momentary and inconsequential. We’ve hit our stride. I could do this forever.

I’m probably not supposed to say this, but I’ve changed a lot in seven years, and it’s due to this relationship. Am I a whole new person? Possibly. Am I better person? Definitely. I’m more patient, quicker to be grateful, and less moody. And if I’m a little cattier…well, it’s all in good spirits. I like me now. I hope other people like me now too.

Happy Anniversary Drew! Here’s to seventy-seven more years! (Hope he reads this post. Otherwise this is kind of awkward.)

Bakers Square, Davis, Jan 2005
Categories
Awesome Children Drew Friends Nonfiction Sentiment Technology

A New Dominion

I’m a little competitive. In life, and in board games, and other types of games. Sometimes I get carried away.

I stopped playing Risk because of one terrible experience in the college dorms, when I formed an alliance with my friend Josh, and then in a few turns I broke it and invaded him. He gave me some kind of disappointed, “I can’t believe you did that,” look, and then he and the other two people we were playing went to dinner at the dining hall. But I was too upset about my treachery to eat, and I stayed in the dorms feeling bad about myself.

Later, I realized that was stupid, and it’s just a game. I had a late dinner. But I never forgot how swept up I got in that game of Risk.

Drew’s friends recently introduced him to the card game Dominion. One of his friends has this insane expansion pack, with like a million different types of cards. I’m not even going to try to explain the rules.

Drew taught it to me and Erin over the weekend, so we could play while we watched the 49ers game. (Could our lack of attention be what caused…? No, surely not.) The three of us played three rounds and each of us won once, which is nice and PC.

Last night, Drew and I played again and he won, but it was close. I think I like this game! I like the dimensions I’ve been introduced to so far, and I like the way there is some interaction between players but it’s not overly based on that. (Like Ticket to Ride, the other addictive board game brought to you by Drew’s friends.)

I guess what I want to say is…in this world of Words with Friends and Hanging with Friends and Scramble with Friends (Boggle! omg! so fun) and Tiny Wings and Qrank and Fruit Ninja and Temple Run and Harbor Master and Flight Control…it’s really nice to sit down in a single room with RL friends and play an actual board game.

Even if Drew mostly wins.

Categories
Drew Nonfiction Sleep talking

Sweet Sleep Talking 16

Last night I woke from a dead sleep, parched with thirst. I fumbled for the water bottle next to the bed and enjoyed that middle-of-the-night drink of water that is always so so much better than a daytime drink of water. Why is that?

I must have made some kind of noise, because Drew said, “Is that…is that water?”

I handed it over. He drank all but a mouthful (terrible habit) and then handed it back, and said, “Now hurry, hurry, go back to sleep. Don’t waste it.”

This morning when the alarm went off, I said, “It’s 6:00. Are you getting up?”

He said, “Yes, turn the alarm off.”

I said, “No, I’m setting it to snooze.”

To which he replied (sounding totally hurt), “Aw, come on! Don’t be like that.”

Then I think we both slept for another 9 minutes.

For all I know, he was actually awake for both of these. I mean they’re not THAT farfetched.

Categories
"Other people" Being a girl Friends Memoir Writing

The Art of Bad Tipping

Over the holidays, some friends and I went out to dinner at a place that we have gone several times before. It was a late dinner, so although we had to wait for a table, the restaurant wasn’t full or bustling or anything. But the service was pretty terrible. We just kept waiting for things that should have appeared quicker. Things like a server, to take our orders.
 
Once we had our food (which was not delivered by the server, but by other food deliverers), one of us had to flag down a server (not our server) to ask for a spoon. About five minutes later, our server appeared with a spoon and said, “Oh, they already brought you one.” Then she wandered away.
 
My root beer mug sat empty, although the menu states in all caps, “FREE REFILLS,” through the last three-quarters of the hour we were there.
 
Once we were clearly finished eating, some bussers came and removed the plates…and then we sat and talked, which was nice, but that’s the appropriate point for a server to come back, ask if you’re interested in dessert or coffee or anything, and then drop off the check. We finally had to flag her down to ask for the check…and then again to pick up the check.
 
When it came time to write in a tip, the table was all in agreement that we should make some kind of statement with this optional dollar amount.
 
Which brings me to my main point – what’s the appropriate way to tip poorly, when you want to make it clear that you felt the service was below par? One person argued that we should leave a zero tip, because that leaves the clearest message. But I think that generally you should leave something so that they know that you chose to leave a small amount – and it’s not that you didn’t know about tipping, or maybe you meant to leave cash on the table or something.
 
I ended up leaving about 10%, which is pretty awful as far as tips go. But afterwards I was told unhesitatingly that I should have left a big fat zero. That 10% just makes it look like I am a bad tipper, but leaving no tip at all leaves the strongest message.
 
I’m really not sure where I stand on this. I usually tip pretty well, because I like the idea of positive reinforcement and I’m generally happy with the service. My generosity goes up if I frequent the business and if they start to recognize me. I don’t want to be the girl who never tips. And I remember working food service and how each time someone stuffed a dollar in the tip jar, it would just make my day.
 
I also hate to treat anyone badly if I don’t know their situation. Was our server just having an off night? Did her boyfriend just dump her? Was she up all night with some kind of home repair problem? Who knows? On the other hand, she is getting paid to do her job – that extra 20% of our table’s check isn’t guaranteed to her, and she knows that she has to work to get that optional money out of her customers.
 
She wasn’t overtly rude, and she didn’t make any mistakes. She didn’t blow cigarette smoke in our faces or bring us all the wrong meals. She was just absent the whole time. So what’s the best way to handle that TIP line on the credit card slip?
 
Retrospectively, I feel okay about that 10%. It’s not as harsh as leaving nothing, but I didn’t have to smilingly hand over a fistful of extra bills beyond what the meal cost. I hope she was just having a momentary lapse of concentration, and that today she is back in top form, slinging plates and scooping up gratuities.
 
I also hope that the next time we go back there, we’re seated in another section…something in the other room, perhaps? No? Well, we can just sit at the bar, thanks.

Categories
Awesome Beginnings Being a girl Drew Endings Home improvements Memoir Nonfiction Sentiment Work

The Devolution of an Apartment

Because I missed the boat on having a comprehensive wedding blog (one of my top 5 regrets ever), I have become slightly obsessive about documenting everything just in case it’s important. Most lately, the devolution of our apartment.

Here it is near the beginning of the breakdown. The hutch is (mostly) emptied out but everything is basically still there:

As the hutch and dining room set move out, everything else starts moving around:

The bedroom and my awesome red shelves, now emptied of books. Well, almost:

The living room only seemed to grow more crowded as we packed, despite my giving away 6 bags of clothes/shoes/etc, and 2 boxes of kitchen stuff, and us throwing away tons of trash:

Possibly making some progress? The desk is gone from the bedroom:

The couches, now freed from their restraining covers, move their waterprint patterns out the balcony and over the side (no room to get them out the front door).

Drew blinds me with the dresser mirror. Maybe he’s tired of me taking pictures while he and his dad move the heavy stuff.

So much room!

Yet still so much stuff!

While Drew and his dad drove the couches to the storage, I made it my job to clean off the bed.

I liked to put blinders on and pretend that this was all that was left. Ignorance is bliss.

The truck filled with boxes:

Our stored stuff, filling up the space:

My plan was to open every cupboard and drawer in the kitchen that still had stuff in it, and close them as I emptied them out.

I got some boxes from work with some strange codes on them…

Progress!

Then a break to take pictures. The masks were mostly because I was using Easy Off in the oven, and that stuff is toxic. But then it was fun to just keep them on.

I am really loving this afternoon spent with my head in an oven. So fun.

Actually, this is preferable.

The final day. Seriously, what is all this stuff.

FINALLY! What a giant bedroom.

What a sparkling bathroom.

What an empty living room!

And of course, to say goodbye, San Bruno had to dress up in its finest.

So long, first apartment in our married life! You were a good little apartment! I will think of you fondly!

Categories
Beginnings Being a girl cars Dreams Drew Exercise Food Home improvements Memoir Self improvement

Setting a routine

We’ve been in our new place for a week now. I can now say comfortably that I do not think we made the worst mistake ever moving out of our apartment. (That was a very real fear a couple times there.)

We’ve now had time to settle in, figure out what stuff goes where, and get used to sleeping in a new bed. We’ve each decided which shower we prefer. We’ve cooked meals in the kitchen. This morning I hosted our book club here and we made lunch for our four-person book club. (It was awesome.) (We should entertain more.)

We lived in the other place for over 2 years. I had a routine down. I knew exactly what I did every morning, and while it was a lot of back and forth from the living room to the bedroom to the bathroom to the bedroom, I knew what each step was and there was a very precise reason I did everything in that order.

But I have to kind of start over here. None of my stuff is in the order it used to be in, for one thing. For another, the bathroom where I shower is not the bathroom where I keep the hair dryer and everything. So there’s a lot more back and forth, because after 4 work days I still haven’t quite figured out what my exact routine is. There’s still a lot of, “What am I missing here?” It takes me a little longer to get out the door in the morning. Which is fine, since my commute is about cut in half.

Drew’s commute is about doubled, which makes our commutes about the same length of time now. Which is nice.

The good thing about getting a chance to recreate your routine, is that it allows you to build in some good stuff. I am trying to build the following things into my routine:

  • Healthier eating, specifically snacking – we’ve purchased a lot of fruit in the last week, and I’m also depending a lot on those frozen vegetables that you steam right in the microwave
  • Cooking dinner – in the last few weeks at the old place, we basically gave up cooking anything besides chicken nuggets on a baking sheet
  • Going to the gym on the way home from work – theoretically I can avoid the worst of rush hour if I wait it out in a spin class
  • More walks – it’s so pretty here, and there are lots of places to explore before hitting the library on the way home.

I also want to try to be more of an adult in 2012: meaning, I want to fold my clothes as soon as they’re clean* and make the bed every day and wash dishes as soon as they’re dirty. Honestly, I have less hope for these resolutions than for the others.

It’s fun to remake yourself every January 1st. And I feel like this year we get an extra boost to help facilitate that!

*I’m rolling my eyes as I write this, since I know that every single clothing item I own is freshly laundered but stuffed into a laundry bag on the floor somewhere. I guess I know what I’m doing tonight.

Categories
Being a girl Drew Endings Memoir Sentiment Writing

2011 My Year In Status

Facebook does this thing I enjoy, where you can sort through all your status updates from the year and then it puts them into a pretty jpeg for you. The writing is a little small (that’s the first time I’ve ever said that!) but I still like the concept of seeing my entire year like this.

There are things I entirely forgot about – and lots of things that I totally thought happened over a year ago. This year was definitely not boring – but also not too eventful.

Unfortunately I couldn’t fit all of the statuses I wanted to. So here are a couple that I had to leave off, that I still enjoyed rereading and reminiscing:

  • First attempt at homemade lattes: aborted!
  • Just found out this play is called Seagull. Not The Seagull. Good to know. First preview tonight!
  • You know she’s your BFF when she texts you how much she loves you…in drunk Spanglish.
  • To the old woman sorting through the trash dumpster at 8am: I know you were most likely just looking for recyclables, or even treasures that some wasteful entitled person threw away…but you are the reason I’ve gotten all OCD about shredding all my personal documents.
  • Today is No Apologies Monday! Did you make a faux pas today? Don’t say you’re sorry! I was 10 minutes late to work…but I’m not sorry!
  • Things trending on Yahoo right now: HIV, M Night Shyamalan, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. #NoApologiesMonday
  • A word problem: If Safeway has a “Buy one, get two free” promotion…can two adults eat 3 lbs of strawberries before they go bad?
  • If USPS is going to “deliver” things by tossing them onto the balcony 3 days earlier than the expected delivery date, it’d be nice to get a heads up so I don’t leave the package out there in the rain all weekend.
  • I definitely thought the royal wedding was tomorrow. Who gets married on a Friday?? Was Westminster Abbey booked for another royal wedding tomorrow or something?
  • Jonathan Amores: a fervent enthusiast of good theater plays
  • Drew: Are we an item? Me: Yeah. Right? Drew: Eh, I don’t really believe in labels.
  • I ate so many jelly beans today. : (
  • From Tina Fey’s “Bossypants” – “In the “Great American Melting Pot,”…New York is that chunk of garlic that you bite into thinking it’s potato and you can’t get the taste out of your mouth all day. It all blends once you mix it, but sometimes you really have to grind it against the side.” I miss you, NYC!
  • I would really like to go up in a hot air balloon.
  • Finally used a Starbucks treat receipt! First time ever!
  • Drew: “We have a very important decision to make and I think we should both say what we think at the exact same time. Should we get a Christmas tree this year? We both say what we think on three. Ready…one…two…three–” Drew and me: “YES.” Drew: “–because it’s Christmas. Okay, good. So we’ll do that.”
  • I drove for 3 minutes in the carpool lane, before 9am when it’s open to all. Rebel!

I promise that’s the last of the 2011 retrospectives!