There used to be this show on MTV called “Undergrads” – it ran for one season and everyone I talked to either loved it, or had never heard of it. I actually never saw it on TV, I watched downloaded episodes after it had been canceled. But I have fond memories.
This is one section that I have never forgotten:
Throughout the entire beginning half of the episode (called “New Friends,” which I recommend, but I doubted anyone would watch an 18-minute youtube clip), Brody keeps saying things about film and directors and his awesome film career, Kruger just drops f-bombs, and Dan laughs at them.
Sometimes…I just feel like Dan. Everyone around me is talking, and I just laugh at everything and contribute nothing.
Over Labor Day weekend, my mom brought me a bunch of home-grown food: a zucchini, some beets (red and golden), cherry tomatoes, pear tomatoes, pears (not ripe yet), and a gallon Ziplock full of blackberries – my favorite!
I wanted to do something special with it all – I like the concept of “living off the land,” not that I’ve ever actually done it, and I’ve never cooked beets before.
So I dreamed up this menu for last night, basically using everything. On Wednesday night I cooked the beets so that I could refrigerate them all day. Beets, it turns out, are the most fun.
"What am I gonna do with these here beet greens?" Answer...nothing.
Meanwhile, the beets bubbled away on the stovetop.
Then I peeled them – and the skins came right off, just like the internet said they would.
Oh so satisfying.
Then into the refrigerator so that last night I could make beet salad.
Beet salad! Microgreens, beets, cherry tomatoes, and shaved parmesan. (Also penne with chicken, zucchini, and pesto.)
(Tonight! Leftover beet salad! Also, potstickers. And leftover rice.)
After dinner last night, it was time to make blackberry pie.
Yay mom!
Success, beezys!
Thanks, Mom! If you have more beets or berries you need to get rid of, you know where I am.
(Coincidentally, Jamba Juice has a “Berry Upbeet” smoothie that combines these two flavors. You’d think I would love it. But actually it tastes like berry, with an undertaste of V8. It’s okay, but it’s not going to become my go-to.)
*Spoiler alert* Dental hygienists are not wizards.
A week ago I made a dentist appointment. Not because anything was wrong, but because it had been 6 months since my last appointment, and I got one of those little postcards in the mail.
Um, thanks.
So my appointment was on Tuesday, and on Monday night I sat around thinking, “Why am I going to this thing again? I was JUST THERE.”
But adulthood is adulthood, and I mean, I went to the dentist twice a year for the first 20 years of my life, so it’s not unfamiliar territory. But it’s amazing how fast you get used to infrequent health care when you go without insurance for a few years.
But that’s all in the past now. Now I’m an adult who goes to the dentist every six months. So I went.
Near the end of my cleaning, the hygienist pointed out the top outside gums on the right side of my mouth, and said, “Your gums look a little tender here. This is where you start when you brush your teeth, isn’t it?”
And I thought for a second and said, “Wow, yeah, it is.”
And she said, “Try starting somewhere else in your mouth, because you start out brushing rougher, and by the time you get to that part of your mouth it’ll be a little softer.”
And I thought, “OMG, she’s like a wizard or something!!”
I’ve brushed my teeth 3 times since then, and I am forced to admit – I don’t naturally start brushing there at all. I start on the complete opposite side. I have no idea what the reason for weird tender gums is. Maybe I’m just extra aggressive there. I don’t know. But she’s not a wizard at all.
I live a Jekyll and Hyde type of life: working down the peninsula in the heat and sun, and then coming home to the thick fog and thicker socks. It gets confusing – especially when my cute work outfit looks ridiculous on the walk from the car into my apartment. I mean, I like it – it’s like the best of both worlds.
I can also be a little moody, so I guess the Jekyll and Hyde applies in that way, too.
Yesterday I finally attended my first spin class. This is what I said to my co-workers as I was leaving work to head to the gym:
“It sounds fun! I mean it can’t be that hard, right?”
At least I sort of knew at the time I was going to have to eat those words later – but I did think, how hard can biking be? It’s just biking. It’s not like I have to jump around waving weights around my head. It’s just legs.
Well, I was wrong. It’s not just legs. And it is hard.
Here are some hints, if you’re thinking of attempting this for the first time:
1. The seat is not comfortable. This is probably because you’re supposed to be up off of it for most of the class. If, like me, you sat out some of the standing-up sections, be prepared for a slightly sore behind the next day. (I ended up wadding up my towel and awkwardly stuffing it underneath myself at one point. It helped, moderately.)
2. When you sit on the bike for the first time, and it spins really easily, and you’re like, “This is awesome”? Look down. That little knob puts more tension on. You’ll spend most of the class with it tightened. Get ready. Enjoy the no-tension while you can.
3. An hour of watching Law & Order flies by. An hour of spin, not so much. At some point (for me it was 10 minutes in), you’ll start to think the clock might be broken. It’s not.
4. Related to #3, the first half hour is a lot slower than the second half hour. Stick it out.
5. When your badass intructor says, “Remember, everyone can go at their own pace at any time,” he may be talking to you. You’re allowed to ease off on the tension if you’re dying, and as long as you’re still pushing yourself, you’re still good.
6. It seems to me that this is the kind of thing where you show fast improvement, especially at the beginning. I found the standing up portions difficult in the first half hour, but much easier in the second half hour. I’m excited for my next class, to see how much easier the entire thing will be. (#WishfulThinking?)
7. If you find yourself plotting ways to get out of the room before the hour is up (my best plan was to fake losing a contact, then scoop up my keys and bolt for the door), just stare at the tramp stamp on the girl in front of you and keep going. You can do it!
Yesterday afternoon I went with a couple co-workers to hang twinkle lights in the trees outside the theatre we perform in. Our New Works Festival is coming up in a week or so (eek) and twinkle lights are kind of a tradition. Anyway, hanging lights in the trees required ladders.
I kind of have a ladder phobia. These were relatively small ladders, and I was going up only a couple steps, so it was okay. But in general, I do not like ladders.
Ladders can fall over. Ladders could slip on the ground and slide out from under you. Ladders can be placed unsteadily on grass and tip you off.
Being a stage manager, I’ve been in contact with a lot of ladders. Usually I don’t have to be the one climbing them though – luckily that is normally someone else’s job – like the lighting people. God bless you, lighting people, and your CRAZY LONG ladders that you balance on unsteady rails in the air, and then scale like you have no fear. God bless you also with your scaffolding that you build as you climb it (I’m looking at you, Marin), and your genies. Ugh.
In New York I worked on a show where, to get to the booth, I had to climb a ladder affixed to the wall. I spent the entire 4-week run convinced I was going to slip one day and fall and die. Then someone told me that it wasn’t that high, and I probably wouldn’t die, which alleviated some of my stress. But I’m still grateful that I will never, ever have to set foot in that theatre again – it was one of the three worst spaces I’ve ever worked in.
I don’t mind being up in the air – as long as I’m on something sturdy, permanent, and preferably not see-through. I would definitely like to try out that glass walkway thing that goes out over the Grand Canyon, but I’m pretty sure it would scare the bejeezus out of me. But you know, in a fun way.
Maybe this fear came from my family’s infamous tree house story – my dad is probably rolling his eyes at the fact that I am bringing this up – but when my brother and I were kids, we were building this AWESOME tree house out in our back-backyard. For a little while, it was just a platform in the tree, and Robb and I used to climb up the ladder (see? no fear then) and spy on the neighbors while they lounged in their random hot tub. One day, as my dad, Robb and I were up there working on adding walls or something, the whole thing collapsed and dumped us out of the tree. We were all totally fine, and although we talked about rebuilding it, we never actually got around to it.
Possibly that’s when I started being wary of heights and ladders and genies and other things like that.
Anyway, I made it through yesterday afternoon:
working with the scary, scary 6′-ladder and the towering, monstrous pretty purple trees, and the muy peligroso twinkle lights. I stayed off the ladder as much as possible and just climbed around on the benches under the trees. No biggie.
And hopefully now the courtyard will be gorgeous and lure in many, many ticket buyers. I guess it’s all in a day’s work.
If you feel like commenting, tell me the ridiculous thing you’re afraid of! Backstory speculation is welcome, but not necessary.
This is a big year for weddings for me – I’ve never been in two in one year. But this October and then this November will find me standing up next to two of my BFFs as they each take major life steps. Feels good. It’s an honor to be asked. I guess they trust and like me!
So today I went with the November bride, and her other bridesmaid, to buy the wedding dress and to pick out our bridesmaid dresses. The other bridesmaid and I each tried on 5 dresses. We ended the trip by picking a wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses, which the bride is going to order from another store, where she got MUCH better customer service.
So now that’s done! OMG that feels awesome.
Then I came home and started paying bills online. Drew mentioned plane tickets, for the October wedding, which is in Connecticut. I checked JetBlue and panicked a little bit when I noticed that the tickets had gone up over the last two days, rather than going down, which I was holding out for them to do. Oh noes!
So I checked Orbitz, and tickets on Virgin America were actually down from two days ago. Not as low as I was holding out for, but I think I can recognize a sign when I see one, so we sat right down and booked SFO-JFK flights. I’ve never flown Virgin before – I’m a JetBlue girl – but I have heard good things, so I’m excited.
And now I can start dreaming about my best friends’ weddings and my New York trip! New York, I’ve missed you!
I’m kind of a snob about books made into movies. It’s not good to be a snob about anything, probably, but if it had to be something, I’m glad it’s book-to-movie adaptations, and not beer or cars or food, I guess.
(Although, that might be circular logic. If I really cared about beer or cars or food, then I’d be glad I did…etc.)
Anyway, here’s a list of good book-to-movie adaptations:
“Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” by Stephen King –> The Shawshank Redemption
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg –> Fried Green Tomatoes, in which the director had to mostly remove the lesbian subplot, although he has said that the food fight is supposed to symbolize their sexual relationship.
All three of the Lord of the Rings books by JRR Tolkein –> the Lord of the Rings trilogy
The Green Mile by Stephen King –> The Green Mile, starring Tom Hanks (looking all plastic and Polar Express-y), and look at that! Directed by Frank Darabont, who also directed The Shawshank Redemption
Little Children, by Tom Perrotta –> Little Children – hot movie poster, totally changed ending and all!
Rosemary’s Baby, by Ira Levin, one of the greatest writers ever –> Rosemary’s Baby, a horror movie I only recently watched on Netflix instant, and was totally pleasantly surprised
And here’s an example of a bad book-to-movie adaptation, which is really my whole point here:
Every Harry Potter movie ever, but most recently, Deathly Hallows part 2.
Last night, after seeing it with Drew (who agrees with me) and my friend Molly (who really liked it), I posted on my Facebook saying that I thought the movie was disappointing, and asking if anyone felt the same way. I refrained from saying anything sweeping and vague, and obviously looking for trouble, like, “It was terrible.” But I got only comments from people saying they enjoyed it.
Luckily, these people are my friends, and I think we can agree to disagree on something on stupid as a Harry Potter movie. But I still wanted a response from someone who agreed with me. (I’m super grateful that Drew feels the same way as I do – otherwise it could’ve gotten tense around these parts last night.)
Even at work this morning I was met with someone saying, “Well, I really liked it, but then, I read all the books.” And I was like… “Um, so did I. That’s part of the problem.”
Since I don’t want to pick fights with anyone, but I still want to vent my feelings, and I’m due a blog post anyway…this is what you get. This is my platform to say that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was a bad representation of the second half of the book, as well as being not a good stand-alone movie.
My particular issues (POSSIBLE SPOILERS):
1. Why change things? What’s all this about a boathouse? What’s wrong with going to the Shrieking Shack?
2. What is this “Harry hears horcruxes” business? Don’t you wish now, WB, you had waited to start making the movies until JK Rowling had written all the books, so you could put in all the information you needed, so you didn’t have to make up some dumb ish about him “hearing” the horcruxes?
3. Does anyone who hasn’t read the books even know what a horcrux is? Someone who hasn’t read the books, please comment and tell me if you have any idea what horcruxes and hallows are. Can you name all of them? And describe their function in the story?
4. I felt like this movie was ALL ACTION. Which I guess makes sense, given it is the final 400 pages of a 4000-page (estimate) series. But it was too much action. I needed more story. Not just running and jumping and then apparently…flying around…with Voldemort? C’mon.
Okay. So I get that I was set up to dislike the movie. I mean, I haven’t really liked any of them, and I’ve been very focused on what was left out or changed from the books, as well as that familiar disappointment about characters and places not looking like how I pictured them. But still. Deathly Hallows part 1 was actually kind of impressive, and I guess that raised my hopes a little for part 2.
At any rate, I definitely wanted to see it in the theatre, it’s the end of an era, etc, etc. I just know there have to be more people out there who don’t feel like this movie should be getting a 97% on rottentomatoes.
Okay. I have probably said enough. But it’s like I have said before, it’s hard for me to keep quiet about certain things. Harry Potter movies, embarrassingly enough, are one of those things.
On a happy note…my favorite part of part 1 was the animation about the creation of the deathly hallows!
Words With Friends is a dangerously addictive smartphone game, although unlike games like Tiny Wings, Angry Birds, and Peggle, I don’t feel as bad losing hours of my day to it. Because it’s just Scrabble, but over the phone.
(Also, it helps that you have to wait for the other person to play their turn, so you really don’t lose hours to it the way you can to Tiny Wings, Angry Birds, and Peggle.)
So angry!
So, I started playing Words With Friends basically the day I got the phone. I still have the free version, which means after every turn I get to see an ad. Which is a little annoying, but so far hasn’t inspired me to shell out the $1.99 or whatever it is for the ad-free app.
When I started playing, I started of course with the people closest to me – coworkers, friends I talk to every day, etc. But then as I sat there waiting for those people to play their turns (sometimes it takes hours!) I started scrolling through the list of “Facebook friends who are playing!” Then I casually started games with some of those people – the people who I thought would be cool about playing, and wouldn’t be all, “Who’s this beezy?”
When those people didn’t respond instantly – I mean, what good is being connected to WiFi everywhere I go, if people are too busy living their lives to play online Scrabble with me?? – I started games with more Facebook friends. I was now into the tier of friends with whom I rarely have a conversation, although I enjoy looking at their pictures and updates, and we consistently wish each happy birthdays.
Now I’m deep into the second game with one such friend, and it’s crossed my mind a couple times that it’s a strange – but pleasant – situation, and due entirely to technology. Without Facebook and (essentially) anonymous online gaming and smartphones, I would never have kept in touch with this particular person after college, even though I liked her and thought she was cool. (Maybe too cool for me?)
But does this lead to something? More friendship? Actual phone calls? Backyard BBQs? Godmother status to each other’s children? I doubt it. Maybe some texting about the game, that leads to more personalized birthday Facebook messages? Possibly.
It’s not like I’m in a position to be looking any gift friendship horses in the mouth anyway. So I’m just being grateful! We finished one game and she did start a second one, so I guess she’s not looking to get rid of me.
In the meantime, this is my second proudest moment of all of my Words With Friends games so far (name blocked, just in case he doesn’t want that announced):
Second Favorite Moment!
And this is my first! I fought for this victory – this was my first game with this particular guy. Since then, in our second game he CRUSHED me, and we’re now in our third game where I’m hoping to redeem myself.
FAVORITE Moment!
Seriously, I figure the next step in taking advantage of technology is to start playing with strangers…hint, hint.
The Cameraphone Diaries 