Man, I had this whole post in my head this morning about people who lie and why they suck. And I'll be damned if I can't remember one bit of it except the part where I reveal that I'm incapable of the action -- not because I'm so incredibly moral (which, of course, I am) but because my face turns bright red and I tremble like a virgin (which, of course, I am).
Alas, it's gone, so enjoy this image, dedicated to the great lover of La Revolucion Lord Sombrero, and a little ELO because I didn't realize my last post header was the name of one of their songs until I was just randomly craving them today at work, fired up Rhapsody and immediately had visions of a conversation with Lou when we were children about who the hell Bruce was...
Friday's make my week.
UPDATE:
Totally stolen from Agent Bedhead, and entirely too random not to swipe, I present to you Condi and KISS. Effing awesome.
As promised, some of Dan's art. He's really quite good I think but then I'm biased because I watched the boy go from running around in Spiderman Underoos (does anyone remember these?) to being quite accomplished as an observer and translator of imagery. Wow, just re-read that sentence and am shocked -- shocked I say -- at the hoity-toityness of it. And also that my brother is going to beat me with a stick for mentioning his underwear...
Anyway, enjoy!
I realized Monday that I've been taking things entirely too seriously lately. I've been getting all worked up over what amounts to silliness on the best days. Thankfully, as I was getting ready to take a pack of nuts to the pool:
The second of those fine cinematic achievements known as the Wayne's World franchise came on TV and made me laugh my ass off. Particularly this scene:
And since Aerosmith makes an appearance toward the end of the film, it led me down memory lane to the first Aerosmith album I ever heard, 1980s Greatest Hits album (yes, they had been around long enough in 1980 to warrant a greatest hits record. Crazy as it sounds...). My brother Drew had it so I was probably 8 or 9 when I heard it and it's so good. You can't find it on Rhapsody but the cover looks like this:
and one of the songs is here. And here's one everyone knows that I love and think should be covered by Fiona Apple asap...
Also Super Troopers was pretty hilarious, too. So thank you Memorial Day TV time slot deciders. You rock.
Sorry for the existential analysis. Wait..No I'm not.
So the interviews went well but I'm thinking there was some unintentional self-sabotaging going on. It's almost my way of testing how much someone wants me -- personally as well as professionally -- because frankly, if they're just lukewarm that sets a tone, almost a hierarchical one, that I think is detrimental to most relationships. Let me explain...
A working relationship, unless you're the big boss, is already a hierarchy. So I have to know, going in, that my potential employer sees me as I am: independent, creative, ready to work, able to make mistakes and recover, etc, etc. so that there's not a layer of disrespect covering the dynamic. I do not function well in circumstances where there's a shortage of respect on either side of the table. I do not have to agree with you, nor you with me, but in my code (as Ayn Rand would say -- still buried in that enormous philosophy...) a lack of respect is the one thing that will shut down all relationships and chances at negotiation. So unless I let people know going in what they can expect of me by, as my father put it when I told him about the interviews, "opening my heart a little," I feel like I'm being disrespectful by being obsequious and brown-nosy just to secure the job. There's no way to overstate how bad I am at being a brown nose...
All this led me to tell the newspaper I interviewed with (even after speaking to the reporter who formally held the position and has since taken a job with their main competitor who told me that all they want to know is that I need to be a reporter with their paper more than I need to breathe) that I couldn't lie about why I applied for the position. That there were times when I hated being a reporter. "It's probably not what you want to hear, " I said. "But I can't say I loved it. I'm just really, really good at it."
I can honestly say I have no idea how they took it. But I'm nothing if not my father's daughter and so his philosophy that you will only find your own particular happiness by being completely true to your needs and honest with your fellow men/women is my philosophy as well.
In any event, I'll be sending out more applications next week...
But lighter things followed like this:
and then Dan's artistic photo, which no one believed would be good but turned out to be really good which led Dan to say, "Um, I am an artist..." (and he is. I'll take photos so you can see):
Katie does indeed rock the house. She's very, very chill. I like that.
Gettin' all nervous and stuff because I've got two chances tomorrow to convince people that I'm exactly the person they need for the analyst or communications or reporting position they have open. I'm studying up tonight and taking my confident butt to Atlanta in the morning to throw myself on the sacrificial interview altar, which is incidentally inscribed with the words "I'm hungry. Please hire me. Amen" on the side. You have to scratch through the dried blood but it's there... I can do this, I can do this, I can do this...
Since I'm back to reading Atlas Shrugged, here's some Rand philosophy. This book takes so long for me to read because every few pages I have to stop and really think about the idea she's proposing, something that makes me feel oddly alive and grateful at a time when my tendency is to feel pretty grumbly and numb due to this or that circumstance (and to those who cause these circumstances why don't you just go get bent, k? I don't understand the rules of your game; not because I can't but because I won't. And you will never convince me that your game is the one I should be playing. And while Steph says that being young is a valid reason for the dysfunction, and while I generally agree with her on these kinds of things, I think being young is a weak ass excuse. I'm. Just. Sayin'. ).
"When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming fodder for the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, 'Who is destroying the world?' You are."
Next up is Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth because my dad and sister-in-law swear it's amazing. I'm sure it is...
And here's little Katie and my baby bro (her father) who's suffering a bit from bedhead in this photo but that happens when you're a good man and have to spend the night at the hospital while your wife's in labor. She's got her mom's nose and the Lee chin which is possibly the most dominant gene in the history of the human gene pool. It's indestructible. Can't wait to meet her...
Don't have the pictures yet but I have a new niece. Her name's Katheryn Ann-Marie Lee and I hear she rocks the house. I know she was all about getting born on her own time so I'm pleased the obstinance gene is still alive and well in the family.
That aside, check what I just got at work (be jealous cause I like it when you are):
Hope I get the chance to use it...
Also I got the biggest kick out of a kid I went to school with telling me Friday that, for a Conservative, I had the most Liberal opinions in class. I had to calmly, gently and with a knowing little smile, explain that his opinion meant not that I was actually a Liberal but more likely that he was supremely misguided about what being Conservative means. Of course he violently disagreed with that...
And, just because people glorify the man for reasons I think wholly unrelated to his ability to do the job, here's a few pieces on how dangerous, arrogant and elitist it is to say that Iran is of little threat. Glad to see McCain has some rational thought on the subject.
(and I want everyone to know that I'm fully aware of how unpopular this will make me. But it's just getting serious now and I can't be playing games anymore. Gotta get the word out so we don't end up gleefully skipping down the appeasement path.)
On a few lighter notes, I adore that all my very young school kid friends -- few of whom worked through grad school like, ahem, yours truly -- are exhausted these days because they are working, for the first time in many cases, 40 hours a week. It's kinda cute actually. Now try going to school after work. Can ya hear me now? Good...
And here's a sweet little interview from the hot Irish dancer I saw last night. He was not hard to watch. Lou and I dubbed him "Leather Pants" with much sparkling in the eyes.
So, I'm going to an evening show Sunday at the Fabulous Fox in Atlanta with Lou, mi madre and a special guest. Yes, it's Riverdance and we acknowledge we're about 10 years late on the cool factor but apparently Lou has harbored a secret desire to see it so off we go.
Of course, when Lou and Juge went to Cirque Du Soleil a few years back and even got to go to the after party with the circus freaks due to Juge's theater connections (apparently one of the table centerpieces was a live man in gold paint and a gold teeny bikini who would randomly change positions...come to think of it, that might have made me a bit uncomfortable...) I was noticeably not invited. Ahem ladies.
But that's cool. Riverdance will do. I could sit in a theater and watch paint dry actually.
But Lou, when Alvin Ailey comes back to town, or if Wicked or Spamalot take an off-Broadway tour, you're obligated. I'm just sayin'.
Also, first lead paint now giant destructo beetles. We might be at war...a very subtle war but war nonetheless.
Well people, I'm a snooty academic now. I'm so ashamed of myself...
Everyone should do the following:
1. Drink the new Minutemaid Pomegranate-infused Lemonade. I cannot even describe the deliciosity. Can't wait to try it with a little Vodka...;
2. Give a listen to MGMT(which I totally stole from Kiwi Shana, who's always putting stuff out there too awesome not to purloin);
3. And giggle a bit at Stephen Colbert's take on Bill O'Reilly's Inside Edition meltdown. For the record, I'm laughing with you Bill, not at you...
As for me, I'll be enjoying a little Ryan Adams (who, thank God, loves a woman that rains because not many men do and we women that rain need heroes, too...) and the fact that The Noj told me on my graduation night that I should "tell anyone who's douche that your brother John said to f@*k off."
I went to the vet today because Sausage Dog -- a.k.a. Stella -- has to have her special food to ease the arthritis she deals with. While waiting for them to bring the food out, I happened to look over to my right and spy two beautiful baby kitties just waiting to be played with and belly-scratched. I took a damn long lunch break. And one of them, a little marmalade, when I went to put his brother back in the cage, leapt out at me again and landed on my chest and started purring like he was in heaven. Dear lord am I a sucker for the kittens...But I left them there because they said they would keep them until they were adopted -- no euthanasia for those babies. Baby kitties! Baby kitties! Baby kitties!!!
In honor of those little munchkins who totally made my day, here's a LOLCat:
Also, meet my friend Shana who, along with her lovely Canadian husband (he's on the Eh team -- get it? wahahahaha!!) just moved to Dunedin, New Zealand. Brave travelers, they. Shana's a writer like me -- we met as reporters -- so her blog chronicling her Kiwi adventures should be insightful and witty, punctuated by piss and vinegar of course. She sort of makes me want to reconsider my aversion to Instant Messaging -- I think the creepy guy at work who tried to talk me into it gave me a bad first association...have to give that some more thought... Anyway, give Shana a read -- you'll like her I think...even if she is a damn liberal.
Much of the family will be in town tomorrow to watch me graduate from this master's program and I have another interview soon -- this one looks kind of promising from the perspectives of: 1. I'm qualified, 2. It's where I want to be, 3. I'm getting a decent vibe from them. We'll see though. You really, truly never can tell about these things. Also, the logistics of moving are unappealing to me at the moment (once I actually allowed myself to think about them). But I'll cross that scary, dangerous crevasse when I get there.
Here's yer Friday music -- this song's been stuck in my head for a while now so I guess it's good that I like it.
Here's some Charlie Chaplin while I await approval to officially start my new duties at work. I caught this this morning because I'm a freak and I get up at like 5:30 am. You really can't appreciate the subtle genius of Chaplin until you've seen "Modern Times."
I'm done. I turned in that last final, checked one of my grades and am just awaiting the last grade report and I'll be confident that graduation from my master's program is actually going to happen.
This is good.
I'm capable of doing some things right it seems. But hopelessly challenged in other areas, most notably -- as I learned very recently -- in negotiating the plain and simple fact that sometimes, and under certain circumstances, other people are hopelessly challenged, too. I really need to start being a little more forgiving of that...
Funny how extreme stress actually causes a calm, thin line of rationality to thread through your thought processes.
Okay fun seekers. Here's some Friday music that goes out to my friend Gill whom I recently reconnected with and cannot determine if this is a good or bad thing (just kidding Gill. You're all right, you are). This band's track "Scenario" is quite possibly the best rap song. Ever. It features a very young Busta Rhymes and is just an awesome song. But Rhapsody doesn't have it available to share -- generally this is related to some copyright issue -- but they do have this track, which will forever be associated, for me, with a dark blue GMC truck with thumpin' bass and a scrawny white kid hammerin' out the rhymes. You know I did it.
Oh, and by the way, I'm pretty much up to my neck in this kind of stuff lately...
I just turned in a finance final and the thrill found me a little. Finally...I did go back into Steph's office and do a little two-step. So there's that.
There's also this. I keep trying to get a friend of mine to see this movie. Watching the late Gregory Hines and Baryshnikov tap dance together is amazing. But this -- this is my favorite dance of all time. You'll have to crank the sound to hear Vysotsky the Russian singer -- whose music is painfully difficult to find -- but man it's just a deadly combination watching this athlete somehow channel the frustration implicit in the song. High drama. I get chills every time...also Misha's hot.
and a little ELO because I didn't realize my last post header was the name of one of their songs until I was just randomly craving them today at work, fired up Rhapsody and immediately had visions of a conversation with Lou when we were children about who the hell Bruce was...
