Mar. 31: Day 11 of music meme

Day 11: a song from your favorite band

Um, DUH. This is my favorite band because my nephew’s the one being super-loud behind all those other guys.

Heat & Light, by The Rouge

Mar. 30: Day 10 of music meme

Day 10: a song that makes you fall asleep

I can’t fall asleep to music.

(That was easy.)

Mar. 29: Day 9 of music meme

Day 9: A song you can dance to

I dare you not to move while listening to this one. Just don’t waste your time watching the video—it’s incredibly stupid.

Sexyback, by Justin Timberlake

Because I find “funny” very often converts to “sexy,” I gotta share another reason I love this song: because Justin is one hilarious guy. Whether you believe me or not, watch these. I dare you not to laugh.

Here’s the uncensored version of “Dick in a Box”—not for little ears.

And some very funny Saturday Night Live sketches:

Justin Timberlake parodie Beyonce by Nouvelobs

Mar. 28: Daybook

Today…

Outside my window... there are tons of new blooms in the front yard—the daffodils, crocuses (crocii?), and hyacinths have all popped open, and the tulips are well on their way. It’s so cheery and lovely that even with the grey skies today, it seems like spring is on its way.

This weekend, I… enjoyed Poker Night with friends. It was a blast, as always. I remember a lot of loud talking and grabbing of Val’s boobies and way too many kids downstairs and at one point I looked down and all my chips were gone. Someone stole them, I just know it, because how else would they have disappeared? I spent all of yesterday recovering from Poker Night. Yep, this girl overdid it just a bit, but it was worth it. **

**It wasn’t actually worth it. I still feel like someone kicked my head in.

I am thankful that... we went to Medford last week. It was good to get away from home—it almost felt like being on vacation. Thanks for having us, Mom! We found a new bead store that we loved, and got to visit with Uncle Paul and Claire, Nana (stories later, I promise!), my favorite cousin Deanna, and GILLY GILLY GILLY.

I am working on... some new décor ideas for my office. See, I have these IKEA boxes:

…and I want them to look less boring. I found this paper (the photo is a super-duper close-up of the teeny-tiny print):

…that has the new wall color in it, and I hope to combine it with other colors to pretty up those plain white boxes. I’m not sure yet how it will all come together, but if it looks even halfway purty, you can be sure I’ll share a photo or seven.

I need to tell you about something I love: stamped metal jewelry. You know what I mean:

etsy has tons of it, and I am going to learn to do it too. I don’t think metal stamping can really be just a hobby—the supplies are far from cheap—so I might just have to start my own etsy shop. That’d be a darn shame, right? I found this site that tells all about metal stamping, and I’m very excited to get started! Can you just imagine how satisfying it will be to pound out letters on metal? The hammer! The noise! The dents in all my furniture! I predict my anxiety levels will decrease dramatically with the first strike.

I am kind of excited because… Fancy Anthony™ is talking about creating a Stuff Jen Says iPhone app! I have no idea what it’s supposed to do, but it sounds way cool, because, um… STUFF JEN SAYS IPHONE APP. Hello! Suggestions friends came up with while playing poker: a drunk Facebooking translator, a keyboard that creates gibberish, a breathalyzer that locks me out of Facebook if my blood alcohol content is above “legally shit-faced,” and I just realized all of the features have to do with me being a drunk. Hm. Not so excited all of a sudden.

A few plans for the rest of the week: work, a visit with Sarah Vowell tomorrow night, PTO thangs, more work. Tentative plans: daily naps. One can hope, can’t one?

Here is picture for thought I am sharing: It’s more art from Curly Girl Designs. I just can’t get enough of her creations.

Have a good week, my pretties.

Want to blog your own Daybook? Here’s the info: The Simple Woman’s Daybook.

Mar. 28: Day 8 of music meme

Day 8: A song that you know all the words to

Sadly, my brain is full of a lot more lyrics than algebra or geography. Here’s one example of a song I sing along to, usually quite loudly, in the car. It’s “La Vie Boheme” from the Broadway musical and movie Rent. This video is from the movie—bonus points for having both Taye Diggs AND Jesse L. Martin in it. Raowr.

Mar. 27: Day 7 of music meme

Day 7: a song that reminds you of a certain event

September 11, 2001 was a day that made me question the existence of God more than any other. I had been on the fence for a few years, actually, but the events of that day pushed me right over the other side. I grieve for what happened that day in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. for many reasons, but personally, it marks a tremendous change in my way of thinking. 

In spite of my own doubts, I could understand why many people turned to their faith after 9/11. Church attendance increased (temporarily) in many parts of the country in the months following the terrorist attacks. “The Prayer,” a song originally recorded for the Quest for Camelot movie soundtrack, became more popular than ever before. Maybe I think it’s a beautiful song, or maybe I have a subconscious desire to believe in what it says; either way, I love the song.

This is one of my favorite performance pairings, Charlotte Church and Josh Groban. It gives me chills. Gorgeous.

Here’s the Céline Dion/Andrea Bocelli version. It has the lyrics displayed at the bottom.

Mar. 26: Day 6 of music meme

Day 6: A song that reminds you of somewhere

In February of 2007, Victor and I went to Florida (and a Disney cruise) to celebrate our tenth anniversary. It was a fabulous time, and the perfect way to mark the milestone. On the night of our actual anniversary, we went to Downtown Disney and ate at Wolfgang Puck Café, one of our favoritest restaurants in the world, then walked around Downtown Disney. I don’t remember if it was because of new construction or what, but there was a detour that sent everyone way out of the way to get from one side of DD to the other. It was Friday night, way-crowded, and as the evening went on it got harder to move amongst the crowd.

One part of the detour moved especially slow because a night club crowd had spilled out onto the promenade. It took several minutes to get through that area, and the music was incredibly loud and people would NOT move out of the way. It was one of the few times I’ve felt a touch surly while on a Disney property. It was also the first time I ever heard Gwen Stefani’s “The Sweet Escape.” As irritating as the crowd was, it was our anniversary, we were at Disney, we were hours from leaving for the Caribbean, and we were together.

The video is pretty dumb, but the song brings back a happy memory.

“The Sweet Escape” also makes a pretty good ringtone, and I used it for a couple years. When the kids hear it on the radio nowadays they say, “Mom! Your phone!”

P.S. Bonus: another Akon performance, this one much funnier (not for little ears).

Mar. 25: Super terrific happy thing #20

Today’s super terrific happy thing:

A card cubby!

My cousin showed me the coolest little organizer/wallet and I knew immediately I had to have one. Why? Because I like organizing and I really like buying myself stuff I don’t need. This little goodie was irresistible. I mean, LOOK AT IT. It’s an adorable little wallet-y thing with lettered dividers! Perfection.

Card Cubbies come in bunches of colors and designs (see them here). Some even have straps. Most measure 5”x3” and are about 2” deep, which means they can hold lots of cards. If your cell phone is small, it’ll fit in there too. There’s a clear pocket on the back and a zippered pocket inside.

I excitedly began to transfer my old wallet contents into the Card Cubby I bought last week. The filing process was trickier than I anticipated, though. Most things belong in an obvious place; my Albertsons card goes under “A” and my Starbucks cards go under “S.” But what about paper money? Does it go under “C” for cash? “D” for dollars? “M” for money? “N” for never enough? “P” for poker fund? See what I mean? Tricky.

(Since you’re undoubtedly on the edge of your seat waiting to hear where I filed my cash, you’ll be disappointed to know it didn’t get a special place. Or maybe it got the special-est place of all: it’s in front of the “A,” visible as soon as I unsnap. My debit card’s there too.)

Stress-inducing alphabetizing or not, I still think my Card Cubby is a super terrific happy thing. I got the red sweetheart one, and I love that it’s so bright and easy to find in my purse. I also like that it isn’t overflowing with a bunch of cards I rarely use, like my old wallet always was, and that now I can find those rarely-used cards when I need them. I’m less likely to lose gift cards when I have a good, sensible place to put them. Oh, and stamps! I lose postage stamps all the time, and now they’re right where they belong, under “S.” Yay!

Hold it. Should stamps go under “P” for postage? “M” for mail? “O” for old fashioned because who even uses postage stamps these days? Argh!

Thanks, Deanna, for introducing me to this fabulous wallet-y goodness! In my hierarchy of cuzzins, it puts you higher than ever. (Please don’t tell the others.)

Does Card Cubby have a Facebook page? You bet it does! Is there a good reason to “like” it? I CAN’T THINK OF ONE!

Mar. 25: Day 5 of music meme

Day 5: a song that reminds you of someone

There are so many songs that remind me of friends, enemies, frenemies… but I chose today’s song because the memory it triggers makes me laugh out loud. This is a song that my dad used to holler occasionally in the car—it always surprised me because he gave no warning, no indication that he was feeling especially good or attractive. He just belted it. It was horrible, and it was awesome. It was horrisome.

“I Feel Pretty,” from West Side Story

Reminds me of Dad every time I hear it. He could be so goofy sometimes.

Mar. 24: How’d them daffodils get thar?

OK, people. ‘Fess up. I need to know how all the daffodils ended up in the median up and down Interstate 5. They’re too randomly spaced to be part of a beautification project. Or are they just a beautification project gone semi-horribly wrong?

If they were wildflowers (weeds) or other plants that grow from seeds, I would assume that people tossed seeds out into the median as they drove down the interstate. That’s a weird thing to do, but I suppose there’s nothing wrong with trying to pretty things up. And you’d think that it wouldn’t take much for those seeds to sprout and grow and spread. That’s what seeds typically do. But bulbs? When we plant bulbs in pots, it takes more than a little bit of digging and placement to get them just right. I would think that tossing bulbs out into a grassy median would not be the best way to get them sprouts-down and covered with 4-6” of dirt. (I follow directions, obvy.)

I Googled “daffodils on I-5” and got nothin’. I tried “daffodils median I-5.” I even tried “who the hell planted all the daffodil bulbs along I-5?” Still nothin’. I need an answer. I’ve been wondering this for a few years now, but driving the length of the state and back this week got me re-wondering. I think I might not sleep soundly until I know for sure.

Tell me you know. Tell me it.

Mar. 24: Day 4 of music meme

Day 4: A song that makes you sad

The winner is: “I Don’t Have the Heart,” by James Ingram. I had a hard time finding an embeddable video, and if you just can’t stand watching the one below (it’s very poor quality), try this one.

As you can see/hear, it’s a really, really, super-duper sad song. I mean, this guy has asked someone to write a song that basically says, “It’s not you, it’s me” and he decides to sing it to her with a full orchestra and backup singers. They’ve obviously been practicing, right? So the songwriters, the whole orchestra, the backup singers, probably even the bartender knew about the “It’s not you, it’s me” song long before this woman. It’s like the part in When Harry Met Sally… when Harry tells Jess about how his wife left him:

Harry: So I go to the door, and there were moving men there. Now I start to get suspicious. I say, “Helen, when did you call these movers?” and she doesn’t say anything. So I asked the movers, “When did this woman book you for this gig?” And they’re just standing there. Three huge guys, one of them was wearing a T-shirt that says, ‘Don’t fuck with Mr. Zero.’ So I said, “Helen, when did you make this arrangement?” She says, “A week ago.” I said, “You’ve known for a week and you didn’t tell me?” And she says, “I didn’t want to ruin your birthday.”

Jess: You’re saying Mr. Zero knew you were getting a divorce a week before you did?

Harry: Mr. Zero knew.

And the lyrics, so you can get the full gist of what a kick in the girl-nuts it would be to have this song sung to you (as well as what dicks the songwriters probably are to write such cruelty and make it sound pretty):

Your face is beaming
You say is ‘cause you’re dreaming
Of how good it’s going to be
You say you’ve been around
And now you’ve finally found
Everything you wanted and need in me

I don’t have the heart to hurt you
It’s the last I want to do
But I don’t have the heart to love you
Not the way you want me to

Inside I’m dying
To see you crying
How can I make you understand
I care about you
So much about you, baby
I’m trying to say this as gently as I can

‘Cause I don’t have the heart to hurt you
It’s the last I want to do
But I don’t have the heart to love you
Not the way you want me to

You’re so trusting and open
Hoping that love will start
But I don’t have the heart, oh, no
I don’t have the heart

I don’t have the heart to hurt you
It’s the last I want to do
But I don’t have the heart to love you
Not the way you want me to
…and then he pretty much keeps saying “I don’t have the heart” over and over and over. Burn!

So, yeah, this song bums me out. I think you’d have to have a heart of stone if it didn’t bum you out too. Or maybe you’ve never been told, “It’s not you, it’s me” in which case you probably aren’t a for-really-and-for-true human being and also I cannot possibly be your friend anymore.

Mar. 23: Day 3 of music meme

Day 3: a song that makes you happy

Today I’ll say the song that makes me happiest is “Hey Soul Sister” by Train. It’s my ringtone for all my best girls, and when I hear it, I know one of them is calling me and that’s almost always followed by happiness.

 

Loves me some soul sisters.

Mar. 22: Day 2 of music meme

Day 2: your least favorite song

There’s so much bad music out there… how do I choose? After much exploration on YouTube, I think I’ve found one that is quite abhorrent; it encapsulates everything that’s wrong with putting “William Shatner” and “music” together. ‘Scuse me while I go stab my brain with a Q-tip.

Don’t watch the whole thing, but forward to 4:04 for a chuckle.

Mar. 22: Reverend Jen

As a reverend of Universal Life Church, I have committed to this doctrine: “Do only that which is right.”

I like to think I follow it pretty well, but sometimes it’s tricky because what is “right” to me is not necessarily “right” to others. Like, if I’m late to a meeting and don’t want to wait in line at Starbucks, it’s “right” for me to cut in front of everyone else. By all the yelling, though, I’m pretty sure the other people in line don’t think I’m “right” to do that.

Whatev. I’m following my church doctrine, folks.

My husband does not, even for a second, respect my title. In fact, he says I’m nothing without a following. This, my friends, is how cults get started: a dare from a spouse.

When I mention it at parties—how I’m going to start my own religion and I need church members—I get all sorts of promises from my friends to join my church. It might be the alcohol talking, but I like their promises, so my second church doctrine will be “Alcohol.” How’s that for rules?

1. Do only that which is right.
2. Alcohol.

I know, I know. You want to sign up right now.

Today’s post at AndyRossComedy.com was especially interesting to me because it’s all about his journey through one religion after another until he started his own. I think he’s really onto something with his guidelines:

- We don’t really have any dietary restrictions. Although, we do try to avoid olives and capers, just because they’re gross. Also, if someone wants sun-dried tomatoes on a pizza, we insist on extra cheese.

- We only pray when we want a new iPad, or when we’re late for a job interview.

- Our Sabbath falls on whichever day of the week is the sunniest. On that day, we hammock.

- We don’t believe in Heaven, but we do believe in Vietnamese sandwiches. So, close.

- We wear special magic underwear that makes our ass look great in these jeans.

- We do not believe in speaking aloud God’s real name, which is Henry F. Gunderson. OH NO!

- We believe in a strict separation of duties between the sexes. Only men shall perform card tricks; only women shall tie balloon animals.

- Reincarnation gets a solid “maybe” to “why not?”

- We do not believe in free will, as evidenced by this empty bag of potato chips.

- Our most sacred animal is the giraffe, because we thought we’d try to bolster its self confidence.

- We bury our dead in their most comfortable pajamas.

- We enjoy the occasional Agatha Christie novel.

Other than that, there aren’t many more rules to my religion—just another four hundred or so. But, most of those pertain to hammock etiquette.

I have strong feelings about olives and capers—I like them—so I can’t drop my dream of starting my own cult religion and just join Andy’s. That there’s a deal-breaker. Dang. But it’s got the wheels turning in my head…

Mar. 21: Day 1 of music meme

I’ve been seeing this meme around and decided to play along. It’s 30 days of music-related questions, and I don’t care that it’s not the beginning of the month; I’m starting it today anyway.

First, the meme is to answer these questions:

Day 1 - Your favorite song
Day 2 - Your least favorite song
Day 3 - A song that makes you happy
Day 4 - A song that makes you sad
Day 5 - A song that reminds you of someone
Day 6 - A song that reminds of you of somewhere
Day 7 - A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 8 - A song that you know all the words to
Day 9 - A song that you can dance to
Day 10 - A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 11 - A song from your favorite band
Day 12 - A song from a band you hate
Day 13 - A song that is a guilty pleasure
Day 14 - A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 15 - A song that describes you
Day 16 - A song that you used to love but now hate
Day 17 - A song that you hear often on the radio
Day 18 - A song that you wish you heard on the radio
Day 19 - A song from your favorite album
Day 20 - A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 21 - A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 22 - A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 23 - A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 24 - A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 25 - A song that makes you laugh
Day 26 - A song that you can play on an instrument
Day 27 - A song that you wish you could play
Day 28 - A song that makes you feel guilty
Day 29 - A song from your childhood
Day 30 - Your favorite song at this time last year

So, for today I’m supposed to say what my favorite song is. I’m gonna go with my favorite song RIGHT NOW, because I don’t think I have an all-time favorite song. For the last couple days, I’ve listened to this one lots:

Sara Bareilles, “Uncharted”

I would love this song even if Josh Groban didn’t sing into a banana in the video. Pretty sure.

Mar. 20: The Hoe-Downs

My American Cancer Society (ACS) Relay for Life team is getting bigger and we’re already at 70 percent of our fundraising goal! How rockin’ awesome is that?

We need more peoples, though! Please join us! We’ve got 24 hours of relay time to fill with walkers, so as far as I’m concerned, there’s no limit to the number of people on our team. FYI, we’re planning a (kinda) hush-hush, (definitely) all-day-long Happy Hour at The Hoe-Downs’ Homestead at the relay. I know you wanna join us so you, too, can stumble drunkenly around the track for an hour or six. They’ll never forget us! They also may ask us not to return.

The members of The Hoe-Downs as of 11:00 this morning:

• Sunshine
• Val
• Dana
• Fancy Lori™
• Mother Mary
• Tina
• Jack
• Katie
• Victor
• Kim F’n-W

Go ahead; click on my team members’ names. You can see if they’ve fancied up their individual pages and you can donate to them too. If you prefer to donate to the team in general rather than a specific person, do that here.

As team captain, my fundraising dream is to go so far over our $1,000 goal that people say “Wow, those Hoe-Downs just couldn’t stop, could they?” to which we will answer, “No. No, we couldn’t.” So far we Hoe-Downs have been getting the word out by emailing family/friends and posting on Facebook, but there are so many other things we (and you) can do to raise funds for ACS! Some of the suggestions offered by other Relay for Lifers across the country:

• Ask coworkers for donations to ACS in exchange for a scheduled casual dress day at work.
• Here are some other at-work fundraising ideas.
• Lots of employers match donations to ACS. Find out if yours will match your gift at the Double Your Dollars page.
• You’ve seen the pink flamingos fundraiser thing, right? Here’s something that works the same way, but you put a purple toilet in someone’s yard (to “flush away cancer”). Put the toilet in the front yard of someone like my dad, and they’ll probably give you million$ to get it out of there ASAP. He would have HATED that.
• Home show parties are great ways to raise money. Ideas: candles from Partylite, jewelry from Lia Sophia, way-cool rubber stamps at Stampin’ Up, cooking products at Pampered Chef, storage items from Tupperware, gorgeous jewlery at Silpada, smell-goods from Scentsy, kitchen goods from Demarle at Home, jewelry from Cookie Lee, home décor projects from At Home America, organization gear from Clever Container, personalized items from Initials, Inc. (OMG, how cute is that stuff???), pet supplies from Shure Pets, and food goodies from Tastefully Simple. Talk to the consultant beforehand to arrange for a donation of a percentage of the total party; most will do 20-50 percent. If you don’t want to host a party in your home, consider a catalog party of the same items that you can show your coworkers, family, and friends.
• Sell items on eBay or etsy and donate profits to your team.
• It goes on and on. Here are tons of other possibilities.

A fundraiser in which you can participate locally: Applebee’s Pancake Breakfast, June 25. Tickets are $7, and Applebee’s will donate $5 of each ticket to American Cancer Society (your team gets the credit). Breakfast is at the Happy Valley Applebee’s from 7-10 a.m.

Thank you, again, to my team members and donors for all your help! Whether you can join our team to walk, or you just want to help us raise funds, or you donate to an individual, I appreciate every bit. You’re fab.

Remember: Relay for Life, North Clackamas—Saturday, July 16 10 a.m. through Sunday, July 17 10 a.m. at Clackamas High School. Will I mention this again in the next 118 days? Uh, prob’ly.

Mar. 19: Broadway in Portland 2011-12

We didn’t renew our Broadway in Portland subscription for the 2010-11 season because we weren’t impressed with the lineup. Yesterday we got the announcement about next year’s shows, and are DEFINITELY going to subscribe again!

• Les Miserables (extra)
• Mamma Mia (extra)
• Shrek the Musical
• Blue Man Group—I hate this kind of thing, but I’m sure some poor sap will snag our tickets
• West Side Story—I’ve never seen the stage musical or the movie—can’t wait!
• Disney’s Beauty & the Beast—we’ve seen this twice before, and are thrilled to see it again!
• Wicked (extra)—I’ve seen Wicked four times and will see it at least once during its Portland tour stop
• Million Dollar Quartet
• Jersey Boys

Shrek is in September, and from then on, it’s Date Night for Vic & Jen every couple months. Yay for us. We likey the Date Night.

Mar. 16: F’n concerns

Raise your hands: who thought being on a two-person planning committee for my 25th high school reunion was a good idea? Really, no one? Yeah, me neither. I’m not-so-slowly losing my marbles, which is the diplomatic and non-profane way to say what is actually happening inside my noggin right now.

As class historian, Lisa Ross Nicholson has reunion planning on her shoulders for the rest of her life. Please remind me four years from now to find a really good reason not to be friends with her.

What bums me out even more than the frustration of the actual planning is that no matter how much fun our reunion promises to be, Mike Devitt isn’t coming. He seems to think floor seats to an Elton John concert are more important than reuniting with his classmates of yore. Mike is a jerk. Elton doesn’t love him! Lisa and I are thinking about not loving him anymore either.

But it gets better! Mike is coming to Portland a few weeks later so he can attend The Royal Wedding on April 29. (Note: in my world, The Royal Wedding is the wedding of Miss Kimberly F’n to her Prince Flatulence.) Yes, Mike will come all the way over the river and through the woods for a wedding THAT HE’S NOT EVEN IN, but he won’t come for the reunion of the class in which he was once president or something actually I don’t think he was ever president but maybe he was I don’t know or care all I know is he’s not coming and I can’t stop crying.

(That sentence was totally for Val.)

(Also, I can *too* stop crying, but don’t tell Mike. I think this guilt trip might be working.)

OK, so Mike emails me to ask if he and Angie can hitch a ride to Willamette Valley Vineyards with us because they’re staying in Portland. At first (once I got done sobbing about him coming to the wedding but not the reunion) I thought that’d be fun, hangin’ with him and Angie for at least an hour to and from The Royal Wedding, so I told him that YES, he could go with us. And then I thought, WAIT. What about Val and Sunshine and their Chrisssses? How are they getting to the wedding? Maybe we should rent a bus? Or a limo? Or a cargo van with a mattress in the back?

And then I thought, WAIT. (Yes, I thought that again.) Sunshine and Val and their Chrisssses did not know me in high school. That means they do not know what a dork I was in high school. Mike knew me in high school. He might remember what a dork I was in high school. Even if we don’t all arrive at the wedding together in a cargo van with a mattress in the back, we’ll all be at the wedding.

WORLDS ARE COLLIDING!

Do you hear me?

The Jen you know, the Jen you love (kinda) , Jen with Friends is going to cease to exist!

Suddenly I don’t think this wedding is such a good idea. I mean, have Kim and Prince F done thorough marriage counseling?  Do they know for sure they aren’t cousins? What if their kids turn out, y’know, weird? What if he’s secretly a Beavers fan? Is she taller than him? What if he doesn’t actually know how to fly a plane even though he flies a plane sometimes? Does he ride a pink bike? What if he disapproves of Facebooking While Driving™? What if he wants her to shave her legs occasionally? OMG, what if he looks like Dennis Quaid???

Kim, call me. I’m super worried…

(…about me being very embarrassed on April 29.)

Mar. 14: Daybook

Today…

Outside my window... the sun is shining. Happiness. It’ll be overcast later, but I plan for the happiness to continue.

This weekend, I… worked on my office a little more. Did I mention that I painted it last weekend? I did. So now comes the fun part of putting it all back together. We moved two of the bookcases upstairs and Victor secured them to the wall (he doesn’t trust that I’d get out of the way if they fell over, I guess). I filled up the shelves with a selection of books. As I organized the books (by genre, not by color—I tried; I can’t!), I kept asking myself if I really needed them… so I made a stack of “fine, I’ll get rid of these books!” The stack wasn’t nearly as big as it should have been, but I filled up a large box for Goodwill. That’s at least a shelf’s worth. Yay me!

Oh yeah, this weekend I also met Curly Girl!

I am thinking... about going to Medford for a few days next week. We have no plans for spring vacation. How dumb is that? It’s like it just suddenly snuck up on me, six days off school to try to keep the kids ocupado. Vic has to work all week, so it’ll just be me and the kids traveling, which sucks, but it’ll still be more interesting than staying home all week.

I am thankful that... last week’s tsunami did relatively small amounts of damage along the west coast. Considering how hard Japan was hit, I’d say the long term effects of our suffering is MUCH smaller.

I am working on... a nervous breakdown with all I’ve taken on lately. I’m only kind of joking about that. I need to take advantage of my free time to refresh my soul, and my busy time to optimize productivity. Oh, and the Law & Order: SVU marathon. Can’t miss that.

My favorite word/phrase lately is... “crap on a cracker.” I especially like to yell it: CRAP ON A CRACKER!! Hey, it’s better than dropping an F-bomb in front of the ever-alert pre-teens in my house.

And speaking of crackers, I need to tell you about something I love: Cracked Pepper & Olive Oil Triscuits. This is kind of a big deal because I HATE regular Triscuits because they’re like eating shredded wheat cereal without milk (which I also hate, duh). Sunshine had mentioned these new Triscuits many times and I was kinda YEAH WHATEVER THEY’RE DRY AND GROSS but then I tried them once and now I love them. With a thin slice of sharp cheddar? Mmmmm. Or maybe a little melted cheese? Oh yes. Very yummy.

A few plans for the rest of the week: a work meeting, a fun meeting, a Silpada party, a PTO meeting, a basketball game, another restaurant night at CPK, and probably more high school reunion planning. Oh, and RECRUITING! Have y’all joined my Relay for Life team yet? You oughta. Right now there are just five members—my family and Val. I need more than five.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing: It’s art from Curly Girl Designs. I’ve decided I can’t pick a favorite, but there are definitely some that touch me in a special way, and this is one of ‘em.

Want to blog your own Daybook? Here’s the info: The Simple Woman’s Daybook.

Mar. 12: We met the Curly Girl girl

This afternoon Sunshine and I went out on a date. It was more fun than a lot of dates I’ve been on lately, and I didn’t even have to put out. We went over to West Linn to meet an artist. I know that doesn’t sound all that exciting, but the artist is the one behind these designs:

Now you can see why we were so excited, right? I love this girl’s stuff. “This girl” has a name and it’s Leigh, and this is her web site and here’s her blog. Now you can know everything about her. We got there just as she was setting up, and I asked, “Are you Leigh?” She said yes, and I blurted out, “We LOVE you!” Yes, I get flustered when meeting talented people whom I admire (remember how I tempted Pamela Ribon to take out a restraining order against me?). I brought a magnet that Sunshine gave me (the snorting one above) for Leigh to sign, and I also bought some new art. We chit-chatted a little. Then it was Sunshine’s turn.

Sunshine had a 2010 wall calendar and showed Leigh all the appointments and important dates she’d marked. They talked about how people don’t write on calendars anymore; Sunshine’s all OLD SCHOOL and Leigh was super-impressed. She especially loved that Sunshine asked her to sign the calendar on a day where she’d written “pap smear.” That was pretty much my favorite part too.

(I know this photo’s all blurry and bad, but it was right after Sunshine asked Leigh to autograph “that” day. LOVE. IT.)

The store (Dragonfly Greetings & Gifts, one of the cutest stores EVER) had tons of different Curly Girl Designs products. I’ve always thought Hallmark had a decent selection, but Dragonfly had a bazillion different things. It was hard to choose what I liked best; everything Leigh makes is absolutely adorable. She even had drafts of some new Curly Girl designs that will be coming out in May. I can’t wait to get this one:

The store carries lots of other items, of course, and we couldn’t help shopping around. Sunshine got the “Table Manners” art below, and I bought the “Moms Rock” plaque for my newly-painted office/momma cave.

Yeah, we totally messed up their display with our purchases. They didn’t seem to mind.

A little somethin’-somethin’ at Willamette Coffee afterward, then a little more shopping. It was a perfect day with my Sunshine Girl.