And You Thought There Weren’t Any Great Guys in Utah

I was on the bus last Thursday after class, daydreaming about Bruce Wayne or the Doctor coming along and sweeping me off my feet, when someone out there in the universe thought it necessary to bring me crashing back to reality.

I wear my iPod on the bus specifically to keep lunatics from talking to me, but this guy was not to be dissuaded by ear buds and a little Queen. Mr. Fantastic was in his mid-twenties and banging his head along to whatever he was listening to. He turned to me and said, “I’m wearing two different boots today, cause the laces on the one broke this morning. It makes me look like a hobo.”

I couldn’t argue with that. I nodded and tried to turn back to the rainy green hills outside. No dice.

“I was kicked out of the place I was living, so I have to move into St. Anne’s on Saturday.” (St. Anne’s is a local rescue mission.) “I have a little money left that I’m going to use to buy alcohol and weed.”

This guy clearly has his priorities perfectly aligned, I thought to myself.

He kept going. “I’ve got this dragon incense burner thought that’s worth at least 30 bucks. And another little dragon figurine that’s hand-crafted ceramic and worth about 70 bucks. I’m gonna stash those, along with my TV and DVD player, at my mom’s house while I’m at St. Anne’s, cause, you know, it would suck to lose them.”

I couldn’t think of anything to do other than nod again. Were we there yet?

The inane conversation continued until I, blissfully, got off the bus and he said, “I’d give you my number, but I won’t have one until Saturday.” I expressed some sort of feigned regret at this and skipped off the bus.

He was quite the catch. Infinitely better than that sexy billionaire Bruce Wayne. What was I thinking?

When I'm a Movie Critic...

There may be many movie/theatre critics out there who think they have a good method for determining what makes a "good" show. Well, here are two more.

Jennie and I decide how good something is by how much liquor you need to have ingested to enjoy yourself. For something like the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie you can have fun watching that movie stone cold sober. When I watched Fight Club I wished that I'd had a couple of beers to sip for the first half and a couple pints of everclear for the second half. Woah.

My mom and I know that we like something when we get in the car and say, "Didn't you love the part where..." The more of those moments we find and the longer we're talking about them, then the more we liked the movie.

After we saw the new Star Trek, we were oohing and aahing over it for days. I'm stilling oohing, but it's more internal now.

Note: this works just as well for theatre as it does for films.

Didn't you love that part where Spock turned down his admission into the Vulcan Science Academy and told the Vulcan elders to "Live long and prosper"? Yeah, me too!

A Sign That I Am Not a Pod Person

For those of you out there who think I always remember everything and never miss a detail, I have two instances for your consideration.

First, my mom and I were at the gym yesterday and she mentioned that a guy on the elliptical would "know me if he saw me again." I was oblivious. I think I'm pretty observant (usually), but I completely missed that. Sigh.

Second? Last Thursday I got onto campus shortly after 7am. I came with my mom for what I thought was an 8:30 class. I got there and found out it was a 7:30 class and that there were 15 minutes left. Dude! That's bad enough, right? NO! It gets worse.

I show up today (at the right time) and find out it's a TUESDAY AND THURSDAY class. I had looked on the website to make sure that it was just Thursdays and the schedule for summer is so... bollocksed up that you just can't tell. So... I didn't miss one class, I missed THREE. Damn it! Fortunately, they had just gone over the html code that I taught myself years ago. And the assignment that I turned in the other day in an effort to make up for the class (the one that I thought at the time) I missed? We did it in class today.

I feel like an idiot, but thank God I didn't miss anything more important than that. Again... sigh.

There are a few Banshees that would be very reassured by this sign that I am, in fact, human. I, on the other hand, am just irritated.

Grandfathers, Mothers, and Mayhem

My dear Grandfather turned 85 last week and is still going like a bat out of hell, as evidenced by the spray paint on my fingernails and the permeating odor of starter fluid.

The main thing I'm working on now is painting the biggest generator you've ever seen. It weighs 6500 lbs. I'm calling it "Big Bertha" and it's the color of that scuzz that forms on top of a cup of coffee that's been sitting on your desk for a week.

I should be going to work with him this morning, but I've had a little bit of a sore throat for the last few days and the last thing I need is to get sick right now. There's WAY too much fun stuff going on this weekend!

My aunty and Robyn are in town, GF's big birthday bash is Saturday night at our house, Mother's Day on Sunday, my aunty's birthday on Saturday, a geek trip to go and see the new Star Trek, and tomorrow is cleaning day in preparation for the big party. I'm sincerely hoping that if I take it easy today then my left eye will stop watering. I look like the bad guy in Casino Royale who weeps blood. (OK, it's not quite that bad, but still...)

On the bright side, the party favors are all finished (and pretty awesome, I think) and my mum's Mother's Day present is all finished.

It was inspired by a wreath we saw in a catalog and we got the stuff for about half what the catalog would have charged.

Wish me luck on my busy weekend and I'll give Big Bertha and Grandfather your regards.

Pictures Speak More Than Words

I've got a few pictures that I've been meaning to make into involved, interesting blog posts, but my brain doesn't want to oblige today. So, here are a few recent photos from my world.

Gwen scorning the effort I put into a jigsaw puzzle.

The table from mum's most recent tea party. (The cosmopolitan on the table is a fluke. I swear.)

A rainy walk with my mum.

My cat wondering when I'm going to stop doing stuff on my new laptop and pay attention to HER again!

B sleeping. I adore her fuzziness.

A picture from the Getty museum during my spring break trip. All in bloom.

Not Much, But Something.

Boy, have I been slacking!

Check out this cool picture from Wordle.net...



I typed in the address for this blog and it came up with this! (If you click on it, it'll take you to a page where you can actually read it. Extreme, I know.)

I'm almost done with this semester and am enjoying the rain.

More to come when I have my camera with me...

Wine Really Does Taste Better Out of the Right Glass

We only had nine people at our monthly wine-tasting last night but from all the glassware, you'd think there'd been twice as many. This first shot is of the table after quite a bit had been cleared away.


This one gives you a better idea. Since I was sitting at the end of the table, I got the whole picture. We each had a water glass, a red wine glass, and a white wine glass. A few of us had an extra glass too. And then there were the port glasses that went with dessert.



We tasted some really good stuff. We started with pinot noir and riesling with our salads and appetizers. We had some cabernet with a very tasty onion/herb dip on rosemary triscuits. Our main course was a tomato and breadcrumb pasta dish that mum and I fix as often as we can. Dessert was a double chocolate cream pie with coffee flavored port and chocolate flavored port. Even though I'm not (very often) a coffee drinker, the combination of the two ports was really good!

Many thanks to the wine buddies for a lovely evening and much tasty food and wine. And thanks for leaving us the onion/herb dip.

You named your laptop?

My new laptop is named Cosmo.

Why? You ask.

It's bright red. Mum said it looked like cranberry juice. I said, "Like a Cosmopolitan?"

She agreed and then said something about Donald O'Connor in Singin' in the Rain.

I said Cosmo Red, rather than Cosmo Brown.

Yes, I'm a freak.

Culture, Taste, Wisdom, & Words

You haven't heard from me in ages, you say?

Well, last weekend, I went to the symphony, the opera, and a beer-tasting. Keith Lockhart is on the verge of leaving the Utah Symphony, so the parental units and I caught his last "Pops" concert. They played everything from The Blue Danube and Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy to the Beatles. Lots of fun! That was Thursday.

Friday, I went with my grandparents to see The Marriage of Figaro by Utah Opera. Watching it, you could tell exactly why Mozart was revered as highly as he was. Truly amazing. LONG, but amazing. A happy opera. Wow!

Saturday night, our group of friends that meets for a monthly wine-tasting, met for the annual because-it's-St.-Patrick's-Day beer-tasting. I find that my taste for beer has waned somewhat. There was some of my favorite Bass there and it just wasn't as tasty as I remembered. I guess as my knowledge of wine grows, my palate has changed. Or I'm a freak. Take your pick.

This just past Friday, another of my mother's infamous teas was on the books. "Pearls of Wisdom" was the theme of this one. I don't know how "wise" we were after the two bottles of champagne we had, but we didn't really care.

My pearl of wisdom for the day?

"Mastering yourself, makes you fearless."
-Lao Tzu

A huge congrats to Ang and her honey-man on their new arrival!!! Go happy for you guys! She's beautiful!

Return to the City of Angels

My sweet grandmother and I went to LA this past Wednesday. I told no one, so I could surprise the cast of Macbeth. Watching peoples faces as they saw me was one of the best parts of the trip. :)

We went to the Getty, ate lots of good food, I finally watched Tropic Thunder (thank God for the margaritas I drank beforehand), I saw a bagpipe band in a bar, and watched Macbeth twice.

The set was simple and yet perfect. The lights were beautiful. And the show itself was beyond amazing. GM didn't quite understand why I wanted to see it twice. Friday night's show was good, but not great. Saturday's was spectacular. I told her that is why you see it twice.

I also got to see my friend Shawn in a play of his that closed last week. He was fantastic. The rest of the play, not so much.

It was a little surreal to be at the Banshee and not be in the booth. I felt this instinct to set props and vacuum floors. My aunty told me that she needed to clean the theatre before Friday's show and I said, "Can I help?" She looked at me like I was completely insane (which I am) and then agreed. I did like that I didn't have to clean the blood off the stage after the show. I watched with glee while their current stage manager did it.

She did an admirable job for this being the first show she's ever stage managed, but there were a couple of times, particularly on Saturday night when I longed to go and kick her out of "my" booth. Thankfully, my self-control is better than that.

To think that if I'd left today instead of yesterday I could have gone to a party at Mel Gibson's. Damn.

P.S. Best luck to my fellow Banshees who are nominated for LA Drama Critic's Circle Awards! Win something tonight!

Sleeping B-eauty

Years ago, my mom turned the third bedroom in our house from a chaotic storage space into the "wisteria room." It's got a Monet-ish mural of wisteria on one wall complete with a quote from A Midsummer Night's Dream. A couple of bookcases, armchairs, and a coffee table my grandfather made in highschool finish the room off.

Since I came home, it's become my sitting room. My TV, DVD player, DVD collection, and surround sound speakers went to live in there. I can crank up Star Wars and Doctor Who when I feel the need.

It has also become Brid's bedroom. In the early days when the civil war between the Old Cats and the New Cat was in full swing and the nights were filled with guerilla warfare between the factions, B was exiled into the wisteria room at night so the humans could sleep.

Every night at 8:15 or so, B appears in the living room, stares at me and demands to be escorted to bed. After refreshing her water and making sure her food dish is completely full, I smooch her on the head and bid her "bon nui."

Last night, I was distracted either by American Idol or the desperate need to color my hair and forgot to tuck my dearest in.

I was awakened at 2am by B sitting in the middle of my bedroom floor wailing at me that I was the worst mom EVER!

I enticed her onto the bed, pulled over a glass of water that she could get a drink out of and told her to shut up and go to sleep. Amazingly enough, she did.

My cat is a diva, but she is not to be trifled with. I woke up this morning to find her asleep on my side. Yes, I was on my side and she was on top of me completely unconscious. Aww.

Thank God a peace treaty has been accepted by all parties.

Welcome to Hoth!

It's snowed like hell yesterday and the world now resembles Hoth.



You know, the planet from Empire Strikes Back where Luke Skywalker goes to investigate the meteor and gets attacked by the wampa, escapes, sees the vision of Obi-Wan telling him to go to Degobah and seek Yoda and...

Wow. OK, just forget that tangent, please. Thanks.

Anyway, we got about 7 inches of snow, they closed campus early, although not early enough to do me any good.



Mum and I went to shovel Grandmother and Grandfather's driveway and sidewalk while Daddy took care of ours. A seriously stupid woman got stuck right in front of us in her well-equipped-for-the-snow black VW beetle. On the way home, we encountered so many morons stuck in their dinky little cars that Mum started turning a different direction just so we could avoid them. Between that and an open back window in the Jeep to accomodate the snow shovel handle, we were laughing pretty hard by the time we reached home.

Thank God there was a shaker of Cosmopolitans and a night of American Idol in our near future.

Friday Quote

"Who the hell are you then?"
"I'm a scribbling, cigar-smoking, wine-drinking, Bible-reading band man. A show off... who loves to paint pictures of what I can't see. A husband, father, friend of the poor and sometimes the rich. An activist traveling salesman of ideas. Chess player, part time rock star, opera singer, in the loudest folk group in the world. How's that?"
- Bono: in Conversation by Michka Assayas

A Re-Occuring Theme in my Reading Material

My Utah girlfriends gave me a gift certificate for my birthday in December for a local bookstore. Beside myself, I took my $75 and an hour and a half during the holidays and went in to snoop and dig through the stacks. The two women behind the counter grinned at me and let me go about my giddy business.

I walked out with the following:

A new copy of Jane Eyre, to replace my sad old copy.

A book called London by Edward Rutherford that I'm reading now and LOVING!

The first two books in a series about a Victorian, schoogirl who discovers that she's gifted with magic. A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels. I've read the first one and it was great.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard to continue my Harry Potter collection. I've read two of the short stories and it inspired me to read The Seven again. I know, I'm a freak.

A copy of a historical fiction novel called Katherine. For obvious reasons this looked cool. Haven't read it yet.

I had $1.50 left on the gift certificate and seriously impressed the women with my huge stack of reading material. They suggested Edward Rutherford's book on Stonehenge called Sarum and with how much I'm enjoying London, I'm definitely going to seek it out.

On my way home I realized that ALL of them are set in England. At least I'm consistent.

Regina and Cousin Christopher

A week ago, my grandparents had two extra tickets for the opera. Their usual friends were indisposed, so they gave yours truly a call.

"Do you and your mom want to go to the opera?"
Me: "YES!"
Mum: "NO!"
Me: silence...
Me (to Grandmother): "Give Christopher a call and see if he'll be our fourth."

My cousin Christopher is a musician. He plays the piano, the bagpipes, the tin whistle, and he's starting on the guitar. He played his bagpipes for my auntie's wedding. I texted him last week and told him he should wear his seriously awesome kilt to the opera. (Kindof because I knew it would irk his mom and kindof because I thought it would be fantastic!)

We had dinner at The Olive Garden at bopped over to the Capitol Theatre for their pre-show synopsis/background thingy on the opera Regina.

Basically, the story was this: Manipulative sister out-manipulates her manipulative brothers to gain money, watching her un-loved husband die in the process.

The characters were captivating, the music appropriately discordant, and the lyrics completely asinine. For example, "Money can get me things and the things that go with things." Seriously, what the hell is that?

The best part of the evening though was watching Christopher. I was flipping through my program before the show and mentioned that it was going to be sung in English with English supertitles. Christopher looked at me quizzically and I said, "They project the lyrics over the stage, so you know what they're saying." He thought this was pretty cool, but not as cool as the fact that the music "wasn't canned," and that there was a symphony orchestra down in the pit. Not only that, but Keith Lockhart himself was conducting. (OK, I was probably more excited about that than Christopher was. Keith "Cutie-Pants" Lockhart has always been a favorite of mine.)

At the end of the night, Christopher was beside himself with delight at the whole thing. He was so gracious and thankful.

He also got many appreciative glances and compliments regarding his kilt. Only a couple were from me.

Random Funny Stuff

OK, these were infinitely funnier if you were actually there, so just take my word for it.

Funniest Conversational Segue Ever
"Speaking of humping..."

Latest Awesome Rock Band Name
"Fetching the Haggis"

That's all I've got.

Bono in Your Face is a Good Thing

This past Tuesday, Agent J and Agent K (that's my friend Jennie and I) went all the way down to Jordan Commons to see U2 3D. My crazy friend Debbie saw it in L.A. and I've been trying to see it for a couple of years now. She got to go across the street and see it. Jennie and I drove for over an hour.


Now, being the obsessive person that I am, this seems perfectly normal. After all, Debbie and I took a day off work and spent the whole day in line to see U2 live at Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim on April 1, 2005. I missed a night of stage managing so I could go see these guys!

Anyway, U2 3D is a 3D Imax version of one of their concerts. I told my parents on Wednesday that it's like going to one of their concerts and sitting on the stage. It's loud and in your face and one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I can't remember the last time it only took $9.25 to make me so ridiculously happy for so long. Worth every penny!

I'm hoping to take my dear mummy back next month. I'm educating her musical tastes.

And, yes, I am a geek.

Sex and the Nation

Today was the beginning of the "Great Americans" unit in my American Civilization class and the professor went around the room asking us for one of our favorite Americans.

I started it off with Abraham Lincoln, cause he rocks.

The chick next to me continued with Martin Luther King Jr.

Next? Barack Obama. (Hooray!)

Then? Sarah Jessica Parker.

Wait. What?!

Imagine a seriously confused and vaguely affronted look on my face. And on the professor's. There was a pause and he said, "Who's that?"

He's just slighty older than dirt, so I completely understood his question.

I'm just as fond of Sex and the City as the next girl. Yes, I have all the episodes on DVD. Yes, I've had days with my girlfriends where we marathon and drink Cosmos. But Sarah Jessica Parker as a favorite American? Really?

I could probably come up with at least a hundred people that were/are more influential/crucial to our country, but that's me.

I doubt that the "Great Americans" unit is going to include Carrie Bradshaw.

Learn Something New Every Day

Spring semester is here! Things that I learned on the first day of class? My American Civilization professor told us all that the textbook is "extremely boring." Yeah, the one with Tom "Crazy-Ass" Cruise on the cover. Sigh.

My class on Microcomputer Applications is going to try my patience, but be super easy. The three units are on Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Sigh.

I actually get to submit two magazine articles to actual magazines for my Magazine Article Writing class. I may even sell them and make some MONEY on them. We'll see.

My British Lit professor is a fan of Sherlock Holmes. I can tell already from the number of times he mentioned Holmes in class today. We'll get on well.

Six hours is a long, freakin' time to go without a real break! I start at 7am and don't get done until 1pm. Thank God for ziploc bags full of almonds and my brain for remembering to pack one this morning!

A Holiday Summary Thingy

Whew! Holidays and parties can really wear a girl out!

I got a cold, I went to parties, I stayed home from parties and blew my nose a lot, I watched Robyn guffaw at Mamma Mia, I watched many episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I watched many episodes of The Big Bang Theory, I slept a lot.

I drank egg nog, pomegranate margaritas, and some very tasty wine. I ate fudge, divinity, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, sugar cookies, and my own weight in poatato chips.

The remaining Angeleno relatives departed this morning to return to the San Fernando valley.

I've managed not to burn myself with my new flat iron yet.

My cat's going to get a collar with a bell on it. I'm sure she'll be thrilled. Really.

I start my next semester on Tuesday and return to my African dance classes on Monday.

All is well in snowy Utah.