Category Stuff About Me

What’s Making Me Happy, July Edition!

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Apartment Hunting!

  • We make apartment hunting fun!  
  • Stops for coffee (Dunn Bros)
  • Stops for mid-afternoon sustenance (Salut Bar)
  • Rooftop dining with Deadra (Louie’s Ristorante)
  • Looking forward to more Minneapolis adventures!
Dunn Bros Coffee
Not a tall girl!
Salut!
Treats… we live the good life…
Rooftop dining ALWAYS in the summer

Co-workers!

  • Book talks at Binkies
  • Happy hours after supervision
  • Celebrations of LICSW after work
  • Strolling along the river in Red Wing
Ice cream anytime!
On the River Walk
At the Scenic Overlook
Co-worker fun!

Summer fun and celebrations!

  • Rolling River Music Festival in Red Wing (late June)
  • Fourth of July
  • Rooftop meals
  • Binkies on the Lake
  • Thursdays on First
  • Bonfires
  • RASA’s “Leaving Iowa”
  • Using my kitchen to create deliciousness
  • FAIR FOOD!  One funnel cake per year
  • Walks on beautiful days
  • Planning Ferragosto Fun
Orange Monkey Bread – oh my !
Lamb and couscous – oh my!
Lamb deliciousness!
Funnel Cake from the Fair!
Silver Lake walks!
Relaxing at the Ponderosa!
Thursdays on First with Mo!
Looking down on Thursdays on First
Bonfires
and beverages!

Movies! Books! Music!

  • The Heat
  • Playing for Keeps
  • 21 Jump Street
  • The Promise of Provence
  • 11/22/63
  • The Night Circus for book club
  • Stories I Only Tell My Friends: Rob Lowe
  • Emails filled with songs for each day of the week
  • My favorite song of the week: Thursday (Here’s Why I Did Not Go To Work Today) http://youtu.be/ciz_C3xiuN0
  • Cancelled cable = Netflix fests
  • Planning a party for fellow book lovers

What is making you happy this July??

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Here I go again on my own…!

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Here I go again on my own…!.

My daughter is a brilliant blogger… I loved this post.  Love her.

44 Things – Quarter 4

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Yes, Quarter 4.  In a few months I will be having another birthday!  I have been so busy lately that I haven’t had much time for self-reflection, so I haven’t completed this thought yet.  Let’s see what comes of it for now…August 2011 088

44 Things: Q4 – Things to DO or LOOK FORWARD TO! (July, August, September)

  1. Fourth of July!  Always a great time with family – relaxing time at the end of the dock, fireworks, great food and photo ops!
  2. Plan a Book Fest!  First annual?  Bi-annual? Bookish food and treats?  Crafts?  Oh my!  It’s coming right up, but it’s in the planning stages!  
  3. Ferragosto!  I can’t wait for my made up mid-August celebration!  More details to follow!
  4. New York City! Looking forward to planning my annual trip to NYC!  It will make turning a year older more palatable!
  5. Books! Read and listen as much as possible!
  6. Cosmo Girls! Start planning for 2013-2014!
  7. State Fair? Go if I can!
  8. Help Marissa move and get settled!
  9. Ferragosto Ferragosto Ferragosto!  I have a feeling it’ll be the best ever!
  10. Sit down and … play piano or write poems or letters or play accordion… take time.
  11. What do you think I should add to my list?

There were items from past lists that didn’t get done (closets didn’t get cleaned, strangers didn’t get conversations… ) but I am not one to beat myself up over undone lists.  Most of the fun for me is imagining the possibilities and it is just bonus if they happen.  Probably I should add “start thinking about being 45!”  What will that mean?  What fun things will happen?

“Summertime
And the living is easy
Fish are jumpin’
And the cotton is high

Oh, your daddy’s rich
And your mama’s good lookin’
So hush little baby now
don’t you cry

One of these mornin’s
You’re gonna rise up singin’
Then you’ll spread your wings
And take to the sky

But til that mornin’
Ain’t nothin’ can harm you
With your daddy
And your mammy
standin’ by.”
–  George Gershwin and Dubose Heyward, Porgy and Bess  

Before…

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Before Midnight:

I was so excited to learn that another Linklater movie was going to come out this summer… and it did not disappoint!

Cover of "Before Sunrise"

Cover of Before Sunrise

  • In 1995, “Before Sunrise” came out – a small independent movie about a couple who meet on a train and have one night in Vienna.
  • In 2004, “Before Sunset” came out – a small independent movie catching up with this same couple 9 years later.
  • And now, in 2013 “Before Midnight” is released.  The same couple, now in their very early 40s.

I won’t give any spoilers here (links below to many reviews – read at your own risk!), but will simply say that if you love movies with smart dialogue, romantic chemistry, beautiful European settings, and real-world conversations and relationship troubles, you should definitely see all of these movies.

I am thankful that I was able to borrow the first two movies and binge on them a bit before seeing the 3rd movie.  It was a great way to reacquaint myself with Jesse and Celine.  I plan to buy all three when they’re all out on DVD so that I can binge again!

I was listening to a podcast last night (Filmspotting) and they were wondering (as I was) if since the characters were approximately my age during all three of these movies if I have more of an affinity to love the movies.  I would love to have this discussion – if anyone else has seen them!  🙂

Before Summer Solstice:

  • I finished “Circle of Friends” by Maeve Binchy this morning.  It’s a re-read and I wondered if it would hold up as I’m not in my 20s anymore (like I was when I first read it) but it did.  She writes such great stories about great places with great characters.  Love it!
  • I will watch “Anna Karenina” with Cindy tomorrow – and can’t wait for the re-watch!  I’m sure there will be vodka and something sorta Russian to eat.  Love me a theme!
  • I had an impromptu game night last Saturday night!  Beth came for a planned girl’s night, and we stayed in and invited others over.  We played Loaded Questions and “What if…”  A great time!
  • I watched Trajan graduate from 8th grade – such a fun kid.
  • I celebrated Jenny’s birthday with her at Goonie’s and the Loop!  The comedians were fun – the raunchy one leading up to the cerebral one made for some big brain shifts!
  • I sang with Take Note! at our yearly spring concert, on Over the Back Fence, and during Art in the Park in Lanesboro!  Good stuff.  I think I finally have the songs committed to memory and now we won’t sing them again!
  • I listened to music outside during Harmony at Mayo on Monday 6/10.  Great band, great food and great company!
  • I chatted about “Little Wolves” with Sarah, Paul and Heidi.  What a delicious meal was prepared and enjoyed al fresco!  A beautiful summer evening…

Before the end of Quarter 3 (44 Things)

Here’s my list of 11 things for this quarter… how am I doing?  Have til the end of the month…

11 Things: 3rd Quarter: 

  1. Book Club – LOVE talking about books, whenever and wherever!  April 2 – with rum & Cokes, pizza burgers, and Mississippi Mud Cake!! May 27 – with hot turkey sandwiches we discussed The Accidental Tourist!  Good stuff!  Next one July 9!  
  2. Cosmo Girls – April brought green smoothies, chair massages, and henna!  May brought A Cosmo Girl Party to celebrate another year of fun! Next – organize for next year!  
  3. A Spring Break facial – and pedicure!
  4. Baseball games and softball games – hopefully in sunshine!
  5. THE GREAT GATSBY movie! Saw it once in the theatre – it was great!  
  6. Marissa’s graduation in May with a party to celebrate her Bachelor’s in Biology!  Taran’s graduation in June! Both parties were very fun!  Very proud of their accomplishments!  
  7. Take Note! spring concert – most likely in June! Done! A great concert followed by a get-together at Mom and Dad’s with s’mores around the campfire!  Perfect!  
  8. New walking shoes – so hopefully many walks! Knee feels better – still no power walks!  Just short ones and stretching!  
  9. Catch up on the TBR pile – as many as possible!  #1 Silver Linings Playbook!  #2 Elizabeth the First Wife #3 Little Wolves #4 Circle of Friends – the list is interminable!  Oh well!  
  10. June will bring Thursdays on First and Rochesterfest – outdoor food, music and fun!  And hopefully sunshine!  (Can you tell we’ve been without for too long?)  Spun through Thursdays last week and plan to go this week – on June 20!  
  11. Strike up a conversation with a stranger (NOT a patient!) weekly (?) and WRITE about it!  Woot!   Haven’t done this really!  What was I thinking?  Looking for a challenge, I guess.  I’m just enjoying getting to know my coworkers and planning things for my “circle of friends.”  🙂  

I suppose it’s time to think about my 4th Quarter list… hard to believe that I’m winding down my 44th year and really close to 45!  What will the theme of 45 be?

What do you have planned – Before Midnight?  Before the Summer Solstice?  Before the end of the month?

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The 4.11

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Wine Wednesday - wacky!

Wine Wednesday – wacky!

So what’s the 411?
Does anyone say that anymore?  Does anyone call information anymore?

What info can I give you today…

  • Musinex is my friend!  I think that it has helped me feel better faster.  Crazy, eh?  
  • I work overnights this weekend so I’m in self-indulgent mode – gonna stay in  my pajamas as long as possible on Friday!
  • I enjoyed my days off and had some adventures with Marissa!
  • Watched “Admissions” on free-popcorn Wednesday.  It was pleasantly unpredictable, although the girl does end up with the guy in the end. Just a little surprising in how they got there!
  • Still plugging away on “Gone With The Wind.”  Loving it and amazed at her writing… just wish I had more reading stamina!  Hopefully I’ll binge on it tomorrow and make a big dent.
  • Have TWO “book club in a bag” sets – one for the old FC girls and one for work!  Yay!  So in the next few weeks I will be reading “The Accidental Tourist” by Anne Tyler (love her books!) and “Sick Girl” by Amy Silverstein.  Just added two more books to my already towering TBR pile!  Oh well!
  • Cosmo Girls tonight was another great time – green smoothies, do-it-yourself-henna, and chair massages.  And of course, many laughs!  Yay!
  • I will finalize my spring quarter list this weekend – we’re marching through April!
  • SOOOO looking forward to “The Great Gatsby” movie coming out!  I can’t wait!

Finally, this photo booth was just too much fun today!  Once the photos are taken, they replayed the video of you taking all the pictures!  And look at my hair!  It’s always so unpredictable… quite a flip I’ve got going on!  We laughed so hard… lots of laughs today.  🙂

25 photo booths

Paparazzi Photo Booth!

What’s the 411 with you?

 

 

 

 

 

Snapshot of a Sunday 4/7/13

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Frankie and Johnny (1991 film)

Frankie and Johnny (1991 film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am thankful that I didn’t make a lot of plans for my weekend off.  I was so looking forward to having three days in a row off – Friday, Saturday AND Sunday! So when I woke Thursday morning feeling a little stuffy and scratchy and sniffly, I hoped it wasn’t true.  I bought salt refills for my Neti pot and hoped for the best.

Friday was a busy and fun-filled day, even though I was sneezing and sniffly all day and a true mess by 10:00 PM.  I went to PT (very little knee pain anymore!), got a relaxing facial leaving me looking positively dewy, and then went to happy hour for a Perfect Margarita followed by dinner at Whistle Binkies on the Lake with co-workers.  That is a good day off. 🙂  But I do apologize for being all sniffly at the end of the night – no one wants to be around that!

Yesterday brought a 4.5 hour work meeting on my day off.  It was fine, although, again I apologized to all for being all sniffly at the end of the meeting! Then I was on the couch, finally watching “The Intouchables” on DVD (yay! just as good the second time!) and then going to Zorba’s for a Greek dinner with Jennifer!  Flaming cheese and souvlaki – yummy!  And the soup… delicious!   Last night was the new episode of Smash on Saturday night!  It was fun to watch.  Oh, that scamp Jimmy.  It’s so predictable, but good fun.

Today I’ve been lying on the couch, watching movies, eating soup, and drinking water and a pot of hot tea.  Tomorrow will be better.  Right?

Cover of "Frankie & Johnny"

Cover of Frankie & Johnny

But in the mean time, Netflix has been keeping me company.  For some reason I have an itch to watch some old Al Pacino movies.  So I put “Scent of a Woman” at the top of my DVD queue and today watched “Frankie and Johnny” on Netflix Instant.  Good stuff!  Loved the movie in 1991 and love it still today!  Last week I recorded “Valley Girl” at mom and dad’s, and really think that I need to add that DVD to my collection!  Such a great movie… ah, Nic Cage before his fake-y teeth.  So dreamy. 🙂

Looking forward to:

  • Mad Men season starting tonight!
  • Cosmo Girls this Thursday – some fun adventures will be had!
  • Finishing “Gone with the Wind” – I’m over 600 pages!  It will happen!
  • and having this cold behind me!

Hope you have had a fun Sunday!

What’s Making Me Happy (First of April 2013!)

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1st April 2013, Easter Monday, April Fool's Da...

1st April 2013, Easter Monday, April Fool’s Day P1710412 (Photo credit: tomylees)

Happy April!  Happy April Fool’s Day!

 

 

 

I’ve always loved the 1st of a new month and I feel great affinity with April 1st, as it’s my half birthday!
(Really, who celebrates such a thing? I guess I do! )  
April is kind of the yin to my yang or something.  

 

 

April is also National Poetry Month and Autism Awareness Month, among other wacky holidays (National Welding Month? International Guitar Month?). I’m always looking for a reason to celebrate, so websites like Holiday Insights  are great places to find inspiration.  (e.g. 3rd Thursday in April (4/18) = National High Five Day, April 23 = Take a Chance Day, April 30 = Hairstyle Appreciation Day.)

 

 

It’s been a great start to April, so I’ll start the month with a list of what’s been making me happy lately!

 

 

Movies States

The United States of Movies

  • This is a fun new poster I have added to my walls.  I haven’t seen all the films (haven’t even heard of some of them!  SLC Punks?  Who knew?) but maybe that will be a goal sometime!  If not, it’s fun to look at and think about and a conversation piece.  
vodka stroganoff beets vodka

Anna Karenina celebratory meal

  • Had a few Walkie Talkies over for dinner and a movie!  The movie was the new Anna Karenina and before the movie we had vodka, beef stroganoff, yummy bread and brie, and pickled beets.  After the meal we had vodka and white Russian cupcakes.  The movie was engrossing and fast-moving and fun to watch!  Very cleverly done!  I can’t wait to watch it again!  
Keep Calm Chivery

Keep Calm and…

  • I saw this as I was browsing in B&N and thought it was pretty hilarious!  Love the Keep Calm stuff.  Love this even more.  
Pedis with the girls pedicure pampering spa

Pedis with the girls

  • Any day off is a good day off.  A day off spent with friends and family is the best day off ever!  Lots of times other people have to work on my days off (and vice versa) so I’m happy that it’s spring break this week!  
  • Today I also went to Macy’s because I won a door prize that I signed up for last week!  So I have two full-sized bottles of some perfumes I’ve never heard of before!  Good times!
  • And also today my mom decided we would celebrate opening day of baseball season with hotdogs, potato salad and ice cream while watching the Twins on TV!  Good stuff.  Mom loves a theme, too!
Easter Chicks

Easter Chicks (Photo credit: Flying Pig Party Productions)

  • I worked on Easter weekend but enjoyed the time spent with my fellow “Easter chicks,” as we dubbed ourselves.  We had some cookies, which looked like these above, and lots of jelly beans.
  • I am over HALF WAY DONE with Gone with the Wind!  Yay me!  I am more than 500 pages into this book of about 960 pages.  Ah.  Still enjoying it and can’t wait to have another dinner and a movie night!
  • I’m looking forward to book club tomorrow night – gonna make Mississippi Mud cake to celebrate!  Also bringing little Cokes in glass bottles and someone else is bringing the rum (relevant to the book!).  Always a good time.
  • I’m looking forward to a WEEKEND OFF!  Friday, Saturday AND Sunday!  Woot!  No big plans and a 4 hour meeting for work on Saturday, but excited, nonethless!
  • I’m looking forward to making my list of 44 Things:Q3!  I haven’t started yet, but will work on it this week.

In honor of National Poetry Month, here is my favorite poem about April.  I’ve shared it on my blog in another April post (2011, I believe).  I memorized it in high school and it still comes to mind when I think of springtime and April.  I would LOVE to know your favorite poems!  Send them my way!  

 

 

APRIL by Marcia Masters
It’s lemonade, it’s lemonade, it’s daisy.
It’s a roller-skating, scissor-grinding day;
It’s gingham-waisted, chocolate flavored, lazy,
With the children flower-scattered at their play.

 

It’s the sun like watermelon,
And the sidewalks overlaid
With a glaze of yellow yellow
Like a jar of marmalade.

 

It’s the mower gently mowing,
And the stars like startled glass,
While the mower keeps on going
Through a waterfall of grass.

 

Then the rich magenta evening
Like a sauce upon the walk,
And the porches softly swinging
With a hammockful of talk.

 

It’s the hobo at the corner
With his lilac-sniffing gait,
And the shy departing thunder
Of the fast departing skate.

 

It’s lemonade, it’s lemonade, it’s April!
A water sprinkler, puddle winking time,
When a boy who peddles slowly, with a smile remote and holy,
Sells you April chocolate flavored for a dime.

 

 

 

 

 

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Sunday Snapshot 3/24/13

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A weird work schedule (really? it’s always weird!) has me feeling very Saturday-ish today, so I have to get in the Sunday mode!  Especially since I have to work early Monday morning!  Then a few days off before I work my very first holiday – Easter weekend.  I hope to make it to the interfaith service at the beautiful Chapel at St. Mary’s, at least for part of it.  Sunday morning can’t be that busy in the Emergency Department, right?

Anyway, not much to fill you in on except that I watched the movie The Sessions last night – and it was just so good!

The Sessions

The Sessions (Photo credit: Librari Kameleon)

It’s based on a true story about a man who is a journalist and a poet and lives most of his day in an iron lung.  He interviews people with disabilities about their sex lives and then wishes to lose his virginity.  It’s a nice story about this humorous and intelligent man, his relationship with his priest, his caregivers and the sex surrogate he hires after seeing a sex therapist.    It’s about love and life and poetry.  Good stuff!

Here’s a link to the article written by Mark O’Brien after his sex surrogate experience.  I haven’t read it all, but will!

Next in my DVD player is The Intouchables – a story about a person who becomes a quadriplegic after a paragliding accident.   He’s very wealthy and hires a man from the projects to be his caregiver, and boy do they have fun!  Living life to the fullest.  Good stuff!

Triple these movies with the book I just finished for book club – We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg – and there’s a theme!  I love Elizabeth Berg books and this was no exception.  This book is about a woman who contracts polio late in her pregnancy and delivers a healthy baby while in an iron lung.  She remains paralyzed with full feeling in her body (like Mark O’Brien in The Sessions) and raises her daughter to be a strong independent woman.  It’s a fictional account of an actual person’s life (ala The Sessions, as well!).  Good stuff!

Good stuff that is coming up:

Hard boiled traditional Russian Easter eggs

Hard boiled traditional Russian Easter eggs (Photo credit: Steve White2008)

  • Planning an Anna Karenina viewing party with a few people (most of my fellow-walkietalkie peeps!) who love classical literature and may have started the book or intend to read the book sometime!  I’m the only one to have finished it.  🙂  We’re having beef stroganoff, pickled beets, white Russian cupcakes, and vodka (of course!)!  Love a good theme and in this early spring, Russian literature is a good one!
  • Some fun Aunt-related activities coming up this week, including a Seder dinner and a RockTown tour! And it’s a niece’s birthday today so my gift is a shopping trip, hopefully this week!
  • It will be weird to work on Easter weekend, but I try to remember that no one wants to be hospitalized on Easter, either, so I will do my best to be a blessing to those I see!
  • Book club on April 2 for We Are All Welcome Here – with a 60s feel!  Pizza burgers, potato chips, a classic dessert, Coke in bottles… good stuff!
  • Marissa got accepted into graduate school, so we will be exploring housing options in the Cities soon!  That is something fun to look forward to!
  • And I’ve gotta work on my list for 44 Things: Q3 as it is right around the corner!

But first, today I’m getting together with friend Beth to celebrate her birthday, which was on the first day of Spring!  Yay for friend time!

How about you?  What does your Sunday look like?  What are you looking forward to?

Happy Sunday, all!

44 Things: Q2

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Goodness… we’re tripping right along into the end of March, aren’t we?  How did that happen?  I was feeling unsuccessful in my 44 Things: Q2, until I looked at it.  I guess I’m not doing too badly – which is what happens when you simply document “things to look forward to” with a few added “things to do.”  I think I felt unsuccessful because I haven’t given it much thought lately.  So as we all push into the latter half of March, here’s my recap: 44 Things – Quarter 2 (Jan-Feb-Mar)

  1. A January mini-vacation at Deadra’s, including many movies and much wine! It was a great mini-vacation at Deadra’s!  Good conversations, good wine, good food, and a good (great!) movie!  As well as some great dance parties!  

    January Dance Party!

    January Dance Party!

  2. Read “Persuasion” by Jane Austen with Wallace’s readalong in January –  I fully participated in the “Persuasion” readalong!  Woot!  Readalongs are so good… inspires you to have a deadline, critically think about what you’re reading, attempt coherent communication about those thoughts.  Good stuff.  I didn’t participate in her next one, “Crime & Punishment,” but a friend is and is loving the book!  Guess I’ll have to add that to my TBR list!  
  3. START reading “Gone With the Wind” in February – it’s so large I’m not sure I can finish it in two months!  But it’s after “Persuasion”! I started it!  Had a few great days of reading and then kind of fell off that wagon… I’m on pg 200 (of 900) so quite a ways to go.  It is a great book and amazing how much of it is already in my head through the movie and knowledge of the movie.  Hopefully I will have quality reading time throughout the month so that I can finish sooner than later!  So many books to read!  
  4. “The Book of Mormon” with Deadra and John in February! This was such a fun event!  We had dinner at a great Indian restaurant (Bombay Bistro), a brisk walk to the show, and belly laughs throughout!  I already posted about turning my pins into magnets (making me happy!), and when I hear someone shout, “Hello!” I usually sing the next line in my head!  Good stuff!  

    Pre-show dinner @ Bombay Bistro!

    Pre-show dinner @ Bombay Bistro!

  5. Host a baby shower for a work colleague at my house on February 13! This was a lot of fun, too!  It was fun to share my home with my new co-workers, meet family of the guest of honor, have delicious and fun food and drink, and simply socialize with the great people I work with!  

    Shower Sweets - what will it be? A boy or a girl? Can't wait to see!

    Shower Sweets – what will it be? A boy or a girl? Can’t wait to see!

  6. Gaelic Storm in March with Kristine! Last weekend we finally saw them in concert!  We have been talking about going to see them for more than a year and it finally happened.  It was so fun!  It was at the Fitzgerald Theatre, which was fun to see on its own, and they are so fun to listen to!  Clever, quirky, energetic, and fun!  A great concert with great friends!  Gaelic Storm in concert!

    Post-concert - not going strong, but still looking good!

    Post-concert – not going strong, but still looking good!

  7. Social-ICE in February! Already blogged a bit about this, but worth mentioning that it was a great time once again!  
    Keeping warm at SocialICE 2013!

    Keeping warm at SocialICE 2013!

    ice sculptures

    Icy Skyscrapers

  8. Walk at least twice weekly and do yoga once weekly. I was doing pretty good at this – in fact it was happening for all of January and into February.  But horrible knee pain has derailed that and I think it’s been a month since I walked for exercise, as I can barely walk to “get where I’m going” without terrible pain.  There’s been a doctor’s visit, a steroid shot, and now I don’t know what the plan is.  Bummer, eh?  So I’ve been focusing on healthy food choices (and easy quick cooking meals, since it hurts to stand in the kitchen and cook!) instead of getting my heart rate up.  Boo.  
  9.  Spray Tan!  Get the look of a summer glow! Have not done this yet but will have to make a plan for that soon!  Maybe next week during my days off… or maybe before Easter… or maybe on April 1 so the glow moves in to Q3!  
  10.  Pick a closet and clean it out OR watch all of the Oscar nominated movies (which would you rather do??)  Well, I didn’t get either one fully done – yet!  I still haven’t seen Amour, Django Unchained, or Zero Dark Thirty.  I’m ok with that to this point, but I will look for them on DVD when they’re available.  Still can’t wait to purchase Silver Linings Playbook, as it was my favorite of all.  And cleaning?  Hmmm.. maybe I’ll get to a closet.  We’ll see!  
  11.  Invigorate book club and plan ahead for the year.  Well, we met in February to discuss The Great Gatsby and ate and talked for 4 hours!  We did discuss the book and are now reading another book from the Book Club in a Bag program – We Are All Welcome Here!  And we have a date picked for our next meeting – April 2.  No plan for the year, but a little more planful to get together!  

Well, there’s my list – as I said, I haven’t done as badly as I thought I had!   I will have to start making my list of 44 Things: Q3 very soon, as April will no doubt be here before I blink again!  

What’s Up?!

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What I’ve Been Watching:

  • Smash (NBC Tuesday Nights) – It’s so fun to watch this show about putting on a Broadway show.  There’s much that is predictable, but the music and locations are so fun.  
  • Late Night with Jimmy Fallon – Still loving this show and never miss it.  Prince was on Friday night and that was a blast!  He looked like he was having a great time, which doesn’t seem typical Prince to me.  He was smiling so big… maybe being on Jimmy’s show makes everyone feel that way.  I know I am always smiling throughout his show… good stuff!
  • Eulogy (from Netflix) – a very fun movie with a lot of people in it!  Ray Romano, Hank Azaria, Debra Winger, Zooey Deschanel, Rip Torn… and more.  The patriarch of the family passes away and the oldest granddaughter is asked to read his eulogy.  His four children have different views of him and their relationships today are strained and difficult.  Pretty good stuff.
  • Undertaking Betty (from Netflix) – Brenda Blethyn is so fun.  This is a crazy story about a small Welsh town with two funeral homes in
    Plots with a View

    Plots with a View (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    competition with each other.  One funeral director reaches out to his unrequited love and they decide the only way they can be together is if she fakes her death.  Very crazy.  And Naomi Watts?  Christopher Walken?  Craziest.  🙂

  • The Commitments (from my library) – While watching Once with Deadra, I read that Glen Hansard was in The Commitments – one of my all time favorite movies! – so I had to watch it again.  Still an amazing movie with amazing songs.  Glen doesn’t have a big role in the show and doesn’t sing much at all, but it is a strong movie.   What are the chances – two of my favorite movies of all time have a few things in common!

What I’ve Been Reading:

  • Gone With the Wind – Finally started this and about 100 pages in.  I’m sure that I have watched the movie in its entirety only twice in my life, but it’s amazing how it is so firmly in my mind as I read it. I can hear Scarlett’s mama’s voice in my head as I read the words.  I can picture the barbeque (which I’m just coming up to) and Scarlett and her admirers. I look forward to reading more and then having a viewing party!
  • My City, My New York: Famous New Yorkers Share Their Favorite Places – A fun little “guide book” that Sarah bought and I borrowed.  I’ve been taking notes, Troy, so will have some little additions to my itinerary when I visit next!

What I’m Listening to:

  • “Nice Work If You Can Get It” has a great Broadway Cast Recording!  Love the Gershwin tunes!
  • Noisetrade is introducing me to a lot of new musicians for the cost of my email address.   – just downloaded a SXSW sampler. Love samplers!
  • NPR Music also has a free download of 100 songs featuring artists who will be at SXSW.  Love NPR!  Good through the beginning of April!
  • Still listening to my weekly stash of podcasts – Pop Culture Happy Hour, Satellite Sisters, Wait, Wait!, Filmspotting, The Moth, …
  • Listened to a few hours worth of Gaelic Storm via their youtube channel – good stuff!

What I’m Looking Forward to:

  • It’s March!  Spring is right around the corner!
  • Gaelic Storm this weekend – can’t wait!  “What’s the rumpus!” Guess I’m going to find out!
  • Cosmo Girls Thursday – stargazing!
  • There are some movies that I look forward to seeing (Oz! Admission!), but many of them are on DVD already (Anna Karenina! Celeste and Jesse Forever!  The Sessions!)!  More to come on that front!

What about you?  What’s up?

 

 

 

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