In which I mention Segways for the second time on this blog.

I happened to watch Dancing With the Stars tonight. (Don't judge me. Andrew had class and I needed a break from HGTV.) My thoughts: Watching Steve Wozniak dance the tango was one of the ugliest things I've ever seen. Samantha, who does all the backstage interviews and begs "America" to vote, is really annoying. And Melissa, of former Bachelor "fame," looked like Minnie Mouse, if Minnie Mouse was trying to pick up Mickey on a street corner. (and I'm pretty sure they stuck some glitter patch thing on her lower back to cover up her tramp stamp.) These, among other reasons, are why I don't normally like this show.

But back to The Woz for a second . . . In his little staged, pre-dance intro bit, he and a bunch of other people rode in on Segways. It was a sort of choreographed, parade of nerdiness. I thought, this is lame, but it would be awesome if OKGo were doing it. That would be a YouTube sensation for sure.

(Unfortunately, Carrie Ann, Len, and Bruno only gave me 11 points for blogging this week. Come on, America, I need your votes!)

Noteworthy Thursday #15

I love this note. I love how Judy took the time to write it, then give it to me, to pass it to me in the hallway or to stick it in between the slats of my locker, even though she had absolutely nothing to say. That is true friendship.

Scarier Than Agatha Trunchbull

My sister left a comment saying she’d be interested to know what I’ve been reading lately. And I actually have something to say about that. I’ve been reading a collection of short stories by Roald Dahl. You know, author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, and Matilda—the list of fantastic works continues. But these short stories . . .

They are not what I was expecting. To be fair, the other books I’ve read of his are children’s books, while the short stories are definitely for adults. But they’re kinda creepy. Like, OMG, I can’t believe that guy was just going to cut that other guy’s finger off. And that the other guy was just going to let him! Creepycakes!

Y’all know I don’t like creepy things. I mistakenly watched Scream by myself (in my parents’ basement, no less) and I was scared for weeks. I shut my eyes during all the gory suspenseful parts in movies. I walked out of Final Destination 2 when I somehow got talked into going to see it. I get nervous watching Lost. (Seriously. It’s bad.) So this side of Roald Dahl is not necessarily one I wanted to get acquainted with. But I did.

My only real reading time is right before I go to bed. And I think you can see where I’m going with this. I keep reading these creepy stories and get all creeped out, then I go to sleep and have creeptastic dreams. And while I’ve been enjoying the writing and the storytelling, the ew factor made me quit reading. What am I going to read now?

Come on Mr. Dahl, where are the Big Friendly Giants? Where are the loveable bugs and the flying produce? I thought Veruca Salt and those weirdo Oompa-Loompas were bad enough, but this? This has got to stop.

Surprise!

Last week I decided to go to Chicago. I didn’t plan it, exactly. I got an email invitation to my best friend Emily’s birthday party, and I thought, Hey. I should go to Chicago. And I should surprise Emily, because she totally won’t be expecting me to come. So I recruited Stephanie to go with me, made a road trip playlist, and four days later, we were off.

"I love parties! I'm in!"

And let me tell you, was it ever a surprise. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Emily look that confused. For about five minutes, she didn’t say much besides “I can’t believe you’re here.” If you’ve never surprise-visited someone out of town before, I recommend it. Very gratifying.

BFFs since 1986. (I know. I can't believe it, either.)

Love this picture. Don't you?

Kenny made cake! Funfetti, no less.

While we were in Chicago, we did some shopping, obviously. I can’t go to Chicago and not make it to at least a couple of the stores I love that we don’t have here in KC. We went to Design Within Reach (though it’s not actually within my reach), Room & Board, Bloomingdales Home, Crate & Barrel Outlet, CB2, and Trader Joe’s. Lots of home stores. I had furniture and accessory shopping to do, after all. I found some great stuff. Cute vases, a lovely tray, some placemats. And curry sauce and lots of organic wine from Trader Joe’s. Ahhh, Chicago shopping . . . I love you so.

I luuuuurve this table. And the chairs. And the lights. *sigh*

The damage.

While I was gone, Andrew picked up our newly purchased coffee table. It looks fantastic. Couldn’t be more perfect for our room. With the new accessories I brought home and the new table, it’s beginning to look almost finished. Amazing. I thought this day would never come. We’ve still got a long list of home renovations we’d like to do, but it feels good to have one nearly completed room—especially when that room is the one in which we spend the most time.

What did you do this weekend?

Noteworthy Thursday #14

Happy Birthday, Emo! (Does this count as a present? No? Then sorry about not getting you anything.)

Because I'd rather not.

Well, it’s already Tuesday (night). And that means that by the time anyone reads this, it will be Wednesday. Which, of course, means that the next day will be Thursday and it’ll be time once again for Noteworthy Thursday. And I can’t have two Noteworthy Thursday posts back to back, because that would mean I hadn’t written anything all week. What kind of a blogger only writes once a week? (Don’t answer that.)

But I have a problem. I don’t know what to write about. I’m feeling . . . blocked. Potential topics: the gorgeous weather, things I wish I had been doing instead of sitting at my desk today, meatloaf, my favorite American Idol contestants, AIG execs’ bonuses, books, crafty things, my new(ish) bangs, electric socks, wearing green, my dissatisfaction with all of my brassieres, or soft claws. But I’m pretty sure everybody lost interest about halfway through that list. So back to square one.

Sooo . . .

Ah, screw it. This still counts. But if anything on that list caught your eye, let me know. You might get a real entry next time.

Noteworthy Thursday #13

This note was from my old high school boyfriend (I’ve got a whole box of these gems, people). Clearly with musical skillz like that, you can see why I was drawn to him. And speaking of drawing, what do you think his sixth block class was?

As always, click to embiggen. (that is word, yes?)

In Praise of the Bullet Point

I seem to have forgotten how to write a cohesive narrative. Hence:

• The tulips I planted last fall are starting to come up. So cute! But—I’m worried about them freezing. It’s supposed to be in the low 20s in the next few days. Hold on, pretty tulips!
• Andrew and I started a band. We call ourselves The Langs. My stage name is Meggs and his is Dru. We rock pretty hard.
• Andrew convinced me that it was time to purchase Rock Band 2.
• My friends Stephanie and Lindsey started doing small group personal training with me. It’s pretty awesome, because I pay half as much yet get the same amount of attention, and my trainer actually makes 50 percent more. It’s a win-win all around.
• I’m going on a date with my dad tonight and I’m really looking forward to it. There’s a Hitchcock film series playing at a local arts theater, so we’re going to see “To Catch a Thief.” My dad loves Cary Grant, so I grew up watching classics like “Bringing Up Baby,” “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House,” and “Operation Petticoat.” But I haven’t seen “To Catch a Thief,” so this should be a lot of fun.
• I pretty much hate Daylight Saving Time. Except for that whole staying-light-later-at-night thing, that is.
• We totally forgot Daylight Saving Time—until we were woken at 6:45am with a call from my FIL, saying he was on his way over. And of course, it was actually 7:45 (which is still too damn early).
• I love spring thunderstorms.
• I prepared our taxes this weekend. Blehhhhhhh. Why do they have to be so complicated? And why do we owe so much money?
• American Idol is disappointing me this year. But will I quit watching it? Probably not. Okay, definitely not.
• At work, it is Trend Week. That means that every day there are presentations and speakers that have to do with upcoming trends. This year’s theme is 200-Mile Radius. Or something like that. And yesterday we were given a “new” term: locavore. Thanks, work, but I’m pretty sure I heard that term, like, two years ago.
• I still like Trend Week.

Noteworthy Thursday #12

Can’t believe I ever participated in something like this.


Also, Jesse James? What the . . . ?

Thursday, January 1, 2009

This morning we slept late and didn’t get up until 11:00. It was glorious. Since it was New Year’s Day, we knew most things would be closed, so we didn’t stress about getting anywhere. While I was getting ready, my sweet husband went out and bought us some pastries. Lots of pastries. He got a baguette, pain au chocolat, and this giant, flaky, chocolatey, custardy thing. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. We ate a ton while watching music videos on TV. We don’t have very many channels here, and we’ve been watching a lot of music videos because about half of them are things we recognize, and the French ones are interesting to see. We’ve seen Beyoncé ponder what it would be like if she were a boy one too many times, though.

We finally left the apartment around 1:00 and walked to the Centre Pompidou. The building is crazy, with all the utility pipes visible on the outside (and painted bright colors too). It does not fit in the with classic French architecture that surrounds it. The center was open, so we bought tickets from the automatic machine and barely even had to wait in line at all—just a quick security check. First we walked through the library side. I had no idea it was a regular old research library (and a busy one—it was filled with students). Then we went over to the museum side.
This was a modern art museum. There was definitely some cool stuff there, and some stuff I just don’t get. Three white canvases in a row, titled “untitled” aren’t going to impress me. We saw some of Calder’s work (the mobile guy) and a bunch of Picasso, which is always cool. There were two special galleries in the Centre Pompidou too, and our tickets got us into everything, so we checked it out. We spent two or three hours there total, and we were exhausted. Even after taking a break in the center’s café, we were not refreshed. My feet were killing me, almost as if I’d been walking practically nonstop for the last couple of weeks.

Just outside the center was the Stravinsky Fountain. We think it would’ve been cooler if half the water hadn’t been frozen. And, I’m not certain, but I think it was even colder today than it has been.
We decided to wander over to Ile St. Louis, just to see it. We’d heard it was fancy and nice, so we walked across the Seine and onto the island. We walked down the main street and wandered into a few shops. A lot of shops were closed, but there were still a surprising number of people out and about. It was a pretty nice area, but it all felt too upscale for us.
Next we walked back to the Right Bank in search of an open café. We weren’t especially hungry, but we were freezing and wanted to warm up. We finally found a little place that was open near the Opera Bastille. It looked promising, but it ended up being pretty terrible. They didn’t have the quiche that we wanted, and the servers mostly ignored us. We ordered a bottle of wine, and when the waiter brought it over, it had already been opened, and he made a show of pointing out to us that it was full. We’re pretty sure that we were charged 20€ for them to fill our bottle with a much cheaper wine. When we were finished, we never were able to get anyone’s attention to ask for the check, so we ended up just putting some money on the table and leaving.

It was getting dark, and my feeeeet huuuuuuuuurrt, so we took the metro back to our apartment and started packing up our stuff to go home. I snacked on the baguette Andrew bought this morning, even though I ate a ton of bread at the café. It’s probably for the best that I don’t live in Paris, because I would eat my weight in bread every single day.

I can’t believe we leave tomorrow. These three weeks have flown by. Just one more night on the Murphy bed, then we’re outta here.