Popsicle Week

Today has been a most beneficial day so far.  I woke up at about ten thirty, sat and read for a little while, then cooked myself some nice stir-fry for lunch.  I am becoming the queen of economical cooking, you guys.  I bought a package of two chicken breasts (organic, no antibiotics, thank you) last week at the store and stretched it out to make like, six meals.  That’s five servings of chicken salad and a stir-fry.  Those two chicken breasts lasted me a whole week!  I was understandably proud of myself.

This has been somewhat of a crazy week because last Friday night, we got our first snow of the season.  The weather this winter has been scary nice, so when it snowed everyone was like, “yay!  Winter has arrived!”  I was not so pleased, because my car got stuck in the snow on the way out of the old Lost Tree and was stuck in a parking lot for three days, a complete popsicle.  Then, when I finally got it out (with a combination of Shadow’s kitty litter and my own superior driving skills) there was a giant crack across the windshield, courtesy of a tiny little nick that I got last year.  Danielle and I stayed at her resort on Sunday night because the weather was simply too scary to drive in, and Jenn from work called to tell me that they closed the mall at three o’clock and sent everyone home.  By Monday everything was starting to thaw out, but the roads on Sunday were pretty scary.  I was happy that we didn’t have to go anywhere on Sunday afternoon- I sat at the condo and watched, you guessed it, the Olympics. Curling and cross-country skiing, I think.

Has anyone but me been keeping track of this whole speed-skating melodrama?  I swear, this is like a soap opera for sports fans.  Let’s see if I can make sense of it.  Apparently, this guy Shani said that he was going to help out the team in some sort of relay race, but then he pulled out to focus on his other events.  This made this other guy, Chad, really really mad, and they’ve basically been shooting each other dirty looks across the ice for the entire Olympics. They both won gold medals in their respective events, and then the other night they competed against each other.  One of them won silver and the other one won bronze, I can’t remember which was which.  The pathetic thing was that they had a press conference later on and everything was going well until Shani said something to the effect that Chad could have come up to him and congratulated him when he won the gold medal.  Now, how wrong was that for him to throw that down in front of the whole world?  I don’t have a problem with the fact that these guys don’t like each other, I don’t like plenty of people.  I guess my problem is that they’ve dragged it out into the limelight and the media is on it like stink on a dog’s butt, and they’re making it into this big thing.  I was cheering for that Joey Cheek guy.  He seemed nice, and he reminded me of one of the kids from the high school youth group who graduated a couple of years ago.

Anyway, drama, drama, drama.  I’m going to go watch the figure skating.  USA! USA!  USA!

Brianne <><

Happy VD

What do single girls do on Valentine’s day?  Well, I don’t know what normal girls do, but I spent the day at work and then came home and watched House with Danielle and Rachael.  It was Rachael’s last night in Missouri, which is sad because that means that my circle of local friends just shrank to two, and I live with one of them.   After I said goodbye to Rachael, I watched a little figure skating and called Jess.  It was one in the morning when we finally finished talking, and when I looked at my counter on my phone, we had been on for three hours and twenty-eight minutes.  Granted, we hadn’t talked in a while (like, a week,) but that’s kind of a record for us as of late.  And it didn’t even feel like almost three and a half hours.  We did a five-hour marathon one night, so three hours or so is the average.   And to my credit, these conversations always happen after nine o’clock, which is when my free minutes start.  For Jess’s thoughts on Valentine’s Day and marriage (which are similar to my own,) click the “Scope of Imagination” link in my sidebar.

And now, for today’s pop culture update:

1. Oh, good Lord, House.  That’s another hour of TV that supersedes the Olympics.  This week was particularly traumatic.  House was hell-bent on proving that the migraine medication that a nemesis had developed didn’t work, so he tried it on himself.  He chemically induced a migraine on himself and injected himself with the medication.  It didn’t work and he said through his intense pain, “I was right.”  Then he proceeded to drop acid to get rid of the headache and later, he solicited what appeared to be a prostitute.  I’m sorry, was there anything about any of that stuff that was normal?  He’s obviously on the edge of a complete breakdown.  He also exhibits classic addictive behavior- he wants a quick solution to any problem.  If he were a friend of mine, I would be begging him to get professional help, not that he would.  Needless to say, I’m completely riveted.  I love this show.


2. For my general confusion concerning last night’s episode of Lost, visit the “Lost” link in my sidebar.


3. I just listened to clips of Jason Robert Brown’s CD, Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes, on Amazon.com and I really liked it.  Danielle said that she doesn’t like his voice, but I really do.  I mean, he’s not as dynamic as Norbert Leo Butz or Adam Pascal or Jesse L. Martin, but he’s good, and his voice lends itself to the songs he wrote.  There’s one song on there that he cut from the final draft of The Last 5 Years and it’s really cute.  And as always, the piano part is completely ridonkulous.  (I’m currently listening to Parade.  What can I say?  I needed a little Jason Robert Brown.)

Anyway, it’s two p.m. and I’m still sitting here in my jammies, so I had better go clean myself up.  As usual, it’s Thursday and I have church stuff I have to do.   And Bud?  I scooped the cat litter box.  Just for you.  Hee hee.  Till later,

Brianne <><

Someone take my temperature. I think I have Olympic Fever.

It’s official.  I have “Olympic fever.”

I realized this last night when I found myself sitting front of the TV, watching short track speed skating and men’s downhill skiing.  Do I normally care about short track speed skating or men’s downhill skiing?  No way.  But I watched it last night because I love the Olympics.  I don’t even like sports.  Every other sport just irritates me, but I will watch just about anything as long as it’s associated with the Olympics.  I mean, when the last summer Olympics were on in 2004, I watched shooting.  In any normal setting, that would be about as interesting as watching… well, shooting.  But since it was on the Olympics, it was cool!  USA!  USA!  USA!

I think that’s part of it, you know- the patriotic aspect of it.  I will be perfectly happy sitting down to watch women’s doubles luge as long as there are some Americans involved.  I am normally the cynic’s cynic when it comes to flag- waving: I hate it.  I love America, but we’re not the only nation in the entire world, and we’re not the only nation that God blesses (you don’t hear the Canadians saying “God bless Canada,” do you?)  But there is something about one of our athletes standing on that podium, listening to the “Star Spangled Banner” being played as the flag is raised in their honor that gets me every time.  So maybe I’m not as cynical as I thought.

In related news, I almost cried when I heard on the news that Michelle Kwan had dropped out of the figure skating competition.  I love her!  When I was growing up, I was a figure skating junkie.  I knew all the names of all the skaters from all the different countries.  I knew what all the jumps were called and I knew what they looked like.  When I played Barbies, my Barbies were always either figure skaters or gymnasts, depending on whether it was winter or summer (I had a similar obsession with gymnastics.)  To some extent, this obsession has not gone away.  I even watched Skating with Celebrities once, because Kurt Browning was on there, and he was always my favorite.  I also vowed to never watch it again because that was the night that he and his partner got kicked off the show.  So, to make a long story short, I don’t even know who I will cheer for now that Michelle Kwan isn’t in the competition.  I don’t have the … relationship, if you will, with the other female skaters.  I can’t just change my loyalties like that.  So, Michelle, if you are somehow reading this (not bloody likely,) I’m sorry about your injury, and it doesn’t matter to me that you didn’t win the gold medal.  You’re the best!

Even though I have Olympic Fever, it still didn’t stop me from watching Grey’s Anatomy last night.  I mean, Meredith had her hand on a bomb.  The only way that I wouldn’t have watched that was if there had been a tornado or an earthquake or something, taking out TV reception.  And even then, I probably would have perched on my roof with a coat hanger and the VCR taping Grey’s Anatomy down in my apartment.  Also, the leader-of-the-bomb-squad-person was Kyle Chandler, when used to be on Early Edition, which I also loved.  I think he’s about the most handsome person alive.  Too bad he got blown up in the end.  I don’t know why I love Grey’s Anatomy so much.  Maybe it’s just my long and well-documented obsession with hospital shows (I watched Chicago Hope until it was cancelled, I watched ER until right after Mark Greene died, and now I’m stuck on House and Grey’s Anatomy.)  Maybe it’s my love of soap-opera-ey, melodramatic drama (I was raised on Guiding Light and As the World Turns.)  Maybe it’s just Patrick Dempsey.  Whatever it is, I love that show.  Tomorrow night, the Olympics will also be on hold, at least between eight and nine o’clock, because that is when House is on.  I have to have my Hugh Laurie of the week.

Anyway.  That’s all I’ve got.  Now that Annie is over, maybe I’ll be able to blog a little more.  On my agenda for today: doing all the laundry that has accumulated over the last month, cleaning the kitchen, scooping the cat’s litter box (ew, ew, ew) and picking up the living room.  Till later,

Brianne <><

The Last 5 Weeks

I just went to Sarah Dessen’s blog and felt incredibly guilty that I hadn’t posted in about a million years.  I mean, she’s a big important writer with a husband and a life and who am I?  She manages to find time to blog every day.  It’s one o’clock and I haven’t even changed out of my jammies.  Please.

To defend myself, I have been incredibly busy lately.  Last weekend we opened Annie, so I was literally incommunicado for a whole week while we went through tech and dress rehearsals.  Because my boss is kind and generous, she scheduled me for mornings all week so I could make it to rehearsal in plenty of time to get ready.  So I basically went straight to the theater from the bookstore every day.  I think I made it home to take a nap one day that week, but every other day I had errands to run or hair to curl.  But it all paid off because we had an incredible opening weekend- it went better than we could have ever have guessed it would, and we’re having a ton of fun with it.  We did another show last night, and there were a lot of people there from my church.

Yesterday I got a huge surprise.  My sister, Jenny called me around eleven or eleven thirty a.m. to chat.  This wasn’t weird because she calls me at all sorts of weird times, and she said that she was on her lunch break.  I was running some errands in town so I chatted with her while I did those, and then I headed home.  Not five minutes after I got home, she hung up on me, and I suspected that the call had been dropped.  This was not uncommon.  And then I heard a knock on the door- you guessed it.  It was my sister surprising me!  She came to see the show this weekend.  I was so happy- my parents weren’t able to make it, and Jenny just decided to come out and surprise me.  She totally had me going, I had no idea that she was in town.  

I was excited to see my sister, and she also brought me the Rent book, which I carried around with me all day yesterday, and spent the morning reading.  I mean, this is the definitive source of all information about the Broadway production.  It’s got all these great pictures, the full libretto, quotes from everyone involved.  Rentheads on the internet call it the “Rent Bible.”  I know that it is the pinnacle of dorkiness to get this excited about a book, but I’m telling you, it’s awesome.

So yesterday was a Rent day.  I did the show at seven p.m.(I listened to Rent in the dressing room while I got ready,) and then Jenny and I went straight from the theater to Springfield, where we watched Rent at the Palace (they run second-run movies there for cheap.)  It was my third time seeing it in the theater, and it still hasn’t lost its magic.  It’s not a perfect movie by any means, and there are some real cheese moments in it (eg. Mark sticking the eviction notice up in Roger’s face in “Rent,” Roger rambling down the highway in the convertible, his hair blowing in wind) but I really do love it.  It’s coming out this month on DVD.  My sister made the comment that she was going to sleep at the store the night before and buy it as soon as it comes out.  (I think she was exaggerating.)

I have completely turned my sister into a Renthead.  Her first exposure to the show was going to see the movie with me the day before Thanksgiving, and by the time I had come back home for Christmas, she had completely memorized all the lyrics and had a picture of Jesse L. Martin on her desktop.  She loves it.  And with good reason.  
Pop culture update:

1. I couldn’t care less about American Idol, but House is coming back on Tuesday.  I am literally all atwitter with anticipation.  It will be the first time I get to sit down and watch it since Annie started rehearsals, so I am looking forward to my evening with Hugh.  


2. The Super Bowl is tomorrow and the only reason I even know who is playing is that Jess and Bud both live in Pittsburgh and Bud says that if the Steelers win, he and his roommates are going to pull an old awful couch that they have in their house out onto the street and burn it.  I couldn’t care less who wins, but I feel a moral obligation to cheer for Pittsburgh as a sign of solidarity with my Pittsburghian friends.  Especially considering that they are the only two people who read this blog.  


3. Oscar noms came out last week.  I’m excited for Reese Witherspoon and Keira Knightley and Joaquin Phoenix and Jake Gyllennhal, and Rachel Weisz, but I was disillusioned with the nominations as a whole.  No Laura Linney, no best director nomination for Peter Jackson, no Ralph Feinnes, and Chronicles of Narnia was shut out of the best score category.  Disappointing.


4. The Grammys are this week.  I’m cheering for Jack Johnson (nominated for his performance on “Sitting, Waiting, Wishing”) the Killers (“Mr. Brightside,” one of my favorites on Hot Fuss) Coldplay, (in general) and Nickel Creek (best contemporary folk album, which they probably won’t even show on TV.)


5. Keifer Sutherland beat Hugh Laurie for best actor in a drama at the SAG awards.  I was disappointed.  No one beats you, Hugh!  To console myself, I watched a Jeeves and Wooster and a House, and I felt a little better.


6. For my shell-shocked and extremely incoherent upsetness over the last new episode of Lost, visit the Lost link in my sidebar.  

Anyway.  That’s all I’ve got.  I am now going to get dressed, vacuum the living room, and possible watch Sense and Sensibility, which I borrowed from the library.  It has virtually everyone I love in it (everyone who is British, that is.)  I’ll post sometime next week to update you on how the closing weekend of Annie goes.  A bientot,

Brianne <><