too good

Awesome!!

And the absolute best part: "Ortega [director and choreographer] said a potential Broadway production is in the early workshop phase." Double awesome!

BTW: Have I told you that my boy is taking me to New York for my birthday - any musical I want to see and a night in the city!! He's so good to me :)

Vote Holly!

With this entry, I might lose any credibility I am trying to gain as a small group leader, but I'm going to do it anyway...I love The Girls Next Door. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, good - you're probably a good, wholesome Godly person. Me, on the otherhand, I love to watch this cable reality show that follows the lives of Hugh Hefners' three girlfriends. The show is so funny and so sad at the same time. And you would think that the saddest part of the show would be all those women (and men) just throwing everything they have out there and partying it up all the time as if there was no sense of decency or morality. And still, I love this show because it's stupid - it consistently makes me laugh. Those girls crack me up.

Anyway, I digress. The part that I find saddest is my girl, Holly. She is my favorite of the three girlfriends. She is "Hef's #1 girl," which means of the three girlfriends, she is the main one. And what makes me sad about her is that she seems to genuinely love Hef. Don't know why - the man just turned 80 - he is 8 years older than my dad and when I think of my dad, I think "dirty old man" but no, Hef is a DIRTY, OLD MAN. Yet still she loves him. She just likes to be next him, to hang out with him. She doesn't like to go away without him. She'll call him regularly when she is out just to check in on "puffin." Seriously, I feel her. When Hef walks into a room, Holly lights up and screams, "puffin!" It reminds me of me, "Timmy!"

But there are a few minor differences between Timmy and Hef. Like Timmy doesn't have two other girlfriends living with us - ew. That makes me so sad. If you have ever seen the show, I am sure you have noticed the look on Holly's face whenever Hef kisses another girl. It's one of two looks - a growl with a muttered "i'm going to pull out all of your hair, bitch" or a sad puppy dog pleading "please, don't touch my puffin" Oh, it's so sad. I just want him to get rid of Bridget and Kendra and commit to Holly. Holly has said on the show before that she wants to get married and she wants to have babies. She wants little hefs - ew but still, dito.

So, why does Hef need multiple girlfriends? It seems to me that he cares more for Holly than the other girls. Holly is the one who sleeps with him every night. Maybe it's just the image. Maybe he can't commit to one person because that would destroy the whole playboy image. Wasn't he married? What happened there? I don't know. Maybe in his heart he really does want to make Holly his one and only girlfriend, maybe even his wife, but he can't because an entire empire rests on his dirtiness. So, sad. And another sad part is that it seems clear that Bridget and Kendra know that Holly's his favorite. They seem to be milking the whole "Hef's girlfriend" title while I think Holly is dreaming of becoming Mrs. Hugh Hefner. Dito.

In related nonsense, Timmy and I were watching VH1s Fabulous Life of Sugar Daddies. Do you know what craziness is reported in regards to Hef and his girlfriends? Besides the fact that the three girlfriends get to have Hugh Hefner as their man - ew. They also reportedly:
-have full medical and dental insurance provided
-get plastic surgery paid for
-get a $1000 a week of spending money
-are included in Hef's will: Bridget and Kendra will each get $500,000. Holly will get $3,000,000 - come on, Hef, commit!!
-oh and then there's that whole Playboy Mansion, celebrity status, and their own tv show because they are Hef's girlfriends. I just have to shake my head.

I stand behind Holly.

Oh and for those of you wondering: a sugardaddy is an older man who showers gifts on a younger, less financially stable women. Timmy says that makes him my sugar daddy. Guess that means I'm his arm candy. That's cool so long as I am the only one and I get to call him "puffin."


------

addition: sadness, deep sadness
Hef and Holly can't marry because he already is! Ug, he married a bunny in 1989. They separated in 1998 but never actually divorced (at least according to Wikipedia). Hef and that bunny have a 16 yr old and a 15 yr olf. He's just filling his time with pretty little things - oh Holly, RUN! Give your love to man who will love you as you deserve!!!!

Alas

So it turns out my six minutes of torture, and subsequent vomiting, were all for naught. I was not selected for the tactical team due to the fact that I was "too laid back" during the interview portion.

Oh. Okay.

I was encouraged, however, to try out again - if/when more openings should become available in the future.

Just incase I become less laid back as time passes? Let's not hold our collective breath for that one.

Color Me Relieved

After watching the Eagles' game yesterday, I was dismayed to learn that the Tennesee Titans have a player named Pacman Jones. Thankfully, I later found that "Pacman" is not his legal name, merely a nickname. (And a weakly earned one, if you read that part of his profile.) Hopefully his brothers Donkey Kong & Super Mario will have careers in the NFL as well, though.

great news!

Our landlord doesn't suck! It's true that he didn't call us for a couple of days, but during that time, he was tending to the issue. We will have a new oven Monday or Tuesday! Woo-hoo. Kris - I will keep your offer in mind in case this good news is too good to be true. But I am hopeful.

In other good and related news: I found my mojo!! It was at Giant.

load of crap

So what's with ovens not working right before Thanksgiving? Seriously, it's a load of crap. We woke up this morning and Timmy tells me the oven isn't working. Not sure if there was some sort of issue last night, maybe with the storm. But we have no oven as of right now. Apparently, Timmy actually got a hold of our landlord the first time he called (shocking!). However, after telling Timmy that he would call him back in five minutes, our landlord has yet to call us back. I look forward to the day when we have no landlord - I have bad experiences with them.

So, now I am bummed, hoping that Mr. Landlord hasn't call us back because he is tending to the issue. I want to continue with our Thanksgiving as planned. It's our first married Thanksgiving. We're having friends over on Wednesday. I'm going to attempt my first turkey. I was really excited. Now I am disappointed, trying to be optimistic, trying to think of alternate options without being a pessimist. Pooo.

no, i'm not being dirty

Ever google yourself? I'm sure you have...I googled my old self and found this. Then I googled my new self and found this. I think I would like my old self better. She seems more like me: latin, loves Jesus, seems a bit cheesy. Maybe, with time, I will become more like my new self.

oh and then I found this. Oh yeah.

Burlap and Bean

Burlap and Bean, a coffee house owned and operated by a couple at our church, opens next week. I was checking out their website earlier today and I thought it looked cool. Wish it were a little closer.

bumper

If you're like me, you can't ignore the bumper sticker in front of you while you are driving. Today, I noticed this sticker.



And I thought it was really clever. That's all.

The Oprah Show

What did I learn today while watching The Oprah Show?

1 - The Oprah Show's electric bill is $65,000 a month. That's a lot of money.

2 - After giving birth, dogs eat the placenta. There's a chemical in them that stimulates milk production. Glad that's not the case for humans.

236 days

Timmy had a playdate with Neily today. What did I do while they played 5 hours of Ultimate Marvel Alliance? I cleaned the apartment, washed my car, cleaned the inside of my car, and went shopping at Target. Although I had to deal with the nastiness of a beautiful Saturday afternoon in November shopping experience, it was worth it - new scarf, new hat, two new pairs of gloves, and a brand new puzzle. After Neily left, Timmy and I ordered some thin and crunchy pizza from Dominos, started our new puzzle, watched the Flyers lose again, and then spent some quality time reflecting on the last 8 months. Overall, it was a great anniversary. Thanks, honey. Oh, and I shaved for the first time in one month - ew.

dvds to sleep to

This week has been a rough week to fall asleep without Timmy. So, I have reverted to my single days method of sleeping - I've been falling asleep to a movie. I take the laptop to bed with me, place it on Timmy's side, fall asleep, wake up around 2 or so, turn off the laptop, and go back to sleep. Before Timmy, I would just put a movie on the computer and let it run all night, but that was a desktop. This is a laptop and I fear kicking it off the bed in the middle of the night. Already this week I have exhausted Little Women and Notting Hill. They are my sleepy movies. I know them well enough and watch them often enough that I don't feel bad falling asleep to them. Little Women in particular - that's my happy movie. That's why I put it on last week when I was sick and wanting my mami. I know Little Women so well that I can close my eyes and see the movie. Depending on how tired I am, I can be out cold before Marmie even gets home. Tonight, however, I have decided to fall asleep to Angela and her high school friends of My So-Called Life. My sister bought be the complete series (0ne season) a few years ago for Christmas. It was a good gift. Self-Esteem and Peer Pressure from Disk 4 are the best episodes (when Angela and Jordan finally get together and then when Angela and Jordan break up - the best). I would fall asleep to that DVD all the time. Unfortunately, I have beat up that disk; I fear using it much more since it seems to have a scratch already. So, tonight I will watch "Life of Brian" from Disk 3. Another good episode. It's the one told from Brian's perspective - he lies to Deliah about being sick so he can "go to the dance" with Angela. Jerk. Anyway, time for the show and hopefully I will fall asleep, but since I haven't seen this episode in a while, it may be harder to fall asleep.

Survivor: Darby Township

Well, I survived my tryout for the tactical team yesterday. I didn't for most of the course (I don't know if I could have even if I wanted to), but I completed it. My head was reeling throughout pretty much the whole thing, whether because I was taking cold medication and couldn't breathe through my nose or because I'm just woefully out of shape.

The good news is that I managed to hold off on pulling a Donovan McNabb until the team was off next interview and I was safely within the confines of the restroom. Go team? Or something. I felt like Ron Burgundy, when stumbling around in the street on a hot day and says, "Milk was a bad idea." Only my version was, "Drinking a big glass of orange juice and a quart of water before running the obstacle course was a bad idea." But I said it with the same voice, and I had the same sweet beard - even if only in my mind.

So anyway, whether or not I'm voted off the island still remains to be seen. But for now, I'm still a Survivor.

tonight's rambling

I'm sleepy. I could probably fall asleep if Timmy came to bed with me. However, he is on night shift this week so he needs to go to bed later to ensure that he is rested for work. Since I have gone to bed the last two nights without him and would rather not do so tonight, I'm going to blog a little instead. You know, I think the little picture in my living room at the moment is super cute. My beautiful boy is next to me playing his new Marvel Ultimate Alliance video game (Yes, it finally showed up today). I'm sitting here with the computer on my lap, curled up in my bath robe with the monogram Timmy and I share. (Yes, we have matching monogrammed bath robes.) Every now and then he turns away from the tv screen and gives me a little look and it makes me smile.

Okay, okay. This isn't just an entry when Melissa acts all girlie and sappy and the guys want to vomit and the single girls want to scream and the married ladies smile. I was just thinking about boys today. Not the beautiful boy next to me but the other boys, the ones before Timmy - the ones that broke my heart, that ones that made my heart flutter a little, the ones that made me cry, the ones that me grin really, really stupidly, the ones I wondered "is this the man I'm going to marry?" Unfortunately, I was like many single women who asked this question of any man that flashed a cute smile in my direction.

So, today I was thinking about some of these boys and they can still make me smile. I think about how much fun those crushes were before they became...well, crushes and then they started to hurt. I think about how silly I was and how sad and lonely I was. Some of those boys I don't smile when I think of them. Some make me sad. Some make me angry. But one of the feelings I feel when I think of all of them is the same. With each one, I am grateful. Grateful that God took such good care of me. Even though I dreamed a lot about these boys and they made me feel a certain way and I wondered of our future, nothing ever came of it. I was a silly girl daydreaming - at most, a little flirting here and there but God kept me very safe. Toward the end of my single days before Timmy showed up, I was pissed at God for keeping me so safe - I felt like daddy wasn't letting his little girl grow up and it pissed me off. I remember this one time: I was at a movie with a male friend. I said something like "I feel like God's always next to me and you will never touch me because of it." He smiled and said, "Yes. You're right. I won't." I was pissed. But I get it now and I'm so grateful.

For our premarital counseling, Patrick had us write essays telling each other why we loved each other. One of the biggest reasons I love Timmy or maybe one of the greatest effects of loving Timmy is that I feel like he makes sense of my past. He makes sense of all those nights I lay in bed crying, doubting God and His plan, wondering about all these silly boys and those silly girl questions. Now I sit in my oversized bathrobe staring at a boy completely enthralled in his video game and I say "thank you, Lord." Thank you for knowing me better than I know myself. Thank you for being "tough" with me because you knew the good you had waiting for me. Thank you for sparing so much of my heart and so much of my body. I feel honored and humbled that you would care so much for me and so much for my marriage that you would actually put so much effort to protecting me and Timmy.

I think Timmy is getting tired of his game. I'm going to suggest going to bed now. I'm sleepy and I missed sleeping next to my boy. He really is beautiful, you know.

annoyed

NOTE: I don't know how comfortable I am publishing this entry. In fact, I am very uncomfortable. It would not surprise me if I delete this entry in the morning. However, this is something that has been on my mind today. I apologize if I misunderstood or offended anyone. But just remember, I'm totally messed up too.








It's been a long time since I have watched The View. I found the show entertaining in its early years, but I got tired of it. I watched it this morning. It was the first time I saw it with Rosie O'Donnell. I should start by saying - I loved The Rosie O'Donnell Show. I didn't watch it often because of the time it aired, but I watched it whenever I could. It was a fun show. She talked a lot about musicals; I like musicals. I've heard people say not nice things about her because of her political/moral views, but I never really heard them, so it didn't phase me. But now, she's on The View and the whole first 15 minutes of the show is an open forum for the ladies to say whatever they want. Usually I don't care what people say on tv, but today I was annoyed.

They talked about Ted Haggard. I wasn't bothered so much with their opinions (mostly Rosie's). It made me sad, but I could understand them. I can't expect people who don't have my worldview to view the world the way I do. I look at everything from the fundamental understanding that we are ALL broken, messed up, evil, completely lost, unless you let God in and let him change you. I am annoyed when I hear people say "because I was born this way, it's right." Or "if I feel this way, it's right." Um, no. I'm not going to say you weren't born this way or you don't feel this way or you don't believe this way. What I am going to say, is just because you were born, feel, or believe a certain way, doesn't mean its right. Because I go back to my original statement: we are all messed up. Since I start with that understanding and lots of people don't, I am not as harsh when people say certain things, especially about the church. Makes me sad, but I'm not always annoyed or angered. Today, I was.

What bothered me today was attitude. It was the way the topic was presented. There was a tone in the voice that I heard as "Ha. Ha. Gotcha. Look at you fall." It felt like she was relishing in this situation. Again, I can understand that this man was vocally strongly opposed to a cause that is as close to her as any. But still, this was gloating. This was rejoicing. And it left a strong distaste in my mouth.

I hope I heard her incorrectly. I hope it was her comedic tone that sounded harsh to me. Like when Timmy makes a comment and it sounds harsher because of his sarcasm. I hope she wasn't happy that this man fell: that his marriage and his career are in jeopardy, that his faith is shaken, and not only his, but the thousands of people who looked up to him. I try to put myself in that situation: a horrible sexual scandal coming out in my church, with Mark or even with Patrick. I know they are only human, but I think my heart would break. I would hate the thought of people rejoicing in that pain.

Again, I hope I misunderstood.

Fuego

Urban renewal in Chester last night. All three stories of an abandon house, spontaneously burst into flames. Ain't that somethin'?























































































And lastly, this was just too precious - a deck gun with so little pressure it barely could make it into the front door. Fantastic.

still twelve...

Timmy's at work again tonight, so I find myself doing what else? Searching myspace and watching tv. But I think I am actually going to turn off the computer. I am fifteen minutes into A Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff and already, they have me sighing and giggling. I'm such a twelve year girl....

...

I was a junior in high school when I became a Christian. It was April 13, 1997. If you know my story, then you know that there were a bunch things that academic year that lead to me and Jesus. One of those things was my American Lit class. There were two moments that I will never forget from that class. The first was sitting around in small groups discussing some piece of literature and a biblical reference to Solomon. I had no clue what they were talking about. This girl said something like, "it's from the Bible." The tone of her voice was, "duh. are stupid or something?" I had no clue. But that pierced my heart. I was embarrassed. I had always been the smart girl so I didn't like not knowing or rather I didn't care about not knowing, I just didn't want others to know that I didn't know. And I was especially embarrassed to ask questions about religion or church or god or anything like that. I felt like I should have known. So, full of pride, I didn't ask. So, when that girl said that, man, it felt like someone punched me in the gut.

The second thing I will never forget about that class was this girl named Missy. We had been casual friends in middle school and then lost touch. We found ourselves in this class together. We had an assignment to do some poem like thing. I can't remember the particulars, just that you have to fill in the blank, "I am..." For instance, mine probably read something like, "I am Melissa, daughter of Nancy. Sister of Melody. I am a student. etc." I remember finding this assignment difficult and awkward. I don't remember if we all had to present our pieces orally or if just Missy did. But I will never forget what she said. She stood up in front of the class and said, "I am a daughter of God." I had heard a rumor that Missy was a Christian, that she became a Christian a year or so before this class. Again, didn't really know what that meant, but I was really curious. That was mostly me before me and Jesus. I didn't know. I didn't understand. I had questions. I was intrigued, but I was scared, I was embarrassed, ashamed to ask anyone. But when Missy said that, I was...I don't know what I was...I still can't quite put words to it. But when I think about how I became a Christian. I think of bunch of little stories and encounters from my entire life and how they all those little things culminated in April of my junior year with my accepting Christ. I can see how God was always a part of me. I always sensed him around, since I was little girl. Looking back, I know he was always there, always quietly wooing me. It was just that year that it became more...harder to ignore. It was April when I finally got the courage to ask someone one of my many religious questions. A week later it was me and Jesus, I've never turned back.

When I think of my "testimony," when I share my "story," I mention lots of things and American Lit is always one of them. Why do I share all of this now? I was on myspace. I found Missy. And in her details under religion it said "agnostic." Agnostic? What happened? I read through her blogs and she has gone through a lot. I don't know if her doubts came before, but it wouldn't surprise if they came after. But it made me so sad. I never forgot that, in front of the entire class, "I am a daughter of God." Bold. Courageous. Unashamed. And now, doubtful of his very existence or his goodness or something.

It just made me sad.

tv tonight

So, I really want to watch a movie on tv tonight. True, we have movies, but I don't want to see them. I want to see something on tv. I know, I'm weird. So, I check out the TV Guide channel and see that they are giving Breakfast at Tiffany's at 8pm on Oxygen. Awesome. I've never seen it and I've wanted to - sold. But, of course, just as the credits start, I change my mind. "I don't wanna see this." I can be so indecisive. So, I change the channel from 74 Oxygen to 76 We. A movie is getting ready to start; there's that "formatted to fit your screen" thing. And I knew what it was with the first screen - "Edfu, Egypt" That's Mannequin!! Ah man. Perfect. I love this movie. I love that song at the end when they get married. And I love that song when they dance around the department store after hours. Oh, it's such a good movie. I've seen it so many times. Mami owns it, of course; it's on VHS. Although, I think Melody bought it on DVD a couple years back. I know this movie so well, I can even continue roaming myspace. But, of course, just as the movie starts so does the music downstairs - someday, someday....

Why I'm Not Happy At The Moment

I ordered the "Marvel Ultimate Alliance" game from Overstock.com last week, as noted in a previous post. The tracking software for same says that my game arrived at the Philadelphia post office on the 27th of October - which according to my calculation is just shy of a week ago. And it's still not here. How can it take something a week to get from Philadelphia to... Philadelphia? I'm wasting valuable gametime right now. Sheesh.

No Oscar for me, thank you

Well, it's been a while since I have touched in with some entertainment news, and tonight I was saddened to hear about Reese and Ryan. It's sad. They seemed to have staying power. In an article, I read something interesting,

In the past 10 years, six of the nine Academy Award winners for best actress ended up splitting from the husbands or boyfriends they thanked on Oscar night: Witherspoon, Swank, Halle Berry, Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow and Helen Hunt. (The exceptions are Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand and Nicole Kidman, who was unattached when she won.)

There goes, no more daydreaming about giving an acceptance speech at the Academy Awards - I wanna keep Timmy.