Smackdown March 29, 2007 ~ 3:46 pm
Posted by Julie in : About a Julz , comments closedYou ever think “Hey, I’ve had a real shit couple of weeks, but I’m past them now. I’m emerging from the tunnel. Things are going to be okay.” and then a giant hand reaches down out of nowhere and smacks you upside the head?
Yeah, that’s kinda what’s happening here. I give you my horoscope for the day, which is so, so apt:
“Valid during several weeks: At its highest, this influence indicates an unusual degree of selflessness in love. In personal relationships, the need to care for someone else may mean that you will not get immediate gratification other than the pleasure of helping someone you love. If your relationship is basically sound, this influence will assure greater rewards of love and satisfaction later. Although this is a time for self-denial in love relationships, do not fall into the negative trap of playing martyr. Do not inflict on others, especially the ones you are helping, a constant awareness that you are “unselfishly” devoting yourself to them. This will undo your efforts and create trouble. If you cannot service with a true spirit of selfless devotion, do nothing.”
I generally don’t play the martyr, unless it’s for comedic effect. If you are my friend or loved one, I will give give give whatever you need without thinking twice. That’s just who I am. And so that’s what I’ll be doing. But it might mean (hell, it has meant) less energy for the blog for the moment. Then again, it might not, but I’m warning you, just in case. I hope you’ll all still be around when I’m able to pick my head up again.
What the hell? March 27, 2007 ~ 11:46 am
Posted by Julie in : Fambly , comments closedAs I mentioned in one of those short things I was passing off as posts, my Uncle Norm had a birthday yesterday. I have never been able to keep the ages of my uncles and aunts straight, so I called my mom and asked how old he was turning. She thought a minute and said “49. He was born in 1958.” I was officially gobsmacked. Wait, what? Back that truck up…he’s only 49? Why did I think he was so much older than that? That means he’s younger than Rick. Younger than my friend Eugene. Only a year older than my friend Tony. I don’t consider any of them old.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that I was born when Norm was at college, but until yesterday, I always thought of him as older than he was. I guess that’s because I’ve known him since I was tiny, so he’s always seemed older than he actually is. He was left in charge of us when we were kids, maybe that’s why my perspective is skewed. Although that time he fed us all chocolate frosted toast for breakfast when we were little suddenly makes sense. As does the time when we were in London and he completely forgot kids need to eat on a schedule and so I didn’t get lunch until 4 one afternoon. Let’s see, I was 11, that means he was 30. Yep, that explains it. How many times have I said that I can’t remember to feed myself, let alone a kid?
Genetics: explaining our red hair, our mutual love of history, our complete lack of common sense when it comes to food and children, and our finding stupid pet tricks and fart noises completely hillarious…
The Three Musketeers, back in action March 26, 2007 ~ 3:16 pm
Posted by Julie in : Shorty, Urban Family , comments closedJordana: So, wait, how does it end?
Tony: Well, they fight it out…
Julie: Yeah, a gunfight.
Jordana: There’s a gunfight in Beauty & The Beast?
Julie: There is in my version.
Tony: Gaston gets his head blown off by a machine gun.
Julie: Exactly. Ratatatatatatatat!
Jordana: You guys are just wrong.
Happy birthday March 26, 2007 ~ 12:08 pm
Posted by Julie in : Fambly, Random Insanity , comments closedIt’s my Uncle Norm’s birthday today. I looked carefully through the Hallmark e-cards before selecting the perfect one to send him. It had a video of a monkey making farting noises with its armpit. How awesome is that?
He just emailed me to let me know how much he loved it.
In some ways, he and I are so much alike.
Foiled by Target March 23, 2007 ~ 12:26 pm
Posted by Julie in : Random Insanity , comments closedLast night after I had paid my bills for the month, I realized I had a bit of extra cash. I decided to go to Target to get a lampshade. To replace the one the cats had broken…uh, last summer. About time I got the damn thing, right?
But Target in the city is different from Target outside the city. We are Target-deprived here, and although it’s not quite as bad as it was when the Brooklyn Target first opened, sometimes the shelves still look like they were hit by a plague of locusts. The kind of locusts that like to eat home furnishings and office supplies.
Last night I meandered through Target, seeing things I had been needing for a while but hadn’t picked up. A giant bottle of Advil…good for TMJ, into the basket it goes. Belts! I need belts! One in brown and black, into the basket they go. Oooh, a whistling tea kettle! Rick drinks tea like it’s going out of style, and while we have a kettle, it doesn’t whistle. You have to stay right beside it so you know when it’s boiling or you will be waiting for your tea to cool for the next 6 hours. Into the basket. A meat thermometer! I’ve been wanting one of these for ages! Into the basket. I head upstairs to find a lampshade. They have several, none of which are the right size to go on my lamp. Dammit. I’ll have to get one when mom comes up and we can go to the bigger, better stocked Target in Queens. To console myself, I went to the video section. Prairie Home Companion! I had wanted to see that in the theater, and here it was for $13. Into the basket. Oh, and The Holiday! That movie makes me happy. $17 and some change. Into the basket.
You can see where this is going. I went in for a lampshade, which they didn’t have, and instead I spent $90 on other things. To quote the comedian Gallagher, “Well, we were gonna need it anyway…”
“Drop the hammer.” March 22, 2007 ~ 1:51 pm
Posted by Julie in : Academic Office Monkey, Random Insanity , comments closedIt’s crazy around here lately. And by “here” I mean “in that space called my life.” I call this time of year at work Icepick Season, because I am driven so insane by the number of phone calls, audits, and other demands on my time that an icepick to the skull seems preferable some days. Yesterday I did 50 audits and sent in corrections to the Commencement Program to Publications.
And that’s work. On the home side, I’m still waiting to adopt the Feline Formerly Known As Malik (FFKM). I am going into rehearsals this weekend. I am meeting up with a dear friend from grad school who is in town for a few days. I am trying to meet up with another playwright I work with. I am getting the house cleaned, both for FFKM and for mom, who will be visiting in a few weeks, and for another classified-for-the-moment reason. I am trying to keep my exercise routine in place. I’m trying to plan Jordana’s baby shower. I’m learning how to deal with my TMJ.
Yeah, really what I’m doing is trying not to lose my mind at this point. Wish me luck in that endeavor.
So…if I haven’t commented, emailed, called, contacted you in any way, shape, or form? Forgive me. I will come out the other side of all of this victorious. I always do. It just might take a while. Now excuse me, my audit count is only 25 for today and I really have to work on that.
My little inmate March 21, 2007 ~ 12:38 pm
Posted by Julie in : Da Cats , comments closedI’ve been trying to get Joe an evil cat friend for a while now. The one I picked out first has a brother and has to stay with him, so we can’t pull that off. So then I found another one. His slave/shelter name is Malik. He’s white with grey spots and is tremendously friendly and cuddly.
I’ve been trying to adopt Malik for three weeks now. I was all set to pick him up the weekend before last, and then Jeffrey died and all bets were off because we had to figure out what to do with Maynard. Last weekend I was in Massachusetts with Rick and the Youngest, so I couldn’t adopt Malik then, either. I was set to bring him home tonight when I find out that he has worms. He’d already been treated once, so they think these are the eggs of the first batch. But worms means that Malik has to stay at the clinic a little longer so that he gets healthy and doesn’t infect Joe. The girl at the clinic who I’ve been playing phone tag with for a couple of weeks says he should be ready by the weekend, but guess what? I have rehearsal this weekend. And a friend from grad school will be in the city as well, so no Malik before next week.
On the plus side, this means that I have more time to clean, help Rick pack up his apartment, and even go to the Yarn Harlot’s Represent event at FIT tomorrow night. But I’m starting to feel bad for the little kitty who has been stuck in a cage for going on three weeks. Especially since he’s been stuck being called Malik that entire time.
I’m going to visit him tonight. To pet him and hold him and start testing out better names on him. Like Freddie.
Lists March 19, 2007 ~ 4:12 pm
Posted by Julie in : Academic Office Monkey, Coupledom, Drama Queen, Rick, The Girls , comments closedAccomplished:
- made friends with Maynard the cat.
- bowled 104. Followed by a shite 80. Win some, lose some.
- set land speed record on a toboggan with Youngest.
- several chats with Rick’s mom.
- much quality time with my Weet Boy.
To Do:
- grocery shopping
- laundry
- clean apartment
- cat proof bathroom
- pick up new cat friend for Joe
- go to reading
- print out final draft of script for rehearsals this weekend
- spend more time with Rick
At Work:
-five million degree audits
-don’t kill stupid students asking the same question over and over again
-list of June candidates for graduation to Publications
-list of candidates for Retroactive graduation to Faculty Council
-get set for the six massive lists that go to Faculty Council next month
-proof galleys for Commencement program for Publications
-answer questions Publications has about said galleys
-don’t kill stupid students calling all day long about degree audits I haven’t been able to finish because of stupid phone calls
Pride March 16, 2007 ~ 10:06 am
Posted by Julie in : In Da Hood , comments closedI took a picture last night that I really wanted to use in today’s post, but then I started cooking corned beef and cabbage and watching Ugly Betty and drinking some beer, and then it was 12:30 and I was asleep on the couch, so I just got up and went to bed without ever uploading the damn thing on to my computer and then to Flickr. So you’re gonna have to go with me here.
One of the things I like best about my neighborhood, Windsor Terrace, is the small town feel of it. And at no time is this more apparent than around holidays, when everyone goes all out to decorate. Yeah, you see decorations in other parts of the city, particularly around Christmas, but hardly ever do you see people go all out for say, Valentine’s Day. And St. Patrick’s Day? Fuhgeddaboudit. This is when my neighborhood shines.
Windsor Terrace has traditionally been an Irish neighborhood. Irish and Irish-descent families bought into the Terrace decades ago and just passed the houses down through the generations. There are other ethnicities in the neighborhood now, but we still wear our Irish hearts on our sleeves, especially at this time of year. The other night I was walking home from the local grocery (and yes, I had bought corned beef there) and passed no fewer than 6 houses with shamrock flags hanging out on my way. That’s not counting the shamrock and leprechaun cut outs taped up in windows or the green lights on front porches, either. We’re Irish! We’re proud of it! Everyone should celebrate this, the best of all holidays!!
My neighbor Forrest and his wife generally outdo everyone in the decorating department. These are the people whose house could be seen from outer space this past Christmas with lights, flashing signs, two inflatable lawn decorations tied to the porch roof, and another two inflatable decorations in the back yard. On St. Patrick’s Day, Forrest proudly flies an Irish flag off his front porch, right next to the American one. This year, I didn’t see the Irish flag. I wondered about it briefly, until I looked across the street yesterday to the little park Forrest helped get put in and takes care of singlehandedly. There, waving proudly from the flagpole right under the American flag is Forrest’s Irish flag (and yes, that’s the picture I took last night).
I love my neighborhood.
Good news! March 14, 2007 ~ 11:00 pm
Posted by Julie in : Assorted Ailments , comments closedHey, remember how I had wax in my left ear last week? It’s gone!
Yeah, that’s the good news part of this. The bad news is that I went to the doctor’s office after work today, and apparently I have pus in that ear. Right where the one doc scratched it last week when he was trying to take out said wax. I’ve discovered that as long as I don’t think about what pus in my ear would actually look like? It’s kind of funny. You can use it in jokes. Like when your boyfriend calls and says “Are you listening with your good ear?” you can say “Which one is that? The one that still has wax in it? Or the one that now has pus in it?”. Okay, maybe that’s only funny to me.
Also? I have “a really bad case of TMJ” (that was the official diagnosis). Hooray! That’s what I’ve always wanted! Arthritis in my JAW!! Woohoo! I can’t fucking contain my joy. Now pass the bite guard and the ibuprofin. But at least that pain in my jaw has been explained. I think. Seriously, if I have to get a fuckin’ root canal on top of this? I’m gonna start wondering how I pissed off the universe so badly. It’s gotten to the point where when someone asks me “How have you been?” I either lie or say “You don’t want to know.” I would run through it all, but that would smack way too much of a pity party.
But hey, it’s gotta get better from here, right? I mean, I felt my godbaby kick for the first time tonight, and that was pretty cool. Kid’s gonna be a fuckin’ soccer player or Rockette by the feel of it. He/she does not like you to crowd on his/her space. I can empathize, little baby, I really can. Because this morning? My period started.
