To my friends and dear, sweet, alcohol

Dear Alcohol:

First and foremost, let me tell you that I'm a huge fan of yours. My friend, you always seem to be there when needed. The perfect post-work cocktail, beer at the game, and you're even around in the holiday's hidden inside chocolates as you warm us when we're stuck in the midst of endless family gatherings. However, lately I've been wondering about your intentions. While I want to believe that you have my best interests at heart, I feel that your influence has led to some unwise consequences:

1. Phone calls:

While I agree with you that communication is important, I question the suggestion that any conversation of substance or necessity takes place after 2 a.m. Why would you make me call those ex-boyfriends / girlfriends when I know for a fact they do not want to hear from me during the day, let alone all hours of the night?

2. Eating:

Now, you know I love a good meal, but why do you suggest that I eat at WHAT-A-BURGER, or JACK-IN-THE -BOX, or DENNY'S and some cold french fries (washed down with WINE & topped off with a Snickers bar after a few cheese curls & chili cheese fries)? I'm an eclectic eater, but I think you went too far this time.

3. Clumsiness:

Unless you're subtly trying to tell me that I need to do more yoga to improve my balance, I see NO need to hammer the issue home by causing me to fall down. It's completely unnecessary, and the black & blue marks that appear on my body mysteriously the next day are beyond me. Similarly, it should never take me more than 45 seconds to get the front door key into the lock.

4. Furthermore:

The hangovers have GOT to stop. This is getting ridiculous. I know a little penance for our previous evening's debauchery may be in order, but the 3pm hangover immobility is completely unacceptable. My entire day is shot. I ask that, if the proper precautions are taken (water, vitamin B, bread products, aspirin) prior to going to sleep/passing out face down on the kitchen floor with a bag of popcorn, the hangover should be minimal & in no way interfere with my daily activities. Alcohol, I have enjoyed our friendship for some years now & would like to ensure that we remain on good terms. You've been the invoker of great stories, the provocation for much laughter, and the needed companion when I just don't know what to do with the extra money in my pockets. In order to continue this friendship, I ask that you carefully review my grievances above & address them immediately. I will look for an answer no later than Thursday 3pm (pre-happy hour) on your possible solutions & hopefully we can continue this fruitful partnership.

Thank you,
Your biggest fan

P.S. THINGS THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO SAY WHEN DRUNK:

1. Innovative

2. Preliminary

3. Proliferation

4. Cinnamon


THINGS THAT ARE VERY DIFFICULT TO SAY WHEN DRUNK:

1. Specificity

2. British Constitution

3. Passive-aggressive disorder


THINGS THAT ARE DOWNRIGHT IMPOSSIBLE TO SAY WHEN DRUNK:

1. Thanks, but I don't want to have sex.

2. Nope, no more beer for me.

3. Sorry, but you're not really my type.

4. Good evening, officer. Isn't it lovely out tonight?

5. Oh, I couldn't. No one wants to hear me sing.


Merry Christmas, Happy Chrismahanukwanzaka, Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings, whatever you wanna call it. Take care, be safe, enjoy the goodies, get fatty, I hope you get lots of presents, and I'll do a new post once the Christmas festivities are over. Be forewarned that rantings on baseball will definitely be involved. ;) *MUAH*

King Kong, Relief, Music, Sports

First off, I must say that I watched King Kong and thought that it was fantastic.

All the actors did a great job, and the animators/sfx crew at WETA did an amazing job with Kong. Much like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, most of the performance comes from the eyes. So warm and brown one minute, the next a frightening fury of dialated black. Adrien Brody: sigh, Thomas Kretschmann: you have gorgeous eyes, sigh; Jaime Bell: getting to be quite the strapping young lad, and his American accent was really good; Jack Black...oh Jack Black, you play such a good asshole, Andy Serkis: amazing character actor. While I'm not always a fan of Naomi Watts (there's just something that irritates me about her...alas, she picks great roles and it's not her acting I dislike), she really did a good job in the movie. Granted she was required to look beautiful 99.9% of the time (and she did -- good job with the lighting and make up, guys...her genes don't hurt either) but I can only imagine what it was like working on a blue/green screen set with no tangible physical presence in front of you. How exactly are you supposed to act with a nonexistant 25 foot gorilla "voiced" by Andy Serkis?

While the movie was long (approx 3 hours), I think that it was worth it. My ass might not have thought so, but my movie-going brain sure did. The action scenes were amazing, especially those on Skull Island with the die-no-saurs. Hopefully I'm not hyping the movie up for anyone. It's always best to go in with low(er) expectations so you're not disappointed in the end...and that's basically what I did. I was really excited to see the movie, but was hoping for good, not great. Kudos, Peter Jackson. You've proven your critics wrong and remade King Kong your way. (Directing, writing, and producing one the greatest trilogies of all time and winning 11 Oscars on one picture alone doesn't hurt either). I'm sure that gorillas and zoos around the world are going to be sending you free zoo-doo to use as fertilizer around your personal Bag End hobbit hole in NZ. That or free lifetime memberships and merchandise.

The only drawback to the movie was the guy sitting next to Candace. Such an asshole. If you're gonna talk about people, speak softly so that only the person next to you can hear. Not the entire theater. I don't need to know your seating preferences (no, not behind anyone with a cap or hat on...no, not behind the fat guy), your gastrointestinal issues (I felt it go down to my stomach and thought shit, this is gonna be a brick), your comments as you people watch (oh, he's going for the whole garage band rocker mullet), nor do I need to hear how good your food was (my vegan cookie was AMAZING, the sandwhich was GREAT) and he apparently smelled when he moved. Thank God I wasn't the one sitting next to him. May I recommend deodorant, lessons in speaking with an indoor voice, and therapy for your friends? God I can be such a bitch...

The catering business is complete and over. I am so relieved everything went well and that my aunt was quite satisfied. Running around town with sleep deprivation all week trying to organize/create this party...or so much as I could create within a week...I was compensated more than sufficiently. Like my mom said, she wanted to give me money but needed me to work for it. Couldn't just give it to me...I had to organize a party for 60-75 of which 50 prolly showed up and ate the least amount of food possible. We ended up having a ton of leftovers, but thankfully people chose to take food home. I still have chocolate chip cookies, fruit, and cheese leftover if anyone wants some. We sang, listened to CDs, chatted, ate, drank, made merry, I stressed and constantly ran around making sure everything was in order, finally collapsing after being in heels for the better part of 10 hours.

It was an interesting and fairly grood experience, and party planning is really pretty fun if you have good communication with your employer, enjoy multi-tasking, and can take the heat. Not to mention lack of sleep. So if someone asked whether I would do it again, I would say yes. But please, for the love of God, give me more notice than 5 days...and tell me specifically what you want from me.

I've been listening to a great deal of Michael Buble lately. Not to mention Mana, Carlos Vives, Ritmo Latino (a podcast I subscribe to), WARM 106.9 and various Christmas compilations. Alas my father has not yet gotten a tree (yeah, I'm a little bitter) but hopefully we get one this weekend. I'm getting back into the holiday spirit, and hopefully will be for awhile. Christmas is my favorite holiday, after all.

Has anyone else been paying attention the NFL? In particular the NFC West? I sure have, and boy, the Seahawks are fucking HOT this year. Everyone's been doing a damn fine job. Hasselbeck's been throwing the ball well to our recievers and Shaun Alexander...rush them yards! Josh Brown, I love you as our kicker. You can make 50 yd plus field goals...fantabulous. Lofa Tatupu, not only is your name fun to say, but you've been doing a great job at LB. Keep your eyes on the prize...err, ball. Unfortunately I haven't been to a game this year, but maybe I can convince my uncle to let me go to a playoff game with him. It's great to see the Hawks (actually, any Seattle team) do so well when it's been so long since we've had good football seasons (discounting last year...stupid Green Bay). On an NFL side note, if the Colts make it 19-0...man, I dunno what I'd do. Drink in celebration?

Haven't been to a Sonics game yet this season, but my hopes are up. Bitter, party of one? Sometimes, mostly sometimes...granted, the Sonics aren't doing the best right now, but I'd like to see Danny Fortson's flagrants/ejections/suspensions/bad mouthing/fouling in person. Up front and center, thank you very much. Interesting that he's supposedly a good Christian boy. For the love of God Howie, poney up some money and get us a decent center! And please, can we at least win ONE game against Golden State? I for one certainly don't understand their hold over the Sonics. Enlighten me if you will.

Looks like the M's got Carl Everett from the White Sox. I'm hoping he'll be able to add a nice catalyst to last year's lackluster team. Quality player? Not exactly. Remember his first homer off Jaime in which he proceeded to spit, grab his crotch, AND get fined? Now Jaime's a teammate. I'd like to be in the locker room when those two meet. I'm also hoping that off-season deals include some good pitching, but also don't involve a certain Jeremy Reed. I would hate to part with him. Bavasi, get her done. We signed Moyer for another year, but I dunno if he's got it in him. He's 43...with a lot of experience and wisdom to pass onto players such as hotshot Felix Hernandez, but dude, you should know when to quit, right? The first ever World Baseball Classic should be interesting to watch. IOC picks ballroom dancing over baseball. Bah. Not to say that ballroom dancing isn't a tough competition in and of itself, but dude. It's baseball!
I love the Huskies and all I can say is Go Dawgs Go! Best start in what, 36 years? 8-0 baby, keep it up! Adam Morrison may be the best player in the country (haha, we beat Gonzaga), but he's no Dawg. ;)

My life is getting crazier and crazier.

I'm trying to finish The Aviator on OnDemand, but it's not working. (I watched most of it last week and now I've got like 30 mins left). Alas, I'm not really paying attention and well, it's just not as good as I had hoped. The beginning was pretty interesting, but now...well, now it's just not my cup of tea. But I am weird regarding the fact that I like to finish a movie, no matter how bad it may be, just to say that I watched the whole thing. Unless it's really horrid, then no matter how hard I try I won't be able to finish it. And...the movie just finished and I have no idea what happened. I'm just a bunch of contradictions, eh? C'est la vie.

In other news, my aunt has "recruited" me to be a caterer for a rather large Christmas party at the lab. There are going to be at least 60 people there, quite possibly more since she doesn't know who's all coming. Fantastic. And she just informed me of this yesterday, giving me a week to organize the event. I don't really know how this is all going to get done within the space of a week, but I suppose I'm up for the challenge. And according to Kairu, Kam said that I'm getting paid for this. At least I'll have some monetary compensation for the hell I will be in.

As of the moment, all I know is that she wants me to decorate, organize, set up, and keep everything flowing smoothly (especially the drinks). I also think that I have to bake three cakes and about a million cookies...it's gonna be a bit stressful. Stressful, but interesting to see how I can handle the pressure. Not to mention the fact that it'll give me further insight as to whether joining the food service industry is up my alley. We'll be going over plans tomorrow, so that's going to be interesting, particularly since Kam is really wishy-washy in terms of decision making.

Moving on...my uncle should have finished his laproscopic appendectomy by now. It's a quick day surgery and he should be able to go home this afternoon, but in case he can't, that means another night for me in one of the horrid hospital "recliners." And to think, I'm getting a massage this afternoon...which means I should be knot free, correct? Well, if I spend the night at the hospital, that just means that it's all been in vain. Stupid floor.

I have also become addicted to MySpace. I held out for a pretty long time (longer than Sean did), but now I have succumbed. If you know me, go add me to your list of friends. Just humor me.

I'm hungry and my eyes are tired. So now I'm going to decide whether or not I should get a snack or take a nap before the doc calls me.