My head is fullof thoughts and no one wants to listen to me ramble.  Thinking about blogging it out but not sure if anyone cares to read my ramble either.  I'll try to focus and see if I can come up with something.

LJ cut isn't working for me today.  Trying again..
( Outside of a dog, a good book is man's best friend... )

My netbook screen is glitchy and sometimes displays things in a way that is misaligned – today on the Golden Globes website, this glitch portrayed itself as an Award Prediction Program, inadvertently moving the word “Best” from the category titles to a spot next to one of the names on the list. You will note that it did not make a selection in some categories (ie best picture, etc) because those were better spaced to allow all the names of the producers. Okay, now without any more fanfare..
( And the winners are... )

Best Actress/Drama – Nicole Kidman

Best Actor/Drama – Colin Firth

Best Actress/Comedy – Anne Hathaway

Best Actor/Comedy – Johnny Depp (The Tourist)

Best Supporting Actress/Drama – Helena Bonham Carter

Best Supporting Actor/Drama – Michael Douglas

Best Director – David Fincher (The Social Network)

Best Screenplay – Lisa Cholodenko/Stuart Blumberg (The Kids Are Alright)

Best Original Score – Danny Elfman (Alice in Wonderland)

 

Best Actress/Drama TV – Elisabeth Moss

Best Actor/Drama TV – Bryan Cranston

Best Actress/Comedy – Edie Falco

Best Actor/Comedy – Steve Carrell

Best Actress Miniseries – Claire Danes

Best Actor Miniseries – Ian McShane

Best supporting Actress TV – Jane Lynch

Best Supporting Actor TV – Scott Caan

It might be interesting to see how many we get right!

 

This meme was given to me by katje0711 .  Post the words, "I want" in reply to this post and I will give you a list of ten male and ten female actors.  Then post on your LJ with your favorite film of theirs.

Some things most of my friends know about me: I'm a voracious reader, I have two kids on the autistic spectrum and I work with students with autism in an elementary school.  As I've mentioned in the past, Jodi Picoult writes stories of every mother's nightmares, and this one is no exception.    Naturally, when her newest book was released, and a young man with Asperger syndrome was a central character, friends began to ask if I'd read it or what I thought.  So, here, without much further nonsense, is my review of  ( House Rules )

Katie and I went on a quickly planned trip this week.  I decided about 2 weeks before the February break that I couldn't stand the cold winter any longer and needed a break.  I knew that I couldn't suggest Orlando unless I had every intention of going there, so I didn't mention it to her for several days, until I had confirmation from Bob that this wasn't completely crazy.  So, we left on Monday morning and returned Friday.  In between, we enjoyed four days of cool sunshine, but sunshine all the same! 
And yes, we went to see the Mouse.  Now I feel like I could go another 20 years before returning to Disney World.  It's wonderful and all of that, but felt like I wasted half this break waiting in lines.

It reminded me of a story.. When I was a kid, my mom had a book called Hope for the Flowers ( http://www.hopefortheflowers.org/hopewasborn.html ), all about these caterpillars that spent their whole caterpillar lives in big scrunched up caterpillar piles, pushing and shoving to get to the top.  One of the caterpillars rebelled, went and ate some leaves and spun a cocoon and turned into a butterfly, then tried to convince all the other caterpillars that they could fly too, if only they'd leave the pushing and shoving pile.  Only one caterpillar believed him, the rest kept pushing and shoving their way to the top.  When they got to the top of the caterpillar piles, they fell off and died. Only the ones who dared to leave the pile really got to rise above it.  Standing in line made me feel like all those stupid caterpillars.

I also wrote a song, the Waitin' for Soarin' Blues.  Just to pass the time while I was in line.  Nothing awe-inspiring.

Soarin'  ( http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/epcot/attractions/soarin/ ) was a pretty cool ride, but is anything really worth a two hour wait?  And yet, I only have myself to blame, because I simply *had to* experience this ride.  Once I was actually on it, I never wanted to leave.  I would have happily sailed over panoramic views of California for the rest of the night.  Plus, my feet were kinda killing me so it was nice to sit down.  :)  But the other reason that I had to go to Epcot was coming up in half an hour, so I didn't fuss when I had to get up and move along. 
My favorite part of the entire Disney experience is the IllumiNations fireworks show that Epcot runs each night at 9 PM.  I liked it so much when we went to the park 9 years ago that I bought the CD of the music from that show.  At that point, the CD was called Disney's Millenium Celebration, but 9 years later it's the same show with the same music.  I think they decided that when you have a Good Thing, you should stick with it.

Anyway, it was nice to get some sunshine and it's nice to be home.  Tomorrow (today by now, actually) it's Sunday and tomorrow it's back to work I go.

1. I think it's funny that during the commercial for Spring Awakening, while the announcer is reading the critical praise for the show, the kids are singing, "Blah blah blah blah blah" from Totally F*cked. I still don't know if I'll go to see the show when it gets to town. I like the soundtrack a lot, but I don't like the format where the actors step up to the microphone to sing their songs. And, yeah, some of the subject matter would make me uncomfortable.

2. Speaking of musicals, for Christmas, Bob bought me tickets for opening night of In the Heights when the tour comes to Buffalo next week.  Sad face:  Not Lin-Manuel Miranda as Usnavi.  Happy face: Not Corbin Bleu as Usnavi.  I still can't believe they cast him in the role, even if for a short (6 week) stint on Broadway.  He's just too young - Usnavi is supposed to be older than Nina and Vanessa, not 5 years younger.

3.  I have nothing to read.  I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight.

4.  Golden Globes... ehh.. I haven't seen many of these films or shows.  Which ones would you recommend? 

5.  Anthropologie opened a store here in the local mall.  It's the first they've opened in western NY so there were a lot of lookie-loo's (including myself) this weekend.  Pretty store, cool I guess, but I won't be shopping there because I just don't have the available cash to burn.   What I didn't like seeing was customers in the store being rude to employees because of the high tickets.  The employees did not set the prices.  They're just doing a job and trying to make ends meet like everyone else.  If you have a real problem with the prices, send a letter to the public relations people - it's their job to care about your opinion.

At the end of January this year, I was having dinner with three friends when it suddenly struck me that, among us, I was the only one with a surviving parent. While we are all the younger children of large families, that is a pretty unusual statistic for women of our age. Early the next morning I received a phone call from my sister-in-law, telling me that my Dad had a fall during the night and had been taken to the emergency room. I brought him home that day but two days later he was in Emergency again and the doctor admitted him to clear up his lungs from a congestive heart failure episode. A week later, she suggested he check in to an OT/PT rehab program to help him get more steady on his feet. He never went home again. After three weeks of unsuccessful rehab, his status was changed to long term care and he spent the next six months wasting away, dropping from 212 pounds to 130 as he failed to thrive. Around noon on Friday, my father passed away.
This is what I haven't been typing about all year - my father's illness, my concern, my frustration, my tears. I am certain that none of you would have minded if I had made posts about that - I know that you would have sent words of comfort and care - but I didn't want to invite them. Blogging is a public exercise and I do tend to be a very private person. Even those who know me well wonder where my strong emotions are because I don't bring them out very often. Stolid sangfroid detachment is something I learned at my father's knee.

I'm kinda bored, so I've decided I'll give NaNoWriMo a shot.  If I actually write a few pages each day, I'll be very surprised with myself. 
If I write anything worth sharing, I'll let you know!