Fall has arrived!

This is a picture I stole from my sister's blog. How cute is my niece??

We have had a really weird fall, so far. It's actually been pretty hot through Sept. and Oct. Today, it made it into the 40's and I actually wore real shoes for the first time. I love fall, but I don't like wearing real shoes (even though I was actually wearing Birkenstocks for much of the past 5 weeks).

It's pretty much the same every year here in the tri-state area. As children, we would plan our Halloween costumes for weeks, and the weather would be pretty warm and we would get so excited thinking that we'd actually be able to wear our costumes without wearing a coat. Then, without fail, it would get cold all of a sudden and all plans were shot. Of course, this year has been much warmer than most -- in the 70's and 80's. But still, three days before Halloween, it's now in the 40's.

Race relations

The other day, I was with a client who reported that she has Puerto Rican, Dominican, American Indian and African American heritage. Somehow, I said something about being white, which I figured was fairly obvious. She said, "You're white?" I just looked at her, showed her my hand, said, "Yes, of course I'm white!" She responded, "Really? Where is your mother from?" When I answered that she was born and raised here in the US, she asked where my grandmother was from. Again, I answered that she was born and raised in the US and that my ancestors go back for many years, but before that, they were from England, Scotland, and Sweden. Basically, the whitest countries you can be from -- that's where my people are from. I am so white that I have to slather 45 on to sit on the beach for any length of time, as well as wearing a hat and sitting under an umbrella.

I am increasingly realizing that for many of my clients, "white" is a negative term. If you call someone white, that's pretty much as bad as it gets. One of my clients is definitely white -- fair skin, freckles, straight hair, etc. The worst name she is called at school is "White out." I've had clients that have said someone was white, and then quickly say, "Oh, sorry" because they assume that I would be offended by that term. The fact that they like me, for the most part, means that I can't possibly be white. Maybe I should not tell them!

Did this really happen?

This is a picture of Robert Plant talking to Jessica Simpson. In case you don't know who they are, Robert Plant is the lead singer of the greatest rock and roll band of all time, Led Zeppelin. Jessica Simpson is.... a singer. sort of.

30 Rock quote of the week (10/25)

Liz Lemon: I need my job back, but this is not crawling. This is proud begging, like those kids that dance on the subway."

Great episode!

The Office quote of the week (10/25)

After hearing the song that Daryl wrote and everyone sang in harmony, Michael said, "I thought this was supposed to be a rap." Daryl responded, "What's rap?" Michael said, "Daryl, you have so much to learn about your culture. I'll make you a mix."

Gimme More

After almost two years, I now have cable again. I was most excited for VH1 and MTV, although I have no idea why because they weren't that great two years ago and they are even worse now.

This morning (because that's the only time they show videos), I saw Britney's new video for "Gimme More." I can't believe that anyone thought this was the song that was going to be her big comeback. The song is really terrible. I mean, so monotonous and uncreative. The kids in my group made up a song about washing their hands that had more interesting lyrics. (They were "wash, wash, wash, wash your hands.") The video is even worse. A few postings back, I complained about the amount of stripper poles in the mainstream media. Well, I would have given her a couple of singles myself if she did anything more interesting than just walk around the pole. Seriously, seriously, bad. And not in a good way.

You have to be careful in New York City

Whenever I'm at the gym, I am super paranoid about a man walking into the ladies locker room by mistake. If I even hear a man's voice close to the door, I pause just to make sure he's not coming in. I rent a locker, which is situated right by the door, so if I'm at my locker, I'm the first naked person he'll see. In all my years at this gym, it's happened twice. Since I've been going more than 8 years, I guess that's pretty good. Both times, I happened to be fully clothed, thank goodness.

One of these times happened just last Tuesday. So it's no surprise that on Thursday, when I saw a man walk all the way in and actually make it to a locker without realizing he was in the wrong place I was alarmed. I turned to him and said, "EXCUSE ME!" He did not make a move, which made me immediately realize my mistake. I whispered the woman next to me, "Is that a man?" and she just gave me a look that said, "I'm outta here! This is not my problem." Then I could sort of see the outline of a sports bra through this person's shirt, as he/she took his/her stuff out of the locker and walked right out with his/her eyes on the ground. There really was no other indicator that this could be a woman. I still feel really bad, though.

30 Rock quote of the week (10/18)

In answer to the private investigator's question, "Have you ever been arrested?" Jack answers:
"Once in 1978. It was at the Democratic National Convention. But I was beating up hippies, so it's okay."

Laughed out loud (even though that's violence... which I hate).

The Office quote of the week (10/18)

Not a great episode, although I do like how it ended between Jan and Michael. And going through his list of purchases was pretty funny. Anyway, this is the best I could do for this week:

Kelly Kapur said: Daryl Philbin is the most complicated man I've ever met. Who says exactly what they're thinking? What kind of game is that?

Update

So, I wrote a few days ago that my roommate stayed up until 2 am watching FNL... she really stayed up until SEVEN IN THE MORNING and watched the entire season! Then she took a shower and went to work. She did not sleep one bit. I asked her, "You know I own this, right? You know you could have finished it the next day, right?"



seriously,FNL is... like.... so good!!

The Office quote of the week (10/11)

OMG, I'm a whole week behind. I have been going crazy all week, not home before 12:00 one night this week. I wish I could say I was having lots of fun... it was a little fun but also lots of work! I am so looking forward to the weekend!

Anyway, here's last week's quote and tonight's quote will be coming soon...

Pam to Jim: "Tie goes to the girlfriend." and he just looks at her because he knows she's right!

Another new convert

Anne Lise converts her friends to the church. I convert people to TV shows (see earlier post regarding Arrested Development).

The season premier of Friday Night Lights was two Fridays ago. I am still on disc 4 of season 1. What is wrong with me? I have been so busy, I have not been able to finish it and it's pissing me off! My roommate, however, caught up to me in ONE DAY. She started disc 1 after church yesterday and stayed up until at least 2 am last night watching.

Xanadu

I was invited to take part in a focus group this week. This was for a Broadway show. First, 12 women get together to talk about shows we've seen and how we normally hear about shows. Then they played some radio spots advertising the musical Xanadu. Then we saw a few newspaper ads for Xanadu. After each one, we give feedback about if we liked the ad and if the ad persuaded us to go see the show. My answer was no, no and no after each one. However, I did have a strong reaction to the music, which was playing in the radio spots, as my sister had the Xanadu album and we literally wore that mutha' out. In fact, I remember my brother telling me that his friend told him that we were listening to the album every time he came over. I left the focus group telling them that I was pretty sure I was going to hate the show.

We got to then go see the show and I have to say.... I loved it! I'm not sure I would have loved it if the music wasn't so near to my heart. However, they did a really good j0b making fun of the movie and all the weird, campy things about the movie (which I've never seen). It was really funny and creative and I recommend it to anyone that grew up in the 80's.

30 Rock quote of the week (10/11)

Liz: You can't be a real woman in this country. It's like those Dove commercials never even happened!

And, I'll just say it. Jack (Alec Baldwin) looked GREAT in that Princeton T-shirt, playing football. I haven't thought that about him for at least 10 years.

PLUS: I saw Liz Lemon aka Tina Fey today! I went to a free screening of a new movie she is in called Baby Mama, where she hires a woman (Amy Poehler) to be her surrogate mother. After the movie, there was a group of people standing in the back. The first thing I noticed was Amy Poehler's hair, then someone told me that Tina Fey was also there, so I gave up my place in line for the bathroom to check it out. After coming out of the bathroom, I noticed that Lorne Michaels was also there. I actually turned my phone on to try to take a picture to send to Esther, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. I am not usually phased by star sightings, but this was the mother lode, as I think TF and AP are pretty much the most brilliant people in comedy these days.

Birkenstocks

After twisting my ankle, Birkenstocks are the only shoes I can bear to wear. I even wore them with a skirt to work the other day. I hope it stays warm until my foot heals, or I will be wearing them with socks.

30 Rock quote of the week (10/4)

Brilliant, as always.

Jack re: Blonde Actress who gained weight eating pizza every night in Mystic Pizza: She needs to lose 30 or gain 60. In between, there's no place in television.

runner up: Liz Lemon to Topher: Yeah, Chocolate Rain, maybe I am.

and, as always, there are lots of facial gestures that make this show priceless. The best one from this episode came from Jack after Seinfeld said, "I like 'Lost.' Is that you guys??"

Plus, this week's Esther shout-out: Tracy Jordan gives Kenneth a ring and says, "Will you take this ring and sell it to the Jews in midtown?"

The Office quote of the week (10/4)

Not the best episode ever, but still....

Michael: Life and business are about human connections, and computers are about trying to murder you in a lake.

runner up: Ryan: If they knew how much I paid for my haircut, they wouldn't be giving me noogies.

Clearly...

I took on too much, considering I haven't watched any of the new shows I said I was going to watch. I did watch "Private Practice" and I'm already bored of it, so that will be easy to give up. I only watched the first "Gossip Girl" and haven't gotten around to watching the second one yet, and there is already a third. Oh yeah, and "Chuck", which was underwhelming.

For returning shows, "Heroes" was only vaguely interesting to me. I watched the "previously on" for "Grey's Anatomy" and as they recapped each storyline, I said, "I hate that one, I hate that one, Not interested, oh yea Izzie loves George and I hate that one..." so I wasn't too interested in any of it. I only like Alex and Mark, and neither of them have plotlines at the moment (Mark hasn't really even had one except to be second fiddle to Addison).

So, basically, all I care about is "Friday Night Lights" which I went out and bought rather than wait for it to come with Netflix. It was the best decision I ever made. This show is so good. Here's some of the topics they have been covering:
Domestic violence
The effect of the Iraq war on military families
Steriods in sports
Racism
The economy/Lack of jobs in small towns
Teenage drinking

I have the last two discs left and I felt depressed when I realized that there are only 10 episodes left to watch. But, the new season starts on Friday, so I'll continue to get a fix.

Of course, I still have "30 Rock" tonight and "The Office."
And that's it. I'll see if I can talk about anything other than TV in my next posting.