Poll time!
So I've become the most spaz-tastic person when it comes to updating (three days in a row, then...nothing...for about a week, then something, then nothing, blah blah blah), but in my defense, my life is SO boring right now, that if I reported on daily happenings, you'd all fall asleep.
Anyway, the highlight of my life this past week was two, no, three things:
**Buying a Christmas tree last Sunday (it's still in the box on my floor with all of my ornaments piled on top of it...progress, progress...)
**Three-day week, getting paid for five-day week (huzzah!)
**Thanksgiving (food. Oh yeah, and family stuff).

Anyway, so because I'm the biggest dork when it comes to Christmas and the holiday season, I've got an actual poll (for the first time in what, a year?)...AND it's not one, but two questions (whoa).

Question #1:
What, in your opinion, is the best Christmas movie?
a. Muppet Christmas Carol
b. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
c. Home Alone
d. A Christmas Story
e. It's a Wonderful Life
f. Miracle on 34th Street
g. Scrooged
h. A Christmas Carol (any version aside from the Muppet one)
i.White Christmas
j. A Very Brady Christmas (JUST KIDDING!!!!)
k. Other (please specify)

Question #2:
What, in your opinion, is the best Christmas TV Special?
a. A Charlie Brown Christmas
b. A Garfield Christmas
c. It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown
d. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
e. Frosty the Snowman
f. Mickey's Christmas Carol
g. Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey
h. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
i. A Scooby-Doo Christmas
j. Robbie the Reindeer in Hooves of Fire (i'm so not even kidding about this one, and the donkey one...the JSonline has an entire list of all the specials aired in the Milwaukee area here)
k. Other (please specify)
No specified time limit on the poll...just leave a comment at some point before Christmas! :)

Extra special editor's update: (3:44am!)
NO BREAK IN THE TEMPLATE!!!!!!!!!!! HUZZAH! THE BLOG IS BACK TO NORMAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
- posted by L. @ 10:43 PM

 
Formal!!!
So, it's been a while...what have I been up to lately??
Well, formal was last night!! Oh! So much fun! I went stag because I was ditched thanks to a friggin' poker night (what's more important in life, formal or poker? don't answer that...haha), but it was mucho fun nevertheless. I think I spent more time on the dance floor last night than the previous three-and-a-half years combined. And now I can see why. My goal for formal next semester (if I go) is to actually get drunk at formal and see how much dancing I do then. I hadn't planned to pull a Gina and sit in the bathroom and drink cosmos, but if I had, I better have had my winter coat 'cause the bathroom was freezing! Like, the same temperatures as northern Wisconsin on a day in January (okay, a bit over dramatic, but you know how it goes). Anyway, so formal was a good time. Not many alums were there (just me, Em, Schoofs, Lisa, Buddy, and then Ian came at the very end), but it was still a good time. Hey, alums, better showing next time??? And I got to hang out with a lot of my music geek crew, which was fun fun fun!
Moving along from formal, work has been work. People are starting to get on my nerves (not coworkers, I heart my coworkers!), you know those people who call us. Screw them all!! Or most of them, anyway.
Back to formal, or at least formal shopping anyway, I just have a word of warning to people. Stay clear of anything that is a store nowadays, starting yesterday!! (shoot, have to go shopping, need to buy a beater - you know, those things that beat eggs and cake mixes and stuff, because I'm lazy, and even if I wasn't, my brownie batter always ends up lumpy and my arm ends up hurting and it's just not happy, so I'm going to buy one today, but that's a little sidetracked, ANYWAY). So, I realized that I didn't have anything to wear to formal, save exactly what I wore to formal last semester, which I decided against, and the bridesmaid dress from Jamie's wedding which would be fine, except that I vetoed that as well, as the straps are too long, and I don't want to use safety pins and haven't figured out how to sew that kind of stuff yet (Mom?)...so I decided to go see if I could find a cute top or something to wear with my gray pants. After driving around the Target parking lot for about 15 minutes, I said "fuck it" and was going to go home, when I realized that the parking lot for TJ Maxx was not nearly as full, but it took about 10 minutes to get over there...
Which is where I found a really cute top for like, five bucks (which I did end up buying), but instead of getting off on another rant about something I've already ranted about, I'll refer you back to post dated 01/06/2005 - I Hate Shallow People, which is my rant about why having boobs is bad (at times). Anyway, so said five dollar cute top - not so much. Quite sad, actually. But instead I found a cool long olive green skirt, so I just wore a regular black tank top, and all was good. Formal for under twenty bucks is always good.
I think I'm going to do my christmas shopping online...
Anyway, I need to go do what I told everyone else not to do - go shopping. I'm going to try my luck at making pumpkin pie today before Thanksgiving (in case it sucks) so that I can bring my pumpkin pie and apple pie home to Milwaukee for Thanksgiving. Woohoo!!
And it sounds like yesterday was a very bad day to be the principal oboist of the MSO! HAHA! That comment, dear Jhenny, made my day! Are we still on for the 28th of February??? :)
- posted by L. @ 12:02 PM

 
Furniture!!
I get my new sofa and loveseat tomorrow!! SO EXCITED!!!
(for those of you who didn't know, i finally bought furniture!)
So, if you haven't come visit me, now you definitely should (places to sit besides the floor).
My furniture is blue microfiber (is that what it's called?), and it's super soft and yay! comfy! I can't WAIT to get furniture. :)
So, next step, get internet for my apt, then I can post pictures of my apartment on my blog (furnished pictures, that is)! Well, we'll take things one step at a time. :)
p.s. if you haven't read the Titanic script, read it! yay for drama turned comedy.
- posted by L. @ 8:43 PM

 
And now, for something completely different!
Just because Titanic was re-released on DVD a few weeks ago, I thought people might get a kick out of this. I got this "script" in my email back in 1997....and I still think it's funny almost eight years later!

Titanic: A Shortened Script

Many of you have seen the film Titanic, which is about a great big boat that sank like a thousand years ago that for some reason everyone is just now getting worked up about. Some of you -- I am speaking to the women here -- have seen this movie several times. And I would like to know why. Have the principles of film-making not been adequately explained to you, so you think there's a chance the movie will end differently if you see if again? Do you think this is a "Choose Your Own Adventure" movie? Because it's not. No matter how many times you see it, the boat is going to sink, and the same people are going to die, including the guy who falls and whacks his noggin on the way down.
I think this movie is entirely too long. The actual sinking of the Titanic took only four hours; the movie is easily three times that long. As a public service, then, I am offering my much-shortened screenplay which some ambitious film-maker can feel free to use as the script for a shorter version of Titanic. All I want in return is a lot of money.

Scene One

KATE WINSLET: Why, this is a fancy boat, isn't it?
KATE'S WEASELLY FIANCE: Yes, it certainly is. Here is the art you asked for. It is by an artist named "Picasso." I am certain he will amount to nothing.
KATE: Ha ha ha. That is very funny to our '90s audience, because of course Picasso later amount to quite a bit, after this boat sank.
LEONARDO DICAPRIO: Hello, I'm Leonardo DiCaprio. Perhaps you have seen the many internet sites dedicated to the worship of me. You are very pretty.
KATE: Thank you. So are you.
LEONARDO: I know. Prettier than you, in fact. I am going to put on my 'brooding' face now, to ensure that women will keep coming back again and again to see this movie. Later, my white shirt will be soaking wet.
KATE: While you're doing that, I will concentrate on standing here and looking pretty, to keep the men in the audience interested until the boat sinks and people start dying.
WEASELLY FIANCE: Excuse me. I do not like you, Leonardo, even though you saved my fiancee's life. I am going to sneer at you and treat you like dirt because you're poor, and then I'll be physically abusive to my fiancee, and then, just to make sure the audience really hates me, and to make sure my character is entirely one-dimensional, perhaps I'll throw an elderly person into the water.
AUDIENCE: Boo! We hate you! Even though all real people have at least a few admirable qualities, we have not been shown any of yours, and plus, you're trying to come between Leonardo and Kate, and so therefore we hate you! Boo! (Even though technically it is Leonardo who is coming between you and Kate. But Leonardo is handsomer than you, even though he is 13, so we are on his side. Boo!)

* * *
Scene Two

LEONARDO: I'm glad we snuck away like this so that you could cheat on your fiance.
KATE: So am I. Even though I am engaged to him and have made a commitment to marry him, that is no reason why you and I cannot climb into the backseat of a car and steam up the windows together. That fact that I am the heroine of the movie will no doubt help the cattle-like audience forgive me of this, though they would probably be VERY angry indeed if my fiance were to do the same thing to me.
AUDIENCE: Damn straight we would! Moo! We mean Boo!
LEONARDO: I agree. FIrst I would like to draw you, though, so of course you will have to take off all your clothes.
KATE: But can a movie with five minutes of continuous nudity be at all successful in, say, Provo, Utah, where the audiences might not stand for that sort of thing?
LEONARDO: I would be willing to bet that for the first three weeks that the film is in release, every single showing at Wynnsong Theater in Provo will sell out.
NARRATOR: According to Wynnsong manager Matt Palmer, that is exactly what happened.
KATE: All right then
**sound of clothes hitting floor**

* * *
Scene Three

FIRST MATE: Captain, we're about to hit an iceberg.
CAPTAIN: Great, I could use some ice for my drink.
**sound of drinking
ICEBERG: hits boat.
FIRST MATE: That can't be good.
CAPTAIN: Bottoms up!
AUDIENCE: silence.
FIRST MATE: That was irony, you fools.
AUDIENCE: Baa! Moo! Where's Leonardo?

* * *
Scene Four

LEONARDO: I have been informed that this boat is sinking.
KATE: That is terrible.
LEONARDO: Would you like to engage in some more immoral-but-justified behavior?
KATE: Certainly.
WEASELLY FIANCE: Excuse me, I --
AUDIENCE: Boo! Boo!
WEASELLY FIANCE: *aside* I'm getting the raw end of the deal here. *to Leonardo* Listen, Leonardo, to cement my morally-dubious-yet-somehow-less-annoying-than-you personality, I am going to handcuff you to this pipe, here in a room that will soon be filling with water, due to the fact that we are sinking, which I believe has been mentioned previously.
LEONARDO: Why don't you just shoot me?
WEASELLY FIANCE: Because then you wouldn't be able to escape and save Kate from me. Of course, you're going to die anyway --
AUDIENCE: Don't spoil it for us! Boo!
LEONARDO: He's right though. I am doomed.
AUDIENCE: Aww, look how cute he is when he's doomed.
WEASELLY FIANCE: I hate you people.

* * *
Scene Five

150-YEAR-OLD-KATE: And that's when Leonardo rescued me from my evil fiance and helped me float on a board in the water. Of course, if it hadn't been for having to rescue HIM, I could have gotten on an actual lifeboat, and not frozen my legs nearly off. Anyway, he's pretty much dead now, and I'm well over a thousand years old, and who's making my supper? I need a bath. Turn down that Enya music, it's making my ears hurt. You kids today, with your loud music. Why, when I was - hey! Don't you walk away from me, Mr. Snooty-Patootie! I'd turn you over my knee, if I had one. I'll beat you in the head with this huge diamond. Come back here!

**Fade to black; roll credits; play annoying Celine Dion song**

Well, anyway, I can't take credit for this script, as much as I might like to! :) I do think that the credit is due here, to this guy. Of course, I could be wrong, but that's the link at the bottom of the email that I got (email dated 03/14/1998, so it's bit dated...).

- posted by L. @ 7:57 PM

 
It's been a long week...
(I'm finally getting around to publishing this one, excuse the delay.)
It's been kind of a long week. Last night I went out with a bunch of my work friends to Riviera Lanes in Green Bay (and I still suck at bowling). I had a bit to drink (or a lot, by my standards), and I had tossed my keys to Andy and was getting in the car to go home. I had checked my phone and seen that Joe had called, so I was going to call him back once we got back on 41 (it was a weird location in GB, and navigating back to the hwy wasn't necessarily goign to be easy). Before I got a chance to call Joe, Emily called me. Despite the drinking and the giddiness, the news that Emily brought wasn't the best.
Joe's dad died last week (probably Thursday or Friday).
Please keep Joe and family in your thoughts.
I have to talk to my sup on Monday morning to get half a day off on Wednesday to go to Milwaukee for the funeral.
Life's just too short.
- posted by L. @ 7:53 PM

 
A big yippee of both the sarcastic and non-sarcastic varieties...
Yippee! It's Friday!! That is quite enough reason to be excited...but I have many yippees for the weekend for sarcastic and non-sarcastic reasons!!
I watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory today with Leah Ann after Pizza Hut (yay pepperoni & mushroom pizza!), and it was so so so so so so so so so so good!! If you haven't seen it, RENT IT! BUY IT! FIND SOME WAY TO GET THIS MOVIE ASAP!!!! If it hadn't been for the fact that the movie doesn't actually come out until Tuesday (but that's why it's cool to hang out with people who work at Family Video), I would have stopped at Walmart on the way home from DePere and bought it. No joke. I love Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but omg, Johnny Depp was fucking fabulous.
Tomorrow I get to sleep in. That's enough to be happy for anyone. And I only have one more week (five measly days) of starting work at 8:30am bullshit. As of November 14, I don't have to leave for work until 10am! Yes! I can sleep until 9am again! I can stay up until midnight! Yippee!
Of course that means staying at work until 7pm, and not getting home until at least 7:30, but you win some, you lose some.
Steph's recital is tomorrow!! Huzzah!! But that means going back to Ripon (oh yippee. can you sense the sarcasm???)....and I have to go back to Ripon AGAIN on Sunday. Why, you might ask? Because I'm a dumbass and agreed to play Seasons of Love for the Choraliers show on Sunday night. Yeah, dumbass, that's meeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Ripon. Grumble. This is why I live in Appleton. I shouldn't make two round trips in two days, but ugh! I don't want to spend the whole weekend in Ripon. Besides, let's look at this logically. If I go back to Ripon and spend the weekend, I will most likely spend Saturday night getting beligerently (sp?) drunk, sleeping on someone's couch or floor, and being hungover as all hell on Sunday - where I will have to find something to do to entertain myself all afternoon before the show (and show rehearsal) in the evening, then having wasted my entire weekend in Ripon (of all places), I will go back to work on Monday morning a grumpier person for having spent my entire weekend in Cowville. :)
So, yippee it's the weekend! Yippee it's Steph's recital! Yippee for Johnny Depp movies! And, of course, yippee for Ripon. I guess. ;)
Oh, and btw, go ahead and protect yourself against the Asian Bird Flu!!!! I think I will take the time to ask the pertinent question: Who thought to feed fermented cabbage to chickens????
- posted by L. @ 11:54 PM