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August 29, 2003
bereft
this week my sole remaining grandparent died. that's kind of depressing. i mean, originally you've got 4 of them which is pretty exciting. there's love, and presents, and shirts that say, 'i *heart* my grandma!' but then they start dying off and you're like, 'hey wait a second what's up with this shit?' even at the age of 2 i managed to say that. actually i have no idea how old i was when my first grandfather died. i might not even have been born yet which means i would have been at a serious disadvantage coming into the world with only 3 grands. which admittedly will also be the case for any children i might have, assuming whoever i have them with has his/her full quotient.
my first grandmother died when i was in 7th grade. i remember this accurately because i was in mr. spo's class at valley view when my mom came to take me home. i loved this grandmother. she was my mom's mom. but you know what i did when i found out? i cried. but not from sadness. i was PISSED. because it was october and almost kristen's birthday and i had planned this huge surprise party and now i was going to miss it. and at the funeral i watched john cry and handed him kleenex in consternation. there was no point in being sad i felt since obviously nana had been very sick and in a lot of pain and she was much better off now. then i ate these really tasty rolls which were slightly doughy and drenched in butter.
the summer after i graduated college i was driving down to my aunt's house to spend the night before going all the way home to california and when i pulled up in her driveway my mom came out of the house. this was startling because she wasn't supposed to be there. and she came to my door and i was convinced something terrible had happened to adam or my dad or one of my cats or aunt mary or john or james. so i was surprised when in fact what had happened was that my second grandfather had died and we then had to stay in oregon for a month cleaning his house. at first it was kind of fun because everyone was there and one of my uncles got married the week after the funeral. but then it dragged on and on and there was just more paper and more dust and i wanted to leave so bad. it was sad too, of course because i was a little older and understood more what was lost. but again the man was old and didn't even have his own stomach anymore.
so now this week the last grandmother has died. she's been living in pennsylvania all my life and i've been living in california. so i've seen her very infrequently. you could say that my caring level about most of my dad's side of the family is very low since for the most part i don't know any of them. i know like maybe three or 4 of his brothers and sisters. (there's 10 of them.) and i know maybe 6 of the first cousins well enough to talk to. (there's like 150 cousins total. including the second and third generations and great aunt and uncles' offsprings.) so when my mom told me that she had died, i was basically unconcerned. it's not going to affect my life in any way whatsoever after all. but then about an hour later the realization struck that now i am grandparentless. and that is a little harder to reconcile with.
we sent adam off as an emissary to the funeral. it assuages family feeling without my mom and i actually having to attend. which works out quite perfectly for us. plus, adam wanted to go. he knows a lot more of that family than i do. and will get to hang out in philadelphia with our cousin dj predominantly. plus mom paid for his ticket and gave him cash to play with.
she also gave me cash to play with as a balancing gesture. i really didn't deserve it but who am i complain. now i can live it up in SB with the girlies this weekend. this would work better if i hadn't already spent $50 of it on anime last night. at least i restrained from purchasing a taiwanese drama's first season for $110. i don't know how long i can hold out though. i REALLY want it. it's based off this anime show called hana yori dango (boys before flowers) which i do own and is very entertaining. if you're me. which i am.
just so we're clear. yes, i am aware that this post started out being maudlin and about dead grandparents and then ended up being about anime and horrible asian tv shows. but this is me we're dealing with. and this is what i am.
Posted by michele at 02:06 PM | Comments (2)
August 28, 2003
stylus girl?
i found this on the desk today (the desk i put together and gained hideous blisters for). could it be true that they're expanding the girl's clothing line? is this the first step towards revolution? the webpage reflects nothing of the kind, but i don't think it's been updated since 2002. anyway, here's to hoping.
Posted by michele at 12:20 PM | Comments (5)
August 27, 2003
the medallion
i went for the jackie chan. i stayed for the jackie chan.
it is AMAZING how much wire work they do in this movie. you think to yourself, "oh, jackie chan, he does all his own stunts. and he is so cool!" but then it's all so obviously wires and sped up and i'm like, "shitttttt man." and feeling a little cheated.
plus....the MEDALLION? and claire forlani? what nationality is she anyway? (apparently she's british by birth.) her accent is always just a little bit different. although i still love her cat eyeballs. the goofy british guy though was dumb. john rhys-davies' part was sooooo tiny. and the bad guy was a pitiful toned down version of jeremy irons. the british guy's asian wife was good though. since she was sporting a secret just like him with his pretending to be a librarian instead of telling her he's an interpol agent.
somewhere sammo hung was involved in this movie. sammo hung. well. well well well. sometimes he is good. and sometimes he makes cheese. ah-ha. i just looked it up and he was the action choreographer. which makes a lot of sense as to why this was so wire-fu based and cheesy.
on the plus side, nicolas tse and edison chen had tiny cameos as waiters. and they weren't listed as being in it, prob due to their very small roles, but this is me and upon sight of tse i immediately go gooey. i had to restrain myself from screaming at the surprise. i managed only to tell my mom that the waiter handing jackie chan his bill was nicolas tse and a pop star to which she replied, 'he's cute' to which i said, 'that is why i know his name.' and i say to you, also why i own several of his movies. oh man. goo. they have been in a couple of other movies jackie chan produced in china though which is why i'm assuming he's giving them a tiny chance at breaking into the american movie business where they could make a shitload more movies/money. see, jackie chan is cool AND nice.
this movie though was silly. my mom read some review about how the fight scenes were like "poetry." i don't know who could say that with a straight face. some of the fights were good. but the special effects and the music they used and sound effects made them a little too cheesy for me. damn you, sammo hung. but still, it wasn't BAD by any stretch of the imagination. the kid who plays the chosen one who can use the medallion was good. and jackie chan and claire forlani were good although how anyone could be expected to accept them as a couple. i just don't know. although the jackie chan naked scene certainly helped me along in reconciling it. anyway, i did enjoy it.
and finally: a picture of nicholas tse (so you can see what i'm drooling over.)
Posted by michele at 09:54 PM | Comments (0)
happy birthday, nuala!
ducky, today you turn old. not just older, but old. how old are you now? 24? like the rest of us old fuckers. soon you'll be thirty. (in 6 years. that was helpful in case you're so old you can no longer do math in your head. i don't know why this kind and considerate birthday post has suddenly turned deranged and vicious. and also i don't know who i am to talk since i'm closer to being 25 than you by quite a bit. holy crap. 25. that's so old.)
we've known one another since 9th grade. that's not quite half our ages, but it's close. (michele- stop talking about being old.)
i kind of knew you in middle school too though since when i would call kristen's house during girl scout meetings you were inevitably there and hence, a presence, albeit remotely, in my life. it all went downhill from there though. or uphill. since soon we will be over the hill (16 years).
i made an effort to go thru my europe journals and my europe photo albums for potentially embarrassing photos or captions about you. but then i started looking at my circus people book and realized it had all been done before. so then i started going thru my old emails to see what you had to say for yourself. but nothing there was quite right either. although once in answer to the question, "do you eat the stems of broccoli?" you answered, "sure if it's there" which i feel is an adequate summation of your entire life and our friendship. because you will always eat the gross vegetables that i must fling from my plate in disgust. it's good to have friends.
so, sources exhausted, i sat down to write this dedicatory post with no inspiration other than my love for you. that quickly deteriorated into sarcasm and abuse against old people. obviously i am a flawed individual. but you're not. you're a duck, cause you're not a duck at all. and that is a-ok.
in the immortal words of some french carnies, "french kiss? strip tease?" i'm coming down in 3 days and i am going to be french, fraggling, and demanding. so prepare. limber that tongue and practice your moves. i'm pretty sure at least that I can beat YOU at pool.
hey, i love you ducks. and i can't wait to see you!
love,
mupps
p.s. that comic has nothing to do with you. if you were ice cream, i would never hit you with a baseball bat. because i love ice cream just like i love you.
Posted by michele at 09:08 PM | Comments (6)
happy (late) birthday, marina! (i suck)
while attempting to prepare nuala's happy birthday post i realized that i never wrote one for marina. this panicked me into a heavy state of guilt. marina, i know i am a crud kind of friend. and also you haven't even gotten a present from me yet. and also, i'm not even quite sure what day your actual birthday is. the 25? 26? 27? i have no fucking clue. i know it's in july. so i'm a full month late here, but that is no excuse. just so we're clear here, i did get you a present. it's in the mail. it's delightful. or it will be delightful. eventually. maybe. you never know. it's no fukoku glove, but it's a start.
so then we've known each other what? 6 years? 6.5? that's a long time. and you know what i have to say about that? absolutely nothing. i don't think i've managed to remember your birthday ONCE since we've been friends. maybe last year? or the year before that? i remember the one time senior year where i threw you that big party but that was like in march or something. nowhere near your birthday. but i feel it was a valiant effort. even though your memory and joy at receiving pride and prejudice on vhs has subsequently been supplanted by mark who got it for you on dvd. damn you, mark.
one of my favorite memories of you, marina, (and i), is when we got those aviator head set walkie talkies so that bi!! and trevor would shut the fuck up about how we tied up the phone line for hours even though we lived across a small man-made lake from one another. because walking across the grass while sporting a stylish head-set and being catty with you is my idea of a fucking good time. promise me that someday we will live next door to one another again. and the next time we own something as patently absurd and dorkish as head-set walkie talkies we MUST take pictures of ourselves wearing them.
happy late birthday, marina, i love ya!
p.s. i also liked it when you brought me presents from asia. don't forget ukraine.
Posted by michele at 08:48 PM | Comments (7)
August 21, 2003
le divorce
le divorce: a side of paris i've never seen. pretty streets and pretty houses and all nice people. mostly. if only kate hudson hadn't had SUCH a terrible hairdo the vast majority of the movie this would have been much better. but it was well-acted though at times a semi-boring plot. maybe the book is better but i am skeptical. stockard channing was good. most of the males were bad.
Posted by michele at 06:56 PM | Comments (2)
american wedding
american wedding: ugh. disgusting. alison hannigan and jason biggs aside this movie was terrible. not even directed by the original guys and with stifler being more of an ass than ever before this movie was a travesty.
Posted by michele at 06:56 PM | Comments (0)
s.w.a.t.
s.w.a.t.: who's cute here? oh i think it's colin farrell. explosions! guns! manly bravado! it's all good fun till someone gets run over by a train.
Posted by michele at 06:55 PM | Comments (0)
uptown girls
uptown girls: brittney murphy is hot. and this movie is actually quite touching with the whole father/daughter bonding stuff and the sweetness between murphy and the little girl played by dakota fanning. it's not great, but it is cute.
Posted by michele at 06:55 PM | Comments (2)
grind
grind: oh terrible. oh horror. adam brody from the oc/gilmore girls was cute as ever but the rest was awful. the complete rip off of matthew mcconaghy's character from dazed and confused was well done but still stolen.
Posted by michele at 06:54 PM | Comments (7)
i capture the castle
i capture the castle: bbc goodness. very sweet story of a girl-woman growing up in the "wilds" of england.
Posted by michele at 06:53 PM | Comments (0)
freaky friday
freaky friday: oh dear lord. even though i was dead set against this film i still enjoyed going to see it with my mom a thousand times over. i attempted throughout to slide down in my seat in shame with the greatest of enjoyment.
Posted by michele at 06:53 PM | Comments (3)
sinbad: legend of the seven seas
sinbad: not bad actually. for disney. for hurried disney. the backgrounds were horrificly done. the people were better. the point where sinbad told the shirtless black man in the frozen lands to clothe himself before he poked someone's eye out was pretty funny.
Posted by michele at 06:52 PM | Comments (0)
damn you sprinklers
unpotable water strikes again. obviously running thru the sprinklers at phill park during last night's baseball was not my most well-thought out plan as i am now disgustingly ill and have trouble raising my head the scant inches necessary to sip water from a cup while lying prone on my couch. i have been re-reading the same paragraphs in my current book multiple times trying to ascertain the archaic meanings of words. sentences say what?
but then wonders never ceasing the phone company sent someone early to fix our dsl which was broken from the painting and floor ripping upping. so now for the first time in a week we have working internet again. it was too much to resist and i must push myself up to come and post.
people might be wondering what has happened to me or what i have been doing since i have been so inconoclastically shut up for quite some time. other than the swimming at kristen's parents house and the painting of my own home and the ripping up of all the carpets, i have not been doing much. i read every day and i go and see some of the worst movies it has even been my misprivilage to view. and as i am lazy and unable to keep up with sushi movie reviews besides the fact that i feel pretentious even having a movie review page (what right? what but none?) i am thinking of subsuming it to sushi and just mentioning my theatre expeditions here every once in a while. but for now i have put all my latest notes up over there.
anyway, the new job search hasn't even begun. the applying to grad schools hasn't either. i helped a little with research for the production company. and i'm helping with the putting in of hardwood floors at my house. and i'm going back to dvc this time to finally make it thru to learning japanese (domo arigato mr roboto). my brother is moving back in for four months with his damn ferrets who, he has warned me, hide in couch cushions now and bite your ass when you're least expecting it. my elation is boundless as a shallow puddle. hmph.
p.s. happy late birthday, james!
Posted by michele at 06:42 PM | Comments (12)
August 15, 2003
here's looking at you, kid
yesterday in my never-ending quest for the perfect suntan i managed to miscalculate the amount of protective cream needed on a region that seldom sees sun.
my ass is now the ass of fire.
incredibly uncomfortable, let me tell you.
but i suppose this is what one gets when the goal is to be suntanned all over, fair and balance.
'stick it where the sun don't shine' is an imperative i taunt with my red and shiny bottom.
Posted by michele at 12:51 PM | Comments (11)
August 11, 2003
the mountain walked off. why?
last night with kristen i joined a cult. yes, a cult. who knew that going to a dance performance would be so very similar to signing away my life in a group suicide pledge? how many psychos will now come looking at my page for mass suicide pacts do you think? but it's ok because willie brown sanctioned 5H, (our cult sponsor, very money-grubby. we had to watch a video during the intermission about all their accomplishments so they could jab us again with their pleas for financial aid.)
the dancing was lots of classical indian and yogic traditions. in traditional dress (ie saris). i found myself drifting a lot which is what my normal reality has become as i live increasingly within my own head. i had this lovely daydream about learning to do indian dancing, dancing it at a club, seducing a cute boy, spending the whole weekend with him. it was fun. i was quite pleased with this potential future. particularly when he offered to be my sugar daddy.
not having much in the way of responsibilities has completely cut me off from normal human interaction. it's a good thing that i can be my own best friend and my cranium seems like a safe enough space for retreat for now.
kristen and i did get all dressed up and there is a picture. but eloise/gallery remote is being too, too temperamental so you will have to bide some time of your own.
today my mom got stung by a bee and she is all with the serious allergic reaction and took lots of benadryl and passed out. i do not like this. i do not like having a mother who is so susceptible to dangerous things like throats closing up. it makes me nervous. i have to keep walking out to the family room to check that she is still breathing in her chair. so far, so good.
back into my head i go.
Posted by michele at 04:44 PM | Comments (10)
August 02, 2003
teeth-gnashing
although i am not adverse to a little growling in bed, i take it amiss when the animal doing all the growling happens to be a raccoon unwantedly sticking his head in MY window.
last night. happily minding my own business re-reading the books about the girl who can see ghosts, someone sticks their head in the window and bats at the blinds. i'm flipping over going, "oh fats waller, have you come for dinner?" but this inviting sentence is broken off on a choked scream as i get a good look at the beady eyes and poky snout nosing into my bedroom. definitely not a fats waller face. in fact the face of a vicious little coon who happens to think he deserves to be in my room. oh-ho-ho, i think not.
i took pictures of them (yes them, because FIVE new coons appear to have moved into our neighborhood) and then i slammed the window on their distrusting, growly little faces.
because you are all such flatterers, i am also putting up one more picture of crinkly haired me.
Posted by michele at 04:10 PM | Comments (14)