« June 2006 | Main | August 2006 »
July 28, 2006
period
today was the last day of my internship for chabot. i was working there just for the summer, but it is still only july. apparently summer ends quicker for chabot. i think they only care about summer in terms of equinoxes or how it affects star gazing anyway. crazy fucking astronomers. whatever. the point is, i am now jobless again. which is amusing since only a month ago i was posting about having three jobs. technically i'm still working for the ricci institute but my boss went to beijing and doesn't email me back so i stopped doing any work for them...about 6 weeks ago.
dammit, now i have to start looking for a job again. urgh.
i took some pictures today at the warehouse i'd been working at for chabot. because i found it amusing that i was working in a warehouse. it's not really the best location to store archival materials. so there's only pictures of the inside, but imagine the docks of oakland and then imagine a large warehouse building and you get the picture of the outside. once i parked on top of a bunch of dead fish. they were just laying around in the gutter stinking up the place. wtf? dead fish in the gutter? oakland you are bizarre.
picture 1
picture 2
picture 3
picture 4
picture 5
Posted by michele at 02:02 PM | Comments (4)
July 25, 2006
john tucker must die
Not only was my glamorous reviewer friend Jason kind enough to extend a press pass to me for an advance screening of 'John Tucker Must Die', but he was also delightful enough of an acquaintance to grant me a compliment.
"Ooo, fancy. What's up with the dress?" Jason queried, "You going to the prom or something?"
"In point of fact, I shall be attending the prom, on the arm of John Tucker," I snootily replied.
"You bitch! John Tucker is mine!" Jason screamed.
"Whores! I’m the slutty one!" yelled the middle-aged, balding man in front of us in line.
"Lying is bad!" we all chorused. "Food fight!"
If you think this review is simply too incomprehensible for words, than I don't recommend seeing 'John Tucker' the movie either.
Whether it was Sophia Bush, fresh from her brief-marriage-to-Chad-Michael-Murray fame, being a slutty vegan activist or Ashanti, I liked her in 'Bride & Prejudice' but really not in the 'Muppets Wizard of Oz', being an aggressive head-cheerleader, OR Arielle Kebbel, Dean's wife from 'Gilmore Girls, anyone?, being an overachiever (and apparently Maxim's 2005 95th Hot 100)--this movie had many low points. Most of which stemmed from the casting of Brittany Snow, the precocious teenage daughter from 'American Dreams', as the female lead, Kate.
Notwithstanding the fact that her on-screen mom was played by Jenny McCarthy and thus she should be cut a little slack right from the beginning, Snow is just not that good of an actress. Or eye candy. Hell, her similarly TV-morphing-into-movies co-star from 'American Dreams', Vanessa Lengies, did a better job in 'Stick It'. At least when Lengies says, "They're not called gym-NICE-tics", I could believe her acting skills unlike Snow's, "I didn't have a pen."--in response to the sexy gardener from 'Desperate Housewives', (Jason Metcalfe), asking why she didn't call him after he spouted his phone number over the school's intercom system for her.
Admittedly, the first 20 minutes were not half bad. Quite intelligently funny, really, but I gave up almost all hope when the secondary male lead appeared singing Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles' song from '10 Things I Hate About You'--'I want you to want me’--and even having Ledger’s hair. The blatant rip off of this and the utilization of the song again at the end clinched the desperate nature of 'John Tucker Must Die' trying to be funny, trying to be a parody, trying to be good and failing. Like a whipped boy in a thong, I give this movie...squished balls, the gift that keeps on giving.
Posted by michele at 09:24 PM | Comments (3)
July 24, 2006
oh, the joy of birth!
happy (early) birthday, marina!
Posted by michele at 11:57 AM | Comments (8)
July 21, 2006
and if not yet, then yet again, and still--you, too, shall fall
ellie, tyler and i perch on the pool steps, sitting on our bums. tyler might say, "i'm sitting on my backside!", but we don't know why he talks all prudish proper like that. it's a butt, and i'll thank you to say it. popsicle juices are melting all over tyler's frontside and dripping onto his chubby baby thighs. i am laughing, perhaps because i pawned off the dreaded orange flavor on him with him too young to notice my deceit; perhaps because he's instructing me on how to eat a popsicle with chubby baby fingers pointing at the frozen treat and my mouth; or perhaps because it's sunny and warm and my feet are in a pool while friends sit at my side. ellie sums it up, "life is good."
life is even better today as i checked into my san jose state account and have, in the night, mysteriously been awarded a full grant to cover tuition costs for the whole first year of school. not, admittedly to cover the state school fees of absurdity--there's an $8 fee for child care, do i have a child? no--but that still only adds up to $450. for a whole year! my mom, possibly, is more thrilled than me as she will be the one actually saving money.
as ellie and tyler left yesterday, tyler spoke to the molly dog in a wheedling tone of pure deviltry, "hi sweetie. do you love me, molly? i love you. thanks for the good times, molly."
life IS good. today. and yesterday. and many other days to come and go away.
Posted by michele at 11:37 AM | Comments (1)
July 13, 2006
sufferable
i have been drunkenly trying to remember the word for 'drunk' in 19th century british literature for like an hour now. which indicates that i started drinking at like 7. that's not really promising for this story. but i think it's sossed. it could be sauced. or sloshed. but i think sossed. yes, i think it. drunkenly think it. i'm weaving in my chair. this is what i get for reading trashy romance novels set in 19th century london while drunk.
and now enjoy a number of pictures of how i spend my days with ellie and tyler.
Posted by michele at 08:32 PM | Comments (5)
July 11, 2006
disneyland
i have abandonment issues. there, i said it. this stems, i think, from the time in 5th grade when i went to k. katz's ice skating birthday party and my father was scheduled to pick me up. he didn't show. i sat on the stairs watching as all of my soon-to-be-hoochie-mama friends got picked up by their doting parents one by one. by the time my father arrived to get me i was sobbing fit to fill a swimming pool.
this weekend at disneyland, marina parked me at a table in the middle of a loud, bustling outdoor restaurant with a live band. she then went to order food, even kindly asking if i wanted anything that she could bring back. she disappeared for 20 minutes and i became convinced that she had left and was never coming back for me because i was being so childish about my inability to walk. she was, in fact, probably 15 minutes down I-5 at this point. my prune-foot enabled blisters throbbing, i started crying just like when i was 10 at the ice skating rink. the group of japanese people to my left asked if they could have one of the extra chairs at my table.
"my revolting and potentially disease-ridden feet are resting on the chair. you want THIS chair? are you kidding me?"
they had no reply, though they did take my chair. possibly their english was not of the highest caliber.
this was depressing when even japanese people didn't care about me. i was exhausted by sleep deprivation and pain, revolted by the stench rising off my own feet, and my heart-strings were being forcefully ripped apart by the band leader's daughter belting out some really good tunes. so i kept crying while i waited in futile anguish for marina to come back.
pictures i took of us in disneyland park are HERE. pictures gene and kristen took on the drive down to disneyland, at our super 8 hotel, and the block's shoppertainment are HERE.
Posted by michele at 09:46 AM | Comments (3)
July 04, 2006
lingerie
once, a very long time ago, a battle raged between a nation and an emerging baby mouse (feces). now that i've already lost you in my analogy unless you were there being mean to gene for hypocrisy on his views of donnie darko vs. fjords: the musical and/or willard the barber and ian (tentative title heavily disapproved of by me even though i came up with 'willard').
um, ok even if you had been there that analogy made no sense. but i'm tired and i can't think of another word than 'baby mouse'. even though that's two words. ok, now this post is pretty much entirely for kristen.
the point is, it's 4th of july and once we fought for that independence and today i fought for independence too. a battle raged over my underwear and i appeared to be on the losing side of it.
i've mentioned before my theory that for functionality underwear goes on OVER the garter belt so it can be the first thing off and you can still have the garter belt/stockings combo intact for the sexual relations. however, now that i actually OWN a garter belt and could put this into practice (ha!) my theory was shot down by: gene, jacob, erica, and jason. they all think that the functionality i'm espousing is completely secondary to the aesthetic of wearing underwear underneath the garter belt. i'm now thinking of just getting a chastity belt as my life would be no different and maybe then we could stop talking about my underwear.
seriously, i want to wear the garter belt everyday. though i also want to wear my new fuzzy, knee-high, striped socks everyday and those two articles of clothing really clash.
Posted by michele at 11:59 PM | Comments (5)
July 03, 2006
the weekend of doing
this weekend was a time of repeat activities for me. first, on saturday, we revisited the south yuba river state park. then on sunday, i went to camp cohasset with my brother and his new girlfriend. i have put up pictures of us at yuba river and me at camp cohasset. last year's yuba river photos can be viewed here and camp cohasset back in 2004 are here.
i had an amazing time both days though today i am exhausted from the 6 hours of driving each day, the bruisings from rocks, and the throwing of horseshoes.
i'm planning a second yuba river trip on august 20th for those who missed this one and want to go. my cousin james is coming down for the weekend (probably) and he wants to check out this fun place which made me unable to walk all day at cohasset. i had to keep grabbing him even if we were just standing there because my legs were too sore to support me. it was pathetic.
Posted by michele at 08:04 PM | Comments (15)