Week in Pictures

Friday - hide and seek with momo



Saturday - Sammy's illustrated book


Sunday - finished NY notebook


Monday - Frames for my bedroom redo


Tuesday - SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!


Wednesday - My new slippers. I'm a little in love.


Thursday - our new family room saying



(mysterious ways, u2)

Because My Mind Is Full of Random

*Lenny Kravitz as Cinna. Woody Harrelson as Haymitch. Elizabeth Banks as Effie. Color me OFFICIALLY excited for a movie that doesn't come out until next March. However. Next March? I'm so there, people.

*Am I the only one annoyed by the "creative date asking" that goes on (and feel free to extend that to "creative marriage proposals" as well)? I get that it's most likely due to my lack of love for surprises and attention focused on me, honestly, but...I go for the simple route. Find a date, ask them out. Find a mate, ask them privately and heartfelt, to marry you. I don't get the grand, scavenger hunt escapade where you are sifting through a ton of sugar or hire a sky diver to decorate your lawn with an elaborate flower and frosting "YES, MY LOVE!". It seems like too much...work. (Seriously would cut into my sitting around time... :) Before, I would have been willing to say that I was just jealous since I didn't date in high school, but college dances, dates, three marriage proposals and a WHOLE lotta years later and I'm thinking that isn't it. I just think it's ridiculous, over the top and insane. I blame Twilight. Ok, not really, but I often feel the need to blame SOMETHING on Twilight!

*Speaking of dancing of the happier variety...So You Think You Can Dance premieres tonight. Got your popcorn ready? I sincerely don't remember summer without it. And why would I, really?

*Wanna see my vacation hat? I'm pretty excited about it...(also that it will look very Anne of Green Gables with my navy dress and shoes. Hee!)


*Sammy's pre-registration kit came in the mail this week. Sigh. It's really happening. My baby is starting school. Man.

*I wish I could adequately express to you the oddness surrounding the couple we were face to face with on the train the other night. I have forgotten most of the details, but even though they were pregnant and clearly married, their conversations were ones you wondered if they knew one another at all. Bizarre.

*Def Leppard concert tickets are being purchased this weekend. EEEEEEE! Our three concert outings this summer are, shall we say, eclectic? Maybe I'll convince Isaac to buy the sunglasses with the bedazzled skulls on them they just got in at work. Or a little leather. I'm pretty sure the three of us girls going will have no problem coming up with something appropriate for the evening! I may need to stock up on Aquanet.

*As a follow-up to the whole rapture, thing? The world DID go through 'silent judgment' last weekend and we're due to explode Oct. 21st. So, you know, um...happy birthday Mom? Those will be mighty spectacular pyrotechnics for the occasion.

*I'm having rough troubles with someone. It's not someone I see regularly, at all, and can easily avoid, but when I see her name pop up on facebook, I have bad thoughts. I hate that. The whole thing is very juvenile, really. I caught her LITERALLY "pointing and laughing" at me recently. Pretty blatantly, actually. But she doesn't KNOW I know. And given some other info I have, I'm having a really difficult time getting over it. And I know *I'm* the one who just needs to let it go. But, man. It's leading to thoughts of "why AREN'T we good enough? What IS the deal?". Blergh. Shaken off...

*We watched The King's Speech the other day. It didn't suck. In fact, we both really enjoyed it. And I tried to watch the American Idol finale. Wow. I so didn't care about either of them, I fast forwarded through the whole thing. And then watched paint dry, which was infinitely more fascinating.

*Phase one of bedroom redo is complete. I can't wait until it's all done and I can share pictures!


(dancing barefoot, u2)

So, U2 Was Last Night...

It was a little surreal. We found out about a week ago that The Fray would be opening instead of Lenny Kravitz (who was billed for the concert that wasn't last year). Which is fine. I don't hate The Fray. But THEN we found out Florence + the Machine was opening for the June make up dates. I was bummed. Isaac was BUMMED. He loves them. It all turned out for the best, however, because we were late enough to miss the opening nearly completely - we got a brief glance of the Fray and 1 1/2 songs as we walked the perimeter trying to find our seats. We COMPLETELY didn't anticipate public transportation being so crazy and time consuming! But. BUT!

This:

Right? Such good seats. We weren't down on the floor with the crazies (we're so old!) but in just perfect eye line of the stage. They turned out to be the GREATEST seats.

In a sea of 50,000, we knew my SIL and her family were there somewhere and mentioned how weird it would be to see people we knew. Right after that, our friends Michael and Summer walked past us; they were a few rows up from us. It seemed so incredibly random! However, not as random as seeing the girl my ex-husband dated before we got married. It's still bugging me that I can't remember her name (only because I feel I should always remember everything!). But the highlight of the pre-show was this guy:

I so wish I was able to get the whole outfit. Under that yellow shirt was a black spandex number with silver reflective dots down the arm. AND? This guy was clearly in his late 40s / early 50s. Totally gray hair. It was sublime. And the best outfit of the night.

I'm having a tough time wrapping my brain around it all. It was an AMAZING show. They are ROCK STARS. And it showed. Every song, every nuance, every strut. And if this fact wasn't abundantly clear before, it should be now...musicians? Totally my type. I'm pretty sure I was a groupie in a past life. While I prefer my Bono circa Rattle and Hum, he wasn't the ugliest man to stare at for a few hours. But the Edge? Oh my. He gets better and better looking as time goes on. Wow.

This was definitely the biggest show we've ever been to. I'm not the biggest U2 fan. I do love them, but you'll not see a picture on my wall of Bono, you know? It's just...they've always been there. They will always be there. They ARE U2 and huge and important in my life and I'm glad I got to see them. I really am. But I was not the 40 year old mom with her daughter next to us ROCKING OUT the entire time. She? May have been one of the biggest fans. It was amusing and fun to watch all at once.


They started out with Even Better Than The Real Thing, which was incredible. If my Bono love resides ANYWHERE, it's with Achtung Baby and it was well represented. I Will Follow, Mysterious Ways (my favorite of the night, actually!), All I Want Is You, Pride, Sunday Bloody Sunday were highlights. There were also some surprises. Elevation and Vertigo, not my favortie U2 songs by a MILE, were SO GOOD - SO GOOD!!!- live. I have new appreciation for them. And City of Blinding Lights and Walk On were more sublime than I've ever heard before.

It was brisk, and I was grateful for my layers and sweater, but the sky was completely clear. Which was lovely, considering the rain earlier in the day. By the end of the night, my nose and feet were so cold. My voice hoarse. My eyes betraying my age and stamina! But it was so fun. I'm so happy we were there.


(even better than the real thing, u2)

Top 5 U2

1. One: This is just the embodiment of college, for me. Always will be. Man I miss my best friends...


2. So Cruel: The whole of Achtung Baby, really. It reminds me of Isaac and road trips and being happy. Probably one of my top 10 favorite albums. But I do love this song.


3. Bad - EEEEEEEE!


4. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own - because even though I'm not loving their newer stuff as much, I do love this song.


5. All I Want Is You - The last scene of Reality Bites. Love. The End.


Honorable mention: With or Without You: Just because I'm a woman in her 30s. It's hard not to honorably mention it.


I Will Follow - it's just awesome.


And 53 others I don't have the room to list!

I REALLY DO Still Feel Fine...

I remember when I was younger, my mom got something in the mail that detailed, month by month, how the world was going to end in 1981. Or 1985. I don't remember. Sometime in the early 80s. She posted it in the hallway and, as each event didn't happen, she would mark it off. It was amusing, but also disturbing, to my young mind.

I, like a lot of people, watched with amusement as this weekend's rapture didn't materialize. However, the news stories I started latching on to were the ones dealing with the fall out for this preacher and his church. I was MESMERIZED from a P.R. standpoint.

This is actually the second date this man has predicted. The other was incorrect, as well; that time he said it would all end in 1994. I'm thinking people must be in the "once a mistake, but twice is too many" way of thinking. Right? Not so much. The true followers of this man are (mostly) taking it in stride. It's those of us who didn't believe that are annoyed or amused. And I think that is fascinating. With any other business, this would be a PR nightmare. It would spell complete and utter devastation to that business. It would, without some skilled crafting, be the end. No pun intended. But these followers aren't behaving in the 'normal' way clients of a business would. It's very interesting. None of my PR crisis training speaks to this. How do you spin false prophecies that clearly don't come true? Mask it in faith? Ok. But how do you speak to the people who followed? It's so intricate, what needs to happen from a PR standpoint. And so individualized. And that is the more fascinating aspect of this entire story.

So while the jokes peak and die down, I'll be watching the aftermath. What happens to this leader in the next couple of weeks and what he has to say. Call it an extended credit in my PR training. I'm just so interested on the fallout. This is the kind of thing I live for.


(the end of the world as we know it, rem)