Happy Birthday to Meddlesome Addendum

PS
For those who may not be getting the significance of the inedible fruit tart - ever since we were young girls, Meddlesome's parents always bought her a fruit tart for her birthday. And as tradition goes, she always closed her eyes, made a wish, blew out the candles and then got her pick of which slice she was going to have...uh not so much. She did all those things except the last. Her parents didn't allow her to eat her bday cake. For as long as I can remember, her parents always had Meddlesome on a diet. And no, Meddlesome was not fat. She wasn't close to being fat. But this was just one of those things that seemed normal to me. Now that I'm older and have shared some of my childhood stories with my friends, I've been told that, in fact, it's not normal for a 5' 2" 105lb 12-year old girl to be enrolled in Jenny Craig.

Is "overweight aerobics instructor" an oxymoron?

Meddlesome has joined 90% of the rest of the nation with her New Year's resolution to shed some inches. Disclaimer: For those who don't know of Meddlesome's tendencies, she begins every new undertaking with 110% gusto; it's quite admirable to hear her speak of her passions and beliefs in whatever cause she's behind. But then something (usually pretty minor) happens along the way that completely derails Meddlesome and just like that, Meddlesome is back to her usual ways.

I am SO not hating on Meddlesome right now - in fact, I am really proud of her and am totally rooting for her because she is going about this the right way. In the past Meddlesome has dropped poundage by going cold turkey on food. I've always envied her ability to function at work on no food. Anyway I digress. So this time around, Meddlesome is on the Zone diet and has started working out. GASP. DOUBLE GASP. Sweating and meddlesome do not belong in the same sentence.

But I sense she might have reached a tipping point...as she waited for her yoga class to begin, she observed that the turbo kickboxing class currently in process looked super fun. There was just one slight problem...the instructor was fat. Now I didn't see the instructor myself so I'm taking Meddlesome's word when she says the insructor was "disgusting." And as I began to get on my soapbox and lecture Meddlesome that you don't have to be thin to be healthy, I did wonder...is it okay for an aerobics instructor to be aesthetically unappealing? Especially considering that most people are working out to look good more than feel good...can an overweight instructor be motivating?

Shockingly, Not Everyone Hearts Tom Brady

As Meddlesome and I were watching the Patriots pull away from the Jaguars last night, she said "Tom Brady is annoying." In my mind, I was thinking "Huh...I actually really like Tom Brady. I think he's such a class guy...a true gentleman." I figured there was something he did that I hadn't read about. I usually form my opinion of celebrity athletes based on some character flaw. For example, I don't like Peyton Manning because he's super goofy-looking yet acts like he's all that. If I have to watch another stupid Priceless Pep Talk Mastercard commercial...! So of course I ask Meddlesome what her beef is with Tom Brady. "Because he's not with Bridget Moynahan. And I like Bridget." Totally ridiculous reason, right? But maybe Meddlesome is onto something...doesn't Tom look much better and happier with Bridget than Gisele? I'm thinking the whole Victoria's Secret Supermodel thing is way overrated.



Tom with Bridget












Tom with Gisele

Anne Geddes rip-off / wannabe?

So there's been a lot of controversy around Jill Greenberg's "End Times" photography exhibit. Her hook is that the pictures are of crying babies. She gets the babies to cry by giving them lollipops and then taking them away. Yeah, you would cry too! Anyway this article gives a little more background of the controversy.

I'm wondering if possibly I could capitalize on some of this Anne Geddes type activity. Do you like my first attempts?








The hook is depicting babies appearing drunk. My secret? Use a horrible blackberry cameraphone to attempt photographing a smiley but really squirmy baby!

Not All Moms are Friends

For those who don't know, I am a member of the DINK (Double Income No Kids) society. However some of my friends have left DINK-dom for SIYK (Single Income Yes Kids) land. So I benefit from gaining lots of valuable tidbits of this lifestyle that could potentially be very useful for when/if I have little tykes of my own.

Recently at a New Year's party, I was part of a conversation with my childhood friend aka Tall Girl and Karen (Tall Girl's cousin in-law). We were talking about something light like the interesting martini drinks the bartender was serving up and all of a sudden the conversation took a sharp turn towards serious fare. Karen asked Tall Girl (not in these words but the gist) what her deal was - living in New Orleans raising 2 young kids and not working plus not having any family around...YIKES!

At this point I was all too familiar with what was going to happen. I was going to quickly become an observer adding zero value to the conversation while the two moms who've gone through the same life experiences were going to connect and have lots of head-nodding moments of understanding each other. While I couldn't join in the head-nodding, I found the conversation pretty interesting. Tall Girl remarked that all of her activities revolved around the kids so things like going to the park, zoo, museum and other Mommy & Me type stuff. Of course when you do these things, you're bound to meet a lot of other mommies. And much to my surprise, Tall Girl said she wasn't interested in being friends with most of those mommies because either they had different philosophies on child-rearing or their kids didn't get along. (Btw, Tall Girl is one of the most open-minded accepting people I know, so there is no snobbiness in that statement. If I made that statement, yes assume I'm being elitist).

All this time, I thought there was an automatic Mommy club and that kids were such a strong commonality among women that all moms were content to hang out with other moms. Obviously now that I think about it, that's just ridiculous. I have made comments myself like "So and so would never let their kids do that..." which clearly indicates not all parents are created equal.

Anyway I was grateful to be part of the conversation because it gave me an insight into Tall Girl's life that I don't think she would have told me if it was just the two of us talking. I was a little sad though because it made me realize how much I'm missing of my friend's life while she's going through things that will never repeat themselves and I'm not there to provide support or just experience them with her.

It's commonly believed that knowledge is power. For me the jury is still out. I sometimes wonder if I'd be better off going through life blissfully ignorant. Btw, was that a total non-sequitur?

Happy Birthday To Meddlesome!

It wouldn't be a Meddlesome bday, if there wasn't a bday fruit tart that you couldn't eat. So cheers!

2008 is off to a TROYmendous start!

I just shamefully stole "TROYmendous" from an espn.com headline. But I am sure if I hadn't seen that headline, I'd have come up with it myself. After all, after marketing family DVDs for 2 1/2 years, I am the queen of corny puns. Think "ogre the top" corny...



Anyway - WOOT WOOT big ups to the Men of Troy. Thanks for bringing me such overwhelming joy. What a Troyriffic way to ring in the new year!

Fantastically Disgustingly Busy 2007

Having just returned from a week long vacation centered around doing nothing and now being a mere few hours away from the end of '07, I have no choice but to be reflective of what the past year has brought. If I had to sum up the year in one word, it would be BUSY. At times it was crazy ridiculous awesome busy - more of this during the first part of the year. And other times it was crazy ridiculous "no bueno" busy - much of this occurred the later half of the year.

And I know everyone is busy and it sounds so normal to say that things are busy but let me leave you with this work story to illustrate that it really has been a busy year. Every year we have a department holiday (aka Christmas) outing. We were asked to submit ideas for what our event would be this year...ideas were submitted, a list of the top 5 ideas emerged, voting occurred and what did we do, you ask? Absolutely nada. Apparently our VP and Directors decided that we were much too busy to have an outing this year. And lucky for them, our department was given a last-minute charity invite to another group's holiday party, so the VP and directors thought they were off the hook. We were supposed to have known that the other group's party was the replacement for our department's outing...WTF? Anyway, much of my year has gone just like that...

Here's to an UN-BUSY 2008!

P.S.
I know there's a big camp of folks that think it's better to be busy than not busy. I believe these people have never truly been busy or else they wouldn't say that because that's just ridiculous!

Another sleepless night...

Why is it that every time Jemifus is away I cannot turn the TV off?! It's getting progressively worse...ugh! What I don't understand is when I was single, I had no issues sticking to a normal schedule and going to bed at a decent time. So why is it that just because I am living with someone, I can't sleep when Jemifus isn't home? SO WEIRD.

A Review about a Site about Reviews

If you're in the know...the geek know that is, then you know that when you see "w00t", something good is going on. Yes those are zeroes instead of the letter "o". That's the whole charm of the geek world. I can't really explain it but if you ever run into AP, ask him. I liked the quirkiness of it so much that I adapted it into a verbal exclamation..."w00t, w00t!" Of course, the geeks aren't happy with me. I apparently didn't get that it's only effective in typewritten form.

But I think from now on, I'm going to have to retire "w00t, w00t" and replace with "yelp, yelp!" If you haven't yelped, you're truly missing out. A site dedicated to reviews of everything you can possibly think of...that's right...you read correctly. How cool is that? Well I'll tell you how cool it is. It's so cool that I done got myself a yelp profile. I hope you will check it out.

Note to Tenzeau: If you yelp, you may be able to gain some of your coolness back, especially if you write a review about Crabbie kiddie pools.

Fro Yo Review: Pinkberry

I couldn't resist the temptation. There was just too much hype and buzz. I practically threw my Hamilton at the Pinkberry lady. And what did I get in return? A refreshing, tasty shaved ice treat that would have been way more refreshing and tasty without the Pinkberry signature plain yogurt mucking up the treat...blech. WTF? I realize it's 25 calories per oz. That's a very big plus. But it's not good. And it's not cheap either.

For those that have not ventured into the Asian dessert world, shaved ice is a freakin' fantastic concoction of condensed milk, some sort of sweet syrup, your choice of fruits and flavored gelatin and/or red beans, plus mochi all topped with a bed of shaved ice. And you can get quite a nice serving of this for a mere $2.50 at the Old Country Time Cafe in Alhambra.

Pinkberry puts a twist to the shaved ice by adding that disgusting yogurt to it. You also have the option to just get the yogurt with toppings. My posse and I tried both and the pics are below. Please see Abul, the camel plush, for size perspective. Also included is a pic with me and one of my posse members hanging out in the ultra-sleek store. If nothing else, it makes you feel really cool to be Pinkberrying it up.

Los Feliz Outing

I really extended my bday this year and had like 5 different bday meals, some of which took me out of the 'Dena burbs. I know, it's crazy talk. It's this weird phenomenom that I believe also occurs in the "South Bay Bubble". It's like there's an invisible electromagnetic border that surrounds the Pasadena borders which keeps all residents within town at all times, excluding going to and from work.

Anyway, W & C (aka Fro Yo) and sweet little peapod took A & me out for dinner at Electric Lotus. W & C discovered a long time ago what we recently and tardily realized - Indian food is freakin' delish! So now we bond over said freakin' delish cuisine. We even drive out of zip code for good Indian grub...to bohemian turned hip towns like Los Feliz.

A couple of observations on our outing.

One, I forgot what it feels like to walk the streets among the homeless. The most exposure I get is the clean innocuous homeless folks on Colorado that politely hold out a cup for change. Here it felt authentic and real. Yes Meddlesome, another reference for your delight from our Venice days. Fro Yo's antennae were definitely up during our walk.

Two, it wasn't as dramatic or intense as Children of Men, but it seriously felt like the local residents hadn't seen a baby in a decade. Everywhere we went, it was like "Oohs" and "Aaahs" abounded at the sight of sweet little peapod. It was crazy! But I suppose when you are truly as sweet as the peapod, how could you not elicit such responses? Attached is a pic for your viewing pleasure.

Restaurant Review: Ketchup

My bday had the unfortunate circumstance of landing on a Monday this year so no big beach bash or K-town karaoke night this time. I decided just a low-key dinner at a semi-trendy restaurant with some family and Kid Dynomite would be the way to go. Figured it be best to keep it small - after all, I think Monday bday celebrations could possibly be worse than Sunday night wedding receptions...I threw that in there for you Meddlesome. I know how much you despise Sunday weddings!

So seeing that ketchup truly is my favorite condiment on this earth and Ketchup, the restaurant, is part of the Ashton Kutcher Dolce group, I chose this uber cool looking dining establishment. The interior is all white 60s modern furniture with lots of red accents including all red lighting. The music was a fun 70s-80s mix and the location overlooked Sunset Plaza. The menu was also very fun with entertaining signature cocktail names that included ingredients like Tang, Kool-aid and Yoohoo. But that's basically the best that Ketchup's got to offer.

The food was fine but not spectacular.

The service was no bueno! Our server forgot to input our entree orders so two hours into our "celebration", we're still muching on our apps. Let me tell you, fries don't taste good after two hours! The server's excuse was the best - supposedly our order went to the wrong printer. WTF So to make up for it, he told us dessert was on the house but then proceeded to bring out more desserts than we asked for so he could charge us for 3 of them. So WEIRD. Note to Ashton Kutcher: If you're reading this, please know that I am a big fan of yours and am very disappointed with my experience.

Here are some pics. I haven't figured out how to position the pics so I can put comments next to them so hope you enjoy them sans commentary.

Congratulations Nat da Brat!

To quote your friend Nicole, "Can you believe they gave you a diploma?!" :P

Life is Good...

So why do I complain so much? You know how when you work in a big corporate environment, you get asked a million times a day "How's it going?" or if it's a Monday, "How was your weekend?" I think there was a time when I used to automatically say "Great!" But now I actually sit there and think about the question and my typical answer is "It was alright" or "Okay." But my life is good...I have a great husband, live in a great area and for the most part, am in great health.

Anyway, besides wondering why I am always Miss Glass Half-Empty, I wonder how people who truly have it worse off than me are always so happy and positive. Have you met those people where you don't really know for sure but are guessing they are worse off than you and they always are so dang cheerful and bubbly. How is that possible?

Anyway just some random thoughts to keep my blog active.

"I'm going to take work home with me..."

Why do I always think that I will be able to continue working at home? I always do this...I pack up a bunch of work and my laptop with full optimism EVERY night and every night, the same thing happens. I turn my computer on but then I end up doing things like checking my gmail account, online window shopping, spending countless hours looking at pictures on RyanPhillips.com, etc.

But tonight must be different. Tonight has to be different. I vow I will crank out positioning statements tonight. I'll develop some rockin' positioning for all segments - general market, parents, kids and trade. Woo hoo! Doesn't my job sound fun? Oy...

The HOT DJs of Red Shoe LA

It first started with just me thinking I hired really cute DJs. (Of course I didn't tell AP at the time that that was one of the main factors for why I liked them so much over the ironically self-named Claudette Sexy DJ. I was just lucky that they were also really cool and AP was won over by their competency and non-cheesiness). Then both Meddlesome and my other hip cousin, Nat, meets DJ T and DJ IG and enthusiastically concur they are hot. Of course we are all related so perhaps we have the same taste right? But just today I receive a text from AP in Manila about how his co-worker is in love with DJ IG and speaks of him with massive reverence. And she has only seen pics of DJ IG!!

So I feel it is my duty to share my pics of the dynamic duo of Red Shoe LA with all the ladies out there.

ENJOY!

















And don't be jealous but here's a pic of Nat cozying up with both of them!!!!

I love Grey's but...

I really hate Rebeccah Pope. She is such a super annoying character. I don't know if it's the character or the actress but I am so happy (fingers crossed) that this is the last episode that I'll have to tolerate her annoyingness.

Please pretty please Alex Karev, do not give Rebeccah Pope any hope! Do not give her a reason to stay at Seattle Grace!

OMG I LOVE GREY'S!!!!!!!!!!! The Rebeccah Pope paragraph above was just mindless thoughts as I was watching the Grey's season finale but OH MY, did it take a turn for a gajillion times better?! Lexi Grey?! WTF! Christina and Burke no longer together?! Thank god, I was starting to think Grey's was losing its edge - between the lame Pope side story, the really obvious analogy in the last episode about not leaving a man behind and then Burke's ridiculously perfectly 'just the right amount of sap' vows. But oh yeah, Grey's totally redeemed itself at the last second!

I'm so in for the 3rd season!!!

The Unbathed Masses* of Reality TV Shows

Sorry Meddlesome...I got caught up with organizing my matte prints from Flickr and didn't pay attention to the time. So I won't have time for a long post tonight. But I do have time to be judgemental. I'm watching Maroon 5 perform "Makes Me Wonder" on the Idol results show...love this new single...note to self - buy song from Itunes tomorrow...okay back to what I was saying...watching Maroon 5 on Idol. Who lets the audience into these shows? The cameraman was panning the audience and in the lower left-hand corner I saw someone doing the move where you have both arms out at a 90 degree angle and kind of wave your body in a squiggly motion left to right, right to left. Your head leads this motion. I know I'm doing a crappy job describing this but it's a very dated move, something you can imagine Kevin James' character in Hitch doing. I mean seriously, WTF? I should be at the darn results show. My Elliot Yamin performed tonight for goodness sakes. Elliott and Adam Levine - doesn't get much better than that!

Although why I'm surprised about the lack of audience screening makes no sense since last summer I did attend a taping of Rockstar Supernova and spent a lot of quality time with an equally unscreened audience baking in the sun for hours. uh oh... I just realized... I was PART of this unscreened audience! OMG, were people watching me on Rockstar saying how ridiculous it was they let someone like me in the audience??? Huh... noooo... not possible right? i mean after all Meddlesome was with me too...

* Btw, I learned the phrase "unbathed masses" in b-school from R Grimaldo. Gotta love RG!

The V-Train is back in the station!

I'm sure you all gave up on me. I sincerely apologize if you have missed reading my posts. I strongly suspect that there is only one person out there that has noticed my absence so I better give a shout-out to her. Meddlesome - where you at!

I recently suffered from temporary insanity. I think that's the explanation because I was abnormally, ridiculously happy. And I thought it was honeymoon glow from a beyond-my-wildest-expectations vacation but usually that glow is immediately gone after the first day back at work, right? Well I was still smiling like a goofball even into week 2 back at work!! But I think I'm finally back to my surly self so I can resume my usual judgemental posts.

Like just right now, as I'm writing this post, Enrique Iglesias is performing on Dancing with the Stars. What's that all about? Who chooses the performers? I mean really, Enrique Iglesias? Dancing is no Idol but come on. What?! His music is kind of tolerable if you don't have to see him. However I happen to be watching him and in HD no less, he is frick-frackin annoying! Everytime he sings the chorus of his song that happens to include some line about "being the one", he points his index finger in the air to indicate the #1. I can't stand when singers do that. It's so literal, obvious and really insulting to the audience, don't you think? And it's SOOOOO much worse when a singer repeats the motion each freakin' time they sing the line. Like when Jordin Sparks (of Idol fame) kept spinning her finger in the air when she sang some song about being crazy in love. Like clockwork, every time she sang the word crazy, she did the finger spinning. Be ORIGINAL people!