Quote of the Day

Alex: “A certain entity interrupted my aura.”

Julia: “I am an entity. Like G-d.”

Snapshot

I call this: Marley and my lunch. When the cat's away, the mice will play. When the owner is sitting right in front of her dog, the dog will still come within hairs of the unthinkable.

Quote of the Day

Will: "If it makes me sick, I stay away from it. That's why I have like a list of alcohols I can never touch again. Like Jaeger. It made me really sick... annnnnnnd that's it."

Bubbles 'R Us

So thanks tot his new photo gallery that magically appeared in my inbox today, I have a new obsessions: Trying to capture a bubble bursting in a photograph. Now, I haven't actually tried this yet, I don't know who will kindly play with bubbles over and over again in front of my camera, and I don't even think my digital not-this camera can capture something so instant and fleeting. But, I will try! The whole gallery, by Richard Heeks, can be found here.

Snapshot

These were taken at my family brunch last weekend. My brother and cousins are seen here with their usual reaction to my camera. My brother grins in embarrassment and looks away. Jillian hides her face, because I don't know if you know this, but 18 year old girls think that they only look good with photos taken on their macbooks' internal cameras with flashy backgrounds in Photo Booth. And Eric, giving me his classic first picture face, something weird. He either looks stoned, from my Great Aunt Marilyn's "special" coffee cake, I am sure, or he looks angry or insane. And then, when I ask for a real picture, he extends his middle finger to me and says I have reached my daily quote (of one) photo, and refuses to take any more. So, more to come tomorrow.

Quote of the Day

Drew Barrymore (in He’s Just Not That Into You): “What if you meet the love of your life, but you are married? Are you supposed to just let that pass you by?”

Michelle (without a second’s hesitation): “That is what marriage means.”

I couldn’t say a thing, I was hysterically laughing. I thought marriage meant honesty and love. I now know that it’s more like a prison sentence. The things you learn from watching romantic comedies with your friends….

And Pop Mourns...

Yesterday, June 25th, 2009, American icon and music legend Michael Jackson passed away. As did Farah Fawcett, an American legend in her own right. Farah was suffering from a cancer that was taking her life, and I have seen her documentary, read what I can about her condition, and have been affected by her suffering for months. She seemed to be a fighter, a good person, and most importantly, someone in pain. And I can only hurt for those people. Her death was sad, but expected, and that makes a world of difference compared to the unexpected.

Michael Jackson was 50 years old, and did not, I repeat, did not die from anesthesia for another nose job. He appears to have not lost his mind completely and committed suicide. He was in shape, had just passed a rigorous physical assessment to get insured for his upcoming tour, and he was fifty years old. After dying from a massive heart attack, he left his fans, his family, the world, emotionally unprepared and shocked. His body of work will live on for longer than I can even wrap my head around.

What I had seen of him in interviews and biographies was that he was emotionally stunted, maybe even mentally stunted. He lived like like a carefree child, naming one of his children blanket, inviting strange kids to play on his property, partnering up with his "best friend," a monkey. He purchased things like solid gold tombs, and if I find any articles, I will share them here, because my memory is about as reliable as a sieve these days. His money ran out, he disowned family members because they mistreated him, in his eyes, and he lived the past two decades as a hidden mythical homebody, of sorts. He was able to look at life with a sense of youth and wonderment, while also being fearful and guarded. He may not have suffered from a disease for many years, he may have created his on bed to lie in, but I can't help but to feel overwhelmingly sorrowful for the way his many, many chips landed.

And I can always cherish the first memory that pops into my head when I think of him: Singing "Heal The World" in a sixth grade choral concert, and really belting out his message, because I believed in it. Believe in it.

Snapshots

These are some up close and personal with a leopard gecko shots that I took a while ago. At first, I was really taken with the clarity and depth that these pictures carry. And that is not so much "tooting my own horn," as it is being thankful that I tried to learn as many settings on my camera as my tech-stunted brain could muster. After more careful consideration, however, the only thing I can focus on is just how hair my arm is here. Maybe my brother is right, and I do have the hairiest arms known to womankind. (He shared that with me in a loving brother to sister moment a few years ago that replays in my mind over and over again like a skipping record stuck on a shrill off-key opera singer.)

Quote of the Day

Julia: "In order to hate people, you have to learn about them."

**Brilliant!

Snapshots

Ah, Japanese snack food, ranging from the supremely bizarre to the ultimately disgusting. Colon cream, anyone?

Quote of the Day

Eating Charleston Chews, and sharing nine year old logic:

Tristan: “I like how it’s tough. It makes my teeth stronger.”

WoW

Note to future self: Make sure to take children's favorite things often, so that they can be normal functioning members of society, and not melt.

This kid literally squeals like a pig, tries to stick a remote where he clearly can't change channels, and leaps around like nothing I have ever seen. And the scariest part? That he might make it into adulthood, I may cut him off on the road, and he will kill me.

Divorce For The Gosselins

I thought I would be original and discuss the divorce of Jon and Kate Gosselin, from Jon and Kate Plus Eight. Just kidding! I didn't know that so many people were fans of "my" show, but Us Weekly Magazine had exclusive coverage of Kate physically reprimanding one of her daughters, and the sales skyrocketed. For the first time ever, they outsold People Magazine. Impressive. I have nothing to say of Kate's alleged "daughter hitting," mostly because I refused to support Us Weekly, and also, because everything is taken out of context. If you had eight screaming children around you, your husband publicly leaving you for a trashy 23 year old school teacher from the middle of nowhere, and one of your kids misbehaved, do you think you could refrain from grabbing them forcefully?

As much flack as this family receives, I am always on Team Kate. I believe in her intentions and integrity, I like her personality and her ability to remain composed when I know if I were her, I'd be running into walls tied up in a straight jacket at the nearest mental hospital. And yes, she's been bitchy to her husband. And yes, they both have admitted that. But it was a precedent they set together, and now instead of working on it to change, he is too angry to fix anything. Apparently when his balls descended, he had enough angry testosterone flowing through him to reconcile nothing. And I know all of this, because I watched their interviews they gave on TV. And everything on TV is real.

In the midst of this media storm, last night, three late night talk show hosts gave their one line joke about this national phenomenon, and I wanted to share these with you as proof that their is nothing at all amusing, funny, or entertaining about David Letterman.

Jimmy Fallon: "This marks the first time that Jon's ever pulled out."

Conan O'Brien: "Guys, the nagging chick with eight kids is available!"

David Letterman: "Jon and Kate plus eight lawyers." (Sigh.)

Snapshot

Birds. I hate them. Their squawking and pecking and crapping and scaring the life out of me. I've never been a fan, which is okay, because the people that are seem to be cultish, so that cancels my negativity out and all is right with the world. But walking around the base of Barnegat Lighthouse, my friend was "ooohing" and "aahhhing" up a storm, and kept taking pictures of this one bird. I guess I can see the beauty here, from afar.... as a juxtaposition of light and dark.

Quote of the Day

A.H.: “That’s like saying I'm not half as bad as the devil, but even if that’s right, that’s not a good starting place.”

Snapshot

One of the following two statements is fact:

1. I accidentally left an open container of coffee, sugar, and uppers on the floor. Marley partook, of course, while she annihilated a box of chocolates (GASP), some caffeinated alcohol, snorted NoDoze, and lapped her way towards me.

2. I sat down.

Quote of the Day

Alex: “I’m so glad I found someone of no faith, like me.”

Feeling Growed Up

I hosted my first brunch yesterday, not in honor of Father's Day, but to spend time with my Georgian Uncle David. I could go on and on about how amazing this man is, and how when I think back to being four years old, I remember him tickling me and helping me "fly" as I leaned against his massive and hairy feet. And that's a lot of what I remember from that age. They say that positive, negative, and especially fragrant things impact long term memories, and I know that I never had a bad time with him. So that means he was either an especially positive force, or incredibly smelly. I kid. :) Back to my brunch...

Nevermind the fact that my mother brought her coffee pot and coffee, an aunt brought homemade cake, and my grandmother made and brought egg and tuna salads, this brunch I am still laying claim to! I cleaned, picked up bagels, spent over an hour meticulously dicing cheese, and all the other stuff. Did I mention I cleaned? Like, with an actual vacuum? (My dogs like the vacuum more than I do!)

One day, when my vacuum explodes Marley hair and crap all over every object I own, because nobody ever taught me how to change a vacuum bag and I lost the instructions and mechanics come to me about as easily as most people take to learning Chinese as a second language in 24 hours, everyone will finally understand why I hate than machine as much as I do.

Digression ascends!! The point is, my uncle called me twice, not just once, and left a message on my voicemail what was so sweet, I didn't mind having to check my voicemail! He said he was proud of me, and told me how clean and perfect my apartment was. And I cried. I literally had to wipe tears off of my face at 5 am when I woke up, checked my voicemail, panicked I would be late for work, only to discover I had an amazingly sweet uncle, three hours left before I should start worrying, and that I apparently equate cleanliness to adulthood, as I suddenly felt all growed up.

Snapshots

As coincidence would have it, the room I slept in at our rented house a few weeks ago on Long Beach Island was dog themed, and two of the hanging pictures freaked me out beyond them just being of dogs playing poker. "Hustler" was a replica of my late chocolate lab, Coco. And "Lucky" is the spitting image of Mojo. I assume Marley was missing, because she would, even in theory, eat all props.

Quote of the Day

Me: “My Native American name is Running Water.”

Jordan: “More like Broken Rubber.”