Why I Like Celebrity Apprentice

I must say, I am not a fan of reality TV. Generally speaking, it does nothing but showcase the lowest common denominator in our society, and prevents us from seeing what is really important in our lives. It also prevents us from seeing quality art since it is so much cheaper to produce a reality program (even if it is somewhat scripted) than it is to produce a smart comedy or an exciting drama (like Sarah Connor Chronicles – how did they even get enough money to make 1-1/2 seasons?). Every once in a while, though, something will pique my interest. I really did enjoy Beauty and the Geek, even though they only had one female geek (too little, too late).  But I really get a kick out of Celebrity Apprentice.
I never watched the regular Apprentice shows, probably because I don’t really care for Mr.  Trump. The celebrity version intrigued me at first because it was full of personalities that we all sort know, and I wondered how these people would even be able to work together out of their element. It’s a familiar concept in celebrity reality shows – throw a bunch of strong personalities into confined quarters and let them duke it out. But in this case, they are doing – for the most part – real life work. Their tasks are mostly actual tasks any one of us might have to do in our own lives. Sure, we’re not all business people, but people get paid to do the things happening in these competitions. (Fine, people get paid to ballroom dance, I guess, but it’s a much, much smaller percentage of the population.) It’s fascinating and frustrating to watch how people totally dismiss someone like Tom Green, who is a successful business person by his own right, only because he has an off-kilter way of looking at things. Equally interesting is watching people like Lil Jon and John Rich, neither of whom I had any knowledge or interest in previously, really kick butt and accomplish things together. Most of all, though, I get a kick out of this show because I can put myself into the situation and think, “How would I approach this? What solution would I have?” And the ideas I have could actually be useful to me at some point. When will I ever need to eat a slug?
I have a great idea for an upcoming season of Apprentice, but that’s between me and Mr. Burnett. *wink*

My New Easter Tradition? Will You Join Me?

I was walking home from work Wednesday evening with easter grass and plastic eggs in my grocery bag when a thought occurred to me. Wouldn’t it be neat if Easter was like Hallowe’en? Most of the traditions are borrowed from the Pagans, so why not take it a step further? Little kids, and big ones too, dressed up in fun costumes – as opposed to scary – walking door to door to ask for candy from the neighbors. Everyone gets candy now for Easter anyway, why not make it a bit more challenging? This thought thrilled me, and I set about in my mind, formulating a plan of action to get this tradition going. Then Thursday morning, I happened upon a Christian Science Monitor article describing various Maundy Thursday traditions around the world.

Maundy Thursday is a scream for Swedish children. Many dress up as witches today to commemorate the folklore of witches today flying to Blocksberg (the Devil’s residence on Earth) and go door-to-door requesting candy.

So the Swedes are already (more or less) observing my new tradition! I double checked on Wikipedia when I got home.

In Sweden Maundy Thursday (skärtorsdagen) is connected to old folklore as the day of the witches. Young children often dress up as witches and knock on doors getting coins or candy for easter eggs.

Which leads me to this idea: Since people will not want to give up their egg hunts, the eggs would be traded at the neighbors door for the candy. So the more eggs you find during the hunt, the more candy you are liable to get visiting your neighbors. But it must be done in costume!

Who’s with me?

Doing My Part to Wean the US Off of OPEC

As a lot of people who know me can testify, I have had a long-standing relationship with mint Chapstick. At least since 1992, I’ve been pretty much addicted to the stuff. Mint only (referred to as “classic mint” now, or sometimes “spearmint”). I do have a stand-by “regular” flavor in the pocket of my bath robe for emergencies, but mint has always been the staple. I’d always buy anywhere from six to a dozen at a time, and I’d go through them like some people go through boyfriends. (I’m not sure what that means.) Mint Chapstick is not the easiest to find, either. Target will usually have some in stock, but most of the stores within walking distance of me do not. So a couple weeks ago, I ran out of mint Chapstick, which is a wee bit surprising since I usually keep a stock of the stuff. I started using my Burt’s Bees Beeswax Lip Balm to hold me over until I had a chance to get to Target, and you know what? I think I’m a convert. It has a similar minty goodness that my Chapstick has, but with no petrolatum. The Burt’s Bees is pricier than the Chapstick, but I really feel like I don’t need to use as much. With Chapstick, I’m reapplying many times a day, but the Burt’s Bees gets like 1/2 or maybe even a 1/3 the applications. My lips just don’t dry out as soon. Some might think this obvious, but I denied it because I really loved my mint Chapstick. These are the 100% natural ingredients in my Burt’s Bees:

Beeswax, coconut oil, sunflower seed oil, peppermint oil, lanolin, tocopherol, rosemary leaf oil, soybean oil, and canola oil.

Because of the lanolin, I suppose it can’t be considered vegan, but otherwise, a very nice concoction. (I’m not vegan, so it’s not an issue for me.) I guess the tocopherol is Vitamin E.  Well, that’s that, it seems that while I haven’t given up chapstick, it’s very likely I’ve given up Chapstick. Take that, Oil Barons!

An Update for the Sake of Updating

Speaking of sake, I now have only five more to try to complete my Dragonfish sake club card (out of twenty-two).
Monday night completed my very first season in a bowling league. Personally, I did fairly well considering I bowl once every pon farr, or thereabouts. (apologies for that reference) I met some nice, interesting people and had a fun time. I may do it again in the near future.
The Sounders must have lost a coin toss to be stuck opening the season against the L.A. Galaxy. There was no way Sounders would win, and that’s what we call ‘starting off on the wrong foot’.  It was an exciting game, however, in really nice seats thanks to the unfortunate timing of illness for a very nice woman.
One of my friends lost her job (unfairly, I might add) and tomorrow is her last day. It is a tough time for a lot of people, and this was a particularly sucky situation. I hope that good things will come out of this for her, that this loss will set her on a fortunate path.
Over the last several years, I’ve had the occasional dream wherein I’ve uprooted myself and returned to New York to continue my education and further my career. These are generally very good dreams, but always twinged with a thought of “am I really doing the right thing?” In recent weeks, I’ve had the occasional dream wherein I’m just leaving, moving somewhere else. In these dreams, I am overall happy and content, and there is no question of whether I’m doing the right thing. In fact, the most recent version had me packing up my things and joining with a friend/love interest for a trip around the country. The intent was to go to a town, try it on for size, and if it didn’t fit we’d move on to the next town, with the idea that maybe we’d stop at the first town we came across, or maybe we’d never find the one that fit. Either way – or else somewhere in between – we were perfectly OK with that.  I felt pretty good waking from that dream, and I intend to ponder its meaning for a while.
I purchased my first ever PBS item and it is currently on its way to my domicile – Lidia’s Italy: 140 Simple and Delicious Recipes from the Ten Places in Italy Lidia Loves Most. Lidia has kept me company on many sleepless nights, and I’ve been meaning to get one of her books and cook one of her dishes myself. I’m pretty excited.
And that, my friends, is that. (for now)

Merry Christmas To Me – An Adventure Story

I made a list of things to do on Christmas Day  – that being the 25th day of December, another day on the calendar for me. Unlike a lot of days when I make lists, I actually managed to do everything I set out to do. In the morning, I took a quick trip down south to feed and greet an alone kitty cat. From there I headed into downtown Seattle and Pacific Place Mall. At the AMC theatre there, any movie beginning before noon is only (only!) six dollars. Before I get to the movie, downtown was virtually empty. Kinda like an early Sunday morning, but even emptier. I was going to park on the street since it would be free for the holiday and there would be plenty of spaces, but something about the emptiness told me I should opt for the safety of the garage. I’ve never seen that garage so empty and was able to park on the top level right outside the elevator room.Once upstairs at AMC, there were quite a few people trickling in for movie time. I bought a ticket for The Tempest and had a half hour to spare. I went in to find the cafe/bar was open. I had already decided, while still at home, that I would get concessions, but I was not prepared for the prices. I haven’t been to that theatre in a while, but they must have just recently raised all their prices. I couldn’t tell you what the old ones where, but earlier this year they were definitely lower. A small soda is now $4.25 and a small popcorn is $5.75. I walked over to the cafe/bar just to see what beers they had in stock and discovered a bottle of beer is only $4! What? A beer is cheaper than the smallest size soda? Where is the logic? So, I had a bottle of Dos Equis poured into a pint glass for me, and had enough time to finish it before the trailers started (the beer and wine can only be consumed in their little corral).Note: You can get a decent amount of popcorn at the new Cinerama for only $2 for plain and $3 for chocolate/mixed.The movie itself was pretty good. Amazingly I was able to follow pretty well the unceasing prose. The costumes were cool – tons of zippers and Prospera’s cape was nifty. The film got a PG-13 rating, partly due to some nudity, which I do believe only amounted to Ben Wishaw’s fake boobies in a few scenes as his Ariel character. They’re obviously fake – he’s a boy! – so I find it a little funny that they should be mentioned in the rating.After the film, I went back home to gather up some things to take to the post office. While I didn’t take everything I intended, the fact is, I did go to the post office and send a package and a letter which is all I intended. All it means is that I’ll have to go back to the post office another day to mail the rest of the items.The walk to the post office was a bit disconcerting. It’s funny how the one day a year that is supposed to be the happiest and most full of love and togetherness was actually a tad bit scary. The streets were practically deserted, most businesses closed. The quiet and the emptiness had me on edge. Anything could have happened that afternoon, and most likely no one would have noticed. I didn’t feel totally safe until I got into Mecca and sat down at the counter. Amazingly, at 3 o’clock on Christmas afternoon, the bar was pretty full, with more people than some days after work. Even in the diner side, most of the booths were occupied. So I sat at the counter and had my Christmas dinner at Mecca. Afterwards, full as a tick, I plodded home, content that I had done everything on my list for the day.Now it’s way too early on the day after (thank the cat for that – the fuzzy alarm clock). I have no plans except to maybe cash in the pizza gift card I got from Secret Santa, thereby delaying a grocery store run a few days. I think I may work on my latch hook rug some more. Or maybe I’ll just do nothing. That’s the prerogative of being an unfettered adult.

A Thought or Two on the Election

In the last couple of weeks I’ve been watching Jeopardy! upon my return home from work. In general, it’s been enjoyable, but unfortunately it means I’ve had to watch a lot more commercials than usual. And since the last couple of weeks have been leading up to the general election, it means I’ve had to endure campaign ads up the ying-yang. One commercial break would be dedicated to skewering Dino Rossi, and the next would be skewering Patty Murray, both camps accusing the other of practically the same things. In addition to the personal attacks, there were also the ads for and against the various state initiatives. One initiative in particular really inspired some doozies – number 1098 proposing an excise tax (or income tax, depending on your angle) on larger incomes. Anyway, the point is not really what it was for, it was the substance of the ads “against”. All were saying the same thing – “I don’t trust the legislature” – literally. Think about that. The people don’t trust the very officials whom they voted into office. I think to myself, “so why the —- did you vote them into office?” If we don’t like who’s running, why are we voting for them? And I guess I don’t blame these Doubting Thomases, I have a really hard time finding any politician I feel like is actually doing their job, or even trying. It seems like the “public service” has been taken out of public office these days. The politicians are too busy talking about what they don’t like about everyone else instead of focusing on What Can Be Done To Improve Things. If we really want to shake things up, as citizens, we should invoke a vote of no confidence. Oust the whole Congress. Anyway, we’ll never do that. Instead, we’ll just keep voting for the Lesser of Two Evils, campaigns will continue to be so expensive so as to exclude the normal person who actually wants to do a good and fair job, and everyone will just keep on whining instead of doing anything. And now, I think it’s time for Jeopardy!

The New “Like”

The other day my pal Toni and I were waiting in line for a movie in front of this girl and her friend who incessantly used the word “like” in her conversation. Almost literally, every two to three words was “like” as if the girl just had some uncontrollable tic. Once I noticed it, I couldn’t stop hearing that word. I brought it to Toni’s attention so I wouldn’t be alone in my hyperobservance of this girl’s speech. I thought to myself “is ‘like’ even popular anymore?” Didn’t its overuse fall out of favor years ago?
Today I realized what word has replaced “like” in casual conversation. I was in a crowd of people (lemmings?) and overheard a young man peppering his speech much like that young lady did, only he was saying “fuckin'”. It occurred to me that this is happening more and more these days. I used to think it quite rude to use words such as this in mixed company because one never knows who might hear, but now I think, who hasn’t heard this word repeatedly, on a daily basis? It is coming to the point where the word “fuck” has lost its meaning, lost its power, lost its ability to offend. It is so much a part of our collective vocabulary now, how can it be considered vulgar anymore? I’m sure it won’t be long before a new (or another old one – the f bomb had been around long before the FCC censored it) word comes into play that will cause the ladies to gasp and the gentlemen to chuckle. The lexicon will evolve, people!