My life...

Things that freak me out

cxcoach — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 05:10:34 +0000

Rocker Marilyn Manson is romantically involved with 19-year-old actress Evan Rachel Wood, sources close to the situation tell PEOPLE.

does this freak anyone else out?

the full story can be found here.

How ’bout them Gators?

cxcoach — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 22:44:06 +0000

So I am still feeling a little blah, but at least I am getting stuff done. In fact, i think i cursed myself complaining about not getting anything done, because now I have an impossible amount I need to get finished.

I really did not watch much of the football game last night, because honestly, I did not care who won. I turned it on near the end of the first half and it was already lopsided, so I just went back to watching stuff on my Tivo.

Speaking of Tivo, mine has been acting really strange. Actually, it may not be the Tivo, but rather the directv. Regardless, the scheduler does not have all the shows. For example, last night, on a whim I checked the shows that were scheduled to be recorded last night and saw that neither How I Met Your Mother nor The Class were scheduled. I checked the guide (on screen) and they were both shown to be on and new. I manually scheduled them and then checked a bunch of other shows and this whole week is missing! If you look to see upcoming shows, they all start after January 12, but the shows are listed in the guide. Very strange. When I left this morning I reset the receiver so hopefully the problem will clear up.

Today I spent getting ready for class. It is hard to believe I have to teach next Tuesday. I have done powerpoints for the first 2 classes, so now I am about 1 week ahead. I want to get a little bit ahead now since the first two months of class are the busiest part of the debate season. I am a little stressed about this class, however. Not because I am not ready, but because the school is being ridiculous. I still don’t have access to their computer system, which means I can’t get parking, I can’t get my syllabus, etc. on the student website and a bunch of other nuisances. In addition, they have not listed me as the professor on the class. Which means, when I get access to the web, I may not be able to post anything to the class. Also, the bookstore has my name on the class, which means a bunch of students are going to be confused and may think the book is not the one they need. This could all be avoided if the department would just do their job. I don’t want to be a bitch, but the person in charge of all this did not email me back when I asked about the status yesterday. I still have not heard from her, so tomorrow I think I will have to try again and maybe cc her boss.

I have also been busy working on new debate cases. I like the case my policy team is going to start running, but it is a little unconventional. Which means I will spend the next 2 hours reading definitions of the word persons. Fun. Fun.

Wasted Weekend

cxcoach — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 05:09:38 +0000

The title says it all. And no, not wasted caused by alcohol, but rather wasted like, I did absolutely nothing. Granted it wasn’t so much me being lazy, it was the mystery ailment. So where I last left off, I nearly passed out at Nordstrom. My Friday was spent in a sort-of semi-daze. I was awake, but not really functioning. Saturday was the worst day by far. In fact, it might have been the worst day I have ever had.

I woke up at 11:00 after sleeping for 12 hours. However, saying “woke up” may not be true. I tried to check my email, etc, but my head was spinning like crazy. I went and sat on the couch, and the next think I new it was 3:00. I decided to move back to bed. I woke up again at like 8:00, just in time for my stomach to explode. I spent the next 2 hours in the bathroom, half conscious just wishing it would all stop.

Finally I went back to bed and watched the end of the Cowboys game. Wow. I have not been a huge Tony Romo fan, but I felt so bad for him. The look on his face after he dropped the hold, you just wanted to hug him. He was sitting their with the blood all over his hand, and you just felt for him.

Went to bed again at about 11:00 and slept another 12 hours. So yeah, Saturday I was up for about 4 hours. Today was better. Once I woke up, I was up. My head stopped pounding. I got a little work done, but mostly I watched TV. My biggest issue today was, I did not eat anything Saturday, so I was starving, but my stomach is still not quite right, so eating too much food was not a good idea.

So that was my weekend. Not much fun, but at least I seem to be doing better. We have a busy debate week, plus my first class is 1 week for Tuesday and I am not ready for that either. So being healthy is definitely important.

Strange Day

cxcoach — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 22:33:10 +0000

Today is the day my cleaning person comes to my condo, so I need to disappear for a few hours to let her work. I went and got lunch at my favorite place and had great eggs. Then I headed to Borders and noticed I was getting really jumpy and just felt off. I did not see anything I liked so I headed to the mall. It was pouring rain and I figured even if I did not feel like shopping I could at least walk around. So I did just that. I was really disappointed by Sephora since they had a fraction of the philosophy stuff I was interested in. Then I remembered that Nordstrom at a Philosophy counter and went in there to look around. The girl working was really nice, but they were really more of a makeup counter and did not have the 3-1 body wash/shampoo stuff I like. Then I wandered around and ran into my favorite makeup artist in the world.

I met her nearly 5 years ago when she worked at the Stila counter at Nordstrom. She was always super sweet and never pushed me to buy anything. Plus she gave me so many free samples and was just really cool. She has done my makeup for about every big event for years. Well, this past summer, Stila was sold and the new owners pulled them out of Nordstrom and I lost track of her.

It turns out she is now working at the Laura Mercier counter. I never really knew there product and we played with some of it today. I liked their foundation and some of the lip stuff, but their eye shadows and mascara I was not impressed with. Plus all of it is crazy expensive. Anyway, the reason she is so cool is she is honest and told me what I would like and then what other counters had stuff I would like. We had a lot of fun for about an hour and I bought some Lancome mascara and some foundation and got a bunch of cool samples to try. I was very excited to catch up with her again.

Now for the strange part. When we were done I got up to pay and was standing at the register talking to her when the room totally started spinning. My head was going crazy and I got crazy nauseous. I went back and sat down and she got me a cold drink. It took like 15 minutes for me to feel better. I managed to drive home and now I am sitting in bed. I am feeling really lightheaded and think I am just going to be laying here for a little bit.

I really hope this passes, this is my last free weekend for a long time. We have tournaments the next 4 consecutive weekends.

Back to the Grind…sort of

cxcoach — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 05:48:51 +0000

First off, Happy New Year to everyone. Mine was very uneventful. My parents left that morning for a 3 week trip, so the usual dinner and movie routine wasn’t going to happen. One of my downstairs neighbors (for the record, the sane, nice one) invited me to come downstairs and hang out with her friends. As I had nothing else planned, I took her up on her offer. It was a lot of fun. I have hung out with her friends before and it is always enjoyable. They come from a different world than me and have such different experiences but they never judge or treat me differently because I grew up in the richest part of town and my parents still live there. It is a shame to say it, but so many people judge you differently or inadvertently treat you differently just because you come from money.

So that was my New Years Eve. My New Years Day started too early. My other downstairs neighbor (the freaky weird one) woke me up at 5:30 am. Now I don’t really ever drink, so the only hangover I had was a Diet Pepsi one, but when you go to bed at 2 am, 5:30 is too early. How did she wake me you ask? Her freaking TV. There is a long story here, but I will give you the abbreviated version. About 6 months ago she got an LCD flatscreen, digital cable and surround sound system. When she got it she put it in her bedroom, which is right below mine. After about 1 week of my bed shaking in the morning from the bombs going off on CNN, I asked her if she could turn down the bass and also maybe the volume a little. She did and said she never really watches tv. That was true. She would watch CNN at like 8 am and otherwise I never heard it. Well something changed about 2 weeks ago. Now it or a CD played through the same system is on every moment she is awake, and the volume is cranked up. Now it is not just the bass, I can hear every word of whatever she is watching or listening to, plus my whole bedroom is shaking.

So New Years Day, I moved to my couch in the living room. I have never been disturbed by her tv in there. Well not that morning. No matter how loud I turned up my tv, I could still just here hers, or enough of it to make my show impossible to watch. I ended up going back and laying in bed fuming. Finally at 11 it quieted down, so I thought I would take a nap. My head hit the pillow and the phone rang. It was my mom calling. They had an awful trip and she was cranky and pissed because the doctor said if she was going to take a plane she had to wear a mask. The mask plus being bald right now got her more attention than she wanted. So I talked to her for about a half hour and then went back to take my nap, and what happened? Loud booming DISCO music for 2 hours. I wanted to shoot somebody.

I did find solace later in the day by discovering that my Directv now carried the Style Network. So much fun. There are two shows I have been watching whenever they are on. One is called “How do I look” and in it 3 people shop for their friend who need style help, they also pick hair and makeup. Then the friend picks there favorite collection. The other is called “Style Me Famous” where Jay (Mr. Jay from America’s Top Model) helps do a makeover for somebody based on a style of a celebrity. Both were just fun and frivolous, but hit the spot.

Tomorrow practice starts back up, but as the title says…sort of. I am only meeting with a few of the students. My policy kids are writing a new case and I have alumni coming back to help some of the other students. It is always weird going back after a big break. It is hard to get the kids motivated. Hopefully this time it will be ok, since they have a tournament the 12th and 13th. It is also strange for me, since I will work for a few hours tomorrow afternoon and then nothing until Monday when the real stuff starts.

I also need to get ready for the class I am teaching. It is Criminal Law which I am not that familiar with anymore. Yes, I took Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure in law school, but I never practiced in the criminal arena. I have ordered a text book and looked at it and most of what I know is coming back to me. I do need to start getting lecture notes together. Because once the semester starts, debate season is going to crank up with our tournament and National and State qualifiers.

It’s that time again…

cxcoach — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 20:55:52 +0000

A pretty lazy day around here. I think I am going to finish the second armwarmer and maybe make a hat to match.

Now, we shuffle:

Things the Grandchildren should know – The Eels
Sing Me Back Home – The Grateful Dead
Two Princes – Spin Doctors
Steve’s Last Night in Town – Ben Folds Five
Cold Day in the Sun – Foo Fighters
Pardon Me – Weezer
Lie in Our Graves – Dave Matthews
Can’t Get There from Here- R.E.M.
Split Screen Sadness – John Mayer
Space Travel is Boring – Modest Mouse

I rather like this shuffle, iTunes and I seem to be in sync today. What does your new years shuffle look like?

Loving the Dreamgirls

cxcoach — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 05:10:04 +0000

Yesterday my mother and I went to see Dreamgirls. It was amazing. As I mentioned in my last post, I was not sure what to expect. Whatever I was expecting, the movie blew me away. To quote my mother, it was like a musical and like a movie. I know that sounds weird or maybe just plain dumb, but the singing was not crucial to the movie, it was crucial to their believability as a singing group. It was funny watching all the parallels the show made to real life people and the nods to the Jackson 5 were particularly funny. Overall it was a great movie and I can’t wait to see it again.

As expected Jennifer Hudson stole the entire movie. She was amazing and in my mind the lead of the movie. On one hand I get why Beyonce was marketed as the lead, she is more famous and plays the lead singer in the group, but in terms of performance and what the movie was about, it was all about Jennifer Hudson’s part. My father and I had an interesting conversation at dinner last night and he said he thought Beyonce was marketed as the lead because she was thin and pretty, just like in the movie. I sincerely hope that is not true, but am not naive enough to think there is no truth to that statement. I have taken solace in the fact that Jennifer Hudson should win the Golden Globe and Oscar for best supporting actress and nobody, not even Jennifer Hudson if she was nominated for best actress, could beat Helen Miren. That women was just born to play each and every British Queen.

Speaking of my father, this movie has delved him into the scary world of pop culture. First a note about my father he reads the New York Times and Wall Street Journal every day. He reads the Economist and New Republic every week. The only TV he watches are the financial programs at lunch when he talks to my grandfather (it is actually cute, they talk on the phone about the show that is on) and the shows on HBO and SHO. So it is save to say that he is clueless about pop culture. He goes to movies if one of the aforementioned publication says he should go. Well this movie has gotten so much good press, my father spent last night talking about Beyonce and Jennifer Hudson. It was really funny, he was trying to explain to me that Beyonce was part of this group Destiny but she left it to do a solo career and she dates a guy named Jay who is apparently famous. Then he told me Jennifer Hudson was on this show where they sing and if they don’t do well they are kicked off, but she got kicked off for being too large (then he went on a rant about that). I am not sure his information on why Jennifer Hudson got kicked off Idol is correct (I don’t watch the show) but I think it says something that my 60 year old dad is now talking about this stuff because of this movie. It is definitely reaching a large group of people.

In conclusion, if you have not seen this movie, rush out and see it now. This is one you are going to want to see at least once on the big screen.

The last 4 days

cxcoach — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 05:36:34 +0000

So I did in fact end up getting sick, which means I did not go with the family out of town. In a way it sucked, since I started feeling better on Sunday and then I was bored out of my mind. In a way it was good because my aunt and uncle celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas, which is one of my biggest pet peeves. How do you acknowledge and not acknowledge Jesus at the same time? I know they really don’t celebrate Jewish holidays, they don’t belong to a synagogue, they don’t do Passover, and I’m sure they have no idea the religious significance of Hanukkah or how unimportant it is in the scope of Jewish religions. My mother says this makes it better. I somehow feel like it is worse. Also, they do both holidays to excess with gifts, all of which are obnoxiously expensive and often unneeded. They do this all in front of you, when they know we aren’t going to celebrate (but they wake us up to watch their teenage kids open all the presents, so we can ooh and ahh), and they don’t even bother to get any of us a cheap gift card or anything. So for those reasons I am glad I was not there.

So how did I spend my time (when I wasn’t sleeping, which admittedly was most of the time)?

First, I finished my second Jaywalker sock. They turned out really well and I am really happy. Then I started the arm warmer from Stitch and Bitch Nation. I am almost through the first one. I am not sure about it. I decided to use some cheap yarn I picked up at my LYS. I was going to use the yarn to make a hat for a student, but decided to use something else. Anyway, the yarn does not do the pattern on the top justice. I am glad I used it because it is my first real try with reading off a chart and doing cables, so it is a good yarn to experiment with. Also, I am not sure because I don’t know how I like the pattern. Not the tree on the top, but the actual structure. I will admit I just looked at pictures and picked the one I liked best, so I did not read the pattern before starting. Now I wonder. Most the other patterns I looked at, like the fetchings from Knitty, increase for the hand. These are like tubes with a thumb hole. I am not sure how they are going to fit. I am going to finish it tomorrow and then decide if I want to make the second one. I have some really cool Noro for the “real” ones. I may either edit the pattern or try the knitty fetchings and just extend the wrist part and also the hand part.

I also watched a lot of tv. All I can say is thank god for HGTV and Law and Order: CI marathons. I also finally saw In Her Shoes. It was surprisingly good. I really had not liked the book, the movie stayed on my list, but never really moved up that list. Anyway, I found it on HBO and sat down to watch it. I don’t need to see it again, but if you are sick and bored, I recommend it as a good way to pass 2 plus hours.

I’m sure I did a few other things, but honestly most of the weekend was a fog of sickness.

Tomorrow I am going to see Dreamgirls with my mother. I never saw the Broadway musical, but I am looking forward to the movie. I am especially looking forward to the performance by Jennifer Hudson. I have heard she steals the movie. I am also looking forward to making fun of Beyonce’s performance. Maybe she will surprise me but I am not holding my breath.

Finally, I wanted to acknowledge the passing of two great men. First, James Brown. I never really got into his music, but I did get to see him live once, and it was one of the most amazing live performances I have ever seen. Second, Gerald Ford. He came to power in an awkward situation replacing Nixon. Was not elected by the people, but managed to get the nation back on track, which says a lot.

And Now We Shuffle…

cxcoach — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 18:46:50 +0000

I woke up this morning sick. It has put the trip this weekend in jeopardy. I always get sick when I go visit my aunt and uncle because I think I am allergic to their house and/or their dog, so going may not be a good idea. Plus I was to drive with my parents and my mom can’t be around me if I am sick, so that is also not a good idea. I guess I’ll have to decide in the next few hours.

Now to shuffle:

Pride- U2
Champagne for My Real Friends, Real Pain for My Sham Friends – Fall Out Boy
My Apartment – Ben Kweller
#1 Zero – Audioslave
Follow Through – Gavin DeGraw
Find Your Way Back – Michelle Branch
Debaser- Pixies
Uncle Johnny – The Killers
One of These Things First – Nick Drake
Guyahoga – R.E.M.

Criminals and Heroes

cxcoach — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 06:08:09 +0000

I am now up to the Homecoming episode of Heroes. I am finally willing to admit that the show is worth all the hype. The characters I did not like I now do. It just took their powers getting fleshed out. I have 3 more episodes until I am caught up. I really want to just sit down and watch them tomorrow, but I might try to space them out so I don’t have too huge a gap until the show comes back.

This evening, realizing that I had absolutely nothing I wanted to watch on Tivo and that there was nothing worthwhile on TV, I decided to surf the movie channels on Directv. Let me admit here that I get them all. Every single movie channel. I watch the television shows on both HBO and Showtime but rarely watch anything else on them, unless my Tivo tapes it for me. Yes, I trust my Tivo to tell me what I want to watch. For the most part, the Tivo suggestions are right on and I never feel like I missed anything because I set season passes for the stuff I really want to see.

So I headed up to the 500s and started surfing. I found the movie Criminal starting right when I got to it. It has Diego Luna (of Y Tu Mama Tambien) and Maggie Gyllenhaal and the description looked interesting so I stopped to watch. I honestly don’t remember this movie ever being in theaters, but it was really entertaining. It had a nice little twist at the end which I did not see coming (and I am usually pretty good at predicting them–I ruined Fight Club for everyone when I guessed the twist about 15 minutes into the movie). So, if you are surfing your movie channels and see Criminal, I recommend stopping and checking it out.

While watching the movie and then two episodes of Law and Order Criminal Intent (it is just me or is one of the three law and orders on some cable channel every hour of the day?) I finished my first Jaywalker sock. It looks really good. No holes on the gussets where I picked up stitches. I am going to start the second one tomorrow. Now I have to decide if I am going to keep them for myself or give them to somebody. I never decide if my knitting is a gift until I see what it looks like. I am a total perfectionist and most of my friends and family think my knitting is just something to keep my OCD in check (you know, keep my hands busy) so I only give stuff if it is perfect. Otherwise I get all the comments that they could buy something in the store and I shouldn’t bother. It is only the stuff that looks as good or better than store stuff that doesn’t get the comments. While it sucks that they don’t appreciate my hobby (and yes it did start to keep my hands busy) I have no problem keeping the stuff for myself. I always knit stuff that I would be happy keeping for myself. Also, my kids love it when I knit stuff for them, so I try to make them stuff at tournaments. Right now, most on my team have hats and I have requests for fingerless gloves (gauntlets) and scarfs, so I am not lacking for projects or people who will appreciate them.