Where the hell have you been?

And by "you," I mean "me." I haven't been blogging very much because things have been completely insane in my life. And since I know you want to hear all about it, I will tell you.

Work has been super-crazy. Lots going on and as usual, it all happens at once. There have been a couple later-than-normal nights this week, not to mention Saturday night, where we worked until 2 a.m. So there's that.

Also, I've got tons of theater stuff going on, particularly Falsettos, which opens next Friday, and for which I am running sound. Now, I've been involved with about 35 shows in my community theater career, but I've never really had to run sound. At the most, I've had to cue a couple of sound effects. But this is serious, with expensive mikes and headsets and a sound board and everything. Help! We are short on tech crew for this show and the producer desperately needed someone. So, yeah, that's me. We start Hell Week on Saturday, and then we have set build/paint/decorate all weekend, with rehearsals starting Sunday night and every night next week. Good Lord - I thought I said I was going to take a theater break!

In addition to that, I'm also in charge of publicity for this show, so I have had to mail out approx 150 flyers over the past couple of weeks, arrange for newspaper stories, send out press releases, etc. I'm happy because we will be getting some coverage for this show, which is nice.

So, really, that's it. Work and theater. Second verse, same as the first. I'm always complaining about the same thing, huh?

Well, crap.

So I just wrote this whole post about the movie American Dreamz, and why I liked it, and why I didn't like it, and then it didn't post right and now I'm pissed.

So, anyway, go see it. Or rent it. Or whatever.

Bright, sunshiny day

Today is one of those beautiful spring days, with a clear blue sky and bright sun, and temps heading for the upper 70s, that makes me want to call in sick. Which I didn't. But I wanted to.

Tomkitten?

God help us, I just saw on Yahoo! that Tom and Katie had their baby. It's a girl, her name is Suri, and they referred to her as "Tomkitten." Gag. Me. Now.

I also saw that Brooke Shields had her baby today too. It's sort of funny that they both had babies on the same day, due to their debate last summer about how to deal with post-partum depression.

Oh yeah, one more thing

I have eaten so much candy/cookies/cupcakes/sweets today I should be on a sugar high like nobody's business. Instead I'm so tired. I never really believed that sugar high thing anyway. But yay -Lent's over!!

Stick a fork in me - I'm done.

I'm sooo tired right now. It's only 8:30 and it might as well be the middle of the night. I successfully hosted my first family holiday today - Easter for 15 people plus two little kids (who don't count, food-wise, because one of them is an infant and the other is a toddler who is at that stage where she will eat very little for days on end - all she ate today was a few bits of lettuce. I won't count her as a huge food eater). I made a ham that everyone deemed very tasty - they could be lying to me for all I know, because I didn't have any of it (ham=gross). Everything else turned out good as well, and we all squished around my table and ate and drank and had a good time. Later in the afternoon we moved to the back deck, since it was so beautiful out. I just finished cleaning up the big mess and I'm about to go watch Desperate Housewives if I can stay awake that long. I can't believe I have to go to work tomorrow! I feel like I could sleep for a week!

I'm no Martha Stewart, that's for sure.

So Sunday is Easter. For me, Easter this year represents the first official holiday we will host at our house. Sure, we've done Labor Day, and Fourth of July, and various birthday-type things, but this is the first holiday where we have to pull out our dinner plates and everything.

Anyone who has had the pleasure of being around me over the past couple of weeks has heard me complain/fret/freak out about this. The thing is - I don't cook. Really, not even a little, aside from boiling pasta and doing super-simple chicken and stuff like that. So the idea of 12 of my family member descending on our house on Sunday for an official dinner gives me the willies.

I will be cooking a ham, which is funny because 1) I hate ham and 2) I have no idea how to cook ham. I know you can buy them pre-cooked, which is awesome, because, how badly can you screw it up? Well, that's to be determined, but if I know me, the answer is - pretty badly.

We will also have various side dishes, some brought by the guests, some attempted by me. I plan on saving the whole event with the desserts, which will include cupcakes, brownies, cookies, and, of course, candy.

Of course, prior to Sunday, my whole focus is getting the house ready, which will no doubt feature some spectacularly bad arguments between me and Greg - really, isn't that always the case when you are about to have guests? - and so tomorrow I will be cleaning and scrubbing and polishing everything, so our two-dog household can look somewhat sparkly. I'm sure, however, the second everything looks good will be the second Junior and Jimmy come flying in the house from outside, their paws caked with fresh spring mud.

Wish me luck. Only the Easter Bunny can save me now.

The home stretch.

Sorry I've been slacking, Lisa!

I'm sitting here at home, having just eaten some boring pasta for dinner, anticipating cleaning the bathroom. Another rock and roll night in my rock and roll life. However, I can only focus on one thing - chocolate. For Lent this year, I've given up what I give up every year - cookies, candy, ice cream, potato chips and french fries. I can live without the fries, I can live with out the chips..hell, I can even live without the ice cream. But this lack of cookies and candy is killing me at this point. I found myself in front of the vending machine at work today twice, and I desperately wanted to get some M&Ms, or some cookies, or even just a plain Hershey bar - but what did I get? Combos. Gross, nasty-ass "nacho cheese" Combos, because basically there is nothing else in there that I can eat. I am going through some serious withdrawl at this point, and with five boxes of Girl Scout cookies just waiting for me under my chair at work, it's becoming impossible to resist.

Only three more days of this nonsense.

I heart NY

Yesterday I went to NYC with my mother. I bought her tickets to go see The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee on Broadway for Christmas, and yesterday was the big day. Of course, it was soooo cold and rainy - it felt like winter, not like April at all - but we had a good time anyway. I wish we could have walked around more, instead of just rushing to get to the next dry destination, but at least it didn't snow.

The show was great - I was really looking forward to seeing it, so I'm glad it wasn't a huge disappointment or anything. There were a couple of draggy parts, in my opinion, but a lot of it was very funny, and I laughed out loud quite a bit. I give the actors a lot of credit- it's not easy playing young kids convincingly. Anyway, I definitely recommend it -and it's coming soon, to a theater near you!

And, as Murphy's Law will have it, it's absolutely gorgeous out today. Why couldn't it have been like this yesterday?

Just one more reason to have cake

Today is Greg's birthday. Yesterday was my mother's birthday. I am all about birthdays - even when they are not mine. I like shopping for presents (unless the person is impossible to buy for) and I like making a big deal out of someone's day. In turn, I love my own birthday as well - I love cake, I love presents, I love people paying attention to me - what's better than that!?

Greg is not so much into birthdays. He turns 34 today, and he thinks he's now about a million years old. I've been listening to some of my friends complain about how old we are since we've been 23. I have never subscribed to this - if I'm worried, at 32, how old I am, than how old does that make my mother, who turned 66 yesterday? Super-duper-unbelievably-old? No, I don't think so. I don't like to think of my mother as old, so I certainly cannot think of myself as old. Also, because I'm not. We're not. We, in our 20s and 30s, are nowhere near old.

Sure, things are different. I can definitely see generational differences between myself, and say, a 19-year-old. But that just makes us different - I'm not obsolete yet!

(Lisa - I swear I was thinking about all of this stuff before I read your blog entry from yesterday. I'm not copying you! Greg has been complaining about his age for WEEKS now.)

All grown up

Two things happened this week that made me feel like a grown up:

1) Greg and I bought a dining room table and chairs. Yes, now we can host dinner parties. First I have to learn how to cook. I better learn fast - we're having my family over for Easter next Sunday. It's all very exciting because the dining room looks so different, versus before, when it had a ratty old couch and a crappy old table in it. Now we're fancy!

2) Greg and I had a raging fight about the yard, and what we are going to do with it in terms of planting grass, bushes, flowers, what have you. What kind of an old-person argument is that?!

3) When I was at Dunkin Donuts this morning, the woman behind me had one of those cell phone ear thingies and she was talking at the top of her lungs while in line and while ordering. And all I could think was - "How rude!" And it is. Seriously, who are we, as a society, that we think we're so important that we can't take five minutes out of our day to get off the damn phone and go into a restaurant, store, whatever, without yapping away? I hate that! Rude, rude, rude.

It's my fault.

Ah, April in CT. Ain't it great? A couple of days ago, I was sitting on my back deck, basking in the sun, enjoying the return to spring, warm weather, and all the good things that come with it. Now, a half a week later, I had to pull on the winter coat, gloves, and scarf and deal with slippery snow-covered roads this morning. The only way I can deal with this is knowing that tomorrow it will be in the 50s. Stop toying with my emotions, Mother Nature.

I take the blame for our shift back to winter, however. The reason? I took out my fake Kate Spade summer purse the other day. I made the purse switch from my crappy old fake Kate Spade winter bag and and am now carrying around my cute, polka dot pink and white bag.

And then the snow started to fall. Bah humbug.

Hello? Is this thing on?

Ahem. Hello. How are you? Great. I'm good too.

So I'm new to Blogger. I have a blog over at Yahoo! 360, and while I like it, I thought I might move things over to here. Or do both. Or not blog much on either. Or whatever.

I couldn't think of a good title of this blog (the pressure, the pressure!) so I thought the one I chose was pretty simple, and basically reflected the things I talk about the most. Myself, my dogs, my life. Those who know me know it's the truth.

For example, tonight I took my puggle, Jimmy, to his final individual dog training class. He's been a real champ at home, with his sitting, staying, etc. But once again, he proved to be the class dunce (easy to do when you're the only one in the class) but not following any of my commands and making me look like a jackass in front of the trainer. Why? WHY? Why does he do this to me? Dog training classes have been so humiliating for me. They were with my Great Dane, Junior, and they sure have been with Jimmy. Can't wait to see what I'll be like with kids. Will I just be embarrassed when they don't get a good grade? Or I have to go to a parent-teacher conference? Scaaaary.