White Christmas My A$$

At this moment, I am currently watching the Weather Channel as scores of viewers have sent in their video requests for a white christmas. Well, they certainly got their wish – we’ve been stranded!!!

JB and I were on our way up north for our well deserved week long vacation with our families. Originally, we were going to leave early early tomorrow morning, but after several discussions, decided to try and get ahead of the storm in Virginia and Washington DC.

We were unsuccessful.

We basically drove straight into the storm. We saw at least 30 cars wiped out on the side of the roads and only a grand total of 2 plows. We honestly had no clue where we were, but we have now discovered that we are actually quite near Richmond.

Our car is buried in the snow, and we’ll most likely be here until Sunday. And we’re not even halfway to our destination. Oye.

Sing-Off: A disappointment

So, last night was NBC’s premier of “Sing-Off” which was supposed to be the first competition of a cappella groups ever broadcasted LIVE. 8 groups were featured and two were voted out on the first night. This is a one week event, so this show will be on for the next few days until the finale.

Where do I even begin with the problems with this show???

The groups – I understand, having been in a cappella and performing singing groups for over 6 years, that performing in front of big crowds with an added element of excitement makes it extremely difficult to stay on key, especially when you have 10 members on an unfamiliar stage and then sound equipment thrown into the mix. However, only one group had no pitch issues – everyone had at least someone noticably off.

The judges – ok, I appreciate their backgrounds, BoyzIIMen, Pussycat Dolls, and Ben Folds, but it’s obvious that none of them have attended an ICCA competition. Sure, they did give some critiques, but if you’re in ICCA, you get ripped apart. They do not hold back and you’re better for it; your win is that much sweeter because you know you were up against a tough crowd.

My only thought on this was that a cappella has such a bum wrap in TV and movie industry (I know of at least three movies off the top of my head where any guy in an a cappella group was labeled as gay) that they’re trying to water it down for the masses. I mean, just look at the new TV favorite GLEE – all they guys in the group put up with humiliation each day for being a part of glee club. It also seems incredibly rushed, like NBC realized how well Glee was doing and wanted to get in on the money train.

For the entire two hours, JB was practically foaming at the mouth. I tried to reason that perhaps it sounded different live, we know our old group could sharp with the best of them when we got going (Pride anyone?) but really, it was just painful. Especially with the non-committal feedback – the, oh you’re good, but this was an issue. Now, if this followed the same format as So You Think You Can Dance or American Idol, I think it would be a show worth watching – with each group being given a challenge song to perform and someone like Simon Powell to say it like it is.

Bottom line – I was extremely disappointed in what could have been an awesome and amazing show and I KNOW there are plenty of rabid a cappella fans out there.

C-

Zombie’s on the Brain…

I dreamt of zombies last night. Honest to god, zombies. And aliens… in wooden space ships underwater? I knew they were aliens – so did Tom Cat from Tom and Jerry. It’s ok, though, I was able to hide Marge Simpson and her basset in the basement before the zombies could get her. I needed to find a way to get them out, though, without going through the zombie horde – good thing Marge can dig! I had to wade through the most disgusting garage ever, though. This way, I could continue my search for Harrison Ford (who was floating around in a space suit – like THAT would be a good shield from zombie bites) so we could save everyone, meanwhile trying to find any other creatures that could help. I had some dude looking up werewolves, but I woke up before that could really lead to anything. And the most traumatic part for me was when a tissue paper flower tried to bite my head off. Zombie decorations????? And in the midst of all this nonsense, I somehow found the time to check my email receiving a note from imaginary-co-worker who was contacted by an imaginary-company called Falmir (all I know is that it had to do with books) doing a reference call for an accounting position (wait, what? Anyone who knows me knows I am about the furthest thing from an accountant!) Only to learn my application had been denied because I couldn’t translate anything. When did translations have anything to do with accounting, which really only involves numbers????

Wow, dreams are weird, eh? This must have resulted from watching some Simpsons episodes before bed… although how aliens in wooden, underwater vehicles come into it, I have no clue. The whole accounting thing must have come about when I broke out the dusty Pythagorean theorem while quilting. How is it, that I still remember a^2 + b^2 = c^2, and yet I have to look up how to combine x^2+x^2? Pathetic. And as far as books go, well, I have been devouring many of them of late.

And Harrison Ford is Harrison Ford. Nuff said.

Gait Assessment

My employer, and it seems more are moving in this direction, is very big on health. Mental, physical and emotional health are all aspects of their employees that they try to keep in tip top shape (did I really just write “tip top”? It’s been a long week…) There are some nice perks because of this: an extremely nice gym facility on site, a wellness website where you can track your weight, water intake, cholesterol, overall health, find healthy food recipes, start tailored exercise programs, and set overall health goals. They offer incentives to keep you motivated and offer unique programs.

Like gait assessment. Yes, this is pretty much exactly how it sounds. A local company, dedicated to the serious athlete, has a service they offer their customers where they take a look at how your feet are shaped and then video tape you walking and then running. Afterwards, they share the video with you and point out how you might improve how you walk/run and what type of shoe would best be suited for you, whether you’re just starting out or have been running for years.

Now, I was a dancer for over 10 years. Ballet, specifically. I quit after one year in high school for various reasons, but decided to start back up again after college. In Boston, I used to go to a wonderful studio that was easily accessable and on my way home. In this new place, there are some dance studios, but not many that have classes for adults. Plus, it requires driving on my part as opposed to public transportation. Since dance classes are out of my budget for this year, the cheaper alternative is running. I know many people who run and are addicted to it. I have tried several times to get started and besides being winded after 3 minutes, find myself in excruciating pain. My kneecaps feel like they’re being pulled to the side of my leg, my heels feel like I’m running on bare bone. My ankles alternatively freeze or relax suddenly so I have to be careful my feet don’t roll underneath me.

I mentioned all these things to the woman who was giving me my assessment. Turns out, she was a dancer as well! She had me step on this board that was covered in pressure sensative material to get an idea of the shape of my foot. It seems I have an extremely high arch; in-fact, there is a distinct break between my heel and the side of my foot. Also, my arch is extremely flexable – my foot size changed almost a half size from sitting to standing. My observer remarked it was interesting that I had high arches because she also had high arches and since we were both dancers, wasn’t that interesting? I told her I was of the opinion that it was having to point your feet to extreme curvature since the age of 5 that probably had a lot to do with it! Needless to say, she wears inserts in all of her shoes and I suspect I may have to move in that direction as well.

But back to my shoes. I mention all the leg pain I had when running and how that was probably my number one deterrent. She then pointed out that the shoes I’ve been wearing were not designed for running. They’re meant more for doing aerobics than pounding the tarmac. As she described it, they’re basically hard soled shoes with no cushioning, shock absorbers or arch supports – almost like trying to run in point shoes. It’s a wonder I haven’t done any serious damage!

Yet there was good news! I have a perfect gait. I am not trying to brag, but she said I could be an extremely good runner if I choose to be. My feet weren’t turned out (like many dancers do) and my running step was perfect – midtoe first instead of heal first. All I have to do is relax my arms and lean forward a bit. GO ME!

JB is pestering me now with made up song lyrics. If I ignore him for too long, they start getting more bizarre – the better to annoy me with. I know some may think this is romantic and charming (and when he first started, absolutely it was) but when I am trying to write and I’m hearing weird lyrics to familiar melodies, it drives me up-the-wall-cRaZY. So I will go now and bid you all adieu.

Tomorrow – Santa came early!

Snow

Remember how I mentioned that wordpress had snow on it’s pages? Now I can bring it to you!! How cool is that? Since we will most likely never get snow here, a little simulation is as good as it’s going to get. Too bad I can’t build a virtual snow man or something. Enjoy!

Gusty

We have winds in excess of 35 mph blowing through our small town. I work on the 7th floor of the tallest building downtown and I can hear the wind whistling past all the windows. All this morning I could hear the trees whipping against the complex walls. It’s very disconcerting – like being in a hurricane without the rain. Every now and then, the wind picks up, the whistling gets louder, and I find my blood pressure is rising, a small part of me terrified. I know how destructive Mother Nature can be, but what is more terrifying is the unknown capabilities of Mother Nature in THIS region. I know how to deal with whatever was thrown at me up north. Snow? No problem. Ice? Piece of cake…

And we just lost power. Now we’re running on reserve power. After a brief conference with a co-worker, I find we’re going to have gusts up to 50 mph.

I think I’m going to go hide now.

Netflix

We joined the ranks of Netflix users almost a year ago and have not looked back since. We used to be a part of the Blockbuster Club, but we found it just wasn’t working for us. Netflix has been wonderful, especially with the ability for us to stream movies through my Xbox. Granted, JB is always pushing to watch whatever movie comes in RIGHT AWAY so that it can be mailed TOMORROW. Apparently this is more cost efficient, although I think it defeats the purpose??

Anyways, I am not really in charge of our movie queue – JB is. I find, every now and then I’ll go check it out and find the most random movies listed. Half the time, it’s because a certain actor is attached to it and JB knows I liked other movies with said actor in them, ergo I must like this new movie! It is a flawed logic, but sometimes it does work. The problem is, we are VERY different movie genre people. I like action, thrillers, sci-fi, british dramas, indie, and fantasy movies. JB is an all around college, slapstick comedy guy. What can I say – I prefer vampires and cringe when people get themselves in tricky situations (I pretty much sweated my way through “Meet the Parents”); he prefers lots of laughs and to the point plot lines (“Atonement” was a bit tricky with all the jumping back and forth through story lines, but he did finally make it through alive). There is only one movie that we both thoroughly enjoy – “Knocked Up”. Judd Apatow movies just seem to be the happy medium for us.

Movie review coming: Coraline

Decorations

*Note: I started writing this in November, when the holiday fever bug was just starting to bite at us…

Ok, I LOVE decorating for Christmas – I really do. My grandmother used to let me help decorate the tree and I got to put up her nativity scene. I could arrange it anyway I wanted and I always had my favorite pieces and their quirks: the teeny tiny lamb about the size of half a penny, Joseph with his “removable” shepherd crook, one of the Wiseman’s camel with a bent leg. I used to come up with stories in my head, conversations between the figurines, and each had their own very specific place. My grandmother would give me a piece of quilting batting to use as “snow” and I would drape it around the wood-frame barn and fight with the figurines to keep them standing upright (batter = very slippery). The finishing touch would be a blue light bulb tucked into the corner to put an etherial glow of the scene.

I knew each ornament – I had my favorites and would save putting them on until all the others had been hung. There was always a process – lights, garland, then ornaments. We had this string of lights that had diffusers attached to each bulb, so they looked like tiny individual satellite dishes. I believe their purpose was to make the lights seem a bit brighter or soften the light itself. Either way, they were our tree standard for a long time, until we started getting larger trees.

We don’t have a very large collection of Christmas items. Enough that have been accumulated over the years, but nothing to the magnitude of what’s needed for a house.  I have 3, yes 3, Christmas moose figurines. I do not know why or where they came from and believe me, 3 is plenty. We have one strand of red beaded garland, several recycled Christmas lights, 4 or 5 larger ornaments that get hung on the mantel because our tree is only 14″ tall. We have these star ornaments I bought for us when we were first dating that are engraved with the word “LOVE”. It seemed romantic at the time, hang an ornament and think of each other over the holidays, but it just shows how NOT to the future I was thinking at the time, because now what are we going to do with two identical ornaments that say LOVE on them? Yikes.

My last decorating piece  is a candle tin. It has a song bird and holly on the lid and container, but it is all I can do to keep JB from lighting the candle. Ever since I let him at the decorative candles on the mantle, he has been a candle burning machine (“Other wise, they’ll go ‘bad’.”)

When we first moved, we debated decorating for the holidays at all. We weren’t going to be here for the actual holiday, so why bother? Either way, we now have our own small Christmas before leaving for the real holiday and it’s always nice to be surrounded by cheerful decorations.

Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday decorations…

Virtual Snow

I logged onto my blog dashboard today, only to find out that wordpress has simulated snow as a special treat! At least, I hope it was on purpose. Either way, it was a nice, albiet unexpected surprise. We do not get snow down here, at least, not in any quantifiable amount (does less than a hair’s width count?)

Nothing particularly excited has been going on here of late. We are just about done with Christmas shopping and I am looking forward to our upcoming week off. It will not be long enough, I’m sure.

Well, that’s all I’ve got. Boring, I know, but this is life when one starts working again – you don’t have time for anything else.

Restless & Christmas

Do you ever find yourself waking up from a dead sleep, absolutely SURE that something is wrong? It could be anything, but one minute you’re asleep, the next minute you are having a mini panic attack trying to get your bearings. I have, and have been doing it pretty much every night since I started work again. The reason for my waking up? My brain is somehow sure that I am going to be late. That I will sleep through the alarm and will miss work. This morning was particularly bad, because I dreamed that the alarm went off and then fell back asleep. This prompted an immediate re-waking at 2am, which then consisted of me disbelieving that the clock actually read the actual time. I had to confirm with a cell phone before I could fall back asleep.

Yet, after you wake up in the middle of the night, it’s very difficult to get back to that restful deep sleep. Last night it was 2am; previous nights have had me waking up at 3 or 4. Not enough time to really get back into the REM cycle, but waaaay too early for me to get up and do something. This, in turn, leaves me exhausted yet falling asleep is an incredibly difficult act on its own. As soon as I lay down, my mind is abuzz with projects, ideas, worries, etc. Which is why I have been trying to find solace in my books, to read at night to get so exhausted that I fall asleep. Granted, this makes for some interesting dreams sometimes, but it seems to help.

And now, Christmas Decorations:

They are pretty much the same as last year (that is our tree in front of the fire place, if you couldn’t tell) but I will take more when it’s actually light out.

And now, to work…