You're Doing It Wrong

I can’t remember if I told you or not but Walker gave me the soundtrack to The Two Towers and I’ve listened to it about 100 times. I love it.

The frames of my favorite glasses broke. They’re at least 4 years old and maybe more like 6 and I always get complements on them. I’m bummed. But I’m going to tape them together and use them as my night table glasses. I can tell I need to go to the eye doctor. My eyes get tired after a long day of working/writing. I finally went to the regular doctor to get my annual check up which has been 2 years and I have a dentist appointment in two weeks. My dentist is out in Beaverton which is one of my least favorite places to go but I love her and I’ve been seeing her a long time so I have put up with it and I just got a notice that she’s leaving the office. I talked to Bob about changing dentists to find one that’s more conveniently located and then heard a horror story of how he’s never had the same person clean or examine his teeth at his place and I figured I’d stick where I am. I like the continuity and also it seems like whenever you see a new dentist they always find a lot of work to do.

I was going to go and find my notes from that Blazer game from a 100 years ago because I said I was going to write something about it and I still haven’t done it but I think the moment has passed. I’m just going to ramble about my day(s).

I programmed a Christian station into my car radio because it’s commercial free and 9 out of 10 times I like the sound of the songs better than anything else that’s on the radio. I’m not sure if this has some greater meaning or not. I’m not particularly Christian except that I celebrate Christmas and mainly because the rest of my family does.

I have discovered a new drink for me. I’ve never been a huge hard alcohol fan although I usually like tequila. But generally I’m a beer or wine drinker. I didn’t know this until I moved up here but apparently California and Nevada are the only states that don’t have special state run liquor stores so I grew up where you pick up your tequila at the grocery store. Anyway, we inherited some scotch and I discovered I really, really like scotch. So I finally finished the inherited bottle and I went to the downtown state run liquor store and it’s this square box with booze on the walls and the middle more or less empty except for some displays and mixers and mini-bar bottles. Bleak fluorescent lighting, institutional linoleum flooring. Other than the cashier, I was the only woman in there and the only person not wearing jeans and a flannel shirt. If I was the hard alcohol industry, I’d be lobbying to abolish this system.

I went to see Two Towers again on Friday. I went to the last Friday matinee and the show has moved to a smaller theater but there were few people there and I slid into one of the best seats in the house: middle row, middle. A few more people trickled in. And then a small child and two adult males who looked like they’ve spent the better part of the last 10 years eating big macs come in and file into the row behind me and all thump their feet onto the seat backs in my row, jarring me in my seat. They talk loudly before the movie starts and all through the commercials and trailers while jiggling my seat. I figured they’d have to quiet down for the movie. HA HA. So I had to move seats when the movie started — which threatened to spoil my Frodo moment — and I move up several rows and end up next to some poor guy, apparently with a respiratory problem who was snoring. Is it too much to ask to be able to enjoy a movie? What is wrong with people? The same Friday I was at Hazel Dell Fred Meyer and some goofy couple was there with a kid and seemed to think that the entire store was interested in everything they had to say and they had some horrible gadget to make noise — I guess to entertain the kid — and you could hear it through the entire store. I just wish people would try harder.

I was incorrect yesterday when I said I’ve only been to two pro sporting events. I’ve only been to two NBA games. In Middle School if you were on the honor roll you got baseball game tickets. I think I’ve been to 2 or 3 Dodger Games and I think every one was a 13 inning 0-0 tie game which means I will forever associate baseball with monumental boredom.

We went to the basketball game last week (Blazers v. Grizzlies) and since this only my second professional sporting event, I took lot of notes because I find them to be such bizarre spectacle. But for some reason I still haven’t gotten around to it. I’ll see how I feel about it later.

About 10 years ago I started keeping a list of all the books I read and movies I see. It’s sloppily done, I’m not always diligent about recording things, but it’s nice at the end of the year to have an idea what I saw and read. I realized I am behind in my Sue Graftons and I didn’t know where she was at (turns out “Q”) and I couldn’t remember the last one I read (turns out “N”) so I went through my lists and found all the Sue Graftons. I don’t have dates for C, E or F either. I think I’ve read them all but I thought I’d go to the library and get those old ones and skim them quickly for entertainment. The library only had “O” and “P” (I didn’t look too hard–this was the hardback area and I bet there is a paperback mystery revolving rack somewhere.) So I grabbed “O” and I finished it this morning at 4am when I had terrible insomnia. I’ll go back for “P” on Wednesday and I bet it’s gone. That always happens.

Bob got me this digital voice recorder that I can plug into my computer for voice recognition. The instructions come in a paperback. I told Bob we needed to invite a nine year old over to show me how to use it.

It’s almost noon and I’m still farting around here. I need to buckle down and get to work. I have a list of numerous non-related items for blogging. I was going to post last night but I couldn’t connect. Technology: it’s not magic.

Item #1 — the Oregonian, not my favorite newspaper, had an article about blogging in the Living Section recently. Everything in the Oregonian living section feels like old news. It’s like they get their ideas by looking at what everybody else has already done, especially if it was done, like, three years ago.

Item #2 — we finally saw Punch Drunk Love last night. What a weird movie. I didn’t hate it but I’m not sure it totally worked. I liked seeing Adam Sandler doing something interesting for a change and Paul Thomas Anderson knows how to create a deep feeling of dread in his audience, and the scene with the sisters was great, but there were moments in the soundtrack that made me want to stick forks in my ears and I don’t think the story hung together very well. It was like since everyone gave him a hard time for Boogie Nights and Magnolia for being so long, so he whacked up this thing just to prove that he could and stuff felt disjointed and chopped up.

Item #3 — My book reading is unmanageable at the moment. I keep starting new books. I have at least four books on my night table with bookmarks but at least three more in my room. And whenever I have a moment to sit down and read, I find myself opening a new book. Probably not a real problem but the situation comes into conflict with my “project oriented” approach to living in which I like things to have a beginning and middle and end and dislike loose ends.

Item #4 — I sent a check to Movieline in November and still haven’t rec’d a magazine. I’m going to have to follow up on that.

Item #5 — I was at the library a couple of weeks ago (see item #3 on compulsive book reading) and I couldn’t decide between two books so the deal-maker was that one book had a note in it from a previous borrower. If the scanner was handy I’d post it — it’s a small sheet of yellow paper and on one side the person (guess: female) had her shopping list. She needed light bulbs and jewelry from Fred Meyer and deep conditioner and car supplies from WalMart. She also had holiday shopping items like snowboard pants or a scarf/hat for Meg and other ideas included guitar lessons and a Starbucks giftcertificate. On the other side she has notes for a health problem: something in throat, AM sickest, Nauseous, must eat but don’t want too. Also: sharp pains in ribs/back. The killer was the note at the top: I [heart] hummus.

Item #6 — I had another dream about my High School reunion. This time it was like a high school reunion Xmas party and Antje (not from H.S.) was there making me drinks. What are these recurring H.S. dreams all about? Is there some old business I need to revisit?

I have long recovered from my cold but the inside of my nose still feels like extra-scratchy sandpaper. I was looking forward to getting back into my routine, but now that I’m back into my routine I’m feeling like I’m rushing around and never getting anything done. I’m sure there is some meaningful insight in that last statement but I’ll think about it later when I get a chance.

I think there might have to be a new rule that I’m not allowed to have a TV series on DVD. I watched the entire first season of 24 in about five days. I got Felicity for my birthday and I only watched one episode the first couple of nights but this weekend was a Felicity binge and I kept finding myself drifting away from my other projects to watch “just for a minute.” But if I did get another TV series on DVD it would be Buffy or any of the first three seasons of XFiles.

Bob watched the original Solaris the other night which led to this discussion about Steven Soderbergh. So I asked Bob if he was going to do his Dinner For Five who would the five be: Soderbergh, Coen Brothers, Bob and who would be the fifth? And after a split second Bob said, “Jennifer Tilly.” And I said, “Um, gee. That’s an interesting group.” And he said, “I just think she’d be fun at a party.”