dilemma

I think it can be agreed that the two greatest reasons for staying home sick from school when we were young were 1) The Price is Right and 2) Unsolved Mysteries. Am I wrong, fellow children of the 80's? Nothing better than some good ol' Bob Barker and flashing lights and fanatical game players and such an engaging, sing-songy voice to "Tell 'er what she's won!" since, at 10-years old, I was no good at actually pricing items. And I guess I was frankly more interested in drinking Squeeze-Its than I was in pricing them (bonus reason for being sick: Squeeze-Its).

So I guess what I'm saying is that Unsolved Mysteries was actually the best part of being home sick from school (aside from the Squeeze-Its-- they're really hard to find these days, have you noticed?). Don't you have good memories of snuggling into piles of blankets on the couch, the coffee table riddled with tissues and ginger ale and the barf bucket, peeking at the screen and trying to make it through theme music without changing the channel? Have a listen:



Ooooooh it gives me the creeps to hear it. The new version is not nearly as skin-crawly.

But may I pose a grown-up question to you?

If you are a Grown Up without a job or very many places to go and you pay your own bills so you can watch reruns of Unsolved Mysteries every afternoon if you want to (again, I can't emphasize how un-creepy the newer version of the theme song is)-- in other words, if you can treat every day like it's a sick day, well...

...what do you do then when you're actually sick?

Especially when the mysteries you watched fifteen years ago are still unsolved!!!

finally welcome 2012

Well okay. So I haven't blogged in 1000 years and I was all inspired to update about The Holidays. And then that didn't happen, so I was going to jump on the "Why I Liked 2011" train but felt like I didn't have much to say. And then I thought I could do a round of New Years Resolutions but mine for this year are almost the same as they were last year, which is to say that they're almost the same as they are almost every year (almost).

Mostly I just want to talk about television or whatever.

(PS did you notice the double elevens in today's date? 1/11/12? I LOVE ELEVEN.)

So what I'm saying is I'm uninspired. Perhaps uninspiring? Uh oh!

I figure I should just kick off Year 5 of this blog (five years what the what!) by being grateful, at least, since I've had the chance to take a long hard look at my life lately and I figure-- it ain't too bad. Ain't too bad at all. And then maybe I'll have more interesting and hilarious anecdotes about the mundanities of my life to entertain you.

I think the best thing to happen to me last year was/has been my association at Hale Centre Theatre. I've been blessed with three opportunities to perform there and am stunned by all the incredibly wonderful and talented people I now cherish as my friends. Working up north has also closed the gap between Utah, Salt Lake and even Weber Counties, making a 45 minute-2 hour trip up I-15 just a blink of an eye. I love to work there. I love it.

I'm actually currently working at Hale in a new little show called The Game's Afoot.Now I mean, if you ask the Salt Lake Trib, it isn't a very good little show. But that's not true. It is a good little show, just a new little script, meaning there perhaps was room for the script to be workshopped before production. But it's a good little show! I play an actress from Texas and I wear great hair and a beautiful green dress. I perform Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday nights at 7:30pm and Saturday afternoons at 4pm. Clicky-clicky the picture to buy tickets (which you'll be hard-pressed to do, since they're almost sold out. But come for standby! You'll get seats for sure).

I'm also grateful for RuPaul.SIDE NOTE: Do you watch RuPaul's Drag Race? If you don't, you can find seasons 2 and 3 on Netflix, and season 4 starts in a few weeks. If you're a fan of America's Next Top Model and/or Project Runway, YOU WILL LOVE THIS SHOW.

Anyway, the cats got Ames Ru's book Workin' It! RuPaul's Guide to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Style for Christmas and it's incredibly inspiring. I recommend it to everyone. If you start to see RuPaul quote posters float around pinterest, it'll be because I'm going to create and hang them all over my house (and the internet).

ADDITIONAL SIDE NOTE: Ru is appearing on The Chew this morning. Werq!

I'm also grateful for positive and improving self-image. If you know anything about me, or if you've ever read this blog, you know that my self-image kind of waxes and wanes between killer-awesome-take-over-the-world confidence and somewhat hapless discouragement. While unemployment is growing tiresome in so many ways, the last few months have been really healing. I'm proud of who I am, my talents, my creativity, and the positive changes I'm making in my life.

So happy 2012, one and all! May the new year bring creativity, positivity, and way more blog posts from little ol' me.

PS! We're finally getting around to doing our holiday cards (I'm big into President's Day or whatever). Email me with your address if you'd like one!

hallo

Oh heyyyyyyy, bloglies. How are you doing? How was your Thanksgiving? What are you up to these days? It's been a while since I've checked in. I mean, I've just been swamped, is all. I've been soooooo tied up sleeping till 11am and trolling pinterest for 3 hours a day and eating 1000 soda cookies and not washing my hair.

Swamped.

But okay, I need to not be self-deprecating because hilarious self-deprecation is only funny for so long, which is partly why I haven't been blogging very much lately. I actually had expected myself to blog a ton over the last month, so it's kind of weird that my Halloween post is only like three entries ago. The good news is that it is due to busy-ness and not a complete lack of motivation or meaning.

I mean, sure, I've had a lot of time to hang out with my kitties and watch a lot of documentaries on Netflix while I yarn my little fingers off, but that's been progressive! I placed 5th overall in the silly little competitive walk/jog I did on Thanksgiving morning (still hate running-- not sure that will ever change, but I'm happy that I ran at least some of it, eh?) and I'm also pretty excited to announce my forthcoming Etsy shop: PRIBBLES & PRABBLES: THE STORE.

Hooray! So now maybe this hobby can pay off a little! Annnnnnnd I'll be offering discounts to those who Follow pribbles & prabbles: the blog. Eyes peeled for that, everybody. All comments and advice is appreciated.

Also, we've had a Christmas tree for three days. Tis the season.

simple happy

I think the greatest thing to happen to my unemployment is Nick Toons on Netflix.

No, I'm serious.

I had kind of a frazzled morning so I came home to work on my handmade Christmas (only 37 days until then OMG HOW WILL I FINISH EVERYTHING??) and turned on Hey Arnold!, which has made the day infinitely better. Like, inexpressibly better. Like, this is one of the greatest shows ever drawn.

FUN FACT: a ton of the kid voices of Hey Arnold! were also kid voices on Recess, including the original voice of Arnold himself who went on to play King Bob. The more you know!

Few people know/understand how important Nick Toons are to my very core as a human being. Probably only my parents and little sister Lizzy. Sometimes, on long car rides, we'd ask Mom how much longer we'd be in the car and she'd tell us, "Four more Dougs." And then we'd ask, "Like four more individual Dougs, like the 15-minute episodes, or four more Dougs, like the whole 30 minutes?"

I bought the first season of Doug on DVD a while ago. Ames doesn't really get it. It's too bad. I need my someday children to love Doug and Hey Arnold! and Rugrats and all the classics!

Because Nick Toons heal all wounds.

And so do Christmas trees, and we are getting ours the very minute they go on sale at the lot across from Target.

elevenophile

I have a dilemma on my hands. I mean, I know it's not a big deal but it's something I've been thinking about for the last two days that's really weighing on my mind.

Okay. So you know how people have lucky numbers? And like, people wish on their lucky numbers and they gamble on their lucky numbers and those lucky numbers sometimes are party lucky because they, like, "follow' people around?

Well my lucky number is 11.

I just like 11! I like to fill my gas tank so that I spend money in totals ending in 11 or some multiplication of 11 (like 22 or 33 or 99). The number of times I've TOTALLY UNINTENTIONALLY looked at the clock at 11:11 over the years is really quite startling. And then I make wishes on 11:11 all the time.

Also the word eleven is the most fun number to say. It's the most unique. It's the only "basic" number (that is to say, not followed by -teen or preceded by thirty- or ninty-) that has three syllables. It's the first number to fall in love with itself and demand to be counted twice at the same time.

I just really like 11, okay? It's a thing. No big deal.

Except that on Friday it kind of became a big deal because everyone all over the world was like "OMG IT'S 11:11 on 11/11/11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

TWICE.

ON THE SAME DAY.

And aside from everyone simply feeling the need to update Facebook and Twitter and whatever about the fact (since no one in the world possibly even knew that, especially not elevenophiles...) I just been a little worried about the idea that for one day-- one singular day in a whole entire century!-- that 11 was everyone's favorite number, and everyone was wishing (TWICE!!!!!!!) on 11 and somehow all of those wishes would negate themselves.

Or worse, my little wishes (because duh, I wished twice, are you kidding?) would somehow get lost in the vast universe of lucky number wishes.

WHAT IF THE UNIVERSE DIDN'T HEAR MY WISHES THROUGH ALL OF THE DUEL SHALLOW WISHING?!!!

I mean, I get that I should be celebrating Eleven Awareness or something, and I don't mean to say that all the other wishes are shallow, I'm sorry for saying that, but I could really use the power of the Universe behind me right now is all I'm saying, okay?

I guess I can wish at 12:12 on 12/12/12 next year, and then I'll HOLLA at my Chwelve friends from the good ol' days at Timpview High, and pass my worries to the Twelveophiles who will tooooootally get it next year.



Also, does my admitting that my favorite number is 11 negate it in some superstitious way, like telling people what your birthday cake wishes are or whatever?

OH GREAT.

tables turning

There are certain sayings in life that we hear a lot.

Calm before the storm.

When it rains, it pours.

Today I am grateful for the four job interviews I have lined up this week. I've been waiting for weeks and even months to land interviews with basically no luck. Now I'm just kind of dumbfounded.

Unemployment is pretty awesome while I've got severance but I'm so so grateful for some hope of impending security.

I am blessed.