The Rules of Birthday Parties

These are the rules of birthday parties, as set forth this evening by Emily (age almost 5):

• If you are having a birthday party with your friends, you cannot invite your family...because they are not your friends.  Well, they are your friends, but your friends are your FRIENDS.
• If you are having a birthday party, you have to invite boys, because they are fun.  They are not annoying.
• You don't need to have 2 birthday parties.  One is fine, even if the second one is with family.
• Even a shared birthday party with your aunt who's birthday is 2 days before yours would probably not be okay.
• It's okay to invite your cousins to your birthday party, but only if they come on time.

I have no idea where she gets this stuff.  Silly girl!

Also, a funny, random thing to yell while pretending to sleep on a pretend camping trip in a tent made from chairs and a blanket:

"ORANGE JUICE!!"

Thank you, Rebekah.

Okay, in the interest of equal opportunity niece/nephew story time, George only has 4 teeth...and he grinds them.  Silly boy!!!!

Fun times with the kiddos tonight!!!!

Flashback Friday

Haven't done one of these in a little while.  It's about time!

 

It's a tough job, but someone has to do it!

My #1 Pet Peeve of all Time!

I am not your "dear".  I am not your "sweetie".  I am not your "honey".  Unless, of course, you know me personally...and then I am.

This is something that has bugged me since my days at the bank.  Someone would call me "honey" over the speaker in the drive-up.  I would promptly turn off the speaker and say "I am not your honey!"  It happens at my current job, too.  I answer the majority of the phone calls and talk to hundreds of strangers.  Some of them, whom I have never met and even some who I have but only associate with on a professional level as an employee of their property manager, seem to think it's okay to call me "my dear" or "sweetie" or "honey".  IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!!!!!!!!  I don't know you, therefore a term of endearment is totally inappropriate!  If you don't know what to call me, ask my name.  You may call me Angela.  Heck, you can call me Angie if you want.  (I haven't punched anyone for calling me that in over 25 years.)  Call me Ma'am.  Or Miss.  I don't care.  Just don't call me late for dinner.  I don't know why this bugs me so much, but it does. 

/rant

Just remember, though..."You may only call me 'Mrs. Darcy' when you are completely, and perfectly, and incandescently happy."

I am officially losing my mind!!!

It is my job to order all the office supplies for my office.  This includes the envelopes and letterhead from a local print shop.  Well, at the beginning of this month, I ordered 3 boxes of #10 Window envelopes.  Then, last week, I thought that I had ordered the non-window envelopes (I even looked right at the boxes in the closet and thought they were the non-window kind), so I ordered 3 more boxes of #10 Window envelopes.  Now we have 6 boxes of the window envelopes (that's 3000 envelopes, mind you) and 1 mostly full box of the non window envelopes (less than 500).  It's a really good thing that we use WAY more of the window envelopes.  But still...I can't believe I was that stupid!!!!  I need a vacation.  Or at least some ice cream.

Golden Globe Musings 2010

"It's not rain.  It's just God crying for NBC." ~Tina Fey on the red carpet.

I <3 Ricky Gervais!!!!

Up wins!  Nobody can compete with Pixar, and you know what?  AWESOME STORIES!!!

Nice beanie, Michael C. Hall.

Wow, NBC is getting SLAMMED tonight.  And with good reason.

Yay for Michael Giacchino!!!

MERYL STREEP ROCKS!!!!!!!

I think we're all grateful that Drew Barrymore has a better hairdo than last year.  But what the heck is that thing on her shoulder & hip?!

Is Ricky Gervais drinking beer onstage?!

Q- How did Julia Roberts score a seat next to Paul McCartney.
A- She's Julia Roberts.

Wow...um...I think I've only seen one Martin Scorsese movie.

YAY GLEE!!!!!!  I'm not a huge fan of the show, but I am very happy that it's getting recognition like this. 

Wow, would you like some Lea Michele with that dress?

Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side = AMAZING!  Well deserved award!

Dear Sally Hawkins: Please eat a sandwich.  No, eat three.

Cameraman fired:  Leo DiCaprio is not Jeff Bridges

I still <3 Ricky Gervais!!

"It's not hard to be humble.  It's hard to be confident."  ~Meryl Streep in the Press Room.

--

Good show!  Can't wait for the Oscars!!!  Watch for my annual nomination predictions...coming in about 2 weeks!

Yes, you may ask for my autograph.

I was a movie star last night.  Okay, so I was a extra.  I got a fun gig in a video project by a local film company.  The film is called "The Prodigals" and it's about the Prodigal Son from the Bible.

I showed up around 5:30 pm and got dressed up in Biblical attire.  We waited around for a little while and then went in to the set.  I had a couple of lines with my friend Paula.  We set up our little scene and then they brought the extras & principals in.  We filmed that scene a couple of times.  Then we did some other stuff.  At one point I got to walk behind 2 of the principals and wave when they said my character's name.  We did some more waiting and then some more filming and then we were done!  It was a lot of fun!  Especially because I got paid to stand around with my friends for 4 hours. 

All in all, a very fun evening!  I look forward to more fun evenings such as this...if the opportunity arises!   And yes, you may ask for my autograph.

Now Hiring

I am now accepting applications for a personal assistant.

Job duties include:

• Watching my car to make sure snow/ice are scraped off within 10 minutes
• Delivering hot chocolate to me at work whenever I want
• Cleaning my house
• Doing my laundry
• Cooking me dinner
• When roads are snowy/icy, driving me where I need to go in a snow plow
• Doing all shopping for me
• Altering all the cute clothes I want so that they will fit me
• Carrying me to and from my car so I don't get snow on my cute shoes
• Figuring out a way to print money legally so that I can pay my bills without using my own money
• Cutting anything bad/sad from the paper before I read it, so I only read the good stuff.
• Anything else I think of.  Must be available at a moment's notice.
  

This is sounding a little Devil Wears Prada.  And what's this about pay?  You want to get paid?  That's just crazy talk.  You can't put a price on basically worshipping the ground I walk on!!  Seriously, people.

So...any takers?  Anyone?  ANYONE?!

New Year's Resolutions

Do I have to?  I don't wanna.  You can't make me.  If I don't feel like making any New Year's Resolutions, then I don't have to.  Okay, fine:

I resolve to:
Eat more chocolate.
Watch more TV.

What?  Can't I set the bar low?  I believe in setting manageable goals.  I can manage those.  Seriously, WHAT?!  Alright, here's a real one:

I resolve to:
See more theatre!

Hey, don't laugh!  I'm serious here.  I don't get to see a lot of the shows I want to because
a) I'm usually busy with my own shows.
b) I can't afford it.
c) I don't have anyone to go with me sometimes and going alone makes me feel like a loser (although when I do go alone, I usually find someone I know!)

There you have it!  Setting the expectations low for 2010!  Then I'm not disappointed and I might end up pleasantly surprised!!

Happy New Year from your friendly neighborhood cynic!!

The Epic Denver Journey

AKA: Angela, Katrina, & Mikeal's Excellent Adventure

I like to think that I know my way around Denver.  As long as I know where I need to end up and I have been there before, I'm generally okay. If I have a map or explicit directions, that is even better.  Preferable, actually.  But sometimes...it needs to be about the journey and not about the destination.  My Denver friends will laugh heartily at this, I'm sure.  But join me now in a break down of just exactly how I got from Loveland to the DCPA:

(Please note: our original plan was to go to Lakewood first.  Had we been going directly to the Denver Center, there would have been no epic journey.)

• South on 1-25 from Loveland
  
• Exited onto 6th Ave West.
• Misread the directions (Mapquest is stupid) and exited onto Federal.
• Turned left and realized this was NOT where we needed to be.
•  Pulled into a gas station to try and decipher the directions.  They were VERY confusing.  (What originally made no sense was actually made clear later in the evening.  Seriously, when you first get off the interstate on W 6th, it's a little confusing!!!)
• Decided that we would just do directly to the Denver Center and meet Katrina's cousin there, rather than trying to figure out where to go.  (This was probably the best decision, seeing as it was about 5:30 or so and there was a traffic jam on 6th.)
• Got back on Federal and headed north
• Missed the exit for 6th (which would have taken us back to I-25)
• Missed the exit for Colfax (which would have taken us to Speer)
• Turned right onto 17th Ave
• Turned right on Mile High Stadium Cir. (Yes, we circled around the south end of the Invesco Field parking lot.)
• Turned left onto lower Colfax Ave. (not the real Colfax, mind you)
• Followed that around and exited onto South I-25 (when we really needed to go north)
• South on I-25
• Exited on W 8th Ave.
• Right on Zuni and north back to lower Colfax
• Right on Walnut St. and north
• Somehow we managed to get over to 7th St on the Auraria Campus (not exactly sure how, but we drove past the Light Rail Station and near the Pepsi Center.
• Left on 7th St.
• Right on Auraria Parkway  (Yay!!!!  I knew this would take us directly to Speer, so we made it!  Talk about your Scenic Route!!!)

• Safely arrived at the Denver Center parking garage!!!
• Dinner at a sketchy McDonalds on the 16th Street Mall
• Amazing concert at the Ellie!
• Excursion to Lakewood to a Mexican Restaurant called Jose O'Shea's (Mexican Irish...interesting.)  They have a free taco bar with purchase of a drink!  Score!!  (And while driving on 6th Ave, I saw exactly what sign we had missed earlier that made the Mapquest directions confusing!)
  
• Back on the road about 11:00 pm.  I had no problem getting back onto 6th Ave.  When it came time to exit onto I-25 however...WHOOPS!!  Missed it!

• East on 6th Ave
• Left on Santa Fe
• Left on 7th Ave
• Left on Kalamuth
• Right on 6th Ave
• Exit onto I-25 North and drive back to Loveland!!!!!!!!!

See...I knew exactly where I was the whole time, I just didn't know how to get to where we needed to be!  Nobody died. Epic journey, indeed!  And a lot of fun!!!  (But next time...someone else is driving.)

Songs About Me: Part 6 in a Continuing Series

Last night I attended a benefit concert that featured Broadway star Shoshana Bean.  She sang a song off her album (which I will be purchasing later today!) called Superhero.  This song was ABSOLUTELY written for me!  They don't know me, but they totally wrote this about me.  Behold:

I know it looks like i got it all together
I know it seems like i can make it through whatever
It appears that i can do it alone
But you got it wrong
Yeah you got it all wrong

Everybody need a little help sometimes
Not afraid to cry out, swallow my pride
I've been looking for someone who can handle, all of me
Not just a part of me yeah


People keep asking me why i'm still alone
Why i haven't found a man to call my own
I keep telling them the best i can
It'll take more than a man to save me

Oh Oh Oh Oh
Calling out for you
What i need is a superhero
Oh Oh Oh Oh
Come and save me boy
All i need is a superhero
Coz whatcha gonna do
Where you gonna stand (Who you)
Who you gonna call
Who you calling
Turning it on!!!!!
Calling out for you
All i need is a superhero


I need a man to show up with some integrity come flying in when im in trouble to rescue me
Nothing is strong enough to keep him away
An indestructible trust
Taking the weight of the world from me
With his eyes he can see straight into my soul
Don't have to ask for a thing he already knows
I been looking for someone who can hear me and understands like nobody else can

I need someone to take me away
Free me from all of this trouble and pain
He'll take my hand and look in my eyes
Tell me that everything will be alright
No matter how independent i am
Nothing compares to the love of a man
If what i need is too much to ask
Send me a superhero!!!

I have looked all over to see who wrote the music and lyrics, and I can't find it.  But it's on Shoshana Bean's album of the same title.  A-MAZ-ING SONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!