Tuesday, February 28, 2006

When Grown-Ups Act Like 5-Year-Olds With Marketing Tools

There is this billboard for some radio station in my neighborhood that has a gigantic photo of Toby Keith's head on it and the words, "MY Country!" emblazoned below his face. I have to chuckle every time I drive by it because I find it so amusing when people feel the need to restake their claim on the land they already live in. I feel like I want to say, "Dude, I know subscribe to a different brand of politics than you but seriously, I 'm not trying to steal your country away. Frankly, I don't think that's possible. So put your rifle and your tough guy snarl away and go see "Brokeback Mountain" or something. I like nice cowboys." But then I'd probably just be accused of trying to impose my liberal agenda by the way of Hollywood movies.

It's MY country! No, MY country! MINE! MINE! MINE!

Monday, February 27, 2006

Woe Is Me

Jason is in New York until Thursday night for work. Wah. Maybe I will actually blog to fill the time? Perhaps. I have a lot of things to write about floating around in my head but you know there's all this stuff I have to do first. Like feed, bathe, and play with all the little people in my house. And keep up to date on my reality tv shows.

Hey, my birthday is this weekend! That's news.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

News Flash: Tracey is a DORK!

Tonight my tv will be taping both American Idol and figure skating. How's that for you?

Friday, February 17, 2006

Gah!

I don't know a darn thing about snowboarding but I do know that what this girl did to lose the gold medal was sooooooo stupid. I know I'm just somebody sitting at home on my couch but still, to fall doing a fancy-pants move before you've crossed the finish line is plain wrong. You just showed the world how young you really are, Linds!

Oh yeah, and don't pretend like you weren't showing off for the crowd afterwards. Nobody likes a fibber.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Rediscovery

IMG_6465.jpg


Ok, Steph wants to take the ballet class with me so now I'm all hyped up about it! I went up to the attic and dug up whatever leotards and tights I still had from my college days and tried some stuff on. Luckily it all still fits and I look pretty much the same as I did six years ago. Yay for me! My ballet shoes are really tight though- probably since my big, flat feet grew a size after having two babies. Since I was all dolled up in my gear I stated doing a series of plies I'm not surprised that my body felt like a big pile of doody. My hips are so unbelievably stiff! I spent an hour working through some stretches and barre exercises and now I'm feeling pretty good. I feel like such a nerd for being excited about a beginning ballet class but I'm an old lady now as far as dancers go though and I'm a big chicken as well since I've been out of the dance loop for so incredibly long. At least I have a couple of weeks though before I will be doing this in a public setting.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Must. Update. Blog.

I don't really have anything interesting to say but I feel like this space has been woefully neglected since our move so I'll try to fill it with something. It may not be terribly interesting but it will be, well, something to say the least.

I found a dance class I'm going to take! It's been almost three years since I've been in class and six years since I was dancing on a daily basis so I'm hyped. To take dance in Bartlett you pretty much had to be a little kid, but Danceworks here in Milwaukee has an intermediate modern class on Monday nights starting the day after my birthday in March! There is an advanced class as well so hopefully I'll be able to work my way back up there eventually. If this goes well I'm thinking about signing up for ballet as too since I haven't taken ballet since I left Columbia the first time in 2000. I miss being at the barre and really working up a sweat. I'm no ballerina but I've always enjoyed the precision and control of ballet exercises and I think I need something like that right now. Plus it seems to balance out all that flopping around you tend to do in modern class. So woot for being sweaty! And for venturing outside of my house that I've been cocooned in for the past month!

Ok, so maybe that was mildly interesting.

Also interesting: I did some more digging around on the message board that my identity thief was posting on and I found out that she had changed Jason's name to "Lorenzo." That's a good Italian luv-ah name for you, eh?

Not so interesting but bothersome for me: I hate Time Warner cable. I won't' even post a link to them because I hate them so. For some reason, NBC (of all networks) is not coming in on my television so there is a severe lack of figure skating and ski-jumping in my house right now. First it was Bravo that was all messed up so I couldn't watch "Project Runway", and now I have no Olympics. Curse you Time Warner! I need to watch insanely physically fit people while I eat my mint chocolate chip ice cream! Their stupid marketing slogan is "The Power of You" and every time I see their ad I think I might use the power of me to cancel my service and get satellite already.

None of those things were even remotely related but that's what I've been thinking about this morning. I'm kind of all over the place these days.

Wednesday, February 8, 2006

Blue!






Blue!


Originally uploaded by Tracey Gessner.


Our bedroom is blue and I love it.



Tuesday, February 7, 2006

I Have An Excellent Idea! Let's Change the Subject!

Brandi tagged me with this meme a few weeks ago but it wasn't until I saw every other person in the blogiverse doing it that I finally got sucked in. I'm such a follower.


Four jobs I've Had:

Dairy Queen- I used to RULE that drive-thru window. No backed-up lines on my shift!

Amoco Gas Station Attendant- Best. High school job. Ever. My favorite memory from that time is playing guitar for some customers at 2 in the morning who were on their way home from the bar. That and all the quality time I got sitting on my behind.

Starbucks- Halsted and Webster, baby! Remind me to never live in Chicago's Lincoln Park. Oh wait! You don't have to! (I met Ollie D. there so it couldn't have been that bad though.)

Bakery Counter Girl- Have you noticed how most of my jobs involve sugar-laden food? It's amazing that I don't weigh three-hundred pounds.

Four movies I can watch over and over:

What About Bob?- Never stops being funny. Ever. Bill Murray at his finest. (Forget about "Lost in Translation!" We need Death Therapy, Bob!)
Trust- The first Hal Hartley movie I ever saw and still my sentimental favorite. Martin Donovan is swoon-worthy.
What's Eating Gilbert Grape?- Leo Dicaprio before the Titanic sank. "We're not going anywhere Gilbert!" Kills me very time.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind- Captivating. And I love Kate Winslet. I feel like watching it again right now.

That one was hard. I love lots of movies. Like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. And Serenity. But stick to the four things! Right?

Four places I have lived:

Rockford, Illinois
Chicago, Illinois
Bartlett, Illinois
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

That's all I've got. Midwest! Represent!

Four TV shows I love:

1) Anything Joss Whedon-centric (Buffy/Angel/Firefly)
2)Veronica Mars!
3)America's Next Top Model/Project Runway (These two go hand in hand.)
4)Arrested Development/Curb Your Enthusiasm (I know I'm cheating but I love my tv.)

Four places I’ve vacationed

1)Vegas!
2)Naples, Florida
3)Madison, Wisconsin
4)My bed


Oh my god, I need to vacation more.

Four of my favorite dishes

Grilled chicken ceasar salad
Filet mignon
Rissoto with parmesan and mushrooms
Anything Jason cooks for me

Four sites I visit daily

Salon.com
CNN
Bloglines
Television Without Pity

Four places I would rather be right now

The Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Craps table.
With Jason in the hot tub in my backyard. (You know, the hot tub that doesn't exist yet?)
In New York City at a taping of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Getting a massage.

Five people I am tagging

I am only tagging Steph because she is the only person I know who won't be mad at me for doing so. And she'll do it. Well, she'd better do it because she hasn't posted on her blog in like eight years or something now.

Monday, February 6, 2006

Here We Go Again

Well, it seems someone has taken photos of the girls again and posted them on an Italian message board for mothers. For the past two years they have been known as Guilia and Margherita! (Let's all remember the time when somebody took pictures of my girls and made a website for "Sthella and Evie." Good times!) I'm seriously reconsidering how much of myself I want to put out there on the internet. Which makes me sad.


(This post is for the women on the message board so they believe me that the photos were stolen! Thankfully they all seem to be very nice people. Except for the one pretending to be me. Her? Not so nice.)


Oh Internet, what a complicated relationship we have.

Friday, February 3, 2006

Once Again, Too Much Time On My Hands

Do you think that in about twenty or thirty years from now when people start becoming Britney Spears impersonators (because come on, you know that's totally going to happen) will there be two different styles of Britneys kind of like there are two kinds of Elvises? You know, maybe some people will be "Oops I Did It Again" Britney with the rocking abs and the super low-rise pants while others will opt for the post-Kevin Federline, barefoot Britney with the double-chin and the bag of Cheetos?

Just wondering.

Thursday, February 2, 2006

I Need a Makeover, Bebe!

I've always wanted to use that South Park line for a title and now I finally have! (Most of you are all like, "Huh?" but Jason (and probably Diane) will get it and it will be funny. Trust me. )

Anyway, my site is feeling old and musty and it needs an overhaul. Steph and I were lamenting the lackluster design of our websites over a couple of beers the other night and I have decided that since my surroundings at home have been changing, so should my bloggity-blog.

So look for a new layout soon. With pretty colors! And more goofy sidebar photos. 'Cause I like that.

God Bless You Internet

I love it when I wake up expecting a morning like any other and something unexpected appears in my email box that changes my outlook on the entire day. I got a message from an old friend who I had fallen out of touch with and it put a huge smile on my face. I made handful of friends around the time I was twenty years old that although I rarely see them anymore are still some of my absolute favorite people in the world. It's funny how as you get older you may meet more and more people but you always come back to the old faithfuls.