You Gotta Have Friends

This time last week, I was hanging out with (some of) my girlfriends -- we missed you Jessie and Cynde! We had a fantastic time, and I am kicking myself that even with camera phones aplenty, none of us got any pictures! Still... I have known a couple of these ladies my whole life, and the rest for a really long time (what: like 15 years?), and I am grateful for each of them. They are all such special women, and they have taught me so much. I am in awe of the wonderful people they are. I love that we can get together (which we don't do near often enough), and that we can pick up where we left off, and it's just like old times. I love that we can share secrets -- some dirty little, some not dirty and others not so little -- and it's okay. We can laugh together, cry together, commiserate, and just be ourselves. Thank you ladies, for everything, and I love you!

Pin Up of the Week

I know what I said about Valentine's Day, but...

VD Ahoy

I just want to go on record, here: I HATE Valentine's Day. Seriously. I loathe it. And it isn't just because I'm single, and this isn't the bitterness talking (honestly, given my previous forays into romance, I'm just glad to have come out relatively unscathed -- I'm far too grateful to be bitter), and it isn't because it makes me sad, or anything else. I just really, really hate it. I think it's stupid. I also resent the fact that holidays like this make me feel like I need to buy a "little something" for all the people I work with, and I really resent the fact that it costs me like $30 to do it! I think it is sappy and cheesy and phony. If you love someone, are you really saving all your love for ONE DAY A YEAR? If you are, shame on you. I love the idea of love, and being in love, and as previously mentioned, I am a closet romantic; maybe that's why Valentine's Day offends me so much: it just doesn't seem real. There is nothing romantic about pre-packaged love. There. I have said my piece.

Really, Shakespeare?

I was listening to the radio this morning, and an advertisement for a local theatre company came on. They were advertising for a couple different shows, and then I heard this: "And, just in time for Valentine's Day, the most romantic love story ever told: Romeo and Juliet." As I was listening to it, I realized that I don't think Romeo and Juliet is romantic. At all. (And I have a secret romantic streak a mile wide...) When I was in high school, I thought it was terribly romantic, and the tragedy of it just tugged at my heart strings, but these days, not so much. I think Romeo and Juliet were whiny, self-indulgent brats, and the solution they concocted was ridiculous, and clearly, ill-formed. I mean, really: running all over hell and gone, drinking "death" inducing potions -- not to mention the poison, arranging assignations in catacombs of all places, enlisting the dubious help of a dodgy Friar, and finally embracing daggers with all the impatience of youth (if they would've just given it a few minutes, jeez!). I don't know, maybe I'm just being cynical, or I'm getting really old, but meh...

Tout Doucement

My good friend at I Know About Popular posted this meme yesterday, and it looked like fun. To play put your iPod on shuffle, and answer each question:

What is your motto?
Saw Red (Sublime)

What do your friends think of you?
Joy to the World (Bach)

What do you think about very often?
Reason Why (Rachael Yamagata)

What is 2+2?
What is This Thing Called Love? (Frank Sinatra)

What do you think of your best friend?
Gone Away From Me (Ray LaMontagne)

What do you think about the person you like?
Love is Here to Stay (Ella Fitzgerald)

What is your life story?
When I Come Around (Green Day)

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Be Still (Kelly Clarkson)

What do you think of when you see the person you like?
We're Going to be Friends (Jack Johnson)

What do your parents think of you?
All At Once (The Fray)

What will you dance to at your wedding?
Santa Claus is Coming to Town (Diana Krall)

What will they play at your funeral?
Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off (Panic! At The Disco)

What is your hobby/interest?
Burning Bridges (Jason Mraz)

What is your biggest secret?
Yellow Ledbetter (Pearl Jam)

What do you think of your friends?
Somebody Told Me (The Killers)

What's the worst thing that can happen?
The Unforgettable Fire (U2)

How will you die?
Shadowboxer (Fiona Apple)

What is the one thing you regret?
Allegro (from the 4 Seasons, by Vivaldi)

What makes you laugh?
The Lovecats (The Cure)

What makes you cry?
Sunday Kind of Love (Etta James)

Will you ever get married?
New Year's Day (U2)

What scares you the most?
Dreaming my Dreams (The Cranberries)

Does anyone like you?
The Sharp Hint of New Tears (Dashboard Confessional)

If you could go back in time, what would you change?
Into the West (Annie Lennox)

What hurts right now?
Rootless Tree (Damien Rice)

What will you post this as?
Tout Doucement (Feist)

5 Pictures That Made Me Smile

A Memoir in 6 Words? Yes.

There has been a recent trend toward these succinct little life-stories, although "legend" has it that Hemingway wrote the first one; he was challenged to write a story using only 6 words, and his heart-wrenching response was: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." SMITH magazine has not only published 2 books, it has a dedicated website for readers' submissions -- you can read more here. So, while I was reading some of these the other day -- some are hilarious, some are gut-wrenching, and some are just kind of...lame -- I was inspired to try this myself, and I came up with:

I shouldn't pick my own boyfriends.

or

Stopped singing, started writing; found voice.

or

Crazy dog lady, and it's okay.

I would love to see what others' come up with. Please leave me a comment with your 6 word memoirs, and maybe I'll publish them in a future post!