So. Been a while since I posted here. Things have been pretty busy. I really feel like my life is just starting to get back on track after several months of disruption.

Anyway, for those of you who care, things are ok. My roller derby league had its first public bouts this past weekend. We won our first two bouts and apparently scared the other teams so much that they forfeited the next two.* We had to scrimmage amongst ourselves to fill the rest of the time. It was a bizarre occurrence. I do hope our next interleague bouts go more smoothly.

• Please note, when I say "we," I merely mean that I am on the team - coach did not put me in at all during the first two bouts, so I never got to skate against anyone that was not in my league.

In fake hockey news, I came in 5th in my fantasy hockey league this year. I was really hoping for 3rd. I blame Miikka Kiprusoff. (e:jbeatty) was fighting for dead last, last time I looked, and (e:john) came in first. I'm already strategizing for next year...

In real hockey news, I'm pretty excited that Jacques Martin has been fired as the Panthers' coach: I know I said a long time ago that I hate the Panthers, but since they're my home team now and I see them play all the time, they've won me over a bit. That David Booth kid is really awesome, and if they can nab a few more players like him, and trim some of the players that suck, the Panthers can be a decent team. They just need to stop being okay with losing. I can't tell you how many times I've seen them play, and it's just been like they either gave up halfway through, or weren't that into it to begin with. Or like, half of them would be playing their hearts out, and the other half would be like, "eh, whatever." With any luck, a new coach will help with this attitude problem.

I only kinda care about the playoffs. Like, none of my teams are in this year, so it's sort of like, eh, ok. It'll be interesting to see who gets to the final, but until then, I've got other things to occupy my time. Side note: does anybody else read (e:anne) 's hockey blog? It makes me giggle a lot.

So some of you saw Kimya Dawson recently? She was here a couple weeks ago. Here are a couple pics for you:




Her show was a benefit for this organization in Miami: It was in a boat house, which was open on one side, on one of the coldest and windiest nights I've experienced since moving here. It was only about 50-some degrees, but with wind chill, and no jacket or sweatshirt or anything? That feels pretty damn cold. I thought the show was going to be in an enclosed space, otherwise I never would have forgotten to bring a sweatshirt and not thought it would be a big deal.

I picked up the mix CD of old ska/rocksteady that Angelo Spencer (Kimya's baby-daddy) was selling at the merch table. Aside from the crappiness of the burned CD (and it is the CD itself skipping, not the record that was transferred to CD), I love it - the music is great!

Well. I guess that's all I've got to say for now. I'll try to swing by here more often, now that things have settled down a bit in my life.

Hey peeps, happy Thanksgiving from Casa de (e:jbeatty)! I think this may be the first estrip post I've actually made from Buffalo.

As some of you have already heard, my mom had a stroke recently, so I was home in VA until yesterday. Mom is expected to make a full recovery, though, since she got to a hospital right away, and the stroke doesn't seem to have affected her mentally much, if at all. She still has limited movement on her left side, but she's improving a lot every day. There's not much I can do for her while she is still in her inpatient rehab program, so we've continued on our planned T-giving trip to visit jbeatty in this fine city (I'll be heading back to FL on Sunday, then back to VA in a week or so).

We are eating and drinking ourselves into a food coma. I think (e:john) is in charge of blogging all the food porn pics we're taking today. He's planning on starting that in a minute, I think, so keep an eye on his blog.

Well. It was snowing a minute ago, and I was so excited. John was telling everyone in FL that we were going to visit the snow for Thanksgiving, and there is entirely not enough snow here yet. I know it's supposed to snow a lot tomorrow, tho', but we are driving to Syracuse then, so I hope the Thruway doesn't get too bad.

Ok, jbeatty wants his laptop back, so I have to go. Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone!

Ok, thanks for all the input, everyone! Y'all pretty much said what I was leaning toward, anyway, which is: of course I'm going to do the reading, K is one of my best friends on earth. Even if we are not super-close anymore, we have a lot of History together, and now is not the time for me to get my panties in a bunch. (And to clarify, for those who asked - I'm not a bridesmaid, I'd just be doing a reading. K is only having one bridesmaid, and it is not me, and I am fine with that.) I can ignore Satana (my nickname for S - it rhymes with her real name, and is so revealing of her personality, I think) for as long as it takes. I've got mad acting skillz - I can fake-smile to beat anyone.

So K e-mailed me what I'd be reading - here it is:

[box]Song of Songs 2:8-10.14.16; 8:6-7

Hark! my lover-here he comes
springing across the mountains,
leaping across the hills.
My lover is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Here he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattices.

My lover speaks; he says to me,
"Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!
"O my dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the secret recesses of the cliff,
Let me see you,
let me hear your voice,
For your voice is sweet,
and you are lovely."
My lover belongs to me and I to him;
He says to me:
"Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal on your arm;
For stern as death is love,
relentless as the nether world is devotion;
its flames are a blazing fire.
Deep waters cannot quench love,
nor floods sweep it away.
The word of the Lord. [/box]

I will admit frankly that this sort of makes me want to gag (but hey, if it makes K happy...). As (e:carolinian) can attest, I am about the least romantic person on the face of the planet - traditional ideas of "romance" generally make me want to retch. I've got enough acting training that I'll be able to get this out with a straight face, but I will be inwardly rolling my eyes while comparing my lover to an African herd animal. In practical terms, I can tell you already the part I will trip over - it's the "nor floods sweep it away" bit. I'm gonna go all Elmer Fudd and say "fwoods sleep," I just know it.

A friend of mine (let's refer to her as "K") is getting married in October. She's asked me to read a Bible verse during the ceremony - one of three verses that will be read by three different friends of hers. One of the other friends (I'll call her "S") is this girl I simply cannot stand. I have disliked her pretty much since the day I met her. She has the world's most annoying laugh (it sounds like she is fake-laughing, but that is her real laugh). She is a minister, and I have no clue how she can lead a congregation or counsel anyone when she is so judgmental, petty, and self-centered. She is married to this total jerk (also a minister, sad to say) who once made fun of me, to my face, in front of a bunch of people when I was drunk because he thought I wouldn't notice. And, horrifyingly enough, I hear these two wretched people have spawned, so there will be a small child in the mix, too (I really don't like kids very much). I was hoping to avoid any real contact with these people for the duration of the celebration, but if I agree to read a verse, that won't be possible. I'll probably even have to sit next to them during the ceremony.

What do I do? I don't want to leave K casting about for someone else to do this reading (she was the maid of honor in my wedding - I don't want to leave her hanging). I certainly don't want S to be in this wedding while I sit on the sidelines. But at the same time, I want this to be a pleasant experience, and I want to be able to enjoy myself, and I'm afraid I might not be able to do that if I can't stop thinking about smacking S's asshole husband in his smug face.

Other factors to consider: I'm not afraid of public speaking, but it has been a while since I've had to do it, and this is going to be a pretty big wedding. I'm not Christian, so the thought of reading from the Bible doesn't exactly thrill me (and no, I don't get to choose the verse, and no, I don't have the option of reading something else instead). If I'm not in the wedding, then I can go to a hockey game (Kings v. Bruins) instead of attending the rehearsal dinner. Just a thought. Your opinions and comments, please.

Well, I have another post I want to make, but until I can find a way to get my pics onto my mom's computer, or to get my computer hooked up to my mom's internet, it will have to wait.

We don't have a TV at home right now - got rid of our crappy ancient set when we left Syracuse, and we haven't replaced it yet. We're not really TV watchers, so the only time we miss it is when we want to watch a DVD and we have to pull out my husband's laptop and set it on the coffee table... Anyway, when I'm home visiting my mom and Nana is about the only time I see TV anymore. TV, especially when you haven't watched it in a while, is truly terrifying.

But I did watch an episode of Globe Trekker today, just for (e:jbeatty) (who totally loves that show and wants to be on it - someone help him make a demo reel already, he'd be great).

BTW - when did my husband get an account at this site?? I know he did it just to be able to comment on (e:jbeatty) 's blog, but still. You'd think he could have at least told me. Oh, this is him: (e:john)

This trip I've been finding some weird connections between me and my grandparents... I found an old notebook of my maternal grandfather's, and it's just crammed with little scribblings and notes and lists - and I've got a ton of little notebooks and scraps of paper - ok, I need to pause this right now because my grandmother is driving me CRAZY and if I don't type about what a pain in the ASS she is, I will kill her, and the murder of a 92-year-old lady never looks good on one's permanent record. She is telling me now that I should be a dentist. "DENTIST!" she just yelled. And she is going on about how you probably don't need to go to school as long to be a dentist as to be a doctor (like she has any clue!), and I just want to throttle her. She can't go more than half an hour without telling me all about what I should do with my life in great detail. And as she is getting old and senile, most of the time now she is just running her mouth without a clue as to what she's saying. It'll be funny when she gets a little crazier, but now it's just frustrating and annoying to have to hear.

But I digress - I was talking about my grandfather and how I've totally got his OCD and it manifests itself in the same ways (particularly notebook-keeping and list-making). I feel a little bad, tho', that I can't read anything he wrote - it's all in Chinese. He's got shelves full of books (all taking up space in my mom's house, right now) that none of us can read - all this great Chinese literature... I wish I'd learned to read it when I was little. I'm trying to pick it up, now, but I need to learn Spanish first, and it's not easy.

Now that I've bitched about Nana, let me just say she is an awesome grandmother when she isn't annoying the crap out of me. She is still living independently at 92, she is the life of any party (you look at old pictures of get-togethers with their circle of friends, and Nana is the one on the floor, rolling with laughter), and she is always a snazzy dresser. I have almost nothing at all in common with her - except - we are both total shoe-oholics. Together, our shoe collections could probably put Imelda Marcos's to shame. She got - ok, wait, I have to interrupt this again - I found Rushmore on TV, so I had it on. She just came in and asked to change it because "I like things with people (in them)" - because Rushmore isn't about people at all. She is now flipping channels and has stopped on the CW and the Pussycat Dolls audition. I don't believe in God, but right now I'm am begging him for the strength to keep myself from killing her. Now she's stopped on Desperate Housewives. I'm sure it's a great show, but I am so not in the mood for it right now, and anyway, Rushmore is better. Like I said - nothing in common but the shoe thing.

Speaking of shoes, there's this pair in the girls' section at Target that I totally want to get. I'm lucky to have small enough feet that I can shop in the kids' shoes section if they've got sizes up to kids' 4.5 or 5, and these particular shoes come in size 5. They're brown maryjanes and they've got about a 1.5-inch chunky heel, and they are so way cute. Do I need them? Well, that depends on your definition of need... :D

I don't know how much coverage the Michael Vick thing is getting up there - I know it's kind of a big story elsewhere, but it's a BIG story here, since Vick is a hometown son. I didn't realize this, but he actually graduated from the same high school as my dad (though obviously years and years apart). It's seriously crazy what-all he did. So unbelievable that shit like that still goes on in this day and age. That's just one of many reasons I think humanity is doomed.

And on that cheery note (which is where most of my trains of thought eventually end up, honestly), I'm going back to Desperate Housewives (yep, it sucked me in).