So a friend and I were laughing about stupid New Year's Resolutions and here were some we came up with.

For the year of 2006 I resolve too...

1. Moon fewer male nurses. (I didn't want to - dang immunity shots)

2. Quit my kleenex box cold turkey.

3. Irrigate my yard to prevent forest fires.

4. Buy some chaps to match my cowgirl boots.(Maybe next year I'll work on the courage to actually wear them in public)

5. Save a horse ride a cowboy (yes I have strong feelings about preserving the horse and cowboy population here in Oklahoma and when in Oklahoma do as the Okies do)

6. Avoid surprise dates. (Step 1 realize that just cuz I'm not interested and they say they're just my home teachers - they may have other plans)

7. Find out if I really had mono or if I was just really bored. (actually the blood tests already proved this - twice)

8. Get either a mustang or a car with a spoiler (you're not an Okie until you do, Honda civics included)

9. Get a job
10. Get a job
11. Get a job

And lastly - Not post such annoyingly long blog entries and maybe add pictures

peace-out

Clementine:I'm not a concept, Joel. I'm just a (messed) up girl who is looking for my own peace of mind. I'm not perfect.

Joel: I can't think of anything I don't like about you right now.

Clementine: But you will. You will think of things. And I'll get bored with you and feel trapped because that's what happens with me.

Joel: Okay.

Clementine: Okay.

So I went to the library the other day - in search of intellectual stimulation. Funny how when I don't have school and I don't have to read anything - I want to read anything in sight. But anyways I found the shooting script for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Score. I'm always curious about the writers of films and how it looked on paper and how it got from the paper to the screen. I just love the process and seeing how all the people involved make something from someone's creation that they put on paper. I'm always curious who was the genious that made it all work together or if there were many geniuses - if the script was not so great but the director was fabulous or if the director and script were not so great but the actors made it come alive or if the line they said really was in the script or if they improvised.

Anyway - I love Michel Gondry so here is my promised tribute to him. I won't say much he is a genius. I already wrote an 8-10 page paper on the movie but I could've kept going. It's such a brilliant concept - the writing, the editing, the cinematography. I said something about how they used orange and blue (complimentary colors) throughout the movie in my paper and my TA liked that and he used it in lab when we talked about costumes and set design. Cool eh? It's such a complicated high concept plot but they made it work and I'm just blown away. I see something new everytime I see it - brilliance. The script came with an interview with Charlie Kaufman. I think he's brilliant - I'm not saying I like all his stuff but he's very talented. It was cool to talk about how he tried to make it real and how he devised the voiceovers and intersecting plots. Kaufman did an experiement with his wife. He taped them talking at a restaurant and then they both listened to it later and talked about what they were thinking or feeling about at the time and how their perceptions differed.

I also found a book called "Careers for kids who like writing." It was a whim but I couldn't put it down. There was an occupational survey - I checked all of the writing ones like - reading everything in sight, interviewing people, writing down stories your grandparents told when they were young (I found my grampa's journal and it was empty and I was so sad.), write in a journal about all your secret thoughts and ideas and lastly hangs around bookstores and libraries - my mom has said that I spend so much time at Barnes and Noble that I should get a job there and I practically lived at the HBLL.

So I'm a writer - so what. I remember when I got into the playwriting program at BYU and then I took TMA 114, Narrative Structures with Eric Samuelson. We watched Hunger, this old Black and white Norwegian film about this crazy desperate starving writer. It scared me so bad, especially since my Dad had just quit his job. My internal monologue - "Run away! Run away!" So I did advertising - a great place for competitive copywriters with ADD. Either way, I still don't have a job.

Le Chateau de Ma Mere
It's been kinda funny living with my parents. I've just learned to roll with stuff. Someday I will be on my own again. I'm really lucky to have parents that would fly me home from NYC and take care of me and pay my plentiful medical bills. But its still funny!

So its kind of like my mom and I have switched places. We share a car so I take her to school in the morning to teach Algebra to her 7th graders and I pick her up after school. I take her lunchbox to school when she calls cuz she forgot it. I take care of the groceries and clean the house. I make her dinner. The other day I picked her up and she'd had a bad day and I let her tell me about how horrible and mean the kids were. So I just listened to her and let her vent while I cooked dinner for us. Sometimes at night when my parents first get in bed - I go in and tuck them in or as I joke I climb in bed with them just to see what they say. And then I tell them bed time stories about my crazy singles ward here. "So then crazy Jessica gave me a dirty look cuz I was talking to her x-boyfriend dun dun dun..."

Its kinda nice not having to fight for any attention like I did when I was younger but then sometimes I'm not so sure I like them focusing their attention on me. They saw some news show that was talking about ADD and all the symptoms and they decided that I have ADD. Who knew! The Madison 8 crew used to joke having ADHD but they think I really might have it.

My music for today - today I actually ran 2 miles!! with the help of The Bravery and Depeche Mode and a little Bon Jovi - it was awesome. The other day I was listening to Shakira and my mom really liked it. She was dancing - it was so funny. Since my project to count bums in Central Park was unfruitful - my new project is testing out my mom's reaction to my music. I found this live recording of Beck singing Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone. Did I mention Beck's voice is sexy? And on my iTunes - I rediscovered The Black Keys. One time someone told me that they didn't like them cuz they were White Stripes wannabees but I think they sound more reminiscent of Jimmy and CCR so I will keep listening - maybe I will run with them next time - one day I will run 5 miles again!

Con te Partiro...

I really want to learn Italian - then I would know more of what Andrea Botteceli sings about but as it is I still think its beautiful. I understand some of it from my French classes and my limited restaurant Spanish. Those good times at Cafe Lalo when the little Mexican bus boys would walk really close behind you and try and touch you and say Bonita! Bonita! - ah the memories like when it would be slow and we would ask the cooks and bartenders to teach us how to say things in Spanish. They wouldn't tell us much cuz they liked to talk in Spanish about us and see the look of confusion on our faces - but they also wanted to work on their English. But this is not a post devoted to my international friends at Cafe Lalo as interesting as they were.

This is devoted to Andrea. I found him on my iTunes again the other day. I had forgotten how much I liked him. Amelda introduced me to him and to streaming Italian radio back at the good old MAD (music and dance)Library - one of the best kept secrets of the HBLL. I just love his passion and his voice. It reminds me of taking voice lessons with Mrs. Maedge and singing Italian arias and my Senior recital and waking up at 5:15 to practice before seminary - and of my cute little maltese Rascal who used to jump up on the piano bench next to me when I would practice. He liked one of the warm ups I used to do and no matter where he was in the house - he would come running and take his spot next to me on the bench and howl away. Now we have no piano and no Rascal so I practice the guitar and on rare occasion sing along with Andrea.

You and I in a little toy shop, buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got. Set them free at the break of dawn till one by one they were gone....

This post is dedicated to Punk music. I went to a singles dance here over Christmas break and they didn't know what punk was?! I requested 99 red balloons and some old school punk and nobody would dance. I requested them mainly cuz the dance reminded me of stake dances back in high school and we used to dance to punk then - in the midst of all the NSYNC Brittney Spears crap. Nobody would dance? What happened to Oklahoma did they miss having a punk phase?

This post is dedicated to dressing up like Avril for Halloween. To crazy punk rock dance hour with Heather at good old Madison 8. To going with the Budge boys to see Sugarland Run perform at that comedy club in Provo frosh year. To hanging out with Jeremiah and Matt in high school when they were working on having a punk/ska band - they would come up with all these crazy band names but they only practiced rarely and never performed - and to Jeremiah letting me listen to his discman on a band trip so I could hear his favorite band Save Ferris.To Will Wu from Washington 2 for making me lots of punk mix cds. To going to see New Found Glory and Something Corporate for my 20th Birthday. This goes out to listening to Justin's awesome MP3 cd of over 300 punk songs required on any and all trips to Brighton. And to Justin and Jackie winning tickets to the Big Ass show but I couldn't go cuz I was on crutches from "working it too hard." Yes my punk phase - good times. Maybe next I'll do a tribute to Michel Gondry or Beck's sexy voice.

Dang - once again I have neglected my blog.

My house almost burned down about a month ago. Love the nice weather but hate brush fires. It was really scary. Jordan's lil bro Jake was up on the roof watering it down and singing hymns and Christmas carols. It was cute - I kept thinking surely my house won't burn down while Jake is still singing right? We had a lot of people helping us water the yard and take our valuables to the car. Some people were here helping till 2 am. It was scary. They sent me to stay with some friends that lived about a mile away where it wasn't as smokey. People with deficient immune systems shouldn't be around fires but I was still scared cuz I didn't know what was going on. Had my house burned? Where my parents ok? It turned out ok - atleast for my family. The fire stopped at the yard of the people that live behind us. It was about 150 yds away but that's a little too close. There were some bad fires again last night but they were about 10 miles away. We could see orange in the distance and smell smoke for awhile but we were ok. My dad went to help some of his friends that lived over that way.

I still have no job, but things are looking better. I'm actually healthy! and I have a beautiful new portfolio. I showed it to one of my dad's friends in Tulsa who works with a lot of designers and ad agencies and he said it was great and told me some people to talk to. He said I could use his name. Then I got strep. When I was feeling good again I went in to see Cubic Creative. The guy was great. He looked at my book and talked to me for about 20 minutes. He said he really liked my stuff but he didn't have any openings. He was glad that I would be in the area for awhile and wanted to keep in touch. He told me about the Art Directors club of Tulsa and gave me free passes to their Christmas party the next night. Too bad I got a cold and lost my voice the next day.

The doc said that I have allergies. I'm allergic to Oklahoma. Who knew. She decided to give me some shots to help my immunity. She had the male nurse do it. He comes in and says he has to give me the shots on my butt. I thought I had given him ample space on my love handles to do the deed but he said and yes this is a direct quote, "Show me some more meat." Is that grounds for sexual harassment? But I've been doing a lot better since then. I ran 2 miles the other day!! It's no 5 miles but it still rocked. Baby steps...baby steps.

Pops found out around Thanksgiving that he needed to do dialysis. He had one kidney that didn't work and one that only half worked. He did that for a couple weeks. Then they did surgery and he seemed to be doing better. They thought he could go home but then he had some kind of infection. The infection started attacking his brain and his heart and then he had several mini strokes. He lost his speech and his sight. We went up to the North Kansas City hospitol Dec. 20. He was responding when we talked - well he would flutter his eyes and try to look around and see us. He even moved his hand when my dad wanted to say a prayer before we left so we held his hand for the prayer. They moved him to a nursing home in Chillocothe the next day. The care there was a lot better. We stayed at Pops's house which was about a mile from the nursing home. I found a lot of Pop's old pics from when he and Grammy were dating and some when Dad and Aunt Janie were little. They were so cute and there were some good ones of Pops in his Naval uniform. We spent a lot of time at the Nursing home. I read him Joe's email cuz he'd heard about everything and had written some things to Pops. Pops died at about 9 on Dec. 23. Dad, Mom, Aunt Janie, Uncle Joe and Aunt Laurie, and me were there. Carl and Becca had made it over early in the morning to see him for the last time. It was really nice that they came especially since they were sharing a car with Becca's family. It meant a lot to Dad. We stayed to help with arrangements there and we talked to Joe on Christmas Eve. Then we drove home Christmas day to work on funeral arrangements here. He was burried in the cemetary about 2 miles from our house. The funeral was really nice. He was such a good person and everyone had so many nice things to say. Teachers can do a lot of good. Pops was my only grampa that I really knew and he always looked out for me. He will be missed but I'm glad he's with Grammy again and that he's not in pain.