But this is $2.22...

So I go to Dunkin Donuts this morning for my coffee, having taken the E train which lets me off on 8th Avenue. The line is huge, but I decide that I can use the valuable time to clean out my wallet. Finally, I get to the counter, present my $1 coupon (thanks, Mom!) and ask for a large French Vanilla with milk and a Splenda. You with me so far?

She rings me up - $2.22. And stares at me. "$2.22, please."

I look at her and figure I'll start out polite. "Oh, I gave you a $1 coupon."

She stares blankly at me, so I gesture to the coupon, clearly marked $1 off, with the cute little Dunkin' Donuts logo and a coffee cup diecut on the coupon. She stares at it, looks at me, and says - wait for it - "But this is $2.22."

DID SHE THINK I WAS GIVING HER A PRESENT?

"Yes," I say, using my Mommy voice on her, "But if you take $1 off of that, wouldn't it be $1.22?"

She stares at me.

I give her $5.25 (to further rock her world), and somehow, she manages to give me $4.03 change. I leave, shaking my head and wondering about the hiring practices at Dunkin' Donuts.

Stockholm meets New York!

My friend Helene is coming in; she should be arriving in a few hours, actually. I haven't seen her since my wedding day, which is completely nuts. It's going to be a blast having her here all week. I'm going to see what her schedule looks like (she's got sightseeing to do, and brought her friend with her, who I think is on her maiden voyage to The Big Apple, let alone the fact that my family will most likely swarm her like a bunch of excited bees) on the weekend, and hopefully get everyone to meet her on Saturday evening.

Now I just have to get back to Stockholm, which is one my favorite places in the world (at least, the world I've seen so far). Gamla Stan is the greatest place to visit if you're a medieval history buff, and it's been far too long since I've dragged Gab down the narrow streets in search of a nice, hot cup of hot chocolate and a drafty castle basement. And don't get me started on the chocolate.

"It's like Elton John went deaf."

-- so sayeth my friend David, after seeing Lestat on Broadway (music is by Elton John and Bernie Taupin).

What's Cooking?

Actually, we are - Nancy and I have decided that our next Girls' Outing should be a class at ICE. And should involve desserts. We've got Pies, Cupcake Workshops, BISCOTTI UNLIMITED, Comfort Desserts, Tarts - who's with us? C'mon, you know you want to go. And you know you want to make Biscotti. I mean, you know you want to have a fun day out with the girls and make something fun and tasty. (Like biscotti...)

Let's narrow a day down and do this!! Except for the Low-Fat Baking. If I'm baking, I'm in for full-fat butter, whole milk and pure sugar. Otherwise really, where's the joy?

Requisite Television Post

Who watched 24 last night? I need to get some polling software going on this blog, but in the meantime, just post a comment if you want.

Who's next?
- Sec'y of Defense James Heller
- President Logan
- Wayne Palmer
- The First Lady (Martha Logan)
- Audrey Raines

No new Lost this week - are they trying to kill us?

Is Widmore Labs:
- a division of the Dharma Corporation
- the manufacturer of Hurley's meds when he was in the asylum
- a and b
- neither a nor b

Should I:
- stop goofing off and get back to work
- have another cup of coffee
- take a nap under my bench
- all of the above

Tiresome Tuesdays

I'm tired and cranky. But I did manage to fit in a workout this morning; 20 minutes of aerobics and 20 of weight training. I am fitting into those Bermuda shorts this summer! (Technically, I fit them now but they're snug, I want those suckers baggy).

All the coffee in the world isn't making a dent today. Bleah.

I am excited, though, because I made my very first appointment for BookExpo. Whoo hoo! For anyone who doesn't know what BookExpo is, it's basically the promised land. Okay, it's the biggest book convention in the U.S. each year. But everyone is there. The freebies are free-flowing. There are books and publishers as far as the eye can see. I love books. ::drool:: So I'm going, representing Cosimo, and meeting so far with our print-on-demand supplier. So it's exciting.

Little things happen and make me feel good. Today, it was a conference call with the print on demand supplier, talking books and industry talk and having the nicest feeling that I know what I'm doing again.

So why am I cranky? Nature's reasons. ;-)

Still moderating my lonely Rego Park message board on ClubMom. You can hear the crickets. I'm going to try and appeal to some parents in the next issue of the Parents Voice, the PS139 parents newsletter. I finally get an actual message board to moderate and no one posts!

Still struggling through the accursed Winkie, which has to be one of the most mind-numbing books I've read to date. I have to get through the last of it this weekend so I can write the reader report and get it out the door. I have to finish Queen of this Realm, I've been reading it for months! There are books piling up!

Severe Case of the Mondays...

I am completely blah today. Cannot get myself in action. Of course, having a bagel for lunch probably doesn't help. I think I have some salad sitting in the fridge, if I can just drag myself the four steps over to it and prepare it.

So sleepy. And cranky. Mondays and PMS - never a good combo.

Post-Easter

So life post-Easter has finally started settling in. There are Lindt truffles in my home, so I need the patience and willpower of a monk right now. I got up and did back to back Denise Austin workouts this morning, so hopefully that will keep my brain on the right track and out of the bag of Lindt...

I'm an ESFP... Dominant Extraverted Sensing

I took a Myers-Briggs Personality test after seeing Lauren's post and here's what I've got.

Extraverted sensing types are pragmatic and realistic with a zest for living life to the fullest by way of multiplying experiences. Always on the alert for what needs immediate attention or what might provide a bit of action, excitement or entertainment, they engage quickly with their environment. They seek and enjoy freedom, are good-natured, direct, and tolerant and are often the ones who provide levity.

They have a way with dealing with people on a very equal platform and are not easily star struck. Rank, celebrity and status mean little when they are face to face with another individual.

On the job, they appreciate having the right tools and are quite ingenious at finding ways to fix and repair things with dexterity. They love variety and are curious and adventurous, enjoying the unexpected. Their brand of extraversion is one of deeds rather than words. As long as things are moving along, they are happy. They like to keep things simple and immediate, going with the flow. They are helpful in very concrete ways, providing the correct tools or specific service the person requires. They often have an uncanny ability to respond appropriately in cases of emergencies, often having excellent reflexes. They act without thinking. They also tend to have natural mediating skills.

They are attuned to the environment and the myriad colours, textures, sounds, beauty and the sensuousness of it all. They are quite graceful and agile while moving through their environment. They love having fun and if things are too quiet they may provide the entertainment or distraction. They learn by imitation and are keen observers. They teach through example. Their attention will always go towards whatever provides the keenest impression on their senses.

Karma is a Boomerang

I am going to start off every day with a yoga practice because I witnessed firsthand the healing power of karmic payback.

I did a nice yoga practice this morning, lots of stretching and twisting for my poor back which has been killing me lately. Felt really good afterwards, got on the train and headed to work. At Roosevelt Avenue, this guy gets on cursing at this woman for whatever reason (she didn't beat him to a seat; the train was empty this morning). He sits down, glowering and muttering to himself. When we sat at a train station for a couple of minutes a stop or two later, he gets up and starts pacing and swearing again. I'm thinking, great; the pacers are usually the ones that are armed. He sticks his head out of the train and starts screaming to close the doors, he hasn't got all day, and I'm waiting for this guy to go postal as I sit there, knitting, trying to ignore him.

We get to Queens Plaza and the train sits again. There's an express across the track also sitting. The guy storms out of the V train (the train I'm on) and gets on the express train - just in time for the V to close doors and take off first.

Karma is a boomerang, my friends. And I'm going to salute it with a nice big sun salutation every morning.

Because '70s TV for Kids ROCKED...

with much appreciation and props to The ElectraWoman and Dynagirl Webopedia...

I think I need to do a series on 70s Saturday morning programming for kids... remember when the networks had programming on Saturday for kids, and it was a treat to watch cartoons???

Picking up from yesterday - 70s kids' shows were so cool. I was all about the Shazam/Isis Power Hour (you know you watched it, I wasn't the only kid out there wearing my construction paper Isis headband), The Banana Splits (Liz Phair did a fantastic cover of the Tra la la song on the CD, Saturday Morning - does anyone know where I can find it? My copy was borrowed and alas, never returned), The New Zoo Revue (which is still on Public Access, I believe - I showed Mike about 10 minutes of one once before he threatened to have me committed) , and of course, the almighty kinds of kids' programming, The Krofft Brothers.

Sid and Marty should have a monument erected to them somewhere because they gave us a pantheon of children's programming - Dr. Shrinker (Billy Barty!), H.R. Pufnstuf, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, everyone's favorite acid trip, The Bugaloos (they're in the air and everywhere...), the almighty Land of the Lost, and my personal source of female empowerment (along with Isis), Electra Woman & Dynagirl. They were my Saturday morning!

Then there was PBS, the reason I was okay with staying home sick from school. Electric Company, Zoom, which has actually relaunched for kids today, (do I need to mention Sesame Street, or is it a given?), 3-2-1 Contact, and Reading Rainbow (which is still going, much due to to the efforts of host LeVar Burton) kept my brain functioning while I lay like a dying cow on my couch.

The 70s were a great time to be a kid. I'm sure our kids will look back and say the same thing, but somehow, I can't find Bugs Bunny on TV anymore. There are some fun and good TV shows on for kids now - I happen to like a lot of the Teen Nick shows on Nickelodeon like Drake & Josh and Ned's School Survival Guide - but nothing for me takes the place of the 70s stuff. I guess that's what nostalgia is all about, isn't it? At least my boys both love Scooby Doo as much as I do, and seem to think Scrappy was pretty useless, too.

But man... with all the shows we used to watch coming out on video, my DVD collection will rival my kids.

For a Lighter Post...

"Marshall, Will and Holly, on a routine expedition..."

Go on - I DARE you to tell me you don't know the song. Or that I didn't just make you break out into song. You know you want to. You know that Land of the Lost was THE thing when we were kids. Say what you want about Sid & Marty Krofft, but they were awesome. Mike swears that The Bugaloos were created when they were on acid, and while I tend to agree, it doesn't matter. Because they were in the air and everywhere, flying high, flying free... wait, I'm getting ahead of myself again.

So I walk into Best Buy last week and see my beloved Land of the Lost on DVD - SEASON THREE. Why was I not informed when Seasons 1 and 2 were released??? Who was asleep at the wheel? Oh... wait... it must have been me.

Anyway - SO going on my wishlist. My birthday is only 8 months away, after all.

Sleestacks!!

I Have Questions Today...

With the Moussaoui trial front and center everywhere you look, I've got lots of questions. But I don't think there are any answers:

- I know you're a lawyer and sworn to defend, but how do you try to convince a jury that this guy deserves to live? How can you be a defense lawyer to a terrorist who smiles during the distribution of pictures of charred bodies and body parts from that day? Who shouts "Burn all Pentagon next time!" and "God curse you all, God bless Osama!" repeatedly throughout his trial? How can you look at yourself in the mirror? Or maybe they don't.

- Do we give this guy the death penalty and let him think he's going off to his 72 black-eyed virgins, or do we decide to let him live and lock him up for the rest of his life? One way, he's a martyr; the next, the taxpayers get to support him. (Unless someone finds a way to sneak him into general population by 'accident' - in which case, he's worm food.)

- Does anyone else read these articles - especially about the playing of the Flight 93 recorder at the trial - and feel their chest tighten up, like you're in the plane with them? Because I can't get the fear these people must have felt (or a fraction, because I can't even imagine to be honest) out of my system; it just takes over.

I just have this horrible feeling that this won't be over. Not the trial, the horror. It's going to dull for some, I'm sure, but I think it'll always be with us.

Are there any answers? Or is this just one of those things that has no answer, it's just there and what makes you crazy after a while is the realization that none of it makes any sense and none of it has any answer. It's completely without reason or logic and that's what causes the chaos in my brain, because I need for things to be tied up to go on. Mike always tells me that if I just started accepting that sometimes, things don't have closure or don't make sense, I'd be a lot calmer. White it's nice in theory, in practice I just can't wrap my brain around it.

I don't even watch this show...




Your TV Mom is Lorelai Gilmore

Which TV Mom Are You?

Brought to you by Tickle

I don't watch Gilmore Girls, but somehow I've ended up being Lorelai.

Can you tell it's an exciting day at work for me? ;-)

What Happened to Kyan??




You need a date with Jai


Which Queer Eye Is Right for You?

Brought to you by Tickle

Why do I get stuck with Jai?

Ouch

Sidelined with a pulled calf muscle this morning. I'll try to stop sitting on my leg and see if it feels better in time for a yoga session when I get home from school tonight.

MIL was there as per usual this morning, for which I'm grateful, don't get me wrong. But she just sits there like a bump on a log while watching me run around like a lunatic trying to get my son moving, myself showered and dressed, and the two of us fed. Then, as I'm doing my best impression of a psychotic woman getting my son out the door, asks me, "Did you bring your lunch, Roe?" Instead of any of the first three responses that popped into my head, I evenly responded, "I didn't have time." And left.

Augh.

FINISHED!!!

It's 12:29 a.m., I have to get up in 6 hours, but I'm done. Done, done, done. Now I just hope my teachers like what I've written.

I've eaten more comfort food this weekend than I have in eons, and only worked out once or twice. I've fallen off my Self Challenge wagon and I have to get back on.

I read an interesting article in the latest issue of Prevention - which I'll review here shortly - by Geneen Roth, who writes on emotional issues with food. She says that before we eat when we aren't hungry, we should ask what we are looking for and whether or not food will fill it. So this time, even though I was snacking on stuff that probably wasn't the best for me, or POINTS-wise even if it was healthy enough, I was at least cognizant that yes, I was eating this because I wanted someone to write my final project for me. I wanted to pull a good grade out of this class and I wanted to just relax. While I'm not sure Planter's 100-calorie cookie packs and Hello Kitty Fruit Snacks were able to provide that, at least I knew what I wanted from them. And I guess that's the difference between when I'd mindlessly eat before and now.

Tomorrow, it's back to business. I'm not going to stress myself out about catching up to the Self Challenge; I blew off a week and a half, and it's done. But nothing's stopping me from getting right back on the wagon. (Which is another big difference, because before I would have told myself that I blew it, completely disregarding the fact that I went for 6 1/2 weeks on this program and lost three pounds before my slump.)

I may not want to work out when I get up at 6:30 tomorrow, but I've got to start getting used to it. Because I'm tired of my best clothes being packed away for three years. Time to shake out the cute Ann Taylor sundresses I enjoyed the summer of 2002 in!

It's been a long weekend. A nice one, but a long one. And if I'm going to be worth a farthing in six hours, I'd better head to bed now. Thanks for sticking around.

More Things I Have Done to Stall My Final Assignment

- Watched Thursday's episode of Will & Grace on DVR

- Watched the "Where There's Smoke, There's Fish" episode of Good Eats (technically, this is research; Alton's book is one of the books in my assignment)

- Made granola

- Almost finished knitting my niece's bunny buddy for her Easter basket

- Created this blog entry

AUGHHHHHHHHH...

I'm sitting here, trying to finish some more work on my final for Publicity class on Monday night. And coming up dry as a bone. Bleahhhh...

Let's tally what Rosemary has done in the four hours she's been given to make some headway on her final:

- Made Cream of Wheat for lunch, because "I don't have time to fool around with a proper lunch, I have to finish some more of this final."

- Watched an hour and a half of Judge Judy programming on DVR

- Eaten a Weight Watchers ice cream sandwich because the Cream of Wheat wasn't filling enough for lunch

- Finally broke down and checked out MySpace.com because my cousin Nicole kept insisting I check it out - and used the lame excuse that since one of my books has to do with blogging, it was research

- Made a blog entry here.

Let me try to find a MySpace statistic of some sort that will help me pull my grade up in this class... I'm waiting for my personal Deus Ex Machina to show up and finish this assignment for me.

ClubMom.com

Just wanted to mention that I'm moderating a Rego Park message board on Clubmom.com. Not a whole lot of activity going on there these days, but I am trying to boost some posting and get some conversations going. If anyone wants to stop by, drop a post on my board, tell your friends. It's free to join, and you get some cool points toward things like gift cards as a member. You can also use it as a vehicle for your own writing; I was published on their site last week.

I think I'll ask the PA President at Will's school to mention ClubMom in the newsletter, maybe that will get some traffic going.

I should change my message board name from "Rego Park, NY" to "The Lonely Moderator". ;-)

Moment of Zen

As Jon Stewart would say, "Here it is, your moment of Zen."

United Flight 93 Movie - My WTF Rant for the Day

I think I need to institute a WTF rant, since I'm becoming well known for my creative use of those three little letters. So here's my first one.

I just watched the United Flight 93 trailer on the Apple Movie Trailers site. This movie has been getting a lot of talk over the past couple of days, and I was actually not sure whether I wanted to look, to be honest. The idea of a movie being made about this is distasteful to me on so many levels that I wasn't sure I wanted to even give the impression of buying into the hype by checking out the trailer. (I could have written a WTF rant on the Flight 93 TV movie from earlier this year.)

But curiosity or irritation, take your pick, won out and I pulled it up. And it brought up a lot of feelings that I thought were pretty buried - never gone, just buried. Which ticked me off at first, because I felt like it was a sign that I was buying into the marketing aspect of "pull the heartstrings, we've got box office gold here!" But then I realized it was dread that I was feeling; that complete and utter feeling of helplessness and dread I felt that morning when I saw the smoke from Tower 2's collapse all the way from 80th Street, where I was entering a colleague's apartment to get the hell away from my Times Square office, where I was sure we were next.

And that is what pisses me off about Flight 93 being made into movies. To take a tragedy on the scale of September 11 (the "9/11" moniker just feels like a snazzy marketing title, which is like nails on a blackboard) and start churning out movies that could play after a Danielle Steel movie on Lifetime or a big-screen thriller is just wrong to me. We are still fighting in a war that is [very shadily] attached to September 11. We are in the final days of the trial of the so-called 20th hijacker. Should we really start turning this day into box office dollars?

Some people would shoot back, "How many movies have been made about Pearl Harbor?" And I'll give you that. I think "Tora, Tora, Tora" is a very well done movie. I think "Pearl Harbor" is god-awful but the attack scene is uncomfortably convincing. But Tora Tora Tora was made in 1970 and is a war movie. Pearl Harbor was made in 2001 and is exactly the reason I don't want a Flight 93 movie. It sentimentalizes a horrible, horrible event in human history. It makes it drippy and gooey and pablum. There is a difference, watch the movies and make your own judgement call.

I have a lot of feelings about this movie, none of them good. I think using Flight 93 and all the people who died trying to avert even further deaths, knowing they were going to their own, is a terrible way to memorialize these people. I think it's a big rah-rah movie for the Bush administration and their manufactured war. I find it sadly amusing that one of the heroes to emerge from Flight 93 was Mark Bingham, a gay rugby player who, had he never boarded Flight 93, would have been vilified by the same Bush administration for his sexual preference. (Had Beamer walked away from Flight 93, would Bush have given him a special dispensation for gay marriage?)

I'm not ready for a Flight 93 movie. Or a American Airlines Flights 11 or 175, or American Airlines Flight 77. I don't want this day turned into a marketing campaign - even I, as a marketer, would like to think I've got a little more class than that (and this is the woman who, during my tenure on History Book Club, was on "PopeWatch" during the last days of Pope John Paul II so I could time my book e-mail).

At least they didn't end the trailer with the actor playing Todd Beamer saying, "Let's Roll" on the fadeout. Then, I think I would have lost my fragile little mind.

Magazines

It occurred to me over the past few days that I love magazines and buy and subscribe to a lot. So I think I'm going to review the latest issues of a few magazines every month.

Right now, a fave is For Me, which Linda turned me on to (as did the $1.95 price tag - when did the other magazines get so expensive? I'm talking to you, knitting magazines with you $6.99 cover price!) a few months ago. The website needs desperately to be updated - their cover is from February 2006 and they've got mixed content from March and April in there - but it's a great magazine for a relatively small price. Lots of good content aimed at women in their late 20s-early 30s, and the good news is that smug marrieds like myself (I'm not smug, that's a Bridget Jones reference) aren't excluded, like I tend to feel when I read Glamour. And you don't have to be married and a Red State-r to feel like the content is for you, like I often feel when I read the odd issue of Good Housekeeping, or Family Circle.

Sarah Jessica Parker is on the cover and there's a good, short and sweet article/interview with her inside. Swimsuit season is (gulp) upon us, so there is the usual guide to swimsuits but unlike most magazines, there isn't pages and pages of overwhelming swimsuits inside. They break it down, nice and simple - here are some one-piece suits, tankinis, Boy shorts and bikinis. Short and sweet. Workout tips take up the centerfold (Iron Yoga - is that like Iron Chef?), so I'll be checking those out. The recipes are fun - and c'mon, you have to love a cooking article that calls itself "Fake Gourmet".

All in all, a lot of fun in each issue. Because while I still love my Glamour and Marie Claire, it's nice to read a magazine that understands that you can be hip, urban, and married with kid(s).

Next up, this month's Prevention magazine!