The New 'Do

Happy Halloween to all! And to blog something that will truly scare the kiddies tonight, I give you my new 'do. Taken at my office, by my boss, without my consent. And this is why I shun photos!

BOO!!!

Now What?

WHERE IS MY JIM WHEN I NEED TO BE ENTERTAINED AT THE OFFICE???

Another week has gone by. You know, try as I might, I struggle blogging consistently. I think I’m a feaster or faminer….note to self – put this on the list for Self-Improvements of 2008: be consistent in all your pursuits! But, here I am. Half of the office is either out sick or out of the country, so I’m contemplating whether to prepare my lesson for Sunday or to blog. Obviously, blogging won.

Thanks for the words of encouragement about the GMAT. All three of you who read my blog probably know that I didn’t do so well. At least not as well as I had hoped or imagined. And I don’t know if I did well enough to get into my PhD programs I’m targeting. But we’ll see. I at least did well enough on the verbal that colleges interested in applicants who can write well may not be deterred by my horrifically substandard math score. *crossing the fingers!* I was a little…okay….a LOT….disappointed and heart-bruised on Saturday after taking it. But, you know, after a few hours of crying and watching whatever I could find on TV and making banana bread (the perfect therapeutic food – nothing beats beating up bananas and making KILLER dough), I realized that maybe this is going to be a trial of my faith. It would require no faith if I did amazingly on the GMAT, - just apply and poof. Because I didn’t, it’s time to trust that this is all for the greater good and that something will work out. I’m hoping. So now it’s time to write essays, pay atrocious application fees, and wait. These might be some REALLY long months ahead.

Onto brighter topics- I’m going 4-wheeling on Saturday! I am so excited! My GMAT class has prevented me from going this past month and a half, and I was afraid that I was going to be unable to go again until next year. Now how sad would that have been. Happily, 60+ degree sunny weather is perfect for a 4-wheeling jaunt in the desert or mountains. Hooray! Nothing clears the mind so well as being reckless in a controlled fashion surrounded by nature. I have to admit, I do get scared sometimes following my fearless father onto paths that really aren’t paths (there was a mountain ridgeline incident once….I still can’t believe I did that), but it’s so stinking fun and the adrenaline rush is so great, one can’t help enjoying themselves. And so I intend to enjoy myself fully and completely come Saturday! If you haven’t been 4-wheeling in your life, call me. You need to go. Trust me!

Other happenings – I’m cutting my hair tomorrow. Yes, that would be Saturday. Yes, it is before going 4-wheeling. So I will inaugurate my new ‘do by getting a dust-filled helmet head. Ha. Oh well. It’s time to change something, and as I can’t change my height, weight, or wardrobe without considerable expense and in a day’s time, I have settled for my hair. And the scary part is that when I get into this mood, I tend to do drastic things to my hair that I later regret. In the moment it’s liberating, but afterwards, it’s just a nightmare. There was the mushroom ‘do, the choppy ‘do, the Jennifer Aniston ‘do (actually, as I recall, that wasn’t a totally bad one)….maybe this is one of the reasons I avoid photos of myself at all costs. I hate to see my hair escapades captured for all to see and remember and mock. Hmmm. Anyway, I don’t think I’m going to go too drastic this time. I hope I’ve learned my lesson by now. But….we’ll see.

So now that the GMAT craziness is over, I have an abundance of free time on my hands. I have to ask….now what? It was like a marathon race preparing for that test, and now that it’s over, what should I do with myself and my time? Suggestions? Both plausible and imagination-happy suggestions are accepted. What do you do with your free time after not having free time?

The Countdown to G-Day

So I’m sitting at work, after having written three practice essays, reviewed all my notecards, and even contemplated taking another test, utterly devastated and excited that tomorrow is G-Day. Yup! GMAT Day! It’s finally arrived! After thinking about taking it for five months, kinda prepping for one month, and seriously prepping for a month a half, G-Day has come. This test will be one of the deciding factors into letting me pursue higher education. So one might innocently wonder, so….how am I doing?

Honestly, it’s odd. I thought I’d be this mixture of negative, self-defeating emotions. Thanks heavens I’m not! I’m nervous. Oh yes. Completely. But I’m also ready to take the beast and see how I do. I mean, it’ll be nice to have it over with (barring the notion of retaking it if my scores are substandard) and have a good portion of time and energy to devote to other pursuits. Like writing admissions essays. Hmmm. Maybe I should stick with the GMAT. Okay, I’m kidding about that. Let’s get it over with! As of right now, I feel ready. I know the formulas for surface areas (ha – they just all went rushing through my head and I had to pause to go through them individually – I am my own worst enemy!), the rules for properly using subjunctive (which reminds me that I need to go over pronoun cases tonight), and how to identify logical fallacies in arguments. I feel definitely geeky at this point. But given all that prep and random useless knowledge, I have no idea how that will translate into me achieving a decent and useable score. That’s the problem – using the knowledge as a homing signal for the right answer. 37 times for math questions and 41 times for verbal questions. *Sigh* I’m trying to remind myself that if grad school needs to happen, all my prep and angst and headaches will not have been in vain. But who knows. Only time will tell. And as I write, time will definitely tell, because by this time tomorrow, I’ll have been done with the monster. Erego, the resulting glee or gloom will be proclaimed to all by about 12:38 on Saturday, October 20th. Til then, blogging world!

Questioning a Classic

HRH called me up on Saturday night to watch an Audrey Hepburn movie. It was a comfort night, with slippers, hot bread pudding and chocolate, milk, and a classic Audrey movie. Call it the perfect end to a crazy day of GMAT prep and I gladly accepted the invite. I arrived and we discussed the movie options. If it was going to be an Audrey flick, we had to choose “Roman Holiday,” “Sabrina,” or “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” In my opinion, Sabrina is great. But the whole Audrey – Bogart thing makes me a little….twitchy. It seems unnatural. The movie, not my twitchiness. That might have something to do with the 50 year age difference. And we can’t have twitching on comfort night. So, it was between “Roman Holiday” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” I’ve seen “Roman Holiday” before, so I asked if we could watch “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” I mean, it’s a classic. A song has been written about it. Hair styles were taken in a new direction by Audrey’s up-do. Even “Gossip Girl” had a scene in last week’s episode reenacting the opening of the movie, complete with “Moon River” in the background. So, obviously, this was a hole in my movie vieweing experience that needed to be filled. It’s been a classic since 1961! It was time to watch and partake of the antics of Holly Golightly.

Given my other Audrey movie experiences, I was expecting a light-hearted, clean, quirky, and loveable characters and movie. Hmmm. What I got was not what I expected. At one point, I told HRH that the party scene was a 1961 version of a rave. And then I found out the lead guy was having an affair with a married woman. And that Holly was a call-girl. And all she cared about was marrying a rich guy and her military brother, Fred. As the story progressed, we find out that Holly was married at the age of 14 and ran away (okay, so I probably would, too), visits a mob-convict every Thursday to deliver an innocent weather report from his “lawyer” (umm…be MORE naïve. I dare you.), and of course, our protagonist guy (Paul baby….or Fred) falls for Holly, though she pushes him away twice because he’s not rich enough for her, though he’s perfect for her in every other way.

After watching this, my first reaction was, “THIS IS A CLASSIC?” How? Why? Did I miss something here? Were the characters loveable? Not really. Was the story exciting or interesting? Not so much. Did I go “AWWWWW?” At the end? Nope. Sorry. So…what makes this movie a classic? It certainly wasn’t the surface level story, characters, soundtrack, or even dialogue. I was mystified.

Then my friend and I started talking. Holly was such a complex character beneath the awesome clothes and cigarettes. She was so totally insecure and a mystery to herself. Her choices in life were made in the hopes of forgetting that she had absolutely no idea who she was as a person. She had changed her name from Lula May (a good call on her part), was never settled down, didn’t even give her cat a name. She wanted to live the most out of life, but I think deep down realized that no matter what she did or how much glitz and glamour she aspired to in her life, she was lost. The drinking, cigarettes, constant changes….it all points to the fact that Holly was wanting something more, but didn’t know how to get it, and she didn’t realize that it has to come from her. Her male counterpart (Paul baby…Fred…whatever) was also lost. He had achieved moderate success with the publication of his book, but after that, he became lost, too. The fact that his lifestyle was being paid for by his married lover says it all. But, he recognized that it was not enough. Holly helped him see that, because she needed his help. Immensely. So he shaped up, ended the affair, got a real job, and got his life back on track. It was his love and verbal slap-in-the-face to Holly that helped her realize how empty her life was, and how she needed to change it. The movie ends with Holly and Paul baby standing in the rain, sheltering “Cat” - together. They needed each other to fill their lives, but could only come together when they had recognized their own problems, deficiencies, and so forth, and taken the step to change that. So really, this is a story about finding yourself, for better or for worse, and the necessity of those people in our lives who help us along the way.

And THAT, dear bloggers, is why this movie is a classic. The themes resonate almost 50 years later. The outfits may change and the picture quality might improve, but what this movie says behind all the movie fluff is applicable today. Now, would I watch this again? I don’t know. But is it a classic? I would say so.

Super Powers

I have a super power. Some of you may know that already about me. Some might be thinking… “You just have one?” (P.S. I like these people) Others might be saying to themselves, “Um, no. There’s no way that you have EVEN one.” (P.S. again – These people can stop reading right now because their unbelieving, cynical view of life will taint my enthusiasm. Erego…chaucito!) But, no matter what the critics of the super power secret world may say, I am shedding off my “normalcy” disguise and shouting to the world “I HAVE A SUPER POWER!”

Why might I be doing this now? Well, it’s quite simple really. I was watching “Heroes” the other night. This is a show about people born with not-so-normal nor common gifts, as a result of genetic mutation. Call it the weekly X-men serial drama, if you will. Just no Hugh Jackman or Bobby (Crying shame, if you ask me). They’ve included the normal powers – telepathy, flying, spontaneous self-healing, telekinesis, time freezing, etc. Still nothing to do with fire manipulation. I’ll wait for that. Anyway, the point is that I was watching episode 3 of the new season. Claire, the self-healing cheerleader, is in hiding with her adoptive family – and for obvious reasons. Scary people hunt you down when you are special and make life not worth living. So, being the teenager that she is, she’s in high school, laying low, pretending to not be special. Apparently it’s kind of hard for her, because she does some not-so-smart things that draw the attention of the friendly neighborhood flying stalker and bio lab partner, West. West gets on her case, eventually bringing her to tears, in which she declares, YES, WEST. I’M DIFFERENT. Then, he tells her to stop talking, picks her up, and they fly off into the clouds a la Lois and Clark. I have to ask myself, wouldn’t she need a warmer jacket than a light-weight hoodie to go gallivanting around the clouds? Just a reality check to remind me that TV is NOT reality.

So, what does this have to do with the price of beans in Chile? Not much. But, it does have much to do with my desire to reveal my super power to the world. To be able to say, YES, WORLD. I’M DIFFERENT! AND THIS IS WHY!

I…..Am…..The…..Human….Barometer.

No, X-men fanatics. I’m not Storm. My eyes don’t go all transparent when I’m ticked off, nor is my hair a freakish shade of blonde. Thank heavens. That would clash horribly with my skin tone. But, I do have this supernatural ability to predict weather patterns and changes. Now how many of you can do that without looking at the newspaper or weather.com? Not many, I would wager. And I think this is a power that grows in strength, because I did not have this power before my year and a half stint in Argentina, and it’s only become more powerful since my return. I now can predict when it will rain or snow, or if it is already raining or snowing, how long it will last, give or take a few hours. Pretty spiffy, eh?

Actually, being a super hero Human Barometer has its drawbacks. So let this be a warning to all you supernatural-power-seeking kids: with great power, comes many great and not-so-pleasant side effects. I present Evidence 1: Rogue’s hair streaking white. Evidence 2: Clark living a life of lies and secrecy. Evidence 3: Bruce’s mansion burning down. Evidence 4: Peter having to save Mary-Jane YET AGAIN from peril and the audience having to live through it. All point to the sad universal truth that super powers are not what they are cracked up to be. My own side-effect from being the Human Barometer is that I get nasty migraines that last for days…not so fun, let me tell you.

But, I don’t like dwelling on the negative. So I just revel in the fact that I have a super power. Which leads me to my question, blogging world – if you could choose your own super power, what would it be? Why? And most importantly, what name would you give yourself? I’m thinking Human Barometer is a little wordy. Suggestions?