Sex and the City

About two months ago, I transferred to another division of my company. Ultimately wanting to be a part of logistics, I accepted a position in receiving. This allowed me to dress in jeans and tennis shoes everyday.

You might think that dressing down everyday at work is a wonderful thing. However, I have since found that the way you dress at work indicates your position in the hierarchy of things. The jeans and tennis shoes indicated that I was a low-level worker (despite my MBA). As a result, I started to wear my more professional wardrobe and I feel a little better about myself.

I find however, that I need to step it up a little more still. It isn’t really necessary that I do this it’s just that there are a few women at this new division who have the cutest clothes!!! One is downright Sex and the City cute. She is always very well put together in designer fashions (apparently her husband makes very good money and she has no children!). Another woman is my age and really dresses in the cutest clothes that are age-appropriate. These two women make me sit back and say to myself, “ I can dress like that!!!” I just don’t because I’m generally lazy.

Clothes like that really make a woman feel better about herself. Like my sister Linda, who always looks very well dressed and matched even on her casual days, I need to step up my look so that I don’t appear so frumpy all the time.

Coco Chanel said, “Dress shabbily, you notice the dress. Dress impeccably, you notice the woman.” Although I think in the case of Sex and the City, the clothing is more noticeable than the women, in real life I think Coco had it dead-on. I have been inspired by these two women at work to dress more fashionably and take more care with my appearance. 

3:00 a.m.

Recently, I've been waking up at 3 am to work out.  Most people think that is crazy and some mornings, I agree with them.  But working a full-time job and having a toddler around the house, it is the only time I can fit a workout in.  And since I have a toddler, I have to work out to keep up with him.  Mom ain't no spring chicken anymore and she has to go the extra mile to stay healthy so that she can dance at her second son's wedding, heh.

So, 3 mornings per week, I drag myself out of bed at 3 (really only an hour earlier than usual since I work early morning hours), change into some workout clothes and join Tony Horton in his P90X.  It's a fantastic workout.

Last weekend, I found an activity table at a garage sale that I brought home and filled with sand for Matthew to play in.  He had great fun!  The weather was beautiful and he relished being outside.  He then helped Daddy clean the pool.

Looney Tunes

The Phoenix Airport has a satellite gallery of the Phoenix Art Museum that usually features local artists but sometimes showcases modern art from all over the world. So, while I was waiting for my daughter's plane to take of on Saturday morning, I had the opportunity to peruse the gallery offerings. 

That morning, the gallery was showing original artwork by Chuck Jones. What a gift!!  I saw original pencil drawings of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck as well as original still life oils and cells from many of the Looney Toons cartoons. In addition, a television was playing a documentary on Chuck Jones with interviews from everyone - still alive - who were involved in the Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes cartoons.  It discussed how the characters had developed and the funny situations they were put in. 

I sat there, watching the documentary for 20 minutes, laughing out loud at the cartoons, until my toddler got bored enough to be a problem.  I reluctantly had to leave but I thoroughly enjoyed watching those wonderfully funny cartoons.

When I got home, I promptly put in my Looney Tunes Golden Edition DVD.

Celebutards

Why are celebrities so damn stupid??  Every few weeks I have to read about some celebrity making a stupid - and inaccurate - comment about history.  While I expect it from the likes of socialist-loving and First Ammendment-hating Sean Penn, I must admit I was surprised that Tom Hanks has now joined the bandwagon.  In an interview with Douglas Brinkley in Time magazine, Hanks said,

“Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as ‘yellow, slant-eyed dogs’ that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what’s going on today?”

An effective rejoinder can be found here but I am so sick and tired of listening to celebrities talk out there ass about things they have no clue about.  Now, Tom Hanks, one of the few celebrities whose movies I still liked, has joined the rank and file Hollywood celebrity idiot.

Apparently, celebrities believe that the parts they have played have imbued them with the knowledge of the ages and that makes them uniquely qualified to act the expert on any subject under the sun.   What they don't understand is that they have  no clue what real people do on a day to day basis and most of them would not be able to survive in the real world.  Time and again they use their influence and popularity through a free podium known as the main-stream media to promote a revisionist history and a socialist political agenda. As a result, I take great offense at any celebrity who tries to tell me how to live, how to vote, what is "really going on" in the world, and then try to force their revisionist history down my throat. They now believe their own bullshit and have worked at pretending (acting) so long that they cannot tell fantasy from reality.

Celebrities are getting worse and worse and there are fewer and fewer movies I will go see anymore because I'm so fucking tired of them using their influence and free press to broadcast their stupidities.  Now, I have to add Tom Hanks to that ever-growing list of celebrities I refuse to pay money to see:  Hanks, Penn, Stone, Damon, etc., etc.

If Gerard Butler goes political, I'm going to kill myself!

Pantheon, Acropolis, et. al.....

I could write a post of general musings and talk about my dad's health, work, Matthew or other things that may not be of particular interest to anyone but me.  So, I've decided I will talk about the fantastic games I play on the Internet.

One of these games is called Pantheon and it was developed by a friend who I will name "Xar." Xar happens to be a Ph.d. in biology.  He lives in Germany and was born in Rome, Italy.  The players of this game are from all over the world and include 2 MBAs (myself, included), computer programmers, a housewife,   It is a game played on a discussion thread so there is no game board or pieces.  It is very much like Dungeons and Dragons - all imagination  The players are gods in a pantheon of a fantasty world. The gods have chosen domains (I have played Jove, the goddess of  wealth, commerce and travel, Calais/Vashitva, goddess of earth and death, and Arcadia, goddess of love). We get points - divine points - gained from the amount of "followers" we have.  We have a prophet who is our voice on the planet and whom we can imbue with special powers.  The game itself really has no object - no end goal.  Although I have played 3 versions of the game and many players seem to think that the object of the game is to become the lone god, thus changing the planet to a monotheistic society.  Other players like having multiple gods and a pantheon and focus on city-building.  Overall, there are no limits other than your own imagination.

I also play 2 shoot off games of Pantheon - Aesir and Acropolis.  In Aesir, I am playing Jove again (she was such a great character!) and in Acropolis, I play Diana, goddess of fertility.  These games are on much smaller scales than Pantheon and are based in cities rather than in worlds, for the most part.  They move slower and are just as fun as Pantheon.

New Disneyland Pictures

I had the opportunity to visit the park recently and I took a few photos:

Nail polish

I’ve never been one to have acrylic nails although, I have had them in the past. They tend to be too think and too rigid and I find that I end up hurting myself more often than not because the nail gets caught on something and because it doesn’t give, its like tearing the nail off the finger. Hence, I have stayed to my natural nails as they have always grown like weeds and been very healthy overall. The problem with my natural nails was that nail polish would chip the same day. I was never able to keep it looking good. So, I stopped polishing my nails.

Years ago my sisters and I discovered a product called DeLor Chip Proof Polish Shield. It was the best stuff on the market! I could wear polish for a week and it would never chip. I used it until I moved to Arizona in 2003 and I have not been able to locate it since. I have even googled it and nothing. I could never find anything that worked even remotely as well so as a result, I again went without nail color and considered getting acrylics just so I could wear polish.

Walking through the mall the other day, I passed a salon that had OPI nail polish prominently displayed and I stopped to longingly look at all the beautiful colors, again toying with the idea of acrylics. The attendant approached me and I told her my dilemma. She suggested I try a good base coat and recommended ESSI brand. She said it was tacky and bound the color to the nail. Ever the one to try something new so that I can polish my nails, I gave it a try. Lo and behold, it has been three days and not one chip! I am so delighted!