Lame, Lame, Lame

I'm not an extremely religious person (at least these days) but I certainly would like to baptize my son. I was raised in a catholic family and I want to baptize my son in a catholic church--is that too much to ask? Apparently it is.
We've moved since my daughter was baptized and I wanted to baptize him in a parish nearby my new house. I spoke with some woman that says that at least one of the godparents has to be confirmed Catholics. These days, that's difficult to find. My hubby's got two friends that he wants as my son's godparents--neither is confirmed. To resolve this conflict, I asked my sister if she would be willing to be a stand in for this qualification (third god parent) and she has agreed. Then-- this lady told me that if the confirmed person is married (my sister has been married for several years), the person has to have been married in a catholic church. Ohmifuckinggosh! Now, I know that the catholic church doesn't recognize marriages outside of a catholic church-- but to make it a qualification for being a sponsor in a baptism? Puhleeeze. Last time I checked, attendance at catholic churches has been down ever since the all those molestation scandals made headlines. You'd think that they'd be a little bit more lax. And if the catholic church recognizes ALL Christian baptisms then why do they even make these qualifications? LAME, LAME, LAME! I wonder if episcopalian churches make it just as difficult....

Book Reviews

Book pictures are from Amazon.com

For One More Day by Mitch Albom
This book, like all of Albom's other books was a very quick read but unlike his other books,it didn't move me as much. It is about a man that was raised solely by his mom. His father left them when he was an adolescent but he lived his life the way he thought his dad would want him to. The man's mother supported him through everything even though what he did wasn't what she always hoped for him and the man always took his mother for granted--even right before she passed away. He turns into an alcoholic, loses his wife, and his daughter was so afraid of his drunken behavior that she never even invited him to her wedding. Once he hits this rock bottom, something happens and he's been given one more day to spend with his mom. I thought I would REALLY like this book especially because I'm a mom now, but I didn't. I didn't feel as connected with the character and I didn't feel like there truly were life lessons in this book like there were with the Five People You meet in Heaven or Tuesdays with Morrie.

Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
I finished this book at 6 o'clock in the morning. It was a good but extremely sad book. It's about a man (Paul) that searches for answers about how and why his wife (Lexy) died. The only witness to her death was their Dog, Lorelei. So Paul sets out to try to teach his dog to talk so that the dog can give him the answers he needs. The book is told through Paul's eyes and in between trying to teach the dog, he shares his memories of his life with his wife. The book is about coping with the loss of a loved one and the inner torment that some people go through.

Jeans: My New Obsession

I remember being in high school and thinking that buying a pair of Guess jeans was expensive at $50 but well worth it. (I had to buy them myself of course-- there was no way my divorced mom that worked for the state was going to dish out 50 bucks for a pair of jeans). In college, I didn't spend as much on jeans (I spent it more on stuff from Ann Taylor or I bought trendy stuff) and was content to wear my $30 Limited Jeans. After college, I bought either Gap or Old Navy Jeans for about $30/$40 (they were usually on sale). Now...I'm obsessed with expensive jeans. I bought a couple pairs of Joe's Jeans (which I love) and they're about $150.

Recently, I've been paying attention to the all the different jeans that I see other women wear. For instance, the woman that owns the preschool my daughter goes to always wears the same jeans. And I just discovered that they are no ordinary jeans...they're $250 (some are over $300) True Religion jeans. Even the children's version of these jeans are at least $120.

What is so special about these jeans? Are they super comfortable? Will they give my butt--which has been ravaged by two pregnancies-- the butt lift that it needs? Will it make my stomach look like the above stomach? (yeah right-- not without plastic surgery) Hmmm. I'll have to try them on and see how they fit...To be continued...

The 5th Man

So last night I was the 5th man in my husband's poker night. Amazingly, I got the kids to go to bed by 9pm (don't look down upon me because this is so late-- believe me it's a struggle. If I could, I'd have them down by 7:30) and I was asked to play poker. I'm a decent player when it's Texas Hold em or maybe even Omaha (high only) but when they start getting all fancy, I just plain suck. I just can't comprehend the games. Omaha (high/low) just confuses me and I'm dumbstruck with 2/10. I was the big winner for a while until they started suckering me with the complicated games. And then there's the games that just take your money at the on set-- I despise screw thy neighbor. It involves absolutely no skill and I have to dump three stacks of chips. Needless to say, after probably being up $60, I wound up losing $1. The big loser probably lost about $150. I don't understand why guys don't feel bad about taking a friend's money. I did.

iPod Shuffle Game

So I did the Shuffle and this is what I got:

1. James River Blues by Old Crow Medicine Show - I don't even know who this band is. I think I just downloaded it because it was the free download of the week. I always figured what would it hurt to download a song? Well, I guess if you play a game like this-- you get a lame song.
2. Learn To Love by Harry Connick Jr.
3. I'm a Thug by Trick Daddy - I'm not sure where this song came from. I think this might have been a free download too. I don't remember this album.
4. Run Rabbit Run by Eminem
5. Dreaming of Me by Depeche Mode --->Awww a song from my youth. I just finished putting all my CDs onto my iPod. So that's how this got there.
6. I'll Make Your Dreams Come True by Subway This was from the Kazaam Soundtrack...really. Remember that movie? It starred Shaq (the basketball player). I never actually saw the movie but I bought the soundtrack because I liked a few of the songs. What's cool about itunes is that I can pick the songs that I like and I don't have to pay for the whole dang album.
7. The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get by Morrissey
8. Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major by The London Symphony Orchestra. This was from the Immortal Beloved Soundtrack. I loved this movie. I remember watching it in College because Joaquin's roommate (his name evades me right now) recommended it to me. I think they told us about this after they picked up Michele and I at the Beverly Center because we kind of got stranded when we took the bus to the mall but then it got too dark for us to take the bus back... Seeing as how we lived in the hood.
9. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring by Josh Groban-- We played this at our wedding but it was played by the trio.
10. Lady Marmalade by Christina Aguilera and company -- from the Moulin Rouge Soundtrack Well those were my Ten.

My Favorite Show

So last week was the premiere of Grey's Anatomy. (pictures courtesy of abc.com)Unfortunately for me, my husband decided that he was going to play poker that night with his buddies and I got stuck with the kids. So unfair. My daughter kept asking me questions and talking about stuff while the show was on-- so it wasn't the ideal setting for watching my favorite show. I did however wind up watching it again on tivo so I could appreciate the entire show. It was a good one too...lets recap:

• Addison and Alex almost kissed! I actually like them together. I'm hoping that she'll bring out the softer side of Alex.
• Will George's dad survive considering they took out so much of his innards?
• George kissed Callie. I like them together too even though I think Callie is kind of weird. George's dad was right though, she does get him. Do you think that maybe they may make him come out of the closet because he's gay in real life? Either way, I like George in a goofy,always feel embarrassed for him kind of way.
• Izzy finally deposited that check...and we already can see that she's going to try to pay for the back surgery for that young girl.
• McSteamy (his real name on the show eludes me right now)is upset about something. You think maybe he'll hook up with Izzy some time later this season? I can see it happening.
• The Burktina relationship is a little quiet...literally. I can see Cristina doing the not talking but Burke always seemed a little more mature about these types of things.
• Meredith snores. And Derek can't sleep because of it. Earplugs maybe?? Ambien??

  

• Meredith has daddy issues. I don't know why. He seems like such a nice man.

I also listened to the podcast and apparently this two parter was supposed to be a single episode but they couldn't figure out what part to cut because it ran 20 minutes over. The episodes also take part over six days (hence the episode name) with each day starting with Derek and Meredith in bed with snoring issues. Anyway, I can't wait for tomorrow's episode. So now that I'm done talking about my favorite show, I thought I'd mention one of my other favorite actors... Josh Lucas. I actually consider him to be sort of a blond Patrick Dempsey. I saw him in Poseidon last weekend. The movie was OK but he looked great. Of course the ultimate movie for me is Sweet Home Alabama which has both Patrick Dempsey and Josh Lucas in it! Thanks Cheryl for giving me the DVD for my birthday last year. (This picture was from Yahoo! and is a production photo from Sweet Home Alabama)

Coming Back Down...

My daughter is coming back down from a godparent high and I think she's going through withdrawals. After being with KL and CL for a whole day, she just doesn't know what to do with herself. Now, she puts her pretend phone to her ear and pretends that she's talking to them. How can we [My Husband and I] compete with such lavish attention and entertainment? We don't. That's what godparents are for right?

After visiting with KL and CL, we went to old town San Diego for some fresh tortillas. I'm convinced I had some bad shrimp from Cafe Coyote and I was paying for it all day and night yesterday. Note to self: Never order the shrimp and always stick with the carnitas.

Thanks Sacto girl for giving me a laugh yesterday with the 916 adventures and reminding me about the mack chin. No one ever lets me live that one down. Every now and then, KG (formerly KH) brings it up too (FC sometimes would too but I can never get a hold of her these days). For those of you that don't know what it is, it is when you make out with a guy with a stubble and it causes some major skin abrasion that can actually cause scabbing. It also causes all your friends to tell you that you have something on your chin.

Those were interesting days. I remember when...

• KG and FC plastered conservative Sacto girl's room with pornographic pictures all over SG's room
• My room 4 roomies plastered visual instructions on how to put a condom on all over my bottle of lotion. Which incidentally, I forgot to take off when I went home after graduation and I think my mom saw.
• I peed at Julies with the toilet seat lid down
• AT (formerly AN) and I used advertise each other for deliveries or to scare guys off by saying the other had genital herpes
• I had a Montana drivers license
• I got taken back to the house by sober patrol even though I wasn't that drunk.
• I wore purple contacts and my eyes glowed under the black lights of Phi Delt
• I used to do that starving brain sucker joke when I was drunk

Anyone else have something else to add?

So I was cleaning out all my college stuff...

...and I found a bunch of papers that had back and forth notes (you can see how I much I valued my college education). I guess I was friends with people more so than I thought I was. Take for instance Greg. I didn't realize that I was really friends with him until I found all these notes. Most of it was about row politics or the latest happenings with the guy I was interested in. We scribble notes back and forth while our Organizational Behavior teacher lectured. I don't even keep in touch with half the people that I called friends in college. I wish that I had. It's always, for lack of a better word, neat to keep in touch with people and see what they're doing.

So I've been spying around myspace and I've gotten in touch with a few people. It's easy to find the guys you remember but its harder to find the girls because they're probably married by now. But myspace has definitely made it easier. I'm not sure what the whole phenomena is about but it's definitely a useful tool and its fun to people watch. Is there also some sort of competition to add friends? That's a big thing too. I could understand that you should add more friends in friendster so that your network could expand but I'm not sure how it works in myspace.

I've been trying to change the layout on my blog and I'm looking around to change the template. Once I figure it out, you'll see some changes. I feel like this blog just looks like everyone else's.

Happy New Year!

USC Wins!! Yay! I have to admit that I was a little bit worried about us winning because we lost to two unranked teams. We're just so unpredictable but I'll take the win. We rang in the New Year at a Neighbor's house drinking Lemon Drop Martinis and Rum & Cokes. What's nice about that is that we don't have to worry about driving home. I wish that we could have found a babysitter but finding one on New Year's is too difficult. Do I have any New Year's resolutions? Maybe. Will I keep them? I don't know. I don't think that I ever have. Anyway here's my list:

1. Eat healthier (I curse the day that Chris got me to start eating Potato Chips)
2. Get Organized
3. Read more
4. Learn something new