I wrote an entire post on You Again, hit “Publish Post” and lost all of it. It was a great post, too. Well, probably not that great. But I liked it. So here’s a Random Sunday. I’ll get back to you on You Again again later.
I’m playing the Spamalot cast recording. That was a good afternoon in the theater. Bob even laughed. Right now they’re singing, “He’s Not Dead Yet.” Story of my career.
I currently have four WIPs (Works in Progress) some of them more IP than others. I think that’s three too many, but I’m learning to be flexible because I love all of them.
There was a post-it note on my desk when I cleaned it off. It said, “getting caught” and under that “Goddess” and under that “Hawaiian shirts” and then up in the corner “Flying Bowl” with the symbol for woman under that. I’m sure this is vastly important but I don’t know what the hell it means.
South Beach Diet Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies are delicious and come conveniently packaged in 100 calorie packs, which is great because all I have to do is count the pile of crumpled packs to know how many thousand calories I’ve inhaled.
Sara Ramirez is genius. She really earned that Tony. The Lady of the Lake and her Laker Girls. Plus she does a perfect faux Andrew Lloyd Weber heroine. I LOVE “The Song That Goes Like This.” “Once in every show, there’s a song that goes like this . . . They’ll all hum along, we’ll overact like hell.” In the Phantom boat, no less. “That’s the trouble with this song, it goes on and on and on.” I can’t wait until “The Diva’s Lament.” My fave. Well, that and “Always Look On The Bright Side of Life.”
You really should go read Chris Merrill’s blog (http://doublecheese.livejournal.com/). My fave entry is the one where James does the Supreme Court poster at 6AM, but they’re all good.
I love “My Name is Earl.” It’s such a sweet show, and God Bless Jason Lee for that. Also Jaime Pressly is amazing.
Agnes, the heroine of the Crusie/Mayer WIP, bakes cake. Lots of cake. This was a mistake. But the chocolate raspberry is delicious.
Sara’s singing “Find Your Grail.” Very inspiring. I think she’s doing Whitney Houston but it’s hard to tell. Very pop princess power ballad. Sara can sing anything while being anybody. Yes, I am Sara Ramirez’s bitch. Deal with it. Ooooh, and now Tim Curry’s joined her. Best Broadway Musical duet EVER.
Some guy was nabbed a couple of weeks ago for stealing $200,000 worth of Legos. I thought for sure there was a short story in that, but it turns out that once you’ve said “$200,000 worth of Legos,” you’ve pretty much said it all.
If you put Peeps in the microwave, they get very big. Strangely, this is not the thrill you’d think it would be.
I have poker-playing clams. Better than Xanax are poker-playing clams.
Tea is the most comforting drink in the world. Especially peppermint tea on a cold night. With very small crispy cookies, because tea, unlike milk, does not lend itself to pigging out.
“Always Look On The Bright Side of Life.” Genius song.
Great buttons are underrated as a mood lifter. I have a jacket with retro flowers buttons, and every time I look at it, I feel happy.
Bob has a new watch. It’s big and black and has huge numbers and is also a barometer, a stop watch, and a compass. It even tells the altitude. Do you have any idea how tired I’m going to get of hearing what altitude we’re at?
Michael Lutin is the world’s best astrologer.
Oh, good, the Diva’s Lament: “Whatever happened to my part? It was exciting at the start. Now we’re halfway through Act 2, and I’ve had nothing yet to do. I’ve been offstage for far too long . . .” Every female character in a male-dominated story knows this song.
We have an alligator mascot for the road (my idea, of course) and when I realized that the figurine was genderless and our Moot is female, I glammed her up a little bit. Then I put her on the desk and looked at her for a couple of days and decided her hair was too long and trimmed it. Now I’m thinking it needs to be fuller, especially on the right. I don’t spend this much time with my own hair, but by damn, Moot’s gonna look good on tour.
Moot’s also going to see the Puffy Shirt at the Smithsonian next week. Assuming I can find the Puffy Shirt at the Smithsonian.
My cousin Russ Parsons, the famous writer (why, yes, I am bragging) says that the Smith family cranberry recipe is one of the most-requested holiday recipes at the LA Times. I vaguely remember this dish, mostly because it was one of the few my family did not cover with gravy.
Potato chips are a vegetable, right? Just checking.
Sara and Tim Curry are doing the reprise of “The Song That Goes Like This.” One of the great romantic ballads of our time, sung by two divas. Does it get any better? I don’t think so.
When I was home for Christmas, I bent over to get something, and my shirt rode up in back and my mother said, “Why, Jennifer, that almost looks like you have a tattoo.” Eagle-Eyed Jo is seventy-nine but she can spot the top curl of an antenna at thirty paces. I said, “That is a tattoo, and what are you doing looking at my back, huh?” She said, “I’m your mother,” which makes no sense but it’s worked as a justification for anything for fifty-six years, so I let it slide. Then she said, “How is it that you get the tattoo and I’m the bad one?” I thought, “Because it’s my world, the rest of you are just local color,” but I didn’t say it out loud, I’m not that dumb. Then she said, “Well, now you have to show the family,” at which point my nephew Jacob, who had been trying to snicker quietly, gave up and snickered out loud. I said, “Let me think. No.” She said, “Well, then you have to show me,” and she’s my mother, so I did. Then to pay her back, I said, “When you get one there, it’s called a trailer trash license plate.” She said, “Jennifer!” so my work was done, but then my dad said to her, “Well, I guess if Jenny has one, you need to get one, too.” And I thought about taking my mother to Mother’s Tattoo and Piercing in Covington and saying, “Give her a nice red heart with a banner that says ‘Born to Vacuum in High Heels.’” But she said no. Another fantasy shot to hell.
Then my niece wrote my daughter and said, “It was the best Christmas ever.”
I love the end of Spamalot. They sing “I’m Not Yet Wed,” and everybody gets married. To perfect strangers. Kind of like a bad romance novel, except this is really good, what with the big “Find Your Grail” wedding number and the even bigger finish with the confetti–I had the BEST time at this show. You just leave it smiling all over the place. Bob practically skipped down Fifth Avenue afterward. Okay, he didn’t, if you didn’t know him you couldn’t even tell he’d been there.
I might have skipped down Fifth Avenue, though. I LOVE THIS SHOW.
Okay, next week a real post, swear to God. In the meantime, always look on the bright side of life.
And if you ever get the chance to see Sara Ramirez in ANYTHING, go.
Love the ‘potato chips’ question and your comment about ‘Earl’, Jamie is amazing on it, I agree.
Man, I need a tattoo like that. Instead of vacuuming in high heels, though, mine would say Born to Eat Chocolate and Wear Sweat Pants. 🙂
My husband just got back from four days in New York City, at an attorney seminar. He was treated to showings of both “Spamalot” and “The Producers.” Plus, the Palm restaurant and that other steak restaurant with two names.
When he came home Saturday, he mumbled he was tired, said ‘hi’ to the kids and the dog and fell asleep.
It’s a miracle he still lives. But I needed someone to walk the dog.
Mine has my kids names worked into tribal- which is my official excuse for not having any more kids. It would throw off my tattoo if I added another name. (Besides- they’re both house-broken- I ain’t about to start over.)
Following this post was like trying to understand children after a birthday party w/ too much cake and ice cream. And you couldn’t write a bad post if your life depended on it. Good luck w/ the WIP(s).
Dear Jenny,
Please, please before you go on your extended tour go to http://www.airhealth.org and learn about prevention for traveler’s thrombosis.
As someone who is recovering from a dvt (non-airline related) trust me, you DON’T want one — EVER!
With much affection,
Carol
P.S. Please pass this on to Bob as well.
Great post! And that is a handy cookie feature. If alarming.
In case you haven’t come across it, you should really check out the Peep Research Institute: http://www.peepresearch.org/
Especially the page on Fear Response in Peeps. (Warning: eye-gougingly bright yellow pages. But entertaining.)
I haven’t seen Spamalot, but I adore the original cast album.
It makes me smile, and it was good enough that I could listen to it six times through when I was stuck in traffic in New Jersey without succumbing to road rage. 🙂
I keep wondering if they changed the lyrics to “The Diva’s Lament” after she won her Tony Award…
If you really want to entertain the family, at the next family gathering be sure to tell your Mom tattoo’s in that spot are also known as a “tramp stamp”.
Fear Response in Peeps is my favorite! Peeps are my favorite.
Saw Avenue Q a few weeks ago in New York. Go see that one too. I *heart* TrekkieMonster. My fuzzy rabbit with great gnashing teeth thinks so too.
tim curry in clue is the absolute movie. even without tim curry the movie would still be good, just not great anymore. the characters are…they’re fantastic and eminently quotable. if you haven’t seen the movie, you need to. and if you saw it in theaters, it still needs to be rented because there are actually three endings. “i’m going home to sleep with my wife” is the best one because they all did it, which is the way it should be. but anyway: clue, excellent excellent film. but thats not saying much, as i would watch tim curry in anything, even home alone 2.
spamalot is also fantatsic, i saw it last may. although i think i may actually like hairspray better.
I just came back from NYC and yes, I saw SPAMALOT! It was great fun seeing all those scenes from the famous Monty Python movies! And Eric Idle was sitting five rows in front of us…I swear it was him. I even googled his pic afterwards and that man looked exactly like his pic (older, of course) from The Life of Brian. The best show EVAH. Laughed myself silly at the Dark Knight skit. Sang along with Bright Side of Life. And the Diva…man, she was so gorgeous! Question: was Bob not distracted by the bevy of beauties dancing everywhere? Maybe that’s why he was skipping. I LOVE THIS SHOW TOO!
Have you tried Peeps jousting?
You shove a toothpick into each Peep, like they’re holding little wooden lances and then you put them in the microwave, facing each other, and nuke them until one of them puffs up large enough to cause his lance to stab the other one.
If two people are playing then the person with the losing Peep has to clean the microwave.
Oh, noooo! You lost the You Again post? I’m dying to know what’s happening with that. I love your male protag. And I finally figured out why…I’ve been picturing him in my head as the husband of a woman I worked with years ago. He was an attorney and dressed and looked just as you describe. And he was sweet and smart, too. And good looking. TMI.
“Trailer trash license plate”? “Tramp stamp”? OMG, ROFLMAO!!! That is too funny! And the things you can do with Peeps–someone obviously has too much time on their hands or has a serious deadline they are avoiding. Hmmmm–I wonder if the kids have any of those Peeps hiding in a drawer somwhere… gotta go!
I need to get the Spamalot album! I haven’t heard Tim Curry sing since Rocky Horror! And I adored him in that!
Jenny – you are so right about peppermint tea and crispy cookies. And the Girl Scouts’ new Cafe Cookies are the absolute perfect crispy cookies (and that says a lot coming from a Thin Mint addict). It’s probably a good thing they only sell these things six weeks a year.
Jenny, I’m SO excited that you’re coming to DC! I can’t wait to see you (and hopefully Moot) at the Smithsonian!
I was looking at this website today, and thought you might find inspiration in their many nifty items for future collages: http://www.uncommongoods.com. Enjoy! 🙂
That was one of the best posts I have ever read. 🙂
Spamalot is one of the few musicals I am unfamiliar with – I will have to check it out! (Anything w/ Curry is OK by me.)
Good luck with your WIP!
Abby
OK. Well. Potato chips DO count as vegetables; even though they are a carb, carbs are the staff of life. So, you know. Eat on.
“trailer trash license plate” Now I will not sleep. For giggling about your Christmas.
And finally, apropos of nothing, do you have a copy of Rick Bayless’s cookbook “Authentic Mexican”? Bill and I have been snorfling at the Tortilla Soup for a week now. It’s so good we can’t stop, but it’s driven him to buy a treadmill for downstairs. Come stop by on the way to your favorite Canadian writer’s conference and I will make it for you, with fresh homemade stock and all.
Back to writing. Party on, babe.
Jenny, what part of you thought you could go home and your mother would not notice a tatoo? All mothers have daughter radar and they look us over the minute we aren’t paying attention.
I have to go eat some vegetables/potato chips and get out Spamalot. I just stopped singing that one and now it won’t leave my head again.
May the WIP’s progress!
Can you post the Smith family cranberry recipe? I have this thing about cranberries . . . .
I have decided that ‘Lego’ is the German word for ‘foot injury’. If you ever want to see $200,000 worth of Legos, stop by my house.
Jenny- sorry to miss you in Hamilton Tomorrow. The men in my life come home to visit. Only for them do I miss you anywhere within 4 hours.
Hope the snow doesn’t upset Moot.
Ah geez, that has got to be one of my favorite posts ever. That was fabulous, Jenny.