St Valentine came to our house early.

Gina surprised me yesterday by revealing some Valentine's Day plans a full three weeks early. And I have to tell you, I am thrilled.

We're going to go see Sandra Bernhard! In San Franciso! The pretty lady herself, the fun, kicky lady, the gem of Broadway, the lady who opens her mouth and spins GOLD.

I am SO EXCITED.

Confession.

I have been in denial for a few years about something I think I should share. I've tried to ignore the urge, and have failed miserably as of late. I am, and really have always been, a junkie for technology.

How has this manifested itself as of late? It started almost three years ago, when I bought my first very own computer. It was no one's but mine. I had to take a loan out to buy it and I loved it. I still love it.

About a year after that, I finally bought an iPod, after saying up and down that I didn't need one.

A few months later, after a bunch of pressure from my friends, I bought a digital camera, after resisting for so long.

A few months later, I bought a brand new iMac, so that I could have a desktop AND a laptop.

A month after the computer purchase, I bought a video iPod. Why? Because I wanted it.

Now? I want a video camera. I want a digital SLR camera. I want an iPhone. And above all, I want a flat screen TV.

I decided in the last month that instead of fighting these urges, I would embrace them, and insist everyone around me like me for who I am. I will always want the newer computer, the newer TV, the newer camera. And if that makes me a bad person, so be it.

Haircut.

My next album cover My new haircut:*



Now in color!




*After sleeping on it

Filler

I started this blog as a way to re-ignite any remaining excitement I ever had about writing. I thought this would force me to write more, thereby make me a better writer, and all around a happier person. This purpose has not been served lately, but I honestly have very little to talk about beyond work, and we all know the golden rule of blogging - don't talk about work.

So, just to have something to post, I'm going to post our proposed schedule for this weekend. Originally, gina and I talked about going up the coast to Cambria, but then we kept making tentative plans, "well, if we're in town, we can do that," and so we just decided to to scrap the trip and follow through with some plans. I've been not feeling well for the better part of the past two months, and I'm finally healthy and not traveling for work, so it's probably better that we reconnect with some people we haven't seen in forever.

Friday
I have a comp day Friday. One of the best parts of my job is that if I work on a weekend, I get to take a corresponding weekday off. I have two comp days from this past weekend, so I'm taking one on Friday.

10am - Haircut. I usually get my hair cut only twice a year. On that schedule, I'm four months away from needing one, but the more money I make older I get, I like to treat myself to more services which I once considered luxuries - massages, pedicures, expensive haircuts, and the like. Truthfully, once you've paid $140 for a haircut, and you've seen what a haircut like that looks like, it's hard to ever go back to reasonably priced haircuts. (Luckily, thanks to Liz, I've found a fantastic gal that charges me significantly less than that for a pretty rad cut.)

Post haircut - Hanging with my college friend, also named Gina. I call her little Gina, or Gigischmack (a family nickname), or the littlest Gina. She'll be in town from Seattle - I'm beyond excited!!

Dinner time - Hopefully, dinner with the littlest Gina, her boyfriend Dan (whom* I have yet to meet), and my gina.

Post dinner - Sopranos, then sleep.

Saturday
8am - gina has an 8 mile run for the marathon training. I will be sleeping, and then perhaps cleaning.

Post run and Starbucks - I think we're going to head to Ontario, (California, not Canada) where a fellow Hubbard High alumnus lives with her hubby and 3 kids. This girl graduated with gina, and I remember her, but she doesn't remember me. Another HHS alumnus will be in town, and they want us to come out there and hang out for a few hours.

Saturday evening - Dinner with older, more mature friends. Homeowners and the like.

Saturday after dinner - Possible birthday party in the south bay.

Sunday
Hopefully 11am - Possible brunch with Courtney's parents? (Courtney = one of gina's bestest friends)

12pm - Hopefully watching the Saints game with friends

6:00pm - Dinner in the south bay with Christian and Lindsay at a place where the artichokes are apparently to die for, truly.

Sunday evening, after dinner - Sopranos, then sleep.

Sadly, gina has to head back to work on Monday, while I will be enjoying another comp day.

If you've read all the way to the end of this, answer the following question: is it better to post uninteresting stuff, or nothing at all?

Made.

About six months ago, my friend Kim gave us the first and second season of The Sopranos to watch whenever we had time. The Sopranos is a show I had maybe seen three scenes of over the years. I wasn’t purposely avoiding it, but I felt like it was a show that if you don’t see it from the beginning, it’s not really worth watching. And it started when I was in college, back in the days when I never watched TV, so I never saw it.

Of course, everyone stones me when I mention I’ve never seen it. Finally, about a week ago, gina and I popped in the first disc of the first season to see what was what. Not surprisingly, we’re hooked. I haven’t been this addicted since Lost was on DVD, but I feel like this is even worse because gina and I have both fallen head over heels in TV love with Lorraine Bracco, who plays Dr. Jennifer Melfi on the show. I’ve had dreams almost every night for the past week about being involved in murder plots or other various illegal activities, and also one PG-13 dream about Dr. Melfi herself.

As I tend to do, I’ve been sharing my obsession with a few choice people, including my friend Joey at work, who is also a big fan of the show. She’s part of the Coffee Time crew, and because I think she’s hilarious, I have a habit of trying to make her laugh more than she’s ever laughed before. It usually works, but today, another Coffee Time girl, Liz, stole my thunder.

I can’t remember what we were talking about, but I was being my usual stupid sarcastic self, trying to make the girls laugh, probably sounding mean about something or other.

Joey said, “Now, Katie, Dr. Melfi wouldn’t approve of you saying that.”

I gasped. “How do you know what I’m thinking about every second of every day?!?”

She laughed, and then Liz said, completely seriously, “Wait, do you guys go to the same doctor?”

What the hell?

I suppose I can't have everything I want.

Last season, Texas beat USC in the Rose Bowl and thus snapped an annoying winning streak in an instant classic.

Then, USC lost this past season to the unranked Oregon State Beavers. HAHAHA!

Additionally, Ohio State had an undefeated season this past year, including the defeat of the Michigan Wolverines, a team just as talented and tough as the Buckeyes.

To top it off, USC LOST TO UCLA, in my second favorite game of the year!! (Top favorite: OSU v Michigan)

But sadly, with the Bowl season truly upon us, nothing good has happened for any team I like. I rooted for Michigan in the Rose Bowl because I think their team is better than USC. Michigan lost.

I rooted for Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl because I love Notre Dame. They lost - 41 to 14 (an eerie foreshadowing).

Then, in an unthinkable nightmare, the undefeated Ohio State Buckeyes got SPANKED by the Flordia Gators last night. 41 to 14. One of Ohio's star players was injured early in the game, and that seemed to throw off the entire team. There was little to no pass protection, and the defense was nothing if not asleep. Because the QB kept getting SACKED, OSU only managed something like 84 yards on the night. It was terrible and embarrassing.

Is it next season yet?

The One Where I Describe Worrying

Last night, as we were watching ER, I started to notice something wrong with my vision. There was an amoeba-like creature floating in my line of sight, and it moved when I moved, and turned black (but still visible) whenever I blinked. It kept growing, until finally it got so irritating I had to get up and do something else. The kitchen still needed cleaned, so I decided I'd do that. As I began washing the dishes, the amoeba-like creature kept growing, until finally, I really couldn't see the stuff I was washing OFF the dishes. I could see that I was holding a plate, but I couldn't see where exactly I needed to scrub the most.

My immediate reaction was that I was getting a migraine. I've had two or three in my life, all in 10th grade, and the diagnosis of stress-related migraine made sense back then. I hated being 15. Seriously. Anyway, the beginning of them always started with something weird happening with my vision. The problem with what was happening last night was that there was no accompanying headache, but rather the vision kept getting worse and worse.

This was my train of thought as I powered through the dishes that I couldn't see:

"Please let my head start hurting. Please let this be a migraine. Oh my god, what if it's not? What if I'm going blind? Should gina take me to the hospital right now? No, I'm sure I'm not going blind. Let me just go to bed and see how I feel in the morning. But what if I can't see in the morning? What if it's too late for them to fix it? What if I'm really going blind? Oh my GOD, I've never even been to Europe. We'll go to Europe and I won't be able to see anything and gina will have to say, "oh, it's just like the pictures," and I'll remember the pictures but I'll have never seen the REAL THING. I'll never see my children! I won't even know what they look like! I'll lose my job! I can't be a blind producer! Or maybe I could? I mean, the camera guy could let me know if I'm getting what I need to be getting. But then what purpose would I serve? I'd have to go on disability! I couldn't write anymore. What the hell would I do? I'd have to get a guide dog. Oh, that would be cute, though! But wait! I wouldn't even be able to SEE HIM!! Why is this happening? Was it that banana berry sorbet from Trader Joe's? Oh my GOD..."

I finished the dishes and quickly went to the bed. I covered my head with my pillow to block out all light. I couldn't get it dark enough. I asked gina to bring me a vicodin, because if a situation ever called for one, this one was it. She did, and when I took my head out from under the pillow and looked at her, my vision was back to normal, but my head was pounding. I've never been so grateful for a headache in my entire life. And even this morning, as my head is still pounding, I'm so thankful I can see the sunlight coming through the window, and that I was able to catch an episode of Roseanne I've seen about 12 times.

Puzzling

When I was home in Ohio, my sister Jessie came home one night at 12:30pm with a puzzle one of her friends bought her for Christmas. It was a Star Wars puzzle, and we stayed up the entire night putting it together. I was thrilled that I found an activity that I could actually do that late at night and NOT fall asleep.

Therefore, when we got back to LA, one of our first purchases was a new puzzle. Went to Target and bought this one:



I wanted it because of the cute dogs on it. I wasn't really thinking of how difficult or easy it might be - I just loved the puppies. I mean, look at this:



Even out of focus, they're cute!

Gina and I began the puzzle like almost everyone I know begins a puzzle. We found all the end pieces and put those together first. Unforutnately, I don't have the process pictures, and only the finished product, but I do want to tell you a few things we learned about this puzzle.

1. It was HARD, mostly because so many of the pieces were the same color as countless other pieces, as evidenced here:







2. What is with puzzles today and all the wonky pieces?? See:



That one in the middle? What the hell kind of puzzle piece is that?

And what about this one:



That middle one almost looks like the United States.

3. As promised, those little puppies turned out cute:



4. The whole puzzle took us about 10-12 hours, over 3-4 days. There was a lot of swearing, a lot of assertions that "these pieces do NOT go to this puzzle!!" But finally, we finished it:



That's not all, though. Notice anything wrong with this puzzle?

How about now?



That's right. They sold us a 500 piece puzzle with only 499 pieces! Is that a Ravensburger Puzzle trick or something? It's not like this is a puzzle that's been sitting in our closet for years and years, a puzzle that's been put together over and over again by small children, a puzzle whose pieces might have been eaten by the family dog. No. We opened this puzzle and started putting it together right away, seeking out all end pieces first thing. And this is the thanks we get.

Show me the money

I'm setting a new record here, with all the no posting. It's almost as if things are moving along too smoothly, with nothing all that exciting to report, which is not to say any of my posts have ever been that exciting.

The most dramatic thing that's happened as of late is that the bank lost two paychecks of mine. Yep. Not one, but two. They were deposited a week and a half ago, and still have not posted to my account. It's been fun, seeing how little money I can live on right after I spent so much on Christmas presents. On top of this, I'm on hiatus, as is the whole production company I work for, so I can't even call the accounting department to find out if those checks have been cashed. I'm forced to just wait while Bank of America does some detective work.

Other than that, Christmas went off pretty well, except that I got an early present in the form of a sore throat. Merry Christmas! I'm still coughing, but it seems it's related to my random adult-onset asthma as opposed to any illness.

I guess I have more to talk about, but I don't want to lump it all in one post, so maybe I'll actually update again tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a picture of our Christmas cookies we made this year: