Sunday, September 30, 2007

She has my color and gina's curls...

Introducing...



Noodle the poodle!

This is the newest member of our family. She arrived yesterday, in need of a serious hair cut, but I wanted to post these pictures before she gets her hair cut, because I can't promise she'll be this cute once the groomer gets a hold of her. She's pretty matted and clearly can't see very well... we might have to get her shaved and start from scratch with her hairdo.

My cousin from Florida brought her out here to live with us after her five boys declared they didn't really want a dog. We plan on spoiling her highly.

Stay tuned for many, many more pictures.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Happy coin purse



The logo from a Hungarian grocery store meets Photo Booth and extreme jet lag.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Godson

My friend Kim has asked me to be her youngest son Brady's godmother. It's either because I was present at his birth and was one of the first people in the world to hold him, OR because he totally looks like he could be my kid.



Either way, I can't remember the last time I was this excited to go to church.

Thanks, Kim.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Tales from Smith Mountain Lake, Virigina

I'm shooting in a very rural but beautiful lake area in Virginia called Smith Mountain Lake. My crew is from DC, and I don't think any of us fully understood exactly what "rural" meant, until last night.

We headed out for dinner at 9pm, driving about 10 minutes to the nearest restaurant, only to find it was closed. And it's not like it had just closed. It clearly had been closed for a half hour to 45 minutes. We kept driving another 20 minutes or so until we found what looked like some activity in a strip mall. We parked at a pizza place and went to the door to find out if they were still open. It was closed... but the waitress saw us come up the door. She opened the door for us.

"Is there anywhere around here we can have dinner?" my camera guy asked.

She looked at him, looked at her watch, and said in a southern drawl, "Darling, it's 9:30. I suggest you find yourself a grocery store."

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Travel Tips

Dear Guy Sitting in the Row Behind Me on the Airplane,

When deplaning, it is common knowledge that you are supposed to let the people in the rows in front of you step out first. Everyone wants to get off the plane just as badly as you do... probably more so than you do because, as you have made perfectly clear by your blatant disregard for this, one of the simplest and most widely known of all airplane rules, you most likely only travel for pleasure, and at that, probably only once every other year.

The Gold Preferred status I hold isn't exactly a "thank you" from US Airways so much as an apology for repeatedly putting up with all the bullshit that comes with flying the friendly skies.

Enjoy your flight,
Katie

Friday, September 14, 2007

The Brave One

I decided last week that a good way to utilize the many hours I find myself alone and away from home is to go to the movies to see films I would otherwise undoubtedly miss. Last week in Alabama, I saw Superbad. Tonight, I went to see The Brave One.

It's no Silence of the Lambs. But really, what is? And what will ever be? Nothing. I'd give it a B+, and really only because the storyline is so unbelievable. However, Terrence Howard and Jodie Foster both gave great performances, and Nicky Katt as Detective Vitale stole pretty much every scene he was in. My favorite exchange:

Det. Vitale: This guy's got a rap sheet longer than my dick.
Det. Mercer (Howard): So, no priors?

I love Jodie Foster. Love, love, love. I used to have the movie poster from Maverick hanging up in my bedroom in high school. I have to say though, the older she gets, there's one thing she cannot do. And that one thing is pretend that she's straight.

I can't remember ever seeing Jodie Foster gayer than she is in this movie. Sure, she looks like she's probably loves Naveen Andrews (who plays David, her boyfriend) - the smiles, the touchiness - but this could all be a new friend crush or something. This woman is clearly a lesbian.

Now, there are some lesbians who could probably easily play straight women on film. Portia DiRossi and Leisha Hailey are both great examples. Ellen DeGeneres? No. k.d. lang? Never. We can officially add Jodie to that list.

I guess we can't fully blame Jodie for how overtly gay she seems in this movie. First of all, everyone is pretty sure she's gay in real life. Secondly, whoever designed her "look" for this movie clearly wanted to appeal to the lesbian in all of us. Her hair is the shagginess of her "Freaky Friday" days and the length of her "Accused" days. Neither look is very feminine. To top it off, she's constantly carrying around this messenger bag - never a purse - and she's always dressed like she's hitting up ladies night at the Normandie room - little trendy tee shirts, low waisted jeans, comfortable shoes that could most likely crush your skull. Not to mention, what little makeup she does wear was clearly not put on by her. There's a scene where she's putting lip gloss on and she might as well be smearing tar on her face - she seems that unaccustomed to such trappings as lip gloss. The look in her eyes is, "Okay, it's just like chapstick, only with a wand instead of a tube. You can DO this, Jodie."

I used to think Jodie was getting hotter with every movie she made. Turns out, she's just getting gayer... which for me, equals hotter.

Friday, September 07, 2007

Life without a bonus room.

I don't talk a lot about work on this blog, for very good reason, but my job takes me all around the world into different people's houses. Seeing how other people live really makes you examine how YOU live. And more often than not, I'm flabbergasted at how much space people want and think they need. I guess the more realistic thing to say is, I'm amazed at how much house people can get for their money in almost everywhere except Los Angeles.

I remember the first time I heard the term "bonus room." My friend Lindsay was having a birthday party at her house in Mission Viejo and she was giving us a tour of the house. I don't remember specifically what she was referring to, but she informed us that the location of such-and-such was in the bonus room. She showed us the room, and boy howdy, was it a bonus room. There was no other way to describe it. It literally had no purpose but to be full of all the bonus stuff you happen to own. Lindsay's had two guitars, a drum set, a bar, and a pull down movie screen projector setup. My reaction was simply to say, "Bonus!"

Many of these houses I see all over the country, specifically in the middle part of the country, have these bonus rooms. One such room in one such house was literally bigger than The Treehouse (mine and gina's studio apartment). It was 650 square feet of play space for three small children.

It's impossible for me to see these houses and wonder what mine and gina's life would be like if we owned one of these houses. These houses that are 3000+ square feet. I can't say that these houses are too big, or too extravagant, because they're priced lower than our 1000 square foot condo. There's something to be said for having that much space. People say they need it, but the truth is, they want it. And who wouldn't?

I just can't wrap my head around that much space. I grew up in a house with a mom, a dad, two sisters, 1100 square feet, three bedrooms, and one bathroom. I remember specifically having to announce to the whole house, "I'm going to take a shower now, please don't anyone run any water," and then STORMING out of the bathroom in a towel into the kitchen and yelling at my mom, "I had ONE request, to NOT run any water, could you not wait FIVE MINUTES to do the dishes??" (That was clearly during my bitchy phase.) I remember having to strategically plan when to wake up so that I could have enough bathroom time before or after my mom, but never during, because the bathroom was extremely small (who knew there was such a thing as a DOUBLE VANITY?), and my mom obviously got bathroom priority. I had never even heard of a walk in closet until I was probably 9 years old... and I certainly didn't think they were common.

When I'm at home in our condo in Los Angeles, I never crave more space. I feel like we have plenty. We have two bedrooms and TWO BATHROOMS (a first for me), a small kitchen but one with plenty of counter space, a walk-in closet in one room and a huge closet in the other room, and a living room/dining room area with enough space to entertain. I think to myself, we can totally have two kids while we're living here. This is plenty of space. This is a mere 100 square feet less than my parents' home.

Then I travel. I go to other places. And I see how your life can be made infinitely easier by having more space. Your kids don't have to share a room. Your kids can have their own bathroom. You can have your own bathroom. And your guests? They can have another bathroom. You can have a room dedicated solely to TV watching, pool playing, air hockey, or even Twister. You can have a formal living room (although I really don't understand the purpose of that), a family room, and a huge kitchen with an island. You can have a huge back yard with your very own in-ground pool (my friends in southern California make fun of me for calling them in-ground pools - I don't think they've ever seen an above ground pool). You can have enough space for both of your cars to fit in the garage, plus jet skis, motorcycles, work station, and maybe even darts. Your house can be the house your children's friends come to to have sleepovers, pool parties, birthday parties, picnics, play dates.

My mind doesn't stop there. Because the truth is, for gina and I to buy a house like this, we'd have to leave Los Angeles. And leaving Los Angeles most certainly means moving back to Ohio. I think of what that would be like - being so close to our families. I day dream about my mom being able to visit whenever she wants, about us being able to see gina's nieces whenever we want. Christmases, Thanksgivings, birthday parties, BBQs... all with our families. Our kids growing up with their cousins.

Somehow, this is only appealing to me when I'm away from Los Angeles. Then I get back to the usually mild weather, the palm trees, the saltwater in the air. I see the mountains, I smell the flowers. It's always a transition I have to go through, but I realize that when it comes down to it, I love living there. And my dream house isn't a 3000 square foot house in Ohio. It's my friend Wendy's house - an 1800 square foot Spanish style house in Hancock Park with hardwood floors, four bedrooms, two and a half baths, a fireplace, a doggy door and a fenced-in back yard, in a neighborhood where people know each other. It's a house you can't hide from one another in, but where there's always enough room for everyone. This transition from anywhere else back to LA is almost as hard actually being away. It does, however, help me keep things in perspective.

(I still think a bonus room would be cool.)

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Some highlights

1. Alive and visiting - I'm definitely still alive over here, despite my severe lack of posting. I've been traveling for work so extensively that I feel like I'm a visitor in my own life. Not much has happened over the past month and a half that didn't involve me getting on an airplane. Therefore, not much to talk about.

2. Katie's tour of the Southeast - Somehow, work has repeatedly sent me to the southeast during what must have been one of the hottest summers on record. I've been in the heat and humidity all summer and never realized the benefits and necessity of sweating more than I do now. Even the triple digit temps in LA recently have been a breath of stifled air compared to what I've been working in all summer. I type this now from the French Quarter in New Orleans, where I'll be working one day before driving over to Mobile, Alabama. Yeah - I'm not kidding. I'm the master of the southeast. I gotta say though, my skin's never been better. And I actually have a tan.

3. Birthdays - My birthday is next week, and I'm throwing myself what I think will be my last big birthday party. This will be my fourth "invite everyone I know" party, and since I'm turning 29, I think this is a good time to stop. Maybe I'll change my mind, but the turnout this year isn't looking as good as it has been in the past, and I feel like it's a good idea to go out with a bang. My 30th birthday might be a trip to Vegas... I haven't decided. I have a year to figure that out - thank God.

4. Home sweet home - Our condo is coming along swimmingly. We LOVE it. In gina's words: "I feel like a weight has been lifted that I didn't even know I was carrying." We're ridiculously happy with it.

5. Teaser - stay tuned for some semi-big news that I'll share in the next two weeks or so. No, I'm not pregnant.