tag, i’m it! 31 January, 2008

i have been tagged by the lovely mrs. esmon. i love these things.

Five things 25-year-old Steph didn’t see coming

• Another four years of the Bushies.
• Not working in the social work field (and even considering a Master’s degree that wasn’t an MSW).
• Buying a house so soon.
• A viable African-American presidential candidate (I mean really, who didn’t see Hillary coming?).
• The fact that I voluntarily co-own an SUV.

Five things I was doing 10 years ago

• Working nights at a hotel.
• Trying to get set up for voc rehab through the VA (it worked, yay college!).
• Living with my parents. Again.
• Recovering from the nightmare relationship with Dickhead Josh.
• Listening to the radio a lot more often.

Five things on my to-do list today (but since it’s the end of the day, we’ll say tomorrow)

• Pack for the trip to Franklin.
• Go pick up a copy of Ben’s 2006 W2s for the refinance paperwork.
• Get birthday gifts for mom and Tabitha.
• Call mom to finalize plans for the weekend.
• Try to watch “Days” before we head home (ZOMG STEFANO IN A COMA).

Five things I will do when I am a millionaire

• Pay off our debts (gotta agree with the lovely Mrs. Esmon on this).
• Shower my loved ones with fancy gifts (and this).
• Donate gobs of money to gobs of charities.
• Buy new furniture. And a ginormous new tele. And maybe a PS3.
• Make Ben quit his job and work on his music full-time.

Five things I will never wear again

• A marching band uniform (again, I must agree).
• Skorts.
• Plastic shoes (no matter how cute).
• A wedding dress (I did it right the first time).
• My pant legs tucked into my socks.

Five of my favorite toys

• The DS.
• The Wii.
• The laptop (slow as it may be).
• The internets.
• (Modesty prevents listing this one…)

Five banes of my existence

• Rush Limbaugh.
• The Bushies.
• Litterboxes.
• The gas fireplace, with its heartless promises of warmth…at a price.
• Debt (which will still exist even after the Refinance-of-Awesome, just as one big monster instead of several not-so-big ones).

I tag these four poor, unsuspecting people (because sadly, the lovely Mrs. Esmon is the fifth blog I read, and there are no tag-backs…

• Ginny
• Melissa
• Michelle
• Ben

in memoriam 31 January, 2008

please spare a thought or prayer today for michelle.

oh oh ooooh… 30 January, 2008

i like to say that i can count on one hand the times in my life when i’ve worn hairspray: at my wedding, at the wedding of my darling virginia, at my senior prom, and this past halloween, when i dressed as medusa (and even then, i had to utilize rollers along with the half-can of hairspray and pound of hair gel to keep the snakes in my super-fine hair).

i like to say it, but it’s not entirely true.

dear reader, there was a time in my life when i had big hair. or, at least, big bangs (sadly, nothing wonderful ever evolved, but i digress). i even had the occasional tell-tale burns along my scalp line where the curling iron got a little too close. in my defense, this was during the years i was in 4th grade through about 6th grade maybe, when i was young, impressionable, and stupid. imagine, if you will, an entire classroom of girls whose hair looked as though they’d fallen asleep face down…if you’d lined us up side by side, you’d have a pretty sturdy wall of bangs. and what did we listen to as we teased our bangs ever higher?

only the best, baby. only the best.

now, rumor has it that the boys might be getting back together. it could be infinitely glorious…or it could be infinitely wince-tastic. either way, it could be fun. i’m debating whether i, like the lovely mrs. esmon, would go so far as to break out the aqua net, but i could maybe try to find a blond foam wig a la hedwig, and that could work. reprazent, yo.

know how i know i’m old? 30 January, 2008

i am entirely too thrilled about the fact that we’re refinancing our home and paying off our credit cards and the loan for the 4runner, and all for the incredibly sweet deal of a 5.3% fixed interest rate (or better, if our guy can pull it off and if the markets cooperate).

of course, i occasionally get entirely too thrilled about a new episode of spongebob or chowder, so it can go either way. i do love cartoons…

and so i don’t end on a downer… 24 January, 2008

i want to say THANK YOU! to the lovely mrs. esmon for sending to me, on random and happy occasions, coupons for free (or greatly discounted) delicious food at restaurants that, since she and her beautiful family moved away, aren’t as readily visited anymore.

or, as today’s little inbox gem revealed, free yogurt. and although yogurt can be delicious, i think i’m gonna forward my free deliciousness to the lovely miss piper, since she’s much cuter than i am and will probably enjoy the yogurty goodness more.

a question of balance 24 January, 2008

if you’ve ever looked at my blogroll to the left, you might’ve noticed that i do, indeed, have a favorite theoretical physicist. the good dr. kaku did a series of documentaries titled, appropriately enough, time, in which he discusses…well, time. time in all its infinite and glorious capacities, and how it affects not only mankind but all of the universe. it’s aired a couple times on the science channel (the same station that broadcasts two of my favorite series ever, cosmos and how it’s made), and i just watched the lifetime episode, dealing with life and mortality.

now, i’ve seen this episode before, and i remember this guy. according to dr. aubrey de grey of the university of cambridge (alma mater of 5 of the 6 members of monty python, but that’s another story), mankind could, in time, live to be a thousand years…or older. we’re talking lifetimes of literally biblical proportions. and at first glance, it sounds incredible and wonderful all at once…i mean, could you imagine living for centuries, never growing old? sure, we’d still be mortal in the traditional sense…step in front of a train or jump off a bridge and it’s game over, man. but what he suggests is a technology that either already exists in many parts waiting to be put together or at the very least being currently tested in the lab, something that could stop the aging process in our bodies and make it possible for us to extend our life spans exponentially.

as before, i was breathless, absolutely thrilled at the prospect. but tonight, for some reason, maybe because i thought about it a little longer than usual or i’m a little more sober than the last time i watched it or for whatever reason, i started to wonder if it would be such a wonderful thing. i’ve seen so much change in my 30 years, not a long life span by modern terms, but long enough to make me sad at some of it. the mountains i loved so much as a child are being slowly overtaken each year; entire mountaintops are being clearcut to make way for million-dollar vacation homes so that hoity-toity rich people can “escape” the pressures of life. and it’s not even just about the trees…ask me how long it’s been since i’ve listened to the radio. i’m practically a grumpy old woman when it comes to pop culture, always ranting about the garbage the kids listen to these days. could you imagine me 200 years from now?

on a more serious note, there’s the impact on relationships that such lifespans could have. sure, ben’s agreed to love me for the rest of his life…at least, at the current life expectancy. would the thought of spending 10 times as many years dealing with my mood swings and general neurosis make him run screaming in the opposite direction? or what if he stayed with me, but ended up dying in an auto accident or something? and it’s not like everyone would be doing it (or would be able). i’m fairly certain my parents would turn the opportunity down, just because their faith leads them to believe that god has given us all a set amount of time and to mess with that is something akin to sin. they’d refuse on the simple moral principle. yes, the death of loves ones is something that we all have to face whether we live 70 or 700 years, but…i mean, i know we all get over it. i’ve dealt with the pain of losing people very close to me, and i can say with confidence that no matter how many people i meet in my life, the ones i’ve loved and lost will remain dear in my heart. but what if i have a thousand years to meet people? will those lost friends and family members eventually fade from memory? will that make them any less special, maybe reduce them to just being pebbles along the road, so to speak? would i reach a point, like ann rice’s lestat, where existential despair robs me of any emotion?

at the end of the day, i think i would drink the elixir of life. but i think, in doing so, i’d be setting myself up for centuries of wondering if i’d made the right decision…

what do you think? would you drink?

my pokemans. let me show you them. 24 January, 2008

i’ve been away from the internets for a while. part of it was my gimped-out back, which kept me away from computers for a good week, but the bigger part was (and is) this. ben got the pearl version for me for my birthday, and i’ve gotten quite addicted lately, starting with when i hurt my back (when you’re confined to a chair or bed, you take your entertainment where you can).

maybe i should be ashamed. but it’s too damn fun.

ok, one more 9 January, 2008

#15 is “under the bridge.”

and not to minimize the gravity of the song, but bear with me for a moment. there i was, 13 or 14 years old, and the video had a topless anthony keidis running towards the camera, in all his muscular, long-haired glory.

hot damn. hellooooo, hormones.

god, i loved the 90s.

zigga zig-aaaah 9 January, 2008

there are so many other things i could/should write about. my frustration at my gimped-out back, for example. or the primaries, and my despair at the results in new hampshire (clinton? really?). or even how much i love the fact that we now own all three seasons of doctor who (well, the new doctor, anyway…still working on getting the classic stuff).

but no. i’m here to talk about the 90s.

more specifically, the music of the 90s. vh1 has this groovy dealie tonight, “100 greatest songs of the 90s.” they just did #33, the spice girls’ “wannabe.” god, i loved that song back in the day. i’ll admit it. girl power…hells yeah. and apparently, the girls are getting together again. i’d sorta heard about it, but hadn’t seen any recent pictures of any of them.

holy shit, posh spice should be renamed to anorexic spice. if she were in an rpg, she’d be a skeletal warrior in the nub zone. if she were any skinnier, her husband could use her for dental floss to clean between those massive teeth. someone give this woman a sandwich, STAT! she looked so good in the “wannabe” video, all curves. and yeah, normally when i preach the gospel of curviness, it’s usually in defense of the accompanying chub. posh spice had that unique, wonderful gift of curve without chub. now? she’s all bones and angles. i’d be afraid to hug her, for fear of either snapping her like a twig or putting an eye out.

but you know what? fuck the skinny. i’d still go see them in concert.

and i’m loving this whole show. i wanna go make a 90s mix tape now (yes, it’ll be a cd, but dammit, it’s still a mix tape). i seriously do love the 90s, and love the fact that it was the decade during which i came of age.

yet another reason i love my sweetie 5 January, 2008

(scene: ben and steph are sitting in a wendy’s drive-through. a conversation is droning along on npr, while ben and steph listen, thinking their own thoughts. suddenly, as ben reads the menu board, a confused look crosses his face. then, a look of realization as he figures it out.)

ben: ah, that says, “you deserve a hot, juicy burger.” i was wondering why a burger would need a hat.

that’s my sweetie.