Laura Cushing

...the Grassman? Seriously? That's your state demon? "Cries like a baby, screams like a woman." I'm so scared!


This is not scary.


THIS is scary.

The Jersey Devil would so kick Grassman's grassy ass.

Just saying.

Love,

NJ

Discontent today - I'm up 1.3 pounds this week, which I know is because I'm premenstrual. On the upside this means that I'm likely to lose it just as quickly as it snuck up on me, but it's still not something you want to happen when you're dieting. In better diet news though, I tried the Applebees under 550 calorie menu today. I had the peppercorn steak, which has a yummy asagio cheese melted over it, and herbed potatoes on the side - only 390 calories. I substituted the steamed vegetable side for a salad with fat free italian, so that added a few more calories - but it was still a yummy and healthy dinner out.

I swear kids think I'm stupid. Put your credit card into my phone account and pay it for me... yeah. No thank you. I don't want you or your phone having my credit card number, thanks. I told Brenda I'd buy her a phone card for her birthday, to pay for one month of her phone service - but I'm not doing it by entering my credit information into her account.

Today was my brother Ron's birthday party. I didn't eat the cake and ice cream, and instead had frozen yogurt - which was pretty tasty! So yay diet stuff. I'm not sure Ron liked the cast iron toys I got for him for his birthday - he said that the rust wasn't a sign of age, and he thought they were reproductions. Well, I liked them anyhow and thought they might be something he'd like to put with the rest of his old vehicles and such. If he doesn't like them, eh what can you do?

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I've been following Weight Watchers for a week now. Tomorrow's the day I step on the scale to see if I've lost anything. I haven't been doing the meetings- just following the online/at home plan. I'm not really one for large groups and the social interactions they bring, and I don't need external motivation really. So far, it's been going pretty well I think- I've stayed within my points range on all days but one, where I went a few points over. It's okay though, they give you extra weekly points for that- so that didn't even really count as overeating. Here's hoping that the scale reflects the effort I've put into it. I have noticed that I've had more energy, and I haven't felt as sick as I had been feeling. So that's one benefit there.

I also decided to do something about all the icky dead skin I've been having - I exfoliated this week. To those unfamiliar with the process of exfoliation, it's basically like getting something very gritty and a scrubby sponge like you might do your dishes with and applying it to your delicate skin. Yes, it's just about as pleasant as that sounds - but it does leave your skin all fresh and clean and smelling rather nice. So I suppose it's worth it. It also if you buy the right overpriced skin glop also provides some moisturizing. Go skincare.

I'm still rather annoyed that MySpace Music ate Imeem. What is it with all these corporate mergers? I had three years of playlists built up on Imeem, and despite MySpace's promise to import them - it didn't really work the way it should've. One of my playlists had thirty songs on it - myspace imported .... three. On some of them, it replaced songs with other songs they thought were similar and yet not right at all. Very annoying. I had all my Soundtracking column playlists on there, and a video interview with No More Kings that was just lost, and some band videos we shot... just a senseless loss of three years of music. It's likely not as big a deal as it fells like, but it's still rather upsetting.

Today is Aus and my tenth anniversary, yay! We're going to have a nice dinner at home, drink sparkling cider out of our wedding glasses, and maybe play some games.

Oh and it's also New Years eve, that too.

I suppose I should make some sort of resolutions like I usually do, but this year I don't really particularly feel like it. So whatever happens in 2010 and whatever I feel like working on, so it shall be.

We went to see Disney's Christmas Carol today - it was a very nice movie. Kept the flavor of the story very well, while adding some nice touches and special effects (the ghost of Christmas past being a flickering candle flame was especially well done). I chose well - since the movie'd been out for over a month, and since there were big draws at the theater complex, we were practically the only other people in there. We were totally alone at first, until a family with kids came in - one of them was unfortunately small and whining about how it didn't want to be there, until the movie started and it got all enthralled and shut the hell up fortunately. Still not a fan of small people in public places.

We saw the trailer for Princess and the Frog, which looks adorable - not going to see that in theaters due to aforementioned small people in public places problem, but will likely see it at some point regardless.

Jeanette and her friend Alex dropped in tonight, and we heard that Brenda and Gary saw-ish and didn't care for the Sherlock Holmes movie. I still want to check it out, though. I think this was the first time I really sat down and talked to Alex (who is Gary's sister). She's pretty cool - seems to like writing and roleplaying and reading and the like. Asked her to try and get some of that to rub off on Jeanette and Brenda!

We got 20 inches or so of snow that we're digging out from under.

My shoulder spent half a week hurting so bad I thought I might like to die - which turned out to be a reaction to my tetanus (TDAP vaccine) shot. It's still swollen at the injection site - next time I need to read the allergy warnings BEFORE agreeing to the shot, as one of them is for people with latex allergies, which I have. If you are allergic to latex, please talk to your doctor before having this shot because you don't want this to happen to you. It was quite painful and it's still in the rather annoying state of things. I reported my reaction to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System government site. Don't know if it does any good, but what the hey.

I'm currently reading Truman Capote's Other Voices, Other Rooms, which they did not have on the Kindle so I am reading it in actual book form.

In the interest of trying to write in my journal more again, I am going to start posting some random lists. Perhaps I will also start doing those Writer's Block things. So I present to you - one random list of...


My Ten Favorite Lines from Joe Jackson Songs

This is to say, my ten favorite lyrical phrasings - not deliveries. Deliveries would be things like the 'Call me God' in Song of Daedalus, the Spanish lines in Happyland, and the lines spoken over the transistor radio in Tuzla, which would be getting into another category entirely. A well-delivered line does not necessarily have to be lyrically sharp (see 'call me God' which is on the surface a very simple phrase, if incredibly bold and and egotistical as befits the song). This is also not necessarily an indication of which are my favorite songs musically - the fugues and the nocturnes would certainly be included in such a list, rich layered pieces that they are. One more note: if you only know Joe Jackson as 'that guy who wrote 'Is She Really Going Out With Him' and 'Steppin' Out' way back when, you should correct this fact immediately because you are cheating yourself out of all the fine pieces of music he's written since then and about thirty years of growth he's done as a musician. Not that I don't enjoy the old songs, but there's been a lot of great ones since then.


In no particular order. Links link to the song so you can listen.


1. American girls, they put their tongue in your ear when they talk on the telephone...
Don't Wanna Be Like That (I'm The Man / 1979)


2. Maybe you'd like to know what I would say if I was still around.
Invisible Man (Rain / 2008)


3. Call me weird and laugh at me - I tell you it's true. I found a cure for Gravity.
Song of Daedalus (Heaven and Hell / )


4. It's the crack of noon and I sit here watching you sleeping. I only wish that I could remember your name.
Love at First Light ( Volume 4 / 2003 )


5. It's not the time to kill - not that he forgets. As he takes a crumpled bill and thinks this is better yet.
Tuzla ( Heaven and Hell / 1997)


6. I watch my pen as though my fingers could shatter like icicles and before my eyes lie glittering and useless on a field of snow.
Lullaby ( Night Music / 1994 )


7. Everything we said is there on a tape for the future to play. Let's put it in the ground- that's where it ought to stay.
Ever After ( Night Music / 1994)


8.He gave me a wink and he said it was funny how mortals would pour all their blood, sweat and tears onto tape, onto paper, or into the air to be lost and forgotten outside of his kind employ.
The Man Who Wrote Danny Boy ( Night Music / 1994 )


9. We're never married, never faithful - not to any town. But we never leave the past behind - we just accumulate.
Hometown ( Big World / 1986)


10. In all the universe I’m just a speck of dust, but all I can do is keep trying . . . .to give you the human touch.
The Human Touch (Blaze of Glory / 1989 )

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