Isle of Remote

It’s almost 1:30 and I’m tired. I tried making one of those Jessica Simpson shawls tonight and failed. I really misread the instructions. Duh. Although, maybe that’s appropriate since it is the Jessica Simpson shawl.

Do you suppose she really is that dumb? Or is it just an act? I mean, I know Mensa ain’t knocking down her door begging her to learn them something, but really, can a person be THAT stupid and still get around in life? I mean, if that’s how she really is, she’s as dumb as a box of rocks on a Sunday morning….know what I mean? It depresses me when I see evidence that people didn’t take advantage of a free education.

I read a new phrase the other day - forgot where - “thumb generation” referring to the young people who are growing up in the text message era where you don’t have to spell or punctuate. I wonder how that will play out in the future. It has to be frustrating to be a teacher now. I envision a future where feature articles read like the classifieds: 2day n da mideast 14 peeps wuz kild when da bomb went off. Sigh.

I’m just a birthday away from saying “back in my day…”

Playing: Still Not A Playa, Big Pun

I’m too tired to come up with something clever, and yet I feel the need to write today.

So, here are some funny pictures of things I’ve caught my Sims doing:

Junior and Missy Stupid: I tried to re-arrange the furniture while they were sleeping.

Miko Doozer: I don’t know what’s going on here, but she did it a lot (cried IN the furniture) and then she stopped.

Obsessed Fan: He was getting on my nerves so every time he shows up now I torture him. I took the ladders out of the pool hoping he’d drown and he wound up swimming all over the lot!

So, I’ve been pretty weirded out about turning 40. I don’t know why. It’s just a number right? I guess I always thought I’d have kids, but now…..who knows…the stats are against my favor, but it can still happen.

Anyway, I was doing my mom’s makeup today and whenever I do that it’s like looking into my own time-trippy mirror. I don’t think I much look like my mother, but others have said I do.

One of my big concerns about turning 40 is looking 40. I know I’m vain about it, but gosh, I’m so glad I don’t look 40. But then I have these moments when, what if I wake up one day and BOOM there are the crow’s feet and the wrinkles? Will I have the grace to accept them or will I be knock, knock, knocking on some plastic surgeon’s door?

I used to think cosmetic surgery was just a waist of money but now here I am making a list. I don’t have that much I’d like done - just a chin reduction (I’d like ONE, please) and the micro-lipo under my arms (for the UADD - under-arm dingle dangle) and inside my knees. These are areas I can’t seem to trim with any kind of exercise.

One of my friends just had a tummy tuck. She’s not fat at all, but she has had 5 kids and no amount of crunches was going to help. She doesn’t look any different, but she feels different when she’s without her clothes. That’s important too.

Another friend had a face lift. It was totally unnecessary. She doesn’t look old at all. She says she’s not supposed to look way different, just “fresher” and well rested. I’d rather take a vacation….

Anyway, back to Mom. I’m putting on her makeup and I notice that she has no wrinkles. Great cheekbones, beautiful skin, no crow’s feet - nothin’. In fact, the only indication of her 64 years is when I put her eyeshadow and lipstick on, there isn’t as much elasticity in her skin and it takes a few secs to “bounce” back to its original location. That ain’t bad!

40? Bring it on, baby! Bring it on!

Got this from Snootyboot’s blog!

My mom is visiting for the weekend and we’re to be out and about. Going for breakfast this morning and hanging out. I’m always happy when I don’t have to think about work. It’s been so draining lately.

My interview yesterday either went really well, or really badly - it’s hard to tell. It was short - about a half an hour - and I’m still trying to figure out if it was because it was obvious I was the wrong candidate or obvious that I was the right one. No matter.

I’m not sure if this is the right job for me. Sort of the same thing I’m doing now, but for more money. Which doesn’t sound like a bad thing, but I’m bored all to pieces now with the drudgery, so why would I sign up for more of the same simply for a few extra dollars?

Still, to get out of where I am now, that just may be the ticket. Probably I should wait to see if I get an offer before I make a decision, huh?

Aaah! Relief! Friday I sent my screenplay in, after much frenetic craziness, and although I started to cry at the post office just thinking that all this work could be tossed out the window if I forgot to dot one i or cross one t. Nerve-wracking, that.

But after a weekend of vegging, watching Sex in the City and eating a bit of junk food, I am now one of the normal ones again.

I feel like my screenplay was good work and that it makes me a very viable candidate for the program. If not, I did my best and I learned a lot and am more ready for next year.

I have a job interview on Thursday. I have a fair chance of getting it as it is basically the same job I do now. The only hope is that by present supervisor doesn’t do me like she’s done so many others and just dog them out in the references.

My one worry is that since the job is similar to what I’m doing now that, if I do get it, it will quickly become as boring as the one I have now. Although it’s a higher classification, I guess I could be a little bored for more money.

There’s another job I really want and I was talking to a friend about it today. He’s going to see if there’s any influence he can exert - he thinks I would do really well there.

Anyway, there’s not much of an update. My mom is coming out on Thursday and staying the weekend. It should be fun. I’m hoping she’s feeling generous and will buy me shoes….

Speaking of which I am still broke. I sold some stuff on eBay and made $60 but it hasn’t transferred to my account just yet. Prolly tomorrow. BUT I don’t have gas., so that will be interesting. I’m hoping I have a check in the mail when I get home and that will solve the whole mess.

This is the last month of poverty. Next month I get 3 checks and in September I have a couple of payments due me and on September 10 I go back to full-time. That October paycheck is going to feel like manna from Heaven.

I haven’t written about the recent performances. I went to see Hairspray last week - it was so, so good! I think I liked it better than The Producers! I love the John Waters movie so I was a little wary about the stage production, but it got rave reviews, so I thought” what the hay!” I’m still mad about missing Contact, so it was in my best interest to have caught this one.

Anyway, earlier in the year (when I was cash flush) I bought season tickets. It’s been fun - wish I could afford to do it every year. At first it seemed kind of strange buying just a ticket for myself, but now I think I may prefer it. I sit next to the same people, other season ticket holders, so that’s like going with someone. And since I’m so broke, going by myself means I don’t have to go out to dinner first or coffee afterward. I didn’t even pay for parking this time!

Back to the play - Bruce Vilanch was fabulous as Edna Turnblad (the role originally played by the late Divine). And I loved the girl who played Penny - she was hysterical. I can’t even write, thinking how great it was. If it’s not coming to your town, rent the movie at least.

Last night I went to hear Jill Scott. It was kind of brazen of me - no tickets, no money, not sure if I even had enough gas…. but I went. I just love her music: neo-soul with a funk edge. I sat outside the venue with the other poor saps who came trying to buy tickets to the sold out show and I felt like I was even lower on the totem pole, cuz I didn’t have no kinda cash.

It was nice though, I could hear the show, when people weren’t talking, and she was only going to perform for 70 minutes. If I didn’t get in, I was going to leave after 45 minutes - sometimes you can get a free ticket if you’re patient. There was this other girl there who was trying to buy a ticket. After about 50 minutes one of the guys says we can go in if we give the ticket guy 3 good reasons why we should be let in. We took off at the chance. That question changed to name 6 of the songs Jill Scott has recorded. We stammered. Especially funny since the two of us had been listening to her all day and we could only name 3 songs! Finally, he asked what song she won a Grammy for and BAM we were in! Supposedly there was only supposed to be about 15 minutes of concert left, but she sang until 10:30 or so. And considering I could hear from outside, I think I got a good deal for my money.

And that is how I, Abbie Darling, got to see my favorite vocalist perform for free! Yay!

I thought I was getting along pretty well this summer - usually my place is so unbelievably hot that I have to sleep in the living room (call it my summer home). And so far, this summer it’s not been bad. I haven’t moved to my summer home except for once.

However, yesterday I thought I was gonna pass out when I opened the door! It was H-O-T! The only way it coulda been hotter was if Taye Diggs was in there - and I checked…he wasn’t.

So I sat on the lanai (my balcony - its all about the presentation, honey. 600 square feet sounds bad until you mention you have a summer home and a lanai….) and read my book - The Jane Austen Book Club - which is turning out to be quite good.

Unfortunately that meant I could proof and reproof my script until after 9pm. Worked till almost 3 and now I’m a zombie here at work. Pretending to do important things so I don’t collapse over the keyboard.

Say a prayer….

[url=http://www.crosswalk.com/news/1273481.html]Bush and Islam[/url]

The “mission statement” of the Free Congress Foundation is as follows.
Free Congress Foundation is politically conservative, but it is more than that: it is also culturally conservative. Most think tanks talk about tax rates or the environment or welfare policy and occasionally we do also. But our main focus is on the Culture War. Will America return to the culture that made it great, our traditional, Judeo-Christian, Western culture? Or will we continue the long slide into the cultural and moral decay of political correctness? If we do, America, once the greatest nation on earth, will become no less than a third world country.

At the end of the Crosswalk/Agape Press article Weyrich says, of the comments Bush made on Islam being a religion of peace, that the President has to say those things because he is the President. But, Weyrich goes on to say, that he knows the President doesn’t believe them.

I’m pissed. How can this zealot natter on about returning to our traditional, Judeo-Christian, Western culture (which, by the way brought us slavery, Japanese internment camps, McCarthyism, Jim Crow laws and Chinese labor camps…so forgive us if we’re not ALL of US eager to hop on the bandwagon to the good ole days) then basically say that he knows lying is part of being the President, but as long as he knows where Bush really stands, then it’s okay?

Dude, whatever happened to “let your yes be yes, and your no be no”?

Yes, this country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. And that’s great. Religious freedom is a wonderful privilege that we’re blessed to have. But you can’t draft a document that demands freedom of religion, fight and die for that right only to declare that well, we were really only talking about the one religion, not this one or that one. It doesn’t work that way.

And you can’t claim that these Judeo-Christian principles is what made this country great. In fact, the reason why there are so many people who turn against Christianity is because throughout history Christians have used it to exclude people. What happens when people are excluded? They form their own group. And when that group gets enough power, they want the same recognition as the group that excluded them.

Christians are called to be one body, one body who exalts the fallen body of our Savior. Each and every person is a being uniquely created by God. This is what you believe if you are a Christian. If you are not a Christian, I can’t speak to your belief system, I can only answer to what holds me accountable.

I am called to 1) Love the Lord my God with all my heart, my soul, my mind. 2) Love others as myself. 3)Live my life as an offering to Christ. I am not saying I’ve got a handle on any of this whatsoever, but the bar is raised and I am constantly aware of the goal.

Now, I can’t do 1, 2 or 3 if I’m name-calling or telling people what they believe is inferior to what I believe. You can’t force feed people a belief or you’re no better than any other dictator. To declare the moral decay of society on political correctness is refusing to take responsibility in seeing how your own personal actions have led those you are in contact with to or from Christ.

Is it just me, or can you feel the prejudice coming off the FCF statement too? “No better than a third world country” “Culture War?” Indeed, why don’t you just get out the white robes and be done with it. I’d rather deal with the wolf than the one in sheep’s clothing.

I’m really tired and it’s my birthday time (11:21) and I should be getting to bed cuz I only got about 4 hours last night.

But I’d thought I post something first. I was thinking - what would you do if you had absolutely no fear and success was guaranteed? I thought I knew - I would quit my job, I would take chances, I would travel more, I would be more approachable. But now I realize that is really a surface answer.

I would still have to contend with my mind - the fear of rejection, the fear of looking foolish, the fear of not being good enough, the fear of the unknown. That’s the saddest thing of all, knowing that, even with the world as your oyster, even with the universe in alignment, even with wide open doors and success just a footstep away, even with God screaming YES! YES! YES ALREADY! some of us would still choose the safety of our small, little world.

I do not want to be a small-worlder. I am cut out for greater things. We all are.

Okay, not my birthday, but I’m gonna party like its my birthday!

Why?

Cause I said I was gonna do it and I did it!

What’s that?

I wrote a screenplay in 30 days!

I rock. It rocks!

Go Abbie! Go Abbie!

Back to business manana….

peace out!