"Orange" you glad I did this post? *yuck yuck yuck*

Orange has never been one of my favorite colors, to be quite honest. At first, when I noted this week's "assignment" was orange, part of me thought about skipping it. (*wink wink*) However, once I started thinking about it, the color actually makes me think of a few things that I absolutely adore...

I've always heard it called a "Harvest Moon"; I've never really known why, but it sounds cool. The moon looks big enough to fill the sky and has that beautiful orange glow--I could sit and stare at it for hours.

Fall! My absolute favorite time of year! Halloween (a self-described drama queen's most favorite holiday), pumpkins, brightly colored leaves (orange included) that fall to the ground for you to crunch through on brisk Saturday afternoons....

I remember the first time I saw a Tiger Lily. I was a kid, playing "King of the Hill" in Chris Aker's backyard and noticed them growing along the fence at the top of the hill. Not to mention it's the name of the Indian Princess that Peter Pan saves, and also an online screen name I've used from time to time.

It's also the color of "incomplete record" notices we receive at the office, ever so gently reminding our doctors to do their charts or they risk privilege suspension. Guess I better go send out some pages now!

coloring outside the lines...

I'm copying...yet again. After reading Joan's blog, I decided to join in on the color blogging that seems to be going on among her circle of friends. Granted, I am an uninvited color blogging crasher, but hopefully they won't mind too much. ;-)
Plus, it keeps me on my toes and gives me at least one guaranteed topic per week!

RED.

The first thing that comes to mind is the Cardinals. Bitter cold such as we're dealing with in St. Louis makes me wish even more for the warm weather that is still a few months away. I really wish it was time for our boys of summer to take to the field...

A good friend of mine that I'll be seeing this evening has a red slipcover on her couch that I absolutely ADORE. It's soft and comfy, and not too red. In fact, it's not red enough to make me think "fire engine", but it is just red enough to me think "sassy" and "fun". I have vowed that one day, I too, will have a red couch...

Generally, red makes me feel...

saucy...

I promise I'll try to be more creative come the next color, rather than just list items that are the color in question!
And here's the rest of the list, in case anyone else would like to jump on the bandwagon.

1. Red
2. Orange
3. Yellow
4. Green
5. Blue
6. Purple
7. Black
8. Brown
9. Silver
10. Gold
11. Magenta
12. Turquoise
13. Gray
14.
Maroon
15. White
16. Beige
17. Peach
18. Pink
19. Navy Blue
20. Lavender
21. Forest Green
22. Cornflower
23. Goldenrod
24. Puce

Young Hollywood

is certainly showing signs of serious struggle(s)... In the worst possible way.

Just a week ago, Brad Renfro ("The Client", "Apt Pupil") was found dead in his LA home. The 25-year-old actor had a history of drug abuse, but as of yet a definite cause of death has not been released. It has come out, however, that apparently the actor had a young son, listed only as "Y Renfro", who lived in Japan with his mother.

And just a little over an hour ago, it was released that Heath Ledger ("A Knight's Tale", "The Patriot", "Brokeback Mountain") was found dead in a downtown Manhattan residence. As of right now, the NYPD is saying drugs may have been a factor in the 28-year-old's death.

Normally I try to stay away from celebrity blogging, but two young stars in a week--more than likely both to drugs--kind of made me think and decide to put it out there. Even for people who aren't invested whatsoever in the lives of celebs, feel free to make this a round table discussion of sorts.

Mainly, what I don't understand is why these young celebrities turn to drugs and alcohol, becoming addicted to demons that often end their careers (and more importantly, their LIVES) way before their prime. Do they use it to mentally escape the constant media and paparazzi attention? Do they do it, many times starting underage, just in an attempt to "look cool"? Is it something that starts out "just for fun" and slowly sucks them in until the addiction is controlling them? Or do they do it because they actually like the feeling of being all fucked up, for lack of a better phrase?

It saddens me that so many young stars turn to addictions like these. Too many have been lost to addiction, going back even 20 years. Jimi Hendrix, BRILLIANT guitarist--drug overdose. Janis Joplin, raspy faced singer--drug overdose. Marilyn Monroe, actress and sex kitten--drug overdose. Heck, River Phoenix, actor (and beautiful man, might I add)--drug overdose. I'm convinced that these aforementioned stars did not even come CLOSE to living up to their full potential in life. Because of the addictions that took hold of them.

On that note, then you have to look at the young stars of today who COULD end up suffering the same end. Lindsay Lohan--drug / alcohol addiction. Britney Spears--suspected drug addiction. Paris Hilton--noted partier. It's just crazy that these girls (and the guys who lead lives like this) don't realize, or just plain don't care, about the consequences of behaving like this.

Renfro and Ledger are 2 prime examples. Sad as it is to say, it is the truth. What do you all think?

100 Books

I saw this on Joan's blog a bit ago, and felt I needed to post my list. Nothing will happen if you don't repost this on your own blog, but it is pretty nifty to see what everyone else has / has not, would / would not like to read.
The point is to bold the books you have read, italicize the ones you would LIKE to read, and leave the others alone. (Seeing movie versions of any of these titles does NOT count, however!)

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) - maybe??
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) - maybe??
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) – but should re-read
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens) – started in ’98, never finished (ha ha)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch 22 - Heller
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’s Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Cryptic?

Fight Club, starring Edward Norton (Narrator), Brad Pitt (Tyler Durden), and Helena Bonham-Carter (Marla Singer) has probably become one of my all time favorite movies. There's no review here, other than to say if you haven't seen this movie, you need to. And (*as I smile cryptically*) I also have to point out that Marla has some GREAT lines in this movie. Any particular reason I've decided to post these? Maybe. And maybe not.

"Listen. I tried. I really tried. There are things about you that I like. You're smart, you're funny, you're... spectacular in bed... But you're intolerable! You have very serious emotional problems. Deep seated problems for which you should seek professional help..."
[Narrator: Yeah, I know. I'm sorry.]
"Yeah, you're sorry, I'm sorry, everybody's sorry, but... I can't do this anymore. I can't. And I won't. I'm gone."

"Ok. You fuck me, then snub me. You love me, you hate me. You show me a sensitive side, then you turn into a total asshole. Is this a pretty accurate description of our relationship??"

"You're the worst thing that's ever happened to me."

(and my personal favorite) "You're Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Jackass!"

LOVE those lines!!! And suddenly, I feel a little bit better. :-)

Gassy

I bet a title like THAT fooled ya! For anyone in need of a good laugh today, here's a little story...

So, as I've said before, I had two wisdom teeth extracted a couple of weeks ago. They, of course, put me under general anesthetic--which I was really nervous about at first, but now I'm glad I went that route. My mom tells me that apparently I was pretty entertaining as I was coming out of the anesthesia: I was white as a ghost, but sitting up in the recovery room, grinning from ear to ear, and every once in a while I would just giggle.

I do remember much of what happened before (and after, surprisingly enough) I went out. I know I asked the surgeon if I could chicken out, and he told me I could if I really wanted, but of course I didn't. The last thing I remember before I went under was the mask going over my nose...then I was waking up in the recovery room and it was over.

When I woke up in the recovery room, I felt really silly--drunk or (as much as I hate to admit this) high, even. I remember mumbling to the nurse about how much I liked the "dinosaurs on the ceiling...the dancing brontosauruses"...only there weren't REALLY dinosaurs on the ceiling--of any kind, picture or otherwise. I also asked her "where are the rowboats and the pudding". Yea, she had NO clue what I was talking about.

Becker had told me he wrote random thoughts after his wisdom tooth extraction, so I decided to do the same. I asked mom for some paper and a pen once we got in the car, and I wrote down thoughts as they came to me. I wondered how they got me into the recovery room, if they carried me? I mused how the "old dentist" put a rubber block in my mouth so I "wouldn't bite his hand off". While writing notes to Dustin in order to effectively communicate, he wrote notes back to me. At one point I got frustrated and wrote back to him, "Why the f*ck are you writing??? You can TALK, ya moron!" And apparently when we stopped at the grocery store, I told my mom I wanted Neopolitan ice cream...which I don't even LIKE.

The after anesthesia / novacaine WAS NOT quite as fun, however. And of course I had to be my father's stubborn daughter and refuse the pain meds until Friday night when I finally relented so I could sleep w/out pain. But all in all, I survived.
Chuckle-worthy? Yay or nay?

Wow.

Nothing like not blogging since May 2007, eh? It's not that I haven't wanted to, or that life has been so hum-drum I've had nothing to talk about (if you know me, you know that I almost ALWAYS have at least SOMEthing to talk about!). More like, life got in the way. That, and myspace. When I signed up for that productivity killer, I was at first going to just maintain this blog and occasionally post random crap on the other. However, trying to maintain two separate blogs (either of crap or of substance) quickly became too much and I let this one lag.

So, to start 2008 off on the right foot, I'm back! If nothing else, I'll just end up posting the majority of my "stuff" here, since I can no longer access myspace from work. Which is probably a good thing, now that I think about it... Either way, one of them will lag since I'm honestly just too damn lazy to keep both of them up. At least I can get to this one from work and put my thoughts down if / when I need to, as they come to me.

Here's to happy blogging! (Oh, and if you all notice me slacking, call me out on it and I'll at least come up with some fluff to tide y'all over!) :)