I'm watching Rear Window right now and it's making me smile.  I can relate to the beautiful Lisa Fremont who's in love with her own occasionally-grumpy camera bum.  I'm not exactly the fashionable model Grace Kelly (an $1100 dress would probably cause me to faint), but I do admire her.  And luckily Eric doesn't have a broken leg or things could get interesting in a homicidal neighbor way.


But anyway.


My parents have been gone a while, looking after Dad's parents.  Grandma fell and broke her hip, and things looked a little risky for her for a bit, but she rallied, and Dad says she's going to be okay.  Long recovery, but that sounds way better than the alternative.  It's been pretty stressful on everyone, and I think we're all looking forward to normalcy.  Soonest.


In the meantime, Jack and I have been looking after ourselves (newsflash: we are low maintenance cooks).  I also have to remember to water the plants and do dishes, Jack does trash and gets the mail.  Yay temporary roommates!  I have no idea what we'll do about the lawn, but I'm sure it'll be fine.  Sadly, it took us five days to get the mailbox open.  We're dysfunctional but functional?  Oh, well, the house is still standing, we haven't killed the cars, each other, or anything else, and, um, yeah.


Aside from our domestic hysterics (wee!), I went to the Champions Workshop last weekend with all the lovely people from Minnesota, Mike and Eve, Dee and Jeremy-Many=Names.  They were all great.  Mike and Jeremy are really fun dancers, especially Jeremy.  I danced with him twice and he likes to play.  That's so rare but fun.  Eve is very sweet, and Dee is just wonderfully sassy.  She taught us to groove, and I'll admit that I probably look like a total goof working my hips but I love it.  I need more groovy swing and blues.  And someone to dance with me to that music, but it would work alone.  We also got to watch the Heartland Hepcat and the Cowtown Cow hang out, dance, play Rock Band.  Good times.


Otherwise work is work.  I'm excited for Sunflower Swing, getting away for a little while, seeing my other grandpa, and maybe shopping?  I feel like I need something pretty to wear.  I love my new purple shoes (even if they cost me more than a pair of Aris Allens), and after learning from Mike, Eve, Dee, and Jeremy, I'm pretty psyched to keep learning dance.  I still love it.  I wish I had more time and money and ability to devote to it.  I fear the infamous game of Bases I went to over Memorial Day has done something to my leg.  Or it could be stress, I'm not really sure.  My left leg hurts, I do know that.  But yeah, more dancing.  Dance, dance, dance.  I don't know if I'll get to STL this summer, as I'd like to, but maybe I'll just save it up for Nevermore in November.


One never knows.


I wish I could dress and look more like Grace Kelly.  So glamorous, though I don't know if would do me much good.  I think I'll stick to being just me.  It's worked so far.

Ugh...too tired to blog.


Okay, that's not at all true.  I just feel like I'm blathering on a lot these days.  Nobody needs to hear this stuff.  Seriously, are you reading this?  Why?!

*sigh*  Anyway...

Apparently I'm not in enough different places at once these days.  I remember when I was a quiet girl who spent most of her time at home.  Still do, really.  People say life should be lived to the fullest, and you won't look back on your life thinking how awesome it was to get enough sleep.  Well, I'm pretty sure if I don't get enough sleep, I will look back and think I was a real jerk to people because I was tired.  And that life might not be so long if I drive into a lamp post.  Don't sleep and drive.  Tell your friends.

Um, saw the new Avengers movie and it was quite good.  I had my hangups having been disappointed with Iron Man 2, and not hearing great things about Captain America or Thor, but it was a delightful movie filled with action sequences and witty dialogue, and several attractive heroes to stare at.  I don't think I could pick just one.  Tony Stark is a dashing smartass, Steve Rogers is noble and dreamy, Bruce Banner is understated and humorous, Clint Barton kicks butt without wearing sleeves most of the time...I could go on and on.  However, the Hulk wins the funny award, and where would we be without Lou Ferrigno?

Also, I'm sorry Edward Norton, you were good, but Mark Ruffalo was better.  Learn to play well with others, Ed.

What else?  Swing dancing goes on.  I'm trying to get excited about taking more classes and getting some focused learning done, but life seems to get in the way.  So far I've missed two of the four weeks of my balboa class...*sigh*.  I want to take classes in Wichita, but I don't know.  I feel pressed for time management, and money may become an issue depending on how things go.  I'm also a little worried about Cowtown, and I'm sure the anxiety is only going to grow as we get closer.  I want to start planning but I have no idea what to plan.  Ack.  Neuroses, everywhere, in the fridge, under the couch, hanging from the ceiling.  Everywhere!

Been getting lots of book club time, though.  Sherlock is ticking along nicely, plus the new series was pretty good.  I thought the second season was a little overly complex, but they probably try to cram a lot in since they only get three episodes a season.  Also, regular book club has been a nice get together.  Our member Jen is moving to Texas so we all got together for drinks and hear all about her new house and adventures in moving.  I had a margarita and hardly noticed the booze, which means I'm either getting used to it, or I really didn't care at the time.  But I was sad to see Jen go, she's a lovely person with a wicked sense of humor.  And we had our usually meeting yesterday, and to quote Susie, we kicked it old school.  The old meeting place with a pretty involved discussion.  It was pretty fun.

Otherwise, summer is fast approaching.  The weekends are warm and pleasant, with the occasional summer storm.  Eric and I take a few walks once in a while, I leave my roof open when I drive, I'm debating on buying a new swimsuit (I don't think the old one fits anymore).  I'm really okay with summer being here, I just kind of want it to be summer for a long time.

For being too tired to blog, this has become a long entry.

Ahh, spring is here.  It's actually kind of freaking me out.  Seriously, it's March and it's about twenty degrees warmer than usual.  It's been like that for WEEKS.  I'm not complaining at all, no way, I'm just a little suspicious (and I'm not the only one) of what this means for the summer.  I can only imagine the two extremes, that it'll either be unbearably hot in June (done that) or it'll snow (I think the latest snow I've seen in my lifetime was when it snowed in May in STL when I was twelve).  But until the weather decides to freak out, I'm going to kick back and enjoy being able to leave all my heavy clothes at home, and try to figure out where I'm going to store all my knee socks until it gets cold again.

Oh, no.  I think I just jinxed it.  Maybe I'll just leave them where they are until July.  Anyway.

Things are going pretty well in general.  Work is going well, though I still need more to do, but I'm sure it's lying in wait for me.  Plus after what I've heard about my old department's progress, I'm really okay staying where I am.  They can move my desk, but I'll keep doing what I'm doing.  Or more, I could do more, if anyone's offering.  Starting to think about plans for the summer.  I haven't been dancing as much lately, which I feel bad about, but I'm too cheap to go to lessons every month, and Monday night is not as convenient as Saturday was, but I need to start getting active.  I feel like a blob.  I'm probably not, but I am glad my boyfriend likes walking a lot.

Oh, and I'm already sick of it being election year.  Last election was an issue of who did I think would do a better job, this election is who am I least likely to punch in the face?  Seriously, where did they find these people?  Some of them are so conservative that I am shocked that more people haven't seen the connection between ultra-conservatives and Islamic extremists.  Not ALL Islam, just the crazies who don't think women should have freedom, and that fun is a ridiculous capitalist idea.  Oh, boy.  It's all so depressing.  And I'm just going to say this now, purely my opinion, I do not mind if you disagree with it, just please try and respect it: if you're a man trying to impose your will on what a woman can do with her body and the associated functions, DON'T.  Unless you can have a period/child/yeast infection, you cannot attest to anything that a woman feels on any of those points.  Some days I wonder if people even know how to treat other people like human beings.  Also, your faith is not the only faith.  I'm sorry, this is a really big planet, there's a lot of people around, you're not wrong for what you believe in, but neither is anyone else.

Okay, okay, okay, I'm done.  That's it.  I will not talk about this stuff again this year (hopefully).  I hate how torqued off I get.  That's what I really, really hate about elections, it makes us all a little bit insane.

Anyway, better things to talk about.  No PrincessCon this year, schedules can just not be worked out, sadness, but I'm sure travel is in my future.  And I know my friends really want to go to London for next year, but to be honest, I've been to London.  I want to go to a beach.  Plus it's going to be expensive and I don't think I have enough vacation time for a week there.  I don't know.  I'm trying to psych myself up for it, but I don't really want to spend a thousand dollars on travel and burn all my vacation time just yet.  I'm planning to move out soon, and that's going to take a good chunk of things.  I don't know.

Gosh, what's with all the complaining?  Enough of that.

Eric and I had a great double date over the weekend with our friends Adam and Dianna.  I cooked my curlycue alfredo, and finally nailed the alfredo recipe.  I've been having issues getting it to thicken, turns out if you just keep adding cheese, it works out fine.  Eric made asparagus and a salad (I love his salads), and set a lovely table.  Adam and Dianna brought tasty bread pudding for dessert.  We enjoyed dinner and the lovely weather, watched Megamind (excellent flick), played some Quirkle (I won), and went down a rather bumpy slide (ow, my tush).  Our friends left and though it felt like it was only 10 at night, it was actually midnight.  Spring is blowing my mind, but at least my sinuses haven't totally exploded yet.

Let's see, Kaleb's mystery party is this weekend, apparently my swordfighter character carries a bow (seriously?  I'm carrying a sword anyway).  I also plan to wear a corset and a skirt, so I may be an unusual looking guard, but hey.  We'll see how it all goes.  And then April is here.  Holy cow.

Muppet Show theme will now be stuck in my head, and hopefully yours too.