Graceland

Monday, July 28, 2008

Team Sports - The Sequel

Tonight I played my final tennis game in the summer league. I had such a great time. I'd have to say that I didn't have the best season, I only won one match, but it was just what I wanted- good times and an opportunity to get better. Here's the season breakdown.

Match 1 - Lost big time. It was really fun though, and I felt like it was just breaking me in on what league play is all about.

Match 2 - Won. Really loved winning. Had fun, felt like I played well.

Match 3 - Lost, not by much, but was mad about it. This may have been the least fun I've ever had playing tennis. I just really wanted to win and was constantly disappointed in myself for missing shots. I just felt like I played bad. The only good thing was playing tennis with Will after the match was over.

Match 4 - Lost big time. Loved every second of it. I was only supposed to play three matches this season but I got called last minute to substitute for someone. At first I was determined to win so I could at least say I'd won as many matches as I'd lost this summer. Then I started thinking about why I didn't have fun in the previous game. Having won match 2, I was completely focused on winning. (I think previous to match 2 I didn't think I had much of a chance to win.) Putting so much emphasis on winning made it more stressful than enjoyable. So I decided to change my attitude and just go to have fun and not care if I won. It was actually kind of hard to change my mindset, but I think I had myself convinced by the time the match started. It was fun again. Instead of getting mad when I missed, I complimented the other team on the good hit. I feel like I played relatively well and the other team was just better than we were. Actually, the scores look like we were killed 0-6, 1-6, but almost every game made it to deuce and often it stayed there for a long time. We had some great rallies. I don't think my partner was as pleased as I was at the end of the match though. Sorry Stef. Ü

What I learned - I'm not a competitive person. Well maybe I didn't learn that, I've known it a long time. I did learn how to serve better, play a little strategy and mostly find a lot of areas I can improve on for next season. We talked with teammates this evening and I think we're all up for playing in the fall league. Good times!

My sister put a post on her blog about going to one of my matches. It has some photos- eek, look at my arm dropping early on that serve. What would Lani say! Here is the link http://balletsnob.blogspot.com/2008/07/love-means-nothing.html

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Skirts

I've debated about this post. I don't want it to seem bratty. I mentioned in my 100 that I have problem with skirts- I can't seem to resist buying them. My sisters tease me and do their best to steer me away from the skirt section when we shop, because really, one person doesn't need more than a few skirts. I decided to wear skirts to work everyday until I've worn all my summer skirts. Here are the day-by-day shots.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8 This is one of the skirts I bought in Singapore. I had to include a photo of my shoes that I got in Thailand. This outfit is soooo comfy, like wearing pjs and slippers.

Double click to enlarge so you can see my cool glitter toes! (This pedicure has been one of my favorite parts of summer this year)

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

So there you have it. My sisters and I are heading to Colorado for a shopping weekend next week. Let's see what kind of self control I can have. Quite honestly, I think this little exercise has made me skirt-saturated and I may be temporarily cured.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

My New Favorite Post

I love this idea as reminiscing is one of my favorite things! Here's the deal:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Friday, July 18, 2008

The Scariest Thing

I had the little boys come spend the night last night. They were all on the bed and started yelling for me because there was a spider in the canopy netting. I am totally afraid of spiders. My old roommate got a dollar off her rent for every spider she got rid of. It's not unheard of for me to put the longest attachment on the vacuum and suck up the spider and still have a hard time getting that close. Don't even get me started about spiders in my bathtub stories.

Here's one of my most embarrassing moments. Last year Steph and I took a road trip to Colorado (turning out to be an annual trip-yay). We had just returned to the car after going to dinner with Kat and Erica. I started the car and noticed Stephanie was looking at me in horror. She kept saying, "Open your door!" She finally told me there was a huge spider on the headrest behind me. I freaked and jumped out of the car forgetting that I had just put it in gear. The parking lot was pretty empty but the car started rolling toward the only car near us. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't get in the car because of the spider but didn't want my friends or my car to crash. So I was running along side of it completely perplexed. I finally jumped in about the time someone pulled the e-brake. We were laughing so hard, except Kat who was beside herself with the idiocy of someone jumping out of a moving car because of a spider. Her ranting made the rest of us just laugh harder. I'm sure I'll never live this down, but I'm sure some of you understand.

Back to last night. I went in the room and there was this enormous spider- the hairy, jaggedy kind that look like they could bite your finger off (OK, it was tiny, but ugly). I calmly (relatively speaking) got some tissue and disposed of the little guy. I just didn't want to freak the kids out. So, what did we learn from this? A house full of screaming children is more scary to me than a spider. I wonder if I can find something that freaks me out more than ferris wheels.

Here are some photos from the slumber party.

Asher spent most of his time at my house sorting superballs. He worked so hard, I felt bad having them clean them up. They didn't seem to care though.

The new children's museum is a huge upgrade from the old place. I highly recommend it. I didn't take too many photos, but it had a lot of cool things to do.

Here are the kids on the moon. :)

The Planetarium gift shop is by far the coolest toy store in town!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Destroying the Status Quo

The much anticipated Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog was released yesterday. We were quite frustrated as the site was overwhelmed and crashed. I did get it from itunes and watched it twice last night and have been singing about the freeze ray all morning. Looks like you can watch it online today. This is the first 1/3. I think they are doing an installment every other day. You can only watch it online through this week, then you have to buy it on itunes (very reasonable). How I love Joss Whedon. So funny.

http://www.drhorrible.com.nyud.net/act_I.html

hum... maybe that isn't working now. If you can't connect, try just www.drhorrible.com.
Enjoy!

My Movie Reviews

Quiet Earth. B-. Another SciFi recommended by Netflix, although this one was actually interesting and enjoyable. A guy wakes up and everyone is gone. Made in New Zealand, it claims to be one of the top ten movies in the US in the year it came out (sometime in the 1970s). After it was over, we agreed that it was good, but the ending was a little confusing, so we watched the ending again with the directors comments. Lame. Apparently the whole movie was supposed to have an anti-nuclear message and the director takes credit for his movie making New Zealand nuclear free. So.... pretend you don't know that and enjoy the movie.
Sunshine. C-. Netflix. That's it. We are not trusting Netflix's rating of sci-fi movies again. The sun is dying so a crew is going with a nuclear missle to "re-start" it. I kept hoping aliens would show up or at least something would happen to draw me in. A lot of things almost happened, but when they did, it did not make much sense.
Warm Bodies. B. Red Box. I was surprised by this movie. I'm a fan of a good zombie flick, but when I heard about the plot, it seemed a bit too much. It turned out to be very entertaining. I'd rate it pretty high on the must see zombie film list and very high on the cheesy teenage romance film list.
Wolverine. B. I'm a fan of the X-Men movies. I'm also a fan of Hugh Jackman. It was hard to go wrong going in with those two biases. The fighting sequences were too long, but that was expected. If you've like the X-Men movies, you should like this one too.
The East. B. I forget how much I love the indie flicks at the Broadway. This also had an environmentalist-based plot, but was written well and I liked how it ended. A women goes under cover in an environmental terrorist group. It goes with the obvious plot of her having sympathies for members of the group and trying to balance that with her personal beliefs. Worth seeing.
World War Z. B. I was in the middle of the book and didn't want to see the movie until I finish, but I couldn't help it and saw it opening weekend. Not a big deal as they are very different. This is a different kind of zombie movie. While most are horror flicks, this was more of a suspense movie. They cut out the gratutious gore associated with most zombie movies and gave it more of a plot. Fun for zombie fans and non-zombie fans.
Silent Running. D. Netflix. I have no idea why this is rated so well on Netflix. Sci-fi movie made in the sixties with blatant environmental message. Forests have died on the earth so they are growing them in a space station orbiting Saturn. Earth decides to abandon the project and for some reason that means they have to blow up the forests. One man understands the impact of losing all our forests so he kills everyone. My description made it seem way better than it is. At one point, he programs his robot helpers to play cards and you watch them play cards for about 10 minutes. Skip this one!

My Book Reviews

The Rent Collector. B. I loved this book while I was reading it. Then the author's comments on the back disappointed me. It was fiction! I was so inspired by the "true" story of this woman living at the dump in Cambodia and learning to read. The whole way through I thought it was true. I was mad when it wasn't. Although toward the end, it started getitng a little unbelievable. It was based on real people which bothers me wondering how much is true and how much is fiction. I still recommend the book, but know what you're getting into.
Divergent. B+. Fun, quick read. YA fiction. Your basic strong female in post-apocolypic world fighting to make change. Even though the story's been told over and over, this one was very engaging. I can't wait to read the next in the series!
World War Z. B+. For staters, this is very different from the movie. It's 10 years after we won the zombie war. The book is a series of interviews with survivors. I was hesitant about the way it was written and that I wouldn't stay involved without a central character. However, the book created a very real world. So much so that when I was getting off the freeway one morning and saw some homeless people waking up under a bridge, for just second, I thought they were zombies. I also wanted to bring it up in conversation. Like when someone was talking about North Korea, I wanted to say, "Did you hear how they handled the Zombie Apocalypse?' It was a fun book. I've never read a zombie book before and I may never again, but I'm glad I read this one. It also was welcome to read a book that isn't a strong female character overcoming incredible odds. I'm seriously weary of that plot line.
Waiting to be Heard. B+. I've followed the Amanda Knox case for several years. I thought, since I knew most details of the case, this might be boring. I was surprised at how engaging and well written it was. She is a quirky girl and, while the complete lack of physical evidence makes me sure she is innocent, I can see why people think she is hiding something. The book was haunting to think the someone who doesn't understand a culture coupled with a corrupt prosecutor could put an innocent person in jail for years.
Girl Gone. C-. Maybe it was called Gone Girl. I don't remember. Book club book. I've never gotten into mysteries. This one took a while to get into, then I couldn't put it down, then it ended and I wished I never picked it up. Ridiculous ending.
The Kitchen House. B-. I have no idea how to rate this book. It was slow to start. Once things started to happen (murder), I found myself sucked in and not wanting to put it down; however, once I did put it down, I didn't look forward to picking it up again. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's similar to a bunch of other books I've read. I'm just getting weary of the genre and need to mix it up a little. Overall, an interesting read. The story of a young white girl who is indentured when her family dies on the boat from Ireland to America. Her relationship with her new family (the slaves whom she is sent to live and work with) and how her life is different from them because of the color of her skin.
The Happiness Project. D. I'm reviewing the book, but I'm not going to finish it. I knew this wasn't my favorite genre, but it was the book club pick this month so I thought I'd give it a chance. I didn't see the point of reading someone's goals. I sometimes feel like these "self-help" books are an excuse for people to feel like they are doing something to be happier, when really they are an excuse to avoid working on yourself by living through someone else's experience. Instead of reading the book, how about spend that time working on your own "happiness project". As I read, I kept thinking it should have been a workbook for readers to complete their own project while reading hers. I'll be interested to hear how others in book club liked it.