I have been watching this BBC show Ashes to Ashes this past week. I started downloading it at the beginning of this past season (season 3) but only started watching it during my time off, then went back and am watching the earlier episodes now, so I can kind of watch it from the beginning (that is, of what earlier episodes I can find online).
The show is about a modern police person who is shot and somehow finds herself back in time in 1981. I think the woman on the show is probably almost the same age as me, maybe a year or two older, because she sees her grade school self who is 9 at the time.
First of all, the music is awesome. I know I was too young in 1981 to really listen to that music, but it was really popular in the late 80s when I was old enough to buy records. And it takes place in England, so it's all that really great early 80s British music, post-punk, new Romantic stuff. I don't know if they actually time check the music to be exactly on time, but since I love all that music of the era, I don't really care. Also the outfits are pretty hilarious, what I remember from movies and TV. A lot of blue eyeshadow and blush. So far, the main character DI Alex Drake has worn a couple of those Flashdance kind of tops with the large over top and then a tank underneath. (Whoops that movie came out in 1983, and the outfits were popular after that so, a bit of a chronological error.) This one I watched, she was trying to tart it up and had that kind of Madonna scarf holding her hair back, a look which I actually wore successfully back when that was popular. Then there are these yuppie-looking people walking around that they call Thactherites, including one who had a de Lorean!
In her "real" life, Drake was probably what we'd consider an average cop, catching criminals using profiling, helping the citizenry, good at hostage negotiation, but thrown back in the 80s, the men she works with barely seem to know what to make of her. There is this one early episode where she has a one-night stand with some guy she meets at the bar they hang out with and the male cops are absolutely scandalized, and the one female uniformed officer is asking her about it, quietly, and Alex isn't the slightest bit embarrassed or ashamed or hiding what happened and mostly just trying to avoid loud noises because she's also hungover. They've also shown her talking to prostitutes and gay men just like they are regular people, which strikes her early 80s colleagues as just ridiculous. It is kind of sad how she befriends this young gay man and then at the end of the episode, she notices one of those Kaposi's sarcoma spots on the back of his neck and is urging him to go see his doctor (though knowing what we know about 1981, not going to do him a lot of good seeing a doc then). Also I don't know much the whole concept of "criminal profiling" was done back in the 80s, but her colleagues seem to think she is just making shit up.
I haven't even talked about the whole mystical element of the show. She's not really sure why she's gone back in time, or if it's all something that is happening in her mind right as she is dying, or if she has some higher purpose, or is just going crazy. But I haven't watched enough of the show to have anything yet to say about that.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Thirty-seven
I've had birthdays when I've been partying in Vegas from dawn to dusk, but this birthday was pretty mellow. I got up a bit early (well, vacation early, not regular life early) to have breakfast with Heather and we did some errands. Then I came back home and Kiki and I took a nap together. The cats love having me home because I'm like a giant combination pillow-space heater for them. And I know how to open cans of food, and today, the food was canned tuna, which is probably Kiki's favorite thing in the whole world.
After work, C came over and took me out to dinner at Buca di Beppo, which I chose because of their chocolate cake. I do like their food in general, for its wholesome faux-Italian taste and ginormous "family style" portions, and I love love love the chocolate cake with sambuca sauce. Also it's sort of festively romantic, and I had a glass of wine and all was good. Last weekend, C gave me a laptop that he setup for me. He got it as a used laptop, and then setup the system for me, including loading programs, checking for viruses, etc. In addition to my desktop computer, I have an actual working laptop. And hopefully some tech support in case I need it, because this is a PC not a Mac like I have always had. Anyway, one of the nicest gifts I've ever gotten from a boyfriend. I know I say it a lot, but it's just really nice to be in a relationship with a good guy for a change.
So, what does 37 hold for me? No idea. Right now all the wine and pasta is making me feel a bit sleepy despite my nap, so I might head off to bed soon. I will certainly please any small fuzzy creatures looking for a warm pillow-person.
After work, C came over and took me out to dinner at Buca di Beppo, which I chose because of their chocolate cake. I do like their food in general, for its wholesome faux-Italian taste and ginormous "family style" portions, and I love love love the chocolate cake with sambuca sauce. Also it's sort of festively romantic, and I had a glass of wine and all was good. Last weekend, C gave me a laptop that he setup for me. He got it as a used laptop, and then setup the system for me, including loading programs, checking for viruses, etc. In addition to my desktop computer, I have an actual working laptop. And hopefully some tech support in case I need it, because this is a PC not a Mac like I have always had. Anyway, one of the nicest gifts I've ever gotten from a boyfriend. I know I say it a lot, but it's just really nice to be in a relationship with a good guy for a change.
So, what does 37 hold for me? No idea. Right now all the wine and pasta is making me feel a bit sleepy despite my nap, so I might head off to bed soon. I will certainly please any small fuzzy creatures looking for a warm pillow-person.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Laziness Is Next To Catliness
So what have I done so far on my vacation? I realized on Monday that I'm not actually a cat and can't really sleep all day. And yesterday, I went out and got some groceries. Right now I'm preparing to go to the mall for shoes. Usually when I go on vacation, I have a lot of stuff going on or I try to make a lot of plans, and I haven't done any of that this time. Weird.
This time off did give me time to think about the Lost finale. I liked it. I didn't love it. But I liked it a lot and it was a good ending, a happy ending, to the series. I agree that they could have answered more questions, but it's like life, right, not every question gets answered all the time. I am kind of sad to see the show go, but glad that it wasn't dragged on well-past its shelf life.
Hm, I have to write about what I got from C (which is awesome) and other stuff, but am feeling even more lazy right now and I had better get moving before I stick to the chair.
This time off did give me time to think about the Lost finale. I liked it. I didn't love it. But I liked it a lot and it was a good ending, a happy ending, to the series. I agree that they could have answered more questions, but it's like life, right, not every question gets answered all the time. I am kind of sad to see the show go, but glad that it wasn't dragged on well-past its shelf life.
Hm, I have to write about what I got from C (which is awesome) and other stuff, but am feeling even more lazy right now and I had better get moving before I stick to the chair.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Everybody's Tired of Someone
Last night I had this odd dream that I had a second boyfriend who lived near C. I'd go see C as usual, then I'd see this other guy after. In the dream, we were all hanging out and I had some fear of being found out. When I woke up, I laughed at the thought. It seems like I barely have enough free time anyway, can't imagine fitting another guy in the schedule. I think this is because of the nature of my job or whatever, but I feel like I need a bit of downtime from talking to people. I only answer the phone sporadically at home because I'm connected to it all day.
But, today is Friday. And in just a few hours, I'll be out of here and heading home for a week of vacation. It's a tradition that I do every year, take the week off work around my birthday. I think I've been doing it almost every year since I've been at this job. I would prefer to be treated well on my birthday, and there is some amount of annoyance that comes with working that I'd rather avoid. Hence, vacation week. This time, due to laziness and low funds, I'm actually making it a staycation. Sure, I have all these noble plans of going through clothes I don't wear anymore and donating them to Goodwill, but the odds are good that I'll end up spending a large part of the time just watching TV and vegetating.
But, today is Friday. And in just a few hours, I'll be out of here and heading home for a week of vacation. It's a tradition that I do every year, take the week off work around my birthday. I think I've been doing it almost every year since I've been at this job. I would prefer to be treated well on my birthday, and there is some amount of annoyance that comes with working that I'd rather avoid. Hence, vacation week. This time, due to laziness and low funds, I'm actually making it a staycation. Sure, I have all these noble plans of going through clothes I don't wear anymore and donating them to Goodwill, but the odds are good that I'll end up spending a large part of the time just watching TV and vegetating.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Donating and Volunteering
I've been volunteering for years now at the shelter, mostly going in once a week to hang out with the cats and sometimes talk people into adopting them. For a few months last year, I was working with another cat rescue organization, but they closed the temporary location they had near my house and it wasn't really feasible. (Also I had some issues/concerns with how they run their organization but I don't really need or want to get into that.) Before I was dating C, I'd usually spend four hours every Saturday at the shelter. Now, it's closer to three hours because I usually go down to see him Saturday night. When the shelter was closer to work, I would occasionally go in some weeknight as well when I was feeling particularly stressed and in the need of cat love.
Lately, I've been asking myself this question of "why am I not doing more?" Part of what brought that question up was seeing a friend of mine who used to volunteer where I do but now has created her own cat rescue organization. This organization doesn't just work with a small population of "adoptable" shelter cats, but they work also with cats that are not necessarily deemed adoptable, and also with getting feral cats TNRed and having feral colonies be somewhat managed. I remember reading statistics of how many feral cats there actually are in the area I live in, and it's some huge number. So I think about volunteering with people I know, maybe in trapping ferals or staffing phones or driving places. But I am loath to sign up, thinking it might cut into my free time.
Also it is kitten season, and right now there are tons of opportunities to foster kittens. I could do it, possibly, but I'm really not home often enough to take care of them and it would also really piss my cats off if I showed up with a bunch of kittens. I did manage to talk Heather into doing some fostering which is awesome of her. I do feel a bit underhanded talking people into things I wouldn't do myself, and yet, I continue to do it. And I know that every kitten is fostered is a kitten that has a chance at a good life as a house-cat and not a stray.
With what volunteering I do, I often get people calling me a saint or whatever, and quite frankly such talk makes me a bit uncomfortable. Because there is so much more that I can be doing than I do. And when I do volunteer, it's because I love spending time with the cats and I think about them having better lives than living in a shelter (no matter how nice it is). And when I talk to people about adopting cats, I think about how their lives will be improved having a loving animal living with them. I do think that I also shouldn't minimize what I am doing, and what I try to do, even when I am thinking I could do more.
-----
Yesterday at work, there was a blood donation drive. I had never donated blood before. I first tried to donate blood right after I turned 17 (which was about 20 years ago, yeesh) but that particular day, I was running a fever so I didn't end up getting to donate. And I also saw the people they were taking the blood from, and it looked kind of scary and that turned me off. But they had this drive at work, and I read on the website somewhere that they had a particular need for B blood type in this area, so I signed up last week. And promptly forgot about it until they sent me the reminder email.
The process to be a first-time donor is a bit complicated, as it involves filling out forms and doing a quiz that asked me a lot of questions, including about diseases that I'd never even heard of. It seemed that some of the questions were about HIV risks, but more were about mad cow risks. I had to really think about how long I had spent in England specifically, then in Europe otherwise. Also if you had a relative who had mad cow disease, you were restricted from donating. Then after filling everything out and having temperature and blood pressure checked, they bring you to the chair thing that you lie down on. Of course, it was a bit too tall for me so I had to hop up on there, but it worked out okay.
The actual time that it takes for them to take the liter of blood seems to vary for different people, and I didn't time mine but I would guess it's average. Some girl behind me, they said hers was super fast, like four minutes. Then after they take the blood, you go over to the drinks and snacks table to drink fluids and make sure that you are feeling okay. I saw one young man throw up, but I had absolutely no ill effects at all. I was sitting there, trying to talk to the volunteers who were staffing this area, and I mentioned that I saw on the website that they needed B type blood and I had never thought about my blood type being rare or in demand before, and that was why I signed up. And this dude working behind the booth says to me in the snottiest way imaginable, well, my blood type is O, so I'm the universal donor. Very tempting to just say, oh well, I guess my blood isn't needed then, can I have it back?
I did feel a bit tired after donating blood, but I don't know if that was just generally feeling tired having to be at work or related to the blood loss. I did make an attempt to eat a lot of meat at dinner to start rebuilding the iron. My mom was pointing out that some blood removal could help lower blood pressure, and perhaps there are other good affects from it. It's like having leeches applied, only I am helping people in the process. So, I'll probably sign up again in 56 days (though when I said, about two months, the snotty guy said, "no, we can't say that because not all months have the same amount of days," and I was a bit too tired to explain to him that even if there were two months back to back that had only 28 days, that would still end up being 56 days).
Lately, I've been asking myself this question of "why am I not doing more?" Part of what brought that question up was seeing a friend of mine who used to volunteer where I do but now has created her own cat rescue organization. This organization doesn't just work with a small population of "adoptable" shelter cats, but they work also with cats that are not necessarily deemed adoptable, and also with getting feral cats TNRed and having feral colonies be somewhat managed. I remember reading statistics of how many feral cats there actually are in the area I live in, and it's some huge number. So I think about volunteering with people I know, maybe in trapping ferals or staffing phones or driving places. But I am loath to sign up, thinking it might cut into my free time.
Also it is kitten season, and right now there are tons of opportunities to foster kittens. I could do it, possibly, but I'm really not home often enough to take care of them and it would also really piss my cats off if I showed up with a bunch of kittens. I did manage to talk Heather into doing some fostering which is awesome of her. I do feel a bit underhanded talking people into things I wouldn't do myself, and yet, I continue to do it. And I know that every kitten is fostered is a kitten that has a chance at a good life as a house-cat and not a stray.
With what volunteering I do, I often get people calling me a saint or whatever, and quite frankly such talk makes me a bit uncomfortable. Because there is so much more that I can be doing than I do. And when I do volunteer, it's because I love spending time with the cats and I think about them having better lives than living in a shelter (no matter how nice it is). And when I talk to people about adopting cats, I think about how their lives will be improved having a loving animal living with them. I do think that I also shouldn't minimize what I am doing, and what I try to do, even when I am thinking I could do more.
-----
Yesterday at work, there was a blood donation drive. I had never donated blood before. I first tried to donate blood right after I turned 17 (which was about 20 years ago, yeesh) but that particular day, I was running a fever so I didn't end up getting to donate. And I also saw the people they were taking the blood from, and it looked kind of scary and that turned me off. But they had this drive at work, and I read on the website somewhere that they had a particular need for B blood type in this area, so I signed up last week. And promptly forgot about it until they sent me the reminder email.
The process to be a first-time donor is a bit complicated, as it involves filling out forms and doing a quiz that asked me a lot of questions, including about diseases that I'd never even heard of. It seemed that some of the questions were about HIV risks, but more were about mad cow risks. I had to really think about how long I had spent in England specifically, then in Europe otherwise. Also if you had a relative who had mad cow disease, you were restricted from donating. Then after filling everything out and having temperature and blood pressure checked, they bring you to the chair thing that you lie down on. Of course, it was a bit too tall for me so I had to hop up on there, but it worked out okay.
The actual time that it takes for them to take the liter of blood seems to vary for different people, and I didn't time mine but I would guess it's average. Some girl behind me, they said hers was super fast, like four minutes. Then after they take the blood, you go over to the drinks and snacks table to drink fluids and make sure that you are feeling okay. I saw one young man throw up, but I had absolutely no ill effects at all. I was sitting there, trying to talk to the volunteers who were staffing this area, and I mentioned that I saw on the website that they needed B type blood and I had never thought about my blood type being rare or in demand before, and that was why I signed up. And this dude working behind the booth says to me in the snottiest way imaginable, well, my blood type is O, so I'm the universal donor. Very tempting to just say, oh well, I guess my blood isn't needed then, can I have it back?
I did feel a bit tired after donating blood, but I don't know if that was just generally feeling tired having to be at work or related to the blood loss. I did make an attempt to eat a lot of meat at dinner to start rebuilding the iron. My mom was pointing out that some blood removal could help lower blood pressure, and perhaps there are other good affects from it. It's like having leeches applied, only I am helping people in the process. So, I'll probably sign up again in 56 days (though when I said, about two months, the snotty guy said, "no, we can't say that because not all months have the same amount of days," and I was a bit too tired to explain to him that even if there were two months back to back that had only 28 days, that would still end up being 56 days).
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Am I Missing Something Here?
Q: How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: That's not funny!
I am starting to wonder if I have lost my sense of humor. I don't really think that seriously, but I was watching the Saturday Night Live from this weekend, and I didn't find most of it funny. I haven't watched the show in years, at least since my ex moved out. I wanted to watch this past week's because Betty White was on and she is awesome. In my experience of watching SNL on TV, it's about half an hour of commercials, forty-five minutes of stupid sketches that go on way too long, and maybe fifteen minutes of amusing content. Watching it online hasn't been quite as bad, because there are no commercials and I can skip through those skits that go on and on, but yeesh. The first skit has a "mom" with her four daughters and one of them has some sort of physical (and possibly mental) disability, and that's the joke of the show. The joke is the woman is differently abled and says non-logical things, which I don't really find amusing. I just wanted to screech at the TV, "that's not funny."
So far, I've only watched about half of the show, and while I do think that Betty White is great in every skit she is in, I don't think any of the things I've seen so far are that funny. I don't know if it's just unfamiliarity with some of the characters, like that MacGruber guy. Is he supposed to be like MacGyver? I guess that's what wikipedia says. I didn't really watch MacGyver back when it was on in the 80s, so maybe the whole idea of parodying it is lost on me. But then, why do you parody something so many years later? Anyway, Betty White plays his grandmother, who MacGruber decides at some point to propose marriage to, just like this disturbing real life story. Is MacGruber just supposed to be a dumbass? I don't get it.
I have been watching a lot of dramas lately, like House, Justified, Breaking Bad, and Treme, all of which have some genuinely comedic moments that make me laugh. I do watch some comedies too (just started watching Community at C's friends' recommendation) and I find myself laughing at things that seem genuinely funny to me. I don't really think I've lost my sense of humor. I suppose for the sake of my love of Rose Nylund, I'll finish watching the whole episode. But I definitely don't feel like I'm missing out not watching SNL every week.
A: That's not funny!
I am starting to wonder if I have lost my sense of humor. I don't really think that seriously, but I was watching the Saturday Night Live from this weekend, and I didn't find most of it funny. I haven't watched the show in years, at least since my ex moved out. I wanted to watch this past week's because Betty White was on and she is awesome. In my experience of watching SNL on TV, it's about half an hour of commercials, forty-five minutes of stupid sketches that go on way too long, and maybe fifteen minutes of amusing content. Watching it online hasn't been quite as bad, because there are no commercials and I can skip through those skits that go on and on, but yeesh. The first skit has a "mom" with her four daughters and one of them has some sort of physical (and possibly mental) disability, and that's the joke of the show. The joke is the woman is differently abled and says non-logical things, which I don't really find amusing. I just wanted to screech at the TV, "that's not funny."
So far, I've only watched about half of the show, and while I do think that Betty White is great in every skit she is in, I don't think any of the things I've seen so far are that funny. I don't know if it's just unfamiliarity with some of the characters, like that MacGruber guy. Is he supposed to be like MacGyver? I guess that's what wikipedia says. I didn't really watch MacGyver back when it was on in the 80s, so maybe the whole idea of parodying it is lost on me. But then, why do you parody something so many years later? Anyway, Betty White plays his grandmother, who MacGruber decides at some point to propose marriage to, just like this disturbing real life story. Is MacGruber just supposed to be a dumbass? I don't get it.
I have been watching a lot of dramas lately, like House, Justified, Breaking Bad, and Treme, all of which have some genuinely comedic moments that make me laugh. I do watch some comedies too (just started watching Community at C's friends' recommendation) and I find myself laughing at things that seem genuinely funny to me. I don't really think I've lost my sense of humor. I suppose for the sake of my love of Rose Nylund, I'll finish watching the whole episode. But I definitely don't feel like I'm missing out not watching SNL every week.
Saturday, May 08, 2010
Working On It
It's really hard to be in a relationship with someone who has a dramatically different schedule from you. Especially if that schedule involves them having copious amounts of free time, and me not so much. Such was the case with my last relationship, where I worked full time at the same job the whole time, and my ex barely worked. When we first started dating, he had a regular 9 to 5 job, but that job only lasted a few weeks. Then, he did some things some times, like picking up a week or two of work, or working at this job overnight for a while, but most of the time he was just sitting at home. Or rather, he'd stay up all night (sometimes keeping me awake) and then sleep all day, waking up half an hour before I returned. Then he'd end up talking my ear off because he was so bored, and I would be tired from work, and it was a bad mesh. Anyway, I know I've written plenty about that relationship, how it didn't work out, and why. I know that his not having a job was part of it (but the larger part was his seeming inability to look for work or fend for himself in a way that us adults have to).
When I first met C, he wasn't working either. When he told me, this was one of those things that stopped me in my tracks, making me think I just didn't want to take anything with him too seriously. But over time, he seemed to have sources of money, he'd sell one of his cars, or pick up some odd computer work, and was looking for work. And most importantly, he never asked me for money, and he paid for the majority of meals and movies. So, it never worried me but it did prevent me from feeling a hundred percent about anything.
Well, last week after I was having all those feelings and doubts about my relationship with him, he turned around and got a job. And came over Monday night and Wednesday night, and was happy and really affectionate. And asked me if he could stay with me the following week because he was going to be working closer to my home than his. Suddenly, the relationship that I had been just going through with for over a year, became a bit of something more. At least for me. Because dating someone with the same kind of job hours as me, someone who wakes up in the morning to go into work, is someone I have a lot more in common with.
This past week, he spent four nights at my house, and every night we'd do domestic stuff like eat dinner together and watch TV shows. The first day or two, it was just weird, the whole fact of having someone around all the time wasn't something I was used to, but then when I got used to it, I realized that I liked having C around. And living with someone, even for a few days, isn't that bad, especially when the person isn't criticizing you all the time. I started thinking again, that I could actually live with someone again.
The first night C was at my house, he picked up a glass from the top cabinet to drink water out of. At some point, I looked more closely at the glass and realize it had my ex's name on it. How weird, that I hadn't noticed that glass being there for years and suddenly C grabs it, and drinks out of it.
When I first met C, he wasn't working either. When he told me, this was one of those things that stopped me in my tracks, making me think I just didn't want to take anything with him too seriously. But over time, he seemed to have sources of money, he'd sell one of his cars, or pick up some odd computer work, and was looking for work. And most importantly, he never asked me for money, and he paid for the majority of meals and movies. So, it never worried me but it did prevent me from feeling a hundred percent about anything.
Well, last week after I was having all those feelings and doubts about my relationship with him, he turned around and got a job. And came over Monday night and Wednesday night, and was happy and really affectionate. And asked me if he could stay with me the following week because he was going to be working closer to my home than his. Suddenly, the relationship that I had been just going through with for over a year, became a bit of something more. At least for me. Because dating someone with the same kind of job hours as me, someone who wakes up in the morning to go into work, is someone I have a lot more in common with.
This past week, he spent four nights at my house, and every night we'd do domestic stuff like eat dinner together and watch TV shows. The first day or two, it was just weird, the whole fact of having someone around all the time wasn't something I was used to, but then when I got used to it, I realized that I liked having C around. And living with someone, even for a few days, isn't that bad, especially when the person isn't criticizing you all the time. I started thinking again, that I could actually live with someone again.
The first night C was at my house, he picked up a glass from the top cabinet to drink water out of. At some point, I looked more closely at the glass and realize it had my ex's name on it. How weird, that I hadn't noticed that glass being there for years and suddenly C grabs it, and drinks out of it.
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Under Her Wing/Thumb
I really have to sit down and write about the C situation, but the gist is that everything is going very well now.
I just wanted to post about my boss's new weirdness. For the last two days, she's been inviting me to go out and work on computer systems, or mentor me, or something. It is almost like she's taking a special interest in me and wanting to see me learn more tech stuff, except the stuff she is showing me is mostly basic and mostly already known before (or not something that I'd end up doing anyway). I am playing along, and in a way, getting out of doing my normal work is nice. But as everything else that happens good at work, I always kind of wonder when the other shoe is going to drop and something weird is going to happen. So paranoid!
I just wanted to post about my boss's new weirdness. For the last two days, she's been inviting me to go out and work on computer systems, or mentor me, or something. It is almost like she's taking a special interest in me and wanting to see me learn more tech stuff, except the stuff she is showing me is mostly basic and mostly already known before (or not something that I'd end up doing anyway). I am playing along, and in a way, getting out of doing my normal work is nice. But as everything else that happens good at work, I always kind of wonder when the other shoe is going to drop and something weird is going to happen. So paranoid!
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