Reprieve & Other Thoughts

I just found out that a meeting scheduled for tomorrow night has been moved to next week. This makes me so happy. I hate evening meetings. I go to as few of them as I possibly can. With a child in school there are unavoidable, "mandatory" meetings. They frown on you not showing up for Curriculum Night. But if I can be involved in a project without giving up my valuable TV viewing time, I am a happy camper. If they could only figure out a way to video conference these things I'd be all for it.

Here's a hypothetical question:

Let's say your a good looking guy in your 30's. You've spent the last 8 years or so focusing on your medical career. You're feeling pretty established but now you're ready to focus some of your energy on a relationship. You meet a girl at a party. She's attractive. You start talking and she says, "I'm really ready to move on to the reproductive phase of my life". Do you a) think, "Dang! And I thought this was going to be work!" or b) run screaming into the night? That's what I thought.

The Neighbor and I watched "The Bachelor" last night. It's not really my favorite reality show but The Neighbor and I always have fun. And this season is set in Paris and what's not to love about that? (If Jim Carrey made a movie set in Paris I might watch it. Especially if it also starred Meg Ryan, Cate Blanchett and Diane Keaton. And if John Cusak and Colin Firth were in it, that would be great. And Alan Rickman. If it was written and directed by someone like Woody Allen or the Coen brothers, that would be good. And then, if all the scenes with Jim Carrey were left on the cutting room floor, that would be one superfantastic movie. Yep, I'd definitely watch it then.) I digress. There was one woman in the 25 who -seriously- described herself as having "rotting eggs". Later in the program, after she - shock of shocks - didn't get a rose, she was complaining to the other non-rose girls about how she'd tried everything, conventional dating, online dating, blind dates and no man would have her. It was really pretty sad. She apparently doesn't see that her "rotting eggs" line is not her strongest lead.

In other musings, one of my new year's intentions was to read at least 3 books I've never read before. So far, I'm not doing so well. I'm currently re-reading "Pure Drivel" by the brilliant Steve Martin, or as we like to call him, The Child's New Daddy. The library is holding Barack Obama's autobiography and I have to pick that up. So maybe that will be my first "new" book. I was going to get a book called "My Prescription for an Anti-depressive Life" by Jonathan Adler, about the importance of design in your environment. It sounded like a fun read. But when I found the book at Barnes and Noble it was a) $30 and 2) a coffee table book. It had pretty pictures but I have lots of books with pretty pictures and I was looking for something to read. All it did was put me in the mood to re-read "Domestic Bliss: Simple Ways to Add Style to Your Life" by Rita Konig, who writes for British Vogue. And I probably will re-read it but then I'll just be re-reading a book (albeit a very entertaining one) and not venturing into new territory. Maybe I'll see if I can find "Helena" by Evelyn Waugh. Our priest mentioned it in his homily on Sunday and apparently it was Waugh's favorites of all his books. Of course, my favorite Evelyn Waugh book is "Brideshead Revisited". Time to re-read that, too. I'm thinking that reading 3 new books is looking pretty ambitious at the moment.

Speaking of ambitious, I labeled 3 boxes of invitations in 2 hours today at the Cantwell office. It's a new volunteer record. I am so getting that tiara. Maybe they'll present it to me at the election night party and I can wear it on TV. That would be swell. I also got all my ironing done this afternoon. Which is also tiara worthy.

I also have the '06 intention of being a better gardener. I was going to start cleaning up all the beds and potagers, just 15 minutes a day, but enough to have everything cleaned up in time for spring. But it has been raining here for 23 straight days. This is God's judgment on me for living in Seattle in January.