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wThe Whine Column |
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I'll try to keep the actual whining to a minimum, I promise. But this is where I'll rant about work, stupid people and the like, plus make mention of the random interesting things in my life. Email me at quizbabe at yahoo dot com if you want to whine back.
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wFriday, November 29, 2002 |
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If I Wanted to Watch Commercials, I Would've Stayed Home
So we went to see the new Harry Potter movie today. Audience was predominantly adults, sort of surprising for a 5:15 showing on the day after Thanksgiving, what with all the kids being out of school and all. So the advertising slideshow ended at precisely 5:15, only to be followed by 10 solid minutes of commercials. Even the "turn off your cell phone ringer you jackass" spot has a sponsor (side note: heard not one but two cell phones start ringing during the movie -- grrrr). One commercial even ran twice during that 10 minutes. This of course was followed by 5 minutes of trailers, which I really don't mind so much (side note: trust me when I tell you Jerry O'Connell needs money or is on some serious drugs ... you'll see what I mean in a few months, but let's just say it involves a kangaroo).
I'm just wondering how long it will be before they start showing commercials during the movie. Then again, it would make for easier bathroom breaks for people with small bladders and those who feel compelled to buy the jumbo soda because it's only a quarter more than the small if you buy it in combination with the 5-gallon bucket-o-popcorn.
I miss the Sesame Street segment that ran for a short time before the movies (here in Boston anyway -- not sure if it ran elsewhere). For those of you not familiar with it, it basically was the safety message -- you know, don't talk, don't smoke, don't surf (there is no water) -- presented in musical form. Very good for singing along for those who were so inclined (and of course I was).
The movie was quite good, by the way. It was sort of sad to see Richard Harris as Dumbledore though, knowing that he's gone to the great barroom in the sky and won't be in the rest of the movies. He's great in the role.
Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I didn't eat as much as usual as far as turkey dinner goes, but I ate a lot of dessert. Really wish I had eaten some of the pumpkin pie at Mom and Dad's, but I had already eaten a piece of the pecan pie my dad made and had two rounds of dessert still to go (with my mom's family and then with my dad's). Once we plow through the variety of cookies, cake and apple pie we brought home, I'll bake the mini-pies I planned to make a few weeks ago. The best part is that since they're small, they freeze well as single servings for future eating enjoyment.
Mmmm ... pie.
posted by
Allyson at 11:46 PM
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wFriday, November 15, 2002 |
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One Year, One Month, One Week, One Day
For those of you who can't figure out what the title means, that's how long I've been married. I didn't get a chance to post an anniversary message on our actual anniversary, as we spent it driving across Cyprus and then cruising the Mediterranean to Egypt. (Not a bad way to spend an anniversary, really.) So I tried to figure out when might be a good time to post. Our one year and one month anniversary was too close to TRASH regionals and I didn't want to spend the weekend being mocked by my teammates (or worse yet, having my husband mocked by our teammates for something he had no control over).
So this seemed like a good time to let you all know just how much I love my husband. I don't write about him too much here, partly because I don't think he'd be too crazy about being mentioned all the time (he's more private than I am), and partly because ... well, most of what I would write would be whining about silly things he's done (like running the dishwasher when it's full of clean dishes), and since I know he reads this and most of our mutual friends read as well, I don't want to embarrass him too much. Hope he's not embarrassed by this post ...
Matt, sweetie, you rock. I've told you before how when we started dating I was (mentally) in a pit of darkness and you reached into that pit and pulled me out, a bit at a time, until I was able to see the light. We hit a few rough patches along the way, but we were able to move past them and keep our relationship going. Even though we'd talked about it, I was still surprised when you proposed -- surprised that any man in his right mind would want to spend his life with me.
Our wedding day was the best day of my life. Standing in front of our family and friends and promising our lives to each other ... I've never felt so sure of anything else. It hasn't always been easy since, but I knew that going into the deal, and the good times have been so good that they more than make up for the less pleasant stuff.
There are so many things that I could say here, but I don't want to get too much mushier. I will say, though, that you never cease to amaze, amuse, delight and challenge me, and I love you for that. I look forward to many years of being your wife and doing whatever I can to make you as happy as you make me.
posted by
Allyson at 2:43 AM
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wThursday, November 14, 2002 |
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Two for the Price of One
Given the time between my last post and this one, I thought I'd give my loyal readers a double dose of my whining. In order of the events that triggered them ...
Bad Karma: Or, "You wanna tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing?"
There's no better way to jinx yourself than to make plans in advance of something, save for speaking of those plans out loud. The quote in the title of this segment comes from the election night episode of West Wing, and was Toby's response to those who were speaking in advance of the president's re-election and were very surprised that in addition to the victory speech he had written a concession speech as well. He demanded that the biggest doubter go outside, turn around three times and spit so as to break the bad karma.
Well, we did it to ourselves this weekend at TRASH regionals. We talked about going to TRASHionals as a done deal, as the Gerbils team has won the northeast regional the last three years (more, maybe? I only played with them the last two for regionals and two of three for nationals), and it seemed in advance to be a given that we'd probably win again. But the field was considerably stronger this year, despite the lack of additional "bollocks" on Kyle Pope's team. The annoying NYU team was pretty strong, I hate to admit, and having never played Kenny Peskin before that I can recall, well, he's wicked good at trash.
Of course, given that two of the actual Gerbils are TRASH poobahs, we should be able to get in on an at-large bid if we want. (I speak as though I have any kind of authority here -- I'm really just a replacement Gerbil, though Matt and I have been fairly regular Gerbil stand-ins.) So I'm not too worried about missing a trip to wherever the heck they hold TRASHionals this year.
Still did fairly well at regionals, though, getting questions really early on the Dixie Chicks and Sam Seaborn and fairly early on Tom Selleck. Managed to pull my weight on bonuses, I think. I still have a problem with sitting on tossups too long for fear of taking a neg and earning the loathing and evil looks of my teammates. Yes, I know the snide comments are all in fun, but I am more sensitive than I let on. I can dish it but I really can't take it sometimes.
No Fun Zone: Or, whatever happened to free speech?
My office has officially been declared a no fun zone. Apparently when outside people (those who do not work there) have been in our office of late, at least two have complained about the behavior/banter of people who do work there. I believe one complaint was directed at the guys in sports, but we have to yell at them to stop being noisy a lot. So we've now been asked to consider behaving as if our grandmother was about to walk in the room at any moment.
We don't know for sure, but the suspicion among a sampling of co-workers is that someone in the newsroom complained. No names were named when we got the lecture, for obvious reasons, but one name in particular came up a few times in the chatting afterward. So now we're asked not to make jokes about any of the "equal opportunity" topics: ethnicity, race, sexual orientation (or sex in general, I guess), politics, religion, philosophy, etc. In other words, most of us should now just sit in silence instead of talking.
Of course, our editor broke his own rule not more than 10 minutes after announcing it. A reporter noted that of the 39 cities and towns in Rhode Island, only three heads of government are women and all are in the Blackstone Valley. Our managing editor made a crack about not including Providence, which recently elected an openly gay mayor. About three people in the newsroom got the joke, I think, but I immediately snapped back at him that if we are not allowed to make jokes like that then he isn't either.
It's almost laughable that we're being told to watch what we say in a building that has the First Amendment posted outside its main entrance. Last I checked, newspapers were supposed to be bastions of free speech.
A funny story from this point, in the vein of behaving as you would around your grandmother, to close the post. I was driving my grandmother home from visiting the cemetery where my grandfather is buried, and as I was merging onto the highway some dumbass in the right lane decided rather than slow down to let me merge fairly easily, he sped up to try to get past where I would be. This didn't work, of course, and so we ended up trying to be in the lane at the same time; luckily it was a wider than usual lane to help with the merging, but even so it was sort of a tight fit for two cars. So I shouted (in a car with the windows closed) something to the effect of "don't speed up, a**hole!" The second the word left my mouth I remembered that my Nana was in the passenger seat. Oops. I apologized and explained that hey, I drive in Massachusetts. She didn't seem too appalled, but noted that she usually uses much tamer words instead.
posted by
Allyson at 1:57 AM
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