Careful! It's hot!

Yeah, found that out yesterday afternoon while I was ironing.

I have pretty much accepted one overwhelming fact about myself.  I'm clumsy.

If I can step in it, step on it, burn myself with it, trip over it, bump into it and so forth, there's no doubt, I'll find some way to absent-mindedly hurt myself.  There's got to be some kind of record for pulling bonehead moves in your own home.  If there is a record on the books, I've got to be close.

Yesterday, it was a face off of epic proportions...me versus the clothes that needed to be pressed.  I'm a procrastinator when it comes to ironing.  Truth be told, it's because I'm afraid of three things:  1.) Burning myself on the iron, 2.) ruining my clothes or 3.) a combination of both.  Yeah, nothing's more fun than burning yourself then scorching your shirt.  *eyeroll*

My mother is a champion ironer.  She is.  She gets a really big kick out of doing the whole, "Look!  My iron is a steam-breathing dragon..." as she hits the steam button as she points it at me.  I know, it's my mom, she's got her cute moments.  But one thing is for certain, she has some amazing gifts.  She can turn a potato into an origami, she can improvise delicious meals AND she wields one mean iron.  I think the clothes might just iron themselves rather than come up against my Mom.  Nan and I know...you get the "look" from Mom and you straighten up real fast.  The clothes know...and they're afraid...

So with the back of my laundry room door loaded down with clothes that needed to be pressed, I made a command decision...come hell or high water, it was going to get done.

Last week, I cleaned out my iron.  Las Vegas, for all of it's wonderfulness...well, it has helluh hard water.   And as anyone that has ever lived in the Texas Hill Country will tell you, hard water is a real pain and wreaks havoc on appliances.  So, I got some iron cleaner at my local Bath, Bed and Beyond and sat down to clean my iron.  It wasn't too bad actually.  Just some hard water deposits and I was amazed that someone else that had also used it besides me (he doesn't have an identity anymore, so let's just leave him alone) didn't screw the thing up to high heaven as he had done to my other household gadgets.

So with clean iron in hand, I set up my board and for about 3 hours, ironed my clothes.  Now, I'm not like Mom, she can just look at the clothes and they'll go stiff as a board.  Me?  Forget it.  I can screw up a shirt in a matter of milliseconds.  Ironing is just not my bag.  I would run over my Polo shirts and just when I thought I had it right, what happens?  The fabric bunches and I end up with a big fat crease in the middle of everything.  ARGH!  I hate ironing!  So, what happens, I have to go back and fix it and you know how hard that is to do.


After about 3 hours, dodging some scorching steam and by some miracle NOT burning my fingers to kingdom come, my clothes are in my closet, pressed and ready to go when I want to wear them.


Lucky for me, the TV had some good stuff on...I flipped back and forth from "Wanted" to "Dune".  It was a great moment for me.  It was me getting stuff done along with two of my most favorite inspirational sayings in the world...

"Arakkis was created to train the faithful." from Dune...which I paraphrase for all my friends in the Myst Universe by saying "Uru was created to train the faithful", and trust me, when you've been through the ups and downs of Uru Live, trust me, you learn faith real fast.

Then...

"What the fuck have you done lately." from "Wanted".  It's my go-to phrase when I need to kick myself in the pants and get motivated and do things I need to do.  I even printed it out in huge type on 7 individual 8.5" x 11" pieces of paper and taped it to my wall above my computer screen.  It makes me ask myself what I did during my day that was worth while and getting me closer to my goals.

What have I done lately?  I tamed the wrinkle beast!  I ironed!

Boys.

I was doing some cleaning around the apartment with my television going and I realized I haven't had a post in a long time about cute guys.

You know, I'm a girl.  Well, girl is relative...I'm approaching 40 and well...'girl' doesn't seem quite accurate chronologically, but it suits my mind set.  I'm still 21 in my head.  And like Prince said, "It ain't about the body, it's about the mind..."  Yep, I'm still youthful in mind and heart, which I think will keep me young for a long time even though my body may disagree.

So, let's talk about boys.  Why not?  Just because I've taken a bite out of quite a few rotten apples does not necessarily mean that every single apple tree out there does nothing but produce bad apples.  No, I have sneaking suspicion that just as there are good apples out there, there are some good guys out there too.  I just have yet to find the perfect apple for me.  Sometimes I wish you could go to the "man market" go and look at all the different types and varieties then choose one that's just right for me.  It would be just like shopping for apples, produce or that perfect pair of shoes.  It would make things much simpler than having to worry about meeting someone and dating.

Dating.  Now that's a scary word.  I'm caught in a world that is filled with some self-doubt about my appearance and then there is the whole side of me that says, "Been there, done that, got the t-shirt", so why go through the trouble all over again?

There's the problem.  It's not that I want to go through all the trouble again, it's that boys, for the most part, are pretty to look at.  Some of them, albeit few, have some sort of nutritional value, whether it is in spirit, heart, or some other neat quirk.  But, most of all, I just like to look at them.  Whether they look at me, well, that's a different story altogether, but over all, it's fun to just look.

So, here's my top 5 list of cuties and why I (and a lot of other girls) think they are cute.


5.  Matthew Fox.

 
Ok, the name says it all.  Fox.  Now, here's what's cute.  His nose isn't perfect.  You know how there are just some actors who are just too perfect?  That their appearance is just too plastic or whatever?  Well, this guy, and I did catch a glimpse the other day watching that (whatever your opinion on it) Speed Racer, and there's this great profile and crooked teeth.  It just made him seem real to me. And for the first time the other day, I watched Lost.  He was just so damn cute.  And Heroic.   So, there's #5, Matthew Fox.

4.  Sam Worthington.

Ok, yes, I saw Avatar.  What virtual worlds junkie did NOT cry when his character's essence got transferred into his avatar's body?  I wept like a little girl.  But, let's talk cute points.  Ok, this one, he has perfect teeth, but the cutest part about him to me?  He used to live in his car.  I know what that feels like, so he gets cute points for perseverance.  But, he's also serious eye candy and I have to laugh when I watch his films where he has to do an American accent (remember girls, this is a hottie from Down Under), he always seems to goof and you can hear that Aussie accent come out.  (It's a "Other" thing...we always think things that are different are sexy or exotic.)  So, even though he's young...5 years younger than me...he still makes the list, although I would never go out with him for fear of the C-Word...cougar.  So, there ya go, #4 on the list, Sam Worthington.

3. Robert Downey Jr.

Alright, alright, this one is so cliché, but he still makes the list, but not for reasons you would think.  Ok, ever since he was a young kid, (I first saw him in Weird Science...remember that from the 80's?) I thought he was cute.  Then came drugs.  OY.  Do I know about that!  And I know what they can do to you and make you do.  His rehabilitation from druggie into America's Sweetheart status wasn't an easy road, and I can promise you that it's not from first-hand experience in doing the same thing.   It's not easy to resurrect yourself from the ashes, so that's Robert's cute point right there.  Next reason is that he actually recorded one of my favorite songs, a cover of "Your Move" by Yes.  His voice is so sweet!  But, Tony Stark aside, Robert Downey Jr.  has made the cut as #3...and he's even close to me in age which is the best part of all...he reminds me that there are cute guys out there my age who are doing things right.

2.  Ewan McGregor

Here we go with my #2 selection.  From looking drugged out in Trainspotting all the way up to playing Obi Wan Kenobi and so forth...nothing can get me to sit in a theater seat quicker than Ewan McGregor.  Ok, I'll be the bad girl for a moment and say I hated Moulin Rouge.  I did, I hated that movie as a whole and a part of the reason is that I don't like Nicole Kidman.  She's a great actress, but I'm just not overly a fan of hers.  What I will sit through that movie for is to hear Ewan sing.  OY!  He sing to me any day.  It's the smile, and it's how his EYES smile is what gets me.  I resonate with him because my eyes do the same thing, they do my talking for me.  So, there's #2 Ewan McGregor.

and, let's have a drumroll for the most obvious #1 of all time...

#1 Hugh Jackman

Ok, just because I like guys with long hair, let's have another shot with him with long hair...

It's ok, laugh with me.  I'm trying to be funny and have a bit of laughter and positivity in my day.  Nothing makes me giggle like cute boys.  Jackman, well, he's just so yummy on so many different levels, he sings, he dances, he's Wolverine...his list is too long to go into of the why's and how's he cute.  A visual nom-fest.  So, there's my #1 hottie that I would never kick out of my bed for eating crackers.  But props to his wife, she's one lucky girl and for that reason alone I wouldn't touch him with a 10-foot pole.

For that matter, the married hotties on my list would never be on my menu except to look at because simply, their girls deserve lots of respect for hanging on to these lucious, eye-candy, genetically gifted guys.

Sigh.  I wish something of the caliber of my list would knock on my door.  It'd be nice to go out on a date with a hottie.  It would do wonders for my self esteem.

But, I know lots of cute guys...and they all happen to be some of my best friends who are married to very wonderful women, and I would probably break those gal's faces if they ever hurt my slew of cute brothers.

Anyhow, it's fun to muse, it's fun to dream, but I'll go back to cleaning house, getting good grades and realizing, boys aren't the end-all, be-all, but they sure are fun to look at.

The new Robin Hood, definitely not improved.

Ok.  Let's just start with how I started my day.  After a Xanax induced sleep, I get a wake-up call from Nan.  It's the day to go to the movies.  She gives me an hour to get ready and I get close, but as I am a walking tardy, well, I ran late.  A phone call later, giving me a just scolding me for my tardiness, I was on the road to the movie theater.  The choice of film for the day:  Ridley Scott's Robin Hood.

Oh, this is one I did NOT want to see.  After sitting through it, yep, I was right.  Russell Crowe just does not do it for me like he used to.  The brooding thing is just over.  I've had my fill of the broody type.  Lived with it for 10 years and I've chewed on it until all the flavor has gone.  I want spunk and emotion from my leading men and well, sitting for 2 hours watching really repugnant men...Ridley Scott's Robin Hood gets an Ugh on my Oooh! meter.  Yeah, the film, when looked at it in it's entirety, didn't float my boat. 

The cast of the film made me think I was sitting through a hybrid of X-men Origins: Wolverine, A Knight's Tale, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Sherlock Holmes with Russell Crowe thrown on top as a would-be Gladiator(ial) cherry on the cake.

As we know I walked into the theater about 10 minutes late, and I felt gipped because the best part of going to the movies is the trailers.  But, much less to say, I walk in and who do I see up on the big screen?  The man who played Col. William Striker in Wolverine, Danny Huston; and just as repugnant as the Striker character was, so was his King Richard.  Same intonation, same everything, but this time he's in some medieval get-up scolding Russell Crowe's version of Robin Hood.  I knew it was a bad sign from the get-go, because the next scene, who do we see, the fella who played The Blob in Wolverine, Kevin Durande, sitting next to our would-be Robin Hood in a set of racks.  At this point, I started looking for the tattoo on Fred Dukes arm because I thought for sure Hugh Jackman was going to come running out of the bushes with claws flying to save this pitiful film.

Let's go through the good before we get to the bad.

Max Von Sydow was phenomenal!  I just love that guy!  From Dr. Kines in "Dune" to all of his other great parts, he gives the never-seen-before character, Sir Walter Loxley, zip and pizazz.  Even though his character is blind, he sees more than the rest of us do.  Rock on Max!  You the man! His moments on screen are something to enjoy while you get them.

I give props to Kevin Durande, his presence really gave some comic relief to the agony I was going through, such as when he's asked why he's called "Little John" and he replies, "Hey!  I'm proportionate!"  Funny.  And with his beefcake luscious body, even though his face might not light my fire in a big way, I was sated for my need for a bit of sinew and muscle.  Add in the Alan A'Dayle (Alan Doyle) and Will Scarlet (Scott Grimes) characters for their funny moments as Russell's "crew", they were great.  The parts where they actually got some quality screen time, you actually looked forward to and relished when they were on the screen. 

I also give props to Mark Addy (you remember him, he played Roland in A Knight's Tale).  His Friar Tuck wasn't bad.  This time around our favorite drunken friar liked to keep bees so he could make honey mead.  I got a big kick when he tossed some beehives at some ransacking french soldiers.  He added a bit of levity to the film.  Who doesn't love a drunk, pudgy faced friar?  All in all, Kevin Durande's Little John and Mark Addy's Friar Tuck, what little screen time they do get, were moments I enjoyed best out of the entire film.

I actually think Ridley Scott might be a sadist, simply for the reason that between Little John, Alan A'Dayle, Will Scarlet and Friar Tuck, they were like showing a scoop of vanilla ice cream coated in Hershey's Chocolate Syrup to someone on a crash diet, then going "NOPE!  Can't have it!" Then taking a big bite in front of us, showing us something we'll never have.  It's just soooooo wrong!  Bastard! hehe.

Now, let's get into the bad:

The guy who played Prince-then-King John  (I smiled when Danny Huston who played King Richard took one through the gizzard...I thought to myself, "Yeah!  That's what you get for shooting Jackman in the head with Adamantium bullets!)...well, you know, when it comes to John, I'm not big on guys who like to lie or screw people over.  The character was just a regal horse's ass.  (Not to down on the thousands of horses in the film, those were beautiful.)  The character of John made me ill.  My favorite moment that I am the only one who laughed at was when he said, "It's my first time in battle, I'll lead!"  It reminded me of some newb in World of Warcraft trying to lead a raid, you know it's going to be an epic failfest.  So, that's another strike against the film.

The biggest and worst type-casting move ever was to bring in the bad guy from Sherlock Holmes, Mark Strong, as our villain once again.  Yes, we know he can play bad guys.  Saw him in Sherlock Holmes and wanted to fast forward through him in that film too.  He's dark, he's another brooder and even if he did smile and tried to have charm, he's just so blah that you just want to go head out to the concession stand so you can miss the parts he's in.

Now, everyone but everyone has seen Costner's version of Robin Hood.  I missed Alan Rickman this time around as the Sheriff of Nottingham because the turkey they got to play the Sheriff this time around...I just hummed Bob Marley's tune and wished to hell that I could have shot that Sheriff and anyone else that wanted to come near that part with a 10-foot pole.

Cate Blanchett.  I love her, she's great.  She's really good at doing what I do, making due with what you've got.  And let me tell ya, she didn't have much to work with.  This Marion was a stand-up gal who reminded everyone that she sleeps with a dagger and isn't afraid to use it.  And like a moment taken out of Elizabeth: The Golden Age, she even rides into battle in armor from head to toe. 

As far as the romance between Robin and Marion...not the fireworks we saw from Kevin Costner and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, those were great moments.  Hate to say it, but Russell and Cate didn't have it going on.  Cate's Marion was too stand up to let a brooding bonehead upstage her much less sweep her off her feet.  My feet, and we all know what a hopeful romantic I am, stayed firmly planted on the ground with a "yeah, we know, Robin and Marion end up together...it's been the same for hundreds of years, we get it."

On the way to the theater after finding out I was going to see Robin Hood, I groaned and exclaimed, "I want to see Iron Man instead!"  Yeah, it would have been a much better use of $7.75.

Best part of the film that made it worth the money?  Seeing Nan out and about on top of her leaning over and whispering, identifying all of the different types of horses in the film and seeing her joy in watching the horses on screen.  Hey, if it takes $7.75 for Nan to tell me about horses when I know how much she loves them...I'm in.  If you love horses, go see the movie, there's plenty of equine joy for you to find if you can ignore the rest of the rah-rah going on.

Ridley Scott's Robin Hood?  A big NO from me.  Save your money and go for it when it comes out as a rental instead.  Ridley Scott is much better at scaring the shit out of us in outer space than he is covering us in mud.  I actually looked around for my remote a couple of times during the 140 minutes so I could fast forward through parts of the film.  Ridley, back to the Aliens you go pal.  Do us all a favor, don't you DARE touch another time honored-classic for as long as you live!  We did not need Robin Hood Begins.

Feng Shui'ing the apartment

Ok, the semester is over, so I've got free time on my hands.

On Monday, I went out to mail off my friend TJ's birthday card.  I was hungry while I was out, so I decided to take myself to an early dinner, but being as I eat alone all the time, when I go out to eat, I always take a book.  Well, I was a goof and had forgotten to take a book with me, so into the neighborhood Barnes and Noble I went. 

I love my neighborhood bookstore.  It's a candy shop for a bibliophile like me.  I checked the shelves for my favorite romance author, Sherrilyn Kenyon, but I have every single book she's published and I have to wait for her latest release "Infinity" to come out on the 25th, so I struck out there. 

I then looked around for an advertising section to see if I could find a good ad book.  Nope, no Advertising section, truth told, I didn't try very hard to find it, I just browsed the tops of the shelves to see the sections, but didn't see one on business in my immediate vicinity.  What I did see though struck me as interesting...Interior Decorating.  My apartment is a disaster zone, so I figured, hey, what better way to put myself in the mode to clean up and get organized than to have a decorating goal.  So, I stumbled over into the decorating section and found a book called "Feng Shui in a Weekend" by Simon Brown.  It's all about how to make your home more Feng Shui in about a weekend's worth of time.  Ok, let's just set the record straight, before I purchased the book, I knew all of jack shit about Feng Shui except it's supposed to be really healthy and make your home feel wonderful.  That's about all I knew.  But, if it'll get the energy in the apartment feeling good, I'm all about that.  So, I walked up to the counter, bought it, and took it to dinner with me.

Sitting in my neighborhood Chili's restauraunt (where I usually take myself to eat), I cracked open the book and began to read.  Right off the bat I find illustrations of Tortoises, Dragons, Phoenixes, Snakes and Tigers.  I found out that if you sit with your back against a wall, it's a tortoise thing because it's hard shell implies protection and you're more apt to relax with your chair or sofa against a wall.  Neat.  My couch is already against the wall, so at least I don't have to move furniture right now.

I also read about different types of plants and how it's a good idea to have a plant next to the computer.  Never would have seen that one coming a mile away, but there it is in the book having to do with electromagnetic radiation or some such thing.  I don't know, I'm not that far into the book yet.

To tell the truth, it's going to take more than a weekend to get through the book, even longer to make the adjustments to the apartment, but I figure it this way, it's a project, it's keeping me busy.

The one thing I noticed in flipping through the book is that it talks about clutter.  Now, as we know, I used to have to live with a lot of clutter.  Well, it's taken a while but I'm slowly but surely reducing the amount of clutter left behind by someone else.  Just today I worked on my bar next to the entry way of my apartment.  It was laden with all kinds of old receipts left by my previous co-habitant and things that just didn't need to be there anymore, but it was rough to try to get rid of it before because I was busy with school and all of my other activities.  Now that my days are free?  Yeah, I've reduced a fair bit of clutter there.  It's amazing, more than half of the stuff my old co-habitant had was trash.  Literally.  He filled the house with garbage.  I didn't think it was that bad until I really went through the items on the bar.  So, as the Feng Shui book and common sense says...yeah, I got rid of it.    I also cleaned out some bins that he had made sure to mess up in the bathroom, cleaned those and got them in respectable shape again. 

But, I'm not anywhere near finished yet.  My apartment is a very large project and it needs a LOT of work.  So, one part down and I'll take up another section tomorrow.  Piece by piece, that's how you solve a puzzle and it's a great way to look at a large project, just little piece by little piece and before long, you've got one big picture.

I applied for 4 jobs today.  Let's hope someone nibbles.  I need to be out of the house, but if I'm stuck here, I'm going to make the most of the time and get this place into shape!