The Beauty and the Mess

Why am I worried? Because of this. I first heard about this on the news on Saturday morning. At first I thought, "Wow, they're being ridiculous," but then I heard that the National Weather Service was having a press conference to warn people about the potential danger of this storm. Apparently two weather systems are going to collide over Memphis at around midnight, instantly producing excellent tornado conditions. I am fascinated by severe weather, but I've experienced more than enough this year. I'm tired of the stress of it. Kathy and I are packing a bag to leave by the front door, with our shoes and Gandalf's cat carrier, in case we have to run for the stairwell in the middle of the night. I considered spending the night at my parents' so I wouldn't have to worry about going downstairs, but I don't want to leave Kathy alone. She feels that our preparedness is a guarantee that nothing will happen. I hope so. :)

My weekend was weekendy. On Friday night Debra arrived in town, and Evan, Ryan, and I went to my parents' house to spend time with her. We watched Mr. Deeds, which is a great movie. On Saturday I went back over there so she could straighten my hair. Evan came straight from work to see the results, and we watched part of the Tigers game (see below). Then I went to two different Goldsmith's, because they were having the year's biggest sale and I hoped to get the shirt I've wanted for three months. Sadly, it was gone. I guess it's making someone else look like a supermodel. :( In my disappointment, I had dinner at Quizno's and then Evan and I watched Wayne's World at home. Excellent.

Sunday was a great day. I had to play at church, and a local high school band was visiting. They let us play their concert music with them. It was such a joy to play real music with a full band, instead of the usual medley stuff with five other people. After church, the college class had a buffalo-wings party at the home of the couple who's been teaching. We ended up staying until 4:00. The guys played Halo, and I spent time talking to Katherine (Ryan's roommate's fiancee) and a couple of other girls. It was great. I have been so starved for female companionship. After that, Evan and I went back to my apartment, rested, and watched The Animatrix (per Lawson's recommendation). It was cool and informative, but also disturbing. And the story was very familiar (Evan asked where John Conner was). I didn't have nightmares, thankfully, but I am again compelled to announce to the world, Self-aware machines are bad. Please stop making them. If you would just watch one of these movies, you'd see that there's no way that can end well. Thank you.

In further band news, the church Christmas concert (for which we have been practicing since August) is on December 14th. This also happens to be the day of Ryan's graduation. I was invited to do Celebratory Family Things with him, Evan, and their parents afterwards. Now I won't be able to. I am angry. Evan assures me that I'll have other opportunities to spend time with them, but it's not the same. Church band seems to cause an awful lot of these conflicts. Sigh.

Tigers: The Memphis Tigers are now 7-3 for the first time since 1976. They're definitely in for a bowl game. On Saturday they soundly whooped Louisville 37-7. They are playing like a real team. It's amazing. Ironically, I have been a bad Tiger fan this year and have missed several home games. I'm hoping to go this Saturday, since it's the last one I'll be able to go to.

It's Monday.

If there's one thing I can say about this weekend, it's that it was active. Friday night K & D and Evan and Ryan and I went to see T3. It was excellent, but (psychologically) very scary at the end, so much so that I called Jessica afterwards to let her know how scary it was. I'm torn between reading more of that dystopian stuff some of you sent me, and staying away from it for my own mental health. Wow, I have a lot I could say about that movie- but this isn't the time. After the movie, we went to Patricks to eat. There was a loud band there, so we didn't get to talk much. After we ate, Evan and I stood in the parking lot for an hour and talked about all kinds of things. It was nice. He treats me so well sometimes.

I slept in blissfully until 10 Saturday morning, sat around reading, went to Chick-fil-A with K& D, read some more, then headed to a cookout at Chris's house. Then five of the guys and I went down to Mud Island for the Better Than Ezra show. Some very unpleasant stuff involving drunk people went on, resulting in me being very angry at some of the guys I came with, and because of that it was a pretty horrible evening. However, the band rocked. The lead singer, Kevin Griffin, bears a really frightening resemblance to my brother Kevin -- and he sang a silly song about a sister named Debra. Very weird.

Church was great yesterday. We had communion. I felt refreshed. In the afternoon I went to the library and got several books I'd been wanting to read as well as several CDs that have been recommended to me (Watermark and Sara Groves included). I spent the rest of the evening reading, painting my nails and watching Buffy. Exciting, no?

( Jessica's families survey )

Kathy and I had the most amazing dinner last night. I bought this box of Zatarain's scampi pasta mix a while ago, and while home for lunch yesterday, I left it out on the counter with a post-it for Kathy, requesting it for dinner. When I got home we went to Kroger and bought shrimp, parmesan breadsticks, and a quart of Sonic Cherry Limeade Sherbet! It was a feast, and it wasn't even that bad for us. We ate all of the shrimp and pasta by ourselves. :) Even better, MaryElaine dropped by and we talked about Harry Potter and Wheel of Time while we ate. Happy happy, joy joy.

Tonight a bunch of us are going to see Terminator 3. I'm excited.

It's really kind of shameful that I am so much happier on Fridays than any other day of the week. I ought to be taking more joy in my work. More proof that I am a sinful, lazy, pleasure-seeking bum.

This article makes me want to cry. Now brown is a questionable color? If my "business environment" adhered to these rules, I probably would have quit a long time ago and run off to Jamaica or something where people can wear any color they want.

( Friday Five: BFF LYLAS )

As others have already said, Happy Potter's Eve. :) I just found out that my and Kathy's British copies aren't due to arrive until June 27th at the earliest. This will not do, so Kathy and I are going to a release party at Bookstar tonight. When we're done, we'll give the American editions to two pre-selected needy friends, and keep our British ones for our inevitable pick-apart analysis re-readings.

I'm so excited about the book, but I don't know when I'm going to have time to start reading. Tomorrow morning I'm going with Kathy to the mother of all bridal shops. Then I have to make an appearance at Jamie's birthday party, and in the evening I'm getting dolled up to go to The Beauty Shop with Casey and some other old-school RUF girls. Then I probably ought to spend Sunday with my family, since I haven't seen them since I got back and I have things to give them. So there's another weekend gone before it starts. I said I needed a vacation, and I had it, and it was great; now I seriously need a day off to rest and do nothing. I feel like a hamster on a hamster wheel.

My grandma called last night to ask about my trip. Surprisingly, she didn't freak out when I told her I went to meet people from online. In fact, she said she was proud of me for branching out and being adventurous. I felt so good when I got off the phone with her. My grandma is cool.

Kathy and I watched T2 last night, and it totally freaked me out. You know, people have got to start learning lessons from these movies. How can people look at Matrix and T2 and still think advanced AI is a good idea? I'm not saying I believe we're going to be wiped out by machines, but something like that could happen if we don't cool it with the technology. People don't think about the consequences of what they're creating. I sometimes pray God will send some Tower of Babel-ish event before we really dig ourselves into a hole. Okay, you probably all think I'm crazy now. I'll go away and do pull-ups in my cell next to Linda Hamilton.

( I moved my CDs! )