Quick take on last month

The past month has been a bit hellish-we found out recently that two of our close friends each lost a parent. Then two other friends are getting divorces!
As for me, I've taken a second part time job at a doctor's office, strictly for need of cash and its convenient location. Not thrilled about the deviation from my writing career at this point, but hell, the NY Times just laid off 500 people, so I guess this is just a tough time for writers. All of the advertising business is switching from print to online, leaving papers struggling. About the only publication that comes to mind that is flourishing is Real Simple magazine, which I love. Every month, I swear that magazine gets fatter n fatter with ad revenue!
Been dealing with my daughter now in 6th grade, giving her a little more freedom to move about, thanks to the wonders of a cell phone, but still trying to keep close watch, as this is a precious time. Grades go on transcripts for high school now. Basketball is back on, games start next month, so I'm excited. She is a treasure, a pisser and a pain in my butt all at once, and I love her madly. I'm so blessed that she's mine.
In my spare time, been enjoying the pleasures of Acquisition, and checking out the new tv season's lineup-House, Lost, and Gilmore Girls. But I can't even enjoy Lorelai and Luke's engagement, what with the massive row going on between Lorelai and Rory. It's strange how a television show can affect your mood. But Luke sure looks fine!
And this past weekend, my husband and I went to see the White Stripes, which I blogged about below. Jack is an amazing guitarist (and easy on my eyes.)

White Stripes Live-A great night

On Saturday my husband and I went to see the White Stripes at Keyspan Park in Coney Island. It was a beautiful evening outdoors and we had a few brewskies in preparation. Granted, I hadn't been to a concert in three years (Coldplay, 10th row!), so I was excited for anything.

Jack White's guitar playing blew me away. He's AMAZING!!! And the chemistry with Meg on drums is palpable, they seem to have a great relationship, she sang a little, too. While I'm a fan of their music, the albums pale in comparison to their live performance. See them live, you won't be sorry!

Out of the mouthes of babes

"I owe my ass an apology."
-My daughter's classmate Richie, after attending a roller-skating birthday party.

Married Eighty One Years!

I saw this wire piece today about a French couple married 81 years and I was inspired. They sound like they've got the right ideas. A toast to the institution of marriage and true love!

Runnin'

It has now been a week since our family began jogging 1 mile a day. The impetus for this is to whip our daughter into shape for basketball season (as well as ourselves.) My husband missed part of last week because he broke one of his toes, but I tell you, I am in awe of people who can run 26 miles in a marathon, nonstop! Wow. I can make it through the mile alright, actually, as long as I go slowly, but it's not easy. I do feel good afterwards, though (after I get into the air conditioning, that is!)

Green Is the Way for Me

After watching Nate's burial on Six Feet Under, I have finally figured out what kind of funeral I want-a green one. I don't want to be embalmed, don't need a casket, just want to return as I came-as dust, in the natural order of time. Depending on my condition when the time comes, I'd also like to donate my organs. Ian agrees as well. The thought of putting it in writing makes me a little fearful, though.

Crazy to be Normal on Six Feet Under

My husband frantically calls me into the living room to point to Nate Fisher's epitaph on my television screen and I was so pissed-he didn't realize I hadn't seen this week's episode of Six Feet Under yet, which I had DVRd...so then we sat and watched it together.

This season has just seemed really sour to me...with all of the characters on a mission to make their lives more 'normal', they just seemed to have gone off the deep end. Nate and Brenda were passionate and hot when they were crazy and unattached in the first season...Dave was fun to watch when he was wrestling with his sexuality while cruising a club for action and starring in musicals in his head, Ruth was more appealing when she was still grieving for her dead husband, and as for Claire...well I have to say I do like the new boyfriend and that she left that pretentious art college crowd.

I had secretly been hoping that Nate and Brenda would finally be 'happy' together. Earlier this season, Nate seemed like he was finally getting his shit together and wasn't going to screw around, but then he had to go shag his step sister. As Nate put it, "When you make love and your head explodes, it's a good thing."

I'm a Warcraft Widow

Yes, I confess, I am a Warcraft widow (though my husband fiercely denies this.) Not a bitter one, as is the case for some of the folks at the Yahoo group that has formed. In fact, after going to see the group page tonight, it has now evolved into a full-fledged web site, www.gamerwidow.com. Instead I will just quietly unwind here. I have several other friends that are also WOW widows.
My husband and I have been married nearly 12 years and have a beautiful 11 year old daughter. When he's not playing, we've been known to have fun, enjoy our family, friends, the nightlife, and travel. But these days, those times seem far and few in between, partly because the money's tight, and partly because of WOW. He LOOVES Warcraft, and loves to randomly swear at his computer screen when things don't go as planned. His site is www.savagevines.com/flexbar, if you would like to learn more about his guild, Dasypygal (which means hairy-assed in old English, if you must know), or about the Flexbar tools he's created to help players customize their interface.

Hot as Hades, Broke, and Frozen In My Thoughts

Tonight, in New York, I sat in my living room drowning in sweat, as I cannot use my AC there, or else it flips our fusebox. The temperatures have hovered near 100 degrees for the past several days.
My thoughts are flying in so many directions-to write, to travel, to do something new. That said, my financial situation has not been the best of late, being a struggling writer and all, and thus I'm frozen in my thoughts. Family has helped out tremendously in this department, but how I wish to return to the days of complete financial independence, as I was accustomed to la dolce vita back in 2002. Gone are the days of shopping in Soho. Now it's back to a diet of Raman noodles, mac 'n cheese, and burritos. Where's my J.K. Rowling inspiration for fortune?

What is it for?

What is that little piece of tissue paper in wedding invitations for, anyway? It's just one of those little questions of everyday life I ponder...

Vernon Duke's thoughts of Paris Ring True

I was recently reading an essay by Art Buchwald, who spoke with Vernon Duke, the composer of the song "April In Paris," and how he tried to describe Paris to E. Y. Harburg, the lyricist.

In the essay, Harburg asks Duke 'what's the feeling during April in Paris?' Duke says, "I always had the feeling that in Paris in the spring, something wonderful should inevitably happen, but it never did," which helped Harburg with the lyric:

April in Paris

Who can I turn to?

What have you done to my heart?

My husband and I formally began our efforts to conceive a second child when we went to Paris, with our eight year old daughter. I was ovulating, we were in love with life and Paris, and I was certain that the timing would be perfect. Financially, we were finally at a good station in our lives. Shortly after, we took a half year break when I accepted a new position. But alas, three years later, we still have not succeeded in getting pregnant. I hope we do soon. My body aches to have another child.

Blue Lights

Blue lights on the rooftops
endless windows of street shops
glistening sidewalks filled with feet
cars doubleparked in the street
summer is here
it's the end of the day
it's just beginning
I hope the blue lights will stay.
-By Linda Sheridan

Gus Van Sant

I met director Gus van Sant recently, to participate in a roundtable session for his new film, "Last Days", a film based on a fictitious character loosely based on Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, that focuses on the final days of his life. The film stars Michael Pitt, who starred in Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Dreamers" (he was at the roundtable as well.)

While I am a fan of some of van Sant's earlier works, ("My Own Private Idaho," "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues," "Drugstore Cowboy,"), I can't say this new film is great. The camera lingers for painful lengths of time to watch the main character, Blake, stumble and mumble through the woods behind his crumbling mansion, swim, make mac 'n cheese, and avoid those looking for him. There are some interesting visual and sound cues, but it's just not enough to make me care about this character...(to be honest, I felt sorry for Courtney when he died, but I had no personal grievances about what he'd done, I felt it was extremely selfish.)

The link to where my review is at the right, at www.tailslate.net. Run by my brother-in-law Michael, writing reviews and doing Q&As has given me the opportunity to interview some great actors including Javier Bardem ("The Sea Inside"), Daniel Day Lewis, Rebecca Miller and Catherine Keener ("The Ballad of Jack and Rose.")

TomKat-Triple Threat

I guess I need to get a life, because here I am writing about these two again. I feel their relationship is impacted by three factors-Scientology, Tom's midlife crisis, and yes, perhaps, a little bit of being in love. The media seems to forget how anyone, in the first flushes of a new romance, acts goofy, needs to be near their beloved every second of the day, and drools on their every word. I've been there. That said, it did seem a little frightening that immediately following Cruise's proposal atop the Eiffel Tower (I'm a francophile, and I've been to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and the view is very beautiful and romantic, so I'll give him props for that), they held a press conference to announce their engagement! That's kind of scary.

Manhattan's Faux Suburbia-The Upper East Side

After leaving the cinema the other night, my friend and I thought we'd grab a cup of coffee and dessert. It was about 10 p.m. at night, and as we walked along the Upper East Side of Manhattan, I was blown away that, considering we live in "the city that never sleeps," everything was CLOSED, save for a couple of bistros. About the only place that was open was Serendipity. On a lark, we went inside, thinking we could get a table and some hot chocolate (it was a Monday night.) "There's an hour and a half wait," said the maitre'd. Hell with that, we said. Guess anyone else craving dessert went there, too.

We meandered around the city, now to find on the block next to Bloomingdale's a Home Depot with a fancy facade. Home Depot??? When I can see a few avenues down the Plaza Hotel? It was too bizarre.

After traipsing around some more, and having no luck finding an open place for dessert, we spotted a couple with ice cream cones and salivated. "Where did you get the ice cream cones?" we asked. "There's a Mr. Softee truck parked on Lex," the woman said. Mr. Softee!! on the Upper East Side. Works for us.

We grinned and fled to Lex to grab a couple Vanilla cones that cooled our palette and satisfied our quest.

Cruisin' into Midlife Crisis

I'm so sick of hearing about Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, and their "bizarre" romantic behavior in the media. Is it to plug their new films? Perhaps. Does it have to do with Scientology? Don't know. What I do think, is that Cruise seems to have a case of midlife crisis! Courting a young woman who was smitten with him as her teen idol, this guy is all about soaking up the adulation. I wonder what his poor kids are thinking when daddy is acting like a lovesick fool on tv. It's nice to see your parents be romantic, but Katie's not their mom, not to mention she's only about 15 years older than they are.

Four o'clock pit stop

It's taking some used to handling this blog, but I'll get it.

So much to discuss...

Recently, there's been two books published about women who have severed friendships, and how this impacts their lives, in many cases, it's been agonizing.

I've been dealing with this on a personal level myself, and I hate to say it, but I don't feel so traumatized by the experience...I haven't dared to ask the friend who I have distanced myself from, but I've a feeling she's alright. We were inseparable in high school and college, but once I married, we began to drift apart. We tried to keep it going for some time afterwards, but we've gone in completely in different directions, myself a wife, mother and writer/editor that has a busy schedule, and she a budding thespian. I'm very proud of her work and talent, but I've found that despite my numerous attempts to see her perform, the conversations after the show would still revolve around only theatre and not much more. Calls are nonexistent at this point, and emails far and few between. I don't feel bad about it, I just don't...feel.

Music, some new releases on the horizon, White Stripes and Coldplay next week. We'll have input then! I'm missing Jeff Buckley too, his anniversary was on May 29 (1997). What a lovely and promising voice.

Movies-Read the book "Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants," then saw the film with my daughter. Quite good, but not the same as the book, alas. Excellent performances by America Ferrera. Will discuss it more at length down the line.

Television-I'm seriously addicted to "Gilmore Girls," as much as I was as a child to "Little House on the Prairie." I had zilch interest in the show when it first aired, finding the mother a bit too 'buddy' like with her daughter, and sometimes she still irritates me, but she seems better. And I love Rory, and Luke is one of the sweetest male characters on television.

Other hot shows on tv now-"Lost" and "House". Love them both. But now I have to wait till next September for new shows!!!

Welcome to Coffeendanish!

Hello world. After waiting forever to convert my old blog www.opaljelly.com to a new format (unfortunately, it no longer exists-domain name expired and someone else snagged it), I have started this.

Much has happened in recent months that I want to share with you. More to come soon.

Remember, life's too short for bad coffee!