There are 8,000 topics I keep meaning to blog about, but my sad dying iBook combined with my apparent inability to climb stairs to use my parent’s computer have combined to create an almost insurmountable obsacle to my blogging. Thus, I bring you a list of things I’ve been spending a lot of my time thinking about lately in one easy-to-digest blog post. Here goes:

1. Ira Glass – Last Thursday night, I dragged my mother to go with me to see “This American Life LIVE“, an event put on by the brilliant and addictive Public Radio show “This American Life” in which they do a live broadcast of their show in New York and beam it out to movie theaters around the country like freakin’ Star Trek! I was beyond excited for it, as my love for “This American Life” knows no bounds, PLUS the fact that actally watching Ira Glass, the freakishly amazing host, talk could entertain me for hours, as I’m so used to hearing him as this omnipresent voice on my walks to and from class rather than a noise actually coming out of a human face. When we got to the theater, we were one of two groups of people there, and my mother laughed at the lack of NPR listeners in the area – 10 minutes later the theater was almost full. Suck it, Mom! (Just kidding, I love you! And Happy Birthday!) I instantly wanted to befriend everyone there, as liking TAL (especially enough to drop $20 to see TAL LIfe) is one of my cool people indicators (you know you have them too). My love was even further solidified by the fact that they had word puzzels playing on the screen as the pre-show entertainment! It was like writing geek heaven. The show itself was great, as the radio show most always is. I cried at two stories and cracked up at all of them. My favorite comedian, Mike Birbiglia, told a story about a car crash in which he was wrongly found at fault (the other guy was drunk, so this was a pretty big slap in the face), and it was alterntately hilarious, infuriating, and touching, like every awesome story should be. (And because I haven’t mentioned it here before, I saw Mike’s off-Broadway show in March and it’s amazing! If you haven’t listened to his CD’s or seen is show, I strongly suggest doing so.) Basically, it was $20 well spent. I reccomend listening to the radio broadcast of the show next week, which you can do on their website.(It’s the episode titled “Return to the Scene of the Crime”)

2. Gregory House – Am I the only one who has noticed that there are only about 3 hours in the day when House is not playing on the USA Network? Take a minute, and check it right now. I’ll be you $20 bucks it’s on. Go ahead. I’ll wait…….As someone who has always thought I should watch House, because it’s a quality show and I am a lover of quality shows, it’s been nice to be able to watch some episodes here and there, but it’s becoming ridiculous. I watch one because it’s the only thing on, then I can’t change the channel in time before the next episodes starts and BOOM someone collapses with a siezure or heart failure that is TOTALLY UNEXPLAINABLE and OMGIHAVETOKNOWWHATTHEYHAVE!! Suddenly it’s three hours later, I still don’t exactly understand what was wrong with the patient, and I’m dreaming in medical jargon. Luckily, House’s witty dialogue and curmudgeonly attidute make it all worth while.

3. Flickr – This site is like photography crack. I get on to upload a few pictures then BOOM, I see someone made a comment on one of my pictures. “Join our group! It will be fun! Everyone’s doing it!” I click on the link to check out the group then suddenly I’ve lost ANOTHER three hours I thought I’d use to do something productive after breaking free of House, but instead I go from photostream to photostream with my mouth hanging open wondering how in the hell someone took this picture. It’s a problem. (Speaking of photos, have you checked out my new photoblog? Have you? Again, I’ll wait…../end shameless self-promotion)

4. Work – It’s slowly sucking out my soul. I don’t do well dealing with the public. At all. Especially when I have to work to please them and live with the mantra that somehow, despite how stupid and ridiculous and clearly WRONG they are, they are right. It hurs my soul. It really does.

And that is what has been taking up my time. Clearly, these are life-altering things I’m devoting myself to. I mean, I’ve got all major medium covered – radio, TV, internet. My life is crawling with excitement. Soon, though, that sarcastic statement could be true! Thursday, I’m headed to Boston for two days, then I’m back for a week, then it’s off to Boston AGAIN for senior week, then home for two weeks to pack up my life, then it’s off to Vegas, Baby (!!) for a little meet-up you may have heard about, then I’m flying to San Diego to pick up  my car and see the family, AND THEN I’m driving to LA and hanging out with my high school BFF and you know, starting my new life. So…yeah…this  may be the end of me complaining about how bored I am. Thank god.

Yes, it’s true. Even though I’ve been slacking on blogging here, I’ve found it necessary to start up ANOTHER blog. It seems crazy, but really, I think it will make me blog more, because I keep wanting to post pictures here, but I don’t like how small I have to make them to fit into the columns, so a new one-column blog it is! 

So CLICK HERE, and check it out! It’s obviously still a work in progress, and I’m not sure if I’ll just be posting pictures or posting how I took them or what I’m learning (as I’m clearly still learning)…hopefully, I’ll figure it out soon enough. Until then, go! Look! Yay!

I’m not usually one to post about politics on my blog, save for the obligatory “I’m happy Obama was elected” post on November 5th, but this morning, I got angry. 

If you aren’t an avid pageant watcher, and I’m SO sure most of you are, you may not have heard about the little controversy involving Miss USA judge Perez Hilton and runner-up Miss California. Basically, during the final portion of the competition, Perez asked Miss CA about gay marriage , an extremely topical and relevant question given all the controversy revolving around Prop 8 in her home state. Miss CA basically said “It’s great that we can choose to either support it or not in our country, but I choose not to support it.” (She also called heterosexual marriage “opposite marriage,” which alone would have made me question her qualifications, but that’s another post altogether.) 

I was a little annoyed at this, but definitely not angry, until I read some comments on this Entertainment Weekly PopWatch blog post about the incident - they are nauseating: People saying Perez was pushing his “homo agenda,” people saying that Miss CA spoke for the 70% of American’s who speak “the truth-the BIBLE,” which will win in the end, saying Perez was a “jerk for even asking this question especially because he’s a homosexual” (so because he’s gay, he isn’t allowed to ask question?) and comment after comment of unbelievable, hate-filled, homophobic trash. 

I tried to look past it, to chalk it up to internet craziness. Then, I turned on the Today Show to find Kathie Lee and Hoda Kotb applauding this woman for “speaking her mind” and not being politlcally correct, something  many of the internet crazies were saying. Um…excuse me?! 

That is when I got angry. Yes, everyone is entitled to their opinion and entitled to voice that opinion in their private lives, when they are speaking for and as themselves, but a contestant for a title like MISS USA is most certainly NOT allowed to promote hate, to stand for exclusion, and to tell a large segment (yes, it’s a “minority,” but it’s not just 5 people sitting in San Francisco - it’s MILLIONS of Americans) of the population that to her, and she means “no offense to anyone” (how kind of you!), that because how they were born, they don’t deserve to live with the same rights as all us “normal” people. America stands for free speech, but it most certainly does not stand for hate and inequality. Would we applaud a Miss USA contestant for saying she didn’t believe in interracial marriage or that all Jews and Muslims are going to hell for not believing in Jesus? Absolutely not, so why should we be expected to support a Miss USA contestant who is homophobic? 

It also pisses me off that people act like Perez asked some completely inapropriate question – it was probably one of the most topical questions of the night. Gay marriage laws were just passed in two states and were a major part of the last election in Miss CA’s home state. Just because Perez is gay himself doesn’t mean he should shy away from asking topical questions about gay marriage, and asking those tough questions doesn’t mean he is simply pushing his agenda. He was getting information on a timely issue from a contestant. He said he asked the eventual winner of the compeetition about the Federal Bailouts, an equally topical and difficult question to answer. He wasn’t attacking Miss CA. She sabatoged herself.

And to those saying he wanted her to lie or hide her values, Perez very smartly pointed out in his Larry King interview that she could have answered in a way that fell in line with her own views while not completely alienating gays and lesbians. He suggested she could have explained she thought it was up to the states to decide, and he too, went on to explain that just because her personal opinion is that gay marriage is wrong doesn’t mean she should express it as a contestant in a national pageant. Anyone in a public forum representing a company or an organization knows that sometimes personal opinions can’t be expressed in full. For example, a CEO might be a hate-filled anti-Semite, but he sure as hell isn’t going to stand up, representing his company, and say he hates Jews. It’s not OK. Period. And her answer was most certainly not OK. I don’t care if it’s what she believes: you cannot promote hate of gays in a world filled and supported by them – the pageant industry. That is all.

And possibly life. At one point today, I was sitting in my new Prius (yes, it’s beautiful. It’s the ray of sunshine in my current cloud-covered life…) in the mall parking lot, in tears, on my “break” from work (you know, since the rest of the mall was closed, and I didn’t have time to drive anywhere by the time I discovered that, but I couldn’t possibly just walk about the store so…to the fuel-efficient sanctuary I went.)

So yeah…that was my day. And my night may or may not currently consist of Food Network, Goldfish crackers (during Passover, mind you, which I was doing SO WELL at keeping until I was forced by circumstance to eat at Chick-fil-A during another disastrous work break yesterday), and Manishevitz wine. Yes.

Because of how wonderfully cheery I’ve been these last few days, my whole attempt at NaBloPoMo has clearly failed. At least I got the failing out of the way early this time, unlike last November where I made it three weeks only to crumble in the last seven days. 

I might have to start some countdowns to get through the next few work-filled weeks. It’s about a month until Senior Week in Boston, which consists of some fancy outings to Martha’s Vineyard, Quincy, and Fenway Park. The week will then end with a long-awaited Duck Tour with my whole extended family (Parents, grand-parents, sister, sister’s friend, Uncle D, cousins…) which I am BEYOND excited about (as my friends and I said on numerous occasions we were going to go and NEVER DID!) and a dinner party in my honor, complete with Sweet Cupcakes. Then of course, the whole shebang ends with graduation. Woot. 

After that extravaganza, I have another month until the big move. It’s all finally starting to seem soon. I’m finally starting to feel ready. And now time will slow to a standstill. Of course.

I found this card from my dad in my inbox this morning. I read it as I stared at the “30 minute Seder” haggadah’s my mother had just printed out for our family seder Friday. Oops…

We did attend a lovely seder tonight at my mom’s good friend’s house, where my dad and I decorated a wine bottle with plastic plagues that were littered on the table (you know, plastic locusts, beasts, lice, etc.) I think it may have been brought on by 4th glass of wine. Luckily, everyone was amused. Clearly, we weren’t the only ones partaking of the wine.

Today, we called the Toyota dealer to tell them we’d be in this Friday to give the Prius one last look before “deciding.” My mom mentioned that my only qualm with the car was the lack of AV hook-up for my iPod. The dealer then mentioned he might be able to do something about that – 45 minutes later, he calls back and says the mechanic there can change out the stereo system and add in an AV hook-up…all for the same price! I feel like Hannah Montana over here…you know, cause I’m getting the best of both worlds? Nothing? Moving on…

The rest of my day was filled with Passover shopping (I’m attempting to keep Passover this year, at least from Wednesday until Saturday. We’ll see how this works out) and work. Mainly, this week is going to be the obstacle in the way of  my beautiful new (to me) car.

As long as it hasn’t sold yet, I’ll be calling the car dealership tomorrow to tell them I want the Prius. I still maintain I’m terrible at making decisions.

Other than that, my main excitement of the day came  vicariously through my sister who saw Jason Segal at Rite Aid in LA. (Me=supremely jealous.) When asked for details,  my sister said only “he was getting a prescription and then looked at Easter Candy.” Good to know.

Remember how I mentioned my car shopping dilemma? New vs. Hybrid? Well, today that question got a whole lot harder. 

When searching for cars in the past few weeks, I’d really only found one that I was seriously considering: A new Chevy Colbalt. It’s a good price, so I can afford to get a new one with all the extras I want – XM radio, blue tooth, navigation, and best of all, an iPod plug-in. (Podcasts on the road!? Yes, please!!) They aren’t the highest rated cars, and we all know GM isn’t doing super well, but I’d be getting a lot for my money, and it’s a cute little car. (Just for reference: it’s the car I drove all last semester in LA, so I almost feel like I’ve already owned one.)

As much as I like the Cobalt, though, in the back of my mind, I’ve really been wanting a hybrid car. I’ve always thought that when I got the chance to get a new car, I would have to get a hybrid. I mean, not only would I get to save money on gas, but I also would get to save time! (I hate hate HATE getting gas, but who doesn’t?) Sadly I’ve realized while shopping that all new hybrids are out of my price range. Not wanting to give up on my hybrid dream, I did a little research and saw that ’06 Civic Hybrids and ’05 Prius’s were good used hybrids, so I stashed that pieced of info in the back of my mind and figured if I came upon one, then great, (and if it happened to be a pretty, beautiful blue Prius, even better)  if not, a Cobalt would certainly do. 

So with that info tucked away, I went with my parents to the Toyota dealership today to look at cars for them, when I happened upon, what else, but a pretty, beautiful blue ’05 Prius…in my price range. Was it fate? I don’t know, but I do know it’s what I’ve always said I wanted. The catch? No fancy add ons. No leather seats with seat warmers. No navigation. No *gulp* iPod plug-in (which was, I’m embarrassed to say, the measure I was using on all other cars). 

It’s hard for me to give up the car I’ve always said I wanted just because it doesn’t have bells and whistles I didn’t even know I wanted or could afford until last week, but it’s also hard to pay as much for a used car as I would pay for a brand new one with more features (although I would save a lot on gas…). 

So that is my dilemma. Dream car with some miles on it or alright new car with some sweet extras. I have to decide by Monday (with my self-imposed deadline) so I’ll keep you updated, as I’m sure you are all on the edge of your seat about my future car purchase.

Last night I got called into work last minute. This morning I slept in until almost 11, barely registering when my mom tried to get me up around 9. I then spent the afternoon watching Dexter before going into work again tonight. And I’m absolutely exhausted.

I shouldn’t be. I’m not really doing anything. I guess work is a little tiring, but not to the point I’m at now. 

So that is my excuse for this lame post – bizarre tiredness brought on by nothing. Hopefully, my six hour shift tomorrow won’t wear me out too much. I don’t want to be in bed until noon on Sunday. I mean, I have television to catch up on!

Of all the things I saw (and subsequently photographed) on my day trip to Annapolis a few weeks ago, I think this was my favorite - 

I mean, do the owners wish they could shut down their boat mid-sail? Did it freeze in the middle of the bay? Or do they just spend way too much time on their computers and think this boat name is snappier than Ctrl C / Ctrl V? (Then they could’ve had TWO boats!) I just wish I knew…