Barb's Burblings

The Gettysburgian was just like The Oracle

It's wrong how happy I am about two websites: The Dairi Burger and Elizabeth and Jessica Are Better Than You. Yes, I do spend my time reading recaps of Sweet Valley books. The world of Sweet Valley is so much bigger than I knew. Because I stopped reading SVH somewhere in the 60s, I missed out on the brilliance of some of the later books--particularly anything involving Crazy Margo and the whole Night to Remember sequence (Jessica spikes Elizabeth's drink! Elizabeth gets into an accident and Jessica's boyfriend dies! Crazy Margo shows up!). Seriously, people, you need to check these sites out.

Special kudos to Becca, who first pointed out 1bruce1 to me.

Where's my sense of accomplishment?

I went to the gym and was all excited, as I believed that this would mean I could cross another item off my 101 in 1001 list. I remember having one item relating to exercising so many times in a specific period. I was pretty sure it was 5 times in 7 days. So I get home and look only to find that it's 10 times in 14 days. Gah! I know why I did it--two weeks implies something's becoming a habit. It's easy enough to go 5 times in a week. But this is evil, because I know I can't make it another 5 times in the next week. It's not that it's Thanksgiving...it's that family is visiting. Doh.

Of course, the fact that I haven't been able to do this since making the list like 2 years ago is probably related to another item I haven't crossed off: Lose 20 pounds. Ah well.

Welcome to drag, Michael

Holy crap, everyone. I was watching The Graham Norton Show tonight, and one of his guests was John Waters, promoting the opening of Hairspray in London's West End. They showed a still from the production with Tracey, Edna, and Wilbur, and Graham said, "And that's Michael Ball in there?!"

...WHAT?

I admit that I haven't been following the career of my First Boyfriend as much as I used to, but this was a complete surprise. I mean, it's awesome. I watched some of the clips, and he's doing a great job; it's nice to have an Edna who can actually sing (my one problem with the Original Broadway Cast Recording is that Harvey Feirstein cannot sing and his voice just grates). I will say that my boy could stand to lose a few pounds. Hopefully the dancing, etc., will help with that.

It would totally make my day if he came over and played the role on Broadway. I would be fascinated to hear his American accent; I've heard him try a New York accent, and it wasn't pretty.

Take the lights down, dude

When I went to work this week, I noticed that Downtown Silver Spring had put up wreaths on the lampposts along Georgia and on Ellsworth. I just sort of rolled my eyes; it's like how there's already Christmas trees and displays of decorations at Target.

Then tonight, I was driving to tap, and I saw four houses with Christmas lights up. Four. Are they kidding? It's not even mid-November, much less after Thanksgiving, which is when holiday decorations are allowed to go up. People, just because you can buy Christmas lights directly after Halloween doesn't mean you should.

Turning 29 for the first time

I like this horoscope. I have high hopes for my 29th year. And it's dead on about the money; I mean, "three paychecks" is essentially the same as "[my] sensation instinct for what people like." I am kind of nervous, though; developing character usually happens through negative experiences, right? Ah well.