I was driving up to Baltimore to visit my grandmother this morning and I saw a billboard along 95. It was a picture of a couple at their wedding. In big letters, the billboard read "Married couples [people? I don't quite remember] earn more money." And in small letters at the bottom, it read "Marriage works." I just really wonder who bought that ad space. I'm guessing some religious group. It's kind of offensive, and I say that as someone who sees a lot of benefits to marriage. For one thing, what about the group of people who can't get married because they're gay? I just don't really understand the purpose of the billboard. Who is it targeting? Will they really be swayed by a billboard? I just don't get it at all.
One of my favorite things about Christmas-time, along with seeing cars with Christmas trees strapped to their roofs and shaking presents, is tracking Santa on Christmas Eve. I particularly love that Norad tracks Santa. I also recommend the MSNBC tracker.
To all of you who celebrate it, have a great Christmas!
As I so frequently do, I put off packing for my trip to Oregon until the last minute. As in, I didn't start pulling out clothes until around 9 tonight. My flight is tomorrow morning. (Side note: I left work at 4:30 this afternoon and realized that I would be up in less than 12 hours. Eww.) Since I'd be gone for longer than a weekend, and I would be carting around Christmas presents, I decided to go with the big suitcase. It's been years since I used that thing. I guess I've gotten used to my other suitcase, which is just too big to be a carry-on, because day-um. This suitcase is ginormous! I had forgotten how big it was, to the point where I was contemplating whether I could fit everything into it. HAHAHAHA. Yeah, not a problem.
In other news, I got more memory for my computer. I had been running on 256 RAM, which was not enough. (This is what happens when your computer is 5 years old and you haven't done anything to upgrade it.) Now? 2G. It is awesome. I'm in love with my computer all over again.
I've been watching the 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s on VH1. I'm enjoying it a lot, which is odd, because whenever I thought about it, I never thought I was that connected to music of the 90s. In the early 90s, when grunge was huge, I was deep into my showtunes phase. But watching this, I'm familiar with the vast majority of these songs (except some of the rap), and I have memories associated with a bunch of them. Sure, I love watching stuff about (and listening to) 80s music, but I don't have that many direct memories of it.
(Naturally, though, as I type this, they're discussing some song that I just don't know at all.)
In other 90s nostalgia, with the appearance of Wings on DVD, someone has finally uploaded Joe's proposal onto YouTube. I'm still in love with Joe Hackett. Marry me, Joe! The sad thing is, 10+ years after this aired, I can still recite good chunks of this scene from memory. And I love that TV Land is airing Wings just as I'm getting ready for work. Huzzah! Joe + Helen 4ever!
In the movie Singin' in the Rain, Gene Kelly plays a silent movie actor. There's a scene of him kissing his costar's arm, traveling up the arm and saying, simply, "I love you," over and over. That's fine in silent movies, he finds, but it doesn't work so well in the talkies.
I discovered that my mind does something similar when I'm cold. Lately, there have been days when I walk outside and my brain goes into this mode where the only thing I can think is "Coldcoldcoldcoldcoldcold."
A couple months back, my book club read Copenhagen, a play about two physicists and the development of the atomic bomb. I discovered they had made it into a movie, so I added it to my Netflix queue, and put it fairly close to the top. It was only when I got the DVD and looked at the description that I realized it stars Daniel Craig. Coincidentally, the other movie I have from Netflix is Layer Cake, which also stars Mr. Craig. It looks like a Daniel Craig fest is imminent.
What a way to spend a weekend.