Chapter 27: Brick By Boring Brick

Today was a day just like all the others. It wasn't that bad, honestly, but I feel like my day-to-day life has become so mundane. Wake up, go to work, come home, watch TV, go to sleep, repeat. That's pretty much it right now. I mean, it's not entirely like that, and not every day is the same, but in the grand scheme of things I kind of feel like that is where I am at. I don't like it and I need to make a change somehow and I need to do it soon. Despite identifying where the thing is, I have yet to do any studying of the Florida Drivers Handbook. That is something I need to get to as soon as possible. I also haven't gotten back to doing yoga, despite the fact that I had the "revelation" that I needed to nearly 3 weeks ago. That is something I need to get to as soon as possible to. What I need to get to the most, though, is the part where I stop making lists of things that I need to get to as soon as possible and start getting to them. That is at the top of the list! I'm joking, but there is definitely truth to this joke. I need to get to these things ASAP. If I am going to be ready for California in time, though, I need to get my ass gear and not allow myself to be distracted from my goals.

Today at work initially looked like we were back to being mind-numbingly slow at first, but a couple hours in we picked up and didn't slow down for the rest of the day. I really find myself much more irritated with work when we are busy. Today was a particularly irritating day because it seemed like I had more demanding, annoying customers than I usually get. For one reason or another, I seem to not get the customers like that very often. I think it's a matter of my tone of voice. I have a voice that people find comforting and I speak in a way that makes people not want to be confrontational with me. I think because I was irritated today, people could sense that in my voice and it pissed them off. That must be it, because all day long I was getting people doing nothing but demanding fees be waived and policies be excepted for them. It was very irritating. I have made plans with one of my co-workers for a mini-dinner party next week, although I think this dinner party will end up being just the two of us. That will be fine. I have become one of those people who doesn't like to socialize with my co-workers, and I don't want to invite other people from work because of this. At past jobs, I was never that person. I was always the person who organized all of the group outings and such. I tend to be the social organizer in groups, but in the group that I work with now I don't really have the desire to do that. I don't have a lot of desire to make friends right now, honestly, but of the group I have made friends with this one girl and I feel bad being only work friends. I don't like the whole concept of people that you are friends with but only during work hours. For this reason, we are having a mini-dinner party. I kind of feel like right now, considering my plans, it's kind of unfair to make friends with people. Why let people get attached when I know I plan to leave soon? At the same time, though, that's a matter of months from now and I kinda need to have people around until that time comes. I don't do well in isolation. I am a social creature and I need to have friends around. I go to strange places when I don't, as evidenced by much of my life right now.

I came home from work and watched today's episode of The View, with guests Perez Hilton and Kristin Chenoweth. I am big fans of both of them, so it made for a good day on The View. Well, I am a big fan of Kristin Chenoweth. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Perez Hilton, really. I enjoy him as a television personality, but I kind of hate his blog. When he did his specials for VH1, they were hilarious, fun and interesting. When he is a guest on various talk shows and such, he is outrageous and entertaining. His blog, on the other hand, just seems mean-spirited and irritating. Don't get me wrong, I understand that being mean-spirited is kind of the point. I just feel like on his blog he treats a lot of celebrities unfairly and judges certain people too harshly without any real justification. Prime examples of this would be Jennifer Aniston, Miley Cyrus and both Simpson sisters, none of whom have done anything worthy of the type of disdain he displays for them. These are all people who he posts about often, and absolutely refuses to say anything positive about. On the rare occasion that he does make a positive comment about them, it is always some form of backhanded compliment or a slightly positive comment buried in a pile of negative comments. That really irritates me, and I rarely read his blog because of it. I think television is really his best medium and something he should pursue further. A "Chelsea Lately" style show would work brilliantly for him. He was funny on The View, either way. Kristin Chenoweth, unlike Perez Hilton, is completely adorable and charming every time you see her. I just love her and am very excited for her Christmas-themed Lifetime movie. In general, I am not a huge fan of Christmas movies, (as mentioned in the post where I talked about the movie "Four Christmases," which coincidentally, also happened to feature Kristin Chenoweth,) but if you put a real diva in the lead role for a Christmas movie I am there! This one sounds awesome, too. It is called "The Twelve Men Of Christmas," and it is about a high-class NYC lady going to Minnesota for the holidays and organizing a "hunky man" calendar to raise money for... something charitable. Diva? Check. Spunky premise? Check. Me watching? Check.

After that I watched something a little less upbeat. Yesterday's episode of "Oprah," featuring Nobel Peace Prize winner Nicholas Kristof. I can't say that I was familiar with this man's work before now, but it is absolutely incredible and he is an inspiration to every single person in this world. What he does is give a voice to young women the world over, falling victim to sex trafficking, rape and genocide. In the Congo, thousands of women are raped by invaders in their territory and instead of receiving medical and psychological treatment for their trauma they are rejected by their families and their villages because they are considered "tainted" and "impure." That is just insane and it is mortifying that these things are happening in this world. As much as you may think, "Sad story, but what does it have to do with me?" The fact that this is happening to even one person has an effect on the entire global community, and the fact that this is happening in the thousands has a major impact on every single one of us. As far as I am concerned, if the world is not a safe place for all then it is not a safe place for any. In many countries across the world, including our own United States, there is a growing epidemic of sex trafficking. Children are being stolen, or sold, into sex slavery. In many cases, they are fed drugs to keep them addicted so that even if they manage to escape, they will keep coming back. In many cases, these girls are not given the option of requesting condoms be used and are being infected with various venereal diseases and, even worse, being impregnated and given makeshift abortions, many of which wind up killing them or leaving them in a condition where they are no longer of use to their captors and are discarded. Yes, these human beings are simply DISCARDED, like a piece of trash, or unfinished food to many of us. Again, this is an epidemic and it affects every single one of us. If the quality of life for so many in this world is like this, then the quality of life for all of us is lowered. Something has to be done. I don't know what I can do, personally, except to use my voice. I am not the most educated on these matters, but what I am good at is researching and leading others to where they can learn more for themselves. If you happen to be reading this blog, I absolutely will not mind if you stop reading here in favor of following this link: The Girl Effect. The front page will give you an agree or disagree option, and you will be led to a video based on the option. This video will really put things into perspective for you and break them down in a way that is simple for everybody to understand how we all can help. I urge you all to visit the site NOW.

This evening my Mom and I had one of those "breakfast at night" dinners, with eggs, sausage and biscuits & gravy. It was delicious. Those types of dinners are always awesome. I remember when I was a kid, those were always my favorite kind of nights. I think this is probably why I spent so much time in my teen years hanging out at Denny's late at night, drinking coffee and eating Moons Over My Hammy or some other breakfast item. I actually still to this day refuse to eat any non-breakfast item from Denny's, (although I rarely eat Denny's at all anymore - it tends to make me sick.) We watched tonight's "Glee," which was probably the best episode the show has had so far. Next week is the fall finale before the show takes a 3 month hiatus. Another favorite show of mine, "Gossip Girl," is taking a similar break for 2 months. I'm not entirely sure I understand the network logic on these things, but I know that it will be really annoying to be missing out on these shows for so long. In other TV news, there was some news today that made my Mom and I both very happy: "Ugly Betty" is being removed from the Friday night death slot! The show has maintained fairly decent ratings for being in a Friday slot and, creatively, has really stepped up their game. Turns out, all that work may have paid off because beginning the first week of January the show will be airing on Wednesday nights at 10pm. Sure, it is a late time slot, but it's lead in is ABC's biggest breakout hit in a while, "Modern Family." That should be helpful and I am very excited for this news because "Betty" still has a few good seasons left in her.

There is one last thing I must discuss before I head off to bed, though, and that is Grammy nominations, which were announced tonight! There weren't really a great deal of surprises, honestly, but there was confirmation of what I already suspected would happen: GAGA HAS RECEIVED FIVE NOMINATIONS! She is nominated in three of the four major categories, Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. She is up against Taylor Swift, The Black Eyed Peas and Beyonce in all three of these categories, but I really believe that the academy will recognize what the other awards ceremonies thus far have not: Lady GaGa is a musical genius, and "The Fame" is the clear winner. No disrespect to any of the other artists, (in fact, I am a big fan of all of them and absolutely recognize how deserved those nominations are,) but GaGa made a record that is an absolute masterpiece and deserves to be awarded as such. I really do think that "The Fame" will wind up winning album of the year. It seems silly that any of the others would. "The Fame" is an astonishing work of art. One thing I was very surprised by, though, was the lack of Whitney Houston. She was not nominated for a single thing, despite having pushed up her album release specifically for the purposes of Grammy consideration. Her album, "I Look To You," is absolutely one of the most amazing albums of this year and it makes me sad that it is not being recognized. I honestly expected it to be filling the fifth spot in the album of the year category. In fact, thought I do love the Black Eyed Peas record, I really think "I Look To You" should have taken that spot in the Album of the Year category. I was excited to see, though, that Madonna has been nominated for one Grammy: Best Dance Recording for her single "Celebration." That is an amazing track, one of the best she has released in recent years, and is definitely deserving of the nomination. I am very excited for this years nominations and, as always, cannot wait for the actual awards to be handed out. Of the entire awards show season, the Grammys are absolutely my favorite and I, as any aspiring musician does, dream of someday attending and maybe even winning a Grammy of my own.

Also, last night when I went to bed I decided to give another shot to a record that I wasn't too fond of when it was initially released: "brand new eyes" by Paramore. The first two records by Paramore, "All We Know Is Falling" and "RIOT" have been two of my absolute favorite albums, so I was very disappointed when I found myself underwhelmed by "brand new eyes." After listening to it last night, I have REALLY come around to it. I'm not sure what I found so underwhelming about it before, but I absolutely love it now. I listened to it again this morning before work and again as I have been writing this blog. It is a really great record, and the only complaint I have about it is that it doesn't show a whole lot of progression, sonically, from the first two albums. Lyrically, though, "brand new eyes" is a whole new ballgame, making the title of the album all the more appropriate. Speaking of albums that underwhelmed me upon first listen, after the Paramore record ended I put on the new Allison Iraheta album, which I didn't give the most favorable review a few posts ago. I must say, the more that I listen to it, the more that I kind of "get it." A lot of the songs that I described as "Classic Rock wannabes" are much better than I thought at the time, and the album as a whole flows really well. I do hold that the more pop-rock oriented songs, the ones that all sound like Pink, are the better songs but I have to admit that the more that I listen to it, the more I find it to be a really solid record. There may be hope for her yet! Maybe I'll listen to the record again as I go to bed, which I am about to do right now. It is nearly 1am, and I am exhausted!