The Hungry Hungry Writer

I was influenced by Prince’s awesome performance at the SuperBowl Halftime Show this year that I purchased several songs on iTunes.

The one song that I wanted most was, The Most Beautiful Girl in the World. Maybe it’s not under “Prince” and instead under the moniker. But how do you search ?

The song is from the album “The Gold Experience” under the symbol where people referred to him as ‘The Artist Formally Known as Prince”. It doesn’t matter what you called him or didn’t, he still rocked!

Here are the songs I ended up with:
Purple Rain
Let’s Go Crazy
Pop Life
The Beautiful Ones
Take Me With U
Raspberry Beret (Extended 12″ Version)
Little Red Corvette (Dance Mix)
Let’s Go Crazy (Special Dance Mix)
Nothing Compares 2 U
Money Don’t Matter 2 Night
Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?
Power Fantastic (Live)
I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
I Wanna Be Your Lover
Insatiable
Cream
Diamonds and Pearls
Do Me, Baby

If you can get me the song, “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” or figure out where it is on iTunes (it could be under a different song title for some reason), let me know!

It was so scary I was scared.

She even peed in her bed she was so scared.

I heard her crying – “Kaycob! I want Kaycob!”

Then she cried, “Papa – I pee pee in my bed … whaaaaa!”

I asked her if she had a bad dream and she said yes. I asked her what.

She had a dream about Jacob being tied up by a bad man. And Jacob pinched the man and ‘him’ died. I asked, who died? The bad man died and ‘Kaycob’ ran away.

Why is she having a dream about Jacob being tied up?

And it just hit me.

Right before they went to bed I told Jacob to give me his Valentine’s necklace and to make sure there were no strings or yoyos by their bed or on their bed because it could tangle them and choke them. I was a bit paranoid last night because Liza and I were talking about a friend of a friend’s kid who was strangled by curtain strings only 2 minutes after the mom went to answer the phone. This freaked me out so I made sure nothing ‘stringy’ was around their beds.

Hmmm… maybe that’s where the tied up scenario was sprung.

Anyway, I had to check on Jacob, and I checked the alarm, and I didn’t have a good sleep.

She couldn’t sleep after the dream – it was 10:30. We stayed up till 12:30 when she finally turned around and stopped talking.

I haven’t done one of these in a while. So why not?

by Anne Lamott

Anne Lamont is one of my favorite writers. A ‘slice of life’ type of writer. ‘Traveling Mercies’ was just that – like journal entries pieced together. It was a good book.

It took a while for this book, “Blue Shoe”, to keep me engaged, and it was the point where I looked at the pages and said, I have to finish this book so I can move on to another.

The plot was not much of a plot. But that was okay – the only problem was when it climaxed with how Mattie finds out about the “Blue Shoe.” It felt forced and totally unrealistic. Like, come-on, get over with it. Why be so… ‘emo?’ Or so… drama!?! Big deal!

But… other than that, the cast of characters kept me reading although I had a hard time at first remembering the names of the characters. They weren’t all visual like they usually are - and Anne usually writes vivid, well developed characters. But to me, I had a hard time keeping them in my head. So I cast the main ones.

Mattie Ryder - Michelle Pfeiffer (although I doubt she’s a size 12 which Mattie is in the book)
Isa, Mattie’s mother – Anne Lamott herself (I don’t know, she just looks the part)
Mattie’s brother – Mark Rufallo (although he’s too young)
Harry, Mattie’s son – Angus T. Jones (from Two and Half Men but he’s too old)
Ella, Mattie’s 2 year old daughter – any cute little girl that bites her nails.
Daniel, Mattie’s love interest – Doug Savant (from Desperate Housewives)
Lewis (Isa’s boyfriend) – Morgan Freeman

Yep, that’s my cast. Anne, call me, lets do the movie!

The book, like most of her books, had religious overtones – although this one didn’t pound you over the head with it. It was just enough to give characters character, and why they make some choices that they make – guilt and all!

It was enjoyable to read. It was easy to read. But it was long. It could have been cut by 100 pages. The end was sudden and it makes me wonder, did Anne Lamott just finish the book just to finish it? Or was it purposeful, as if to say, the characters still have a life to live and it doesn’t just end here.

I’m not so inclined to recommend it as a great book, but it’s a book you can read in bed while it rains. It’s soothing, and every once in a while you’ll pick it up, start where you left off, and follow Mattie like she’s a friend of yours.

If you haven’t read any Anne Lamott books, then read Bird by Bird above all. It’s her best!

Here’s the summary from www.BarnesAndNoble.com
Mattie Ryder is marvelously neurotic, well-intentioned, funny, religious, sarcastic, tender, angry, and broke. And her life at the moment is a wreck: her marriage has failed, her mother is failing, her house is rotting, her waist is expanding (and she’s a perfect size 12 model at Sears), she has a crush on a married man, and her two young children are behaving the way young children in the midst of a divorce behave. Then she comes upon a small rubber blue shoe - the kind you might get from a gum ball machine - and a few other trifles that were left years ago in her deceased father’s car. They hold the clues to her messy upbringing, and as Mattie and her brother follow these clues to uncover the secrets of their past, she begins to open her heart to her difficult, brittle mother and to the father she only thought she knew.

The news all over today’s headlines: Obesity and other health concerns have grown to pandemic levels in children. The culprit? Lack of physical activity and poor dietary habits. To make matters worse, this is not a problem that kids will outgrow: Four out of five obese adolescents will carry that weight and the accompanying health problems into adulthood.

The Saucony Run for the Good Program has been created to help in reversing these trends. Read on to learn how the Saucony Run for the Good Program can help kids in your community!

for more info: www.sauconyrunforgood.com

Lack of motivation.
Lack of emotion.
Lack of money.
Lack of words.

Therefore… lack of entries.

So what do I have to wrap-up? Lets see.

I had my annual Super Bowl party on Sunday. The beer of choice was:

It’s a Belgium beer. It goes well with an orange slice instead of the traditional lemon or lime deal.

All morning we were packing boxes and cleaning the house for a kitchen remodel that should start in a couple of weeks. It’s going to be messy, dirty, dusty and we won’t be with a kitchen for about 6 weeks plus. What does that mean? Eating out. YUCK! I can only do that for so long before I gain twenty pounds. It sucks. We’ll probably be cooking at my sister’s house which is good, but we won’t have a kitchen. Bummer.

Around 1:30 PM the kids and Donna took a nap, I kicked back with a book and my beer and waited till 3:00 for the game to start. There was chips and dip and finally, the game started and the first half was decent.

Jacob came out of his room just in time to see Hester run back the kick-off and he was jumping up and down for joy. It was a proud moment for me to see my son excited about a football play. It was awesome.

By halftime, the house was up and running. Donna was getting dinner ready, Bella was bugging Jacob and Jacob was getting bored with the game. I don’t blame him. Nothing exciting happened during the game.

Dinner was ready just as the game ended. Donna made one of my favorites – Chicken Katsu. YUM!

In total, I only had two beers but later, Donna and I had Martini’s in bed while we watched TV. I had a Red Apple Martini and Donna had a Pink Martini.

We’re out of Vodka.

Here’s my recipes…

Glenn’s Red Apple Martini
2 oz Grey Goose Vodka
1 oz apple juice
1 oz DeKuyper® Sour Apple Pucker schnapps
dash of Cranberry juice for color

Glenn’s Pink Martini
1 oz Grey Goose Vodka
1 oz Triple Sec
2 oz Cranberry Juice

And for something strong…

Glenn’s Kamakaze Martini
2 oz Grey Goose Vodka
1 oz Blue Curacao
1 oz lime juice

What else, what else, what else…

Oh, on Saturday I did a pretty serious BRick workout. I got out of the house at 6:45 AM, drove to the Rose Bowl and did 9.5 miles on the bike, and took 6 LONG minutes to transition to the run where I did 6.8 miles. The reason why it took so long to transition because my stupid Nano’s headphone wire was all tangled up. Ugh.

It took three miles before my legs felt good. THREE! But having gone through some serious mental battles about walking, not running 6 miles, and just giving up, I managed to pass the car after the first lap without stopping and continue on. I never walked and at mile 4 some guy zooms past me.

He was at a really good pace, he was running easy, he had great form and I decided to take it up as a challenge. So I kept up with him staying nine steps behind. There was a point where I feel about 12 steps behind then picked up the pace.

I posted negative splits running sub 9 minute miles on my last two miles and actually passed him up at mile 6. At the 10K mark I cooled off with a light jog to finish my run.

It was awesome. I had a lot of kick in the end despite running four miles prior and riding for 30 minutes. It was encouraging.

Why?

Because my first triathlon of 2007 is this Sunday!!! It’s a sprint. It’s a short little itty bitty one… but it’s the first which marks my year anniversary from my first Triathlon ever – last years Redlands Triathlon.

I should do better this year if I don’t cramp up! J

It starts with a 5K run, then a 10 mile bike, and finishes with a 100 yard swim in a heated pool.

I can’t wait.

What else?

Nothing I guess.

Oh, “The Turning” was accepted to the Hollywood DV Film Festival. Hope to see you there!

Traffic in LA, crowded auditions, dinner with a star, you know, the everyday life of living in Los Angeles…

Jacob had an audition for a very popular company. [cough]Disney[/cough]. It was down in Santa Monica.

So we fought traffic for an hour to drive 25 or so miles to get there. We sat there waiting, and waiting, and waiting. They didn’t have a really good call plan. They just took the kids in based on who gave them their headshot first versus going down the call sheet and calling them in. So we, unfortunately, waited about an hour before Jacob got in and did his thing.

They asked him to sing a song and dance and act goofy, so he sang Yankee Doodle and danced. At least that’s what he said. He doesn’t talk much about his auditions. Dale tries to get things out of him but its such ‘not a big deal’ that he doesn’t have much to say. He just does them and we’re outta there. It’s like no big deal to him - which is good.

We had two choices – the 105 freeway to the 110 or the 405 freeway to the 101. Both are a b-i-t-c-h at 5:45 PM. Each had some serious issues according to the traffic report, so I chose the 405 with the goal to stop at Carney’s for dinner which is off the 101.

An hour later… we’re at Carney’s and my stomach is aching for a Carney Dog like you wouldn’t believe! And who walks in with his son?

Jay Mohr.

I guess it was his son from his first marriage. But I’m not sure. It was cool, I was there with my son, he was there with his. Maybe we could chat and eat together?

I made eye contact, we smiled and he looked at me like, ‘you look familiar’. Although he didn’t know me, that’s the look he gave me. I smiled back and nodded and sat down and ate.

I wanted to talk to him. I am a fan but I decided not to bother him. I had all these openings like, hey, I saw you and your wife at the Clipper game last week… or, I love your sports bits when you’re on the radio with Rome or Joe McDonell. Or, man, a big reason I watched Last Comic Standing was because you were hosting, or even, can I take a picture of you and my son?

Whatever.

I decided to let him eat in piece. I’m not Mr. Star Struck like some of my friends are, but I have come across some of my favorite actors and wanted to pick their brain or something. Like when I ran into John C. Reilly at Sports Chalet. I wanted to take him out for sushi at a local restaurant down the street but decided not to intrude in his personal shopping time.

Jay Mohr seemed very happy to be there with his son. Again, I’m assuming it’s his son Jackson from a previous marriage. It made me wonder how often he is with his son.

I like making trips to Carney’s special with Jacob (and Isabella when she comes). So I guess I understood. He had his son up on his shoulders when they walked in, had him on his lap for a while as he chatted with some friends he ran into there, then he sat at a table with his son. He was talking about shooting a pilot or something with the gentleman he met there. It’s so ‘Hollywood’ it was kinda cliché.

Anyway, the drive home wasn’t that much better. Only 10 miles but it took about 30 minutes.

So that was my Thursday night, out on the town, painting it as red as I could with my six year old son.

Next time… next time I’ll talk to Jay.

Or hell, Jay, call me! Let’s do lunch.