Oct. 16, 2001
Lost and Found
I lost my keys yesterday. It was so strange; I got to my car in the parking lot of the train station, and they were gone! It turned out they had fallen out of my bag in the North Avenue MARTA station; luckily they were still there when I retraced my steps today. It made me realize how much I value my keys. How much, really, I owe my keys. As a matter of fact, I am going to throw my keys a party. My gig at IF Coffeehouse this Saturday will be dedicated to my keys. Maybe I’ll even get a cake from Publix.
I’m on a diet, and I hate it because I don’t want to be that girl who talks about her diet all the time. And as most of you know, I talk about everything all the time, so the diet can’t help but be included in that. I usually end up caving at about 10:00 in the morning, getting a McDonald’s biscuit and Coke and then going hungry for the rest of the day because I’m on this mad Weight Watchers "points" system where I can only eat so much every day. Aside from the fact that I’m really happiest when I’m shoving french fries into my mouth, the worst thing about it is having to admit that I care enough about my looks to actually work at losing weight. I’ve always wanted to be one of those cool girls who doesn’t even care. But then again, those girls probably have unnaturally high metabolisms anyway, so whatever.
In situations of trauma I sometimes must break my diet, and Sunday I experienced trauma so extreme that I was forced to walk to Ben & Jerry's with my friends Becky (of excellent classic rock band Karma Lingo) and Lena to consume huge amounts of ice cream with hot fudge sauce and whipped cream. The cause of this emotional trauma? The new John Cusack movie Serendipity. Now, I knew from the previews that it looked totally stupid. I knew from the previews that it was one of those movies where you're expected to believe that two people who have never had a single meaningful conversation are "soulmates" destined to be together. If my only impressions of the movie had been gleaned from the previews, I would never have agreed to go. So I blame Entertainment Weekly and, more specifically, Lisa Schwartzbaum, a reviewer upon whom I can usually count to be even more grumpy than I am when it comes to such things. But she loved it! She said the performances were great and the writing so genuinely funny that it made the movie totally charming in spite of its flawed plot. But it's lies, people. Take it from me. All of the characters act like such complete fruitcakes that it's really, really difficult to care whether they find true love or not. In the end, it's just another attempt to convince an already deluded populace that our "soulmates" are just around the corner if we only look hard enough. Arrrrgh! Surely you can understand why I was driven to ice cream.
The best thing that’s come out of my latest dieting/health craze is Tae-Bo. I don’t know if y’all have experienced the Tae-Bo tapes for yourselves, but I’ve got to recommend them as the most entertaining workout videos of all time. The host, Billy Blanks, who seems merely mildly encouraging in the Basic workout video, gets all crazy and cult-like on you when you graduate to the Advanced tape. Here’s what you get at the end of the workout when you’re really tired and think you might be about to faint:
| booga | "Now, I know you’re tired. I know you wanna give up. But you know what? Anyone can work out when they’re fresh. This is where you gotta get to your inner power. Because you gotta believe in yourself. I believe in you. If you feel like you can’t go no further, if you feel like you’ve gotta quit, you just gotta reach up to your higher power, to whatever it is that you belive in, and ask him to just give you a little more. Just a little more. Then you’ll find your inner strength. And that’s what it’s all about." | booggart |
I swear, the first time I got to this point on the tape, I was so tired and dizzy I really thought I was hallucinating the whole thing. I was totally freaking out, looking around, trying to figure out who he was talking to. Thinking, surely Billy Blanks is not telling me to look to my higher power. But indeed he was. And you know what? It was strangely comforting. Billy Blanks believes in me. If nothing else, I’ve got Billy on my side.
So that festival in Canton I was all excited about? Cancelled. Bummer. The city shut them down because of safety concerns or some such; I’m still not clear on the details. Maybe next year I’ll get to do it. If anyone is working on a festival that involves funnel cake, please tell them to call me. Tell them I’ll totally play for funnel cake.
I’m going to be the "featured staff member" in the next issue of The Atlanta Opera News. Aw, yeah, people! I’m gonna be totally famous now.
What’s in my stereo at home:
What’s in my car:
What's in my CD player at work: