Ciao, baby

Well, 2012 is almost behind us and I say ciao, baby.  Not that it was a terrible year for me personally, but I'm ready to move on.  Even though 2013 looks like it's going to start on a sour note with the fiscal cliff and higher taxes all around, I'm still optimistic about the next year.  I'm anticipating positive changes in the new year.  We all should try to start 2013 with a clean slate or at least not let the sorrows of 2012 continue to consume us.

Happy New Year!

Back to the Grind

Well, after a few days off, I returned to the grind of work.  Back to the subway.  Back to the midtown crowds.  Back to paying for lunch.  No more days of sitting around in sweatpants and snacking on junk food while watching The People's Court and other assorted daytime TV programs.

It was hard to get into the swing of things, but not too hard since I checked my work e-mail a few times during my vacation.  It's actually nice to work between Christmas and New Year's because the office is quiet and a lot of folks are still on vacation.  Still, given the choice, I think I would have preferred to have the whole week off this year and return to work in January.  Unfortunately, that wasn't an option.

Evanston, IL

I spent a few days in Evanston, IL and had a great time. Evanston is such a cute city with great houses and a quaint downtown. In spite of the freezing temperatures during my visit, I enjoyed being in the Chicago area. It's always nice to get away from home for awhile.

Mistaken Identity

Yesterday morning, while I was at the laundromat, a woman approached me as I was pulling my clothes out a dryer and said, "Jennifer?"  My name is not Jennifer.  Never has been, never will be.  The woman had mistaken me for someone else.  This has happened before to me.  When I was in Michigan a few years ago, a woman called out to me (well, not to me, to someone she thought was me) in the parking lot of the strip mall on Orchard Lake Road near Northwestern Highway because she swore I was someone else.  Are there really that many women who look like I do?  I find this hard to believe.  Maybe we all have a twin somewhere in the world, but what are chances we have multiple lookalikes?  And how come I've never seen any of my own lookalikes?  My sister said jokingly that they're living in an alternate reality.  "Jennifer"and the others are living their lives someone while I live mine elsewhere.  We're coexisting and our paths will probably never cross in life.  And maybe that's for the best.

People Are Nuts

I had hoped to end this work week on a positive note since I feel like my blogs have been overly depressing lately, but with the shooting in Connecticut today, there's not a lot of positivity to go around right now.

People are nuts.  That's the only reason I can come up with to explain why someone would kill a bunch of children.  What makes a person snap and do something so awful?  What makes a person get out of bed, grab a gun, and go on a killing spree?  It's another sad day in America.  Some nut job shot up a mall in Oregon earlier this week, an assassin shot a guy on the 58th Street in broad daylight, and a psycho pushed a guy onto the subway tracks.  Madness. 

Elmo is Tainted

Elmo is tainted.   I hate to say it, but it's true.  I was watching Michael Buble's (aka Mikey Bubbly) Christmas special last night on NBC and when the time came for him and Elmo to do their skit, I couldn't watch it.  I've never been a huge Elmo fan anyway because the Sesame Street I grew up with didn't have Elmo.  The Sesame Street I loved growing up in the 70s had Big Bird, the Count, Cookie Monster, Kermit, Mr. Snuffleupagus, and Oscar the Grouch.  And, the Sesame Street I grew up with didn't focus on the men or women behind the puppets and costumes.  It was all about the characters. 

The whole thing with Kevin Clash and his underaged paramours has just left a bad taste in my mouth and that bad taste has, sadly, trickled down to Elmo.  I don't even know if Kevin Clash was the puppet operator and voice of Elmo on Buble's show, but it didn't matter.  Just hearing Elmo's baby voice and seeing him with Bubbly made me flip the channel.  Kevin Clash is so closely associated with Elmo that it's hard to separate the two.  If he had just stayed behind the scenes and did his job as one of the many anonymous people who work to bring Sesame Street to life, no one ever would have heard about him and maybe his private life would have stayed private.  I suspect some or maybe all of Clash's accusers are hustlers out to make a buck.  But Clash displayed poor judgment in getting involved with these guys.  It's just a bad situtation all the way around.

On a more positive note, I did enjoy Bubbly's Christmas special (in spite of Elmo, Blake Shelton, and the weird duet with Bing Crosby).  His duet with Rod Stewart was particularly good along with his rendition of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" at the end. 

Lincoln vs. Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter

I saw Lincoln this weekend at BAM.  The theater was packed.  I don't believe there was an empty seat in the house.  Given the film's critical acclaim, I was anxious to see it.  Unfortunately, I was nodding off during the first hour.  Things picked up for me in the second hour and final half hour, but it was still a snoozer.  I did enjoy the performances, particularly James Spader's performance as Bilbo.  Everyone's praising Daniel Day Lewis (as they should), but there should be an equal amount of love for James Spader.  (And, as a side note, I like fat, older James Spader.  That double chin suits him and I've been a James Spader fan from the 80s.)  I just felt like I didn't really learn much about Lincoln, the man from the movie.  Honestly, I felt I learned more about Abraham Lincoln from reading the book and seeing the movie version of Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter.  I know that sounds kooky, but entertwined with the fictional stuff about Lincoln being a vampire hunter was real information about the man himself, his upbringing, and his adult life. 

Sweating the Small Stuff

I constantly sweat the small stuff and, although I've gotten better at breaking this habit as I get older, I still do it from time to time.  I suspect a lot of people do.  It's hard not to!  When I read about the British nurse who killed herself because she'd unknowingly put a crank call through to Kate Middleton's nurse, all I could do was shake my head.  Bad things happen and we all make mistakes.  Yet this woman took her own life presumably because she transferred a crank call and Kate's medical condition was publicized.  Yet this nurse left her children without a mother because she was so humiliated by a prank that didn't really harm anyone.  What a shame.  Life is too short to spend it worrying about (A) things you can't control; (B) things you had control of but messed up; and (C) things that haven't happened yet (and my not happen at all).   When mistakes happen, you have to try and figure out the best way to resolve the problem(s) that occur as a result and work to ensure that the mistakes won't happen again.  We're all imperfect.

Holiday Spirit

As the Christmas season kicks into full gear, I am trying to get in the holiday spirit, but it's hard.  Bad news keeps bringing me down.  My manager lost his job today.  ("Merry Christmas!  You're fired!") Some crazy dude pushed a guy onto the subway tracks (right down the street from my office) and killed the guy.  The fiscal cliff is looming.  What a depress-fest.  All of the aforementioned buzzkills were out of my control, but that doesn't make me feel any better.  The country as a whole needs a pep talk.  Where's Zig Ziglar when you need him?  Oh, he died last week. 

Skyfall

I saw Skyfall over the weekend and enjoyed it.  Daniel Craig is not my cup of tea looks-wise, but he was great as James Bond.  It's nice to see a mature man kicking ass!  I also liked that the movie gave him some ethnically-diverse love interests.  I don't believe there was one hot blonde in the movie (unless you count Judi Dench).  The little homoerotic scene with Craig and Javier Bardem was interesting and quite entertaining (at least for me it was).