Do I wake or sleep?

I'm going away this weekend, to Philadelphia to visit my brother Erik and his family.  They had twins a year and a half ago (Emily and Erik Jr.)--I knitted booties for them and now I get to meet them.  Taking the train down tomorrow night--it should be an easy trip, just 90 minutes.  And I've never really been *to* Philly so this should be fun.  I'd love to catch a game but we'll probably do some historical sites instead.  I haven't seen Erik in FOREVER so I'm really looking forward to it.

I texted Lori a little while ago and haven't heard back from her yet--she is expecting her (second) baby this week, in fact the due date was a few days ago so things may have started already.  I told her she didn't have to text me back (just in case), but just to know I was thinking about her, Kevin and Phoebe.

We had our first production meeting for Pirates (TTC is remounting it) this week.  Guess who my choreographer is?  SUSAN!  Isn't that a great idea?  I'm so thrilled it came to me--she's an awesome choreographer, she's an awesome friend and it helps her out as well!  *And* I have someone at my back whom I trust completely! Win, win, win!  We are having auditions the Tuesday and Wednesday after Labor Day and we go up in mid-July--we're performing at Frank Sinatra Park!

To Rachel (whom I know loves her) and Paula and everybody:

What. The. Fuck?  Noooooooo!  There's a BJ store near where I did my kid's show on the Upper East Side and I used to splurge on one of her pretty little sweaters every spring--the yellow polka-dotted sweater I wore to Rachel's shebang a few years ago was hers.  Nooooo!  I love her stuff!

I have to get a fashion icon.  Well, my Coach icon will do for now.

Read The Hunger Games this week--wicked!  Great story, great execution.  Although I didn't forsee how it would end--I thought something else would happen.  And does anyone else totally get a Slytherin vibe from the Careers?  Katniss is obviously a Gryffindor (fire, chivalrous) and Peeta is a Hufflepuff.  The boy from District 3 who's good with explosives is a Ravenclaw.  I'm going to try to catch the movie this weekend.

I saw Titanic 3-D.  The 3-D is *excellent,* well worth the extra $.  The scene on the water in the aftermath, when they're waiting for the lifeboats to come back, is especially great with the effects--you really feel as though you're there.  Still think Cal has hottter chemistry with Rose, although I believed Rose and Jack as a couple a little bit more.  Mainly because they're both such good actors.  It's kind of...awful, BTW, that Rose lets her mother think she's dead.  I can see why she felt she had to do it, because it's the only way she could have her life, but still...her mother isn't THAT bad, she's just stuck in a terrible situation and sincerely believes that's the only way out, and frankly she's not a horrible mother for thinking that way.  Most mothers would've done the same thing, especially since I doubt Cal shows his abusive side around the mother.  I hope at some point Rose wrote her a postcard or something, letting her know she lived.

But oh my Lord, you have to feel for the actors who play Jack's friends.  At least the Irish guy gets to be snarky--the Italian guy just has the absolute SUCKIEST lines.  "I-uh see the statue-uh of Liberty!"  All he's missing is a pizza in his hands as he dances around singing Abbondanza!

I REALLY want that beautiful green comb that Rose wears.  (Not that it would stay in my stick-straight hair!  But it's so beautiful...)

HATE the obnoxious guy with the beard--his part is just soooo terribly written and he is terrible in the role.  Yes, people like that exist, insensitive people, treasure hunters, etc. but really, after his "fine forensic analysis" NO ONE said anything reprovingly to him?  No one shot him a "hey jerk, STFU, this actually happened to her, it's not 'cool'" look?  Cameron's script TRIES TOO HARD.  The bad guys are too obviously bad and the good...well, Rose and Jack are pretty nuanced but the steerage passengers are all grimily noble.

People need to shut it about the damn door.  There was room but no bouyancy--it wouldn't have held both of them, that's established that when they both try to climb on and it flips over.

I loooove that scene, that endless delineation, when she is dying and hears the lifeboat.  She hears it--and I love how it's muted and changed because she is that close to death.  Slowly, slowly she realizes, and there's that heart-breaking moment where she doesn't get it, that Jack is now dead.  And when did that happen?  Surely he was dying when he told her not to give up.  She finally realizes and then it seems she gives up--she's just going to lie there and give in to despair and go with him.  But then, no--slowly, she forces herself to keep her promise.  It's a great sequence--something about that process, that here's where she makes that decision, here's where it could go either way, is fascinating to me.

Still love that ending.

Are these people crazy? JAWS, obviously! That movie defined the summer blockbuster! (And I have a personal love for it, since we had a house on the Vineyard and I saw many of the filming locations personally. I also looooove the novel--I read it at way too young an age (10) and just devoured it, extra-marital sex and all.)

Soccer was fun last night. I was one of the co-captains of my team and a girl named Blair, whom I've gottten to know a bit (I've seen her at other pickup soccer games and ran into her and her BF last weekend on the subway platform--she is a *terrific* forward, handles the ball very well and scores a lot) was on my team. This is sort of unusual, two females on one team--usually the organizer, Dale, spreads them out. The other team members--we chatted a bit before the games started--seemed chill.

We smoked the first two games--6-3 and 3-0. (In this format, we have six teams and play 3 30-minute games.) I was playing left wing as usual, and was setting up some decent shots (I had two assists) and getting off some good ones, but nothing went in. My knee locked badly during the first game and one of our opponents very sweetly carried me to the sideline. Somewhat embarrassing but very chivalrous! I went back in after it stopped hurting. Second game much the same (although no knee pain)--lots of shots but nothing went in. It became a thing after awhile, my team was like "you *are* going to score!" Third game we played a pretty good team and there were some kind of annoying remarks about the "females" and the "girls" and I think they thought they were joking but that gets old pretty quickly. A LOT of them were international, that might have something to do with it. At any rate, at one point a shot of mine went wide and went behind the pitch. As I ran after it, I was annoyed at myself and kicked it very hard into the (unused) net that's also behind the pitch (i.e., not the goal itself). One of the opponents said "ha ha, an angry female, we don't like angry females." I took a breath, smiled, and said "I don't care what you like." He actually took that pretty well and laughed.

HOWEVER. One of my teammates gave me a good pass and I took a shot from somewhat far out and it. went. in. My whole team was cheering--one of the guys grabbed me and said "we won!" hilariously. So cute! Then a few minutes later I scored another one!

I scored TWO goals in one game!

So, so happy! Even better that it happened against a team of male chauvinists :)

There was a bench with a few spectators at our end of the field and after the game one of them, a young Mexican guy (no older than early 20s) chatted me up, talking about the game and females playing and all. He seemed very admiring--I couldn't quite read the vibe but it was sweet. He was thinking about joining up with the pickup league and we talked about the different fields throughout the city--I told him that Inwood Hill Park had only one, crappy, pitch, but the baseball fields were pristine! (This is because Inwood is primarily Dominican--he was like "yep, the Dominicans are more into baseball.") As I was leaving to rejoin my team he said "okay girl, go and do your thing." So cute!

Episode was GREAT this past Sunday. I knew the case they were referring to, although I didn't know much about it other than he killed a bunch of nurses. Just another inadequate man who takes it out on women but let's not talk about the fact that serial and mass murders overwhelmingly target women--can't start a conversation, we might actually want to change the status quo! But what a way to tie in all that misogyny--especially creepy how it actually gets commercialized here (when Ginsberg sells the "Stalking Cinderella" ad campaign). Grandma is another victim-blamer--yes, Pauline, those nurses ASKED to be raped and murdered! Disgusting but her attitude is sadly all too prevalent. Some women refuse to confront the fact that they are just as vulnerable--in order to feel safer, they twist it so that the victim *must* have had some kind of agency. They said the same sort of things about poor Elizabeth Short (the Black Dahlia)--she "was seeking death" or she was a prostitute. All nonsense. Also disturbing and sad (and again, still prevalent) was the leering at the crime scene photos. Allow the murdered some dignity, for God's sake. I feel the same way about rubberneckers on the highway--someone's death is not your entertainment.

Peggy ruminating on her "masculine" tendencies was interesting in light of the (later debunked) speculation that Speck had an extra Y chromosome, and supposedly this was associated with extra-aggressive males. Is rape and murder of women part of what it means to be male? When Joan threw out Greg, she specifically referenced his lack of manhood *and* hearkened back to the rape in the office.

GREAT episode. Kind of wish they had addressed the Kitty Genovese rape and murder last season--that had as much of an impact (especially locally) as did the nurses' murders (although the Genovese murder was in March of '64 and S4 started later than that). But the Genovese case was HUGE and better known than the nurses' murders. Can't wait to see how Weiner & Company play out the continuing devolution of NYC and the US (in terms of crime) in the late '60s. It's gonna be a long time before things get better. (I would LOVE for this show to address the blackout and the looting in Bushwick but the show isn't supposed to go that far into the future.)

Am completely addicted to Game of thrones now--I watched the pilot, didn't really get into it but then started watching it a few weeks ago. LOVE IT. I am finishing up a Clio entry on the historical parallels. Love it, love it, finished all of season 1 last night.

That said, I really, really wish I could find a blog online that discusses it without heavy-handed hints about the books (from sites that are supposed to be spoiler-free). I have NOT read the books and won't until the series ends. I've already been spoiled for a couple of major events and it's pretty annoying.

Favorite characters:

*Tryion. He is awesome and hilarious. LOVED his "confession" at the Eyrie.

*Dany! She is fierce and wonderful and queenly.

*Sansa, oddly. She's just such a young teenager--she's so timeless. And watching her struggle to adapt to The Game is simultaneously thrilling and heart-breaking. LOVED that last scene between her and Joffrey and the trellis. Things are gonna be different, I think.

*Arya and Bran just make me squee. They're so cute and the actors are so terrific.

*Vicerys. He is sadly hottt to me. I know I shouldn't find him attractive, being crazy and abusive and all, but that scene in the tub was whitehottt. And hilarious. "Wait a minute--what am I paying you for?"

It was nice to see Argus Filch manning the Twins--maybe he can help Sam get into Hogwarts :) Or maybe Tonks could help out!

Moar dragons! Moar direwolves!

*I'm drinking a "Wicked" hot chocolate from Jacques Torres right now OMG SO GOOD. It's got chipotle and some other kind of hot spice in it. I like my chocolate with a little bit of sass to it.

*The results of my MRI came in and I talked about it with my (hottt, BTW) orthopedist. Apparently it IS an ACL tear--not a bad one but still. This is a little worrying because apparently ACLs do not heal on their own--if it's bad you have them reconstructed through surgery. I don't know that you do for tears that aren't as bad but I'm seeing the (hottt) doctor next week so we shall see.

At any rate I have been playing more and more since our season ended, with the Meetup pick-up leagues. I've mostly been playing with one in particular, run by a guy named Dale, who does the 6-on-6, 3 30-minute game format. My condition is getting better and better--I'm not nearly so exhausted by the end of the games. Last Wednesday was kick-ass--for the first time since I've started playing soccer again, I SCORED A GOAL. Yes, you heard me right:

I scored a goal!

And not only did I score one, I assisted on an even better one, a much trickier goal. The ball was passed to me and I did this kind of backwards, sideways chipped pass into the center scrum and another forward was there who sent it in, easy as you like. This makes me VERY VERY HAPPY. I have been worried sick I wouldn't be able to play at a good level again, that I'd lost my skills, with all the injuries. But no! I am coming back! My wind and my speed are improving and my ball-handling skills are also getting better. The best thing was, after the goal and the assist, the guys started passsing it all the time to me, like "okay, she's cool." Saturday was also lots of fun--in another Meetup gathering, I played in my first FULL-field game since college. FULL field, not 3/4 of half-field like most of thes games--full field. And we didn't even have two full contingent of teams--we had only ten players each so no subs. AND we didn't even take a halftime--WE JUST PLAYED FOR 90 MINUTES STRAIGHT. How much fun was this?! You don't even know. I floated home, I was so blissful. It was even better because all the guys were showering praise on me (I was the only female), about how well I played wing and kept pulling the defense out of formation.

Wing. That's who I am. I started at halfback and that's fun, but what I am is a wing--I played left wing for the vast majority of my soccer career and that's where I feel the most comfortable. That tricky little left wing, floating out there on the outside, ready to swoop in and harsh your buzz and flip the ball into the goal.

The one drawback is that it's not easy playing on the artificial turf--every now and then my cleat will catch on the turf, causing me literal AGONY, and then I have to limp off the field for 5 minutes or so. One player on Saturday pointed out that I should get turf shows, that they'll be easier on my knee, so off I go to Modell's!

So I've been playing in this winter soccer league.  Our record was good enough to get us into the playoffs--there are eight teams in this league and we were tied for third place.  We played our quarterfinal last week and won!  We were supposed to play the semi-final immediately following that game but they had made a mistake somehow and our semi-final was rescheduled for yesterday. 

We'd had practice on Saturday which went very well--we had a pickup game against a really good team who was coached by this older guy, in his late 50s at least.  The guy was AMAZING.  We want him to coach us!  He was not only an incredible player who embarrassed the hell out of all of us younger players on the field, he also offered great commentary.  I actually played a decent amount in the scrimmage and took a couple of head balls--I landed badly on one (the knee is still a little shaky) and went down and popped up immediately.  He was praising me to the other players, saying "that was textbook perfect."  The knee was a little weird--if I twisted it at all, it would hurt like hell, but eventually the pain would go away.  I had (FINALLY) the MRI later that day, so hopefully that will shed light on the problem.  Anyway the game came down to penalty kicks--I took one and got it in!  The thing with penalty shots on goal is that if executed properly, you have an excellent chance of getting it in.  For the goalie to have any shot of blocking it, s/he has to commit him/herself beforehand (they can't see where the ball is going and then react--there's not enough time).  So they just have to decide to which side they're going to dive beforehand and hope the shooter goes to that side.  So you have a 50/50 chance of getting it in if you shoot for the side (proper technique).  And if you shoot for the top corner they have even less chance of blocking it.  Penalty shots are as close to a sure thing as you can get--they're like foul shots in basketball.

So, back to yesterday morning's game, the semi-final.  The winner of that game would go on to play the finals later in the afternoon.  We played the red team whom we'd played in the regular season.  Now there are some teams we don't like--primarily the red and green teams.  Red has a couple of players who are way too aggressive.  They're pretty rough for what is supposed to be a social team (I mean, really rough--one guy took out several of our players, I'm kind of surprised he didn't get a yellow card), and most irritatingly they try to call the games.  (This is a tactic wherein as soon as something happens--say, the ball is kicked out, a handball, etc.--they will "call" it (i.e., for them) which is, hello, the referee's job!).  They do it to try to influence the ref.  One of my teammates on my select team in HS used to do this.  Since I didn't play that much (the knee is still a little shaky), I saw a LOT of this and I was openly calling them out for it.  "Hey, we already have a ref, why don't you just play and stop trying to call it?"  They also argue with the ref a lot which REALLY should be yellow carded, it's annoying as hell.  Anyway, we beat their aggressive asses 3-1, haha!  So now we're in the finals.  I played a little bit and not only did the knee NOT hurt, but I was actually showing skills I'd never shown before.  In HS I was not this fancy-shmnacy dribbler.  I scored a lot because I was very fast, and had very quick reflexes.  I could get past the defenders, but I didn't do cool things like fakes and misdirects, and passing through their legs.  I just ran!  (And kicked.)  Well, some of the players in this league are pretty incredible, including several on our teams--they can dribble the hell out of the ball.  One way of improving yourself (in almost anything physical, including dance) is to watch those who are better.  I've been doing a lot of this, studying the better players, and something must have rubbed off because honest to God, I was doing some of that yesterday.  I actually got past several players dribbling the ball, and heard the surprised voice of one of my teammates (Pete, a Totally Hot British Dude, oh my God, he is completely hotttt) saying "there you go!"  And this makes me VERY HAPPY because I've been worried, especially after hurting my knee, that I have lost my skills.  I played very good soccer for ten years and I want that back, dammit!  Peter (THBD) complimented me after the games, saying "you had an excellent run there."

Anyway, after our first game (before the final), there was another game, for third place.  Red was now in that game, and the green team were their opponents.  The green team is another disliked team--until two weeks ago they were undefeated, and then they lost their last game.  They were given a bye into the semis--and they lost.  Very surprising.  We never played them in the regular season but we've run into them at the bar--they never socialized with the rest of us (any of the teams).  The team captain was quoted as saying he didn't want them to socialize because he felt it would inhibit their competitive drive.  Guess that didn't work out too well for you!  He also tries to recruit players from other teams and apparently they've been together as a team for awhile.  In general they had this huge "we're the best team" attitude that turned off everyone.  Dudes, it's a social league.  Get the stick out of your ass.  Anyway they played their game--green won (so they were the third place winners) --and then it was time for the finals.  Us vs. the yellow team.  We'd played the yellow in our very first game, in the snow, and they'd beaten us handily, 6-3.

They seemed nice enough before the game, chatting with us, but apparently they were THE hated team, which I didn't know,  I didn't figure this out until I saw both the red AND green teams--and other teams--standing next to us, cheering for us!  WTF?!  They were actually quite nice to us, so uh, okay, thanks for the support!  At halftime we were down by one goal.  We huddled together and everyone said something--I said "we are not out of this yet.  Keep your heads in the game.  Look for opportunities and play smart.  Never let up, keep the pressure on."  As a smaller athlete, one of my guiding principles is that a smart player is the best kind of player.  You can overcome all sorts of disadvantages if you're playing smart--if you are constantly looking and hungry and alert to opportunities.  This is especially important when you're down, because momentum is a HUGE thing in sports.  That's why so many Super Bowls turn into blow outs--the team that starts winning, ends up winning.  Not today!

We scored a goal fairly quickly into the second half, so now we're tied.  Then we scored FOUR MORE.  One was kind of a fluke--the goal had the ball and decided to go WAY out of the goal area, dribbling the ball.  Well, he got caught behind enemy lines and one of our players took a well-aimed shot from the half which went in.  I felt bad for him but dude, you're the goalie.  You can't leave your post.

They never scored again--and so we ended up league champions!  We got medals and everything.  It was awesome!  We also got a $100 bar tab.  (I begged our captain to buy at least one pitcher of Guinness, as opposed to disgusting watery Bud Light, but she said they didn't have Guinness on tap.  A horrified me responded "that's outrageous!  What kind of an Irish bar doesn't serve Guinness?!")  At the bar the green team came over to (somewhat creepily) kiss the hands of our captain and ask for her number so he could set up a "friendly" game between us.  He also drunkenly confessed to all of us "deep down we consider ourselves to be the best team."  (Uh, no.  By definition in a league that has playoffs, the best team is the team that wins when it counts.  The tournament is not a coronation.)  We ALSO found out that he'd bought trophies for his team--these had to have been bought before yesterday so what was the point if he didn't know in which place they would end up?  And seriously--trophies for your third place team?  You got the third place medal, why would you buy trophies when even the champions (US!!! :) didn't get them?  It just seemed pathetic, like one of those participation trophies.  Those are fine for kids, whom you're trying to teach good sportsmanship values, but for a die-hard competitive team such as them, it just seems as though they're trying to insinuate that, as he said, they were the REAL winners.  Dude, you came in third!  Accept it.  I will say, he admitted "no one could stop you guys today."

Anyway, so so so happy!  I draped my medal over the trophy I won last fall for the softball tournament, next to my trophy for Least Embarrassing Player.  And I'm so proud of our team.  We won not because we were the most talented (although we have some fierce players) but because 1) we have incredible team spirit (we also won the Spirit Award) and 2) we WORK.  We practice every week.  Hard work is almost always the deciding factor in who wins.  As a team we have signed up for the spring league, where we'll be playing on Sunday evenings.  This will conflict a bit with softball but I'll find a way to make it work.  And at least the bar will be better!  We'll be at Slainte, which is where we hung out many times after various Planet Connections shows.  THEY have Guinness on tap!

So the Vagina Monologues is over--we actually went up (and down) nearly 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately the last several days of it were overshadowed by a truly creepy experience. One of the women in the cast was a writer for the Jersey Journal, so she set up an interview with me and one of their other writers. The article came out the day before we opened, Friday the 26th. I went on to the website to check it out and saw--to my horror--a really creepy comment. Some guy had posted, saying it was disgusting, that I was unfit to direct The Vagina Monologues because this person had googled me, found my website and strongly disapproved of this clip (the second one down, "The Promise"). The guy said "I didn't know that being in a low-budget porn qualified you to direct The Vagina Monologues" and "Mayor Zimmer really dropped the ball on this one" and urging a BOYCOTT of the production. Also, he "was going to bring my daughter to this, as I approve of the pro-vaginal message" of TVM, but not now.

My blood ran cold. I was seriously, seriously freaked out for many reasons--uh, what the hell are you doing googling me? My website wasn't listed in the article. Second, I'm an ACTRESS, I played a PROSTITUTE. That happens. No, it wasn't real. That wasn't actually I--that was a character. Does this really need to be explained?! Third, what could possibly be more contrary to the message and spirit of TVM than to try to bully a woman out of the show because she played a character you don't like? The whole thing left me sickened--I was literally shaking.

Trish, one the the older actresses in the cast, had posted below this freak, ignoring what his comment and just saying what a great experience she'd had and how supportive and strong a director I was. I was shaking, and I tried to "report" the comment but our browsers at work are wonky so I was never sure if I was getting through. I checked the article a little later and both comments had been removed--in fact the entire article had been slightly rewritten. Interestingly in the first article I was quoted as saying "as a self-identifying feminist..." which I think is what triggered the guy. There is a certain kind of guy out there that is very, very threatened by even the word feminist. And by God he's gonna make the bitch pay for it. I frankly doubt he even has a daughter, much less one on whom he wanted to impress the "pro-vaginal" message of TVM. No one talks like that.

I saw Trish at rehearsal that night and talked about it with her, thanking her. Rehearsal went late that night--the process had been so compartmentalized (most of the pieces in TVM are single monologues, not group pieces) that the cast hadn't had any time to bond, so I'd had everyone bring in some wine or munchies or something, which loosened up everyone. But I did get out late! I got home well after midnight and was puttering around on the computer--I decided to check the article again. At about 2 am, the freak posted the exact same comment--the one that had been removed--again. I reported it again, and when I check Saturday morning, it had been removed.

Saturday afternoon. He posted it again. I reported it. Again. It's removed again.

Late Saturday night. He posted the same comment--the exact same comment that's now been removed three times--TWICE. And now he's escalating--he also posted a direct link to my website.

At this point, extremely upset that the Jersey Journal site hasn't banned this person, I email Summer (the cast member who'd originally set up the interview) and Dave, asking for help. Dave was horrified and said he was going to email the site directly as well. Summer said she'd seen the "disgusting" comments and had also reported them and was going to contact them directly. She also gave me a contact name/email, so I send off yet another email to this guy, John, asking them to please ban this obsessive poster who is slandering me.

I get back this email Sunday afternoon that starts off

"I think he's concerned about this video on your website--the one here [links to "The Promise"]...."

WHAT THE FUCK. Asshole, have you ever heard of the term "concern troll"? WHAT THE HELL does it matter what his "concerns" are? No one forced him to google me AND then go to my website! That has nothing to do with the article. Who set up this freak as the arbitrator of who is fit to direct TVM? I sent back this painfully restrained response saying "I'm an actor. I've played prostitutes. This happens in the industry. But that has nothing to do with: a) this production of TVM, or b) the fact that this loser posted the exact same slanderous comment FIVE TIMES and is now escalating by posting my website directly."

Jesus. I cannot believe I actually had to explain this to "John." I'm also frankly disappointed with Summer--I forwarded John's response to her and she kind of defended it, saying they didn't want to interfere with his right to free speech (bullshit, then why bother deleting his comments in the first place) and how my website was "public" (so? The point is it wasn't mentioned in the article, and the guy is trying to get me fired). It's not about free speech. It's about whether or not you want your forum to be abused by a fucking psycho. Five times? The exact same virulent, angry, slanderous comment that was deleted before--five times?

So I will never do another interview with the Jersey Journal. Not if it means they won't do shit to stop neckbeards from typing out shitty pathetic slanderous posts over and over and over. I've been checking that article ever since that weekend--every day I check it just to make sure. Thanks for looking out for me, "John"! A real boon to the community, you are.

The sad thing is I actually had a great time directing the show, and we did VERY well. More about that later. But God forbid a bunch of women put on a pro-woman show--nope, some fucking basement dwelling loser gotta shit all over that. Can't have that.

Does anyone here blog on another platform besides LJ? My history blog is on Blogger and it's driving me CRAZY. Like, I actually HATE writing on it--I get very tense, I feel as though I'm fighting it. The problem is the autoformat function--I cannot turn it off. It keeps "adding" tags and code and the interface between the HTML editor and the Rich Text editor is TERRIBLE. It will look one way on Rich Text and then when you go back to HTML, suddenly all this new code has appeared. I try to take it out but it just keeps adding it.

I slave over my entries, trying to get them to look just so and then I post them and they look like garbage. I've tried checking various blogger support boards but no one who actually works for Blogger ever checks in there--just other posters who suggest solutions that doesn't actually work. At this point I'm ready just to move on to another platform--as long as they do not autoformat. I can't go through this again, it's too frustrating.

Happy Mardi Gras!


Everybody say a little prayer for that beautiful city on the river with its unique, crumbling beauty and charm and culture. And I expect to see y'all at Chez Green tonight for hurricanes, beads and King Cake!

...It's that time again: that wonderful, crazy, colorful, crowded, happy, mixed-up but glorious time when all New Orleans forgets itself for a day, lets its hair down, puts on a rubber nose, a funny hat, and walks around laughing at the silly people in their crazy costumes...

Mardi Gras is fun and laughter, vulgarity and coarseness, color and light, and at the end, quiet.

Mardi Gras is a state of mind, an attitude, a pose, an opinion. But at its most basic…and perhaps satisfying of all, Mardi Gras is the one day in the entire year when New Orleans can tell the world:

"We're going to have fun!" And we do.

Throw me somethin', Mister!