Sleepin' Good

I had to write tonight. Why, you ask?

I hit another milestone in my recovery last night. Or should I say early this morning... I was finally able to sleep on my stomach! Hooray! Yay me!

I think I can also start sleeping without the king-sized pillow that I've been hugging against my chest for support since my surgery. I would have probably been okay without it for a while now, but I've been using it because my cat likes to sleep right next to me on that pillow. And because it feels good.

Okay. I have to go finish watching the guys on Whose Line is it Anyway? sing a song called, "You are My Chili Dog."

G'Night Mates. May you all sleep well on your stomachs tonight.

Another Hollywood Crush

Woo-hoo! Go Vikings! (They beat the Seahawks, so RobbieMax was in a very good mood tonight.)

So I promised a report on my reunion... I had a blast with my roommate and her friend. I reconnected with some fellow "choir geeks." Yes. I was a choir geek. A clapping soprano. But in college, especially at Concordia, if you were in choir you definitely were NOT a geek. At least I like to think so. And all the great choir parties (NOT "this one time, at band camp...") were great. And those parties were always held at RobbieMax's college house.

It was fun. After the 10th reunion party on Saturday night, my roomie and I went to her fave hole-in-the-wall bar, and I met her friends, one of whom is Irish and a professor at NDSU. It was fun listening to him talk with his Irish accent.

Speaking of accents...

Y'all know how much I like Johnny Depp. Aargh! Well, the main Hollywood crush of mine might not be the sexy pirate, Mr. Depp. (Well, he IS kind of the Hollywood Man of the Decade for me.) But he has no native accent. At least, not British, Australian, Irish, or any other kind of accent like that.

Who do I love to listen to and watch, you ask? Well, none other than Mr. Wolverine himself - Hugh Jackman. I've actually liked Hugh for years. It's the accent, PLUS his very nice, very foreign (or not so foreign) looks. RobbieMax has known of this crush of mine for a quite a while. Once, when we were watching the movie, Kate & Leopold, I got carried away watching a scene and actually moaned. But it was more like a "Mmmmm...he looks good" type of moan. (Yeah, I know.) It was the scene where Hugh (Leopold) was wearing the chocolate brown turtleneck and trenchcoat and interrupted Kate's (Meg Ryan) dinner with her boss (Bradley Whitford). Ladies, YOU KNOW THAT SCENE. Anyway, I got a little carried away, and RobbieMax said, "You moaned. You're not allowed to moan!" (I guess when he called Diane Lane "luminous" in the movie, Under the Tuscan Sun, it was a kind of payback for that involuntary vocal emittance of mine.)

One of the things that I like about Mr. Jackman is the fact that he's been married for a while, has a few kids, and is still madly in love with his wife. His wife is not supermodel gorgeous. She is beautiful, but in a pretty, everyday woman kind of way. Hugh does not have impossible standards about the looks of his wife. And I like that.

Speaking of Meg Ryan...my sister, Lynn, actually saw her last weekend. Y'all know that Lynn lives in LA. Well she had taken my adorable nephew out to a pumpkin patch in LA and saw Meg Ryan there with her little daughter. Lynn said that Ms. Ryan was beautiful and had nice hair and clothes. And she was tall. Lynn also didn't say anything to her. Lynn basically allowed Meg to hang out with her daughter with no ogling and questions from her. Apparently, so did the other people at the orchard. Like it's no big deal to see a celeb with their kid. But the press were outside the orchard and wouldn't leave Meg alone as she headed to her car. I wish that I would be cool like Lynn was around a celebrity. Especially since Meg Ryan stars in one of my favorite movies, When Harry Met Sally. I would have been one of those fans who don't know when to shut up. (Maybe.) This is why I live in Minnesota. No huge celebrities. And no embarrassing myself, as I could potentially be very choir geek-like and ask a celebrity a really dumb question.

Anyway, I am watching Kate & Leopold tonight. I promise not to moan in a "Mmmmm...he looks good" kind of way.

Wow! It's Been 10 Years!

So I'm sitting here at 10:22 on Thursday night...

I've watched Survivor, Grey's Anatomy (of course!), and CSI, which I recorded on my DVR. And tonight I finally felt brave enough to watch the Steve Irwin Memorial Service, which I recorded on my DVR in September. (Presented without commercial interruption, I've noticed. Hooray for Animal Planet!) Now I finally know who The Wiggles are...

I'm still shocked about his death and feel for Terri and his family. But Kelly Clarkson is still alive, so at least Will didn't jinx her with his comment. (At least, not yet.) Either that or someone has heard your prayers and good thoughts for the Grammy-winning songbird. No matter what, she is lucky.

So I'm heading to bed after I finish watching this sad, but powerful tribute to such an energetic and enigmatic man.
And I need a good night's sleep, because tomorrow I'm taking a road trip.

Where am I going, you ask? Well, I am heading up to the town where I attended college. This weekend is Homecoming, and also my 10 year reunion! (Oh my gosh, am I that old already?!)

I will be staying with one of my college roommates, and we are going to have a blast! We are heading to a bunch of 10 year reunion stuff and the Homecoming parade. We are not going to the football game. We'll probably end up shopping at the mall. To which Will would roll his eyes and say, "Typical girls."

Okay. I have to say, I went to Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. (Across the Red River from Fargo, ND.) The Home of the Cobbers. Yes. Our mascot is a big cob of corn. But not just any cob of corn. We just got a new costume of our mascot, which I've read is easier to move around and maneuver in. (How on earth does one maneuver within a costume of a corn cob, anyway?) Our 2006 Homecoming theme is, "Fear the Ear." Apparently they are handing out T-shirts with that slogan, and I intend to get my hands on one.

I expect to run into ex-crushes, ex-boyfriends, friends I've lost touch with, and one ex-crush who turned out to be gay. (I had "stolen" some of his campaign posters for Freshmen officer [or something like that] and plastered them all over my dorm room. Of course he didn't know that. But my roommate didn't appreciate that. At a party after we graduated, he admitted that he knew that I had a crush on him freshman year. He assured me that if he had been straight, he would have asked me out. I prefer to believe that.)

Anyway, I met RobbieMax singing in the Concordia Choir. We were a choir tour romance, destined for failure. (Or so people thought.) But almost 13 years later, we are still as madly in love now as we were when we first got together. And Will is the most loved, luckiest kid on the planet.

Okay, enough mushiness. I'm going to have fun reconnecting with old friends this weekend. And I'm also going to enjoy sharing my career successes with these friends. Yes. I'm going to brag, just a little bit. Being an editor is better than being a Broadway star. Of course, there's no chance for a Tony Award, but the personal satisfaction is worth it. (Uh-huh.)

Bindi Sue just read her speech. Watching her little finger move across the page as she read and kept her place was one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. She is going to be Steve's Legacy. The wildlife is very lucky to have such a small, but powerful and passionate champion.

And on another note - after tonight I am tied for FIRST PLACE in my Survivor pool at work! Yay me!

It's now 11:12. I need to go to bed. (Hey! I didn't know that Justin Timberlake had ever met Steve Irwin!)

G'night, mates. I'll post about my reunion when I get back.

L., S., G.

Oh my gosh. It's been so long since I've posted! Wow. Sorry readers!

Julia here, OR should I say Katherine (as in Hepburn)? Minus the affair, of course. Read the comments about my last post to get this one.

So I've been really busy this week. I'm a singer, as you know, and I'm involved with a local symphony and choir, which has rehearsals on Tuesday evenings from 7:30-9:30. We had our first rehearsal on Tuesday. (Incidentally, I auditioned on my birthday. I got in - what a great present!) We're doing Handel's Messiah in December, a Vaughan Williams' piece in February, and the most exciting of all - Mozart's Requiem in the spring! (Dies Irae, here I come!)

On Wednesday nights I have church choir rehearsal. This weekend we have a musical going on, so last night and tonight we had dress rehearsals. Then I'll be busy starting at 1 on Saturday, rehearsing. The performances are at 5:00 Saturday and Sunday evenings.

The best thing about all of this is that I have better breath support than I did before my surgery. The kind of not so good thing about that is that I'm so used to having to take lots of breaths that it's going to be hard to re-train myself to take deep breaths and sing through the phrases. Oh well. It's a good problem to have!

To the topic at hand. What's L., S., G. you wonder? LOST, Survivor, and Grey's Anatomy. My three favorite shows.

LOST - holy crap! Did you watch it last night?! Wow! Non-Henry/Ben is one of the freakiest characters I've ever seen on a TV show. His eyes, his demeanor, even his receding, wispy hair. All freaky. And what a twist! If you haven't watched this show, I suggest you go out and rent seasons 1 and 2, and binge on them to get caught up next week.

Survivor - Y'all know I'm in the Survivor pool at work. So far I'm in a 3-way tie for 2nd place. Which is a change for me, because last time I pretty much was in last place the whole season. I've been watching Survivor since the middle of the first season. I don't know, there's just something about Jeff Probst wearing his Panama Jack hat, saying, "Survivor's ready?! Go!"

Grey's Anatomy - What's not to like about this show? It's got everything - drama, sex, comedy, improbable medical cases, relatable female characters, and hot men. And the writing is amazing. Shonda Rhimes is a genius! I admit, I've been a fan of Partick Dempsey's since he played a dorky teenager (Ronald Miller, anyone?) in the movie, Can't Buy Me Love. And let's face it - he's one of those really fortunate men who just get better with age. Like a good Cabernet.

So those are my favorite shows. What are yours?

And as long as I'm asking you a question, I thought I'd get your advice on my current dilemma. I'm a heart patient, but do not have any heart issues anymore. That means, I don't really have any heart-related things to write about. I feel great!

So what should I write about now?