I am a procrastinator
Somehow that's not a surprise. But for over a week, I've been dying to dive into my scrap room and clean the obscene about of crap aka clutter. I need to seriously purge all the stuff I've got that I simply have no room for and really, will I ever use it at this point? But I have to simply start doing it. There's so much that I just get overwhelmed looking at it all. Plus the lack of storage space doesn't help. I did manage to go through my magazines, pull the pages that I want to keep and then tossed those. Next, is the patterned paper which I think I have enough to wallpaper most of the San Fernando Valley. Anyway, I was hoping to get through some of this over the weekend. and oh what I surprise, I didn't. Tomorrow is another day Scarlett and I'll try to make another attempt while Carly is at school. The clutter is getting to me.
On a sad note, my mom heard from one of our Australian cousins Tusia to wish us a Happy New Year (Jewish New Year for those who didn't know). She mentioned that "of course we know that Ettie passed in June." Ettie was my Great Aunt who obviously just passed. She was just short of her 99th birthday. God bless her! I met her a few times as a kid when she and Uncle Stanley came to LA for a visit and I always went to see her every time I went to Sydney. She lived in a nice 3 bedroom flat in Darling Point that had a 200 degree view of Sydney Harbour, the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. It was unbelievable and indescribable and she lived there for 40+ years. The last time I saw her was 5 years ago when Gregg and I were there for our honeymoon. We brought photos from the wedding so she could see everyone in the family who was there. I also visted her each of the 5 years before that when I would go to Sydney so I guess I'm the one who's seen her most recently. She was in frail health in 2001 and sad because she had outlived all of her friends but she still played bridge (her passion). She was proud of her winning trophies and bragged about it. Her mind wasn't so great when I last saw her and she often called me "Cookie" (my mom) or I had to make the connection that I was Cookie's daughter but still, I always enjoyed her every time I saw her. I maybe the only one in my family who can put up with the Australian/Polish side but I think they're great. I have to find a photo with Aunt Ettie to post here so hopefully I'll do that in the next few days. I hope she's at peace and out of pain. I hope she knows that she had family who cared about her an ocean away. And to live the nice, long, full life that she did, for almost 99 years, may we all be so lucky.
Sit down, put your feet up, relax
This could be a long post to catch you up on my "exciting" life. Hey, it's been busy for me. Hope the rest of you aren't too bored.
Where did we last leave off? Oh yes, still trying to catch up on sleep from the Telethon. Last Saturday the 9th, my 2nd day off in over 3 weeks (the 8th was the 1st), I went to Treasured Memories with Lisa and Kari and spent the day with Janna Wilson from Junkitz. Yes, I spent 2 days with her at CKU but I loved her and Junkitz just rocks. We did three fantastic projects. A tag book, two LO's and another mini-album designed by Teresa Collins. Janna is just wonderful, fun and couldn't be nicer. In fact, she even remembered/recognized me from CKU. How exciting was that??? To think that I actually impressed someone's memory was awesome. Especially considering I was with Ginger at CKU and *everyone* knows and remembers Ginger. LOL. Here's me and Janna!
This brings us now to the finale of "Big Brother 7 - All Stars". Okay, not that exciting. We all knew that Mike "Boogie" would win. He's such a scumbag though and Don W. (co-EP) hates him so much that he doesn't even want to write him the check or buy him the stupid plasma that he won. Of course, he will but it'll be under duress. I think everyone feels that way. Anyway, the only cool thing about the finale was that we got to open our bets that we placed before the move in. Me, Marie, Corie and Scott all put in $20, winner take all (or we go buy drinks) on who will win BB7. No one knew who the others picked. In Scott's absence, Lainee did the big reveal. Corie picked Nakomis, out week 2. Scott picked Howie, out week 7. Howie??? Good grief. We still don't know what he was thinking. Marie picked Danielle, out week 8. Me. I picked Erika. Yup, runner up. Corie was stunned. She couldn't believe that I picked her. What was I thinking but OMG, I picked Erika. My logic was simply to pick someone who'd fly under the radar but I certainly didn't expect her to go that far. Out of sheer amazement, Corie insisted that I keep the $80. So hopefully, that'll force me and Corie to get together this year (which we completely sucked on this past year) and I'll buy her lunch for her birthday. Anyway, here's the photo of me and my winning ticket!!
Moving on the BB7 wrap party. Very fun once again. Marie was my date since Gregg was working late and her DH was out of town. The gag reel was very funny. Hopefully, Lainee will get me a copy. There were probably about 400 people there. All the crew, which is considerable on a show that runs 24/7, cast, former houseguests, etc. Marie is fearless which what makes hanging out with her fun. She has no issue walking up to people and talking to them. She's also been on the show since BB1 so she knows a lot of people. So she got me to talk to some of the houseguests and take a few photos. You have to know that I *hate* talking to celebrities, I'll never bother them. And since the houseguests only
think that they're celebrities, they don't impress me. But still, we took some photos. Here's me and Kaysar. Bummed it's blurry but I'll live. He's really dreamy in person (Gregg knows this) and couldn't be a nicer guy. Truly. We chatted for a few minutes and Marie asked him if he was happy with the way it went for him this year on the show. He said, it got really nasty for him, especially after he left and that's not who he is so yeah, he was fine with the whole thing. I told him that I started on the show last year as well so he and I, starting on BB6, we're the ones that made it good.
Me, Mike and Will. Had to do it. They're so f*ckin' cocky, they couldn't care less. They definitely think they're celebs.
Me and Danielle. What a nice lady and OMG, she's beensy. She's only a little taller than me, amazing figure and so cute. If she's so tiny, I can't imagine how small Erika is and we know she's grossly thin.
Now, here are the photos that mean something to me. Marie (she's the Production Supervisor), Liz (the script department runner) and me in front of the NASCAR car that they used in the pit crew competition.
Big Brother Slop. Yes, they were serving it at the wrap party. Didn't have any but I know that Julie Chen did earlier in the season. Think porridge with less taste.
And two of my very favorite people on the show. Josh (our online editor) and Lainee (our post production supervisor). I just love these two and the three of us definitely bonded this year. I would do anything to work with the two of them again.
Didn't get a photo with Corie which was a bummer. But the party was really fun. I definitely had more fun than last year when I was moving a little slow the day after my surgery. I'm already looking forward to BB8 next year, if it's picked up. Cryptic message from Arnold at the party but we're all sure it'll be back.
So once I recovered from that fun, I finally could look forward to Friday night and my very first moonlighter crop at Safari. Yup, after how many years and how many times hearing from Lisa and Kari "boy, we missed you last night" even though I didn't know they were even going, I actually went! Woo-Hoo! I hadn't scrapped in over 6 weeks, I was going nutty. I didn't quite have my mojo like I did in June and July but I was able to complete 8 pages. Yes, some were pre-fab kits to put together but darn it, I got them done. The crop lasted until 2AM and I finished up about 1AM so I did just under a page an hour. Then on Saturday, went to Wendy's house for her monthly crop. I only stopped by last month since it was my 2 days off before we took off to Vegas. I couldn't lose the whole day then so it was really nice to be able to go this time. And great group of Foxies there. All my peeps plus Capella stopped by and I bought a few things from her that she's trying to lighten her load before heading to Florida in 2 weeks. I managed to get another 5 pages done. None of them fantastic but there are a few that I liked and I got stuff done and that's what's important.
Oh wait, there's more. Last night, Carly and I went to the Hollywood Bowl for John Maucieri's final farewell weekend. Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy were performing and Gregg was directing the Muppets so that's how we got tickets. Carly and I sat in a lower box in the third row of boxes behind the chi-chi Founders Circle. Front and center. Awesome. Also performing with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra were the Joffrey Ballet doing something that was so bizarre I can't even describe it and Kristen Chenowith who can't do anything wrong. She performed a wonderful number from "Candide" and then sang a song to John Maucieri. The orchestra sounded better than I'd heard them in a long time. Carly sat on my lap the whole time and was perfect. I think she enjoyed the music and the Muppets. The fireworks were a little loud and we were actually a little too close to see them on the back row above the stage but that was ok. Going to the Bowl is always a fabulous time. Carly and I went backstage to meet up with Gregg after the show and Carly got to meet someone very special. She was tired and shy but it's still a photo that she'll treasure when she's older. At least I will.
And yes, when we came home, we had no dogs. Thanks to the skunk, I think they had only recently escaped, so once Gregg climbed up the hill to the fence, they came running. Of course, Gregg had to climb the fence into Hidden Hills, get the leashes on them and then walk them down the horsetrail and back up the hill to our house. They didn't love the hose bath but it was mostly Keely who got the skunk. We had them bathed today at Petsmart but I think I'll have to look into that skunk away bath stuff. Tazzie got sprayed about 6 weeks ago so if there's one in the neighborhood and my dogs are stupid enough to instigate something, this might not be the last time we have a skunk encounter. Oy. Now, if we could only figure out how they're getting out of the yard. Until we do, they'll be locked inside the house or in the pool area. I guess we should be thankful that Tazzie is smart enough and knows where she lives, thus they were back (on the other side of the fence) on Friday morning after their Thursday night escape. And thank goodness this didn't happen when we were in Vegas. Gail would've come unglued and I wouldn't have blamed her. And we thought that Tazzie wouldn't be interested in escaping again since she hurt her paw after Thursday's walkabout. Silly us. Nothing stops that dog when she gets a bug in her head and she brings Keely with her. I think I hear my mother saying "If your friend told you to jump off a cliff..." Do dogs think the same way?
I know you're eyes are all popping out of your heads, as if you're still with me at this point. But I'm up to date, photos and all. Next project - cleaning and purging in my scrap room and bedroom.
Bad blogger am I
Once again. Boy do I have a lot to blog about and oh so little time on the computer this week. Just for a teaser, the Big Brother wrap party (including photos), the Hollywood Bowl (again, with pix), cropping twice this weekend including my *first* moonlighter (no longer a virgin) and my dogs have run away twice in three days. Lovely don't ya think? The good news tonight is that we found them before we went to sleep. The bad news, they (well Keely) made friends with a skunk. Man, the house stinks.
Stay tuned. I PROMISE to blog it all tomorrow (okay, later today)
I'm still freaking tired
Okay, we had a record breaking day for MDA and raised $61 million dollars. Awesome. Jerry Lewis was in rare form including pulling a muscle in the last hour and almost didn't finish the show. Now, THAT was fun. Oy.
And hey, in my overnight, sleep deprived insanity, forgot to mention that the Folies Bergere DIDN'T show up. Huh? How do 32 people just not show up? All we know is that we get to Hour 7 (midnight to 1AM) and we're going over what's coming up in the hour and Dad (producer) says that Folies isn't there so we're moving so and so act to fill out the spot. And if Folies shows up, we'll put them after that. Ok, that's the plan. We're still waiting for them to show up. Where did they go? Personally, I still don't know. Alli and Michelle Zug theorized that the incompetant talent department forgot to give them a call time. Very possible. We thought they'd show up at 1PM instead of 1AM but that didn't happen either. They couldn't have thought that they pre-taped since they weren't in costume at the rehearsal. Still, hilarious that a group, a large group, was simply a no-show. Gotta love Telethons.
The drive took 7 hours. Hellish although Carly was perfectly behaved, thank goodness. Took 4 hours just to get to Barstow. Now, that sucked. But we made it home about 11:30P. I didn't sleep as much as I wanted so I'm dragging a bit today at BB. Off to find an energy drink (they have them by the caseload down in the 24/7 editing area) and we do our show in about 90 minutes. BIG day here at the BB house. Seems that Janelle finally woke up and had some coffee and will hopefully evict Dr. Will's sorry, manipulative ass. We'll know soon. Hmmm, wonder if any of my blog stalkers will read this spoiler before we go on the air...
Hour 15
Have I mentioned how tired I am? We're in Hour 15 of the Telethon (8AM hour) and I've been up since 11AM yesterday. Got another 6-7 hours to go before I'm on the road back home and can finally sleep in the car. Thank goodness for Susan driving. Gregg's already on his way to the airport to go to Miami. So far, we've raised $25 million. The highlight performers so far have been John Cassidy who does all sorts of balloon tricks, Michel Lauziere who's a professional horn honker (bicycle horns) Forever Plaid, the Universal Cheerleaders Association and I'm still not sure what to make of this but Paul Anka singing Van Halen's "Jump". Imagine that song sung as a standard and him asking the audience to yell "jump". It doesn't really work but it's kind of like a traffic accident, you can't turn away.
I'm drinking my Seattle Coffee Creme Caramel Javakula. I've had two mini massages which only makes me drool for my pillow and a real massage. I'll have to make an appointment for next week. And I've been trying to exercise by going up the 55 steps about 100 times to get to the stage. I don't think it's working but it's a nice thought.
Apologies for the ramblings...
