GMU, Sharon Stone, and All That...

When I applied to George Mason University (please, please don't refer to it as GM; it is Mason, George Mason, or GMU, but never just GM), even I hadn't heard of it, let alone had any of my friends or most of my family. I was spending a year in Israel and applied there b/c my dad had started teaching at William & Mary and I was applying only to in-state colleges.... Long story short, I went there, partied as hard as an Ohio State sorority girl, and finally, finally graduated with a degree in Psychology with a concentration in HIV/AIDS education. Now, thanks to basketball, people all over this land have heard of Mason/George Mason/GMU.

OK, onto other things...Sharon Stone is hot. There is just no denying it. The woman just turned 48 last week and she is smokin. Then again, I am turning 35 next week, so I should be thrilled that in 13 years I can possibly look half as good as she does. I am sure that Fatal Attraction 2 (the promotion of which is the reason we see so much of Sharon on the talk show circuit right now) is going to suck, but I am happy to be proved wrong. If you've see it, lemme know whatcha think. I will most likely wait until it is on constant replay on Show time or HBO...

More soon...

Settling...

Although in some aspects it feels much longer, less than a month has passed since we moved. We’re still in the city, but in a whole new non-Metro-accessible-neighborhood, which is cool and odd at the same time: Cool that it feels like a whole, fresh new start; odd that, after almost ten years, I am no longer within walking distance to my Cleveland Park hangouts, a 7/11, or a Metro stop (actually, for those last 2 things, it’s been 15 years).

The transition into the new place has been very slow as far as unpacking and settling in are concerned--God knows we never even hung pictures in our last place and we were there a year, so may the Fung Shui goddesses help us this time around! I know, moving always sucks ass—and each time we do it, we say "This is the last time we will ever move," but this move topped them all in terms of suckage. Dirty Birdy and I both work random hours (me in retail, he having his own business while also bartending many nights per week, etc), so not only was the actual move torturously dragged out over too many days (big thanks to Dave & Jim who helped us one day!), but since the time that we finally finished getting everything out of the truck, neither of us has had a full day off to get much of anything done in the new place (let alone have we had any time off together). I am off work both today and tomorrow -- quite the score, actually, to get two weekdays off in a row -- and Dirty Birdy is working at his shop and at the restaurant both days; therefore, I have been able to empty several more boxes and I have started to make some sense of how my huge wardrobe (it's all part of the job!) will fit into even less closet space than we had in the last place.

The superficial silver lining to this cloud is…we got cable today!! I haven’t had cable in more than 5 years, except for the first week we moved in here when we had residual cable from the last tenant (she is crazy and only moved downstairs, so stories of her are to come in later posts, I am certain). The free cable was really cool because I was able to, in one day, catch up on the entire 2nd season of Project Runway on the same day as the season finale was airing! I never understood the appeal of the show (as someone in fashion, you think I would…), but I ate it all up! Bring on season 3, and bring on Nick's first line!!

I digress… back to this: we got cable today!! and I have found at least 2 new favorite shows.

# 1 Single. I’ve been waiting to see this show since I first read about it in Rolling Stone. Unfortunately, reading the article was when I first heard that she and Dweezil had broken up (you’d think one of them would have called me back in May 2004 when this happened!!). Today I saw several episodes, as well as checked out some 7-minute videos of previous shows, and I really like it! The show is billed as a real-life Sex and the City. As much as I love, love, love Sex and the City, this show is better—different, for sure, but better due to its real-life honesty. Actually, they are very hard to compare, but I see why a critic with no real creativity would compare them. Anyway, Lisa hides nothing from the cameras, she is upfront, she shows her flaws, and she is absolutely endearing. I love that she is good friends with the quirky Illeana Douglas (who I have loved since Goodfellas and whom I enjoyed in To Die For, Grace of My Heart, and other great character roles), and that every once in a while you have to remind yourself that it is a reality show because some of the scenarios are just too relatable (knowwhatImean?).

The next show I liked (OK, got shamelessly sucked into) was The Real Housewives of Orange County on Bravo. Heaven help me, but I saw the ½ hour preview for the show earlier today (maybe it was the whole first episode?) when we got introduced to all the housewives and oh-my-god, this show is addictive! They (the women) are awful but I love it! Each woman is totally different (with the exception of each having had breast implants), but each woman shares the crazy connection of being a wife (or single mom, as one case may be) in this gated community of ridiculously wealthy people. At this time, I will focus on only one of the women:

Jo is only 24, but she is engaged to Slade, a very successful
36-year-old-father-of-two. He is really hot and seems to be a very grounded, devoted father; she has a problem letting go of her partying lifestyle, which includes going clubbing with her gorgeous breasts and even more plastic friends, especially
during the weekends that they have Slade's kids. There are flashback scenes of her
being extremely wasted, even when it is just the two of them hanging out, and a reference to her being drunk enough as to not even remember the night they got engaged. (Wait! Is this about me? Oh, yeah, it is someone else's reality show... Phew!) I am sure that awaiting us in future episodes are many discussions about him wanting her to consider AA and them not going forward with the marriage. She is only twenty-four and she acts like a 24 year old, for God's sake!

All the other women are "fascinating" in their own right and run their marriages and households differently, so we will see where all this goes. Damn if this show doesn't become an addiction!

In the meantime, I hope all you bloggers are doing well and haven’t entirely given up on Miss Penny Lane. I'll be back!

xoxo,

MPL