Golden who?

So, to be honest, I really didn't miss the Golden Globes. I watched what I thought was the news conference announcing the winners, but actually what I watched was some Access Hollywood watered-down version. Where was the glitz? The glamour? I missed the dresses! I didn't miss the awards not one single bit. Though I was super excited that Mad Men and John Hamm won for AMC. Thrilling! One fabulous show, I tell you. But I must say, those writers have way more power in Hollywood than I ever thought. It's pretty impressive that one group can shut down the entire television season.

In other news, I could not have been more excited about Nate and Jen being eliminated last night on The Amazing Race. For recaps, check out www.televisionwithoutpity.com. Hysterical. My favorite part was when Jen yelled at Nate on the street in Taipei, "You NEED to make the decisions, Nate! Don't ruin my birthday by not making the decisions right now!!!" Rock on, Nate. Make her make those really tough subway-or-taxi decisions. Nate cried at the end, and I tried to feel bad for them, but I didn't.

Weekend recommendations: Definitely order the Szechuan short ribs at Bloomsbury, but don't order the salmon if you go. Also, their wine list is full of things that normal people can't pronounce. If I can't say it, probably I shouldn't drink it. Also, I discovered that if I need something, I should just mention it in my MIL's presence and it will magically appear. Like yesterday morning, I was telling her about how our coffee pot got mysteriously cracked one day and she opened up a cabinet door and said, "Here, want this one?" Um, okay.

Things to look forward to this week: BB goes back to school! Woo hoo, I have finally have my Monday nights back. He's taking grad-level accounting, bless his little heart. Also, school started for me on Friday and I'm already behind on my reading. Way to keep those resolutions, E. Baker! I'm definitely looking forward to tomorrow, when my work-study student comes back to work. And I'm also looking forward to Thursday, when it's supposed to rain...or if it's really cold, like it's supposed to be, maybe something else?

Happy Monday!

All Clear...For Some of Us

This week has been "cancer screening" week in my family. Frank's PET scan showed cancer on two lobes of his liver and he was scheduled for surgery yesterday. Daddy's scan was this morning.

Good news first: Daddy is cancer free! He goes back in April, but every three months that goes by without a recurrence lowers the risk of the cancer returning - at all. Fabulous all the way around!

Now the not-so-good news: Frank's five-hour surgery was over in half an hour. According to family, the cancer is so widespread that surgery would do no good, so they closed him up before they really got started. This morning my aunt is meeting with the doctors to see what the options are, if there are any. Of course this is discouraging news; Duke flew a doctor from Johns Hopkins down here to be on stand-by to "freeze" any remaining tumors that couldn't be removed during the surgery. Turns out his trip was for naught. So now we wait...and hope for the best.

In other news, I went out (meaning waaaay out in the county) on Tuesday night to West Johnston High School to judge senior boards. They emailed looking for volunteers from JCC and I'm thinking, Hey, how hard can it be? Judge some projects, meet some peeps, be seen and put a notch on the resume. Uh huh, riiiight. So I get there a little past 5pm because hello, you have to drive 30 minutes from here and suffice it to say our county is rather large. Anyway, people are already assigned to their spots and are already munching on sandwiches. I get assigned to one table, get moved to another and start reading through project portfolios. Basically they give you a big bin with the portfolios of the projects you'll be judging; the notebooks explain what the project is and the process the student has gone through.

To make an extremely long night a very short story, let's just say one of the judges in my room was a know-it-all band parent who'd judged twice before. The other was a first-year guidance counselor at the school, straight out of graduate school and very serious about his job as judge. The projects ranged from pregnancy and smoking to making a ghillie suit (for those of you who don't know, it's that bushy looking thing that soldiers wear in the woods as a disguise). Some of the students spent a super long time on their projects and their presentations and it showed. Some were nervous but still had put a lot of work into it and some didn't care enough to start this thing until Christmas break. As judges, our scores have to be a consensus, and consensus in this case means within at least 7 points of each other. Let's just say that on several different occasions, I scored students at least 15 points lower than did Genius Guidance Counselor. Band Parent fell sort of middle of the road. After the 7 or so students finished their 10-15 minute presentations (during which there were numerous technological difficulties which extended the time we spent in there), we gathered score sheets to tally.

By this time, it's seriously going on 9:30pm (and I have to drive half an hour to get home) and GGC doesn't want to budge on his scores. "But if I come down a point or two then it won't be consistent with what I gave Olivia Overachiever!" he whined. We reminded him that you can't compare student to student, and that basically we just needed a number close enough to mine so that we could get outta this joint. "But what if we ruin Sally Slacker's senior year? I mean, what if her senior project grade isn't good enough and she doesn't get into college? And then she fails high school and her life is over and it's all our fault?" Oh my GOD I wish I was kidding. This dude went on and on and on. Finally he conceded on that one, but not on other students, so I made the decision to give credit where it wasn't due so I could actually get home before midnight. And this is after the in-charge lady made an announcement that if there were any volunteers still left in the building we should pack it up, 'cause they're locking the doors. We're done right?

Not so much. GGC walks down the halls of the high school whining the whole way. "I don't mean to beat a dead horse," he complains. "But I really feel like we shortchanged some people. I mean, they spent months and months on this. What if their confidence is ruined? How will we explain that?" Here's a tip, buddy: we don't explain it. The project sucked, she coulda done better, we did our job and now we're done. And it's 10pm. And maybe I would've had a little sympathy if he'd been the senior guidance counselor, but no! He worked strictly with freshmen!

So now the question becomes whether or not I will judge again. Because inevitably they'll ask me. I asked around and apparently ours was an isolated case - most everyone else was out of there before 9:00. I might give it some time and do it again, just to see what it's like with different judges -and maybe some smarter students?

One last commentary on the whole night: The girl who presented on pregnancy and smoking did so because she'd just had a baby and like, totally hated it when her friends wanted to smoke around her. And when she talked to her other pregnant friends, they like, all agreed with her and stuff. Babies aside, she was a cute, blonde cheerleader-type. And so were all her friends, as we saw from her powerpoint presentation. Cheerleader moms. What an interesting concept.

The other 5

As promised, the other five memorable holiday moments, in no particular order:

• When I flipped Drew the bird (a la Phil) on Christmas Eve and he caught it on camera.
• When my 8 year-old niece poured wine at the dinner table and asked, "Would you like some more Chardonnay?"
• The lovely time I spent with Max Marvin Hollowell the Hamster.
• The feeling of finally finishing the file cabinet and finally hanging the bathroom shelf. By myself. With power tools. By myself. And they haven't fallen apart!
• Three great Christmas Day sights: That Darn Cat on DVD, my daddy and Frank.
  

Resolute

I am proud to say that it is now the 5th day of the new year, and so far, my number one resolution has been number one on my mind. I have organized and organized and organized (and still have about two tons of paper to go through before I'm done) and feel good about my progress. But on the grand scale of grand resolutions, isn't organization as cliché as losing weight? Or getting more sleep? Or quitting...something?

Of course those are all on my list. But what about becoming resolute about something "new?"

10. I resolve to watch at least one (1) presidential debate before the election in November. Even if I have to wake myself up with a bucket of cold water, and even if the Breck Girl has a bad hair day.

9. I resolve to not give in to any and every whim of the animals I live with. Charlie is not a baby; just because he cries doesn't mean he's hungry. Does it?

8. I resolve to get ahead in my schoolwork, and not be scared of Dr. Henze. Even though he's scary and uses really big words that I don't understand, I still resolve to read ahead and ask dumb questions.

7. I resolve to balance the checkbook at least every two days. I have become somewhat famous at work for bringing in a metal spike that holds two months worth of receipts that must be sorted through. I look like the cashier at Mel's Diner on a busy Sunday morning.

6. I resolve to at least look like I'm interested when Brian starts in on some long story about an article he read in the Wall Street Journal.

5. I resolve to really enjoy turning 30. I think it will be fun, no matter what I do, and I think I should look at 30 as a privilege. So I shall.

4. I resolve to become more interested in the lives of my friends. I used to be good at this; I've slacked off. However, I also resolve to become less interested in Facebook and MySpace.

3. I resolve to visit at least one of my out-of-town friends at least once this year. And Raleigh doesn't count.

2. I resolve to say no to some things this year. It's hard and I don't like it, but Mom never said life was fair.

1. I resolve to still sleep good at night, and perhaps nap good during the day, even if I don't accomplish a single thing on this list. After all, who really stays organized, loses that weight and quits whatever it was they were going to quit, all year long?