Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2002 - 10:47 p.m.

I am quite possibly the most tragically boring person on the face of the earth.

Not that I mean I am so boring that it is tragic. I am not quite that boring. I think. No, I mean that I am boring *and* my life has been fairly tragic. It's kind of odd to live a life which is both boring and tragic. I mean, you'd hardly think it possible. I suppose it would be more accurate to say I live a life which is mostly boring, punctuated by the odd tragedy. Once I got out of my parents' house, the tragedies started occurring at a much less frenzied rate, and life has been mostly boring ever since. Barring the odd cancer, auto accident, emergency room visit, random virus/bacterial thing and occassional death, of course. Not my death, because then this whole experience would be pretty freaking surreal for you the reader, and probably for me the disembodied writer, but whatever. Suffice to say that right now, I'm pretty freaking bored.

Ho Ho Ho
In an effort to stave off the boredom and create some busy work for myself until school begins again, I have been making Christmas presents.

Yep.

Call me Santa's elf.

I am making a photo album for my friend Runi and her hubby Mike. I say making. What I mean is that I am recovering and redecorating an already existing photo album. Because I like making things, but there are only so many days before Christmas, and I do not have the time to actually make an album from scratch, much as that sounds like enjoyable winter fun. So I am covering a boring vinyl album with pretty cloth and shiny things. Can I just say it is incredibly time-consuming to bead a freaking photo album?

Yes, my friends, bead.

"But, Katie," you ask,"why are you beading it? And can you please explain the term 'bead', because I'm not sure I know what you mean there, girlie."

Well, see, I decided not to use end papers inside the covers. Mistake #1.

I did not plan ahead for the finishing of the cloth on the album edges. Mistake #2.

These mistakes, once rendered indelibly in the coolest invention since hot glue*, can not be undone and must then be disguised. Hence, the beading. I had to string beads - both bugle and "seed," or round - on gold wire and then glue the strand(s) to the edges of said album. I am still in the process. This D'land visit is a pleasant little break while good feeling returns to the tendons and back of my right hand. Seems beading and gluing beads to a photo album are not really conducive to maintaining painfree carpal tunnel syndrome.

Huh.

It does, however, look really pretty on the damn album.

And since beading is clearly addictive, I decided to branch out from there and make bracelets for two more of my friends. The bracelets are pretty, but I have really had quite enough of beading for one year, thankyouverymuch.

*Fabri-Tack. I can not recommend this product enough, if you are needing to glue fabric - and from how it's going so far, a variety of other projects. This stuff is kind of amazing. I'm not sure how well it will hold beads in the longterm, though, so I'll have to let you know. But seriously, who needs sewing when one has Fabri-Tack? The girl who cut my cloth at the fabric store told me about it, and it holds cloth pretty darned well and is highly washable, according to her. I have not tried the washing yet, myself. I would give you the Fabri-Tack website, but I went there, and there's nothing on the glue, just a little bit of materials information on Accousti-Wall, which apparently they also make. Do a search for Fabri-Tack and it's varying spelling permutations, and you will find plenty, because apparently, there are quite a few Fabri-Tack groupies out there.

In addition to photo albums, I am covering boxes and converting some cigar boxes to recipe card boxes for a few people I know who actually love cooking, and I did a painted glass inset for one box that was really quite the pita, but that one's done except for the covering. Now I really need to wrap and mail all this stuff. I went to Aaron Brothers to have some matts made for a picture for my brother today, and in retrospect, I can't imagine what I was thinking. I should have gone to the custom framing place just down the boulevard from me, which probably would have cut the 5 point star into the top matt that I wanted AND charged me less, but I was in Christmas panic, and didn't stop to think about it until just now, which damn it, is why we can't have nice things. Crap. Now I'm really pissed, because stupid Aaron Brothers charged me $52 AND they wouldn't cut a simple star. Which is important because I managed to secure for my brother an autographed picture of Bob Lilly, formerly #74 of the Dallas Cowboys and a member of the Dallas Cowboys Circle of Fame. Which to those of us who don't care about football or the Cowboys isn't really all that big a deal, but I remember Bob Lilly, and he was an incredible football player and part of football history and all that, and my brother is an INSANE Dallas Cowboys fan, and damn it, I wanted to have it framed and matted really nicely, because my brother is not having a good time right now, and that Cowboy blue star cut into the silver matt would have been really cool. So in hindsight, I'm pretty hacked off I was a mindless sheep and went to the big mainstream store. Doh. (think how pissed off I'd be if Aaron Bros. hadn't made a mistake and not charged me the extra $26 for preservation and fitting. but they realized they left it off after I'd written the check, so they decided not to charge me. though why I'd need preservation, I don't know; it's just a friggin' litho, guys)

Now all I have to do is find the boyfriend's presents, and I'm done. And even though I spent WAY less than usual, I still spent more than I really wanted or meant to this year. ::sigh::

Ad Men are Not Good Writers
It kind of cracks me up and kind of irritates the hell out of me when commercial writers don't know how to finish a commercial, so they carry it just that much too far, and then no one higher up goes "that's great, but lose that last bit." Two current ads leap to mind. The first is that damn Chevy pickup commercial about how the new Chevy truck backs up and turns on a dime and all that, isn't it great, and the cow is so impressed, its mouth falls open while it's chewing and all the hay falls out of its mouth. Which is all you need. Perfect ending. But the stupid writer follows that up with the guy driving the truck looking over and seeing the cow and his mouth falling open. Dumb. Especially since the cow is 90 degrees off to the side of the truck, but the driver is looking straight ahead. Nitpicky I know, but as a writer, it bugs the living freaking daylights out of me.

The second example is expedia.com's commercial where the girl is looking for places to stay on their vacation and opts for the exotic place with the mosquito nets, and then has a vision of she and her hubby/boyfriend/boytoy type in the place and turning out the lights and being invaded by insects, which is really hysterical, and then the commercial returns to the present, and she says "Maybe not that exotic." Again, a perfect ending. But no. The damn writer then follows it up with the boyfriend/hubby/boytoy/idiot on the sofa in the other room, clearly clueless, saying "great." WHY??? You don't need the "great." The "great" takes away from the punchline. Why in hell are you following the punchline up with a lame, useless line??? Whyyyyyyyyyy? (read that with a bit of whine)

Know when to say when, people. Timing is everything.

Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire
SPOILER ALERT. SKIP TO THE NEXT PART IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS IN BOOK 4. I MEAN IT.

So, I drug it out as long as was humanly possible, but I have finished reading the 4th Harry Potter, and it was good. And I was very surprised, but Rowling has definitely taken a turn down the darker path, and the story is getting more adult now. The bad stuff that happens is more extreme, and someone even dies. I really can't wait for Year 5 to come out in paperback. All the others, I was like, that was pretty good, but I didn't really anticipate the next book. Now, it kinda sucks I have to wait. It's gonna be a pretty neat, movie, too.

That reminds me. Now that Richard Harris has died, I wonder if anyone's thought of Patrick Stewart to replace him. I think Patrick Stewart would make an outstanding Dumbledore. Especially since he gets to show his sparks in Year 4. Man, I hope she does't go all soft in 5, because she really set the stage for some serious stuff at the end of 4. I stayed up way late to finish it.

BTW, yes, I am a geek.

Katie's Holiday Movie Favorites
So, these are the movies I like to watch during the Christmas season. Your list may vary. That's your prerogative. These are the good ones.

1. The Muppet Christmas Carol - even my boyfriend liked it when I made him watch it last year, and he is a bah-humbuggy Christmas guy. 5*'s. Katie says check it out. Light the lamp, not the rat; light the lamp, not the rat!

2. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Nuff said.

3. A Christmas Story - totally classic story about a boy, his family, and a gun. Seriously funny. Frah-jee-lay!

4. Home for the Holidays - Holly Hunter, Robert Downey Jr., Anne Bancroft, Cynthia Stevenson, Charles Durning, Steve Guttenburg, and some good appearances by others. Actually technically a Thanksgiving movie, but if you miss it at Thanksgiving, I find it apropos for Christmas, as well. The scene in the car leaving the airport when Holly Hunter looks over and makes eye contact with the guy in the backseat of the next car is priceless. I have lived that moment myself, many times.

5. Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House - Myrna Loy, Cary Grant, hysterical. Not really a Christmas movie, but good Christmas viewing.

That's all I'm thinking of right now. I'm sure I will think of others.

# of VS obsessed searchers: 1
# of MV golf course debacle searchers: 1

Most Interesting Search of the Day:
"literary+voyeurism" (53)

Wordiest Search of the Day:
John+Paul+Stevens+feels+about+death+penalty (1,310)

Peace out,
Katie

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