Bye-Bye 2005

Last night, I went to the Renegade Comedy Theater's Holiday Revue. It's a bunch of skits that cover what happened in 2005. I was talking with a friend about how I really hope they don't rip on our mayor too much. For those of you out of town, our mayor was arrested for drunk driving a couple weeks ago. He owned up to it, said it was the biggest mistake of his life and that he would never drink again. He also said he wouldn't be resigning and still had things to accomplish in Duluth.

As someone who doesn't ever drink, you might think that I would want him gone. However, I think everyone makes mistakes and he has admitted outright that he made one. He didn't deny it or try to weasel his way out. That takes strength.

Happily, the revue only mentioned it once or twice, though I refused to clap for those skits. I know they're just jokes, but.... Oh well. They have to pick on someone.

Aside from that, I'm trying to think of something exciting to do today to finish off the year. I'm kind of thinking I should work on making 2006 rock instead. I could easily wash my hands of 2005!

Oh, and yesterday I bought a sheep. Yep, a sheep. Not for me but as a gift. For a couple years, I had a Christmas party in December. The last one tanked because I didn't serve alcohol and apparently none of the people in my group have social skills without a drink in their hand. So, I quit having them last year.

This year, I didn't have one either, but decided to put the money that I usually spend on food toward something good. Yesterday, I bought a sheep. It was $120 (about what I spent on party food). I bought it from www.heifer.org which is a great organization that my church supports. I really wanted to buy a waterbuffalo, but their pricey. Check it out. The cheapest thing to donate are bees at $20.

Today's movie: When Harry Met Sally. I always think of this movie on New Year's Eve. Harry and Sally met and re-met over the years.

Ludicrous Lutefisk and Happy New Year!
:)Becca

Question

If you didn't have to worry about money, what would you do with your life?

Ludicrous Lutefisk,
:)Becca

Funk

Every so often, I will have a morning where I wake up in a funk. I don't know exactly what sets it off: lack of sleep, hunger, a lousy e-mail, or the weather. When this happens, I try to "snap out of it' by playing the Mary Poppins Soundtrack. It always works. Always. I can't really explain it but I love Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. There is a song for most of my funk symptoms:

Some guy: Sister Suffragette
A dreaded chore: A Spoonful of Sugar
Boredom: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Depression: I Love to Laugh
Over-worked: Let's Go Fly a Kite

I highly recommend it.

If you don't have the soundtrack, rent the moive. Today's movie: Mary Poppins.

Ludicrous Lutefisk,
:)Becca
P.S. I feel better already!

Vintage T-Shirts

I spent part of this morning sorting out my basement "guest room". I've only had two guests in the four years that I've owned my house (as of today), so it's essentially a storage room.

One of the toughest things for me to sort are old t-shirts because they always have so many memories attached to them! A few years ago, I decided to take pictures of the shirts and then either give them to Salvation Army or my dad who would make them into rags or something. The pictures take up a lot less space and I knew that I would never wear the shirts again.

There were a couple shirts that I just couldn't get rid of:

The Lumberjacks Shirt (a group of my guy friends in high school who would do Monty Python skits. HILARIOUS!!!!)

My college dorm shirts (the fun ones). Too many inside jokes to remember!

Autographed PFR (religious band) t-shirt.

Project SEE shirt (Summer Educational Experience at UM-Morris. I did astro-physics and psychology. For fun. Over my summer. Yep, I'm a nerd.)


Movie of the day: Monty Python and the Holy Grail. "What is your quest?" "Nee!!!" "shrubbery!!!" "I'm not dead yet." If you haven't seen it, go rent it. If you haven't seen it in a while, rent it again. If you get it on DVD, look for the Lego scene in the extras.

Ludicrous Lutefisk,
:)Becca

Details

I need your opinion. I am a details person, so I notice people around me a lot (partially to know when I might run into a student "in the real world.") Anyway, here's where I need help....

Yesterday, when I was buying calendars (some to tear apart and use as posters, not wallpaper my wall with Januarys), I saw a man about my age also buying calendars. The weird thing was that I saw him last Thursday at Super One in West Duluth too! I hardly ever shop there, but needed stuff after work. I saw him first in the dairy section and then all the way out to the parking lot (we were parked next to each other). He has a hospital parking sticker in his window. Doctor? Nurse? Custodian?

Any way, my inclination was to try to strike up a conversation, but then I thought that might freak him out. I told myself that if I ever see him for a third time, I will have to talk to him (granted he's alone).

What do you guys think?

Today's movie: I'm With Lucy. It shows a woman going on 5 blind dates. The cool thing is that we see the beginning of each, and then the next portion and so on. In the middle of the movie, we find out that she's marrying one of the gentlemen, but we don't know which one.

Ludicrous Lutefisk,
:)Becca

Calendar Geek

The day after Christmas is the time-honored Day of hoarding Calendars at 50% off! Somehow, I managed to go this far in the year without buying a 2006 calendar (minus a weekly thing I saw for about a buck a couple weeks ago). Any way, I found myself at Barnes & Noble, plus two calendar kiosks today. I now have 7 (yes, seven) new calendars!!!

They are:

Daily:
Non Sequitur
Mary Engelbreit

Planner:
Ansel Adams

Wall:
Peanuts: Happiness is....
Craig Blacklock- Lake Superior
Dufy (French artist)
Windows to the World

The only one left to find is one about weird websites. I'll pass along any fun ones after I find it.

What calendars do you depend on?

Movie of the day: Narnia. Saw it with my 6-year-old buddy Zane. Tried to watch it with his mom and little brother, but I guess 2 1/3 year-olds are not the target market for this film. The movie was beautifully filmed and didn't stray much from the book, though I did miss the narrators comments about wise kids not closing the wardrobe door, etc.

Ludicrous Lutefisk,
:)Becca

A Blessing

A Blessing for You

May you awake each morning 1 minute before the alarm.

May you have shoes that keep your toesies warm.

May you have enough food for each day.

May your worries and stress fly away.

May you have cozy love like fleece.

And may the world finally know peace.

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukah!

Ludicrous Lutefisk,
:)Becca
P.S. No movie today. Make some memories instead!

Christmas Eve at Wesley

Christmas Memories are on my mind these days. Things have changed a lot since my grandma moved out of her house and then later passed away. One of the things that I really miss is Christmas Eve at Wesley United Methodist Church. My grandma lived across town and we always went to her church (instead of ours) on Christmas Eve.

Every year was exciting because something goofy or tacky or just plain funny would happen. Here are the highlights:

1) The minister's wife doing a karoke hymn.
2) A lady's grandkids singing a duet from opposite ends of the sanctuary (so they weren't singing together).
3) The same lady's punk grandkids sitting in the pew watching (one of them was my classmate).
4) A guy passing out in the last pew and an ambulance coming.
5) My grandma's screechy singing (rest her soul).
6) My Jewish uncles having to attend.

And a sweet one, actually...
7) My grandma's joy in having her whole family with her at church.

Movie of the day: Sweet Home Alabama. A woman is a fashion designer in New York and needs to go home to Alabama to finalize her divorce before she can get remarried. Reece Witherspoon, Patrick Dempsey, and Josh Lucas star.

Side-tracked

Do you ever have the feeling that you've been side-tracked from your original plan? I get side-tracked in conversations all the time, hence "Becca's Randomness". Some days, though, I feel like I've been side-tracked in life. I think of the things that I used to enjoy, but haven't done in eons. It's not as though I have replaced writing poetry, watching hockey games, or other regular hobbies with anything grandiose or thrilling. Mostly, they've been replaced with groups, meetings, homework, or cleaning. How grand.

Do you ever go back and read what people wrote in your high school yearbook? One gentleman wrote that he expects part of my first million. Hmmmm.... good luck, Mark. A lot of people thanked me for help with their ___________ (math, Spanish, econ, etc.). I guess I was one of the helpful nerds. I still am, I suppose.

My goal for the near future is to figure out what's been missing and get it back!!! What are you missing?

Movie: Ever After. Drew Barrymore plays Danielle, a.k.a. Cinderella. Dougray Scott plays Prince Henry (Henri). Danielle is strong in this movie, which rocks. She doesn't need rescuing. Angelica Huston is the wicked step-mother and you pretty much hate her for all but 45 seconds of the film. I have this movie nearly memorized. Yep, I like it.

Ludicrous Lutefisk,
:)Becca

Santa

I was just thinking about how excited I am for today to finally be here-the last day before break. The cool thing about today is that the entire vacation lies ahead. There are so many possibilities!!! This excitement makes me think of other Christmases and their excitement: the year my great-aunt Katherine made doll clothes for my Mandy doll, and the year my brother got Optimus Prime (Transformer) and was soooooo happy.

One year, I SWEAR I heard Santa's bells outside on Christmas Eve. My dad was in the livingroom so I know it wasn't him. I don't remember seeing my mom, but I have a sense that she was behind me in a different room. I know that I suspected my folks but knew it wasn't them. It was VERY exciting!

Movie: My Date With Drew. It's about a guy who decides to try to get a date with Drew Barrymore and he has $1100 and 30 days to do it. It comes out in stores in a couple weeks, but you can rent it. It's very funny and motivation to try something that you thought was a little too "out of the box." The first step: rent the movie.....

Ludicrous Lutefisk,
:)Becca

Hockey!

Last night, I went to my first-ever Denfeld hockey game. While hockey is the only sport that I can watch with any sort of interest (besides maybe some Olympic stuff), I haven't been to a game in over 10 years!!! I know this is shocking coming from someone in Duluth, but it's true. I believe it's because the high school games start at 8 PM on a school night and I'm up early the next day. The game last night was against Cloquet, who had beaten East, so the goal was to beat Cloquet and indirectly, East.

We were slaughtered!!!! Oh well. The cool thing was seeing kids out and about and running into some former students back from college or where ever they've landed.

The movie of the day: Amelie. It's a quirky movie about a woman in France who has given up on ever finding love. There are SOOOO many interesting characters and beautiful colors everywhere. It's subtitled and has some nudity, so don't let your kiddies see it.

Ludicrous Lutefisk,
:)Becca

Get rich!

Every work day, I drive past the Powerball sign that announces in lights just how much I could win if I played their game. Every work day, that sign pisses me off! I watch the numbers climb and think of how many people waste their money with some false hope of winning.

A quote I found somewhere said "The lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math." I also think it's a trap that feeds on people's weaknesses. Psychologically, it's addictive because there isn't a consistent payoff schedule. You don't win after playing five times and then you play another five times and win. No, "the next ticket could be the winner". Well, how about people do more productive things with their "next ticket" money. Maybe, oh I don't know, help the poor? Feed their kids? Work less to have more spare time?

Then, I start to think about just how much of that 112 million a person would see after taxes and how much they would get per year. I've been meaning to research it to figure that out. Maybe even get a lesson plan out of it. We'll see...

Any way, off my soapbox. Today's movie: Brewster's Millions in honor of Richard Pryor. One of my childhood friends was in one of the scenes in the depot. It's been YEARS since I've seen this one.

Ludicrous Lutefisk!
:)Becca

MDD

This weekend, I suffered from MDD- Motivation Deficit Disorder. Ever heard of it? Probably not, since I just made it up 30 seconds ago. However, I believe it's real. I'm POSITIVE you've had bouts of it before. Here are the symptoms: You sit on the couch listlessly, while your mind is trying to move your limbs to action, your guilt gland is in overdrive, and your breathing slows (or if you have anxiety, quickens). The final stage is Rationalization. This stage involves rapid thought patterns of "Oh, I can get this, this, and that done tomorrow if I do....." Then, you go to bed.

Do you suffer from MDD? Or do you relish it?

Movie of the day: Ferris Bueller's Day Off. A classic that, at first glance, looks like a prime example of MDD, but really is about the need to "stop and look around once in a while or you might miss it." I can't even list all of my favorite scenes, but I do love when he looks straight at the camera is if, "Can you believe this?"

Ludicrous Lutefisk!
:)Becca

Eve of Eve

Next Friday will be the Second Annual Eve of Eve Christmas Fiesta at my parents' house. My sister concocted the idea of having a party on the 23rd that would center around eating and playing board games instead of opening presents and getting all dressed up, etc. It's a time that isn't usually booked up with family traditions or work parties.

This year, my sister started talking about Eve of Eve in September. Yep, I thought it was a bit early too. Strangely, it's right around the corner and the cool thing is that the only prep needed is to make snacks! The board games are ready: Apples to Apples (awesome), Scattergories, Taboo, Pictionary, etc. Should be a blast!

The movie I'm watching today: March of the Penguins. Heard it was awesome and I like the little "tuxedoed dudes", so we'll see.

Ludicrous Lutefisk,
:)Becca
P.S. For those of you in Duluth, aren't you proud that I didn't grinch about the vast quantity of snow?

A Mini Lesson

I ran across my Norwegian in 10 Minutes a Day book last night and realized that I own similar books in Italian, French, Spanish (what I took in high school), and sign language. Now, do I speak any of these? Just Spanish. Weird, huh? (Actually, sometimes I think in Spanish. Nothing too elaborate, just things like "What time is it" or "I'm tired.").

Any way, I thought I would look up a few words in each book to cross-reference languages. Turns out the French and Spanish books don't have a word for, get this: doorbell. Here it is in Norwegian and Italian, respectively: ringeklokka (ring-uh-kloh-kah) and Il campanello (eel campanAll-lo). We'll see how many times I can say ringeklokka today!

The movie for your Friday enjoyment: The Sixth Sense. It's the best of the M. Night collection, I think. It's scary without being SOOOO scary. If you are jumpy, watch it during the day. It also has Mischa Barton when she was a kid. If you watch it on DVD, make sure to check out the special features stuff.

Happy Friday and Ludicrous Lutefisk!

:)Becca

SNOW!!!

Okay, that's enough, Mother Nature. We got it. Literally. We have school today, which is fine. My public sidewalk is not shoveled, so I might need to call in reinforcement. We'll see...

Movie for today: The Grinch. Jim Carrey making a million faces. Colors galore. Freaky Who noses. Gotta love it.

Obscure movie: Don't Tell Her It's Me. Stars Steve Guttenberg, Jamie Gertz, Shelly Long, and Kyle Laughlin. Man recovering from cancer falls for pretty girl. Reluctantly tries to win her over by living in disguise. Cheesy, but fun. Probably made about $500 in the theaters (if it even was in theaters).

Ludicrous Lutefisk,
:)Becca

Snow Day- A Teacher's Perspective

It worked!!! It really worked! I went to bed at 10:30 last night with zero flurries in the air. I woke to check my window. The neighbor with the short driveway and no public sidewalk was nearly done shovelling for his wife to go to work.

I checked the local tv stations for little "Duluth- Closed" notices at the bottom. Nothing. I checked KDAL-610 AM "Your Cancellation Source". Nothing. Drat. Must shovel. I bundle up, shovel for 30 mintues all the while telling myself that if I have to go to school, I at least want to get there safely (and not get stuck in my own driveway). It's the grown-up thing to do. I also worry about waking another neighbor whose bedroom window is mere feet away from my scraping shovel.

Any way, I decide it's "good enough" and head in. As I'm cooling off, I turn on the tv again (which I only do on potential snow days). Get this: Duluth Public, Private, Parochial- Closed.

Praise God! It worked! So, now that I'm pretty much awake, I'm going to lay in bed and read for a while and see if I can catch more zzzzz's! Woo Hoo!!! Go snow!

Movie for the Day: White Christmas. Need I say more?

Ludicrous Lutefisk!
:)Becca

Snow's coming! Yeah, right.

It's that time a year when students and teachers alike in Minnesota start looking for snow days. Those of you here or who grew up here will understand. You get up in the wee hours of the morning to check the window. Is it yucky ENOUGH? Will the new superintendent be easy on us or make us slide our way to school?

My dad keeps telling me we're going to get a storm tomorrow, but the Weather Channel dudes seem to think it'll be under an inch. False hope. Speaking of the Weather Channel, is it weird that I have a favorite meteorologist there? His name is Carl. He's a cutie. I was sad when I noticed his new wedding ring. Oh well.....

Movie of the day: While You Were Sleeping. I watched this last night while writing out Christmas cards. You might have seen it, but it's worth another gander. The 90's hair on Bill Pullman is kind of funny, but the theme of getting the guts to live your dream is still relevant.

Here's to a snow day!

Ludicrous Lutefisk!
:)Becca

T-9 and counting

So, I have 9 whole days left of little cherubs this year. Most of them are taller than me, so I guess I shouldn't call them little without expecting to be patted on the head (happened last week!).

I was reading O, The Oprah Magazine a while ago and noticed an article about women who are HIV+ in Uganda who make bead necklaces/bracelets/anklets out of magazines! A company in the US ships them here and then sends them to people to have "bead parties". After a year of thinking "That's cool," I decided to have a party of my own. I'll be wrapping it up soon, and things are going well. The necklaces are beautiful. I'll give you the final report of success when it's over! Their website is www.beadforlife.com

Before I go, your movie idea of the day: If You Believe. It's a Lifetime movie that was on tv a couple years ago. It stars Ally Walker, one of the dudes from Everwood, and the kid with the curly hair in Remember the Titans. It's a modern-day Christmas Carol. I'm not sure if it's on tv this year, but it can be found on Amazon.com

Ludicrous Lutefisk!

A Beginning, so to speak

So, after much prompting from my friends and sister, I am starting a blog. Yep, me. If you know me already, I promise not to put too much math on it. I'll stick to things people might want to read about (or at least I'll try). I am capable of many ramblings on prime numbers or, more importantly, why I don't like them, but I won't.

The first movie I'd like to recommend is Garden State. It's amazing, funny, insightful, quirky, and just fun to watch. Zach Braff wrote, directed, and stars in it. It's rated R because of some brief nudity, drug use, and language, so put the kiddies to bed before watching it!

Well, I'll start this off slowly.... Oh, and to explain, Ludicrous Lutefisk is what I would say as a greeting to my friends when I was in high school. Try it; it's fun!

Ludicrous Lutefisk,