Life As I Know It and The Grammys

Doing what you want to do isn't nearly as easy as I thought it would be.  Not writing, not crossing things off a 'To-Do' list, finding time to get healthy, spend more time with friends - none of it. The fact that I haven't taken the time to write in this blog in two years is glaring evidence.  I sometimes feel like I'm stuck in some sort of time vortex that sucks literally weeks out of my life without me even realizing it. Good intentions go right out the window and all I'm left with is a dirty house, piles of laundry and the realization that not much that I wanted to do has gotten done.

So instead of bitching about it, I've decided to live with the less than pristine home, buy new clothes when I run out of things to wear and adopt a 'hey, whatever' kind of attitude about things that I've previously put at the top of the 'must do' list.  It'll either work itself out or not.  At this point I'm not sure that I care. 

Pop Life: Justin Beiber's  Possible Deportation and Beyoncé's Incredible Bod

Living in South Florida has its ups and downs.  For one, we draw a very glammed up crowd down here.  Texans can argue with me (and by God, I know some of them will!) but we ARE the third coast.  Cali's got it going on and New Yawk is trés chic.  But Miami is badass and you will be hard-pressed to find a lot of people who will disagree. Sun, sand, nightlife and fab parties aside, being a place that draws the rich, famous and the famous-for-being-famous has at least one huge drawback... Justin Beiber came here to party.

Let me make it clear:  we don't need you Justin.  

You don't add anything to the mix.  Yes, we have both women and men that have more after-market parts on them than most hoop-dees rolling around on their twenty-twos.  That aside, we also have real people who are talented and contribute to the betterment of society as well as the SoBe glam quotient.  Be it through their athleticism, musical or artistic talent, philanthropy or just by being their most wonderful selves  -  so we don't need a punk ass, mediocre singer who drag races neighborhood streets in an effort to buy himself some street cred. 

I think you set it up.  I think you figured since you weren't going to the Grammys and didn't have anything better to do, why not get arrested?  I wouldn't put anything past the Biebs and his PR machine.  And yes Scooter Braun, I'm looking at you.

Next up is a petition that's already been signed by over a hundred thousand people demanding that his skinny Canadian butt be deported - put me down.

So the Grammys came and went and I have to say that I enjoyed it - for the most part.  I thought the performances were actually better than expected (lip synching aside).  I even kind of dug the collaborations, though last year's Alicia Keys/Maroon 5 is still my #1.  Here's a few thoughts:

P!nk:  I love you girl, God knows I do.  But as impressive as your Cirque du Soleil schtick is; we've seen it before.  Worse, we've seen it at the Grammys before.  I know you're on tour and it's hard to come up with something totally new while in the midst of that, but please try... try... try....

Imagine Dragons and whoever that was with them... :  OK so I looked it up (what the hell did we do before Google?)  anyway, THAT was Kendrick Lamar.  Sorry dude, you were awesome but I didn't know you before that performance and then the whole Macklemore Twitter "you were robbed" thing.  You were awesome, they were awesome - everyone was awesome.  I loved seeing the big drum thing - even though ID did it at the American Music awards.  And yes, I know I just called P!nk out for recycling shit, but whatever.  It was exciting and all that pounding made me think 'damn, what an awesome ROCK performance this is!" which is good considering they won for Best Rock Performance.  What can I say?  I'm spot on, just a little late to the game.

Kacey Musgraves:  You poor thing - you should hire someone to break the kneecaps of the guy that set up the Grammy performance schedule.  Really.  You did a great job, but to put you on in your cute little light up square dance dress and sing a sassy Grammy winning country ditty after shit was exploding, literally exploding on the stage 20 yards behind you only 10 seconds before your first note?  Bad timing, sucks for you. Congrats on your win - don't  hold your breath looking for a congratulatory bouquet from Taylor Swift though.

Speaking of Swift:  You looked great, you sounded great, but WTF was with the multiple hair whips?  One was fine, it didn't even look all that staged, but then two?  Three?  Four???  Sorry, just didn't feel right and looked even worse.  I figured by then you'd be satisfied that you actually had more screen time than all of the winners... put together.  Guess not.

Lorde:  Oh Lorde - I love the way you sing.  Some people were making fun of your over the top awkwardness claiming it was staged for dramatic effect.  I don't buy it.  I think you really are awkward.  The black dip-dyed fingertips on the other hand were pure Goth drama.  More subtle than a dress made of meat or walking around with a stuffed swan as part of your evening wear.  Watch for it to show up on every angsty teen you know.

Same Love:  Highlight.  Definitely. Mary Lambert is a goddess.  Nice job and quite the F-U to the rollin' right.  Kudos all around.

Hey Bey Bey:  Damn girl, way to make the rest of the female population feel absolutely sexless!  Not familiar with the song.  Were there lyrics?  I couldn't tell because all I could do was look at your bangin' bod in that dominatrixy body suit thing. I'm thinking that I'm not the only one that had that reaction.  Predicting a little brother or sister for Blue Ivy approximately 9 months from now. 

  Um, Wow.

Overall the Grammy's were pretty entertaining.  I thought there were a few clunkers (Sorry Willie) and poor Robin Thicke who had arguably the most played song of the year, ended up having to share the stage with a band that hasn't been relevant in more than two decades.  But no Miley, no GaGa, no Adele and no JT.  A surgically altered Madonna (and child) doesn't make up for that. 

By the way Madge, Satan called... he wants his outfit back.

NYC, GOP Politics and Facebook Timeline               

The past two weeks have flown by.  It’s always something - work, family, trips, and tasks.  Everything and anything.  The definite best part of the last two weeks was our trip to NYC.  Hubby and I cashed in a bunch of his Hilton Honors points and did it up right at the Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue.   I’ve finally, finally gotten to a place in my life where I am extremely comfortable in such grandiose surroundings like the W-A.  Even so I still have a strong inclination to stick my hands in my pockets (like my mother told me to) when I walk into a place that has diamonds and silver, Sèvres and Baccarat.  The Waldorf is full of such incredible history and characters.  It’s one of those magical places that holds so much more than you could imagine four walls ever could. 

We had beautiful weather flying in on Friday and reservations that night at Todd English’s Ember Room http://emberroom.com/ a short walk away in Hell’s Kitchen.  Since it was Restaurant Week we took advantage of their special prix fixe menu and feasted on Japanese Eggplant, Chocolate BBQ spareribs and sea bass.  One of the things that I like most about eating out while on vacation, is the fact that we purposefully choose places that are not only great, but within walking distance.  There’s something that’s calorically freeing when you can get in a ten minute walk before and after chowing down!  We really need to start doing that when we eat out at home since we’ll hop in the car for a 5 block jaunt – it might ease the guilt a little or maybe even a whole lot.

Saturday brought with it beautiful white fluffy snow – and a Saturday is such an awesome day to have a Snow Day.  I know we were on vacay, but the locals actually smile when there’s snow on the weekend probably because they don’t have to worry about digging their car out to get to the office.  We did have to stop for our mandatory hat purchase at H&M for Mikey.  No matter how many times we travel in cold weather, he never can seem to find something he likes that will keep his head and EARS warm.  He totally went rogue and fashion went flying out the window when he chose a Deputy Dog hat with earflaps this time around.  Yep, he went there.   Besides, who was I to argue – it was freezing cold and I was bundled up from neck to shin in a fur coat.  Not exactly sure what kind of fur it is, fox, muskrat or maybe Civet cat; don’t know and don’t care!  My pal Annette lent it to me and it had been her mother’s (extra points for it having no doubt a fabulous backstory!) anyway, it was toasty warm and I love, love, loved  it.  I did live in fear of some PETA whack-job (yes, I said that) tossing a can of red paint at me but what was even funnier was the looks I got from other women.  Everything from jealous disdain to open admiration – I handled it well, I must say J  PS – if the camera adds ten pounds, then the coat added an extra 25!

Enjoyed walking around the city, hitting Macy’s, Time Square, Tiffany’s, Wall Street and Ground Zero.  The new Freedom Tower on the grounds of the former World Trade Center is coming along beautifully.  The feel of the city is so much different down in lower Manhattan.   Colder because of the absence of the tall buildings to break the wind shear effect and probably colder just because of the pall that remains over the area.  No one is ever going to forget; there’s no chance of that because everywhere you turn is a reminder of the lives that were lost that day. 

We made sure that we got our Broadway fix in with Chicago – then late dinner-ish meal at Medi Wine Bar http://mediwinebar.com/ where we had wonderful mussels and clams with a fresh Mediterranean salad.  Finished that off with fresh berries and mascarpone and no guilt as we hoofed it back to the hotel! 

Sunday our sight-seeing took place in the hotel itself before leaving for EWR.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and a special shout out to the fine gentlemen at http://elliotstevensltd.com/  for making our final few hours totally memorable - Thank You!  Thank you too Bear <3

Wicked Liberal Disclaimer:

The following is meant to be funny; not disrespectful to my friends of the Republican persuasion.  The stuff I’m commenting on is based on members of the GOP primary and their camps bashing one another.  This isn’t an Us vs. Them kind of thing. Them haven’t even weighed in as yet.   It’s supposed to be an “you couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried’ kind of thing.  I’m positive that if it were a Democrat primary year, the same lunacy would be in full swing and there’d be just as much material, if not more (Hello – John Edwards?)

I’m totally not torn up that so many of my favorite shows are mid-season reruns since the GOP primary season is providing so much entertainment value!  Any primary is supposed to separate the wheat from the chaff. This was so much better as I think we are separating the fundamentally clueless from the morally challenged.   I was dying when I heard that the pseudo witch Christine O’Donnell was planning on making a run.  The fact that she took a three day seminar and touted herself as a “Constitutional Expert” provided me with justification for my snort/chuckle.  Then we had Michelle Bachman who stated that God had told her to run for President.  Did he tell her she wouldn’t make it past the primary too?  Maybe she missed that memo.   Oh, then we had Governor Good Hair from the Great State of Texas.  Rick, stay in Texas.  Your sketchy memory and questionable historical accuracy can be overlooked there as long as the oil rigs are a’pumpin.  

Mitt’s got a huge tax question mark over his head and bigamist relatives that high-tailed it down to Mexico.  Those kinds of skeletons don’t disappear once they make a run for the border.  And Newt, ah Newt – three wives, two mistresses and a gay half-sister has got to cause some upset among even your most ardent of camp followers.  Personally I think it makes him more interesting – but that’s just me J

The new Facebook Timeline is here people and I’m skeered.    I’ve converted over but now have less than 5 days to comb through almost 4 years’ worth of comments, status updates and pictures.  I’m not that worried about the updates and pictures; after all, I put them up there in the first place.  The thing I’m worried about is comments… do personal messages show on your timeline?  Did I cover myself when I clicked on the highest level of privacy?  I guess we’ll all find out soon enough.  Apologies in advance!!

Smooches! 

Better Keep Moving Or You'll Get Runned Over!

So things have been moving faster than fast lately and I figured it was about time that I stopped smelling the roses and started shoveling the manure faster. 

All around me things are changing and most of it has to do with new schedules and new responsibilities.  My husband and son are both very self sufficient.  That's not bragging, they basically are.  That doesn't mean that I don't ASSUME that they need me to help them get through their day.  They do.  They don't always tell me so, but I know they do.  

The last couple of months have been something of a cake-walk in terms of my responsibilities.  My son was studying for his EMT certification and was out more than in.  That's cool, it meant that hubby and I could spend more time together, everyone could feed themselves, wash themselves and dress themselves and we all pretty much coexisted in a kind of roommate-ish melange. Of course two of the roommates are sleeping together, but I digress. 

Since the holidays started, we have all been burning it at both ends.  Family in town, gifts to buy, cleaning, cooking and more shopping.  And then Firefighter I & II started and we can't just shuffle off to dinner 4 nights a week anymore.  Junior has to study.  Mama has to cook.  Yes, I know I mentioned cooking a few sentences back, but that was more "People are coming, time to dust off the spatula and shine!" rather than "Meatloaf Monday" cooking.   There is also the laundry.  I figured uniforms were God's way of taking the guesswork out of what to wear everyday but those suckers don't wash themselves! 

It's damn hard doing everything you want and a lot of stuff you don't. 

In other news, Beyonce birthed the bazillion dollar kid, Van Halen's original line up released it's first new song in 16 years and Justin Beiber says he doesn't want a career that mirrors Hanson's.  Hah! He should be so lucky.