But Call Me Betsy

In a rush. Will try to explain these later.

Leigh Ann and I were just laughing out loud at this clip from Curb Your Enthusiasm (which reminds me, someone told me that her/his mom still thinks LOL means "Lots of Love"). We were only watching this on one of our two 15 minute breaks during the day, NOT during work hours. It's Larry David fighting with a guy who's talking on his Bluetooth phone during dinner. I love it because I wish I had the guts to say or do something when people are talking really loud on their phones and I'm a captive audience. For instance, people do this on the subway now more and more and it makes me want to pinch them. The other thing that made me laugh today was this book I was paging through at Barnes and Noble, Creepiosity: A hilarious guide to the unintentionally creepy , by David Bickel. He lists things like Bruce Jenner's heavily plastic surgery-ied face, old women wearing ponytails, and locking eyes with a squirrel for too long. It makes me want to

Mary, a writer in the PS Monday night writing class I teach, sent me along this fantastic link to a blog called Catsparella . I think you will enjoy this particular entry, as it pertains to cats in hats: http://www.catsparella.com/2010/10/etsy-find-cat-hats-by-to-scarborough.html. Anyway, thanks, Mary. And here is a photo of a fairly tame Halloween outfit that you can put on your cat without taking away too much of his dignity: Tonight, I will go to the writing class I take and we will listen to our peers discuss the book we read this week. Next, we will go around the room and share our research topics. Dan and I were laughing about how I could present a completely ridiculous topic amid all of the academic ones, like, The Domestic North American Short Hair, and my whole essay could be about Emma Carol. I could include a PowerPoint presentation of her in different modes--sleeping, eating, falling asleep while eating, biting, hissing, and trying to get outside. Instead, I will attempt to...

Hi, this is Franco, Leigh Ann's latest pet acquisition. Franco loves natural cat litter, catnip mice, and sleeping under the bed. He is not self-conscious about the skunk-like stripe down his nose. See? Isn't he grand? He belongs right on the set of a Three Musketeers film. Or, like, the kids version of Puss in Boots (not the softcore one). Look how green and slanty his eyes are. He is suspicious. And fierce, even though he has been declawed. NOT by Leigh Ann. He came that way. And he would like you to choose him for the handsomest cat-in-hat/cat-in-not-hat.

I will be a staffer for Homecoming Weekend! I already know what I'm wearing--a University-affiliated shirt and a skirt. And a smile! Maybe I'll add a little blood or a draw some scars on my face to make it scary. It's kind of a relief not to worry about a costume. I always have the problem of wanting to combine cuteness with cleverness and just a little gruesome. Like, one year I was the tooth fairy and had a necklace made of fake teeth and carried around some pliers. And another year, I was a mermaid caught in a net. What else? No one's costume will be better than my long distance friend, Jodie. She does the best costumes ever. One year, she was Gus, the Rotarian--a fat bald man with an ill-fitting suit and a mustache. Another year, she was Joan of Arc at the stake. You know what Halloween costumes SUCK? The following: dressing as a baby or a little kid, dressing as a cat or a dog (even though I kind of want to be a cat every single year), dressing as anything that y...

A couple of weeks ago, Lisa Marie and I found a yard sale and stopped to browse. As a result, she bought a cute little black dress that she wore to her opening of her awesome art film, Troupe de Fetishe which you can now see at the Crane Arts building in Fishtown. I bought two pair of shoes for $4 total. These are the boots. And these are the red Mary Jane heels. I seldom wear heels b/c I quite often fall over, but these have a thick heel, so I am able to wobble around in them almost seamlessly. Then the other day, Dan took me to Green Street and I found this coat/sweater. It's good for chilly weather, but won't be enough for cold winter snow. It works for now. Oh, and these are the two leather things I got Lisa Marie for her birthday (I can put them up now b/c her birthday was yesterday). I don't really know what they're for, but I got them at Jane in Princeton. Luke saw them while he was eating a bagel at Starbucks and asked me if he could squeeze his cream cheese in...

I do. I just started reading his collection of essays called, The Braindead Megaphone . Some of it is intelligent and thoughtful and measured, and then some of it is just silly and funny. Here is a Part I of a puppet video made to "The Optimist," an essay from this book. If you don't love him, maybe that's because you haven't read any of his writing. Like, did you ever read " Puppy ?" or " Winky ?" or " The Victory Lap ?" (I haven't read this one yet, but I will). These are all from The New Yorker and so they must be good.

The odd thing about Facebook is that it allows you this voyeuristic way to see how your friends turned out. Like the guy I had a crush on in high school--the one who didn't like me because I wasn't holy enough (even though I was saved like six times to try to get his attention)--I can see him with his family now, even though we haven't spoken in 20 years or more. Or the one from college who I always felt like I had to genuflect in front of; I can see that he's still pursuing the acting dream, and now has his own line of T-shirts with his face on them. And it's also how I found out that a girl in the class year before me died--people were posting goodbye messages to her Facebook account (which I think is weird; Daddy, will Mommy be reading my Facebook messages in heaven? Yes, honey, God has Verizon Internet). And then it's shocking how old some of my high school friends look. And how many of them got boob jobs. And are still living in Florida sporting 30 years ...