There's Only 3 Days Til Spring . . .

Like Dorothy chanting "there's no place like home" towards the end of The Wizard of Oz (a movie I have never really liked), I find myself chanting "there's only 3 days til Spring" today as I look outside my window to see blowing snow.

All together now, "there's only 3 days til Spring."

Now if only I had some Ruby Slippers to tap together.

Ask A Librarian via Text Message

I don't know if this is a new service or not, but I love it!

Imagine this scenario . . .

It's Friday night and you're having $5 martinis at Francesca's with the girls when someone wants to know the release date of the Sex & The City movie. You say May 30th and your girlfriend insists it's April 30th. A round of Cosmopolitans is hanging on the answer.

What do you do?

Text message the Arlington Heights Memorial Library (during normal business hours, except 9-10pm weeknights)!

Send a message to 265010.

Start your message with ahmlq:[your message]

After that, just send and receive messages as you would normally (no need for the "ahmlq" again).

Tip: Due to message length restrictions, short queries with short answers work best.

Let's get back to the Sex and the City question.

265010
ahmlq: Sex and the City movie release date

And the answer would be . . . May 30th.

Of course, standard text messaging rates apply.

A Dry Spell

The last few days sitting down to write anything has felt like pulling teeth. Nothing I've started to write has gone anywhere in my head, so nothing got written. It's not even that I've had nothing to say - trust me, I have always have PLENTY to say - it's been more that I've had too much going on in my brain to be able to say anything intelligible.

But today the fog on my brain seems to have cleared.

And I will be back, possibly even later tonight. Definitely by tomorrow.

What Makes Me Smile!

Last night, I was looking for some old home movies when I came across a large envelope of stuff my mom had saved for me. Inside the envelope, I found a little booklet that I wrote and illustrated when I think I must have been about 10 called "What Makes Me Smile!" Clearly, I have no artistic ability, but it's interesting to me that what made me smile when I was 10 still makes me smile today.

From the booklet "What Makes Me Smile!""

I smile on a warm summer day.

Smiles come from friends.

A rainy day makes me smile.

Holiday's (sic) are delightful.

Going to school gives my face some light.

Going to Florida is something to smile about.

Everybody smiles about a new baby.

I get a smile when [I] get 100/100 on a test.

Calvin Klein's are what I smile about.

Bush on Global Warming

A girlfriend of mine sent this to me a couple of days ago. And damn, it's funny. Enjoy.

Spring Ahead!

Tonight is the night!

Daylight Saving Time starts at 2:00am Sunday morning. So if you want to get anywhere on time tomorrow (and not an hour late), turn your clocks ahead one hour before you go to bed tonight - there's no need to set your alarm for 2:00, reset all the clocks and then go back to bed. You can do it early. It's okay. And don't forget to reset the clock in your car, like I always do.

One other thing - this is also a great time to replace the batteries in all your smoke detectors. You have more than 1 right? You should. And ideally, if one goes off, they all go off. Smoke detectors save lives.

When I was 10, my house burned down. Everyone was fine, no need to worry. BUT we were fine because we were lucky. The fire happened at 3:30pm, not 3:30am. At the time, we only had one smoke detector and it was back by the bedrooms. The fire started in the garage. After the fire was out, the firemen told my parents that the smoke detector didn't go off until they were on the roof cutting through it with chainsaws in order to to put out the fire. If that had happened at 3:30am, we might not have been so lucky.

So turn your clocks ahead tonight and replace your smoke detector batteries too!

A Public Apology to Santa

Dear Santa,

Evidence was presented to me today in the form of a picture from Christmas 1980, when I was 9, that contrary to my 31-year belief, you in fact, did bring me an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas. And thus, I must apologize for my 31-year beef with you.

In my defense, I was on the phone with Mom, searching for pictures of Nana, when I found the unimpeachable evidence and Mom did not recall that you had ever delivered an Easy Bake Oven to me either. That seems like something she'd remember, especially in light of my yearly reminder to her about how I never received it the year you promised it to me when I sat on your lap at age 5 at Marshall Field's.

In light of this discovery, I now retract my snide comment in my letter to you this past Christmas about how I'd forget all about your failure to deliver the Easy Bake Oven if you brought me a Man. No wonder you didn't bring me the Man. You just figured I'd forget all about him, as I evidently did with the Easy Bake Oven.

To be honest, the only reason I can think of for forgetting about the Easy Bake Oven, is that shortly after that, our house burned down and my world was pretty much turned upside down. I realize that's not much of an excuse, but it's the best I've got.

I sincerely apologize if my 31-year vendetta has caused you any ill publicity or feelings. Certainly, that was never my intention. You clearly brought me the Easy Bake Oven and somehow, I did not remember. That is my fault. Not yours.

I promise to leave you extra cookies and milk this Christmas to try to make up for my egregious transgression.

But now that I've apologized and all is good between us again . . . Can we please talk about that Man I'm still waiting for? Seriously, it's March and he still hasn't arrived. I'm REALLY not getting any younger.

Love,

Jessica

It's Deja Vu All Over Again

Has anyone but me been feeling the eerie similarities between the selection of the 2008 Democratic Candidate for President and The West Wing election in 2005/06?

Evidently, it's no coincidence. And I love it.

This video is rich with many of my three favorite things:

Bradley Whitford, Jimmy Smits, Barack Obama, The West Wing, and real politics.

"Vantage Point" - Movie Review

Dave and I wanted to see a movie on Saturday night, and as usual, we had difficulty choosing. It's not because there are so many movies we're eager to see, but rather a "guy taste" vs. a "girl taste" thing. I wanted something that was feel-good or funny and he wanted an intellectual thriller.

He suggested Vantage Point, but immediately said I would hate it. Not knowing anything about it, I quickly Googled it and learned that it was a political drama/action movie. Toss politics into a movie and I can get behind it quickly.

Vantage Point had all the ingredients for a good movie: all-star cast (Matthew Fox, Dennis Quaid, William Hurt, Forest Whitaker, and Sigourney Weaver), politics, and possibly intriguing subplots.

Unfortunately, this movie can be summed up in less than one sentence: 1 scene repeated 5 times and a car chase. It felt very Groundhog Day-ish, without the life lessons and without the enjoyment.

This was one of those movies I figured out within the first 5 minutes and did not spend the next 85 minutes enjoying the journey of how I reached my conclusion. It was unfortunate because there were some true possibilities for intriguing subplots. None of them was explored, however.

The best part of the movie came about 2 minutes into it (the first time) when the President of the US (played by William Hurt) is entering the Spanish plaza and the streets are lined with protesters. Anti-American signs were everywhere and I turned to Dave and said "did you just see the anti-W sign that just flashed?" and he saw it too.

My recommendation is to skip this movie, although Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox were some yummy eye candy.

UPDATE 3/25/2008: Tim and Tony saw Vantage Point on Easter and enjoyed it. Tim even reviewed it in a post called "Vantage Point Counter Point." So hop on over to Balancing Boyfriends and read it.

We Are The Ones

Will.I.Am keeps knocking them out of the ballpark.

Enjoy!

The We Are The Ones Song
by will.i.am

people say Obama’s words are just words...
but...
when was the last time "words" weren’t important...???...

when was the last time a great leader didn’t use words to lead...??...
when was the last time a person didn’t use words to describe how they felt...?...
when was the last time "words" weren’t empowering...?...

and we can all recall the last time "words" were used to divide us and install fear...

Bush used words to fear us into voting for him the second time around...
terror this...
terror that...
nuclear here...
weapons of mass destruction there...

and those words effected a lot of people’s choices...

"enough is enough"...
let’s rebuild...

let’s change ourselves...
let’s allow positivity to guide us...

let's take action....
let’s activate our passion...
we are Americans....

and this is the first time in forever that someone running for president represents "US"...

some say this is all excitement...
I call it “proud to be an American”...

some say this whole Obama movement is "cult like"...
well...
if it comes across cult like...
then...
the cult is called America...

the Obama movement is connecting America.
and it has made "US" realize our importance...
the youth is excited and activated...
adults are passionate and motivated...
the elderly are proud to know the country they built is in safe hands...

we are one...

for too long politics has been corrupt...
separate from the American people...
with agendas that go against what the American people "need"...
education...
health...
safety...
jobs
etc...

politicians have spoken a different language...
making it so the youth and poor people feel as if voting was only for the wealthy and old people...
making "US" feel as if "we" had no voice...
making "US" feel powerless...
making it feel like if "we" did vote it wouldn’t change anything...

but wait...
that did happen...
some of us voted, and it didn’t change anything...

we were in the dark...
we had no voice...
we were powerless...

because America was not a united America...
and "they" spoke a different language...
and they had an agenda different from our well being...

correct me if I’m wrong... or speak up if I’m missing something...

we want education, health, safety, and good jobs...right???...
oh yeah...
and "a healthy planet to live on"...

but here we are...

in a war... poor education... poor health programs... the dollar is down... the planet, polluted...
the rich, richer... and the poor, struggling...
with sky high gas prices to top it all off...

and now even the rich aren't really rich internationally because our dollar is has fallen so far down...

in our slumber... a very small few got really rich...

because when you’re sleeping...

"it’s hard to change agendas"...

we know what happened in 2000 and 2004...
but in 2008...
it’s different...

we are awake...
and there is a movement...

and "it’s hard to change a movement"...

last time "we" didn’t have a movement...
America wasn’t united...

and now "United and "Standing"...for something...
we know the power of "US"...
and we have a person who represents the "U.S."...

"US"…

"we are the ones we’ve been waiting for"...

I’m proud to be an American...

will.i.am