New Votes

French Kiss is still leading, but we have some new entries.  The poll only lets me have four choices, so I'm just going to list the new choices in a blog entry.

So - "Who's Got Mail" - which I did like, because of the Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks thing.  Also, "Under the Tuscany Sun" - another good choice.

Off to pour myself a Halloween treat - I think maybe, as Kate would say to Luc - a nice red wine - no, a bold wine with a hint of sophistication and lacking in pretension.

Best Chick Movie Ever

"French Kiss"

Yes, absolutely the best.  There are others, I know.  Like, "Hope Floats," and "While You Were Sleeping" and "Shag" - oh yeah.  Also, "Serendipity" and "Sleepless in Seattle."

Yeah, we can debate it.  But when I come across "French Kiss" on cable, it reminds me of when I was driving through the Tuscany region of Italy with my best friend in the entire world, quoting lines from the movie while searching for a little tiny restaurant, and I can recall the look of the sun washing over the buildings....yup.  It takes me right back, and it's just sublime.....

My friend's name is myfriendTeri.   Because for the last 11 years, I've said to family and other friends - "yeah, I went to Italy with myfriendTeri."  Or, "MyfriendTeri is so funny!"  Or, "MyfriendTeri is coming to see me."  They KNOW she's my friend, they've met her, she's shared holidays, I don't have any other Teris in my life....yet, I add this qualifier.

Is it because I'm so proud that she's my friend - pick me pick me! - or because I need to somehow 'splain everything?

Not sure.  All I know is that she rocks, and everyone I know now calls her myfriendTeri.

OTT.

Best ever movie.  Go ahead and debate me though - really.  Let me know your favorites and quote some stuff.

BTW - new blogs on the 'Run Scamper' list - yup - look over there.  On the right.  See?  Get there.  Yo Mama and Bananas and Toddlers and Happy Meals and Happy Hours.  

It's Friday! And I got....

umm. Nothing.  Even less nothing than usual.  Zero. Zip.  It's rainy and cold and gray - I thought I'd given up that weather when I left Michigan - and I have to head to yet another  national meeting for the Huge McNorm tomorrow, then back to HQ until Wednesday.

Honestly, I just want to curl up with some pumpkin spice cake doughnuts until the end of something - time or season, I can't decide which - and read until my eyes fall out.

And then I want to spring into action, my new business plan for HM fully formed, with at least 30 new collage pieces actually finished (not just brewing in my head) and THIN.  

Yes, once again - if I were only thin again.  Everything would be better.  The Dow would go up as my waistline went down, the economy would be humming, and my black dog would be off to permanent doggy camp.

But at least I'm niiiiiiiiice.

Mmmmm.....doughnuts....oops.  Just a brief brain break.

I was reading a post by Gwen at Woman on the Verge about children noise - go ahead.  Read it and then come back.  I'll wait.  She's good.

(ticktockticktock)

You're back?  Ok - so as I was reading it, I was thinking that noisy children don't seem to be bothering me at the moment.....and then a noise from downstairs made me realize that I have my own noisy child - M, downstairs, watching tv.  He has this really REALLY annoying habit that I like to call Swirl, Slide and Crunch.  It involves a big pile of ice in a large plastic cup with just enough water/soda so that he can swirl the ice 4/5/8 times, throw back the cup and slide the whole icy mess back, snag an ice cube, slide the cubes back into the cup, and then crunch the ice really quickly and loudly.

Every 30 seconds.  SwirlswirlswirlSLIIIIIIIDEcrunchcrunchcrunch.  (obligatory caveat - love the man completely, would miss him and the noise if he were gone, shouldn't complain, good guy,  REALLY NICE blah blah)  swirlswirlswirlSLIIIIIIIIIIIIDEcrunchcrunchcrunch.

  Should hydration really be that dramatic?  

Happy weekend everyone!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

This gown is so very cool - my girls are grown and I'm pretty sure that my grandson wouldn't wear it, but you have to see it.

Lobster Bacon Sliders

And bevvies.  Lobster bacon sliders and bevvies.  The sliders were so good, I couldn't mack on them fast enough.  Fresh lobster, some kind of saucey sauce, tomato, crispy bacon on a little round slider bun with a cool toothpicky thing in it.   Mmmm  mmmmmm.mmmmm..

That was the highlight of my trip to Huge HQ farther up the east coast a piece... LBS during a late dinner yesterday.  

So I'm back home tonight and have to ask - sans the LBS (see above) - is there anything better than peeling off tights and heels and putting on jammies where I don't have to suck it up or in?

Oh HELL no.

And I'm still myself, even though I had to do the performance appraisal thing, and the dialogue thing and the perpendicular rightsizing corporatey thing and say all the right things to the boss so I'll still get a decent bonus and maybe a raise thing.

So I can buy more shoes and LBS.  Of course, if I eat any more of them and drink more bevvies, I won't be able to fit into my LBD.  

Is there time for me to run for office and get someone to pay $150,000 for a new wardrobe so I can show off how little I know about government, the economy and foreign policy?

Just checking.

When is it ok to be me?

I think I'm creative, even though I won't be featured in the Met anytime soon, nor will I ever hit a record number of sales with my art anytime soon.

I think I'm funny, even though I could never do standup.

I think I'm a good person, even if I have to be Corporate Lulu at work, and some people don't like it when I make them follow the plan...

I think I'm a good sibling and daughter and mom, even though my family life is challenged.

So why don't I ever post how I really feel about politics, or work or my family?  Because my mom taught me that it's best really, to be nice.

Nice.   Niiiiiiiice.  Nissssssse. nicenicenicenice.  A good girl, a nice woman.  Oh Lulu?  Ohhhhh...she's so so nice.

(Ummmm.  Not really, but it's hard to out myself - my mom will NEVER ever see this blog, but I have that fear that someday, someone from work or family will stumble upon my little part of the sandbar and then - they'll KNOW that I'm not nice at all.)

I started this blog to find creative, funny people to talk with, and it feels as if I'm still hiding behind my nice facade, and what I have to say is so uninteresting because I'm too nice.   I also started it to talk about Etsy and art and creativity and stuff, and I find myself more worried about creating ART THAT WILL SELL.

wow...the black dog is shaking me all over the room tonight!!

If only I were thin.  Sighhhh...

Wait - that's another post entirely.

:)

Happy Sunday anyway!  Amazing Race is on tonight, so maybe a good dose of reality TV will cheer me up.

Why is it called Bluetooth?

...because apparently, it's named after Harald Bluetooth, an ancient king who unified warring tribes.  And that's what I did this week - I unified the needs of 950 salespeople at a national sales meeting.

Arguments between warring managers over awards for their people, disagreements with employees kept out of entering work sessions because they were 15 minutes late, discord between Huge McNormous IT employees and the hotel AV staff, disagreement between my feet and the pile of three-inch heeled shoes in my hotel closet, conflict between an inebriated employee and a stack of 30, 2-ft high vases containing circular dahlias - yup, I bluetoothed my way through the week, unifying them all - everyone went home alive and mostly happy.

And I'm happily home, where it's cooler than usual - making it feel like autumn at last.

I need punkins!!!

Shoes Never Make Me Look Fat

I.Love.Shoes.  I never have to suck in my stomach or clench my butt or wear Spanx to wear great shoes.  It is ever so much more satisfying to try on shoes, even when I've just been totally turned off by trying on clothes.  

I will say, that I'm liking the longer length tops currently in style.  So many Pringles and red wine bulges can be hidden under a decent top.

So I'm off to the sales meeting - wish me luck!  As we're cooped up in a convention-style hotel the entire week, I'm hoping that I emerge on Friday to find the Dow back up over 1000, Palin jokes abounding and that today's ND-UNC college football score has been overturned.

Ok, 1 out of 3 will do.

Best,

Lulu

Bless Your Heart...You could use a Brain

"Look at your nails - you should really get a mani," said a woman when visiting my friend at the hospital whose husband has been in critical care for over a week.  To a woman who has watched, nearly helpless, while her partner struggles to breathe while fighting the respirator that's helping him get some sleep so he can be on dialysis.  To a mom who has seen her kids tiptoe up to dad and ask if he's going to live.

And this is from a friend of hers!  She suggested that A. (my friend), would just feel so much better if she put on some makeup and had her nails did.  Because that's what her mama always told her.

Another friend packed up her suitcases and her trunk (I don't know anyone with a trunk who isn't heading for Hogwarts) and drove up from Georgia to 'help' out - and asked where they were going for lunch when she arrived.

A third arrives at the hospital and cries so hard, A has to comfort her.

Bless her heart, as it's said in the South...when you mean, are you f-ing kidding????

A is far too nice, and far too tired to kick their insensitive butts out the door, but I'm incredulous and mean and would like to go Nurse Ratched on them.

So no whining for me tonight.  I had a sale today, I've just read some delicious posts by Mom-omatic, and Angie, and Wendiwinn. and Color of Dawn...I'm good!

Sweet dreams!

Hell Week

Ohhhhh....this week is the prep week for the National Sales Meeting at Huge McNormous, and as the co-leader of a 1000-person meeting with 120 breakout sessions on 37 topics, an awards ceremony and a theme park offsite event....I'm already bezausted.  

It's truly like managing  - at any given time - 1000 junior high or high school or college students, depending on the amount of adult bevvies they've consumed.   And prepping is no fun either....poor poor Lulu. 

Even as I write that I think I'm whiny.  

If I was only thin.  Do you ever think that?  Everything would be oh so much better - if only I was thin.  And of course, I mean, 24-yr-old model thin, not average Jane in shape thin.  Why would being thin make the management of this meeting easier?  It wouldn't.  But - I would be happy/rich/cute/sexy.

Ok, not really - but I think that as women, we torture ourselves with this type of thinking.  I just read Valerie Frankel's book "Thin is the New Happy" and it really made me reflect about all the time I've wasted thinking that I'm not a good person if I'm heavier than I'd like to be or when I was younger. 

Anyway, I'll be posting on and off during the next week or so - I'm hoping that my hundreds...ok, tens of - well.  Ok - my fives of readers are patient.

:) 

Best,

Lulu

And oh yeah?  The earrings from Angie and the ring from Lotta?  So totally rock.

Back in the Windy City with Mother Nature

So clearly, the Sports Illustrated jinx is working again.  The legend goes, that if a sports team or personality is featured on the cover of SI, that team or person will lose whatever game or match or championship it is that he/she/it is competing in or for or to or whatever ( I had to throw in that whatever so I wouldn't end my sentence with a preposition and YES MOM - I KNOW that it's a run-on sentence - my mom is 83 and still teaching English grammar, check out her picture farther down on the right.).

Shwooooooo....

Because - the Cubs just stink right now!  And they were on the cover of SI a week ago.

I'm currently in Chicago this weekend, M and I are visiting daughter 1 / son-in-law / grandson and daughter 2 and boyfriend have also flown in from NY so clearly I have a little wine onboard.  Oh well - nice to share adult bevvies with your kids when they've grown up - so very cool.

So I'm getting caught up on the blog - did anyone watch the finale of America's Got Talent????  I know that some of you have been checking out the crap tv on my behalf...huh, huh?  Good stuff, I know, right???  So my pick - Nuttin' But Strings only got third place - what is WRONG with you reality TV voters??  

Ummm...I must confess though...I never actually pick up the phone and vote for anyone.  But I'm thinking about my picks really really seriously...

Have you seen that ad where the girl gets off the plane and Mother Nature hands her the monthly 'gift?'  Happened to me on Thursday as I landed at Midway....so I really need to gift myself and spend some more of the Tin Can Savings!  

I promise, I will have more to list here soon...!

Lulu