Still in Las Vegas

Just a quick post to let you all know that I am still here in Las Vegas (I was supposed to be back at work today) and won’t be coming back to NYC until Sunday… a few things came up and I needed to change my flight so that I could stay a few more days to help out … the Overoye Family left this morning so I’m feeling a little sad about not having any more smooshies around to cuddle with … Santa was very good to all of us (tons of great toys for the kiddies and adults) and having the whole family here was so fantastic – we all don’t get to see each other very often and so when we can all be together, we have a lot of fun – I’ll post some pics as soon as I get back to NYC… Happy New Year by the way! And we do have Monday off right? I feel like I’ve been gone forever and totally out of the loop, but that’s a good thing because I was seriously stressed out, not feeling healthy (mentally and physically) before I left (and most of this year actually) and now I feel a lot stronger, a lot better so that’s a good thing, as Martha would say.

Busy Bee, Busy Me

So almost Merry Xmas! Sorry to all who have been breathlessly awaiting news of my safe arrival here in Las Vegas...yes! I am here...I had a c'est le top flight on JetBlue, my new favorite airline - they give you the whole can of soda, have real snacks (not those little bags of pretzels) and lots of leg room and good seats that don't hurt your butt after sitting on them for 5 hours ... best of all, they have the little tvs on the seat in front of you with Direct TV so I got to watch VH1 classic the whole way here and saw all these great super cheezy videos from the 80's... it put me in the best mood, because I was laughing so hard at some of these songs and bands that I thought were sooooo cool when I was young...or some I didn't like as a kid, but I got a kick out of seeing the funky hair and the overthetop clothing - like Mr. Mister? Oh the big sweaters, the big shoulder pads in the jackets, etc...one of the worst was Roxette "Joyride"...oh my god, were they awful!!
But enough of my schilling for JetBlue...on Sunday, Mom and I went Xmas shopping and then Daddy fixed an awesome grilled shrimp dinner and made great Pumpkin Smash martinis for us...super yummy, like a really good eggnog, but better,stronger... Monday was Daddy-time: every year, Daddy and I spend the day together as he needs help picking out presents for Mom and we go around to all the shops all day... I think we got her a lot of good stuff this year, I hope she likes what we bought.... if not, she'll at least be polite and nod her head and smile and say "nice".
On Tuesday, the Overoye's arrived and I was so excited to see my smooshies, Allie and Jacob... and playing with them is basically all I've been up to since then! So far, we've been to the park, Roberto's taco shop for the best Mexican food in town, we went to a chocolate factory and got some free chocolate, to the Magical Forest where we saw Santa and rode a train to the North Pole, and last night we made cookies and decorated them while watching Rudolph's Shiny New Year... as my sister and I were making the frosting for the cookies and both kids were all excited to get the different colors and start decorating, we asked each other "when did we get to be the adults? Shouldn't we still be sitting at the table, all anxious to begin and Grandma Max and Mom be up here with the food coloring and drinking wine and getting silly?" but here we are, doing exactly what they did for us 30 years ago... and still acting like little kids and loving every bit of it ... today, we are off to the Natural History Museum...and that is all for now!
Glad to hear the strike is over by the way! I was worried it would still be ongoing when I got back and then you know, I would have just called in sick...why am I going to make an extra effort to get into work? Speaking of work here is a link for you all to check out...I think most of my loyal readers will appreciate this and relate to it: http://www.hallmark.com/wcsstore/HallmarkStore/images/products/ecards/nfg1969.swf

P.S

I'm supposed to make a correction:

Zeusapollo is not lovely, he is raw and tough! He is from the streets with mad skillz.

"I make big money
I drive big cars
Everybody know me
It’s like I’m a movie star!"

No Strike...YET

I woke up this morning to good news...I could go back to sleep for another 2 hours! I had to wake up at 6 because if the transit strike was on, I had to meet someone for carpooling at 7am... this was a big pain for me because normally, I don't get up until 8-8:15... and since this is my last day before going home for Xmas, I didn't want to have to be bothered by all the pains of NO SUBWAYS! So hopefully this will be resolved, I don't wish a transit strike on anyone...basically, CEO's and executives need to not be so greedy and union workers have to realize that they can't get ALL of their demands met, just because they have the ability to strike and perform poorly on the job to try and get their way..there has to be some middle ground, and BOTH sides need to find it.

On a happier note, last night was the annual ZeusApollo/FrodoPurpleFairy Christmas Gift Exchange Extravaganza....and it was Le Cool...Zeus met me in my neighborhood after work where we had Argentinian food and sangria and I got a super cool cookie making set with 3 different kinds of expensive vanillas and a super sweet card as well... then we bought cookie dough, went back to my apt. and made cookies and watched the last part of Lord of the Rings The Return of the King. and looked at the cool Johnny Cash book I gave him...I, of course, acted out the part of superwiener by wearing the crown I bought at the Renaissance faire throughout...does someone aspire to be Galadrial? Hmmm? ... hee hee...and that was that... all in all it was yet another lovely Christmas celebration and yet another example of the lovely boy that is ZeusApollo...you all should be so lucky to know such a person!
Tomorrow, I'm off to Las Vegas to see the family and I'm sooooo happy excited...talk to you all when I get there!

ooh and one exciting note: I bought myself an iPod Nano!! now that is LE COOL!

Mommie Dearest

I'm going to make sure I'm home before 8:30 because that is when Mommie Dearest is going to be on Oxygen (ch.61). I love this movie, it's got a lot of great quotes and scenes that I like to repeat to my actual Mommie Dearest, The Juice Mother herself!

Tear down that BITCH of a bearing wall and put a window where it OUGHT to be

In the Pepsi Boardroom:
Don't fuck with me fellas. This ain't my first time at the rodeo

Christina: There's a liquor store to the right.
Joan: I should've know you'd know where to find the boys and the booze.

No... wire... hangers. What's wire hangers doing in this closet when I told you: no wire hangers EVER? I work and work 'till I'm half-dead, and I hear people saying, "She's getting old." And what do I get? A daughter... who cares as much about the beautiful dresses I give her... as she cares about me.

Yes, Mommie.
Joan: Yes, Mommie what?
Christina: Yes, Mommie Dearest.
Joan: When I told you to call me that, I wanted you to mean it.

Joan: TINA. Bring me the axe

It's just the kind of movie that makes me GRUNTLED!

Capital Punishment

I don't really want to get started on a debate about this, but I just wanted to write a bit about how I feel about capital punishment. I'm not really for it and I'm not really against it either. I'm very confused and can't really work it all out in my heart or head to be fervently on one side or the other. I can easily see myself on both sides of the argument. I don't think executions do anything positive, I don't think they make crimminals any more scared of committing crimes, I don't think you should answer violence with more violence and I don't know if it should be up to us to decide to take someone's life.

But I also know, in my heart of hearts, that if someone killed my father, I would want that person dead. I know it would pain me to no end to know that that person was still alive and breathing - yes, behind bars, but stil alive and his family can still speak to him and write to him and have him in their lives, while mine was taken from me. I know that killing the person who commits the crime could not bring him back and does not accomplish anything and yet, I still know this is how I would feel. So I refuse to make any moral call on this, because I understand both sides and I'm just leaving it as a gray area, a big puddle of goo as Magpie called my unresovled thoughts on this.

And please don't tell me I can't consider myself to be a liberal and not be anti-capital punishment either.... nothing burns me up like someone telling me I can't think what I want to think, or that in order to truly be considered liberal, I have to tout some company line - a true liberal is just that - liberal, meaning, I can think what I want, not what someone tells me is the " correct" way to think and feel.

Four Days and Counting...

Until I'm out of here!!! Woo HOO!!! I get into Las Vegas on Saturday afteroon, the Overoye Gang will get there on Tuesday I believe (Snow White, is this correct?) and then it will be one Full House...all we need is an Uncle Jesse and the stage will be set... so what else is happening you ask? Well, Friday, Floating Head, Magpie and I ate Thai food, had ginger mint martinis, and discussed the List. The List is Floating Head's invention and she has to be commended because this year, there were 12 things on her list and she accomplished 9 of them. WOW! That's why she's my hero, but she has inspired the rest of us to begin a List. The List can be anything you want, but its basically stuff that you want to do, have always wanted to do, but have not. Times-a-wasting, the years are passing you by and what do YOU have to show for it? That's what I say to myself all the time. And it's not necesarily resolutions, because those can be scary and you resolve to do certain things and then you stop for whatever reason and then you feel bad about yourself and this just drags you down further. No, the List is more about fun stuff, but stuff that can enhance your life. For instance, Floating Head wanted to go white water rafting this year, because it's something she's never done but always wanted to do. So, you know what she did? She found out where to do that around here (Pennsylvania), got a group together and did a one-day trip. List Item Accomplished! Or another item on her list is to visit a different foreign country each year. But, enough about her - what's on my list? Well, that's what I'm going to think about when I'm home...because it's all about how you make your life. I watched all 3 Lord of the Rings movies on Sunday night (which caused me to stay up until 3 a.m., the nutcase that I am so that I was dead tired yesterday) and even Gandalf knows this to be true - when Frodo says, "I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had ever happened," and Gandalf replied, "So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time we are given." Ah, the wisdom of the Lord of the Rings, they are really and truly my most favorite books and movies of all time, I can read those books over and over and see the movies over and over and I still get all excited at the end when the Witch King says, "You fool, no man can kill me" and Eowyn rips off her helmet: "I am no man" and stabs him ... and I still get teary when Frodo finally tosses Gollum over the edge and the Ring is gone and Aragon and Gandalf both get this look in their eyes because they know it has been done so there is relief, but it's immediately followed by sadness because they also realize that most likely, Frodo is dead...But I love the books so much because in college, I took a course called The Enchanted Imagination and we spent about 2 months studying the Lord of the Rings and was just an inspiring class with one the best, coolest, most creative and understanding (he let me turn in my papers when I wanted and usually gave me undeserving A's on them) professors (John Pagano) I've ever had and I just hold these books and that class very dear to my heart.

Someone out there is going to read this and think "W.A.W"!

By Order of the Court of Joanne Hoffman...

I shall post! But just a quickie for now, I wanted to show you my cute little Christmas tree I put up in my living room:























And to let you all know how happy I was to wake up on Sunday morning (sick though I was) to find snow in the garden below my bedroom window! Unfortunately, since I was feeling like rubbish and dizzy and sick to my stomach, I didn't get to walk around in it, which I love to do... but the winter has just started and so I'll get another chance..soon I hope...but here is the highly adored First Snow: