Dork. D-O-R-K. Dork.

There will be five hours of the national spelling bee on my DVR waiting for me when I get home tonight. :)

Green Monster

I had standing room tickets on the Green Monster for last nights Sox game agains the Indians with Melissa Brassil and her dad. It was totally awesome. The view was great and not at all scary (unlike the Fleet Center, which I find horrifying). The game was a good one and the Sox won 5-2. Some highlights:

• The return of Trot Nixon. He got a warm welcome from the Fenway Faithful and rightfully so. There was also a ceremony acknowledging his and his wife's contributions to the Jimmy Fund and his wife, Kathryn, threw out the second first pitch (the first being thrown by a WWII veteran in honor of the holiday). He got a standing ovation during his first at bat and he tipped his pine tar-covered hat. I miss him.
• Youkilis' inside-the-park home run. Seeing that in person was so cool. Even cooler than the time I saw Lou Pinella get ejected. Slightly less cool than the time I saw D.Lowe get the win against the Yankees. I think. I don't know. An inside-the-park home run is really damn cool.
• Jonathan Papelbon's trek to the mound. The place went crazy. I didn't realize he'd gotten to be such a big deal. I live in a bubble, apparently, because seriously the roar of the crowd was deafening and I've never seen so many camera flashes. Melissa and I speculated that the reason he didn't pitch so well against the first two batters was because he was blinded.
• The soundtrack to the dispute between the managers and the umps in the ninth inning. From where we were, we couldn't even tell what the dispute was about, but when Terry Francona was up there arguing, they played "We Just Disagree" by Dave Mason. When Eric Wedge stormed back to the dugout, they played "I Fought the Law." It was amusing.

Rustic Overtones

There is nothing like the feeling of finding out that your favorite band in the whole world is reuniting and doing two shows and the timing actually works out so that those shows will be before you move to Texas. Honestly, I'm a little emotional right now. And yes, yes I am that obsessed.

Reality Finales

Needless to say, I'm pleased with the outcome of Season 4 of Dancing with the Stars. Apolo was awesome and he and Julianne totally deserved to win. I would've liked to have seen Laila as the runner up, but hoping for first and second place to work out the way I wanted was probably a little greedy.

Now, on to American Idol. I want Blake to win, but I concede that Jordin was the better contestant last night (and I knew she was going to win before they'd even took the stage). However, giving them both the same song to end with was totally bush league. Alan Sepinwall says it better than I could: "Now, is that fair, America? Asking Blake to sing [the puppy dog and rainbows anthem] is like asking Dennis Kucinich to dunk a basketball. Asking Jordin to do it is like asking Paris Hilton to be nasty and conceited. It just comes naturally to her, and she hits a sustained glory note near the end that Blake would never in a million years even think of attempting."

awww...

Two sites I will never grow tired of:

www.cuteoverload.com

www.icanhascheezburger.com

So amused.

Present Laughter

Pat and I went to see Present Laughter with Victor Garber at the Huntington on Friday. I'm not familiar with Garber from Alias, but I know people really love him from the show and I can definitely say his stage acting lived up to his reputation. He was fantastic (and he can apparently sing...who knew?). A lot of the humor relied on expression, which is especially challenging on stage when a camera can't zoom in on your face and he totally sold it (even to me, and I was in the balcony).

Present Laughter is a 1930's Noel Coward comedy that takes place in London. The story itself is amusing, but the real pleasure is in the characters. Victor Garber played the lead, Garry Essendine, a famous London stage actor (for that alone, I enjoyed the play because I know have the opportunity to use the phrase "meta." As in, "it's a play about actors...how meta.")

If you are into theatre and have the time in the next couple of weeks, definitely check it out. The writing and acting are superb (The only actor I didn't enjoy was the one playing Roland Maule. The characters all are caricatures to a point, but he was a little over the top for me.). I literally laughed out loud multiple times. Also, if you are a total nerd like me, you'll enjoy that the costumes are pretty damn good, too. And the set...the set is totally awesome.

FOX and CW upfronts

Right now I watch zero shows on the CW. This morning I saw what they picked up for next year and it looks like the trend will continue. Although, I will say that if I was 16, I'd totally watch Gossip Girl.

I watch only one show on FOX, and that may change. Parkey Posey and Frasier Crane each have a show picked up by FOX and I really enjoy them. However, the shows' premises are not that appealing. Parker Posey's in The Return of Jezebel James, about a woman who asks her sister to be her surrogate mother. Frasier's in Back to You with Patricia Heaton, whom I find extremely annoying. It's about news anchors. M'eh.

CBS Upfronts

The Class has been cancelled. But, How I Met Your Mother has been renewed. I guess you can't have it all.

Like NBC, CBS has picked up zero new shows that I'm interested in. Looks like it's gonna be an ABC year next year.

Speaking of ABC, let's all take a moment to mourn Ian's ousting on DWTS. We'll miss you, Steve Sanders. See you at the Peach Pit.

DWTS Semifinal

Best week of the season. By far. Holy crap. Everyone was awesome and I really wish they'd just let them all dance for the rest of the season and give everyone a disco ball.

Apolo and Ian both smiled while dancing this week. I don't think I've seen that ever before.

Also, the dance to Push It...wow. Apolo and Julianne all the way!! (Um, and Laila and Ian and even Joey 'cause they are all so damn fun to watch.)

I can't wait to see the tour and I am irritated at myself for being too much of a snob to watch this in past seasons.

Nostalgia

I don't know that this can really be considered nostalgia since I haven't actually left Boston, yet, but I've been thinking a bit about the things I will really miss about this city. Keep in mind I am specifically talking about the city, not about my life here. As in, of course I'll miss intramural sports and my season tickets to hockey and Grey's nights, but my sentimentality about that stuff is much more connected to the people I'm with than the events themselves.

In the last couple of weeks the only times I've been really sentimental about the city itself have been when I've been walking. So, I guess that's what I'll miss most about Boston: the walking. I've taken all of my favorite walks in the last week and every time I think, "wow, this is so great, what a beautiful day, I'm really going to miss this city." Then, I think about what those walks are like in the middle of February and I feel a lot better. ;)

I suppose since I mentioned that I specifically have favorite walks, I should share them.

• The Esplanade. Actually, I really like the drive along Storrow and Memorial Drives, too, so I suppose this one isn't specifically a walk. The view is just so beautiful, especially headed toward the city. On a sunny spring day, with the trees in bloom and the sailboats on the river, you almost forget you're in a city, but then there it is: the skyline. And it's totally breathtaking. The drive is pretty great at night, too. I love the view of the towers at Marsh Plaza all lit up.
• The lower end of Comm. Ave. I like to walk down Comm. Ave. toward downtown on my lunch breaks. Often times I'll go up Mass. Ave. to either Newbury or Boylston. Whenever I go to the Hunt for a show, I walk that way, too. Unlike the Esplanade, where you can forget you're in a city, I love this walk specifically because I feel right in the thick of things (especially on Boylston).
• From my apartment to Coolidge Corner. This is my absolute favorite and I usually do it at least once a week during the summer. I like to go down Allston to Kelton, which turns into Winchester, so I get a nice walk through a residential part of Brookline, and then back down Harvard with stops at all my favorites: Paper Source, Bowl & Board, Booksmith, Kupel's, Anna's. Oh man, Anna's. Now I want a quesadilla.

Read More...

ABC upfronts

Unlike NBC which announced zero new shows I'm interested in, ABC looks like it might have some good ones, although admittedly nothing that totally knocks my socks off (and, surprise surprise, they picked up the Grey's spinoff).

Here are the ones I'll at least check out and why:

• Private Practice I did give up Grey's, but I'll probably give this a try.
• Dirty Sexy Money It's about a lawyer for a rich and famous family and has Peter Krause from Six Feet Under. I didn't personally like Six Feet Under that much, but he's a pretty good actor and I'm looking for a good drama to fill the Grey's void. Still, I'll admit it sounds like it could go either way from the limited descriptions I've read.
• Cashmere Mafia Starring Lucy Liu and produced by Darren Star, the man who gave the world Beverly Hills, 90210 (along with Aaron Spelling, of course). Need I say more?
• Sam I Am Christina Applegate. Love her. If you've seen The Sweetest Thing and you don't also absolutely love her, well, that's just crazy talk.
• Miss/Guided About a woman who returns to her high school to be the guidance counselor. Could be funny.

My Name is Earl

I just got to watch the finale last night. I love Marlee Matlin so much. I also enjoyed the cliffhanger. Normally I do prefer a nice, neat ending with all the loose ends tied up, but I suppose I feel okay with this since I'm pretty confident they won't leave Earl in jail with Ralph for two years. I'd like to see him in there for a few weeks while Joy works on the list to make up for him taking the fall for her. My only complaint about Earl is this: what ever happened to the Catalina/Randy storyline? Are they still married? Is she still wishing she hadn't pushed him away forever? This storyline and John Leguizamo both need to come back next season.

Pat and I are both working tonight so now we'll have four episodes of Heroes to catch up on. I've got to get on that.

PS I love up-fronts week! Today is NBC, which has been pretty boring. None of their new shows look too interesting to me. But, they did renew Scrubs and that's all I really wanted from them. Now, I'm pretty much just interested in CBS so I can see if The Class and/or How I Met Your Mother got renewed.

Surprise!

Off to Maine for the weekend. I leave you with this picture of the graduates.

As promised...

...a quick rundown of my recent TV viewing.

How I Met Your Mother: This show consistently makes me laugh out loud and I'm going to be pissed if it doesn't come back. Though, they are promising that the last episode of this season will also work as a series finale.

Heroes: I'm so far behind!

Criminal Minds: I haven't been watching this religiously, but I need to watch last week's episode because Heidi, who used to live on 15C with Trish (and taught her how to do the now infamous Banana) is in the episode.

My Name is Earl: Joy's preparations for crossing the border: hilarious. Spoofing Rudy: even better. I love this show.

Scrubs: Go Team JD! Keith's got to go.

Grey's Anatomy: Believe it or not, I don't have much to say on this topic right now. I'm going to ride it out 'til the end of the season and see what I think. Recently, I've found the writing to be on par with the first season in terms of the quality of the dialogue, etc., but I'm just not pleased with the direction the storylines are going in. Also, I'm still trying to decide how I felt about the spin-off.

Odds 'n' Ends

Andi feels I have not been prolific enough in my blogging of late, so here are some odds 'n' ends to tide folks over (tie them over? I'm not really clear on what the saying is exactly...) until I stop feeling like I got hit by a train.

So, first, life updates, so you know why I feel like I got hit by a train: I'm working two jobs now. A lot of people do it. I've even done it many times in the past. And, I assume I will adjust soon enough. But, right now, I'm exhausted. Every minute of every day I'm thinking about how much I want to sleep and even blogging feels like it will take too much energy. Still, at the end of the summer, when I find myself unemployed and moving to a strange far away place, I will be glad I've saved up some cash. That's about it. I mean, I'm super busy aside from the two jobs and I have about one million things to do before the big move, but none of that is interesting enough to blog about, though some of it is a lot of it is fun (I really am having a lot of fun recently. I'm trying to spend as much free time as possible with people before I'm a thousand miles away and homesick.).



As for news about the big move: there is none. No, we don't have an apartment. No, Pat doesn't have a job, yet. No, we don't know when we're moving. Although, August 10 is tentatively my last day of work.

I have started a new blog that I won't be posting in until we leave for Texas. It's called Boston to Austin and there's a link to it over on the right-hand side of this page. While this blog is pretty much focused on what I'm reading/watching (with occasional anecdotes about dying my cat blue), that one will be a little more in-depth as to what I'm actually doing. It's just another tool for keeping in touch when I'm in the Lone Star State.

Now, on to what I'm reading/watching: I am pretty sure I haven't actually watched a movie since I was in LA at the beginning of the month. I started to watch some terrible movie with the Wilson brothers, but I didn't finish it so that doesn't count. I've been reading Schindler's List for a while. Again, because of the whole tired/busy thing, I haven't made much progress. Enough to feel sad, though. And nauseous. But, blogging about that really would take too much energy, so I'll wait 'til I'm done with it. I'll do another post about the TV I've been watching, although (and by now you should be used to this song and dance), I'm way behind on the DVR because I've been so busy (yeah, that excuse got old quick, I know, the next entry will be peppier, I promise).
The rest is less whiny...

You Give Bon Jovi a Bad Name

Wow, not a good night on American Idol. C'mon people, I'm a huge Bon Jovi fan, but it's not Puccini. Seriously, they almost all sucked at rock. It's rock. Not rocket science. I'm baffled. But, not everyone sucked, so let me break it down:

Phil: Woo, Phil sounded bad when he was being mentored, so I was a little worried. But, then he totally rocked it (rocked it, get it?). He has really hit his stride since country week and he was awesome again last night. I love you, Phil.



Jordin: Wow. I was going to say she was Sanjaya-esque, but maybe not that bad. Definitely at least Haley-esque. She sang Living on a Prayer...the student section at hockey sounds better when they do it. I'm not even kidding. I love Jordin and I think she's lucky they are taking last week's votes into account, too. And, I do think she deserves to stay. But, this was just awful. I was pained.

LaKisha: LaKisha a) showed personality last night and b) totally hit it out of the ballpark. I know people have been raving about her all along, but I thought she was boring. Last night, I became a fan. A huge fan. She was awesome. Although she did do a weird squatting thing at the end that I will refrain from describing since I'd have to use imagery I'm not comfortable with.

Blake: I've warmed up to the performance in the last 10 hours. Possibly just because Blake dyed his hair and now he's so hot I can't stand it.

Chris: Chris Richardson who? Blake is now definitely definitely my favorite JT. Also, probably a bad idea to pick a song that Chris Daughtry did last season. Just sayin', is all.

Melinda: Wow, Melinda achieved what I thought was surely impossible: she sucked. Not as bad as Jordin. But, it was ugly. Really really ugly.
It went downhill from there...