Arriving Late

There are, as I think we would all agree, degrees of "lateness" when dealing with arrivals.

There's the usually excusable "coming in just a couple of minutes late" when you're meeting someone for dinner.

There's the "oh. crap. that's screwed everything up" when you arrive any time after an interview was supposed to start.

There's the "I'm so sorry, I took a wrong turn" when you apologize away your arrival at the doctor's office.

There's "I should have been born during a different era" which, really, isn't something people typically apologize for.

And then there's this winter's weather. We in Minneapolis have had - in essence - fall since last September. We had weirdly warm temps in January and early February. Winter was standing us up, and - frankly - aside from the fact that we *really* need the moisture, we've been pretty much okay with it.

This weekend we were supposed to get a decent snow, but it all went north of us. And, again, we were pretty much okay with that. But now it seems that winter is feeling bad about being so late.

The forecast for this coming week has snow on at least 5 of the next 7 days. In fact, there is already a winter weather advisory for Tuesday and Wednesday. The predictions are saying we could have "1.5 to 2 inches of moisture." That might not be too bad as rain, since the ground isn't completely frozen so we shouldn't get *too much* flooding.

If, though, it comes down as snow, there's a chance for it to be "fluffed up by a factor of 10" (at least according to the weather folks). For those of you with math difficulties, that means that - worst case scenario - we could be looking at 15 to 20 inches of snow by the middle of the week. (Plus the other 3 predicted snow days on the forecast.)

You know, as much as I hate it when people are late for dinner, or appointments of any kind - and I appreciate when they offer to make up the difference as part of their apologies - I think I'd have been okay if winter had just gone about its business and not tried to make up for the delay.

We'll see what kind of apologies the weather comes up with.

I Suspect This Was Not Intended

I just started working on editing a new manuscript. I had already heard that it has some interesting "issues," but I hadn't seen it until this week.

I pulled it up and found a note from the author to the editor. (I swear I have not altered this in any way. The spelling, spacing, and punctuation are exactly as it was sent to me.)

Dialogues are to be kept informal(English may not be correct but this is the autor's intend)

I'm guessing this is going to be a bit of a doozy to work on.

Post Re-post - Do the Crazy Thing

Just in case some of you out there were thinking about donating to the Xelles, but didn't get around to it, yet, I thought I'd offer a reminder.

At this point, their truck is already on its way overseas, and they're planning their own trips. But you've still got time to make a donation.

So. Yeah. Do it. You know you want to, right?

* * *

How often have you thought about doing something outside your comfort zone? Travelling to some part of the world you've never been to? Challenging yourself to do something most people would only dream of?

What has stopped you? Was it fear that you wouldn't succeed? Was it fear that you *would* succeed and then you'd have to go out and try other things?

For a good friend of mine, the thing standing in her way is something both easier and more difficult than that. It's fundraising.

My friend Julie - who used to be the mild-mannered, yet intrepid, Group Sales Coordinator at CenterStage Theater in Baltimore - is part of a two-woman team (called the "X elles") who have challenged themselves to enter the Rallye Aiche des Gazelles this March. (You can read about the team, here.)

This Rally is the kind of crazy thing that most of us only dream about doing. It's 9 days in Morocco (read "in the desert") with nothing for guidance but a map and a compass. And it's not really a race, because the goal is simply to get from point A to point B in the shortest possible distance, not the shortest amount of time. (Which, because you don't put out as much pollution at lower speeds, means that this is actually rated as an eco-friendly event.)

As if that wasn't enough, on top of all of that, the racers will also be building a school to give back to the people of Morocco.

PLUS this is a women-only event - the only one of it's kind in the world. (Which, honestly, probably explains the eco-friendliness, the lack of major competitiveness, and the fact that they're building a school.)

But here's the thing: even though the Rally is in March, Julie and her teammate Rachelle are still in need of funding. So...

If you've ever thought about doing something "just because it was there," or if you've ever wanted to help build a school in Africa, or if you just happen to have a few extra bucks because it's payday, PLEASE send them your support. (And please forward this blog posting - or their direct info - to anyone you think might be interested in helping out.)

You can donate via their website, or their brand new indiegogo donation page. In either location, although the site suggests a minimum donation of $100, you can donate as little or as much as you want (just choose the "no perk" option on the Indiegogo page).

Here's to the people in the world who go out and do things just because they can!

Missing Days Off

A bunch of people have been asking me whether or not I get tomorrow off for Presidents' Day. I don't.

In fact, after New Year's Day, the next holiday we get is Memorial Day. So, no MLK day. Nothing around Easter. Nothing for, basically, the first five months of the year.

And I have to admit that that's probably one of the biggest issues of my current position. My day-to-day work is fine. The pay is... well... at least it's better than it was a few months ago.

The part that really is bothersome, though, is the lack of time off. The maximum vacation you can earn at my company is 10 days per year.

I've dealt with being unemployed - not that long ago - and I know that I don't want *that* much time off again any time soon. But as someone who tends to work to pay for the rest of my life, it's kind of frustrating to not have any time to take off so that I can use that money for something fun.

We're trying to figure out how to spend our time off this year, and that means kind of parsing out the days. Which brings me back to wishing we had some holidays to work off of, so we'd be able to do more.

So, if you're off on Presidents' Day, I hope you enjoy it. Think of me as I'm at work and not on vacation.

The Relevance of Downton Abbey

(Fair warning: I'm going to do my best to remain spoiler-free in this post, but I will be making some allusions to things in the latest series of episodes.)

As so many of my friends have been doing, lately, I've been watching the PBS Masterpiece Theater showings of "Downton Abbey." Among other things, there is an awfully lot of romance involved - frequently across class lines and into other such forbidden territories.

In the episode I just watched, the cross-class romance - once people truly stopped and paid attention to the love and not the classes - actually won out over prejudices and all was (relatively) right with the world.

So far, so good.

Then there's the romance wherein one of the members just might have to go to jail due to some past mis-steps. And, as he's dealing with them, the woman he loves turns to him and says that she wants to marry him so that she can't be denied her rights if he is taken into court custody.

Still, not bad.

Now let's look at the current state of New Jersey, where the governor - a single solitary man - has vetoed a bill which passed both houses of the State legislature AND had the popular support of the residents of the state. That bill was for Marriage Equality.

This one man used his own bigotry and hate to push forward an agenda wherein I would be considered a second-class citizen. Where my love for another human being is called unworthy. And where, should anything happen to my partner, I would have no rights of any kind.

I fully realize that "Downton Abbey" is fictitious. That it's focusing on the rights of the classes in early 20th Century England. And that it's not meant to be an allegory of life in America in the 21st Century. But the world is strange and the parallels are definitely there.

In better news, this evening the Maryland State House of Delegates approved a same-sex marriage bill which puts their state on track to become the eighth state in the union to recognize same-sex marriages.

And, in the past week, the city of Minneapolis took a public stand against the proposed MN Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage.

If only we could have the "Downton Abbey" scriptwriters work out a positive ending for us all. Preferably to be wrapped up in six episodes or less.

Valentine's Day Love Songs

Since much of my life is wrapped up in songs, I was trying to think of a love song that really epitomizes my thoughts on Valentine's Day, as well as my relationship.

There are a ton of love songs - that actually might make sense - in musical theater, but those aren't the ones that show up all over the place this time of year. Instead, we get all of the weird country and pop songs (well, those are the only two genres that I listen to, so that's all I have to go from) that profess to tell us about love.

We go from "Stand By Your Man" to "Stand By Me," and from "Muskrat Love" to "Puppy Love." There's "Burning Love" and there's "My Heart Will Go On" from the very watery Titanic.

We've got "Love Lift Us Up Where We Belong" which, on the surface, sounds nice. But then there's the musical assumption that where we belong is "where the eagles cry on a a mountain high" - which sets up an expectation that most couples may never reach. Because, let's face it, many romances only make it about halfway up a hillock before getting run off by a couple of screeching crows.

We're told "Love is a Many-Splendoured Thing" and that "Love Makes the World Go 'Round" and that "All You Need is Love" - although I'd like to see someone try to pay their bills with it.

We know that some people "Can't Give You Anything But Love" (which is nice, but, again, how does that pay rent?), and that "The Greatest Love of All" is learning to love ourselves - which really doesn't sound like a very romantic notion, after all.

With all of the love songs out there, I was starting to get a little frustrated. They all look at love and life through seriously rose-colored glasses. It's Edith Piaf seeing "La Vie en Rose" and it's the wedding at the end of a Disney movie where you don't see the newlyweds dealing with who gets the closet space and who has to wash dishes.

In musical theater, you get a lot of that, too, but you also get "Into the Woods," where the happy "ending" is just the beginning of the second act. Which, really, is a lot more like life.

It dawned on me amidst all of my digging, that I knew exactly what song was my perfect Valentine's Day song. Partially, I'll admit, because Christopher is gone this week and one line of it always comes to mind when we're apart. The line is "And even be glad, just to be sad, thinking of you."

The song is "It Had to Be You," and although it's been around for a while, I know it mainly from the Harry Connick, Jr. version which was used in When Harry Met Sally. I love that it talks about this great love that is made better because they're not perfect: "Nobody else gave me a thrill, with all your faults, I love you still. It had to be you, wonderful you. It had to be you." The person in question is wonderful because of the faults, not in spite of them. And I like to think that all good, realistic, romances can embrace that.

You can find the video of it, here - where it plays after a 15-second ad. (And you really ought to check it out. It's an "official" video, so it's got clips of the movie, as well as a very young - and very 80s-styled, yet still sexy - Harry Connick, Jr.)

That's the kind of love song that works for me. The kind that says "it's not perfect. it's not a fairy tale. it's life. and I want you in it with me."

(Happy Valentine's Day, Christopher!)

Movie Monday: Underworld:Awakening

Last week, on kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision, Christopher and I went out to see the fourth movie in the "Underworld" series. This one was "Underworld: Awakening" (which, of course, you probably already guessed if you read the title of this post).

The "Underworld" series is a dark vampire versus werewolf series (no one glitters in the sun, or runs around with a bare chest for the teenagers to drool over), where the lead vampire (a deadly, yet beautiful, woman) falls for a human who - in the first movie - is bitten by both a vampire and a werewolf (well, they're called "lycan" in this), and becomes kind of a hybrid.

In this latest installment, she awakens from 12 years of captivity to find that the man/hybrid/guy that she loved is gone, and that they have had a daughter (which she didn't know about), and a conspiracy has been using them to try to find a "cure" for the vampire and lycan scourge. Or, maybe, to create new hybrids...

And... well... mayhem and shooting and biting and gore and special effects ensue.

Here's the twist, though. This was the first movie in the franchise to have been filmed in 3D. And, if you've been paying attention, you know that I'm not really a fan of 3D. In action movies, it tends to result in things being thrown at the camera, or gore splattering the camera, or motion sequences that make you want to hurl at the camera. But aside from one scene at the very beginning when the camera was rotating (and so was my stomach) they did pretty well with it.

And, consequently, I kind of rather enjoyed the movie. The 3D actually did enhance what was going on - adding depth to the scenes, instead of causing me to sit back and think "wow. They really worked hard on that." It was a nice change of pace for the 3D market.

Overall score: A-. It really was what it promised to be, but they keep alluding to the lover/hybrid guy, but we don't ever actually see him. And, well, I have to admit that he was one of my favorite things about the first movie. So, bring him back and I'll give it an A.