Rebecca Homecca

This used to be my dining room, but it’s looked like this for past few several many many weeks.

We are crazy busy at work (someone has to be right? We can all be recessed and depressed) so I have been really tired when I get home.

The above statement is also known as the reason for sporadic blogging. So here are some random comments about what’s going on in the world.

My parents left for Florida today and will be gone for like a month. Oh, how I wish to be warm on a consistent basis… I do not like it when my parents are in Florida. Just because I am a grown woman does not mean I don’t need them to be close by for “in case”.

In case of what, I am not sure.

I have been watching American Idol, even though I think this may be the worst season EVER. I got the feeling last night’s theme was “Let’s take really good songs and ruin them”. So far out of 24 people 2 have been any good. If next weeks 12 are big duds, I may not watch any more. What’s the point?

We need to take a minute and talk about this woman that had the eight babies. No, I don’t want to talk about the babies or the IVF. What the important issue here really is, is how the media has taken to calling her Octo-mom.

It really bothers me and I sometimes think in cartoon form. So, I am getting this mental image of this kind of Lame Super Hero (think Apache Chief, whose super power was to grow tall. Yes, that is right, to grow tall).

I’m envisioning her head as a giant octo-body with tentacles coming out of it. Each one is like holding a bottle or a pacifier or something.

Which, come to think of it, with all those kids, she will probably wish she had eight arms.

So anyway this is the visual I get every time I hear something about this woman (which is way to often), and it creeps me out. So I wish they either stop calling her that, or better, move on to the next topic.

Oh, and next time they bring her up on Inside Edition and you hear the phrase Octo-mom, I apologize for the accompanying mental image.

My BFF Em and I had an impomptu girls night out tonight. We went out to eat (Red Robin. Yum. Love them fries) and then went to the cheap movies.

Which was good, because last time I actually went to the movies at a real theater, I nearly keeled over when they told me how much my ticket was.

Daddy was home with her baby girl, so she was outta there! As I recall, she was waiting with scarf and shoes on, coat not far behind when he walked in the door.

Anyhoo, we went to see Last Chance Harvey with Dustin Hoffman. It was really cute.  One of those finding love later in life movies, but the interaction between Hoffman and Emma Thompson was very sweet.

I just spent the last hour sitting in the chair choosing songs for a 1/2 hour workout mix on my i-pod.

Makes total sense.

I’ve been riding my stationary bike in the morning. I even have to get up at 5:30, which is a miracle in and of itself  (don’t even get me started on my girl that gets up in the middle of the night to go to the gym-anything before 5 is still night time if you ask me.)

Anyway, I have been listening to the local morning show on the radio while I ride my bike. They are very funny, so it keeps me from staring at the timer the whole time. However, since I am not real high energy in the morning, or anytime really, I decided I needed some tunes to try and kick it up a notch.

I rented some CD’s from the library for this exact purpose. I got Justin Timberlake’s Sexy Back, Finger Eleven’s Paralyzer (I heard this was voted the #1 treadmill song of 08).

I usually find Korn and Rage Against the Machine great for working out. But it’s 5:30 in the AM, not the PM. They might be a little, um, angry, for first thing in the morning.

I’m currently addicted to a band called Shiny Toy Guns.They are pretty upbeat, so they got a couple of tracks in the bike mix.

(Side note, I did not link to any of the music I mentioned because I do not have the energy on account of the getting up at 5:30 and the low blood sugar from trying to cut calories. So feel free to google at your leisure.)

Well, I am exhausted after listening to all this music, so I guess I better go watch TV for a while and try and relax.

UPDATE: The workout mix needs some remastering. There were some songs that I thought would be good and turned out to be duds. Good call on the JT though.  So I will, in fact be spending more time on this project. The perfect mix is out there, I just know it. It might take some more trips to the library though.

Steve commented with these scary statistics (see I Do read comments!)

statistics:

1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
57 percent of new books are not read to completion.

All that info’s from humorwriters.org which sources The Jenkins Group.

I find that very sad. (It does however, explain some things about the book I am currently reading, but more on that later*) Also, kind of weird considering all the big box book stores that have popped up.

I’ve always loved to read, ever since I was a kid. When I read a book I think about it when I’m not reading it. And if it was particularly good (like The Time Traveler’s Wife) I think about it long after.

I love TV and I love movies, but I don’t sucked in like I do with books. I like that my imagination has to do some of the work.

—

*There was a point in the book where the author mentioned a Trojan Horse and then had to go on and explain the original story of the Tojan Horse. And I thought to myself, was the really neccessary, isn’t that common knowledge? But after reading those statistics, I suppose it may not be.

The other day Lori commented that she started reading Running with Scissors, but did not like it, so she did not finish.

I started thinking about it, and realized that I will finish a book no matter how bad it is. It is impossible for me not to finish.

If the story is not great or the writing is bad, it doesn’t matter. I still want to know how it ends!

The worst part is, that if it is a bad book it takes me forever to finish. So I am stuck reading this thing for weeks. A good book I can finish in a weekend.

The funny thing is, this does not apply to movies. If a movie is boring, or just terrible, I have no problem shutting it off without knowing how it ends.

Just another one of my strange quirks (there are many…)

I’ve been renting CD’s from the library quite a bit lately. I realized a flaw in my system today.

I am not very familiar with who sings what songs. I’ve been trying to write things down so when I get there I remember what I am looking for.

But sometimes I am just browsing in the CD area looking for something I might recognize.

So I come across some band names that I have heard of, but I’m not sure if I like them or what song they sing.

Maybe I recognize their name because I heard their song and said “Wow, this band is terrible.” Who knows?

When you buy CD’s at the store, they always have a sticker on the outside packaging telling me what song they are famous for.

Like it will say “Featuring their No. 1 Hit-Blue Monkeys” (or whatever, that’s not a real song, I was drawing a blank. I might write a song called blue monkeys now though.)

Anyway, that sticker sometimes helps clue me in.

Since there is no outside packaging at the library (seriously, some of them are barely in cases), there is no sticker. I read the song list, but unless it’s a really big hit, I may not be able to pick it out.

And then, like today, I picked up a CD by a band that I am only a little familiar with, My Morning Jacket.  Turns out I got the CD that did not have their most popular song. I got some other CD without hits on it.

I like hits, people.

I am what is wrong with the music business. It’s  all about the singles.

I finished another book over the weekend (I am on a roll), Running with Scissors by Augusten Borroughs. For those of you keeping track (and I know there are many) I had to move The Kite Runner to International on my bingo card and put Scissors on Book to Movie.

Now for the reviewing part…

Well, this book was wierd. It is a memoir, so in theory, is mostly true. However, I find a lot of this book hard to believe. Let’s just say it’s a good thing he wasn’t on Oprah.

I was talking to the girl who loaned it to me, and we both wondered how he did not end up a serial killer considering the life he grew up with. There is the craziest cast of characters I have ever seen and the Psychotherapist was the craziest one of all.

Basically, Augusten’s mother goes crazy, gets way over medicated by the so-called doctor, and can no longer take care of him. So she sends him to live with the doctor and his family (who are all more than a little off center). He spends his teenage years there going through normal teenage things and many not so normal things.

It was interesting, but there were a lot of loose ends. He would start a story about an incident, but never go back to it. You are left wondering what was the point of that? The book jacket said it was so hilarious, but I did not find it that humorous. There were parts, but mostly it was just sad. Not Nicolas Sparks sad, more like, oh those poor dear souls…

Becky’s Totally Scientific Book Rating: 2

Next up: I need an Outdoor/Nature Square, so am thinking of  Shopping for Porcupine by Seth Katner. Which is another memoir. I enjoy reading memoirs, and it is convenient that they are fitting into so many categories.

We had a Pileated Woodpecker out on the telephone pole this morning.

The other day my BFF  EM came back from a trip to Taco Bell with this fabulous item.
Yes I was also confused how she got this from the Taco Bell. Turns out she made a trip across the street to the mission store (we work in an awesome part of town, can you tell?), just to see what they had.
And they had this. I was giddy. It is so cute!
It needed about 15 minutes with a toothbrush and some Oxy-clean, but now it’s good as new!
And check this out-

TWO compartments! How fun!