ColorMePink!

About a hundred and fifty years ago, I happened across a little movie called “Hairspray” and fell in love with it.  It was dark and funny and uplifting and I love to watch people dance, so it really worked for me.  When it was made into a musical, I was already living in Florida, so I never got to see it, but a friend sent me the soundtrack and the music was terrific.  

In the interest of full disclosure, I must interrupt here to tell you a truth about myself.  I love John Travolta. Really, truly, love John Travolta.  Not like in a crush that I have on some celebrity, not some object of lust that I fantasize about, but more a true and abiding love that I have had since I first heard him say to Mr. Kotter, “I’m so confused”, in that adorable, dumb guy voice.  I was hooked from that moment till now.  I know that some day I will run into him (hey, it could happen; he lives here in Ocala), our eyes will meet and I’ll be all sparkly and witty and say just the right thing that will capture his attention and he’ll be so drawn to me that he’ll follow me out to my car and say, “I must see you again”. And I’ll toss my hair and laugh and he’ll laugh and then we’ll become best friends and share our homeschooling adventures and our night owl tendencies and we’ll fly to Oprah’s to drink tequila.  

I’ve had two near misses.  Once at Blockbuster, I got there about an hour after he left and once at Pier One, where the employees were almost catatonic, so it must have been mere moments.  And that’s a good thing, because until it actually happens, I can pretend that I’m not going to say something like; “uhhhhh, I love you” and then burst into tears.  Anyway, back to my review. 

I decided not to see the movie version of Hairspray, because I didn’t really agree with the casting of John in the lead role.  His portrayal of Edna would be too sweet, too watered down.  I really felt that you need Divine, or Harvey Fierstein or some great big, larger than life drag queen.  And I was pretty vehement about that.  And like any good best friend, I didn’t want to see something that John had put his heart and soul into, knowing as I did that I wouldn’t like it. 

Last night, it was on HBO and I didn’t have anything else to do, so I decided to watch it, against my better judgement and I have to tell you, I loved it.  It’s such a great story and even though it’s much lighter and more uplifting than the original, it was done so well that I was delighted all the way through.  My misgivings about John in the lead, were not unfounded and it was a very light and almost syrupy portrayal, but in a good, kitschy way.  The entire cast was phenomenal, the music was terrific, the dancing was delightful and I had a great time watching it.  Nikky Blonsky was perfect and Elijah Kelley and Taylor Parks stole every scene that they were in. John Waters’ cameo rocked.  It so fit with my imaginings of who he really is and I cracked up.  I’m so glad that I decided to watch it and I DVRd it so that I can force my kids to watch it during the week. 

“You Can’t Stop the Beat”

Really, anymore rain and I think I’m going to scream.  The pond has crested, the pool is overflowing (we drained some out tonight) and the rain is incessant.  I have Chimney Swifts and one got into my fireplace tonight.  I’ve named him Jonathan… get it?  Anyway, he tried to get into the living room so I did some quick research which gave me the advice to darken the room and be quiet and hopefully the Swift will find its way back up into the chimney, following the starlight and the street lamps.  It seems to have worked, but I was shocked at how unafraid this little, tiny bird was.  Hopefully he won’t be flying back in.  As an aside, he sure was cute.

The storm has passed, and it really wasn’t much in the way of wind.  We had gusts of up to about 45 m.p.h., but not for very long.  The problem is all the rain.  Some places down south had up to three feet!  Anyway, I can hear that it’s still raining off and on so I’ll leave you with one of my favorite songs, never more appropriate than tonight.  Grab it while it’s hot. 

I Can’t Stand the Rain by the Commitments

Looks like we’re going to be just fine.  The new track shows us completely out of the path. Yay!

Mmm, Universe?  Can I get a break here? kthksbai.

I promised pictures, and I deliver.  Here’s some pictures of the second floor - it’s not finished and there are boxes everywhere, but I wanted to show off a little.  I really do love this house and I’m so comfortable in it.  

Flickr set

Today is the second day in a row without some sort of catastrophe!  We are so pleased. I’ve found my cameras and I’m going to charge the batteries right now so that I can take some pictures tomorrow, weather permitting. I’ve been doing some research and the house has quite an interesting history.  I’m almost tempted to write about it… we’ll see. 

The landscaper was here to mow and you can’t believe how wonderful 4 acres of freshly mown grass smell.  Really lovely.  I think I love it here. Might have to figure out a way to buy it.  I hope, hope, hope that I still feel the same way in a year. 

So, last night I’m feeling comfortable enough to make a simple meal in the kitchen.  I figure I’ve been scrubbing it for two weeks, a simple pasta salad should be completely doable. I washed the veggies, peeled and chopped them, boiled the pasta and when I went to drain the pasta, I heard a gurgling… hm.  I slowed down the pasta draining, cooled it and got it into the Pasta Salad Container ™ and into the fridge to, you know, combine.  I cleaned the sink and ran the water, when I turned on the disposal again all hell broke loose. Cucumber peels were coming up in the other sink, everything was backing up and I panicked.  I called Jim and told him and he said, “Leave it.  I’ll check it out when I get home.”  I was able to put it aside and we had a nice little pasta salad dinner.  When Jim finally got home at about 10:30, he took a look and ran the water and ran the disposal and when the cucumber peels started to flow into the dishwasher, he said it was a clog.  No problem, right?  Well at 2AM, I finally forced Jim to go to bed, knowing that the landlord would be here this morning to fix a loose step on the deck.  Fast forward to 4:30PM, when the plumber finally left (leaving a mess in the kitchen, by the way), we were finally able to run the dishwasher from last night’s dinner.  It seems that all is well now, but really it’s been one freakin’ thing after another for the last 14 days.   

I think we’re finally getting close to being settled, but I have to tell you. I am really not enjoying the problems.  The good news is, I’ve got the furniture tools and supplies up into the master suite to start putting together my new studio, I finally got the wireless network set up as well as the children’s computer so that maybe we have a shot in hell at getting some sort of school started next week and I still love the pool. 

But I’m having a hard time getting involved with the designers on Project Runway this time around.  They’re all sort of annoying me.  And I’m not blown away by anything that anyone is doing. 

I’m too old to move. Next time, I’m hiring packers as well as movers. Oh and I’m sending in my own cleaning crew before we move in. You can’t believe what I’ve been cleaning. We’ve been in the house 11 days and my kitchen is still not set up. I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. I think maybe I’ll be able to prepare something easy like a pasta salad tonight, most everything is done now - but it’s been a horror.
I haven’t even tackled the family room yet. The kids’ computer isn’t even set up. We’ve had to rearrange certain ideas that we had about what went where, but that’s not so bad. Dish Network finally got out here yesterday and were here for. ever. I happened to know the installer and he told me right up front that he would be here all day. He got it all done though and I was able to catch up on “Army Wives” last night. Really, are you watching this show? It’s so good.  

Anyway.

I got the liquor cabinet and the wet bar set up today - that’s right, I know what’s important.  And hopefully I’ll have the kitchen done by tonight.  The weather is pretty crappy, so I’m not as tempted by the pool. 

Sorry I’ve been scarce - I’ll catch up with your stuff soon, I promise.

So we got up Friday morning to pouring rain. The movers left quite a lot to be desired. It’s Sunday night and we’re still moving stuff. We’re exhausted, I hurt my foot, the owners didn’t really do a good job of cleaning…. I’m not sure they ever cleaned the tracks on the sliding glass doors. There are lots of things wrong that they didn’t mention (leaking faucets, running toilets, loose step on one side of the decks). But. I think I love it here. The things that are little, I can handle. The landlord has to fix the big things (I dabble in some property management, I know the rules). And then there’s this:
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