May 20, 2006
quote of the year
said by my friend Carol last night...
"Who in the world gives a 35-year old woman a hamster as a gift???"
Posted by crystallyn at 08:31 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 11, 2006
I don't get it
Why are they praying for Clay? Are they hoping he isn't gay?
I saw those Enquirer photos. I also have watched gay friends trolling the Net to pickup guys (and no, I really really don't understand why that is), exactly like Clay is in that picture. I don't doubt it for one second.
Shocking...it's like those people who don't think Manilow is gay. I went to see Manilow last year with a girlfriend and thousands of old ladies were swooning over him. Amazing. I wish I could impart my extra-sensitive gay-dar to all those completely-homophobic-but-in-love-with-gay-men women out there...
At least Manilow is smarter than Clay is when it comes to coming across as being ambiguously gay.
Posted by crystallyn at 07:37 PM | TrackBack
April 13, 2006
rant rant rant
These are my rants for today.
1. Friends who think they are corresponding with you/know what's going on in your life because they read your blog. Honestly, it makes me want to delete my blog altogether sometimes.
2. When people you care about get sick and they don't bother to tell you because they don't want to "worry you." Who the hell are they to determine how I should or should not feel? It's my perogative to worry or not worry, isn't it? Like the time my mom told me months and months later that she had to go into the hospital for some sort of procedure that was life-threatening. Never bothered to tell any of us kids, even my sister who lived just mere miles away. Usually it's old people. WTF? I don't get it. If I were ill I would want the comfort and love of friends to surround me. And it saddens me that my love and support aren't wanted or needed in those circumstances.
3. That running on pavement is so so much harder than running on the treadmill.
4. That the taxi driver who was (definitively and without a doubt--we can prove it based on the timing of the lights), speeding and took our lives in his hands a year ago and nearly killed us, has decided that since he was also in the accident, that he's entitled to the miniscule amount of money that we have coming back to us, despite the fact that he's ok but my husband is permanently disfigured and I'm scarred and still missing feeling in my upper lip. And that because of this jerk we have to wait even longer for our money because we have to sue him (which will probably eat into more of our money). Our only saving grace is that we literally have the best lawyers in town (thank you Paulette).
5. That American politics is like a trainwreck that everyone is too ashamed to watch so they just turn away and pretend that nothing is happening while their freedom, environment, economy and privacy are being obliterated.
Posted by crystallyn at 07:15 PM | TrackBack
February 02, 2006
child star gone wrong...but hopefully not for good
Years ago when I worked at Disneyland, I met Jodie Sweetin, who, at the time, was playing Stephanie on Full House. I was working the VIP entry to the Fantasmic show and had the chance to have a lengthy discussion with her while waiting for the previous show to empty out before I sat her. She was probably 12 at the time (oh god now I'm dating myself) and was clearly very bright. She told me how John Stamos was so close to all the kids on Full House and always took them to Disneyland. We talked about all the rides she'd been on that day and some about the show. I just had such a great sense of how much of a family they all were. She talked so adoringly about everyone she worked with. I don't know why, but she was the one celebrity that I really remember most from when I worked there (I sat Billy Idol, Molly Ringwald, The Osmonds, the kid that played Bud Bundy, Tim Robbins, Robin Williams, and a host of other people). She just made a great impression on me.
And today, the headline: "Full House" Star Admits Meth Problem
Wow. I guess it's not surprising, given that when you are thrust into an acting career at such a young age. The article mentions that she's been clean for a year though, and hoping to get back into acting. I hope she swings it and is able to make some sort of comeback a'la Drew Barrymore (who is one of my all time favorites). Everyone deserves a second chance--I hope she makes the best of it.
Posted by crystallyn at 08:14 PM | TrackBack
November 22, 2005
there is a light that never goes out
On Sunday night, my grandmother passed away. Although it wasn't completely unexpected--at the same time, it was. Ironically, I had returned from Boise on the same day.
Although I haven't seen her often in the last few years, she was a strong force in my life as I was growing up. We used to spend every summer in Burley, ID at my grandparent's house, which I remember perfectly, like I was just there yesterday. Her friends called her Perk because she was like a percolator, always on the go, always bubbling, never stopping. It was even on her license plate.
When we would go places, everyone knew my grandmother. We couldn't get through a store in town without at least 2-3 people stopping to chat with her. She ran the cafeteria at the now defunct Heyburn, ID Simplot plant. I remember we would go pick her up from work and we would sit in the car when my mom would go in to get her. The stench from the plant was overwhelming. But she always brought home bags of french fries and chicken patties--a little kid's dream to be able to have McDonald's french fries at home.
She was always smiling. Even when I last saw her and she only sort of knew who I was, she was smiling and seemed happy.
Her light won't ever go out--it shines on, deep inside me, an indelible part of who I am and who I have become.
Posted by crystallyn at 07:04 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
September 14, 2005
Velvet Yoda Elvis?
Oh I really want me one of these!!
via Boing Boing
Posted by crystallyn at 08:58 PM | TrackBack
September 12, 2005
give this boy a makeover!
Two separate friends sent me an email today to go vote for one of the candidates of the BostonWorks Job Makeover. Turns out it's Scott, whom I worked with many years ago at the now defunct Event Zero. Here's my shout out to you all to go and vote for him.
Honestly, I was surprised to find out that someone hasn't snapped him up yet. He's one of the most talented graphic designers I've had the chance to work with. So let's get him cleaned up and revved up to do new and exciting things. Go vote now!
Posted by crystallyn at 10:50 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 24, 2005
MUST HAVE
GOLD PANTS!
All right--maybe the sweaters are hot too! Leslie Hall, student at Joe's alma mater, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (or usually Museum School), demonstrates the glory of the Gem Sweater!
And if you think those pants are as fab as I do, you must check out the latest album cover by her band, Leslie & the Ly's: Gold Pants. Too bad they're playing in Brookline on the 3rd--graduation for me (M.A. in Critical & Creative Thinking at UMass)...I'm sure I could have had a blast thrift shopping for my own Gem Sweater so I could get in free!
Posted by crystallyn at 07:52 PM
February 01, 2005
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE!
Joe is probably cringing as sees this, but really, it's all just a bunch of numbers. He has the looks of someone ten years younger, easily. Throw a baseball hat on him and he'll get carded everytime. He has better 8-year old humor than even Bart Simpson. Yet at the same time, he has the wisdom and experience that make him the perfect package. He has excellent style, superb taste in music and he's artsy without the fartsy. He knows more about wine than most people would ever dream of knowing. And boy, can he cook! I want to send a big huge NYAH-NYAH to all the girls that let him slip through their fingers. Because now he's mine all mine! It's me that gets to be lucky enough to spend the next 40 years with him!
Posted by crystallyn at 06:31 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
October 08, 2004
okay okay
I haven't posted in awhile because I've been crazy busy!!! But I have had lots to say...so here goes:
1. Went to Barry Manilow last week. I was one of the youngest ones there. My friend ticked off the old people in front of us because she was screaming like a madman. He played ALL of the old hits. But the thing that cracked me up the most was that he played three MEDLEYS. I didn't know that anyone did medleys anymore!
2. Seeing Mt. St. Helens going nutso brings back memories of being in the 3rd grade, standing out on the lawn in back of our house in Nine Mile Falls, WA on May 18, 1980, the day before my mom's birthday. At about 3PM I was staring at the sun. The sky was a thick gray color. The sun was blue. Then the ash started falling and we ran inside and watched out the windows for hours as an inch or more of the strange gray powder fell like snow. My father was trapped in Montana unable to get back to us. School was canceled for two weeks. We had to wear surgical masks for nearly a month. I remember when my father did make it home, we rinsed the stuff down the driveway and he got up on the roof to rinse it off. That summer we took jars of it down to my cousin Rhett in Twin Falls so he could sell bags of it to his friends for a $1. It didn't rain ash that far south.
2. MORRISSEY ROCKED on Tuesday night!! We had killer seats (until 3/4 of the way through the show when the widest guy with the fattest head decided to stand in front of us) and he was just amazing. I was SO thrilled when he played "Rubber Ring" which is my favorite Smiths song. Out of the gazillion songs off his 20 something albums (between the Smiths and his solo career), he played the ONE song that I was dying to hear. I was so so happy! And to see him do "How Soon Is Now" was wondrous...like when I heard David Byrne do "Burning Down the House." I felt blessed to be able to see it played. Silly, but true. I am a massive Morrissey addict now...
3. We went to P-Town this last weekend. Turned out it was Pet Appreciation Weekend and Leather Weekend. So we saw lots of poochies on leashes and leathermen with leashes. Never a dull moment in that town! We stayed in the most adorable little inn, The Snug Cottage. Very high recommend.
There is more rambling I could do, I'm sure, but I will save that for later this weekend...
Posted by crystallyn at 07:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 22, 2004
creepy scary not halloweeny
I talked to my father today, who told me that my brother had been bit by a brown recluse spider, one of six poisonous spiders in the US. They are common back out west, as are black widows and we used to see them all over the place. I remember black widows in our basement even, and we just knew to stay away from them.
So my father is telling me about this as I'm driving home from work (with a headset mind you). Apparently Chase got bit several days ago and finally, two days ago he showed my dad and at that time it was a hard nodule raised about four inches off the skin, with a swollen red ring and a brown mark in the center where he had been bit. My father wigged out and told him to get to the doctor, but Chase doesn't have medical insurance so he was balking. In the morning though, it was bad enough that he told his boss (he's a foreman at a construction company)--his boss made him work the whole day first. So after work he went to a "doc-in-a-box" as my father calls them, just a local emergency center.
Well, of course they were highly concerned and immediately went in to dig it out. They had to dig out the nodule, which was at least an inch under the skin as well. They gave him a shot in the cheek (did my father mean actual cheek or asscheek?) and then three localized shots as well as drugs to take overnight. He went back today and they were going to have to dig more out. Apparently it's more severe than they thought.
But as my father was telling me this, I had to have him stop, because I was driving and I've noticed, as I get older, when I hear or see things sort of "disturbing" I get extremely nauseus and faint. This has happened a few times, once while reading "The Penal Colony" on the bus, once when I saw a co-worker have an epileptic fit, once when watching a movie at a film festival about heroin junkies, and a few other times. I'm not talking about seeing a horror film that's violent or anything, but rather more cerebral things, or things related to people close to me or by people close to me. So as I'm hearing about the bite and them digging it out, I feel my stomach starting to get queasy. Had to shut my father off in mid-sentence. I think he thought I was insane. Instead I told him that the place I'm contracting at wants to hire me! So that was good and when I got to the grocery store, I let him tell me the rest of the story.
When I got home, I wanted to find out more about what happens when people get bit. Oh my god, oh my god. I still feel so completely sick. I just hope to god that my brother got help in time.
Here is one URL (of several I found), but BE WARNED NOT FOR THE QUEASY: Brown Recluse Spider Bites
Please keep him in your thoughts.
Posted by crystallyn at 07:36 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
September 20, 2004
Speaking of concerts,
Barry Manilow is right around the corner!
Even better, the day after, Joe and I are heading to P-Town for our 4th anniversary celebration...we go to the Cape every fall and celebrate. We're staying at a very cozy little B&B that looks great! I'll be able to tell all the queens at breakfast about Barry! We also have dinner reservations at one of our all time favorite restaurants, Chester.
Mmmmm can't wait!
Posted by crystallyn at 06:54 AM | TrackBack
August 30, 2004
sharing the love
I gave 80% my closet away yesterday. It was a happy event in several ways, in that it was because the clothes no longer fit me and because two of my girlfriends ended up with a big bag to take home with them. They were so funny, like kids in a candy store, with all the free clothes piling up for them. Many of them were just purchased a few months ago, so they are like new.
I made the bold move before summer to give away 80% of my winter clothes as well. I determined that I wasn't going to fit into them. And the good news is, I wouldn't be able to if they were still in my winter stash in the attic.
But what this means is that I barely have any clothes to wear! I'm nearly down to about 3 pairs of pants that fit me really well. I suppose that I shouldn't complain about having to go shopping, right? Still, it's hard to think about the fact that in a few months I'll be giving away the newly bought clothes once more. I'm ending up spending a lot of money in transition clothes. Lots of TJMaxx in my future, I think.
Being 40 lbs lighter than I was a year ago is a pretty darn good problem to have. I'm back down to my pre-college weight...pretty cool, huh?
Posted by crystallyn at 10:32 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
August 15, 2004
RIP Czeslaw Milosz, Julia Child
On Saturday, one of the world's greatest contemporary poets, Czeslaw Milosz, passed away.
THE THISTLE, THE NETTLE
Let the sad terrestrials remember me,
recognize me and salute: the thistle and the tall nettle,
and the childhood enemy, belladonna.
-O. V. DE L. MILOSZ, "Les Terrains Vagues"
The thistle, the nettle, the burdock, and belladonna
Have a future. Theirs are wastelands
And rusty railroad tracks, the sky, silence.
Who shall I be for men many generations later?
When, after the clamor of tongues, the award goes to silence?
I was to be redeemed by the gift of arranging words
But must be prepared for an earth without grammar,
For the thistle, the nettle, the burdock, and the belladonna,
And a small wind above them, a sleepy cloud, silence.
--Czeslaw Milosz, trans. Hass & Milosz.
His poetry is wonderfully accessible, and his words have directly touched and influenced my life. I am greatly saddened by the loss of this great poet.
And Julia Child, the most celebrated chef of our times...possibly ever, passed away on Friday. She lived for much of her life in Cambridge, and when she moved from there, her kitchen was donated to the Smithsonian. Few know that she was a spy in World War II.
Julia Child's Chocolate Mousse
Serves 8
8 oz. Sweet or semi sweet baking chocolate -- melted with:
1/4 c. Strong coffee
6 tbsp Unsalted butter
3 Egg yolks
1 c. Heavy cream (make sure it's the heavy variety)
3 Egg whites
1/4 c. Instant (finely ground) sugar
-----OPTIONAL----
Whipped cream
Beat the soft butter into the smoothly melted chocolate. One by one, beat in
the egg yolks. Beat the cream over ice until it leaves light traces on the
surface. Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. While beating,
sprinkle in the sugar by spoonfuls and continue beating until stiff shining peaks are formed. Scrape the chocolate mixture down the side of the egg-white bowl, and delicately fold in the whipped cream. Turn the mousse into attractive serving bowls. Cover and chill several hours.
You may wish to decorate the mousse with swirls of whipped cream, or to pass
whipped cream separately.
Julia Child - The way to cook. Published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright 1989 by Julia Child. Isbn 0-394-53264-3.
Rest in Peace, Czeslaw and Julia. Our world is much brighter because of you.
Posted by crystallyn at 11:20 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 05, 2004
so it turns out
that I have a wedding to go to the day after Manilow. In New York. From one magnificent party to another.
Other things of note:
1. I have a tan. Really. Imagine...pasty white me, tan. :)
2. Joe forgot to pull the paper off the disposable litter box while we were out at Mirror Lake in NH on vacation last week and Romeo decided that the big rubber plant in the living room was a suitable cat box. Well, he is smart, I have to give him that. We at first thought he was disgruntled, but then realized that he was just using his next option. Besides, how could he be disgruntled? He had Paulette taking care of him (in between hanging out with Jerry Springer (literally!) that is).
3. CONGRATULATIONS TO BRENT AND MARY ANN!!!! WOOOOHOOOO YOU TWO! You better be sending some pictures in my direction! I want to see this Dreat guy once and for all. ;)
4. Joe and I have decided that we're going to France next year. No clue how or when, but it is going to happen. We're targeting 10 days. I minored in French...figured I better actually put all that education to use. But it's been 10 years now and a brush up is DEFINITELY in order. Would welcome any recommends on places to eat or stay in Paris or any of the wine regions.
5. When I get my first paycheck from the super cool new job (I haven't had a paycheck in a month!!), I'm getting one of these:
6. I learned about the wicked cool Archimedes Palimpsest today.
7. Urbanoutback pointed out what someone else pointed out...in that every day you think of a monkey. OMG it's SO TRUE! Every day since then, a monkey has surfaced at some point during the day. Amazing. EVERY DAY YOU THINK OF A MONKEY.
8. In case you ever wondered about the evolution of food, now there is the Food Timeline
9. WOOOHOOO I made the Wikipedia. Who knew that a little jaunt by Joanie and I would end up being a bit more than 15 minutes of fame?
And I'm sleeeepy.
Posted by crystallyn at 09:19 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
June 04, 2004
Nobody ever called Pablo Picasso an...
I have pictures of last weekend's "Hellraiser" (as Sean mentioned) trip to MASS MocA.
But before I go there, let me post an old picture, which I rather like, taken a few months ago at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, when Joe's friend, Steve, was visiting. This picture is of an exhibit that is part of Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead.
Now on to MASS MoCA.
A mirror picture in the bathroom, which is a strange bathroom.
And an odd picture which I really love. I don't remember the name of this exhibit...I should have written it down. It is, essentially, wall graffiti posters that take up an entire wall. This is just a bit of it.
And to see the Corpus pictures...keep going...
I really enjoyed this exhibit and I didn't have a sense of Hellraiser at all, but that could be because it's been AGES since I've seen those movies.
Ann Hamilton's Corpus takes up Building 5, which is about the size of a football field. Rather, I felt much like the artist intended, that I was in a cathedral of some ethereal sort. I loved the light, airy feeling, the sense of peace that I had while I was there. I especially loved the windows, which are covered in pink silk. The light was wonderful. From the ceiling bullhorns rise and fall, slowly, with numerous voices chanting and talking simultaneously. Pieces of paper randomly fall from the ceiling to cover the ground. When we realized that they must have just cleaned the floor, we were disappointed. I wish we could have seen it when it was completely layered in paper. Still, I really loved this exhibit.
And Joe, watching the falling paper.
Posted by crystallyn at 11:09 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
May 22, 2004
flashback
I once saw this guy running naked with a bunch of other naked guys. Never understood college streaking, to be honest. I wonder if he remembers that.
I used to be his boss at one time, telling him that mixing oil and water wasn't always a good thing. But if you are into techno, I have to admit, he managed to figure it out.
Sometimes I look back on my life and it seems like such a strange dream...the people I have known, the way my life has changed. When I hear news of the people in my past, I feel a sense of wonder...of powerful memory, of nostalgia. So so much has changed. I'm better...I have a confidence that is borne of some sort of wisdom that I picked up along the way. I'm always fascinated with finding people that were in my past...like seeing Ned a few months ago or when I find poems by my former professor, Laurie Lamon, or realizing that well-known poet blogger Stephanie Young is someone who also went to school with me or when our mutual friend, Heather, discovers, rather coincidentally, that I had written about her on my site one day.
Joe always says I live too much in my past. I always always wonder what happened to people that somehow changed and shaped my life.
Posted by crystallyn at 05:30 PM | TrackBack
February 20, 2004
i love
He told Conan O'Brien that he loves eggs. 
And how he loves that women are eggs...and how he loves how eggs can be difficult to make. The difference between soft-boiled and hard boiled and how beautiful the white part of the egg is and how it surrounds the yolk.
Fucking awesome.
And then he talked about women who are afraid of clowns. And how when he is in bed, he is always naked.
I heard Psych Furs Pretty in Pink the other day and thought of him. But I thought Secretary was his very best movie...
Posted by crystallyn at 06:48 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
February 06, 2004
quote of the day
Alexi Sayle~
"Americans have different ways of saying things. They say 'elevator', we say 'lift'...they say 'President', we say 'stupid psychopathic git'...."
Posted by crystallyn at 04:23 PM | TrackBack
January 23, 2004
Goodbye Captain Kangaroo
One of my childhood heroes, Captain Kangaroo, died today at age 76.
I watched him faithfully. Mr. Moose, Mr. Green Jeans...I loved that show so so much. That funny red coat and those sideburns were absolutely AMAZING.
Rest in Peace...you brightened the lives of so many children, Bob Keeshan.
Posted by crystallyn at 07:12 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 27, 2003
i feel slightly sorry for those of you
who didn't manage to get ahold of any of LoobyLu's wonderfully designed holiday cards. She's sold out! I managed to get a couple packets, so I'm all ready for the sending! I feel so cool. I got my holiday cards before Halloween. Ha!
We're also going to be WAY on the ball for our Christmas party (sometimes with Paulette's Hannukah flair thrown in, although no more potato pancakes after the lingering grease smell of two years ago. :) We're planning on getting our invites out during the first week of November. Imagine that!!! No last minute planning on our part. Except that now, the sucky part is that Joe isn't a wine god and able to get cheap drinks. I have a feeling we'll get past that, however. :)
But back to LoobyLu, I am sad that I never managed to snag any of the cool t-shirts that she designed from last year's NaNoWriMo. This year's shirt is pretty cool, and I'll probably get one, but dang...I wish that last year's was this year's!
Speaking of, I'm getting SO geared up for NaNoWriMo. I've been going crazy with getting my outline together. I have my pantheon, which is the core of the book in many ways. That was one of the main components. I realize that I was so stalled on writing the book for so long because I didn't have that backstory figured out. I have so many wonderful ideas...I feel so excited and confident about writing a longer piece, finally. I fall to sleep at night thinking of where my characters are taking me. It's so exciting to have the revelations of where the story might twist and turn. I've been holding off on writing it until the official start for NaNoWriMo, and I think that's good...the backstory is going to be rich and complex and I will have all my stepping stones in place. Terry Brooks is a huge proponent of outline--one of the few sci-fi/fantasy writers that seems to take this direction. I finally realize that the reason I was so stuck for so long is because I tried to just sit down and write whatever happened...but that doesn't really work for me. But the outline--WOW! That has opened up huge possibilities for me. I even have the beginnings of the sequel nearly planned and I haven't even begun the writing of the first one! Very exciting. I feel like there is a future for me in my writing. I've never felt that, or BELIEVED that before. It's an amazing, incredible feeling.
Posted by crystallyn at 12:04 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 07, 2003
3 degrees from Kevin Bacon
1. I went to college with Trevor St. John. He dated my roommate Anne during our freshman year.
2. Trevor was in Dogtown with Mary Stuart Masterson.
3. Mary Stuart Masterston was in Digging to China with Kevin Bacon.
Posted by crystallyn at 12:15 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
October 02, 2003
yesterday I filed for unemployment
and the man that was helping me make my claim was an interesting character. Joe had moved around my piece of paper that had information about how much severance I had received and I made some mention that I didn't know where my husband put it.
The man responded, "You mean your groom."
I was confused. "What do you mean?"
"You are still on your honeymoon, aren't you?" he asked me.
I explained that we had gotten married in March and had our honeymoon. He told me that he was married 39 years ago and is still on his honeymoon. In between asking me questions about my claim (address, social, etc), he continued to expound upon these ideas.
"What is the thing you love most about your groom?"
"There are too many things to list!" I explained.
"Don't tell me--tell him. Tell him every day."
The conversation continued like this--an oddly intimate discussion in the midst of something fairly sad to deal with. Joe thought I was talking to a friend--not someone helping me do my unemployment.
When I confessed that both of us are out of work, he told me that it was okay...because we have each other.
I already knew that though.
Yesterday was our 3 year anniversary of meeting! We celebrated with a wonderful meal at the Blue Room. And the man, whose name I never caught, was right--the honeymoon isn't over. :)
Posted by crystallyn at 11:03 AM | TrackBack
September 02, 2003
you know those types
of friends that just manage to make you smile and realize that you shouldn't take life so seriously? I just got off the phone with my friend Payman, who I talk to maybe once every 4 months or so, and who always has a way of twisting my worries around into nothingness.
I was telling him about my situation and how when I started work here they didn't have any market presence and now, after a year, they do--"You just pulled a Crystal, that's all," he says, knowing exactly what I did without me even needing to say. "You know you are fucking amazing, don't you? And if you don't, then you need to." Payman is very free flowing with his expletives--he cracks me up.
But he also makes me believe him--he talks with such conviction, and it's not flattery, but honest conviction. He's always been a champion of mine--he knows that what I do isn't easy, but it seems easy and he knows how many people think they understand marketing, but don't. He tells me these things in the most off-hand way, like of course I must know I'm amazing.
He makes me realize that my downsizing into a tiny box is really inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. While right now I will continue to work with integrity, someone else will eventually find me, realize what I can do to kick ass for their company and will hire me. My track record is solid--very solid. I've made money for businesses time and time again. I have two CEOs who will give me references. I have a sturdy portfolio.
And besides, Payman is right.
I am fucking amazing.
Posted by crystallyn at 07:32 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
June 25, 2003
brazen
One of the women that works part-time for me (she is actually my boss' admin but does a lot of work in marketing with my team) went home for lunch on Monday to let her dog out to do his business. While she was there, she noticed briefly, as she was walking out of the apartment, how odd it was that her bedroom door was shut.
That evening, when she returned home, she realized that she must have scared off the burgler that was in her house when she was home earlier. He had come through an open window and managed to take some of her jewelry, but had left some key pieces behind, so she knew that she had scared him off. Understandably, she was really shaken by it.
Yesterday she comes by my office on her way home to let her dog out and we talked about it. I told her I would be freaked out to go home alone. Of course, we talked about what the chances of him being there again were and how they were buying new locks and alarms anyway.
Turns out when she got home, the chain on the front door was up...the guy was back and clearly inside. He came back for the rest of the jewelry this time. She freaked, ran back down the walkway to the cops who (on both days) were standing idly watching the construction in front of her house (this is a curious New England phenomenon...we pay our cops buttloads of cash in overtime money to stand around like morons at construction sites. 98% of them can't even be bothered to direct traffic when needed to. If a construction or energy company doesn't call the cops to watch, then mysteriously, the next day, their site will be vandalized...then the cops can say, well, if you only had called us to watch...). Sure enough, the cops were pretty useless in this situation. The guy went out the back window he had broken. Since they were Salem cops on detail work, they didn't really have jurisdiction anyway as she lives in Lynn. They didn't catch him (but I guess the construction guys all came and surrounded the house until they figured out the guy wasn't inside) and it took 20 minutes for the Lynn cops to arrive to continue the investigation.
He left items in her house though and random items from other people's houses strewn across her lawn. A neighbor got a look at him but it's a pretty basic description. 6' tall black guy, clean cut with khaki shorts, tennis shoes and a white polo shirt. And black gloves.
He didn't manage to get all the jewelry this time either--she figures she caught him right when he got there.
I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if it were me. I'd be so terrified. I mean, what if he wasn't just a cat burgler and was more violent...a girl coming home, alone? I had a dream a couple weeks ago about that very thing...walking into a building and realizing that I was alone and that the man in the room with me was going to assault me--I woke up in a sweat, my heart pounding.
My aunt leaves the doors to her house unlocked all the time. Granted, she lives in a small town in the middle of nowhere, but it still shocks me. The sad truth of this world is that you just can't trust people anymore.
Posted by crystallyn at 07:16 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
June 18, 2003
SHANNA ROCKS!
She knows why. You are such a gal after my own heart!!!!
THANK YOU hon!
Posted by crystallyn at 06:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 11, 2003
like a good neighbor...
We live in an interesting neighborhood...nice houses on one side of the fence, with projects on the other. Our side of the fence is pretty quiet, the neighbors aren't rambunctious and the majority of the action comes from people walking their dogs, and a few kids playing basketball on the side streets.
On the other side of the fence I'm not really sure what happens, but it's always LOUD. Like the couple screaming and yelling obscenities at each other. Last fall I heard them and I could tell that the woman was being beaten. It was awful. There are so many tiny houses over there though that I have no idea where it was coming from...and the way things are laid out, I didn't have any idea what the street names were. That side of the fence is another town altogehter. I just hoped that someone else called the cops to help her out. I heard them fighting again last week so at least she is still alive. That makes me sad and feeling helpless and I hate that.
But on a less horrible note, we have a trumpet player over there somewhere...but they aren't too obnoxious.
The real excruciating stuff happens on hot hot nights when the bass car stereos get turned on as teens hang out in the street. Or worse, the karaoke machine that some of the pre-teen girls have...turned up to 6 billion decibels with the most horrible horrible voices you can imagine...singing crap like Whitney Houston, and Christina Aguilera (incidentally, the Christina Aguilera that I knew in grade school was one of those kids that used to eat glue).
But the most bizarre is the older woman in the apartment buildings directly behind us that sings, sans music, at the top of her lungs, about whatever happens to fly out of her mouth. Sometimes there are no words, just a grating LALALA LALA LA sort of thing. She has the WORST voice imaginable, but she clearly thinks she's the stuff of American Idol.
Thankfully, we only hear this stuff when we are outside, and only in the summer. It's not so terrible that we hate eating on the balcony...it's more the random observations that there are some really talentless people that live around us...and are quite oblivious to the sad truth of it all.
Posted by crystallyn at 07:27 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
May 29, 2003
today
I saw:
A father teaching his little boy (must have been under five years) how to ride a bike in a park's parking lot.
A black shoe left near the old Salem jail on a stairway. I want to take a picture of it.
A tennis shoe on the on-ramp from 128S to 93S. Why do people lose shoes on the highway????
A man on the tip top of the mast of a sailboat, fixing a little flag. He made me dizzy watching.
Another person smoking, talking on her cell-phone and driving very slow in the fast lane. My favorite kind of person.
A pair of brilliant red cardinals flitting through the trees around our house.
I heard:
A woman in the apartments behind our house, singing, very loudly, VERY horribly, for at least a couple of hours. As Joe said...she's the type of woman who would try to get onto American Idol because she thinks she's got talent...and Simon would tell her she's "quite possibly the worst singer I've ever heard."
Posted by crystallyn at 09:28 PM | TrackBack
May 27, 2003
anthony hopkins, bad dreams and gollum as a rapstar
This weekend, Joe and I watched Red Dragon, the pre-quel to Silence of the Lambs, starring Anthony Hopkins, Ed Norton, Ralph Fiennes and Harvey Keitel. Wasn't too bad a movie...it's just a shame that it had to follow the massive bomb, Hannibal, which was arguably one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I'll never be able to look at Ray Liota and not think about eating his brain for lunch.
Oddly enough, we watched that on Saturday night and last night I had a dream that I was with a group trying to hunt down Anthony Hopkins in a big old hotel (it was more of a mansion than a hotel), and one of my co-workers found him in a room upstairs. She ran out hysterically, saying that he was up on the ceiling and that he was going to kill her. She wouldn't stop, even though I had the distinct feeling that he wouldn't have killed her if she could have just calmed down a bit. Very strange.
That dream was on the heels of another dream in which I was moving into a very tiny, dark apartment with twisty passageways into each room (the main entrance was off of a dorm hallway and it was so small I called it a rabbit hole...you had to crawl into it). The movers were supposed to come at 1:30AM and so we got up at 1:20, turned on the lights and the porchlights, but the movers never came! The next day I had to try and remember which movers we used...I couldn't remember and they had all our furniture.
Sunday we picked up the boxed DVD set for The Fellowship of the Ring and watched the long version for the first time. It was so much better, including extra scenes which I felt were very crucial to the movie (the gifts from Galadriel, for example). Thanks to a tip from James, I know that I should wait till the long version of Two Towers comes out in November, rather than buying it in August.
Somehow, in the course of some conversation I had this weekend (Joe is a huge Built to Spill fan and he was surprised to find out they were from Boise--I assured him, that, like me, some good things do come from there), I had a long memory of someone that I used to know and always wondered what happened to. Every so often I look for him online and it turns out he's finally got a web presence (and a two year old son!! congrats!). Ned was one of the more talented people I used to know and it looks like probably still is.
It was sort of timely that in perusing his site I discovered this little tidbit--
Gollum going a bit nutty with one of his orc buddies.
This is great for a serious laugh. I should post this to the geek Everquest boards I used to go to, but I think I'll let Sean/Corwin or Shanna/Ciado do it for me.
Posted by crystallyn at 06:24 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack