February 2010

Oh Canada, glorious and free...


I don't know about you but the whole February is a short month thing really throws me off.  We get to the end of February and I'm like "wait....what?"  You'd think I'd get the hang of it.  I mean, it's only been 33 years.  Jeez.  Aside from that, February has kind of been my ass.  It's just plain not been a good February....but that is the very reason why Ten Happy Things is important.

Before we get started, I just have to get this out of the way so I don't get a lot of questions about why this or that didn't make the list in this and the upcoming months.  I was pregnant before but I'm not now.  It's just one of those things.  We're all okay and handling it and all that and we're definately going to give it another go...  I just figured I'd get it out there to avoid any confusion.  So, you know, there's that.

Now, back to good things!  Here are some good things:

10.  You know how you can be sitting on the couch and there's absolutely nothing on and then you come across an awesome movie that you haven't seen in years on some random channel and it's like THE BEST?  I had that recently.  It was a Monday night and nothing was on that I wanted to watch and I was just aimlessly flipping through the guide on my TV....and then there it was on HD Net Movies.  Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.  It was about five minutes in and it was ripe for the picking.  I indulged.  I LOVE that movie.  I hadn't seen it since High School so I watched with glee.  What a great flick.  It's the last movie Spencer Tracy ever made and it is a perfect example of why that man was a god of his craft.  Plus, there's this great part where Mrs. Jefferson (she's not Mrs. Jefferson in the movie.....but the part is played by Isabelle Sandford and she's Mrs. Jefferson no matter what) just totally gives Sidney Poitier the business and it's pheonominal.  The best part, though, is at the end.  Spencer Tracy is giving his little speech about why he thinks it's okay for his white daughter to marry the black doctor dude and blah blah blah....and he says that if what the two of them feel is even a portion of what he felt for his wife when he first met her, they'll have all they need.  It's a nice scene.  The killer is that he stops mid-sentence and just gazes over at Katherine Hepburn and you can see right there in that moment that the two of them are the characters they're playing but they're also Kate and Spencer who have loved each other for 25 years.  It's kind of like they invent love with that look right there on the screen.  It's outlandishly spectacular.

9.  I really dig Ricky Gervais.  I think he's just about one of the funniest people around.  Then again, I'm also one of those people who find British comedy to be positivly hysterical.  A lot of people don't get it.  I get it and it totally slays me.  If you, like me, find Ricky Gervais and his brand of British comedy hilarious, check out The Ricky Gervais show on HBO.  It's basically an animated version of a podcast.  Ricky Gervais, his ever present partner Stephen Merchant, and this other dude named Karl Pilkington sit down and record these podcasts and the show sets those recordings to animation.  Let me tell you, it's friggin' hilarious.  Karl Pilkington is so funny, it hurts.....and mostly because he's not at all trying to be funny.  He's either insanely brilliant, insanely stupid, or just insane.  I haven't yet figured it out.....but he says the most uproariously funny things that get Ricky Gervais cracking up, which gets me cracking up because he's got one of those laughs that you can't help but laugh along with.  You can also download podcasts of the three of them on iTunes.  These are also a complete gas.  I've downloaded a bunch of them and I listen to them on the train while cracking up, much to the annoyance of people sitting around me.  I don't care.  I don't know how people can get so annoyed by glee.  Lighten up.  Maybe they should indulge in some Ricky Gervais.

8.  I know that this commercial is all over television but I don't ever watch commercials.  I record everything I watch on my DVR and then fast forward through all the commercials.....so I'm usually pretty behind on the good commercials.  I just saw this one a few days ago for the first time and I think I may have pulled a muscle laughing:



It's an oyster with two tickets to that thing you love!"  Good grief, that's funny.  And I love how the blue striped sweater just falls around his neck out of nowhere.  Whoever came up with that advertising campaign is a genius.  It doesn't stop there either.  The entire Old Spice website focuses around that guy and his manly way of doing things.  Go check it out.  Check out the Twitter feature where the site will compose Tweets for you designed to help you woo a lady.  "You're the apple of my eye but not of my lunch.  That would be cannibalism."  Hahahahahahahaaa!

7.  The first of the World Golf Championship golf events was held this past month and it was GLORIOUS.  For starters, there was no Tiger.  Of course, he had to be an attention whore and scheduled his public service announcement (or whatever the hell that press conference thing was supposed to be outside of being a huge middle finger to Accenture, the sponsor of the tournament who is also one of the sponsors that dropped Tiger) smack in the middle of the tournament but that was only a minor annoyance amid a sea of awesome.  Without the presence of Tiger, coverage could focus on other golfers, which means I got day after day after day of Sergio and Ian and Paulie.  All three did well, especially Sergio who is usually out of that event in the first round.  He sucks at match play.  I don't know why.  He kicks ass at the Ryder Cup which is essentially the same format but he just sucks it up at match play.  He got all the way to the semifinals this year.  He probably could have gone further had most of the semifinals not taken place in a monsoon.  Weather and Sergio don't get along.  Weather and any player whose game relies heavily on touch don't get along.  That's beside the point.  The final was Paul Casey vs. Ian Poulter.  Win!  I mean, mind you, Ian had to completely pummel Sergio to get to that final but it's still a win.  Even more of a win is the fact that Ian totally won.  First PGA Tour win!  It was just Ian all over the place.  Ian overload.  Ian extravaganza!  Behold!

That's my boy Ian rocking the pink outfit and holding the trophy.  Considering the way the trophy looks, the whole scene kind of looks like a golf homage to baby showers.  There's just way too much pastel pink and blue going on....but it's Ian, so it works.  Atta boy, Ian!  :o)

6.  For Valentine's Day, I got a great big chocolate chip cookie decorated with red frosting that read "Happy Valentine's Day."  Who needs flowers when you can have a giant cookie!

5.  Sports nut that I am, you knew I had to write about the Olympics.  I LOVE the Olympics, especially the winter games.  There were so many facets of the Olympics this year that brought me joy.  Some of them are good enough to get their own list items.  Those come later.  However, I loved that the United States kicked some major ass overall.  I loved that Canada, who rarely gets any recognition for anything, won the most gold medals and I loved that they finally got some gold on home soil.  I loved that Shaun White won gold without having to do his second run for the second Olympics in a row.  Il Pomodoro Volante!  I loved that our American girls did better than expected in figure skating and that Evan Lysacek won gold over that damn Yevgeni Plushenko (who I can't stand).  I loved that Lindsay Vonn won gold and that Bode Miller redeemed himself and got his gold medal....better late than never!  I loved that Kim Yu-na won the gold in ladies figure skating after carrying the weight of her entire country's expectations on her shoulders (and giving Brian Orser his golden moment...finally!)  I loved that a short, bald, fat kid won a gold medal for the United States in four-man bobsled.  I love that Apolo Anton Ohno won his eighth Olympic medal and was gracious in disqualification in the 500 meter race even though he and everyone else knew damn well that the DQ was pure and utter bullshit.  I loved that the opening ceremonies had that cool part with the whales.  I loved that Gretzky lit the torch.  I just loved it all.  I drown myself in the Olympics the entire two weeks that it's on and this year was no exception.  Sigh - I will miss you, Olympics.

4.  If you didn't watch the Olympics, then you don't know about Joannie Rochette.  This is Joannie Rochette:

Joannie is a French-Canadian figure skater whose mother had a heart attack and died two days before the ladies figure skating competition began.  Like a trooper, she went ahead and skated anyway despite the fact that both she and her father were a complete mess.  The absolute best part, though, is that she skated well enough that she walked away with a bronze medal.  She was an absolute pillar of poise and grace.....and she left everyone in the house teary-eyed.  Chris Collinsworth cried.  Al Michaels cried.  Scott Hamilton was nearly beside himself.  It was something to see.  She skated so well and then they showed her father and he was just a mess, the poor man.  She honored her mother by giving her best.....and it was AWESOME.

3.  I love curling.  I don't care if just about everyone in the United States thinks it's dumb.  I love it.  I only get to see it every four years.  Because the Internet is my friend, I got to follow curling every day throughout the entire Olympics.  It was online, it was on MSNBC, it was on CNBC.  I was totally immersed in curling.  I'd really like to attempt this sport.  However, considering that I'm extremely clumsy and, most often, a complete calamity, it's pretty safe to say that I'd slip on the ice and maim myself in some way.  Nevertheless, it's a sport that includes broom and sweeping.  How could I NOT be good at this?  I mean, come on!

2.  Ladies and gentlemen, the highlight of my Olympic experience:

You can call me all the names you want but I was actually rooting for Canada (not that it wouldn't have been completely awesome if the US won) and you can call him all the names you want but that's Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins scoring the gold medal winning goal.  What team, you say?  Why, the Pittsburgh Penguins!  MY Pittsburgh Penguins!  That's my Penguin, baby!  Ha HAAAAA!  The cherry on the top of that particular glob of icing is that a bunch of other Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks won gold medals in the process as well.  Greatest Olympic hockey game I've ever seen.  Well, I take that back.  The USA vs. Russia game during the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics was probably the greatest Olympic hockey game I've ever seen but I was like four years old so I couldn't really appreciate it much outside of watching my cousins freak out with glee.  This game ranks with that game......and before you get your panties all in a pinch, I would say the same thing had the United States won.  It was a GREAT hockey game.  Truly.  If you didn't enjoy that game, then you don't like hockey.  Period.

1.  In exactly three days, my greatest source of worry will be over because I will no longer have any loved ones in Iraq.  Three days.  It's four months later than expected but who cares.  Three more days and I don't have to worry about it anymore.........EVER AGAIN.  If that's not a Happy Thing, well then I just don't know what a Happy Thing is.  :o)

Let's all keep our fingers crossed that March is brighter than February because I won't have the Olympics to distract me.  ;o)  It's the trials in life that make these lists important because if you can't find the bright spots in the dark, you might as well hang it up.  Be well, my lumpkins!