Hey there, stranger.

I haven't died, nor do I have any intention to quit blogging... life just got in the way. So to update (and quickly!) I will make a list of positive and negative things that have occurred in the last coupla months...

+I went to the Renaissance Faire with Jessica Eff-Word, Jessica Guitar-Hero, Jeremy, Dimitri and his wife, Jen.

-Ozy was diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus. He gets a diet change, and then later in the month of April, he gets started on insulin. He is rapidly causing his mommy's neurotic tendencies to overwhelm the house by giving her yet another thing to obsess over. :)

+Taundra had her baby on March 20, 2010. He is a healthy, happy little boy. They named him Ebanezrah. I got to hold him when he was only 5 hours old!

-Dad went to the hospital for a mysterious GI bleed. He went to the hospital, had around 10 blood/plasma transfusions, and they finally did surgery and cauterized the artery that was bleeding. He ended up getting out of the hospital the day I left for my trip.

Then...
+I went to Germany to see Will! (That's good!)
-Will got food poisoning the second day that I was there. (That's bad.)
+We went to Paris, France! (That's good!)
-My wallet got stolen in the Paris train station. (That's also bad.)
All in all, it really was a good trip. I swear! I had a great time in both Germany and France, and I loved being with Will. Notably, the ash cloud that paralyzed a whole continent came a week too late to get me stranded in Germany with Will, which would have been so cool.
***To view pictures of my trip, check facebook. I put up about 100 photos.***

Now...
-Work has been BUSY. Really, really, really busy.
+I am going to see the movie The Heathers today for the first time with Taundra and Matt (and Eban, but he won't really be watching the movie). We've been trying to do this movie night since before the baby was born, but something always gets in the way...
+Tomorrow is Jessica Eff-word's 23rd birthday, so we will be going out to eat.

Okay, that's about it. Onwards and upwards! I'll try to be better at updating. Love you guys!

A Terrific Trip to the Theat-ah!

Last night, I went to Beowulf Alley Theatre in the heart of downtown Tucson. Playing was "Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage" by Jane Martin. For a brief synopsis on the show as well as where it is playing in Tucson, click here .

I went with Matt*, a good friend, husband to my other good friend Taundra, and the Special Effects creator for the show that we were going to see. Because he was one of the people working on the gore, severed limbs, and tattoo artwork on the characters, I got dropped off at Shot in the Dark Cafe for about an hour and a half before the show. I managed to read a few chapters of Spook and make myself ill on a too-greasy grilled cheese sandwich, all the while enjoying a delicious iced mocha.

*Clicking on Matt's name will send you to his biography circa 2001, which was when he acted in the movie Wormwood. This biography, being nine years old, is incredibly out of date. For one, he's now pursuing a BA in theatre education so that he may spread his artistic skills to a new generation of thespians. He has a couple of other acting and special effects feats under his belt that he did not have at the time. He's also bald now.

The play itself was hilarious, fast-paced, and immensely enjoyable. There are plenty of times to laugh, a couple of good times to jump, and some times that make you squirm, even with the knowledge that that's fake blood up on the stage. I would not hesitate to call it a success, and I recommend that anyone who can drop by Beowulf today, tomorrow, or next Thursday through Sunday make a point to do so.

I do have to admit that I am glad that I do not frequent a particular Starbucks in town (I will be keeping the specific location to myself), as I was told the one actor that ended up coming out in nothing but socks, a jock strap and a gun holster works there. While he was a great actor, I don't know how easily I could order a drink from him without suddenly envisioning my Barista wearing nothing but a smock and aforementioned jock strap. It doesn't even matter what you look like; that is an unattractive outfit to don.

All told, it was a great night. Today I plan on going hiking, and tomorrow I will be enjoying the Renaissance Faire... excellent! I hope to have many pictures, and possibly some more amusing stories, later.

Crayons, and other essentials.

There are just some days where you want to be a kid again. Yesterday was one of those days. I would have been completely content with staying home, listening to music that I would have listened to around the age of twelve, watching the Labyrinth, and coloring with crayons. In lieu of that, I listened to music that I would have listened to around the age of twelve (eg Savage Garden, which Will so sweetly included on his most recent mix CD to me) and drive to work. I did bring crayons in case I got a moment to decorate the crap out of something. I did not end up doing it, though I did feasibly have the time.

I got a really nasty case of hives at work around 4:00 AM. I took 50mg of Diphenhydramine, which is a fancy way of saying that I took two Benadryl. I'm going to go to sleep now.



Some fun crayon facts lifted off of another website:

Crayola crayons currently come in 120 colors including 23 reds, 20 greens, 19 blues, 16 purples, 14 oranges, 11 browns, 8 yellows, 2 grays, 2 coppers, 2 blacks, 1 white, 1 gold and 1 silver. Although Crayola crayons come in 120 different colors, the labels are only made in 18, which cover the full color spectrum.

Nearly 3 billion crayons are made each year, an average of 12 million daily.

Exciting mediocre Bren!

I know I haven't written in a few days, but in my defense, I was at least enjoying myself. My "weekend" was pleasantly busy. On Thursday, I had to wake up to go to meeting at work, which was not fun, and I was not excited by it in the least because Thursday was my first day off, and I really just wanted to sleep. Instead of going home, I went and had dinner with my parents and then went down to Plush on Fourth Avenue and saw Seashell Radio (http://www.seashellradio.com/), Coyote Grace (http://www.coyotegrace.com/), and Leila Lopez (http://www.leilalopezsongs.com/) play. I thoroughly enjoyed all three shows, but I can honestly say that I would not have stayed if Courtney Robbins had not told me to stay for all three acts as opposed to just her's. Courtney has a solo career (you can find that info here: http://www.courtneyrobbins.com/) and I began to listen to her years ago. We have also talked occasionally and I must say that she is quite awesome. She told me that I would be sorry if I didn't stay for the next two shows (and she played with both of them as well), and she was definitely right. For anyone interested in folksy, singer/songwriter music, I HIGHLY recommend all of these guys.

The show was a nice change for me, because things have been pretty hectic lately and I was really hoping to unwind. Everyone at the show was so nice that my usual anxiety didn't even seem to get to me that much. I will definitely have to go to folksy shows more often.

On Friday, I went out with my friend Jessica (Jessica F-Word, for those of you who are keeping tabs) and got the last few things that I needed for the baby shower that I would be hosting the next day. Jessica and I are apparently inept at navigating our way around a Babies R Us, but after wandering aimlessly for what felt like an eternity, we were directed by the manager to where we could find changing table pads and boppies. We also went to Target and did some awesome grocery/medication/baby shower prep shopping before going home and having difficulty wrapping our gifts. It was a blast.

Saturday was the baby shower for Taundra, Matt, and the little child that has yet to be born. It went quite well. We had crap tons of extra food, the gifts were a go, and Taundra and Matt's child that is now two years old, Piperlee, spent the couple of hours at my parents' house blissfully relocating the remotes. It was great. I was exhausted by the end of it (I have been stressing over it for weeks, and I had to wake up at 8am that day), so I went home and took a lengthy nap.

Then, the moment I have been waiting for for MONTHS occurred. I saw Shutter Island! It was a fabulous movie, and I plan to see it again, and probably own it. Anyone who has read my blog knows that I've been excited about this for eons... it was so worth it.

Now my work week is in full swing, and I am back to being mundane overnight Brenna. Le-sigh. I will say that I am reading (on my lunch breaks, mostly) Spook by Mary Roach (author of Stiff and Bonk, both of which are quite entertaining). It's pretty good thusfar. With all of this being said, I'm going to go to bed so that I may continue to be relatively coherent at work. *Thumbs up*

Torment of the year 2000: a trip to my subconscious, and a blast from the past.

Why am I awake right now? The answer is simple, yet it makes such little sense: The Thong Song.

I have not listened to the Thong Song since it infected the radios and TVs of the year 2000. I did, however, wake up involuntarily on four different occasions today singing this novelty in my head. I can't decide what's more frightening: the fact that my subconscious wants me to think of the aforementioned song, or the fact that I know most of the words even now. Granted, the words aren't too tricky... but couldn't I be lucky and forget?

In closing, I don't want to be livin' la vida loca, I don't have dumps like a truck, and really, all I want is to be able to sleep. Please leave me alone, Sisqo.

Irrational Fears.

I realize that I have been really, really awful at blogging recently. We shall not speak of this, but I promise to try a little harder from here on out. So now, without further ado...the blog!

We all have some thing or things that we really, in truth, should not be frightened of. For the most part, these things are strange, childhood recollections or pointless images or objects that we have actually given negative connotations to in our minds. The other night while I could not sleep, I began to dwell upon my irrational fears. I suppose that these objects, if viewed in the right context, could be frightening or dangerous. In Tucson, Arizona, however, it is unlikely that I will have to meet up with any of them, and therefore it's pretty pointless to even consider them an issue. Here are a few of my favorite (or least favorite, as the case may be) things, further explained by Wikipedia. I will not be posting pictures, because I AM AFRAID OF THESE THINGS.

1. Leeches
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeches)
I don't care if they're the blood-sucking type or not. It doesn't matter. They're freakish. They look slimy, they lurk in water, and they have anticoagulant spit. They leave sores. They feed on the dead and the living. They're just...disgusting. Perhaps I SHOULD stay in an arid area after all.

2. Eels
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eel)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moray_eel)
I put the second wikipedia article up there because it illustrates how an eel's jaw works. No creature should have two jaws.
When I was a teenager, I went to a dumpy aquarium in DC. There wasn't really much there and you could get through it in minutes. I usually love aquariums, but this one just about broke me. Eels are camouflaged creatures. I rounded a corner quickly without paying much attention. Suddenly, this big, eerie eel came POPPING out of a rock. He came from nowhere, horror movie style, mouth opened and everything. Thanks, eel, but no thanks; I will not end up as your dinner.

3. Nematodes
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nematodes)
Hey, kids! Ready to give yourselves nightmares? Read the wikipedia page about nematodes. I deal with these things REGULARLY...gross. An equally frightening wiki page on nematodes is this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creeping_eruption

If you haven't yet seen the correlation, I don't like water-related beings. The oceans scare the crap out of me. I'd like to say it's just an immense respect, but it's not. I'm horrified of them. I'll go to the beach, but I will not go in.

I'm going to end this blog with something that I don't find frightening:

Hellraisers.

I just finished watching Hellraiser VIII: Hellworld. This is officially the end of the Hellraiser movie series, which ranges from the original from 1987 to the aforementioned, which came out (straight to video, I may add) in 2005. I have officially seen all of them, and as it was quite an arduous and occasionally painful venture, I feel that it behooves me to reflect upon it.

The series began in a stroke of genius based heavily upon Clive Barker's novella The Hellbound Heart. The first movie bore a strong semblance to the novella, and the second movie bore a strong semblance to the first. The third made slightly less sense and took some deviation from the previous two, but I would still consider it to loosely resemble Clive Barker's original brainchild. This movie marks the loss of the Cenobites' ambiguity: they are no longer angels to some, demons to others; it is quite clear that Pinhead and his posse are truly "bad guys" bent on the destruction of humanity.
The fourth movie was completely different, and was mainly just backstory about the Lemarchand box, the man who made it, and all of his offspring and offspring's offspring. It weasles its way into the future (approximately 200 years ahead, in fact) and we get to see the ultimate destruction of Pinhead, the doorway that one may open to get to hell (the Lament Configuration), and a space ship all at once. You'd think the series would be through, but remember, we still have 200 years of destruction to map out.

The fifth movie was, perhaps, the ultimate failure in the series. It made very little sense, had no likeable characters in it, and the only real reason you could call it Hellraiser at all was because it had Pinhead in it...albeit about ten minutes of him in total. Even Doug Bradley, the actor that brought Pinhead to screen all eight times, admits that this is his least favorite of all the films. Here is proof, from an interview that I recently stumbled upon:

*Marcus:: Now which is your favorite installment and which is your least favorite installment in the HELLRAISER series?
Doug:: I would say that my favorite is still the first movie and INFERNO is my least favorite.
Marcus:: Inferno was number 5 right?
Doug:: Yeaaaaah*

This movie was also the first in which Pinhead goes from being the aggressor to a sort of immoral compass, where he tortures the torturers and wags his finger at those who do wrong upon others.

The sixth movie has Kirsty in it again, but not even she can save it from being lumped in with the fifth movie and the seventh movie. All of these movies have less and less Pinhead, less and less plot line, and make less and less sense. Kirsty has gotten married to an all-around chump, and she ends up trading his soul and the souls of four of his friends and lovers to get Pinhead and his cronies off her back for good. The seventh involves some strange cult that is headed by a distant relative of Lemarchand whom we never met in Hellraiser IV: Bloodline. He looks like he's trying to be Trent Reznor, he can bring people back to life by making out with them, and he can't open the Lament Configuration...which is his ultimate goal in life! At least, I think it is. I couldn't grasp all of the fragments of plot in this movie long enough to have it make sense.

This brings me to the eighth movie...oh, the eighth movie. It had more Pinhead than the last three movies combined! It had a creative (although I use this term loosely) drugged-then-buried-alive plot of which Edgar Allen Poe would have been proud! It...still made very little sense! Despite the marked lack of a decent plot, I must say that this was my favorite of the last four gomers. The acting wasn't nearly as bad as V-VII; on some level I found the group of dumb teens in the movie to be endearing. Pinhead was still spanking the baddies of the world. His last line in any of the H films was, "I should have taken care of you long ago!" Ouch, Doug, ouch.

All in all, if ranking the Hellraiser dynasty in order from most liked to least liked, I would have to put them like this:

1. Hellraiser- can't beat the original

2. Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth

3. Hellraiser IV: Bloodline

4. Hellraiser II: Hellbound

5. Hellraiser VIII: Hellworld

6. Hellraiser VI: Hellseeker

7. Hellraiser VII: Deader
8. Hellraiser V: Inferno