Cirque Class, Burning the Midnight Oil, and 'I Gotta Feeling.'

This week, I took my first cirque class - it is the type of workout 'a la Cirque du Soleil franchise. [www.cirqueschoolla.com]

Felt it was time to try something new.

There's fabric rope that you hoist yourself up on. A thick braided rope dangling from metal beams - back to Phys. Ed., seventh grade. A few trapeze swings. Dozens of medicine balls. And so, we went to town.

Circuit training at each station, and somehow we killed an hour. Tendonitis and carpal tunnel tendencies don't render the workout any easier. I wince through the braided rope lifting. My brain is still young, it is still on the East Coast. My body is not.

In conclusion, I am no longer queen of the monkey bars. Or ten years old.

Burning the Midnight Oil
The coffee's on, and I'm two cups deep into my Dunkin' Donuts Original Blend, and a bag of original Cheetos. I watch the last ep of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. I'll try not to be cynical. Conan said so.
I'm trying to edit a writing piece for a submission for one of the opportunities 'a la Withoutabox. It's a Saturday night, and Friday was a doozy, leaving most of this afternoon and tonight being the only real window of time, considering the hustle-and-bustle of the daily grind leaves you with sparse time, not to mention little energy. If only I had more time...

'I Gotta Feeling'
Does it bother ANYONE ELSE that the hit single by the Black Eyed Peas is grammatically, completely incorrect? 'Gotta', being a form of 'got to', is supposed to be followed by an infinitive verb of some sort. Since the word following the hot track's verb is a noun, 'Feeling,' the form of 'I Gotta', is not in fact what the song's title should be utilizing, but 'I've Got A', since it is describing a possession of a direct object noun, in this case, it should be 'I've Got A Feeling.'

Way to go for supporting education, American pop stars.

'Dear Black Eyed Peas,
Did you know that the title of your song is grammatically incorrect? As music professionals and songwriters, you should be fully aware of your lyrics. Now, millions of kids who aren't paying attention in school that absorb the Billboard's Top 100 singles more likely than classic American literature, will think that this is correct phrasing. And what's a tragedy is that when they become college kids and young professionals, they will still get the phrasing wrong. You know better. At least we hope you do. Have you every considered writing your lyrics on Microsoft Word ? It has grammar and spell-check.'

Perhaps what is sadder are the enablers, accepting all this. If the song wasn't so damn catchy...

COTW

James McAvoy. He's not strikingly attractive. But something very genuine about him; must be the the clear-cut eyes.

Guys that know that 'a lot' is NOT ONE WORD. (Sad. I think I just heard my standards drop a few notches.)

Los Angeles - a reluctant relationship? [a mini-post]

Friends know when they're going to stick. There's the flaky friend, the friend you go to for fun, the friend you go to when you need a serious conversation and opinion, the friend you go with for concerts, the friend you share your artsy afternoons with at the museum, the friend you go to for professional advice, the friend you talk to for dating advice.

Staying in LA has become somewhat of a reluctant relationship - I'm sorta sticking around, not really happy with the situation, but too scared/lazy/tired/trapped to get to know anybody else.

Such high highs and low lows - say, aren't most abusive relationships that way?

LOTW [lines-of-the-week]
Maybe we just need that resource, or helping hand to reach out, should we need it. As Author Richard Ford described:

"the Gideons leave Bibles in cheap hotel rooms, as a way of saying to the hapless inhabitant: 'In case your reckless ways should strand you here, there's help.'" Well put. Where is that Bible of mine?

COTW [crush-of-the-week]

Bedhead boys. 'Cappy' from Greek. 'Nuff said. NOTE: This is a deviation from the usual clean-cut, well-dressed gentleman portrait from which I usually derive many of my COTW notes. There are always exceptions to every rule.

WOTW [word-of-the-week]

wonky. (Wonky's a WORD?! I'm betting someone made it up and it somehow caught on.)[www.webster.com]
Etymology: probably alteration of English dial. wankle, from Middle English wankel, from Old English wancol; akin to Old High German wankōn to totter — more at wench
Date: 1918
1 British : unsteady, shaky
2 chiefly British : awry, wrong

Hell to the NO !, Insomnia, And, For A Good Time, Call...Someone Else.

Hell to the NO!
Sometimes I wish I was a large, sassy black woman. Okay, mainly just for the sassy quips. There's just so much character behind the words, even if just a few words. People be crazy. See ?

Hello, Insomnia.
It's a Monday night. I'm exhausted and would welcome sleep but it does not arrive. My brain will not go to sleep.

I have a disease. It's called you're-one-of-those-people-that-thinks-too-much. If unharnessed could easily have been of an OCD disposition.

Mid-life crises come early. You question everything in a time of crisis. And maybe, you can't sleep.

For example, I love TV. I love writing. I love food. I do not LOVE LA. Los Angeles. I don't mind LA, I take the good with the bad, there are things I enjoy and hate about LA, but no, I am not one of those transplants whom absolutely, unequivocally, annoyingly, loves LA and everything about it.

Really. If you pitch the weather to me one more time, I just might throw up.

So, here we are. Back to the table. Back to reality. Gotta pay the bills. When did life latch onto your soul and start saying 'gotta pay the bills' ? Insert lamenting the lost days of youth here. So odd, these places we find ourselves in, these people we find we've somehow become one day.

Perhaps, if you are given everything and desire nothing, you wouldn't feel as anguished as I do. Or, if everything in life has always worked out smoothly with no detours, delays, or bumps, then you wouldn't stop to reexamine, to question, or to any loss of sleep.

I wonder if the migraines are from thinking too much. Must be a certain personality type that is pre-disposed to such things.

I absolutely love closing my eyes. Getting into a hot bath and closing my eyes and forgetting the world around me for twenty minutes. The world does keep turning, then you keep on turning.

God, I'm tired. Hoping the hot milk will hit soon.

For A Good Time, Call...Someone Else
I just want to be alone right now. Ya know ? I have revisited the goal of seeking LA's Great Escapes - the places I go to in the LA area where I feel like I'm getting away from LA - the traffic, the people, the noise.

Oh yeah - made the mistake of dishing out my plans for the weekend - sometimes you invite one person, and ten people end up showing up ? Oh, mutual friend groups. Didn't realize that what I needed the most was some alone time. Gosh! Sometimes life is so demanding that the person whose needs are not being met are yours - and hey, I'm not even a mother or married.

Listen to yourself, folks. Go ahead, go on, do it yourself, because I'm not going to take a plus one to my LA Escape this time; I just want to be alone right now.

Note to self: discover more great LA Escapes.
Supplemental note to self: Do not reveal all aforementioned Escapes. This may compromise the very nature of their existence.

Less than 24 hours.

It was the holidays, and the holidays have come and gone yet again. It feels like a faded memory.

I've been at my parents' house for less than 24 hours and I'm bored and already thinking about what I need to do when I get back to la-la land.

My mother keeps commenting on my hair - the bangs are too short, and the length is too long. She recounts the comment of a cousin of mine what must have been given to her months ago - she pulls from the files of her memory and keeps dragging it out to me, over and over again, as if I didn't absorb it the first five times.

Yep, I'm definitely back at my parents' house again.

It's been about 8 years since I've lived with my parents, after I went to college and spent my summers interning, and then entered the workforce.

In other news, maybe this is exactly what I need/want. Some time away from the city, from work, from the hustle-and-bustle. When you're not at home you can focus on, well, having time to focus on the things you don't usually get to focus on. For example, not overusing the word, 'focus.'

A lot can happen in less than 24 hours, I'm aware. Thanks, pop culture and film world.

COTW [crush-of-the-week]

Guys in 1940s haircuts. 50s, too. Lately the throwback to post-war slicked hair combed to the side or with a slight poof and wave has had a certain charm. Who knew?

WOTW [words-of-the-week]

glib. adjective. marked by ease or informality; nonchalant. showing little forethought or preparation : offhand. lacking depth and substance : superficial.