Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

Life is in flux BIG TIME these days. I want to keep in touch with all of my peeps. The Internet is this beautiful thing. I can move to a brand new city and still stay in easy, near-daily contact with the people I love. When I feel connected to the people in my life that matter, I am unstoppable!

5 Years Later “As It Happened” Activity

By Abby at 8:39 am on Monday, September 11, 2006
I actually woke up thinking I’d watch the "As It Happened" feed on CNN.com, since I overslept that morning. I called in sick to my job in Martinsville (I was doing some contract testing), and I don’t know what time it was when Hamilton (my now ex but then husband) woke me up and couldn’t believe I wasn’t in front of the television. The feed isn’t working for me. Is it working for you? By my watch, it’s 8:39am. Still nothing. Maybe it was a bad idea after all.

OK, CNN Pipeline officially sucks. I have now spent 45 minutes of my morning trying various ways of watching this video. I even opened Internet Explorer! I even tried joining Pipeline for $.99 for the day. None of this is working. I woke up intending to pay homage, to be moved, to experience something that I hadn’t experienced when it happened. Now I’m just irritated with the CNN web sit. Drat!
Filed under: I Just Think It's Neat/Sick Sad World5 Comments »

Good Deed Doing Can Pay Off

By Abby at 10:20 pm on Monday, August 28, 2006

Lovely dinner tonight with Kristin at Bukhara, although let me recommend that you never ever order the ice cream there. Just don’t do it. It’s funny. I remember my mother and father talking about how nasty ice cream was in England when I was little, but I never remembered that, probably because it was the ice cream I started on. And nowadays, ice cream in England tastes just fine. But this ice cream was waxy and fatty and nasty, and I knew right away that it was just like my first ice cream. Now I know why we always had lots of sprinkles and the like to cover up the flavor.

We were stuffed when we left, so we took a walk down to JP Licks. I’d already been there earlier in the day for soft serve (my latest passion), so no additional ice cream was needed. I think maybe we just needed to be reminded that there was good ice cream in this world, and that it was available to us, if we so desired.

As we passed the building, I heard the ATM beeping. I walked up to see why, and there was a card left in the machine. I decided to do my good deed for the day and take the card, then call the name on the card or the bank. After we arrived back here, I Googled the name "Brooke Adams, Jamaica Plain, MA." There was no current person by that name living here, but there were several references to "Lynne Adams and Brooke Adams," sisters who both worked in film, one of whom (Brooke) is married to Tony Shalhoub, who I recalled just one an Emmy last night (I love him!).

Since the bank on the card was in California, but Lynne Adams did have a number here in JP, I decided to go ahead and call. And yes, Lynne had a sister named Brooke who was visiting – who was actually there talking in the background. I said I’d deliver the card since I needed to drive my friend home anyway.

On the way there, we wondered whether Brooke was still with Tony Shalhoub, given the fact that he had just won that Emmy last night. And I decided that I wouldn’t ask, since it could be the case that they were not together, or who knows what else?

We were let in by Lynne’s husband, who greeted us with a very large black dog. The house was beautiful. Once inside, we were greeted by Brooke, who looks very much like a Hollywood actress. She thanked us, and then they invited us back to the kitchen, where the two sisters and another friend had just begun a game of Scrabble. After a few more thank you’s and discussion of Google sleuthery, Lynne’s husband suggested that they give us a copy of "the movie", which was filmed entirely in the house. They told me this when I remarked upon the very cool stenciling on the front of the stairs. I have the movie sitting right here: Made-Up. It was the perfect thank you. Brooke then proudly told us that her husband had won an Emmy last night. "Yes, we know!" And I got to say, "So why are you here?!" which had been on the tip of my tongue the entire time. Then we all laughed.

I had my camera in my bag the entire time, but honestly, it never occurred to me to take it out. On the walk back out to the street, Kristin and I were giggling. We even took some silly pictures of the top of the house with the DVD in front.

Adventures happen even when I’m not looking.

 

Filed under: I Just Think It's Neat/Sick Sad World,Jamaica Plain,Stories From My Life16 Comments »

Sweet! Sweeney Todd!

By Abby at 10:38 am on Thursday, August 17, 2006

I saw this show at Oberlin during the school year, and it was the first musical I saw that I really, really loved. When I found out they would be doing the show again at commencement, and that the woman in the chorus who sang the REALLY high notes couldn’t do it again, I auditioned and got in. It was an experience of a lifetime. The woman I replaced ended up singing on broadway (lead in Les Miz, I think), and the guy who played Joanna’s love interest (oh, what’s that character’s name again) was Will Chase, who has had a very successful Broadway career. Even the director was amazing. I think it was David Dobrusky (bio on this page)… or am I now making stuff up?

And now Johnny Depp is going to be in the movie version. Hoorah! It’s such a great story. Chilling, funny… can’t wait!




Also sweet yet unrelated JP info.

Filed under: I Just Think It's Neat/Sick Sad World1 Comment »

Embracing Creativity in Education

By Abby at 5:56 pm on Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Why? It’s brilliant. I love it.

Sir Ken Robinston talks about why education needs to embrace creativity, not devalue it.

Sir Ken Robinson is author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, and a leading expert on innovation and human resources. In this talk, he makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. (Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA.)

Filed under: I Just Think It's Neat/Sick Sad World2 Comments »

Cool Flickr Badge

By Abby at 4:39 pm on Monday, July 24, 2006

This thing is really cool, although I really wish it weren’t so wide, or at least that it was more tweakable. That way, it would fit in my sidebar…

abbyladybug. Get yours at flagrantdisregard.com/flickr

Filed under: I Just Think It's Neat/Sick Sad World,PicturesComments Off on Cool Flickr Badge
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