Aging Gracefully...

I remember when I was a kid & there was those Oil of Olay commercials that talked about aging gracefully and I think L'Oreal Preference commercials banning the notion of graying hairs... I mean the HORROR!!!

I realize now, as I have officially come to terms with saying I am 31, that my mother was my age when I was 2 and it was just a different time. Their ideas of aging and graying were mild acceptance & assistance will get you along just fine... Nowadays??? Oh my! Who in their right mind would go gray at such a young age... I mean I haven't seen my natural since I was 13, maybe 14 years old, but I do know that I can never go back. Thanks to my father (who was salt & pepper by the time I came around - which put him at 26 then) I have a decent amount of gray hair. Of course my lovely hairdresser Trish is always so kind in the "pfft, it's not nearly as bad as you think" but it's still something I go to have covered every 2 months now - up from years ago when I could go 3-4 months without getting my hair done. Maybe I can blame owning my own place on it, or work, or well anything... It's an easy cover up though & do to the rising trend in having your hair colored anyway - no one is exempt from hair color.

But then there is the face. I have been watching some of the new shows that have started & they all have these women that I remember watching in the early 90s, or women I have never seen before that are clearly have had a little work done. Not that there is anything wrong with that... I mean I am sure if I have the money when the time comes that I might contemplate it, not sure if I would go through with it as I do have a HUGE aversion to pain, but who knows right? Well I have to give my guilty please Gossip Girl credit for calling out one lady on their show - Blair mistakenly tells her boyfriend's mother that she is showing the side effects of bad Botox (she thought that it was her ex's date). I know that it was scripted but it was nice to have someone drop the "B" word. It makes me wonder what happened to the days of Calgon, Oil of Olay & a little bit of Avon to make a woman feel natural & beautiful. Now it's what can get nipped, tucked & shot.

I know that I don't look 31, and I am exceptionally grateful for that considering the amount of smoking & drinking that I did for years & the effects that it is supposed to have taken on my skin by now (consider that I was 13 when I started doing both bad things). But I do find myself sometimes over analyzing my skin up, freaking that this might sag, or those circles are too dark (damn Italian side), or that's not smooth enough. I am happy to grow old gracefully as long as it's in the progression that is has been for the past 30 years.

For now I guess I will just have to trust my O of O & Trish to have my back...

Official Owner of a Crackberry...

You know when you giggle & make fun of people and then you actually turn into one of those people... UGH. I got my Blackberry Pearl in Sapphire - beautiful piece of machinery if you ask me - in July and since then I have started a beautiful relationship with it. Until you realize that you can't grocery shop without checking what the flashing red LED light is for. You can't watch a movie or TV show or take a short ride in the car without wondering what has come in...

The worst part is that it's work, AOL & Google email all coming in to the same place. Some of it not to embarrassing to share with others while other things make people wonder about exactly how cool I really am - like oh my boss wants me to setup a meeting for tomorrow vs. my Barry Manilow newsletter has come in...

For me it's not being able to be away from the internet for any amount of time. I can hear a song in a store & instantaneously know the artist & have it on my wish list on Amazon.com or settle a quick bar bet. Share pictures off my MySpace or Facebook pages with new friends & just look way more important than i am cause I have a fancy phone.

I guess I am just a slave to technology. The worst is my dad who, once I told about my new phone, said: Another new phone??? I won't even learn about this one cause next year it's gonna be another new hotness that you just had to have...

Sharing is good...

I just wanted to let everyone know that I now consider myself a non-smoker!!!

I found this out this weekend when one of the people that I work with asked me for a cigarette & I was like I don't smoke. There are stages to quitting & shifting to non-smoker that just amuse me.

1. Baby-Step: The one where you don't want to be near anyone cause you are still on the fence about what you are trying to do & think what's one more...

2. La-La Step: The fingers in the ears, don't want to even hear about people going out to smoke a butt cause you still want to inhale it...

3. Smelly Step: You are sitting in traffic with the windows down & you realize that something smells bad and you find out it's the person in front of you wailing a butt...

4. Lifesaver Step: This one includes eating bags of minty lifesavers at a time. Be careful of your dental work & remember to drink fluids...

5. Blah-blah Step: You realize that you start talking about all the things that you used to do & then smoke. Realizing that you are ok with not doing them anymore...

6. Blah Step: You are tired, a bit irritable & definitely don't want to smoke, just sleep...

7. Non-step: You realize that you have gone days without talking about smoking, don't really miss it, can make it up 3 flights of stairs without getting winded & have cut down on the lifesavers...

I am really happy that I did this & was as successful as I have been. It's been like 5-6 weeks now & I am ok being around people while they smoke. I can drink without thinking that I want one. I can work, drive & play on the computer without even noticing that I am not smoking. My biggest thing is that it really wasn't as hard as I thought that it was going to be. I smoked for 17 years & was always worried that it would be really tough to quit. I was aided by Zyban (which I think that I lasted 3 weeks on even though they recommend longer). I guess all you need is a lot of drive, willpower & some meds to help you start...

The Tudors

I want to recommend to every girl out there, PLEASE check out the Tudors. It's a Showtime show, but if you don't have Showtime the first season is out on DVD. I have been watching it on & off, but finally sat down with the first season & have been emersing myself in it one disc at a time. 3 - 1 hour episodes of pure yumminess!!! Jonathan Rhys Meyer is so delicious as Henry the VIII. Also - if you have a significant other they will enjoy the multiple breast shots in the show. There is a lot of sex, deceit & history to all of it. I think I have learned more from that show then I learned from high school history classes. One other good thing about the show is that there are 6 wives to cover & multiple infidelities so this show will hopefully have legs...

The Tudors is my 2nd favorite reason for having Showtime - first still and always being Dexter - same thing, if you haven't seen it start watching it cause it really is quite amazing.

This is just like when I had a diary...

I start out nice & strong every time & then I get to doing things and boom - 2 months go by without saying a word. Then again with my best friend Becca getting married on June 7th I guess that I can get a pass for a few weeks. Then I thought about signing in at home one night when I realized that I didn't have the address for the site. Brilliant honestly. So I think instead I played on pogo.com & watched a movie. Oh wait - I also started a new part-time job waiting tables at Not Your Average Joe's - so 3 LONG weeks of training for that & back to 7 days a week of solid work. Thank God it's only weekends there - so I at least get to keep my Mon-Fri nights to myself.

I guess I will also share that I am quitting smoking along with the girls. So far, so good. Though in order to quit most of us are relying on meds. I ended up on Wellbutrin (cause Zyban - the exact same chemical makeup in the drug - isn't covered by my insurance) and so you know it's an anti-depressant. Of course I am probably one of the happiest people I know to begin with so I swear that I have almost been a bit more mellowed out on this now. But I am only on them for a month or so (if that, I am only taking 1/2 a pill daily cause I hate to be on something at all) so hopefully this will be a quick month. Hey maybe to fill in some of that time I used to spend smoking I will write things on here... Hey - stranger things have happened...

This One's For the Children

that turned into hot girls that are coming to see our reunion show!!! NKOTB

At my best friend Denise's request I am writing about New Kids on the Block. If you haven't heard from me yet about this I will tell you now - yes I am super excited to see them again! How excited you ask? $175 for a ticket in the first 20 rows excited. Yup you heard me... $175 and there are 8 of us going together. Say what you will - but if you were in the Boston area when those 5 guys hit the scene back in the day - you were a FAN!!! Maybe it was the accessibility that helped fuel the fire - knowing that maybe you'd be in Faneuil Hall & run into Jordan was enough to make any girl smile in her sleep. And it took a real strong man back then to admit that he was a fan - I remember Brian S. getting a boatload of crap for listening to them on his walkman on our DC trip in 7th grade. I say - good for him!

I am excited to see what the demographic is going to be. I mean those girls that were my age then are now rapidly approaching 50 (I was 12 when hanging tough came out), do they drag their kids there as a buffer? Most of the girls that are going with us are in that 30 range and that's what I imagine a majority of the audience will be. But let's face it - we can now drink! That's where I get nervous. Denise & I have had conversations about this already, how neither of us want to get belligerent at the concert cause it's an expensive ticket to spend the entire time in the bathroom.

I remember when I saw them when I was 12. My Dad & stepmother, Lois, took me to see them at Great Woods and we sat at the front part of the lawn (a great spot in my opinion). Well I sat next to this girl that was hysterically crying for about 90% of the show and those that weren't crying like her were screaming so loud that I could barely hear them. I looked at Lois & said "what is wrong with these girls, do they have mental problems?" Well after bringing up that story to one of my friends I found out that I might be the one that was mental for not crying. In fact she even said that she might do that again. Thank God we aren't seeing them around Christmas cause if she heard "I Still Believe in Santa Claus" live... I would probably get my arm torn off in her excitement & lose hearing in both ears from her screams. (You know who you are & I love you dearly for that.) And you know we'd all lose our voices singing along to "Funky, Funky Christmas", hell we almost did Friday night at TJ's when we busted it out...

So about once a month I will post about the anticipation of the concert as it approaches (it's 4 months and 12 days away). 'Til then I will be "hangin' tough"

Across the Universe

This movie is a story intertwined with 32 songs from the Beatles catalog and I am sure that most have heard about it by now. The first time I saw this movie was when I was on vacation with my mom in Florida. Now I think that the most interesting thing was that she had lived through "Beatlemania" and seen them live in concert - so her perception of the songs are deep-rooted. My vision of the songs comes from listing to them on vinyl in my childhood home, singing and dancing in my glitter-speckled ceiling in my old living with my brother, Micah. Obviously as I have gotten older I have found more meaning in the songs and managed to not get jaded by the perversions done by certain American Idol performers... This movie brings their music to light in a way that dazzled both a seasoned fan and younger, well-versed fan.

I am not going to go through person-by-person or scene-by-scene on here as I hate to be a "spoiler", but I will share what I enjoyed.

The most moving scene to me is "Let It Be". This song has grown increasingly more important to me as I have grown up. Everyone sees hard times and this song speaks true to people in different ways. Seeing this song brought to life in this movie is hands down one of the most amazing scenes. It occurs during the Detroit riots in 1967. At first when you hear the voice you don't think that it would be a young child singing. The soul in this boys voice is chill-inducing. As the scene unfolds & the choir comes in with the full-blown version of this song, a simple singer/piano tune suddenly hits you in your bones. It's one of those moments in a movie that if you don't get emotional at this you might want to check your pulse. I have this song on my Ipod and can tell you right after watching the movie I was holding back tears when listening to it again.

I highly recommend watching this movie - preferably with someone that isn't going to sing-along (I enforced this rule with my own mother!!!) so that you can really enjoy the voices of these exceptionally talented actors. And lastly, I am not impressed by Bono's appearance in this movie (might be the overexposure of him in general that aggravates me) but I never noticed 'til this movie how much he looks like Robin Williams... Enjoy!

Who I am & what this is about

Hello! I am Amanda. I am a 30 year old femme living in MA. I have opinions on everything and years ago I had a site that I voiced them, but didn't know how to keep it up with a techie on my side. So here I am, blogging on here to voice my opinion, give insights into what goes on with me and pretty much just have my own soapbox in my little corner of the internet. I hope you enjoy & if you don't - don't read it...