Soundtrack for Life

Sometimes you might as well just get up.

It's 6:45 in the morning and I've been up since 4:00. Well, that is if you consider just lounging in bed wondering if you are going to fall back asleep as "being up." What really finally got me standing up and facing the reality that I wasn't going to fall asleep anytime soon were my bills. SERIOUSLY??? Terrible reason to get out of bed. But I paid them and then applied for two jobs while I was at it, and now I'm blogging. Oh, and I made a great cup of tea. And got three red heads up and dressed and fed and to the bus stop on time. Wow, this has already been a totally awesome day.

I actually only logged onto bloggy to listen to Poppiholla because I wanted to feel motivated, and epic. You know, there are just some songs that no matter how many times you listen to them you feel like you can conquer the world. And why not, right? Why not feel empowered to have an absolutely great day?

Now if only I could get theme music to play during different moments of my life. Man, characters in movies seriously have it made. Besides only having to live out one major story line, they have constant mood music.

Wouldn't that be totally awesome if right after you stuck it to the man, Natasha Bedingfield's "Strip Me" magically chirped above? Or how much easier would it be if the this-guy-is-a-jerk-beneath-those-dimples music played when you met who-seemed-to-totally-understand-me male? Whew, thank you mood music for saving me a whole lot of heartbreak and emotional eating.

But the music doesn't play automatically, and so thank you Chicane for empowering me.

The Night Starts Here

Wog is right, I have been pestering her to write. This.
REVERB 10 Reflect on this year and manifest what's next
Everyday in December the internets provides a prompt to help you review your year and put said reverberation into words. I chose to write about today's prompt because I'm all about the partying. Like it's 1999 (which was a really good year btw). And so Wog can stop sending me texts addressed to: The Pot, from: The Kettle.

Reberb 10, Day 9 PARTY
December 9
What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans.
Author - Shauna Reid, Diet Girl

This year I FINALLY attended a concert at the Granada - an old movie house turned indie rock venue on Greenville Avenue. It's the perfect place for the not so hard core music lover to see a show because it's so unassuming. The Granada won't make you feel as though you must dress in your edgiest outfit and wear extra eyeliner, although both of those behaviors are generally encouraged by myself. The theater is small inside but there is plenty of standing room for the dancers or tables for the too drunk to continue dancing-ers. Also, they sell gourmet pizza which is so delicious that you just can't picture the people around you as heroine groupies and become suitably intimidated because the fare is tasty and the box office so friendly. "Be Yourself" is painted in large script on the ceiling and angels and other unidentified fanciful creatures flit around the walls. One cannot help but feel groovy at the Granada.

This is why I was excited when Super snagged tickets for herself, Toad and I to see Stars. This and because Stars gave a gorgeous performance. They threw fresh white roses out into the crowd between sets (?) and told us all at the end that, "putting on your best clothes, going out, having drinks with friends and live music" is the best way to spend your time. Stars, you must be right.

We danced! Even Toad danced, in his own way. We sang. We flung our arms straight up, let our heads fall back and swaaaaaaaaaaaayed. Nobody judged us.

That night several of the pictures taken of me are reminiscent of Paul Rudd playing Paris on Romeo+Juliet, I was enjoying myself with such childlike abandon that my only concern was whether my companions had fallen in love with this music, this band, this night as well.

They had. Nobody wanted to go home when it ended. We wanted to float up into the ceiling on Stars melodies and reside as gatekeepers of good live music karma for ever.

And this makes one more post in 2010 than 2009. YES!

As bad as this sounds, it's always good to find someone who is worse at something than you. I'm bad at frequently blogging, but not nearly as bad as HeiderH. She hasn't blogged in over two years--I know because my blog feeder let's me know that every time I log on. It's a nice little reminder saying, "Welcome back slacker Tian Tian. Surprised you even remembered your password. Aren't you a lazy girl? Enjoying your Slurpee life? Well, at least you logged on. HeiderH hasn't done anything for TWO YEARS." And then I feel better at my sister's expense. There are so many devious reasons for having sisters, and I love them all.

Nonetheless, (isn't that such a crazy word--it literally is three words squashed together) I'm so pleased to welcome HH as a "contributor" to Eggs and Toast. And it was totally her idea. She said, "Add me as a contributor" because she is just grasping at straws now because I haven't done anything else she has told me to do in the past month and half. So, randomly she shouted out that this would help her blogging curse and then I pathetically replied, "Well, it will probably take me some time to figure out how to add you so don't expect it to happen anytime soon." But that was just a lie to buy me more time to procrastinate and not do anything she tells me to do. I've noticed these little lies are becoming more commonplace in my life right now.

A couple weeks ago, I told MasterJ an entire story about buying a scarf from this little Asian woman during which I proceeded to mimic her with a Taiwanese accent as if she had recently immigrated to the states even though in reality the woman spoke English beautifully and was probably born and raised in Baltimore. Shortly after I finished the story, I told MasterJ that that wasn't really how things went down and I made part of the story up; he laughed in my face about how mendacious I am. And then he imitated my Taiwanese accent and it was terrible and so I secretly relished how much better I was at it than him.

Speaking of MasterJ, today is his birthday and it's a good thing he doesn't read this blog because I pretty much said, "Happy Birthday, J! I'm better at a fake Asian accent than you. Love!!!"

Sidenote: This whole post is giving me a really strange deja vu moment with an early 90s sitcom that I just can't put my finger on.

I Reserve the Right

It's obvious that I have a wild and inconsistent love affair with the FaceB. I'm currently not-active, you know, like not using, because the FaceB is an addiction and my list of addictions is rather lengthy so I've decided that virtual stalking should not be on the list. As such, I have dragged HeiderHead into this crazy relationship with the FaceB where we reactivate and deactivate our accounts like a-line haircuts. (Ahhh, why do I always want that short flippy bob when I can't stand short hair????) Recently, HH got back on the FB because of work, at least that is what she says, and she had a "friend" comment on her account instability to which she replied "I reserve the right to get on and off Facebook as much as I like." Of course, I heard this story from Fuzzy Robot because, need I repeat, I'm not currently active on the FB so how could I know this went down. So, today as I was dressing and reached for yet another black top, the thought crept in to my head "maybe you should wear a color today." To which I replied, "I reserve the right to wear black every day if I like." And that is exactly what I did. And I felt victorious.

On a side note, here are all the titles I wanted to name this post, all taken from the 12:00 pm weekday Direct TV lineup:

Big Cat Diary
Unearthing Ancient Secrets
I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant
China Power: Art Now After Mao
Never Rake Again!

I really can't give enough of the lyrical quality of "Art Now After Mao." It really sings, don't you think? Too bad "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" couldn't be a little more audibly appealing, I might have watched it then. But great idea for a blog title, right?

Anyway, I'm deciding to start reserving more rights, like not putting makeup on or unabashedly crushing on Bobby Flay and Michael Buble, and blogging without pictures. Oh, and I reserve the right to not join the public fascination with In-N-Out. Boo! Alright, I'm already feeling the power of democracy--Copland is ringing in my ears and I feel like watching baseball...well, maybe just eating a hot dog.

Eslade List

Today is Eslade's day of birth. She is a remarkable age at a remarkable time. To celebrate her birthday, I am enjoying a Charleston Chew--isn't that nice of me? Yesterday I sent her an email in part Spanish. I used a translation link on Google. She didn't respond back though. Probably because she was overwhelmed with my linguistic greatness and adaptability. Yes, that was why.

Also, to celebrate her birth I made a list (because I LOVE lists) and I think it is only appropriate that we fully celebrate our loved ones days of birth by doing things that make us happy too. If we are happy, they are happy. This is my list, to be read in a thick Chilean accent, but if you can't do that or even know what that sounds like, don't feel bad because Eslade won't mind.

Eslade is: (kind of like it were a FaceB status, get it?)

nocturnal--in fact, the later the hour the greater her comedy.

Unwavering in her intergrity.

¡Nada que ver!

a dedicated daughter.

Planned Spontaneity

fine using training chop sticks for months to please the Asian Princess and me.

always supportive of watching teeny bopper movies.

excellent at listening and remembering.

unabashed in admitting she almost put a certain guy's name in her Facebook status because she thought it was the search bar.

not the kind of person to even have a FaceB status because she can handle solitary independence.

up for exploring new hobbies.

calling the numbers on the back of trucks to tell them they are driving well.

punctual.

forgiving that you don't call back promptly.

one year older.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Playlist

Don't judge my playlist just yet. And if you do, judge Heider Head because most of the songs are her suggestions. But, I'm going to add more songs--so I'm looking for recommendations. I just spent $10 on iTunes to soften my revengeful feelings against my landlord. No worries, I will get my deposit back, but in a polite manner. Just kidding, I've already sliced her with my vicious rhetoric. Needless to say, my iTunes visit made me think Bloggy could use some tunes too. We all need tunes. In fact, we need tunes so much we should sing the messages we leave on others phones rather than speak them. Hum.

I feel so proud of myself that I figured out how to add a playlist. I'm so computer savvy. It almost makes me feel like going to work tomorrow. On, second thought...nah. At least I have new music to listen to on the way to work. That helps get out of bed in the morning--that and breakfast.

Sleep Guilt

For the next couple weeks I'm going to try out different blog backgrounds. I didn't realize there were so many new options bloggers could use to decorate their blogs now. It's rather fun, and vain. And I have never been opposed to fun and vain activities and so I will indulge myself.

Here's a question: Do you ever feel guilty sleeping in? In Before Tian world, I would feel guilty about all sorts of things like eating sugar before 2:00 pm, watching a movie on a weekday, or outwardly admitting you don't want to go on a hike. Well, today I slept in--very late. So late that I can't even get myself to admit what hour because even though I am an independent adult, free agent, and master of my own schedule, I feel as though my mother would disapprove and how will she ever get a daughter with such bad habits married off. Would Mr. Darcy ever sleep in? Never.

Once, Bunnicula and I watched Lost on Hulu for an entire afternoon. (Admit it, you or someone you know has lost their real friends to the fake people on Lost at some point in time. That's why it's called Lost.) After an episode would end, Bunny and I would peek at each other sheepishly hoping the other would first claim wanting to watch the next episode. It's always better not to initiate sluggishness but merely accompany it. Is initiate sluggishness an oxymoron? By the time Devry came home we had evaporated into the couches and convinced ourselves that we were living in a flashback scene of our lives and by the time we came to we would be back in our real, successful, and thin lives doing all sorts of productive things like saving small children in Bosnia.

We never came to.

However, I think it is important that once in a while we allow ourselves to sleep until we wake up. Yes, I know, everyone sleeps until they wake up; there's nothing else you can do but wake up or die. (I'm not trying to be mobid, just pointing out the facts.) But what I mean is that you sleep with no alarm, no saying to yourself "I have to be up in time for...", no consioucness of sleeping for a certain time period. You just sleep until you can't sleep anymore. I wish this was infused into my psyche earlier in life because every time I try to do this, I still wake up feeling guilty and then how will I ever suit Mr. Darcy? Oh but wait, he's fictional, like my fake friends on Lost.

Two Notes

This is an attempt to get myself to blog. I'm not officially starting to blog again, just warming up. However, after various conversations with Unicorn, Isa, and The Queen, I feel like I should pick up blogging again. I went to Unicorn's the other night; she was worried that she and T would be in the basement putting the babies to sleep and unable to hear the door. So, as a good wife would do (which by the way, I thoroughly enjoyed the first season of The Good Wife) she instructed T to write a note and put it on the door. This was T's note:

Isa & Tian Tian

If you are reading this, it means we are putting the children to sleep. We may not be able to hear you knock. But not to fear Walter will bark if he sees you which will alert us. He is however in Jeff's office to your right. Maybe knocking on his window will alert us sooner.

As for now while you wait, enjoy some of Jo's and Millie's fantastic coloring skills found here. (followed by arrows pointing to various scribbles on the paper)

Now, unfortunately, I never got to see this note when I arrived. What I read was the following by Unicorn:

Hello there!

We are still tucking in babies, be up in a min.
Walter is locked up, so please just come in and be at home!

Unicorn

As a good husband would do, T wrote the note and then sought Unicorn's approval which obviously was not given. "She ought to have just done it herself." I only noticed T's first note when leaving because the note was still taped on the glass door and I could see there was writing on the other side. Isa and I had a good laugh at comparing the two notes. I'm not sure why it was so funny to us.