Margaret at the Barack Obama KC Townhall.

Online shopping

Why can't I ever buy much when I shop online? Although I am sure that Clancy would disagree with me, if he had any idea of the volume of furniture, children's clothes, expensive women's shoes and handbags and other products that I look at, without actually purchasing much, he would be impressed.

I think maybe it is because you have to go through so much effort to check out. I have suffered many online purchase regrets, too, but I don't think that this is the reason. For example, the beautiful looking purple plastic silverware I bought from Moss that is no stronger than the disposable spoons I use every day to eat my oatmeal with. Or the imposter Higgins glass ashtray I purchased on EBay.

Presidential Candidates Favorite Reads

Hillary Clinton: Little Women, The Poisonwood Bible

Barack Obama: Song of Solomon, Moby Dick

John Edwards: The Trial of Socrates

Mitt Romney: BATTLEFIELD EARTH ??? What is this guy thinking?

John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls

Monday Morning

I hate Monday mornings. I know alot of people do, but I just miss the girls so much on Mondays. This morning was really awful I was sitting on the couch, because Margaret asked me to sit for a few minutes, and as soon as I sat down, they were both in my lap. And, then I tried to get up a few minutes later, and I got one off but then when I reached to release myself from the death grip of the other, Portia climbed right back in my lap. I was imprisoned by my children. Literally. Imprisoned by wiggly little girls who refuse to let me stand up. Boo. It was awful to extract myself and head out.

Outsider Art, Kind of

Glitter Monkey, by Travis Strange

Lifetime Movie Review

So, over the break, I somehow managed to fit in a Lifetime movie marathon. Below I describe my favorites.

CASUALTIES OF LOVE: THE LONG ISLAND LOLITA STORY

This film is truly a LM classic, starring Alyssa Milano as Amy Fisher. The sheer amount of acid wash makes it entirely worth watching. I was totally wishing I had Joey B.'s denim jacket and poor Mary Jo's mile high white acid wash jeans. The acting is classically bad, and there really is no plucky heroine, which breaks the classic LM formula, as previously described. But, the story was so sensational that Lifetime could not help itself from making this movie.

It is kind of funny, I think that the director tried to be as neutral as possible, because at different points in the movie, you feel sorry for all of the different characters. First, of course, you feel sorry for Mary Jo Buttafuoco, but then she starts to get all righteous and her desire for vengeance is more important to her than the maintenance of the family business, and I started to feel like, wait a minute here Mary Jo, the family business is important. And we all know Amy is going to go to prison, it is just a question of how long.

You also feel sorry for Amy (momentarily I might add) because she is so young and stupid, and she gets herpes. Which is just sad. But, her prostitution and ridiculous ideas soon turn you against her.

And Joey, you feel sorry for him, because he made a mistake and boy does he end up paying for it. The director leaves the whole relationship between Joey and Amy very vague, so the audience is never quite sure what happened between the two of them, although you suspect that Amy is not lying when she is talking to her high school cheerleader chum about all of the places that they had "encounters".

But his refusal, time and time again to admit that he had an affair is frustrating and tedious.

I tried to watch the Nora Roberts' adaptations, but I just couldn't stomach it. Even with Heather Locklear, a semi bona fide actress. (I still miss the Melrose years.) Lifetime does better, I think to make movies that are either based on true incidents, or movies that are created solely with the Lifetime viewer in mind.

For some reason, the older that the LM is, the more I like it. I think it is because they date themselves so badly the older ones are more amusing. Plus, then you can tell yourself that you are watching it in a truly ironical fashion, and although you are sucked in, it is because you are so amused.

SHATTERED INNOCENCE


This film is another classic, and I just checked and it is playing again on 1/13. This is the true story about an all American cheerleader turned "actress" (I mean drug addicted porn star). You watch the demise of Shauna Grant as she spirals deeper and deeper into the world of cocaine and porn films.

This movie is based on a true story, which you can tell by weird details like when Shauna shows her nude pictures around to her kid sisters on a visit home. No writer would come up with that, I don't think.

Thank You Whoorl

I now have hair model hair, thanks to the continuing advice of Whoorl. She makes very good recommendations for hair styles and products.

I just purchased some Frederic Fekkai glossing mist on her recommendation. I think she actually uses the glossing cream, however the mist is really good and makes my hair nice and shiny. And she gave some smart directions about how to use a flat iron, which I also found to be enormously helpful.