A TV Show I am Not Allowed to Watch

I don't know how many of you watch MTV anymore, but I am sure a few of you do and have seen the show Laguna Beach. Now, I have to admit I saw the entire first season. It was a full Saturday marathon that got me hooked (damn marathons!).

Well now I am faced with the second season and the Laguna kids are everywhere .... even the VMAs!!! And I promised myself that I would not watch that show because the kids sicken me and their life is just too good to sit back and watch them complain about. So I have kept my promise so far -- but that doesn't stop me from gossiping about the show with Reesea at work!! (I never promised I wouldn't hear about it second hand)

Now...let me tell you a show I WILL be watching and counting the days until it returns....
MAKING THE BAND!!!!

The last season was Diddy's attempt to make a girl singing group - and the reason I LOVED it is because you can get cut at any moment. Oh girl your ass ain't shaking fast enough - goodbye - you weren't pitch perfect when we surprised you and put you on stage in a downtown club - your cut - oh what, you didn't put mustard on this sandwich - see ya later! Now that is great tv. The girls have no clue what is coming at them and they are just struggling - and before you know it they send the entire cast home and do a new set of auditions. Insanity! A MUST SEE!

Back on the Scene

So I am finally getting better. Not well enough to go to work - but I can finally keep my eyes open for more than 10 minutes at a time - so things are looking up!

Let's talk about what's new!

Now you all know that I can't avoid talking about the Video Music Awards because I do live in South Beach now - and I was supposedly surrounded by it the past few days (but because I was sick I would have no clue what was going on outside of my bed). My friends saw Mariah perform live, and I was told to go to see The Bravery perform. But instead of all this fun - I heard gun shots - but not the ones that got headline attention. The shots I heard are still unreported and a mystery to me.

So Suge Knight got shot, again. Well, you know it ain't a party until Suge gets shot!

Ok let's first get to the most important part of the show - what is up with R. Kelly? Is he serious? I mean that stupid in the closet song has gone too far. It is just lame now - let it die!

Next - were you bored? I mean it was so much I Love this celeb and smooch smooch to Jay Z and blah blah --- the performances weren't that great and I don't know what Green Day was talking about when they said Rock always has a place at MTV. You could have fooled me. The celebs even looked bored sitting in their fake VIP section.

Ok now I take back everything I said about the performances - Shakira was great. She always gets my butt shaking - even when I am sick in bed.

And finally - the celebs need to lay off the drugs. I mean seriously half the stuff they say makes NO sense at all - and they just look like fools. I know that their lines are written and held up on cue cards - but whatever comes out of their mouth just sounds like they snorted a line and this is the first thing that came to their coked up head. Half of them forget to say what award they are announcing, the other half say stuff about ghetto fabulous jail cells for lil kim, and the rest of them who are supposedly great actors say their lines like they are in 2nd grade reading See Spot Run.

To think, when I was a teenager the VMA's would be put on my calendar and there would be a countdown to the thursday night show (I don't know when they switched it to Sundays). I couldn't wait to see what people wore, what performances took place, and what crazy things the celebs would do.

I think I am officially over MTV and the VMA's.

Being Sick Sucks

It's like the worst. Really. Trapped in bed all day, too phelgmy or headachey to enjoy TV or books, a rotten, caged animal feeling.

Let's all give our best wishes to Shawn on her speedy recovery. She's been sick for days now and even missed work today to go to the doctor's.

Also, it's been sadly quiet here at Getting to Maybe lately. Let's try and cheer her up by posting something interesting!

:)

Coincidence?

Thanks Elad for the pic!

Hurricane Shmuricane

Elad and I made it through our first Hurricane in the new apartment. And although the eye was about 15 miles north of us, we had plenty of rain and cable outages to last us the whole night. Not to mention water leaking in that flooding the bedroom floor and creating water pockets under the paint above the front door. oy vey.

So what do you do when your internet and cable is out? Watch movies of course - we watched Lost in Translation. This is my second time seeing this move - and I hated it the first time - and the second time I still don't get the appeal. I was pretty much bored the entire time and had no compassion for the characters. Please somebody shed some light on why everyone is so in love with this movie?

Negotiations

I am currently in negotiations with a person who owns an apartment in my building to rent his parking spot. To start - he won't tell me how much - and then he wants to continue to share the spot - and today tells me he wants the option of canceling the deal at anytime. I am fine with sharing a parking spot - and if the price is right we could work this out - but please tell me how much! You can't negotiate with someone who keeps on giving you terms of an agreement but won't tell you a price.

So finally I give in and I give him a low price of 400 for a full year (that is like 33 bucks a month). He writes back:
"I will discuss it with my wife and get back to you. My initial reaction is that your offer is too low."

YEA he really wrote that in italics - who is this guy?

Now he wants me to pay between 80 and 120 a month - TO SHARE A PARKING SPOT THAT HE CAN CANCEL AT ANYTIME!!! Is he insane? He says that is how much it costs to rent parking spots in city garages. I am sure it is - but you don't get kicked out when the city feels like it. I told him forget it and now he is giving me an attitude saying I should be researching how much it costs to rent parking spots and show him proof of cheaper spots!

Have you dealt with similarly frustrating people?

I'm Crazy in Love....With the Internet!

It is an addiction - we all share it - we check our email 20 times a day - we click on blog rolls - we wander aimlessly through the world wide web.

My daily clicks are conveniently located in the blogroll...but I have a few more like:
www.trent.blogspot.com (the celeb news you don't need to know but love to find out)
www.friendster.com (how else am I supposed to know what my friend's roommate's ex-boyfriend's sister is looking for in a friend?)
www.myspace.com (same as friendster with a little more trashiness)
www.sun-sentinel.com (awful Miami/Florida news)

I was just wondering - what are your daily clicks? Any site you can't get through the day without?

Kenny and Valerie Lam's Wedding in Boston

It's Not Right.

What's going on in Israel/Gaza right now is wrong. I think it's something that had to be done. The formation of a Palestinian state is inevitable, those who try to halt progress in that direction - be they Jew, Palestinian, or American - are not allowing themselves to see modern reality. In this new, civilized, century, "occupations" are not feasible. They're not moral and progressive societies need to get rid of them.

I understand the protesters to some degree. People do not want to be uprooted, even though they've lived in the most dangerous of situations. Many idealistic teenagers not from the settlements came to protest, fearing future attacks and probably future wars that they will have to fight due to Israel's mandatory military policy. They don't want to become like the guy to above, a soldier ordered to forcefully remove fellow Jews from their homes and synagogues.

I wish the government of Israel would have prepared better for this, perhaps asking UN Peacekeepers or American troops (we've got a lot of them nearby) to come help or take over this whole "removal" process. I feel like if we had a President who wasn't distracted with vacations and unnecessary wars, America would be there right now to do the hard, necessary, things, instead of pitting one Jew against another. That goes against the whole ideology of Israel. It's not right.

Let's Talk About sEX...

who has experience with EXes?

i think we all do. whats the best way to move on? burn everything that is related to them? find someone new? beg for them back? listen to sappy music? join an emo message board? a combination of several of these?

well, i have found that i havent found any way to get over my ex girlfriend. i like the sage gainsburg that is on the computer and im not burning my climbing shoes or the cool poster i got in france when i went there WITH HER. we talk often, and sometimes its really good. just normal like. and sometimes, the agony in both our bodies seems to push its way out and we talk like two 7th graders who just broke up after dating for 3 days. its wierd. i know everyone has experiences with EXes. what would you say is the best way to move on?



just a side note...the moving to new york helps my situation a lot...i am moving AWAY from her.

Welcome New Contributor

I want to welcome Seonah to the blog as a new contributor - I am sure she is going to have some great stories to share and I can't wait to see what she has to say!

And to all the contributors - Thank you for keeping the blog active and interesting. You are all doing such a great job and I am having a great time reading the posts and sharing my stories with all of you.

To the readers: You too can join in on the blog as a contributor. Just email me and ask! (slibman80@yahoo.com).
Even if you don't want to be a contributor - thanks for reading and commenting - we really appreciate it and hope we are keeping you entertained :)
And if you have any suggestions for the blog please feel free to let us know!

Hope you are all having a great weekend. Elad and I are in Boston right now for my friend Val's wedding - hopefully I can figure out how to post pictures on the blog and I can share them with you. We are also moving to South Beach on Sunday and then its my big 25 birthday!!! This is going to be a crazy busy weekend!

how to admit failure without looking like an idiot

normally i enjoy legal research b/c there's a whole world of material to answer just about any question you have. however, there are times when i HATE research...when i feel like i'm banging my head against a wall b/c no matter what combination of search terms i use, i cannot find the cases or statutes that my employer wants. every other time i've faced this problem, i've persevered in the end and was able to locate at least one case that was even remotely on point. this time, i'm completely at a loss and even the lexis and westlaw people are clueless. how do i tell my superviser that the memo she was expecting to be done by c.o.b. today is not yet written b/c i can't find a single friggin case to answer her question?

there's something to be said for living alone

everyone needs company once in awhile. no man is an island. we all need someone to talk to. yeah yeah. if you've ever had a horrible/loud/crazy/mean/___(fill-in the blank with your negative quality) roommate, you value your solitude. i'm finally in my own place and even though george is there more often than not and my parents pay for my rent b/c they were wonderful people, it's still my own place in the sense i don't have to hide the knives, chocolate, sleeping pills, remote control, etc. from anyone for fear they do anything crazy, annoying, life-threatening or distracting. i'm writing a blog to detail my adventures in living with roommates, which brings me to this topic: who was your most memorable roommate (either for good or not so good reasons) and why?

"I think the materialism is spreading," she said.

In a "news" article I read today in the Florida Sun-Sentinel, the writer talks about 20 something year olds banking "modest salaries, but they buy $200 Prada flip-flops for a day at the beach."

The article focuses on a girl who has moved from Chicago to Miami and spends more than 75% of her income on material goods (likes clothes, bags, shoes...). And it goes on to say that these big spenders want to get only designer things - even when it comes to liquor.

I don't know who these kids are but I know for sure there isn't going to be a "Fabulous Life of...." episode about them. Put down the credit cards, step away from the Prada shoes, walk out of the plastic surgeon's office, and get a life! You aren't going to end up on the pages of Us Weekly. You aren't going to party with Lindsey Lohan. And guess what? Those celebs laugh at you because all the stuff you think is "cool" they get for free and think it is lame before you can ever get your overcharged credit card hands on it.

Today I am "That Girl"

This morning I woke up and went on my merry way to the Broward County Courthouse to attend a hearing. Last week my boss asked me to go to this hearing because he was going on vacation (lucky guy) and wouldn't be able to attend.

Well I showed up this morning and looked at the list of cases outside the courtroom and then suddenly it hit me - the hearing was yesterday.

Yup, today I am that girl. The girl who screws up and doesn't have a way out of it. The girl who walks out of the courtroom frantically trying to figure out how to fix a problem that is unfixable. The girl that the entire office looks at thinks - how could you screw this one up?

Honestly, I have no clue how I screwed this one up. The notice said Monday August 8, I showed up on Tuesday August 9th. Makes no sense and I still don't understand it. I had so many dates running around in my head that August 8th just seemed like a Tuesday.

Excuse me while I go hide my head in shame.

She Was One Of The Last

Her name was Frieda Greenspan. And she was a hero.

She was a Jew from Pre-War Poland. An attractive girl, she married young. Before the tanks and the night of broken glass, before the storm, when the world was innocent and the sky was bright and clean. But then the darkness came, in the form of soldiers and bombs and vile, vile, hatred.

She survived the Holocaust. She spent time in Auschwitz, the most feared workcamp on the contintent. She was separated from her husband and lost her whole family, except her younger sister, which she protected like a mother would. She got lucky. She got on the famous Schindler's List, but her sister didn't. She refused to leave her behind and so she stayed, let someone else pretend to be her and leave the horrible world of a workcamp. Later, in the final stages of the war, while on a terrible "death march" towards smaller camps, Frieda and her sister escaped and fled to an out-of-the-way farm to wait out the war.

Miraciously, during the clean-up after the war, she was reunited with her husband in Switzerland. They had both survived. Years later, they came to America, to New York City, to set up a home with nothing more than an idea and a few government checks. It worked. They got set up in the booming real estate market and invested in some choice properties in Queens and The Bronx. Her husband, David, died ten years ago, a kind, quiet, man with never an ill word to say about anyone.

Thirty (or so) years ago, they sent some money to Israel for Frieda's eldest sister's youngest son to come to America, to find some fraction of the financial and soceital comfort she had found here. That young son is my father. He's had four children here.

Freida died last week, in a Queens hospital, from complications after a stroke, initially brought on by the heat. She was eighty-nine.

I don't know if you can read this or hear my thoughts or anything like that, I just wanted to say, Thank You, Frieda. Thank you for everything. For the sacrifices you made, for the choices you made, for the life you were forced to live, and the chance to know you.

Rest in peace.

Must See TV

If you have never seen an episode of Arrested Development, and you happen to find yourself at home tonight, watch this Arrested Development Mini marathon. (click here to go to fox's schedule to see what episodes are on)

The marathon episodes are a little out of context if you have never seen the show before, but they are still funny and maybe (Maeby) they will make you want to go to Blockbuster and rent the entire first season :) enjoy!

and for all of you who already watch it - I can't wait for the new season!
beads...bees...buzzz!
and this week on TBS - a Sex and the City episode was on where Miranda dates GOB!

Why?

Real Madrid plan theme parks in Miami and Beijing

MTV is heading back to shore with a "Laguna Beach" spinoff set in Miami's ritzy South Beach

Miami Vice shuts down I-95 for taping

Key West confirmed for next Real World

MTV uses South Beach for this year's Video Music Awards

Shaq's deal, Arthur Teele, and those stupid hurricanes are for real!

Does anybody out there know that Miami isn't a real city?

as if we needed more proof

"Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that greater care was needed to protect natural resources."

"Sometimes you can see how there is erosion, and you can see how there is deforestation. It's very widespread in some parts of the world," Collins said in a conversation from space with Japanese officials in Tokyo, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Big Cars. Oil over consumption. Depletion of Natural Resources. Exploitation of what remains green and blue on the earth. Weather Changes all over the world (hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, extreme heat and cold).

When will people take notice and change? It's already visible from space! Now the Aliens can laugh at us.

And what does the mom, with two kids, driving around in a Hummer, have to say about this? They had no comment, too busy on their cell phones.

The Kids and their MTV

This Hotel is going to be the center of insanity for the MTV Video Music Awards. According to a Miami Herald news report, "A weeklong MTV residence at the beachfront Doubletree Surfcomber will provide a raucous prelude to the show." For the entire week before the Video Music Awards, bands will be performing, girls will be in bikinis, there will be a lot of "woohoos" being shouted, and people will be flooding the streets trying to get a peek.

If I were 16 years old I would by psyched because I am going to be living about 10 blocks away from this hotel in 2 weeks. However, now that I look like an old hag around the girls who are all over MTV, I am pissed and can't wait for them to go away. All I know is that Gideon Yago better be around to console me :)

please, for the love of all things good, IDENTIFY yourself

one of my biggest pet peeves is people who call or leave messages saying "it's me". it's worse when you actually answer the call b/c you're expected to recognize the voice and understand who "me" is. it's not a problem when you have caller id, but what if you don't check the caller first or you don't have caller id? i HATE that. it puts you in the awkward position of either pretending to know who it is or to sort thru your mental folder of voices and try to match one to the caller. it's nerve wracking and completely unnecessary, if you ask me. if pepole would just identify themselves, it would make life a lot easier. i mean, my own parents, whose accents and tones i'd know anywhere, say, "hi it's mom/dad" on my voice mail...so why can't friends/acquaintainces do the same thing?

(btw, yes, i vaguely recall a seinfeld episode about this. i don't watch the show and i never found it amusing, but i remember the context.)

is this what caller id has done to our society?

The Must See Blog Post of the Year!

Sony is going to pay 1.5 million dollars after being sued for citing fake movie critic quotes in the advertisements for movies such as "Vertical Limit," "A Knight's Tale," "The Animal," "Hollow Man" and "The Patriot." If you saw any of these movies you are eligible to get your 5 bucks back.

Do you think people who went to see A Knight's Tale were like "that critic was totally wrong about Heath Ledger being the hottest new star - let's get back our money!" Reminds me of the South Park episode when Stan and Kyle go hunt down Mel Gibson to get back the money they paid to see "The Passion."

Ear Plugs

How do you stop yourself from being a complete waste of space at work?

I am lucky to be pretty much left alone all day at work. Every once and awhile someone will pop their head into my office for me to sign something or to tell me that something needs to get done. But otherwise, they just assume I am working away.

But I have hit a very bad place that I am afraid I can't get out of. I just click and click and click around the internet all day. I do work here and there....but I think I am starting to spend more time reading gossip columns and blogs. What do I do? I am on the verge of disconnecting my internet but then I won't be able to access my office's network or the law research websites.

For now - I will go with my trusty ear plugs and look through the internet options for some type of blocking mechanism.

Sarcasm Alert!

The Biggest News In The History Of News

I'm strangely excited right now.

novel suggestions (pun intended)

i went to nj, ny and philly this weekend for weddings, babies and baby showers. on the bus ride up, i read some total throwaway novel that i can't even remember now. on the way back, however, i finally had the opportunity to read the kiterunner. it is one of my all time favorite novels now, along with anna karenina, the unbearable lightness of being and a fine balance. i highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't read anything riveting in awhile.

now i'm hungry for more moving novels. any suggestions? what was the most memorable (best or worst) thing you've read lately?

Milestones

I was talking to a good friend of mine last night - who happens to be getting married in 2 weeks - and we were discussing the big 25 birthday milestone. She said she hated that birthday but she has recently gotten over it (probably because she has a lot to look forward to in her 25th year).

I am not so freaked out about 25 - I said that 30 is a year I am way more afraid of. That is because I have always had expectations for that year. After I decided that I was going to go to law school I knew that I would graduate by the time I was 25 and have to really kill myself for 5 years (working hard as a lawyer and paying bills and getting my life on a steady path). But I always said that however hard age 25-29 will be, age 30 should be great because everything should be on course. How freaked out am I going to be when shit hits the fan when I am 30? I am just setting myself up for disaster.

So how about you - do you have an age that you always think about - where you expect big things to happen?? Did it pass and it wasn't as momentous as you thought it would be?

Hotel Rwanda

Wow, what a great film. What's that phrase reviwers love, "a tour de force"?

Extremely moving. Especially because of Don Cheadle's performance. That character changed and moved and made hard decisions like I haven't seen in a movie in a long, long, time. Only "The Motorcycle Diaries" in recent memory has affected me in such a way.

I'm not going to propose to say I fully understand the conflict and all the subtleties of the film but it was a very rewarding movie-going experience. It wasn't as depressing as I thought it'd be. It wasn't funny or "fun" like people believe movies should be. I'm very glad I saw it.

Suggestion Box

I have been making small changes here and there to the Blog's format (check out the updated blogroll).

Since this is a group blog - and (i would like to think) a community for more than just the main contributors - I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions about the Blog's format.

Comment on the substance, the look, what you like, what you don't like.

August means....

Certain months always trigger memories. For me August probably has the most vivid memories because it is my birthday month and I love to do special things on my birthday. That usually means something like a trip to Key West, a big birthday BBQ, or a trip to another state...and of course a nice slice of birthday cake! This year the weekend before my birthday will be spent in Boston - first attending a wedding and then partying with great friends in a great city. And let me not forgot that the big move to South Beach will take place on my birthday!!! (oh i am counting down the days!!!!)

Got some good birthday memories to share?

Also, August seems like a big month for people to take vacations. Almost every person I know is on some form of vacation right now - and I am jealous! Let's name a few trips going on right now -- cross country America, NY, New Zealand/Australia, LA -- well, the list goes on.

So where would you like to go on vacation?