dianaschnuth

…I might have watched Sesamstraat as a child.

Like the American version, Sesame Street, Sesamstraat features Kermit, Grover, Bert & Ernie, Elmo, Zoe (the little orange Elmo-esque monster), Oscar, and “Koekiemonster.” However… they also have a purple Big Bird character named Pino, a pig named Purk, a Rowlf-ish dog named Tommie, and a rodent named Ieniemienie (or Ienie for short).

I translated part of the Dutch FAQ with Babelfish (because the Google translator doesn’t include Dutch to English). With minor editing for grammar (but not enough to destroy the charm of automated translation), this is the result:

Q: Why is Pino yellow in America?

A: That is not Pino, but his cousin Jan (in American: Big Bird). Sesamstraat is transmitted in about 160 countries around the entire world. As lot of countries make their own version of ‘Sesame Street’. Tommie, Ieniemienie, Pino, Mr Aart and only plays all other Dutch actors in the Dutch version. In each country there other animals that live in Sesamstraat. Because Pino is also a large bird he is frequently wrongfully confused with his American cousin.

The purple Big Bird just warped my little mind when I first saw it, though.

Cold: Still going strong. Tomorrow will be its third day of evil oppression. I woke up this morning almost unable to speak, thanks to a sore throat and general phlegminess. Keep hocking up loogies (which is a feat for me). Now my eyes are dry, my gums feel funny, and the cold finally seems to be moving northward into my head. This is unfortunate; this means I could be potentially be much more miserable tomorrow.

LakeShoremen: First performance of the 2005 season is this coming Saturday. I need to a.) hem my uniform pants, b.) make sure my music is memorized (which it is, just about), c.) finish the first draft of the 2005 trifold brochure, and d.) update the LSM website with some much-overdue requests from the corps CEO.

I don’t know if I’m going to get all that done tomorrow night, so I’m contemplating pushing back the Sheryl & Diana Shopping Spree Part Deux to possibly next week sometime, like Monday or Tuesday. Not positive about that yet, though. If I’m well enough and productive enough tomorrow evening, and get my pants hemmed and my brochure done (which is entirely plausible), I’ll probably still be into teh shopping.

In other news, Amazon.com issued me a new Visa card (the fools). That bastard thing singlehandedly more than doubled my total credit line amongst my three credit cards. o.O EVIL. *muah-hah-ha*

I <3 my new clothes. I've been getting comments about them at work all week: - "Is that a new top? I bought one like that for my daughter at Kohl's." - "New clothes? Very cute!" - "I like that color [yellow] on you!" - "Springy today, eh?" (from two different people) - "New shirt? Very springy. Very cute." - "Boy, you really must've gone shopping, girl! It's nice to see you in clothes that really fit." OK, I really need to get to bed now. I'm sick and it's late and I need to get better. :-/

This post is dedicated to the anonymous jackass who posted the following comment:

From your description, it seems you need a “reason” to get up out of bed and clean yourself up these days. You’re content to hang out in blue jeans and sweats. You have given up on makeup, hair, grooming and nice apparel. Congratulations–you will be nominated for the “What Not To Wear” show on TLC by your loved ones real soon!

…

Get yourself to a stylist.

Friday evening, Sheryl took me clothes shopping. Not in direct response to the above comment, mind you… but I will admit that it fired me up enough to realize that I hadn’t really updated my wardrobe since I lost a shload of weight. I’d bought a couple new pairs of pants, so I wouldn’t look like freakin’ Bozo the Clown at work, but that was about it. I was still swimming in giant old shirts, some of them with subtle stainage I was hoping no one had noticed. :-\

So, like I said, Sheryl and I went shopping. We’d had an agenda of four stores, but never actually made it past Lane Bryant, as Sheryl ended up going absolutely ballistic on teh cuteness. With her fashion assistance, I ended up buying a pair of low-rise flare-leg jeans, a pair of khakis, a black skirt, a tank / shell with built-in shelf bra, one black bra, one white bra, and five cute shirts. Or was it six? Yeah, six: two pink, one peach, one blue, and two black.

I now have more style and teh cuteness. And a discernable figure.

So, here’s a before and after shot. And for you, anonymous commenter, a hearty fuck you.

I wish I could just clip my nails and pick up my guitar after at least a month or two of not playing… and play for more than ten minutes before my fingertips turn warm and swollen, and have clean chord changes and firm hand strength.

I wish I could plug in my keyboard after months and months of not playing… and be able to coordinate my left hand with my right like I could by the end of Class Piano. (Which still wasn’t all that.)

I wish I could remember how to hear the songs in my head and let them out, like I did before I heard so much honestly good music and lyrics and became self-conscious about my own.

I wish I still had an instrument that I felt was *mine*. One where I could just think a about note or an interval or a melody, and then play it, without fracking or sliding or guessing.

I wish I’d stuck with my music more. I wish I weren’t so rusty. I wish I hadn’t managed to let even my voice go to shit.

I wish there were more hours in the day.

I was looking through my old journals from Junior High, for some details about, well, when I “became a woman,” as my mother would put it. I discovered that my journals are nearly impossible for me to read now without a.) cringing at my naivete and stupidity, b.) being amazed that I used to write like an 8th grader, and c.) wondering why the hell I wrote about such trivial shit when I could have written about important things, like switching from pads to tampons.

o.O

Gentlemen, you’ll want to skip the rest of this entry. Really. It’s for “women” only.
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