the importance of being earnest

I think that Beauty and the Geek is possibly the most underrated reality show on television. Words cannot express how much I love this show. Blog readers from my college years may remember my obsession with Beauty and the Geek and Average Joe. Which I personally would finance if they wanted to bring it back. I'm kidding, I could not finance it, I have been eating beans and rice and tuna for the past week.
On some seasons of BatG the beauties will have a hidden smart side. Not this season, though, apparently. In tonight's episode they are playing flag football and the biggest concern of one of the girls was that she would get dirty or that her outfit wouldn't match. One of the guys' biggest concerns? That he would break his glasses. And that is why I love this show. I love nerds. I really, really do. I love the sincerity and earnestness of these guys. I love how they are so deadpan all the time. I love humor where you can't tell if it's humor. I love quotes like, "I prefer my games to be pure....like chess....or a rubik's cube"
The girls are interchangeable and look the same. But the guys. How can I pick a favorite?
Is it Jim, the aforementioned cube aficionado? This kid is 21! Why does he look 45?


Is it Matt? His glasses situation makes me uncomfortable and I imagine I would have a hard time looking him in the face.

Is it Tommy? The token cute nerd and self-proclaimed sweater vest enthusiast whose presence will make the girls reconsider their stereotype of nerds. He already made out with one of them. Play on playa.


I am writing this blog and watching at the same time. A girl just got eliminated and learned the lesson they all seem to learn: "You just need to give beauties a chance. And geeks the same"

Nerding out

I need to be doing some work, so I was reading boingboing.net, which is nerdy enough to start. And I read this post about fish who can supposedly count because they will go with groups of 4 fish versus 3 fish. And I was like, what, no, that does not mean they can count, that just means they can see that a group of fish is bigger. So then I'm like, what kind of a nerd cares if fish can count or just perceive size? Turns out, me and about 30 other boingboing readers who commented echoing my sentiments.
And that is your daily nerd alert.

these are the people in your neighborhood

Here is what I love about my neighborhood. I can leave the house in sweatpants and I am the most popular girl on the block.
I was doing laundry today. Laundry day=sweatpants. And, because my pants are a little long, I tuck them into rainboots. It was not raining. My hair is half in a ponytail, half messy, because I'm too lazy to brush my hair. I can do this and no one stares. No one comments. I fit in. It's great.
I got a "hey mami" from an older gentleman as I was walking to the store. Not an unusual greeting, and actually my personal favorite. I also got what I believe was a hiss as I walked in front of the pizza shop. Not a greeting I enjoy.
Then there was a woman I have never seen in front of the pizza shop. Black, probably about in her 50's, wearing a puffy coat and what I would describe as a church hat. The kind with a flower. "Hey baby", she said, as I walked by carrying my empty laundry basket on my way to fetch my clothes from the dryer. "Hey" I replied.
I retrieved my clothes and walked back, my lady friend was still there.
"Daaamn girl, you was quick! Daaammnnn", she laughed.
"Yeah", I said, "I don't mess around went it comes to laundry".
She laughed some more. Repeating, "damn, girl you was quick!" And, "I hear ya baby, I hear ya darling" as I unlocked the door of the building and retreated to my apartment.
Love it.

Note: For those who may not be familiar, that picture is of the corner across the street, featuring the priest from Dios Es Amor church downstairs, his megaphone, and the Lafayette Gardens sign (rip) which was unfortunately destroyed in an accident I witnessed involving a car jumping the curb.

I wrote a whole long post about my first two days in Florida. But Blogger only saved my original draft, which annoys me because losing posts was the whole reason I switched. Oh well. When I get around to it I will re-do it.

tidbits

It has been pointed out that my blog fan(s) are annoyed by my lack of posts. So this is just a random one, with hopefully a better one coming soon.

My Spring Break has officially started, and none too soon. Two of my clients this week told me that I looked tired. One of them routinely comes to session in a nightgown or pajamas because it's too much effort to get dressed. She is going to have to cut her hair off because she has quit brushing it and the back has turned into a huge knot. She said I looked tired. A woman. Who leaves the house. In jammies. Let me know I looked bad. So, thankfully, I have 10 days off. I slept until 2 today.
And, most importantly, I am going to Florida on Sunday! For three days with my friend Anne from school. so expect copious pictures next week. I have never been to Florida and there are few things I love more than the beach. So I am pretty excited.

My new thing that I love about New York is NYU related. In the past couple of weeks I have noted a man who stands at the edge of Washington Square park and encourages students to get to their classes. I'm not sure who he is, but somehow I doubt he is employed by the university. He us shorter than me, with stringy balding hair that he has in kind of a swept-back comb-over. He wears slacks and a collared shirt that are at least 2 sizes two big. The first time I saw him, I was running late for my 2 o'clock class. Helpfully, he was standing at the edge of the park shouting "It's 2:05, better get to your two o'clock class! You'll be 5 minutes late! Better late than never!" Two weeks later, I was heading to that same 2 o'clock class, early this time. "It's 1:50, 10 minutes to get to your two o'clock class!"
I have been going to NYU for over a year, with classes at various times, and I have never seen him, which makes me feel like the 2 o clock class is for some reason very important to him.
Maybe he knows that people sometimes get kind of tired after lunch and it makes it hard to get places.
Also! Abby and I got bikes! We are pretty excited.
And finally, the new thing I recommend is vitamins that do not come in tablet, capsule, caplet or otherwise swallowable forms. I take a lot of medication, and add in that I would like to supplement my all-oreo diet with actual vitamins, it can sometimes seem like a lot. So I have started taking these B-12 vitamins that dissolve under your tongue. Delicious. They taste like berry sweettarts. And then yesterday I got some gummy vitamin C's. A refreshing citrus flavor. And today I plan on getting some green tea gum. I anticipate nothing but teeth-cleaning, energizing, appetite suppressing deliciousness. Reviews will follow.

god pity the damage of calamity jane

If you're reading this, you know that the url is caitastrophejane. I think I'm really funny, you see, because it's like Calamity Jane. And Jane is my middle name. And then Caitastrophe is like Caitlin and Catastrophe. I think I'm soooo clever. I did not really know much about Calamity Jane, I just thought it was kind of badass. But, I just finished reading Deadwood by Pete Dexter, which is the book the series Deadwood was based on.
Calamity Jane in that book is a sad tomato. She's obsessed with Wild Bill and he just ignores her. She claims to have been married to him but no one can find any proof. She cries a lot. In real life, she was apparently immune to smallpox and went around nursing people who were sick. In the book there is an implication that she is actually a carrier of the disease, because about 2 weeks after she shows up anywhere there is an outbreak. She's not happy unless she is taking care of other people, and somewhat paradoxically, she is described as mannish. Granted, she's not going to win any beauty contests.
But I'm pretty crushed by this whole revelation. I thought she was all a wearing man clothes, fightin the red man, gun slingin', whiskey swillin, hitching post at the saloon, don't-fuck-with-me, wild west broad. Turns out she was just as much of a sniffling sad sack as the rest of us.

I'm told that her character in Deadwood the series is slightly less pathetic, but obviously, none more attractive. She looks like a bag lady and she's sloppy drunk the whole time. According to something that I came across in my ongoing efforts to find some CJ redeeming qualities I also learned that in Season 3 they make her gay. Of course. Because someone who looks like that could never be straight. I mean, really, what man would want her? Not Wild Bill. And that dude even had gonorrhea.

What a disappointment.

If she lived now, what would be her modern equivalent?