Thursday, July 31, 2008

Real Housewives of Atlanta Hits the Airwaves...the Most Obnoxious Yet!

Last night, in my typical insomniac style, I happened upon the 30 minute sneak preview of the Real Housewives of Atlanta on Bravo. These cougars are extremely self- absorbed and have upped the bar on narcissism, flashy, obnoxious behavior and being tres nouveau rich!! Ugh! Noone technically lives in Atlanta...they all live OTP. They would like the audience to believe that they run the city. Ha! I have socialized in both society and non-profit circles and have never met one of them.

Kudos to Bravo for finally adding some color!
The following is a brief biopic of the playas(my initial comments in red) from Bravo's website:

"Well you loved (or loved to hate) them in Orange County, then New York City, and now the Real Housewives are coming to Atlanta! The series will follow the lives of five women:

Sheree Whitfield:Single socialite Whitfield, a resident of the elite Sugarloaf subdivision.She is a busy working mother to three children -- Tierra, Kairo and Kaleigh. Whitfield prides herself on her fashion sense, and owned her own upscale clothing boutique -- Bella Azul -- for years before closing up shop (merchandising blunder) to focus on her next business venture, a clothing line called "She by Sheree ."

NeNe Leakes Leakes: resides in the upscale Sugarloaf area of Atlanta with her husband Gregg, a successful real estate investor and business consultant, and their two sons, 18-year-old Brice and nine-year-old Brentt. Leakes donates her time to various foundations and is the founder of The Twisted Hearts Foundation(never heard of it.....let's hear about its accomplishments), which brings awareness to domestic violence against women. Leakes also hopes to open a luxury boutique hotel in the very near future(whatever....like Atlanta needs another hotel...go ask Tori Spelling about her B & B).

Kim Zolciak:Kim(total gold digger with bad plastic surgery) is single and lives in an exclusive gated townhouse community in Duluth, GA with her two children, 11-year-old Brielle and six-year-old Ariana. She calls her sugar daddy "Big Poppa" to buy her an Escalade on a whim. She also has her sights set on fame in the music business as a country singer, and is currently working with Grammy award-winning mega-producer Dallas Austin and will begin recording an album this year(money would be better spent on fixing your bad plastic surgery).

DeShawn Snow: Snow and her husband Eric, captain of the Cleveland Cavaliers, recently moved to their dream home in Alpharetta, GA. (She has an "estate manager" (slave) to manage her staff....and is too snooty to call her own father to see if he would like any special foods when he visits. After showing off her ostentatious home, she bitches about buying vodka and Bailey's for her dad.......get real...not in the budget? At least Eric is humble enough to call his father.)Mother to three boys(not a hands on mom...has a nanny, governess, maids,cheff -- nine-year-old EJ, six-year-old Darius and five-year-old Jarren, Snow is an active member of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church(probably sends the estate manager to pray for her .Jesus doesnt't do snobby DeShawn). She exercises her faith by running The DeShawn Snow Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on improving self-esteem in teenage girls(never heard of it....let's hear about what this is really about). She is a regular on the Atlanta social circuit and extremely active in local philanthropy, sitting on the board of three different charities(yeah,me,myself and I).

Lisa Wu Hartwell: Hartwell, a resident of a luxurious country club community in Duluth, GA, is a busy career woman who wears many hats -- she owns her own real estate firm, Hartwell & Associates, a jewelry line called Wu Girls, a baby clothing line, Hart 2 Hart Baby, and juggles budding acting, modeling, and writing careers. She's a devoted wife to her husband, NFL player Ed Hartwell, and their three children 13-year-old Jordan, ten-year-old Justin and one-year-old EJ. (Like this couple the most.......and they are in great physical shape).

Check back soon for more info on the ladies and the new season! Peace up, A-Town down. (Sorry -- couldn't help it.)"

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The Flame Has Been Extinguished


Well, it took me less than a month to lose interest in the Flame. There is something wrong with his picture......he has only been in his office about 3 or 4 times during the past month. He stays for a couple of hours or less and leaves. He has not purchased any office furniture. He never turns on the lights. He brings a laptop but doesn't even have a printer or copy machine in the office. Too weird and bizarre. The whole story does not make any sense. Who knows what he really does? Is this a front for another business? Now that would be interesting. As Sade sang in one of her most popular songs "he is a smooth operator"! Oh well, hopefully there will be other new hotties in the building. Adios Flame..... it was fun while it lasted.

Sigh ....no more than a blip on my personal radar.



Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Insomnia, Sex and the City and Online Shopping Revisited


I am a confessed shopaholic and impulse shopper. After I saw Sex and the City, the movie, I was surfing the web in the early hours of the morning and decided that I HAD TO HAVE one of the dresses that Miranda wore in the film. Though not a Miranda fan, nor a fan of her fashion choices in the television series, I think that Patricia Field turned it up a notch, so to speak, and really improved Miranda's sense of style. I found the ivory silk Maggie London dress online and it has been on order ever since. I just received an update from Nordstrom. They tell me that the dress will finally ship on or about August 25, 2008. The question.......do I still want the dress? Not really. Where am I going to wear it? Not to work as I wear jeans most days. I have an entire bedroom which has been transformed into a walk in closet which adjoins my bedroom and it contains no less than twenty dresses. I rarely wear any of them. So I think I will be fiscally conscious and and say NO to the dress. Details to follow.

Bush Biopic by Oliver Stone...Can't Wait!!

From today's Page Six, New York Post :
"As much as the Bush family is going to hate "W.," Oliver Stone's biopic - which depicts the young Dubya boozing, brawling and getting locked up before he makes it to the White House - the Kennedy clan won't like it, either.
The first teaser for the flick - being rushed into theaters 18 days before the presidential election(wish it were this month) - begins with George Thorogood's "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer."
Josh Brolin, as the future commander in chief, is seen doing the bump with a hot blonde on top of a bar and then winning a drinking contest by guzzling beer through a funnel. He's also seen being hauled into jail.
Bush's dad, George H.W. Bush, portrayed by James Cromwell, slams his son's bad behavior and failed business ventures, raging: "What are you cut out for? Partying? Chasing tail? Driving drunk? Who do you think you are, a Kennedy? You're a Bush. Act like one!" Then father and son nearly come to blows as the elder threatens, "You want an ass whipping?" - to which Dubya taunts, "Try it, old man!"
In Stone's version of history, an insider says, "It's like the 'Godfather' story, [with] the outsider brother, Michael, who avenges his father and takes over the family business. This movie is about family. It's about vengeance. And it's a wild ride."
Stone trivializes the US invasion of Iraq as the younger Bush's personal vendetta against Saddam Hussein, who had thumbed his nose at Dubya's dad. "And Brolin captures the Bush malapropisms beautifully," the insider said. But the director also shows his marriage to Laura Bush (Elizabeth Banks) as "a touching love story."
In a crucial scene, the Bush family tells Dubya he can't run for Texas governor "because it's Jeb's turn." He defies their wishes and runs successfully against Democratic superstar Ann Richards, serving at the same time his brother Jeb is Florida governor. "

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Boyz II Men and Morris Day and the Time Rock the House at Chastain Park Atlanta








Friday night brought another fun concert to Chastain Park. The concert opened with Morris Day and the Time. The group reunited at the 50th annualGrammys this year with all the original members;Morris Day, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Jesse Johnson, Jerome Benton, Jellybean Johnson, and Monte Moirs. They are great entertainers! The highlight of the concert was when Morris invited many women to join him on the stage to shake their junk.


Next up Boyz II Men. Based on sales, Boyz II Men is the most successful R&B male vocal group of all time. They recorded five #1 R&B hits between 1992 and 1997 and has sold more than 60 million records.[1] Three of its #1 hits, "End of the Road", "I'll Make Love to You", and "One Sweet Day" (with Mariah Carey), set and broke records for the longest period of time a single remained at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100; the last of them still holds the record. Although "On Bended Knee" did not break any records, it was still an immensely popular song that reached #1 and made Boyz II Men the third artists (behind Elvis and The Beatles) to replace themselves at the number one spot of the Billboard Hot 100. Boyz II Men are really the Temptations/Four Tops of the 90's.

We had a fun group and although it was way too humid, a great time was had by all.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

COMPUTER NERD NEEDED ASAP!


We are having major problems with our office computer network as a result of clueless employees loading unnecessary software onto the server and turning off our anti virus software.

Our IT person is MIA and has left me in a huge bind. Does anyone want to switch lives?

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Ugly vs. Uglier..Fashion Faux Pas Revisited



Borrowed from Perez Hilton:


"Women's Wear Daily reports that Crocs is suing Skechers for 'stealing' their designs and logos.
Skechers responded to the allegations in a statement issued by their lawyer, saying, "We believe that this lawsuit is completely without merit and will vigorously defend ourselves against such baseless accusations."
THESE HORRENDOUS SHOES ARE WORSE THAN NAILS ON A CHALKBOARD!! ALL OF THE TREE HUGGERS WHO WEAR THEM SHOULD REALIZE THAT NOT ONLY ARE THESE POOR EXCUSE FOR FOOTWEAR UGLY, BUT THEY ARE ALSO WORSE THAN PLASTIC BAGS......SO NON-BIODEGRADABLE. UGH!

Friday, July 18, 2008

I feel like Alice in Wonderland going down the rabbit hole



I have been walking around with a toothache from hell. The kind that gives you constant discomfort even after taking 4 advil 4 times a day. About a month ago, my dentist told me that there was nothing wrong with the tooth and that maybe I was flossing too roughly. I called my dentist on Monday only to discover that he is on his Parisian honeymoon. I immediately called my oral surgeon who has operated on me in the past. I went to see him on Tuesday and he told me he needed to perform an apicoectomy in which the surgeon cuts your gums open and removes the infected tissue and actually cuts the tip of the root out of the jaw. http://www.simplestepsdental.com/SS/ihtSS/r.WSIHW000/st.32226/t.29811/pr.3.html

Anyway, back to pain. He prescribed my most favorite drug, Meprozine 50mg/25 mg, which is a form of morphine mixed with some anti nausea medicine. Here is a link to a site about this narcotic. http://www.drugs.com/mtm/meprozine.html. I took the pill on the way home from the surgeon's office and the drug really hit me hard and fast. It hit me as I was reading and I just spaced out and was waving to someone who was not in the room. I knew it was time to pack in my attempt to read. It is one of the best buzzes ever and I basically slept for the next 24 hours in a sleep with vivid dreams and hallucinations. This is probably what an acid trip is like. Too bad I didnt try to blog in this Alice in Wonderland state. Hmnnnnnn maybe I will take another and then blog about my incoherent trip down the rabbit hole.

In you are ever in need of oral surgery, definitely ask for Meprozine 50mg/25mg.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Hell has frozen over.....I am officially a country music fan






As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am a season ticket holder for the Friday night Chastain Park Amphitheater series. This season offers the worst selection of concerts. When I saw that Trace Adkins of Celebrity Apprentice fame was playing this past Friday, I immediately listed the tickets for sale on Craigs List and StubHub. I am not a country music fan. Unfortunately, there were no bites so I invited some friends and went to the concert. As Trace made his way to the stage, my mouth fell open. He is a perfect specimen of a man ......about 6'4" tall, 220 well placed pounds, long legs, blue eyes and a deep baritone voice. He was the consummate performer and entertainer who commanded the stage. I was in lust and really enjoyed his music and show.


The highlight of the evening was when one of my friends, feeling no pain after drinking about a bottle of chardonnay, actually climbed up on the stage to give Trace a vase of flowers. All at once the stage darkened and the music stopped . My friend was escorted off the stage by 2 security guards. Luckily they did not kick her out of the concert!!


A great time was had by all. I am actually contemplating downloading a few of my favorite songs off of Itunes. I guess hell has frozen over.... I am a Trace Adkins fan!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Steve Winwood at Verizon Amphitheater





Last night I went to see Steve Winwood and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the new Verizon Amphitheater in Alpharetta. As this was my first time to visit this venue, which is the new home of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, I expected the amphitheater to be a clone of
Chastain Park, only OTP. For those of you who do not live in the metro Atlanta area, "OTP" means Outside the Perimeter...meaning 285, the highway which encircles Atlanta. I am totally an "ITP" person.....I almost never venture outside 285, except to go to Costco which is almost ITP.

The weather was horrific! We drove through the rain for what felt like hours into the burbs. Parking was a nightmare. The amphitheater is huge...... more like Lakewood Amphitheater which is on the southside of Atlanta. I was shocked! Our seats in Section 101, Row E, at $125 each, were not very good. I know I am spoiled and a concert snob. My Chastain table is in the 4th row of the pit, right in front of the stage and I usually don't attend concerts where I cannot sit right up front.

The great news was the concert was great! Tom Petty looks exactly the same as he did 20 years ago and he cranked out all of his greatest hits. Steve Winwood, one of my all time favorites, was fabulous. I am a die hard Traffic fan and he played all of my favorites...Low Spark of High Heel Boys, Empty Pages and Dear Mister Fantasy. The best part of the show was when Steve Winwood joined Tom Petty on stage for Can't Find My Way Home and Gimme Some Lovin.


Cameras were prohibited and I really did not take alot of good pictures because we were not close enough to the stage. It started raining and lightening and we left before the concert ended as I have heard that it is a total cluster with 10,000 people trying to exit onto 2 lane roads.


In sum, I am happy I checked out Verizon once but I won't be going back again!! My concerts will be limited to ITP... Chastain, the Fox, Civic Center and Philips. That's it.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Flame Update


Now that I have gotten over my bloganoia, here is the latest on the Flame. He rarely comes to the office and he still hasn't furnished his office. Last week before the holiday he stopped by one afternoon and said he was ready for happy hour. He wanted to schedule it for July 3 in the evening but we closed the office at noon and I was going to see Pat Benatar that evening. He suggested we start happy hour at noon!! I knew there was not a chance in hell that he would show up as he has never arrived in his office before 3pm, if at all. Ofcourse he wasn't there at noon and I left.


Flame popped into the office yesterday afternoon and he brought 2 of his 3 kids over to meet me. Cute kids. He wants to schedule happy hour again. He is such a charmer but I am onto him! Definitely a player bad boy. As such, my feelings and expectations have changed. Friendship is all I want with the Flame. I have a feeling that he may not even be a reliable friend. I can definitely see why this man is divorced. Probably drove his ex wife loco!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

You Know You Have Virtually No Life When....


You are absolutely ecstatic that on the season finale of the Bachelorette, our hometown girl Deanna Pappas chose Jessie the sweet, romantic, adventurous professional snowboarder over Jason, the phoney baloney, stalkerish account executive from Seattle at the final rose ceremony. I was as nervous as a whore in church as the limo pulled up to the place where Deanna would make her selection. I gave a huge sigh of relief when Jason got out of the limo first and Deanna gave him the blow off. Get a life, REALLY!

Monday, July 7, 2008

This photo renders me speechless


I saw this ad in the latest Vanity Fair magazine and it took my breath away. I was compelled to share him for a quick pick me up on a boring or bad day at work. Two words to describe this perfect specimen......eye candy! What you may not be able to see in this photo is the piercing blue eyes.
A blow up of the picture is hanging on my bulletin board.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

A New Blog Related Condition: Bloganoia

Add this to your Funk and Wagnalls!! The word I developed to describe my current state of mind.
Bloganoia
Pronunciation: \ˌblog-ə-ˈnȯi-ə, ˌ\ . Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin, from Greek, madness, from blogamous demented, from blog- + nous written mind
Date: circa 2008
1 : a condition which produces the fear that the feelings and thoughts one writes in his/her blog will be discovered by the people who are the subjects of the posts in question. 2 : a tendency on the part of an individual or group toward excessive or irrational suspiciousness and distrustfulness of others concerning their blog
— bloga·noi·ac \-ˈnȯi-ˌak, -ˈnȯi-ik\ also bloga·noic \-ˈnȯi(-i)k, -ˈnō-ik\ adjective or noun
— bloga·noi·cal·ly \-ˈnȯi(-i)-k(ə-)lē, -ˈnō-i-k(ə-)lē\ adverb
Blog writing is so therapeutic. It enables you go write and share your deepest darkest thoughts about people you know with complete strangers. It is somewhat of Catch 22 as you want to share your thoughts and feelings but not with the people who are the subjects of the posts.

This week I have a case of bloganoia. and have temporarily removed the posts which are producing this condition and hopefully, I will recover soon.

Does anyone else ever experience this condition? Is it akin to writer's remorse?

Friday, July 4, 2008

Pat Benatar Still Rocks the House




CIT and husband, and E and I went to see Pat Benatar last night at the Mable House Amphitheater in Mableton, Georgia. We had a table under cover right in the front of the stage and it was wonderful. We had a great dinner with some tasty chardonnay.In her 50s, Pat's voice is strong and she still rocks the house. Her husband, who backs her on guitar, is a very gifted guitar and keyboards player. She sang all of her hits including Love Is A Battlefield, Heartbreaker, Hell is For Children and more. One of the amusing parts of the show was to see just how many young girls have become Pat Benatar fans. I guess you can attribute it to Jennifer Garners rendition of Love Is A Battlefield in Thirteen Going on Thirty. These tweens have taken to Pat like a fish takes to water. They were all rocking out in front of the stage.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Happy Independence Day!


Have a wonderful July 4th.

How to Find Your Soulmate


The following is borrowed from my iGoogle page:


Be the person your soulmate would love. Instead of waiting for your soulmate to appear, make yourself apparent to them. Work on becoming the unique individual they're looking for. Your soulmate will want you to be yourself. If you follow the crowd, your soulmate will never even notice you.

Expressing your individuality is the closest you can come to advertising your soulmate potential. Not only will you stand out, but you'll also be doing things that are more likely to bring you closer to your soulmate, who probably has similar interests and goals. Remember that your soulmate might not be what you expect. If there's only one person in the world who can be your soulmate, what are the chances that they'll live in your town, look like the people you grew up with, or even speak the same language? Your soulmate does not have to live in the same country or even the same hemisphere as you. Be willing to span the globe for your true love. Also, if you're expecting your soulmate to be love at first sight, you might never find what you're looking for. So keep an open mind. Part of the romance of having a soulmate is being pleasantly surprised.


Be patient. Fate doesn't work on a schedule. Your soulmate might cross your path when you're 8 or 80 years old. Don't be surprised either if there is a considerable age difference between the two of you. Yes, you might look forward to spending the majority of your life with your soulmate - perhaps buying a house, getting married, starting a family - but things do not always go as you plan. Your soulmate will color your world no matter how old you are, so don't rush into things, or else you might end up forcing the wrong person into the soulmate box, which will cause pain for everyone involved.


Accept people for who they are, not who you want them to be. When you've got all these fantasies flying around in your head about how wonderful and special your soulmate will be, it can be easy to look for those specific characteristics and features in anyone you get involved with. Unfortunately, unrealistic expectations can ruin a relationship, and might even chase your soulmate away. Whoever it is that you think might be your soulmate, appreciate their individuality and trust that if this person is your soulmate, they'll never need to change who they are for you, just like you'll never need to change who you are for them. That doesn't mean that you can't encourage them to try something new or help them to grow as people, just don't force things on them that they are not comfortable with.


Weather the storms. Contrary to what popular media would have you believe, meeting your soulmate doesn't guarantee "happily ever after." Things won't get easier when you find that special someone and in fact, they might get even harder. Ultimately, a soulmate is someone you can grow with, and the only way to grow together is to face challenges together. So if you put your heart and soul into a relationship, stick with it through the ups and downs, even when you question whether it's meant to be, and you might look back decades later and realize that you were with your soulmate all along. True love with your soulmate does not grow on its own: it must be cultivated and continually nurtured. So be lovable, and be willing to love like there is no tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Proceeding with Caution


In an impulse of paranoia and soul searching, I have removed all but one of my Flame posts for the time being. I have witnessed the downside of posting heartfelt information when a talented blogger had her blog compromised by a total dweeb. Moreover, I am seeing the downside of the Flame....although a schmoozer, he is somewhat flighty and in my opinion, a player. Once again, I am guarded....back to the mold of Cougar.


We are scheduled for happy hour tomorrow so I will post with updates.


Tomorrow night is the Pat Benatar concert with CIT, her husband and our friend E. Details to follow.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Screening Phone Calls, Phone Loathing and the Downside of Caller ID


I have received a phone call every day, sometimes twice a day, from a 770 number. The caller never leaves a message. My general rule is that I do not answer the phone unless I know who is calling and if I am not in the mood to speak with the caller, I may not pick up. I am not a "phone person". I am on the phone all day long and by the time I go home, if I hear the phone ring, I want to throw it against the wall.


I will never understand people who love to chit chat on the phone for no apparent reason. If I had my "druthers", I would communicate exclusively by email and by text message.


So word to those with no phone number identification, you might as well give up.