Give Dirt a Chance!

My all-time favorite show, aside from Sex and the City, is Friends. I can never get enough of network TV re-runs or the DVDs that I own, for that matter. They always make me laugh and I usually make reference to the show by reciting lines daily that fit into my conversations. It's such a classic show! And though it went on for a fabulous ten years, I was so sad to see it go. Thursday nights would never be the same (well, until Grey's Anatomy found itself into my life hehe).

So when I heard that Courteney Cox was coming back to the small screen I was extremely ecstatic. I love all the friends – my favorite being Jennifer Aniston (many people have told me I resemble her, which I don't see but I'm extremely flattered!!). This show would be called Dirt and would star Cox as the ruthless tabloid editor, Lucy Spiller. I hadn't heard much about it except a bit of a buzz. When my editor asked me if I had seen it, I realized that I had missed the first episode. When it ran again on FX, I made sure to watch it. At first, I thought that it was OK, not getting too excited about it. But I decided that I'd give it another chance. Well, let me tell you, thank goodness I did because I love Dirt.

The season just ended on Tuesday and I can't believe I'll have to be without it for a long while. I read a review in the Times prior to watching the finale and was floored by the negative stance. I don't think that it should get such a bad rap. I am completely hooked. The review claimed that Cox had no desire to act and it showed through in her performance. Well, let's take a second to analyze the role. Cox is playing a tabloid editor who will stop at nothing to get her celebrity gossip. She has no emotions and is supposed to be completely cold to all those around her. It's not that she doesn't get excited about acting, it's that she's playing her character extremely well. Do you think you could do that? She delivers her lines flawlessly and really makes you hate her character, while sometimes making you feel bad for someone who could be so unfeeling.

The finale was completely intense and I was extremely nervous at times. I really felt the anticipation and was so sad that it was going to end. The final scene left me wanting more! I really do hope they renew the show because I think that it's a great show. Though it's racy and scandalous in certain respects (I told my mother not to watch it), I think they do an excellent job with what they are trying to portray. So watch it when it comes on again and just give it a chance. And don't get so caught up in Cox's character because she's certainly not Monica Geller anymore...

For all you who would like to see the Times review:
Disposable Friendships and a Fight to the Finish

The Easter Bunny Scares Me

When you were little, did you freak out every time your mom wanted to take you to the mall to get your picture taken with the Easter Bunny or Santa? Did your mom even want to take you? Or am I the only one? I'm certain I am not, as there was always at least an hour wait on that dreaded line. Well, in any case, I used to get so upset at the thought of the dreaded Christmas-time/Easter-time picture. I have the pics to prove it!

My mother used to convince me to get my picture taken with the promise of getting to ride the train afterwards. I didn't like it, but I wanted to ride the train, even though it only traveled in an oval about ten times. So I would reluctantly agree. I can remember one picture-taking instance when I was about three years old. I was terrified and my brother was a newborn. So, of course, I decided that it would be best to stand off to the side of Santa, whilst he tried to calm my screaming brother and smile. My face is priceless because it's the kind of "OK, I'm victorious - I don't have to sit on Santa's lap - but I'm still kind of scared" smile. What a little sneak!!

Well, last night, I was with two friends at the mall. We were sitting in Starbucks, slowly sipping on some coffee fraps, when they spotted the Easter Bunny. The comment was something like "OMG! That bunny is kind of creepy!" And I'm thinking to myself, "What are you talking about??" not remembering that Easter is less than two weeks away. So I looked over and saw him. He was standing with his back to me about 300 feet away, but I just got so creeped out. I can't help it!

There is something extremely unnatural about a giant bunny to me. He doesn't actually exist. Why is a human dressed as an animal? I'm creeped out by all these people. And I think to myself that it has to be a horrible job to have to dress up like one of them. It's hot in there and you've got screaming children jumping all over you or running away from you. Do you really think they can clean that giant head? I think not. That's just unsanitary.

But in any case, I have a very big problem with humans dressed as giant animals. Forget about the Disney characters or that large-and-in-charge purple dinosaur I used to watch with the kids I baby-sat back in the day. It's very scary. I don't know why I'm so scarred by this, but I guess it's kind of like a clown (I have a problem with those as well). Though I realize I'm totally rejecting fantasy, just think about it. Do you want a giant mouse with a fake smile painted across its head to come near you? I do not. It's just not cool.

The Grammatical Curse

I was watching SATC last night -- it's one of my all-time favorites -- and Carrie runs into Natasha, Big's new, much younger wife. She attempts to go to a "Women in the Arts" luncheon in order to get a glimpse of the woman Big picked to be his (after all, he did not pick Carrie). But as it turns out, Natasha is a no-show. Later on, Carrie receives a note from Natasha thanking her for her attendance at the luncheon and apologizing for her own absence. "Sorry I couldn't be their." THEIR!! Carrie immediately calls Miranda and makes fun of Natasha because she's obviously an idiot. It's so funny to me because that is exactly the way I feel about grammar! I'm completely obsessed!

It's the weirdest thing, but as I edit my own work or the work of others, it seems that the errors jump off the page (or screen) and scream to me that they are wrong. I don't know when I developed this talent, if you will. Perhaps it's genetic because my mother is similar. But I'll be reading a website or a magazine and I see the gramatically incorrect sentences or words and I cringe. I can think of two specific instances. One was about a year ago, when I was in Spain. I was reading a well-known American fashion magazine, whose name shall remain anonymous, and I spotted an error. Now, to me, this was completely absurd. There is absolutely no reason with all the staff - writers, copy editors, fact checkers - that this little error should have slipped through the cracks. It's completely unacceptable. And this was a monthly magazine, which means that there was ample time to detect the mistake. It's a bit more forgivable in a weekly, but even then it drives me nuts!

The situation is similar to the website that I viewed a couple of weeks ago while doing research for an article. Now, I'm not talking a website that is put out by just anyone. This was an organization's website, meaning that the group has members and supports a specific cause. They are also well-known. There's just no room for such mistakes, especially with all the spellchecks in Word and e-mail programs. It just shouldn't happen!!

But here's a funny oops-Amanda-messed-up story. Last year, when I was interning for a rather well-known magazine (one with a circulation of about 900,000), I detected a mistake on the website. I immediately e-mailed the web editor to alert her because, as you already know, it drives me crazy. Well, in this e-mail I said something like this:

"I noticed a mistake on the website and since I'm a real stickler for grammar, I thought I'd point it out. You see, I think the credibility of a publication certainly goes down when there is a misspelling. Blah blah blah."

The next day, I came in and checked my mail and I had a reply. She thanked me for pointing out the error and told me it had been corrected. At the end of the e-mail she added:

"And my name is Betsy, not Besty, stickler."

Well, I was mortified when I read this. I immediately thought back to the day before and realized that I had written the e-mail as I was running out the door and, as a result, I didn't read it over. That's something I never do! But I couldn't make excuses. My hands had typed faster than my eye could see. It was a definite mistake but I laughed so hard because I looked like an idiot - some stickler!!

In any case, just thought I'd share the woes of the grammar world and how I am completely in love with words. And I love when people use big words. Yet, I'm not so big on reading books. So now you see, I'm a writer who doesn't write or read for pleasure and who's obsessed with grammar. Oh man...

Simply Fabulous

I'm not too sure what possessed me to sign up for my own blog. Perhaps it's all the blogging I'm exposed to at work. You see, I'm a writer for an online magazine devoted to helping those who are looking to go to college or some type of career school. I talk to so many people constantly and I am always writing at work and even blogging for our MySpace page (which is totally fabulous so check it out --> http://www.myspace.com/collegesurfing).

But I was never one of those writers who kept a constant journal and that's what I think a blog is, in a way. It helps you chronicle certain parts of your life, including events, emotions, and earth-shattering drama. But in other ways I think it also is an outlet to get your ideas out to other people. And why not, right? It's odd that I'm blogging, though, because I always say that I'm a writer who doesn't write. I never wrote poems because I wanted to express my emotions - I wrote them because I was enrolled in a Creative Writing class at school. But I think that this will be a good change for me and a good way to allow me to speak because let's face it, I can do my fair share of talking...

It's also hilarious that it's 11:30pm and I'm still awake. I'm usually out by 10:30 or 11 (though I do manage to catch my 11pm fix of SATC on the WB every so often). I'm often referred to as "grandma" by my college friends, but we'll get to that in a later post I'm most definitely sure. So I just wanted to welcome you to my blog which is "Simply Fabulous" (as am I -- I'm not full of myself; but if you don't believe in yourself, who will?)