Craig & Lauren

Today, I went to a taping of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. I've wanted to go to a taping of his for awhile now, but just haven't gotten around to it. I find him incredibly funny and think he's the best late night guy there is. Though, in all honesty, I rarely watch his show because it's on so late. But I record it from time to time when someone is on that I want to see.

Actually, I don't watch any of the late night shows unless there's someone on I want to see. Usually what I do is check the TV guide on Sunday to see if there are any guests that I'm interested in seeing. For some reason, I didn't do that this week. But I remembered yesterday morning, so I checked out the remaining week's episodes. And I saw that Lauren Graham was going to be on Craig's show on Friday, so I set it to record. Then I realized that I wasn't doing anything, so I should see if I could get a ticket to see the taping. And low and behold, I did!

Now, to fully understand my excitement, I'm going to have to reveal a little something about me that only a few of my friends know. I keep it under wraps for whatever reason. So here's the deal, there are two little known actresses out there that I am borderline obsessed with. I call them girl crushes, but I say that in jest. I just think they're extremely talented...and that we should be best friends. One of those actresses is Lauren Graham. Most of you would know her from Gilmore Girls, though she's been in a lot of stuff. Lauren entered my radar back in high school when she was on a short-lived show called Townies. That show starred Molly Ringwald, but I remember thinking that the two sidekicks were much more talented and thought they deserved better shows. Those two sidekicks were Lauren and Jenna Elfman (of Dharma & Greg fame). Anyway, I kept up with Lauren after that. And let's just say, I've seen almost everything on her IMDb listing.

So today, I got to see Lauren Graham! And it was AWESOME!! And I don't know how to convey my excitement anymore than that. It's times like these that I walk around with a smile on my face thinking about how great it is to live in LA and how I get to do cool things like this. It just makes me happy.

It's down!!

I drove by the house with the Palin effigy hanging by a noose on my way home from Bible study, and it looks like the homeowners finally took it down! Hallelujah!

Here's a grainy picture...


I've got more to say on the issue, but right now I'm going to watch Pushing Daisies. I'll be back.

Alright, I'm back. But now I'm realizing I don't really have that much to say. I drive by this house all the time, and I'm going to be honest, I barely even noticed it. So many people out here decorate for Halloween (which is just bizarre) that it didn't even stand out to me. I just noticed in passing that part of the decorations was a mannequin hanging by a noose, and I remember thinking that was just tacky. I didn't even realize that it was dressed like Sarah Palin until I saw it on the news. Then I was more disturbed. Y'all are all probably thinking the same way, so I'm not going to get into it.

I'm just going to state that I'm thankful it came down. And I'm astounded by all the protests that have gone on over the last few days. Who knew there were so many Republicans (and/or sympathizing Democrats) in LA?!

My bike!

I bought a bike

I've been wanting a bike to ride around my neighborhood to save money on gas and be healthier and such. I looked for a long time and was being very picky. I decided I wanted a green bike. Do you know how hard it is to find a green bike?! I finally found the perfect green bike at Target right before I left for Germany. I decided I'd wait until I got back to get it. Well, fast-forward to my return and you'll arrive at the beginning of my 3 week journey to find this bike. Of course it was gone when I got back! I searched all of the Targets around LA, but no one had it.

I was making a last ditch effort Monday night to see if I missed a Target in my search. I finally found a Target in Northridge that the website said had it. Since Northridge is a good 20 miles away, which is about 45 minutes LA time, I called to double check before I made the trip. They had it, and they put it on hold for me! I was getting excited. I had to talk my roommate into making the trip because he has an SUV and there wasn't anyway I could fit a bike into my little Civic. As we got closer to Northridge, I started having a sinking feeling that the guy I talked to got the wrong bike. Sure enough, I walked in and saw a silver bike with my name on it. I told the guy the stocking number and even said it was green so as not to create any confusion! I thought great, this was a pointless trip. But I decided to go back to the bike section and check for myself. Maybe the kid just got confused. I made my way to the back of the store and as I turned down the aisle, the heavens parted and angels sang. There on the top shelf was the green bike I'd been searching all over LA for!!

I was going to take it out for a spin today, but it was too hot. It's supposed to be cooler tomorrow, so I'll try again. I'll at least take some pictures so y'all can see the prettiest bike in the whole world! I know you're excited!

Halloween

My favorite treats to get on Halloween were chocolate (excluding tootsie rolls) and those peanut butter taffy things in the orange and black wax paper. I know, those are one of those candies that you either love or hate. I happen to fall in the love category.
I've searched high and low and haven't found my beloved peanut butter treats this year. And by high and low, I really mean Target and several grocery stores. I'm giving it one last shot by hitting up the drug stores. I haven't checked there yet. But my hopes are low. I believe this may just be a peanut butter taffy free Halloween. Sad.

Pushing Daisies

Back to non-political posts. Though I'm about to do some campaigning, so get ready.

Please, please, please, please, please watch Pushing Daisies!! PLEASE!!

This is my favorite show on TV right now and no one is watching it. This is just a travesty. It's one of the most original, creative shows I've ever seen.

Why will America sit and watch every unoriginal CSI-ish crime show or unfunny, you can see the joke coming a mile away Two and a Half Men type show, but not give Pushing Daisies a chance? I guess I just don't understand everyone's taste. And don't get me wrong. I don't mean to knock those other shows. There's a place for all of them. I just wish people would expand their horizons a little bit.

Tune into Pushing Daisies Wednesday night and check out a sweet, non-sex obssessed, non-blood and guts showing, fun, intelligent show that's mastered the lost art of storytelling.

Pretty please!

Prop 8

This is the first year I get to vote in California. Prop 8, the marriage protection amendment, is the hot non-presidential topic out here, and that puts me in a unique position. This is the second time I'll get to vote for or against a marriage protection amendment. I got to vote on Arkansas' proposition in the last election, and now I get to vote on California's. I wonder how many people have gotten to vote on this issue twice?

If you noticed the picture I posted, you already now how I feel. I didn't vote for the amendment in Arkansas, and I absolutely will not vote for it in California. This is another one of those issues where I'm in the minority and feel that Christians have it all wrong. How am I ever going to be able to minister to a homosexual when I voted against this amendment? They won't be able to look past what they perceive as my hatred for them as a person.

Prop 8 and all these similar marriage amendments are discrimination, plain and simple. I'm not asking churches to start marrying homosexuals. I am absolutely opposed to that. I'm simply voting to allow homosexuals to marry in the eyes of the state. What does that mean? They can file a joint tax return, they can visit their partner in the hospital when only family members are allowed, the child they're raising together won't go into a foster home when the biological parent passes away. It's simply a matter of rights, and I don't understand why people are so adament about denying them.

We're so wrapped up in protecting an institution that's falling apart. Who decided that fighting against gay marriage is a way to preserve the institution? Gay people aren't corrupting marriage and the family. Godless marriages, too easily obtained divorces, absentee fathers...those are the things tainting marriage and the family.

Bottom line, I think we need to get our priorities straight. A lot of money has been spent on supporting these amendments that would've gone a long way in assisting the homeless, the poor, the jobless. Oh, but wait, if Prop 8 passes, we've preserved marriage! I ask you...have we? Or is marriage in the same state it was before while we've managed to further alienate a group of people we are trying to reach?

Crack me up!

I can see! I can see!

I've lived most of my life with bad eyes. It's the one thing that annoys me about my brother and sister. They have perfect vision. Only now I think they're finally starting to experience vision problems associated with aging, which I enjoy. I know that's mean, but it's true. I've worn glasses or contacts since I was 9. Though I'm pretty certain I needed them before that. It just took me a little while to convince my parents that I really couldn't see and wasn't just wanting glasses for the sake of having glasses. Thanks Dad for finally believing me!

Everything was hunky dory until college when my eyeballs decided to go insane. They decided they no longer liked to have contacts on them. I spent a year living with bloodshot eyes and mostly wearing glasses while my doctor tried contact after contact to see if anything would work. Luckily, my eyeballs finally decided that they would allow daily disposable lenses to rest on them without throwing a fit. Problem is, daily lenses at the time didn't correct for astigmatism. So I've spent the last 8 years walking around in contacts that still don't completely correct my vision. I could see pretty clearly within a few feet in front of me, but beyond that...out of focus. I did a lot of squinting to read signs and just had to realize I wouldn't be able to read it until I was right up on it. But I learned to deal. At least I could wear contacts and not have to deal with glasses. I hate glasses!

Fear has kept me from trying any new contacts. That was a crappy year, and I really don't want to relive it. But I finally decided that I was sick of not being able to see and honestly, those daily lenses were breaking my wallet! Plus, Mom was always telling me there were now disposable Toric lenses. So yesterday, I went to a new doctor and he fixed me up with some good ol' 2 week disposable Toric lenses. And now, I can see!! He told me my vision with the old contacts shouldn't have passed the eye exam on the driver's test in California. I actually just passed that test about a year and a half ago, albeit with a lot of squinting! Oops!

It's amazing how you learn to deal with something and don't think it's that bad until it's corrected and you actually experience how much better it is.

Trickle-down

I know what you're thinking. "Yay! Another political blog!! Keep 'em coming, Terri!"

The good news for you is that the election is almost over, which means my political blogs will taper off. And I'll be back to blogging only about frivolous things once more.

So here's the deal. I haven't watched the debate yet and I haven't read about it, so this post in no way reflects my views post-debate. But I want to rant a little, and I hope you'll humor me.

I'm a Hillary supporter. Still am. I still believe she's the best person for the job right now and that Americans made a colossal mistake by not nominating her. But obviously she's not running, and after she lost, I threw my support behind McCain...which means I'm about to be 0 for 3 in presidential elections unless something crazy happens. (And yes, that does mean I voted for Al Gore and John Kerry and I'm not ashamed to say it.)

But what I wanted to write about was how I've been screaming at my TV and the Internet over these last couple of weeks. Here's why...I'm a fiscal conservative. What does that mean? It means my Republicanness has overtaken my social Democraticness in these times of economic hardships.

I wish every American had to take some economics classes, so they could be informed in situations like this. I majored in economics, so it's hard-wired in my brain. Joe Schmo America doesn't understand economics, so he sees Obama saying he's going to cut taxes and he's like "hell yeah! There's the candidate that's going to help me out." But what he doesn't understand is that doesn't work. Sure he'll have a little bit more money at the end of the year that he'll either use to buy something he doesn't need (typical of the poor) or put in the bank (typical of the middle class). But he'll still be sitting there without a job because the small businesses and corporations are still in the hole and they're still laying people off left and right.

Then we have McCain who's telling us he's going to cut taxes for the small business and the corporations, and Joe Schmo America just hears that he's still going to have to pay the same amount thinking "the rich get richer." But what he doesn't understand is that when you cut the corporate tax rate, they don't put it in the bank or go out and buy a fancy new car...they create more jobs! Wait, what?! More jobs? Yes, more jobs! But what does this mean, you may be asking. It means that Joe Schmo America now has a job to actually earn income and become a contributing member of society. Sure he still has to pay taxes on it, but isn't it nice to have a steady job and be able to provide for your family?

This is why I've been screaming. Why can't people understand these things? Why can't politicians do a better job of explaining these things?

Oh, and FYI...Hillary and Bill would actually be classified as fiscal conservatives. George W. Bush...not so much. But that would require a little more explanation in regards to spending, and I'm not going to bore you with another lecture. You know what I like to say...look it up!

I danced with Ellen and other random stuff

I got a last minute invite to go see a taping of The Ellen Degeneres Show today. Lucky for me, I had no plans. It was a lot of fun. Everyone needs to watch tomorrow's show with Dakota Fanning and look for me. I'm in the very back row and I had on an orange shirt with a black sweater. I doubt you can see me, but you all need to look! Oh, and I actually did dance! That's saying a lot if you know me because I don't dance...unless I'm alone! And don't be jealous of my Tiddy Bear. See how I dangled that out there? Now you have to watch the show so you know what I'm talking about. I learned that in Marketing 101.

Have y'all been watching Dancing with the Stars? The girl's costumes on that show are getting ridiculous. I mean, it's supposed to be a family show right? There's no way I would let my kids watch it with those slinky costumes! Alright, done with my rant.

I recorded a couple of videos while I was in Europe. I'm going to upload them to YouTube and post them on here over the next few days. Y'all probably won't care to watch most of them, but I'm putting them up anyway because they make me laugh and I think mom and dad would like to see them.

Let me set the stage for the first one. Picture if you will the most famous museum in the world, The Louvre...the very quiet Louvre.

Day 3

Ok, so I forgot about day 3, mainly because there wasn't much to it. We got up, checked out of our hotel, then headed out for a few more hours of activity before we departed. First, we went to the Arc de Triomphe to officially take pictures. We'd been by it a couple of times the previous two days, but always at night and we didn't stop to take pics.

Then we did some souvenir shopping along the Champs-Elysees. Most of the stores were closed since it was Sunday, but all the little touristy spots were open. We stopped in at Laduree and got some treats for the road. I love madeleines and absolutely had to get one in Paris. Jolee got some macarons - not to be confused with macaroons - and they were equally delicious.

Once again, we ate at a little cafe on the Champs-Elysees. I decided we should get french food since we were in France. We settled on french onion soup and a croque monsieur. It was the best french onion soup I've ever had - I'm guessing because we were actually in France! After enjoying our delicious food, we got the bill and realized that the cokes we ordered cost 10 euro!! That's 15 freakin' dollars!! Holy crap! After double checking with our waiter, we begrudgingly paid for it and headed off to the Eiffel Tower.

We got some better pictures of the Parisian landmark because the sun was in a better position. Then we sat and enjoyed a crepe with nutella for dessert even though neither of us was all that hungry. But it was scrumptious! We then hopped on the subway and headed back to our hotel to collect the car and our luggage and leave Paris behind.

It was a fantastic trip, and I hope to go back someday! Thanks for being my tour guide, Jolee. I had a blast!

Day 2

We started out the day by sleeping in, according to Jolee. For me, not so much. But I don't have 3 kids to deal with, so I get that that was a treat for her. First stop, the Eiffel Tower. Only, the sun was in the worst possible location. We took a couple of pictures, and I marveled at it; then we decided to revisit it at a later time when the sun would be more cooperating for pics. We headed toward the Champs Elysees to eat lunch at Laduree, which had been recommended to us. Along the way we passed right by the tunnel where Princess Di crashed. We took pictures. Notice how I'm not smiling in mine. I thought I shouldn't smile, but the non-smiling just looks weird. Anyway, it was interesting to see.

Now on to lunch. Laduree was fabulous! I had a sandwich complete with five whole fries and Jolee had breakfast. She got hot chocolate and it was the best, most rich hot chocolate I've ever tasted. Seriously, it was like they melted a chocolate bar and put it in a cup. Yummy! Throughout the meal, I was getting tickled/annoyed at the people sitting next to us. It was an American couple and their daughter, who we decided probably lived in Paris. They didn't talk much for the longest time, then started discussing politics. Let's just say I'm pretty certain they're uptight, rich, waspy liberals from the northeast and their comments were just silly. Once, the mom said if Palin wins, it'll be like having a hillbilly in the White House. I laughed and really wanted to lean over and say you're actually sitting next to a couple of hillbillies and ask what they thought about Bill. We debated about taking pictures inside because everything was so fancy and no one else was doing it. But as we were finishing up, a group of women came in and started taking pictures, so we decided we could do it, too!

After lunch, we were off to the Louvre. Ah, the Louvre!! It was everything I thought it would be and more. It was humongous. We kept turning down halls and going up and down stairs to find exhibit after exhibit. I told Jolee to give me 2 hours, and I would soak it in as best I could. We headed straight to the Mona Lisa because that's all she wanted to see. It was pretty neat to see and bigger than what people had led me to believe. Unfortunately, I never really got a decent picture of it. Afterwards, I made a mad dash trying to see all I could in the time allotted. Jolee was a good sport, following me around and not complaining. Luckily for her, none of the descriptions were in English, so I couldn't dwell on anything too long. Though I did try to read a few and use my Spanish skills to decipher the French. It didn't work so well. I could only pick out a few words here and there. As we were winding up our visit, Jolee managed to be her clumsy self and trip violently over a raised vent. I found it hysterical and we both cracked up laughing along with a few other people around us. Good times!

We were both pretty tired after the Louvre, and debated heading to the hotel for a break. But the Notre Dame is so close to the Louvre that we decided it was stupid to not finish up our touring in that area. We were both super thirsty, and I talked Jolee out of buying a coke for 3 euro right outside the museum thinking we'd surely pass something cheaper on the way to Notre Dame. Well, let me just tell you, we did not pass a single dadgum place!! Oops, sorry Jolee! We found Notre Dame and toured the inside. It was very pretty, but I'm going to admit that I enjoyed the churches in Cologne and Trier better. If that had been the first one I'd seen, I would have been in awe. But it was the third, and I still stand by my statement that Cologne's was the prettiest outside and Trier's was the prettiest inside. After resting inside for a few minutes, we crossed the street and bought a coke at Subway. Jolee bought a little fountain drink for 2 euro, and I opted for the bigger bottled drink for, you guessed it, 3 euro! After we got some caffeine in us, we perked up quite a bit. And this is when we (ok, really me) concocted the Hard Rock Cafe scheme.

Let me just state for the record that I do, in fact, have a guitar pin collection. I have to go to Hard Rock wherever I am and get a pin. It's a rule. I have to physically keep myself away from the Hard Rock in LA so as not to go broke. We knew Hard Rock was close to where we were, but we didn't know exactly where. So we headed out in the general direction of it. Well, those of you who've been to Paris know that their streets don't really run parallel and perpendicular. So we were just winding around. Along the way we managed to find a local shopping area with lots of restaurants and such. I could tell people were giving us the "what the crap are you tourists doing here" look. But we didn't care! We found a pizza place to eat some dinner in order to refuel. Then we were off to meandering again! Luckily, Jolee put her GPS in the backpack, so we pulled it out and let it lead the way. That thing took us so off the beaten path it was crazy. We saw lots and lots of Japanese and Chinese eateries with lines out the door. Finally, after a good hour plus, a busy street appeared in front of us and as we approached, the tiny Paris Hard Rock Cafe emerged from hiding. And yes, I got my pin!

When we were meandering around looking for the Hard Rock, we saw a pretty building in the distance. Jolee wanted to look, I said lets find Hard Rock first, then as soon as we turned off the street I decided Jolee was right. We should've gone back to see it right then because we absolutely could not find it after we left Hard Rock! We finally gave up and were trying to make our way to the metro. Wouldn't you know that right after that, we got to an intersection, I looked right, and there it was...the Paris Opera House in all it's glory!! Of course we'd stumble on it right when we stopped looking. We should've stopped looking a half hour earlier! Oh well, now we have a fun story to tell!!

At this point, we were exhausted. We hopped on the metro and headed back to the hotel to rest up for day 3.

I'm going to borrow Jolee's idea and give my Paris presentation in three parts.

Day 1

We left for Paris bright and early in the morning. Needless to say, I was beyond excited. We managed to fill up the gas tank along the way thanks to Matt's instructions. It's all different in France as they specify fuel types by numbers instead of unleaded, super-unleaded, and diesel. Jolee drove superbly and we arrived without any catastrophes. We checked into the hotel, then ventured off to Versailles. We Turner's don't fly by the seat of our pants very often, so we had pretty much mapped out each of our days there.

We got to Versailles pretty easily, though we ended up buying two tickets because evidently the Paris metro tickets only work on the RER for Paris stops. Once we paid Versailles to let us enter their sacred land, we were off to the Palace. I turned right out of the train station because I felt like it was the proper direction though I didn't actually say this out loud. Jolee just thought I knew where I was going, so she followed. When we walked a block, I told her I had no clue where to go...I was just going on instinct. But we rounded the corner and saw tons of cars and buses. Low and behold, my instincts were right once again! As we approached, I was like what the crap is this?! You can see in one of the pictures below that it just wasn't that impressive from the outside. There's a huge parking lot obstructing the view, and of course, they were doing construction. So we didn't really get to see what the outside looks like in all its glory.

Luckily, the inside made up for it fully! I'm not going to give you much of the history. It's interesting when you're there, but I don't know how interesting it is when you look at someone else's pictures. We toured the Palace, the gardens, the Grand Trianon, and the Petit Trianon. The Petit Trianon is where Marie Antoinette spent most of her time. If you've ever seen the movie, then those pics are probably familiar to you. If you have more interest in the history, then I would recommend Wikipedia. If you ever go to Paris, you've got to go to Versailles. You will not regret it!

After Versailles, we meandered around Paris for awhile. Jolee remembered a Planet Hollywood on Champs Elysees, so we decided to be all American and go eat some fajitas. Now mind you, we'd barely eaten all day and were both starting to get grouchy. We walked up and down the avenue and couldn't find it. Finally, Jolee called Matt. He gave us the exact address. We found the spot, but wouldn't you know it was closed!! They had shut it down. I was getting grouchier by the minute, but it was pretty darn funny. We finally went back to the hotel and ate at the restaurant in the lobby. And so ended day one of our Paris adventure.