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I haven’t been excited about that much on TV lately. I mean, I’m really happy that the Daily Show & Colbert Report are back on, and I’m looking forward to “Lost” starting later this month, but otherwise… eh. Not that much is on my DVR schedule. Even my beloved “Project Runway” hasn’t been as exciting to me this year as previous seasons, although I’m not sure why that is. Maybe because no one is quite as obviously evil or mentally unstable this time around.

All that changed tonight, though. Because the second season of “Rock of Love” premiered. Oh. My. God. Did you see it? Did you see the poor girl who was so drunk that she slept through the elimination round? And the crazy French woman who listed off all of the various plastic surgeries she’s had, and then later said that “beauty is only skin deep.” HA!

The new season of Scott Baio’s show premiered too! And he’s still a weirdly angry, neurotic, middle-aged man! Only now he’s having a baby! Oh lord, I am in heaven.

And did anyone else see the first episode of “Celebrity Rehab”? I think my mouth was hanging open for the entire episode. I used to have a little bit of a crush on Jeff Conaway (when he was Kenickie in “Grease”), and seeing him all befuddled and incoherent and in a wheelchair because he was too wasted to walk or sit upright was kind of upsetting. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to watch the entire series, but it’s sort of fascinating. In the same way that you know you shouldn’t look at the scene of a car accident as you’re driving past it, but you do anyway. Eek.

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I mentioned recently that Cate is really loving My Friends Tigger and Pooh on Playhouse Disney. It’s more the theme song than the show itself, I think. Yesterday at Target I caved into the powerhouse that is the Disney marketing machine and bought her the Christmas special DVD, and eh… not so much. They don’t do the theme song at the beginning of the movie, so she was bored and crawled off after about five minutes. I’m guessing she might like it more next year.

Btw, if any of you watch that show, you know the turtle? Did you know that Mark Hamill – as in Luke Skywalker – does his voice? Um, WTF?

Anyway, since we’ve been watching a lot of Playhouse Disney in the mornings, I’ve started noticing a couple of thing about the little segments that they show in between the regular shows to fill in the time.

First, Feeling Good with JoJo is a little segment based on the show JoJo’s Circus, which comes on at ridiculous o’clock in the morning, so we’ve never watched it. Basically, in these little segments, JoJo (a clown) shows kids how to do one yoga pose, which is a nice idea in theory. However, at the beginning, she says something along the lines of:
“Hi, I’m JoJo, and today I’m going to show you how to do something with your body that’ll make you feel really good.”
And I giggle at how completely inappropriate that is for children’s programming. Because apparently I’m a 14 year-old boy.

Also, JoJo has a pet lion named Goliath, and the first time Dave saw him, he almost fell off the couch laughing. It’s all done in claymation, so Goliath’s mane is rather well-coifed. Dave says he looks like Christopher Walken, and well, he sort of does.

One of their other segments proves that I clearly need to get out of the house more often, because I think the DJ on Choo-Choo Soul is kinda hot. Dave thinks that the singer (Genevieve) looks like a stripper. There is something sort of Fergie-esque about her, and the train conductor’s uniform that she wears is a little costume-y, so I can see where he gets that idea. But I like their music, and Cate seems to dig it too, so no complaints about that.

And as much as I despise the Happy Monster Band, and I can’t decide if Go Baby is really cute or really creepy, I still think it’s nice that they don’t show tons of commercials in between shows.

Like I said, I need to get out more.

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Since it’s NaBloPoMo and I have nothing to write about: Who saw the season premiere of “Project Runway”? Who thought it was kinda boring? Just me? I’m hoping it’ll pick up as the season goes on. I really hope it doesn’t turn out like “Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style,” which I barely managed to watch three episodes of, and oh my god, it is so very, very dull. What can I say, I’m not a huge fan of makeover shows. (Unless they’re home makeovers, as I think I’ve already mentioned my “Clean House” obsession.)

Also, does anyone else watch “Kitchen Nightmares”? I have a bit of a crush on Gordon Ramsay, which is probably because I have a thing for blonde British men (case in point: my husband). But I really love this show. Dave and I have been watching the version on BBC America for ages, but the American version of the show is great because now I get to read the recaps on Television Without Pity, and they’re fantastic. I generally don’t care much for cooking or food-related shows, but this is my one exception.

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This is when the whole NaBloPoMo thing gets dull, because Sundays are our lazy day, so I have basically nothing to write about. A few highlights:

* Cate’s ear infection seems to be better, but she keeps doing this weird gesture where she sort of rubs her ear against her upper arm, and I wonder if it’s still bothering her. Her antibiotics run out tomorrow, so I may take her back to the pediatrician for a quick check to see if she’s all better. Meanwhile, her nose is still a little faucet. And man, she hates it when I try to wipe her boogers away. She’ll squirm and try to hide her face anywhere so I can’t reach her. Nice try, kid. Here’s a tip: mama is bigger than you and she can always get to your nose if she tries hard enough.

* My cold is still going strong. I almost lost my voice entirely for a couple of days there. It seems a little better today, but instead I have a really horrible cough. I’m not sure which is worse. (Dave, for the record, seems to be fine, although he keeps talking about his “head cold.” Whatever, dude. I’ve heard nary a sniffle from the man, I think he’s just playing for sympathy.)

* This weekend I’ve watched both “The Good German” and “The Good Shepherd.” I liked them both – or rather, I liked what I saw of them. It’s kind of hard to focus on a movie when you’re also playing with a 9 month-old on the living room floor at the same time. I suppose that’s why I’ve only seen a handful of movies since Cate was born. My concentration is shot. The massive doses of Sudafed probably don’t help, either.

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I forgot to mention the other weird thing at church on Sunday: the woman sitting behind us made a big fuss over Cate – oh she’s so cute, how old is she, etc. Then she asked if she could hold her. Um, how exactly is one supposed to handle this type of situation? I said, “oh, I’m a little germaphobic, and it’s cold season, so I’d rather you didn’t…” And she seemed fine with that, but I felt so rude saying it. What I meant was: dude, you are a total stranger. Yes, we’re in church, big happy community of Christians, blah-blah-blah, but hell no, you cannot hold my baby. Of course, it turned out that she was one of the people who passed around the offering plate and directed traffic for communion, so I had to make eye contact with her two more times after that. Argh. Awkwardness.

The only other time anything like that has happened was once when I went to this deli place for lunch with my friend Janet. We were standing in line, and the guy in front of us turned around to talk to Cate (who was in the stroller). Then he reached in and grabbed her hand. I resisted the urge to scream, “UNCLEAN!!!” But just barely. My only guess is that these are people who don’t have kids themselves, so maybe they don’t know that this is inappropriate? Or am I a big weirdo for worrying about strangers’ germs?

Of course, it occurs to me that one week from today, Cate and I are going to be on an airplane, and that I just might have to hand her off to a flight attendant if I need to use the bathroom. Because seriously, what else am I supposed to do? So I guess it’s a bit hypocritical on my part – I’m ok with strangers holding my baby when it’s for my own personal convenience. But I also figure that flight attendants probably wash their hands a lot, since they handle people’s food and beverages. I know that if I had that job, I’d be a total Purell addict. (I’d also probably have a drug problem, since I usually need either a cocktail or a Xanax to not freak out when I fly.)

Speaking of the airplane, I am really looking forward to visiting my family next week (and getting to meet a couple of bloggers too! How cool is that?). But I am dreading the flight. The idea of having Cate on my lap for six to seven hours in a tiny cramped airplane seat doesn’t sound like that much fun to me. I’m sure it’s better to do it now than when she’s a toddler and needs constant entertainment, but still. I imagine that she and I are both going to be good and cranky by the time we get to Mississippi.

Total topic change: As for that full-time job that I wrote about last week – I did update my resume and send it off to the recruiter, but I haven’t heard anything about it since then. The more I think about it, though, the more I think that I really don’t want it. I know there are a lot of working moms who love what they do, and I think that’s fantastic. I’m just not sure that I’m one of them. I could see myself getting miserable really quickly if I was doing the whole 40-50 hour work week again. But you know, I’ve never been all that passionate about my career to begin with. It was just something I did to make money, so I could afford the lifestyle I wanted. And sure, I liked it ok, but I’m totally fine without it too.

So I’m now kicking around the idea of some possible freelance writing and work-from-home options, in addition to sticking a few ads on this site. If that works out, I imagine I’ll still need to find some sort of part-time baby-sitter or daycare for Cate, because I don’t know how Dave and I could possibly both be working and taking care of her all the time. But I think that maybe some type of Mother’s Morning Out program, just a couple of days a week, might be sufficient.

Total topic change, part two: Does anyone else watch “The Riches”? Did the dentist in this week’s episode make you really depressed? Because I almost cried for him. I know I’m still a big hormonal mess, but god, that was sad.

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One of the perks of my starting a part-time job was that it would give me a lot of free time to do the million or so projects around the house that need to be done before the baby gets here. I mean, three-day weekends every week, right? And even the four days of the week that I do work, I’m only there for 5 or 6 hours.

Clearly, with so much time on my hands, I should be getting all kinds of things done. But, HA! My butt hardly left the couch for three solid days this weekend.

First of all, I had DVR’ed the entire first season of Big Love a long time ago, but I had never gotten around to watching it. Have you seen this show? Do you know how addictive it is? I watched all twelve episodes in three days. The last few nights, I’ve even been dreaming about polygamists, although luckily, they’ve been the types of dreams where I’m an observer, not where I’m actually involved in what’s happening. But man, that show is awesome, and I’m totally annoyed that I don’t even know when season two is going to begin.

One scary moment while doing my “Big Love” marathon yesterday – I got up off the couch to refill my water glass. I had a head rush when I stood up, but I get those fairly often. (Moreso since I got pregnant.) Usually I can just grab on to the wall or some nearby piece of furniture to steady myself until it passes. Yesterday, though, my legs gave out. I just fell down, landed on all fours, and suddenly tears were involuntarily coming out of my eyes and I was gasping for breath. It was the strangest sensation, and I still don’t know what it was. I didn’t lose consciousness, so I can’t say that I fainted – I guess it was just a near-faint?

I yelled for Dave; I think it freaked him out to find me on the floor between the dining room and the kitchen. He got my glass of water for me and I crawled (literally, I was scared to stand up) back to the couch. For the rest of the day, though, I had to be really careful every time I stood up. I couldn’t seem to get rid of that shaky feeling in my legs. I thought I was supposed to be getting over that stuff now that I’m almost in my second trimester, but I guess “almost” doesn’t count.

Abruptly switching topics back to fun stuff: while I’ve been camping out with my butt glued to the couch, there have been movies too. Recaps!
* Shopgirl – A little disappointing, only because I don’t care for Jason Schwartzman at all and I really thought that Claire Danes could do better. But it was ok.

* The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada – This is one that Dave picked, but I watched it because I generally like Tommy Lee Jones. I really hated this movie, though. I liked the beginning because it started off as kind of a sad story. Then it turned into some weird gross-out/torture flick and I just couldn’t handle it. I covered my face for a pretty significant portion of the second half of the movie. Oh, and also? The ending sucked.

* Transamerica – Ok, technically we watched this over a week ago, but I’m including it here because I loved it. I now think that Felicity Huffman should’ve won the Oscar for Best Actress. Great movie.

* Eight Below – I coerced Dave into watching this with me last night. And yeah, I know, it’s a Disney movie. But oh, how I cried. I mean, the human actors, meh. I didn’t really give a flip about them or their lame little storyline. But the dogs! The pretty huskies and malamutes with the beautiful doggie faces! They broke my heart. I sobbed – a lot.

And as much as I hate to admit it, I have kind of a new respect for Paul Walker. He was so good with the dogs that it made me think that he must love animals in real life. Because honestly, he’s not a good actor by any stretch, so I just can’t imagine that he could’ve pulled it off if he wasn’t really a dog person.

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This afternoon, I met up with a couple of friends to see “Brokeback Mountain.” I’ve heard and read so much about the film over the past couple of months that I thought I had pretty well prepared myself for it. I mean, there’s been so much hype about it that I figured it would either be a let-down, or else I’d find myself studying the actors rather than getting involved with the characters in the story. And I guess I was sort of right – watching the movie was pretty intense (moreso than I expected), but I didn’t cry or anything. (I cry a lot during movies. Way more than I do in real life.) Now, several hours later, I can’t seem to get that movie out of my head. I think it’s probably messed me up for the next couple of days. I won’t give away any spoilers for those who haven’t seen it, just… damn.

Random aside: There were several old ladies in the theater with us, which I didn’t even notice until halfway through the movie. I really wonder what on earth they thought about the more graphic scenes. They must have been ok with it since they didn’t get up and leave. I guess by their age, they’ve probably seen it all.

After the movie, I went for lunch with the ladies, which was nice. I spent the rest of the afternoon running errands getting ready for my road trip with Kris later this week. I hit a few motels to get their national directories (good to have when you don’t have a specific plan of exactly where you’re going to stop on the road), and I bought one of those big road atlas books that has maps of all the states. Because hey, MapQuest isn’t always 100% accurate, so it’s good to have a back-up reference.

I can’t quite believe that I’m going to be in Memphis in 4 days. Well ok, the going to Memphis part really isn’t that big a deal – hell, I was there less than a year ago. I think what’s more shocking is the fact that Kris is finally moving here after talking about it for the past five years. I’m so happy about that, and a little nervous because I want her to find all of the happiness and success that she deserves, and all I can do is hope that this is the place where she’ll find it. I’m confident that she has a better chance of finding it here than in Memphis, so at least I know she’s making a step in a positive direction for her life. But I also know from experience that major transitions are never easy, so I just pray that hers is as smooth and painless as possible.

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