Dr. Phil is one of my favorite tv shows, especially during the writers’ strike.  Thank goodness that’s over because my FAVORITE show is The Office, which I also plan to write about once they start airing new episodes – CAN’T WAIT!  I also enjoy Lost and what I call “junk tv”, meaning whatever is on like Moment of Truth, other fly-by-night reality shows, and shows like Cops and Dateline.  Enough of the tangents (wink, wink ;)) – back to Dr. Phil.

First, let me talk about how lucky I am to be a Dr. Phil fan living where I live, in the middle of rural Ohio, halfway between Toledo and Fort Wayne, Indiana.  That means we get two of each of the major networks, one out of Toledo, and one out of Fort Wayne.  Dr. Phil is on in Toledo at 10 am, and it’s on in Fort Wayne at 3 pm AND 7 pm.  The 10 am and 7pm airings are the same episode, so if I miss the morning one, I have another chance to catch it.  And if I miss both of those, the 3 o’clock airing from Fort Wayne is a week behind the others, giving me yet another chance to see a missed episode!

Anyway, today’s episode was disturbing.  Not like people-who-harm-children disturbing, but there was this husband who was a “right-fighter” and a “bully” – if you’re a frequent Dr. Phil watcher you will know that these are two of his favorite terms.  These and “hero”.  Hardly a week will go by when he doesn’t say “this relationship needs a hero”.  So anyway, today’s “right-fighter” was probably the worst husband I’ve ever seen on the show.  I don’t understand the point of their marriage, to be honest…  I can’t believe Dr. Phil didn’t pull out another of his favorite sayings – “Children would rather be from a broken home than living in one.”  This guy verbally and emotionally abuses his wife about her weight, cleaning, everything, then justifies his every action.  I think you probably had to watch the show to even get the severity of what was going on…  If you live near Fort Wayne, catch it next Wednesday at 3!

One problem that comes with subbing is scheduling errors and cancellations with little to no notice. There was one day last year when I signed up to sub for a social worker only to find out when I arrived that the social worker is a position that doesn’t get a sub. Okay, you might say to yourself, “how obvious,” but in that same district earlier I had subbed for a speech/language pathologist. Obviously a sub can’t really fill in for that position either, but as it turned out there was a student teacher so they needed a sub just to have a certified person in the room so I just figured this would be the case again. Well, at least they paid me for half a day’s (non)work.

Anyway, today there was another error, only it wasn’t an error. I was called in for a full day, but when I got there the plans were only for a half day. I checked with the office and it was indeed a full day they scheduled. Fortunately they had another teacher that would need me in the afternoon so they could keep me the full day. But wait, it wasn’t over. The team partner of the one I subbed for then told me shortly after that she wouldn’t be there in the afternoon and was wondering about her sub. I had to go to the office anyway about a small problem with the arrangement to work for the afternoon teacher, so I said I would ask about her sub while I was there. Well, it turned out there was no sub arranged for her. To make a long story short (yes, I know…) apparently the original teacher had requested a full day sub to cover for the two of them and her partner either wasn’t told or forgot, so they changed the arrangement again and so I wound up actually subbing for three teachers throughout the day like a floater. As you can see, the classrooms themselves aren’t the only source of drama.

And now we present…. Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy. I remember these bits from Saturday Night Live back a few years ago when it was worth watching… haven’t caught it for prolly 5 years.

An interesting question was posed to me about Star Trek. Where does one go when he/she has to go to the bathroom? I asked myself this question when it was brought to my attention that in Star Trek II, there was no way that Khan could have known Chekov when they were in the same scene for the first time during the movie. Khan’s first words to the Enterprise crewman are : “I never forget a face. Mr….. Chekov, isn’t it. I thought never to have seen your face again.” The original television episode “Space Seed” was shown at least one season prior to Chekov coming on board. I came up with the wild supposition that Khan and Chekov had to have met somehow. Why not while in the little spaceman’s room? A five-year mission is an awful long time to have to hold it in. Laugh if you must and I know that it is just a movie/tv show. What would you do if you were on a 5 year trip and didn’t know where to go? So…. where does one find relief aboard a starship? The universe may never know. Maybe they used the transporter to “beam it up” into deep space. That would give new meaning to the term…. space garbage.

Saw the movie Gone Baby Gone the other night…  Had a free rental at the video store; every once in awhile they call and give us one…  but I hate standing there forever trying to choose a good movie!  So we had Saw IV in hand, and my husband’s like, you know, we really haven’t liked the last 2 Saw’s all that much, compared to the first one.  So I said yeah, and I saw Gone Baby Gone, and since I’d heard it was supposed to be good, we went with it.  Besides, it got Oscar nominated, and I always like to be in on Oscar buzz…  Not my kind of movie.  Not that it was bad, but just a lot of dialogue and violence…  not my kind of movie.  It was entertaining, and I appreciated the twists and turns without seeing them coming, though I can’t say the same for Hubby.  We like to give movies we watch our own imdb (interent movie database – cool site!) ratings, so I gave this one a 6.2.  Hubby gave it a 4. 2.  I appreciated the movie for what it was, and I can’t say much more without spoilers, so I won’t.  The bottom line is, if you like violent crime dramas with intense dialogue, this movie is for you.  I personally have trouble following movies where they talk about a bunch of characters and the audience is expected to keep them all straight, but that’s just me.  A few plot inconsistencies, but my rating was kinda high because I did appreciate the complexity of the plot, even if it was a bit difficult for me to follow at times…  so to quote one of my favorite movies, That’s all I have to say about that.

Good heavens this music is HARD!!! It isn’t even the fact that it is written in Latin!! I have had enough vocal training to at least fumble through that. But the parts are just all over the place and some of the parts have notes that do not even make any kind of sense. Oh! Excuse me. I have been trying to practice this piece (Fauvre’s Requiem) which I just had to say I would be part of during the sanctuary dedication at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church . It is not to say that I do not enjoy it; it is sooo FRUSTRATING!!!! It is nearly impossible to practice on your own because listening to the CD is so hard finding when to come in and finding the right notes. I find myself at the piano just plucking the keys. At least last Sunday there were five tenors at rehearsal. I think it was actually easier to be around other singers who tried to sing the same part. While I was a student at Bowling Green State University, I performed in a presentation of Verdi’s Requiem and that actually seemed easier. Perhaps the fact that the choir at B.G. was actually composed of men and women who more or less had a clue about how to perform it instead of throwing a bunch of people together made a difference. But I am sure that it will all come together in the next month. Especially after we get some bodies to fill the risers. Fifteen voices are not going to be heard over an orchestra. But, I have every confidence that it will be a great success.

Since my last post (Jamy’s last post, not Morat’s) concerned one of my all time favorite actors. I would like to expand a bit on the career of David Hasselhoff. Why you ask? He is just so great and even performed on Broadway in the last few performances of Jekyll & Hyde. “This is the Moment” is one of the greatest songs ever put into a musical. The melody is just breathtaking and the lyric is phenomenal. I recently received a link to the Hoff’s performance of the song on America’s Got Talent. I just hope that the person who won the competition was better than he was. I’m thinking this must have been just after the “hamburger incident” because no one could sound that good and not be in some impaired state. He sounded like a dying elephant. One has to wonder why he is such a big star in Europe. Sharon Osbourne even said it was “absolutely fabulous.” I suppose she would since her husband’s brain has been fried for years. There are so many other great performers who have sung the song either in the show or apart from it. My favorites: Anthony Warlow (from Jekyll & Hyde the gothic musical thriller recording), Michael Ball, & Chris Avell. Honorable mention goes to Sebastian Bach (KIDDING) who also performed on Broadway as Jekyll and Hyde .To see the Hoff butcher a fantastic song please Click Here. Even Morat he say the Hoff was not good.

HELLO EVERY PEOPLE!!!! My name a Morat Notboratnichkov. Jamy a taking a break so I will a like to type a good story to every people. I will a tell you about two stories which I a tell my little people in Liswathistan. Maybe America country have similar story. You will like very much. The first is a called “The Three Wooly Sheep.” It is about three wooly sheep who a go and build their own houses. OK? The first wooly sheep he a build a house of sticks. He not a so smart because the sticks not strong. A big, bad wolf come and blow it down. “Wooly Sheep, Wooly Sheep let me in!!” The wooly sheep number two a not so bright also. She a build house of straw. Straw not very strong. And big bad wolf come and say “Wooly Sheep let me in.” But wooly sheep not let him in so he blew wooly sheep number two house down. Wooly sheep number one and wooly sheep number two both run to find wooly sheep number three. Wooly sheep number three very smart. He build house of brick. Brick is a very hard to blow down. Big bad wolf he try to blow down but run out of gas or hot air or something. He try to climb down chimney. But, at bottom of chimney inside house was fire in fireplace. He got to bottom and yelled “WOOLY SHEEP” and run all the way home and never bother the three wooly sheep no more. I sorry but Morat has time only for one story. Maybe later he tell you more story. EVERYONE WINS!!!!

Ok…. so it really seems that everything old is quickly becoming new again. Last fall we saw the “return” of The Bionic Woman to television. Morat a not like this show. How a woman get to be so powerful and strong is not right. Thank you Morat. Very opinionated. But, I did not really care for the updated version of the campy 1970s television series. The new show had little character development, you did not care for any of them. Aside from the name Jaime Sommers, you would never know that you were watching a show called The Bionic Woman. Sunday night saw a movie of the week redo of an 80s cult classic: Knight Rider. In the update, a young man named Michael Tracer inherits driving the supercar named K.I.T.T. In the old series, Michael’s father (Michael Knight… hence the title… hahaha) drove the car while working with the government to bring down the villain of the week. Michael Knight is played by everyone’s favorite actor (oooookkkk) and America’s Got Talent(?) judge, David Hasselhoff. Thank goodness the Hoff was only on screen briefly at the end of the show. But what makes Knight Rider fun was that it never takes itself for anything less than it is: pure camp. It never takes itself seriously. Of course, who would ever consider David Hasselhoff a “serious” actor? The new Bionic Woman failed for just that reason: it was too serious and at times, complicated Plus, the recent writers strike also contributed to its demise. Old KITT New KITT The new Knight Rider is classified as a “backdoor pilot.” If the movie did well enough in the ratings, then it could potentially become a series. If not, then it will disappear as quickly as it appeared

Did you catch Barney today?  Probably not…  but I did so I’ll fill you in.  Baby Bop lost her blankie, prompting much song and dance.  Which got me to thinking…  how old is too old for a blankie?  Actually, this blog was inspired by my oldest daughter who is 8 and still has a blankie.  I suppose it doesn’t sound like a big deal if I just put it that way, I mean, it’s not like she carries it everywhere with her anymore…  it was actually pretty easy to get her to stop bringing it places with us, thank goodness.  But when we’re at home, it’s a different story.  It IS carried everywhere around the house.  And if, help us all, we should have misplaced the blankie somewhere during the day and she doesn’t have it to sleep with at night – let’s just say the ENTIRE family suffers until it is found…  So…  how old is too old for a blankie?  Worse yet, our 3 1/2 year old is now figuring out what a wonderful power trip she can take if she holds blankie hostage, causing ever-growing conflict.  Soon the 1 1/2 year old will be in on it too, probably just because she’ll decide there has to be something awfully special about that blankie based on the way her sisters are acting, but still, we don’t need any more conflict!  I think I will surf the net and get some feedback about this subject…  Dr. Phil once had a college-age guest on his show who still had her blankie.  It was nothing but a tattered piece of material, and I remember him joking, “Does it keep you warm?”  Hehe.  I remember in the movie Mr. Mom, the dad decides the kid is too old to have a “whoopie”.  I think they burn it or something cruel like that…  I would never do that, but I do worry that some day if I get frustrated enough, the blankie might meet some sort of tragic demise…  So, is 8 too old for a blankie?  She still sucks her thumb too, but that will be another blog all together!

As I said this blog is about things I really enjoy doing. If there were one thing I would choose to do for the rest of my life, it would be to act, sing, perform, or just be on a stage. I do not care if it is making millions of dollars in front of tens of thousands of people or on a small, intimate stage in front of 10 people. From September 2006-September 2007, I was in 6 community theatre productions. I played everything from a walk-on cameo, to scene stealing supporting actor, to lead actor. I also was the backstage manager for Grease which was very rewarding because it gave me the opportunity to work behind the scenes for the first time and still be on stage in a limited role. However, my greatest accomplishment thus far on stage was bringing to life the character Morat Notboratnichkov in the musical Idol Night at the Karaoke Place. Morat was initially a clone of “Borat”. However, I feel that he grew apart from that stereotype. Sure, I have heard of Borat but I still have never seen any of his shows nor the movie. I do not know how to explain but I think I took a bit of Yul Brynner from The King and I, added a dash of Ricky Ricardo, and something of myself and came up with something unique. Of course, the writer responsible for the show was there on stage and off to guide the entire cast.The fun and excitement was not limited to the stage. On May 11, Chris and I were interviewed on Toledo 24 News in order to promote the show. The lady doing the interview was totally caught off guard. The weatherman could be heard in the background laughing. I think I even amazed myself because this was at 6:45AM. Never before have I ever been involved in a show which brought with it so many memories. EVERYONE WINS!!!