Wednesday, August 30, 2006

My Life as a Volunteer

I got another book to review, and to my pleasant surprise, it's really good so far. This one's called Peter and Beth and is By Doug Lalli. I don't get paid for these, but I do get to keep the books. :-)

The last one, as you may remember, was not so good. In fact, as you may or may not recall, the writing sucked. Grammatical errors, redundancy, contradictions and over-dramatisations abounded. Here's a small excerpt:

We both looked up at the house in silence for several moments. I realized my perception on it already shifted. Maybe it was the fact that sun had lowered a little and the light was no longer gleaming on the glass, but it seemed a little darker now, colder. I wasn't nearly as impressed as I was when I first saw it. . .

Yes, at least 3 grammatical errors in just that little passage. Sigh. Oh, yes, when the protagonist first saw the house, she "heard the familiar 'click' of the door as it unlocked." Stuff like that. On every page. It's a shame, really. And no, I'm not disclosing the title here, because I think that would be mean.

Anyway, I'm very excited to be reading and enjoying Peter and Beth. :-)

In other highly rewarding volunteer work, you all know by now that I got to be an extra in my friend
Frank's (4th musical down the list) mockumentary. (Dude, when are you going to cough up your site so I can link you?) This film is going to be a scream, and I can't wait to see it. I'm not going to say much about it until Frank tells me what all I can mention. Or maybe Frank will finally login and tell you himself. OK, probably not. He's a very busy guy. (No pressure, Frank. I'm messing with you. Except for that site link thing.)

Being involved had a few great benes (bennies?) Number One: we got to see the always charming Frank. He's a very fun and energetic guy. Reminds me a lot of my dad, actually. Also easy on the eyes. Shh. Don't tell him I said that. Number Two: we got a look at behind-the-scenes filmmaking and hopefully took away some stuff that will help us in our own endeavours. Number Three: it was really fun and we got to meet some fascinating people, and Number Four: Dude, it might go to Sundance. How cool would it be to be lurking in the background in a film that went to Sundance? I guess I could also count getting to see the inside of GuTTer MuNKi's (and Kevin J. Anderson's - a school chum of MuNKi's) and Frank's and SIL's alma mater, but as this took place in the somewhat recently scabbed-on atrocity (the inside is nice, but the outside is ugly as sin) I don't think that counts.

So what was it like? First off, I'm Miss Unprepared. Or maybe Mrs. Unprepared would better indicate the magnitute of my lack of preparedness. Had I been a Boy Scout, for instance, I would have emailed or called Frank before we left and asked if he would be shooting while we were there. (I already knew he was filming in July and August.) Then I would have brought appropriate clothing along. But no. Well, actually, I guess it was kind of a sudden decision that we made about going on the trip. And come to think of it, I don't have anything like "business dress" anyway. *shrug* So I hit the resale shop out by MIL and FIL's and found an ensemble that I actually really, really like (and a sexy red dress, too, as it turns out) and everything was 40% off the already very decent prices, so all in all, this was a good thing. :-) Hooray! Obviously my wardrobe could benefit from my taking up extra work as a full-time hobby. Have I ever mentioned that I am not a clothes-horse? I have a shelf in the closet and a few hanging things. The rest belongs to GuTTer MuNKi. Oh, and a bit of it is Prawn's.

Anyway. I didn't find shoes and had only brought sandals on the trip (I'm a barefoot girl for the most part) but as it turns out, my surprisingly shorter-than-me SIL has the same size feet that I do. And an incredible wardobe. Heh Heh. She loaned me a pair of black heels (Oh yes, I was the Tower of Babel in those shoes) that had some designer chick's name inside and that were purported to be very pricey shoes (given to her, fortunately, by a friend, so I wasn't too freaked out about borrowing them.) I'm not sure what that says about either of our feet, BTW. Hers don't seem too large on her, and mine don't look too small on me. Maybe there's a very boring scientific explanation for that. At any rate, I was immediately complimented on her shoes when I got there, LOL! Somehow I managed to stand, and yea (the Biblical "yea," not "yeah") even walk in the shoes. I was impressed. I don't think anyone else really was. Most people take this sort of thing (the ability of women to perambulate in high heels) for granted, but tall girls like me do not like to emphasize our towerosity, so we don't tend to wear skyscraper heels a whole lot. Needless to say, my practice at walking in such things is very nearly nil. My toes went to sleep almost immediately.


All this chatter, and I've only gotten as far as the dressing-up fun. Number Five: I got to play dress-up. Did I mention that I've never quite finished growing up? Well, this is long enough that some people **coughEgancough** are going to get bored without any pics to ogle, so I guess I'll do more blathering about life as an extra-special person tomorrow.

19 comments:

ldbug said...

How tall are you? I'm short, so I like heels when I wear them...which is pretty infrequent

(5'3'')

egan said...

You're a woman of many talents.

jlmack said...

I live in steel toed clogs which make me about 5'8".
But my girly shoes make me about 5'9", which is what most people think I am.
I used to like playing dress up. But wearing a uniform everyday kinda kills that fun.

tshsmom said...

I'm 5;8", hubby is 5'4"; heels are out of the question. For this I am VERY thankful! ;)

egan said...

All of you are very short. I tower over you at 6'1. I'm huge as they say in the business.

C said...

Barefoot, I'm a little shy of 5'10" :-P

egan said...

No way. Pas du tout. You can't be that tall, it's simply not possible. Try pulling someone else's leg because I'm not falling for it.

C said...

Non, c'est vrai. Je suis - uh - massive, LOL!

Believe me, life would be a lot easier if I were short. Like, maybe pants might fit me like pants instead of capris. :-/

Remember when I said I like tall guys? Well that have to be tall in order to be taller than me, LOL!

I told my SIL the 6' Vanilla story and she laughed her ass off. :-)

C said...

She also wants me to hook her up with some of my blogpals, but I told her they're all either married or live overseas. But she's a party girl. Any lurkers??

Anonymous said...

Kidman was much taller than Cruise. Bacall was much taller than Bogart.

Any woman who can make a man stand on a cardboard box to give her a kiss is cool with me, C...

egan said...

So tell me more about your sister? Does she have a blog I can snoop on? I'm relieved to hear she like the Six Foot Vanilla story. It's a legendary tale no doubt about it.

Hey, I'm taller than you. I still think you're lying about your height.

C said...

Winters - you'll notice that Kidman should have chosen a taller man, because Cruise is clearly insane. :-P (like my logic there?) I don't know about Bogart. But you know, I like how you put that. If he wants her enough that he'll stand on a cardboard box just to kiss her, that's definitely a plus in her favour.

Egan, why on Earth would I lie to you about my height? Maybe I should post some sort of proof, but I don't know what. Oh, I could go to Homey Depot and make MuNKi take a picture of me by the yardstick thinggy at the checkout. . .
Or post a picture of myself in one of my many borderline/too short pairs of pants. OK I don't have any of those left. I finally found "longs" at the BX with a 34" inseam. Oh, yeah. Did I mention that my height is mostly all in my legs. Yeesh. At least they make longer pants for men. Short women can cut a bit off the leg and it doesn't look weird, but try adding some. That's just dorky. Sound bitter? I guess I do. I hate shopping for clothes. Now you know why I'm no clothes-horse. Maybe I would be if regular off the rack stuff actually had a chance of fitting me. But I shouldn't carp so much. I like being tall all except for that clothes thing. It means I can jump far and high and kick high, too. Dunno what I'd do with less leg actually.

egan said...

Candace, you're great. I truly mean it. Look at all the time you spent humoring me on my accusation. So you're leggy and I have noted this.

Logophile said...

Imagine how much worse it would be if your arms were the extra long bit, you'd look like an ape.
Heels used to be a regular part of my wardrobe, now I hardly ever wear them, its all about the sandals, baby.
Glad this book is better, bad writing SUCKS

Toby said...

I love second hand stores. Value Village, or as we like to call it, VV Botique is great. I find a lot of stuff that's damn near brand new for dirt cheap. Everything is always half off too.

About 20 years ago I found a dress shirt from Sax Fifth Avenue still in the box, still with all the pins in it for $2.00. I gave to my dad for Christmas.

C said...

Egan, Pfffff!! I guess I got a little carried away there. It's one of my pet peeves (trying to find pants.) Grrrrr!

Logo, well, I dinna say my arms weren't long now, did I? I always say have gorilla arms, LOL! But that makes it that much easier to grab my feet whilst stretching. And I'd take gorilla arms over T-Rex arms any day, so no real complaints. Now, if my knuckles dragged on the ground when I walked, that would be another matter.

Toby - I adore 2nd hand stores. The ones in rich areas are fascinating. Garage sales, too. However, I can't beat your shirt deal. That's fantastic! :-)

tshsmom said...

That makes sense. That must be why I'm not a clothes horse either.
I've had ONE woman's jacket my entire life! I usually have to buy a men's jacket or the sleeves end at my elbows.
I've always joked that I'm the only person I know who can scratch her ankles without bending over.

C said...

ROTFLOL! (the ankles thing)

OMG, yes about those jackets. Aaaarrrgggh!!!!

3/4 length jacket sleeves are not cool in Midwestern winters. Oh, I take it back. They are TOO cool. :-P

tshsmom said...

That's why I love unisex ski jackets! ;)