If I were famous I couldn't ...

Today I took a break to go eat the Thai food I've been craving the last couple of days - http://www.sakoontra.com/about_us.htm.

Since my boyfriend was out of town and the one friend I thought to invite was occupied, I went alone.

I had the entire restaurant to myself and the waiters and waitresses didn't quite believe that I was a party of 1. I guess it's OK for grown men to eat alone, but not grown women? I would actually think that more mothers would call a babysitter once in a while and go out and dine alone, but I haven't seen to much of that.

It was quite nice. After every last sip of water, the glass was immediately filled. All food showed up perfectly timed and I felt like I was a famous person that had reserved the entire place to have a rare piece of personal privacy.

And that got me to thinking about famous people. I have no desire to be famous. Every time I turn on the TV and see the famous it builds my sense of gratitude for my private life. After all, only my personal friends and family would care to put "spin" on my life. But, I have a feeling that most of their time is otherwise occupied...or at least I hope that is the case.

So, here's what I think. If I were famous, I couldn't:

• have the entire Sakoontra restaurant to myself on a Saturday afternoon.


• walk down the street alone at any time of day listening to my iPOD.


• walk out the door to my car with no cameras pushing me over.


• walk out the door to my car and not talk to anyone if I so choose.


• buy cheap white t-shirts at Walmart because I'd have to spend $100 to buy signature tank tops so Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous have someone to talk about.


• just order all my outfits from Eddie Bauer three times a year and completely avoid ever walking into a clothing store.


• say what I think without causing an uproar in the press. OK, so sometimes I cause small uproars, but at least I can apologize to those closest to me.


• go out on the town without make-up and not have anyone take a picture of me for the tabloids. If you are always without make-up no one has an expectation for you to live up to.


• have the entire Sakoontra to myself.


• talk to whomever I want when I want to about what I want to and know that it will just be local gossip.
• buy whatever brand of cosmetics really worked for me because I'd have some agreement to advertise lipstick (when I don't even own a tube).
• stay in Friday night and just do personal projects.
• write all this kind of junk on my blog.

So, you see, it is nice being in the woodwork and having Saturday afternoons at Sakoontra to myself.

You remind me of P. Diddy!

So, I was told that I reminded someone of P. Diddy the other day! I don't know whether to laugh or to go into deep reflection about this. I really don't know much about him, but have found out that he is a hip-hop mogul and is quite the business man. I wouldn't mind if I was thought to be an amazing business woman, but I have not achieved that success yet. Anyone that knows me well knows that I probably have 1 rap/hip-hop type song out of the 2,500 items on my iPOD and for me that pretty much covers the genre.

No, the reason they were reminded of P. Diddy is because I wear a lot of vests. His appear to be regular suit vests, but mine are more in the line of thin sweater vests. The woman thought that I was copying P.Diddy by wearing the sweater vests. Alas, me copying a rapper? Hmmm. That's a new one. Since he is almost the same age as me, I'm inclined to believe he copied me because I have found evidence of times past that my sweater vest habit has been around for many years.

Either way, it was an interesting enough comment to cause me a few minutes of reflection and posting.

Skymall gadgets

So, I just flew into San Francisco for the final four rugby games. I was on a non-stop thank goodness, but I was so enthralled with my Fast Company magazine and the Skymall catalog that I didn't even look up what kind of flight I was on. It wasn't a 747, but it did have the multiple sections. I like those because then I get the first row of a new section that has more leg room.

Anyway, I love the Skymall catalog. It is my favorite catalog (besides Eddie Bauer) because every page brings a new surprise OR something that I thought of inventing and didn't. One of my goals in life is to invent something that makes it into the Skymall magazine.

They have the coolest gadgets. Some of which are very useful for photo and video projects. You can get little gadgets that convert the audio tapes to CD, old records to CD/DVD, old videos to DVD, slide converters, converters directly to the iPOD, and converters that convert your videos and stuff to the right format for the iPOD/MP3 players, etc. Most of the gadgets don't require you to even hook up to your main computer. I wish I had purchased some of these before I completed my video and slide converting project, but I honestly don't think these were in the magazine back then. After all, I take every Skymall catalog home with me every time I fly.

Anyway, take a look at http://www.skymall.com/

P.S. I guess I should add that I actually have purchased several items from the catalog. I know some people think that no one does, but I'll admit that I'm willing to pay more for something that promises to be unique.

Downsizing

So, I donated my big stereo system to the Goodwill the other day. The tape decks weren't working (even though I never used the tape decks) and the display wasn't showing what CD was playing or the radio station numbers.

I went into Costco the other day and found this cute little set of speakers. You just put your iPOD into the back of it and it will play. Pretty cool. Look how small it is.

I've been using it as I've been painting this weekend. Thank goodness. I was going to pay someone to paint my place, but realized that I could paint it myself and save over $1,000. It's not so bad listening to the music and just giving myself 1 room a week to paint.

However, the fumes are getting to me.

iPOD weekend

Well, this was an interesting weekend of multi-tasking. While performing all of the house cleaning tasks and house painting this weekend, I was able to upload all of my music CDs into iTunes and synced to my iPOD. It took more hours than I care to share, but since I was able to get so many other things done I'm sure the time wasn't wasted. Painting is frustrating to me and so it was nice to see my progress on the computer rewarded. I've used about 12 GB so far and plan to upload a lot more pictures and videos over the next few months. It is at least another means of "backing up" all of my electronic files.

Also, for those of you that are interested...

BYU provided a link and an access code to download some free tunes until April 30, 2008. It's a marketing stint to get people to buy the actual albums, but you can get about 20 or so songs performed by various artists associated with the college. Here's the info:

Webpage - http://magazine.byu.edu/music
Access Code - 1B8Y7U5

iTunes and 80s music

So, I received a very nice iPod as a Christmas gift and have very slowly been adding music to it over the past few weeks. After throwing away several audio tapes from the 80s recently, I decided to buy a few of the greatest hits on iTunes. Luckily, I found an electronic album that claimed to have 80 of the best hits from the 80s. Very cool! I bought it.

Now, I did scroll the list before purchasing and thought I was getting some great hits. However, I neglected to ensure the artists were legit. Let's just say that most of the songs were not sung by 80s stars I had grown up with in the actual 1980s. Imagine the shock of listening to "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" and finding out Jessica Simpson was the singer! What on earth? As it turns out, Jessica, and most of the other singers, get a big "no value added" by creating the re-makes.

After an internal debate, I've decided to keep the music as a temporary solution until I can research each song individually and purchase the correct version. After all, how else will I be able to remember, and re-create in my mind, all the memories of dances, useless crushes, road trips, and sad moments?

Hmmm, maybe some of those originals shouldn't be found. It may be time to move on...