fortune cookies and frank.

Screamers Welcome

I'm watching the end of American Idol with my brother.  Luckily, Chase taped Adam's song last night even though the DVR ended early.  I must admit: I really like Adam.  I've liked him all along.  I like him even when the screamies get gratitutious.  Even when he gets a little to friendly with the mic stand.  He sounds different and that makes me happy.  I think his song this week, which is possibly one of the most depressing songs in existence (or is it just that version that's depressing?  What does the Tears for Fears version sound like?), is his best performance so far. 

Incidentally, the song reminded me of Donnie Darko, which is possibly one of the most depressing movies I've ever seen.  I typically like low budget artsy movies but that one didn't do it for me.  I remember a large freaky rabbit (named Frank?), a funny infomercial Patrick Swayzie did, and then a very bizarre ending. (I wanted to make a Donny Darko joke with my Peeps pictures but decided against it.)  That was the first time I heard Gary Jules version of the Tears for Fears song Adam sang this week.  Didn't like the movie, but really liked the song.  It reminds me loneliness is, weirdly enough, a very universal feeling.  We all just want to be loved. *cue music*

Scott got booted and it makes me sad, though I agree it was time for him to go.  Scott is such a sweetie, no?  I'm going to miss him on the show.  And I'm going to miss seeing his family.  It's always really inspiring/uplifting to see someone keep moving toward their dream despite some serious setbacks (especially physical setbacks).  I wish they wouldn't keep dragging out the end though.  Just let the guy go home and fix his own hair again.  ( In the flashback montage, I realized how much better Scott's hair looked before the show started.  I don't always like the makeovers they do on here.)  Still, my allegiance remains the same.  I want Allison to win and Adam to come in second.  Go Fiyero!

A Place of Great Fortune

SO. If you've been a friend of mine for a few years, you know one of my favorite local restaurants is a Japanese place called Ichiban.  Mom says it's sort of a mom-and-pop cafe in a Hibachi sort of way.  I think she's onto something.  It's family owned and the staff is sweet and funny.  They make volcanoes out of onions and throw eggs at people who are eating.  Both positive attributes. Another positive is that the fortune cookies have cool fortunes.  I'm a big fan of PF Changs, but the fortunes there are lame.  Changs fortunes remind me of the stuff you write in a yearbook for someone you don't really know.  You don't want to just sign your name, but you have nothing sentimental to say, so you go generic.  "Have a great summer."  "So glad we're friends!"  Etc. Changs fortunes say things like: "You are a highly valued friend."  "The sun feels warmer in Summer."  "Chicken".  Etc.   

But the Ichiban ... it is not like the others.  I crack open my fortune and feel as though I'm in the beginning scene of a really corny chick flick.  It's my favorite part of eating there besides watching the chef make the volcano (and then throw salt in the flame so it sparks so he can yell "FIREWORKS!").

Once, I got a fortune at Ichiban telling me I would find something I lost, something that mattered very much to me.  The next week, I found a very important yellow notepad I'd gone all over the city trying to find.  Turns out it was under a blanket, under my pink writing chair, folded to the page I'd been working on.  

Another time my Ichiban fortune read, "the one you love is closer than you think."  I almost choked on Diet Coke due to the excitement.  The next day (!), I was at Wal-Mart helping my dad find tape for his "manly photo album with notes"* when a handsome guy in a yellow polo walked around the corner, smiled, and winked at me.  This may happen very often for you, but for me a handsome guy clearly flirting with me is an event that ranks right up there with flying pigs and affordable Coldplay tickets.  I never saw him again, but that's beside the point.

I came to a simple conclusion:  One must trust the Ichiban.  

This week, I cracked open my fortune to read the following:  you will soon go on a vacation that makes you very happy.  Yessss!  I'm still waiting to see what it is, but I'm psyched.  I will keep you posted.  

Paperdolls Everywhere

Kaylene saw my book being stocked on a shelf in Dallas!  She walked in while they were putting it on the shelf.  And they faced it out, so thanks LifeWay associates near the toll! :)   She called and we had a screamfest together.  She also took a cool picture.  Kaylene is a nanny to uber-cutie Matthew.  The pic is of Matthew holding the book.  Trust when I say Matthew is cooler at five (?) than most hipster twenty-somethings I know. Knowing my book is Matthew approved is big compliment.  He preferred a Veggie Tales video but still.

This month's issue of Elle has a fashion layout called "All Dolled Up" where the theme is paperdolls (!). The paperdolls all have vintage paperdoll bodies and model heads.  A paperdoll, in my book, is a metaphor for longing and obsession ... particularly with celebrities and covergirls and the way their lives look perfect on a page.  One of the key themes in the book is finding peace with the body I have. Beautiful isn't a standard defined by modern media, but I forget that all the time.  The irony is, even when I'm focused on becoming a caricature of a girl who has her life together, when my only goal is owning more, and having the right guy notice me, and looking a certain way and so on (ie: when I'm looking for love in empty jacked up places) ... I become kinda flat.  No ambition, no thoughts of my own, no dreams or goals, no restless feeling over all the horrible stuff happening in the world.  The book is a reminder (I hope :) that you're free to be you, and that you get to do something amazing with your life, no airbrushing required.  Which is why I love the Kelly Clarkson interview in the same issue of Elle.  When asked about her new album cover, she said the following:  

"...I wanted my fans to know how airbrushed those photos were, so I wrote about it on my blog: 'I hope you all know, no one really looks like this.' I think it's awesome to point out the reality of what goes on, because I remember when I was a kid looking at those images in magazines and being like, 'How can I ever live up to this?' The truth is that its just makeup and lighting; this industry is not normal." 

She also discusses her new song "I don't Hook Up": 

"It's a great pop song and at the same time it has a cool message.  It's saying it's okay not to be the girl who parties too much and sleeps around; it's okay to be the girl who wants something solid.  I believe that."  

Kelly Clarkson is definitely, decidedly, not a paperdoll :)  Sarah and I saw her in concert a few years ago and the concert was a blast.  She's my favorite American Idol and "Since You've Been Gone" is still one of my favorite treadmill songs And if I like a song even when I'm listening to it on a torture device that is a treadmill, it's a keeper.  

In case I don't update again this weekend ... Happy Easter everybody :)  

*My dad retired from the Navy last year.  He's been putting together a book full of all his amazing pics.  The nature of this project led me to call it a "scrapbook", and thus tell him he was "scrapbooking".  Dad thought this was too girly an explanation.  He told me his book was a "manly photo album with notes."  :)

Love (and prize eggs),

Natalie