I think I’m going to go blonde.

I haven’t yet figured out what, exactly, inspired this. I have “virgin” hair, not yet touched by the likes of professional grade hair dyes…I’ve never even gotten highlights.

But I think being a blonde might be a grand ol’ time! Not like Playboy Bunny blonde…a platinum I am not. But some color of blonde. I should probably make an appointment with my stylist soon…even though I won’t be getting this done until well after Easter.

Hmm…

I’m excited!

I am a Britney Spears fan. I’ve been a fan since …Baby, One More Time. I own all the albums and the majority of them, I actually went to the store to buy.

I am the most uncloseted Britney fan you will EVER meet. Guaranteed.

The funny thing about celebrities is that, all too often, we see them as these untouchable, God-like creatures who don’t go to the bathroom and who don’t (or shouldn’t) have issues. I think that’s where the majority of the problem lies.

Celebrities can’t make mistakes. Hell, they can’t even go outside wearing sweats and t-shirt without being scrutinized and mocked and flashed all over the tabloids and television. It’s so weird! I can’t imagine a life where I couldn’t just sit at Starbucks in my Saturday uniform (yoga pants, tank top and tennies) drinking a latte and reading a book without being harassed in some manner or another. What kind of a life is that?

I often find myself reading review of music and movies on Plugged In, Focus on the Family’s pop culture website. I used to appreciate the reviews for what they were, but then they went and really distorted a Will Smith song a few years ago. After I wrote a rather scathing letter to the reviewer, I began reading the reviews with different eyes…and probably with some amount of mental masochism.

I just read their review of Circus by Britney. I’ll be the first to admit that there are moments on the album that are rather…tarty. “If U Seek Amy” is probably the finest example (and if you haven’t figured out by now that she’s saying “F-U-C-K me”, well, now you know). The woman is a sex symbol. Let’s be clear about that. She’s not someone I’d want my daughter to idolize. She’s not the ideal role model…she never really was (which begs the question: does any celebrity ever WANT to be a role model? Or is that forced upon them?).

But in the same breath, let’s also be clear that she’s a 27-year-old single mother. She has issues. She probably has a mental illness in the form of bi-polar disorder or something like it.

I can’t really imagine what it must have been like to go through a painful divorce and custody battle in front of the world and then have a forced institutionalization splashed all over everywhere. That’s horrible! And shame on the media for doing it.

So when Focus on the Family calls her a “Salacious Tart” I say better a tart who is getting her life together than a whacked out little girl on the verge of losing her children.

Better a scantily clad woman who can provide for her family than a flip-flop wearin’ nut case who can hardly drag herself from her bed.

Better a woman who can be proud of herself and her accomplishments again than someone who appeared to be on the fast track to unintended personal demise.

A friend once told me that one week at church, her pastor actually asked that his parishioners pray for the girl rather than soak up one more sloppy report of her. I have to agree with him. Be honest: if you had a friend, or even a mere acquaintance, who was going through a divorce and custody battle and then just started teetering on the brink of insanity, what would you do? Pray for her or hope she did something else nutty so you had something to talk about at the water cooler? Would you send good thoughts into the universe or wait around for her to fall off the deep end and not do anything?

So with my trip to Vegas for her show looming mere weeks away, I say MORE POWER TO THE BRITTERS! Tart is up, lady! You do your thang!

Here I am, back in Boulder.

Todd is at his Writer’s Group in the back of the coffee shop and I’m studying (okay “studying”) in the front.

A glorious faux hippie and her two very cute kids just sat down to eat a quick brunch and are now on their way out. They left a massive trail of chocolate cupcake behind them and around the very area in which I am studying.

Hilarious. Gross. Many things.

I really have nothing to add to my blog list from this week. And I think I might have outdone myself last week with all the posts re: my globalization class. Damn. But I feel the need to write, for some reason.

I am realizing that one of the biggest motivations for getting done with school as quickly as possible is not so that I can be a college graduate and not so that I can sleep more.

It’s so I can have time to read again. There are so many books that I need and want to read. The Heart of Darkness has been at the top of my list for over a year. And yet, without the hours and day and weeks to devote to it, I have yet to rent it from the library. Sigh. I also have been sitting on Night for over 3 years. Yowza. I’m apparently all about the most depressing books every written. Weird.

Thursday night, Todd and I embarked on the second of my five resolutions. We went to see The Phantom of the Opera. I have honestly never seen anything more amazing in my life. I’ve been wanting and waiting to go to a Broadway show my entire life. Honestly. The whole thing…my ENTIRE life. And we finally went to what is probably my favorite musical of all time (though it might tie with My Fair Lady).

I have decided that I want to do musical theatre for two reasons. 1 – I love to sing. 2 – I want to wear those outrageous and beautiful costumes.

It’s hard for me to go into much detail here about how much I loved the show and the specifics of what I loved. I can say, though, that seeing Phantom has cemented in my mind that experiences, rather than things, are the gifts that I really love and appreciate (aside from flowers delivered to work because that makes me feel extraordinary). There is only one”thing” that I really want from Todd and I don’t foresee receiving that for several years (like 19 more years).

I will never forget the way that I felt walking into the theatre to see Phantom for the first time. Wow. Just…wow.

It’s amazing to me how tired I’ve been this week. I think I’m pushing myself too hard sometimes, but there’s really no way to stop myself now. What with working full time and going to school on top of that and then trying to lose weight and get fit…it’s really exhausting.

This is how I’ve always functioned though. It’s a really bad habit that I’ve made and I should just stop doing it.

This habit is that of over-scheduling and under-resting. Maybe I should re-think my Lent and give up doing too much this season.

While it’s true that I have learned to say “no” to certain things over the last few years, I have managed somehow to replace those “no’s” with other “yes’s”…and that is the inherent problem.

I can’t not go to school and I certainly can’t not work (thought the idea of being independently wealthy is appealing). So what else do I give up? Being with other people re-charges me so I don’t want to not do that. I just have this really awful thing in me that says I have to fill every moment of every day with SOMETHING.

I can’t quite describe how excited I am about being able to go to bed at 8pm on a weeknight without feeling bad that I didn’t do enough homework or studying that night. I want to be done with school. I’m enjoying the work and the learning, I really am. But I’m ready to be done. As my brother’s student said last week: I want to be an adult so I can start enjoying my life.

I’d re-phrase that and say “I want to be graduated so I can start enjoying sleep!”

I feel like I could take a thousand naps and still not be rested.

Tonight I will say my first “no” and not go to the gym. Rather, I will get home and go straight to bed prior to going out for dinner. Todd is mercifully going to walk the dogs for me which will garner me an add’l 15-20mins of sleep.

Regardless of the fact that I gained weight last week as opposed to losing, I will not be at the gym tonight. No worries…I’ll be back at it tomorrow and Sunday. But I think a nap is long overdue.

Yesterday was the Run the Republic stair climb in downtown Denver. The event happens ever year and is a benefit for the American Lung Association of Colorado.

I’ve been wanting to do this event for years…since it was “Run the Register” (the Register is another cool building in downtown) and this year, I finally did it! It is on my list of Five Things To Do In 2009 and was definitely worth it!

I ran with three of my friends – Chandra, Tarynn and Ashley. Tarynn, frankly, had way more energy that any person should have at 8am on a Sunday, but as that’s pretty typical for her, it did make it more fun for the rest of us! The three of them had been training pretty intently for a while and because I’ve been so busy with school, etc. the only “training” I ever did was walking up and down the stairs at my apartment. Ah well. Stairs is stairs, right? Sure.

Chandra and I showed up around 730am to pick up our bibs and t-shirts (which are pretty rad-tacular and I intend to wear mine on Friday for casual day) and then just sort of dinked around for a while and the three of us (me, Chandra and Todd, who was there to cheer me on and take photos) until Tarynn and Ashley arrived.

Our start time was around 830am and by 824am, we were all on our way up the Republic! Woo hoo! I started out pretty strong and hauled ass up about 5 flights before I reconsidered that strategy and slowed to a run…I mean, the thing is 56 floors, which equals 1100 stairs. There’s no way I could run for that long. Not a chance! So I slowed my pace a bit and took about 5 breaks just to catch my breath. By the time I reached the top, I was convinced that my lungs were going to explode out of my chest! Seriously…it felt like I’d just smoked a pack of cigarettes (oh the irony). But the view from that high up on Denver was worth every stair…oh my word. The city is just breathtaking with that mountain backdrop we’re so lucky to have! And the sky was bright blue and sunny…couldn’t have asked for better weather!

Chandra made it up first, me second and Tarynn & Ashley came in behind me…we did awesome! And we all got funny little Republic medals from the Mammoth cheerleaders at the top, which was hilarious and rad all at the same time (I didn’t even know a lacrosse team would HAVE cheerleaders!). We fiddled around at the top for a little while then headed back down to meet up with Todd and get our SHWAG!!!! Man, I’m gonna run more races just for the free junk at the end! We got tiny Powerades, tiny CLIF Bars, tiny recovery salads, 6″ sandwiches from the Spicy Pickle (mmm!), bananas and oranges from The Sunflower Market, granola bars from … someone, there was a photobooth…I mean, the free crap was practically ENDLESS! I loved it!

They posted our times right before we left:

Chandra came in around 13:30

I came in around 17:30 (a woo hoo!!!)

Tarynn & Ashley came in around 23:00

So we all did really really well!

And no, my quads do not hurt…yay!

Update on the Get Fit By Brit plan: going smashingly! Losing the excess poundage and gettin’ me some muscles!

Well what a week this has been for the ol’ brain. Work and school both took it’s toll on me and required far more than I thought I had to give to either. Fortunately, all of my classes continue to stimulate the brain which is something that I’ve been longing for for quite some time. None of my classes at Metro really offered the mental challenges that CU-Denver is appearing to give to me. It’s probably not entirely the fault of Metro so much as I’m beginning the end of my college coursework which means that I’m taking some pretty heavy duty classes from here on out.

The class that’s intriguing me the most so far is my on-campus course about Globalization. My professor is a frickin’ GENIUS. It’s the only time in my entire (lengthy) college career that I can remember thinking that I’d rather just hear him lecture for three solid hours. The man has SO MUCH information stored in his head and I just want to hear more and more about everything he’s talking about.

I think there are few things that really stick with a student during their college education. Really, we don’t remember diddly about what our professors say, hoping instead to pass the course and try to come out of it with some sense of understanding.

But sometimes, rarely, there are those things that a professor will say that will stick with a student forever. My globalization prof is that person for me (ranking with only one other professor, Todd Slechta, from CBC).

My professor is John Whitesides, just in case you wanted to know.

Anyway, a couple weeks ago, we were talking about maps and geography (something I’m actually quite good at) and he brought up a photo of the class Rand McNally map we’ve all seen in all our elementary schools. (click on the map if you can’t see the whole thing here)

He proceeded to point out some very interesting things, that any of you may or may not have also noticed (there was only one that I was aware of):

1. There are NOT, in fact, two India’s in the world;
2. Alaska is really only about the size of Texas, not the size of half of the continental US;
3. South American is actually approx. 8 times larger than Greenland; and finally
4. The United States is not, surprisingly, the center of the world as this map would suggest.

But what is really interesting is what Whitesides said next:

I had to actually take pause when he said that. I mean, it’s kind of true, isn’t it? So often, Americans are so fricking entho-centric, it’s appalling. I won’t get into it too much here, but take the Iraq War for example. Is worldwide democracy REALLY the best way? America has really only been doing this for about 200 years. Do we REALLY have the very best option? Especially considering that so many nations around the globe are, in fact, theocracies it seems a bit absurd to waltz on in there and proclaim that WE ARE THE BEST!

I digress.

This class just continues to remind me that whatever we do, nationally, has huge impact on the rest of the world. I think this goes for all major and industrialized countries the world over.

To paraphrase a portion of the President’s inauguration speech, we will not apologize for being a wealthy country, but we will take responsibility for how this affects the rest of the world.

Last night, during our Valentine’s dinner at the Hard Rock Café in downtown, Todd and I began talking about music, specifically, that which we think is important.

We’ve longed discussed that we want our children (whenever they come into the picture) to be well-versed in as many genres of music as we can possibly expose them to. This brought up the topic of what can be classified as “important” music. For me, that list includes….SEVERAL artists. Todd reminded me that while some music maybe important to ME (Lisa Loeb and The Indigo Girls), it’s not necessarily the prime example of music from our generation, so should be kept out of the “Important Music” category and placed in the “Important Music to Me” category.

That said, here are the beginnings of my two lists:

Important Music (spanning several generations

Count Basie

Glenn Miller & Band (a personal favorite)

Benny Goodman

The Rat Pack

Frankie Vallie & the Four Seasons

Elvis Presley

The Beatles

Lesley Gore

The Beach Boys

Jimmy Hendrix

The Who

The Doors

The Rolling Stones

Donna Summer

ABBA

The Bee Gees

CCR

Simon & Garfunkle

Fleetwood Mac

Diana Ross

Stevie Wonder

Janis Joplin

Metallica

The Jackson Five

Michael Jackson

Tiffany

New Kids on the Block

Nirvana

The Beastie Boys

Rage Against the Machine

Pearl Jam

No Doubt

Britney Spears

Celine Dion

Mariah Carey

Justin Timberlake

New Found Glory

Eminem

Kelly Clarkson

Fall Out Boy

Panic! At The Disco

….just to name a few

Important Music to Me (all in addition to previous list)

Lisa Loeb

Sarah McLachlan

Fiona Apple

Sixpence None The Richer

Michael Bublé

Selena

Indigo Girls

Jennifer Knapp

*NSYNC

Tim McGraw

Faith Hill

Kanye West

Jem

Matchbox 20

Godsmack

Ace of Base

DC Talk

Michael W. Smith

Plain White T’s

Beck

Waterdeep

Oasis (but only so that I can reference SNL from time to time)

Jason Mraz

The Fray

Jump, Little Children

Rihanna

Regina Spektor

Fergie

The Black Eyed Peas

Paramore

Imogen Heap

…just to name a few

So with all of that said, what are some of YOUR important artists? Or what are some over-arching artists/musicians that you think I’ve missed and should definitely be heard? To make it onto the overarching list, remember that it should be generally important and history-making music…it doesn’t have to be music you necessarily like (I don’t particularly care for Nirvana, but it’s important that future generations know their music and their impact)…

[Karla, I know that Radiohead will be the top of your “me music” list :o))