Rick James Says Celebrate, Bitches...It's The VMAs

Well, it's Monday again, I'm home from work and tired. But for some reason I'm always tired Monday when I come home from work whether I went to bed at 10:00 pm or stayed up later. Last night was a stay up later kind of night with the MTV Video Music Awards being on but the whole show was pretty anti-climactic, especially compared to past years antics. I wasn't a big fan of the show being held in Miami since a.) I've been to Miami a few times and didn't care for it so I was pretty biased against it anyway 2.) there was WAY too much going on all the time in the venue. Also, it didn't seem like they were able to get as many big names as they have in past years, and I definitely think that's because it wasn't in New York where it's easier for celebrities to pop on in. None of the performances were really worth remarking on, except maybe Kanye West and Alicia Keys. The lead singer of Hoobastank was so off key I almost had to put my hands over my ears or change the channel. The funniest part of the entire night was the fact that Usher took his awards so seriously, as if a VMA means all that much. I think the show would have been better if the performances were more balanced between R&B/rap and rock. I would have loved to have seen Modest Mouse, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, or Franz Ferdinand.

Running With Rabbit

I finished reading Rabbit, Run by John Updike last week and ended up having to make a trip up to Borders Books this weekend to get something new. This is where I faced the dilemma of which book to choose. After I drooled over the many I would like to someday read, I was ultimately torn between two: Widow For A Year by John Irving and Rabbit Redux by John Updike. I finally chose Rabbit Redux, which so far seems even better than Rabbit, Run. I don't know if it is because I've become so immersed in Rabbit's life, so this book seems even better, or if it actually is better, but I have been very happy with my selection. It's interesting that the character Janice Angstrom, who in the first book seems so weak, useless and pathetic, has taken a turn ten years later. Updike has given her character much greater depth, which causes the reader to think about the first book in a different light. I already know that I'm going to end up reading the other two books in the series: Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit At Rest. It is nice to be able to follow a character through books. Usually at the end of a book I end up feeling disappointed because it's over and I'm unable to learn anymore about the characters further endeavors.

One Sweet World

Well, we didn't win an all-expenses paid trip to see the Dave Matthews Band in San Francisco, but we did get a chance to see One Sweet World perform tonight at Sherlock's. To anyone not familiar, One Sweet World is a really dead-on Dave Matthew's tribute band who are always great to see. I'm not too sad about us not winning the trip, though, because it means that we didn't have to stay until the final drawing and now I can go to bed and get some sleep!

Time Flies

Time flies, especially the last few precious weeks of summer. I feel like I blinked and it went from Memorial Day to the second week in August. It probably doesn't help that we've been really busy lately, with our week vacation in New England to my brother-in-law staying with us for four days.

Our trip to New England was really great, except for the part where we stayed in New Hampshire. From what we saw, New Hampshire is a hole. We were in Durham, NH and the University of New Hampshire for a couple of days while my husband attended a conference on campus. After that, we hit Route 1 up the coast of Maine, and that's where our vacation really got started. We visited Kittery, York, Camden, Freeport, and Portland. Mike and I both fell in love with picturesque Camden, Maine and probablly took three rolls of film of the tiny, beautiful town. We'd both like to go back up to Maine again next summer, this time making Camden our most southerly stop en route to Arcadia and Bar Harbor.

It was a lot of fun having my brother-in-law Chris stay with us this weekend, too. We went out to the bars a couple of nights, went golfing, headed out to dinner, went to see the movie Collateral Damage, and watched a good portion of the X Games. Watching the X Games this weekend made me think that maybe I should stop looking towards accounting as a career and towards being a professional free style motorcross driver instead, because those guys are so bad ass!