And while we're in a blogging mood...

Know what makes me feel better when I'm feeling a little under the weather?

A big glass of Simply Orange pineapple/oj. And a bowl of steel cut Irish oats (inspired by Nie, I think my body enjoys the nutritious switch).

The best part about it is, of course, having the perfect spoon with which to fly your oatmeal around the airspace that is your head.

Open up the hangar, here comes the aaa-irplane!

And zooooooom, a spoonful of deliciousness lands safely within the safe cavern of my mouth.

No need to be jealous. The great thing about enjoying the simple things in life is that they're so easy to attain. I dare you to try this the next time your body is acting mad with you. It's like the flowers/card/candy combo sent straight from above to cure any ailment that might riddle your relationship with your, well, yourself.

I can't do this all on my own...

I know, I know. I've been a neglectful blogger. Just when things were getting back on track. I've never been one of those to post photo blogs, but you oughta know what I've been up to these days and why I've been treating you so bad.

It goes something like this:

Selling a hundred papes a day with these jokers...




Torturing Zuli




Getting some culture (and spying some scenesters)






Seducing Hadley, of course...




Pissing off PETA but giving that rabbit fur coat another chance of love




Less (read:no) alcohol, more Anna




Changing my name to Sally and selling saggy skullcaps by the seashore with Oldboy







(And don't you know? That's not even the half of it.)

And you?

Sometimes when I'm reading cjane, I wonder about all the things she does for nie. I mean, there's a pretty ridiculous amount of work that goes into caring for your sister's children and completely changing your lifestyle for her. Then I wonder about nie. Her life is so changed... she missed three whole months of it! Either way, these girls have lost a lot and gained a lot since August.

That got me to thinking about what my sisters and I would do for one another. Anna made the comment yesterday that "You and your sisters are ridiculous about giving each other things." I don't think this is quite true, though. In fact, I think we rarely give each other anything. But that doesn't bother me. I think we're pretty set in the whole "we love one another" thing.

Anyway. This is for Caroline- ma jumelle. If you want my Toms for Iraq, you may have them (and I will not take your flip flops!). If you want to get away, I will buy some plane tickets to Paris, shop for an apartment, and have a Nespresso cafe au lait ready for you before you can blink your eyes. If you find you can't have children, I will be your surrogate (as long as I can name one Emmeline). If you need me to throw granola at anybody that offends you, anywhere in the world, I will throw with gusto. With vim and vigor I will violently toss hearty chunks of granola at said foe.

And if you give me a gift I can't quite say thank you for, I will make you a playlist. :) My humble offering. Accept?

For My Sissy:

1. Amy Winehouse- Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
2. The Beach Boys- God Only Knows
3. Blind Melon- No Rain
4. Black Eyed Peas- My Humps
5. Belle & Sebastian- O, Get Me Away From Here I'm Dying
6. The Beatles- While My Guitar Gently Weeps
7. Dave Matthews Band- Dream Girl
8. Death Cab for Cutie- Cath...
9. The Doors- Riders on the Storm
10. The Flaming Lips- Do You Realize??
11. Foo Fighters- Times Like These (Acoustic)
12. The Four Tops- I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)
13. Janis Joplin- Me and Bobby McGee
14. Jimi Hendrix- Little Wing
15. Joshua Radin- Star Mile
16. Leo Sayer- You Make Me Feel Like Dancing
17. The Mamas & The Papas- California Dreamin'
18. Modest Mouse- Float On
19. Nick Drake- Fly
20. Nirvana- Come As You Are
21. Oasis- Don't Look Back in Anger
22. Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here
23. Rilo Kiley- With Arms Outstretched
24. Roy Orbison- Pretty Woman
25. Scott McKenzie- San Fransisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)
26. Spencer Davis Group- Gimme Some Lovin'

I would laugh if only...

This wasn't so true. Stuff White People Like has always been one of those websites that both amuses and horrifies me. It is so true that it is funny and so true that it is tragically very, very unfunny.

(Note the links at the top of the entry to Rosetta Stone. Point taken, SWPL, point taken.)

Read this?

Had to read this for class today. Found it interesting, especially within today's (changing!) political sphere, that the things he is arguing for in 1784 are still fundamentally lacking (in some ways) in 2009.

Give it a browse if you have a chance, let me know what you think.

What is Enlightenment?

Will the real bon mot please stand up?

This blog will be short, I promise. I need my sleep.

Here goes, the simple truth: I'm really excited about this semester. Except for statistics, which I've been avoiding by switching in and out of different sections so as to try to get the best professor possible (tomorrow will be my first time actually in the classroom), I really love the classes I'm in.

I think this is due to the professors. Everybody is so passionate. And it's almost contagious.

I just realized as I lay in bed that I was reciting French verb conjugations in my head just in case I do not have time to study them after work tomorrow. Then I realized something frightening. While many of my classes are just as foreign to my fellow students as they are to me, French is not going to be one of those classes. Most of the people in my section have had three to four years in high school. I do not think my 10 week after-school program in the 4th grade and a semester of 101 a year ago is going to put me at much of an advantage.

I will say that I am taking French purely as an elective. Mostly it is because I might like to be able to actually read some of the awesome French philosophers that I've become acquainted with in the past year in their native tongue. Partly it is also because I want to understand everybody in the entire world (at least what they are saying) and French is as good a place to start as any. Also, a tiny bit, it is because I used to live with a completely gorgeous French man and I figure that if my old roommate can go abroad for a semester and snag a fabulous man, maybe I ought to start looking for love in new lands, too.

Tangent aside, let's get to the present. (Or the very recent past, at least.) I had a panic attack right in my little bed and shot up as quick as an arrow. What if I do poorly in French? What if I can't remember anything? Merde! To fix this problem, I am going to do what they always used to do on episodes of TGIF shows. I am going to record my lessons and listen to them while I sleep. Then again, I thought, I bet somebody has already done this.

Here I would like to thank technology. Particularly the mac fellows. Sure there are mp3 players other than the iPod. Sure, I could probably find torrents of French lessons on various websites all over the Internet. But you, mac, you made your podcasts so readily available that I have to do virtually no work in order to get these lessons. In fact, all I have to do is sit and blog while I wait for the downloads.

And the downloads ought to take a while. I am getting not one, not two, but seven hundred seventy two French instruction episodes downloaded to my computer. So far... only 29 have downloaded.

Mon dieu, this could take a while.

Why is it...

That more people are on facebook at 2 o'clock on a Wednesday morning than I have seen on there all day long?

We're all insomniacs?

Dear Darla,

I love you.

Your hopeful mommy,
Mo

What's the good word?

A week or two ago, as we sat on the couch with "The Girl on the Couch" (Hadley), I wondered out loud if her mother would continue her blog, Polly-vous Francais? now that she is back on American soil. Hadley admitted that she didn't know because she didn't read her mother's blog as much as one would think. Imagine reading about your mother's social life... I don't think I'd want to go down that road, either.

Anyway, as I clicked on the blog to read the latest, Hadley noted how proud her mother was of her name. I always admired it myself. But of course I would, as I subscribe to the geekdom that is blogging myself. After laughing about her mom's pride in coming up with her own witticism, Hadley inquired as to what the name of my blog was.

"Mo-torious," I sheepishly answered. Luckily Hads was gracious enough to not make note of how cheesy my name was and how proud I was of my little witty name.

A few days later, as I walked down the street, I was thinking of what name I would come up with if I were to use some other language for my blog. And it came to me. Bon Mo! And I can tell you, I thought it was brilliant. But I advised myself in my mind not to use it. a-Wouldn't want to copy Polly. b-Wouldn't want to be too proud of myself for something so silly.

And then this evening I thought to myself, what the hell? Why not? And here we are. At the start of another era.

New year, new name.

What do you think? Could this be the good word?

If you find yourself caught in a horror movie...

Tonight La and I decided to watch a scary movie. So we head to the video store and pick up The Strangers. Word on the street has it that this movie is, "almost too scary" which to us spells out a good night. The thing is, I am not a horror buff. To my knowledge, Laurie isn't either. But this doesn't deter us.

What does deter us is the movie itself. It was pretty scary. Not in that "I can't watch this" kind of way. Mostly in that, "I can watch this and then tonight I won't be able to sleep" kind of way.

Fun facts about the film:
1) It was filmed in Florence, just up the road from us here in Charleston.
2) While it is marketed as being based on "true events," that's not quite what it seems. A tiny bit of the plot is based on a story from the film maker's life and the larger theme is based on the Manson Family's work. (La and I have read extensively on these people, so that doesn't scare us too much.)
3) Gemma Ward is in it. She always was kind of creepy.
4) Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton if you must use his real name) is also in it.

Anyway, fun facts aside, the movie was still scary. As a coping mechanism, Laurie and I thought of a number of ways in which we, in our infinite genius, would escape this situation should it occur to us.

La and Mo's Escape Plan Which Everybody Should Use at Their Own Discretion Should They be Attacked by Murders in Masks:
1) Don't go out for cigarettes leaving your girlfriend home alone in a house in the woods at 4 am. Just a thought. Preventative measures here.
2) Play dead. You know. Knock yourself out. On the one hand, they may think they've won. On the other hand, if you're unconscious you won't know that you're being stabbed repeatedly in the abdomen!
3) Steal a mask. This is La's idea. I would like to add that if no masks are lying around, make one out of a flour sack, a pillow case, or a pot holder. After putting said mask on, pretend you are one of the "bad guys" and make a run for it.
4) If all else fails, pop a Xanax, baby. Take this guy's method for coping (though I will say being murdered is harsher than being drawn on-- high school, who needs it?). This follows the logic from the "if you're unconscious..." reasoning above. Seriously though. Doped out of your mind? Good way to go. At least a much better way to go than to be conscious and fully aware of the cruelty/pain/suffering/ow!ow!ow!get-the-friggin'-meat-cleaver-out-of-my-torso-ness of the situation. I hear people have been using perscription pills for years now to take away their sorrows. If ever a situation were more sorrowful than being systematically toyed with and then executed, I don't know of it.

So, take my movie tidbits, tuck them in your back pocket, and skip your way into the sunset of another happy day in which IMDB still makes dreams come true.

Then take my escape advice, tuck that into your front pocket, and don't die.

All in all, this was a good day.