this & that

I inadvertently taped an Oprah episode this week (here is where I confess to my closet Days of Our Lives addiction and I tape an episode or two a week just to keep my finger on the pulse of Salem) and so watched Oprah interview Maria Shriver and her mum, Ethel Kennedy Shriver. Maria is not aging well - she is far too thin and looks, quite frankly, odd. And both she and her younger daughter use the word "like" far too much. Ethel appears to be physically aging better than her daughter, but I do believe that the woman should not be interviewed on "live" television. I am sure she is a great lady and I know she has done amazing things for people, the Special Olympics for example. And I am also certain that she is a great mother and raised fabulous children. However, she was having a hard time keeping on topic and answering the questions Oprah was putting to her and just kept talking about growing up with John, Bobby & Teddy. Let the woman have her dignity, please. She has earned it. However, what I did learn in this interview and loved was that Arnold is obsessed with his children doing their chores and not becoming "spoiled Hollywood brats". Also, it appeared that both he and Maria take an active role in the kids' lives and actually make sure that they are being properly supervised when at friends' homes, i.e. that there is an adult present, and that they are quite strict and enforce rules, curfews and punishments, like giving away any clothes the children are too lazy to put away. Don't know why, but hearing those stories made me smile.

Over at Nickerblog Shane was pontificating on the benefits of being the "guy next door" as opposed to the hunky model OC type. It got me to thinking about all the beautiful people in my life, and there are quite a few (not including myself in that category nor asking for the rush of an ego boost, just stating a fact). It seems to me that if you are born physically beautiful you don't really have to make much of an effort in other areas of your life --- like smarts or personality. That's not to say that all beautiful people are dumb or, to quote to ever-quotable MM, have the personalities of deck chairs. However, this is often the case and it is not necessarily their fault. Beauty fades, smarts and personality generally don't. And haven't we all experienced the phenomenon of meeting someone who is drop dead gorgeous and then when you get to know them they become less and less attractive? And the opposite when you meet someone who may not have walked off the pages of GQ or Vogue, but the more you get to know them the more irresistible they are?

To finish, I am feeling very sorry for myself at the moment. I was quite sick last week with a terrible summer cold/sore throat thing which I blamed on the air-conditioning in the office building. I kept myself doped up on Tylenol Cold for most of the week and was feeling pretty good about life (Tylenol Cold and Champagne is a particularly good combination, by the way). I have been "drug free" for 4 days (I sound like a heroin addict, don't I) and last night I woke up with the sore throat all over again and today had chills and was all stuffy and feel bloody miserable. The sucky thing about living on your own is that you still have to do everything, like feed the dog, walk the dog, buy your own ginger ale and make your own grilled cheese sandwich and there is no one around to listen to you whine (that’s for whoever is the poor unfortunate soul reading this's task) or bring you a cold cloth for the back of your neck. And I have to get myself downtown for a 10:00 a.m. pedicure that I can't cancel because I would still have to pay for it and home again in time to get ready and be picked up at 3 for a friend's wedding. I told you I was whining. But I did buy an absolutely fabulous dress --- black and white dishcloth pattern linen and silk halter neck with bias cut a-line skirt tea length --- and that made me happy.

Happy Friday!