mystery solved!

For several years (really) I have been trying to figure out why I could never find one of my favorite children's tapes anywhere online. I was almost 100% positive it was "Free to Be You and Me" but whenever I found that, it was a 1972 release with a few unfamiliar songs on it. I was pretty sure that whatever I remembered was something that had been released in the 1980s (FTBYAM remix). Well! I finally found out, thanks to Wikipedia that my version was actually called "Free to Be A Family."

FTBAF had many of the same songs and stories on it--I particularly remember the one where the girl and boy baby discuss gender roles--but it had a few different ones too. One of my favorites was a Robin Williams piece showing that sometimes Dads help around the house because Mom has a job (he had a special cinnamon toast). Oooo. Another one was a Whoopi Goldberg piece--the only thing I remember about it was that it involved a little girl whose family was on welfare. There was also a song, that I just found out was sung by Soul Asylum, called "It's Not My Fault." Oh my goodness, now I'm looking at all the tracks and it's all coming back. The song "Yourself Belongs to You" was a circa 1988 rap. I'm going to have to go drag this puppy out of the basement. It was pretty much wonderful and if my parents ever wonder why my sister and I are such hippies, they can trace it directly back to the fact that we listened to that tape ALL THE TIME.

an exciting turn of events

Today I got a call from a girl whose ad I had answered on the UCLA housing site. The original ad made it seem like she had an apartment and was looking for a roommate, but apparently the apartment fell through. She was still looking for a roommate, however, and she wanted to talk to me to make sure I was nice enough to be her roomie! Well, we all know that I am a extremely nice person (right, guys?) so she seemed to take a liking to me. She's getting an MPH at UCLA and, coincidentally, my dad also has a public health degree from UCLA. She also seems to have basically the same living attributes that I do: non-smoker, morningish person, fairly clean (at least in common spaces), needs parking at the apartment but easy non-driving access to campus (neither of us have parking at UCLA), own bedroom and bathroom, similar budget. So far so good!

I'm going down to Los Angeles on Sunday and we're going to meet up for dinner to make sure we are on the same page. She's already scoped out some places so I think we'll go hunting on Monday. I am very excited to have a prospect! It would be nice to have a roommate--not only because it would be cheaper, but also because it would also be friendlier since I don't know anyone there yet but my dear sweet Lauren! I feel SO MUCH better to know that I probably have a roommate. It makes finding a place seem a lot less daunting and it makes me feel like I achieved something! Wish me good roommate and apartment luck--hopefully I'll know where I'm living by Wednesday.

blogging again!

Lynne came home a proud owner of designer jeans. Go Lynne, way to wear pants that fit! I'm one to talk, though. I am currently on a search for a pair of cropped pants that aren't falling apart (unlike the ones I own and wear every day of my life). If you have any good tips on cropped pants, please let me know: they must fit the twin requirements of not being too big around the waist and too small around the butt. It is a difficult problem indeed.

In other news, we are having the outside of our house painted. Yes, we do live in a brick house, but it does have windows and shutters that require painting. The reason that this is so exciting is because of the fact that the painter(s) play Z100 while doing their work. One of the painters even occasionally sings along. This of course brings me much joy, particularly when I can embarrass my sister by dancing in the backyard. On the downside, I am subjected to certain songs that make me want to tear my ears off, like "You're Beautiful." The song was kind of cute when we first heard it in Italy last summer, but I pretty much hate it now. On the plus side, occasionally Z100 does provide me with an opportunity ask the dogs if they are ridin' dirty.

As I am sure you all know, it is very difficult to come up with a good username for anything these days. I have an email address, that I never use, that I have had for about a million years (or since I was a sophomore in high school) that actually is pretty much just my actual, not particularly uncommon name. No numbers needed. I guess it was just long enough ago for that! My flickr account is kitty.pants, but we had to go with kittyandpants here, since no dots allowed.

I am thinking I may manage to update this more often than my other less cutely laid out blog (if you can call it that).

First order of business is to say that two exciting things happened today: 1) my baby sister came home to visit us for a week and 2) I had my last day of computer programming for dummies. Plus my dear darling former roommate is coming to visit me on Friday, so it's just all around excitement.

In not so exciting news, I do have to attempt to find an apartment in Los Angeles. I am going hunting in a couple of weeks, but I am rather nervous as I feel very naive about the world of apartments. I have a tragical housing story involving the fact that I was offered student housing, but due to the fact that the housing office had my old email address (my fault) they cancelled it due to non-response. That was bad. So we're off to look at exorbitantly priced apartments. I also have an interview with the tech lab in the library school, so maybe I'll land myself a job!