My writing could never do this story justice

I had an interesting celebrity look alike comparison on New Years Eve. But you know what? It's a funny story, so instead of cutting to the chase, I'll give you the full recap:

Josh, Red, Jo & I were waiting to be seated at El Coyote for dinner to kick off a night of festivities. What appeared to be an average, mild mannered, middle-aged woman passed us as she was leaving the bar area. Her actions and words, however, proved her to be otherwise. The kooky woman stopped as she passed us and and became unusually excited by our presence, as if she already knew us. "Hiii!" she cheered, "Happy New Year to you guys!!"

We smiled awkwardly and returned the good tidings.

"What do you all have planned tonight?" she continued. "Parties? Well that sounds just fantastic! I hope none of you are driving..." She was suddenly overcome with a stern expression as she looked us square in the eyes and pointed an index finger at each of us.

At this point we could all tell she was either a little mentally off-kilter or, more likely, drunk (although she wasn't slurring her words), so Red decided to have fun with it. "No, no," he chimed in, "we're flying, actually."

"FLYING!!?? How wonderful!! I can't believe this... did you know I'm a flight attendant!! I may be old and fat, but it's no lie!" A perma-grin and wide eyes were now plastered onto my face. She continued, "Which one of you is the pilot?"

Redirecting the attention of this unexpected reaction, Red informed the woman that Josh is our aerial master.

"And what airline do you fly for?"

"Oh, uhm, it's a private plane; I don't fly commercially," Josh rebounded.

"Weeeell!!! Isn't that something! Oh boy, when I was young I used to chase after guys like you..." And then, with a wink and more piss & vinegar than any of us expected, the woman snorted and roared a feline growl, fingers curling towards Josh and everything. In fact, it was more like a bull getting ready to plow through a red cape than a feline ready to pounce.

We all lost it. We laughed uncontrollably. She continued to ask us what airport we would be flying into. "John Wayne," was our matter-of-fact response. The woman wished us a Happy New Year again and danced her way on out of the restaurant. That encounter just might have made my New Years.

Now, for the interesting celebrity comparison. At one point during the conversation the woman turned to me and said, "Oh!! Well now you look just like Jennifer Garner!" What's so interesting about this comparison you ask? Well, did you happen to read this blog entry? Do I really look like Jennifer Garner? Or could this just be another uncanny dual identity reference in my life as a 'Jennifer'. It may be a stretch, but the possibility did cross my mind.

Oh well oh well oh well!!!

Well, tonight is my would be White Stripes concert *tear*. Gosh, now I feel silly; I'm commiserating a cancelled concert as if it's the one year anniversary of my dog's death. Anyway, what am I complaining about? I get to go see Arcade Fire tomorrow night, and Cat Power the next night! I still have so much exciting activity, in fact, that I'm worried about whether or not I'll be able to push through all of it (since I've always got to be worried about something). We have an international press junket taking place over the next two days and wouldn't you know it, I got the unfortunate job of morning media handler - meaning I have to be at the international guests' hotel in Santa Monica (and I live in Hollywood, mind you) at 7am tomorrow, and 6:30am on Friday. Yikes - that's waaay before my usual wake up time. Living 5 minutes from work allows me the luxury of rolling out of bed at 8:25, in order to make it to work by 9am (yeah, you read correctly, and that's including a shower - I'm low maintenance).

So the weekend (assuming it starts tomorrow) will be great fun, and I'll probably sleep through most of Saturday as a result. Then, Monday, I am taking the day off for my birthday. I used to do that in college so I could go enjoy the beauty of being outdoors with my less financially burdened and dually unemployed friends. Making that call this year, however, was a little more difficult since now we are ALL financially burdened and work conventional day jobs. So whereas in the past I took that day off so I could be more social (read: get more birthday greetings), this year I'm taking the day off to exist in solitude. But when the time came to turn in my "time off" request form I was quite certain that I'd be perfectly happy spending the day all by my lonesome... enjoying a massage, going on a hike, maybe hitting up The Grove for some from me, for me presents. Yes indeed, it will be a good day.

Josh and I would be doing a fancy b-day dinner on Monday, however a particular gift option has come to his mind, which conflicts with any other form of extravagant spending... instead of a fancy dinner (and since he needs to figure out a main attraction gift for me since The White Stripes fell through) he suggested that he put the money he would have spent on my b-day towards... a new... iPhone. Yep, livin' the dream, L-I-V-I-N!! Truth is, however, I haven't decided if that's what I want to do. You see, I'm the type on person who sort of despises her cell phone. Ask my friends and you'll find that I often don't answer it or even carry it on me for that matter; I treat it as a nuisance, a form of restriction and excessive obligation that I just don't need... I don't owe no one no darn explanation of my whereabouts! (unless of course there are extenuating circumstances, which there are about 65% of the time.) So this makes me wonder if the privilege of owning an iPhone would just be wasted on me. Of course, my current phone is one that I bought "refurbished", dates back to about 2000, and is so primitive in its graphics that, well, it has none - its dichromatic color scheme offers a dull green backlight and inanimate black stick figure images, suggestive of an inverted MS-DOS screen. So naturally, I'm not going to be chomping at the bit to flip it open and see what cool stuff is going on in my limited world of communication - rest assured, there's nothing cool going on. But even beyond that... well I'll go ahead and say it: nobody calls me!! Karen will take right to being my only chronic texter, but aside from her, Emily (who I live with anyway), and Josh (who I practically live with anyway), I wonder if my dazzling little iBuddy will get lonely. Eh, fuck it, I'll probably get it anyway.

And then on Tuesday my lovely and dear friend Katie will be treating me to the finest of dinners at our favorite sushi joint. I dare not say the name of my truly authentic little gem, since it's getting progressively busier and busier - god knows I want to keep it freed up for myself!

So there are my anticipated birthday festivities. Maybe I'll enlist friends for a more comprehensive dinner on Saturday night. T'would be a shame if not everyone was given the opportunity to offer me well wishes. (oh no she di'in't!!)

I've realized in writing this entry that I use a lot of dashes - and improperly at that! (I stand by my declaration that semicolons are pretentious).