Help a Seestor out!

When thinking about my favorite people, my college roommate Emily, her siblings, and their spouses dominate the list. Lucky for me, I've been symbolically adopted by the lot of them and taken my rightful place among them as a "Seestor"! Make no bones about it, this is a big deal to me. Every person in their family is crush-worthy. I get woozy when I'm around more than 2 of them at once. This is no joke as they make up a huge group of people. HUGE. Remember that show, Eight is Enough? Well, Emily's parents didn't think so! It's a good thing they had more than 8 kids because Emily is the 2nd youngest. I'm really glad they didn't stop with Em because one of my favorite memories includes the "baby" in the family: Seestor Amy.

Oh, darling Amy! She officially became one of our college group of peeps when she stayed at our off-campus house a week before Emily's 21st birthday. The timeline is only important in that there may have been a run-in with the police, who were doing I.D. checks at our favorite little bar in town, and there may have been people running away on foot from the police and some of those people may have been caught. There may have even been a fundraiser to pay for the tickets issued for underage drinking and running the eff away from the scene. That's a story for another day, though. Oh man, is it ever a story! I mean, maybe it's a story and maybe it's not. Could be, or I could be making it up. But I'm not, so keep that between us.


Amy & Emily, at Em's wedding. This isn't their mugshot. Not that they have one.


Joking aside, I'm really writing this post for a serious reason. One of their older sisters, Nancy, got diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis thirteen years ago. I remember being in our living room at college with Emily when she got the news. It was devastating. Nancy is an incredible person. Perhaps without intending to be, she's also an inspiration to not only her whole family, but to everyone around her, including the adopted seestor typing in this blog post (me!).

Every year since Nancy was diagnosed, Amy has been raising money towards a cure for Multiple Sclerosis by getting pledges for her participation in the annual "Walk MS". It was something she could do to really show support for her seestor.

This disease does not discriminate: Nearly one year ago, in May 2008, Amy was also diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

In her own words:

I wondered where my donations went, what I was REALLY walking for, and if the MS Society REALLY utilized their money/resources wisely, since Nancy was not getting any better.

Then with my diagnosis came the answer...there was immediate assistance from the Society guiding me through each step of the process of now living with MS. All of that monetary help from every sibling, friend, spouse or loved one of someone with MS revealed itself. It was in the financial assistance of my medication; the check-ups from RNs on a regular basis; and the continuous support of people who truly understand all that I'm going through now.

I've registered for Walk MS 2009 because I want to do something for the people who have been diagnosed and because I want to do everything to prevent more people from learning what it means to live with this disease. Today, there is no cure for MS, but hopefully with the support from you, we'll be that much closer to finding a cure!

Nancy, was diagnosed with MS about 13 years ago... to everyone's surprise. She has shown amazing strength and determination in battling her illness, so I had a guide as to how to deal with adversity. I've been relying on her example when dealing with my own illness; I can only hope that I'm making her proud.

Nancy & Amy. You make ALL of us proud!


Nancy and Amy have inspired me to offer the following: 

Everyone who donates $10 or more to Amy's Walk MS team before THIS SUNDAY will get a one of my photographs (your choice, see the teaser shots below) FOR FREE. They'll eventually be for sale for in my halfway-completed Etsy store for... more than that. 

If you donate $20, I'll send you 2 photographs of your choice. See how this works? I'll ship them right to your door, at ZERO cost to you. 

Mother's Day is coming up, you know. Someone you love is about to have a birthday. You deserve a little something! A beautiful photograph would be perfect for this occasion, don't you think?

Go on, click HERE and give up some cash for my beautiful seestors Nancy & Amy, and for everyone else affected by Multiple Sclerosis. Amy is already 91% of the way to her goal! With 48 hours to spare, help her get there!

E-mail me after you've donated (or leave a comment) with your information and donation amount so we can get this whole thing rolling.

All of the following images ©HouseofJulesPhotography. All rights reserved. Ahem, please don't steal.

Mini-Gallery:

All images ©HouseofJulesPhotography. All rights reserved. Ahem, please don't steal.

CLICK TO DONATE HERE!!

If things go well, you might be showing off your O-face!

I've already written about how my job has involved many pitch meetings for different products, and that I probably pay attention to commercials, slogans, and advertising in general more than the average person does. I think about what goes into a pitch meeting, and how I'm sure some advertising agencies must be amazed when a client goes with (and pays big money for) some half-baked or unintentionally hilarious idea.

For example, I was surprised by this product name and was saddened by this spokesperson/song, and I couldn't believe that this winter accessory actually made it into production. The last marketing campaign that caught my attention was way back in November, and it was True North's"extraordinary nutsnacks". I even asked my friends Spammon & Lindsey to be the official House of Jules extraordinary nutsnack taste-testers. You can read that post (and I highly recommend it, for the nutsnack comparison photos alone!) HERE.

Since that time, I haven't seen any glaringly awful or awesome product advertising, that is until this week when I saw this:



1. Yes, they are asking you to "upload your O-face*" so people can VOTE ON IT.

2. Not only do they want you to "upload your O-face*", but if you win, your O-face* will be featured in a national ad campaign. C'mon. Nobody wants to see that.



I'm guessing the nice people at Three-O Vodka told the female model to act like she walked into her own surprise party, and told the male model to act like he was being held up at gunpoint, giving a sad, new meaning to stick 'em up. I bet they just want everybody to think to themselves how easy it would be to win. Sneaky bastards.


*"You know what I'm talking about...O! Yeah..."

Maybe he dropped the phone when he saw her number written on the wall

Not since Tommy Tutone's 867-5309 has a song about a telephone been stuck in my head, that is until last year when I saw/heard Shy Child perform Drop the Phone.

I couldn't care less about fashion shows and you'll never catch me sitting at my computer watching people strutting down a regular old catwalk, but this video makes me smile every time. Whoever came up with the idea to have models teetering around a slick stage in skyscraper heels in an effort to win a game of live music-musical chairs at the 2008 Stella McCartney show should get a raise.

None of the models fall, if that's what you're hoping for. In fact they all look to be having a great time and even become quite competitive near the end. Note the projected "play/arrow" and "stop/square" icons projected onto the screen above the stage. Simple and brilliant details like that remind me not to over-think things in my own design work, and really in life itself. My 2nd favorite F-word is Fun, after all.


The lady in the crowd, dancing in her seat at 1:26 is totally me, every time I hear this song.

Had I heard this on the radio without the combined cleverness of the video, I don't know if I would've given the song a fair chance with all that 80's keyboard electronica stuff. They're linked together in my mind, though, and I really do love it. You might not think it's your kind of music when you first hear it, but if you watch/listen to the whole thing twice before making your judgement, I bet you'd like it. I've had it in constant rotation since I bought it and now even my nephews dig it. They're teenagers, so you know, I must be the cool aunt. As if you had any doubt about that.

Drop the Phone is such a great get-off-your-ass-and-get-something-done-today song, so that's what I'm going to do. I have company coming tonight for the weekend and these chairs aren't going to set themselves up in a circle!

Being "a little bit" obsessed is like being "a little bit" pregnant. I'm only one of those 2 things.

I've been a little bit obsessed with Ricky Gervais since seeing the original version of The Office in 2003. I can't help but love everything he does. When I heard he was doing podcasts, I couldn't get on board fast enough. I'm sure it's because he makes me laugh so much I cry, and for so long that eventually no sound comes out of my mouth like a movie scene in which I'm playing the mime-- sans beret and imaginary glass box. Whatever he does, I want to experience because laughing is one of my very favorite things to do, and I try to get as much of it worked into the hours of the day as possible.

In 2007, I watched the last episode of the 2nd season of his show Extras on DVD. Approximately one minute into this scene with David Bowie, I laughed so hard I spit out my wine. Seriously.

Double-click on either 'play' arrow if you have trouble viewing video


"Little fat man who sold his soul, little fat man who sold his dream..."

Even though Ricky Gervais wrote the lyrics to this song in the script, Davie Bowie has a history doing this sort of thing with the new people he meets. After all, he did write that song about Blue Jean. You know, the girl with a camouflaged face and no money. But never mind her. Back to the subject at hand.

When I saw this clip of Ricky on one of my other favorite BBC shows (The F Word; the "F" stands for FOOD!), with one of my other favorite British men (Gordon Ramsey), it was all I could do to not crawl into the screen and join them. Unfortunately I can't embed the clip, so to see another side of Gordon Ramsey than the cranky one you see on Kitchen Nightmares, you should click HERE to check it out. Go on, do it! They're so good together, especially starting at 1:55 into the clip when Gordon asks Ricky how he would market some oddly-named products. Two words: Sexy Rabbit. Two more words: Black Spunk. If that doesn't get you to click on the link, I don't know what will.

Now that you've experienced some of what I enjoy about RG, I give you the following outtakes from an AP interview promoting Ricky Gervais' upcoming appearance on Sesame Street. Maybe you can see why, when I watched this eleventy-hundred times in a row yesterday, I actually proclaimed it to be the best thing I've ever seen in my entire life:


"Elmo wants this tape!"

I don't know whose laugh makes me laugh harder, Gervais or Elmo. I love them so much I want to marry them. Hopefully Jeremy won't mind sharing me with a brilliant Brit, a muppet and sometimes Gordon Ramsey. Well, would you look at that! It seems that I'm not nearly as picky as my mom thinks I am. 

Possibly America's new theme song, definitely mine

I have a lot to say about a lot of things but I'm waiting for some kind of outcome/resolution... so in the meantime, I've been breathing deeply, reflecting and trying to keep from banging my head against a brick wall. There was a breaking point this weekend and one of my all-time favorite jams came to mind.

My old friend Scooter (she of "half-n-falf" and "MY Alan Thicke?" fame) & I used to exchange mix tapes throughout high school & college. We both like a wide-range of music and on any one tape there would anyone from Lionel Richie to Pearl Jam to Bad Boy Bill (back when all his stuff was underground). One of the first tapes she sent me after we went away to separate state universities had Father MC/Jodeci's "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" on it, and I couldn't play that song enough. I have it on my iPod now and have been using it as my mantra.

It seems these days, what with the incessant reporting on the state of the economy, unemployment and all the other stress-factors, America needs a theme song. I would love for Obama to start playing this at the top of every press conference & public address. If NPR, CNN & Fox News would replace 6 minutes of their chatter about how things around us are falling apart with this song, I really feel like it would help instill some small seed of confidence that things will eventually turn around. Getting pegged in the noggin all day & night with negativity takes a toll.

So here it is, my gift to you. I hope if you have something eating away at you (be it the economy, your job or anything else causing you stress) that you can get Jodeci's voice--the hook of this 1992 gem-- in your head and let it play over & over when you feel your blood pressure rising. Sometimes you just need somebody to tell you that everything will be okay, and if they invite you to dance it out in the same conversation... even better!

Breathe. Everything's gonna be alright.



See ya moving baby, yeah
And you're lookin good, said you're lookin fine
Everything's gonna be alright, yeah
Let the music take control of your body tonight
Whoa, everything's gonna be alright, it's gonna be alright
Let the music take control of your body tonight

Making an Ash of Myself

Our soccer coach in college also happened to be a minster at a church near campus. He was a great guy and a good coach but was a bit forgetful and often running late to the practice field. In the beginning of the season, all of us girls gave him a hard time about it, but after the first 10 times he forgot to bring something important to practice (like his whistle or, say, THE TEAM SOCCER BALLS), we picked up the slack and started doing things for him so he wouldn't be so crazed.

This didn't stop him from wearing mismatched socks to our games, but we wanted to choose our battles.

We always got our practices off to a good start with stretches and running a couple of laps around the field (which really bought Coach a good 20 minutes to flip the mentality switch from his day job to his night job), after which we'd circle up at center field and find out which drills we were going to be doing.

One particular evening, I noticed something about him didn't look quite right. We all got settled at center field and just before he addressed our team, I said, "Hey Coach! You have something on your forehead!"

Everyone started giggling.

I said, "What's so funny? Nobody else was going to say something to him? If his zipper was open you'd want him to know!"

Coach smiled and said, "Which one of you wants to explain Ash Wednesday to our Jewish fullback?"

We don't have to fast forward or rewind cassettes anymore either!

I have a follow-up post for the Vaginatine's party but that will have to wait for the pictures! In the meantime, I love Louis CK and this video of his appearance on Conan is making the internet rounds. Thanks to my friend S for shooting it my way:



Related:
•Growing up, I LOVED a black rotary phone we had so much that as soon as my parents got our first cordless phone, I swiped it. I didn't even have a phone jack in my bedroom but it was mine! I put glittery lip stickers all over it and in our next house I actually put it to use on my desk. I had some kind of weird nervous system malfunction each time there was a zero in the phone number I was dialing. For some reason I would get the dial about halfway around and my finger would go rogue, come out of the zero position and I'd have to hang up and start dialing all over again. Always, always, always.


•I wrote out a check at the grocery store yesterday because I accidentally left my debit card in my jeans pocket at home. The last time I wrote a check out for anything besides my car payment was so long ago I can't even remember, and I felt so annoyed at myself on behalf of the people behind me in line. It only takes a minute longer for the cashier to deal with a check than it does a debit card, but WHOA, it seemed like forever. It was all I could do to not say to the guy behind me, "Sorry, I NEVER DO THIS. I am a good person with a working debit card and I will never leave it in my jeans again!" Awkward.


•When I was living out east, one of my friends was moving to California. I was looking over the map he'd marked up for his upcoming drive from NYC to San Diego. I gestured toward the yellow highlighted path, a long cut directly across the midsection of our entire country and in between laughs this is how our conversation went:

"How long will it take you to get there?"

"Three days."

"I call bullshit! It's only a 6-hour flight and you're saying it'll take you three days? Are you WALKING to California? "

"Jules, that yellow line represents 3,000 miles of road. It's going to take me three days because it's 43 hours of drive-time, and at some point, I will need to sleep."

"3,000 miles? Whoa. Talk to you in 3 days!" (Because neither of us had cell phones back then, and he couldn't call me until he got there)


•Every single time I get on a plane (going back as far as I can remember*), I look out the window about 1/2 way through the flight and think to myself, "What am I doing? I have NO business being this high up in the air. NO BUSINESS WHATSOEVER!"


*When I was about 9, I flew by myself to visit some family friends. While in the air, I wrote my sister a letter that said the plane was, "at 40,000 feet and above God." Nobody needs to be up that high! I figure she'll mention something about that in the comments!

Not for the easily offended

You read the title, right? Mmmkay, you've been warned. This makes two posts in a row with the potential for a pillow fight ending. Sorry guys, that last post about my Angelina dream didn't deliver, but this one just might....

Some of my friends were talking about how the significant others decided to go on a man's trip this weekend. The conversation evolved into a retaliatory Ladies Night. That'll show 'em! One of the Lovely Ladies came up with the idea to have a Vaginatine's Party tomorrow night. You read that correctly, I don't have to repeat it. The gauntlet has been thrown down, we women are a witty bunch and are all bringing V-themed food & drink. Last week, I was text messaging with my friend Scooter with our random ideas, which included:

Scooter's ideas:
Fish tacos
Crab dip
O-face rings
Tuna casserole
Head cheese platter
Cream pie

My ideas:
Forbidden fruit salad
Finger sandwiches
Landing strip steak
French silk panty pie
Crab cakes
Muffins
Yeast rolls
Erogenous scones (I am proudest of this one.) (That is sad.)
Pork loin (a joke in itself)
Beef curtains (I actually found a recipe for flank steak that I'm calling Beef Curtains for the purpose of this party.)

The friend responsible for the party theme idea is bringing "Labia Lick-her" for our party beverage. Beaverage?

My own mother wanted to help me out with suggestions while I was brainstorming and emailed me a recipe for chocolate covered cherries. She called me to say, and I quote, "You can call them poppin' cherries!" If you knew how much of an actual-for real-not joking LADY my mom is, you would understand better how I am both amused and offended by her suggestion, or rather that I didn't think of it myself. I'm totally going to make those, by the way.

I can't wait to see what the other girls are bringing. Some of their ideas are not even fit to print. Oh boy... and so it begins. Enjoy your weekend, however you celebrate it! I'll have a beaverage for you. A drink, I mean.

She did try that fake-yawn-to-arm-around-shoulder maneuver though, which worked on Brad but not on me!

This is what happens when I catch the last 10 minutes of a late night Friends™ rerun and follow it up with a quick scan of Hollywood gossip before going to bed at 2 a.m., as told in Twitter tweets this morning upon waking up :







The first thought I had after opening my eyes was that no matter how much Angie tries to manipulate the people around her, there's no reason I can't remain friends with Jennifer Aniston. My second thought was that I couldn't believe I was actually awake & had that first thought.

A bit later, my friend Jen (well, my OTHER friend Jen!) e-mailed me THIS link she stumbled upon after reading my tweets. Turns out there IS a list!

My friends (Friends™?) are the best because they totally get me.

Nobody puts Baby in the corner Stairmaster!

The fitness industry sure has changed in the past 55 years, hasn't it? Back in ye olden days, girls in the know would go off to a resort in the woods with their families and burn off all that chicken-fried steak by lugging around watermelons and grinding with the bad-boy dance instructors:


Yes Baby, you carried a watermelon (:22). But wait, because what's about to happen is going to make it worth your while (1:02).

Jump ahead in history to now and hey, welcome to the future! You can forget all that weighty produce schelpping to the "hired help" side of camp and simply pop in this DVD:


What in the cha-cha hell did Patrick Swayze do to deserve this?

I think my favorite line from the commercial is, "Show off your new dance moves with the sensational cardio dance that's got Baby on her feet..." The only thing I'd add to that is, "...and off her back!". Hey-ohhhhh! Let's face it, Johnny got something else up in that movie besides Baby's heart rate.

Since I saw the commercial at 4a.m., I couldn't believe my eyes. I checked Amazon and was surprised that this DVD has been purchased and reviewed by more than one person. My favorite write-up:

Some Amazon reviewers are SO HELPFUL!

I guess nobody puts Baby's background dancers in the corner, either.