Friday night we had a full night. First, to see "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" at Imax, then to the Harry Potter book release party at Barnes and Noble. (Buck, shut the hell up!! You baby gorilla.)
The movie was so good. I know I am biased b/c I love Tim Burton and Johnny Depp so much, and I really don't like the original "Willy Wonka", but say what you will, I loved the movie. Oh, and before anyone comments about how it sucks that they re-made the movie, just save yourself the trouble and go back to posting on some gay message board about it. It's based on the original book, not the movie. Now go jerk off to The Matrix.
The theater was so crowded that every seat in the place was filled. Kane got stuck sitting next to some awkward girl wearing low-rider jeans and who kept leaning forward to talk to the people she was there with. I tried to get a picture of her massive asscrack, but alas the armrest was in the way. But from Kane's face, you can tell it was lovely.

Diana_brianna
Originally uploaded by moetricia.

After the movie we all went over to Barnes & Noble. It was from 10-midnight, and then they started passing out the books. So many people were all dressed up, and they were also giving away free Potter glasses and forehead tattoos (not real ones thank god.) at the front. Here's Diana and Brianna, killing time watching one of the movies in the CD section. *Brianna made those scarves, they came out good! YaY Brianna!

Hagrid_dork
Originally uploaded by moetricia.

"So what did you do last night dude?"
"Oh, you know, went to a bar, picked up on some hot chick and got it on all night. The usual."
"Really? Where'd the fake beard come from, man?"
"Ummm, shit, I don't know. I must have gotten so wasted I....I can't remember. Ha ha!" *nervously wipes sweat from brow.*

typo
Originally uploaded by moetricia.

Dear Staff at Barnes & Noble,
I appreciate your decorating the entire store to look like Hogwarts, and your homemade murals and such. But come on, there's like 500 copies of the book laying around, and you still fucked this up?

me_matt
Originally uploaded by moetricia.

It started getting really hot in the store, and I was sick of dodging kids running through the aisles screaming different spells at one another and thrashing their wands around wildly. Could the Pope be right, IS Harry Potter eeeevil?
Matt doesn't seem to think so!

kid_beer
Originally uploaded by moetricia.

I thought this kid was drinking a beer. He is wearing a wife-beater though, and he's completely mystified not by the magic of Potter Mania, but by Million Dollar Baby, starring Hillary Swank and the Mummy, er, Clint Eastwood.

bored_kid
Originally uploaded by moetricia.

I love taking picture of random, bored children. Especially when their moms are behind them wearing the Harry Potter glasses, and probably dragged their kid out to stay up past midnight because "he" had to have his Harry Potter book!

griffindor
Originally uploaded by moetricia.

Brianna and I wandered over to the kid's section to put on the Sorting Hat and get sorted into houses. I got put in Gryffindor! You can tell by my tired smile I was totally fucking psyched!

slytherin
Originally uploaded by moetricia.

Brianna got Slytherin. She was not happy about it.
Then we had to haul ass out of there, because there were actualy "kids" wanting to put on the sorting hat. *Note to self: get checked for head lice.

jen_book
Originally uploaded by moetricia.

Jen lost interest and found something else to pass the time...
Good choice, Jen.

half-blood_Princess
Originally uploaded by moetricia.

After a couple of hours waiting, we finally got our books and beat it the hell out of Barnes and Noble to go home and read. No, I'm nowhere near done yet. But with my belly full of junk food and my mind swimming with all the wondrous sights I saw, I drifted off to sleep, clutching my new tome tightly and praying I'd never hear kids screaming "Expecto Patronum!!" again.

"Hey Gladys, I just shit my pants on Santa's lap. For serious!"

Well, I just got a letter from the insurance company about my storage unit burglary that they are denying my claim. Apparently since there are no signs of forced entry into my unit, the insurance company isn't going to help me at all with the $2,500+ worth of stuff that was stolen from me.
Seriously, I think it is ridiculously unfair and maybe not so surprising, seeing how nothing seems to work out for me lately.
Optimism = gone.

Hello!
Sorry it has been so long since I last updated my blog--I've been without internet on my computer. (But now, thanks to Robert, I am free to surf for all the porn I want! Should I ever want to, that is.)I've also been spending 99.9% of my time looking for jobs, since I am currently without one. I'm hoping that will change this week, since I have applied to so many things that at least ONE is bound to give me a call. I hope. Gulp.
It's cool though, I'm handling my jobless-ness much better than I thought I would. I'm doing okay with money, and I've also been the most well-rested I've been since forever. Or at least since I got my hands on some Hybernol back in '99.
I've also had plenty of time to work on stuff for my website, so I'm hoping to photograph and upload it this week. Still only one sale on my website, but I'm hoping once word gets around to one day have at least 2-3 sales! So wish me luck with all the tens of dollars I'll be earning from my site this year.
Anyway, in the spirit of my new optimistic attitude, here are some things that make me smile:

Cute, chubby bulldogs who just lumber around, waiting for someone to drop any kind of food.

Seeing Kane get completely tackled by screaming & laughing children, who are pretending to be police dogs guarding their newly-captured prisoner.

Sweet little babies who ignore the noisy game and instead meticulously pick up pennies and dimes dropped from Kane's pockets and hand them to me, one by one and smiles the biggest smile you've ever seen when she is finished.

Kane just pointed out that the new King Kong looks an awful lot like Katie. Hmmmm. Coincidence? Or has Peter Jackson been spying in Lisa's windows for the past couple of months? *Note to Lisa, get some curtains.

Here's a little something I like to call an "Excerpt From An Article That Lisa Wrote For The Carwash Magazine She Worked For Way Back When". Let's all listen up, shall we?
Fact or Friction?

"Remember the beer commercial a few years back with the "tastes great, less filling" debate?
The basic premise was, there was one camp who felt that the given beer tasted better than the competitor beer. The other side of the debate represented those individuals who felt the beer was lighter and not as heavy on the stomach as the beers of the past."

Lisa, I don't know what the hell you were rambling about, but God love ya, that is one damn eloquent way to describe the age-old Tastes Great-Less Filling debate.
I hope you learned something dear readers.
Now what the frick does any of this have to do with washing cars? I think you might be an alcoholic, sister. Get some help. Time to check into the Gerald Ford Hospital.

So this past saturday night I threw a surprise party for Kane's 25th birthday. He never had one before, so I thought it would be really cool, especially if this is going to be his last birthday in Arizona with his friends here and everything. So first of all, the cake(which I'm sure you read about already on Lisa's blog, but what the hell):

I can't just make a normal cake. I'm not capable of it. I always have to add something funny, or highly offensive, or both. This year I asked Jen to bake brownies (I didn't want to tip Kane off by making them myself! Thanks Jen!!), then made a grotesque yet delicious scene of a pirate slaughtering babies on the top.
Note the blood on the pirate's mouth. Yeah, he took a bite of a baby's head or something.

Here's Robert, Jen, Lisa and Greg helping to decorate the apartment. It looked super festive. I decided I need to have more parties with balloons and streamers. It's more fun to get drunk when there's streamers hanging around.

And thanks Robert for wisely predicting at the very moment this photo was taken that it would be going up on my blog! Very smart Young Fleming is.
Here's the big moment, when Kane wandered in off the street, completely shocked and confused by the bright colors and lights. He often feels this way, but this time there really was a party!

Now here's some random drunken scenes--->

Here's Mike enjoying the shit out of some Tab and sitting with his friend (whose name is escaping me but he was a cool guy). Greg gave Kane a box of Tab for his birthday, which I have to say is one of the best presents ever! And the wierd thing is, even though it wasn't in the fridge the Tab stayed ice cold the entire night (which didn't end until about 3:30am). That is some magical soda.

Here's me, Lisa and Dayna posing like statues for no apparent reason. You can't tell in the picture but I'm wearing my new shirt that has Ricky from Better Off Dead on the chest. It's the picture he gives Monique to always remember her trip....to the United States. Gotta take a better picture of that shirt, I am totally proud of it.

Doesn't it look like the balloon is growing out of the back of Kane's head?

This is probably one of the best pictures of Lisa ever. She look almost Presidential with that shark hat on.
Well that's all I got. Kane, I hope you had a really good time, and that your 25th year is filled with merriment and whatnot. I love you. Now help me eat the rest of the dead baby cake. It's sitting on the counter, and I don't want it to go bad.

Alright, just cut this shit out, already!

I love how not even the people in the background of this picture look amused. These two, and I'm sorry, I refuse to call them TomKat, make me want to punch somebody.

My online store is open for bid'ness!!!



There's not a whole lote of stuff up there just yet, but it's a start!
Anyway, let people know about it, so I can become very rich and work from home and be my own boss, then I can hire all of you and we can hang out and make beaded jewelry and laugh and laugh and laugh! Ha ha ha!

Tonight my power went out for about 2 1/2 hours, which completely sucked because even at night in Arizona it's still like 99 degrees, so I am oh-so-thankful to have the air conditioning back on. I am still glad there was a storm tonight though.
I love storms. Even when I lived in NJ and there were storms all the time, I was always happy when it was going to rain. So of course since AZ has maybe 2 storms a year, I freak out and bust out the camera.

Here's the view from my patio as the storm was at its worst. You can see how thick the rain was, since the picture is completely grey, and all the palm trees are bending over. Like your mom.

Here's another picture from my balcony, which I like because it shows my sweet lantern, apparently undisturbed by the crazy winds that are knocking down trees, and in turn, knocking out my power.

Here's Pig, chewing on a shoe.

Here's Riley, guarding the remote and sleeping with one eye open. Don't even try to touch that remote or you will lose a finger or two.

Here Endeth the Post.

As I was looking for a picture of a rainbow to re-create the old Great Adventure logo, I found this:

Draw your own conclusions.
*********************************************
Anyway, here's the Great Adventure logo from the 80's. I can't wait to put this on a t-shirt.

In the midst of all the craziness that has been going on lately, I completely forgot to post about something hilarious I saw on Thursday night.
We were watching Batman Begins, and the theater was pretty crowded. Jen, Kane, Skip and I were sitting behind these two boys, who were probably about 12 or 13. You know that awkward stage. Every time we see a kid around that age, Kane and I love to point out that he's always wearing big black sneakers. I don't know why it is, but for some reason boys at that age have big, clunky feet that are too big for their bodies that look like they haven't learned how to walk smoothly with yet, and they wear the most gigantic black sneakers they can find. It's true, try to check it out if you think of it. I swear that like 9 times out of 10, the kid plodding through the mall, who conveniently moves right in your way as you try to navigate around him to pass him is wearing huge black sneakers that make his awkwardness shine like a suit of armor.
Anyway, about 1/2 way through the movie, one of them gets up to go to the bathroom (I assume, I didn't follow him or nothin'). He sees that the rest of the row is full, and rather than try to push past all the people, he decides to just climb over the back of his seat andwalk out of our row. He clumsily swings one leg over the back of his chair, loses his footing and *SMACK*- he violently drops down onto the back of the seat and catches himself right in the balls! As someone who doesn't have balls, this even made me go "Ooooo!". The kid froze there for a few seconds, and hardly made any sound at all, aside from a quick intake of breath followed by a small, pained grunt. Needless to say, all 4 of us just happened to be looking in his direction when Operation:Ballpuncture happened, and we all burst out laughing so hard we had tears coming down our faces. We tried to be quiet about it and NOT laugh in this poor kid's face, but I don't know how successful we were at that. It's so sad, but when the kid finally came back and climbed back over his seat again, I was just thinking, "Come on, come on..... pleeeease slip on something...".
Being in such close proximity to someone getting clocking the nuts is sooooo funny! At least, someone I don't know, that is.

OK, long story short: the past 2 days have sucked. Well, aside from seeing Batman last night, but more on that later.
I got home from work yesterday to find a message on my machine that my storage unit at Shurgard storage had been broken in to. I called them right away, and had them check to see what was left. Everything is gone with the exception of two boxes of Halloween decorations, one box of Christmas decorations, and a signed poster from the Broadway cast of "The Secret Garden". Everything else is gone, including my iMac computer and my Barbie collection(this was worth a ton of money, since it was all of the Holiday special edition Barbies, dating back to about 1988, and still in their original boxes.). There was also a lot of other boxes and stuff, mostly filled with sentimental value-type stuff. :(
Luckily I had insurance on the storage unit, but still, I don't know if it's going to help at all. Today I ended up taking the whole day off, so I could get up and go over there first thing this morning to take an inventory of what is missing. I made my recorded statement to the insurance company, then, after a wonderful break to go to the DMV (yay!) I had to wait around all day for the police to contact me so I could meet up with them and make my statement for the police report. They didn't contact me until around 4, so my day was pretty much just wasted sitting around doing nothing. This friggin sucks.
I want my stuff back!!! I hate knowing that there's some stranger out there going through my personal property and just completely disregarding my privacy. I tell you one thing, if I find out who did this, and they happened to put their dirty hands on my favorite christmas decoration that my grandmother made that was in one of those boxes, then I'll be writing this blog from prison 'cuz I'll kill that motherfuck!!
Grrrrrrrrr.
P.s. Loved Batman, hated Katie Holmes and her too-far-apart eyes and mushmouth.

I wish I was at the beach today. Just laying in the sand with my headphones on, staring up at the clouds in the sky and feeling the cold mist from the ocean on my skin.
I also wish seahorses really looked like they do in "The Life Aquatic".

High on Play-Doh fumes.

One of these characters is not like the other ones.
I don't think I'd want my children making friends with Darth Vader*. He kills younglings.
*Did they even make black Play-Doh??

Here's the lyrics to one of my favorite songs.

What Happened to the Water? by Brak
What happened to the water, the water, the water
What happened to the water
The water so wet!

It mixed up with the dirt, the dirt, the dirt
The water got into the dirt and turned into mud
The mud got on my shoe, my shoe, my shoe
The mud got on my shoe, and then I came inside

I messed up the carpet, the carpet, the carpet
My mud got on the carpet, and my Mom got mad
She sent me for some water to clean up the carpet
I turned on the faucet, but nothing came out
What happened to the water, the water the water
What happened to the water
The water went into clean the carpet and wash the dog
And WAAAAAAAASH......the DOG.................
.....................Wash the dog!

Affleck played perverted prank on Smith
azcentral.com June 10, 2005 9:59 AM
We all knew that Ben Affleck and Kevin Smith were close, but a new item in today's PageSix really gets to the heart of the matter.
According to PageSix, the Jersey Girl director told Maxim UK about a perverted prank that Affleck played on him called "fruit basket."
"I'd be sitting in the director's chair and I'd be watching a playback, and he'd stand behind me. Every once in a while I'd feel something on my neck. I'd be like, 'What the [bleep] was that?'" explains Smith. "And I'd turn around and he'd have his [scrotum] out and resting on my neck. I was like, 'What the [bleep] is wrong with you, dude?' What if it got out in the press that that's the kind of thing you do?' He's like, 'No one would ever [bleeping] believe you, sir.' "

.......................So, did he do this to Jennifer Lopez, you think?
I hope so.

This is really old, I made this back in '02. But I think it still applies.

Good evening ladies and gents.
As I sit here in front of computer, I remember a poem that my father used to recite in my younger days. It was from this book he had that was written by John Lennon, and it goes like this:
Good Dog Nigel by John Lennon

Arf, arf, he goes, a merry sight,
Our little hairy friend,
Arf, arf, upon the lampost bright
Arfing round the bend.
Nice dog! Goo boy,
Waggie tail and beg,
Clever Nigel, jump for joy
Because we're putting you to sleep at three of the clock, Nigel.

The thing is, I didn't think John Lennon had a sense of humor. But I guess he did, because I think this poem's pretty funny.
Another thing my dad used to say is, "WHO LOVE DA DOVE? WE ALL LOVE DA DOVE!". Then he'd laugh to himself. I never found out what the hell that means, but we'd all laugh anyhow. Laugh and laugh and laugh.
Then our heads exploded.
Hey, when I do a google search on my dad's name, this comes up. Yay dad, rebuilding engines! WE ALL LOVE DA DOVE!

This is by far the best picture ever taken of Malcolm.

He's enjoying the hell out of Lisa's birthday cake. That is one happy 5 pounds of dog.

Someone finally arrested Russell Crowe! Oh happy day! I'll sleep better knowing that big bloated motherfucker is off the streets! Ha ha!

Happy Birthday Lisa! This one's for you...

"The six-fingered dawn
creeping slowly over the hills and....foothills of one's cerebellum,
bleeds profusely for the LOSS of all that one desires.
These places within, and........without......
Places..................we're afraid to cry about
yet , GLADLY.............................call home.
Like E.T.
Still though, the ship.........COURSES on through the..........bl...BLOODRED three-fingered.......WATERS.
Headed homeward.
.........Like a tired sailor.
Headed Homeward.
Homeward.
Towards LOVE?"
Thanks for being the best sister ever. I love you enough to break my own finger.

I feel like today has flown by, leaving me just really dazed and confused. I didn't sleep well last night, and I feel like a zombie because of it. I thought it was about 1:00 before, only to look at the clock and see that it was a little after 3. Not that I'm complaining! I like it when time flies at work, and then I can go home and.....I guess zone out. Hmmm.
This weekend was fun, I got a tan, drank some rum and cokes, and saw "Star Wars" again. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fanatic all of a sudden or something. Lisa wanted someone to go with since Greg is away, so here I am!
Anway, Friday night Kane and I went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. It was so cheap!! I can't get over how much food both of us got for $18.00. There was a huge line of people waiting when we got there, so we put our names in and just killed time looking at all the random shit they had in their "Country Store". Needless to say, Lisa is getting some wierd shit for her birthday this Friday! Anyway, after the novelty of the crap store wore off, we went outside to wait in these big rocking chairs. Here's Kane playing with some toy from the crap store.

You can see the determination on his face.
Here's me squeezing my ass into a kid-size rocking chair, although this picture came out so weird it's hard to see.

I like it, it's like some strange art photo that I don't understand.
Anyway, we finally were seated and our waitress came up to take our drink orders. She looked at Kane, and gasped.
"Oh my God, did anyone ever tell you that you look like Johnny Depp?".
This happens a lot, and it never bothers me, since it's usually a fleeting comment and I'm not some insecure girl who thinks every chick who talks to him is hitting on my boyfriend. But this girl would not shut up!!! For time's sake, I'll compile all her comments into one paragraph:
"Oh my god, you look so much like Johnny Depp, that's so COOL! It's like, your EYES and your....this!" Waitress makes motion around her mouth, I think she meant Kane's goatee."It's just so cool!! You must hear that all the time! The only person people say I look like is Princess Jasmine from Aladdin. You look SO much like Johnny Depp! Here's your soda, Mr. Depp! Tee Hee!!"

She also had another waitress help her bring our food out (yes, anyone would need help with 2 plates!), and the two girls looked at Kane, then exchanged glances, and whispered to each other as they walked away.
Here's how this crap was making me feel:

Anyway I'm over it now, but how would you feel if someone was just drooling all over your boyfriend/girlfriend, like, "You are so HOT. I can't believe how hot you are!"? Not good. And there you sit, like a hideous troll, with the waitress acting like, "Wow, what's he doing with HER?". She never said this of course, but that's totally the vibe I got from her. Anyway, Kane cheered me up, and I made myself feel better by teasing Kane relentlessly about all of this. Then when we came out of the restaurant there was a huge dust storm going on, so that was cool. Arizona never has any weather, so when we get some wind or some lightning, it makes me so happy.
All in all, it was a good night. I give Cracker Barrel a thumbs up, wait staff, thumbs down.

This morning I got to work to find my office covered in "congratulations" confetti and balloons on my desk.

This is for my five year anniversary at my job. Yup, five years ago today I began designing jewelry. To celebrate, my boss bought lunch for the entire office from NYPD Pizza, and got me a big cake that read "Thanks for 5 Fabulous Years!" although "Fabulous" looked more like "Falafel" somehow. She also gave me a ring, which is one of my all-time favorite pieces we've even made, which they found out thanks to Taryn's slick detective work. Which was basically "So Trish, which ring do you like best?". Very smart, I never figured that one out. (I'm also a little bit retarded....shhh, don't tell anyone!) Anyway, my ring is Purple Tanzanite and diamond, set in 18kt white gold. It's beautiful!

The irony in all of this is that today I handed in my resignation letter.
Maybe my cake should have read:
"Thanks For 5 Fabulous Years!......now be out in 30 days."

OK Lengli, I'll play your game, you rougue.
The total volume of music files on my computer:Somewhere around 800MB. I just got my new computer, so I am slowly loading everything onto it. These things take time.
The last CD I bought was: Nine Inch Nails "With Teeth". I am so, so sad that we didn't get tickets to see them live. I only saw them once, and it was way back in '96 (?) when Trent toured with David Bowie. Sooooo good. They're playing here this Friday and Saturday night. *Shniff*
Song playing right now: "Run Through The Jungle", by Creedance. A total classic.
Five songs I listen to a lot or mean a lot to me, in no particular order:
-"That's Alright Mama", Elvis. I am a big Elvis fan, but I prefer young, idealistic Elvis. This song makes me think of him as an innocent with raw talent, not a big fat piece of strung-out crap.
-"Life on Mars?", David Bowie. This song is just so big and epic, it's great to paint to. But mostly it makes me think of my friend Chris, who gave me a shitty copy of Ziggy Stardust on a tape, and told me how his mother used to play it for him when he was really young, when other kids (me) were listening to the Cabbage Patch Kids record. Also, it makes me think of Bill Murray, and he makes me smile!
-"Angel" by Sarah McLachlan. I know, this one's cheesy. And I haven't listened to it in a while, but if it comes on it gets me all weepy. And here comes my depressing explaination, so I apologize in advance.
Lisa had just gotten the City of Angels soundtrack during the time that my mother had a brain aneurism. We didn't know if she was going to survive, and it was a really scary time. The night that it happened, Lisa stayed at the hospital with my mom, and my dad (my parents are divorced) came to stay with me for the night. I couldn't sleep, and I couldn't stop crying. Both of my grandparents had passed away, and all I wanted was to see them, and know that my mom would be okay. I could hear my dad crying downstairs, and that scared me even more. I put on the CofA soundtrack, and tried to calm down. I just sat in my window seat all night and listened to the whole soundtrack on repeat, and it made me feel a little better, and eventually I fell asleep. I listened to Angel any time I felt really scared, or when my mom was having another brain surgery, and it made me feel safe.
Okay, happier song!!
-"Army", Ben Folds Five. I don't like Ben Folds, I had an ex who listened to them non-stop and it drove me nuts. But this song I have to admit I like, it's just super catchy, and he mentions "Chick Fil-A". Mmmmmm.
-"Bloodletting" by Concrete Blonde. Actually the whole Bloodletting album. It reminds me of a simpler, more gothy time in my life! Ha ha! Trish wore all black!!
Who are you tagging and why?:
Kane-because after 3 years, there's still stuff I don't know about him!
Lisa-because she dodged Lengli's tag. Actually so did Kane...
Robert, Lani, Diana and Matt-because I'm curiouser!
Jenny-because I KNOW "Footloose" by Kenny Loggins has to be in one of your answers, Bitch!