Dennis and Me...

Hope you all don’t mind if I share my little Dennis Hopper story…New Orleans in the early 90s. I was at a Lemonheads show at Tipitina’s. Struggling to remember whom I was with but strangely remember what I was wearing (black polyester minidress from Thrift City). Anyway, as I recall, Evan Dando came up to me and was like “Hey I’m Evan,” and I was like “Oh my God is that Dennis Hopper?” Got to chat with Dennis for a few minutes. He was, well, cool as you’d expect. I wonder if he was a Lemonheads fan or just happened to be hanging out…Damn I miss that place…

Kickin It

Anybody miss me? So, besides totally neglecting this space, what have I been up to? Well, let’s see…I’ve been fretting for one thing. Some of you may be surprised to learn that while I often come off as laid back. I’m actually a world-class fretter. I’m, of course, talking about supremely mundane shit—you know: plastic, free radicals, playground politics, lawncare and such. Oh and I’ve also been pissing people off. The mom who was the subject of the baby name stealing post wrote me an indignant email. (If you missed that one, you’re out of luck: while her message contained enough straight-up BS to keep me from apologizing, there were enough fair points to induce me to remove the post.) Anyway, that connection (such as it was) is officially ovah, but I don’t regret it. A girl’s gotta express herself…

On the upside: I’ve been drinking some good wine and working on a little writing project I hope to tell y’all about soon (its not that big a deal so don’t get all excited ladies…). And I’m practically in a tizzy over next month’s World Cup tourney. I’m not the biggest sports fan by any stretch, but I do love world cup soccer. Christian and I were in Paris in the summer of 2002 while the tournament was going on. This was not, of course, the year that France hosted/won it, but there is something about being in a country where they really care about soccer while it’s being broadcast. There’s something in the air…I was doing a training session at the French Finance Ministry and the ever lovin’ (back then still my long distance bf) had come along to hang out. We were renting a flat in the 19th, not far from the Canal Saint Martin. It was truly one of the best fortnights of my life. Paris in June is really the best. The days are long, and the weather is (usually) fine. There’s a summertime feel, but the Parisians have not yet left for the grandes vacances so the city’s still bustling. Anyway, France sucked that year, and Senegal kicked their butts in the opening match. But the US team rocked. (The situation was kind of the opposite in 06 if I recall, but I was too wrapped up in new motherhood to pay as much attention as I would have liked). I remember the bureaucrats at Bercy let us take an extra long coffee break to watch the USA-Germany quarter-final. We lost of course, but it was an amazing run. Would love to see the Yanks take it to the quarters or beyond this time…Am I dreaming?

My main preoccupation this year is figuring out how to watch as many games as possible given our handicapped television situation. Yes, there are certain major sporting events that make me regret the TV free thing--almost enough to make me want to get satellite so I can tune into ESPN 24/7. But I imagine we’ll just try to rig our wonky antenna so I can watch the weekend games on network TV. Fortunately, I should be able to stream some of the weekday games on ESPN 3 and maybe set up some strategic playdates with fellow football fans for some of the morning matches (BTW I’m now accepting invitations…).

Anway, from what I hear, the US has an easy group this time (hello Slovenia…) and should get to the round of 16…Of course, one never knows…And yes, Didier Drogba in his drawers on the cover of the June Vanity Fair totally affirms my inclination to make Ivory Coast my #2 team. The guy is hot and he practically ended the civil war in his country single handedly. My goodness. 17 more days…