chia’s blog

In the bathrooms at the Four Seasons, there are baskets of rolled-up hand towels. This is so when you are done washing your hands, you can grab a new, fresh, clean towel to dry off. Then you toss it into another basket for laundry.

The Nanny Diaries

Emma McLaughlin

I found this book in my cousin's bookshelf, so I read it this past week. (There are also O'Reilly (as in Bill not as in Java, C, perl et. al.) and Coulter books, I will probably read those in the coming weeks).

The Nanny Diaries never really sounded all that interesting, but it's referenced enough and popular enough that I decided to give it a try. It's novelty wears off pretty quickly; yeah, we get it: rich people don't take care of their children, they stuff macrobiotic french food down their throats and obsess over status symbols such as private schools and upscale outings. And the father who is never around is having an affair with a woman where he works? Quelle horror!

I don't think the repetitiveness of the story would have been as annoying to me if it were not for the spineless martyr of a protagonist (Nan) whose every action reeked of naviete. Nan (her nickname is Nanny, get it?) is constantly being taken advantage of by her boss, Mrs. X, but never sticks up for herself or maintains her boundaries for fear of it somehow harming her charge, Grayer. As Nanny's tenure with the X's continues, Mrs. X condescends more and listens less. And yet Nanny bends over backwards to do whatever she can for Mrs. X. In one particularly annoying scene, Nanny finds out that Mr. X's mistress has left some panties in the apartment for the wife to find. Nanny cannot let this happen so she drags her two best friends over on a Saturday night to scour the apartment. Because what if Grayer finds them!

Last night I stayed up late reading the final third of the book, hoping that she would finally grow some ovaries and tell off Mr and Mrs  X. While she does begin to leave a message (how simply passive agressive!), she remembers Grayer and decides instead to implore the parents to learn to love their adorable child. Please.

There is also the side plot of Nanny's love life. She runs into a "Harvard Hottie" who lives in the X's building who somehow becomes her boyfriend even though they barely see each other due to her job and his living in Cambridge most of the time. Anytime they are together Nanny cannot stop talking about her work, the X's and how awesome Grayer is and in a giant suspension of disbelief,  "H.H." is totally interested in everything she says. When he mentions that Mrs. X is the second woman to hold that title, Nanny freaks out that he never told her this before. He apologizes and then they go hit the sack. Uh, what? I think Erika summed it up best for me. Sure Nanny is his girlfriend, she's one of his girlfriends.

The Weinstein Company is releasing a film version of the Nanny Diaries, I assume this summer. They did a great job casting the movie, Scarlett Johansson will do a fine job as the naive martyrish Nanny and the H.H. looks like a healthy blend of Abercrombie and Dumb. Laura Linney is Mrs X, I may actually see the movie when it comes on tv, just to see Linney be a distracted bitch. However, I can't really see Paul Giamatti as the big and macho Mr. X. Giamatti as an ape, yes. As Harvey Pekar, yes. As a Big Fat Liar, yes. As a gruff business man with an appetite for trophy wives? No, not really. What, was Chris Noth busy or something?

I'm getting more and more into planning the details of the wedding. That, coupled with the fact that I do very little during the day besides take care of a 2 yr old boy and a 4 yr old girl, means that I have started being *that* girl. The girl that won't shut up about details like wedding invitations and chapel locations.

I must stop this before it gets out of hand.

I dont know what's going wrong with me, I keep losing things. Granted, its only been two or three things but they are important things. (Cell phone, debit card, etc). I havent lost hope on the debit card quite yet, but I'm not sure.

I dont feel like I've been spacier than usual, and I don't think that its entirely my fault. Things keep falling out of pockets and bags.

Can I blame luck for this? Or is it all on my shoulders?

estoy haciendo rajas, sera la tercera vez que las hago en las ultimas tres semanas.

no puedo depellejarlas bien, y esta vez fue la mas peor que todas. no se si es porque los poblanos ya se estaban haciendo viejitas, pero las tueste para algun tiempo y no se les cayo NADA de piel y aun estan muy duras.

a ver como me resueltan.

Even though you are not entirely excited about the prospect of a certain job, that does not mean it's particularly easy to hear that you are most likely not going to get it.

and i can't spell dissapointment. that's not too fun either.

I wrote a few paragraphs on unpaid internships, but I got stuck. It ended up being difficult to word and frankly, whiney.

So instead I will mention that today, although very dreary weatherwise, was a good day for radio. I heard Irma Thomas for the first time and totally bopped in the car to Le Disko.

It also was my last day of work. I'm sad that it's over, but I'm thankful that my stint as a unpaid intern is done. (at least for now; hopefully not again).

Yesterday my aunt and I cut 48 scarves out of fleece. I had the idea to give a gift to the homeless/beggars around Austin, and we both thought scarves would be nice. This was a few weeks ago when it was really cold out, now that it has been 70 for days, I'm not so sure. I've heard its going to get cold again, so maybe it will still be useful. A friend of Cindy's brought coupons for McDonalds we can put in some of the scarves. I hope this goes over well, and can be of some use to people this winter. Maybe ill have to take some to oregon or boston where it is colder. We'll see.

Yesterday was also the wrap party. I had a fun time talking to everyone. Usually I dislike going to parties by myself, since I worry about not being able to talk to anyone, but I guess at this point a lot of the people there are my friends so I wasnt quite going alone. Amy looked really great in her party dress and I got a bunch of compliments about my golden girls shirt.

Just now I remember I wore a necklace I adore but I dont remember taking it off. I have to go to my room and look for it.

I got home at 4am last night and my cousin texted me at 8am this morning to ask if i could go and babysit for her. I'm still rundown a bit, (I NEED to eat something) but I'll be babysitting at 6pm tonight. which is soon. Which means I shouldnt be sitting here online!

Or, I suppose the correct tense would be "is the last day of shooting" since the crew is on ave F filming right now. I'm home and feeling kind of exhausted, and the only reason I don't say very exhausted is because I feel wrong saying I'm exhausted when I haven't been one of the ones working 14 hour days all week.

Tommorrow is the wrap party and Fred isn't going. Heidi is (hopefully), Fred said she *has* to go, in order to represent the art department. He also added, "bring strippers!"

I was on my way out to leave and I asked (joking, I hope you all know), "wire strippers???" And not too surprisingly, they responded with blank stares and shouting "what. are. you. talking about?"

I tried to explain and then said that that joke KILLS at mit and remembered that I have to keep in mind who my audience is.

Sunday it was the Chivas vs Toluca game and I was at Blanca's with my family. I noticed that little kids (like age 3 and under) do yoga positions naturally, for example when they bend over they are pretty much in downward dog. For you non yoga types, thats when the body makes an upside down v. legs are straight and arms are straight, feet and palms are on the ground.

Anyway, tomasito (2 y.o.) was in downward dog playing on the floor in front of the TV. I got up and showed him that it was a yoga pose and he adorably came and wedged underneath me in the same pose. I explained it was called downward dog.

About 20 minutes later he starts shouting dog! dog! and pulling over to do it again. I was happy since he rarely ever wants anything to do with me and promptly got into an okay downward dog. Everyone was watching as he walked over and threw a tiny, 2 inch wide plastic dog bone at me and shouted "here doggy, get it!"