I have to work tomorrow morning from 5 am to 1 pm.  I'm not used to going to sleep before 2, so I don't really think I'm going to be collecting much sleep tonight.  "Why not type up your random thoughts in a blog, Gina?" I thought to myself.

I just watched a facebook video from some guy I was friends with in high school.  In it he was singing a little countryish ditty he wrote called "Beautiful Brown Eyes" and now it's stuck in my head.  I think that's how you know a song should be produced and distrubuted for mass consumption--when it gets trapped inside someone's skull after only hearing it once.

I took my brothers to get Indian for their very time tonight.  We got a buffet and they loved it.  I WIN!

Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes, I'll never love blue eyes again.

I hope Danny's iPod works.  His iTunes account is stupid and it says all of the songs are having errors when I try to play them.  I really don't want to listen to Pier 1 music for five hours before we open the store.

I have lemons.  Now I just need a pitcher to make lemonade in.

Today was my dad's birthday.  I only saw him for 15 min.  We both had long days.

I'm going to miss playing with Mew and Muse.  Sally and Jack are so standoffish.  Muse just curls right up in my lap and Mew puts her face right next to mine.  It's precious.  I feel like the cat whisperer. 

It's been almost a year since the Curious George pinata has been living with us.

My neck is stiff.  Anyone know a good and cheap masseuse? 

I cannot believe Friday is Brian's birthday.  We will be spending the day at Disneyland.  D-Day #2 BITCHES.

I cannot believe Saturday is friiiickin fourth of july.  One of my favorite holidays, mind you.  Something about fireworks really captivates me. 

I have jury duty on Tuesday.  Oooh shit.  I really don't want to go.

I have to pay for school real soon.  I don't even know what classes I'm going to be taking. 

I bought some really tasty dip from the fair.  I hope to make it tomorrow for sister night.  Be prepared for some flavor, Annie.

Melissa leaves to go back to SF on Monday morning aka I will not have any friends as of Monday morning. 

WEEDS SEASON II FINALE IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!  WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?!  I NEED SEASON III GOD DAMMIT!

The Most Obscure or Difficult Word I Can Find

It was very difficult to narrow it down, so here are my three favorites:

1) Honeyfuggle--deceive by flattery or sweet talk; to swindle or cheat.
sentence:  Crafty murderers and rapists begin to hunt their prey by honeyfuggling them.  It is easier to kill someone who trusts you.

2) Honorificabilitudinitatibus--with honor.
sentence: The general knew many of his troops would not make it past this last, gruesome battle and so, before plunging into the depths of the hellish fight, he wished his men good luck and if they did not make it out alive, that they die an honorificabilitudinitatibus death.

3) Flapdoodle--nonsense; twaddle.
sentence: This blog is flapdoodle.

As this website's main purpose is serve as a record of this day in history, I think I should mention the obvious: Michael Jackson died of a heart attack today.  I think I'll remember everything about the moment I was told--me walking to the back to take my break, Kellie stopping me with a shocked look on her face, her breaking the bad news, me doing my classic "WHAT?!" shriek (I can't even control it if I tried.  Someone tells me something shocking and that screeches out of my mouth), me rapidly texting Katy and Janine for a confirmation then calling home five minutes later because I didn't want to wait for their responses, me chatting with customers about celebrity deaths. 
They're curious, aren't they?  Celebrity deaths, I mean.  I feel off-balance when I hear about them, as if they were someone I knew or cared for.  They don't feel like real deaths, I would never cry over them.  It's just the public shockwave they send out; it's not a massive jolt, but a little one.  And it's the fact that everyone feels it that really gets me.  Celebrities create something of a world community and with their deaths, part of that connection also fades.  Curious, very curious indeed.

But there is something especially sad about Michael Jackson dying because he seemed so extremely disturbed in his life. I just don't think there could be anything good waiting for him on the other side.   He never seemed evil to me, just really crazy.
I don't know. 

I'll probably just watch Weeds and try to stop thinking about death for once.

Beware of the Boys
by Panjabi MC

This song reminds me of driving to McDonalds with Katy and the boys.  It was a couple of days after Olin broke up with me (aka made the worst decision of his life) and I was feeling a little low.  My parents were out to eat and so we decided to make a fast food run to appease the children.  After belting out "I Will Survive" and "Sweet Child Of Mine," Katy chose to listen to this song.  We started dancing in ways that seemed Indian to us and Danny got the car to bounce like it was on hydraulics. 
Needless to say, this song never ceases in putting a smile on my face.

Adventures with Brian
The other day it started to finally clear up so after dinner I took Brian to Lake Murray to skip rocks.  I bought a package of nice, shiny, smooth stones from Pier 1 about a year ago and we decided to test those out.  Thing is, they ended up being more difficult to skip than the dirty, rough ones available on the shore of the lake.  Go figure.  I'm usually horrible at skipping rocks, but I found a technique that really works, so now I'm at least decent. 
I also took Brian to the park yesterday to play soccer.  On the way there we were listing off our favorite things about summer and I mentioned my delicious, homemade lemonade as one of them.  Brian mentioned that he wanted to make a lemonade stand this year and set it up at Mission Trails.  We then got to talking about whether or not it would be legal to set up a business on park land and he decided that in order to do so, he must buy the land from the government.  So we plotted and schemed for about 10 minutes on how to do so.  After reaching the park and passing the soccer ball around for about 15 min. we decided to create an obstacle course on the playground.  Brian made it through in 1 min 7 sec.  I don't know if that's a good time or not because right as I was about to try it, a few little children swarmed on the play structure and inhibited my attempt.  Instead, we played with a perfectly colored ladybug.  It was such a pretty red and it had quite a lot of spots. 
After work last night we had BLTs for dinner and it reminded me of Harriet the Spy (because she eats tomato sandwiches with lots of mayo).  I asked Brian if he had ever seen the movie and he said no, he hadn't even heard of it.  Shocked, I vowed to resolve the problem by renting it that very evening.  Well, it turns out Blockbuster does not have it in stock.  Bastards.  We rented The Goonies as a substitute; I had never seen it before and found it to be quite an interesting movie.  The relationship between Chunk and Sloth is reeeeeeeeally questionable.



Okay for news on other fronts:

• I've been really sticking with exercising and have found it to be very rewarding
• the sun is out!  the sun is out!  I can now get dark again!
• after writing about lemonade, I really want to make some
• I bought the most DELICIOUS grapes and blueberries at Windmill Farms yesterday
• my iPod is permanently out of commission.  Let's see how long I can go before it is replaced
• Melissa's cat has pneumonia and may have to be put down.  She saw the pictures of your cats, Mark, and almost cried (she really likes cats).  She said the new one looks just like her beloved Christopher
• now I have a craving for a slurpee
• all I do is work
• Katy leaves for LA on Thursday.  Incidentally, that is the day that I will start being bored stiff
• Susan's friend has an apartment in the Greenwich Village area of NY that we can stay in for $90.  That's it.  $90 for one week.  I'm  in HEAVEN.
• Annie and I were thinking about organizing a mass water balloon fight at Lake Murray.  If anyone's interested...
  

I have the weirdest life ever.

Olin's roommate/friend from Philly has just contacted me telling me that he is interested in reading my work and possibly collaborating on a screenplay with me.  He first suggested that we come up with ten ideas to send to each other, and now he raised it to fifty.  FIFTY?  SERIOUSLY?  I've never even come up with one.  I feel like I'm getting in waaaaay too far over my head, but I can't really back out now because:
a) I already agreed to go along with it
and
b) What if this works out?
Ron's getting into film production--he has serious plans with his friend Garincha and Olin to open a studio in Philadelphia.  And what if I really do write something great?  Or at least decent?  I haven't been giving myself much to do in the way of writing lately, mostly because it requires me to be very connected with my emotions and the core of myself.  As life has become increasingly difficult, I have severed this link that used to be so strong.  So my writing (if I actually produce ANYTHING) has been really really shitty.  And this could be the opportunity needed to get myself back on track. 
Long story short, I'm excited but extremely anxious about living up the expectations Ron has for me.

He read some of my poems though and said he's a big fan.  So at least I know he likes my style and voice.  We'll see, we'll see.

It's really too bad I didn't get to see you boys last night.  Perhaps you could plan another BBQ/jacuzzi/swimming/music listening night of wonder Hazz?  I mean, we have ALL summer. 

Beautiful Disney Year 4.  AKA D-Day

-Tradition, not tragedy
-shopping the night before for supplies/sunglasses at 7-11
-Thundah Thiiiighs
-Middle schoolers getting poned (as Danny would say) by Annie when they tried to jump the line for the tram
-"Push It" at full blast while paying for our parking
-Puh-puh-puh-poker face
-Let's have some fun this beat is sick, I want to take a ride on your pogo stick
-Rob Schneider or David Spade?  Ray Romano or Kevin James?
-Lady Gaga dance walking
-Lady Gaga dance picture/Laugh Now, Cry Later on Space Mountain
-"Hey!  Hey, look at me!  Look at me a-walkin'!"
-Janine taking ridiculous picture after ridiculous picture
-Licorice, of course
-Whoring it up in Toontown
-"El es chinoise."
-Bitches on the Jungle Cruise be jealous of our licorice
-Lucky Charms, Skittles, Sugar Baby, Ryce Krispi...Charleston Chew.
-Awkward Buzz Lightyear Shot
-Dinner sans Jonathan...scented paper went unused
-Where dum dums play in the center of a peppermint day
-Mean mugging children

THE END!
Amazing time, again.  Obviously.

by Gina Leenerts

One of my favorite songs at the moment is LoveGame by Lady Gaga.  I like the beat and also it makes me feel happy and like dancing.  It has taught me that to be strong, a woman doesn't have to be black.  You will find me singing it anywhere and everywhere.  Poker Face and Just Dance also give me this sense of empowerment. 

I rediscovered today that I also quite like Feelin' Groovy by Simon and Garfunkel.  My voice sounds really pretty when I sing along to it.  It also makes me feel very light and carefree.

At Last by Etta James is also really great to sing along to.  And anything by Nina Simone.  That woman's got it DOWN.  OH and Blue Lips by Regina Spektor.  Or anything soft and pretty and slow by Regina Spektor.

Those are some of my favorite songs at the moment.  Please keep in mind that this is all relative to my present mood.  In two hours, this could change dramatically.

Here are little scraps to accomplish this summer.  Some will be incredibly small, some epic and wonderful.  Bear with me here:
***I added a few more and will continue to add more wonderful ideas as they come to me***

• read all of the books on my book list
• try to start writing again
  
• paraglide OR parasail OR skydive
  
• go to Six Flags
• go to Disneyland
• go to the zoo or Wild Animal Park
• learn how to play the guitar
• learn how to drive a clutch
• work toward my goal of being in Mensa
• go to the gym at least 4 times a week
• start swimming again
• watch all of 30 Rock, Weeds, and Dexter
• work on crossing movies off my movie list
  
• go to visit Katy in LA
• family vacay
• NEW YORK
• poppy tattoo?
• get 2-3 slurpees a week (once a day was too hard, Jeff)
• visit Salvation Mountain
• ride a zip-line
• Mexico day trip
• improve my cooking skills
• see Cyrano de Bergerac, Coriolanus, and (most importantly) Twelfth Night at the Old Globe
• go gambling!
• go to the fair--try some disgusting/interesting food and ride an unsafe/crazy ride
• become competent in french again
  

Basically I would just really like to stay busy, busy, busy. 
I would also really like to have an amazing dance party, but alas I live at home and cannot do so.  It's really depressing how limiting it is to live at home, but when I think about the amount of money I save...I get over the social aspect of it. 

Okay.  Who wants to participate in these with me?!

So  yesterday was one of my two days off this week and I decided to fill it with as many events as possible.  After wasting my morning on the couch watching "Say Yes to the Dress," I took Katy to pick up her car from the shop and we headed to Panera for lunch.  Some asshole decided he should stand in front of me at the counter while I was trying to place my order, causing me to shout over his shoulder at the girl who was working, but barring his existence, the lunch was nice.  Turkey panini with spinach/artichoke spread really IS as good as it sounds. 
After that I headed over to Annie's house with Melissa and settled into a place on her couch which I did not move from for at least two hours.  We watched the first disc of the first season of 30 Rock which was terribly good.  Alec Baldwin is so much funnier than you would expect.  I ate 7.4 pounds of raisinettes along with a good couple tons of hot tamales and apple rings and decided to accompany Melissa and Natalie to the gym in order to feel a little bit better about myself. 
After treadmilling, stationary bicycling and arm-dipping we returned home, cleaned up a tiny bit, then Natalie and I went to The Living Room.  We ran into Miss Annie Szafranski who was waiting to counsel Juan on all of his harrowing drama so we simply said "Hello," then found our own table to eat our breakfasts at.  It was nice, just chatting with Natalie again.  I'm sure we'll start to reconnect over summer.

I shouldn't have told Kellie I could work for her today.  I'll have closed five of seven days this week.  She really should have offered to take a shift of mine this week.  UGGGGGH I need a new job.
And this weather?  It needs to go.  I need to lay out.  I want the sun BACK.