THREE OTHER THINGS ABOUT ME

My favorite comedian is John Mulaney. He's smart, self-deprecating and I've listened to both of his stand-up albums, "The Top Part" and "New in Town" a dozen or so times each in the past couple of years and I'm not tired of them yet. I'm pretty excited about his upcoming sitcom, and hope it does well. Anyway, in one of my favorite bits from "New in Town," which is actually the joke the title of the album is taken from, Mulaney describes running into a homeless man who introduces himself by listing four (unsettling) things about him, unsolicited....it keeps me in stitches, and within one of my favorite parts of that bit, a character of his asks, "What are three other things about him?"

Just watch it for yourself.

Anyway, now that I've shared one thing about myself today, in honor of this fabulous joke, I am going to share three other, completely random, thoughts about me, right now.

I have been very much enjoying Nickel Creek's "The Dotted Line." I've been a Nickel Creek fan for a long time...since their 2000 self-titled debut. Comprising of three former child prodigies on their respective instruments, their music is beautiful and sweet, sometimes romping and playful, sometimes tragic and heartbreaking. It's light listening, but has always made me happy. The band parted ways after 2005's splendid "Why Should the Fire Die," and when I learned of their reunion and (surprise!) new album last month, I was pretty excited. The Dotted Line picks up wonderfully where Why. . . left off. Lyrically and, as impossible as it seems, musically, it's easy to tell the musicians have all grown up (sure, they've been around for 25 years, but started when two band members were eight, and one was 12). I was sold damn near immediately.

This summer, I want to read all of my favorite childhood books over again. A couple weeks ago, after watching the first trailer for the upcoming film adaptation of "The Giver," I remembered how much I enjoyed the book the first time I read it, when I was 11 or 12 years old. I also remembered how I always thought it would make for a great movie, though the trailer (shot in what looks like full color for the duration of the film...which, frankly, is kind of a slap in the face to the main premise of the book...but I digress) didn't look like it was going to hold a candle to the beloved novel. Anyway, I "check out" the eBook on my iPad from my local library (which is some pretty futuristic stuff in itself), and read it over the span of two days. I really enjoyed revisiting the book from an adult perspective, and was even more affected by the ending that I remember being as a pre-teen. I've got a list of books I'd like to read this summer ("Unbroken," "The Fault in Our Stars" and a Teddy Roosevelt biography--thank you, HIMYM), but after rereading "The Giver," I'm curious to revisit some of my childhood favorites. I'd start with Road Dahl, as he was my childhood hero (and still is, to a degree), and maybe even give "Matilda" another go around (I read "Matilda" 15 times as a kid). I just think it would be fun to read these stories with 20 more years of life under my belt just to see how I view them today.

Batiste Dry Shampoo is the best beauty product I've discovered in a loooonnggg time. When beauticians started telling people that you should only wash your hair a couple times a week to keep hair healthy, this was music to my incredibly lazy ears. You see, I'll never be a "wash and go" type of girl, as I've got some weird-ass curls going on up on my head that can't be tamed (and just don't look great naturally). It takes me quite a while to get my hair in presentable order, so you can understand why I'd want to cut back on performing this task as much as possible. I hopped on board the "three times a week" train, but needed something to freshen up my hair in between. After trying a handful of dry shampoos on the market, I stumbled across Batiste. I was mostly drawn in by the garishly bright packaging, but when I tried it out, I was amazed by A) How great it smelled and B) How it sopped up head grease (sorry, that sounds gross) so easily. It also adds great volume and helps hold your style throughout the day. You guys, it's a wonder product. But what made it even MORE wonderful was when I discovered the dark brown hair version... no more "powdered wig" look when you freshly spray it on. The colored dry shampoo basically matches my hair perfectly before I even work the product in. It's incredible and at around $7 a can you can't beat the price of this hair saver.