Shopping is the best medicine. I was feeling pretty icky around four o’clock this afternoon. I had another unbearable headache attack and it was too early to take any percocet. So what did I do? I distracted myself as best I could by talking to a good friend of mine and shopping on eBay. I think I’ve found something that I can actually feel good about collecting. Normally I want to collect things that are too expensive to get into. Like diamonds. But I’ve found something that really makes me happy every time I find something, and the best part is it’s *cheap*.


So what is this magical item? I’m collecting old advertisements with my favorite movie stars featured in them. They sell on eBay for around $4.00 most of the time, and it’s just so much fun. It all started when I bought this one, an ad from 1954 for Lustre-Creme Shampoo, featuring Rita Hayworth. I bought it because it was cheap ($6.00 with shipping), and I figured it’d be a nice reminder to be ‘The Anonymous One’. I have since framed it and it’s sitting near my monitor. But, looking at it every day the way I do, I find myself smiling at it every time. That’s what led to my decision to look through eBay from time to time to see what other ads are available. A few days ago I found a set of two Rita Hayworth ads for only $1.00! So naturally, I got those. That brings the total in the collection to three. I’ve also bid on two absolutely darling Gary Cooper ads, with him all dressed up in a cheesy cowboy outfit.


But today, I found my absolute favorite piece for the collection, and it was only $5.00. It’s an old ad for ‘You Were Never Lovelier’, a movie Rita Hayworth starred in with Fred Astaire. Check it out. You know what the best part is? She’s even wearing something that could easily qualify as the Infamous Kick Butt Red Dress. What could be better?!

Okay, so maybe shopping didn’t cure my headache, but finding that ad at least made me happy enough that I was distracted from the pain. That’s a very good thing. Now if only I had enough money to burn that I could spend $5 every time I got a really bad headache, then I’d never need another percocet in my life. 🙂 But I’ve been told, if you give a Heather a vintage advert, she’ll ask for a frame with which to show off the ad. And if you give a Heather a frame, she’ll ask for her very own wall on which to hang that vintage advert in its beautiful frame. But what good is a solitary wall? Oh no, that Heather will want a room to call her own that she can fill with her ads. But that room will fill so quickly, so if you give a Heather a room, she’ll only ask for a mansion in which to spend her days shopping, avoiding headaches, leading revolutions, and starting her own companies…

I really should write my own version of that book. 🙂 But where would I even start?

I went to the gym again today to meet with Personal Trainer Chris (I like giving people titles). This time we focused on upper body, and holy crap that hurt. I had to do bicep curls, slowing, pain-stakingly curling forty pounds over the course of twenty seconds. And then, I had to do that with my triceps. But oh no, he didn’t stop there – shoulder presses, chest exercises, back exercises, and even more abdoman curls. Forget last time, this time I’m really sore. In fact, I was so exhausted after my severe twenty minute work-out that as soon as I got home I collapsed on my bed and fell asleep. I was out cold for three hours. For anyone who knows me, you’ll realize the significance of that. For the rest of you, to put it plainly, I never take naps. The only time I ever take a nap is when I have a severe injury or illness and am under the influence of significant medication. I’m not talking about sissy NyQuil, I mean the big guns. Even percocet doesn’t knock me out sometimes. And yet this morning, I was out as soon as my head touched that blessed pillow. After I woke up I felt much better, but my arms are still pretty sore. That’s a good thing – I needed it. And tomorrow I’m going back again to repeat my lower body work-out. It may hurt, but you know what? It’s worth it. I ain’t no sissy, I can take it. I didn’t even complain once during my work-out. Nope, not me. I took that pain and told it to shut up.

I actually broke down and bought some CDs this week as well. I got David Bowie’s new album, “Reality.” I’m still trying to get used to it. It’s… weird. So far at least one track has popped out at me that I actually liked right off – number seven, ‘Days.’ The rest are so strange that I’m not quite sure what to make of it. Track one’s pretty good too, ‘New Killer Star’, but it’s still taking some getting used to. It’s weird buying CDs again. Normally Kevin just gives me his old ones, so I never have to actually buy anything new myself. The only other additions to my collection were so odd, obscure, or old that I couldn’t find them for sale anywhere, so I had to download them. But Mom has since shut off all media downloading in the household – she’s afraid of being sued. Ah well. Does a person really need more than nine gigs of music?

*sniff* …yes…

So tomorrow’s the big day. Translating Drew is going to call the Count tomorrow and set up an appointment. After that, I’ll need to call Producing Dean and make flight arrangements and discuss contract details. Then, final order of business for Tuesday: party. 🙂

I think I might play a game for a while. After that long nap I’m not very tired. Heh, big surprise. Finally, I have an announcement to make: Shop smart. Shop S-mart. Tee hee. (I watched ‘Army of Darkness’ for the first time in its entirety today [Tivo recorded the edited version off the Sci-fi Channel].) That was one weird, ridiculous movie. But I have a few good quotes to keep me laughing for quite a while. Namely, this is my boomstick! Ah, good stuff, good stuff.