where were you a year ago?
Bond: "Pam, this is Q, my 'uncle.' Uncle, this is Miss Kennedy, my 'cousin.'"
Q (shaking hands): "Ah! We must be related."
I found out Friday that I won the Legacy Award from the diarist.net awards. I am incredibly flattered by this--thank you to everyone who voted!
Trendiness alert: please to peruse my Amazon wish list. And Darin's too, if you're feeling excessively generous.
Honestly, this is the most brilliant maneuver on Amazon's part. This is like registering at Crate and Barrel or something. I have a baby shower upcoming in February (courtesy of Tamar) and picking baby stuff here is so much easier than going to Toys R Us or any other store.
I love Amazon. I realize this is much like loving US Steel or Starbucks or something. But Amazon caters to all of my needs and does so in such a friendly way.
Today, Mary, her baby Grace, and I drove over the hill to have lunch with Tamar and her baby Damian. Damian is walking, which he wasn't last time I was there. And Grace is so funny--not only is she about double the size she was last time I saw her, but she still has this habit of grinning at everything with her tongue just protruding between her lips. Periodically I'll look at Darin with my tongue hanging out a little and he'll say, "Doing your Grace imitation again?"
We talked about babies and screenwriting. Tamar insists I don't look pregnant, but I still feel huge. (Tamar and Mary were happy to point out I'm going to get a lot larger.) When talking about what was going on biz-wise for us. Everyone we know has different things going on, but lightning hasn't struck. Yet. It's annoying. Can't someone we know--preferably one of us--get to report, "Guess what? Cameron Diaz just bought my script today!"
One way to judge what's going on is, How are you doing in relation to a year ago? Almost everyone I know is doing better on that scale, biz-wise. It's just not enough--doing better is not the same thing as being successful, and we all have our own ideas of what success is. Usually this involves selling something. And starting the rounds of meetings and getting hired to do assignments. None of us have entered that merry-go-round recently.
I also wonder about how I'm going to do with the baby--I watch Tamar and Mary, who apparently know what they're doing with their babies, or at least fake it pretty well. What it's like to have a baby is not something you can read some about and then say, Oh yes, I know all about having a baby and raising a child. It's all the great unknown.
My apprehension about this has been made worse recently with the arrival of baby nightmares. Horrible dreams about deformed babies or dying babies. Tamar told me she had them too--they're just a sign of fear, not a premonition. Doesn't matter; they're still horrible. I know I'm probably not going to pack a baby in the trunk of a car, but the image stays with you.
Every two years, when a new Bond film comes out, TBS shows all the previous Bond films (save Never Say Never Again) over and over for two weeks. I've been watching quite a few of them, including ones I've never seen before (On Her Majesty's Secret Service), and I've come to the following heretical conclusion:
Timothy Dalton is the best Bond.
His Bond is incredibly compelling. You get the feeling he could kill you or let you live and he won't bat an eye either way. He's not a sadist, he's doing his job, but for the love of God don't get in his way. And the whole thing with women--he enjoys their company and probably treats them pretty well, but he's not desperate to be with them. (As opposed to Connery, who gives the distinct impression he's racking up numbers.)
It's a pity Dalton only made two of the movies. He would have been really good over a longer stretch.
The answer to Friday's question: authorities from Mexico and the US are looking for what they believe are the remains of 100 people who have run afoul of drug traffickers. Reportedly, the Mexican police (which is notoriously corrupt and in the pocket of the drug traffickers) may have been involved, since most of the people who have disappeared and are believed dead disappeared from police custody.
Some Mexicans have complained about the interference of American authorities and forensics experts in this investigation. The Mexican authorities swear they brought the Americans in (albeit probably with pressure). I wonder how that must feel--experts from another country coming in to tell you your business. I know Americans won't stand for it for a minute, but we're constantly showing up elsewhere and saying, "Here we are, here's how you do it." We are an annoying lot, aren't we?
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Copyright 1999 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com