Malibu and Paul Walker

No, I'm not going there. In fact, come to think about it, I've actually never been there and I lived in CA most of my life. But I did just return from Malibu Grill, a restaurant here in Bloomington. One of the sales reps I work for took me out for lunch. It was nice. We got to know each other and came to realize that our lives parallel in many ways. She is from Southern Indiana and ended up working in San Francisco for a few years. Like myself, she longed to return to her home of Indiana and the Midwest (well, technically, I longed to get out of CA but you can see the similarity in it). She loved going to Monterey; also a great love of mine. She's the surprising rebel of her family, too - just like me. We're easy going and good women but have always longed to fly the coop, as it were. Sorry, I live in Indiana now so my lingo is much more country. :-) And this is only a blog; I don't have to be grammatically correct if I don't want to. :-) So, it was very nice to find so many similar experiences with a new friend. :-)

The other two exciting things right now for me are so minimal but have made this day so easy to live in. The first is that I just bought the Backstreet Boys new CD, "Never Gone." It's awesome! Their vocals are so much more mature and the musicality is at a much higher level. It's definitely not cookie cutter pop like some of the previous albums were (I say some because not all of their previous four CD's were this way; I thought Black and Blue was a nice break from the previous two CD's). But Never Gone is so great because each song is different and holds its own; and yet they work together nicely as one CD. Kudos, guys! I'm a bigger fan than ever. :-) I can't wait till work is over so I can listen to it again.

The other exciting thing is that Batman Begins comes out tonight. Christian Bale is my favorite actor; I've even seen movies he's made that I should never have seen because of their graphic content - namely American Psycho. He did a great job in that movie but that wasn't a movie for me at all. It still creeps me out. Anyway, I've also been a big fan of the Batman films. Though I still think that Michael Keaton was the best Batman to date (even with Batman Returns on his resume), I've enjoyed all the Batman movies, including all the villians (minus the Penguin) and the atmosphere of each movie. I'm even more excited for this one because Christian is in it and I think he can bring the respect back that some people (namely critics) have taken away from it - and he's hot.

Speaking of hot actors, there is one that just gets me every time he is on the screen: Paul Walker. As a Christian girl, I continually have to thank the Good Lord for making such a fine man and move on. But it is very hard sometimes to stop those unholy thought processes. I've even watched some bad movies because he was in them. But, to his credit, the reason why they were bad was not because of his acting. Sometimes the writing is to blame; and that's hard to say coming from someone who wants to be a writer. Don't think too bad of me and my thoughts, though. It isn't as if we do bad things in my thoughts; it's just that lust is lust no matter what is involved. And to think about a guy for extended periods of time who is not your significant other is being lustful (even if you don't have one at the time, which is my current situation). So, of late, I've said many a prayer for the specific purpose of stopping my lustful thoughts and in each one I've thanked the Lord for making such a fine-looking man. You see, it's okay to look but that's it. To dwell upon something like this is not a good thing; and it isn't healthy. :-) But I had to be honest and I had to say something about my recent "sinfulness." Maybe now I can stop thinking so much about him - and I think staying away from MTV would help. They keep playing the movie awards over and over, and the only thing I really watch in them is who was voted best kiss - this year, he happened to be one of the presenters for Best Kiss. Let's put it this way, I've purposely watched the whole thing to know where in the show this award comes so I can watch it during reruns. Yeah, sad, I know. I'm honest. I know it's pathetic; he's just so good looking. :-)

And he reminds me of the things that I do miss about CA: the beach and the mountains...and the weather. The great thing about the Midwest is that you actually have all 4 seasons. Count them...1, 2, 3, 4 seasons. Not 1 1/2. It's so pretty here; but I could definitely do without the thunderstorms, as you well know. I want to take a long weekend in the next month to go to the beach in Monterey but with the long flight and my work schedule, it wouldn't even be worth the cost - to me. To a rich person, maybe. To me, it's too costly - especially since right now I don't have any money to spend on vacation. Just on bills, the Backstreet Boys and Batman. :-) Guess I need to light my ocean water-scented Yankee candle tonight, huh? I can at least similate the beach. :-)