I'm Still With Coco and Other Random Bits

* Last night was the final episode of "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien". If you missed it, you can check out clips from Hulu . I've included the clip of Conan's emotional farewell speech from the end of the show below. I kinda teared up- then he made it better by playing "Free Bird" with all celebrity band: Will Ferrel, Beck, Billy Gibbons, Ben Harper, and the Tonight Show Band.
[side note: That was Ferrel's pregnant wife dancing along in the background. They made out during musical breaks- hilarious!]



A classy guy all the way... I totally needed a hankie.

* List-O-Rama Sunday will have a new theme: What's up, Netflix? This week was hit or miss with Netflix... First- I feel shame for Netflix that Red Box has movies available that that have a "very long wait" online. I used Red Box for the first time ever this week. I just couldn't wait for Netflix to send me "Paranormal Activity"- come on! Anyway, this week I watched several movies, both good and bad. Check out my blog tomorrow for full reviews.

* Jennie's Word of the Day: Hectic (alternate choice: hungry)

* So, a Dallas area golfer found a chupacabra. I gotta tell you, this thing did look crazy weird, but not like any chupacabra illustration I've ever seen. You tell me, what does this look like to you?

(answer at bottom of page)

* The insomnia is back. I could feel it was coming. It's like a person who's broken a bone and can tell when it's going to rain. As I write this, it's 6:13 AM. I've already watched two movies and a "Millionaire Matchmaker" marathon. (Dude- a guy totally had a monkey attached to him and licking his head! I laughed for 30 sec. That is grade "A" comedy!).

Our book club book for this month was "The Brief History of the Dead" by Kevin Brockmeier. I can't tell you how much I loved it. In the afterlife, Luka lives his second life in peace and quiet. But then the residents of The City begin disappearing. On Earth, Laura finds herself trapped in the Antarctic with no contact with the outside world. How do their stories connect? What's the point of it all? LOVE! Anyway, I brought this book up because there is a passage that describes insomnia in the most truthful and honest description I've ever read.

…her mind, let's face it, was the problem. Her mind was a roulette wheel, rattling and spinning in endless circles, and there she was standing beside it…
That was what insomnia was, after all- an excess of consciousness, and excess of life… The only way to fall asleep was not to care whether you fell asleep or not: you have to relinquish your will. Most people seemed to think that you fell asleep and then started dreaming, but as far as Minny could tell, the process was exactly the reverse- you started dreaming and that enabled you to fall asleep.

This is exactly what it's like. In order to fall asleep, I must begin to dream, or daydream as I usually think of it. Only then is my mind able to transition from mile a minute to slumber. What the above passage and book fail to mention is the inability to stay asleep. The mornings I'm surprised by my alarm because I've slept soundly are few and far between- they're also damned exciting. Usually, I wake up 3-4 times in the night which is a lot when you only average 5 1/2 hours of sleep. Surely there must be a better way to shut off the brain for a short while...