You are in the Brett Bugle archives right now. The HOMEPAGE is much more important.

A few days ago, my niece Rachel called me and got me all caught up on her nursing-school adventures. When she told me that she got a job in the emergency room of Sacred Heart hospital, I told her, "that's the name of the hospital on the TV show Scrubs! Hey, since that's an NBC show, and you have the same name as the Jennifer Aniston character on the NBC show Friends, then you are on your way to living an all-NBC life!"

Yesterday, my cousin Danny called me to invite me to Memphis for Thanksgiving. I am pretty excited about that. Most years I find myself eating a Big Mac on a park bench, but this year I'll get to have sweet-potato casserole and all the other Thanksgiving goodies. All hail Danny and Jennifer.

Spent a good bit of money today. Had lunch with Bethany at Corky's BBQ because they have sweet-potato fries there, and then I walked around Fayette Mall. For me, going to the mall is just a way to get some exercise; I very rarely shell out any cash at the mall. Today was different, though.

I noticed that Macy's was having a big sale in the Men's Suit department, so I spent an hour getting dress-up advice from the saleslady Kimi. She was really helpful, and I let her pick out the colors of shirts and ties that look good on me. In the end, I walked out with a two-piece suit, two shirts, and two silk ties. Pretty surprising that I could throw away three hundred bucks and not freak out. I will soon get used to this new prosperity.

And I could get used to having a clothing picker. Watching Kimi suggest clothing for me was like watching the episode of Friends where Rachel was a personal shopper at Bloomingdale's. Rachel considered it a "huge step down" in her career, but I think lots of women would jump at the chance to do it. Any of y'all who like the idea should write me and convince me that you're the perfect candidate, in 50 words or less.

Taking the rest of the month off. It would be nice to keep working, but the more I work, the more I add billable hours to my October invoice for the company that hired me. By taking time off, I save them lots of money, and they seem happier when they're saving money. Huh; me, too.

Apart from the money, there's one other thing I'll miss about working. In the last two weeks, my workdays have required long drives to company offices located in Lawrenceburg, Somerset, and Danville. On all of those trips, I cross the Kentucky River at least once. Right now, since all the trees are changing color, the views from the bridges over that river boost my spirits. Hope the view doesn't change before my next trip to Danville on November first.

Tonight, at band practice, I told my bandmates that I want to back out after our next gig (next month). Don't want to have any kind of calendar commitments anymore; I want to be free to spend 2006 in a crazy game of world travel.

Want to take a moment to discuss something that bothers me more and more about TV and movies. Here it is.

If you see a child being put in danger, you can always, always (with one exception*) predict that the child will be alive at the end of the movie or show. That is very annoying to me; it ruins all the surprise. When I saw the movie Crash, and it came to the part where the little girl was about to get shot, I already knew that the girl would not get shot, and it ruined the scene completely. When I was watching last week's CSI, and they hinted that the little girl was gonna be murdered, I knew that she would be found alive, and it ruined the show for me. And of course, everyone knows that nothing bad can possibly happen to the kids in the Jurassic Park movies. So everyone knows they'll be fine not too long after they get threatened by dinosaurs. Ho hum.

* In Leon: The Professional, the little boy dies. Hard to believe, I know, but that film's got a French star and a French director, so it doesn't disprove my findings very much. Besides, if that little boy hadn't died, there would have been no reason for Natalie Portman to finish the movie and go on to superstardom.

After receiving and using a ticket to tonight's excellent Lexington Ballet performance, I realized that I need to shake up my entertainment options a little. Stepping outside my usual options (PC, TV, USABDA and KBT) to see this show was a very good idea. The show was fantastic. Chloe Obert was fantastic.

One of the things that struck me in the head as I watched The Fabric of Dance was the segment with the black ballerina. Here's a little story for ya. When I lived in Asheville NC (through high school) and Atlanta GA (through college), I would always be puzzled by the national McDonald's commercials that had an all-white crew because, in most parts of North Carolina and Georgia, you never ever see that at your local McDonald's. And then, years later, I moved to Lexington KY, where we actually do have all-white crews at McDonald's, and the national commercials started seeming more normal. Then tonight, I saw a black ballerina, and I was puzzled again, having grown accustomed to the local non-black ballerinas I normally see. This affected me, or "struck me in the head" as I just said a moment ago, and led me to realize that I gotta explore the region a little more often. I gotta see ballets in Louisville, Cincinnati, and maybe even Knoxville. Anyone want to go with me on these little road trips?

AN OPEN LETTER TO DR. CARL HELTZEL:
Thank you soooooo much for the ticket to tonight's show. It rocked my world. You win the Brett Mason Award for Finding Him a New Favorite Show.

Do you check here every day looking for an update? Does it bother you if I wait four days to write something new? Well, it could be a lot worse, believe me. I have many friends with web journals, and right now I'm witnessing a huge amount of slack-off going on. I visit their websites day after day after day after day and never see any updates.

Rather than complain, I am going to offer a solution. Here are some quick entries for these people to cut and paste into their online journals:

Dancerdani - Sorry I haven't written. Been way too busy wishing Brett would come to visit me in Austin.
H_and_Alex - Sorry I haven't written. Been way too busy wishing Brett would come to visit me in Georgetown.
Lechatonblanc - Sorry I haven't written. Been way too busy wishing Brett would celebrate my birthday with me in Bloomington.

The other day, Ana and I watched a DVD called The Human Stain. The movie is fine, and if you see it or don't see it, your life won't change, but there was one thing about this movie that I want to record here so I won't forget it. Nicole Kidman's character says a few times that "action is the enemy of thought." Her life had not been an easy one, to say the least, so she keeps busy with three jobs in order to avoid having any downtime to think about her problems.

Maybe this is what I need to do. I am not saying that I have any problems, really, but I certainly don't like having a lot of free time to think about my life (and how it compares to the lives of my former classmates). So I need to get busy. I need to have three jobs, or I need to take a lot of dance classes or violin lessons or something. Perhaps I'll spend all my time at the Beaumont YMCA, like I said I'd do back in August.

Had a fantastic time at last night's USABDA dance at EKU, and here's something that made it ultra-memorable. Never before in the history of USABDA dances have they played a hip-hop song with explicit lyrics. Last night, that changed when Marianne followed up our "Cotton Eyed Joe" polka with the DMX song "Party Up (Up in Here)." The kids went nuts, doing their freestyle moves that they'd seen on MTV, and the adults just sat back and stared. Apparently the adults could not make out the lyrics, which asked quite clearly "how the f--k you gonna cross the dog with some bum s--t?" LOL.

This morning I am thinking that money can't buy happiness. I have a good bit of disposable income right now, but I'm not quite happy. What I need is a flight attendant who resembles Kirsten Dunst to come offer me a first-class trip and a smiling face to talk to.

Did you ever notice how often, on the silver screen, that the woman makes the first move? Once I noticed this the first time, I have noticed it hundreds, maybe thousands of times since. It's the strangest variation on reality, seeing this. I don't know why it's so common in movies because I don't think it ever happens in real life.

So here's a summary. Women are not assertive enough. And money can't buy happiness.

Let me tell you some stories about the first and last movies I saw in Kentucky.

The first one (in 1995) was Clueless, which I saw at the dollar theater in Crossroads shopping center way back when there used to be a dollar theater in Crossroads shopping center. I will never forget that experience because at the very end of the movie, Alicia Silverstone's character makes a jab at Kentucky. Since I had never lived in Kentucky before, hearing that line made me laugh like crazy; it was Alicia Silverstone's way of telling me what a mistake I might have made in choosing this state.

The last movie I saw in Kentucky (in 2005) was a free preview screening of Elizabethtown, which officially opens in three days but has just been viewed by me and Danielle and several other Lexington residents. It is a pretty good movie — it's not at all the kind of movie I normally attend, but the tickets were free, and Danielle took an interest in seeing it with me, so I definitely was not gonna miss it. While I watched it, I felt very much a part of Kentucky life. The movie presents this state quite favorably, so thank you Mister Bloom and Miss Dunst for giving me a pat on the back for choosing to live here.

BIG SHOUT-OUT: the Ale-8-One soda brand has some prominent placement in this film, so WOOT to them! Keep up the good work!

If you live in the Lexington area, and you love Cheerwine as much as I do, NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN TO STOCK UP. Kroger is having a big sale; this soda will never be priced lower than 2 bucks per 12 pack (as it is right now)! Will you stock up, or will you kick yourself when the sale ends because you didn't stock up? Tell you what, don't buy the 12-packs, and I'll kick you when the sale ends.

Here are a bunch of random thoughts, all compiled into one blog entry. Some of us would rather watch TV than search for clip art to put on our separated blog entries.

If you want something for Christmas this year that I can find at a bookstore, please let me know before Friday because Joseph-Beth is having their infrequent "20% off everything" sale this Friday. I like to buy my Christmas presents at reduced rates so that I'll have more money to spend on my addiction to sugar.

Snail mail alert: yesterday I bought a bunch of Lexington postcards at Liquor Barn, so if you want me to send you one, let me know.

Here's something completely unrelated to anything. For the longest time, I thought Jon Lovitz was my least favorite actor. Last week, while I was watching Boston Legal, I realized that Leslie Jordan is definitely, absolutely, my least favorite actor. Thank goodness the show just booted him from the show (by murdering him with a frying pan).

Now onto the subject of nightmares. Do you ever dream about your car getting towed? No? It's just me, then. That's my nightmare, that I'm running out to my car to grab something, only to find that my car's been towed. Let me tell you, it is always a huge relief to wake up and remember that my Camry is in the driveway where it belongs.

Here's another entry that mentions dark chocolate M&M's, awesome.

Right before I woke up this morning, I was dreaming about sitting at a table at KFC with Napoleon Dynamite, and he had four drumsticks on his plate.

In the afternoon, I went to Good Foods Co-op and bought some grilled salmon sushi. While I was there, I crossed paths with Rochelle's mom, and we talked about Rochelle a little bit.

Driving toward Lexington Green from there, I spotted a Burger King sign that said something about trying their new BK Joe. I thought, "oh, wow! Another fast-food sloppy joe choice, like the Arby-Q or the Rally-Q!!" I was really excited about this idea*, so I pulled through the drive-thru, drooling like a rabid Rottweiler... and discovered that BK Joe is just a cup of coffee. GALLDANGIT.

Wandered around Lexington Green shopping center. Wandered around Target. Used my hypersensitive intuition to track down my dark chocolate M&M's in the back corner of the candy section, yes. Bought three bags, yes. I'm all set for fall now.

* I love sloppy joes so very very much.

Haven't been required to work yet this week, so I've just been relaxing at home, mostly. I will have to work tomorrow, but today, no.

Yesterday I was sitting at my computer, watching a TV show that I had downloaded from BitTorrent, and the little neighbor boy Zach came over to show off his brand new Rock-Em-Sock-Em Robots game. He was very excited about it, and his enthusiasm was contagious.

So we sat on my back deck for a little while, pounding the red and blue robots' heads off over and over again. Sure beats working, eh, Zach?

On September 28th, I wrote that you should go to Target to get some dark chocolate M&M's. I didn't mean it! Put them back! I want to buy some more, and they are all gone, possibly forever, which I truly believe is your fault.

To ease the pain of my loss, however, Graeter's has put their pumpkin ice cream back on the market. It is extra enjoyable this year. Go get you some.

Went out of town for a wedding, my second in two weekends, and took quite a few photos:

 Sept 30 album - Oct 1 album - Oct 2 album

The photo you see thumbnailed here is from our Sunday brunch at Mon Ami Winery in northern Ohio. I loved that meal, especially the blintzes. If you are able to visit Mon Ami more than once in a lifetime, I envy you.

make your way into my archives: September 2005, August 2005, July 2005, June 2005, May 2005, April 2005, March 2005, February 2005, and January 2005. Or just head over to my news page from 2005 and 2004

For search engines: Kentucky KY 40504 USA, not Lexinton