OH-MY-GOD: Bill Brochtrup, who played John on NYPD Blue, will be starring in the SpeakEasy's first play (Theater District) of next season! Em and I aleady got our info for re-subscibing for next year and thought the schedule looked fabulous. With the news about Brochtrup, they have outdone themselves!

Adult Content: Today's Savage Love column (a repeat) is further proof of why we need sex educators, not sex teachers. More power to the sex educators!

Kim's Soapbox: A pretty pregnant white woman goes missing and it is "breaking news" and on the front page, a pretty pregnant black woman goes missing and no one even mentions it on the news until it can be filed under "cool new uses of blogs".

HOT: It is frickin' hot here today! I left my AC on all day, even though I won't be home until 9:30 p.m. because I would never be able to cool my place to sleeping temp otherwise. Tomorrow, for the last day of softball, it is supposed to be 73! Yeah! I feel justified complaining about this heat to everyone but Eva, who is TRUELY hot in Phoenix...but then again, I'm not the one who decided to move to the desert. (then again, I don't question that she moved there come winter)

Movie Friday (Thursday) Five: Since I won't be at work tomorrow, I thought I'd post my Friday Five a day early.
1) What is your favorite movie? Probably Shawshank Redemption.
2) What movie have you seen the most times? I think The Sound of Music.
3) If someone made a movie about your life, what would it be called? "Kimpossible Strikes Again" of course! Or maybe, "The True Adventures of a Redhead Named Bo". Or "Quirk".
4) Who would you want to play the role of "you"? Sandra Bullock
5) Who would be on the soundtrack? Lili Anel, Becky Chace Band, Vance Gilbert, Queen Latifa, Ani DiFranco, and Gloria Gaynor singing I Will Survive.

Excellent Theater: Last night Emily and I went to see The Syringa Tree at the American Repertory Theater. It is a one woman play, performed by the playwright, about her life growing up in South Africa during the mid-1960. She takes the persona of over 20 different people, "from a six-year old girl to dour Afrikaners and fearful black servants", sometimes all within five seconds. It was a tremendous experience!

BODY Friday Five: I have been extremely focused on my body the last two weeks because of my poor back (neck to tush)...lots of sleepless nights, walking around, stretching, moaning, and uncomfortable-ness. I now have drugs (the legal kind) and am going to a spine specialist next Tuesday. Another friend has been having a bad few weeks with his GI system, so I thought this week would be sponsored by BODY.
1) What is your favorite part of your body? I don’t think my hair counts, so I will say my upper abdomen (ya know, between your breasts and belly button)
2) What is your least favorite part of your body? Interestingly, right below my “upper abdomen”, my pot belly.
3) What is your favorite part of a/your partner’s body? Shoulder and upper arm. I find this part of the body very sexy if well toned...and perfect for leaning/laying on.
4) What part of your body causes you the most pain? My back!!! But my migraines suck too…they just don’t happen as often as my back hurts.
5) On what part of your body do have/would you pierce or tattoo? I only have my ears pierced..one on the right side and two on the left. I thought about piercing my navel for quite awhile, but decided that it was silly to draw attention to the part of my body I least like (see above). I don’t have any tattoos, and don’t think I will get one. But if I did, I think I would put it on my right hip bone.

Friday Five: It has been a long time since I have done a Friday Five, but I found one on a web site today so I though I would post it here as well.
1. How much money is in your wallet right now?
$40. Just went tot he ATM and am going to try to make this $40 last through Monday night...which means it needs to buy lunch tomorrow, maybe dinner tomorrow, movie on Sunday night, a drink after the Alumni Association retreat on Monday.
2. How much money would you need in the bank to feel secure? Rich?
I am very blessed in that I feel secure no mattter what because I know my parents could/would help me if I needed help. That being said, I would feel most comfortable if I had $4,000 in the bank. (I don't) To feel rich (as in don't need to worry about where I go to eat, where I travel, what I spend) I would want $30,000 in expendable savings. To feel like I am a rich person, I would need $1 million.
3. If someone gave you $100, no strings attached, what would you do with it?
Save it for a really nice dinner when I am out in Palm Desert (not that $100 would pay for the entire meal, but with an extra $100 I would go to a fancier place.)
4. If someone gave you $1 Million, no strings attached, what would you do with it?
Oooo...that's just not fair to hypothesize. I would...
- put $600,000 away immediately in some "smart" investment strategies
- pay off my credit cards
- give a few friends $20,000 each to put toward their student loans
- buy a bed room set and a new couch for the living room
- take several friends out for a fancy and great dinner at one of Boston's nicest restaurants
- go to Germany and New Orleans
- buy a new suit and a few other items of clothes
- put $5,000 away for a trip somewhere next summer
- put $200,000 in a saving vehicle to buy a single-family house in a year, when there is no penalty for selling my current place
- see question 2...put the rest in an account for use in the "rich as in don't need to worry about where I go to eat, where I travel, what I spend"
5. How much does something have to cost before it starts counting as "real" money, as a purchase to be considered and evaluated, but below which you'll buy without really thinking about it?
Around $20.

News from Your Favorite Foodie: On Chowhounds, someone posted that he/she is trying to compile a list of all of the restaurants/coffee shops/ ice cream places in Cambridge, with the goal of trying to get to them all. After looking at the list, helping him/her refine it with missing/incorrect info, I have thus far counted 92 (!!!!) places just in Cambridge that I have been to. Should I be proud or slightly concerned?

Bad Luck- Apparently former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani was in London during yesterday's bombing. It seems as though he brings bad luck to a city. (I am not trying to mkae light of important, and serious, world events....it just struck me as interesting.)

Parenting Gone Awry: (In my opinion) A new movement, called DiaperFreeBaby, is promoting parents to begin potty training as early as possible, sometimes as soon as four DAYS old. I have to laugh because a co-worker was potty training his two and a half year old this weekend. I guess he was two years late. Scary!

Looking Forward to a Dip in Lake Me: (as my friend Amy says about needing personal time) In early September, I will be going out to California for ten days (well, two are mainly travel days). I will begin in LA for a day, and then drive to Palm Desert. After a week, I will drive back to LA for a day. Hopefully one, two or three people will be joining me for some of the week in Palm Desert, but I anticipate being there alone for a few days at least. As I have thought about this, I have realized that I am actually really looking forward to this time. Although I live alone, so obviously have “alone time”, when I am at home (which is not very often) I feel the need to get things done, run errands, hop out of bed when I wake up, get to bed in time to get a full night sleep, and, in true Kim fashion, be efficient in all that I do. The idea of being completely without schedule, commitments, obligations, and tasks is so very blissful (and foreign). Of course, I can do this when others are there too (and plan to) but I have been thinking a bit about this idea of getting away with just ME. I have ordered books to read, will find shops to wander, ice cream to eat, massages perhaps, pools to lounge by, and all without a schedule, priorities or pressure. Delightful!