Seeing Red (and Mr. Belding!)

Today's title is brought to you by the band Unwritten Law, who played Leno tonight. I met the parents of the lead singer and told them that I saw the band play a few years back in Hartford at the 104-fest, right after they had their big breakthrough hit ... Seeing Red.

So my car ... ugh. This morning I'm getting ready for my big day today -- first day giving solo tours and working the Tonight Show by my lonesome, and the jerk from the dealership calls and matter of factly states that my car needs to be sent off to a shop to repair an engine valve, it won't be back for a week and a half, and it will cost $1,700, not covered by my warranty despite the fact that I just got the car less than two weeks ago. Riiiiiiiight .... there was no way I could even process that at that moment, so I basically asked if I could call back later. Luckily my dad was able to talk to the guy and I don't know how, but he somehow managed to convince them to cover the cost of the repair (as well they should!!!) and to try to have it ready by Monday (still highly skeptical 'bout that happening). So I may rent a car for the weekend, not sure yet. But I reaaally need to look for apartments, so having a car would help with that.

Okay, so my first tour went pretty well today. Only four people in the group, and they were kind of mellow, so I kind of rambled on for a while and took a full hour and a half to give the tour. But I think I did a pretty solid job. But get this - I'm walking the group past Jay Leno's car on the tour, and some guy walks by, makes some friendly comment to our group which I can't quite recall, and waves and walks away. I look up and see that some guy is not just some guy but MR. BELDING FROM SAVED BY THE BELL, aka Dennis Haskens. Why he was at the NBC Studios I don't know. But there he was, clear as day. Of course, the older folks on my tour were like what, who? But they could see my excitement as that icon of my childhood got me giddier than I would have been for any big pop star.

Then it turns out that the motorcycle-signer on the Tonight Show was none other than Cosmo Kramer himself, Michael Richards. Sweeeeeeet. I was reeeally tempted to forego the usual page-as-buckingham palace-guard-routine and start bowing in honor of this comic deity of Seinfeld fame, but restrained myself ... barely. Almost as good was yesterday's surprise appearance by Rocky, yep, Slyvester Stallone. That was very cool as well. Today also featured Caron Butler, who I guess I kind of like as he went to UCONN, but also a part of me hates since he is a Laker. But his story was very moving and it was pretty weird to see an athlete like Caron start to tear up while talking about his rough early years. I came away very impressed with the guy.

More animals today too. Carson regular Joan Embry brought along a sloth (I think, or some variation), an aardvark (!) and a CHEETAH (!!). Nice.

I also enjoyed seeing Chris Matthews on the show yesterday. He seems like a class act and I think he's one of the few bright spots in the messy, ugly world of cable talk-news.

Some good developments: I have my full page uniform. No more worrying about that. Also, my shower is totally fixed, finally.

After talking with doctors, nutritionists, and readign an article in the latest issue of NEwsweek, I have determined this sad truth: NO FOOD IS GOOD FOR YOU. EVERYTHING YOU EAT DAMAGES YOU. Fruit = too much sugar. Milk = doesn't do a body quite so good. Bread = no good for counting carbs. Basically all you can bet on is vegetables, and then yer misiing out on vitamin C and calcium. Nutrition is ridiculous.

Why are there like 5 fire trucks passing my apartment per hour lately?

(Even More) RANDOM THOUGHTS:

- Veeeery belated FOX SUNDAY NIGHT thoughts: finally watched the tape. King of the Hill - very funny episode. Hank out of his element is always comedy gold. Malcolm - also very funny, a nice "origin" of Lois' matriarchal mania, and finally had a funny and important role for Francis. Also, Reese's diving-board subplot was classic Malcolm. Arrested Development - Finally - a great episode! Maybe even best of season? The return of Lucille II, along with a bigger emphasis on Buster and Tobias, reminded me why this show is so good. They set up some great subplots with George Senior as anonymous Hollywood script-reader and the strange Gob/Lucille Austero romance.

The OC - Another good episode, though this one felt almost too geeky. As much as I appreciate the Seth Cohen character, they can go way overboard sometimes in making him some kind of emo freak who has NOTHING on his mind except himself, his girl problems, and his need to talk about comic books ALL THE TIME. Yes, he likes comics, WE GET IT. I just feel like this was originally a really different, brilliant character, but he's now become kind of a self-parody. It makes any dramatic scene involving Seth just seem out of place. Now, they are really going to tease out this Alex-MArissa thing, huh? Those canny writers know what they are doing. And did I call mom Kirsten as alcoholic or what? Some telling camera shots really foreshadowed that subplot tonight. I think the center of the show is really becoming Ryan-Lindsay though. They actually have a pretty believable relationship. Imagine that.

Well, gotta go get my laundry and then GET SOME SLEEP. Holla back, playa.