how did they go missing???

I'm beginning to think i lost an entire box of CDs in the move to LA.  

some CDs i mailed to myself when i moved out here.  I carefully catalogued the CDs, making a list of what went in each box, labeled the box, and mailed it.  that way, if one box didn't arrive, i would know exactly which CDs were lost.  

the rest of the CDs remained in my parents basement until i was ready to have them shipped here.  over the past 2 years, I've periodically had them ship them out.  once i had my new computer and have the storage space to rip all of them- i went ahead and had them mail me everything.  

for the past two years, anytime i couldn't find a CD i assumed it was in my parents basement.  but now that all my CDs are here, I'm finding that a whole bunch of them are missing. 

Rage Against the Machine - Renegades (make fun all you want- but this is great to work out to)

Rage Against the Machine- Battle of Los Angeles (ditto)

The Darkness - whatever it was called (admit it- you loved "i believe in a thing called love")

Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have it So Much Better (luckily Leslie had this on her computer so I've just stolen the files)

Beck- The Information (okay- i can't blame this on the move since i bought it while living here- but its missing and it irks me.)

They Might Be Giants- Apollo 18 (i wanted to listen to Fingertips the other day and didn't have the original, and didn't want to use the live version from the spine)

Cake- Comfort Eagle (this one is only $8 on iTunes and i've been tempted so many times to just buy it there.  i wouldn't find it for less than that in a used CD store.)

so those are what i can remember off the top of my head right now, and there are many more.  but now i have to figure out what to do.  are they worth replacing (i say yes- if i remember I'm missing them.) I'm going to keep a list of them in my phone and hopefully i can find them all in the used Amoeba bins.  

but its still a mystery as to where they ended up.

back and away again

i'm back from vegas.  it was an exhausting weekend, even though i did sleep almost all saturday.  not having slept for more than 3 hours a night for 3 nights prior to leaving made for a draining weekend.  

now i'm back, and have one more day at work, and tomorrow night, to get a million things done before leaving for aspen.  

good things about the aspen trip:

• wednesday is a travel day.  i won't get any sleep tomorrow night because i'll be shopping, packing and doing laundry- but i can sleep on the plane and in the car to denver.
• skiing all day will lead to good, solid nights of sleep.  
• skiing.  i mean, its skiing!
• getting to see my dad and my uncles.  the o'keeffes are pretty damn funny people.  
• hopefully getting to see one of my good friends from college, who i haven't seen since our other friend's wedding too, too many years ago.
• sunday- travel day.  meaning sleep in the car, sleep on the plane.  hopefully get back in to LA at a decent hour and get a good night's sleep in my own bed. 
  

Then it will be back to real life.  5 days a week of work.  two days off to relax and get life's errands done.  luckily february 16th will be coming up soon- and we'll have a three day weekend.  i should plan something for that day off.  i have to come up with a good theme party for presidents' day.  (hey let's celebrate presidents' day- now that we've got one we're not ashamed of?)

at least i think its presidents day.

   

i want glasses

i don't need them, i just want them.  i think they would look good on me.  

and apparently i'm right.  tonight i saw leslie's glasses sitting on the bathroom counter, and i put them on, just to see how they looked.  they look PERFECT!  they're exactly what i want.  

of course they have to be $500 oliver peoples glasses.  which aren't exactly in my price range for fake accessories. 

now that i've taken them off so i can see to type, i feel like i look incomplete without the glasses.  

Stupid Shin splints

I get wicked shin splints any time I try to run. I always have. A
couple of years ago I found the cure for it- sitting in the sauna for
10-15 minutes after my workout. I don't know why it works, but it
does. Which means only ever running on the treadmill at the gym.

The other night I stupidly went running with my coworkers after work.
We did a mile and a half before I called it quits-in pain, both my
legs and my lungs (my lungs have never recovered from what I had last
Christmas.)

I rested a few days, drew the alphabet with my toes continually, iced
my shins til the were frozen solid every 3 hours.

Then went walking at echo park lake and killed my legs. I've been in
excruciating pain ever since.

So, more rest. More ice. More drawing the alphabet. I'm going to go
buy new shoes because I was reading online that certain shoes can
help. I had my uncle recommend a shoe store with knowledgable staff.

And then back to doing what I know doesn't hurt. The treadmill and
sauna, so I never have to deal with this again.

to retrench

at this point, i haven't felt the economic crunch.  i have just as much money as i did before everything went south.  

so i have two options- start saving or spend like i usually do.

1- start saving- protects me in case i lose my job.  it will mean i have money to live off of while i look for another job, which could take awhile with everything that's going on.  

2- spend like i usually do- which is good for the rest of the economy.  if i start keeping all my money, then the stores i patronize don't earn as much money, and they have to lay people off.  and its all trickle down from there. ( i realize that my paltry amount of disposable income doesn't affect anything.  but when you add it to EVERYONES' disposable income- that's when it all starts making a difference.)

i think i'm going to try for a happy medium.  not as much starbucks (for someone who doesn't drink coffee, i go in for a lot of black tea lemonades.) cut out the pedicures completely (except for the pre-vegas one i'm getting thursday night.) hour massage instead of hour and a half? ( i only get massages once every month and a half.) eat lunch in more often?   

i worry about what i'd do if i lost my job.  a lot.  more than i should.  they haven't talked about layoffs yet- but i think i should be prepared, just in case its me. 

one interesting thing happened yesterday- i was having a prescription refilled, and insurance denied it for whatever stupid reason.  the pharmacy called them- and they said, "we don't know why we're denying it, but we are."  so i asked how much it was going to be out of pocket for me to pay for it until it got straightened out and she said, "$47.08."  i usually pay $45 with insurance, so i was like, "fill it- its not a problem."  she said, "let me see if i can get you a discount on it because of all of this." so when i went in to pick it up, it was only $27."  i think its weird that i got a better deal on it through the pharmacy without insurance than i did with insurance.  again, i hate insurance.  and i thanked the pharmacist profusely.  (i'm still going to try to figure out why they denied it.)

new music

i just grabbed 291 songs off leslie's computer to listen to.  not all of them are new to me.  some are old things that i just don't have digital copies of, but some are things i've never heard.  new bands or albums to listen to and see if i like. 

this is perfect timing seeing as indie 103.1, the only tolerable (music) radio station in los angeles, is now spanish language.  two months ago they got rid of their morning host, joe escalante, who was great, and the station just kept getting worse and worse.  they were only playing one good song at a time- and i was finding myself having to flip around the dial a lot.  i listen to a lot of NPR, but there are times when you just want music in the car.  

anyway- turns out they were being forced to play more mainstream stuff.  thursday at 10 AM they announced they were going off the air, and to internet only, and back to their original format- not the crappy one they had turned in to lately.  so- someday when i can listen to internet radio in my car- i'll have indie back again.  

but until then- i need new stuff to listen to, because i'm bored with most everything i already own.  we'll see if i love any of this stuff i got from leslie.  i still have to download the new coconut records.  

now all i need is a stereo for my car that i can plug my iPod into, but that kind of luxury is WAY down on my list of things to spend money on.  

my poor niece (with harry potter spoilers)

my niece has been obsessed (that's a fair word) with harry potter for more than half her life.  it started with the movies, and then as soon as she was old enough to have chapter books read to her, my brother-in-law started reading them to her at bedtime.  i think she's even read the first two on her own. 

well, he recently started the 6th book, and this will be the first one that she hasn't seen the movie of in advance, so she doesn't know the story.  she doesn't know dumbledore dies.  when they get to the 7th book, she will have to deal with one of the twins dying.  and lupin and tonks.  i feel so bad, because she doesn't know what's in store.  something she loves so much is going to turn on her.  

she knows someone dies, but she doesn't believe its any of the people above, because they can't die.  she just thinks the books end with ron married to hermione and harry married to ginny (someone at school told her that's how it ends.)  she doesn't realize everything she's going to have to go through to get to that last chapter.  poor little girl.  

Goodbye old friend

> I've been angry with you for quite some time, but your poor
> performance is my fault for not maintaining you properly. You've
> been replaced by someone new and better. So much better. Now that I
> can get rid of you, I can get rid of my desk. This means I can move
> my dresser, and get another bookshelf. I can't wait til tomorrow
> when I drop you off at goodwill and never have to look at you again.
>

Everything will be okay.

today was a pretty crappy day.  work was bad.  i had to stay late to finish stuff up.  i have to be back at 7 tomorrow morning.  i got in the car and listened to the economic forecast.  "hey everyone- 10 million people are out of work and another 5 million are going to lose their jobs." and i got even more depressed/stressed thinking about everything that can go wrong in the world. 

and then i happen to look up and see a sheet draped from the highway overpass and liked what it said. 

EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY

i wanted to stop and take a picture.  

will everything be okay tomorrow?  will everything be okay for everyone?  no.  but i like that there's someone out there optimistic enough to paint that message on a sheet, hang it over the highway- and try to make everyone feel better.  just a little reminder to look at the positive side. 

i have a job that pays enough to pay my bills.

i have amazing friends/coworkers.

i love my family.

so- while i could make an even longer list of everything that's crappy- i'm not going to. the good outweighs the bad, even if sometimes the bad list seems longer.

(this is probably the sappiest blog i'll ever write.  i just liked the sign.)

Bit the bullet

I finally changed my phone number.

Some of you know the story, some don't but in 2007 (yes that's right-
2007) I went out with this guy for about a month. I decided I didn't
like him. Told him I didn't want to see him anymore. A month later he
called again and I don't know why I agreed to go out with him again,
but I did. We went out another 3 times and I really really knew I
didn't like him, so I again told him I didn't want to see him ever
again.

That was thanksgiving 2007. He's called pretty much every 2 weeks
since then. I answered the phone once in march to tell him to stop
calling. That's when he told me he wouldn't give up til I was married.
Creepo.

He continued to call more or less every two weeks. Sometime he'd go a
full month, but then he'd call more often afterward to make up for it.
I would never answer.

Before Christmas, a guy friend of mine answered the phone when he
called and he hung up. I thought for sure he'd give up after that. But
NO. He waited 2 weeks and has called 3 times in the past 3 days.

So- I changed my number. It's a huge hassle, but it will be worth it
not to have that sinking feeling in my gut everytime I look at the
caller ID and see his name.

Day 1- Kinoki

i've been very intrigued by these Kinoki foot detoxifying things. you put them on your feet while you sleep and they're supposed to wick the toxins from your body.  almost everyone i've talked to has been curious about them too.  i bought them for a white elephant party i had to go to, and i wanted them for myself. 

well, i decided to start out the new year by detoxifying my feet, even though i know they're a crock.  BUT- how do they know?  that's what i want to know.  they're supposed to get lighter each day as you use them, as they've pulled more toxins out of your body.  so if they're not really doing anything, how do they know to get lighter?

so- (gross picture) here's day 1's results. i'm not going to post them each day, but give you overviews when i think that there's been a change in color.  of course, if there's anyone who has toxins in her body- its me, and i may be too damaged to be cleaned up in just 14 days of pads on the bottom of my feet.  i'm probably a bad test subject. 

fyi- they make your feet smell funny.