I don't like New Year's Eve

I don't think I ever have. 

There's too much pressure for this night to be more fun than any other night of the year, and its not like Christmas or your birthday where you get presents.  

Ben emailed with a possible New Year's Eve event, which any other night of the year I'd be happy to go to- Little Radio hosting a couple bands (Crystal Antlers being the only one I've seen before, and they're good) at what seems to be a cool venue.  But New Year's Eve means that its going to be crowded and impossible to get cabs.  

I'd rather just go to a party at someone's house where I know at least a few people, have a good time, and then come home.  No pressure to make the night any more special than any other night of the year.  

Honestly, I can't remember the last time I celebrated a New Year's Eve.  Last year I was too deathly ill with the plague to do anything.  I have no memory of anything special any New Year's Eves prior to that.  And in High School I always just used to take a babysitting job (make a FORTUNE) and watch a Marx brothers marathon that one of the channels would always show.  

So, this year, seeing as I'll be relatively healthy and have options for things to do, I probably will go out and celebrate New Year's Eve, just so when people say, "what did you do for new years?" I don't look lame.  But I won't be happy about it.

white elephant

or yankee swap as they call it on the office...

i love  white elephant.  i think its fun.  but i wish all people got in to the spirit and really brought fun or funny or good gifts.  people shouldn't participate if they're going to cop out. 

we had ours at the office today, and i brought those pads you stick on your feet that are supposed to wick the toxins out of your body while you sleep.  amazing things.  of course they don't really do anything, but who's not intrigued by the idea?  

the problem is not everyone really puts any thought or effort in to their gift? what's so fun about opening up a starbucks gift package?  oooh, a coffee cup and some coffee.  3 other people brought that exact same thing.  

anyway, first i had a trio pack of zagat guides, which were stolen from me.  then i had a big bottle of sake, which was stolen from me.  so i've ended up with some "document organizer" that holds your passport, and is on a lanyard! 

i wanted to steal what i brought (really, i'm intrigued by these things and made a special trip to CVS this morning to get them- i want to try them myself) but the person who opened it then left the party and took it upstairs with her, so no one could steal it.  i don't think that should have been allowed. 

the funny part is that my office has a set of wine glasses that have been in the white elephant exchange for 6 years running now.  they're these 80s wine glasses; one blue, one yellow, one green, one pink, etc. and the rule is that if you get them, you have to regift them the next year.  so no one (who's been there a year or longer)  will ever open any of the bigger gifts, because they know they run the risk of getting the wine glasses.  this year, poor L, one of the girls on my team picked up this little gift bag, and started to walk away from the pile to open it, only to realize there was a long ribbon attached to it leading to the box with the wine glasses.  really, it was brilliant packaging.  anyway, i say poor L because this is the second time she's ended up with them.  she's going back to school in a year, so if she's not still working with us at least part-time next christmas, we'll have to invite her to the party just to get the wine glasses back.  or i'll make her give them to me just so we still have them for the party.

anyway, the problem with my document organizer is that its so bad its not even funny to regift.  i'd feel bad taking it to another white elephant party and giving it.  i have one to go to saturday night, and i'm still debating what to get.  its with people who have a much better sense of humor about white elephant.  i'm thinking of going to goodwill and seeing if you can buy old trophies.  leslie has a great one she stole from cha cha a few months ago, for hernando alvarez- 1988 3rd place bowler*.  i want something similar.  

anyway, i have a feeling i'll come home with something much better from that party.  that party if someone were giving a document organizer, it would be a menudo one they found at the salvation army.  (oh my god, i wonder if you can buy old trapper keepers. an old unicorn trapper keeper would be good too.  the limit is $10, so i'm sure i can find something good for $10.)

*title completely made up, i don't feel like opening my door to go look at it because that would let the space heated air out.

sleeping hats

i want to bring back the sleeping hat.  or kerchief or hat or cap or whatever people want to call it.  

living in a house with no heat you realize how cold it can be, and when you're lying in bed freezing, thinking about all the heat escaping out of the top of your head because the covers only come up to your chin, you start to think about wearing hats to sleep.  except they'll fall off unless they have a chin strap.  

this could be easy.  market them as eco-friendly because you can lower your heating bills by preserving your natural body heat.  my co-worker had a great idea to add to it... buy thrift store cashmere sweaters and make them out of those.  that way they're each one of a kind and you can market them as high-end, re-purposed, eco-friendly night hats, and you're in. 

white people would be so in to these.  (i just need a good name.)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I can't help but think that whomever came up with the idea for this movie was listening to Karl Pilkington's aging backwards idea.

You start out at age 78, and then life only gets better and better for you.  And then "You're not scared of dying because you're now a baby so you don't know what's going on anyway...When its a baby everybody is around it going, 'yeah its gonna die soon.'  But the baby hasn't got a clue, its happy.  Its playing about with its rattle or whatever, it's not scared."

I wish I could find the part where he decides people should have little apple pips in them, because that kind of fits in to this too.  

Oh Joy!!!!

Stimpy is up and running. I'm in the process of ripping stuff in to itunes.  Amazing amazing amazing.  Stimpy has 4 times the storage, so oh my god I can actually put ALL my music in to it.  The computer will be obsolete before I'll have time to use all the storage space.  

Its a beautiful piece of equipment.  its intuitive.  And above all, it works!  No more waiting 20 minutes for a program to open.  No more shutting down in the middle of waiting for something to process.  No more 3 hour downtimes every time I try to upgrade software.  

If things weren't so bad at work right now, I'd say life is pretty damn good.  Life at work will get better, and I'll still have this computer.

Best thing ever!!!!!!!!!!

I got my computer. My Christmas present. Part from my parents. Part
from me.

I've had it for 3 hours and am in love. (this post is from my phone.
I'm still getting everything set up to actually use it.)

It's name is Stimpy. My phone's name is Ren, so it all makes sense.

I hate insurance companies

I have a massive migraine and went to fill my imitrex prescription. Apparently it's too soon (it's been a month) and my insurance won't pay for it unless my dr calls and tells them it's necessary. Great thing to find out at 7PM when you're in pain and your dr's office is closed. So, I've taken pain pills and am not so much in pain right now. But the pills have caffeine so I'm wide awake when sleep is probably one of the best things for me.   I've been lying in bed in the dark for 3 hours waiting for sleep to come, but my mind us just racing.

I didn't even think of just paying for the imitrex myself until 10PM and my pharmacy is a) 17 miles away and b) closed. Had I not been in so much pain earlier and able to think, I would have thought the $300 or whatever totally worth it. I have to get up in 5 hours for a meeting and it's not going to be pretty if pirate eye* is still going on.

* pirate eye- the nickname given at the office to my migraine status, because I keep one eye closed from the pain.

Point B- my phone auto corrects its to it's every time. And since I'm not sure when you use which one, I just go with it. It's one of those grammar things I've been trying to learn for 20 years and everytime I think ive got it, I find out I've got it backwards.   The following is why I don't care that i'm not great with grammar.

Me: I can't believe I can't remember this, but what's the command for when you need to turn off the line around a picture you've inserted into a drawing? I'm blanking.
Co-worker: imageframe
Me: thanks
*silence*
Co-worker: I love that I just answered a question for you. You're usually the person who answers all of my questions. I just got to help you.

We all have our specialties and mine happens to be what I do for a living. I'm not great at autocad, but I'm decent enough that people come to me for help. Put that with the fact that I LOVE teaching and helping people, and that's a good combo. I love love love when people come to me with questions and for advice and help. The time management class I just took told me I'm not supposed to help them, or I'm supposed to tell them their problems have to wait til it's convienent for me to answer. But that's stupid because I like helping.

Point F or whatever I'm on now. I hate that the short version of until is till. Why would you drop 2 letters at the front to then add one at the end? That's why I say til.  I can't wait til (see) the autocorrect in my phone gets used to that particular quirk of mine.

And I'm going to call of quits here. As I said, my mind is racing I haven't even written about half the things I'm thinking about right now, but i'll put this entry's readers out of their misery.

Goodbye favorite red sweater

> I don't think any amount of darning can put you back together again.
> (That hole is about the size of a clemantine, right in the elbow.)
>
> So now during my Christmas shopping I'm in the market for a NEW
> favorite red sweater. The requirements are: red and comfy.
>

My Weekend

My weekend was spent reading. Re-reading to be more exact.

I re-read "Wuthering Heights." I re-read "Little Women." I re-read "Mansfield Park." I started to re-read "Northanger Abbey" but stopped to look up something in "What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew" and saw "Jane Eyre" mentioned and decided to re-read that instead. But when I pulled out "Jane Eyre" to re-read, I noticed it had mold growing on it. Well, what could be mold. I spilled something on a corner of it, and on that dark spot it looks like there's white mold growing. I'm concerned. I'd rather just buy a new copy. Plus I need a new copy of "Wuthering Heights" anyway, because I broke it. Not the spine, the actual back leaf.

Part of me thinks I'm wasting time re-reading these books when I have Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" and "Confederacy of Dunces" waiting for me on the bookshelf, but whatever. Why not do what I want since I have no one else telling me otherwise?

I also watched movies. Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters II. 3:10 to Yuma. The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. and oh my god, The Monster Squad. And I went shopping and bought Christmas presents, which I will not list because the people for whom they were purchased read this blog.

So, all in all, it was a great weekend.

Louisa May Alcott got it wrong.

As you can see from this picture, Little Women is one of my favorite books. Sure, its a little preachy, but still, its a good book.

As long as you ignore the fact that LOUISA MAY ALCOTT GOT IT WRONG!!!

Laurie was never supposed to end up with Amy. Amy is the spoiled little brat who doesn't deserve him, and could have married any number of other rich guys. Jo, however, did deserve him, and they would have been happy together, regardless of what she thinks.

Every time I read it, I try to stop at a point before Jo ends up with the professor and before Amy and Laurie get married, but I always keep going and ruin it for myself. If you just read Part I, you can tell at the end that she clearly intends for the two of them to get together. I don't know what happened in between writing Part I and Part II that killed the relationship for her, but I wish it hadn't happened. If I were at all a writer, I would write the correct version, just for myself.

I always mean to buy myself a good, hard cover copy of Little Women to replace this one. But every time I go to read it I can't bear to part with this copy. I got it when I was about 8 I think, after my mother discovered the copy I had been reading was an abridged version. I had made a comment about how weird it was that they don't really talk about what happened to Beth after a certain point. My mom and my sister both thought it was odd that I hadn't gotten that Beth died. The book just said, "Beth went to a better place." and I thought they'd sent her to the beach to live, for health reasons. And I thought they'd at least go visit her or bring her home for big events. In my defense, they did take Beth to the beach earlier in the book for her health. Its not like I just came up with the beach being the "a better place." And I was not raised in a religious household, so how was I supposed to know that "better place" meant heaven? Anyway- this is the unabridged copy that was purchased for me, and I've read it I don't know how many times.

I always feel guilty over the fact that I re-read books many, many times. I should be reading something new and finding something else I like. But then I think- Its not like I only read books I've read before, and if I enjoy it, why not?

My letter to Santa's elves.

As a kid we always put our Christmas letters to Santa out at Thanksgiving, hanging them on the lamps flanking the garage door with a piece of bread, and Santa's elves would come collect them. And take a bite out of the bread. (they would get hungry you know, going around the world collecting all of the kids' Christmas lists.)

Of course little did I know that we were the only family that does this! I thought it was a normal tradition. I didn't realize til college that this was not the norm.

So this is my letter to Santa...

The NEW 13" macbook
http://www.apple.com/macbook/
I went to visit it in the store the other day, and the genius taught me more of its features, and its AMAZING. I would have hugged it but there were too many people around.

Twilight

I started reading the "Twilight" books 3 weeks ago. And became obsessed with them in, oh, 1 minute. To the point where I picked reading over sleep and read the first one straight through, with only one break to drive to Barnes and Noble to buy the second one. A co-worker lent me the last two, and so I still need to buy those (in hard back- in case anyone is reading and wants an idea for my Christmas present. hint-hint to my mom, dad or sister.)

They're not actually great books. And they're written for teenagers, but there's something in them that sucks you in. I felt vindicated when I came home from work to find Leslie on the couch reading, and having her admit she had been sucked in too.

Books- Mortal falls in love with a Vampire- and vice versa. She's 17. He's 17 plus 90 years. A little creepy when you think about it really. He sneaks in to her room to watch her sleep without her knowing about it, for months. Creepy. But since vampires don't sleep (at least in this vampire world) I guess they have to fill their time somehow. The thing is, you don't realize how creepy any of this is while you're reading because you're just thinking, "well they're in love." Its not until you step back and go, "wait a minute- he shouldn't be doing that" that it dawns on you.

The pacing of the books is weird too. 400 pages of exposition, lots of low level plot, then for about 50 pages you get intense, real, action plot, and then another 50 pages of wrap up. This formula holds true for the first 3. Then the pacing of 4 is even more messed up. BUT YOU DON'T CARE. You're too obsessed to care.

Movie- I went last night and it was one of the funniest experiences ever. The excitement level was about the same as Harry Potter opening nights. Maybe a little bit more- because it was the first one. But you throw in that everyone is in LOVE with Cedward. (Robert Pattison or Pattinson- I'm not sure- I just call him Cedward- Cedric Diggory + Edward Cullen.) The age range was probably 10-50? Definitely more on the 13 side. People wearing t-shirts with quotes from the movie. "Your scent is like a drug." I was in line next to a 31 year old teacher who had started reading the books to at least figure out what her kids were obsessed with, and she got sucked in too.

Anyway, girls screamed through the entire movie. Shrieked is more like it. Every time Jacob came on the screen the audience would scream. Edward's first appearance- more screaming. Eric- screaming. Mike Newton- more screaming. Emmett, screaming. Jasper- more screaming. The bad guy James- even more screaming. For anyone who isn't going to laugh it off- I would definitely recommend waiting a little while before seeing the movie. My friend who came with me and I just laughed it off. I'm sure if I were 13, I probably would have been one of the ones screaming.

The movie fixed the problems I had with the pacing. But I didn't agree with all of the casting. Bella and Edward were perfect. Her friends at school were all made different ethnicities- which I don't remember from the book. Jacob was perfect (I just wanted to give him a haircut.) Carlisle was off looking- it could have been the makeup. Esme was perfect. Rosalie was not nearly pretty enough. (She's supposed to be absolutely gorgeous in the books- this girl was not.) Emmett was perfect. Jasper needed to do something different with his hair, but otherwise was okay. And Alice- I hope they tweak her look a little before the next movie.

Which brings me to a problem they're going to have. They said if this one makes $150 million (and it totally will.) They'll make the next one. Problem- the 9 vampires aren't supposed to age. And the books take place over a period of 2 years, so Bella isn't really supposed to age either. They better make them fast.

So, In conclusion...

Books are good for what they are. And if you're even slightly interested- give them a shot- but be prepared to devote a couple days to them.

Movie- quality is better than the book I think- and again- if you're interested- give it a shot. It won't be two hours of your life you wish you could have back. And- you can follow even if you haven't read the books. One of my friends got to go to the premiere Monday night- and she liked it, not even having read the books.

Just one of the reasons

I can't wait to get a laptop.

"How am I supposed to write for a guy who doesn't have a head?"

Anthony Edwards is coming back to ER. His character died many many seasons ago from brain cancer. I would like someone to explain how this is going to work to me.

I just keep thinking of Soapdish where they tell Whoopie Goldberg she needs to bring Kevin Kline's character back to life, but he had been killed off by decapitation.

I think E.R. is so desperate to get people to watch in this final season that they are really trying every thing in the book. "Hey, maybe people will be curious about how we brought Mark Greene back?" I know I won't be watching because I loved his character so much. I'll just want to hear their methodology for raising the dead.

Hope

Here's my post-election hope: that this will be, for the rest of my life, the most important election I will ever vote in.

Yesterday we elected the right man for the job, at a time when we needed it most. My hope is that we are never again in such dire straits as a country that the election is as vital as this year's. That never again will we be at war, in economic ruin, and so divided as a country. That never again will the rest of the world look down on us as the bad guys. That never again will a president have to come in and fix as big a mess as this administration is leaving behind.

Yes, its historic. We elected a black man. But shame on us that its taken this long to get away from white male politics. Let's instead focus on the fact that Obama is smart, capable, and I believe truly wants to make this country great again.

My necklace! Part 2

Blogger cut off the secon part of the post which I will try to
recreate here (I can't edit entries too well from my phone):

Thank you Nona and Lala. And Boppy I think, for originally picking it
out. It is in very good hands; with someone who loves and appreciates
it. And who will think of her family every chance she gets to wear it.

My necklace!

It was my grandmother's and my great grandmother's before that.

Once when visiting my grandmother she was in the mood to start pulling
out her jewelery and showing it to me and one of my aunts. When she
pulled out this necklace my jaw dropped and I instantly fell in love
with it.

I'm lucky that none of my cousins wanted it, because I think I would
have been upset had I not been able to get it. The sad thing is, it's
valuable. Too valuable for every day wear so I'm going to have to put
it in a safety deposit box at the bank. I'm going to wear it to the
wedding I'm going to this weekend first though.

And you better believe that every fancy dress I have to buy for the
rest of my life will be purchased with this in mind.

Less than 7 days

Fewer than 168 hours

Until we know, for better or for worse, who our next president will be.

Please please please let it be Obama.

One of my friends was a staunch Hillary supporter and switched to
McCain after she lost the democratic nomination (stupid- I know.)
Today he admitted that Sarah Palin has made it impossible for him to
vote for McCain and he will be voting for Obama. Praise Palin for the
role she's playing if a lot of people end up thinking the way he does.

I do feel bad for Obama. Say he wins, he has a very tough road ahead
of him. A
lot to clean up, fix, and undo. And if he doesn't turn everything
around immediately he'll be seen as a failure by those who don't see
big picture.

I have absolute faith that when I cast my vote on Tuesday I'm making
the right choice for my country. I hope the rest of the country agrees
with me.

Update on the Hillside Strangler

I had one of my friends do research on where the victims were found.

Yup, two victims were found on my street. Right down in the scary cul
de sac.

Stupid Ben

I am able to freak myself out really easily. So a few months ago when I was reading a book called The Monster of Florence about about a dozen murders in the hillsides surrounding Florence 20 years ago, I would get up to double check that the front door was locked. I would also be too scared to get up to go to the bathroom because I knew that the murderer was waiting by the refrigerator to kill me.

This isn't the first time this has happened to me. Throughout my life things I've read or heard about have freaked me out to the point where I couldn't sleep or get out of bed for fear of being murdered. In high school I read Jurassic Park, and couldn't go downstairs to put clothes in the dryer because I knew there was a velociraptor in the laundry room waiting to get me. I think this would be called having an over-active imagination.

But the thing is, I can't stop myself from reading "scary" stuff. Most people probably don't get freaked out by what I find scary, or they don't find it scary to the extent that I do. I don't know what it is about the human psyche that leads us to want to be scared. Maybe not enough real threats in our lives? Who knows. You'd think sleepless nights over 20 year old Italian murders wouldn't be high on someone's list of "things they enjoy in life." At least as I've gotten older I've been able to handle it a little better. Seeing a scary movie only leads to a night or two of being scared. Not a month.

Last night Ben says, "well yeah, they found at least one of the Hillside Strangler victims down the street" and I got freaked out. I don't even know what we were talking about that started it. Maybe the fact that Leslie is reading the Florence murder book? Tonight I started thinking about it again, so I have of course double checked that the door is locked (it is.) And then I HAD to start researching on line. What if Ben was wrong? Maybe its not my street. So far all I can find is that victims were found in Elysian Park (basically my backyard) and a remote hillside in Echo Park (a description that absolutely fits my street.)

I used to think my street was safe because it was so out of the way no one would come up here unless they needed to. I won't be thinking that any more.

Jinx

I jinxed myself. I just got called in to a courtroom.

Two hours and 45 minutes

Until I'm safe from jury duty. They've called jurors for 4 trials
today. Two for 20 days, one for 17 days and one for 11 days. The
people who have left the room have never come back. Those poor, poor
souls. I cannot even comprehend trying to put my work life together
enough to be gone for that long.

Lots of people are asleep. The man next to me is snoring loudly. Most
people are reading or on laptops. It's freezing cold but the only
thing hot to drink is hot chocolate and it's disgusting.

I've finished "The Wordy Shipmates" and now am going to start on
"Issac's Storm.".

If I was at work I would be at a party for the move in for a space
I've spent the past 6 months on. I hope I get a chance to see it
finished since I'm missing it today. I hear it looks fantastic.

And now as I send this to post I have two hours and 33 minutes to go.
Cross your fingers for me!

Jury duty

I have Jury Duty tomorrow.

My summons was changed to the criminal courthouse and I'm scared to
death I will get on a trial. We don't get paid for jury duty and I
really REALLY can't afford to be away from work unpaid. And with my
illness earlier this year, my PTO is gone.

I spent an extra 2 hours at work tonight getting a couple things done
that I had promised out tomorrow. God forbid I have to cancel my stuff
for Monday.

The bad part of all of this is that I wouldn't mind being on a jury. I
think you do your duty. It could end up being interesting. My last
jury duty service was boring while I was there, but memorable in the
long run.

Sooo... Tomorrow you may get some long blogs of observations about the
people around me.

The right kind of patriot

I'm in the airport this morning and I just teared up while reading
Sarah Vowell's "The Wordy Shipmates." She was talking about the
September 11th attacks as being the catalyst for her writing this book
and the story she related made me cry.

I'm not a New Yorker. I've never spent any real amount of time in the
city. I don't know anyone hurt by the attacks, and yet stories of the
day do affect me. I feel like I have no right to cry at stories of
September 11th, and yet here I am tearing up over Sarah Vowell writing
about New Yorkers lined up to give blood and cleaning out drug stores
of toothpaste to donate to relief organizations.

I consider Sarah Vowell the right kind of patriot. She's fully willing
to own up to all of the faults of our country, and yet still loves it.
People annoy me when they think that saying there's anything wrong
means you don't love your country. (Although one doesn't really have
to love one's country.)

My favorite Vowell essay is about the Rodney King riots. She was
living in Europe and watching them on TV and actually got homesick
while watching them. It hit her how much she missed her country,
despite all it's flaws. That essay perfectly summed up how I feel
about the US.

So, tomorrow night when I have the choice between watching the debate
between two men who want to be our president and fighting the crowds
at barnes and noble to go see Sarah Vowell read from her new book, I'm
not sure which I'll pick.

Migraine from hell

Ive had a migraine since at least last Friday. It's grown and faded in
intensity, but it's been there. I've been downing migraine meds and
advil trying to keep it at bay until it would go away, but it just
wasn't going anywhere.

So today I just had the brilliant plan of not taking anything, letting
it get as bad as it can get and THEN taking the medincine in the hopes
that would cure it. (kind of like letting a fever break. If you at all
knew my mother you'd understand where we get these weird medical
theories.)

So by three today I was in tears at work and called it quits and came
home. Decided on a 3 prong attack: imitrex, painkiller and sleep. Only
problem- couldn't sleep. I've taken the backup imitrex, still can't
sleep, I don't want to take another painkiller, and I still have the
same low level migraine that I've had for days- and it periodically
spikes to full blown.

This year as I listen to them announce the nobel prize winners I
think, "what brilliant, amazing minds." I hope that whenever someone
finally cures migraines that person gets the Nobel prize. They will
deserve it just as much as the guys who thought to make protiens glow
on the dark, connected HPV with cervical cancer, or discovered the
aids virus.

I have a niece!

Okay, so I have three nieces. But this one is new.

Elizabeth Anne*. She's early, and in the NICU until she can breathe on her own, but she'll be fine.

The good thing about her being a girl, I won't have to start saying, "my nieces and nephews." "My nieces and nephew" will still work. Poor Campbell. If only he'd gotten a partner in crime. Now he's just got one more girl. At least this one won't be able to dress him up in girl's clothing and put bows in his hair like his older ones have done.

*I'm going to try to ignore that my sister took my name.

My scarf!!!

Last year my mom made my sister a scarf that I really liked, and I
said so.

Well, as much as I laugh at my mom's knitting projects, I'm not
laughing at this one. She made me a scarf like my sister's, except
with different colors. At first when I opened it I will admit (sorry
mom) that I was a little upset that it wasn't the same as my sister's.
Now I know mine's better. A) brighter colors. B) longer.

I love this scarf now. The picture doesn't do it justice. It got a
little chillier here the past few days, so I've been wearing it (with
t-shirts- I admit I'm a white person) and I've already been
complimented on it twice. Plus, no one else will have my scarf.

Stupid Infomercials

I can't sleep tonight so I'm watching TV. Leslie and I don't have
cable, so the channels we do get are slim pickings. Lots of Asian
languages programming. Lots of Spanish language programming.

The only stuff in English is Christian programming, regular broadcast,
and infomercials.

You might think this would make me turn off the TV and do something
else, but I LOVE infomercials. Tonight I've been introduced to a
fantastic new straightener that will infuse your hair with negative
ions, a pet brush which cleans itself, a steam cleaning vacuum, and
"meaningful beauty" cindy Crawford's anti-aging skin care line. It's
been developed using a "rare fruit" from France. They never actually
name this fruit. They only ever refer to it as the "rare fruit."

I admit- I want to order this. They usually almost get me with the
acne lines (Murad and Proactive.) I'm so sick of having zit/pimples
(or zimples as we decided they should be called.) but I always stop
myself from actually ordering.

Now I've decided that I have zits and wrinkles (zinkles.) if the
infomercial had been for an anti-wrinkle/anti-acne treatment, they
would have gotten my credit card number tonight.

Marketers take note.

Is it the same?

A few years ago I got myself in to credit card debt. Some of it is
legitimate medical bills. Some of it is buying stuff I couldn't afford
while making NO money at my job in Atlanta and trying to pay for a car
and an apartment. Then once you buy the stuff, you get smacked with
intrest charges and what you thought you owed grows faster than you
ever imagined possible.

So I took charge and looked in to both debt management and bankruptcy.
Because I was making so little I technically was eligible for
bankruptcy, but I decided that debt consolidation was my best option.
I'm paying $x a month for 5 years. I have 22 payments left, but I'll
probably pay it off early.

Technically, I got a bail out. A bail out I'm making good on. The
credit card companies are still getting all their money back, plus
interest. I had bad money management skills and I used other peoples'
money to fix it.

So I feel like I have no right to be upset that Wall Street and the
banks are getting bailed out. They made bad decisions, but so did I. I
shouldn't be so pissed that I'm going to be fiscally punished for
years to come for the repercussions of the US going even further in to
debt to hand greedy bastards $700 billion, but I am. I hate that the
country will be screwed for years and years and years to come because
of this.

I also hate that I don't understand economics enough to know whether
or not we really need to bail them out. Then again, neither do the
people in charge.

Dear Snow Patrol,

I love you, it's your new song I'm not too sure about.

Let's see what the rest of the album holds.

Thanks,

Sarah

Paging Dr. Sweets

I need a therapist.

That's what my Dr. said the last two times I've been in to see her. I'm pretty sure she's not wrong. She said, "you need someone on your side." The nice thing is- all of my friends who I've mentioned this conversation to have said, "but we are on your side. Who isn't on your side?"

It isn't so much that as work. I've been trying to fall asleep for 2 hours tonight, and it just isn't taking. Every time I try, work floods in to my brain and I can't switch off. This needs to be done, that needs to be taken care of. This is going wrong. I need to talk to this person about that."

I like what I do. A lot. I like the people I work with. A lot. Its been harder recently because my three favorite people are gone. Maureen, Layla and Daniel. I still talk to Maureen a lot. And Daniel and I still talk daily, but its not the same as having them in the office all day every day. Layla moved to San Diego to go to school and move on with her life, and I'm very, VERY happy for her. But it doesn't mean that I don't miss her and think the office was better with her in it. Plus, my friend Kristin was back last week for a visit, and it just reminded me of how good work was when she worked there too.

Of course this is what happens when you work someplace for a long (in today's day and age) period of time. Last Friday was my 2 year anniversary of working for my company. Overall it has been a very, (not to be redundant) VERY good experience. But its still sad to see people move on.

This isn't to say that the new people aren't awesome. There are some funny, nice, "kindred spirits" there now. My teammates are amazing. I get along with just about everyone (as far as I know, and really if someone doesn't like me oh well.)

Its just hard when the work itself won't let your brain turn off.

So, the task is to find a therapist. Hope I like the person. And then make time in my schedule for the visits. And then fight with insurance over whether or not they'll cover it. Just more things to stress about.

finally-

my car goes in for service tomorrow. its been making funny noises for quite some time, but there hasn't been a single day in which i haven't had a meeting so that i could take it in. finally yesterday i realized, "i have no meetings."

i hope its not expensive, but whatever. fixing it before i breakdown on the side of the road is A) safer and B) more cost effective in the long run. i want to get another 2 years, hopefully 3, out of this car before i get something new.

i'd say i love my car, but honestly i don't. i WOULD love my car, but i don't like things that have been wrecked and are now fixed. 2 of the accidents are my fault. but the drunk driver killed my love for my car. when she wrecked it, i honestly wanted a new car. not one that my insurance company paid $9,000 to have put back together. nothing has been the same since. my door rattles if i play music too loudly. my dashboard rattles randomly, about 80% of the time. my windows sometimes scrape as i put them up and down. i want something unblemished, where if there are imperfections, they're all my fault. i'm not one for driving fancy cars, especially not in LA where your car is going to get scraped in the parking lot, but i want one that doesn't have 3 new body panels and a new hood.

plus i want one with heated seats and an ipod connection. i'll pay extra for those.

The problem with weekends...

The problem with my weekends is actually my week. I leave my house by
8 AM every morning and get back by 7 PM at the earliest. That doesn't
leave too much time to get stuff done. Hair appointments, oil changes,
laundry, grocery shopping etc.

So I leave it til the weekend. Then on the weekend I want to just
relax, which does not include laundry, oil changes, grocery shopping,
etc. So nothing ever gets done.

On the weekends I want to sleep, go to the movies, go to Barnes and
Noble, catch up on sleep, hang out with friends. Not errands. Which is
why my car is making funny noises. My apartment isn't clean. I haven't
mailed a baby gift for a friend's baby. That baby just celebrated her
first birthday. This is why I am down to just one clean towel and I'm
running out of clothing.

I need better weekday time management or to make myself do stuff on
week nights.

Part 2- I love drug names. New drug for bi-polar disorder- Abilify.
That might be the best drug name ever.

Funniest Thing of the Day-

We all need to appreciate the funny things in life.

This is why I generally pay attention to what makes me laugh each day- and then tell that person, "this is my funniest thing today." Whether its something they did or something they said I let them know its the thing that's made me laugh the hardest.

What I really need to start doing is keeping track. It does me no good to award my "Funniest Thing of the Day" if I'm not going to remember it by the time I get home from work.

Today's I know happened- I was at my co-worker EM's desk. She and I both laughed really hard. But at what? No clue. Today's was bad that my really annoying laugh that I hate when I do happened. (wow, that's a bad sentence.) Anyway- yet another thing that's going to drive me nuts as I fall asleep tonight (see previous blog for actor in Fringe and Cake cutting question.)

Part 2- LinkedIn- Leslie sent me an invitiation to add her to Linkedin today. Which I of course accepted. I have some random contacts in there. An engineer I work with in Omaha, an old co-worker from Smallwood, my uncle, and now Leslie. So I decided to go through and add a bunch of people from my e-mail contact list.

Now- will we really ever help each other's careers? I don't know. Is it just facebook for adults with jobs? I don't know that either. But it can't hurt- right?

Fringe and other stuff.

I liked it.

It's going to draw some X-Files comparisons, as it should, but it is different enough to not be a complete rip-off. Parts of it were laughable, but Dawson's Creek guy's character was a good foil to the ridiculousness. Some parts were very predictable, but it's TV. I'll watch it again for sure.

BUT- then came something that leads people to say, "there are too many channels" and things of that nature. A game show where people have to make their bodies into certain shapes to fit through holes in walls, and if they aren't successful they get pushed into a pool. I watched it for 10 minutes before thinking, "wait, what?" and turning it off. Seriously, people watch that?

Part three of this is my pet peeve (if you can call it that.) There was a guy on Fringe who I recognize from somewhere, just I can't place him. Usually I like to wait until it comes to me, as kind of a brain exercise, but its not coming to me. The full cast isn't up on IMDB yet, so I haven't been able to cheat and figure it out, and its driving me nuts.

Part 4- sometimes I hate being the "smart" friend. I admit- most of the time I like it. I like being the one people go to for answers, except for when I don't have them. Today I get a call from my old roommate Jessica. "Hey Mensa* girl- I have a problem I need you to solve." They were playing Cranium and they couldn't come up with the answer to the problem, and she was asking me if I could figure it out. I can't. I'm stumped. And now I feel stupid. I'm sure an 8 year old could solve it in two seconds.

Cut a cake in 8 slices using 3 cuts. 1 horizontal and 2 vertical that can cross each other. My questions- is the cake round? and do the pieces have to be equal in size? answers to both- card didn't say. I can only come up with 7 pieces. I'm hoping that Jessica gave the question to me wrong- because otherwise I'm dumb. I refuse to cheat and look it up on the internet.

*I maintain for the record- I AM NOT IN MENSA.

long blog

its been awhile since i sat down to a computer to write a blog. i haven't actually been at home in front of my computer for a month, so everything i've been posting is just spur of the moment from my phone.

why haven't i been at home in front of my computer for a month? house sitting. okay- house sitting- extra money is always nice, but this time it was too long of a stretch away from my life, and it took too big of a toll on me. my allergies ended up being out of control, and by the end i was just permanently sick. (and then throw in the food poisoning on top of that and its not a good combination.) of the 31 days of august, i think i counted up that i was away from home for 26 of them. so i was away from my things, and the only clothing i had with me was what i had packed. not to mention the fact that i was going back and forth between two houses at the end.

and, i can't say that i'm the biggest fan of animals. i don't understand owning them. they provide (to me at least) no enjoyment, and cause only trouble. you have to wake up to feed them, keep them from barking (dogs that is) and they're completely disgusting. its too stressful leading your life around having to go home every certain number of hours to let the animals out and feed them, make sure they didn't destroy anything, and then pick up their fecal matter after them when you're walking them. ugh, and don't get me started on cleaning litter boxes. i will never own a pet. gross.

part 2 of this blog- i want to read a really scary book. something that makes me so scared i have to get out of bed to make sure our front door is locked, but so scared that i'm sure i'll be murdered in my living room on the way to check. i love being scared occasionally, and right now is one of those times. its just hard to tell what's going to scare me. i remember reading Jurassic park in high school, and being too scared to go downstairs and put laundry in the dryer. i KNEW that there was going to be a velociraptor waiting for me in the laundry room and i would be ripped to shreds. i've never read a stephen king book, so i don't know if any of those would scare me, but honestly they're too long for me to commit any time to. i need suggestions.

part 3- i made it through the fast food ban, but i'm still limiting my coke intake. even now, i'm still only letting myself have fast food once a week. its been easy since i've had food poisoning, so we'll see how it goes once my stomach works again. new ban- no pizza for the month of september. i eat pizza too often because its easy- and i don't really enjoy it at all anymore. if i stop eating it for awhile, maybe i'll start actually enjoying it again.

oh well, that's all for now. i'm sure i'll come up with more later.

Death's Doorstep

I am on death's doorstep.

I was sick Wednesday with stomach issues and they have come back a
million times worse. I woke up this morning sick, but dragged myself
out of bed to help ben and Allen move. With as sick as I was, i'm not
sure I was much help. I left because I could feel myself getting worse
and I was miserable with the heat being as bad as it was. So I stopped
by the store and picked up 4 bottles of Gatorade and then went back to
my apartment and passed out for 3 hours. I felt a little better after
that.

But now it's 3:45 in the morning. The stomach issues are worse begging
the question "how can there be anything left in there?" I'm
alternately so cold I feel I'll never get warm and so hot that I sweat
through my clothes.

If doctors still made house calls I'd make one come see me. I want to
call my mom and cry. But even if it weren't 6:45 in the morning there,
she still wouldn't be able to actually do anything.

I just want some sleep but instead I've been lying in bed shivering
and sweating. And I can feel another migraine coming on. This is the
worst weekend.

My new great idea.

Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg did a fantastic job making a serious spoof
of a zombie movie (Shawn of the Dead.)

Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg did an even better job making a serious
spoof of a cop movie (Hot Fuzz.)

Next up they need to make a serious spoof of a disaster movie. If Hot
Fuzz is the end of their collaborative efforts I'll be upset.

For anyone who hasn't seen Hot Fuzz,
You should. It gets better every time you watch it. It's so well
crafted, written and filmed. And it's hilarious.

So if I ever run in to Simon Pegg (I don't know what Edgar Wright
looks like) or Nick Frost (because no Wright/Penn movie would be
complete without him) I'm going to propose it to him.

Reading

I was reading (While you are engulfed in flames) while eating lunch
today and someone asked me how many books I read per year. That's a
hard question to answer. I hesitate to count anything I re-read in
that count. I'd hate to count trash like a janet evanovich book or a
queen/princess in distress historical novel. And this year if you
factor in that it took me 3 months to finish War and Peace, I bet I'll
probably clear 20 new, worthwhile books in 2008.

I think that's pathetic. But then I have to remind myself, "hey,
you're still way ahead of the average American and B you've read War
and Peace."

If you factor in the junk and rereading stuff, I bet it's closer to 60
books a year. I think maybe I should try to sway the percentages of
junk v good in the other direction, but sometimes it's just good to
clear your brain.

September

September is going to be great.

1- new Ricky Gervais podcast
2- new Ricky Gervais movie Ghostown
3- the return of The Office
4- the return of Chuck
5- the return of Bones
6- the return of 30 Rock

And the #1 reason September is going to rule is that I'll be living at
home again.

Okay- I'm not sure if all those TV shows will be back in September but
close enough. And living at home again will be great. I miss my bed. I
miss my clothes (having all of them and not just what I've packed.) I
am so tired of pet hair. And living on a dog's schedule. My allergies
are insane right now. I miss my computer, little that it works.
September I might actually buy a new MacBook.

Preview of why October will be great - the Wordy Shipmates by Sarah
Vowell on the 7th.

Rock Me Sexy Jesus

I wish I could say I liked Hamlet 2 but I didn't. It was a good idea-
Jesus, hamlet and a time machine could be funny. But we've seen the
execution too many time. Steve Coogan was good. The "kids" were good
but ultimately it wasn't clever. There were bits and pieces that were
funnu but most of the time they relied on cheap gags, swearing or
stupid "we're not being racist" racist jokes. And believe me, it's not
like those offend me, but these weren't even witty.

I wish I'd seen Tropic Thunder or Pineapple Express.

Man On Wire

Two weeks ago when I was house sitting I flipped on the TV for
background noise while I was getting ready for work. A few minutes
later it registers in my brain that I'm listening to 911 calls so I
wander in to the bedroom to see what the hell they're showing on tv. I
get in there to see that it's 911 calls from September 11th sync'd
with video of people jumping from the towers. Not what anyone needs to
see while they're getting ready for work. And in my mind, not
something I ever need to watch. But to each his own.

That weekend I decide I really want to see Man on Wire, a documentary
about the guy who tight rope walked between the two towers. It was a
great movie. They filmed themselves a lot during the preparation
stages, and the director used the old footage and mixed it in with
reinactments and interviews with the participants.

The nice part of this movie is that it was just such a joyful event
having to do with the buildings. It was sad to see the beginning
footage of the towers going up, and knowing that they aren't there any
more. Amazing feats of engineering and architecture taken out in a
matter of hours.

Anyway, one of the absolutely refreshing things about this movie is
that they make no mention of what ultimately happened on September
11th. They didn't need to. That's not what the movie was about, and no
one needed the reminder. This is for the people who don't want to
watch video of people jumping from the towers while the 911 calls
play. This is for the people who want to remember something good.

Cartoon books

Pretty much every night before I go to sleep I read a cartoon book (or
as much of one as I get through before I fall asleep.) I've done this
as long as I can remember, and in fact cartoon books are the first
things I remember "reading." Maybe at that age, just 4, I was only
looking at the pictures. Who knows? I had a whole collection of
Peanuts cartoon books that were worn already by the time they got to
me, but I read what I had. As an adult, I have to admit I really don't
like Peanuts cartoons at all.

Once Calvin and Hobbes came out, I had something new and amazing to
read. It opened up a whole world of cartoon books to me. At the
beginning, I didn't get that they were brilliant little cartoons with
a lot more depth than just a precocious kid. But maybe that's why I
still enjoy them as a grown up. (Although as a grown up I also see
Bill Watterson as a preachy snob.)

Fox Trot was in there for a little while, but after a few seasons they
got pretty repetitive. I loved Bloom County even though as a kid i
didnt get any of the political stuff in them. Even now when I go visit
my sister I pull out her Bloom County cartoon books (she reads
cartoons too, it must be a family thing) and fall asleep reading those
there.

More recently there was Pearls Before Swine but like Fox Trot, not
much staying power. Now, I love nothing more than going to the store
and finding a new Dilbert collection. So many of those hit so very
close to home.

At the beginning I had a love/hate relationship with Get Fuzzy. Darby
Conley did enough of a stint in my college town for Athens to consider
him one of our own. (The Fuzzy in the name is a reference to a local
band, the Fuzzy Sprouts.) I loved it because it was a very funny
cartoon. But I hated it because our school newspaper booted Dilbert
to put GF in there.

Get Fuzzy didn't have the staying power I would have liked to have
seen, and yet I buy the book every single time, because there are
always little gems hidden in there they are worth the purchase price.

But of course, the end all, be all of cartoons is The Far Side. If
anyone ever tops The Far Side in brilliance, I think I'd die. I still
remember the first Far Side cartoon I ever read. It was a drawing of
buffalo in a convertable and it said something like "when the buffalo
cruise." I remember not getting it. I'd love to say I was a brilliant
kid and thought it as hillarious, but I didn't get it. (it's also not
like it's one of his best cartoons.)

When I moved out to California, my first big bonus from my company was
large enough that I treated myself to the double box set of Far Side
cartoons. There is only one problem with this set and that is that
they are too heavy to comfortably fall asleep reading.

I look at the cartoons as a way to clear my mind of the day's stress
and fatigue and just focus on something light and funny. So, now I'm
off to read a Karl Pilkington book. Which may not be a cartoon book,
there's enough nonsense for it to be considered one. And he did do
some little illustrations.

Hopeless

Sometime I honestly feel like I can't get anything right.

I'm now waiting in the starbucks parking lot for a tow truck to come
jump start my battery because I was on the phone in the car and not
even thinking about the fact that I was draining the battery. Where
was my head?

And my jumper cables, which my neighbors did return, are sitting on my
stoop at home. So I can't even rely on the kindness of a stranger's
battery to help.

Oh well. There is nothing I can do but wait for roadside assist. They
should be here in an hour.

Cowboy

My friend Joelle and I met an interesting gentleman the other day
named cowboy. He's 66 and has been living in California since he was
18. He's a poet, but other than that I'm not sure what he did to
support himself for real. He's a regular at the dive bar we went to,
and I think he likes meeting the people who wander in there randomly.

Anyway, he started telling the story of how he ended up in California
at 18. The Air Force stationed him here and he called his sister and
said, "if there's a god he made a huge mistake. I was never meant to
be born and raised in Detroit. I was always meant to be in Californ-i-
a."

That's how I feel everytime I dye my hair. I was never meant to have
mouse brown hair. I was always meant to be a redhead. There's a
personality that goes along with being a redhead. I blame it on
childhood exposure to Anne of Green Gables.

Thank goodness for dyes in a box and the fact that the hair color I
love looks natural on me. Later today I'm going to have to return my
hair to it's intended color.

The Core

It's my favorite disaster movie. The first time I saw it it
immediately kicked The Day After Tomorrow out of the top slot. (Side
note- disaster movies are one of my favorite genres.)

Recently I went on a disaster movie kick and watched every single
disaster movie I could think of, and I keep coming back to The Core.
The plus side of this is it's an instant view movie on Netflix, so I
can watch it whenever I want, as often as I want, for free.

Well, I'm in santa monica for the next two weeks, so my computer
access is going to be a little limited, and I'm lying in bed with a
migraine. (first bad one in 3 weeks. I've had little ones, but nothing
real, so that's pretty good.)

Anyway, I'm lying in bed, and all I want to do is watch The Core, but
I can't. So I start flipping through the channels and lo and behold,
it's showing on FX. And I've only missed the first 10 minutes.

I love cable.

LOL

The most recent "Facebook" addition to www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com
might be my favorite one ever.

And my next blog will be about why hating the DMV is absolutely
ustifiable.

It's finally caught up with me.

When I moved here I was too broke to register my car in California so
I was waiting until the registration expired and I figured I'd do it
then.

Then I got hit by the drunk driver right as it expired, and I was out
of pocket some money and I didn't have the money then either.

Then, I kind of had the money, but didn't want to spend it on
something like car registration. Nor did I want to deal with the DMV.

Today I got to the airport and parked at 5:30am and caught my flight.
I was dead tired. So when I got back and my car was missing, I figured
I must have forgotten where I parked it. I spent a full hour walking
through the garage looking for it before giving up and going to the
booth to ask if they could help me find it.

They inform me that it's probably been towed, and I need to call the
airport police. They tell me that yes, it has been towed and I can get
it back when I register my car. I have to take an airport shuttle to
the police station to get proof of insurance out of my glove box. I am
sitting in the airport police station lobby right now, where I am
waiting for a friend to come and pick me up so I don't have to pay for
a 40 mile cab ride in rush hour traffic.

Tomorrow morning I will have to take a cab to the nearest DMV, pray I
have everything I need to get my car registered and then take a cab
here and give them paper work proving my car is registered. Then pay
the impound fee, the ticket, the tow charge, etc.

All by an 11am meeting. I should just cancel that right now.

Frankly, it would be easier to rent a car tomorrow and deal with this
on the weekend, but I can't rent a car because I don't have a credit
card. The only way I can rent a car is if I have plane tickets proving
I've got a return flight.

This is all my own fault. Every last bit of it. But that doesn't mean
it doesn't suck. Hopefully I have the money to cover all of this
tomorrow.

Holy cow

I just experienced my first earthquake and I have to admit I'm a
little shaken up.

The ground still feels like it's moving, and the earthquake was about
an hour ago.

I was walking a construction site, and one of the guys goes,
"earthquake." and I was kind of sad I missed it and then I felt the
ground start rumbling.

A construction site is probably not where one wants to be during an
earthquake. But luckily my site is awaiting it's first inspection, and
everything is fairly well secured. And the base building is really
solid, brand new construction, concrete.

The head guy tells everyone to start heading for the doors, which is
of course an order I was happy to follow. I got outside, and was
shaking and said, "I feel like the ground is still moving." my
contactor said, "that's because it is." you could see the power lines
swaying. The construction guys were sooo non-chalant. One was on the
third floor balcony and yelled, "come up here. You can feel it
better." No thank you.

I think I can go a good long while without going through that again.

Karma

I feel like I'm owed something good sometime soon. I've had my laundry
stolen. I've had my iPod stolen. And I don't think I'm ever going to
see my jumper cables again.

Last week I was running late for work, got halfway down my street and
realized I'd forgotten my work cellphone. I turned around and came
back to get it. As I'm leaving the house for a second time, even later
for work, one of my neighbors approaches me asking if I have jumper
cables. I said yes and he asked if I could also take a minute to help
jump start his car.

He lives a little further down the road from me and I drove down there
and let him handle the jump start process. His girlfriend said, "thank
you so much. We're running late for work already." I told them to hang
on to the jumper cables for the rest of the day in case the car didn't
start again later and the girlfriend said, "thank you so much. We'll
get these back to you. You have such good karma coming your way."

Well, so far I've seen neither the jumper cables nor the good karma.

PS- I know karma doesn't really work like that. But life would be a
little nicer if everyone behaved as if it did.

Day 9

I've been without fast food for 9 days now. I've been limiting myself
to 3 cokes a day for 9 days now.

I skipped lent this year due to poor timing. Buy the good thing about
not being religious is that you can do lent any time. I'm definitely
going to do the whole 40 days 40 nights plus Sundays thing. But I may
extend it to see just how long I can go.

The fast food thing is harder than the coke thing. I tend to open a
lot of cokes, but I never finish them. So I'm just more careful about
how many I open.

The fast food thing though... That's hard. It's just so easy with how
my life works to eat fast food. If I'm going from one meeting to the
next with only 20 minutes to spare, what else am I going to do?
Answer- maybe carry cereal bars around? I don't know.

So far I haven't craved it yet though. That's good. I've only wanted
it becuase it's easy. When I start craving it, that's when it gets
hard.

Agh!

An 8G iPod is not big enough. Ever since the great iPod theft of '08
I've only had my iPhone to use and stuff comes up too frequently. I
need the variety that comes with more storage space.

Leslie is in negotiations with the plumber to get us $200 each for
replacement iPods. Yes, mine was older but there was a lot of music on
it that I can't get back without spending a lot of money. Plus, a
comperable one is $250, so we're each taking a hit.

If we get any money out of him the plan is to put it in savings for
when I buy a laptop BUT I'm not sure how long I can live on an 8G
iPhone alone.

Ah, the problems we modern people have.

Me on a horse

Look, I'm on a horse.

And now it's the day after and I'm battered and bruised. Tired and
worn. We rode from Hollywood to Burbank, past the Hollywood sign,
through an old landfill, under a freeway to a Mexican restaurant.

Then had a quick dinner and got back on the horses (already in pain)
and did the hour and a half ride back.

It was fun, but I can't say I'd do it in such a large group again. You
have to ride single file so it's not like you can actually talk to the
27 other people you're there with.

And the picture might not work.
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I am going to clean my room.

My room is a mess. I admit it. An absolute mess. I tell myself its a
mess because its so small and I have nowhere to put my stuff. But
honestly- my messes are like a gas. They expand to fit their container.

My room is the kind of mess that starts jokes. People have had a field
day with the thought of the plumber actually coming in to my room and
risking life and limb for an out-dated iPod.

So this weekend I am buying a storage bin and putting anything I don't
actually need in my room in the bin. The bin will get put in our
storage room and anytime I need something I'll know where to look.

Then I'll clean.

Then I'll see how long it is til it looks like this again.

Modern Guilt

Nothing truly inventive or groundbreaking. Just highly listenable
Beck. Lucky for me I've got my iPhone to listen to it on.

Leslie and I were robbed.

Today's blog was going to be about WALL-e, the flex power deal, and some general stuff, but now I'm just too distracted by being robbed.

First it was my laundry from the laundrymat. Now its my iPod.

Leslie and I have been having some plumbing issues. Today they were finally fixed, completely. But in exchange, dude took our iPods. Leslie noticed hers was missing first, which triggered me looking for mine.

Those of you who know me will ask, "how do you know if something is missing from your room?" Oh, I know, most of the time. I have a semi-photographic memory for where stuff is. Last night my stomach wasn't feeling too great, and i needed pepto. I knew it was under the pile of stuff in the blue box on my book shelf. Because in my mind I could see it there.

I know my iPod was on my floor A) because I could see it there and B) because it was under the legs of my chair and I kept thinking, "I should move that before I crush it with the legs of my chair."

Funny thing was this- I was checking my jewelry box to make sure everything was there as she comes in to the room to say, "I think I'm going crazy because I think the plumber stole my iPod."

I'm hoping I post this and it turns out, and I have to swallow my words about worker dude stealing my iPod. I hope Leslie is wrong and she did take hers to work.

Two years

I always mark the anniversary of the last time I ended up in the ER
for a migraine. Today makes 2 years. Easy to remember as it was July
4th.

I'm lying on the couch. I've just taken my last Imitrex. And the pain
pills aren't making a dent. I want to eat but I'm too scared that it
would be a bad idea. Im supposed to go to a barbeque today but that
might not be happeing.

I always get migraines after I've been under a lot of stress and the
stress is over. This is one of those for sure.

I'm not saying I need to go to the ER, but if thus second Imittrex
doesn't work I'm screwed.

White Ninja

I read cartoons. Not graphic novels, but the stuff you see in the
paper or the new yorker etc. This topic is a blog I've been meaning to
write for awhile and I'll fully go into it later.

Anyway, I was at B&N picking up the new Dilbert and Get Fuzzy books
and noticed White Ninja on the shelf. Half are pointlessly stupid.
The "were going to do something that doesn't make sense and it will be
funny because its so random" kind of pointlessly stupid. Like the
family guy (which isn't funny.) Half are hilarious. Worth every dime
of my ten bucks.

Its been around long enough to get a whole book published so I'm sure
I'm late to this discovery. Anyway. . .

www.whiteninjacomics.com

Maybe you'll laugh.

Also I bet one eyed people can't use iPhones. The way the key board
works you have to have good depth perception. I realized this just now
because I'm tired and I'm trying to type with one eye shut and I'm
making enough mistakes that its auto correcting to the wrong word most
of the time.

I love my clothing

I'm very particular about my clothes. I always have been. If I own
something its because I love it.

So when my clothing gets stolen from the dryer at the laundrymat I get
a little angry.

I felt no guilt going shopping yesterday and buying $100 worth of
stuff at the gap. (they're having an AMAZING sale so I got quite a
bit. I could have bought more but any more money and I would have felt
guilty.)

It still doesnt make up for the fact that someone took my clothes and
I can't even fully figure out what's missing. They did get my favorite
pajama bottoms and my really nice organic cotton pillow cases AND my
bathrobe. Of course the bathrobe has seen better days so that I can't
be too upset about. (Except that bathrobes are expensive and
uninteresting. Who wants to buy something useful? Yes, I do spend a
lot of my time in my bathrobe, but still.)

The good thing is that I don't put the majority of my clothes in the
dryer. All of my favorite tshirts get hung up to dry. Dittomy work
stuff. And luckily this time I didnt put my jeans in the dryer. I
would have been really upset if I'd lost my jeans.

My mom says to feel sorry for someone who has been reduced to stealing
clothes from dryers at laundrymats. And I do. Just I wish they'd
stolen someone else's clothes.

Why I wanted to go to Rubicon.

Reason #2

Okay that's not really nic's oscar but I can pretend. Its for the
music in the godfather.

Fuckin' A

Yes this deserves the explative. Th'Corn Gangg show was amazing. This
show was the reason I live in LA.

Islands (with J'amie instead of Aaron) and three rappers (Busdriver as
the main attraction. No Subtitle, but he rapped with them when I saw
them last.) 11 people on stage and just musical bliss. I'm sorry it
that's cheesy/corny but that's how I see it. The opening DJ was pretty
damn good too. I'll have to do some research and find out who it was.

Its 2AM and I have to get up in a little while to go to work. I didn't
do laundry before leaving for Napa/San Fransisco, so my wardrobe
choices are limited. And I don't regret it one bit.

The venue was a "club" nearby called
"The Airliner." It features "2 areas" and 2 patios. The kind of hole
in the wall place where smoking pot inside is not frowned upon and
hell, they even had pipes for sale.

It was a bittersweet event, however. They said it themselves that its
probaby the last time there will ever be a Th'Corn Gangg show, but at
least I was there for it.

I love los angeles.

Islands.

I freaking love this band. I've seen them do only one show better than
this one (drunken unicorn in Atlanta.) that show still ranks in my
top 5 favorite shows ever.

Last night nick was more in to just playing and doing the new stuff
than in bantering with the crowd. (Nick's stage banter is better than
most so you do miss something when he's not trying to connect with the
audience.) I finally forgive Aaron for replacing J'aime. I was
watching him drum last night and he's amazing.

I think Nick is completely over "Return to the Sea." They only played
3 songs from it and before "Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby" he made a
comment about the song being dated.

Its kind of sad that they didn't play any non-album songs. I always
liked hearing the stuff that they hadn't recorded yet. I need to go
back to the bootleg archive and see if there's any stuff I'm missing.

Set list:
Vertigo
The Arm
Kids Don't Know Shit
Where There's a Will There's a Whalebone
Pieces of You
J'aime
In the Rushes
Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby
Abominable Snowman
We Swim
Creeper

Encore
Rough Gem
Swans

Anyway, tonight I'm going to try to get in for Th'corn Gangg show.
Absolutely cannot wait for that.

And I got the best piece of band merch ever- a tote bag. (sorry mae-
shi your noise makers are cool.) t shirts you can only wear every so
often. You can carry the tote bag every day. And I was getting a
little bored with my coconut records one so its time for a switch. Its
a little too big but I'll make do.

$956 later

I have an excellent Dell laptop on its way to me!!!

The mac would have been 400 dollars more for less of a computer (I
know I know - its got its bonus points in its OS and other things.)
but I'm happy with what I'm getting.

And I got it in black.

Boo-yah

I finally listened to the red album. Its really sad when something you
loved so much goes so wrong.

I can't figure out if its just some joke that I'm not in on or if they
really think this is good. If its the joke, well played. No one
suspects. If they think its good, well I hope they've all made enough
money that they don't have to work again. I don't think they'll get
another record contract after this mess.

(the pork and beans video IS good.)

$1427.05

$1427.05 is all that stands between me and the computer of my dreams.

I could spend a couple hundred upgrading my current Dell desktop. New
ram. External hard drive. New video card. New monitor.

I could spend 1299 + tax getting the apple MacBook.

Or I could be practical and spend $700 or so on a perfectly good Dell
laptop that will work just fine for what I need. (my iPhone shudders
at the thought.)

But I don't want to be practical.

Far From the Madding Crowd

I loved this book. It took me forever to read because it was buried
under work on my desk for a month straight and I kept forgetting to
bring it home. The reason I'd taken it to work is because I was so
enthralled by it that I didn't want to put it down and was planning to
read during lunch. Of course that never happened.

He writes sentences that make me just fall in love with him. I have to
figure out which of his books I'm going to read next. I really enjoyed
Tess of the d'Ubervilles and I'd only picked up Madding Crowd because
it was a familiar name. I'll look through the plots and see what jumps
out at me. I have a feeling I'll end up with Jude the Obscure. Really,
right now I feel like "its Thomas Hardy. Of course I'll enjoy it."

Also this is a note to pick up something by D.H. Lawrence. I read a
short story of his once that I loved (I think it was called 'The Horse
Dealer's Daughter) and I've always meant to read more by him. Hardy
has a similar tone to that story so it reminded me I need to do that.

I have to finish Tale of Two Cities first. This is my third attempt to
read it. Not that I can't get through it, but I keep losing the book
before I hit page 150.

Vegas

We're going to Vegas. I rented Ocean's''s' 13 to watch to get me
ready. And last night I watched the Vegas episode of Bones.

But I'm planning on being exhausted come Monday. I'm still tired from
earlier in the week. I'll be at work late tonight. Then home to do
laundry. (not at 2am again) then back in to work and put in at least 4
hours before leaving at 11.

Lounging by the pool in the day sounds like a good idea, but I do want
to go out and actually see some stuff.

Next weekend I'm taking off. I have to go out to dinner on Friday. And
I'm going to see the happening. And Sunday dinner at a friend's but
other than that- nothing. And I'm going to make sure it stays that
way. I need a break.

Netflix is the greatest thing ever.

I'm lying in bed watching "A Different World" thinking about how much
I love this show and how much I'd love to watch all the episodes
again. And then I thought "but I don't want to buy them" and then
realized "but I don't have to!"

I've added season 1 to my queue. I can't wait. (although the show's
greatest episode is when Dwayne stops Whitley's wedding. I dont know
what season that one is on but that one i really can't wait for.)

Stuff I'm missing.

Stuff I'm missing.

I'm writing a blog about the stuff I'm missing in the hopes that the cosmos decides to return them to me.

A) my clogs. Comfortable, butt ugly shoes.
B) white ballet flats with green polka dots
C) pearl necklace (I have a very pretty new one but I'd still like the old one back too.)
D) summer purse. It was the perfect summer purse.
E) cake CD- comfort eagle. Could be in my parents basement.
F) second Franz Ferdinand cd. Again, could be in my parents basement.
G) beck cd- the information. Definitely not in my parent's basement because I purchased it here.

That's all I can think of for right now but I know there's more. We'll see if anything turns up.

Dear President Bush,

Thank you very much for my economic stimulus package. Seriously, Thank you.

It will allow me to pay off the Dr. and the Lab from my cancer scare earlier this year.

Maybe they'll use the money I give them to stimulate the economy.

Sincerely,

Sarah

Now far be it from me

To make fun of someone for their age (well obviously not because I'm
about to post this...)

http://www.thingsyoungerthanmccain.com

Maybe I should give him credit for still being with it considering all
he's already seen, but its still funny.

Laundymat

Laundymat
I'm at the laundrymat in the middle of the night. I'm dead tired. I
just worked a 15 hour day and the last thing I wanted to do was
laundry at 2am. But this is what you do when you haven't had a single
night that you left before midnight this week and you used your Sunday
to go to six flags.

My mom gets here tomorrow so obviously I had to have clean sheets and
towels for her and I was out of clothes anyway. I've had to work late
a) because I'm that busy and b) because I'm taking two half days and
one whole day to spend with her while she's here. If she weren't here,
I'd be doing just 12 hour days and then working this weekend.

I would like to pause a moment and thank leslie for cleaning the
bathroom. One less thing for me to do tonight. As it is my mom will be
dealing with the disaster zone that is my room.

I was talking to my boss tonight and she was asking if they could call
me with questions the next couple days if they needed to and then
added, "you should bring your mom to see the office. Don't worry we
won't make you work when you get here."

Part of my stress is that one on my people is taking a 2 week vacation
to Europe and I have had to figure out how to handle some of the
projects she's on while she's gone. (what I wouldnt give for a 2 week
vacation.)

Anyway, I can't wait to go home and crawl into bed until 5 when I have
to get up to go in to work to finish some things before going in for a
plan check appointment at 10:30. After that- pick up my mom and play
the next couple days by ear.

Btw- six flags was completely worth it. It turns out I love roller
coasters. I do not however, like a ride called gear house grinder. I
puked and went blind for a full 7 minutes after riding it. My favorite
is Tatsu- you hang from your stomach and are positioned like you're
flying. (Ps tatsu means standing in Japanese.) The lines were pretty
short everywhere so we were able to ride almost everything. We did
tatsu twice because its that awesome. Now I want to to back when X2 is
open. I can't believe that I like roller coasters so much. I wonder
what good ones I've missed at other amusement parks?

So now my wash is finished and I just have an hour for everything to
go in the dryer then its sleep, sweet sleep for 2 hours. That's really
sad.

Iron Man

I admit, I wanted to see this as soon as I'd seen the preview. I know
nothing about the comic book, but the preview made the movie seem
great AND it has Robert Downey, Jr. in it.*

The preview didn't lie. Its the perfect summer blockbuster movie. The
parts that are supposed to be funny actually are funny. The actionis
well done. The cast seems perfect. (Who knows if the fans of the comic
book would agree.) His gadgets are cool and the movie doesn't drag on.
What more can you ask for from a summer blockbuster?

If someone said to me, "I'm going to see Iron Man tonight. Do you want
to go?" I'd say yes in a heartbeat. I have no doubts I could see it
two days in a row.

My only problem with it was Robert Downey, Jr.'s facial hair, but that
may have just been how Tony Stark is drawn.

Point 2. I'm really upset I didn't title my last blog "Bears, beets,
Battlestar Galactic" or '"Bees?" "No, beads"'

*I have a weird crush on Robert Downey, Jr. You always know he's
going to end up back in rehab. But when he's functioning, he's amazing.

(PS- I posted this from my phone, because I can, and that's why I've ended up with the funky formatting. Weird.)

bees, fires and baby mama

bees- we have a swarm of baby bees outside our front door. normally this would freak me out- but i'm excited. i hope they don't get wing fungus. i'm wondering if i should report it to some bee tracking agency or something?

fires- i'm sick from the fires over in sierra madre. i woke up yesterday with a headache and ash all over my car. i kind of thought, "i wonder if there's a fire around?" but didn't listen to the radio all day. on my way home i turned on the radio and they said, "the fires over in sierra madre..." i mapped it and its 17 miles from my house. definitely close enough for the smoke to affect me, and for there to be ash on my car.

baby mama- could have been so much funnier- but turned into more of a chick flick. it wasn't bad, but i wanted to laugh the whole way through. i think the parts are definitely better than the whole. what was more amusing was the woman sitting behind us who talked to the screen through the whole movie- about how the process happens. "ha, that's not how that works." "uh un, that's not how it happens." "no, she wouldn't really do that." etc. maureen turned to me and asked, "how many times do you think she's done this?"

Entertaining the out of town contingent-

I've had a two visitors since my move to LA. Rebecca has come twice, and my best friend Tricia is here on business this week. I always feel slightly pressured to make sure they have a good time, and I take them to places that aren't too touristy, but are also trendy and fun.

Tonight we (Leslie and I) tried to take Tricia to Katsuya http://www.sbeent.com/katsuya/ for sushi (no, I don't eat it, but they have great teriaki.) BIG MISTAKE- we get there and are told that we only have one other table ahead of us. An hour later we still don't have a table. We see other people being seated, but not us. We're told if you don't have a reservation you can only sit at the sushi bar, and we had to wait for 3 spots at the sushi bar to open up at once. I went outside and called the restaurant and tried to call to make a restaurant and was told first available was 11PM. Silly us thinking Wednesday night wasn't going to be too crowded. But Tricia got to see the interior, and there were pap waiting outside (we never did figure out who was there, or whether they were just waiting thinking someone would come.)

By 9:15 we gave up and left and went to Malo, our old stand by. Malo is trendy, East Side trendy, but trendy. No celebrity sightings there for Tricia (I always feel like I'm supposed to provide guests with celebrity sightings.) even though we have seen Geena Davis and Michaela Conlin (Angela from "Bones") there.

My next visitor is my mother. I'm racking my brain for the perfect stuff to do with her. What restaurants would be good, where would I take her to see a celebrity? What's "LA" without being "touristy?"

the title works. Below not so much.

've'be spent all day trying to figure out how to post to my blog from my iphoneiPhone. iI think this particular feature might be more trouble than its worth.i

Do you ever...

have those nights when you get home from work and you're too exhausted, mentally and physically, to bother changing out of your clothes, washing your face and brushing your teeth? because tonight could be one. it was a mentally draining day for me on several levels. no matter how much i work, i can't catch up. one thing after another piles up, and there's only so much i can do, and i can only work so hard without burning myself out, so it just keeps piling up. i can't even take a mental health day because when i come back, there's too much piled up from me being gone. i hate leaving for meetings because meetings mean a) i'm bringing back more work to the office and b) its 2 hours that i'm not at the office actually getting stuff done.

i'm going to go in and brush my teeth and wash my face, because i'll force myself to. but it would be so easy to just crawl into bed and wake up tomorrow morning.

ugh-

i need an e-mail phone.

so its between the iphone and the blackberry.

i've done a big cost analysis spreadsheet and the iphone is $200 cheaper over the course of 2 years. but its $650+ upfront. the blackberry i could walk away with for $350. (keep in mind, neither of these is in the budget, i'm going to have to save.)

i really want the iphone, so i just have to save longer, but its going to be easier to just walk in to the tmobile store and shell out $350 and not have to worry about porting my number or changing my service or anything.

oh, but my newest idea is trying to find a blackberry on ebay. which i admit i'm a little leery of. seems like a risk, but i REALLY want an e-mail phone. and the best thing about if i do find one off ebay is that i don't have to reup my contract to get a discounted rate (the $350 is if i sign a contract for 2 years of data service.)

Heated Seats

See the below picture? See the feet leading away? Does that mean someone in the family died? See how they're by the baby? Does that mean a baby died? That's kind of disturbing. What's also disturbing is how happy the rest of the family looks. If you're going to put feet on there to let people know you lost a member, shouldn't you look a little more somber?

Separate issue- I don't ever see myself owning a luxury car. A) they cost more than I ever see myself being able to afford and B) once you spend that much on something you worry about it. And really, its just a car. But I do have to say, the more I ride in my boss' car (a new Lexus of some sort) the bigger a fan I become. For one feature alone- the heated seats. Its like having a heating pad in the car, and it makes your back feel great. I can't wait til Summer is here and I can try out the "cooled" seats feature.

I need a Civic with a seat heater option.

And, another picture of my view.

I took that from my front yard in the morning. I LOVE my view.

Dear Gym,

How I haven't missed you.

My co-worker Daniel signed up for the gym, and I'm hoping we'll inspire each other to go more often. Of course, our gym isn't the greatest place in the world. The lines are long, the sauna is usually too crowded to use, and the music selection is awful.

But, we went. I did a half hour on the treadmill, then we did the "Curves" circuit. I couldn't use the sauna, because as I stated above, it was too crowded to use. I really really hope I don't have shin splints tomorrow. The sauna is the only thing I've ever found that keeps me from getting shin splints.

Now to just get myself to go back on Thursday.

The Other Boleyn Girl

It was good. If you care about historical accuracy, its not the movie for you. It doesn't even follow the book. The costumes were gorgeous. It didn't at all portray the passage of time very well. You get the impression that all these things happened in quick succession, instead of over the period of years. Eric Bana looks more like Henry the VIII did than Jonathan Rhys-Myers, but I think JRM might be better at the role. Scarlett Johannsen (sp) was good as Mary, but I like the girl from the Tudors better as Anne. In fact, I think the Tudors cast almost every role better.

This brings me to my next point- Netflix. I need to send my movies back. I've had Marie Antoinette for so long its ridiculous, but I can't bear to send it back. I love every thing about it and could watch it a million times. I haven't sent back the last disc of the Tudors, because I want to watch the special features, and they put the first episode of Californication on it too, so I want to watch that. And I have A History of Violence, which I want to watch because Eastern Promises was so good, and this is the same director, same lead actor. Right now Netflix is doing me no good. I need to send these back and get some fresh movies. I used to be really good about returning stuff so that I always had something new to watch. I meant to watch at least the Tudors stuff, or A History of Violence so I could send one back, but I've gotten nothing done this weekend that I meant to.

Last night we went back to El Conquistador. We actually did make it a month without going, and Leslie swears they remembered us and welcomed us back. We being the only straight gringos in the place. (Basically their clientele is Mexicans and gay guys. Of course we stand out.)

This weekend was a very relaxing weekend, and I probably will go into the office feeling refreshed. I didn't think about work at all, and I didn't even think about going into the office. Its nice.