a present for all

so I've decided to shock everyone and post a blog. yes, i know, who'd have thunk it? for some reason, today, in the car ride from austin to san antonio, I decided that maybe I should become a writer too. Everyone's doing it, so maybe I should too....I mean, I'm supposed to be a double creative after all (per my numerology - a super successful and slightly power crazed 38/11) and I used to actually be somewhat creative, so why not start now. Besides, maybe I'll think of a brilliant story like Stephanie Meyer and be able to have my book(s) turned into movies starring a hot 22-year old british actor. or something like that...

anyway, it's the holidays and as such, i've been more lazy than usual. seriously, i think i took 3 naps yesterday, which was fantastic. i love being at my parent's house -- i am so spoiled, I can just lounge around, get called for meals, and bring my frozen organic cherries from the Whole to my mom to make me a pie. Can you think of anything better?

what else to write...um...i still haven't seen a movie -- that's next on the agenda. i'm thinking of checking out the Benjamin Button movie, because I actually saw part of the movie being filmed at Paramount AND I think brad pitt is hot. In that order....riiiiigggghhhhttttttt....And I also need to see Slumdog Millionnaire to prepare for my upcoming trip to India. So exciting.

alright, this is about all i can muster for now. merry christmas to all! and a happy, healthy new year! C - you're up.

- r

Random Musings

-Why when you delete people from facebook intentionally do they add you back? Do they think it was an accident? Whoops I just deleted whiny Clarissa who I havn't talked to in 10 years and still don't even though we are cyber friends, who was annoying then and now has even more to be annoying about since she is married with kids. 

-While wearing a suit 2 sizes to small for you, it's better not to make any sudden moves.

- When you really have fat chunky legs and your guy complements you on how muscular they are, keep him around. 

-Between now and Dec. 25th whenever a friend asks for a "favor" you can expect to be dragging her Christmas tree down 7th ave. with her since she has no other little elf to help. (after you spring her from her apartment she got locked inside - see previous post).

-If you are tired of hearing "ohmygosh you've NEVER seen the Matrix!" start lying or just rent it for crissakes.

Back in Black

Blogging is so over there isn't words enough for over. Which is usually when I catch on to things again. Like how I JUST bought a pair of Uggs that I resisted for years. (Don't worry little sheep your skin is going to great use, its 28 degrees here). Lots has been going on. This morning, while I was trying to mentally prepare for the new job tomorrow I had to rescue one of my more interesting friends from a typical situation. This time she had locked herself in her apartment. How does one do this? I don't know (something about a stripped lock). All I know is that I was requested to drag myself out of my toasty apartment at 10am on a Sunday to try to bust her out. Of course on the way over she already had flagged someone down in her hallway to no avail. So as I stood on the other side of her door we agreed the best thing was to call the locksmith who subsequently charged her an arm and a leg. Afterwards, she was despondant and all I could think of was to take her to the sample sale at my favorite boutique and spend her money. I've done my good deed for the day.

Has anyone noticed that you could slit your wrists on the edges of the macbook? uh design flaw hellooo.

Your a Sucker If Your Second

I have been recently trying to work off those dang vacation pounds that 4 days straight of 2 for 1 happy hour have wreaked on my body. A friend has been raving about spinning which I tried once in college but never much cared for, partly because I don't like to have searing pain in my legs and feeling like someone has their hands around my throat as I gasp for air all to pounding Techno music. But this week I did my fair share of biking at the Cape - which I loved. So I decided to try spinning at NYSC. What I learned 1) I don't know if I'll go back 2) Second is for suckers. Or so our teacher was screaming at us through her headset that looked like she should be answering my credit card inquiries at American Express. We were supposed to be visualizing hills and the goal line within view (now this was hard for me to see through the black spots that indicated I was seconds from passing out and pitching off my bike). So she keeps yelling "no one likes a loser!" "Second place is no place!" Talk about the opposite of my lovely nurturing yoga practice where you are "free to be where you are" and you should "listen to your body." The contrast was so startling that I didn't know if I should retaliate and be where I was (which was in like 1st gear sitting down when everyone else was standing and in high gear) or if I should go for that first place prize and vomit in the locker room later.  If I learned 1 thing its that changing up the routine is good and that challenging the expectation might produce results. You can definitely go further than you think you can. Well... I'll update you on that next week after weigh-in. I may decide to just "be where I am."

What is your Secret?

Well, I have ALMOST been doing a lot. Almost going to SxSw, almost moving to NJ, almost getting evicted and so on. I seem to be on the verge of everything. Maybe I am secretly resisting change? (this reminds me of a girl who was shopping in a boutique next to me in Brooklyn and EVERYTHING was secret "I secretly LOVE this dress Melissa, I secretly really want to eat my dessert first before lunch, I secretly want Tom to call me - on and ON!) sorry I digress. So work has been busy. I am trying to train my new guy (having higher turnover than McDonalds for the staff position that reports to me has been traumatic). Anyway, it has been a CHALLENGE this week. It's exhausting. Sometimes I think he just yesess me but then I have to check EVERYTHING and its often wrong. So I am SECRETLY hoping we both get better, me at teaching and him at learning. The other thing is, I don't know if you ever sang that song when you were little "me chinese me play joke, me put pee pee in your coke" but ever since my friend sang it recently, it always runs through my head when I go to this guys desk. Terrible I know. Now, some of my dearest friends are Chinese so there is definitely no slight meant - children can be sooo cruel, yet songs about pee, other bowel movement and your mama seem to stick with us into adulthood. I secretly hope I don't hum it in the halls :)

Oh and score big points if you know the band who inspired my title.

I refuse...

So Steen just told me, in a message on Facebook, no less, that our blog was dead and that it should be removed from the Interweb. However, I can't possibly let it go down that easily, no no no. This blog is going to drag on and on until we both feel it's time to let it go. Perhaps when the name of the blog no longer makes sense which means that I'll have to move or something...

Anyway, since I've last posted I'm sure a ton has happened. Most recently, I was in Austin at SXSW -- always a good time. There were definitely some changes this year, namely the lack of free beer and free condoms at day parties. Dang, 2007 was a good year :-) Also the bands were playing not just once, but maybe 4 or 5 times during the festival....Which seems a bit bizarre because in the past, if you missed one night show, that was it. This year, you could always catch the act the next night or at a day party. Strange. Does that mean that there were fewer artists this year? Hmmmm....My favorites from this year were.....DeVotchka, Cordero, Rupa and the April Fishes, and hm....I do like the new Old 97s music and think the forthcoming album will be a good one. I also liked Los Campesinos! and Ed Harcourt.

I think I'll write more later....maybe even this weekend, to humor dear Steenie and keep the dreaded blog alive!

I'm Weak

It's official, I'm disgusted with myself. I finally had to go and join facebook. Everyone seemed to be posting there and I was the only one not on it. Oh...you want to see pictures, they're on my facebook. I thought I would resist it until it ended. uggghhh. Oh well it will last about 5 minutes I'm sure, which is 5 minutes less than this blog lasted. The end is nigh... Dre where are you?

Mahalo

After a horrendous month at work that had not quite concluded when I flew out to Hawaii for Gladys & Adrian's wedding I was more than ready for a little escapism. Spending my layover in LA talking about deferred tax assets and carve outs to the stares of normal people was not a good way to start but I think things were under control enough for me to detach a bit. After the grueling flights I got my rental car and found my hotel at my first stop in Kauai. I had always wanted to go there but I didn't do much research. I'd sorta rather be camping but that requires planning, which you are about to find out I was desparately lacking. I collapsed into bed at 11, or 5am est and was looking forward to a little lie in when they started up at 5am. Who?? The EFFEN ROOSTERS. People, this is the garden isle, not the rooster isle. Crowing their G.D. heads off. So when I could no longer fight it, I was in the car before 7am driving north not really sure where I was headed. (Actually I had in my head to search for that little tiki statue that causes greg brady's surfing mishap at Hannelai Bay). Well that would be plan B anyway. So as I drive away, the rain comes. Buckets of it. I drive though Princeville to much of the same. Drat. I recall my brother saying that there was a state park at the end of the highway (total end of the island) so after a quick breakfast and more debit and credit talk with work I continue north.

So I turn up at the end of the earth and decide to hike. I talk to a couple who plans to go the whole 11 miles and boy, are they decked out. I look at myself and wonder if this is such a good idea. I have nearly no water, poor shoes and no rain jacket. Oh well, I've come this far. So after I walk in on this girls boyfriend in the porta-potty (mortifying) I am ready to ascend the trail. Yes I say ascend cause this is a cliff trail, a rocky, muddy fiend that over the next few hours I will come to call the Punisher. So off I go, slipping into my best yoga breath and move through the rocks one with nature. I get to the first beautiful vista and decide this is well worth it. But then, I see it, out on the ocean moving my way. The rain. Oh crap. Maybe I can outrun it?? I pass a Canaidian couple older than my parents and she calls out that she's lost her glasses, have I seen them?? Nope. We chat, then I book it to try to avoid the impending down pour. The red mud is already squishing through my sandals, splattered all over me, I'm sliding all over, twist my ankle and roll down a enbankment. This is actually my idea of vacation. I climb out. The rain catches up. It pours. The Punisher laughes aloud. I'm 3 miles away from my car. It's looking fairly wet and unsafe. I crouch in crow under some leaves to shelter from the deluge. I decide its safest to retreat. I pass the Canaidians on my way back, we wave. I do a mile and pause for a break. When I resume, I hear a cracklely crunch. I look down. I've smashed her eyes glasses in the mud. I blame the Punisher. I prop them on a rock and hope they can be salvaged. I'll be back Punisher!! And next time I'm doing the whole trail.

Anti-Torture Act of 2008

I’ve been thinking a lot about torture lately. Not like the UN definition of torture, but our own personal torture. Maybe because I’ve mis-used the word more frequently than usual or maybe I just love the way the word “torturous” rolls off my tongue. Sort of like vomititious. I actually LOVE that word because it’s so expressive, effective and descriptive and it sounds like what it is. That doesn’t happen too often. AND you can really put your whole face into the word. Anyway, I believe that most torture is self-imposed. Some people love to torture themselves. Others succumb to it. Recent observations of my own or other’s torture include agonizing over the perfect wording in an email, swearing you’ll never say hello to someone in the hall again after you’ve greeted them in passing dozens of times with NO response, the analyzing and over analyzing of something someone has said to you, long hours of overtime where your body is very angry at your for keeping it working at a desk for so long, the weight of expectation of something etc. Torture comes from the word that originally meant an "act of twisting" it’s the English derivative of the latin word tortura. So maybe we are actually twisting things so that we see ourselves as a victim and that is why it becomes so unbearable. If we can just remove that ego from the situation maybe we don’t have to be tortured. If we remember that we are free to think anything we want, react anyway we want, respond any way we want and that what other people do probably has nothing to do you personally, we can set ourselves free from our self-imposed torture. So I’ve decided that for the rest of month I’m not going to be victimitious.

Naughty or Nice?

No! This post isn't about what you think...Since election time is coming up I thought this sight was a good quick view of where the candidates are on some of the environmental issues. I am really hoping that this year we are past the aligning the party with environmental issues, i.e. dems are the tree huggers and pols are the stump cutters and the candidates can stop looking at the issue from a need to pander to special interest groups perspective.

http://www.grist.org/candidate_chart_08.html?source=most_popular

A New Year

So should we retire the blog in 2008? It was a creative experiment. But maybe now its time to go? However, I will do the Renee version of highlights HL and lowlights LL of my winter holidays, of lowlights there really were few:
HL Pup sitting Jills King Charles dogs swamp thing and frisco* (names have been changed to protect the innocent)
LL combing through the back yard with a shovel and stick to coax squishy dog poo into a cleanup bag after the rain
HL Snowshoeing through Vermont wilderness with a Navy Seal
HL Going skiing at Okemo
LL Collision with the chairlift and getting sandwiched by Dennis requiring the crew to stop the lift and untangle me and my skis
HL Relaxing in the hot tub after skiing
LL Nearly getting gassed to death because I worse some kind of cheap dyed tank into the hot tub which created toxic fumes
HL New Years Eve with some of my fave peeps
LL Missing the New Years Day viewing party of Dawson’s Crack.
There you have it. I feel like 2008 is my year. Something special is going to happen.