These Eyes Are Berries

I'm Coming Up Only To Hold You Under

No Time For Proper Detail, We Are In Need Of A Listing Device:

Ashleigh and Jim were here for a week. That was fabulous.

Ash and Jim and me and JD and our friends here went out to dinner on our anniversary (the 21st) and it was fantastic. The waitress was incredible and, after discerning that we were celebrating our anniv., she brought two free bottles of champagne for the table and wouldn't stop exclaiming over how cool it was that we got married in a castle in scotland. Oh, I love the restaurant that we went to, it's Cuban and they have the best...everything. Ah, god, that was awesome. It was super nice to have friends around and go celebrate with people we love etc etc

Then my armpits had been hurting (??) mysteriously for a couple days, and I woke up with a migraine that lasted the next three days. I thought I was going to die.

Went to Hollywood, toured the Kodak Theater (we went on the actual stage where they do the oskirs), went to Grumann's Chinese Theater, watched live performance of America's Next Pop Tartlet-Skank in progress America's Next Pop Star, spent three man-free hours of bliss in Sephora with Ashleigh, went to Ripley's B'lieve it or Not museum, saw walk of fame, got harrassed for "donations" by low-rent looking Chewbacca knockoff after "character" forced way into group photo.

Drove to Pasadena, where my suggestion for an eating place turned out to be the worst idea in human history. My food had a living grub or maggot of some kind luxuriating on the spinach leaf placed atop the pasta and when I sent it back a series of escalating, progressively sassier misunderstandings with our english-as-a-second-language waitress led to our eventually leaving without eating and I don't really want to talk about it because my blood pressure is rising even now. I had to keep sending her back to her "manager" to see if they could comp all the food. Am I crazy for thinking that should have been the initial appeasement? I thought that was more or less standard practice. Instead she encouraged us to save room for lots of dessert because that would be on the house. I dug deep, you guys, and got totally fucking shitty with her. Ugh. We drove back to the oc and swung by In 'N Out burger (yes, we can eat it, they have a "veggie burger" that is just tomato and lettuce and grilled onions on a bun with ketchup and mustard and it is fucking heaven) and the only positive thing to come from that is that we didn't blow a ton of cash on an overpriced italian meal. Jeeze.

We discovered a new, super-great beach that we had never gone to before which will now be the only beach I care to hang out at (Ash and Jim spent most of a whole day there when JD and I both had to work one day)

Went to watch a taping of the late late show with craig ferguson (he's scottish). Interesting. When you show up, they basically rank-order you into categories based on your physical attractiveness (I am not kidding) and how nicely you're dressed. Duder looked us up and down and stuck us in group 1 even though we were very close to arriving late. A quick look around the waiting area revealed the method to their classification: young, reasonably attractive people who were not dressed like idiots in group 1. middle- and older-aged people, really conservative or boring-looking young people, and people who were dressed trashily in group 2. Group 3 was entirely composed of freak teenagers who were clearly (I thought) trying to dress/look as weird as possible so that if they were on tv it would be hilarious to them. Oh and I noticed that a good number of minorities were seated in group 3. This classification highly disturbed me. Until we ended up in the most amazing possible seats, in the second row on the side of the studio without any of the stupid camera equipment blocking our view of anything. Then I said a little thank-you to the baby jesus for making us reasonably attractive because it was pretty cool to be 10 feet from celebs. janeane garofolo was there. SHE IS TINY! also wolfgang puck was there to film the july 4th cooking segment, and he seems really really sweet and cute. he's also tiny. he made a flag cake that they fed us after the taping was over. It was all filmed out of order and we were basically forbidden to do anything but cheer and yell enthusiastically. The warm-up guy, a fat sad drunk man who relentlessly hit on the Sassy Southern Girl seated right in front of us, said that at no point were we allowed to do what in the comedy world is called a "step-back," where you go "oh no he didn't!" or some such. Fatty McWarmUp then joked, "this isn't Conan, you guys" to which the whole crowd reacted with a loud stepback.

anyway. it was cool, if surreal and disenchanting a little bit. Craig ferguson is fucking hilarious in person, though. Jim won a mug. JD won a Big & Rich cd. Oh yes. I think we left that in ashleigh and jim's rental car *cough*

After the taping we went to another restaurant I suggested, this one all macrobiotic so mostly vegan but with some things having fish in them, and that was actually good, thank god. I would have stroked out if anything had gone wrong with that place. Macrobiotic cake is a little disappointing, but otherwise it was fabulous.

Then we dicked around in Santa Monica, a niceish hipster shopping area. sort of. I can't describe things very well. Oh earlier that day we had gone to Venice Beach, which is where there's a boardwalk and muscle beach and people rollerblade with their dogs and sell fake watches and stuff. Yarp.

So there's only a week and some change before the 5th HP movie. I am going to pee my pants every day until the midnight showing of that movie

Also, JD and I just discovered that the Decemberists are playing the Hollywood Bowl next weekend with the LA Philharmonic in their first-ever full orchestra concert! AND AND AND Band of Horses and Andrew Bird are both playing too!!!!!! I am so excited already I can barely think straight. We got tickets yesterday, and they are really rad seats (they better be, they cost an arm and a leg) and you are allowed to bring picnic things like wine and candles and shit with you. We are sitting in a little 4-seat box with a great view. If two of you guys wanna come out we'll share our picnic and wine with you. Heeee. God, a fantastic concert with my current three favorite bands, and we get to bring wine. God BLESS IT.

When Ash & Jim were here I had this fanatical idea that we needed new pillows for our bed because JD and I constantly wake up with sore necks. We ended up going to linens 'n things and buying a new comforter and sheets and now every time I see the bed I get so happy I cry a little bit. Maybe I'll photograph that for you guys. So since then I have been on a big nesting kick. We spent an entire afternoon looking for a particular size cushion to replace the one on the bench we have in the living room that's a thousand years old. I went on a crazy three-target spree to find the perfect toilet contour rug. etc. It's strange how different this place looks with those little changes- the shower curtain we got to replace the extremely ugly one we had previously alone really classes up the place. I am kind of a princess.

Melissa, you are welcome to come visit any time at all! and you don't need to bring emergency water because we are going to donate allllllllll those cans of disaster preparedness food to either a food bank or a shelter of some kind, so it would probably be gone by the time you got here. But anytime is good. Unless I'm, like, not here or something. So maybe call first, but then anytime is fine :)

Keep It Upstairs

1. My camera battery charger is in Boston. So I sincerely apologize (really, I got my bangs all dolled up the other day to photograph-u and scoured this apartment for my other battery for, like, an hour before I remembered forgetting it at Jenny's house), but there won't be any pictures of my hair anytime soon. It's pretty okay. It's not full-on bangs or anything. But I'm learning the value of bobby pins and things (working out or sweating in general is really annoying with bangs) and my flat iron hasn't left the bathroom vanity for a week. Urgh.

2. Congratulations Celeste! Mrs. Shane! Newly-married Ladyface! That's awesome.

3. Also congrats to Auntie Melissa, again. Those babies are preshie.

4. And congrats to Stacey on the new apartment and blog template! very chic. Happy Birthday to Chris Daniels and happy early birthday to Toni. HOORAY!

5. JD and I went camping in the middle of the damned desert with Kris-tin and Airhick Monday night. Holy balls it is hot and arid in a desert. I know, right? But we were all a little shocked by it. We saw a sidewinder rattlesnake. Kristin found it, which makes sense because she is kind of prissy and also deathly afraid of snakes. It was in our campsite. Yeah, everything has to live underground during the day so there are all these animal holes all over that could fit a desert rat, or a snake, or a huge rabbit, or whatever. It's hard to tell if different animals have different holes or if they're all just piled up under there, all day until it gets insanely cold at night and they all come out and prey on one another.

The place we went is called Joshua Tree Nat'l Park and the whole landscape looks like a living Dr. Seuss book. It was beautiful.

6. This quarter is two weeks from being fuuuucking done.

7. I have an EXCELLENT comp cd for ya'll. HIT ME UP. It's really good and catchy.

8. I am radiating goodness into the universe all the time, when I can stand to. Am trying to carve some awfulness from my life too but it's slow going and painful. My life is too fantastic otherwise to waste so much energy and time on something doomed. Blah. I am thinking happy thoughts about all of you and I am sending good vibrations you ways. Love you guys.

If I Could Only Coax You Overboard

So last Friday JD and I went to see a jazz pianist with our dear dear friends Kris-tin and Air Hick. hhahah. Air Hick, I'm totally using that more often.

Anyway. I digress. Two sentences in and I digress.

So we went to the jazz show. It was rad. The guy performing, this dude, was fucking talented. There were peanuts on each little four-person table and it was over in the new building's smaller theater and the atmosphere was delightful. Since JD got free tickets Air Hick wanted to buy drinks but the bar was cash only so he literally ran around the area until he found an atm. Then returned with, magically, everyone's favorite drinks. We have a standing Monday night dinner fete with them, you see, where they come over or we go there and we all eat something vegan and drink the shit out lots of bottles of stuff and forget all our worldly troubles. So he and JD have been plowing through our ever-expanding whisky collection and the Men have both developed a taste for the good shit. and that's what Air Hick brought for himself and JD, and brought his wifey white wine (here is my Kris-tin impression: "I only drink white wine. But NOT FUCKING Chardonnay. I'm leaving if anyone orders a fucking Chardonnay") and me red wine. Yay! Red wine is my favorite color!

Ahem. So afterward, we decided to go to a bar. A nice normal bar (those are very hard to find in socal) with doughy people, or pale people, or reasonably attractive people instead of barbie dolls and coyotes. Yes, somehow the Men knew about a nice Irish bar. So we Ladies were concerned that we were terribly overdressed, because that was completely fucking true. I was wearing a dress, for fuck's sake. And shoes that were destroying my damned feet. She was wearing a skirt with beads or sequins on it or something. We both looked way too awesome for a normal bar. But we resigned ourselves to going and enjoying it because we both love bars and we figured since we had dates it didn't look as much like we were desperately trolling for dick.

So there's a really shit band. I enjoy shit bands at bars quite a lot. It's fun. Yay. There's a jukebox that I put money into right as we're leaving. I always fucking do that, I don't know how it happens. At some point the Men go to close out the bar tabs (god, you know what? there are some things that are SO FUCKING GREAT about being married that don't even occur to me until I go to boston and both Raedy and Jenny give me shit about being a puss and not wanting to go up to the bar. Jenny even made me go up to the bar tender, pretend I was her, and close out her tab once while I was there. Booo). Air Hick came back and while the three of us were sitting there, this random dude came up and totally hit on me.

I actually got to use this technique I have been daydreaming about for months-- because it was loud (air full of shit band music) I could barely hear him (something about dancing with him, though, and I think how awesome my boobs looked) so I drunkenly and dramatically gestured to my ring finger whilst making an exaggerated apologetic face and shurugging my shoulders, drunkenly.

Maybe a little bit of overkill. I also vaguely remember patting his hip to console him because after I said no he kept talking and I couldn't hear him. Something about helping him make his ex-girlfriend jealous, we think. Not sure. But then JD came back and hahaha, what a funny occurrence because he is totally secure in our marriage and shit.

Now, for the story part of the story.

Kris-tin has NOT LET THIS GO since it happened, she has brought it up repeatedly and always in the context of Why he hit on me and not her. It is SO obviously killing her. She has suggested the following theories:

*She is unapproachable looking because of her dark hair.
* She is unapproachable because her husband was sitting right next to her.
*She was not hit on because she had her back to this guy so he couldn't see her, he could only see me
*She is hideously ugly and repulsive to all men
*She is some kind of freak, goddammit, and no one ever thinks she's pretty
*She is going to kill herself if anyone ever hits on me again

hahahahah

To Know Me All Wrong

Office hour. Friday. Friday afternoon. No chance anyone is coming to pick my brain about resirch, syince, or life more broadly. Hence, blogging. Plus we just had a lively diskussion sekshun in which I allowed them to pretend to be working on a class project so they are thoroughly tired of me today.

My officemate noticed my Incredible Grey Hair today. "Wow," she said, chewing thoughtfully on some trail mix. "You've got grey hair!"

"Yah," I replied wittily, "I have since I was in high school. But usually I color it. But then my sister was all on my case to leave it alone. Also now I'm broke. Oh and I'm hoping it looks cool eventually."

"I never noticed that!"

"Yarrp."

Oh hey that reminds me. Go see Hot Fuzz the movie if it's playing near you and/or you like comedy. Heeee-larious. I haven't even seen Shaun of the Dead but it is the same people and it's pretty awesome. Almost Super-Troopers awesome. It's an action movie homage/parody but it's funny and loving. According to the reviews I read about it, it's very deferential to the genre as opposed to... oh, just, here.

Life is so fantastic and also busy. My social life has been off the chain lately, which is great, but I am not so excellent at balancing responsibility and fun. So usually I'm like, "ahh, fun. yes, I could use some fun" and then nothing gets done. I am trying for the billionth time in the last few years to remedy that. My newest technique has involved emailing people to schedule meetings well in advance of actually completing the work for the meeting, leaving me panicked and rushed for time, pulling all-nighters and freaking out. But getting shit done, you guys.

My husbie has started mispronouncing words to irritate me and then repeating them ad nauseum, laughing until he is literally crying. It must be such a fun life to have a wee little pea brain that takes delight in conversations like the following:

Me: Gawd I want some chocolate!
Him: Do you want some wewwie wewwie good chocolate?
Me: Uggh don't use that baby voice. Do we have any chocolate?
Him: Hmmm. I don't know but I want some chok-lit too. I wish we had chok-it chip cookies.
Me: ARRGE! shut up with that voice
Him: Chok-it chip! I want chok-it chip cookies. Chok-it CHIP!!
Me: --
Him: CHOK IT CHIPS!! CHOK IT!!! HAHAHAHAHA CHOK IT!!

So for the last week whenever he wants me to punch my fist through the wall he gets in my face and starts going, "mmm chok-it chip cookies!" and then dissolving into giggle hysterics. He is SUCH a little girl. But I have to admit it's fucking funny to watch him autistiklly mispronounce "chocolate" so many times that tears stream from his eyes and he's hyperventilating.

Have you seen those weird "yoga" classes where the point is to force yourself to laugh for an hour? Supposedly it becomes contagious and real as you do it. I tried this the other day, forcing myself to laugh at nothing, and it was highly amusing. The cats, my only witnesses, did not find it amusing. They assumed I had lost my damn mind and hid under the bed while I almost choked to death on my own spit.

I spent some time this morning finding a suitable photograph of Lavril VaVigne (figure it out, lazy) for my advicer to use in a talk next week at a major international conferense. The world is ending.

I was having some mood problems earlier this month, not menstrual in nature, but more of a global feeling of smothering dread that was suspiciously feeling like it might be clinically meaningful. I feel better now (I feel pretty awesome now, actually), but for awhile I could literally not concentrate on anything and was sleeping a lot and hating my work. Then I voiced these concerns to my advicer and she translated them into words I could make sense of. "Oh," she said, lightbulb popping into existence above her head as I lamented my own Extreme Laziness, "you're scared shitless. That's normal."

Ahhh, I love having an advicer who curses at me and also one who Does Not Pull Punches, especially when a curse word is the most exact/precise/appropriately narrow word for the anomaly. I about cried in her office I was so relieved to hear that I am behaving in a normal manner, as normal as dysfunction is for grad skool participants in general, and since then I have been able to think and focus and shit and I am much better, thanks.

What else? Oh jeeze you guys I am not that interesting. I went shopping a few weeks ago against my better fiscal judgment and that also cheered me out of my pseudo depression funk. I got some shoes and a really prosh dress.

How about that earth-like planet, huh?

Louder, Louder, And We'll Run For Our Lives


Jenny cartwheels a mean drunk cartwheel.








We fight a mean drunk fight.







We laugh a mean drunk joke. Drunk joke, haaaa. I think we were laughing about how much like a dandyfop pirate Keith looks.







Baaahstin gloams a mean twilight. I shouted, "Hey lookit! Boaters!" at the people in the boat before touristically snapping a billion photos of them without consent. I am going to sell this picture postcard to the City of Baaahstin and make a nice tidy profit.







Jenny and Keith scowl a mean cold evening constitutional scowl.







Baaahstin coaxes a mean sunset for the only night I had my camera on me.







Keith cartwheels a mean into-the-camera drunk cartwheel.







Liz cartwheels a mean drunk cartwheel whilst in stits (anyone else watch australia's next top model? they call stilettos stits)

I hiked my dumb ass all the way to the housing office today to pay rent before I noticed the check had fallen out of my back pocket somewhere along the way. I frantically retraced my steps all the way home. Ran into a jolly fat maintenance man who informed me that he had found it and turned it in to my apt office. Was grateful then irate once Jolly Fat Fat informed me that he had watched it fall out of my pocket as I walked past him the first time, but "couldn't" get my attention because I had my iPod headphones on. Wtf, Jolly Fat Fat. Couldn't Jolly Two Step or Jolly Hippety Hop or Jolly Jog Your Ass a couple steps to catch me? Wow, thanks a jolly fat lot.

I have two iPods. One is for the gym only, it is pink and old-fashioned and has the crappy non-color screen. The other is my nice, fancy pants one that I use all the rest of the time. Today my pink gym iPod gave me a Sad Mac face and died! That was traumatic, but since I won't take the nice one to the gym it leaves me no choice but to run out and get myself a twee kicky shuffle so I can go to the gym tonight.

I am telling you all this because I know from the pile of steaming shit I'm reading for The Big D, as I will now be addressing it, that writing to get things out is good, but writing them with the intent of expressing your emotions is way better, and associated with all kinds of great health/mental outcomes. I encourage all of you to start Getting It Out more. That's what the Remorseless Blog II: The Secret Of The Ooze (hahahahahaha) is for, after all. I can't overemphasize the utility of dealing with things in this particular way. Or just squelch it, whatev. teeheeeeee xoxoxoxo

What Divine Intelligence

Back from Boston. Whew, that was a bunch of fun all crammed into not that much time. I drank more than the entire rest of my adult life combined, but it was totally fun.
See? I look like a retarded muppet when I'm drinking. I also have photos of each of us doing drunk cartwheels on a random street near jenny's house as we stumbled home from bar #576.


ahahaha. it was totally fun except sometimes i was cold. The show was rad, Jenny is rad, Keith is rad. Raedy is rad. I miss everyone already and that's not rad.

Anyway, I'm back. thought I would feel like typing more but I'm bored. Later.

You're Young Until You're Not

Sitting in my office with an undergrad the other day, she peered at the outdated photo collages hanging above my desk and exclaimed, "oh my GOD, how OLD were you in that picture?!"

She was pointing at a photo of me and Mike and Keith crammed in a photo booth from when we all drove to Florida and Stacey and I almost died.

I had to think about it for a second, then told her that I had just turned 18 when that was taken. She wrinkled her nose and looked from me to the photo and back again a few times, then announced, "you just look so YOUNG in that photo. and it's weird that you're with those guys."

I laughed at the fact that I now apparently look insanely old and crotchety, then laughed harder at the comment about how weird that I was in a photo with "those guys." I then took it upon myself to explain each person in photos in my office and my relationship to those people. As always when I actually pay attention to my photos I am surprised and baffled by the fact that I have no good photos of my husbie, nor any photos of us together, and made a mental note to take care of that. I have bajillions of photos of me and JD. I just never print photos out anymore.

Hmmm.

also interstingly, I was teaching a group of wee froshies about life and I paused to make the point that I am not all that much older than they are, so it's like we're the same generation. Then I looked at their innocent little faces and rethought that. I asked them what grade they were in during the year 2000, when I was in college. THEY SAID SIXTH GRADE.

Yipes. Other weird realizations?
*I have a decade of sexual activity under my belt (haha, literally)
*I have known most of you more than half my life and that is more than a decade
*Hanging around women who are pregnant makes me think babies are a good idea
*My weird proliferation of gray hair is no longer anomalous
*I am starting to notice tiny wrinkles around my eyes
*I almost never get carded at bars anymore

You Tell Me To Keep Things Quiet

Got bored. Actually, got sick of this thing I was doing so I fucked around with this for an hour instead. Thanks a fat lot, blogger, for forcing the change in the first place. Not the template change, but W-E! I don't need a google account. But I guess the other template was pretty hard to read.

Am boring today. Felt sick all day yesterday. I love being a womyn. Did not get anything done thanks to it. Which is a real pity since I am so swamped right now. Obviously.

What was I going to tell you, blog? Oh who cares. Something uninteresting, probably.

We had a good anniversaire, thanks. Nothing interesting. I don't have any funny stories to tell you. I'm going to go to Boston in March and hang out with Jenny and possibly Raedy and see the Decemberists again. That's really exciting.

Mostly I slept, have slept, have been sleeping. That was nice. I'll be up late tonight, though. We are supposed to hang out with some of JD's friends and I have a lot of work I need to get done so I am getting cranky thinking about hanging out. I will have to put my face on, for example, and change out of pants that make my butt look like a saggy, concave trucker butt. I will need to apply some sort of heated implement to my hair and I just don't want to. I will need to polish up my small talking skillz, which I will also need tomorrow night for the Stupid Prospie Dinner that I also don't want to go to. Oh, it hurts me too.

Today I signed up for a free version of this: Backpackit and it's awesome. You guys should do that too if you like being neurotic about everything.

Uh, what else?

Christ I'm boring. Just checking out the new look.

Another Drink And I'm Ready For Action

In case you are not interested in myspace, and therefore didn't get the memo, please click here to laugh your face off.

Thank you.

The Road To Awe

Ok, ok. I realize that the movie The Fountain is not playing everywhere, especially now. I realize that even here, it is now only in LA, and probably not anymore as of this weekend. However. You should see it. If you have to wait until the dvd comes out, that's cool. You don't even need to rent it. Just buy it. Seriously. And I hate buying dvds just to have them. It's one of the best movies I have ever seen, and I knew that once I saw it, but also kind of ignored it until yesterday when the soundtrack (played by Kronos Quartet and Mogwai) arrived in a package with a bunch of shit I ordered from Amazon as my xmas present from my mom (yay gift certificates!).

I have listened to the inarguably mind-blowingly awesome soundtrack on repeat since I got it yesterday afternoon. I am listening to it now. I am struggling with the fact that I will have to take it out of the cd player at some point to import it into my computer, so I can also burn copies of this for those of you who have requested comp cds. And my mom, because she would really like it, and she is coming up on a very big milestone-- one month smoke free! (On January 21st--everyone please congratulate her). I am sick with pride for my mom. I can't remember the last time she did something that honestly impressed me this much. She is doing awesome and she keeps sending me emails and photos of the food she's been cooking for herself, and you know what? I am really happy that it is stuff like veggie stir fry, rather than buttered egg noodles with raw steak and boxed wine.

*I like to read science blogs whenever it is the weekend and celeb-gossip sites are not updating, and today I found this beauty of a study which seems like the perfect idea for my Brayne Photography class project. Indeed, it sounds like the best idea for a study...ever. Now, I just need some volunteers from the audience. Ahem.

*Ashleigh, did you and Jim get kittens?

*I washed and did my hair yesterday morning (I am sick but doing that, "well, there's no reason I have to goddamn LOOK sick" denial thing) and put makeup on and went to my tee ay class and my friend All ison was all, "wow you look really pretty today! something about your face!" And that really knocked me off my game (she is very straightforward with compliments and I admire that about her but it always unbalances me) so I muttered something about makeup and then slunk back into the crowd of children multitasking through her intro class. Yesterday's offenders? Two kids in front of me looking at the the iPhone and a girl next to me who sighed loudly every few seconds. Elbowed me while writing. Glared at me when I unwrapped cough drops. Hey, you sat next to me. It's not my problem that you didn't want to sit by someone with obviously contagious respiratory problems.

*I saw the movie The Queen the other day. Pretty interesting. What? I see movie when I'm stressed out. It's the only thing that helps. Other stuff just lets my mind keep running while I'm trying to relax. Movies are nice and escapist.

*My ladiefriends are coming over this afternoon to eat pizza and watch tivo'd episodes of the office. B tells us that she (she is the blond one in the photos, not the married one) has recently dyed her hair back to its natural color- a darkish brown. I am DYING to see this. She has been blond the whole time I've known her. I'll let you guys know what I think. I cannot picture it, but for some reason I am proud of her. We had yoga Wed and Douchebagg McExboyf is somehow taking that yoga class (I do not understand how he gets into the building with no student id) and she looked surprised to see him there and then after class we had some really awkward conversation with him (like, really awkward. he's such a weirdo) and then he stopped to talk to the instructor and we ran away. I asked her about him and she made it sound like she hasn't ruled him out completely but they're not seeing much of each other and that's what she needs right now. I almost hugged her. I like it when people make good decisions on their own (and that's not an imposition of my will, I think it's an objective thing that this guy is a piece of turd).

*JD signed us up for blockbuster's version of netflix. so yesterday we got five new movies in the mail. Excellent, right? No. Sigh. Last night we watched that zack braff movie The Last Kiss ( I think it ALMOST went straight to dvd). Not as bad as you'd think. Still pretty baddish. and I really like rachel bilson (not her acting, ok, but i think she's precious) so it had that going for it too. One really good line about your own feelings of love for another person not mattering to anyone but you and all that really matters is what you do. I agree. Anyway, if you're going to rent or watch a movie, or if you're considering road trips to cities with art houses, find a city with The Fountain still playing and see that over almost anything else. Except I would also push for Pan's Labyrinth, that was a kickass movie too. See that if you can't find the Fountain.

*I am trying, all the time, to radiate gratitude. Even though I am unfairly sick (again!) this week, and even though skool is totally hard and shit. I am very very lucky. I have everything I need. and everything I want, except pineapple orange banana juice. Ah well, I'll content myself with a pot of coffee and a few hours of nerdly data finagling before my friends come over for party time.

*LOVE YOU GUYS! I hear rumblings of a possible visit out here, and I won't jinx it yet but I am already SO EXCITED to see those of you who may be considering coming out here. YOU ARE TOTALLY GOING TO LOVE IT, JUST ASK JENNY. At least you will love the food and weather. Kisses.

I Go To The Flower Stall And I Get A Violet Violet To Put In My Jet Black Hair

It totally skeeves me out when I see on my site meter thing that someone found and read an archive of this blog by googling the full name of a girl i went to HS with. I always feel like I need to write a disclaimer, such as that I don't even remember why i would have written anything about her especially using her full name, or that if you're vain enough to google your own name and you have a weird name, well, yeah. Whatever. Creepy.


So when J and M were here, we went to the beach. I sat, matron-style, far away, watching the kids play in the sand. And took paparazzi photos of them with my digital zoom.

See how cute they are? SO cute.


Hold my shoes, mom?


I took kitten to the vet for booster shots yesterday. The vet is insanely nice and I fell in love with him this time because he seemed (A) amused by the kitten's name (Mingus) and (B) very pleased with how much kitten is thriving. Kitten gained 2.5 lbs since thansgiving and the vet told me that we are doing a very good job with him. That was cool since the first time kitten went to the vet, he was nice but cautious, saying how little kittens "can go really fast" so we needed to watch him. But now kitten is fat and happy and healthy and that makes me very happy too. Oh and we can get him fixed any time. Gulp.

I also got a haircut yesterday. Nothing dramatic. Our new apartment has a fluorescent light in the bathroom that ages me dramatically (I hope it is the light, I mean), which may mean I try to actually get haircuts when i need them instead of going eight months between cuts and wondering why my hair looks so fried and crazy that it is single-handedly ruining K's wedding photos. She said she didn't mind, but I bet she secretly totally minds. Oh whatever.

JD is fighting sick the last few days and for some reason I cannot sleep enough. I think it is self-defense against all the looming work this next week brings with it. I am slated to give another of those cute guest lektshirs this quarter, again in the class I am tee aying, but this time in front of 400 people. Urgh. Oh and it's in 2 weeks and these things take me forever to write and I haven't started. And it's on my research area but it's an intro class so my area is not really the appropriate level. Dick. At least it will be over before the quarter really kicks in with a vengeance. Right? Positive thinking.

Oh, babe is home early. Like, five hours early. laters.

As A Birthday Present For Melissa, Here Are Some Photos Of A Kitten Looking Totally Cute:

Ce résumé n'est pas disponible. Veuillez cliquer ici pour afficher l'article.