I broke a brand new CFL bulb just now and according to the EPA I need to stay out of the room for fifteen minutes. I was thinking as I was opening the package how nice that they make it easier to open plastic packages these days. And then bam the thing hits the floor and shatters. Ugh!
Been commuting to Novato for the past couple of weeks. Now it's back to working from home on a couple of projects with friends/colleagues. It's been fun working on different stuff, and I make the same amount of money that I did at my nonprofit gig, except the checks are much more sporadic. Hopefully, the jobs will start coming more frequently. The Novato gig would be awesome if it were in the City, but it's paid the rent for a few months this summer
Did yoga today and then went on a thrift binge because the bus wasn't coming soon enough. Of course I found a lot of good stuff because I shouldn't spend the money. It always works that way.
Bummed that we won't be making it to see Radiohead and Beck at the Outside Lands Festival tonight, but I'm hoping we'll make it in to see Wilco and Rogue Wave on Sunday night. Fingers crossed.
Alemany farmers market tomorrow morning. Yay!
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- Currently working on a fun freelance web project, thanks to Sheila. Have had a few promising freelance leads fizzle out this month, thanks to Mercury being in retrograde. What, it makes sense! Luckily the retrograde is over now though. Next one starts September 24!
- Saw "World's Angriest R.V. Salesman" Jack Rebney live at the Found Footage Festival. He was very nice (and almost blind), and that clip is amazing. There were people at the fest filming a documentary about Jack.
- Saw Loquat play at Du Nord last week, was pretty drunk, but always love seeing them.
- Saw Roque Wave and Deathcab for Cutie at the Greek Theatre on Saturday. We had working passes, so we got to hang out back stage and talk to the Rogue Wave dudes. From the side of the stage, in the wings, is the way to see a show, I tell you.
- Went to an awesome, unpublicized rummage sale in Japantown a couple weeks ago, where I bought a whole new wardrobe of vintage, polyester old lady shirts, many of them handmade. It's an annual sale that consists of mainly the elderly Japanese community and their teenaged/20-something grandchildren helping out. I feel a little guilty for not writing about it in SFist -- I didn't want the competition.
I have tried many times to give up the polyester habit, but I've been finding too many awesome items that actually fit well lately. SF has perfect polyester weather. Back in the Midwest, polyester always made me feel too hot or cold, but generally the temperate SF weather doesn't pose an issue, except last weekend when it was scorching hot. Then it was cotton-only for me.
- I recently realized that Ross is kind of a glorified thrift store. These days, Goodwill is about as expensive. Hence, I came out of Ross the other day with two pairs of jeans, three pairs of great shoes, a cute dress, and a bathing suit that's actually pretty flattering. (I'm taking one pair of jeans back.) I seriously have a whole new wardrobe now.
- On a similar thrift note, I also went on a spree at this chruch thrift store near my house that I usually don't have luck with. I found three dresses, a blouse, and a cute jacket. Then, the next day, we were all at drunken happy hour at Beauty Bar, and a couple of the women who work at the thrift store came in wasted off their asses. It was pretty funny. One of them totally hit on me, which was very flattering, but now I will be too embarrassed to ever go in there again. I've only been in there a couple of times anyway, since their stuff is usually too preppy for me. I seriously get so shy and weird when I become a "regular" at places, and when people flirt, it makes it even worse.
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May. 29th, 2008 @ 05:52 pm
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I'm going to make this tonight (pasta with lentils and kale) and will add ham.
Daniel's not feeling well now. It seems like the virus has a very long incubation period. I left it with a few of my family members back home too... Bummer!
Laughing over Jameth, as usual.
Still looking for work and finding it hard to get motivated again. Hoping to get the job. It was one of the first ones I interviewed for, and I've been waiting a month to hear back about a second interview when the director gets back from his month-long motorcycle vacation. I still have good leads through friends that have been very fruitful. It's been fun meeting new contacts and hearing that I'm actually pretty good at graphic design. I have my rent paid through July, at least. Portfolio and resume here.
I've been reading Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain for the past couple of months. It's been very helpful for dealing with LP's death. (I also found out about someone else's death back home last week who I briefly knew ten years ago.) I find it very fascinating -- it's very spiritual, philosophical and biological at the same time. I have a quarter of the book left. Some pages are one entire paragraph though and I mostly read before bed, so sometimes I can't get through one page before I fall asleep. There was one agonizing chapter I tried reading during my fever. The intensely philosophical dialog between two characters kind of made me more ill and unable to sleep.
Can't wait for free sushi and Dewer's tomorrow night! Can't wait for our trip to Portland in August!
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 So sitting in the airport bar for five hours yesterday wasn't so bad. The hot toddy and cough medicine helped it swirl by in a blur.
I sent my resume into everyone I had been meaning to contact for a while. And everyone else in the bar was also on the SF flight. Always the classiest people in the Indy aiport are going to SF with me.
The flight was great too. The Coach Choice seat meant that no one was in the middle seat, so I didn't feel claustrophobic. So so worth the extra $25 (on Northwest, FYI)! I had my inflatable neck pillow with me, along with my slowly dying, geriatric iPod, oh and my Breathe Deep Yogi tea. It was all good.
Then, my bag was one of the first to come out at baggage claim. So I sailed on out to the Door to Door van service to find that one van was about to leave. And guess what, they were going to Union Square and could stop at my place in the ol' Tendernob along the way. I made it home in a record half-hour.
Then I slept for about twelve hours.
About to sleep some more. Got to stay in bed today... |
| » one trip to Indiana, one memorial, one cold + fever later... |
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I'm sure things could be worse than they have been on this trip, but I'm about at my wit's end. At least I now have cough medicine with codeine w/ a prescription so I could bring it on the plane though...
I was able to come home to Indiana for LonPaul's memorial, which was heartbreakingly beautiful.
Then, I managed to develop a chest cold and mild fever that was going around at Txxxx when I was freelancing there a couple of weeks ago. I spent more than half my trip in my high school bedroom at my mom's but was only able to sleep two full nights out of the six I was home. (I seemed to have insomnia before the cold set in -- stress, I guess.) I watched a lot of movies. All of them good -- except You Me and Dupree, which I watched on HBO -- would've never rented it, I assure you. Here's the list in order of preference, which might have been categorized differently had I not been feverish:
The Namesake
Savages
Love Actually (I know it's cheesy and everyone's parents love it, but darn it, so did I)
Dan in Real Life (ditto)
2 Days in Paris (It was really good, and Adam Goldberg has an impressive penis, but the neuroses made my fever worse)
Broken English (LOVE Parker Posey no matter what)
The Devil Wears Prada (guilty pleasure -- it was really cute too)
Last night I was only able to sleep for about two hours, a little bit of thanks to the pre-pubescent boy whose bedroom was directly above mine. He was chattering and jumping about until about 1:00 a.m.
My flight was supposed to leave at 8:15 this morning, but of course I get here to find out it's been delayed until 10:30. At least it's nonstop, and I had splurged for a "Coach Choice" seat in the exit row. I couldn't help but burst into tears when I heard I would have to sit in the airport for three hours, pissed at myself for not checking the status before I left (not sure I would've had a ride later on anyway)... I hate myself for calling my mom to cry about it -- now she'll be even more upset when she gets to work. She can't handle it when I leave.
I should get into SF by 1:00 PST though, so I can sleep all afternoon.
I will soon probably get a dirty martini -- my favorite airport drink -- that will mix wonderfully with the cough medicine. I know it's very bad on my liver, but you know what, I need this.
Someone call a waambulance...
UPDATE: Flight is now delayed even further, until Noon. And I'm having a hot toddy and french toast, sweating my feverish ass off.
May. 19th, 2008 @ 04:34 am
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| » 3 bridges, 2 suicides later... |
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I had a crazy day of driving from one job in Berkeley to the next in Marin, and then babysitting in SF. It's been a strange day, and apparently there were two suicides in two Union Squares today -- one in SF and one in NYC.
I logged onto my friends site an hour so ago while babysitting, only to find out one of our dear friends had passed away. No one thought to let me know. I understand that he had a million friends, many of them much closer to him than I was. But I still feel sick about it. I still don't even know what happened. I suspect that it was drugs but can't be sure. Apparently he had been happier than ever this past week though, and he had been writing about making hundreds of print balloons after a recent trip to Mexico.
I hate feeling selfish and petty, but it just doesn't feel good to find out about stuff like this from a website. He was a legendary musician and a painfully weird, honest, and brilliant human being. I feel for his young son that he left behind. Love you LonPaul.
May. 8th, 2008 @ 08:29 pm
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| » Learning to Smile More (to Save My Jaw) |
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My yoga instructor advised another student the other night to smile when she finds herself gritting her teeth. We've all heard that it takes less muscles to smile, but I had only recently come to realize how much it would help my actual jaw.
I was diagnosed with TMJ "issues" a couple of weeks ago and have become painfully aware of all the bad things I do with my jaw. I found myself jutting my lower jaw way forward on Bart this morning -- smile! instead, I told myself. It was kind of hard to keep smiling though. Habits are hard to reform.
I also clench my teeth and tense my muscles when concentrating, and other times I find myself pushing my top and bottom front teeth together. So silly!
I took a picture of my friend's 3-year-old on Easter and later noticed how she was doing a weird underbite while running in one of the photos. How do you tell kids to not do stuff because they'll develop bad habits, and they don't want to grow up to be like me, with my bad posture, asthma, and TMJ. 34 going on 74!
I guess that's why I want to be some sort of teacher eventually, once I get better posture and learn to smile instead of frown. It is easier smiling around kids though...
Can't wait to get my nightguard from the dentist today! (It will keep my from gritting my teeth at night and hopefully realign my jaw in the proper postition.)
Apr. 17th, 2008 @ 10:25 am
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| » Springing Forward |
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It's gorgeous out, and I'm glad I have an even longer chance to get outside today (hopefully before the fog rolls in). I have of course put off a lot of work that needs to get done today. So, here I sit -- the DVR has been on all day. Now it's switched to live TV, which happens to be golf on NBC. I would bet that my mom and grandpa are watching this back in Indiana as well. I'm not actually watching it, but my family likes spectator sports quite a lot. So, that's why I find golf and other televised sports to be comforting.
Daniel and the band left at 5:00 a.m. (which was really 4:00 a.m.) for SXSW by way of Oxnard and San Diego, and then they stop in Juarez, Mexico after SXSW. I really wanted to go but couldn't swing it. I'm very excited for them. I made delicious Kale and Roasted Vegetable Soup for Daniel and Quinn last night. I stupidly cut my finger while cutting the kale. But it was all worth it. Now I have a few meals set for when I'm all by my lonesome. Rebecca -- I was telling Quinn that elise.com/recipes (see link above) has a ton of great recipes that aren't very complicated and rarely call for very many spices. There are a lot of meat recipes, but lots of great veggie ones as well, including lots of greens.
It's always weird being in the apartment alone for long periods of time. I can often be anti-social anyway, so I imagine there will be a period this week where I hole up and do work and not really speak to anyone (outside of yoga class). Well, I've kind of made plans for most days this week, so Tuesday will be the only day where I'll be working from home and won't actually be meeting up with someone, except my fellow yoga students.
I haven't lived alone since the year after college ten years ago when I moved back to Indianapolis. It was a really cute, tiny one-bedroom that I painted this dark, greenish "Big Sur" blue. Not the best idea since the place didn't get much sunlight. I was so depressed and lonely during that time that I dreaded the weekends and slept a lot. Incidentally, that's when my night terrors started...
I just have to stay focused and take advantage of my solitude to get stuff done!
Mar. 9th, 2008 @ 02:46 pm
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| » Toothpaste 69 |
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I think I'll just keep blogging via Flickr. This is how the toothpaste was arranged last night when I was getting ready for bed. So funny. Of course I use the Tom's of Maine (I heart fennel!) and Daniel uses Crest Whitening. But even the way they're bent is so funny -- I guess technically this position isn't exactly 69 and would be physically impossible for humans, but I like the yin-yangness nonetheless.
Feb. 24th, 2008 @ 02:14 pm
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