::literary exchange::

an idea occurs to me, especially with the recent mention on lauren's blog of a lack of things to read (ie. books), to propose a book exchange between friends (or more, if others reading this blog are interested). media mail is a pretty reasonable way to send books, and it would be a nice way to expand our horizons to mail each other stuff we've read. maybe mention a few of your favorite books in the comments box and i will try to organize something. you may also email me at muse at furiousmuse dot com. suggestions on this are welcome.

another thing, and i've been meaning to harass lauren about it: we should start a literary 'zine! even if it only starts out in blog form. that would be a ton of fun, and encourage us all to write something and contribute. again, please let me know if you're interested, either in the comments box or via email. if you happen to be reading this on livejournal (where the 'muse runs in syndication) then please visit the actual site to log your thoughts.

jokers, jesters, pranks & spammers need not apply.

::bbq::

a few observations as of late. we've had guests since monday (sunday night, actually) and it's been great to enjoy the company. i almost feel as though i, too, am on vacation. however, it's been difficult to blog. as i may have mentioned earlier, moments of brilliance seem to peak while i'm driving somewhere and by the time i get home, the inspiration is gone. tonight is a necessary but somewhat forced (and not spellchecked) dialogue.

on two seperate occassions today i saw old ladies (2, but one at a time) pushing their walkers along busy thoroughfares in the blazing hot sun. at first, driving up camino capistrano, i turned to my guests and exclaimed something to the effect of "should we help her?" since, of course, it was at least 80 degrees outside and she had a jacket on. the second time, driving up marguerite parkway, i shouted outloud to no one in particular (the jetta being sans passengers) "dude, what is UP with the old ladies today?" perhaps this doesn't play out well on paper, but i'm tellin' you, it was friggin' weird man.

we christened the barbeque tonight (finally!) with kabobs and beer (sort of). i also went swimming for the first time in at least 3 years.

my stomach's been bugging me and i experienced some pinpricks of pain for about an hour and i aggrevated it by worrying over what was causing it. so i called josh & he's now asked jason to hook me up with a former coworker at uci so i can make certain that, when i turn in my application next month i get all my ducks in a row. secretly, which is now not so, i'm terrified to be making such a committement as this. this is what i want to do (for now: i'm not against change, but i've never really chosen what i wanted to do in the first place). it's a big step for me, but i've been working at it for so long now. i'm excited about the work coming to fruition. but it suddenly seems like it's all happening so fast.

today was a day off from work. i have started to adjust to the idea that day off plus relaxing doesn't equal laziness or doing nothing.

::life w/o email::

my personal email has been down all day. and though i doubt i've received anything of massive urgency, the fact that i am unable to RECEIVE or SEND is moderately unnerving. in the absence of email, i have washed my car, eaten lunch, and played with my cats.

i miss my word of the day.

::three day what::

humm, graduation, wedding, father's day? what's a girl to do! my silence here is not for lack of caring! (and all the unwritten comments say "ah HEM!")

::doves, wiltern theater::

last night, captured in snippets of thought, in the wannabe style of, say, douglas coupland

• the 110 rules--palm trees!!!
• red velvet cake
• hourly spa rentals
• statue of david
• french onion soup
• doughboys
• mountain man
• what i wanted to say was: i appreciate your need to rock out here, but given the amount of space we're squished into, could your elbow please stop grazing my boob?!
• wish i had my camera
• there's always a line for the bathroom...
• audioblog
• contact...high?
• the things girls leave on the bathroom floor...!
• art deco
• what? no walk in fire?
• the music is loud
• last broadcast
• you're stepping on my feet again, sir
• i can't understand the words
• 116 dB
• general admission
• big shoes
• 2 people + 5 of their best friends = excuuuuse me? it's already crowded
• tired feet
• earplugs
• i'm tired

::she's a good girl::

i find it increasingly annoying that commenters comment on posts that are months and months old. recent events which greeted me upon return from nyc leave me wondering: a)how did you get that far back in my archives? and b) if you're going to comment, at least make up a name so i can address you properly! because you've left no name, i am forced to give you a name, anonymous commenter. i will call you "buster".

well, buster, i appreciate the fact that you read my site. i really do. i know there are a fair number of readers here who browse but never leave me a note to let me know they were here. i'm so glad you took the time to do so!

concerning your comment from this january post, where you wrote:

It actually should read - running in circles, chasing tails
Anonymous 06.06.05 - 9:59 am

allow me a moment of explanation. first, you are right, the lyrics i posted are incorrect. i shamelessly admit to cutting and pasting from some generic website that has lyrics to, like, a billion songs and i guess THEY messed up (avoids blame). HOW-ever, your correction led me in search of the correct lyrics to confirm your allegations. what better way to do this than to consult my Wise Publications book of sheet music for the best answer possible. though i admit that sometimes what is published and was is actually sung may differ, i've listened to "the scientist" about 4 times in a row now and it sounds pretty durn close to this, which is printed thusly:

running in circles, coming up tails

so, buster, you see, we were both wrong. thank you for bringing this very important issue to my attention. i must now go suck my thumb and contemplate my naval/the meaning of life.

::shakes & blinks::

got in the ol' vw jetta this morning and she blinked, flickered, and clicked repeatedly at me, but she wouldn't wake up.

then i came upstairs to blog about it as i waited for josh to wake up. sitting down, the ground beneath me began to roll and i realized we were having an earthdquake.

it doesn't help that i dreamt that i was on oprah last night.

::gate 4::

our trip to nyc has been lovingly catalogued in over 300 pictures and I Love Our Digital Camera. i'd also like to offer mad props to wi-fi c/o jet blue and our wonderful repose at the chelsea lodge. super affordable (though slightly claustrophobic, as i've mentioned earlier), quick access to nearby subways (the c,e and 1, 9). unlike last year, we chose wisely. though our timing was not wise or fast enough to snag tickets to the hottest show in town (spam-a-lot) we still managed to enjoy ourselves thoroughly. we closed the evening last night in peaceable tranquility at the burp castle. the mug of casteel was slightly warmer than i like my beer, but the company was swell and we will miss our nyc buddies, lauren & joe, dearly. the trip is coming to a close now as it's only a half hour until departure. the subway ride was amazingly painless. boarding calls!

::subway sunshine::

i am ever facinated by our subway travels & our walks on the town. yesterday (or recently...how swiftly the memories bleed from one day to the next) we were serenaded (as i supressed a case of the giggles) by a man singing "under the boardwalk". what surprises me most about this and other impromptu performances is that most of these people have quite a bit of talent. teamed up with the street performers we saw in union square and you just might start a revue! we watched a strong-man/dance act worthy of cirque du soleil (though prodigy wasn't the greatest band to groove to, it made for intense accompaniment to their body-bending moves). then the funk band who set up a hundred feet away. they were impressive up to the point where they cut one song short in order to dispell with the beligerant irishman who was brown-bagging it and harassing the drummer (i want to play your drums!).

we ate at joe's pizza for dinner. ummm, pizza!

::in a world bound by tradition::

(in your best movie trailer voice) the diary of three days in a 2.5 foot square shower are not pretty. i love our lodgings here in the n-y-c. and the fact that they're so rockin' cheap contributed to us being able to make the trip in the first place. and the wi-fi simply rocks pants to the nth degree for the purpose of blogging and checking email (which i have been trying to do as little as possible--i much prefer writing in my travel journal and being oblivious to the world). but this shower, i tell ya, these muggy days have made that thing the bane of my existence. trying to shave under my arms resulted in uneven results (the hair at the base of my underarms looks suspiciously untouched, possibly the victim of an unsuspecting mullet-shave). as for consistent temperature, watch the back and elbow, as bumping into the nudge-sensitive water-temperature-control-thingy (aka handle) results in a blazing hot or freezing cold exclamation. but at least this shower is in our room and not shared with the other folks who are staying here. in other news, so what if i had to shave my legs one at a time in the sink. also, proudly, we're still on west coast time. more to come, but it's more important to get out of this room before the walls close in on us and experience the city.

::one hundred percent chance of delays::

i should be on a plane right now, an hour outside of the oc, happily napping or chewing up my latest read. instead, i'm blazin' the wi-fi in the lbc waiting for our plane to be fixed and wondering why, exactly, we are not allowed to transfer to a flight that leaves in 40 minutes. they haven't really given us a reason (ie. the flight is already full) but i've heard other ideas tossed around concerning security. the voice on the speakers announces that the other flight to new york is boarding and i'm still sitting here with no place to run, no place to hide. and all that moaning for naught: they are done! here we go!

::a-mused::

etta james' "at last" is playing on the radio and the fur is flying in the hallway between my two cats right now. i'm quite sure there's nothing funnier this morning.

::better than::

blogging is finally paying off! i received a check in the mail this week for my incredible efforts here on the 'muse for...a buck eighty-five. proudly, the check is displayed on the refrigerator door like a testament to some childish artwork. some fifty-thousand words (before blogger stopped keeping count) and nearly three years later, and i'm still at it. ah, it's all about the little rewards in life, now, isn't it?

this is where i lose my steam. i frequently find myself blogging in my head while i'm driving, and i'd probably audioblog from the road more if it weren't for the fact that creativity general ventures on the silent side of my brain and open, moving lips and mouth result in utter chaos and lack of brilliant sentence structure. aka, my thoughts always sound better in my head than when spoken out loud. recent musings:

? how can macy's south coast plaza women's store get away with the battle of the bands? apparently, when interviewing an employee about the conflicting tunes (u2 singing vertigo makes for a poor duet when teamed with duran duran's rio) i discovered that there is a)"macy's music" and b)"department music" and that the speakers for both are disasterously intermingled. calvin klein, donna karen, i love ya, but i won't spend a dime if i have to sacrifice my ears. as so aptly put by the employee at the end of the conversation/complaint, most people are probably too busy to notice (as she was). well, not everyone is musically inclined. but it'll be a long time before i shop that particular store again.

? why in the world did swallows choose my house to build a nest on? i've been meaning to take pictures, too. does anyone know how many months i need to wait until they've had their babies and everyone's vacated the nest?

? i didn't know that better than ezra had a new album... i used to like them in high school

? i've heard hollaback girl twice on the radio and frankly, don't understand the hype.

? who gave rob thomas the right to become his own boy band? shame on you for your lyrics rob. time to hire someone for that and stick to pumping out tunes. i'm referring to the title track on something to be: Hey man / I don't wanna hear about love no more / I don't wanna talk about how I feel / I don't really wanna be me no more / Dress down now I look a little too / Boy next door / Maybe I should try to find a downtown whore / That'll make me look hardcore / I need you to tell me what to stand for /
stand UP for the fact that rhyming is not a prerequisite to lyrics & poetry. especially when they're this lame. i appreciate your need to be edgy, but all this demonstrates is a lack of creativity. you could take a lesson from tori amos as far as storytelling through lyrics. (in response from his quote on atlantic's website to the effect that 'Ever since I can remember, I've always wanted to tell stories, but I never had the patience to sit down at a typewriter and write short stories or anything like that. I started writing songs as a way of communicating ideas the best way I could.' - Rob Thomas
that said, the album is number 19 on iTunes today for top selling albumns. so the public & i, we differ on this issue.

? what's this about losing steam? oh, yeah. right about now. where i neglect to spellcheck and reread for grammatical errors. bless me for i have sinned.

::nudges::

there's a lot on my mind these days, and with the email announcing zoetrope's short fiction contest, my wheels are beginning to turn on what i could possibly submit to them. yea, short fiction!

that said, i'm busy making plans and forming ideas for the big apple, so i'll see you when i return.