overheard

"ok, so now we're going to go to pick up your pictures and run some other errands in the area, you'll get your pedicure, and then we can go home!"

oh, by the way, this was said to a girl of about ten.

uninvited

we've guests again. relatives. they're in the kitchen. i've been feeding them all day long and, out of respect, locked the cats up so they can't be bothered. but MAN how i wish those freakin' ants would just disappear! for good!

i've had too much homework to continue photo-blogging, and i'm expecting an answer from uci by the end of october. i don't know how that relates to photo-blogging, but that's ok, you're tracking with me, right?

still trying to write and keep up with homework. argh. my mind is so spacey. this has to be the worst post ever. just maybe.

once more, with feeling

oh, i feel sorry for my mom. she's finally joined the ranks of Those-Who-Must-Go-To-Shelters/Rescues-To-Adopt-A-Cat (in the past 20 years, all of her cats adopted Her. lucky!) so she brought home a cat, and it proceeded to do its business anywhere but the litter box. after 3 unsuccessful attempts at using the appropriate means of disposing of his waste, mom is returning the cat. it's just a little much to start of a relationship with an incontinent cat for her and i'm a bit bummed at the cat: he has no idea what he's missing out on by misbehaving.

i'm still awaiting news from uci & trying to wade my way through a busy schedule and massive pounds of reading for my classes. i've finally asked about cutting my hours at work, but i'm not sure what only 5 hours will do for me. i have been so overwhelmed this past month, and now that i don't have rehearsals on wednesday nights anymore, i can hopefully breathe a little easier.

moxie gets, UHhum, fixed tomorrow. i'm really hoping this minimizes my 5am wake-up calls. in the end, though, i'm thinking i should just give in and get up. i might actually get more done this way. i got about 5 hours of definite "sleep" last night, but after that, it was hit-and-miss till about 7am. i don't mind it, really. my body has been adjusting to this new-fangeled alarm clock for a few weeks and i kind of like getting things done with the extra time. maybe i'll even start going to the gym before work. hummm. it's nice to work things to my advantage if i can.

life is pretty uneventful otherwise. my bio for my high school reunion is due in a few short days and i'm currently listening to the cutting crew--yea for the eighties. yep. i lead the common life.

4+3=7

i'm heading to the triple-digit region of california today & not exactly looking forward to enjoying the weather. the cats woke me up at 5:30 this morning, but i was sort of counting on that so that i could get a few things done. i can't believe (pause). ok, what was i thinking to write? ah, 5 hours of sleep...i must remember to pack my pillow!

i'm also got strange ambitions about hitting the gym here in a bit--i just ate a "luna" energy bar. dude, there is just way too my scattered-brains running in my head at this wee hour.

get up, get behind

i think i've been awake since 5am. which either means that i'm requiring less sleep these days since i went to bed at 11:30-midnight-ish (please note, going to bed is not always defined to falling asleep). i blame a multitude of things on my insomnia. i have three cats, one of which likes to dance on my head when he's hungry (moxie). the little grey monster is also prone to fits of grooming. sweet as this appears between other felines, it actually involves a lot of tugging & back & forrth shaking of the head. ah, the joys of pet ownership.

this morning i had a lot to accomplish. i'm currently at the dealership, parasiting their (weak/fluxuating) wireless connectivity and determinely avoiding my sociology homework. my sister's birthday is tomorrow & so i'm going to visit her on my day off. the dawn has proved difficult for me. not only was my most direct route hampered by a downed power line, but i passed a shopping center where a delivery truck had apparently caught fire in the loading docks. it's been an interesting morning.

josh was still in bed when i left. for that, i am impeccably jealous. still, he woke up with me around 5:00 & we discussed the various things that were stressing us out and i was able to experience some twilight sleep for about the next hour before the cats coaxed me down to the kitchen for some food.

in other news, J.D. is the new INXS singer. a shout out to Mig: i loved your performance of queen's bohemian rhapsody!

together again

i would be hard-pressed to deny the anxiety that plagues me as i ponder my upcoming high school reunion. bios are due by the end of the month. not only has that been the subject of recent writing group debate, but it has been deliberately avoided by me in order that i may happily tag on the phrase "will be attending UCI in January". time is short, however, and i wonder, can't i just write it that way after all? if life is measured in major events, no one wants to know that i've been enrolled in junior college for the past 10 years, nor that i have three cats and that i just bruised my big toe so bad that the nail fell off. actually it was sort of coaxed off in a fit of boredom, save for a tiny bit that is still painfully attached to my skin. the nail won't have grown back in time for display in open-toed shoes, and i probably won't have abs of steel, but i'm dragging josh along for dinner with some friends who have committed their hard-earned money to this over-priced hotel meal (prediction: dinner roles, salad with italian dressing, chicken piccata with steamed vegetables and mashed potatoes, and nameless dessert item) for various reasons of camraderie or discomfort. me, i'm just hoping to get the scoop so i can write about it.

if anyone out there is like me, they sometimes still feel like a child (if they don't have kids of their own) and they wonder at their accomplishments and how 10 years flew by so quickly. speaking of which, i should make an appointment to have alyssa style my hair that day. i'm growing it out & would hate for it to look, well, like the 10 minutes i spent on it this morning.

yoshimi, patricia, emily, niall, and hopefully sara & bill, you're the ones keeping me sane. God bless you! we'll have to sneek the others in after dinner....

elizabethtown

cameron crowe is my new hero. on apple's home page, there is a featurette where he discuses his new film & how it is circled around music & how the songs helped shape the movie. it is AWESOME, and gives me chills to witness another person react to music with a similar passion as the one i have always held in my heart. if i could memorize his narrative, i would keep it in a book to look at again & again. newfound respect to you, mr. crowe. you can bet i'll be seeing this flick when it hits theaters in a few weeks (october 14).

collapse

i'm starting to get awful callouses on my hands from playing the djembe. that, plus this incredible soreness that just radiates on my entire hand. it hurts to count money today, something that is an unavoidable side effect of working at a bank. my discomfort aside, it's a wonderful privelege to be playing again. hopefully this will encourage me with my self-directed piano studies. but at this point, it almost hurts too much to type, so that'll have to wait. as will this blog.

curses! foiled again!

as i mentioned yesterday, i was due to donate blood today. and, yet again, my hematocrit level is too low: 35 instead of the necessary 38 for a donor. this despite the multi-vitamin i've been taking faithfully for 2 weeks which equals 100% of the iron i'm supposed to be taking. i'm at a loss here. should i take more iron supplements? will my body discard the excess, or is too much actually bad for me?

this day has flown by at a swift clip with all i've got to do. the jetta needs a car wash and i haven't been to the gym in at least a month. homework deserves some attention as well. it's amazing how much my life is demanding of me these days. oh yeah, and that housework thing? my mom has taught me well. i'm considering maid service every other week, but my house has to be cleaned before they come over. thanks, mom!

ah, inherited idiosyncrasy.

in excess

first, forgive me for not posting pictures on my foto log, i have been continuing to photograph daily, occasionally to the peril of other drivers, but things have been progressing pretty nicely if i do say so myself.

tonight i saw an ambulance on the road. it's the second or third time this has happened in recent weeks on evening drives home. it's eerie to stare through those two small windows in the rear and play the casual observer to the aftermath of an emergency. the lights weren't flashing in dire urgency, but tonight it seemed as though something was covering up part of the passenger's face, and i couldn't see anyone else back with him, but obviously there had to be an emt or two. the time before this, i was able to watch the men at work on a man who had a tube of oxygen straddling his nose.

i'm watching rock star: inxs right now and i really liked the performances tonight. i think mick looks like one of the monkees. humm. is his name mick? i think i heard it right. oh, oops, its mig. yep, outfit is very retro. oh my, he just ditched the jacket. no mo monkees!

i need to listen to some stones. rolling stones.

i love dave navarro's show-boating on the guitar. i think it's a good way to feel the chemistry for performers to be on stage together. you really get a feel for whether or not they will gel with your mates.

full day tomorrow. what should be a day off leaves no rest for the wicked: work meeting, doctor appointment, blood donation, and rehearsal. pray that i'm not anemic, as that is generally my hamartia when it comes to donating blood. sheesh, i better get some rest.

i am trying to break your heart

watch the video that this links to. in the comfort of your home, if you will. (thanks, toni)

if only, if ONLY, i could learn not to complain about all the CLOTHES i have because i have so much washing to do, or not to complain about all the ANTS in MY HOUSE because of all the FOOD i have, or all the HOMEWORK i have to do because i have to go to SCHOOL, or about all the HOURS i'm WORKING because i have a JOB that pays the BILLS or about the HEADACHE i have because my BACK aches so i lie down in my BED and SLEEP so i can FEEL BETTER, or about cleaning the litter box because my THREE CATS are ALIVE & WELL, or about the COST OF GAS because i have a CAR that takes me where i want to go.

law & order?

this semester is going to kick my butt. friday night spent at orientation for my internet sociology course left my stomach churning. or was that the leftover saurkraut? lots of work required, high doses of procrastination highly discouraged.

so, who wants to do the laundry to-night? meh.

in other news, happy birthday, amy! last night was a blast!

dot dot dot

today is my first post from my brand new iBook G4. i have the power of wireless at my fingertips.

today i learned:

-tom cruise's laughter on the television is disturbing
-our neighbors have a wireless network too, and it's not password protected
-our houses are way too close together here if i can tap into their network
-my website looks awful in safari
-blogger functions differently in safari
-my temporary dot mac account is a beautiful thing
-i can play the djembe with a pear-shaped shaker and sound pretty good
-when i try to play complicated rhythms i lose the beat in an awful way
-appleworks just blows chunks
-microsoft word is actually good for something.
-all my cats will beg for chicken
-in a fit of excitement, i will forget to shower & shave my legs & will stare at a computer until all the moisture has been sucked from my eye sockets
-tom cruise did NOT look sexy in that scene from "risky business"
-E true hollywood story makes me ill
-the importance of a "to do" list only stands true if you can cross a few things off
-i have a lot "to do" tomorrow
-"stickies" (post-it notes for your desktop) are a beautiful thing
-i can't wait to use iPhoto
-i may never use my pc (non-laptop windows-based computer) again

makin' mom proud...

...one packed lunch at a time. and i actually remembered to have breakfast this morning, too. now if only i would stop killing my plants. i will work on replanting some in the morning tomorrow. unless i get my cool new showerhead and have the chance to install it. oh, the joys of having a list!

by the way, i plead with you, dear reader, for a book recommendation! i need 9 more (for my list of 101 in 1001) AND 10 recommendations for films i should see. your help is greatly appreciated.

your love is gonna drown

death cab for cutie's new album, plans hit my ears recently because of a facination with the band name. i think, actually, it's because i think of the movie death to smoochy. i can't really explain the reasoning behind that, save for the common denomenator of the word "death".

i'm still in my incubation phase with the album. it's been hard to find my favorite 2 or 3. "i will follow you into the dark" is simple, with strumming guitar and vocals which throw one into a sort of iron & wine meets nickel creek as far as tone and feel. "your heart is an empty room" some quaint doves-like qualities with its steady drum beat and simple electric guitars. the instrumental bridge in the middle is nice. the quality of songs do pick up with "crooked teeth" and continue through the end, but that's a few too few for me. the album was, overall, "nice". favorite pick "someday you will be loved".

when i listen to music, i look to be moved to a degree which inspires me to dig into my magic hat of analogies and want to write about something. not like today. where i wrote mostly out of obligation (yep, part of 101 in 1001, #101). i want to find albums where i think "if i don't write about this and tell the world about how beautiful this album is then i just might die of shame". hopefully next month's review will be better.

goings on

apart from the extremely painful waiting game regarding uci's response to my application for admission, life has been veritably normal. for the most part. i was recently recruited to do percussion at our church's women's retreat and last week's rehearsal, which followed this awful bout josh & i had with the stomach flu (thank God it only lasted 24 hours!), went swimmingly and i'm excited everyday for the opportunity to share my music skillz with others. it's also been yet another thing for me that's aided in turning me back toward my faith in God, which has been lacking in intensity for some time, sort of wallowing in the background with the stack of unfiled bank statements and piles of important stuff i've stuffed in a box "for later".

it's so easy to forget in times when life is going fairly well and it becomes this white noise in the background, which you are aware of some of the time but frequently experience as this sort of constant irritation that has to be tolerated, like a piece of cat litter trapped in your nylons. when you get home, you can take the nylons off and be at ease, but until then you keep shifting your toes around and fingering at the irritant in an effort to rid yourself of the reminder that indeed, there is cat litter in your stockings and it is not comfortable. only, the nylons aren't ever coming off because you made a decision one day that you had to keep that pebble in your pantyhose because it's something you've realized you can't live without. this analogy is falling to pieces, but you get the drift. i've sometimes wanted to go back to life before God, i confess. i think it was easier and harder all at once. while i experience a constant accountability for decisions i make, while i agree that it's possible to live a good life outside of the Christian faith, there's more to it than that.

so, part of my reasoning behind number 100 on my list of 101 in 1001 is a call to get back to basics. not only in an effort to clarify Christianity for myself, but with a desire to understand that this is not a rote effort on my part. i want to get to the point where i not only feel comfortable defining myself by my beliefs, but to clearly understand the reasons for my choice and be able to communicate with others who say to me "so what?" because this isn't an emotional choice. emotional choices are weakened by a shift of feelings and easily waste away against pressure. that's why marriages can't find sole support in a foundation of "i love you's". there needs be some brains behind it, a conscious effort to commit. and that's what i aim to define. it was there once, but it's fallen to the wayside and i need to bring it back into focus.

in your eyes

American Red Cross, now accepting donations.

< soapbox> i'm not sure that sharing my feelings about the devastation will accomplish anything other than some sort of self-serving bragging rights about how, oh yeah, i feel bad for them, too. one would have to be inhuman not to be moved (to tears) by the tragic images we see on the television set or on the 'net as we sip our morning cup of coffee in our warm jammies and slippers with the family all nestled within these walls we call home. we wonder at the state of thie world, be it tragedy half-way across the world or in the middle of these united states. only a few months back, the victims of katrina were in their living rooms ooh-ing over the tsunami tragedy. now they are experiencing things first hand. so my challenge, then, is not only to myself as i gaze over my proud list of things to do is to dig deeper yet again and start living with a little bit less. while i can't ask you to put your own family in jeopardy, i will ask you if there isn't something you can do without in order to aid our fellow man. and, i'd like to see those famous ones get off their butts just like they did for tsunami aid: i wanna see sandra bullock's donation in the paper again. i wanna read about the FUNDS donated by those people who performed for "free" so that WE could support those in need. picture yourself stripped of all the basic human needs, all the creature comforts we take for granted. just do. something. anything. and, if you would, pray. in a time when these people have little or nothing, they need Hope. < /soapbox>