So my teacher finally remembered to post the video of us at the restaurant 2 weeks ago. I am most proud of the fact that I didn't have to readjust my sword once after putting it on my head.
I had a lovely nearly-nude Saturday of football watching with my husband. He made yummy pancakes for breakfast. Hooray for reversing gender stereotypes!
The Big 10 went 10-1 this weekend. Illinois, you can go mope in the corner with your loss, k? The most important thing is that Michigan won. This is a good first step. Go Blue!
Also, I got my new glasses yesterday. Yay! Much better than the Harry Potter frames I was sporting after my last pair died a spectacular (and when I say spectacular, I mean incredibly stupid) death a couple of weeks ago. It is kinda weird, though, wearing plastic frames again. I was so used to metal.
So this may be a heavy subject for my first post in over 2 years, but meh.
I've been thinking lately a lot about memory - keeping it, losing it, building upon it. Specifics of recall that vary from person to person. Why do people remember what they do? What makes some one person be able to remember more than another? Do these people have a better system for storing memories, a more orderly mind, per se? Is it hard-wired into the programming of their brains to be able to store, categorize and easily retrieve this information?
Although I think I'd stop short of calling it photographic or eidetic memory, I've actually frightened people with my ability to remember names, dates, places, faces, procedures, details, situations, etc. They think it a stalkerish obsession. It's not that I try; it's just that the information lingers there still long after it's been wiped from other people's slates. It's gotten to the point where I will feign ignorance in social situations just so that I don't have to see that look of fear in someone else's eyes when I bring up meeting them, a conversation we had, an outfit worn, a place belonging to a vignette...
I know that people tend to remember more of what they are passionate about. Could the above perception be, in actuality, a fact? Is a superior memory *obsession* on a sub-conscious level?
On a side note - about 2 years ago they built a Hustler (as in the magazine) store on the corner of Broadway and McClintock. It was a Hustler store for about 8 months and then went out of business. It has stood empty since then. I drove past it last Saturday and it's now been turned into ... a preschool. I don't know what to think about that.
Firstly, I'd like to say Happy Birthday to my husband. :)
And then, 6 today. 4 yesterday.
So I finally have a reason to watch TV again - Burn Notice. It a new show on the USA network starring two of my favorite B-list actors, Jeffrey Donovan (Kyle from The Pretender. It makes me very happy to see him get to play a good guy for once.) and Bruce Campbell. And it is good. It would be 'oh so wonderfully good', but I've never liked Gabrielle Anwar who also co-stars. She bugs me.
The costuming virus is upon me. I'm thinking heavily about the garb I want to make for RenFaire this coming year - Ottoman, quasi-period authentic. I have the sewing machine; I have some fabrics. I just need to use them.
I've had a craving to visit the MAC store by my old apartment for the last week. No, it has nothing to do with the next end. I've just been on ebay the last number of days and I'm curious to see which pigments they carry at the store that are no longer offered on the MAC website and which you really can only get on ebay.
Baseball made me feel old this week. My mother never had the money nor the inclination to take me to baseball games as a kid. But I fell madly in love with the game at the age of 5. I would watch Tigers games on TV whenever I could. I remember in the early and mid-90's watching big Cecil Fielder and seeing how he brought his son to the ballpark with him and how he usually ended up being a ball boy. And I remember thinking how cool that would be to go to the ballpark with your dad. Well now young Prince Fielder is all grown up, swinging for the fences himself and 2nd in the league in homeruns. Crazy.
I had a fortune cookie today - "You will always have good luck in your personal affairs." So it has been written, so may it be.
And lastly, an anecdote. Scene: the kitchen, the bedroom Players: - me, who will be playing the part of myself - J - intrepid slayer of all things insectal - Bump - feline hero
I was in the kitchen Tuesday night unloading the dishwasher wearing nothing but a tank top and my underwear when I noticed Bump pawing and trying to stick his face up under one of the cabinets. I had this awful feeling of foreboding when I asked him, "What ya got there, boy?" A couple of minutes later my question was answered when the fattest cockroach I have ever seen came scurrying out and headed towards me. Naturally, I jumped aside and the cockroach ran by me with Bump in pursuit.
When Bump trapped it in a corner, I ran into the bedroom where J was sleeping and said timidly, "J, there a giant cockroach in the kitchen." He bolted upright (which if you've ever seen him try to wake up is startling in and of itself), got out of bed and marched off to take care of it. Meanwhile, I jumped up on the bed and cowered in squicked-outification.
Back in the kitchen, J grabbed the industrial-sized, toxic-enough-to-kill-a-cockroach bug spray and began dousing the bug which had managed to run over to behind the garbage can. After being doused with chemicals it began running again and manouvered around J and disappeared into the front closet. At this, J tore the vacuums and brooms out of the closet and began spraying all inside the closet. Then he called me out there to tell me the cockroach had disappeared and would probably die in there behind the shelving unit when we heard the strangest sound. It sounded kind of like something had fallen over and resounded in the closet.
2-3 minutes later that damn cockroach comes walking out of the closet, sees J and takes off toward the front door. - And then that strange sound again; it turns out the cockroach was hissing in its death throes. The cockroach swerved and headed toward the chair at the edge of the living room. I turned my butt right around and ran back into the bedroom.
I could hear J in the living room throwing the chair out of the way and dousing the bug once more. I guess it went back towards the door because next thing I know I hear the chair being thrown again. J then turned on the vacuum cleaner and spent a couple minutes chasing it around until it finally died and he was able to vacuum it up.
Couple days later and I still kinda get the heebie-jeebies going into the kitchen. Weirdly enough, as I look back on the episode, I think the whole thing might have been more bearable if only I'd been wearing pants.
In conversation with Blue last night, I realized that there were a couple of foreshadowing things that I missed in my recent re-reads of the Harry Potter series. I'm going to have to go back and scan books 4 and 5 to see what else I might have missed. In the meantime, I'll be taking a week's break in my progress through the series.
I discovered the other day that the PF is making it difficult for me to do Arabic. I am not pleased. I have a follow up visit with the doctor on Wednesday. I'm not sure what they're going to say because my feet don't really feel like they're getting any better. :(
This morning I found out that my application did not go through for the job I applied for last Friday. Even more disheartening, my application did not go through for the better job that I thought I had applied for 3 weeks prior to that. In both cases, I got error messages throughout the web application process. In both cases I received an email after I went through everything saying that my online resume had been successfully submitted. However, in both cases I was not able to go in and look at what I'd submitted afterward. Friday I became suspicious, but I lacked the time to do anything about it. Today I called up HR (and sat on hold for a good 1/2 hour) and inquired about this, and was informed that my application materials did not go through. Fortunately, they allowed me to resubmit by email. I'm still sad that I most definitely will not be getting the B-school position. That one would have been perfect for me.
lovehonorlife and I saw the new Transformers movie Saturday. It was better than I expected. Of course, what I expected was for it to be absolute crap, so I wasn't exactly going in with Oscar-high standards.
What I liked:
The Autobots were recognizable, especially Optimus Prime.
Many of the original voice talents were used.
There was actually a legitimate reason for Shia LeBouf's character to have first contact with the Autobots.
There were some funny, quippy lines.
What I didn't like:
The Decepticons were not recognizable - I couldn't tell one from the others.
Frenzy - little sucker bugged the snot out of me.
The camera was "too close" to the CGI fight scenes; you couldn't tell what was going on, who was winning or even who was fighting - I ended up feeling extremely nauseous at the end of the movie.
Two kids were making out on top of Bumblebee at the end. That's just wrong. You do not make out on top of a sentient robot from another planet. Were I still a teacher, I would have made the script-writer copy the preceding 100 times. Maybe in his own blood. This may have had something to do with why I ended up so nauseous.
4th of July barbeque was fun. Thanks to Blue and Wolf for the Fire-works. I think I'm done with party hosting for while.
Harry Potter: OotP movie this Friday. Whee!
lovehonorlife's birthday is this Thursday. We will be going out to dinner somewhere. If you'd like to come along and wish him a Happy Birthday, you're more than welcome to. We haven't decided where exactly, but I'll let him post that when the decision is made.
I've been pondering lately on the nature of lost, specifically in relation to people and parts of themselves.
I've also been having a lot of dreams of places I know and people I don't. It's made me horribly homesick.
Monday? Check. Today is blah. I spent my morning doing some very boring, very repetitive data entry. I found out that I know more about navigating the new computer system than most of the other OS's. We are all, however, still waiting to be trained on it. Opening is in less than two months.
I hate having to walk to and from central campus in 100+ degree heat. My feet hurt so badly by the time I got there, I was gasping in pain. Why, you might ask? Plantar Fasciitis. I've had it for about the last 3 months, but the pain was never bad enough for me to go see a doctor until last Thursday when I could barely make it from my car to my office (a 15-min hike).
It was the flamenco. Sure, there were other factors that put me on high-risk, but the flamenco started it - too much repeated stomping on a hard surface. My heels feel like they're bruised; my right ankle feels locked up. Woe is me. I considered quitting flamenco, at least for a little while, but the doctor says I don't need to. She did, however, say that I must be doing something wrong to have caused this in the first place. So starting next week, I wil be taking the footwork class, and only the footwork class.
I think my biggest problem with the flamenco classes is that we never stretch. Not before, not during, not after. In every good bd class you stretch - which is why I think the pf hasn't been worse. Up til last Wednesday I was taking Ellisha's fire tray class. And Ellisha will make sure that you're good and streched out. Last Wednesday was the first time in 6 weeks that I hadn't had Ellisha's class. No streching = sore, sore feet. Today, I will stretch before flamenco class - after as well.
But as this is kind of depressing, here's ( My Visual DNA )
Completed - got married And so, the wedding was a success. I enjoyed myself, lovehonorlife enjoyed himself, and it seems that everyone else with the possible exception of one of my sisters enjoyed themselves as well. I'm still a little embarrassed about the fiasco of the boquet toss, but on the plus side I did have two different groups of friends meet and totally dig each other, so that was awesomeness. Oh sweet, sweet cake, you were wonderful. I never will forget the way you looked that night.
- had honeymoon I'm sure most of you read J's description of it, so I feel no need to elaborate. It was lovely, and there was lots of sex - yay!
- moved out of craphole apartment Reason 1 of 2 why I've been MIA as of late. My eternal gratitude to crazyrennie, goblins_meade and dredpiratecorry for the help with the heavy lifting. Even with the help I still went down to the wire for getting out of it. I hated "living" there and am so glad to be rid of that dead weight. Now I will anxiously await my security deposit in the mail.
- closing Reason 2 of 2 why I've been MIA as of late. The students are gone now. Long hours last week - I wish I actually got paid for overtime, comp time sucks. It's blissfully quiet in my office. I've completed my data entry and now am working on billing and repair orders. I've become rather addicted to yahoo! radio as sometimes it's a little too quiet. *scans room* If you're curious, Dis be what A'hm listenin to. [/Marley moment, which you shouldn't find on my station]
To do - husband ...Er, pretend you didn't see that one
- unpacking Bleh. I just got everything into boxes, now I have to get it back out and find a place for it. There are going to be a lot of things that I will be selling/giving away in the next couple of weeks. I'll be posting lists here first.
- update book list I just finished Fluke, I now need to add it to the book list. I got a few other books just before the wedding that I need to start/finish.
- dance I need it. I need to stretch too.
- get router Then I can finally have the internets at home. Of course, I need to dig out my computer from all the stuff on/around it first.
- find a new job They've changed my job, promoted some of my coworkers, are moving me to a much smaller office, and have said they neither value me nor wish for me to grow as a professional. I don't get paid enough to put up with this crap. There is no joy in this job anymore and I don't exactly make a livable wage, therefore I need another one until I can apply for and finish grad school. I will be hitting up the ASU job postings like mad in the next couple weeks.
That's all for now, it's hometime. God, I'm tired.
I have allergies. Not so bad that I need prescription medication, but severe enough that I do need OTC medicines in ready supply at certain times of the year, this being one of them. As I was running low, I visited Target (Tar-zhay) yesterday afternoon to pick up some more. Tylenol now makes a day/night combo pack which I thought was pretty nifty, so I bought it thinking I'd try it out. And as I had the itchy, runny, sneezy nosey thing going last night, I thought I'd take some of the "night" formula in my usual dosage of 2 caplets - which knocked me the hell out, dawg. (boathouse joke)
It, in fact, knocked me so far the hell out that I almost couldn't wake up this morning....which turned out to be kinda terrifying. My mind was more or less awake, but I couldn't get my body to respond. Even during the worst of my depressions back in the day I could still at least throw myself out of bed, but with these tiny pills I had to wait for the medicine to start wearing off before I could even get out of bed all the while slipping in and out of consciousness. I don't like being that helpless. However, I have learned a valuable lesson: my "usual dosage" is a little too strong for the little white pills of sleeping death.
On a completely different topic, animal adaptation is getting weirder all the time. Domesticated cows and feral cats are one thing, these birds are a whole 'nother pot of chili. Okay, here's how it goes: So because this university pays me crap and doesn't give employees any sort of discount on parking, the only type of parking pass I could afford puts me in lot 59, which is slightly beyond the ass-end of the universe. Yes, it may be a good excuse for exercise, but it takes for-freaking-ever to get to my office in the mornings. And on my way into my office in the mornings, I have to pass by this desert landscapey thing with some fetid pool of water in the middle. The fetid pool of water, however, is not the focus of our story; the birds that are attracted to the area by the insects that breed in said fetid pool of water are. Unfortunately, because it is late, I'm going to have to finish this story tomorrow.
I promised this to a couple of people, a couple weeks back. Thanks to La Grackle for first introducing this to me. Truthfully, I'm more impressed with the music mix than I am with the dancing, but the whole thing is rather impressive nonetheless. And some serious fanservice.
Slave Leia bellydance
And while on the subject of bellydancers, I thought I'd post this one someone made of a Suhaila video.
It's Friday, and while I should be cataloguing the flamenco choreography I've learned in the past couple weeks, I decided to spend my time on lj instead. And since I don't feel like working, here are some memes.
Your results: You are Apocalypse
Apocalypse
63%
Magneto
62%
Dr. Doom
58%
Mystique
57%
Green Goblin
57%
Two-Face
57%
Poison Ivy
56%
Dark Phoenix
56%
Venom
55%
Catwoman
53%
The Joker
52%
Lex Luthor
47%
Riddler
47%
Kingpin
44%
Mr. Freeze
43%
Juggernaut
37%
You believe in survival of the fittest and you believe that you are the fittest.
Ok, so I know that at the beginning of the year, there were a couple of comms that put out a challenge to read 50 or so books over the course of this year. Well, I'm sorry, I can tell you right now that I won't be able to do that. I have this little thing called living to do, and as of right now, it's taking up most of my time. I did, however, want to read more this year (see the "year of Bond" entry). And to help myself track that, I've decided to create a list of the books I've read this year. I haven't decided whether I'll continue to update this post over the year, or just make a new post with the same tags, but whatever I choose, here I go.
You know how you have a bad day, and someone tries to cheer you up by saying, "Well at least no one died"? Yeah......
She was a resident in one of my buildings; I knew her in name only. An out-of-state student. I feel terrible for her parents; they'll be coming in this weekend to get her things. I'm glad I won't have to be there. I didn't have the heart to cross her off my rosters before I left today.
It was quite a circus there for a while. About 10-15 firemen and paramedics, my CC, both ACCs, the CCs from the buildings nearest by, the Assistant Director, 2 Associate Directors, the Executive Director, and one or two people whose faces were unfamiliar to me. They asked me to cover the desk while they had a meeting with all of the RAs from the building. It was weird to see how normally everything else went on with the people who didn't know - people coming in to eat lunch or buy something at the market, students talking and joking around with their friends, incoming students with their parents stopping by the desk to ask for tours. It feels like everything should have stopped, at least for a moment. But it didn't - time rolled right past her death as if it had never happened, as if it didn't even care enough to notice, the bastard.
And so Blue has declared this year to be 2-007, the year of Bond.
A challenge has been issued: "What will the year of Bond do for me?" I accept.
1) The year of Bond will see less of me. I will lose at least 10 pounds by April, preferably 20. To do this, I will stop drinking so much damn pop and start drinking water again. I will keep many bottles of water in my fridge at work, and I will carry them around with me like a good little desert-dweller. I will attempt to make better choices about my eating habits, eating earlier in the day and maintaining portion control. And some stuff about eating more veggies and less junk.
The reward, obviously, is that I will look fabulous! in my wedding dress. The secondary reward will be that I won't feel embarrassed about showing my tummy during bd performances.
2) The year of Bond will see me challenge myself with new and different dance styles. I will learn flamenco; I will learn to tango; I will learn to can-can. I will also continue to expand my knowledge of both tribal and double-veil bellydance.
3) The year of Bond will see me out of my crap-hole apartment and into a swanky new pad complete with sexy, velvet-curtained, 4-poster bed.
4) The year of Bond will pull out my glamourous side, spit-shine and polish it until glows, and then hand it back to me, bigger and better than before. See exhibit A for work-in-progress.
The dress and the mask will help for the wedding, where I hope to leave a certain person completely speechless. For performances, the rest is up to me....and MAC.
5) The year of Bond will see a renaissance in my creativity. I will see more; I will read more. I will write more; I will draw more. I will take some classes at ASU (I may even start grad school). I will create fabulous costumes.
The year of Bond will see me finally learn how to use a flippin sewing machine. This will be my means to the end of the previous paragraph.
The year of Bond will have lots of sex, some vodka, a couple of non-Aston-Martin cars, at least one event requiring formal wear, and hopefully, a satisfying ending.
What will Bond year do for you?
And on a completely unrelated note, they say the moon makes people do strange things -- I somehow managed to split my lip when I sneezed.
I hate that when I read, my hands and feet get cold.
Today is a useless day. I should not have come to work.
I made dinner last night for myself and the boy. It was the first time I'd cooked for the both of us, and I had to admit, I was a little nervous. I made pollo borracho. The recipe said to pair it with black beans and polenta, but I opted for saffron rice. And I forgot to pick up black beans at the store, so we had to settle for refried. Apparently he liked it because when I came back into the living room from getting a knife for myself, his plate was clean...and the cats don't eat people food.
Christmas was different. I still really miss my family. I am blessed to have a fiancee who loves me so much.
My hands are warmer, my book is calling me.
No matter where I travel online recently I seem to run across something corset-related. Am still thinking about that tailcoat corset.
I found out this morning that Chris works at ASU when he showed up at my hall looking for access to one of the other halls.
Had dinner last night with the beloved, his mom and his best friend who's in town from Virginia where he's being stationed to train to go to Iraq. Hopefully, the military will train his unit before sending them over there. Even more hopefully, the military will forget about his unit altogether and just let them go on being stationed in VA until this bloody thing is over. Dinner was nice, even if I was feeling a bit anti-social.
My darling nephew is 5 this year, and fabulous aunt that I am, I had planned on getting him his first set of real Legos this year. Fortuitously, my brilliant plan hit a snag. I went to the Lego online store thinking to have the 805-piece bucket delivered to my mom's house in time for Christmas. But noooo, they were all sold out. Eeep! What could I do? I thought, perhaps, to go to Target to see if they had some (one? just one? that was all that I needed.), but in discussion with some friends they directed me rather to Toys-R-Us saying that it was a "better place to buy Legos".
Well that was a load of dren. Toys-R-Us didn't even have one complete aisle of Legos, and most of it was that Bionicle crap. Most distressingly, they didn't have the basic building bucket of Legos. Crap-and-a-half! So I did what anyone in dire need of a toy for a youngster would do and I wandered the store aimlessly until my eyes glazed over with mind-numbing action of all the toys that play for you and my ears stopped listening because of the constant barrage of "I want that! Mommy, get me that! Daddy, make Santa give me that for Christmas!".
And then, surrounded by a halo of flourescent light, I saw it. The gift. The one that would usher my nephew into his rite of boyhood. A Transformer. And not one of those stupid new models where they transform into some brightly colored nerf gun, but an honest-to-goodness Transformer. My only quandry was whether to get him one of the six Optimus Prime's or the one Bumblebee. Malign me if you will, but I got him the Bumblebee. The way I figure it, Optimus Prime is a much more favored character than Bumblebee, therefore they will still be making Optimus Prime's even when they've stopped making Bumblebee's. That, and I can go back to Toys-R-Us after Christmas to pick up Optimus Prime as a "thank you for being my ringbearer" gift.
So after all that, what would've made me the best aunt in the world? Starscream. He's out in the set, but the store didn't have any. Curses! Foiled again.
Oh and J, it was thoughtful of you to set your alarm for me this morning seeing as my phone did indeed die. The only problem was that you had the wrong prefixed-meridian. I ended up waking up on my own at 6:30 - thus having to fight rush hour traffice twice in the space of an hour and a half. Then there was work. I won't go there right now. Suffice it to say I may dream about keys tonight.
Lastly, a little gift for zamboni42. Go on, give it a look.
Watch as we see last week, as I was walking back to my office, and a kid passes by me on his skateboard...carrying his drycleaning. *pause* Yay, incongruity.
Hear the chatter as some coworkers and I went to lunch today. Your topic is: holiday sweaters and theme jewelry - laughably wrong. For the win, I spot a woman in the most garrishly green holiday sweater walking down the sidewalk as we were eating.
Feel as I was driving down Price to the beloved's house this evening. I think I saw a blood stain on the pavement. I felt slightly ill.
Lastly, for my pyro friends, I believe this will make you drool....heavily.
Okay, so apparently I care more than I thought I did.
For anyone who didn't catch it when J/G posted on it a couple weeks back, jim_smith developed this thing he calls "Bash Wars". The basic concept is "What if you put this character and this character in a room together and made them fight to the death. Who would win?" A number of weeks ago, Mr. Smith put out an open call to his f-list for submissions for a "Bash Wars Open Invitational". I entered Animal from the Muppets just to see how far he'd make it. Surprisingly, he's made it all the way to the finals, and now he's fighting Brock Samson from the Venture Bros. And losing. And suddenly, I care (a little). So this is my pathetic plea, please go vote here for Animal.
And if you really need some convincing as to why to vote for Animal:
1. Brock Samson's only weakness is women. Animal's only weakness is WO-MAN! Advantage: Even
2. I just so happen to have some of Dr. Honeydew's growth pills from The Muppet Movie in my pocket. Who's to say they won't accidently get slipped into Animal's water? Brock? Well, he's Brock Samson. And he's got a knife. Advantage: Unknown
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worn out