music and madness and some laziness too

It's my day off today and I'm being entirely too lazy. Laziness is my fundamental problem in life. I just missed yoga class because I got caught up in looking at pictures of tattoos. I woke up a little late today, so yoga probably wasn't going to happen anyway. Oh well, I'll do some yoga at home and then go jogging. It's gorgeous out and I won't be able to do that soon. It's still shocking to me that I've started running since I hated it so much when I was a kid. Then again, jogging by the lake is a whole different animal than jogging in my loathsome junior high gym. I'm not interested in gyms or running on a treadmill so I'll stick with yoga classes over the winter.

Despite my inherent laziness, October is always a big month here in the robot-pixie house. Tonight I'm blowing off class going to be really really sick, and the only way to cure it will be going to see Portishead play at the Aragon. Then next week we're taking a quick trip out to the Quad Cities to watch the Indelicates play in a small intimate setting, then the last Friday of the month we'll see them again in Chicago at a much bigger venue, which should be interesting. And of course I already took off the weekend of Halloween, cuz that's our holiday. Why do I love Halloween so much? Besides the fact that it isn't very hard to convince me to dress up and put on a costume? I consider it the perfect holiday because it's not about spending time with your family and eating a big meal and breaking the bank on presents for people. It's about throwing on some fake blood and having a fantastic time with all your friends. Not that I don't like spending time with my family or buying presents for people, but that does pale in comparison to finding the perfect costume and dancing your ass off in it. I love the rampant creativity this holiday inspires.

So that's what's on the agenda this month. Music and madness. Now I better go take a jog so I look good in my slutty Halloween costume.

Nook Review

Yes, it's been months since I've posted. Yes, I've been a bad blogger. I think I'm going to try and post every Tuesday since it's a pretty easy day for me. In November I'll try to post every day again and see how far I get. I think that I get blocked because in my public blog I like writing about something instead of updating about my day to day life, like, "This week I worked a bunch of days, and then I went to class and it was pretty boring, and then I went out to dinner with some friends." No one wants to read that.

About three weeks ago, I finally joined the future and bought an e-reader. I decided to get the Nook instead of the Kindle, because you can download library books on it, and also you can buy books from other stores, not just Barnes and Noble. I got the latest one, which is smaller and has a touch screen, and so far I love it. I was one of those people who hated the idea of an e-reader when it first came out. "Nothing will replace books for me! You'll have to pry paper books from my cold dead hands!" But e readers have advanced since then, and now I love the idea that I don't ever have to be in between books till I get to a bookstore anymore, the entire world of literature is at my fingertips. Also, I'm a very bad library grad student who never uses the library. Now I can download library books, and not worry about late return fees if I'm too lazy to bring the book back on time. Another perk is that I can download pdf files onto it to read instead of killing more trees by printing them. This makes it very handy for the mountain of journal articles I have to read for school, so I can write the Nook off on my taxes, woot!

So far I've waded in slowly. Trench recently got me sucked into the first season of Game of Thrones, so I bought the first book and have been reading it on my Nook. I didn't know if I would like reading fiction on a screen, but if you are a person who likes to read, you will read anything as long as there are words printed on it. I like that the Nook is so slim, so I never have to leave it at home, like I do sometimes when I'm reading a fat book. I've even been reading in bed, although in a fit of sleepiness the other night I reached up to the corner of the Nook to turn a page instead of swiping the screen.

All the same, when I finish this and go to read the second, I think I'll get the paper book instead. As handy as the Nook is, at the end of the day it's still another screen to stare at. I'm excited to use it for non-fiction, and even for hardcover fiction that is too difficult to carry around everywhere, or silly chick lit that I don't want people to catch me reading. As for really good fiction that I can barely put down, I think I'll stick to paper.

Theater of Yesterday*

I'm watching the first season of Ally McBeal on Netflix. I watched most of this show when it first aired, though I stopped at some point. Whatever shark they jumped was so boring that I can't even remember what the shark was. Oh wait...it was when she suddenly had an eight year old daughter out of nowhere! At that point I think that Sex & the City was on the air, and everyone had stopped watching poor Ally.

In fact, it's really interesting watching the show in that context...S&tC aired just a shade after Ally premiered. Fall of '97 vs. spring of '98. Network television vs. cable. Both shows were about single women finding love, but say what you want about S&tC, it resonated with women in a way that few shows have. Possibly because it showed different types of women. If you didn't like Carrie, you might still identify with Miranda or Samantha. Ally McBeal is what happens when a show is centered on Charlotte. And although there are different types of women on Ally McBeal, they all still agree that single = lonely = sad. Even Renee, Ally's sassy and confident best friend, will say things like "She's marrying him because she just turned 30." "We hate weddings because we're single." "If you're not careful you're going to end up alone." The S&tC crew were allowed to be happy without men. To this day my friends and I will be talking about a situation and be able to relate it to a S&tC episode (seeing that the show went off the air in 2004, this says a lot about the need for a new show centered on women), but no one ever says, "That's just like the time Ally had a meltdown in public and smacked someone for saying her skirt was too short!"

That makes it sound like I think the show sucks. Well, I think that Ally sucks, but everyone does. Did anyone ever like Ally? The show ran on the steam provided by the secondary characters. I've been squeeing over John Cage listening to the bells, and the first time he dances to Barry White in the co-ed bathroom. Richard Fish (who I have decided is basically who Jeff Winger was when he was a lawyer, before he had to go back to community college because he didn't really pass law school) with his "Fishisms" and brushing off everything with "bygones". Jane Krakowski's portrayal of Elaine, the attention seeking secretary, which is the exact same character she plays on 30 Rock, and I find myself not minding. The beautiful thing about this show was that it was about very odd, quirky people, and that's why it worked. In fact, I think we should bring back "bygones." Say there's a huge blow up in an internet chatroom. Just write "bygones", and it'll all be diffused. And it goes without saying that there should be more impromptu dance parties. Maybe not in public bathrooms, but hey, that's where the mirrors are.

I've forgotten almost everything except for the main plotline (Ally finds herself working with her first love and his wife, hijinks ensue!), but there's one plot that everyone remembers whether they watched the show or not. The dancing baby. Full disclosure, I do not have a biological clock. Trench and I have agreed that we're mad about each other enough that we don't want any tiny being taking our attention away from the other. I finally got to the dancing baby episode, and it scared the crap out of me!

Honestly, I don't even think the lack of biological clock has anything to do with it. This is very early CGI we're talking about. That baby is terrifying! Remember when that was on everyone's screen saver for awhile? What the hell were they thinking? The baby is Ally's biological clock hallucination. This hallucination happens because she has sex for the FIRST TIME ALL SEASON with someone just because he was hot and she feels guilty about that. Yep, this is definitely pre-S&tC. She's standing in the office, and suddenly the pitter-pat of little feet goes off like a gunshot. And then there's the OOGA CHAKA OOGA CHAKA from Paul Simon's "Hooked On a Feeling." And that CGI baby runs out and starts dancing in this very jerky way, moving its limbs in ways that limbs were never meant to move. I screamed. And for the rest of the episode, every time I heard the pitter pat or the OOGA CHAKA, I screamed and lifted my feet off the ground, as if the baby would run out and grab me.

Think I'm exaggerating? Check it out here, if you dare. Just don't blame me if you aren't able to sleep tonight. But if you think the baby is cute...that you found Ally dancing with her biological clock to be liberating...that it was your screen saver back in the 90's...well, what can I say? Bygones.


*Title stolen from Rebecca T. Thanks Bekka!

shoe lust

So I saw these shoes recently at a shoe store close to where I work that regularly gets me into trouble. They've been hanging around for awhile, but I didn't pay them too much attention, assuming they were too ostentatious/expensive/uncomfortable. So I fawned my attention over a different pair of wedges. Recently I tried the wedges on, but on my foot it wasn't love. So "just for fun", I tried these on.

Oh goodness.

Wedges can be uncomfortable for the same reason heels are uncomfortable...your foot is in an unnatural tip toe position. Platform wedges, however? Are a whole different story. My foot was supported and cushioned. The shoes were light instead of heavy. And when I looked in the mirror? The style worked on me! And why wouldn't they? Hell, when I was in my 20's, I wore Creepers for comfort. Suddenly, I had a new shoe lust. They would be mine!

However, like a sensible woman, I decided to wait another paycheck to be sure I could afford them. Then June hit like a ton of bricks. I got sick and missed a whole week of work. My car broke down and then got stolen, in that order. I had to take rental cars to my summer class out in the burbs. Trench and I are still trying to catch back up from our June From Hell.

Today I went back to go "visit" my shoes, and see if they were still there. I can't afford them, but I thought I'd take another look and see if they were as fabulous as I remembered. I shouldn't have been surprised that my size was gone. Unfortunately instead of being all "c'est la vie, that's how it goes!" it put me into hunter mode. This is when I start scouring the internet for the perfect shoes that I want. I even thought that maybe I could find them a little cheaper. I learned that apparently the store by my work was THE ONLY STORE IN THE WORLD THAT CARRIED THIS SHOE! Learning this made me panicky. Can I afford these shoes right now? Absolutely not! Are there a billion other things I should be spending my money on? Of course! Should I not be spending money on anything, and instead be saving so my checking account will start looking healthy again? Hell yeah! However, none of this matters as I have turned into Gollum and I must have the PRECIOUSSSSSSS!

Hear that sound? That is the sound of the Universe kicking me in the ass and telling me to save my damn money.

summertime

*dusts off blog* Hello, outside world, it's been awhile. What with starting grad school, I haven't had a lot of time for creative writing. Right now I'm on summer vacation for the next two months so I don't have an excuse not to update. Besides the fact of not knowing what the hell to write about. Which is ridiculous, because there's all sorts of things going on. Last week there was dancing at a club in which suburban 20-something girls started doing the limbo on the dance floor without realizing that's a bad idea when you're wearing short dresses. There was a two day visit from an old friend that I haven't seen in a year, and we barbecued salmon on our tiny new grill on our deck. There was sangria drinking and cheese-nomming at Ravinia while watching an Abba cover band last night. Tonight my BFF is having a French-Canadian themed get together for 4th of July (all just an excuse to eat poutine). Then this Thursday we're going to watch a live performance of the Care Bears movie, something we saw about four years ago and it was one of the funniest things we'd ever seen. Oh summer, how I wish you'd last forever.

Crazy Dog People

Trench and I have two cats, Puck and Bowie.


Almost all of my friends are cat folk, to the point where we all got or kittens around the same time, after college when we started living on our own. Now we're all in our 30's and our cats are becoming elderly. There is no adoption of new kittens because it would upset them, and puppies are out of the question. I don't really consider myself a "cat person" because I love all animals. I grew up with a dog and love them, but as far as city living in an apartment goes, cats win hands down. I keep saying that I'll get a dog someday, when Puck and Bowie "go to college", but if I do I might adopt a kitten at the same time because I can't imagine life without a cat.

Does this make me a crazy cat lady? Perhaps. Most of my coworkers have dogs and we allow dogs in our workplace, so I've gotten to know a lot of dog owners, and I'm beginning to wonder exactly who is crazy. Yes, I love my cats. I post pictures of them and tell funny stories about them and one of them is being snuggly as I write this. But you know what I don't do? Buy them clothes. Put booties on them. Get their pictures taken with "Santa Paws". Take them to "kitty day care" while we're at work. Decline getting a drink after work because we have to walk the cat. Take them outside no matter how cold or rainy or early it is.

Cats aren't as independent as people say they are. Cats are very attached to their people, and can be very needy in their own way. They cry if they aren't getting a proper amount of attention, they hog the covers on the bed and they don't beg for treats, they demand them. But still? I don't have to pick up their poop outside in a little plastic baggie. If I ever get a dog, I'll probably do most of that list with the day care and dressing them up for Halloween, and hell, even Santa Paws. For right now, I'll stick with my inexpensive, low maintenance cats, who only need someone to check in once a day when we go on vacation, and don't need to be taken outside every day at six in the morning.

good eater

I was wondering recently about what makes someone a "good" eater. I guess by that, I mean someone who is health conscious and will happily opt for vegetables over something fatty as opposed to someone who eats mostly fast food and will only order a salad because they're "supposed to" and will eat the whole thing with a grimace on their face. As I said before, there's no such thing as a "perfect" eater because there is always someone out there who eats better than you. Can I put more "quotation" marks in this post? Let's see if I can!

What I usually hear from people who think that healthy eating is a punishment is that that's how they grew up. I get that, because that's how I grew up too. Just to give my mom some credit, that's not how she wanted me to grow up eating. She would always tell me that she bought whole wheat bread when I was little, then we moved to Chicago to live with my grandma and she only liked white bread, so suddenly nothing but Wonderbread would do for me. Between my mom and my grandma, we always had a home cooked meal and ate together as a family. It wasn't their fault I was a super picky eater who would only eat chicken with a side of dessert.

I didn't eat much better in college either...I drank pop instead of water, ate fast food and thought fries were a vegetable. That was when I started branching out, though. I started trying ethnic food and discovered that it was delicious. My best friend and I would go to coffeehouses when we wanted to be fancier than Dennys, and that's when I tried hummus and veggie burgers and they didn't kill me. In fact, I wanted more. I may have even dipped the occasional carrot stick into the hummus when I ran out of pita bread.

Around that time is also when I lost my sweet tooth. Or rather my sweet tooth turned against me. I used to love chocolate, and would hit up vending machines for candy bars and eat more dessert than dinner. Then my teeth became very sensitive...no cavity, just one tooth in my mouth is completely intolerant of biting into anything sugary. Suddenly sugar = pain to me, and that cured my addiction pretty quick. I still eat sweet stuff, but in small doses, and I can barely choke down a whole cookie.

My eating habits did a 180 when I moved out of my parents house. I bought all my old stand bys of pop and chips and white bread, but I wasn't even consuming much of it because I was hardly ever home. It was a really cold winter that year and I didn't want a cold glass of pop, I wanted tea. I didn't want to waste my money on stuff I wasn't eating, and I didn't know how to cook yet, so I would buy tea and soup and yogurt. My roommate was vegetarian and from her I learned about things like rice milk and whole grain bread and stir fry.

Trench wasn't a much better eater than I was. He and his brothers grew up with the most plain palette ever, even more so than me. His mom didn't like cooking that much and didn't want to have fights about dinner, so they all grew up eating mac n cheese and applesauce. Trench's palette expanded when he spent a college semester in Asia and learned to love Asian food. He could do a pretty decent stir fry, but before moving in with me he pretty much lived on Ramen. We learned how to cook together and he took off with it. I can cook, but he's definitely the chef.

After losing my sweet tooth, I became a big fan of savory food. I haven't kicked all of my bad eating habits. If I really let myself loose, I'd probably still buy things like Cheetos and nachos with the bright orange microwavable cheese. I keep that at bay by not buying them, and instead snacking on corn chips with hummus or salsa or guacamole. My Achilles heel now is bar food. As much as I want to be all, "I eat so well, everyone should eat like me, la la la", it all gets undone when I'm at a bar, drinking beer and munching on fries. Oh tater tots with cheese, why are you so good after midnight with booze? This wouldn't be a big deal if it was an occasional thing, but Trench and I get together with various friends for food and drink at least two or three times a week. So I'm currently cutting out beer and fries at bars (hey, it's better than cutting out going to bars, at least in my opinion). We'll see how long that lasts. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to make a smoothie with almond milk, frozen cherries and spinach, and it's going to be delicious.