Just thinking out loud here:

To Do:

• See Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind


• Finish fiction story for workshop


• Start next fiction workshop story


• Non-fiction essay


• Re-write non-fiction articles for class


• Register for next semester


• Get new issue of ReadyMade magazine


• Plane tickets - NYC


• Plane tickets - Dallas


• Catch up on sleep

Save Bob Edwards.

Los Angeles flew by in a blur of bright lights and not enough sleep and bad-for-you-but-oh-so-good food and seeing friends and doing work and always going, going going.

And the Sunset Strip at 2 a.m. is a giant fluttering neon beast of kinetic energy and flash and trash and shiny, expensive cars shaking the earth with gut-churning bass beats.

And highlights included: Nice people. Bright sunshine. Seeing Mayor of The Sunset Strip with Michelle and Dan. Breakfast with Karen. That guy in the red pleather superhero bug outfit. Largo, Largo, Largo. Tigerlily. Gelato. Canter's.

Lowlights included: Getting lost. No parking. Expensive valet parking. Rude drivers. Getting lost again. Delayed flights. Switching planes. Late shuttles. Did I mention getting lost and rude, rude people?

But the highlights outweighed the lowlights and although I'm still tired it was all fun in a breathless, high velocity sort of way.

Defective Yeti summarizes the 9/11 hearings for you.

Home, home, home and tired, tired, tired...I wish Sac had a radio station like 103.1 FM and there's a reason why Southwest Air is so cheap...that's all I have the energy/time for right now so more later.

OK, I lied...as the person who commented on the entry below wrote, it is impossible to stay away. I should be napping, but instead I am writing. It's almost dark outside and from our hotel window I have a lovely view of the Hollywood Hills behind Sunset which is well-populated with expensive looking houses.

We've been running around all day - first it was the Art*O*Mat, then lunch at Real Food Daily. Then, Amoeba, the Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum, the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Mann’s Chinese Theatre.

We need to be at Largo in an hour for the Jon Brion interview – which for some reason, I am very very nervous about – but happily Cory and Jose, the photographer will also be there and then dinner and the show should be great.

Yesterday was exhausting too – our flight was delayed for an hour and a half and we actually had to switch planes because, apparently, they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the first one. I’m not complaining about the switch but it did make the rest of the day a bit stressful because it gave us less time to get lunch before meeting up at Tim Biskup & Seonna Hong’s house.

I won’t say much about that here except that they have an amazing house and are two of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. We did the interview and then, later that evening – after getting taking forever to get from Hollywood to Pasadena -- had a great dinner with them and some friends.

Gah. Did I mention I’m exhausted? We probably won’t get back to our room til really late tonight and tomorrow is another full day with trips to the Westwood Memorial Park (cemetery). La Brea Tar Pits and I-can’t-remember-what-else-right-now planned.

As you can see, I’m too tired to link to anything.

No star sightings yet, although we did think, for a second, that we spotted the guy who plays Kirk on the Gilmore Girls. But it wasn’t him and in any case, Cory and I are probably the only people who would really care about that.

More later, maybe.

Gone to LA til Sunday. Might update while I'm there, then again maybe not. Although I'm taking the laptop and although this is not a vacation but rather a work trip, I nonetheless hope to stay as far away as possible from most computers during the duration of our stay. I think such prudent behavior is the only surefire way to stave off the nervous breakdown that is, at present, brewing noisily beneath the surface of my skin.

Well, now there's a way to handle the problem. Benton County (near Portland, Ore) has grounded the entire county and sent it to its collective room until they can figure out this whole gay marriage debacle.

In a new twist in the battle over same-sex marriage roiling the United States, a county in Oregon has banned all marriages -- gay and heterosexual -- until the state decides who can and who cannot wed.
..."It may seem odd," Benton County Commissioner Linda Modrell told Reuters in a telephone interview, but "we need to treat everyone in our county equally."

OK I think understand where they're coming from - but really, it seems just a wee bit extreme, don't you think? Then again, if heterosexuals are suddenly denied the right to wed, maybe it'll up the ante on both resolving this issue and finding empathy with those who are currently denied such rights.

Alright, in the course of this short post I think I've reversed my initial opinion. Gay marriage activists are also in favor of the move:

Rebekah Kassell, a spokeswoman for Basic Rights Oregon, a pro-gay marriage group, told Reuters; "It is certainly a different way for county commissioners to respect their constitutional obligation to apply the law equally to everyone.

Go Oregon! (Via CNN).

Warning: Unapologetically trashy and meaningless pop culture junk post ahead:
Blah....I sooo wanted Mercedes to win over Yoanna on ANTM...blech, blech, BLECH.

OK, that is all.

The Onion's chance at a Pulitzer, dismissed.
(Via Editor & Publisher by way of Bookslut because I am her link slut like that).

Because "Jane Doe Austen's" (!) "Confessions of a Semi-Successful Author" with its "Five Things You Can Do to Help the Mid-list Author" sidebar seemed too depressing to actually read (on Salon), I instead checked out Bookslut's tips for how author's can quit whining and help themselves.

Remember:

Before your first book has come out, and you're still pretty sure you're going to be wildly successful because your publisher is throwing you a release party, be nice to the female website editor. Yes, she's drunk on the free whiskey and probably has smoked salmon and caviar breath, but when she comes up to you to actually talk about your book and possibly being interviewed on her popular website, do not accuse her of not having read your book and then ignore her for cleavage girl. She will never mention your book on her website. Ever.

Now, armed with this advice and insight. I feel less like throwing myself under the wheels of the nearest bookmobile and more like I can actually conquer my local bargain book bin. No, really.

Mmmmm ... Black Table writer Eric Gillen on The Cult of Diet Coke. (Via Not Martha).

Ach, so much work to do between now and Thursday morning when we leave for LA

But quickly - the weekend in a nutshell:

Friday night=implode and just stay home to watch the game and read and sit on the couch and be glad to not be moving out there where all the people are.

Saturday=homework and then, thanks to last minute tickets (via a publicist) for the Franz Ferdinand show, we hightail it to SF for dinner at Herbivore, record shopping (purchases= Meow Meow and Sufjan Stevens) and then the show which, in my opinion, kicked some serious rock'n'roll ass - although they were seriously some of the nerdiest looking rock boys that I've seen in a long, long time. Not that this is a bad thing.

Sunday=birthday party for my cousin and then back home for some homework and the Kings game, Trading Spaces and The Sopranos.

Today=taking a crying, hungry cat to the vet for dental surgery and, once more with feeling, waayyyyyy too much work.

LA will be:

Tim Biskup & Seonna Hong
The Art-O-Mat
Jon Brion

- plus lots of cool, kitschy attractions. If anyone has suggestions on off-beat LA tourist attractions (Think Tail-O-The-Pup, Hollywood Wax Museum, etc), please let me know...more later...

I finally finished Mary Robison's "Why Did I Ever" the other night and although I know there are probably a lot of people who would have trouble with this book and the way its written (very spare, diary-style entries - although it's not really a diary per se, more like the capturing of thoughts), I just have to once again recommend putting it high up on your reading list.

The book follows a divorced screenwriter named Money Breton (and normally I hate cutesy literary nicknames like that, but it really works here) who suffers from ADD and is trying to keep not just her basic day-today life together but her career and family as well. I won't give away too much more because part of the emotional genius of this book is the way that Robison reveals her story.

Throughout, the main character is somewhat of an unreliable narratator; there were times I actually questioned the existence of particular characters, wondering if they were real or were simply a part of Money's ADD-addled imagination. Instead of distracting or confusing me, however, this quality gives the book much of its dark, seething humor and a lovely trainwreck effect.

Also, how can you not love a book where the main character talks to herself like this:

I say, "I'd be happy in this room if I had a dust mop."
"No," I say with a sigh, "that is not true. It wouldn't end there."

I had to read the final pages twice - first for the immediate, emotional, impact and then again to sift through what had happened. Indeed, I think I'm going to have to read this entire book over again to really see what happens. For such a taut, economically-worded story this novel is wonderfully multi-layered and complex.

I just ordered Robison's collection "Tell Me: 30 Stories" and am really eager to see how her narrative style works in that genre.

How lovely. One baby step forward for relieving yourself in public and one embarrassed step back for civilization:

Virgin debuts the Kisses urinal - a "sexy" Netherlands-produced urinal that is "one target a man will never miss", says a spokesman.

"The Bathroom Mania designs create a fantasy-world in the bathroom by working on impressions and stories."

These charming pucker-up pissers can be found in NYC's JFK airport VIP lounge.

(Via Yahoo news by way of Feministe).

If, like me, you couldn't stomach the idea of actually watching Courtney Love last night on David Letterman, then I encourage you to tiptoe on over to the blow-by-blow recap at Whatevs.

Trust me, it's a lot less painful this way.

Eh, never enough time in the day. I was off from work today and am also off tomorrow and yet my to-do list is just as long as ever. Actually, I've spent much of today sleeping. Other than a little homework and some bill-paying and laundry today has been utterly useless.

Not that the occasional useless day is bad.

Especially following a night of rock'n'roll.

Last night as I settled in to do some homework I got a call from a friend who'd heard through the grapevine that there was to be a secret PJ Harvey show at the Capitol Garage. She had to work and couldn't go but wanted to let me know. It was 7:45 p.m. and the show was supposed to start at 8:30. I called down to the club and the guy who answered gave me a kind of cagey answer. Something to the effect of "well she might be playing and yeah I'd say she's playing but I can't really say she's playing but if you wanted to maybe see her play then maybe you should get here cuz the doors are open."

Ohhhh-Kayyyy.

To cut to the chase, it turns out that Miss Polly Jean was indeed in town, playing bass for her buddy Moris Tepper's (Captain Beefheart, Frank Black & the Catholics) band. We hauled ass down to the Cap Garage where there was a not-too-long line and also managed to get a few other friends out to see her.

She didn't do any of her own songs, just played the bass -- along with some other instrument that I can't remember the name of -- and also sang back-up vocals but it was nonetheless very cool - especially for the low, low price of just $7 - and Tepper's set was entertaining and high-spirited. It was, in short, a lovely way to blow off homework and celebrate spring break and I eventually got over being at the bottom of the buzz hierarchy - i.e., being the geek who doesn't find out about the show until 45 minutes before it starts. Hey, better late than never.

Tonight, out with Serena for cabaret and karoake. Tomorrow, back to the to-do list. This weekend, too much stuff to even think about as we start to get ready for next week's LA trip -- more on that later.

Until then....

Damn, if I weren't a vegetarian I'd be all over this Marshmallow Peeps Marshmallow Maker. Actually, I hate peeps - sugar or no, whenever I used to eat them they made me feel sick to my stomach. Still, it'd be fun to just have one around the house for all those special Peeps occasions.

Yes, I've still got sugar on the brain.

Mmmm... Speaking of sugar-- chewy, gets-stuck-in-your-teeth sugar -- it's a Franz Ferdinand/Kelis milkshake deluxe. (Via Coolfer, by way of Catchdubs).

Yes it's come to this: Krispy Kreme set to offer a low-carb (i.e. low sugar) doughnut. (Via Gawker).

That's fine, as long as I can still get my sugar somewhere. I'll admit that I've cut back on the amount of carbs I've been eating. Not all of 'em though. I'm just making a few different choices. I'll never be a meat-eating Atkins devotee and don't want to be - I think it's unhealthy in the long run although I can see why someone do it short-term and hopefully once that person's goal is achieved then there's a return to a more well-balanced diet.

But what was I talking about? Oh yeah, sugar.

Sugar.

Right now I'm drinking an extra-large black coffee (also taboo on Atkins) and I just ate a Rolo and it tasted gooooood.

Mmmm sugar.

I can't even remember what the point of this post was supposed to be except that I really like caffeine and sugar.

A California's Conception of the Continental United States (via Rebecca's Pocket). Although I think Etherfarm's guide highly overstates most Californian's knowledge of the Mississippi River it is otherwise spot-on.

Turned out to be something of a hectic weekend what with the show on Friday night and Sellout/Buyout and Art Second Saturday on Saturday and breakfast with a friend on Sunday followed by studying and then a trip to Oakland for a small gathering of Mills MFA folks.

And thus I don't have much to say this morning except that life is kind of wonky right now and my home e-mail account is all screwy and it's supposed to 85 degrees today and it's not even spring yet people and my whole body aches because I subjected myself to a kick-ass workout on Friday afternoon and yes, nearly 72 hours later my legs and arms still hurt and last night as I was watching the news in an effort to lull myself to sleep I realized once again how depressing it all is (and I don't care if saying that is a cliche) even when there is a nice breeze coming through the window because one of the worst feelings in the world is a sense of powerlessness in the face of violence and lying and fraud and death.

And were it not for the fact that I don't have to deal with homework this week -at least not on a time-pressured scale - or that there is a fun trip to LA on the horizon then I think that I would just crawl back into bed and feign consumption until this too passes.

My grandfather died a week ago today. He passed away on his 80th birthday. They buried him on Saturday. I was not able to fly to Texas to attend the funeral. I'm hoping to go visit my grandmother sometime in May.

I used to live with my grandparents when I was really young (long, complicated story, don't ask) and often stayed with them during the summer when I was growing up.

My favorite memory of my grandfather comes from when I was three, standing on a stool behind a chair in which he was sitting and staring down at his bald spot and asking him about "the hole in his head".

I used to love the way he called me "Little Miss Rachel". I am named after my grandmother so that was his way of verbally distinguishing between the two of us.
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Sunday is the one-year anniversary of the death of Amanda Davis.

I can still see her face very clearly.

If you haven't already, please check out her novel Wonder When You'll Miss Me.

If I ever publish anything in regards to fiction it will be largely because of her encouragement. My favorite memory of her is standing outside of Mills Hall on a cold November evening - both of us shivering next to her VW Bug, talking about life and writing and grad school and life after grad school and how this was just a step in life and there would be other steps and I would take them and I would be fine. She related her own experiences -from grad school to residencies to publishing to teaching - with such enthusiasm that it was hard not to believe that we would all be destined for such greatness.

I still miss her and still can't quite believe that she's really gone.

---

But it is not all sadness and heaviness.

There have been some good things too, thus a short list of the things that have kept me smiling - however seemingly small they might be:

• Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" - particularly the title track. You MUST play this song in your car --loudly -- with the windows rolled down.


• Chocolate candy Easter eggs - the small ones that are solid chocolate and coated with a hard, sugary sweet shell . Really, need I say more?


• Mary Robison's "Why Did I Ever". I hope to finally finish it this weekend. It's a remarkably spare book but shot through with such emotion and detail that it leaves me breathless. It's the kind of book you could easily read through in half a day, but I like it so much that I've been just parceling it out in little bits and pieces, trying to stretch out the moments.


• Spring break - no wild week at the beach planned, only days of less pressure and more time to just be.

OK, off to Old I to see Baby Grand --because rock'n'roll always makes my short list.

Gay marriage halted, for now in SF and Massachusetts. (Via the Christian Science Monitor) Meanwhile, in the Kentucky Senate passes a measure to ban gay marriages and override civil unions. (Via Gaywired).
So, what's next?

SF Mayor Gavin Newsom predicts that same sex marriages will ultimately prevail: (via SF Gate)

"I hope every elected official in the United States takes a look at that Constitution that they swore to uphold, to bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States," said Newsom, speaking in the City Hall mayor's balcony. "I hope they conclude exactly what I've concluded: that there's nothing in the Constitution that allows me to discriminate against people."

Citing state high court decisions in Massachusetts, Vermont and Hawaii banning marriage discrimination against same-sex couples, Newsom said he looks forward to San Francisco's day in court to make the arguments in favor of the same decision here.

"We have a good argument under the law and we certainly believe we have an outstanding case under the Constitution and that's ultimately where this case needs to be decided," he said.

Similarly, Bevan Dufty, an openly gay member of the SF Board of Supervisors, believes this is only a temporary setback:

"This is an unstoppable movement that the mayor started, and I have confidence we will eventually reach our goal," I knew there would be some setbacks, but there always are with civil rights movements."

And State Board of Equalization chairwoman Carole Migden (who recently married her partner in SF) predicts that

"This is the cusp of a cultural revolution We are strong and our convictions are righteous. We expect resistance and we will prevail.''

So, keep on fighting the good fight.

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Moving on from the political to the personal (although of course the two are always intricately intertwined)...

today is one of those Fridays where even though there is lots to be done (too much to be done as a matter of fact), it nonetheless feels slow and quiet and oddly dreamy and I feel lonely and sad as I often do on warm, pre-Spring days...I'm not sure what it is except that there's been a lot going on lately so that's probably just heightening the intensity of my emotions.

In any case, there are things to look forward to this weekend:

• going to the gym - no, I really am looking forward to that


• Baby Grand at Old I with Bart Davenport and Daisy Spot


• Sellout/Buyout tomorrow night.
  
• no school next week, thus less pressure with the homework


• time spent with friends

.....Hmmm, maybe I can even find time to sleep in and/or take a nap...and maybe even spend time with Cory. Now that would be nice.

Sorry for the, uh, inadvertant porn link in the first Anderson Cooper post. I'm not quite sure how that happened.
The link has been corrected in the original post and it's also here. (Thanks Heather!).

Vicarious Gawker Stalker entry: My friend Rachel in NYC e-mailed me today to let me know that she spotted Anderson Cooper "walking by himself down 53rd Street near 5th Avenue (just a couple of blocks away from CNN) about 11:50am. No coat, even though it was cold, earth tones shirt and pants."

I am just boiling over with envy over here - almost as much as when Cory rubbed elbows with Mike Bibby at Virgin Records last summer.

Everyone else gets all the good celeb sightings and I get...well there was Johnny Knoxville at a diner in LA, Craig Kilbourn at a party in LA and .... hmmm ... oh, Paul Thomas Anderson, Fiona Apple and "that one guy" from "Boogie Nights" at Largo in LA.

I want more.

Anyway, it's a gorgeous day here in Oakland. I've got an hour until class and I'm thinking of going and sitting out by the fountain to soak up the last hits of sunshine for the day. What's funny is that so many people are complaining about the weather.

It's 78 degrees! It's hot!

People, until you've lived several summers in the EZ Bake Oven that is Sacramento during the months of July-September, I don't want to hear about it. I'm a cold weather person myself and if this is as hot as it ever got, I'd be pretty damned happy. It's lovely and pretty and everything smells like flower blossoms but it's not too warm or sticky or endless.

It is, simply, nice.

You know how much I love Anderson Cooper - I'm not the only one: The New York Observer on Anderson Cooper, Superstar. (Hush Sandra!)

On air, he shows his news chops: Last week, Mr. Cooper did a live phoner with exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and he nailed Mr. Aristide's balls to the wall on his claims that the U.S. forced him out of Haiti.

Then there's the Page Six version of Anderson Cooper: flashy Manhattanite in sharp tailored suits. Dalton fed him to Yale. Not only is his mom the designer-jean queen, his great-aunt Gertrude founded the Whitney Museum. He writes for Details, for chrissakes. All this means that Mr. Cooper is, in fact, the epitome of the East Coast media elite that Fox News and their gang harp on. "I'm sort of guilty on all those counts--I'm from New York and went to an Ivy League school. I do think how one is born and how one chooses to live one's life are often two different things--or should be two different things," said Mr. Cooper. He seems in his chronically polite and understated way to be saying by this: Fuck off.

I'm definitely a fan of both versions of Mr. Cooper.

With nearly 4,000 same sex couples having tied the knot in the last month, the Christian Science Monitor raises an important question: What is the future of such unions if they're banned via a constitutional amendment at either the state or federal level?

As one law professor points out:

There's no precedent for any of this. It's basically been a premise of our Constitution that amendments" - apart from the ill-fated 18th, which for 13 years mandated Prohibition - "are not added for the purpose of denying people rights. They've always guaranteed people rights. So we're in uncharted territory here."

And, another law professor explains:

"Marriage law changes, but it's always been held that people validly married when the law was broader are still married when the qualifications to marry are narrowed." (For example:) Cousins married before those bans were not unwed in their aftermath, nor were young or interracial couples.

In any case, law experts don't expect to see much in the way of change anytime soon - a proposal in Massachusetts to ban same sex marriages may not go before voters until 2006 and the proposed federal ban could take a while as Senate majority Bill Frist (R. of Tennesse) and House majority leader Tom DeLay (R. of Texas) have said they plan to "move slowly and deliberately".

In the meantime, things should continue to get interesting.

And in mostly unrelated news:
Canada.com reports that doctors are developing a procedure that may help a woman to "put her fertility on hold" through a complicated process that involves ovarian grafts and the freezing of embryos.

The experiments are being pursued with the goal of rescuing the fertility of hundreds of thousands of girls and women with cancer who undergo sterilizing chemotherapy, radiation or surgery every year.
Thousands more are plunged into early menopause after undergoing chemotherapy for autoimmune diseases such as lupus or other illnesses.
As the survival and cure rates improve for many cancers, infertility problems grow.
The ground-breaking experiments may one day allow otherwise healthy women to defy their biological clocks.

I wish they could hurry up on that one

Bought some new CDs over the weekend:

Ben Gibbard & Andrew Kenny: Home: V.5 - Haven't listened to this one yet.

Sue Garner: Shadyside - Music set to the poetry of Fay Hart as sung by Sue Garner with, among others, James McNew (Yo La Tengo). Sometimes spooky, sometimes strange, often pretty.

Casual Dots: S/T - haven't listened to it yet but Cory, upon noting that I wanted to purchase it, felt obliged to remark: I thought you were over your riot grrrl phase. Whatever.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Maps My favorite YYY song - this CD single has bonus tracks plus the video.

I've got just one question about last night's season premiere of The Sopranos: Am I really supposed to believe that was Lorraine Bracco's ass? Just wondering.

Anyway - another beautiful pre-Spring day and the air outside is warm and soft and inside we've thrown open all the windows and everything feels fresh and new and clean. The only thing that would make it better would be a few days off from work to clean out closets and scrub everything until the whole house sparkles.

Oh, and a I bought a tiny two-inch rose from Trader Joe's. It's very pretty but I've got quite the black thumb and have no idea how to care for it. All I know is that at some point I'm going to need to replant it in something bigger. Any advice?

Spalding Gray found dead.

Seattle mayor to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere by offering city employees the same benefits, including health insurance, that are offered to heterosexual employees. I wish he would take it one step further and actually issue the licences but, still ...baby steps I suppose. In any case, Seattle already offers domestic partnerships but this move will allow residents to skip the lengthly paperwork involved with that process.
(Via Salon).

This weekend to-do:

• Go through CDs - it's spring cleaning time


• Sell said woefully-neglected CDs at Amoeba - it's time for them to go to a better home


• Shop on Haight - new shoes


• Dinner at Sweet Heat


• Read


• Sleep


• Study. Write. Study. Write*


• Bake cookies


• Sopranos!

*Speaking of which - I am happy to report that I am actually about one-third of the way done with my thesis. You don't know incredibily happy this makes me - especially as I've just found out I might have to take two classes next semester after all.

Martha Stewart found guilty - let the jail decor jokes begin in earnest. (Via the Hollywood Reporter).

President Bush has angered some of the families of Sept. 11 victims with a new series of ads that depict him against a backdrop of 9/11-related images including Ground Zero.

Tonight CNN spoke to some relatives of Sept. 11 victims. One woman (calling in to speak to newscaster Rudi Bahktiar said she didn't think the topic itself was appropriate campaign fodder.

While I do believe that it is pretty damn tacky to appropriate those images for an election ad, I don't think that either side should have to treat the topic with kid gloves - at least not when it comes to relevant discussions.

The caller - who lost her husband in the attack on the World Trade Center - explained her position by calling it a "personal tragedy".

Does that mean every personal tragedy should be off-limits? And just how do you define a "personal tragedy"? Isn't every tragedy personal? And what exactly do you mean by a tragedy? No, losing your job or not having health care isn't a tragedy on the same level as losing a member of your family - but on one level or another it's still a tragedy.

If that was the general criteria for striking a subject off of the 2004 election discuss list then we'd have nothing left to talk about.

Slowly not feeling sick anymore and, in an effort to stop this vicious cycle of illness (the other day I realized that I have been sick in form or another (either full-fledged cold, bronchitis or flu or 'recovering' from said ailments) since Jan. 1, I am trying to build up my immune system.

This means exercise, plenty of water, vitamins and healthy food. That is, of course, as long as sugar still counts as a healthy food. OK, I know it doesn't really, but a girl's got to have something.

Anyway, two days in a row at the gym plus some leg exercises last night and now my thighs and calves are sore but in a good way and I'm just ready to move into spring with the ability to breathe - with the ability to not have to cough myself to sleep every night.

I know the stress has been a major factor to the bad health - the stress and the resulting lack of sleep.

Only nine more weeks left in the semester. NINE MORE WEEKS. This has been the mantra in my head for the last few days. Yesterday I kept saying it over and over until Cory just looked at me like I was crazy. Yeah honey, I know ... I am crazy, but play along with me here.

Nine weeks. Not including spring break which is like my free little gift week in the middle of March.

Nine weeks of workshopping stories, reading stories, reading Gertrude Stein (OK just skimming Gertrude Stein) working on my thesis. Nine weeks of doing all this and working full-time and commuting and trying, trying, TRYING not to neglect my friends and family.

Nine weeks. And then....and then I get my life back. Yes, I'll still have the thesis to work on. And yes, I'll still have one more class in the fall (hopefully an evening class). And yes, I may even take classes after that (locally though - no more commutes). But that will be it. It will feel like a vacation, a breeze, completely manageable.

Now, if I can just remember to breathe for the next 63 days.

It's Not Phair: Ex-Zuzu's Petals singer (and Paul Westerberg's wife) Laurie Lindeen on Liz Phair's "Exile in Guyville". (Via The Morning News).

I'm not quite clear on just where this 15 billion dollars is going to come from - but eh, what do I know? Let's just spend, spend, spend without any worries and let our grandkids deal with it. Happy post-election day California!

Wait, make that go vote and then commence nervous breakdown.

I want rock'n'roll. I crave rock'n'roll. I need rock'n'roll.
But tonight I must forgo rock'n'roll and, instead, commence nervous breakdown.

Oh devilish temptation...should I be a good girl tonight and finish my homework (of which there is still plenty) or do I go see Cake at the Blue Lamp?

Feh. I'd already resigned myself to not seeing Grandaddy tonight - but now this bit of info.

God, were those the most boring Oscars ever? No surprises whatsoever. Lord of the Rings this, Lord of the Rings that. Good film sure, but maybe if they'd chopped off the last 30 minutes then would it have been an amazing, Oscar-hogging film.

There wasn't even really anything good to snark on.

Unless you count Uma Thurman's dress. And Liv Tyler's hair.

P.S. Cory & I saw Mystic River on Friday night and both really liked Tim Robbins' performance (and Marcia Gay Harden too - and while we're on the subject, when did Kevin Bacon get so hot? But that's just me speaking, not Cory - duh) but agreed that Sean Penn probably could have done that role in his sleep and the second-to-last scene in that film (the one with Penn and Laura Linney) was just god-awful and (along with the tertiary storyline involving Kevin Bacon's wife) seriously detracted from the film's overall impact. What could have been a great movie was merely pretty good.