Don't mind me, just thinking out loud here....

Tonight:

• Finish "Orlando" (last 60 pages)


• Write 2-3pp 'creative response' to book


• Map out semester calendar (including all due dates, readings, volunteer days, trips, shows, etc)


• Decompress? Beer? Watch "The Daily Show"? Sleep???!!!!
  

I must be anxious about something because, despite being worn out, I'm having trouble sleeping.

Then again maybe it's just the heat or the cricket symphony playing outside my bedroom window.

By the way, if you haven't already heard it, Iron & Wine's version of The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" is beautiful.

p.s. the MTV Video Music Awards were so boring last night that I forgot to watch them...no, seriously, I flipped the channel, saw that the show was on, heard some bad jokes involving Jimmy Fallon and Queen Latifah and flipped back to the news....I did switch back a few times, just out of morbid curiousity, but the only thing even remotely interesting was the surreal vision of Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips walking around in a giant bubble behind OutKast....I really wanted Big Boi or Andre to give Wayne a shout out or something and when they didn't I was pretty much done with the whole deal.

p.s.s...today I read on someone else's journal a very insightful message that goes as such: Because I hate Britney Spears so much I am forced to like Christina Aguilera.

And while my momma taught me that "like" is such a strong word, I am (somewhat) compelled to agree.

I love school, I do... but when people start talking about how TV is deadening our souls, I think, oh shut up, I need to get out of here in time to see The Daily Show ...and when they talk about how how they must write because they would otherwise die, I'm thinking, huh, I wonder if there's a good show this weekend and when they go on and on about how they're "obsessed with" or "haunted by" their characters ...I'm thinking, eh, whatever...my characters don't haunt me, these days we're barely on speaking terms -- it's a real dysfunction junction over here.

So maybe then, I'm not really a "Writer" with a capital W? I don't think so if it means acting so stuffy and narcissistically intellectual.

Intellectual interests and pop culture fluff can co-exist...can't they?

Can't you live in a world where it's equally acceptable to skim passionately read US Weekly and watch It's Good to Be Brad & Jen and be interested in Biblical references in Housekeeping?

Or am I just naive?

Anyway, we're reading Virginia Woolf's Orlando and, so far, my favorite quote comes when Woolf describes the the Great Frost of 1608 : "Birds froze in mid-air and fell like stones to the ground."

Not that I have anything against birds, mind you, it's just so simple yet evocative...or maybe it's just that it's hot here today and I like the idea of anything frozen.

biff, bang, pow

Every year during the State Fair, come 10pm, we can hear the fireworks. Little booming explosions that ripple through your bloodstream ever so slightly.

I'm tempted to step outside and watch them but I'm caught up in projects and it'd probably mean sitting our neighbor's front porch in order to see past the trees...but still...well, maybe...who knows....

The human / emotional toll of the war in Iraq gets uglier every day.

Jesus, first day of school and what else is going to go wrong this morning?
Granted, compared to things like war and famine and campaign lies, my problems seem stupid but nonetheless today has gotten off to a rocky start thanks to

• broken hairdryer


• unusually unruly/curly hair


• chipped toenail polish (really people, this just is not good right now, it's a real morale killer)


• scalding hot coffee spilling all over my hand


• long work meeting


• deadlines


• forgot to gas up the car for drive to school

Oh well, at least I have the good sense to be somewhat embarrassed by my bitch list.
But the nice thing though is that my iPod is being especially kind to me today and just followed Loretta Lynn's "High on a Mountain Top" with The Runaway's "Cherry Bomb" and then The Libertine's "Radio America."
Somehow it just knows what I need.
(And yes, I saw today's NYT article on the subject).

From McSweeney's the Future Dictionary of America:

pasta with grilled vegetables [pah'- stuh with grild vedj'-tuh-buls] n. [archaic] vegetarian entrée struck down by the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Mercer v. Bennigan's (2019). In a 6-3 decision, the Court ruled that pasta with grilled vegetables is an unconstitutional dinner offering and that chain restaurants in the Midwest must, "with all deliberate speed and all fresh ingredients," add another vegetarian selection. The Court stopped short of mandating a specific menu, but it did make a few nice suggestions involving tempeh and tofu. Chief Justice Nickerson wrote the majority opinion: "The court finds untenable the notion that flaccid, tasteless disks of yellow squash languishing atop rubbery spaghetti constitutes a lawful American dinner or freedom of choice," Nickerson wrote, "to say nothing of the cruel and unusual heat lamp." In 2035, the Court upheld Mercer v. Bennigan's by ruling 8-1, in Nash v. Applebee's, that three vegetarian appetizers do not equal an entrée.

Exactly... I mean I love portobello mushrooms as much as the next girl but there's only so much of the stuff that one can take when dining out. Come on people, give me some tofu and tempeh, seitan or a good hearty bean dish. Or, at the very least, get more inventive with your vegetable dishes - I'm tired of steamed green beans! Do not pander to the vegetarian stereotypes! Frankly, I'm getting really tired of Sac's options. Aside from the Co-op there's not a whole lot going on around here. Which doesn't mean we don't eat out - we do, quite a bit actually. But after awhile I get tired of choosing from the same dishes. Especially when I know San Francisco is greedily hording Herbivore, Greens and Millennium among other vegan restaurants. Ah, and don't let me forget the bliss that is Real Food Daily in LA. Or that great veggie cafe in Flagstaff, AZ. Or that amazing vegan restaurant in St. Louis - the one with the amazing pita chips and hearty vegan stew.

I mean really - Flagstaff and St. Louis have us beat. This is just sad and I am hungry.

Update: I just read about this new Mexican restaurant in Midtown...they have a vegetarian tamale pie and a fresh vegetable burrito over mashed sweet potatoes...mmmmm, two whole vegetarian options that one-up the standard bean burrito or veggie fajitas...I'll have to check it out.

Does your Britney Spears chewing gum lose its flavor on the eBay auction overnight? (Via Defamer).

Note to self:

You will play Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture DVD Edition and think that you can kick ass. But the truth is you are obviously not Jeopardy or Who Wants To Be a Millionaire or even Wheel of Fortune material because when push comes to shove this is what your pathetic attempt at an answer sounds like:

Sh-Sh-Sh! Sh....Sh...Shar....Shar...uhhh...Jaws!

Yeah, sure you got the answer...but jeez...looooser...

Rock the Light

Good Lord, but how I needed the rock last night. After waiting around the house for three hours for the DSL repair guy - only to find out at the bottom of the third hour that it wasn't our telephone line, but the modem they sent us that was causing the problem....ergh....then, rushing down to school for orientation only to miss the session I wanted to attend...then rushing over to the bookstore only to find out it had closed early - just five minutes before I got there (evil Mills bookstore workers --how dare you smirk at me like that? I'm like, you know, old enough to be...your older sister)...then rushing home. Oops...strike that...there was no rushing when it came to getting home. It took me nearly three and a half hours...which meant we couldn't meet Kevin at Empire at 6:30...

Anyway....we finally made it there at 7:30 and the show, thankfully, didn't start until 7:45 and Patti Smith rocks harder than most women half her age and it was exactly what I needed after a long day, a long week of running around trying to get things in order for going back to school so that my school/work/personal life don't completely disintegrate into a feathery pile of ashes...

So yeah, thank you Patti....

For all you foodies out there, a really good blog, I was just really very hungry. I think I'm going to try the dark chocolate peanut butter cups or the Roulade au Chocolat Saint Valentin. Some of the recipes are rather vague, calling for things like a "small container of heavy cream" or "small bag of almonds" - so there's a little bit of logic deducing and guesswork that's required, but sometimes when you're dabbling in the kitchen that can be half the fun.

The weekend was lovely, no beyond lovely. Our dinner at Millennium was the best meal I've had in ages and our stay at the adjoining hotel was very very relaxing. Sunday's trip to Muir Woods was breathtakingly beautiful and the only way that it could have been more perfect was if I'd remembered to bring along the camera.

Then again, not being distracted by the notion of taking pictures but instead, simply taking everything in was probably perfection in and of itself.

On the drive home we were dead tired but eventually revived with iced coffees and cookies and then arrived home to find a super-nice message from Grub and Mo wishing us a happy anniversary and it's nice to suddenly be reminded of friends in far away places and yes, we'll talk soon because we miss you guys too.

I'm still tired; in fact I feel as if I'm on the cusp of getting sick. But I'm doing my best to will away the physical breakdown and let the good feelings endure just a little longer.

Eh, but school starts a week from Thursday and this week I have to go down to the campus for orientation and buy books and there is still so much I wanted to get done before I have to turn my thoughts to the new semester.

To Do:

• Hook up DSL - whenever the damn equipment finally arrives


• Load loads more albums on the new iPod


• Get this embroidery kit


• State Fair!


• Visit Michelle & Richard and new baby Colin


• Make lemon poppyseed cookies


• Find recipe for millet cookies like the ones they sell in the Co-op


• Revise at least one more thesis story


• Sleep

I know I'm forgetting something(s).....

It's the iPod vs. cassette test....as a new iPod owner (40gig), I'm already smitten enough to feel passionate on the subject...(Via Coolfer).

so tired....

I'm really exhausted today so on a whim I typed in the word "tired" to the Google search engine (because for some reason, I really like doing that sort of thing) and found the Are You Tired? site.
There's nothing up there except the invitation to share with them my reason for being tired and while I'm really flattered that someone cares, A) I don't know what to write without sounding like I'm just complaining and B) I'm too tired to think of anything else.

I did, however, also find this Slate article about the site.

The second coming of Sarah Silverman - comedian set to star in big-screen adaptation of her Broadway show, "Jesus is Magic." (Via Zap2It) .

Summer here kids

I have a case of the summer doldrums. I'm not entirely sure what's causing it. Maybe it's that the heat has finally enveloped me like a prickly wool blanket. Maybe it's that school starts in exactly two weeks and my grandiose summer to-do list turned out to be a serious wash. (Don't even get me started on my summer reading list....Oh summer TV schedule, how cruelly you've sucked up my time.)

Tonight Cory is playing with Bobby at the True Love. It'll be our last trip there as the cafe is closing at the end of the month and we'll miss their 24-hour marathon show this weekend. I've got mixed feelings about the closing. On one hand I definitely haven't been going there as much in the last year because often it just feels like the same old scene. On the other hand, what's so bad about the same old scene; it does make me sad to lose another same old scene....Especially one run by people who strived to create a fun, inspired environment for art and music and people. Hopefully they'll turn in a new place sometime soon....

Saturday is the five-year wedding anniversary (!) and to celebrate we'll spend the weekend in S.F. - away from the heat. Well, actually we'll spend the night in S.F. then hike in Muir Woods on Sunday. It's awful, criminal actually, how long it's been since my last Muir Woods visit. Nine Years. NINE years! That's one of the good and bad things about living in California - at least for me. So much beauty, so much to do, so much that I take for granted.

I really am not ready to return to school; I need more summer. I need more months of relatively low stress. I need more time to write without worrying about deadlines or thesis format. I need more lazy Sunday mornings and almost-spur-of-the-moment trips out of town and late nights not studying and long drives to nowhere with no thought to novels I should be reading.

I need more summer, not more heat, but just more hours of daylight and tank tops and bare skin and fresh, juicy strawberries and iced blood orange tea and frozen blackberries and state fair photos.

I need days where it's OK to be a morning person because the hours before 10 a.m. are the only hours that are bearable: fresh and crisp and cool.

I need, at the very least, to get out of town for a day or two to try and escape this feeling that time is closing in around me.

Get a little piece of history when items owned by June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash go up for sale in a Sotheby's auction. Check the stuff out here. Via Metafilter.

In August sometimes, it seems as if everything is falling apart.
It is not necessarily a new feeling.

Well this page is back up - as is most, but not all, of the Web site. For some reason the home page (www.writegrrrl.com) is down - but hopefully I can fix that tonight. Obviously, not all the images are up either. Blah, I hate this kind of stuff. Shouldn't it just be easy as 1-2-3/FTP?
It should. But for some reason it never is.

I'm switching Web hosts - which means this site may (or may not) go down for a few hours/days/lifetimes...if it does disappear for a short time, please check back again later - thanks, the management.

Will Ferrell is George Bush. (For DSL/T-1 connections only -otherwise you'll be getting social security before it downloads). Thanks to Cory & Kevin for the link.

One step backward, one step forward. Missouri voters approve same sex ban constitutional amendment while a judge in Seattle rules that same-sex unions are legal.

fashion, victimized

Please people, say no to the poncho.

Mid-year review

From an e-mail that's been circulating among some of us, a very informal list:


CD's of 2004 I've enjoyed most so far...(i.e. CDs that have stayed in my
player longer than two weeks):

Franz Ferdinand: s/t

Sufjan Stevens: Seven Swans

Kings of Convenience: Riot on an Empty Street

A.C. Newman: The Slow Wonder

Stereolab: Margerine Eclipse

The Elected: Me First

Wilco: A Ghost is Born (Except track 11)





CD's I'm still not completely sold on...but am holding out hope for:

Jim White: Drill in a Hole in that Substrate...

Sonic Youth: Nurse

Modest Mouse: Good News For People Who Like Bad News

New on the hit parade:

The Thrills: Let's Bottle Bohemia

The Libertines: s/t

Waxwings: Let's make our Descent


Favorite singles this year:

Sonic Youth: Unmade Bed

Jim White: Static on the Radio

Franz Ferdinand: Take Me Out