27 December 2008

things to love this week

just when i was reading the news of the day and thinking to myself "oh, what's the point? we're all going to hell in a handbasket anyway, aren't we?" on thursday, stuart copeland burrowed his little kitty face into the pit of my elbow and promptly started snoring. there are few things in this world i find cuter than the sound of a cat sawing logs and sprawling sideways in an undignified position. at one point he held his breath for that extra second and then let out a large meaningful sigh before cranking up the saw again. it was adorable.

zhen sent me the fly!!! after weeks (okay, so it was days that felt like forever) of anticipation, i have the most fabulous new piece of art. it's signed on the bottom and i actually know the artist and her fondness for cupcakes. how's that for spectacular culture? the fly is now moving around the living room in search of that perfect spot to be shown off to all who enter. aha! i think i see the spot now.

i baked this morning... without being depressed. this is a feat for me. it used to be that i would only enter the kitchen when i was feeling blue. today i made two batches of great baked french toast using raisin challah bread. one was with peppered bacon and amaretto, as well as a dish with bananas and caramel. i am a baked french toast genius.

the bactine spray stuff remains near the kitchen. i'm still a train wreck with hot glass baking dishes. who knew they'd be so damn hot?

remember how it was 8 degrees (before the wind chill) here on monday? of course you don't, but i do. then it was 50... then it was 70. then there was a thunderstorm. now we still have the balcony door open for a breeze. we can have every season in seven days or less. it's like a crazy kind of weather thunderdome around here, and i love it. two seasons enter, one season leaves!

EEE, kris is here. we're doing brunch with le bebe audrey tomorrow after i get off work. it just goes to show how well someone knows you when they ask if you're okay when you tell them you're baking. she sounded like she had keys in hand to come over and rescue me until i reassured her that i was fine. gotta love it when you have a real friend. it still weirds me out that she has a child who is now a whole year old. almost like a person! holy crap!


random goofy fact about me:
i've driven the entire distance of I-5

21 December 2008

EEEEE-ntertainment!

derek got to meet millie. bwah, i'm not so jealous. we're making a trip to north carolina next month and i'll get to cuddle with her then. he did bring me postcards and a cup from his rather hellish trip to new york. (see previous post) now he's hanging out with dizzy and basking in the glow of how much she missed him this week.

of course i've been busy since mary has come to town. you knew that, didn't you? we now have some new matching underpants (sort of), matching plaid skirts that we wore at the same time out on our date last night, and mary has finally had the joy of eating cauliflower.

honestly - even with all i know about my peeps, i am still shocked on a regular basis. i gave the girl egg rolls. i gave the girl guacamole. who knew she'd never had cauliflower before? the occasion was marked by me (yes, ME!) being the one to cook dinner for us... and she really enjoyed it! all parties involved survived the chicken and i learned how to properly use that little metal steamer thing you stick inside a pot.

it isn't that i haven't missed derek or that mary hasn't missed tim. we've just been using our time wisely to dork out on the things that matter to us on our own. we had free samples of cider. we went to a museum. we ate baked goods and walked in the cold. we shopped for clothes, which is amazing considering that neither one of us is a big clothes hound. we watched a whole bunch of thirty second bunny theatre. we looked at trashy magazines and made fun of people. it was a pretty fun day that ended with us rolling around on the sofa with the cats until the wee hours having coffee and liqueurs.

i can't wait until kris comes to visit! and my fly is on the way here! i got all my shoes fixed! we cleaned out the closet and gave away lots of stuff! ladonna gave me a new kind of cheese! if this sounds like a lame amount of excitement for the week, well too bad. my world is rocking with humble moments of glee.


the strangest feeling:
after a year, it finally looks like we live in our house.

planes, trains, automobiles, derek, and tim

if ever you are jealous of all the business travel that derek gets to do, you can feel sorry for him now. he just arrived home about an hour ago after a very long journey. mary has a version of what happened on her blog... and a faboo photo of me in target. go click on her and check it out.

14 December 2008

chicky-ninja

derek says i'm more fidgety (then ever before!) on my new pill. i've taken to random humming, which i'm the last one to hear. it would seem that my favorite involuntary song as of late is the theme to spiderman. yes, you heard that one right. now that's a catchy little tune, isn't it?

spiderman, spiderman, blah blah blah, i don't know the words.... now you have a new earworm to get rid of as best you can. you're welcome.

i'm also a ninja. my prancing around the house includes kicking and squealing with my animal noises. i think i kicked derek in the forehead by accident while we were on the couch tonight, but it wasn't that hard. he's just a sissy. my contention stands that it was the head butt (HIS idea) that did us both in and led me to making funny faces in the night.


weather oddity report:
this morning? light jacket and comfy
this afternoon? short sleeve shirt and sweating
this evening? snowing and ice

12 December 2008

random side notes - chapter nineteen

this morning i went to see "milk" when i was out running around town. wow. can i even tell you more than just wow and do it justice? all i can say is that it's a total recommend from me. i had to pull over on the drive home because i was still so emotional from the film; this, a story to which i already knew several of the details beforehand. let's just say this: it was disconcertingly human.

feng shui attack at my house! so far this week we've made a little headway in both the bathroom and bedroom closets. i'm going to take in the clothing this week, and i've already gone by the vet's office to take them my old linens and towels. we've already been selling and giving away our media on a pretty consistent basis this year. my kitchen is emptying of all its extras. if only i can get a handle on the paper/office/whatnot supplies and all the bizarre randomness (why do i have so many finger puppets? oh yeah, i love toys!) that invades my house, i'll be well on my way to reclaiming every bit of space i've got to make neater piles.

went to another audition. still didn't get a part. ho hum. maybe the timing is just off for me right now. something will surely come up and it'll be great. in the meantime i can always have some free evenings and entertain myself otherwise.

only a few more days until mary and tim get here - WOOT! we can't wait for them to visit and just hang out with us and the cats. mary makes me feel so utterly normal. when i'm around her, it's like i'm an amplified version of myself without having to feel strange about it. just like kris, she's seen me at my absolute best and worst; we've been through the best and worst with each other. getting two best friends in your life is honestly shocking.

since my birthday fell on a holiday weekend, we waited until this past sunday to have my birthday party. now that i'm old enough to be president, we all dressed in flag colors and had streamers all over julie's house. barbara even coordinated the towels in the bathroom to be red, white, and blue for me. liz was made my official cheese czar, thanks to a special dish that had us all picking bits off the bottom of the dish with our fingertips by night's end. i asked for everyone to give something back to the community through donations (the probable cause of my feng shui attack) instead of giving me gifts, thereby discovering that i have very civic-minded friends in my circle. big ups to my peeps.

i look really cute in knee socks and little skirts.

we're into week four of my new pill, as well as week two at full strength. things seem to be going better than expected so far. i can still cry - even sob with gusto - as evidenced at the movie. my irrational moments are still intense and can spiral without warning. i'm sleeping about as regularly as before, though my energy level can go up and down sometimes. i seem to chew a lot of gum and make a few more funny noises than i did before, but to less of an extent than was happening at first. my posture is quite good.

do i trust it yet? not really, but i'm "the other shoe" kind of a girl. one might even diagnose me with other shoe syndrome. still holding my breath... if only because i'm not used to having a bad day without it being a warning sign that i'm going completely fucking mental. surprisingly, i didn't even lose my shit at work today. we'll see.

derek made me lemon pepper chicken! with broccoli! and smoked cheese! my diet before this meal today included cereal, popcorn, applesauce on hobnobs, and coffee. what would i do without him to take pity on me at dinnertime?

more exciting news: my fly is nearly on the way. i bought a lovely piece of art from zhenia to add to my fledgling collection. i've been coveting this fly for some time now and can't wait to get it in my grubby hands. the more hundred bucks or less items i pick up in my travels, the better my walls have begun to look. it's made me crazy for albums and frames as of late. linsey thinks i'm a picture frame addict now. between all the postcards we get and the photos i've been receiving from people, it's really starting to look like we live here. jeez, it only took a year for that to happen.


albums i heart this week:
ingrid michaelson - be ok
black kids - partie traumatic
jens lekman - night falls over kortedala (EEE!)

03 December 2008

tuesday's morning of hilarity

6.28 am: wake up and think "wasn't i supposed to be at work at 6 today?" while wondering if the clock is lying to me. shoot out of bed, sit back down again, get up again and walk to other room... only to be tripped by cats on the way to coffeemaker.

6.31 am: call work and ask if it's really 6.30 in the morning. inform katie that i'll be there when i get there. drink coffee and feed cats at the same time as i do the pee pee dance. proceed to pee in the dark because i'm too confused to find the light switch and then go to get dressed.

6.36 am: put on underpants backwards and yank on them until front is up to my neck before realizing what the problem is. finish getting dressed and look for shoes for next five minutes, only to find that they are in my hand.

7.12 am: arrive at work taking last swig of coffee and am informed that i sound very cute when i'm still half-asleep. yay for me. i'm cute. pill begins to kick in and i need food.

8.37 am: take out trash and recycling. use pen as a knife to stab tape along bottom of box of recycling.

8.43 am: answer phone. more lines ring. answer phone. eat protein bar. answer phone. more lines ring. answer phone. lose mind. eat dried cherries. answer phone.

9.11 am: reach for pen in back pocket. discover pen has exploded in pants. pull out hand to reveal black splotches up and down hand. spend next ten minutes in the bathroom alternately washing hands and trying to get splotch off pants while getting more ink on hands. finish up by stuffing back pocket with paper towels to soak up water and ink all over my butt. leave bathroom with ink on sleeves and lopsided booty.

11.14 am: leave for lunch late and promptly run into office door while on the way to get my keys. decide to take myself out for a sandwich. get in car, turn out of parking lot and watch purse entirely dump over out of passenger's seat. drive down road hearing more little clinks as every single item, including the receipt graveyard and things previously thought to be stuck to bottom of lining, proceed to eject themselves from purse.

11.22 am: text derek "i surrender!"

11.27 am: derek calls to make fun of me.

11.34 am: choke on horseradish from sandwich. try to discreetly make loogey noise to dislodge food chunks from brain. horseradish comes flying down throat to choke me for a second time while three tables full of construction workers around me turn to stare in amazement at my impending death from sandwich.

11.53 am: chain smoke on the way back to work. get out of car at work and check seat for black ink. whew. vow to get home safely and pull covers over head as soon as possible. hear phones ringing in the distance.



why today was even crazier:
stepped up to full strength on my new pill. yeesh! it's times like these that i'm thankful for some of the other crazy people at work who are entertained by my fidgeting. at least i got home without choking or making a mess of my pants and having people asked what happened.