i want to ride my bicycle

I really want a bike. I've wanted to buy one since I moved here, 3 years ago, having sold my old one to my Seattle landlord. Here I am, still without bicycle, and sorely regretting it. This month I'm determined! I'm figuring out how much I can spend and it would be nice to find something used but not too old.

I used to use my bike for all transportation in Georgia. You should've seen my thighs! All of my friends seem to have them and I want to go for bike rides with them. Basically, I'm jonesing.

by the way

If you were wondering where my "short, feisty, red-headed" line went, I had to hide my profile. I'm using blogger again for my other blog which is for my faculty so I had to be all professional and junk. I know--lame!

pan asian night

After eating my usual Singapore Tofu at General Joe's last night, the GE and I watched Oldboy. This is one f-ed up Korean film about revenge and, well, revenge. Imagine if they let Quentin Tarantino direct a John Irving book-to-film (as long as the book had a major theme of revenge, that is) and you can begin to understand. Within the first ten minutes of the movie the main character has been kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years.

Fifteen years.

The film itself is quite stylish, mainly shot in interiors that feature garish red wallpaper. The few times the action moves outside, the contrast is extreme and makes you consider how you might feel being out of doors after 15 years of imprisonment. Do I recommend it? Not for those who don't like violent films. For others, I'd say it was definitely interesting but not a must-see.

drunken librarian?

I stole this from Jenica...

Go and read it, okay? And keep the chortling to a minimum.

sweat=sexy

I was jogging along, minding my own business, when somebody in a passing car gave me a whistle. Now, it was not quite light out yet, but still, I felt pretty good. It was especially nice because I basically spent the weekend eating donut holes and potato chips and drinking a lot (oh, and playing games! Settlers of Cataan, I rule thee!).

In other news, I finished Harry Potter. I admit I cried a bit and that I am looking forward to the 7th and final book.

can't...stay...awake

I had a plan for the evening: eat dinner, read HP, watch Everwood, read more HP, go to bed. Then I started sneezing and feeling exhausted and during the first bout of HP reading I fell asleep. I woke up to my cat snuggling up to me and then fell back to sleep. I got up and brushed my teeth and went to bed and suddenly I was not only wide awake, I was reliving my god awful class that I taught yesterday. To combat that, I got up and read more HP. So, while I missed Everwood, I did get some reading done and the night was not a complete waste.

Man, I am pathetic.

halfway

I stayed home from work yesterday. I don't know about you, but I consider emotional and physical exhaustion a good reason to take a sick day. I pretty much laid on the couch and read Harry Potter. I'm a slow reader...I'm only halfway through. I have two other books cooking: still reading Death's Acre and also a book told from the perspective of a tiger. I can never remember its name. At the GE's house I am involved with Tortilla Flat. I'm a bit of a ho when it comes to books.

i am woman!

Yesterday, after a long hot first day of classes, I got to my car to find a very flat tire. I was so excited that I'd recently bought a full size spare, let me tell you. So I considered my options: calling campus police to help me, waiting for my colleague to come and help me (since we got to work about the same time, I figured he'd amble up shortly), or do it myself.

Well folks, I did it myself. I wasn't sure I'd be able to get the lug nuts off, but I could and I did. Then this morning I went to the tire king and got the old tire patched and it's now residing in my trunk as my spare. I may switch them back but I couldn't face another sweaty bout right then, as I'd barely gotten the dirt out from under my fingernails. Anyhoo, go me!

hand...cramping

My sis recommended a Cary Grant film called The Awful Truth, so I got it on netflix and watched it Saturday night. The basic story is that the husband thinks his wife is cheating on him, she knows he's cheating on her, so they decide to get divorced. They then proceed to interfere with and generally cause a ruckus in each other's new relationships. It's pretty funny and there are a lot of good hats, and scenes involving hats, a trained dog and a aunt sometimes called Patty, other times called Patsy.

Also, I've got a weird cramp in my hand that's causing me to mistype everything.

for m.

**warning, naughty words!**

My absolutely favorite line from Hustle and Flow, which I forgot to mention earlier:
"Is a pig's pussy pork?"

I heart the colorful language of the south.

words and dreams

Watched Hustle and Flow last night, which was surprisingly good considering the premise. It was actually quite thoughtful and sweet (in places). As long as you're not above watching a film about a small-time pimp/dealer trying to get his flow (words) out to the world, you'll enjoy it. You may, like me, have dreams that you are in turn trying to put words to paper, but if so I hope yours don't end like mine, which turned from Hustle and Flow-esque right into Monster.

well, duh

My horrorscope today said things like, you're going to be all over the place today, not able to focus on any one thing, and it's not a good day to make or break commitments. On the other hand, it also said to expand my realm at work.

Not sure how I'm supposed to do that without making any commitments.

In other news, I sit toward the front of our office and I can identify most people just by their footsteps. I'd make a good busybody.

flattery

How do I politely convince an 18 year old that I'm really not interested and yes, it's purely because of his age? And then when he's still in pursuit after aforementioned polite brush off, what do I do?

Oh, I know what some of you would say.

screwed

This weekend I read Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. It was touted as a freaky mystery/horror story and it was that, but after I finished it I realized I wasn't sure what happened exactly. I desperately need someone else to read it and report back to me!

Back to things I can comprehend: television, non-fiction about forensic stuff and gregg araki films.

in my head

...I win awards, people tell me I do a good job and that they appreciate what I do, other people who do a good job also get told they're super, and I live in Italy and get 42 days off per year.

In reality, I saw Grizzly Man this weekend. It's Werner Herzog's latest documentary about Tim Treadwell, the fellow who spent ten summers or so living in Alaska with grizzly bears, finally meeting his match in a tussle with a hungry autumn bear. And by tussle I mean a bone crunching chomp fest that left behind his wrist watch and an audiotape of the event. There are many reasons I don't feel sorry for the guy, which I'm happy to discuss over a beer, and Herzog does a great job of placing together Tim's own footage with his. He built a portrait of a troubled man who met a tragic end, and yet the film isn't morbid or sad and is in places quite humorous and approaching poignant.

liblogs

My friend Jane is now officially famous. She made it onto Walt Crawford's list of his top 50 library-related blogs. If mine were a library blog I'd be jealous but this way I get to be proud and bask in reflected glory.

late summer read

On the recommendation of one of my myspace groups, I began Death's Acre last night. So far it's terrific. It's written by the guy who started the body farm at UT Knoxville. One of my former colleagues recently moved there so I am hoping I can go and visit someday. I'm also now thinking that I should find out if and how I can donate my body. I can't imagine a better way for my "mortal coil" to spend its decomposition time!

darger

I watched a documentary that the GE must've put in my netflix queue. It was about Henry Darger, an anti-social janitor who created a 15,000 page novel, scads of paintings, an autobiography and tons of other supporting materials for the novel, such as songs, lists of characters and their status (in the war going on in the novel). It's called In the Realms of the Unreal, "it" being both the novel and the film.

The guy was a real puzzle. He attempted to adopt children many times but the people who knew him (and there weren't many) said that he never seemed to like children very much. In fact he didn't like to interact at all and would tell folks to leave him alone pretty much daily. He barely spoke but in his room he would hold long, complex conversations with himself. He taught himself to draw and paint and used much of his income on photo enlargement and supplies. While he appeared to be uninterested in the outside world, he read several newspapers every day.

I could go on. The man had a thousand quirks. The filmmaker purposefully created the film in a way that left questions unanswered so that the viewer could draw her own conclusions. While I appreciate that, it is inherently unsatifying. Still, it's worth watching yourself and, yes, drawing your own conclusions.

craft night

Last night, Jane came over to watch back to back episodes of Gilmore Girls. They were those two especially haunting episodes: the one where Lorelai's parents renew their vows and the one where Lorelai and Luke break up. Okay, haunting is probably the wrong word but they do a great job of reflecting the pain of lost love and the excitement and giddiness of a new relationship. They also have several good one liners, like Cousin Marilyn's exhortation, "you can't make anglo saxons wait too long for cake; they start to form more clubs!" and the whole "you've been tottsied" bits.

During commercials, we made little certificate wanna be's for two colleagues. There was much cutting, pasting, glittering and markering. I really love craft projects like making cards and envelopes. I was email-talking to a printmaker the other day and it made me want to get back into making potato prints. Crafty friends are welcome to join!

act of god or random destruction

I got home yesterday to see that the top piece of glass in my screen door was completely smashed. Some of the glass was on the ground and some was still hanging on for dear life. There was no rock, no brick with a nasty note tied to it, no damage to the screen, no blood, nothing that would have given me a clue about why and how it happened. The good news is that when the weather gets nicer I can have the screen door open--before we could never get the glass out of the door because it was stuck.

update on hot water

So I scheduled water heater replacement for this Friday. You'd think I'd be suffering from a lack of heated water but I'm truly not. In fact, it's going to be strange to go back to having a choice of water temperatures.

Total cost to me: $130. That's not much, considering water heaters themselves cost a couple hundred dollars, and then there's the installment money on top of that.

i'm allowed

Post this morning will be simply a weekend roundup. I don't have enough oomph to write about any one thing in depth.

Friday night: saw Sean something or other "as seen on Dr. Phil" at the Rhythm Room. His music was good but didn't really get to me. Had a lot of fun drinking with Jane, family and friends. Especially had fun watching Jane eat pancakes at 2am.

Saturday, 10am: woke up realizing that I'd meant to be on the road by 10. Made it out of the house by 10:45. Got confused midway to my friends' country house but still got there on time. Spent the afternoon meeting and trying to feed Peach the donkey treats, feeding the 5 goats treats (and naming them--Patches, Spot (aka Piglet), Brownie, Brenda and Tina), floating in the pond, laughing at Jack learning how to swim and racing Peaches, and driving to Burton and having small town kind of fun.

Saturday, 8pm: met colleague P. to watch another colleague's play. It was one of six shorts of varying quality. Most were funny and hers was smart funny which was a bonus.

Sunday, all day: after watching my favorite Sunday morning tv and cleaning the house, I spent the day reading. I spoke to no one other than my cat. I did not leave my house except to read in the backyard. I did not buy anything, I did not drive anywhere, and I had a wonderful day.

3 hr 15 min and counting

It is so Friday afternoon. I have a bad case of the don't wannas. Don't wanna work on this that or the other thing! I did find a new book to take home and then probably not read. It's called Death's Acre and it's about body farms, etc. I have walked around aimlessly several times and cleaned up a few piles in my office. I have checked my email 9052 times. I have checked to see if the freaking plumber has called me 15 times. I made up a new personals profile. I worked on my evaluation. I ate some red hots.

I can't wait to go home and I bet you can't wait for me to go home.

i wish i were a country squire

It's kind of sad, isn't it, when your weekend cultural fair could consist of seeing the Dukes of Hazzard movie and then battling 6 million parents and screaming kiddies for clothes in your size during tax-free weekend. I really need some new clothes but I'm not sure I'm mentally prepared.

So instead I'm going to meet my new goat friends and my new donkey friend. They reside at my human friends' house in the country, teasingly referred to as Green Acres. I don't know about you, but rubbing goat heads and feeding apples to Peaches (the donkey) sounds a better way to spend a few hours.

in hot water

A while ago my water heater started leaking. I put off fixing it due to lack of funds, but then I realized it might be covered by my home warranty. I called the warranty company, they scheduled a plumber, and he came yesterday. The good news--it really is the water heater that's leaking and it's covered by my warranty. Yay! I had to pay the service fee and will probably have to pay for the permit and I think that'll be it, as long as I can wrestle the old heater out to the curb for heavy trash pickup.

Short story long, I haven't had hot water all week. Those of you who live in Houston will recognize that as no problem because the cold water is pretty warm this time of year. Nevertheless, when taking a shower the water not exactly the temperature I'd choose. I gave up my shower rights at the good ex's place in exchange for a mental health break from him and have been toughing out the shower sitch at home, but I'm hoping the end is in sight.

in my haze

I forgot to relate one of those freaky odd occurrences. The ge and I were driving to the bank and at a stop sign, a very drunk or drugged woman was lurching around in the intersection. She was approaching people's cars but it wasn't clear what she wanted. We considered what we should do and while M. was using the ATM I called 911. Of course, as you cell phone users know, connecting to 911 via cell is tricky at best and my call didn't go through. She was still there when we drove back by and hadn't yet been hit by a car. What would you do in a similar sitch?

meds

Yesterday my shoulder and neck were killing me, even after some painkillers and a massage. I didn't sleep much Saturday or Sunday nights so I was also mui tired. Consequently, I took a muscle relaxer before bed and slept really well. Unfortunately it made me really groggy and out of it this morning. On the up side, I was able to view driving and grocery shopping in a sort of detached way, which made both much more pleasant.

I totally understand why people get hooked on things like painkillers.

who's the boss

From the career section of my horrorscope today:
"You are ready to move up in your current job but it seems that the people around you are holding you back in some way. Perhaps you are on a team with others who simply don't work the same way you do. Don't hesitate to request a transfer."

Yeegads. Today I'm feeling like an emotional cripple, unable to have a conversation without tearing up, so I'm thinking it might not be the best time to do anything rash...