Chums and Accomplices

Turns out I get an actual paycheck at the end of August, before September rent is due.

Phew.

I just read this over at brownfemipower, and I was nearly moved to tears. I think I have a new manifesto.

FEMME SHARK MANIFESTO!

FEMME SHARKS DON’T EAT OUR OWN.
FEMME SHARKS LIKE TO EAT THOUGH
FEMME SHARKS RECOGNIZE THAT FEMMES COME IN ALL KINDS OF SIZES AND EACH KIND IS LUSCIOUS. WE WORK TOWARDS LOVING OUR CURVY, FAT, SKINNY, SUPERSIZE, THICK, DISABLED, BLACK AND BROWN FINE-ASS BODIES EVERY DAY. WE REALIZE THAT LOVING OURSELVES IN A RACIST/SEXIST/HOMO/TRANSPHOBIC/ABLIST/CLASSIST SYSTEM IS AN EVERY DAY ACT OF WAR AGAINST THAT SYSTEM.
FEMME SHARKS DON’T THINK ANOREXIA IS CUTE.
WE THINK EATING A BIG-ASS MEAL IS SEXY.
WE SAY SCREW “HEIGHT WEIGHT PROPORTIONATE PLEASE” IN CRAIGSLIST WOMEN SEEKING WOMEN ADS AND IN LIFE.

WE HAVE BIG MOUTHS AND WE KNOW HOW TO USE
THEM. DON’T FUCK WITH US! ASK US IF WE WANT TO FUCK THOUGH !

( You know you gotta read the rest! )

Written by Founding Femme Shark Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

The Femme Sharks are an idea that was dreamed up by SBBFFF (Slutty Brown Best Femme Friends Forever) Zuleikha Mahmood and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha in March of 2008, Oakland, CA.
This work is shared under a Creative Commons license- feel free to share if you give credit where cred is due.

Remember how I used to live in the house of 10 doors?  Well, oddly enough, our new home has 12.   Go figure.

This is totally the most colorful place I've ever lived.

We sort of need a baby monitor to be in the back of the house.  It's so long that you literally can't hear if someone comes in the front door (while you're in the back) or hear the tea kettle whistle if you're in the front.  This is a problem.

Air conditioning kind of rocks.  Today it was so hot that when it rained, my glasses steamed up for 5 minutes and I couldn't get them to clear.

Darla is very happy here, because she gets to hang out on the front porch.

My brain's been on overtime since yesterday afternoon after reading this excellent analysis of a recent Beth Ditto photo shoot, so I put all my thoughts together and posted about it on fatshionista.com.

( Text here for the link-averse. )

Do you like your neighbor?
Yeah, they're kind of lovely. Our new landpeople live next door: Katie (who's 5 months pregnant), Henry, and Henry the dog.

What's one word that describes your last fight?
Stupid and stressed out.

and you know, I'm pretty sad. Also very very physically tired, which doesn't help.

Since the move got going full force, I've had a lot of company. Charles and my sweet M and our good friend Andy...not a lot of time for sitting with my feelings about this enormous change. And for the last week, I've had a good friend here for company and support, and just for showing off our new home (both the actual building and the city that contains it).

But Andy went home yesterday, and M spent the day sequestered in the kitchen, trying to whomp up her column before we hit the road AGAIN on Monday, on our way to festival. So I spent today painting, by myself, surrounded by the boxes and piles and stacks of stuff that's in the studio, and right now, I can't see the end of it.

I just want to be still. Not moving, not unpacking, not painting. I want to go to practice tonight and be irritated by my rollergirls, or maybe have someone over for dinner, or even just be in my own comfortable big red chair, tucked into the corner by my bookcase and the window, with Charles getting on my nerves about dinner, and scrubs on the stupid tv.

Bleh. Too much change, too quick, and not enough time to process it. And I just want to FINISH THE DAMN HOUSE, at least to a reasonable level, so I don't come home to FURTHER CHAOS, because I'm completely over it. Not to be, though. I WILL finish painting this last room, though, even though it makes me exhausted. Then try to find all my festival crap, and PACK, AGAIN, GODDAMNIT.

I may hide in my tent for 3 weeks. Consider yourselves warned.

i'm sitting in our pink kitchen, watching the rain fall - no, dump - outside the window, onto the palmetto tree in our neighbor's yard that leans over our fence, nearly touching the window. the metal awning on this kitchen window has a few fallen slats, which leave big gaping holes up near the top of the awning, allowing buckets of water run-off from the roof to cascade onto the window ledge. the previous neighbors had packing taped the opening under the window to keep such water from splashing inside the kitchen, and i'm grateful since i'm sitting here with my computer plugged into the wall, my cellphone on the ledge, and all my cds and press releases scattered on the table.

yep, i'm working on writing my curve column - need to get it done as quickly as possible, but damn do i have a lot of cds to listen to. i had quite a stack left over from last time and then all kinds of stuff has come in since then. and then i have a box of stuff coming from curve to arrive tomorrow morning. so i'm trying to weed through them.

since my stereo is still packed up and fae is actually painting my studio/office right now, i'm having to listen to everything on my laptop via iTunes. annoyingly, i just downloaded and installed the latest iTunes update, and it seems to have a lot of glitches. the most annoying of them being that it won't allow me to eject a cd while iTunes is open. so every time i have to eject a cd to move on to the next one, i have to close iTunes and use the eject function from the finder. the eject button or command don't seem to work either. so it's an extra step that is taking up more of my precious time and annoying the fuck out of me.

so far nothing all that notable to mention, other than a 3-song sampler from L.P. and a poppy debut from some weirdo bjork-alike from estonia named kerli. god i hope something decent emerges soon.

in apartment updates, the living room is now painted and we arranged most of the furniture in it. it's nice to have a spacious living room. but we're gonna have to get a slipcover for the sofa for sure, cuz the wall color clashes horribly with the green color of the sofa. but that shouldn't be too hard to do.

fae's in there now priming my studio while i work. the plan is for me to finish the writing by friday, and she'll get the painting done by then too, and then we can do some preliminary placement of furniture and such in the studio before we leave, so when i come back and have yet another column due, it won't be so bad. then we have saturday and sunday to get our shit together, pack, etc. for michfest. we leave early monday morning for louisville, spend the night there, drop darla off at envy's house, and then continue on to fest on tuesday.

i'll be happy to be there. i'll be even happier when we're back here and all the chaos can calm down. and i can get back into some kind of groove.

ok, well i should get back to the cds.

This is the sexy romantic bastard!
He can make a tail wag, right?

We talked about playing with other people today.  I told him that I am still interested in the two play partners in my life (Boston and Portland) and was not looking to give those up.  Luckily, we see eye to eye on this subject, and for that I am very pleased.

He drove an hour to my house to make me dinner last night when I got home from work at 11pm because he wanted to kiss me.
*fanning self*
The man can KISS!

making mix cds to mail to gals. i'll drop them in the box tomorrow and hopefully they will arrive quickly.

picturing the kitchen, the tempo, listening to music...little moments of dancing when it's not too busy. remembering clipboards, early mornings, tarps, rain, thunderstorms...one more year.

safe travels short crew gals. have another great summer.

Well, yesterday just got worse.

The air conditioner at work is broken. I was marinating in my own sweat all day, and let me tell you how productive I was able to be in an 85 degree office. After work, I had dinner plans with a friend, but on the way there, I tripped and twisted my ankle pretty badly in the subway. I limped back out so I could call him to apologize and cancel. Thank goodness, he was very understanding.

And then I got home, found a collections notice for the gas bill on the door, got into an argument with The Lawyer, and got my period.

Fuck Mondays!

Here's to Tuesdays being better than stupid old goddammned idiotic Mondays.

ETA: My life sucked yesterday, but overall, it is fabulous, so I decided to come back and mention one of the many good things going on in my life to help balance this crabby post. My POC Caucus workshop got approved for NOLOSE, and Miasia will be co-facilitating it with me. It's a double victory, given that I haven't seen Miasia in a criminally long amount of time AND because there will be some dedicated POC space at NOLOSE. Wahoo!

Apparently there are 11 foods that more of us should be eating more of for health reasons.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/the-11-best-foods-you-arent-eating/?ex=1231214400&en=8f3cfed820d3bcca&ei=5087&excamp=NYT-E-I-NYT-E-AT-0709-L3&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_id=%20NYT-E-I-NYT-E-AT-0709-L3

I already eat some of these and some more than others. However, canned pumpkin and cinnamon are rarely found in my house.

what a great day off yesterday!

ice coffee.
pastry from "baked"
lounging at red hook pool with bounce and jiggle, a co-worker and her boyfriend and naughtyfox and s.
papusas and plaintains from truck.
team dog in park.
blue marble with swifty.

today i will...
go to the bank.
mail package.
call festival with flight info.
buy dog food.
go to wo

10.  Watching him put on a pair beautifully kept 11 year old engineer boots that shined as if recently douse by an eager tongue
9.  Walking downtown in the sun and feeling him lace his fingers between my own
8.  Sitting back while he played me his favorite songs from his ipod, sharing a part of himself with me
7.  Taking him out to see a friend's 16 year old son play out at a local bar and noticing him taking pictures specifically of the prodigy guitar hero jam in the background on stage with the mother in the forefront of the picture beaming.
6.  Going out to the local watering hole and seeing the locals' heads swivel and jaws drop as he walks by in his leather vest and blue jeans (which he is not noticing because he is smiling at me)
5.  Sitting silently on the steps people watching downtown sipping iced coffee with his knee pressed against my own
4.  Listening to him sing for me (Yes, he IS that good that it makes a boy want to swoon)
3.  Losing him off the path while meeting friends at a bar, only to see him leaning over the nearby bushes... finally figuring out that he had cut a perfect small rose and handed it to me.
2.  Making him laugh and smile till his dimples shone through his beard
1.  His kisses make my toes curl.  No joke.

When your daily agenda includes:

-Going to work when you normally don't work weekends
-Interviewing potential roommates
-Doing laundry in 90-something degree heat

While your girlfriend's daily agenda includes going to see pig racing and the demolition derby at the county fair.

Life's no fair!

It doesn't suck.

After falling in deep lust with the Worishofer slingbacks that and_old_lace modeled in a fatshionista, I've been obsessing about them and debating whether or not the $65 was worth it for a pair of ugly-pretty shoes like these.



After she posted about them, I polled two of my BFF's, one of who said that she thought they were ugly-ugly, not ugly pretty.

But then, I kept on seeing really fashionable women in New York wearing the exact same shoes, so I concluded that my instincts were right and that the shoes were slammin', and that I needed them ASAP. The only problem is that they were pricey, and I wanted to try them on before committing to them, but the only vendor in the area was not at all near me, and had shitty hours. So, I put my love on hold.

Yesterday, I stopped by DSW to get a pair of flip flops that Tania had that I wanted, when I came across these babies.



OMG! Not only were they really similar in style to the Worishofer's, but they're also super girly and kind of art nouveau-esque in the pattern. PLUS they're incredibly comfortable and on sale for $50! So of course, I snapped them up with a quickness. God, buying a pair of shoes after holding out for a month is like having a much-needed orgasm. "Questing for cute-yet-comfortable shoes" is one of my user interests for a REASON, people!

Anyway, off to work* for me.


*In completely unrelated news, I've been working all weekend (board meeting) and getting up at obscene hours (Hello, 6am, nice to meet you! It's been awhile.), and I have some AWESOME news to share very very soon.

each day i keep thinking i have reached that state of being more exhausted than ever before. each day i keep exceeding it.

it has been a long coupla weeks, lemme tell ya.

fae is making burritos in our now unpacked and pink kitchen. her library, the front room of the house (1st of a double parlour) is now asparagus (which is actually much more tropical and bright green than that sounds). the living room (the 2nd of the double parlour) is mostly double primed. (we had to do 2 coats of primer to cover the burnt pumpkin that the house came with, and we pooped out today before finishing the 2nd coat entirely.) tomorrow we will finish the 2nd coat of primer and then paint the room asparagus.

tonight fae says she will unpack and arrange her library, cuz she's so excited about it.

i am still unconvinced that we will have the time to prime (probably twice) and paint (buzz lightyear blue) my studio before we have to go to mich. mostly cuz i have to write a column this next week and i'm thinking it will take me longer than usual cuz i'm in a new environment and more scattered than i typically am when i am sitting down to write. but maybe not - we'll see.

somehow we also must do laundry (at the laundromat) and pack for michigan next week as well.

it's been non-stop.

today, however, after painting the library and doing some priming in the living room, we went to see the botero exhibit at noma. it was great. we wandered around noma a bit and wanted to walk through the sculpture garden too, but due to a big thunderstorm earlier in the day and also it was close to closing time, we missed it. we'll have to try to take andy by there again before she leaves on tuesday.

the boy went home yesterday. i think he had an ok time despite all the hard work. at one point he told me he liked new orleans and understood why i loved it so much, that the food was great and it was really pretty. he doesn't typically bullshit about stuff like that so i think he meant it. when he comes back in november we'll have more free time to show him around and do stuff he wants to do. (like the zoo and aquarium and mardi gras world, etc.)

ok, time to go eat burritos and drink abita on the porch. we've been really diggin' our porch, btw. and our landlords/neighbors just got the front awning painted this morning all fun stripey colors, to match a stained glass dormer window in the front of the house off the attic. it looks super cute and completely makes me happy.

more later.

I'm throwing myself a little send-off. It'll be chill, and I hope you can make it.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=18650189682

( event details, which I pasted slapdash from Facebook )

i'm coming outta the lj closet at fest. let's all get together one night. reserve the dinner party table. after short crew arrives. let's call each other by our lj names. right? right.

love you all and see you so very soon!!!! xoxox

Well, we're here. It's been a cavalcade of fun, since last we spoke (or read, I guess), but we are here safe in new orleans, the truck has been emptied AND returned, we have an actual bed set up to sleep on, and yesterday, we painted my new kitchen 'pink chiffon' which is much richer and less pastel than the name sounds like.

We've been working really hard, although yesterday I finally came to my senses and said 'no more 12 hour days, or I'm going to get sick'. So now we're trying to balance getting some work done every day with doing something fun. Yesterday, we had a driving tour of the city, ate a snowball, and went to the parkway bakery for po'boys, as well as painted the kitchen. Today, we're going to see a bit of the french quarter, eat beignets at the Cafe du Monde, and prime the library. It's a good plan.

Tomorrow, the kid goes back to Kentucky. I wish I could report that it's been fabulous having him here, but I have to say, it's been a bit bumpy. Perhaps I wasn't entirely clear enough with him about what hard work it was going to be. I think he was imagining the trip being a lot more fun than it's actually been, and we had to have a come to jesus about his being high maintenance. However, since then, he's been really working on being flexible and not in the way when he can't be helping, and that's been better. We're both looking forward to November, though, when I won't be so stressed, and we'll actually be set up for a guest.

Our friend Andy came down with us as well, and that's been just delightful. I think if we had two of her, we'd be completely unpacked and totally painted...it's nice to have one person at the end of the day who is not complaining about her sore tired 40 year old body. Of course, she IS a vegetarian, which has been a bit of a work-around, since everywhere I love to eat here is meaty. Last night she had a sweet potato french fry po'boy....carb on carb action.

So anyway, if you're not here, I miss you. You should visit. But not until after fest, since it's gonna take us a while to have unpacked guest space. But when we do, it's gonna be super cute. You just wait.

Yesterday, I posted a roommate want ad to craigslist, and was pleasantly surprised to get a lot of responses from some folks who sounded pretty awesome overall. I'm setting up a bunch of interviews for this weekend and next week, which is excellent too.

But as we all know there are crazies on the internet. Evidence? I got yours right here.

This little gem popped into my inbox last night.

Subject: IM INTERESTED

I was perusing through available rooms on craigslist and found your ad.
I would LOVE for you to give me a place to accomplish many a great thing, for such an affordable rate.
My name is Z-- B-------*, but i also go by:
Eris Incarnate
Lisa Frank
&Miss-Information
I am an eighteen year old person currently studying various mediums of Why at the New School of Love
(although i've already been kicked out twice)
I have just given notice of departure to the landlord of the apartment i've been figuring within, which was located in New Bedford MA,
also known as the Wailing City.
I like to stick my fingers through all sorts of mediums, including melody, color, and SEEM-stressing.
The project i've been holding to biggest consequence is an orchestra i'm putting together entitled:
THE GOLDEN APPLE CORE
Eris Incarnate
&
The Destructo Team

Everyone is invited, and we're going to paint the big apple GOLDEN.
Please get back to me, for although i don't mind the sporadic nature of couch hopping, it doesn't allow for me to have many of my favorite resources near my hands.

I'd be looking to move in ASAP!!
Also i figured i'd note that my mom's got the rent under wraps in accordance to due pennance.

I know they don't really do many letters/emails, but this is seriously one for the FAIL Blog.

*Real(?) name obscured to affect some basic level of consideration on my part. And if she reapplies to the New School of Love again, I sure wouldn't want to hurt her chances if they decided to Google her.

Last night I dreamed that
tommytesto was a Shepherd's Pie muffin...

WTF????

No more Icey Pops before bedtime.

i am freaked out

too much stuff

Damn all of you for getting me addicted to the FAIL Blog!

( I'm compelled to repost some of my favorites. )

This is seriously cutting into my sleep time, so goodnight!

Tomorrow: a roommate inquiry essay that belongs among the annals of epic FAIL!

too much is mixing in my life.

the frame is a one where the glue is still drying, filling in the big cracks and the hairline ones to. And of course there are the earthquakes that threaten the fault lines. Every week another shaking. But I'm trying to move to steadier ground. I closed the suitcase, the bakery, the person I've always been who puts love before boundaries. I went back to this small kingdom of dogs and sun, had a budlight and let myself go for the day.

However, I found despite my mess of a self, I was contacted by women who I care for deeply. Who made me laugh and be grateful. And, I was contacted by someone new who kept me smiling for hours and sharing secrets over static.
The next day me and this person spent sunlight in the park, eating and attacking eachother with a gigantic vegan sundae-- coconut milk based cherry pie flavor and coffee fudge flavor in addition to a soy peanut putter chocolate cookie attack smothered in almonds, cream, and cherries hugged by a banana. Thats right, I had to write it all. Later we went to a slam featuring many california cities, ate free seafood gumbo, and cuddled with a pitbull puppy.

We spent a lot of time communicating our faultlines, being honest, understanding it ok to "not go there." We finished the evening with banjo playing, accordian wailing, records and holdings [competeing with the puppy].
I woke up to a puppy walking on my face and someone sweet smiling at me.
The strangest thing was how my body felt safe to sleep. How I woke up and went back to sleep 3 times without trouble. later there was meatless general Tsao's chicken and bear claws and noe valley coffee shop quests. Al-anon meetings and the like. Healthy steps.

She came over that night again, to my kingdom and we baked pie and watched movies and the puppy played with the old dogs. And I gave it a chance. And I opened up. And it was good.

the next day I stopped by the clinic wear she works to say goodbye, left with 4 powerbars, 2 superfood juices, and a sad goodbye hanging from my teeth.


Now Sue-Li is here, my new zealand traveller friend. Last night we drank blueberry mimosas, watched Domino and fell asleep on the couch together.

Today I am going to see TomKat and the sting rays. Charles might be there too.
Then dancing with Vega and Aisha, hopefully Sue-Li comes!

thats an update huh?

1. Hahaha!

2. I found out last night that BOTH of my roommates are moving out within the next month and a half and I am fuh-REAKING out about having to interview new people and get used to sharing my living space with strangers again. Also, I might have zero furniture if Joseph decides to take it all.

3. Sending love haikus to my sweetie makes me grin.

4. I mentioned this to a couple of people, but I went to a party last night with a native Mississippian and a native New Orleanser (is that the correct terminology?), both of who said that I don't get to call myself a Southerner because I'm from Virginia, and Virginia isn't part of the South. Apparently, my lack of accent counts against me too. I generally get this reaction from folks in the Deep South, but everyone up in the Northeast considers Virginia the South!

So, I thought I'd get a vote from y'all.

Poll #1224331 The South
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Do you consider Virginia (the southern part, not the northern part) a part of the South?

Why or why not?

Do you consider yourself a Southerner?

Why or why not?

Finally, we agreed that Virginia counts as Upper South or Northern South, but someone else reminded me that Virginia is also totally Old South.

Today will be the last day of my conference at Stanford. The purpose of this event is for sysadmins (aka people who do something like what I do) from a handful of schools to get together and talk about how and why we do what we do. It has been depressing and inspiring. I know the next set of skills I need to get in order to do my job better - and maybe be more marketable. I also know that my ideology is in the right place. Unfortunately, in comparison to other places, my institution does not prioritize the work and its potential. Thus, implementation of my goals and ideas will be a challenge.

I have been doing some work while listening to presentations. That has been useful in keeping me focused.

Spending time with super geeky people always reminds me how relatively ungeeky I truly am. There is definitely something to gain from that.

I am also happy that I am not leaving California just yet.

this will be brief, cuz i have to get dressed and start doing stuff.

we have arrived in nola and have unloaded the truck, thanks to the amazing help of my beautiful family of friends (and one random new friend/neighbor who was a total stranger until monday evening but totally jumped in and helped move our shit! she rocks!). yesterday we returned the truck after moving a mattress and box spring from my husband's house, so now we are on to painting. we bought $250 worth of paint and supplies yesterday and have begun priming the kitchen.

today we will work a half day and then break and go do some fun stuff in the city. maybe drive around. maybe have a poboy at parkway. take charles and andy to see some sights.

the bedroom is mostly unpacked and set up. i know where my clothes are. the kitchen is being worked on and will be done soon. the bathroom is mostly unpacked. the rest of the house can be slowly dealt with - we don't have to kill ourselves to get it done.

next week i have to write a column for curve. but first i have to find the box that has all my curve cds in it! (yikes!)

our landlords are being super sweet and letting us use their wifi until we can get ours hooked up.

darla the wonder beagle likes it here.

i'm sad finster didn't make it home.

i love my friends. thanks to all of you who helped get us moved.

more later.

in new orleans.

Sleeping in an actual bed tonight, plus, I've got wifi. things are looking up.

Sometimes I hate fatshionista.

Hey, I know! Let's waste our time and internet space arguing about the most pointless thing EVER!

In other frustrating fat-related news, I had my $27 facial appointment at the Christine Valmy International School on Friday.

Like I mentioned before, I am totally agog over cheap and free spa/beauty treatments, so this was a highly anticipated event for me. But, while the facial itself was enjoyable, the before and after was fairly humiliating.

First of all, I didn't realize that the entire facial would take place in the same room as everyone else getting a facial. There were about 20 beds in the main room in two rows with about 3 feet in between each bed, so it was pretty cramped. But, it is New York and space is at a premium. And also, given that it was a school and not a high end salon, I kind of shrugged my shoulders at the less than ideal space.

Then, to my horror, the woman doing my facial asked me to strip down to my bra and panties in the bathroom and gave me a PAPER GOWN to put on. Yes, just like the ones you get at the doctor's office, ONLY FLIMSIER. And I was instructed to leave the open part in the front. Wooooohoo! Not surprisingly, the "one size fits all" gowns were too small for my extra-bodacious ass, so as soon as I tried to put it on, it ripped neatly in half down the back. Of course at this point I was also already sweating because the bathroom stall is tiny and when I'm rushed or nervous, I sweat. Not glow, like ladies do, but sweat, like a fat horse with heatstroke in a derby. I had to get re-dressed, lest I dared walk down the long hallway half naked, and asked for a new gown. Thankfully, the woman doing my facial was extremely sweet and gracious, and got me a new one immediately. The new gown also ripped, but not as bad, so I clutched my clothes in front of my open gown and scuttled down the hall past the classrooms full of beauty school students in white labcoats.

Since the bed was a little higher than waist-level, I had to sort of do a little shimmy-dance to try and maneuver myself onto it without 1) ripping the gown further, and 2) at the same time, trying to hold the gown closed so that I didn't panty-flash the whole room. Neither goal was achieved. I continued to sweat, which only worsened when I was put under a thick wool blanket once I was laid down on the table. Thankfully, the woman giving me the facial left for a minute to prep, which I used as an opportunity to mop my face off.

Like I said earlier, the actual facial was nice (I love extractions!), except for the fact that the technician didn't wash off all of the face mask she used, thereby leaving unattractive little presents behind for me and my girlfriend to rub off afterwards. But definitely worth the $27 + tip for the service itself.

Predictably, when the facial was over, the gown ripped off of me completely when I sat up. And thank freaking jesus, the technician was so so so sweet and helped shield me from the rest of the room while helping me put on a new paper gown for my trip back to the bathroom. Thank god I wore cute underwear?

Next time, of course, I am bringing my own freaking robe.

i cant try to take control of this situation. it will only make it spiral out of control.
climb the slag heap instead

I have one of the tiny 1 gig ipod shuffles. Actually, I have two shuffles. Both were gifts from cmw. I accidentally washed one and then baked it to try to resurrect it which, I thought, melted its innards. Then about a week ago I plugged it in and Ta-Da! it works!!

I do not like the lack of control over my plays lists that comes with having a shuffle BUT I don't really need anything else, nor do I really lament not having a full fledged IPod. I find the regular ipods to be kind of cumbersome and too bulky for my doesn't-my-ass-look-good-in-these-jeans jeans. Also, when I used to jog with my classic it did not like the
jostling.

Huh. The point of this post was to ask if I should get an Ipod touch or Ipod classic.

given my intro I think I have answered that question myself.

Thanks for your help. Unnecessary consumption averted.

"Patience wares my grandmother’s filigree earrings. She bakes marvelous dark bread. She has beautiful hands. She carries great sacks of peace and purses filled with small treasures. You don’t notice Patience right away in a crowd, but suddenly you see her all at once, and then she is so beautiful you wonder why you never saw her before."

It's precision and dedication.
It's addictive and discipline.
It's tradition.

He already called.

Oh and I forgot an article of clothing at his house.  Apparently, he found it before I got to tell him and wore it himself all day long.
How hot is that?!?

I am feeling like a little kid all tongue tied and giddy.  It's been over four years since just thinking about a person would make me bite my bottom lip and grin like this.

Ok, his stats. 

katie and i polished up our bling today

best way to shine up a diamond is to boil it for a few minutes in soapy water as the bubbles gently knock out any bits of ick from the facets and settings. (not safe with any other stone as they arent all as heat sensitive)

she hardly ever takes her necklace off, and as she had it off this weekend, we figured the timing was right. 

bling bling
all is well

My play date lasted 17 hours and boy oh boy can he kiss!

My favorite part of the evening (among the very many)...

*Post coitus, while snuggling up fur to fur, belly to belly*
J Bear (with a mischievous grin on his face):  Let's do this backwards.  Wanna sleep over?
me (grinning back at him): hell's yes
J Bear: Wanna go out to dinner with me?
me: yes again
J Bear: Wanna get coffee sometime?
me: Light and sweet buddy, light and sweet.

Oh, and he's coming up to visit next weekend....  *bounce*
Btw... there is nothing sexier than a naked bear playing piano serenading you.  Ok... almost nothing.

Kathy Lee Gifford is like that girl on the varsity soccer team in high school who was always acting a little drunk, and completely incapable of keeping quiet during class. The one who gave a blowjob in the parking lot to that guy who moved away to Canada. And can I just say this? I totally love her!!

If you're going to watch this, I suggest keeping with it to the very end, when it completely unravels. Kathy Lee starts giving this poor guy a massage, as he's noticeably shaken by it.

I think that they ought to check again.

Does that bugger HAVE a heart?

We got in some fresh sour cherries yesterday from one of our favorite farmers.   They are TART!  Some people raved about what a great pie they'd make.  I agree, but am just not going to make a pie in this heat.

Instead, last night I  :

- muddled a handful with a pinch or 2 of sugar
- cover with bourbon
- add pepsi
- add ice

all i can say is:  DAMN!!! that is SOOoooooo good!

Today, I  :

- muddled a handful with a pinch of sugar
- reamed 2 lemons
- add water
- add ice

Also really great and very refreshing  (and yes, kabosu,  I am thinking of you with all this tartness and fruit)

I'm sitting here in an empty house. Mags is parking the truck.

I am very sad.

Yesterday a Vera Bradley catalog came, addressed to me, in the mail.

Vera Bradley?! Yes, I wear things J. Crew and would shop at Brooks Brothers (if I could afford it. Yes, I do lust for a rainbow of cashmere twin sets. I like polo shirts, argyle, and plaid.

If I could dress like anyone I would be a female version of Farnesworth Bentley (you know, Puffy's umbrella carrier). He's style is all about the misappropriated and ironic signification of wealth.

BUT Vera Bradley? What will the neighbors think?

So, my work has been stressing me out so much that my shoulders turned into concrete and pulled my damn neck out of line.  It has been giving me splitting headaches all week.

I went to the chiro today, but the muscles are STILL bound tighter than a Christian Conservative's ass attending a gay wedding!

I have a date tomorrow with a VERY handsome sexy leather daddy down in CT tomorrow at &pm, and I am hoping that I feel better.
Please, pray to the leather and alignment gods for me will ya?
Hmmm.... maybe getting flogged and beaten will loosen the muscles...