Slight alteration to the Summer of Joanne

Well, so far the Summer of Joanne is going quite well. I've adapted plans where necessary but all in all, I'm having a shit load of fun. :)

I've made a few changes...

In July instead of going to the Center for Wooden Boats on the 15th (or 16th whichever is Sunday), I'm going to go to the Bon Odori Festival. I'm very excited about this. It is the Japanese festival celebrating the ancestors. There are some practice sessions for Obon dancing that I am considering going to, although that may be a step too weird. :)

Big R & I are going swimming again this evening and last night I went with Isa and workstudy student and Isa's former roommate to see the new Superman movie. I did not like it. Not one bit. (Ok a couple of bits but as a whole those bits were not enough to redeem the movie for me.)

I realized yesterday that I have spent entirely too much time lately with people. I'm used to much more solitary existance. This weekend shall be just 'me time.' (But you know me time walking around Kubota Gardens with my camera and a picnic lunch. :) )

Swimming again!

I went again today with Big R. It was so fun. The bruise on the bottom of my foot is not fun, but the swimming itself was good. We went out to the dock again and he jumped off several times. I just spent most of it sunning. By the end of the summer if we keep this up I'll be thin and tanned! :) (Michelle doesn't believe about the tanned part but what does she know? :) )

While there, I saw this amazingly beautiful woman. She was gorgeous and so exotic looking. I honestly stared. She was pregnant and had a cute little bump. Her man, not hot. He wasn't like hideous or anything and fairly cute but not as hot as she. But they were very cute together and that made the romantic in me go 'awww' a little bit. :)

Finally, I got a letter in the mail. A real letter! From my friend Katie in Vermont. She has 2 kids and a hubby. They've moved around a bit and now are going without internet so no more email. I'll have to type up a letter and print it. I have the hand writing of a serial killer.

Oh one more thing, I went and deposited a check today and the guy behind the bank counter kind of has an unfortunate pinched face thing that makes him look a tiny bit like a rat or mouse. He handed me back my receipt face down. That made me laugh. I was over drawn, which was totally my fault (really how can it not be?) but I had a check to deposit on Friday and didn't and then I didn't do it on Saturday either so how dumb am I? So the receipt puts me back in the black yay for me, but I was amused he put it face down maybe in hopes I wouldn't feel as bad or something? (Completely unrelated, but honestly how is 23 highway miles per gallon good gas mileage? I think not)

Here's a thought...

If I have these pipes in my apartment that provide me heat... couldn't it be possible that if one were to run icy cold water through those pipes I could have air conditioning? I like that idea. I wonder why they don't do it? (Ok I don't really wonder. I'm sure the cost involved would be outrageous but still... it is a nice thought. I want air conditioning.)

Another fabu weekend in the Summer of Joanne

Yesterday well, not much happened. I went to my GF bakery and got some GF foccacia and other things. (Cupcakes!) But today... today was great!

I went to the Pride Parade downtown with Big R & Isa. There has been quite the tussle in Seattle over the parade location. Usually it is held on Capitol Hill (only since the late 80's actually but that's a moot point), but the powers that decide these things moved it to Downtown with the celebration happening at the Seattle Center. A lot of the gays are unhappy with the move, although interestingly enough I've read a lot were not unhappy. I suppose it is all about who you talk to. I liked it better downtown since there was a lot more space to spread out and it was easier to move about. Big R & Isa preferred it on the hill because they feel like it lost a certain vibe that it had on the hill. Big R thought it was a lot more subdued this year. But here are some photos:

The Color Guard presenting the Colors. (Should all that be caps? I don't know) I liked it, but the parade viewers did not stand and that bothered me a bit. (I also like how I noticed after the first time I posted this that the people on the other side of the street are all standing. The people on my side of the street were not.)

Pirates! Not of the Carribean (which I'm currently watching on some Canadian channel by the way). These are the SeaFair Pirates. They are very cool and exciting but they shoot off a cannon which hurts my ears. (I have wussy ears)


The Latino/a group. Their costumes are always totally gorgeous!



Miss Information. She's the side kick to Glamazonia at Gay Bingo. She kind of reminds you of pepto bismol with all the pink.

Look! Gay boys do camp! Actually every July 4th weekend (I think) there is a giant gay campout that happens. Big R claims the gays don't camp.

Big R asking Isa to dance. I forget what was playing but they danced for a moment in the street.

I only took a picture of these stilts because they fascinate and kind of scare me. They totally look like something out of a George Lucas film.

Big R wearing the latest fashion from Paris. Or something. It is just a funny as hell hat.

After Pride Parade, we went to Madison Park. We swam for many an hour. I dove off the low diving board several times. Backwards dives. I don't know how to go front wards. I jumped once off the high dive but somehow landed on my ass which hurt like hell. I also have a massive bruise on the bottom of my left foot now. I'm completely hobbled now. The bottom of the beach is really rocky at the first part. I think I stepped down a couple of times as I was stumbling more hard than I intended. Since I'm such a wuss, it totally bruised my foot. Damn foot. I also managed to not burn which was nice. Although I did get a bit of color and you can see on my chest 2 different tan lines. One from my tank top and one from my bathing suit. It was just such a fun time swimming and playing in the waves. Since it is in Lake Washington it is not salty, but all the big boats on the lake totally chop up the water so I got to jump in small waves. After that we went to Bings for dinner. That was also yummy. All in all it was a totally great day! (I took a picture of the bruise on my foot but for some reason blogger hates that picture and it won't load so I've given up because well, I gots to go to bed soon)

Goin' commando

Be forewarned, this post may be an overshare. You have been justly warned...

Yesterday after work Big R & I went swimming. We went to Madison Beach, which I had never been to before. It is kind of little but really nice. It is mostly a big green grassy area with just a little space of sandy beach. To get into the water one has to step down these rock steps. The bottom one is kind of steep. I totally prissied out because I was not able to get into that water. It was COLD. Big R kept trying to get me to jump into the water but man, I did not want to do it. Once I was in, though, it wasn't as bad. (Is it ever?) and we swam out to the dock. Big R went off the diving board and jumped off the dock a couple of times. He liked it. I liked sitting on the dock getting sun. (Although appropriately sunblocked before I got in). There was a total stereotypically gay couple behind us on the dock. The one was prissing at the other about how he thinks this neighborhood (Madison Park) should be the gay neighborhood. It is so much nicer and cleaner than Capitol Hill. The whole conversation made me chuckle. We swam back and lay on the shore for a few minutes, until Big R's ADD kicked in and he required more entertainment.

When we were done, he wanted to go downtown and just wander around. I'm unwilling to let him in my apartment so, I suggest we change at the U. He is prepared for this possibility (with dry clothes) I am not. So rather than make him hang out and wait for me to get dressed at my apartment, I just change at the U too. (totally unrelated, but I really hate that spanky dance guys do. I just think it looks dumb) The thought crosses my mind to wear the wet tankini bottom with my pants, but I decide against it. As odd as it is to say, I've never gone commando. It is kind of liberating. I felt kind of sexy. :) I'm going to have to do it again I think.

We went to dinner at Johnny Rockets. It was yummy. I love their chili cheese fries. Life is better with chili cheese fries. :) After that we picked up some Cold Stone Creamery which is also delightful. I went with something different than usual... I got bubble gum ice cream with chocolate chips. They were all out of sweet cream so I thought I'd be adventurous. :)

Happy Friday!

I just spent an hour and a half in a Pandemic Planning meeting. It was interesting and very important, but something about the guy who was leading it. He talks and the words just fall out of my pretty little head. I don't know what it is.

I had a dream that the WC found my blog and read the whole thing. That wasn't bad enough. Then he was a total ass because he knew all about it. And he had known for a long time so any time I had posted something about like a waning interest in him, he adjusted his behavior so that I would be interested again and when I showed too much interest he pulled back, so basically he was totally screwing with me. When I woke up I had the hardest time believing it didn't really happen.

I was also having a bit of confusion this morning because I had fallen asleep on the sofa last night. I got up to take my pills and go to bed but there was no water in the kitchen. So I tried the bathroom, no water. So I drank from a little water bottle and went to bed. This morning when I got up I thought that was a dream too and was totally confused. (It doesn't help that Rigby helped me awake and that threw me all off)

Last night was our last Girl Scout meeting of the year. We had a potluck and did our bridging outside. Honestly, when I send an email reminding the folks of the meeting and say someone is bringing chips and juice, how does this translate to the other parents please bring chips? We had so much chips or chip like food (popcorn, doritos) it wasn't funny. I had one parent bring chicken and one bring fruit and veggies. Our bridging was a little rag tag but that's kind of the troop we are. All in all it was just fun and the girls got their badges and we're done for the year. We posed for some group pictures, and these kids... they are such drama queens. They are all posed in their own way. I'm going to print one off and set it up in my office. I really dig these kids.

Yumma

I just ate a nice Mediterranean lunch with Isa and another coworker. The food was good. But what was even better was the eye candy at the next table. Blue eyes. Dimples. Very yumma. :)

Kayaking and camping and flexcar oh my!

So it turns out that Roommate doesn't want to drive for camping so we're checking out the flexcar for the weekend. It'll cost $100 for the whole weekend and this covers gas too. Rental cars were going to be fairly expensive so this is a better solution. Of course it would've been better if Roommate had just said she has car concerns instead of spending days and days hedging and pinning the not wanting to drive thing on Isa (which annoyed her greatly), but whatever. It is done and we're going camping in July! YAY! :)

What I am not doing is going to Alaska in October. The money just isn't there. Even though I'll fly for free, nothing else would be free and it isn't a good time financially. (Although this is not changing my goal of setting aside $100/mo, which I have yet to accomplish but one never knows. :) ) However I will go down and visit Michelle, although I'm not sure when. I've made a mental list of all the restaurants I totally love that we will have to go to whilst there. The little Chinese place by where I used to work is number one on the list.

Speaking of food, the Teriyaki place I loved appears to be under new owners. I'm not too thrilled about that. I'll give them 1 more try and decide.

I will also be going to El Salvador in maybe February or March. My sister is currently there working for her company and will be there indefinitely. Since we can stay with her, and (hopefully) I can fly for free (I say hopefully because I'm not actually sure one of her airlines flies there), it will be cheap. Michelle may go with me (invitation has been extended and I hope she'll be able to go). We can sit on the beach which she loves and have adventures, which I love. :)

Finally here are a couple of kayaking pictures:

Isa & Big R in their kayaks. (These were taken with a crappy one time use camera so they aren't quite Ansel Adams.)

Me! Doing the usual one handed shot. You can just see Isa in the background. :) The underpass is there also, that's the part Isa thought was a bit scary and we might see dead bodies there. :) (We didn't)

Something I don't understand...

Well, there's actually a lot of things I don't understand, but today's thing I don't understand relates to something I read in the paper this morning.

So here's my question. Why is it illegal to abandon your baby? I don't mean the dumping in a box in the dumpster kind of abandoning. I get that. But if I were to leave it at a hospital or a police station or a fire station, somewhere I could be sure it would get the care it needed, why is that illegal? (I mean yes, the person should take care of their own kid, but I'd rather the kid get abandoned as an infant and adopted to a good family, which c'mon now all you have to do is read the classifieds of any news paper and discover how desperate people are for babies, than be raised in a bad home because of whatever reason and the kid ends up perpetuating the cycle.) And further, since WA has one of those laws where if you leave your baby at one of those places you won't be convicted of a crime, why are they looking for the mother (releasing her description to the papers)? (This whole question actually is why I'm totally pro-choice. With no restrictions)

A pedestrian word problem

Person A has an event at which she needs to catch the bus to at 6 PM. The bus stop she needs is about 2 blocks away from Person A's office. Person A gets off work at 4:30 PM. It is approximately a 20 minute walk from Person A's office to Person A's home (also meaning it is a 20 minute walk from Person A's home to the bus stop Person A needs.) Hence if Person A were to walk home, she would arrive there at about 5:00 and then have to turn around and leave at 5:30 to be sure she caught the bus in time. So. Should Person A

A - Walk home relax for 30 minutes and then go catch the bus.
B - Just hang out at the office playing online games or whatever (nap) until 6 PM
C - Say screw the whole event. (But it is bbq and an appreciation event so Person A might be appreciated).

The joy of rubber gloves

I washed dishes this weekend wearing rubber gloves. The disposable kind not the yellow kind worn by mothers everywhere. Since both my thumbs are blistered and scraped all to crap (ok not ALL to crap but they both sport a rather large piece without skin... well, relatively rather large, these are thumbs after all) I'm wearing band-aids on them. I didn't want to get the band-aids wet so I wore gloves. From the same packet as a few weeks ago when I originally bought them to maintain a manicure. Here's what I discovered about wearing rubber gloves while doing dishes... for me anyway.

1. It forces me to keep doing the dishes long after I would usually have stopped. (I almost never do all my dishes at one time. Don't ask, it is a thing) Since I don't want to waste the gloves, I kept going just a few more. That was actually good.
2. I also never took 'just a few minutes break' because I would have to take them off and then put them back on. That never works. (Usually I take like 20 'just a few minutes breaks')
3. They drive my hands nuts! This is why I usually never wear them. They agitate the crap out of my hands. The moisture, people, not the latex. I would've discovered if I was allergic to latex a long time ago.
4. I don't have to touch the squishy gross stuff that gets into the bottom of the sink. I HATE touching the squishy gross stuff.
5. I'm not 100% certain if my dishes are totally clean when I wear them. I can't feel for any lingering grease or stuff. That's bad.

Horrorscope?

What the hell does this mean? That because I broke someone's heart a long time ago (and in my case since I'm usually the heart broken one it would have been a LONG time ago) that person is now better off? How does this help me? Stupid news paper...

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). You sometimes think of the heart you broke long ago. The healing has made it better than ever, and love is given freely to someone else as a result. Just living your truth is a good deed.

Google also does not have a good horrorscope for me today:
PISCES (Feb 19 - March 20) The balloon may not actually pop, but it probably cannot get any bigger. The safest way out of your current dilemma is to figure out how to deflate the tension before it explodes. You had a role in creating it and now you need to participate in its deflation. Instead of avoiding your responsibility, be a leader. This is the stuff that heroes are made of.

Hmm... Yahoo either:

Quickie: Any obstacles that pop up today will be like bugs on your windshield. Keep truckin'!

Overview: Don't let a misunderstanding send your day in the wrong direction. You can either get lost in a tailspin or accept what's happening. A solution will appear. It may not be the one you expected, but it will work.

Daily singles love (by Astrology.com)A relationship might not be quite what it seems at the moment, but you of all people can see through to the real possibilities. Look deeper to gain a better understanding of where this may be going.

MSN is the last place to check:
June 19, 2006
Discoveries made through occult sciences such as astrology, numerology, etc., could have you embracing some rather revolutionary ideas about yourself, life, and the world. You could become involved with a group associated with metaphysical studies, or perhaps take a class or workshop of some kind. This could mean an entirely new direction for you in some way, Joanne, and might greatly enhance your life and your thinking. Don't fight it!

All signs point to the obvious... today is not going to be a good day and I should go home and go back to bed. :D

The Summer of Joanne has begun!

With a bang! :)

So yesterday was the WC's show. It was great! I really like their music. There was a minor glitch with the new bass player but all in all it was great. I'm not sure what's going to happen when they find a new singer but we shall see. The first band was pretty good and the last band was not really that great and we left at like 1 so I could get the flexcar back. I really liked the bar itself. It reminded me of a straight R-Place... darts and a pool table and just a laid back atmosphere. But it was on the east side and they're snobby over there.

Today I went kayaking with Big R and Isa. It as so much fun! We started out on the open lake and I wasn't really comfortable with that. It (Lake Washington?) is huge and so there are tons of regular big boats out there. That made me nervous a bit. We went to the left and were on the look out for Mercer Slough because my boss said it was great and the guy at the boat place said it was close. We actually went too far and went into this space full of fabulous houses. The houses were gorgeous and they all had big boats tied up outside. We figured out the right way to get to Mercer Slough and headed there. We had to travel under the freeway which made Isa and Big R uncomfortable. But once we got into the slough, it was so cool. It didn't even seem like we were in Washington. It was so peaceful. There were dragonflies EVERYWHERE. Several landed on the kayak. There were many many of them 'dancing'. :) We also saw a lot of turtles sunning themselves. (And some of them dancing too... I didn't know it was that time of year) :) Ooh we also saw a blue heron that kept flying ahead of us. I have huge spots on my thumbs where the skin just came off. (One was a blister that tore open and the other the skin just wiped out). We went around the entire slough which was exhausting. I also had not eaten enough so by the time we got back to the boat place I was shaking. I had a hard time getting out of the canoe and almost fell into the water. I'm such a klutz. :) Then we went to dinner at Broadway Grill and for the first time since I've ever ordered there (except for the Sunday Brunch which is a buffet so how can that get screwed up?) the meal was exactly what I was expecting it to be. It was good but we had stopped for Wendys on the way back from the slough so I got full sooner than I ordinarily would. We stopped for Dilletante as well and I'm now consuming some wonderful chocolate mousse. All in all... A FABULOUS Saturday. I'm expecting many more great days to come!! (I took pics but I took them with a disposable camera so I will have to get them developed and I ran out of film because it has been so long since I've actually had to worry about the number of pics.) :)

Waning

Horrorscopes are never right. :) Like I really expected it to be though...

I've come to three thoughts, though this evening. (Although it is entirely possible that these thoughts are all the results of listening to music loudly until 1:00 am, but I don't think so)

Thought 1 - I've been hanging on to this vague thought that Matthew will see the light and realize he misses whatever it was that I brought to the friendship and want to talk to me again. I think that this has been encouraged by a couple of people who know us both and who have either believed it'll blow over (and are a bit surprised it hasn't) or by people who have heard my side of the story and think that he's in the wrong, so of course things will work out eventually. I've been holding on to that false hope. I need to let it go. It's time. He's made his decision and is sticking to it.

Thought 2 - My interest in the WC is waning. I'll still talk to him because, well, he comes in and chats with me. But the reality is 2 things. If he's this much of a shy guy then this could go on indefinitely. And I don't want to wait. But as we've established I don't want to set the precedent of making every move. If he had come before the Yeti, I might have, but that guy broke my will to make any moves. :) I want someone who wants me for me, not someone I've worn down. I think I've held on this long just because I haven't run into someone to crush on. I'll keep my eyes open on the new faculty coming in this fall. :P

Thought 3 - My blog used to be funnier I think. I used to drink more. I think the 2 are related. :) I'm going to have to work on making this blog funnier again. I miss being funny. :) (Although thought 3 is not an announcement that I'm going to become an alcoholic. :P )

Hmm... this looks promising

My horrorscope for today:

A romantic situation you've been uncertain about can become clear now in a most gratifying way, making your next steps sure ones. Engage your instinct in order to find your heart's path.

I am going to go see wc's band play tonight... :) I'll keep ya posted.

Oh yeah! And today is leave work at 2:00 PM day. YAY for that!

Seattle IS a freakishly small town.

I was hanging out with the girls today. We were outside looking at metal looking for oxidation. A guy walked by me and we both kind of looked at each other. I knew him but couldn't remember why. He reminded me... we worked together at the casino. So we chatted awkwardly for a minute and then the girls were dragging at me so we separated. After he left the girls, as always, jumped all over 'who was that?' One of them was going to play cupid for me. I had to tell them that Gary was married with a kid. Alarmingly, this didn't seem to bother them. Silly girls. He's in the master's program that I thought about doing. Now I feel all compelled to figure out what the hell his last name was so that I can apologize for being weird and 'catch up'...

Guilt and Allergy

Clearly I'm allergic to doing dishes. Without fail, the moment I turn on the water in the kitchen I have to pee. Every time.* Obviously I'm not meant to do dishes. I wonder if I can get some sort of ADA accommodation for this.

I just stepped on Rigby's head. I feel a pang of guilt on that one but at the same time I do not. She insists on running around under my feet and stopping. I stopped when I felt pressure so obviously I didn't kill her but I may have knocked her head into the floor. Honestly after the weekend where I stepped on her, picked up my foot and she and I managed to put ourselves back in the same place so I was fully stepping on a paw and then I fell into a wall trying to pick up my foot quickly because she was chattering so loudly and knocked into a lamp. Now the next day I knocked into the same lamp and caused the damn glass shade to go crashing to the floor. Notice the word crashing. Yup... broke the damn shade and had to clean up glass about 2 minutes before I had to leave to catch a bus.

*Ok, in the interest of full allergic disclosure there was 1 time I have not had to pee within the first 5 minutes of doing dishes. I didn't because I had just gone to the bathroom before I went into the kitchen.

What is the word...

Michelle & I were having a discussion late yesterday about the picnic I was planning for the girls last meeting and I was having a hard time reserving a ramada. Now where I grew up a ramada was the word for the covering over one or more picnic tables. When I was searching online yesterday for one I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I couldn't find one on the Seattle City Parks website. Seattle parks must have ramadas I presumed. Well they do, but they aren't called ramadas. They call them shelters which to me is dumb because shelters (to me) imply walls. Apparently ramada's a totally regional word because even Michelle who grew up the next state over had never heard of it. So I have now reserved one in what was a far more difficult process than it should have been, but we will be able to potluck outside next Thursday for our bridging and court of awards. Hmm... how to do a bridging with no bridge? Oh and what do they call the roofs over picnic tables where you are from?

Sleep forever

I fell asleep last night at 8:30. What am I a freakin' grandma?! I didn't wake up until 7:00 this morning. That's 45 minutes after I usually wake up. Now I feel all gross in that way that you do when you sleep too much.

While sleeping I had a dream that I was 2nd in command in a gang of women. We were holding a war council in this swanky hotel and I had to go in and make sure every thing was set up and we were set at a table in the background. There were several huge vases of flowers all around. And then we were choosing chairs and I sat at the head but there were like 3 places so I was on the left. And then somehow I was sleeping on the sidewalk by this one area near a gas station I walk past on my way to my favorite taco place when I'm walking from work. I was just sleeping, I was not homeless. I was dressed like a nice normal person. And while I was sleeping there Matthew walked by. I could tell it was him because of his black vest and white shirt he always wears.

Sleeping - To dream that you are sleeping, denotes peace of mind. Alternatively, it may also mean that you are ignorant and not fully aware of the conditions and circumstances around you.

Gang - To dream that you are a gang member, signifies your need to achieve and accomplish things through force and intimidation.

Hotel - To see a hotel in your dream, signifies a new state of mind or a shift in personal identity. You need to move away from your old habits and old way of thinking.

Flower - To see colorful flowers in your dream, signifies kindness, compassion, gentleness, pleasure, beauty, and gain. It is also symbolic of perfection and spirituality. Your dream may be an expression of love, joy and happiness. Alternatively, flowers may denote a particular time or season. If the flowers are white, then it symbolizes sadness.

Table - To dream that you are setting the table, suggests that you laying the groundwork for a plan or personal matter. It also implies confidence.

What a totally conflicting dream.

2 Thoughts

1 - I love Eddie Vedder. I was just listening to a Pearl Jam song on Launch and that was the thought that ran through my head while listening to him. I really want to see them live but by the time I find out about it, it is too late to buy tickets. Or they're playing some place difficult for me to access. Or I can't find anyone to go with me. Or all of the above... :)

2 - Work seems so much more fun when you're signing all your official papers with a purple maribou feathered and pink/purple beaded Tinkerbell pen from Disneyland.

Schedule

I think part of the reason that the summer of Joanne failed last year (well the Achilles Tendonitis was a big part of it) but the other part was that I had no schedule. (Wholly unrelated, but I just saw a commercial for Tyson chicken and I could swear the juicy chicken breast they cut open to show off how fabu the chicken is was still pink inside). If I have a schedule I have a plan. If I have a plan, I'll do it. So I'm creating a schedule. (The added bonus, is that if you are a stalker, you'll have total ability to stalk me!) :)

Friday 6/16 - Waldos with Isa and some friend of hers to see WC's band
Saturday 6/17 - Kayaking in some body of water with Big R & Isa
Sunday 6/18 - Cleaning my bathroom. (Hmmm maybe if I vow to post a pic of the clean bathroom there'll be external pressure on me to actually do it!) :)

Saturday 6/24 - Do some other cleaning
Sunday 6/25 - Woodland Zoo & Rose Garden

Saturday 7/1 - Cleaning
Sunday 7/2 - Kubota Gardens

Saturday 7/8 - Sunday 7/9 - Camping in Oregon! (yay!!)

Saturday 7/15 - House stuff
Sunday 7/16 - Center for Wooden Boats

Saturday 7/22 - Home & hearth
Sunday 7/23 - Maybe swimming at Madison Park with Big R

Saturday 7/29 - Big Bros & Big Sis picnic (volunteering thing I am not a big bro/big sis)
Sunday 7/30 - Maybe I'll get a haircut. :)

Ok I'll plan August later, I'm bored with this already. :D

Addiction

My newest addiction... I have been eating these cookies like Cookie Monster! I LOVE them. Plus... PLUS... 8 of the little things are a serving size. (Admittedly about 3 of them would equal the size of a business card so they are TINY). When did I become a teething 2 year old??

Still just as craptastic

For some odd reason I watched the last 40 minutes or so of Star Wars 3. Now those who have been reading for the last year know how much I hated this movie the first time. But I do periodically like a good battle scene. I especially like them when I'm having 'pangs'*. :) But it was as bad as I previously thought and having reread my review and the comments that went with it I'm annoyed all over again. :)

*It is frequently necessary to counter the sappyness of a romantic comedy or other totally romantic television viewing (like Food Network's Weddings episodes) with things blowing up. I don't write the rules but I will say that an evening of something like 50 First Dates or Love Actually countered by a Bourne Supremacy is the perfect movie combination in my mind. :)

Tick tock

Apparently this weekend is 'weddings weekend' on the Food Network. Somehow this translates to Joanne watches hours of wedding stuff on TV and it causes pangs. :) There was an episode that was essentially an infomercial for Disney World Weddings. That was the one that had me entranced. Seriously, if I were independently wealthy and it wasn't totally against my beliefs, I would totally do a full blown Disney World wedding. As it stands... I'm not independently wealthy and spending $70,000 on a single day is not something I can believe in so... (Well and of course there's the added complication that I have no potential groom :) ) I've also been watching several episodes of Wedding Cake Challenge. It is amazing what they can do with cakes! Really I have to stop this. It is like a guy with a broken penis watching p-rn. He can watch but it is totally futile.

Anthropomorphizing

When I was a little girl The Velveteen Rabbit really screwed me up. (Although I KNOW the bunny gets to become a real bunny.) I really felt like my toys knew if I wasn't playing with them and would feel bad if I didn't.* If either of the Toy Story movies (especially #2 actually) had been out at the time it would've been worse.

*The worst part? Sometimes I still feel like that. :)

Yay summer!

I know that it isn't technically summer until June 20th, but for me summer always begins when 2 things happen at my work.

1 - Jeans. During the academic year we dress in a slightly more dressy than business casual but not like businessey so during the summer it is jeans day every day! Yay!

2 - Early Fridays. We set up the summer schedule so that 1 of us is here until the regular 4:30 on Friday and the other 2 get to go home at 2:00. That's just awesome.

These 2 things will begin next week since commencement is on Sunday. Yay!

I've decided that since last summer's summer of Joanne didn't fully pan out the way I wanted it to, THIS summer will be the Summer of Joanne! I need to have firm plans in place to make this happen. So far I have:

• Graduation on Sunday. I'm going because 4 of the folks I eat lunch with are graduating. The nerve wracking part is that we are going to a BBQ at Big R's parents' house afterward. Big R's father is a bigwig at my job and Big R's step mother is also somewhat prominent. This makes me nervous.
• 2nd Annual Girls Camping in Oregon happening in July
• Going to see the WC's band play next Friday. They are changing lead singers after this and dropping some of their current songs so this will be the last chance to see some of them played. (It is supposed to be kind of crowded there so I'm hoping for a nice geeky boy to make me an offer I can't refuse.) :)
• Center for Wooden boats. I'm going to try to take the girls here and then I want to go.
• Big R likes to go kayaking so I'm going to try that out with him, but we'll just be on the lake.
• Hit the library. I've just put a bunch of new books on reserve.
• Resume Sunday adventures. I want to go to Kubota Gardens, the Woodland Park Rose Garden, Bradner Gardens, Alkai Beach (when the weather isn't absolute shite), Golden Gardens, and I'm sure there are plenty of others. However, this is going to require a new boot, so I should see if I can get in to see my dr this coming week to see if maybe they have an all terrain boot. :) ) (Although if he tells me I can't do walking then I'll be sad since I'll just sit on the sofa and get fatter)
• And of course volunteer! I think I'll volunteer for the Oktoberfest again and maybe a couple of other little projects.
• Take the girls on a hike. We didn't get to do one earlier this year like we thought of doing.

Seems like enough, eh? :) Ooh also cleaning should be happening somewhere in there. Maybe I get to do a Sunday adventure as a reward for a Saturday of cleaning.

Slow news day?

Today on the cover of the Seattle PI, there was a picture of a jar with a black widow and a whole article about it. Apparently a woman bought some grapes at the store and while washing them she discovered the spider. She caught it in a jar and took it to the zoo. The zoo official confirmed it and the woman is quoted as saying that it was very scary and how many people get to see a black widow in their lives. THEN, while watching the 11 PM news tonight, here she is again with the spider and the similar quotes. Seriously, this is news? It is entirely possible that because I'm from Arizona and I've seen more than dozens of the damn things in the house I grew up in (We knew better as children to go in the garage barefooted because of the potential) I'm jaded about them. But honestly... a spider on the front page of a major city news paper and coverage on TV? Will tomorrow's front page have an article about how Mrs. Theo Threadgoode has returned to her home in Whistle Stop after some time in the hospital?

Philosophical musings

I've tried to write this several times and I just can't get it right. I think I'm overthinking it...

I've been thinking a lot lately about the twists and turns life makes. About the ones you cause and the ones that are thrust upon you. I decided to move to Seattle and I decided to move to California from Arizona. Those are roads I picked voluntarily and I rarely look back at them and wonder what would have happened if I hadn't done that. I know what would've happened if I had stayed in AZ, I would've gone nuts. Crazy fucking crazy nuts. There was a brief time when I moved up here and was unemployed that I wondered about the wisdom of moving from California, but that was mostly job related and honestly I haven't thought about it since then.

I decided to leave Alaska, but that was a choice that was thrust upon me. I mean, I guess I didn't HAVE to leave, but could you honestly tell your crying mother that although you don't have a real job yet (having just graduated from college) or aren't really doing anything worthwhile, you couldn't possibly leave your tiny studio apartment in the ghetto (and yes there were ghettos in Fairbanks) and your crappy bookstore job to help out your family? (I will say, though, that 4 years after that point I had a good job and a still rather vivid memory of the longest 8 months of my life when it was implied that I leave my life for a 2nd time I did manage to turn my mom down.) I think because Michelle & I are planning this trip to Alaska in October, I've been ruminating a lot on what my life would've been like had I never left Alaska. Thus far, it is the one point in my life where I sometimes wish I could go back and have something different happen. I guess, though, if that were the case a lot of things would be different. And maybe that's what I'm really looking for...

Issues abound

First: I got an email from one of the projects that was funded through my donor's choose challenge! Yay! :) Here it is:

When I checked my e-mail, I saw the notice from Donors Choice. I was so excited!
Thank you so much for choosing to fund these materials. My students will love
watching their plants grow and learn so much more because of your generosity.
Because of summer vacation, I will have to wait until September for my
greenhouse and plant stand arrive. It will be a great welcome back gift this
fall. Thanks again. Your contribution will make a big difference in the lives of
my students.

If you're still thinking of donating, you should do it! :) (Although I realize Peeved Michelle is also running a donor's choose challenge, so there is a bit of competition there.. :) )

2 - I just discovered my niece (the older one I never see, not the younger one who is so cute and little and I see frequently because her father is not Satan) is homophobic. Completely homophobic. Thanks to her myspace page, she did one of those surveys like it was one of those if person A hooked up with person B how would you feel?? And in her case person A & Person B were both female and she'd want to vomit and it is just wrong. I don't know how to react to this. Truthfully I'm not shocked. She lives with Satan (although not for too much longer if he and boarding school have their way). She lives in North Carolina for goodness sake (not to offend those from North Carolina, but I don't really think of NC as a hotbed for liberal thought, although it is entirely possible I'm wrong about that). In reality, this doesn't effect me at all. I'm not gay. At one point I had many gay friends, but the numbers have dwindled to 0. (Acquaintances and Big R* notwithstanding). AND she is only 16. Give her a few more years and she'll be at Sarah Lawrence kissing girls herself. (Just kidding about that Sarah Lawrence thing... Maybe).

*I don't discount Big R as a friend out of malice or meanness, but the reality that once we are no longer seeing each other almost daily at lunch and he won't be living on campus and ultimately he'll have a real job wherein he can't just do what he wants all day means that the friendship will fade. That whole out of sight out of mind thing, PLUS he lives on the east side which is far for those of us (Isa & I) without cars.

Educate me

What's a cankle (kankle?)? I've heard this word before and I have absolutely no idea what this means. It sounds unkind.

Also, series finale of Everwood is really good and sweet and I love Edna.

Also Mashed Potatoes and hotdogs do not a good dinner make.

Also today is Monday so yay Real World/ Road Rules Challenge is on! Perfect time for something sweet from the kitchen. (Also to get the taste of hot dogs and cheesey mashed potatoes out of my mouth beause it really was not a good dinner.)

Also, I like happy endings even if it is cheesey.

Momentary lapse

We interrupt my usual semi-sunny programming for a moment of self pity. I'm feeling less joyous than usual tonight. I may even be a touch lonely. It'll pass. It always does.

Unrelated, I went to my GF bakery over the weekend. They're trying very hard to be all upscale fancyschmancy baked crap. This does not thrill me. If a chocolate cake thing is going to be a mocha chocolate cake thing, there should be a label pointing that out.

Geeky joy!

Ok so I admit certain amounts of geekyness periodically. Today it may have reached an all time high. I think (I'm pretty sure actually) that I've said in the past that if I could figure out this whole ringtone thing I'd love to have a Harry Potter one. I heard it downstairs in my building one day and I really liked it. Turns out what I liked was Hedwig's Theme. So today in a fit of task avoidance (I just got my nails done, I can't clean until I have gloves to protect them... could that be the girliest thing I've ever typed? Probably, but I'm going to Target later with Isa and I'll get a pair then) I googled Harry Potter Ringtones and then I found on one of the ones that offer free ringtones that I could compose my own. Hmm... I've never figured out how to compose one but ok, I'm game. First I try on my own (with no brochureal help) and I can't figure it out so I open a 2nd browser window and google some key words that get me to a composer help thing that tells me what I'm doing wrong. Now I've got it! I put the 2 things together and I now have a rather annoying (monophonic) version of the short version of Hedwig's Theme. I'm so thrilled, now I want someone to call me so I can hear it instead of the bee. :P

Weird coincidence

Apparently the people who had my cell phone and my home phone numbers were both named Joe. Now Homephone Joe has all sorts of past bad history because I'm still (4 years later) getting calls for him from bill collectors. I dutifully call them back and tell him that I am not him and I have no idea where he is and no I've never even met the guy since I was randomly assigned this number 4 years ago. I call them back when they leave messages because I don't want to keep getting the calls. So today I'm driving along with Tess to her vet appointment and I get this call and the person says "Hi Joe." I say hi because I think it sounds a bit like Big R, although I didn't recognize the number as his and Big R calls me Jo on the phone. The person asks me if I'm in my car and I said that I was in A car and then it seems to dawn on both of us that we are not talking to the person we think we are. So I ask who is it she (I have finally figured out it was a she) looking for and she tells me and it totally isn't me. :) It is slightly weird.

I took the girls out to the back patio to run. There is no place for them to escape so I can just lete them run without leashes and they had a good time. It was really cute, a cat in the window was watching the girls very intently.

Yay! Something fun!

Guess what I'm doing tomorrow. Go on guess...

I'm going for a mani & a pedi. I haven't been for one since the fateful December trip where I visited the fam. Sadly there are still traces of purple on my big toes. :) My fingernails are all a pretty reasonable length. (Of course I have just now ensured at least 2 will break completely off). Plus the place we're going to has the lovely massage chairs. I'm very thrilled. :) I can't decide what color to go with though... Usually I do some weird color on my toes but since I'll be wearing sandals at work I may need something a little less green or blue. :)

Also on the dockett for tomorrow... My first Mariner's game. Isa and some of her peeps and I are going to go watch one tomorrow evening. I'm not sure how excited I am about that, but it should be fun. I don't HATE baseball, and it can be exciting so...

Finally, my sister is being assigned to El Salvador for her job for awhile. How long, she claims indefinitely. I'm excited because guess where next spring's vacay will be? Sun and rain forest and cheap goods. Sounds all good to me. :)

Worlds collide!

Today was our employee appreication event. Clean-up was still happening when I left at 5:30 to go to my Girl Scout meeting. We meet in the staff breakroom in the building where the HR office is located. The girls and I were working on our project and I had to run to the restroom (my belly was feeling squidgy from one of the appetizers at the event.) When I came back from the bathroom, who was in there but my biggest boss and my coworker. He had a bunch of left over tulips in a bag and gave the girls one. It was very sweet. He agreed that they are cute and I said yes they are, but a little crazy. According to my coworker, they heard the girls singing and knew that's what they were so he was all excited to come meet them. Whenever I vaguely think about leaving, something happens to remind me how much I really love where I work.

WC's band is undergoing some changes. Their last show in their current incarnation is on the 16th. When he mentioned it was going to be their lead singer's last show and they were going to retire some songs I said it sounded like I had to be there so Isa and I are going to go.

I bailed on the senior cruise. I just felt too uncomfortable being there as a guest with my colleagues working it. (And in hindsight, with my stomach all squidgy it is a good thing I skipped out)