I. Want. These.

It's nice that the bookcave I previously mentioned is included among these 30 creative bookshelf designs, but man, now I've entered a whole new stage of want.

Made it!

So, I have this friend who says she's had this idea forever that she'll have "made it" when she has the following three items: her own driveway, her own in-house washer and dryer, and her own KitchenAid. She now has those three things, and to tell you the truth, she does kind of feel like she's made it. Of course, she also has a husband, a house with a pool, two dogs, a business, and three children.

It got me thinking about what those magical things are that make you feel you've arrived. Do you know what yours are? It's a little hard for me to separate those particular things I believe I will someday have from those random daydreamy desires one always has... I mean, I love convertible Mustangs. Am I convinced I will one day own one? Nah. And that's ok. But you know what I want? You know when I will have arrived? When I have one of those sandwich presses, those big grills specifically for making hot-pressed panini style sandwiches. I want one of those... and a real kitchen to put it in, and a life in which I'd actually use it. (Yes, I have a George Foreman grill, yes, I can use it nearly the same way, no, please don't buy me anything. Except the Mustang, if you really want to.)

Ok, I don't *really* care about the sandwich press. I'll have made it when I have a big comfortable wonderful hammock in my backyard. I LOVE hammocks. I'll have made it when I have a rocking chair, which chair will live in the baby's room so we can sit in it when we read books before bed. Apparently I'll have arrived when I have particular things to sit on or in.

I once would have said I dreamed of having a house with a separate room for books, like a real library, instead of just shelves-in-the-office or wherever. 'Cept, I've had that once, and I don't anymore, so let's not talk about that or I might cry.

Really, let's be honest. What I want is the house, the husband, the business, the baby (though not three!), AND the chairs. I'll skip the dogs. KThanks.

happy happy happy happy.

So, I know the blog's been a little weird lately and certainly very sporadic, and perhaps we'll get back to the usual thing (whatever that is) again soon, but all I have to say tonight is: I'm really happy. I had a GREAT birthday today and I LOVE seeing the memories you guys are posting and I LOVE all the wall posts and phone calls and emails and I feel so fucking loved. Goddamn that's a nice feeling.

thank you, thank you, thank you.


If you called me today and we didn't get to speak or I haven't called you back yet (which is pretty much everyone besides Debbie!), I WILL call soon, when I have a day less crazy than today.

I love you! Thanks for reading!!



PS We're onto the sixteenth year of it making me cry when someone calls me beautiful. What the fuck is that?

Well, it's my birthday in three days. Humor me.

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want, either good or bad.

When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.



CWID: I stole this idea from Ultraman.

Hucka...cockroach? Hucka... grasshopper? Hucka... berry?

A friend sent this video to me with the ominous words: "These people's votes count as much as yours."

It is, of course, damn funny and damn scary. And Jay Leno's line, "You get the government you deserve," is both apt and... damn scary.

But here's the thing about showing people on the street *pictures* of the candidates and asking questions about them: I'd fail also. And come to think of it, I'm proud of that fact. I can name the candidates, I can tell you things about their parties, their positions, and a little bit about their successes and failures in the primaries. I know these things primarily from listening to the radio (KPCC, my local NPR station) and I know a little bit more from websites like votehelp.org, the one magazine I get (Harper's), and conversations with friends and family. When I stop to think about it, I think it's pretty fucking great that none of my opinions are based on what the candidates look like. I mean, yeah, Hillary's the female one and Barack is the black one; it'd be hard to fail to identify them from their pictures even if I didn't already know what they looked like. But could I identify the Republicans from their pictures alone? Nope. Good for me.

I'll say it again, folks: it's not a beauty contest.

(Ok, I was able to correctly identify John McCain because when I saw his picture I thought, well, I know he's pretty old so that must be him. Ouch.)

HA!!! I know these things "primarily", get it?? Ha!!!!!!

Famousssssssss!!

Could I possibly be more excited that I was quoted on Metroblogging Los Angeles?

I WAS QUOTED ON METROBLOGGING LOS ANGELES!

First of all, I've known for a long time that blogging.la just rules and you should read it. That's why there's that handy link to it over on the right (you should check out all the other sites listed there too, duh. Think I just like making lists for my health?? Ok, I do kind of just like making lists, but seriously, the lists over there are for you). But now, man, now I am truly in love.

Hooray!

(and, of course, thanks to Follow That Ostrich for noticing!)

P.S: D.C.

If you know me, you know this is HUGE. I drank no Diet Coke (not even a sip) for about ten days, starting about two weeks ago. I did have a headache for the first few days, but that may have been due to other factors (in this particular instance there are many possible causes of that headache). I am *extremely* tired, but that could also be for other reasons, aside from the lack of caffeine.

The interesting part is this, and it's something I expected: after ten days, I did drink a Diet Coke and... I didn't really like it.

I mean, I expected that if I had none for long enough, I'd lose my taste for it. I just didn't know it would happen so fast.

Of course, like in all good-habits-vs.-bad-habits, I could get the taste for it *back* in a much shorter amount of time.



[The basic content of the aforementioned "other reasons" is this: a) it's winter b) I have a cold c) I haven't been sleeping enough and d) in the past two weeks I've eaten almost no animal products at all, including meat, fish, dairy, and eggs. This is a HUGE change in my diet that one assumes it would take some time for my body to adjust to.]

Yeah, I voted. I think.

So, yesterday I got an email from the LA County Democratic Party that contained the "official endorsements" of the party and a "click here to find out where to vote", which is exactly what I needed. Perfect - I clicked and I found out that my polling place was, like, on my street. Like, steps away. Awesome.

So, after teaching at job number one and before teaching at job number two, I drove home, and I voted. I think. I say that because the people staffing the place were unbelievably incompetent. Like, I almost thought it was a joke. They messed up almost every single step of the sign-in look-me-up give-me-a-ballot process. I finally got one, as well as a little tutorial on how to do the InkaVote thing, and I went into my little booth... which of course isn't a booth, it's like a podium with no curtain or divider or any of that old-fashioned privacy stuff. I filled out my ballot... sort of. More on that in a second. After filling in my little circles, I folded the thing the way I understood the directions to say to fold it (though I wasn't sure I did it right) and brought it over to the guy. He basically opened it up and looked at it (!!) and then handed it back to me to stick in the little slot. No scanning, no receipt, no nothing. I mean, yes, I got the sticker. But do I feel like I DID something that will COUNT for something? Do I feel at all confident that I did things correctly and that the pollworkers did things correctly? Faaaaaaaar from it.

Question number zero: Is this sloppier because it's a primary, or could I expect exactly the same situation in November?

Question number one: Thank god I could see the ink come out and I wasn't one of those CA voters who were told THEY WERE WRITING WITH INVISIBLE INK WHEN IN FACT THEY WERE "WRITING" WITH A STYLUS MEANT FOR A TOUCHSCREEN!! Or was I?

Question number two: Was I one of those voters who misunderstood the confusing "if you are not registered as a Democrat, do not not fail to not fill in this question. If not, don't not skip ahead to the next." first question?

Now, why do I say I filled in my ballot, kind of? Because: I voted for a presidential nominee, and then I burst into tears at the sight of the questions. I mean, I didn't, but I could. I got the sample ballots ahead of time. I got the explanation/argument packets in the mail. I tried, I tried to read and understand these things, and in all honesty I have to say: I could not. I could not. Now, I think I'm a fairly smart girl. I don't think I'm as smart as *you* guys seem to think I am, but I do agree that I'm reasonably smart. Literate; educated; even, dare I say, erudite. (Yes, I dare. I even pronounce it correctly.) And I could not separate the fact from the rhetoric or the meat from the hype or the bull from the bullshit. I failed to memorize all the Party's official positions, the no-yes-yes-no-maybe train that came in my handy email (not that I believe in blindly following that anyway) and I had to just leave a bunch of 'em blank.


I threw away my sticker.

[Though I'm not sure if California has been officially tallied yet or not, it currently appears that Clinton has won all four of the states I've ever lived in. Interesting? On the Republican side, McCain won three of them and Romney won MA, of course.]