read.dance.bliss

gelosia ,קנאה

2011-10-22T01:24:00.000-07:00

It is a strange sensation to feel torn between two countries, languages, cultures, as between two men, two lovers. I sit in an Israeli restaurant, Hebrew spoken all around me and Israeli musicians on the radio, songs I know well, singers I've even met. The smells of warm pita, shakshuka, frying schnitzel, these surround me and I bask in them as in the embrace of an old friend, but feel all the while that I am cheating on my new love, that the Italian textbook in the bag at my feet is watching jealously with dark eyes, listening in to see if I will go so far as to speak Hebrew with the waitress, when I have already stooped so low as to enter this place, to accept the comfortable squeeze of the familiar sounds and smells and tastes here. I am one block and thirty minutes away from Italian class, and perhaps later I'll watch a Roman movie with subtitles, trying to catch and match what words I can... but for the moment my heart is torn, I'm reading a book translated from the Portuguese and half-wishing I were still reading last week's novel, the David Grossman meditation on war and life in the Jewish homeland. Torn, between countries, as between lovers, cheating on a language by thinking in another. A strange sensation.

Jotsam... notes down for me.

2011-09-18T16:04:00.000-07:00

Oh, it's been so long since we had a good egg salad up in here!I've been cleaning out my office the last week or so, and finding all kinds of interesting things (anyone want a combo TV and VCR? Or a DVD player? Or a Sony Handycam? Someone bought my old printer, yay!). I'm down to going through some very small piles of very small papers, the little notes I leave myself all over, the flotsam and jetsam of my pockets, only they are notes on which I jot things down so I want to call it: jotsam.
Anyway...
Anyway, on one of these small papers is a reference to something I heard on the news, apparently a few years ago:
Wind Erosion Lab Blown Away

Oh, how very lovely is that?
(I mean, sorry for the researchers and all. You know what I mean.)

L'educazione, Seconda parte

2011-09-11T00:11:00.000-07:00

Tonight's Italian movie was Mid-August Lunch (Pranzo di ferragosto). Terrible.

Obsessed with this song:

Started Italian class the other day, and started listening to the very cute "Drive & Learn Italian" cds in my car last week. I remember having this Berlitz Hebrew tape when I was a kid and I thought it was such a good cultural lesson, in addition to language instruction, because the English speaker would say some polite thing in an upbeat-but-polite manner, "thank you very much!" and the Israeli would say, "ehh, toda raba, toda raba" like he'd rather be anywhere else, doing anything else, than saying thank you. So I'm having that experience again, but reversed: these Italian speakers are So. Happy. To. Speak. Italian. Every word is a jubilant song. Adorable.

Hey, today is 9/10/11. Cute, no?

Leggi.Danza.Beatitudine? Or; the Italian education of RDB, parte uno.

2011-08-31T22:40:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, it was "The Tiger and the Snow" (La tigre e la neve). Last week, the sad sad "The Son's Room" (La stanza del figlio). Tonight, "Cinema Paradiso", which I immediately realized I had already seen but of course I couldn't remember a thing about it. Amazing how quickly movies leave my memory... books too, to be honest.

Listening to Italian music in the background pretty much all the time. So far, lots of Fabrizio De André - something about him feels comfortable, accessible. Is it a Shlomo-Artzi-ness?

Italian class starts next week. I can't wait. And as soon as I finish what I'm reading (The Rebbe's Army, oddly enough) I can read something Italian, or at least some good heart-breaking plot-driven fiction that takes place in Italy. Any recommendations?

Inevitabilists??

2011-08-28T00:52:00.000-07:00

So, I just bought a Mac. A 15" MacBook Pro, to be exact. It took me two days to work up the nerve to take it out of the box, not because I'm actually so scared of new technology or of switching or whatever, but because I have so much WORK to do and so many THINGS to get done and this transition, however fabulous and worthwhile, is going to take more WORK and TIME than I have right now.

‹end whitewhine/firstworldproblems/whatever›

Anyway, I really am overwhelmed with work right now, in four directions:

0) I live at camp for 9 weeks over the summer, so the paperwork/filing/bills etc just piles up. It takes me forever to get all that shit sorted out again when I get home. How many hours did I spend with Quicken today?

1) I have a new job, a largely administrative position, at the (fabulous) school where I also teach Israeli dance. I'm helping coordinate the program in which the majority of our 10th grade travels to Israel for either a short or long period of time, and in which in turn the majority of our 10th graders host a visiting Israeli for the same period of time. The long-program Israelis arrive on Monday. SO MUCH TO DO!

2) I had to miss a lot of my Monday night dance sessions recently because of traveling and holidays, and it's around the 3-year anniversary of my running this session, so I'm having a big anniversary party this coming Monday night, with all kinds of surprises for everyone (free CD to the first 95 dancers!, for example). I kind of feel like I need to build the session back up after the summer, so I'm trying to make this party a really big deal. OMG SO MUCH TO DO.

3) My stint teaching at Stockton Folkdance Camp really did seem to jumpstart my international career, just like I claimed it would (go figure!). So now I have tons of scheduling/planning/networking/following-up to do and I am wayyyyyyy behind on this. Also... a new love in a faraway land?

But I was going to say, about work...
that you should read this great article in Harper's, "The Language of Work", by Mark Kingwell. Here's a bit:

No matter what the inevitabilists say, resistance
to work is not futile. It may not overthrow
capitalism, but it does highlight essential things
about our predicament—philosophy’s job always.
In his 1932 essay “In Praise of Idleness,” Bertrand
Russell usefully defines work this way:
Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of
matter at or near the earth’s surface relatively to
other such matter; second, telling other people to
do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid;
the second is pleasant and highly paid.

Well, back to work.

2011-08-26T13:50:00.000-07:00

"You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees."

-Gandhi

Oh hey there, post I wrote in April upon returning from Israel, and never posted...

2011-08-26T08:26:00.000-07:00

There are some things that Israel does so incredibly much better than the US does. I'm not talking about politics or education or child-rearing or any of that socially-relevant blah blah, I'm talking about what really matters: for example, many public bathrooms have foot-pedal flushers. Here in the states, in public bathrooms most of the toilet flushers are still manual and you got lots of people who don't want to touch the handle so they either waste a bunch of paper wrapping their hands in it and then drop that paper on the floor, or they don't flush at all (gross) or they just go ahead and flush with their foot anyway, making the handle way dirtier than it was and way grosser for the next person who didn't have a thing about not touching it with their hand before, but now that you put the bottom of your damn shoe on it... Anyway, foot-pedal flushers would just solve all that. Is that really so hard to do?

Since we started with flushing mechanisms already, let's keep on: for years and years I've wondered why the Israeli-style toilet with two settings of flush hasn't taken hold here in the US, at least among the environmentally conscious. Two levers, one for small flush and one for big flush. Choose as necessary. Not hard, and they've really been doing that forever. Here? Never seen it, except in the home of Israelis who live here, and one or two Jewish institutions. (Update: they have these at some of the public restrooms at the University of the Pacific, in Stockton, CA.)

Ok: on the street. Parking in the cities is painful and terrible in Israel, but they're eons ahead of us when it comes to paying for parking. Here we've made the giant leap from per-car meters to numbered spots and every-half-block parking machines. I don't know who benefits from that change; I find it infinitely more annoying to have to remember the spot number and find the machine, never mind that the guy behind me now usually doesn't benefit when I put in an hour's worth of quarters and then leave after 15 minutes. Anyway, there's a whole new system in Israel that never requires you to have cash on hand, really lets you pay per-time-used and not estimate-in-advance-and-then-get-screwed-style (don't tell me you've never gotten a ticket after being about 49 seconds late), and lets you pay from your cellphone. I don't know all the details of how it works, I just know it's awesome. Only drawback I see is that if you are just visiting a city or renting a car, you might be a little screwed, but I'm not sure.

But, but, the truth will out: never mind how technologically advanced Israel is in general, how many innovations come from the software and hardware companies there (hello, cellphones) and how they're piloting a huge new electric-car initiative next year... never mind even the flushing mechanisms and the parking system. SERIOUSLY, ISRAEL, WHY DO I HAVE TO SHOWER ON THE FLOOR? HOW HARD IS IT TO MAKE A LITTLE LIP AROUND THE SHOWER SO THAT THE BATHROOM DOESN'T HAVE TO FLOOD EVERY SINGLE TIME AND SO THAT I DON'T HAVE TO WORK WITH A MOP OR SQUEEGEE TO CLEAN THE FLOORS IMMEDIATELY AFTER I'VE JUST CLEANED MYSELF??? Get with the program, man.

Sheesh.

Do something pretty while you can

2011-07-06T17:04:00.000-07:00

First session done, second session begun.

Back from a whirlwind weekend of performances and dance camp in Toronto, straight into the insanity of 500+ campers and 100+ temperatures. A crazy day, a quiet hour. Post-shower, sitting and sweating on a plastic chair on the porch of my summer room, catching up on my Harper's Magazine. This, from a sad and self-condemning article from May:

Walking home, I look at the screen of my cellphone for guidance. In the dark it functions like a little flashlight, I am thinking. Maybe it will knit me a tiny sweater to keep me warm.

Summah summah summah time

2011-06-14T22:51:00.000-07:00

Deep breath in... here we go.

I'm back at camp, for summer #8. Historically I blog a lot over the summer than the rest of the year, so perhaps that will be the case again this year. I have four posts drafted from the last few months too, so maybe I'll finish those up and post 'em, finally.

I had been really freaking out about coming back this year, feeling overwhelmed with life and my other jobs and all kinds of things, and just kind of depressed about it being this time of year when it's so easy to compare it to this time of year last year and the one before and the one before and... sigh. But once I got here today and breathed in that Alo air and saw all my friends and had a few big hugs from my favorite staff members, I chilled out a lot... feeling pretty good. Still crazed with all my extra-curricular activities this summer, starting with an altogether-too-brief trip to Albany this weekend for a wedding, but still feeling a lot better than I did for the last few days and weeks.

More updates from 11B to come, I hope... Click the camp label for past summertime missives, some of my favorite posts.

Nobody? Nobody?

2011-04-04T00:15:00.001-07:00

You all texted or emailed to complain either about prescriptivism or "to a lesser degree" lonely but no one, no one noticed that pesky subject/verb agreement thing?

Sigh.

I can't get any satisfaction.

2011-03-31T22:49:00.000-07:00

You know that song, that goes, "Now there's two less lonely people, two less lonely people in the world, tooooniiiiight"?

It should really be "two fewer lonely people."

Just sayin'.

Next weekend: Santa Barbra. Streisand.

2011-03-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

I had an amazing weekend. I had a gig in Santa Barbara on Saturday night, so I spent the whole weekend there. Beautifullllllllll! Over the couple of days I was there, I managed to: see three movies. play tennis twice. read one book. play Guitar Hero. eat delicious meals, spend time with lovely people, go for a gorgeous walk, play with a cute dog, hold a lizard in my hand, enjoy a tour of SB that included the whale skeleton! And you know, do my gig.

More like that, please.

WAIT, THIS NEVER GOT POSTED BACK WHEN I POSTED IT??

2011-02-03T22:26:00.000-08:00

"...the language of design, architecture, and urbanism in Los Angeles is the language of movement. Mobility outweighs monumentality there to a unique degree... and the city will never be fully understood by those who cannot move fluently through its diffuse urban texture, cannot go with the flow of its unprecedented life. So, like earlier generations of English intellectuals who taught themselves Italian in order to read Dante in the original, I learned to drive in order to read Los Angeles in the original.”

- Reyner Banham, Los Angeles: The Four Ecologies

If I had a tumblr, I'd have reblogged this from Hillel Aron. But I don't.

What I love best about this is... ok, there are a million things I love about this, but one of those many things is that it's true: Reyner Banham had never driven before he moved here.

Punksatauni? Punxatawnee? Punxsutawney?

2011-02-02T16:46:00.000-08:00

My dear friend Aloni is spending a semester in Hungary. Today is his birthday, so why don't you mosey over to Aloni's Blogna and wish him a good one?

An awesome summary of my blog, which I just noticed in October and then blogged and then forgot to post until now:

2011-02-01T00:31:00.000-08:00

"Director of Dance reviews books and her crazy life"

Thanks, Sickness Cinema!

Services available; great rates. Inquire within.

2011-01-29T10:40:00.000-08:00

From the "waste books" of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg:

The detection of small errors has always been the property of minds elevated little or not at all above the mediocre; notably elevated minds remain silent or say something only in criticism of the whole, while the great spirits refrain from censuring and only create.

Mark Twin, in 1893:

In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made proof-readers.

On the other hand, Rabbi Akiba (Talmud: Pesahim, 112a) said:

When you teach your son, use a carefully edited text.

You do it by doing it?

2011-01-23T19:06:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to will myself into writing again. There's lots I want to say, but lately I've been unable to say it. We'll start with a summary of 2011. Perhaps after that we'll have a short summary of 2010.

So far in 2011 I have:

-had a short run-in with Restless Legs Syndrome. It was cured by a couple of sleeping pills and my First Migraine Ever.

-gone to Ramah Rikkudiah, a dance camp I've attended every year since I moved to CA. I had a GREAT time, in fact one of the best times I've had at a dance camp in many years. (For an alternate (and more theatrical) take on that camp, see Aloni's Blogna.)

-read (or finished reading) a few books, including Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the Bhagavad-Gita, finally, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, and Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer. If you're going to buy anything at all on amazon.com, would you do me a favor and use one of those links to get there? If you do, I get some small monetary reward and I looooove small monetary rewards. Especially when they are book-related.

-led dancing at the birthday party of the cutest sweetest four-year-old boy ever.

-went to "Gospel Shabbat" at a temple in the Valley. Fun, but didn't feel the least bit Jewish to me.

-saw Diavolo Dance Theater in Santa Monica. Incredible, breath-taking, awe-inspiring works.

-went to an international folkdance, and had my usual yes-I-teach-dance-but-I-used-to-do-other-things stance turned back on me. When someone asks what I do for a living, I usually rush to mention my years in software before becoming a dance teacher, because of that part of me that seems to feel teaching dance isn't "enough", whatever that means. At this dance last night, however, we were all dancers and dance teachers, and when someone asked me what I do to pay the bills, I was the object of all envy when I said I "just" teach folkdance. A good reminder. I get paid to do something I love. That's altogether too rare, I'd say, and I should remember how fabulous that is, even if I happen to also be missing some other things I love. That doesn't need to detract from the joy I get from my job.

-got trained to be a reading tutor for Koreh LA. I've apparently been placed with a first-grader and we can start meeting as soon as my personal references are in. This should be a pretty interesting experience, no?

It's been a decent 23 days. Lots going on in the next few months, possibly including a trip to Israel. I reallllly want to go... and am not at all sure it'd be a good idea for me to go.

It was evening all afternoon.

2011-01-02T23:09:00.002-08:00

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
by Wallace Stevens

I

Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.

II

I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.

III

The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV

A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.

V

I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

VI

Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.

VII

O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?

VIII

I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.

IX

When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.

X

At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.

XI

He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.

XII

The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.

XIII

It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.

Sidereal: of, relating to, or expressed in relation to stars or constellations; astral

2010-11-30T22:35:00.000-08:00

Tonight I went to Poets of the American West, 1910-2010, the Poetry Society of America's Centennial Celebration at the Hammer Museum. Five poets read poems of their own and of their favorite poets of the region from the past century.

I was scared it would be pretentious argle-bargle, as the girls of Cable210 would say, but it wasn't. It wasn't pretentious at all. It was beautiful, if a little bit boring.

Wanda Coleman read first, and she read poetry the way poetry is meant to be read. I had never heard poetry read well until I went to college and my roommate read some to me (I am forever grateful to her for this). And then I got the In Their Own Voices: A Century of Recorded Poetry box set and my education continued... which brings me to wonder about education, and do English teachers have any idea how to read poetry? And does anyone today teach children how to read poetry? I mean this literally, how to read it aloud, how it's supposed to be said, not just understood. I know high school kids are made to read at least some small number of poems in English classes; the question is does anyone read them, perform them for the students? Certainly none of my own beloved English teachers ever did when I was in NY and then FL public schools. I loved English, I loved reading, I loved my teachers. I didn't even know they were falling down on this particular job.

Anyway, back to tonight. Wanda Coleman was awesome.

The best line I jotted down in Sharpie (where's my pen?) on the back of the Hammer Winter Calendar (where's my notebook?) was:
"I put my eyes on a diet, my tears are gaining too much weight", from "Heavy Water Blues" by Bob Kaufman, which has many more almost-but-not-quite-too-cute bits I liked.

Also:
Two jokes walk into a bar.

The emcee, ohemgee, accidentally pronounced Pasadena as though the n were an ñ. I may say it like that forever, starting now.

I learned two important things that I almost knew before but now really know:

0. CA poets are enthralled with the fires.

1. Modern poets love the word "Egyptologist".

There is a scarf for sale to benefit the Hammer Museum (It's a museum. What kind of museum? A hammer museum.) that says "DO ASK. DO TELL." I kind of like it.

As a performing dancer, I couldn't help noticing the dimensions of the stage and the physical layout of the theater. It was funny to me to see the entire thing used only for a small podium arranged on the far (audience) left of the stage. I mean, it's poetry. But on a stage.

In an art museum! Awesome.

Something someone said made me want to make one of those WANTED posters for Black Friday... like, the reward is offered, but TODAY ONLY, 50% OFF!!

Terry could do it and make it funny. I can't.

PS Better Book Titles is killing me right now. Litgeek humor, anyone?

A Running Year in Review; or, Yay Me.

2010-11-23T18:24:00.000-08:00

We recently passed the one-year anniversary of my first marathon-training run - it was on Halloween, 2009.

I have run 4 marathons since that day, within about 9 months.

I have run over 383 miles since then. That's not a big number for a runner, but I'm not a runner; I'm a girl who decided to do a ~~couple~~ ~~few~~ several marathons. Four of those miles occurred after my last marathon, but I still don't really intend to do much more running. It's on to biking for me - much better for the knees!

An extremely important fact I'd like you to know: over the course of this whole temporary insanity, I have not lost even one toenail. None have turned black, ever. I hear constantly about this phenomenon and I just skipped it entirely, thank you.

I ran two of these marathons for friendship and two for charities. For the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society I raised over $5000. For the Blue Card Fund (for needy Holocaust survivors) I raised another $2500. If you helped make that happen, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

The NYC marathon was a really hard one for me physically. I was tired, jetlagged, sick, and not well-trained. It was still a glorious day and it meant the world to me that my family came out to support me (did you see that amazing video???? I am so obsessed with it) and that a dear friend flew into town just to be there for me. I am so grateful and I will never forget it.

I posted my marathon playlist after the LA marathon and I won't repeat it, but I did add a few songs for this one, for example:
Go Go Erica Yaa Yeah / Goldma Family 1:25
(the audio from that video!!)

In honor of running NY:
The Only Living Boy In New York / Simon & Garfunkel 4:02
New York State Of Mind / Billy Joel 6:03
New York Mining Disaster / The Bee Gees 2:09
An Englishman In New York / Sting 4:27
New York City / They Might Be Giants 3:02
The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) / Simon & Garfunkel 1:43
I kind of threw them into the mix wherever, without calculation, but don't you know THE 59TH STREET BRIDGE SONG CAME ON WHILE I WAS RUNNING ACROSS THE 59TH STREET BRIDGE!! Oh yes.

(Empire State of Mind (Jay-Z and Alicia Keys) was already on there)

And, in honor of having come straight from a yoga and mediation tour of India, a few mantras and related songs:
Mahamrityunjaya Mantra 4:28
Lokah Samasta 1:07
Om Tryambakam with Swami Vishnu-devananda 1:14
Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu 1:08
Gobinda Gobinda Hari Hari / Snatam Kaur Khalsa 10:47

And that's the end of my marathon career! Right?

Are you still carrying that woman? I put her down back there by the river.

2010-11-17T11:20:00.000-08:00

A friend/ acquaintance/colleague/whatever just wrote to me:

I hope your trip to India was amazing. I'm still not sure how you traveled around the world and then came back to run a marathon. You are my hero.

I replied as follows, and was immediately struck by the truth of my response:

Regarding India and then marathon: It seems that I frequently do things at which I look back and think, how did I do that? I guess it's better than looking forward at things and thinking I can't, but it is a weird phenomenon. It's only a week after my FOURTH marathon, this YEAR, and I've already moved into the "marathon? I can't run a marathon!" stage.

Why do I do that? How does that happen? I think I do the opposite of resting on my laurels; I wear them like a crown of thorns...

Botanically mixed metaphors, anyone?

Best. Family. Ever.

2010-11-06T19:10:00.001-07:00

Running NYC!!

2010-11-06T17:46:00.000-07:00

Well, here we go again! I, along with about 45,000 other maniacs, am running the NYC Marathon tomorrow!! I'm starting in the third wave at around 10:40am Eastern, orange, and my bib number is 53-679. If you're in the area, come cheer for me!! Send me a text with where you are (which mile) and I'll look out for you.

You can track me with text messages or online or whatever you want - details here. I'd like to do a sub-5-hour marathon, but I haven't exactly trained, or slept, or hydrated or... so who knows!

There's so much I want to write about this right now, but I'm super jetlagged from two weeks on the other side of the world, literally, and not done packing for L.A. or getting ready for the race or... acccckkk!!

See you at the finish.

Namaste नमस्ते - now with pictures!

2010-10-30T20:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm in India, I'm having an unbelievably amazing trip, and there just isn't enough Internet access to live-blog it. But I seem to be live-tweeting it, weirdly, since my cellphone is working pretty well almost everywhere. So for the moment, here are my first 10 days worth of tweets and pix!

Namaste.
21 Oct
--------------->

A lovely morning of yoga and touring Old Delhi. Next, shopping in New Delhi, and trying to convince my body it's 2pm, not 2am.
22 Oct

Just said an entire sentence in Hindi. To an actual Hindu. In Hindustan.
22 Oct

A few hours until we go see the Taj Mahal, at midnight, under a full moon. So excited! PS please god no more buffets.
23 Oct

You know how they say the Taj Mahal is stunning regardless of how many kitschy pictures you've seen of it? Truth.
23 Oct

Sharing the road with my tour bus: Cars. Other buses. Trucks. Rickshaws, bicycles. People on foot. Cows. Dogs. Camels. Horses. A goat.
24 Oct

I almost didn't see that dromedary hidden beneath that tree. He was completely camelflaged.
24 Oct

On the road in Rajahstan.
24 Oct
------------>

On Safari in India and people are all excited over peacocks. I'm all: whatevs. Come to @campalonim
24 Oct

Omg omg omg
24 Oct

It's a tiger-eat-deer world out there. Wait till you see the video. Omg. #India
24 Oct

Guys, I haven't seen my email in 6 days. SIX DAYS WITH NO EMAIL. No, it's ok, I'm surviving. Sort of. Barely.
25 Oct

Yes, I took those pix of tigers in Ranthambore National Park. No, I didn't see Katy and whatshisname.
25 Oct

Yes, I have been staying at the same "luxury resort" where many of their guests stayed. No, I never want to leave. But: on to Jaipour!
25 Oct

Done with morning yoga and breakfast in Jaipur. Now - elephant ride!!
26 Oct

When in India...
26 Oct
--------------->

I. Bought. A. Rug. Omg I bought a rug. In India. At the factory where they make them. Silk. Gorgeous. Omg so much money. 27 Oct Back in Delhi. So, what's in the nightstand drawer of Indian hotels? The Bhagavad-Gita, of course... and Gideon's Bible. Yes, really. 28 Oct Getting on Kingfisher Airlines to fly up to the Himalayas. Naming an airline after an alcoholic beverge? Don't drink and fly! 29 Oct Hello, Dehradun. On to one of the 7 holy cities, Haridwar, Gateway to the Gods. Our guide just said, Welcome to the real India. Challo! 29 Oct "Wait, is that the fucking River Ganges right there?" Yes, yes it is. Satsong on the roof and now bed. Back up there for yoga at 8am. 30 Oct Overheard at rooftop yoga today when in the distance, a bell rings. "Is that breakfast?" "No, the opposite; that's God." 30 Oct

A sign for @CCnono 's collection!
30 Oct
--------------------->

How great is the word _funicular_? Also, how great is a funicular ride up to worship a Hindu deity that grants wishes? I love this place.
30 Oct

Yes, this is what I came halfway around the world for...
30 Oct
<-------------

Heading to Rishikesh, the yoga capital of the world. Ashrams, saddhus (pilgrims), yogis, swamis.

On the way to an ashram - Chabad House!!

31 Oct

Last night in Haridwar, great group celebration (I got the Shakti award- "ready, willing, and able"!) and getting so sad to leave... :(

1 Nov

Also, kinda got picked up by one of the waiters who all think I look exactly like Katrina Kaff. Now, if only he'd stop calling me "Katie".

1 Nov

On a train, from Haridwar to Delhi. In the station, travelers, pilgrims, beggars, monkeys. And utter chaos... which somehow isn't really.

2 Nov

About 15 more hours in India. Unutterably sad.

2 Nov

What's on the menu at Mcdonald's Delhi? The ususal: Paneer salsa wrap. McTikka Masala. Big chicken Masala Mac. Filet-O-Fish.

3 Nov

If you want to buy me some lululemon stuff, that's ok with me. Just sayin'.

2010-10-16T16:08:00.000-07:00

0. I bought new shoes! As bad of an idea as it seemed, especially given that I didn't even buy the exact same shoes as I had before, the woman in the store took a good look at my old shoes and made it clear that however stupid it might be to buy new ones right now, running in those other ones was even stupider. Seriously, I had been thinking about how-many-months and how-many-miles and never once picking the damn things up, looking at the (utter lack of) tread on the bottoms and making a rational decision based on the fact that they are SHOT TO HELL.
AND they cost less than $100! And here's a shout-out to my two favorite running stores, Road Runner Sports (where I bought both pairs of shoes) and Phidippides, who always has my favorite flavors of sport bean even if no one else does.

1. I ran 20 miles today! The first 15 went well, and I was elated as I started the 4th lap (I run a 5-mile loop at the park), thinking about how proud I was about to be that, no matter how long it took, I got my ass up and out and ran 20 miles, alone!! And then I took a dive. I tripped, I fell. Face plant. Sprawled in the dirt. I bit it. I ate pavement, man, literally. I finished the last 3 or so miles bloody, dirty, and tear-stained. Well, a new experience every time, eh? Cool.

2. And because 20 is not so different from 26.2, you get this: scarily accurate. My favorite is the shoe-tying attempt.

My sneakers, because you really care about this particular detail

2010-10-14T20:48:00.001-07:00

So, last year when I first started running, I went to a good running store and got analyzed and fitted and bought a new pair of good running sneakers. They were great. To be honest, I had been having some calf pain from running before the new shoes and it went completely away from the moment I started using the new shoes.

So I've run in those shoes for a year now, and I've so far put at least 333 miles on them, including three marathons.

I'm going to run 20 miles on Saturday, my last long run before the NYC marathon. I'll be in India for the intervening two-plus weeks, so I'm not planning to run much, if at all, in between.

So the big question is, do I get new shoes for NY??

Experts generally say good shoes can handle 300-500 miles before they are worn out. After this weekend, my shoes will have over 350 on them, and a marathon is, you know, a marathon. The hardest run you ever do. This makes me think yes, get new shoes.

On the other hand, I don't have much time to be sure they're good or that there are no problems with them. One doesn't have to "break in" good shoes, but that doesn't mean that a 20-mile run is a good idea for a very-first time wearing them. So that makes me think, no, don't get new shoes, because certainly the mary itself can't be the first time I wear them, and the only other option is the 20-miler. There just isn't any time for us to get to know each other. AND BUT I can't jeopardize the 20, because I have no other time to do it and I must get that in before I leave for India!

So, what do you say?

(We're talking about $100 here, maybe a little more. Not pocket change, but nothing that's going to break the bank...)

You complete me.

2010-10-12T01:26:00.000-07:00

So, in college I knew a girl named Lauren Elson and another named Laura Nelson.

Now I know someone named Loren Nelson, and I'd like to collect all four.

Laura Elson, are you out there? Can we be friends?

Bharat!

2010-10-08T17:26:00.000-07:00

So, as you may know, I'm going to India soon!!

As requested, here's the story: I'm going for two-week trip with my mom and a group of her friends. The trip is in honor of her 60th birthday. She's wanted to visit India for as long as she can remember and now she's finally going! I'm so excited and lucky that her birthday request is that I go along too :)

The itinerary is set by the tour group and not at all up to me. Sadly, this means I'm not going to make it to either Mumbai or Varanasi, both of which I'd really like to see. However, we will be in New Delhi, Agra, Ranthambore, Jaipur, and Haridwar. I think the most free time we have is at the end of the trip, in Haridwar and back in New Delhi before we leave. I'm really excited about the whole trip, and totally open to whatever kinds of experiences the group has planned for us.

I've been taking an Introductory Hindi class for a few weeks! It's a ridiculously few hours of class for only a short number of weeks, but at least I can sound out lots of written words and I can say the most basic things, like "My name is Erica" and "I'm not a doctor but I am a teacher." You know, the usual :)

It's actually kind of funny looking at how I'm preparing for this trip overall. Do I know what the exchange rate for dollars is in the local currency, or the details of that local currency? Nope. Did I think to get an electrical adapter until, like, yesterday? Nope. Do I know what the weather is supposed to be like when I'm there? Not so much. I didn't research those things.

So what have I been doing?
First, I read Shantaram, an INCREDIBLE book that takes place in Mumbai.

Now I'm reading the Bhavagad-Gita and a book by Salman Rushdie, and the stack next to me consists of: Gandhi's autobiography, Forster's A Passage to India, A Fine Balance, and two Jhumpa Lahiri books. (It actually also includes The Jew in the Lotus, but that may be a whole nother story.)

I watched "Monsoon Wedding" on Netflix last week (thanks, B!) and I've got a list of four other Indian movies I'd like to get to before I leave, if I can find them.

I downloaded a whole bunch of Bollywood music.

Einat and I went to Jewel of India for dinner on Thursday.

And I'm studying Hindi! If I could find a Bhangra class to take here before I leave, you know I'd be all over that. It's the culture-immersion approach, don't you know? :)

Hey - you ever been to India? If you've got advice, suggestions, warnings, postcard-requests, whatever... send 'em over! read_dance_bliss at yahoo dot com... or use the comments!

WAY CRAZIER THAN ME

2010-10-07T23:23:00.000-07:00

In a comment on my post about my upcoming fourth marathon, SJK pointed me to this short article about a man running a marathon on every continent. My favorite bits are these, mostly the descriptions of the races:

...Heyl will brave sub-zero temperatures, strong Katabatic winds, and the task of running 26.2 miles in Antarctica to realize his goal of completing a marathon on every continent; joining a club of less than 100 people who have done so in history, said Richard Donovan, organizer of the race and member of the club.

Fewer than 100 people!

...the Paris Marathon, a tour through the City of Lights, and then found himself training for The Great Wall Marathon, which takes place along the Great Wall of China.
He spent his afternoons that year running up and down the stairwell of the 13-story building where he works, trying to prepare for the tiny steps and high slopes of the Great Wall, designed to repel invaders with uneven footings and narrow pathways.

Sooooooooo cool!

The Gold Coast Marathon in Australia was followed by the Big Five marathon in a game reserve near Johannesburg, South Africa — where Heyl said he ran along lions and cheetahs over loose sand.
Heyl's wife, Andrea, said his sixth race, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was a treat for her too.

Australia and South Africa and Buenos Aires are sooooooo high on my travel wish list I can't even tell you.

Registration for the [Antarctica] race is listed [at] 9,900 Euros, or $12,741.30, on its website.

Haaaaaaaaaa ha. Too bad I have this work-for-a-living thing going on. Independently wealthy, and I might consider this a decent way to spend some time :)

Multiples; Or, Two vignettes about how I'm perfectly normal.

2010-10-06T15:58:00.000-07:00

0. Ha ha, an author of books about marathons has a webpage about multiple marathons. He describes how one woman ran a marathon three weeks after running another one. What does he have to say about this? He calls it:

"Insanity at its purest level". YES!

(Really, it was no problem. I was already trained! I just recovered and then did it again - easy!)

1. On my own, I'm not so good at getting my ass out the door at obscenely early hours of the day to run obscenely long distances, so I sometimes run with Team in Training even though I'm not on their team right now. At ~~rehearsal~~ practice (dammit, I always do that!) recently, someone was telling me how she was "pulling an Erica" because she was going to do two races three weeks apart.

(Of course, she was doing a HALF and then a full, not two fulls, but you know, we can't all be rockstars... :)

Run, RDB, Run. Run. Run?

2010-09-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

Hey there, remember how I always said I was going to run a marathon, and then 11 or so months ago I signed up for Team in Training and started running and then at the end of February I actually ran a marathon? Of course you do; I hardly talked about anything else for a couple of months back there. That was the New Orleans marathon on 2/28/10 and my post-run post (ha ha) is here, for your review if you so desire :)

And then, remember how that crazy thing happened where I became close friends with this guy who was running the L.A. Marathon three weeks later and so I ended up running that marathon also, with him? That was on 3/21/10 and the p-r p is here.

Well, I didn't tell you this, but a couple of months later... yeah, I ran another one. On 6/12/10 I ran the Bear Lake Marathon in Utah, again with L.A. Marathon guy and a few friends. We rented a lake house and all went out there to walk this half-marathon together, except somehow two of us ended up doing the full and not so much of that walking thing either. I hadn't trained AT ALL. And it was raining, and cold, and windy, and uphill, and for the most part, pretty miserable. And, you know, AT ALTITUDE. Anyway, anything for friends, right? It was a wonderful weekend, truly.

Well, now, here's where it gets crazy: I'm about to do another one.

See, back in February when everyone on my team was getting excited about L.A. and stuff, we all talked about the NYC marathon and how it's the best one ever and blah blah blah, and so many people want to run it every year that they have this big lottery system to get in. So we all put in for the lottery, and not one of us got a spot. Oh well. Really, I got into this planning to do ONE marathon. Ever.

After #2, I said that was it. After #3, I swore that was it!

And then over the summer I got email from an amazing charity called The Blue Card, asking me to please join their team for New York. THEY CONTACTED ME AND GAVE ME A SPOT IN NYC!! And the charity? 100% of donations go to the care of Holocaust survivors who are in bad health, or have no surviving family, or are destitute for whatever reason.

Really, could I possibly have said No? Really?

No.

So: on 11/7/10 I will run my fourth marathon of the year (and of my life). I fully expect it will be my last*. I am indeed raising money for another incredible cause, and donations of any size (and I mean that) are incredibly truly appreciated. Go to The Blue Card homepage, click on the Make a Donation link on the top right, and mention my name anywhere in the comments. And come out and support me in my first East Coast marathon!! By all accounts, it's a NYC event not to be missed - thousands of runners, thousands of spectators, a huge five-borough celebration of health and life and stamina and triumph. I'd loooooooove to see you out there!!

N.B. to many of the people who have already donated in my honor: I am way behind on my thank you notes, but THANK YOU SO MUCH and the note is coming, I promise :)

* (at least, until the next one)

Come see me dance! Jerusalem Soul 10/9/10

2010-09-21T02:18:00.000-07:00

My dance company, the Keshet Chaim Dance Ensemble, has an AWESOME show coming up and if you're anywhere near Los Angeles, you should make it your business to attend!!

It'll be:
RAMI KLEINSTEIN

MIRI MESIKA

Keshet Chaim, including ME!!

the Agape Choir... basically, it's an amazing lineup.

Saturday night, October 9th at 8:30pm
at the Ford Amphitheatre, (across from the Hollywood Bowl).

You can look at the seating chart and get tickets online, or if you know me in Real Life^(TM), give me a check or cash and I'll get you 10% off whichever section you want to sit in!!

THANK YOU!

Thai Foid

2010-09-16T00:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, this needs to be clarified: in my last post (go read it if you haven't already, I'll wait here), that whole thing about not going three whole hours without eating? OF COURSE I go three hours without eating during a day - like when I'm at work, or dancing, or whatever. The key part I failed to mention is that the pills have to be REFRIGERATED (and taken at roughly the same time of day each time), so I can't throw them in my bag and bring them to work/dancing/whatever with me. They're in the fridge at home, and I'm just not both home and awake for three hours in a row without eating. See? Big difference.

Still pathetic, I know. I know.

Anyway, I did it! Tonight was the last one, and I didn't even need to set any alarm clocks or take any in the middle of the night to make it happen - I just took it, and if I want to eat again tonight I have to wait an hour. And it's nearly 12:30am, so clearly I should just go to bed...

But I'm huuuuungry!! I haven't eaten in like 4 whole hours!!

Wow, is this sad:

2010-09-10T00:38:00.001-07:00

So, I'm going on a trip to India next month (!!!) and so I got a few vaccinations already. For typhoid, the doctor recommended a vaccine in pill form instead of a shot. I have four pills, and I have to take one every other day. Here's why I haven't taken them yet, even though I've had them for weeks now:

You have to take them on an empty stomach, which they say means 1 hour before eating a meal or 2 hours after eating a meal. Which means either right when I wake up, I could take one and then not eat any breakfast or anything for an hour, or I could finish eating for the day, wait two hours, take the pill and go to bed, OR I could just find a 3-hour window in the middle of the day in which I don't eat.

These are impossible scenarios. I have always just eaten or am about to eat. THREE WHOLE HOURS? I can't seem to make it happen.

This is ridiculous, no?

Things I'm Going To Do This Year

2010-08-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

My primary workplace is about 13 miles from my house. I will be able to, and will, bike to work by the end of this (school) year.

First step: I need to buy a bike.

Stay tuned!

There goes the bride; Or, RDB loves lists.

2010-08-27T01:02:00.000-07:00

So I was out at dinner last night with some friends and one was talking about how she is the maid of honor for an upcoming wedding. She's helping with the bridal shower and the bachelorette party and all that, despite having never been to a wedding before.

Never been to a wedding before! I couldn't believe it. I told her I've probably been to 20 weddings already. I mean, yes, I'm older than she is, but not thaaaat much older! Anyway, driving home tonight I wanted to see if I could actually think of 20 weddings I've been to. I could only think of 13 in the car, but now that I'm really thinking about it:

Family weddings:
1. Uncle Lance & Aunt Vicki (my first, and I was a flower girl! I was 7 or so.)
2. Susan & Joel (my cousin. They're divorced now.)
3. Dad & Aliza (yay!)

College/Boston friends:
4. Sat Jiwan & Mimi (my ex-boyfriend)
5. Liora & Adam (my roommates!)
6. Jeff & Mary
7. Rachel & Andrew
8. Elena & (now divorced)
9. Sarah & Dan
10. Debbie & Darin (I can remember the bachelorette party, but not the wedding itself yet... weird...)
11. Larry & Rachael

Other friends:
12. Kat & Ron (my bff. I was a bridesmaid.)
13. Fran & Sharon
14. Emily & Ian (Also divorced.)
15. Eugene & Robin
16. Bikem & ? (I only got to go to this because it took place in Turkey when I happened to be there with my dance company. I don't remember his name, and they are divorced now. But it was an AWESOME wedding!)

California weddings:
17. Shira & Noam (performed at it - does that count?)
18. Elon & Sharon (performed at it - does that count?)
19. William & Iris
20. Alisha & Dave

I am SURE that I must have forgotten some... but I guessed 20 and I've come up with 20. Could I possibly have been exactly right?? Weird.

Hey there, me:

2010-07-29T00:07:00.000-07:00

"It gets to the point where I don't email someone for fear of reminding them that they emailed me and thus giving them a reason to be disappointed in me."

This is why I'll never be an adult.

(While you're there, you can also read about how I'm wrong every time I say "there's no such word as alot".)

Today at camp... revisited.

2010-07-24T15:52:00.000-07:00

I stepped on a bee.

And got stung. AGAIIIIINNNNNNN.

Between my toes.

the end.

Partially redeemed; Or, at least I have my moments

2010-07-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

I just received an email from a colleague here that begins as follows:

"Congratulations on being the nicest person ever."

Let's be honest: if you know me well you know that I can, at times, be an uberbitch, so that was seriously, seriously nice to hear.

Unexpected Accomplishments

2010-07-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

I might be my most favorite self while I'm away working at sleepaway camp. I mean, not all of the time, because I definitely get very cranky at times, and overwhelmed and overtired, and mid-summer slump hits me like everyone else, and I definitely ignore the outside world to a both dangerous and impolite degree. But, during the days at camp, and in those in-between moments when I'm not teaching... I do some good stuff sometimes.

Today was one of those days, days one should have at camp, filled with unexpected accomplishments. In sitting down to write about it, I just re-read my other blog posts with the "camp" label from past years and I really like the girl who wrote them. I wish I saw her more often. Go ahead, read or skim through them; I'll wait here.

...or here, I'll point out some of my personal favorites.

Anyway, today I finally, finally went for a run. I ran the High Road, a road that goes around camp and is, you know, high up. (A new post on running is sorely needed and coming soon, btw.) And then I went and taught some dances, of course. And then, instead of going back to my room to shower as planned, I went and did yoga with a small group of other staff members, outside in one of the most beautiful spots in camp. And then I taught some dances, of course. And then during free-choice-activity time, instead of going back to my room to shower as planned, I climbed the rock wall! For the first time ever!! I made it to the top! Of course, this was unplanned so there are no pictures, and of course, I wasn't mentally prepared for it so I didn't exactly do a perfect or graceful job of it... but I climbed the wall! To the top! Yay for camp!

Today at camp...

2010-06-24T17:44:00.000-07:00

I sat on a bee.

And got stung.

On my butt.

the end.

Where can I get me some of those?

2010-06-05T16:33:00.000-07:00

So I'm reading Bram Stoker's Dracula and enjoying it tremendously, not really having had any idea what it would be like. The format is fun, the prose is great, and I love the fact that I'm only partway through the book and everything I already thought myself to have known about the story is already done with, so that the rest of the plot will be a surprise to me. But can anything really top this line that I read today? I think not:

"Doctor, you don't know what it is to doubt everything, even yourself. No, you don't, you couldn't with eyebrows like yours."

So fantastic.

PS If you're an Israeli folkdancer, this will doubtless put you in mind of a certain famous choreographer. He is not generally how I imagined Van Helsing to look, and I'm trying to keep his image out of my mind for the rest of the book, but it is pretty funny, isn't it?

PPS It's always "Bram Stoker's Dracula" since the movie, eh? Why didn't I just write "Dracula, by Bram Stoker", like I would have done about any other book?

86 songs, 5.4 hours, 346.9 MB

2010-06-04T22:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, remember how I ran these coupla marathons and said that I'd post my iPod music playlist and never did it? So, a coupla months later and a week before I walk a half-marathon with a group of friends (some of whom I haven't met yet) (except one might end up not walking at all, and one might do the full instead of the half, and honestly if we aren't doing it together then I'm gonna wanna run instead of walk and in that case, why do only a half? Please, someone stop me from running my third marathon next week!!)... what was I saying? Oh yeah, here's the playlist.

If I were to do a marathon right now, a few songs would be added immediately to the list: Gaga's Alejandro, and a couple of Mumford and Sons songs, especially "Little Lion Man", to which I've linked so you can listen to it incessantly, like I've been doing.

Ok, five+ hours of music to run to, if you're me... plus occasional commentary.

This is very nearly the list I ran to in New Orleans, but with modifications made for Los Angeles.

We start out with a bunch of silly KIIS FM-style stuff, songs with a great beat and which I can sing along to in a totally mindless manner, without really paying attention to it:

Bad Romance / Lady GaGa
Paparazzi / Lady GaGa
Hard feat Young Jeezy / Rihanna
Whatcha Say / Jason Derulo
Scared Of Lonely / Beyoncé
Sweet Dreams / Beyonce
Empire State of Mind (feat. Alicia Keys) / Jay-Z
American Boy (Radio Edit w/ Kanye) / Estelle
Halo / Beyonce
Human / The Killers ["Are we human, or are we dancer?" How can I not love this song?]
Carry Out / Timbaland

Then, the more meaningful stuff starts. The next two songs are from the video "Running to Tyler", more inspiration to run to beat cancer.
If Everyone Cared / Nickelback
Chasing Cars / Snow Patrol

Then a few more good-beat mostly-mindless songs.
Baby Boy (Ft. Sean Paul) / Beyonce
Crazy in Love (ft. Jay-Z) / Beyonce
Naughty Girl / Beyonce
Lucifer / Jay Z [LOVE this song. Thank you, Alex Garry.]
Kick Push / Lupe Fiasco [LOVE this song. Thank you, Laura Katz.]
Independent Women (Part 1) / Destiny's Child
Lose Yourself / Eminem

Now the really meaningful and personal choices. Great stuff, great run. (Oh man, so much '80s stuff! What can I say?)
Lighten Up / The Beastie Boys
Fast As I Can / Erin McKeown [One of my favorite songs ever.]
Ooh Child Things Are Gonna Get Easier / The Five Stairsteps
Baby's Got Sauce / G Love and Special Sauce
Mr Brownstone / Guns N' Roses [One of the BEST moments of the NoLA run!]
The Girl From Ipanema / Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto [My favorite song ever]
Physical / Olivia Newton John
Hit Me With Your Best Shot / Pat Benatar
Hey Mickey / Toni Basil
Because The Night / 10,000 Maniacs
She Said She Said / The Beatles [My favorite Beatles song]
Birchovot Paris / Yair Ziv [The only Israeli song!!]
Rock the Cradle of Love / Billy Idol
Fighter / Christina Aguilera [This song, with its specific lyrics, came on at precisely the right moment in NoLA, given what I was passing at that moment... serious serendipity.]
Laid / James
Mighty Quinn / Manfred Mann
Girlfriend / Matthew Sweet
The Way You Make Me Feel / Michael Jackson [Sexiest MJ song]
Porch / Pearl Jam
7 / Prince
Belleville Rendez-vous (French) / The Triplets of Belleville
Cantaloop / Us3
Livin on a Prayer / Bon Jovi
Gett Off / Prince
It Feels So Good / Sonique
You Give Love A Bad Name / Bon Jovi

Now, 30 minutes of pure soul-lifting Revelations joy!!
I Been Buked / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Fix Me Jesus / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Processional / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Honor, Honor / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Wade In The Water / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
I Wanna Be Ready / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Sinner Man / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
The Day Is Past And Gone / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
You May Run On / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Rocka My Soul In The Bosom Of Abraham / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

We Built This City / Jefferson Starship
We Belong / Pat Benatar
Aqualung / Jethro Tull
Dancing In Heaven (Orbital Be-Bop) / Q-Feel
Embryonic Journey / Jefferson Airplane
Eye of the Tiger / Survivor <--- of course!
I Feel Free / Eric Clapton
Informer / Snow
My Sharona / The Knack
Where did you sleep last night / Nirvana
Killing In The Name Of / Rage Against The Machine
Youth Gone Wild / Skid Row
18 And Life / Skid Row
Home Sweet Home / Motley Crue
Non je ne regrette rien / Edith Piaf
Somebody To Love / Jefferson Airplane
Piece Of My Heart / Janis Joplin
Nights In White Satin / The Moody Blues [Not at all a running song, but how could I not? Breathe Deep.]
Untouchable Face / Ani DiFranco
Crucify / Tori Amos
Standing Outside a Broken Phonebooth / Primitive Radio Gods
White Rabbit / Jefferson Airplane
Baba O'Reilly [Live] / The Who **SUCH A GOOD RUNNING SONG**
Blister In The Sun / Violent Femmes
Danger Zone (Top Gun) / Kenny Loggins
Expression / Salt N' Pepa
Here Comes The Rain Again / Eurythmics
La Isla Bonita / Madonna
Maniac (Flashdance) / Michael Sembello

It's been interesting to make this list, because it's clearly not a list of just my favorite songs - most of my really favorite songs are soulful and moody and not at all fit for spurring on an exhausted runner. No Joni Mitchell? Barely any Tori, Ani, Regina? No Simon and Garfunkel or Arlo Guthrie? Just not running stuff, as much as I may love it.

I also have a 3-hour California mix I love, and since I was going to be running the streets of Los Angeles, I had trouble resisting the urge to dump a bunch of L.A.-themed stuff in there. I mean, how funny to be listening to "Nobody walks in L.A.", right? Still, most of that stuff isn't runny, so it wasn't for the marathon. That's a different playlist.

It would be the last unicorn that came to Molly Grue.

2010-05-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

Oh hey there, blog-I-used-to-blog-in. Where you been these last couple months?

Let's see: a visit to New York to spend Passover with my family, to Boston to be the guest teacher at a special mostly-couples Israeli dance night at MIT, to New Hampshire to spend time with friends on the farm. That was in April. As was an amazingly fun afternoon at Santa Anita Park with a friend - we came in knowing NOTHING about betting on horses and left, a few $1-hot-dogs and $1-beers later, having HIT THE TRIFECTA. Freakin amazing day. Also, the LA Times Festival of Books which is even cooler when you know an author and get to hang out in the VIP lounge!

In May, to the DC area to see old college friends, to teach a dance at the Israeli dance session in Rockville, MD, to pretend to still be nearly-college-age with my wonderful friend Lila. I saw some great stuff at the Hammer museum (I'd like to own a painting by Friedrich Kunath. Know how to make that happen for me?) and got to hear the amazing Superdevoice Balkan Women's Choir in the courtyard there. A Friday night Jazz at LACMA, some time (not enough) at JPL's annual Open House which I've been trying to get to for the five years I've lived here, and I straightened my hair. I look very different... and I'm pretty damn happy about that.

And aside from that, been spending a lot of time in my usual spring mental space - that limbo as school ends and before camp begins in which I wander, every year, wondering if I'm making good choices about how to live my life and how to spend my time and what changes I should make for next year, ya-dah ya-dah.

And what have you been up to lately?

This is why.

2010-03-23T00:57:00.000-07:00

Yes, I ran another marathon. It was amazing, and I'll have the details for you soon. For now, instead, here's why I did it. Please read.

http://ihaterunningbutihatecancermore.blogspot.com/2010/03/marathon-update-12-rejoice.html

26.2 times 2

2010-03-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

So, I'm running the Los Angeles Marathon in a few days (yeahhhhhhhhh!!). Yes, I did just run my first marathon less than 3 weeks ago! If you would like to let me know how fantastically bad-ass you think I am, there are many ways you can do that. Choose one OR MORE of the following options:

0. Donate to my fundraising page! The whole reason I got into this crazy thing was to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It's only a few days from race day, pleeeeeeeeease contribute now! Any amount helps - really. I so appreciate it. [All of those links take you to http://pages.teamintraining.org/los/mardigra10/erica] Thank you!

1. Come cheer for me at the race! Here is the marathon spectator guide with all kinds of info about the course and where the block parties are, where entertainment (Taiko drummers at Mile 3!) will be, and transportation and road closure information. If you are somewhere along the course and bring a sign or small edible offering, I will love you forever, but I won't stop and chat for more than a second. If you are at the finish line, it may be difficult to find each other, but I'll be able to actually talk to you and not just wave as I go by. I did my other marathon in about 5 hours, so it's reasonable to assume this one will be similar, although there are other factors that may change that. For one thing, I'm running with my team, Team Curly-Hair, so I alone will not be determining the pace. After I cross the finish line, I go into a runners-only zone for a few minutes to collect my medal and things, but then I can go to the Family Meet-Up area (I'll be in the "G" area, unless I'm with my team in the "S" area...) to find you - so let me know if you'll be there!

2. Get live updates about my progress by going to this race-tracker website and signing up your phone number or email address. They'll send a message when I've crossed the 10km mark, the half-marathon mark, etc. (You have to sign up for this BEFORE the day of the race itself.) If you'll be on the course, you can use that info to judge when I should be nearing your location (a full marathon is about 42 km). The race starts at 7:24am but I have no idea when I'll start running; I definitely won't be in the first few waves so it may be after 8 before I actually start.

If you're going to be at the finish line, read this info about the Finish Line Festival... and bring me some chocolate milk :)

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then...

2010-03-09T23:03:00.000-08:00

In the pre-race dawn of last Sunday morning, my fellow teammates and I were huddled in a small pack awaiting the start of the run and trying desperately to keep from freezing. I was wearing leg-warmers; a teammate said to me, "Only a dancer would wear those to a race!"

In the post-race sunshine of last Sunday afternoon, my fellow teammates and I were stretched out on the grass, enjoying having finished our runs. I complained about having broken a fingernail; a teammate said to me, "How did you break a nail? You're a runner!"

Delighted. I was delighted at both of these moments, at both of these labels. But why? With the families at the camp I taught at this weekend, we discussed the labels we place on one another. With some of my high school students, we talked about the labels we place on ourselves. Tonight at the temple where I teach, I asked the students about what they are rather than who they are... it's been on my mind.

First of all, why did those labels delight me? I teach dance for a living; in fact, I make my living exclusively by teaching dance. In my spare time, I often go dancing just for fun, and I'm a member of a performing dance company, so I spend lots of time rehearsing and performing. I've choreographed for big shows, like one last year at the Kodak Theater, a show which included performances by the Idan Raichel Project, Rami Kleinstein, and Achinioam Nini (these are huge names on the Israeli music scene, if you don't happen to be steeped in Israeli culture!). I freakin competed in the International Golden Karagoz Folk Dances Competition in Turkey in 2003. I'm clearly a dancer. And yet...

And yet for some reason, I hesitate before calling myself a dancer, thinking I don't quite deserve the title.

I have run 180 miles in the past four months, I completed my first marathon a week and a half ago and I'm going to run my second in another week and a half. And yet.

And yet for some reason I hesitate before calling myself a runner, thinking I don't quite deserve the title.

If I were one of my students, I would tell me unhesitatingly: if you do it, you are it. And you can be many things at once.

In fact, I tell them that all the time. If you dance, you are a dancer. You may not be the best dancer, or a professional dancer, but that has nothing at all to do with the fact of being a dancer or not. If you sing, you're a singer (even if you're tone-deaf like me). If you run, you're a runner: there's no per-week mileage requirement for some magical exclusive club.

The other side of this coin that I stress heavily when talking to my kids is that you aren't *just* any one thing, and that there is a danger in the limiting we do when we say we can't do something because we aren't something. Oh, I'm not an artist, one says, shaking one's hand and one's head and taking a step backwards. Oh, I don't sing. Always that same wave of the hand, the same step backward.

You do it by doing it, I've been telling them lately. You do it by doing it, I've been telling myself lately.

Some kids already knew a dance I was teaching the other day, so I had those students demonstrate with me - more feet for the other students to watch, plus the room was too small for one circle anyway, so it worked out best to pull out some of the kids. "Watch how they do this thing," I told the others. "Try it like that."
"But they're dancers," objected some of the others.
"So are you," I responded.

But they didn't believe me. You do it by doing it, I've been saying.

I see them being afraid to try things they aren't already good at. How are you supposed to become good at it if you don't try? I ask. The more you do it, the better you'll be at it. You know how you become a fast reader? By reading. You know how you become a good runner? By running. As another local dance teacher would say, to great comic effect: Practice makes...
better.

How can I, but I can't, but I'm not...
You do it by doing it, I've been telling them lately. You do it by doing it, I've been telling myself lately.

Lies, damned lies, and... you know

2010-03-05T21:48:00.000-08:00

Remember how this blog used to be about something besides running? Ahh, the good old days. Perhaps after I run the L.A. Marathon on March 21, I'll get back to the old navel-gazing and poetic-waxing and snarkiness-posting. But for now...

So, I ran my race in 4 hours, 50 minutes, and 59 seconds.
The fastest man finished in 2:22:31 and the fastest woman in 2:46:06.

There were 3515 finishers (of the FULL marathon; another 9311 finished the half!): 1959 of them male and 1556 female. Overall, I came in 2260th place and 840th among the women. Humbling. However, the overall average time was 4:35:52 so I was only a little behind that, and even better, the average female time was 4:51:36 - HOORAY, I AM ALMOST PERFECTLY AVERAGE!! (Believe that and it's clear we've never actually met.)
The longest time was 7:29:50. I kicked that chick's ASS :)

I was bib number 16176, which I liked because it was the start of a Boston phone number: 1-617-...
Total miles I ran in training prior to the marathon (since 10/31/09): 153

You can actually watch video of me finishing!! Click here and enter bib number 16176. I'm the first one across in the "finish" video, and I'm 3rd or 4th, against the far side fence, in the "before finish" video!!

Here are my mile splits (I know you were DYING for this info!!)
Mile / Time
1. 10.25 (so crowded!)
2. 9.35 (fastest mile - I was so hyper at this point I was forcing myself to walk my walk intervals and not just run through them...)
3. 10.08 (5K time: 31:08)
4. 10.05
5. 10.35
6. 10.02 (10K time: 1:02:50)
7. 10.04
8. 10.35
9. 10.18
10. 10.27
11. 10.58
12. 10.45
13. 11.11 (Half-marathon time: 2:16:17)
14. 11.27
15. 11.23
16. 11.32
17. 11.36
18. 11.47
19. 11.23
20. 11.55
21. 11.39
22. 12.18 (Slowest mile)
23. 12.00
24. 12.05
25. 12.15
26. 12.10
Average: 11.06

Next up: my five-hour iPod playlist! I listened to music the whole time I ran and it was wooooonderful!!

All the stats are from this website here.

Rejoice, we conquer.

2010-03-04T21:32:00.000-08:00

Well, I did it! I ran 26.2 miles, and I raised $4,985.17 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. It's been quite an experience.

Running this marathon really was an amazing experience. Before I started training in November, I think I had never run more than four miles at a time. I remember being scared of the week we were supposed to do five miles. I remember being terrified of the jump to eight miles. Then double digits!! Yet a couple of weeks ago, I literally said the phrase "only ten miles". ONLY! This has been a huge lesson for me in how possible the seemingly-impossible can be, and how much a like-minded community and the support from the people in my life can make all the difference in the world. My goal was to finish the marathon in under five hours, and I did it in 4:50. It was a gorgeous day in New Orleans, and I felt totally prepared and ready. Many of the miles flew by, and it didn't get hard until well past the halfway mark. When I started to get very tired and things began to hurt, I thought of all of the people that donated and it was like this huge crowd of (nearly 100!) people was behind me pushing me on. I finished strong and very, very happy.

Here are a couple of favorite moments from the 5 hours on my feet:

I ran past a woman who was saying to her friend, "Boxers can be pretty rambunctious too." A mile or two later, I realized she was referring to the dog, not the undershort.

The morning of the race, we had to meet in the lobby of the hotel at 4am. My mom and I step into the elevator to an overwhelming odor of athlete... pre-exercise athlete, not post (thank god).
"Well, good morning!" says Mom.
"That Vicks VapoRub will always wake you up!" says someone squeezed in the back.
"Oh! says a woman by the door. "I was wondering why it was getting mintier and mintier in here!"

I loved all the signs and posters people were holding or had posted along the course. Some were hilarious. My favorite was the one I passed at about mile 8: "You can stop running now; the Kenyans have already won!"

If you or anyone you know wanted to donate but never got around to it, there's still time to donate here. In fact, if I raise a little bit more money, I get some good swag :)

And now my craziest news: now that I've done this ridiculous thing, I'm going to do it again!! I'm running the L.A. Marathon in less than 3 weeks. If you want to come out and cheer for me on 3/21, I'd be deliiiiiiiighted! Let me know and I'll give you the heads up on what to look for so you can spot me and how to track my progress!

"Pheidippides" Robert Browning, 1879

2010-02-28T12:32:00.000-08:00

So, when Persia was dust, all cried, "To Acropolis!

Run, Pheidippides, one race more! the meed is thy due!

Athens is saved, thank Pan, go shout!" He flung down his shield

Ran like fire once more: and the space 'twixt the fennel-field

And Athens was stubble again, a field which a fire runs through,

Till in he broke: "Rejoice, we conquer!" Like wine through clay,

Joy in his blood bursting his heart, - the bliss!

4 hours, 50 minutes

_Decline and Fall_ , Evelyn Waugh, 1928

2010-02-27T19:56:00.000-08:00

"Frankly," said the Doctor, "I am at a loss to understand my own emotions. I can think of no entertainment that fills me with greater detestation than a display of competitive athletics, none--except possibly folk dancing."

9 hours

_The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner_ Alan Sillitoe, 1959

2010-02-26T22:00:00.000-08:00

"Off like the wind along the cobbled footpath and rutted lane, smoother than the flat grass track on the field and better for thinking because it's not too smooth, and I was in my element that afternoon knowing that nobody could beat me at running but intending to beat myself before the day was over."

31 hours

What's up? A minor rant in the key of tired.

2010-02-10T22:06:00.000-08:00

This is maybe the busiest week of my life. I haven't had a single day off in weeks and weeks, and my first one will be this Saturday, when I will leave the Jewish Educators' Conference I'm attending to run 20 miles and then go back to the conference. It'll be another full week before I get another "slow" day. This week, in addition to my multiple other jobs and appointments, I'm basically running 5 Israeli dance sessions in 8 days.

I'd love to write a real post, but I'm exhausted. In the meantime, thank you so much if you have donated to my fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and if you haven't donated yet but are still considering it, please donate to me on my friend Brandon's page. Please. You get double the appreciation!

Thank you.

DFW, JDS. RIP. l,l,l, RDB

2010-02-05T17:59:00.001-08:00

Right before J D Salinger died, I tweeted about still mourning the loss of David Foster Wallace. With JDS, though, the probability of reading more stuff he wrote *increases* with his death, while with DFW it's the other way 'round. Still, the silence is deafening.

And I just re-read Franny and Zooey, on the occasion of recommending it to a friend, and finally read both The Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way.

And just happened across my own posting of the Spot-the-Salinger game we used to play. Read it.

Wishlist Blast from the Past

2010-01-10T22:40:00.000-08:00

So I have this wishlist on amazon.com, right? And even though hardly anyone ever uses it to buy me something, it's a great list to remind myself of things I want (I can look at it when I'm browsing in a used bookstore, for example). I try to keep it updated, so every once in a while I'll look through it and remove a few books that I have acquired since adding them to the list or, more rarely but still sometimes, I'll remove something I no longer want.

Just now, I removed a VHS tape I had on there. I mean, I still wouldn't mind owning a copy of Casablanca, but on VHS??!! Ha!! I apparently added that to the list in 1999. Maybe I should have left it on there for posterity.

Ah, the good ole days. And ten years - see what a dedicated Amazon user I am?!

The Irresistible Henry House

2010-01-07T23:54:00.000-08:00

I sometimes get advance copies of books to review, through the Early Reviewers program over at LibraryThing.

The books I've received this way were all pretty good and pretty much my style, but the one I read most recently was way beyond that - it was terrific. The Irresistible Henry House, by Lisa Grunwald and scheduled to be published in March, is a fantastic story that would appear to be totally whimsical and yet is based on a true practice: Henry is a "practice baby" supplied to a college home economics class by a local orphanage and raised by seven or so different "mothers" who are students in the course. As it turns out, the story is indeed irresistible - Henry is compelling, his life story is fascinating, and the historical background of the 1940s-1970s in which the book takes place is brightly illuminated. Many small differences between daily life then and now added a fascinating sepia-tint to the landscape of the story, and the novelty of now-common icons of popular culture (some new thing Disney is working on down in Florida? some movie that new band the Beatles are making?) brought the era to life in a wonderful way, especially to someone who didn't live through it. (And I'm pretty sure anyone who did live through it will love the nostalgia of this recent history also.)

I recommend it.

JogBlog 4... and FOURTEEEEEEEEN

2010-01-02T17:21:00.000-08:00

Well, I ran 12 miles a couple of weeks ago, and it was brutal. I mean, it felt fantastic to have done TWELVE MILES, but it was on a very hilly course (by design) and it was haaaaard. Took us 2 hours and 15 minutes.

And then I didn't do squat, running-wise, for nearly two weeks.
On Thursday I did four miles on my own, around my neighborhood. Here's the playlist:
NPR: 10-17-2009 Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

And then this morning, I ran...
wait for it...

FOURTEEN MILES!!! Yeah, baby, 14. For cancer research. 2 hours 25 minutes!!! Oh, that's more than a half-marathon? No sweat!

(Ok, lots of sweat. It was HOT today! I love L.A. I definitely needed that dose of Vitamin D or whatever Vitamin Sunlight is.)

Aaaaaaaand I forgot my knee brace at home, so I ran without it, and it didn't hurt at all! Until I stopped running. Then I was in screaming pain. Literally. Ouch.

But it's ok now. Oh, I have a show tomorrow? I'm sure I'll be able to walk by then :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A Life in Books

2009-12-31T20:17:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading the fantastic Marathon Man by William Goldman (no relation) (that I know of), and this being the last day of the year, quickly wrote it down on my list of books-read-in-2009. And this being that sort of a time, I counted how many books I read this year and the number seems to be 38, which is a lot lower than I would have guessed; I thought I read about 50 books a year, but it appears that over the 8 years I have been keeping track (which is to say, the 8 years since I was bored at work and decided to learn some html to pass the time and keep the list online), my average is 42 per year. And this being that sort of end-of-decade looking-back tallying-up kind of day, (and also because I should be getting ready to go to a New Years party but we all know how terrible at going to parties I am so - hey, look, I better wash those dishes before I leave!) I went back and made you this little neat summary of the highlights of the books I've read since I started keeping online-nerdy-html track.

IMPORTANT NOTE: CLICK ON ANY OF THESE LINKS AND YOU WILL GET TO AMAZON.COM AND THEN EVEN IF YOU GO BUY SOME OTHER BOOK, EVEN *NOT THE ONE I'VE LINKED TO*, I WILL GET A SMALL MONETARY KICK-BACK FROM YOUR PURCHASE. Which is to say: PLEASE CLICK THROUGH! I haven't gotten a referral-bonus in ages :)

2009	38 books read	This was the year I read all four of the Twilight series books. Not sure if I even get credit for the good stuff, considering. (WHY DID IT END? GIVE ME MORE!) (Just kidding.) (Sorta.) (And I'm not alone, even at my age: this article claims to get it.)
2008	44 books read	I loved Eat, Pray, Love so just shut up. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and The Pillars of the Earth.
2007	55 books read	LOTS of great stuff, including A Tale of Two Cities, The Moon and Sixpence, The Corrections, and The History of Love.
2006	39 books read	notably The Princess Bride, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Frankenstein, and The Satanic Verses
2005	40 books read	A year of beautiful books: Truth & Beauty and The Time Traveler's Wife, and Everything is Illuminated
2004	38 books read	Only War and Peace. Only not really only. Also Unintended Consequences and Madame Bovary, for two.
2003	40 books read	The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and this was the year I really read the Bible, one parsha every Friday night.
2002	43 books read	Anna Karenina! and The Brothers Karamazov! and Of Mice and Men! AND Infinite Jest. What a year.

Happy New Year.

JogBlog2 (and 3, let's say)

2009-12-06T22:19:00.000-08:00

I couldn't go to my mid-week team run on Wednesday, so I ran on my own on Thursday, around my neighborhood. In keeping with RDB's patented method of not-boring-your-socks-off, here's the playlist. I did not choose this in advance; apparently my iPod wanted me to have a very mellow chick-singer run:

Somedays / 3:22 / Regina Spektor
Crucify / 4:59 / Tori Amos
Silent All These Years / 4:12/ Tori Amos
Happy Phantom / 3:17 / Tori Amos
Me And A Gun / 3:45 / Tori Amos
Work Your Way Out / 3:41 / Ani DiFranco
Tom's Diner / 3:47 / DNA feat. Suzanne Vega
Days Go By / 7:08 / Dirty Vegas
Bittersweet / 6:13 / Big Head Todd and The Monsters
Blues Pt2 - crazy extendo-version / 11:46 / Blood Sweat & Tears
(but I only got about halfway through that song.) I ran about 4.5 miles in about 49 minutes. My mom was visiting from Florida this week, so we went out together, I to run and she to walk. I was criss-crossing my neighborhood and she was walking up a street, so there were a few minutes in the middle there where we met up and stopped to chat, so I wasn't exactly worrying about my pace. It was a lovely morning.

AND THEN WHAT DID I DO YESTERDAY? WHAT DID I DO FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE?

I. Ran. 10. Miles.

TEN MILES.

in 95 minutes. Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Have you contributed to my fundraiser yet? Like, the whole reason I'm doing this? Thank you so much to those of you who have!!!!

The solution to your holiday gift-giving quandaries

2009-12-02T01:04:00.000-08:00

This post was going to be about the Dizzy Feet gala, the most amazing dance show ever, which show I saw at the Kodak Theatre on Sunday afternoon (in basically the best seats in the house), but instead it's going to be about a scarf.

No really.

Guys, check this out:

And yeah it's cool, and yeah the fashion buzz catalog-copy accompanying the pictures on the website is all very designer/fashion/taking-itself-seriously stuff, but really what I love so very much about the whole thing is this comment by some random guy:

'We can watch movies on a device the size of a credit card. Why did it take us so long to come up with “pockets scarf?”'

Nice. Reminds me of how I used to point out that we put a man on the moon years before we could figure out how to make Pong.

(That was an Atari game, young'uns. An Atari game THAT I OWNED AND USED TO PLAY IN THE BASEMENT. Ah, the good old days.)

The Santa Monica Gobble Wobble

2009-11-28T19:22:00.000-08:00

I did it! I ran a race! I ran the 10K in the Santa Monica Gobble Wobble and it was fantastic!

I said before it began that if I finished in under 65 minutes, I'd be happy. In the end, my official time was 59:59!! (The top three female times were 37:43, 39:28, and 42:38). The first two miles were KILLER and I thought I might not finish at all; turns out they were a slow and steady incline. Ouch. Miles 3 and 4 were a breeze and as I was getting tired at the end of mile 5, some guy ran up behind me and kept pace with me all the way to the finish line, so I didn't slow or stop when I would have on my own. Thanks, bib #172, for bringing me in!!

An ex-boyfriend (whose father is one of the people in whose memory and honor I'm doing my marathon as a fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society) used to say that EVERY name could be found by Googling on SOME page SOME where... if only a race result page. At the very least, there's a race result page. I have officially come of age, I officially exist, my name is officially listed on my very own race result page.

Waking up to run Saturday morning was especially hard, what with having gone to a party at a friend's the night before and not having gotten a lot of sleep and having been too nervous to sleep well, but I had extra inspiration. The father of another ex-boyfriend passed away from leukemia on Friday night. Please consider making a donation to LLS.

LOOK! I added a widget for that too!! ---------------->>>>

"I believe that the Good Lord gave us a finite number of heartbeats and I'm damned if I'm going to use up mine running up and down a street."

2009-11-23T00:20:00.000-08:00

Do we really believe that Neil Armstrong said that?

I haven't actually been running up and down a *street*; I've mostly been training in the park. Yesterday, that was to the tune of EIGHT MILES, which is by far the farthest I've ever run. It was awesome, and I had a show afterward and I didn't even fall down once.

Now we know this running thing has gotten really crazy: next Saturday, instead of training with the Team, I'm going to run in a RACE! My first ever and I have no idea what it's going to be like, but everyone says it's a really good idea to experience that organized-race thing before the actual marathon, the crowds and the starting gun and the whole different atmosphere, so I'm doing it. I still don't care about *racing* per se, in terms of being faster than anyone else (as long as I'm not last) but I think it'll be fun. I'll be running in the Santa Monica Gobble Wobble and I would LOVE it if you want to come cheer me on!!

Jesus, I've been blogging a lot about running lately, huh? I swear, there are other things going on in my life... like... for example... hey, look over there!

Walking is so... pedestrian.

2009-11-20T01:11:00.000-08:00

In a funny coincidence, the two tabs of my browser are currently open to these two pages:

On the left:

The Great LA Walk, a 13+ mile stroll around town (that I WISH I could do, but I'm busy running on Saturday!)

and on the right:

an article entitled You Walk Wrong from New York Magazine.

RunBlog1

2009-11-19T19:53:00.000-08:00

Look, I added a widget! ------------------------->

Somewhere over there on the right is a new box that says "Running:" and it's a little script that keeps track of how far I've run this week/month/year and I love it! Mike has one on his Marathon Blog and I'm very excited to be just like him :)

So I still think my plan to blog my run by way of iTunes playlist is brilliant, but I forgot the part where I'm not allowed to use an iPod during official training runs with the group, and most of my runs are with the group (I'm not so self-motivated, much to my chagrin). So that's not going to work out so well.

But here's the quick version of my last two runs: Saturdays are always the official Biggest Run I've Ever Done Ever days, with the team. Last week we ran FIVE miles and I was very proud of myself for doing that. Wednesdays we have a less-official mid-week group run, and even though I tried to go to that last week even though it was canceled and embarrassed myself truly, I went back this week anyway. And it turned out to be a 40-minute run, which still sounds like a whole f'n lot to me, and it was cold out, and I still don't really know anybody, and I didn't have an interval watch yet, and I immediately lost track of the people who I was going to run with who *did* have an interval watch and...
and I ended up having an AWESOME run because the only people who were going at the initial pace I was comfortable with were the two men, and somehow the three of us ended up doing the whole thing together and it was GREAT because I could keep up with them and we ran for more than 20 minutes before I needed a walking break and we did something like 4.5ish miles in something like 40 minutes and YAY ME!! I had no idea I could do that... but being distracted by conversation and having the challenge of keeping up with the boys made it just fabulous for me and it kind of flew by. AND it was my first day wearing my new sneakers (Asics) that I got THAT DAY at Road Runner Sports after doing their Shoe Dog analyzer thing which of course I loved also.

So that's my breathless update for today, except to also tell you this:
I JUST REACHED 10% OF MY FUNDRAISING REQUIREMENT FOR THE MARATHON!!
which is both super-duper exciting and kind of scary, because of the glass-is-90%-empty perspective that likes to visit me sometimes. SUPPORT ME PLEASE!

Okloveyoubye.

Back to Life?

2009-11-18T00:12:00.000-08:00

I have been very stressed out and very busy with a handful of things the last couple of weeks, and I think that as of today, all the pressures are either relaxed or completely dealt with... meaning maybe I can relax again too. Yay.

And I did two loads of laundry today and ran the dishwasher AND took out the trash. Banner day, no?

I still have LOTS going on, but now maybe I can settle down and focus on some of the things I need to do, instead of being overwhelmed by *all* of them. That's a very good thing.

Upcoming: My first mid-week organized run and then an unprecedented (in my whole life) EIGHT mile run on Saturday morning, ohmigod. And a show that evening in Laguna Hills. Good times ahead. By which I mean: sore calves ahead...

If security has already been breached...

2009-11-12T01:53:00.002-08:00

then you may as well read the article about me in the first-ever Alonim newsletter!!

[...even if, let's be honest, there are a few mistakes. I am overall very happy with the profile and totally thrilled that I was chosen to be profiled. Seriously. But could I really not mention the irony of their misspelling "Brandeis", of all words? And I did send them a handful of dance-related and flattering photos of myself for this, and instead they chose a random one from facebook, cropped out a friend, and used the resulting less-flattering less-professional picture you see there. A few mistakes here and there, but still, damn cool, no?]

RunBlog0

2009-11-11T21:04:00.000-08:00

So, I've always been interested in running a marathon (and by "always" I mean since summer of 2002 when I first read The Philosopher's Diet and then The Long Run Solution) and I've spent a lot of years thinking about doing it and saying that I will *someday* run a marathon... just not today. And during that time I've read some very inspirational and wonderful books on running and it's probably the case that until now, I've spent more cumulative time reading about running than I have actually running. And when I meet someone who tells me they have run a marathon, I'm always very interested and I think I'd be very interested in reading their stories about the experience, and it does seem that almost everyone who runs a marathon keeps a blog about it and posts endless narratives with the details of mileage and injury and hunger and hydration levels and... I find them just mind-numbingly boring, I'm truly sorry to say. This is something I *think* I want to read about, but apparently I don't actually.

So.

So here we are, at the moment in my life in which I am not just talking about running or reading about running but ACTUALLY running. And actually training for my big MARATHON... and I have a BLOG... and I do NOT want to bore you to tears with the details.

So we're going to do this instead. My runs with Team In Training are necessarily iPod-free, so I'll just say this: First Saturday = 3 miles. Second Saturday = 4 miles. Tonight, however, was my first training run sans-team, meaning it was con-iPod and instead of giving you the details of my mental state at each moment, I'm gonna tell you what songs came on while I ran:

Wednesday 11/11/09

Deror Yik'ra / 3:40 / ESTA
If I Had $1000000 / 9:19 / Barenaked Ladies
The Old Apartment / 3:22 / Barenaked Ladies
It Feels So Good / 3:49 / Sonique
We Built This City / 4:49 / Starship
Mad About You-Ian / 3:53 / Sting
An Englishman In New York / 4:27 / Sting
Long Way Down / 4:00 / Michael Penn - but I only got halfway through it...

I ran about 2.8 miles (according to the very cool runningmap.com) in a very leisurely fashion, walking sometimes, stopping to get a schedule of the dance classes at a studio I passed, etc. According to the above playlist, I was out there for about 35 minutes, which means it was slooooooow going, (which it always is when I'm alone, yet a non-trying-hard timed mile last Saturday took me about 9:45) but it wasn't meant to be fast - it was just meant to BE.

So that's my plan, for the runs I do on my own - I'm gonna give you the playlist. Fun? Fun.

HAVE I MENTIONED YET THAT THIS WHOLE THING IS A FUNDRAISER FOR THE LEUKEMIA AND LYMPHOMA SOCIETY AND I CAN'T EVEN GO ON THE RUN IF I DON'T RAISE AT LEAST $3,800, WHICH I JUST REALIZED IS $145 PER MILE?? HERE I GO OFFICIALLY RUINING MY SUPER TOP SECRET REAL IDENTITY, ALL FOR THE CAUSE: HERE IS THE LINK TO MY FUNDRAISING PAGE. NOW YOU CAN DONATE AND SUPPORT ME YAAAAAAYYYYYYY FOOOORRRRRRRR YOOOOOUUUUU! thank you so much. More on the Leukemia/fundraising aspect of this to come.

RDB's week of culcha

2009-11-09T00:30:00.000-08:00

So, last Sunday I went to see John Irving in conversation with David Ulin at The Writer's Guild Theatre in Beverly Hills, a conversation presented by Writers Bloc. John Irving has written 13 novels; I have read 12 of them and now own the new one, signed by the man himself last Sunday.

[On Wednesday night I had drinks at the Penthouse Bar at the Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica, but that's a whole different kind of culture. The kind where, if it's too hot for you in front of the fire, you don't relocate to a cooler spot, you ask the waitress to open the roof for you a little bit more. Ummm, a little less. How about... there. Perfect. Thanks. I'll have a martini, please.]

Thursday night I went to see Orhan Pamuk, Nobel-prize winning Turkish novelist, in conversation with Reza Aslan, presented by ALOUD. I won tickets to see this by being the correct (first) caller when it was giveaway time on KPCC. (Have I mentioned that I win things?) I read Pamuk's book My Name Is Red when I was in Turkey in 2003.

Friday night I went to see Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz, taped in Pasadena. It was an awesome show with George Takei (Sulu from the original Star Trek!) as a guest contestant, and it marked the third time I've gone to SEE a RADIO show be RECORDED. Is that weird?... or just really really dorky?

And indeed, Saturday morning I made it to the park at 7am for my second week of TRAINING TO RUN A MARATHON. Yay me. Just wanted to keep you all updated on my comings-and-goings. I know that I've just said a lot for saying nothing, but I had to do this first or I'll never be able to get out the interesting parts, like the contrast between what Irving talked about and what Pamuk talked about, or about how differently they spoke and how interesting it was to see them the same week.

[Ok, for completeness: Saturday night dinner at Nobu in Malibu. Yeee-ha!]

[Mmm, spent a couple hours in conversation on Sunday at the Literati Cafe on Wilshire on Sunday. Was recognized by someone from BCI... shit like that usually only happens in the Valley, not the City!]

I'm going to run a marathon.

2009-11-06T02:05:00.000-08:00

No, really. I am so excited. Details to come, and of course the link to where you can donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, which is who is training me to run said marathon.

I. AM. SO. EXCITED.

(In the middle of an awesome week of exciting things and I promise to tell you all about them. I just had to put this out there so that woe-is-me post wasn't on top and instead the here's-what-i'm-gonna-do-about-it post was!)

Goodnight.

I know I'm not exactly unique in this regard but...

2009-10-28T00:13:00.000-07:00

I'd really like to lose a little bit of weight. And get really buff and have an amazing body. You know, I'd just really really like that.

I also really really like ice cream. And sleeping.

But you know, since I've been blogging about stuff I want lately and it's been showing up at my door shortly thereafter, I figured why stop at book and bag? I also really really want a personal trainer and/or nutritionist who can change my life. Or, at least, my body. Anyone want to re-make me? I promise to blog about it every step of the way, or to NOT blog about it, if you prefer, in exchange. Thanks!

(Yes, yes, yes, if we are telling the universe What We Want, we can't fail to mention BIGGEST HUGEST WANT NUMBER ONE, OR ZERO IF YOU INSIST: the love of my life. It's time, I'm ready, bring it on. Happy now? Thank you, universe.)

I have the best friends ever.

2009-10-24T00:19:00.000-07:00

Debbie and Alexis, you rock my world. Seriously. Wow. Thank you.

This is just as cool in person (person?) as it looks online. Freaking awesome. Beyond awesome.

I love you.

The Fun Way

2009-10-08T22:21:00.000-07:00

So, on the drive home from work today I listened to this long dry debate about "the Safeway plan" in which employees are "incentivized" to make healthy choices by basing their health insurance premiums on their Body Mass Indexes. Blah blah boring.

And then I saw this, by way of the kottke.org twitter feed:

THIS is how to incentivize people to exercise and make healthy choices. Make. Them. Fun.

OMG TALK ABOUT THINGS I MUST HAVE:

2009-10-08T02:37:00.000-07:00

Guys, I know that this is a huge secret because I never say it on here, but my name is Erica. Ok? So for the one reader for whom my *real identity* was still a big secret, well, the secret's out. As though that one reader exists. Anyway, here's why RDB comes out from undercover:

THERE'S A SHOW IN CANADA CALLED "BEING ERICA". Why didn't anyone tell me? AND CHECK THIS OUT:

I must have it. More "Erica" merchandise at the show's website. Oh man, I want those undies... AND HOW PERFECT IS THAT BAG??????

You should really thank me...

2009-10-06T11:57:00.000-07:00

... because I just wrote one of my most navel-gazing saying-nothing long-winded-no-content-minutia-of-my-life posts ever. And didn't "publish". Instead you get this:

Enjoyed "free museum day" in Los Angeles this weekend: went to Santa Monica Museum of Art first. Neonspecs and I had a great time with the interactive/you-get-to-take-stuff-home bits of the exhibit pictured at right[0]. Then we stopped in at the Paley Center for Media, formerly The Museum of Television & Radio, and spent a good amount of time finding "Nina"s in the Hirschfelds and marveling at the bad floor design... but I called the travertine and Laura called the architect (Richard Meier). We're such good Angelinos.

Third stop was a frustrated attempt to go to a place that claimed to be open on the phone but wasn't, so we were annoyed at them, but then they gave us free cool calendars to make up for it, so then we forgave them.
Third museum-we-actually-got-into was the Japanese American National Museum, the one I was only interested in going to because of its proximity to red-bean-buns (an pan?), which I looooooove. This museum really surprised me; we spent time in the crazy Ed Hardy-like "Glorious Excess" exhibition by Mike Shinoda (of Linkin Park), and the Japanese kokeshi folk toy exhibit, *and* the painful and moving "Common Ground" exhibit of Japanese-American history including much more detailed and intimate information and photographs from the concentration camps and barracks of Japanese internment than I'd ever seen before, not having grown up on the West Coast. And after all of it, I left with a new resolve to do something beautiful with all those goony birds (paper cranes) my friend Ian made me while he was living in Israel, after I taught him how to make them... that's a story for another time.
Thank you, Museums Free-For-All and Laura, my personal curator of cultural Los Angeles.

[0]Hello, blogspot? In "Preview", the picture appears to the right of the text, hence the text is what the text is. But when I publish, it's above and center! Nu?

I fought the law; revisited

2009-10-05T11:56:00.000-07:00

So, remember when I went to court and my case was dismissed and it took 15 minutes and I didn't have to pay the exorbitant $265 just for making a U-turn?

Well, I just got my credit card bill and there was a charge on it for $265 and the "merchant name" was COURTS. Arrrgh. But I have this paper here in my hand that says "Cash bail exonerated", nu? Arrrgh.

Anyway, I called the court and they are sending a credit to my credit card. They say. It honestly was very easy and friendly, but man did I get a scare from that bill, after all the ogida finally over with! Hopefully the credit comes through...

Just thought I'd keep you posted :)

My money's on Alexis, if I had to put down money.

2009-09-30T01:51:00.000-07:00

THANK YOU!!! I posted that I wanted the xkcd book and five minutes later, it showed up at my door. You're wonderful... Alexis.

Or jjd? Or Debbie?

It didn't say who sent it so I can't say a proper thank you! Was it you?

Thank you! I love you! I appreciate you! Whichever one of you... NO MORE GUESSING TELL ME NOW.

At least it doesn't say "Why I Climb Mountains"

2009-09-28T12:57:00.000-07:00

Everyone else is doing it, so why can't we? I mean, me.

Click to embiggen.

Funny how the results of my actual name are a lot more "read dance bliss"-ish (at least, "books music social") than my blog name... although the blog name is skewed by all the meta-blog stuff (the label "online" comes from all the zillions of times this very page includes the word "links" and "post", for example). Cool anyway.

A Short List of Things that Are that I wish Were Not

2009-09-27T23:25:00.001-07:00

0. My DVD player completely sucks ass.

1. My back really hurts again. (Don't tell me to take ibuprofen; a doctor already did. I'm on 800mg three times a day. That's more in a week than I've taken in THE REST OF MY LIFE PUT TOGETHER.)

2. I am VERY quickly gaining back the small-but-hugely-appreciated amount of weight I lost this past year. (And I am HUNGRY.)

3. I stopped blogging for long enough to lose all but my 3 most tenacious readers. (But thanks to you three! I appreciate you!).

More Shows I Want To See:

2009-09-21T15:04:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, 9/23 Crosby Stills Nash @ Greek Theatre
Wednesday, 9/30 Pearl Jam @ Gibson Amphitheatre w/ Ben Harper and Relentless 7
Wednesday, 10/28 Regina Spektor @ Greek Theatre
Friday, 11/13 Loudon Wainwright III @ Royce Hall - UCLA

Thank you, ShowList LA.

I'm not over this joke yet.

2009-09-20T17:26:00.001-07:00

KNOCK KNOCK. who's there? INTERRUPTING KANYE. interrupting kanye wh- YO, I'M REALLY HAPPY FOR YOU, I'MMA LET YOU FINISH, BUT THE CHICKEN JOKE IS ONE OF THE GREATEST JOKES OF ALL TIME.

Thank you, posiduck.

Just in time for 5770

2009-09-20T17:26:00.000-07:00

Al Gore... E

2009-09-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

Anybody want to go see Al Gore with me in November? It's $40, but that includes a signed copy of the book. Come on....

Ok, NOW I'm freaked out.

2009-09-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

So, approximately THREE YEARS AGO I got rear-ended on the highway (that's "freeway" for you Angelinos), and I got the guy's info and I called him a million times and he stopped talking to me so I just called my car insurance and they called his insurance and eventually I got a check in the mail for the repair to my car.

I had never met the guy who hit me before and I haven't talked to him since. We have no friends or community in common that I know of, and I don't remember even mentioning his name to anyone I know, because why would I? He's a random guy who rear-ended me on the highway.

FACEBOOK JUST SUGGESTED WE BECOME FRIENDS. WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Mary Travers has died.

2009-09-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

ERIKA WITH THE WINDY YELLOW HAIR
Travers/Holdridge-
Cherry Lane Music Publishing Co., Inc. -ASCAP.

(spoken)
Erika with the windy yellow hair
Dancing through the day or moping by the stair
My joy to know my Erika with the windy yellow hair

Yesterday I met her running home from school
Her face was tear stained, she didn't know I knew
But I do, I do

Today she had a song to sing and a poem she knew
And with a kiss and a hug she dashed away, she had things to do
I do too, I do too

Lithesome child, I turn with care
When viewing you on step or stair
All my hope and love for you,
My Erika of the windy yellow hair

I WANT THIS. NOW WHILE I CAN STILL HAVE A SIGNED ONE.

2009-09-16T00:10:00.000-07:00

The first xkcd book is out and it's called Volume 0. And if you get me one RIGHT FREAKING NOW, it'll be a signed copy. You know I have a special shelf(s) in my bookcases for signed copies, right??

I fought the law and... it was a tie.

2009-09-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

So, some time back in July (the 3rd, actually), I was on some street (Tapo Canyon) and I got to a light, and I made a U-turn. And then I got pulled over and got a citation for making said U-turn at said light, at which U-turns are apparently illegal.

Ok, listen, policedude, I cried. You're supposed to let me off with a verbal warning when I cry, DON'T YOU KNOW HOW THIS WORKS??

Ok, anyway. So I got the damn citation, and then I got the details in the mail about what to do: either appear in court a few weeks later or pay the fine, a measly $260 (!!!!) and either go to traffic school or get a point on my license.

TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY DOLLARS FOR MAKING A U-TURN? IT DIDN'T COME WITH CHAMPAGNE AND A MASSAGE, DAMMIT, IT WAS A U-TURN.

Anyway, I go to court and I plead Not Guilty (even though I was) and get scheduled for a trial, a month later (today). Of course, now that camp is over it is no longer even a little bit convenient to go to court in Simi Freakin Valley, but whatever. So during the past few weeks I start trying to figure out what to do because I'm asking around and it seems like California doesn't work like New York where even if the police officer shows, you still get your fine or violation reduced, just for showing up. Here, no one gets off, apparently, unless the cop doesn't come, and the cop always comes. And California neeeeeeeeeeds cash, nu?

[I'd like to digress here and tell a story I just heard from a cow-orker who went to traffic court last week (and had to pay $745 for HIS citation (speeding) which fine made MY fine seem like chump change), but this post is already getting too long, isn't it? Maybe tomorrow.]

So apparently showing up doesn't get you anywhere if HE also shows up, and anyway I can't possibly claim to be not guilty because for sure I made that U-turn and it was broad daylight, ya-dah ya-dah. My vague plan was to say something to the effect of "I've learned my lesson, I am hyper-vigilant about traffic signs now, please don't make me pay all that money," but I was starting to feel dumber and dumber about that the more I heard about how it works in CA. AND then it became clear that today was also going to be an absolutely terrible horrible no good very bad day on account of my taking to the airport someone whom I'll likely never see again and if I could see through the tears, I'd keep typing, but gimme a minute, ok?

Ok so last week I decided the angst about the trial and the timing of the airport and going out to Simi and missing my Hebrew class and everything else was just not worth the $260 and I tried to pay the fine online but the website was totally broken and even though it found my case and I entered my credit card number and everything, it just said ERROR at the end and I had to assume it hadn't worked. Arrrgh. So I'm going to court.

So I go straight from LAX to court. The judge starts by taking attendance. The defendant says "here" if he or she is (many were not, oddly) and then the officer says "here" if he or she is. Everyone in the room holds their breath when their officer's name is called, hoping for a no-show and therefore automatic dismissal of the case. I'm told this very rarely happens, but for some reason today it happened quite a bit... lots of sighs of relief as the judge went down the list, and of course plenty of grumblings when the officers that were in fact present responded as such. So then the judge calls my name and I say "Here" and the judge calls my officer's name and he says "Here" and then he says he has a motion.

Oh?

We both get called up to the front of the room to stand at the microphones (DEFENDANT?? SCARY.) and here's where it gets really good:

The cop says that the clerk's office has lost my citation, he has no written notes from the incident and insufficient memory of the incident to proceed, so he was moving to dismiss.
THE COP WAS THERE AND **HE** MOVED TO DISMISS! It was awesome. I was out of there in 15 minutes with NO fine, NO points on my license, and NO traffic school. Awe.Some.

If today hadn't been the worst day ever, it would've been the best day ever.

And now for one of my favorite jokes, except maybe it won't come across so well in writing instead of in hearing, but we'll do what we can:

So I got pulled ovah the otha day by this cop, says I done something wrong. I said I didn't do nothing wrong, I did what God said to do! What God said to do, he asks me, what are you talking about? Well, see officer, it's like this: I'm driving down the street and I'm a little bit lost and I'm not sure what to do, so I prays to God and I asks, What do I do here, do I go straight? And God puts there a sign for me, it says, No, u turn!!

Good thing they never gave me a chance to speak in court, huh?

From the essay "Dehumanized" by Mark Slouka

2009-09-14T16:45:00.000-07:00

Despite the determinisms of the day, despite the code-breakers, the wetware specialists, the patient unwinders of the barbed wire of our being, this I feel is true: That we are more nurture than nature; that what we are taught, generally speaking, is what we become; that torturers are made slowly, not minted in the womb. As are those who resist them. I believe that what rules us is less the material world of goods and services than the immaterial one of whims, assumptions, delusions, and lies; that only by studying this world can we hope to shape how it shapes us; that only by attempting to understand what used to be called, in a less embarrassed age, “the human condition” can we hope to make our condition more human, not less.

Harper's Magazine, September 2009. Page 32

Recommend me this:

2009-09-05T23:56:00.001-07:00

I just bought a new computer, and I mostly have all the programs I need up and running on the new machine. The exceptions are as follows, and I want your advice. What do you use for:

Ripping DVDs? I used to use Handbrake - should I get that again, or something else?
HTML editing? I used to use CuteHTML - should I get that again, or something else?
Sound editing? I used to use CoolEdit - should I get that again, or something else?
Playing random format videos that Quicktime can't open? I used to use VLC - should I... you get the idea.

And what should I use for making DVDs, actually? What do you recommend?

Thaaaaaaanks.

(YES MORE SKYDIVING PICTURES ARE COMING. I SWEAR.)

A picture is worth a thousand words?

2009-08-07T10:59:00.000-07:00

Or at least, is indicative of a full minute-plus of non-stop screaming:
(click to embiggen)

So, this is me, outside of a plane at 12,000 feet, with my instructor Adi strapped to my back (Look Ma, no hands), screaming my brains out in free fall. This lasted for about a minute, and when we've reached, you know, 120mph DOWN, he pulled the cord and opened our parachute and that slow delicious descent lasted another 10 minutes or so.

I just might call these the best 11 minutes of my life so far. It was INCREDIBLE.

All day yesterday in my head I was likening skydiving to losing your virginity: you're back in the regular world and everyone is treating you the same and talking to you about mundane stuff, but you feel like they should be able to TELL, to SEE IT, that you're DIFFERENT, because of what you did yesterday, but they can't - you don't look different, you've just had this experience and you will never ever forget it.

I did this on my 24-hour break from camp, which is to say that I jumped out of a plane at approximately 3pm and by 8pm the same day I was back at work, running a dance session for 400 people and announcing when it was time for the little ones to meet their counselors and go to bed. Bizarre. 10 days left!

http://www.skydiveperris.com/ <---Highly recommended!

OMFG, revisited.

2009-08-01T15:55:00.000-07:00

Ok, so, it appears that

I AM GOING SKYDIVING ON WEDNESDAY.

omgomgomgomg.

Here's the big question: do I spring for the video and pictures? It's expensive, and I have to decide soon, not at the last minute. Arrrgh. The jump is very expensive to start with. And does anyone ever watch those videos? BUT it also comes with eleventyhundred stills also...

omg omg omg omg.

Have you ever been?

Overwhelm; Or, RDB bitches and moans about the blessings in her life.

2009-06-30T12:47:00.000-07:00

I want to put in "wood" flooring (that Pergo stuff or whatever) in my dining room/living room area.

I want to paint that area, as well as a wall or two in each of the two bedrooms.

I want to buy a hammock to put on my porch.

I want to buy a bedroom set (but one that matches my wardrobe units that I love).

I want to buy a couch (but it has to work with the as-yet-non-existent wood floor and the as-yet-non-existent color of the walls).

I want to buy a TV bench.
And a TV.
(And a Wii and Rock Band, let's be honest, but I can probably handle that part alone.)

I want to buy a dining room table.

What order to do these things in, and how and where and when to do them all, and how much money to spend on them, and what color/fabric/shape/size/texture/model/style to do it all in... these things are beyond me.

I am so overwhelmed. And it turns out, I'm not really a project girl. I have some friends who are uneasy without a big project in progress; as soon as they finish one big thing they are on to another. They'd love this. Me, I want it done instantly. The second I figure out what I want to do I wish it were already done. I want to enjoy the finished project, not the process, at least not in this case. I have other things to *do*.

I do have the money to do these things on a simple scale. I mean, I can do them, but some of the furniture is coming from Ikea and some of it from Urban Home, none of it from Moda Italia or H. D. Buttercup. And that's fine; when I really wish I had oodles of money is when I think about the getting-all-of-this-done part. I am going to be out of my house for the next two months - go now! do it! I want the money to pay someone to take care of all of it while I am away so I can come home and see it finished. I do not want to oversee it myself, I want someone else in charge.

That's the key, isn't it? I want someone else in charge.

PS This post is from slightly over two weeks ago but it was somehow sitting in drafts and didn't get published, I don't know why. I'm at camp; definitely not thinking about all the things that aren't getting done at my condo right now... but I have visited this one dining room table twice now... without ordering it... arrrgh.

Per. Fect.

2009-06-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

I have thought Lore Sjöberg was brilliant from way back in the day, so why should I be at all surprised to find this in my Google Reader?

Love it.

Indeed, I M.

2009-06-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

For unrelated and somewhat random reasons, I looked at the "Get Info" tab of my own AIM profile today. It says:

Status: Available
Online Since: 6/15/2009 1:13:18 PM
Member Since: 6/25/1999 11:36:28 AM
Capabilities: Buddy Icon, AIM Direct IM, Chat, Send File, ICQ UTF8

Which is to say, I've been IMing (at this name, which is equal to the whole time) for almost exactly ten years. Fascinating.

Ok, not really fascinating, since my 10-year college reunion was last weekend, and the 10-year birthday of my nose piercing is coming up (July 4!). It's not like I haven't already realized the momentousness of this season of my life, ten years ago, when I graduated, and moved into an amazing house in Cambridge with friends and boyfriend, and began my first full-time job. It was just one more funny little reminder. Happy Anniversary, momentousness.

More about the condo, of course: a positive, a negative, and a neutral.

2009-06-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

0. My apartment had a laundry room, downstairs, that consisted of two washers and two dryers. A total wash cost $2.00 in quarters. My condo has a laundry room, on the same floor as my unit, with SIX of each washers and dryers. It is bigger, brighter, and much cleaner… and a total wash costs $1.50. Sure, it would be nice to have the washer and dryer be free and in my own unit, and perhaps I will at some point, but this is already daaaamn nice. Yeah fifty cents cheaper! What a win.

1. Once, just once, I have driven all the way to the old apartment (cue BNL – honestly, I love that song) and halfway into the driveway before realizing I didn’t live there anymore.

2. Annoyance: my new place came with a very nice refrigerator, one that was much newer than the one I had in my apartment and which I bought on craigslist over four years ago (and which the Salvation Army kindly carted away for me last week). In the old freezer, I used the top shelf to keep a couple of trays of ice and a bowl for ice cubes, since I could never handle that whole take-a-few-cubes-out-of-the-tray-but-manage-to-keep-the-rest-of-the-ice-from-falling-out-all-over-the-place skill. The new one has a built-in ice maker/water dispenser thingy, so there is no top shelf; that space is taken up by the ice maker… which doesn’t appear to work. The water in the door works, so clearly some part of it is correctly connected to the plumbing and turned on, but the ice doesn’t work, and I don’t know why. I don’t even really know how to know if it’s the ice maker that’s broken or the hookup or a switch that’s not on or what, but I know eventually I’ll get someone who understands these things to tell me the answer and hopefully even to fix it. In the meantime, where you normally trade the space for automatic ice, I have no space AND no automatic ice. And that is very annoying, since I use my ice, like, every day. Oh, the extreme horrors of my insanely difficult life :)

Whatchou talkin about, Willis?

2009-06-12T23:59:00.000-07:00

Ohmigod do I love my condo. It terrifies me, and overwhelms me, and causes the occasionally nearly-crippling self-doubt (but what doesn’t, in my life?), but I LOVE MY CONDO. You know, I was looking at places on and off for about a year, and I had started with a much wider range of possibilities than I ended up with, in the sense that when I began, I didn’t really know what I was looking for. Sure, maybe a one-bedroom would work, I thought. Sure, maybe it made financial sense to look in Tarzana/Encino/Reseda/VanNuys/StudioCity/NorthHollywood and not just Sherman Oaks. Sure, maybe blahblahblah. I definitely knew I’d would *like* a two-bedroom in Sherman Oaks, but in April of 2008, that seemed pretty out of reach for me because the prices were just too high. But I continued looking in fits and bursts, prices continued to drop, and I narrowed down a few of the parameters: had to have at least two bedrooms and two bathrooms and space for two cars to park. Van Nuys addresses no longer acceptable. Farther west of the 405 than a couple of miles no longer acceptable, and farther north of Ventura Boulevard than a few blocks also no longer acceptable. I stopped looking for a while; I started looking again. Prices continued to drop. I stopped again and started again. I considered my friend’s proposal that I should be looking at small houses, not condominiums. I let my realtor know how much I really, really liked my current neighborhood, even though it was kind of expensive. And a year later, I ended up getting a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom nearly 1400 sq ft condo with a huge patio exactly one block from where my apartment was!! And at a price that was $60,000-$100,000 less than similar condos had been selling for only one year earlier. AND it’s 2009 so I’ll get the first-time home buyer’s tax credit thing (actually, I’m claiming it in 2008 so I get the money sooner – even better, and now you understand part of the reason for the belowandaforementioned accountant). Yay Me!

Arrrgh.

2009-06-11T23:24:00.000-07:00

Today was not a good day.

FIRST: I got a letter from the IRS saying I owed $600 more for 2008 taxes. I took this letter to my accountant, because what is the point of having an accountant if he can't look at letters like that and say, "They're wrong, they actually owe *you* $600 more," right?

He said: "They're right, you owe them $600 more."

Arrgh. (For the record, he didn't incorrectly prepare my 2008 taxes resulting in this error. TurboTax and I did, apparently. He became my accountant *after* April 15.)

SECOND: See, I need this thing from a doctor, only I don't even know my doctor because my company changed health care plans and the doctor I used to have and liked isn't on the new plan and so I don't even know this new doctor and it turns out this new doctor doesn't do the thing I need anyway so the office gave me three numbers of other doctors who do, only I don't want to see any of those doctors for other reasons and yet I called them anyway because I need this thing and all of their goddamn phones were busy YES REALLY ALL THREE OF THEM and the whole thing just totally sucked and so I spent a LOT of time and money today getting someone else to take care of this thing that I needed anyway and ARRRGH. None of it is at all a big deal but it just SUCKS when healthcare stuff doesn't go the way you want it to because then you feel all icky, no?

I'm fine, don't worry about it. It's nothing, just too girly to blog the details.

THIRD: SOME ASSHOLE HIT AND RUNNED MY CAR TODAY WHILE I WAS IN BED BATH AND BEYOND. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrr.

So I've had a shitty, shitty day. But hey, it's 11:30pm, I got nothing done all evening except to be grumpy, get my period, eat too much, and watch a couple episodes of "House" on my computer, because if I watch them on my TV I can't pause or fast forward or back or anything, and I have to be up at 6am. I love my life.

No, really, I do. Just not these particular 24 hours of it.

Happy, upbeat posts to come about the wonders of MY NEW CONDO WHICH IS WONDERFUL soon.

okloveyoubye. and don't you dare start with me about zeroeth, not today. Grrr. :)

I give in: Pandora rules. (aka Music To Pack By)

2009-05-13T23:09:00.000-07:00

That's it. Especially using Erin McKeown to build a station. I got Regina Spektor and Tracy Chapman and Ani DiFranco immediately. Hells yeah.

Oooh, and then I added Dan Bern to my channel, so they started giving me Bob Dylan and Loudon Wainwright III and Sondre Lerche. Goddamn.

Losing Weight

2009-05-13T10:55:00.000-07:00

So, I am packing and moving and therefore I am trying to Throw Shit Out. To this end, my wonderful friend Leah came over the other day and watched me try on clothes I bought many years and many miles ago and made the perfect "I love you but THROW THAT SHIT OUT" face at all the appropriate moments and then yesterday I brought nine bags of clothes to Goodwill. I mean, Trader Joe's paper shopping bags, so not huge, but still. Nine bags.

So now I am starting to pack up my books and I'm hearing Leah in my head saying, as she did on Saturday, "do you ever get rid of a book?" And I told her that I did, sometimes, yes, but not so often. And that is the truth; I do sometimes, and sometimes I send them off in the mail to a happy reader elsewhere in the world who wants some specific book I have but don't really want, all thanks to BookMooch.com, which I love. (It's awesome. To date I have sent off 22 books I did not want and received 23 books I did want. Most of the ones I sent cost about $3 to mail; most of the ones I received are ones I would have spent $7 or so for in a used bookstore or $15 for in a new bookstore. Fabulous.)

And so anyway, I'm starting to pack up my books and I just pulled off 10 books I am not going to keep! That is huge for me, trust me. Two of them are signed by the author and still I'm not keeping them - that is unbelievably out of character for me, the girl who has a separate shelf devoted to books signed by their authors. No really; that's one of the 26 shelves: Books Signed By Their Authors.

Ten books, two of which are signed by their authors. I rule.

Things you Need to Know

2009-05-12T21:54:00.000-07:00

which is to say, nonsense you don't at *all* need to know:

0. I am twittering. Why? Why?
1. I have packed a box, hooray!
2. Yes, one. The contents of said box are the books of one shelf (lower left-hand corner), almost, meaning the shelf contained slightly more than would fit in the box.
3. I have 26 shelves of books.
4. TWENTY-SIX SHELVES? WOMAN, BUY A TV ALREADY.
5. Never mind the entire rest of my house. One box so far.
6. Ohmigod.
7. I currently own two refrigerators and only want one of them. Want one? Come and get it and it's yours. Side-by-side and big and working ('cept for the ice-maker thingy).
8. How did I get to the point in my life where I own even one fridge, let alone two? I have no idea.
9. Which is to say, I now also own two toilets. Holy shit.
10. Ha ha, that was unintentional.

Undeniable Proof That I Am (Still, Always) a New Yorker:

2009-05-11T00:02:00.000-07:00

Things I Love:
Twizzlers

Things I Hate:
Red Vines

The End.