Is there a food pyramid for this?

Last week I watched 576 hours of Buffy reruns and had no strange dreams whatsoever, except for the night I ate two dark chocolate peppermint cookies right before bed. Whooo boy, those dreams were doozies.

Today my meals* have consisted of:
- egg omelet with cheese, mushrooms and spinach (heavy on the cheese, light on the rest)
- a pot of coffee
- an apple with peanut butter
- a glass of water
- cheese and crackers
- a bowl of guacamole and chips
- a cup of green tea

*None of that remotely resembles a "meal." Can't wait to see what REM sleep brings me tonight.

Despite the utter crap I put into my body throughout the day, I was able to muster energy to run four miles at the gym, and for the first time since I started running again, I felt like I could keep going after that. I really hope my short-term memory fails on this one... last thing I need is a Pavlov-induced cholesterol-riddled heart attack at mile seven.

A confession.

My favorite movie of all time is Hair, followed very closely by The Muppet Movie - both of which feature a handful of brilliant songs and a bunch of additional really catchy ones. My favorite Broadway show is RENT. The "Once More With Feeling" soundtrack ranks as one of the highest played albums in my iTunes library (I sing at least one song from that soundtrack in my head at least weekly at my job), followed closely by Dr. Horrible and the South Park soundtrack.

I love showtunes. I have done set construction and/or props and/or lighting and/or stage crew for five musicals. I love Journey.

I don't like Glee.

I'm having a hard time reconciling this.

These precious things.

I finally got around to watching Precious last night. It was heart-wrenching, brilliantly acted (Mariah! who knew!) and inspiring. Parts of it were incredibly difficult to watch, to the point where I hid my eyes during a few scenes. I felt terrible afterward for complaining about my job, my life, my... well, my anything.

I think a dream I had was partially inspired by that film. She is completely unprepared to be a mother, but does a phenomenal job in spite of the odds. In this dream I was on a rescue expedition in the Antarctic. We would go out to the islands to collect injured penguins, return them to the (rather fancy) expedition ship, cuddle them and shower them with healing and love, and send them back to their respective colonies once they'd recovered. One of them had been shot (I never quite figured that one out); most just had mild flesh wounds from sea lion or elephant seal encounters.

I woke up smiling. And between paper pushing and mind-numbing meetings, I thought about those cute little penguins and how good I felt about helping them.

I think this means that it's time to seriously start looking into veterinary school.

Five things that didn't suck today...

... in no particular order. Because, yes, it's that bad right now.

• hearing that some friends I like a lot got engaged over the weekend
• Mumford & Sons on repeat... again... for, like, the 784th time
  
• Kettle Sea Salt potato chips with my sandwich at lunch
• the nice man on the bus this evening who kept falling asleep on me and apologizing, instead of ignoring the fact or being an ass about it
  
• skipping yoga to watch House as it airs on TV instead of 3 weeks later on Hulu

{Ed note: do not skip yoga to watch House when the SF Giants are about to win the World Series.}

OK, seriously?

You guys do this working thing EVERY weekday? How do you find time to do life stuff? Inquiring minds want to know.

Wednesday three, part two.

Three things that made my day yesterday, in no particular order:

- The news that Larry King is FINALLY retiring! Long overdue.
- An amazing shiatzu/acupuncture combo appointment. I was exhausted last night... but in a good way.
- Remembering to sit on the left side of the plane to Oaktown, and seeing every mountain in the greater WA/OR on a beautiful, clear evening.

Positivity oh-ten, transition June, rejoining the real world - whatever is inspiring this good feeling, I'm rolling with it.

Wednesday three.

Three songs that got me through a particularly rough June, in no particular order:

• We Sing In Time - The Lonely Forest
• As I Rise - The Decemberists
• Half a World Away - R.E.M.
  

(Inspired by Squeaks.)

I'm baaaaaaaaaaack.

This makes me sad. Forty-something housewives making themselves feel better with Twilight and living vicariously through television show characters (based off the concept of that same series) to cure their "busyness and boredom" (read = unhappiness) is a demonstration of the lack of reality, community and creativity in today's society.

Don't misunderstand. A), I read all four Twilight books and B) I have seen both movies in the theater (and I will see the other two in the theater too). But the books were read on a beach in Costa Rica and the last two sucked, and the movies were seen at $3 second run theaters with beer in hand and snarky hipsters behind me cracking jokes the whole time. (And let's be honest, no vampire series comes close to Buffy - it's infuriating that all these crap shows and series are getting attention when that show was brilliant.)

Not happy with your life? Don't distract yourself - FIX YOUR PROBLEM. I am all for television as entertainment, and there have been rainy Saturdays when I've holed up with Dexter Season Two or a LOST marathon, but a long time ago (thanks to the inception of TV-on-DVD and Netflix) I let go of trying to keep up with shows on a week-to-week basis. I put enough pressure on myself, that was taking it to the extreme. I know people who plan their lives around their television shows. That's not living.

I tried to give away my TV before I left. It's old, I can't hook it up to the internet to stream Hulu on a bigger screen, it's heavy, it's big... But there were no takers. I cannot imagine why.

Since I've been back I have used it here and there for Arrested Development reruns. That's it. I haven't missed cable and I haven't spent more than 2 hours in front of it at a time. I am sure I will sign up for Netflix again, someday. But for now I have all kinds of creative projects and great books to cure my "busyness and boredom" woes. And to paraphrase Grandpa from the Lost Boys, "if you read Facebook you don't need a TV."

And OMG don't EVEN get me started on Facebook...

Hiatus...

... filled in here.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Deja vu.

5/18/1994 (before the 12-countries-in-7-weeks whirlwind backpacking trip around Europe): "SHIT we're really leaving in 3 days. How did this happen? I've never been so ready and so unprepared at the same time for something."

This year I think my official freak out will occur on February 1, but I suspect my thoughts will be pretty similar. At least last time I knew exactly where I was living when I got back, whereas this time I have vague notions of Portland neighborhoods that might suit me... but change is good.

54 seconds!

Created by Oatmeal

A haiku for the bartender at Rock Bottom in DIA.

I'm not your "sweetie"
I just want a freakin' beer
God, I hate airports

Great Falls photo test.

IMMDs.

Customer at the post office: "How much will it cost to mail this letter overnight to New Jersey?"
Clerk: "Overnight is $15.95, it will get there by 3pm tomorrow."
Customer: "...Wha?? This letter? For $20 I can get on a bus and deliver it by midnight myself!"

Me: "Hi, I'd like to do an international wire transfer."
{Much ado about how they are not set up to do that, but in fact they are - I confirmed it three times with three different people before setting out as it would be a trek to this particular branch - training manual is extracted from the depths of the cabinet and dusted off - clerk #1 heaves a big sigh, saying "why me?!"}
Clerk #2: "They're sending spies in to test us, [Clerk #1]."

Laughter ensued with both exchanges. A nice change of pace from the grumpiness usually ensuing in such situations (especially such situations which occur at the post office). And even though I was at post office #2 dealing with clerk # 5 who was insisting they couldn't do this, and even though it turned out I had to go back again today and drag Clerk #1 away from her back-office break, and even though I'm still not convinced that the transaction went through... Both scenes yesterday kind of made my day.

Public service announcement.

When flying a kite, it's best to choose a day where the American flag over the bank building is whipping in the wind versus hovering slightly and then falling limply toward the pole.

Also, it's best to choose an area devoid of geese:


But Mr. Frog the Kite performed well under duress, and as a result I've checked that off the list, even though Saturday was just a trial run. I look forward to putting MFtK to work on the coast someday soon. FUNemployment should make that a possibility.