Hometown: The Roch, MI (aka. The Crotch, aka. Crotchscratcher, aka. Crotchmolester, aka. Rochester)
Currently Living: Clawson, MI
Height: 5'8
Weight: Ha ha, yeah right
Favorite Color: Blue (preferably navy)
Profession: Researcher
Favorite Nickname: Trick, Sloan
Favorite Drinks:Vodka Tonic, Guinness, Diet Dr. Pepper, Dirty Martinis, red wine
Favorite TV Show: Friends, Sex & The City, Project Runway, The Amazing Race, Iron Chef America
Least Favorite TV Show: A Baby Story, I Love Lucy, Martha Stewart, Everybody Loves Raymond, every hour long drama
Favorite Books: The History of Love, Beloved, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Fight Club, A Prayer for Owen Meany, The of Being, SurUnbearable Lightness vivor, Empire Falls, The Corrections, The Bell Jar
Favorite Movies: Little Miss Sunshine, Anchorman, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Wordplay, American Beauty, Life is Beautiful, Amelie, Breakfast Club, Singin In The Rain, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sleeping Beauty, Dancer in the Dark, Duets, The Virgin Suicides, The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Austin Powers I, II & III, My Best Friends Wedding, Moulin Rouge, Tommy Boy, Billy Madison, The Shining, Gone With The Wind, Bridget Jones' Diary, Chicago, Love Actually
Guilty Pleasure Movies: Xanadu, Dirty Dancing, Overboard, Groundhog Day, Steel Magnolias, 10 Things I Hate About You, Bond movies, Footloose, Clue, Murder By Death, High Spirits, A Cinderella Story
What I Do Too Much: Check email, crossword puzzles, complain about my job to friends and family,
Obsessions: sushi, Indian food, ranch dressing, toenail polish, song lyrics, hands, awards shows, symmetry, avocados, maps, dreams, This American Life, the display in my car that tracks my MPG
Pet Peeves: loud eaters, slurping, gulping, arrogance, snoring, bad grammar, repetition, late mergers, ripping cardboard, the word "chunky", intolerance, couples in a restaurant sitting on the same side of a booth, pop-up ads, privacy manager, men that drive without shirts on, being foolish, unfairly jumping to conclusions, being made fun of, cat-calling, people who type too hard
Greatest Fear: crossing bridges
Relaxing Activites: late night drives to sing by myself, headstands, hot baths,
Wish I Was: Ansel Adams, Jenifer Aniston, in love, living alone
Prized Possessions: ring from my grandparents, flower pot of my Grandma's, electric blanket (temporarily broken), tongue scraper, my bed
Craziest Thing Ever Done: getting a tattoo, strip Jenga
Things I Eventually Want To Do: skydive, buy a guitar, learn how to play the aforementioned guitar, take flying lessons, travel to France, write a novel, learn how to play the harp, tap dancing lessons, run a marathon
Thursday, May 03, 2007 Movin' on up....Ladies and gentlemen. It's official: I have accepted a new job. WOOOOOhoOOOooo!!
There is one distinct emotion of joy that comes from two different places. One being that I get to breathe a monumentous sigh of relief and say farewell to all of the garbage that I've recently endured. All the manipulation. All the pretending to work hard (by others). All the complaining (myself strongly included). All the stuff that inevitably got deferred to me because no one does anything. I put up with it for a long time, but now, I'm getting my big ol' bar of soap ready to wash my hands of all of it. I've made it clear that I will help in any way shape or form to make the transition easier, since I kind of hold the reigns on everything right now, but once that moment passes by, then there will be a celebration like no other celebration.
To know that I'm leaving at exactly the right time -- and oh yes there have been signs. I lost my office last week and am now currently smooshed into a corner of the lab, computer, printer and all. My professor that I work with is probably leaving the university soon. All of the projects I'm working on are coming to an end. It's just all right.
The other side that brings joy is what I'm moving on to. There's the word "writer" in my job title. Yes, I'll be spending my days WRITING. As in, someone is going to pay me to write. And although it's not journalism, but more medically angled stuff, still I will spend my days being creative and finding the right words and flexing my brain to say the best things I know how. I still can't believe that here exists a job that melds the two things that I care about so much. Did I mention they're going to pay me to do that?
So life moves on as it always does, and who knows. Maybe in two months you'll read me fuming here once again and down in the dumps hating my job. But now. Oh yes for now. For now I can bask in the glory of possibiity. And the joy of leaving things behind. And I can daydream about how things will change, how I will be able to change them and the vast unknown that stretches before me. I know I'm ready to step off that cliff into a new world. Care to join me?
9:51 AM
Thursday, April 19, 2007 And you already know, how, this, will end....So although it would be easy to toss the "I'm busy, bite me" explanation for my lack of posting, I won't. However, I have tried. I swear. But for some reason, it hasn't been working. It's entirely possible that I'll spend yet another lengthy amount of time constructing a lovely entry to let you all (all 4 of you now?) know that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, and hit that magical publish button only for my hard work to get siphoned away into the abyss of the Internet, never to be seen or heard from again. In which case you'll never even know that I wrote this and mentioned that this would vanish ("I mean, I'm looking down on Wayne's basement but, that's not Wayne's basement..."). But they've changed blogger over to a Google-based thing, and apparently Google and I haven't quite hit it off. So let me, once again, attempt to recap the last multiple months of my life.
1. I got into a car accident. 2. I wasn't hurt. 3. My car however, was very hurt. 4. I had my car fixed. 5. A couple short weeks later, I got a new car. 6. It sucks ass to crash your car a few short weeks before you plan to get rid of it. 7. I was happy to finally have all the $$ I've sunk into car insurance come back around. 8. I was not happy when I received my renewal quote for my insurance. 9. My sister and her family moved to Ohio. 10. I have since made a lovely weekend trip to Ohio. 11. It makes me sad that my sister and her family are in Ohio. 12. It makes my sister and her family sad that they are in Ohio. 13. The boy almost got arrested by the vice cops for "allegedly" exposing himself during his performance at the Dirty Show. 14. If someone thought that the 5 foot long vacuum hose covered in pink felt was actually him, then I'm the luckiest girl alive. 15. When he came over after the incident and was explaining it to me, I kept asking, "How could the bike cops catch you in your car?" 16. I didn't quite understand that it was vice cops, not bike cops. 17. It would be pretty cool if a bike cop would have caught him though, huh? 18. It would have been even cooler if one of the vice cops looked like Don Johnson. 19. I may have a new job. Had one interview that went well and asked for references and have another interview tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
See, there really isn't a whole lot to tell from the last two months. What can I say, I'm still just as boring as ever. Hope you've enjoyed this rant. Until next year....
6:40 PM
Friday, February 09, 2007 Master and servants....I am about to make a good case for bringing Handi-Wipes with you when you go to a bar. You never know what may have previously been sitting on that bar stool....
Last Saturday, Suz and I went to see the boy perform at the Erotic Poetry and Music festival. (Note: The boy does not necessarily perform erotic music. Or poetry for that matter. But I think there was the word "loin" in one of their songs). Which was at a pretty cool bar in Detroit. The evenings' poets started off pretty good. Actually very sexy and, not too surprisingly, erotic. However, as the evening wore on, the poets got rather interesting. Think like a 50+ woman dominatrix in some kind of corset get-up with the most awesome mullet I've ever seen in real life. And then there was this couple. The girl at one point derobed and was wearing some kind of sheer thong outfit and was being whipped while the guy recited the poetry (yes, this was my Saturday night). And it could have been hot, if the couple weren't the kind of people you'd see at the Renaissance Festival.
So once done performing, they sat back down at their table and watched the rest of the poets (at this point it was mostly semi-intoxicated guys getting up there half-yelling rather vulgar things that were being paraded as poetry). And for the duration of the evening, the derobed girl, sat politely on her bar stool in her thong outfit, bare-assed cheeks on pleather. And there was a significant amount of ass fondling by the boy while she sat there. I couldn't help thinking that I wished I had some hand sanitizer or something and thought back on all the hundreds of bar stools I've sat on over the years and never thought a thing about it. Surely only other clothed asses had sat there before me. Why would I have any reason to think otherwise?? Well, now I do.
I suppose that I should use that event as a prep for tonight, where we will be going to see the boy perform at The Dirty Show, a rather legendary erotic art exhibition here in Detroit. And yes, I know I said that the boy isn't necessarily an erotic musician, but he is a performance artist, and has a piece that he's doing tonight. Which, from what I hear, involves a blow-up doll. But the evening should be interesting. I'm sure that if I'm wearing anything more than fishnets and electrical tape I may feel overdressed, and based on the photos on their website from previous years, I should expect to see lots of penises.
On that note, I'll be sure to report back to you, in all of its anticipated naughtiness. Have a good weekend.
Smooches.
BTW. We had the 4th annual family bowling fest on Sunday. Needless to say, I did not win the trophy (even with my respectable-for-a-girl, 108). The trophy even went to a non-family member. Now we all have one year to practice our asses off and reclaim it to its rightful lineage.
9:08 AM
I may be skinny at times but I'm fat full of rhymes....In the tradition of honest intentions and well-meaning resolutions, I'm going strong on my "ToDo" list. This was actually a list that originated while Suz and I were in Florida visiting the folks (what's that you say? You were gone on vacation for a week in the past month?). Suzy, throughout the week mentioned at least 2-3 dozen things that "she was going to do when she got home" (research organic vegetables, make mom a jewelery box, make an inspiration wall and on and on). So while sitting in the airport waiting for our 1.5 hour delayed plane (and avoiding talking about Hillary running for president with the guy who was eavesdropping on us and hopped into our conversation), we actually wrote it all down to hold ourselves accountable. Things included on my list include ("Redundancy Department of Redundancy"):
~ Start taking vitamins. ~ Make all of the pictures on my computer my slideshow screensaver (I would highly recommend this as a ToDo for anyone. You'd be amazed how gratifying staring at your screensaver can be when it's not a bunch of random intertwining pipes, a marquee message, or trip through outer space. Plus you can actually put to good use all of those digital photos you took but never look at!). ~ Whiten my teeth. ~ Switch to sea salt. ~ Drink green tea every day. ~ Count every calorie that I eat on a daily basis (I keep that one crossed off for now. I've been good for the last two weeks. They say that you need to do something for three weeks for it to become a habit. Whoever the hell "they" are. And "they" must also know how g-damn hard it is to eat less than 2,000 calories per day). ~ Clean out car. ~ Spill entire bottle of wiper fluid in my trunk for the second time since I've owned the car. ~ Get new car. ~ Go see movies nominated for Oscars with Suz (Babel, Little Miss Sunshine, The Devil Wears Prada, The Queen). You may note that I changed my "Go Rent This Now" to Little Miss Sunshine. Because I mean it. Do it. Stop reading this shit. Go rent it. Or buy it. Or Pay-Per-View it. Or Netflix it. Just do it. Now. ~ Listen to all 2,905 songs in my iTunes. Ok, so I'm getting there. But I add stuff faster than I listen to it. You may have also noted the new CD of the Month selection over there too. Just when it looked as though we were all going to be throwing in the towel, Dave comes through! Had you been in my kitchen when I got the mail, you would have heard my "FUCK YEAH!" pealing out through the rafters. ~ Book my flight/hotel for conference in San Francisco. ~ Buy new shoes. ~ Buy new pants to go with new shoes. ~ Start working out right arm for family bowling outing on Sunday. ~ Smack talking for family bowling outing ~ Find bitchin circa 1980 bowling shirt for family bowling outing. ~ Clean shower ~ Leave bleach-laden footprint on green bathroom carpet from cleaning shower ~ Finish carefully editing blog ~ Find a scheduled time to write blog on regular basis
Ok. That's about all for now. I was going to add a bunch about work and school, but I've decided "That's all I've got to say about that." I'm going to do my best to avoid talking/complaining about work stuff for multiple reasons. Unless of course it includes naked old men or guys that drop trou to go to the bathroom right next to the parking structure. Those I'll be sure to keep-a-coming.
Come to think about it, no random passerby has told me to smile in a very long time. Could it be that I seem to actually look happy lately? What the hell is up with that?
8:02 PM
Friday, January 05, 2007 So this is the new year and I have no resolutions, for self assigned penance, for problems with easy solutions....Au contraire. I'm actually writing them down for documented proof in 360 days of how miserably I failed at all of them. Actually there are many of them I know I'll keep:
1. I have an entire list of races that I plan on doing. And I know those will get done (provided I can get a little extra boost of motivation somewhere to run 10 miles again). Mostly because Suz and I are on track for the running and triathlons this year. Now if I can just find an extra $10,000 around here somewhere for a fancy pants road bike....
2. Finishing my degree. Ok. So that's an easy one. I should actually have things done this semester. I'm back on track (supposably. Supposably? Supposably.) with my project. Or at least more motivated. But isn't that how every first week of January goes?
Mostly though this year, I just don't want to let things slip away. Or just let things slide by without acknowledging them. This can be any range of things. Particularly with friends.
I've lost touch with so many people over the past 12 months. I would say more so than any other year. It would be very easy to blame this all on the boy. That he sucks away all my time. But that's not entirely true. There are other reasons that I would rather not go into here. Suffice it to say that I've complained about financial woes enough for 1 year (another resolution for 2007). But certainly that plays a role in not being able to travel where I would like or do the things I would like or entertain the way I would like.
But it seems to get easier and easier to say, "Well they're not calling me either," as I get older and leave it at that. Are our friendships just destined to be a cyclical, fluctuating cast of characters? All it takes is a move to a different city to shift everything to a fresh start of BFFs. Or maybe just meeting someone else who you click with more. Or maybe just realizing you have different goals. For whatever reason one would lose touch, I really can't use any excuse other than lack of trying.
Like that early January diet and the sudden burst of gym-visiting, these are not things that are easy to sustain. It's not easy to keep in touch with people. Frankly it takes a lot of time. But that's where my resolution comes in. I never want to hear a friend say, "Well you just never called." I don't want to be the one faulted for not making an effort. I want to be that one that sticks with the workout plan until at least March, dammit! And that's not so I can say, "Yeah you're the one who gave up on me." But mostly for my own piece of mind. Mostly to reinforce that these are people who are valuable to me and people that I will make the effort for.
So there's my resolution. I'm going to be the over-acheiver friend that you wish you never had. So that way you can say, "I stopped callin you because you wouldn't leave me alone." I'd be ok with that. We all have a little stalker in us. Isn't that why you're reading this??
Hope you had a happy NYE (I know I did). Good luck with those resolutions.
Random notes: ~ I was sick the day before X-Mas Eve. Puking my guts out. I even yarfed in the Kroger parking lot. How awesome is that? Yup, squatted down, hunched over, vomiting onto yellow parking lot lines right next to an abandoned grocery cart. Fun stuff. ~ On NYE the boy and I went to the Red Wing's game in his cousin's suite. And then made friends with the people behind us in line for the People Mover and went with them to and Irish bar. I think I said a million times to them, "Of course we'll come party on your boat this summer downriver." That was the rum and Coke talking I suppose.
1:42 PM
Thursday, December 21, 2006 The dust has only just begun to form crop circles on the carpet....Multiple things....
First, if you have an opportunity, if she's in your area, Go see Imogen Heap!! The boy and I went the other night and were enjoyed it muchissimo. When I was listening to her CD earlier in the day I found myself thinking, "How exactly is she going to get all of this electronic kind of sound to her songs?" (particularly with "Hide and Seek"). And lo and behold, she had all kinds of neat little toys to loop her singing or distort her voice. It was pretty impressive. When she sang "Let Go" with just the piano and the French horn, I very literally was moved to tears. So go go go! She was fantastic!
Second, I just found out today that one of the papers that I am a co-author on was accepted for publication. Yippee! Now just one more big beast to go and then I can clean my docket of things that have been staring me in the face for a year.
Third, last weekend my familia celebrated Christmas. Yes, apparently we missed the memo that Christmas was in fact the following week, but who doesn't love a mid December Chrismahannaukwaanzakah celebration? In truth, the 'rentals came into town last week to visit and weren't staying through Christmas, so we celebrated early. That's not to say that we won't be celebrating again on Sun and Mon. Oh no. Any excuse to get together and eat obscene amounts of food is all good with us. So we had an absolutely great time, with, for some reason, my dad being the brunt of jokes for the weekend. Like everytime he would refill a glass of beer and walk away from it for a minute, my siblings or I would wolf it down so he would return to an empty glass and have to get another one. Or, after opening gifts, when we were waiting for my dad to come back downstairs, we all (all 13 of us) prepared our wrapping paper artillery and had an attack on padre when he returned. Ahhh yes, those moments of being a grown up 10 year old.
Fourth, I went to visit my other brother and his wife in Buffalo. Which was a great couple days (multiple hour car trip through the expanse of Canada excluded). They recently bought a new house which was gorgeous and a new ShihTzu puppy who, I'm still wishing, I had stuffed into my backpack and made a run for it. We would have been long past Niagra Falls before they would have noticed that she was gone. Ok, so we probably wouldn't have made it down the driveway. But still! It was a very very nice couple days.
Fifth, my favorite girl in the whole widest world, Steph returned from Italy this week, and not only did she bring back a gorgeous cashmere scarf as a gift for me (which I'm wearing right now btw), but she had a welcome home shindig last night. Where we were serenaded by carolers. They were hard core with guitar and all. So we stood on the porch with glasses of wine in hand and enjoyed the lovely tunes and had a great evening.
Sixth, as my secret Santa, Amy bought me a pedometer (sneaky gal listening to what I had to say and all). And it's fair to say that I'm obsessed. It's recommended that you walk 10,000 steps per day, and lemmetellya, that's a lot friggin harder than it sounds. On average, I probably only walk about 5,000-6,000. So I pretty much end up having to go for a walk in the evening to make up the difference, which is probably what I should be doin anyway. But still, I park as far away as I can, I take the stairs. Also, things that one should be doing anyway. But I'm a freak now, it's fair to say (so far today: 1,465 steps).
Seventh, as I always do, in the spirit of yearly wrap-ups, here is my Top Ten fav CDs of 2006:
And yes, Imogen's CD came out in 2005 but too bad. She was featured onsoume soundtracks this year so that's good enough for me. Oh, and without a doubt, my guilty pleasure song of the year was "Buttons" by the Pussycat Dolls. I can't help myself.
Alright kids. This took me a long time to do, so I'm going to get back to work now. Hugs and kisses.
8:55 AM
Wednesday, December 06, 2006 Watch me unravel, I'll soon be naked....And yet another wonderfully nauseating story to file away in the annals of "You deal with that at your job??!!
So apparently my research subject yesterday thought it was appropriate to sleep without any pants on. And I don't just mean in his skivvies, because I've had that happen in the past. But full-fledged, nekked, dropped trou in the middle of the afternoon in the middle of our lab. It was creepy creepy. He seemed normal at first, but then seemed to ask more than normal if there was a video camera in the room, if it was recording, who all is watching it, where in the ceiling it was. And he also didn't seem too inclined to use the covers so much either (NOTE: This is exactly why we put an additional sheet between the person and the comforter).
I don't know if I just misunderstood him and that him telling me that he just sleeps in a t-shirt and me assuming that meant t-shirt with somethin' on the bottom. Or if he figured we were doctors and nurses and were probably used to nude people all the time. But all I know is that I didn't need to see any old-man pubes (and thensome) yesterday. (I think I threw up a little in my mouth just writing that).
Interesting story #2. This morning on my way to work at 5:30am right down the street from where I work was an interesting site. About 2-3 dozen cop cars flying all over the place. With lights on, turning around in the middle of the street, running lights, flashing lights into people's cars. Turns out that a prisoner escaped from Detroit Receiving Hospital armed with a gun this morning. Riiiiight as I was driving by the building. Apparently he wrestled a gun away from a security guard and stole an ambulance. So the road I needed to take was blocked off as I was waiting to cross the intersection. It was strange that the only other cars I passed while going around the block were all cop cars. So that was my interesting morning.
It's been a wiley couple days around here. I'm so tired I can hardly even see straight, but I get to just keep doing it over and over again til I drop. Fun stuff!
12:59 PM
Monday, December 04, 2006 So we keep on waitin', waitin' on the world to change....Quick comment while I have a moment to vent: U of M got SCREWED. I can't even express how much I want to kick some AP and coaches ass. There's just no reason for Florida to be above them other than the fact that everyone is too chicken shit to acknowledge that the BCS DOESN'T WORK. Every damn year there are controversies about it. It's as though they were picking anyone who wasn't Michigan just because they shirked away from a Rematch. So what if the two best teams are from the same conference and one isn't the conference champ? That should be a testament to how competitive the Big Ten actually is. And what if Florida would have lost on Sat? Would they just have kept moving on down the list to pick anyone other than Michigan?
Comparison: U of M lost 1 game to the #1 team by one field goal. You really can't have a better season that that other than to be flawless. Florida on the other hand struggled every single week and lost their one game to a now #9 ranked Auburn by 10 points. That should say it all.
3 last things:
1. Had Ohio State lost to U of M back on November 17th, there is NO DOUBT IN MY MIND that Ohio State would still have been chosen to play in Glendale and the thought of a rematch wouldn't have freaked people out so much because they were such favorites all season. Why are the Wolverines ot given that kind of respect for their season?
2. I wonder if Lloyd Carr had been such a baby about things if it would have swayed people like Mr. Florida Crybaby did. Thank god that he had so much grace and class in accepting the decision. Like he said, "It's not the Michigan way."
3. I hope Florida gets stomped into the arid desert ground in Arizona and has to dig their asses out and return to the Sunshine State with the gator tails between their legs. I never thought I would root for the Buckeyes, but I would like everyone to see what a mismatch this is going to be so all those so-called-analysts can take a moment and think, "Huh, maybe this was a bad call."
Tuesday, November 21, 2006 Groove is in the heart....Welcome to November! My apologies for leaving you believing that my life has been so dire and miserable for all of this time. But I have my moments, what can I say? When in fact, things have not been so bad I suppose. Provided I don't bounch any more checks, I should be fine for a little while.
So what to catch up on from the past month? Well, I don't know. I ran a relay for the Detroit marathon which was much fun. I think I'll have a hard time doing anything other than that from now on. There was a slight inkling desire to run another full marathon, but when we were waiting for the rest of our team at mile 26 to all run into the stadium together and I was watching people's misery written all over their faces, it all came rushing back to me and I remember all too well that agony. So I'm back to staunchly being in the "Hell No" category. Plus, when you do a relay, you can finish the whole thing in 4 hours and 9 minutes. How badass are we?
I can catch up on my sports? And lemmejustsay, it was a tough weekend for a Wolverine. And I'm allll for the rematch. The only team U of M has lost to was the #1 team. Who else has a better record than that? No one. And that's how it should be mother trucker. Although if Ohio State were to lose, boy oh boy would they cry foul.
I can catch up on the fun happenings of a Sunday cooking Polish food? I can catch up on the fun happenings of the boy's birthday last weekend, complete with 4 CDs of party music that went with us whereever we went? I can catch up on the funniest thing I've ever seen, that being Suzy dancing to Dee-Lite in the middle of parking lot, while I watched through my rear view mirror? I can catch up the freelance editing I've been getting paid to do? I can catch up on the day-long drive to Indiana only to turn around and come right back? I can catch up on my presentation for my final class (oh don't worry, I'm not done yet)? I can catch up on the wonderful weekend the boy and I spent house-sitting for friends of his (think jacuzzi tub and flat screen tv)?
See, I've been a busy girl. But I don't want to watch the blog be so shamelessly neglected. I promise I'll recommit. I promise. And I know I keep saying that. But this time I mean it. I have actually found a rekindling of a creative vibe in my body and have gotten back to writing on a regular basis again. So maybe I'll vent that creativity back into this. Although I'm sure you're thinking, "This sucks, what creativity does she think she's talking about??" But you'll see. Just wait.
10:13 AM
Thursday, October 12, 2006 The future's no place to put your better days....And a big sigh. Amongst grrrrrrs....Sick of it. Sick of it all. The same laments for years. The same issues for years. Is this how boring everyone's life is? Even a new problem would be fine to handle. I will trade you financial woes for a broken arm. Deal? With my luck, I'll probably break my arm tomorrow and then have to deal with both.
7:27 PM
Monday, October 09, 2006 You were there, and it was good in the beginning....I think that, quite possibly, the best way to start off a Saturday morning of tailgating (yes, our asses were there by 9am, and yes, the game started at 4:30pm) is with the good ol' Captain Morgan and cider. I will refrain from giving you the ratios of rum-to-cider, but suffice it to say that it was enough to have most/all of us a little bit intoxicated by 10am. Which led into the rest of a fantasticly perfect fall Saturday. We had a nice group of teachers, roommates, significant others, old friends and even some former students rally up in Ann Arbor - Spartans and Wolverines alike. I actually think us Wolverines may have been outnumbered. We drank, ate obscene amounts of beandip, played a brutal game of spoons (this was around that 10am mark, so it was rather amusing as well, with a couple diving plays across the card table that may have left some bruises). And then there are those of us who weren't smart and didn't put on sunblock when everyone else was and had a wicked sunburned face complete with awesome sunglass rings around the eyes.
The boy had never tailgated at UofM before, and was kind of creeped out by the amount of crazy preparation that some people put into their tailgating -- the guy with the ENORMOUS grill that had about 5 tiers, 4 side burners and pots and that was a separate hitch on the back of his truck, the people with the 10-foot tall inflatable Sparty, the people with their flat screens set up in the back of their SUVs, the people with a maize and blue Michigan satellite dish (where the fuck do yo even buy something like that??). It is always a sight to behold at how manic some folks are. Shoot, we didn't even splurge for tablecloths this year. We were happy to have remembered a bottle opener.
But the day flew by (seriously, what the hell did we do all day??) and by game time, there were some seriously tanked folks where we were -- the guy in the mesh shirt (oh yes, a SEE THROUGH mesh shirt) was hunched over passed out in a chair. I hope he didn't have tickets to the game cos I don't think he made it. Since none of us acutally had tickets, we saddled up, maneuvered our way out of the golf course and went and watched the game at Amy and Dave's. This allowed us to actually watch the Tigers KICK THE YANKEES' ASSES at the same time.
So I don't know if I could have possibly dialed up a better day. Except for the raging headache that I incurred late in the afternoon on into the evening in spite of the multiple Aleve and many multiple bottles of water I consumed. And except for the obnoxious stomachache that I also incurred (the boy as well. We're going to blame it on the gorging on beandip). So I was content to lay motionless for most of the evening, since any amount of standing or walking made the pulsing action of my headache more painful. And the boy and I were content to smile and chuckle about what a fantastically fun day it was. In spite of his non-tailgating ways, I think he had more fun than anyone. So thank you all who came and played with us for the fun fun day!!
****************************
Multiple oddities and happenings:
~Last week when I was at the grocery store, the woman behind me in line was critiquing the food I was purchasing. And not in a quiet-to-herself kind of way. In more of a "Oh, you really like fresh vegetables," way. Or a "Oh, you're buying chicken broth, are you making soup this week?" way. Or a "Oh, you like yogurt, I can't really get into it," kind of way. She had a nice disapproving look and comment to dish out when I plopped down the 12-pack of Labatt's on the conveyor belt. I'd like to point out that all she was buying was about 30 bags of frozen mixed vegetables.
~After I left the grocery store and when I was turning into the drug store parking lot to run more errands, there was a police chase that went rolling right on by me at about 60+ mph. I don't know why someone would think they could outrun 3 police cars on a 35 mph road that has traffic lights every quarter mile or so. I don't know whatever happened. I didn't see it on the news or anything. But not necessarily something that happens everyday within 5 minutes of my house in the middle of boring suburbia.
~Attempt #1 at sushi making: not so successful. I have my mat and my seaweed wraps. All the gear except for the right rice. And I didn't wrap them tightly enough and the rice was warm so it made the seaweed wrap warm and difficult to cut. So as soon as I went to slice them up, they all fell apart and I ended up eating the pile of mess on my plate with a fork. Oh don't get me wrong, it still tasted damn good, but I'm just that good yet. But don't you worry. I will be. Oh yes, I will be.
Alright kiddies. It's Columbus Day (do you know how it started? If you read Devil in the White City you'll find out) and no one is at work today. So I need to get back to work, since I'm the only one here and all. Happy Monday!
10:17 AM
Monday, October 02, 2006 Cos I miss you, yeahhhhhh, I miss you....Alright. I'm getting a little sick of this spinach ban bullshit. Cos I tend to eat spinach...ooohhh...every day or so. Maybe every other day. I know, what can I say? I love it. I'm a little obsessed. Popeye is my muse.
So I'm starting to go through withdrawl. Being forced to eat other vegetables like broccoli and zuccini? (Although I would eat grilled zuccini everyday if I had to as well. That is, if I could soldier through the winter months and grill in the cold. And I'm not allowing George Forman to be a sufficient replacement here). They're just not sufficient replacements.
But I have a new mission for what I eat. I always rant and rave about how damn obsessed I am with Indian food and sushi. So I have decided that instead of making the crap that I normally do, I'm going to learn how to make Indian food and sushi well enough to make it more affordable and to not hate my own cooking so much. That way, on days like today, where I'm insanely craving that delicious buttery taste of salmon nigiri or the delicious hotness of wasabi and soy sauce, I'll have it allll at my fingertips.
Don't think I'm not serious. I'm pricing rice cookers as we speak (with this saucy little red number at Target only $15!!). I'm going to buy my sushi mat, seaweed, and that good spicy sauce they use for the spicy rolls next time I go to the Japanese store (yes, there is THE BEST sushi place by me that I frequent a lot that happens to be a grocery store. And a video store. And a bit of a drug store too). And I already printed out the recipe for my favorite Indian dish, palek paneer. However, since I can't buy friggin spinach, that recipe may be put on the back burner for a while (no pun intended).
The only problem with this? It's in conflict with the good ol' South Beach. So I'm going to have to be the first crazy person to try California rolls with brown rice or naan with wheat flour. Which I'm sure will just taste awesome!
Just wait, oh yes. Soon. It will alllll come to be. I will become a worldy chef of not-so-epic proportions.
By the way, have you ever noticed that when you're trying to diet and eat healthfully, you watch significantly more Food Network? There should be a research study done on that. Because even shows I normally would roll right past (Showdown with Bobby Flay) I will sit and watch from start to finish (especially when it's a chowder cookoff. Mmmmm....chowder). Just to see all the beautiful things that I'll never eat. **sigh**
Also by the way. Did you know that women whose ring finger is longer than their index finger have been shown to be better athletes? Says so right here. Is yours longer? Cos mine is. But I think my athletic performance might actually prove the theory wrong....
4:54 PM
Friday, September 22, 2006 No body every warned you, or told you what to do....It seems as though it's been a while since I've had any genuinely bizzare events happen that give me a, "WTF??!!" kind of a feeling. Maybe it's because I haven't been paying attention. But one came looking for me yesterday.
When I was walking back from the library on campus to work, I have to walk past the entrance to the parking structure of our hospital. After a certain time, they have these roll down gates that block the entrances so people can't just walk in. So as I was walking past, there was a guy who seemed to be standing in front of the gates trying to get in, which looked suspicious to me. But instead, he stepped a little off to the side, onto the grass, and just dropped trou. I don't know what he was doing for sure considering that I was a bit far away (thank god) and wearing my glasses with my piss poor prescription (thank god), but I swear that he was going #2. Now, I admit that his shirt was really long and his pants were really baggy, and he may have just been squatting to rest his feet? Or stretch out his quads? But either way, it looked exacty how I imagine I look when using the facilities while camping. The best part was that there were 3 police officers standing no more than 25 yards up the driveway not really batting an eyelash. They were probably thinking there was something wrong with me considering that I had this completely puzzled and disgusted look on my face when I walked past all of them. Freakshow. I get a little bit of a dry heave just thinking about it even now.
Well, I'm in the process of crafting a thoughtful and detailed entry on the state of my mind right now. Mostly as a result of having to go back and read 5 years worth of blog entires in order to edit, and partly a result of just taking the boy and life into account lately. Maybe I'll get around to that later on today.
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