an overabundance of parentheses and dopamine

I never really understood why we turn "1" at the brink of our 2nd year. I turned 33 today but technically I'm embarking on my 34th year on this planet. Like the world sees it more as an accomplishment to achieve than a goal to reach. Either way, although my birthday has rather depressed me in the last few years (not because I'm "old"-- I totally don't feel that way-- I just don't feel very accomplished for my 33 years. But that's not what this post is about) I still choose to see it as a celebration of ME. (And also Alfred Hitchcock, Annie Oakley, Dan Fogelberg, Don Ho, Bert Lahr, and Fidel Castro... but again, that's not what this post is about.)

At any rate, I have always found that counting my blessings, though cheesey and it always gets that old hymn stuck in my head, actually does make me feel better about things I'm not so fond of. For example one day when I was having a really crappy day at work, I listed all the things I LIKED about my job and it instantly turned around my attitude. So, in the spirit of lists (and a copy of the list, in case anything happens to the first list)-- here are 33 things that I absolutely LOVE about life in general (and in no particular order):

1- olives

2- laughing so hard I cry

3- the way my body feels after (although absolutely not during) my 90-minute 105-degree yoga class

4- coffee

5- waking up before my alarm (I know that's weird but I love it; it just starts my day out better)

6- the invention of text messaging. seriously. I hate talking on the phone. (Except on my birthday. You still have to call me today and you know who you are.)

7- that point in the morning where the sun just starts to burn of the fog of the Inner Sunset and I can see the tips of the Golden Gate Bridge peeking out of the mist

8- flying international first class. It might've been a fluke and I might never get to do it again but it. was. amazing.

9- pasta. mmmmm, pasta. the whole world looks better after a bowl of noodles, hmmm?

10- getting flowers. they're such a useless gift-- they really can only say "I wanted you to know I was thinking about you"

11- making lists (and a copy of the list, in case anything happens to the first list)

12- my family

13- making delicious things

14- serving delicious things to other people

15- dogs

16- music

17- art museums

18- old people

19- babies

20- red gerbera daisies

21- a hot shower

22- inside jokes

23- books

24- TV on DVD. best. invention. ever.

25- learning to love something I thought I hated (like... New Orleans. Bell peppers are still on their own.)

26- crossing things off my to-do list

27- an ice-cold dirty martini

28- post-it notes

29- roasted garlic

30- the internet

31- my amaaaaaazing friends

32- having a full belly

33- having a full heart

So there ya have it. Next year I'll have 34 reasons to love life. In the meantime, I was up before my alarm, have already laughed so hard I cried (thanks Amy), talked to Amy, my mom, and Krysten, got a text message or several, am having a cup of coffee, am on the internet, and am about to leave for yoga, so this day has already accomplished almost a third of the above. No doubt a lot of those other things up there will be crossed off before the day is done, thus self-accomplishing another item on the list.

Whee! Love you guys! Happy birthday to meeeee!

life sans the interwebs

I know, it's obviously not life totally without interwebs, since I'm updating le blog. BUT, it's life with drastically reduced internet, and that my friends, is practically the same thing. See, I don't know how you live your life at home, but my laptop is always on. Always. It might not always be open and on my lap, but it's always nearby, and I use it. I use it a lot. When I don't have Facebook or gchat open, I at least have it available to look up a recipe, or a word, or movie times, or where else I saw that one guy on that show I'm watching, or information about time zones and moon phases.

Anyway, both of my laptops are broke, and they're broke bad, so they are respectively in Oklahoma City and Middleborough, Mass, getting all tuned up, and I'm getting back to the basics of a person that stays home because she's on a budget and don't have the internet for entertainment. This weekend I've cleaned, cooked, read, used my DVD player, ridden my bike to the beach, gone to yoga, given myself a recession-mani, and watched a fair amount of The Discovery Channel, and actually? It's not been that bad.

Don't get me wrong, when my computer comes back I will go right back to my previous lifestyle, but this has been a productive break. Glass is half full, hmmm?

What did I miss?

the far side of the moon

I was just looking at my travel journal and I remembered this one night in Rome that Krysten and I laughed so hard we cried, and I'm certain, bothered our neighbors. (Sadly, they were not the Swedish teenagers that stayed in our hallway in Florence, but that's another story for another time.)

We were home from dinner, full and let's be honest- a bit tipsy, and lying on our respective beds with our feet propped up on the headboard, discussing various things about life, and for some reason, I thought it a good time to wonder, "if the same side of the moon always faces the earth, do the people on the other side of the earth see the other side of the moon?" We talked about this for a long while, and made lots of "planets" with our hands and tried to spin and rotate around one another in the most discombobulated of manners, and then the following interchange occurred:

Krysten: hey, maybe we should go outside and see if it looks different!
Jamie: we're only like, 7 time zones away-- it's not really the opposite side of the planet.
Krysten: well won't we be able to tell if it looks a little different?
Jamie: do you have the surface of the moon memorized? anyway, it's only a crescent right now.
Krysten: I hate Rome.

I. laughed. so. hard. I think I almost choked. The answer is no, btw. We looked it up.

We then went on to discuss time zones and that place in the world where it was suddenly like a whole day different, and how it would be really inconvenient to say, make a lunch date for Tuesday and then accidentally cross the line and get stood up on Wednesday, and then she pointedly told me that that place (much later remembered as the "International Date Line") was probably in the middle of the ocean. More hand motions, more laughing, more tears, more choking.

I'm glad I have a friend who likes similar topics of conversation as I do, and also shares my sense of humour. I'd also like to extend thanks to Wikapedia, who answered so many of our questions that week, and also gave us the suggestion to wash our feet in the bidet (which despite only being in Italy, are named after the French word for "pony." Ew.)

c'est prego!

Last post May 10th? I'm so ashamed.

I've been subtly urged to blog more often, but with the onset of twitter and facebook, I don't make myself. Which is a shame, because I miss doing it. I'm certain most of my readers have probably wandered away by now, but for the three of you still left (Alecia, Krysten... maybe only 2 of you, actually), may I ask a favour? Comment. It's really the only way I can judge if people are reading. (I gave up on statcounter long ago, when my numbers dipped to sad double-digits.) I wish I just wrote it for me and didn't care if people were reading, but I don't and I do. So let me hear ya!

So, I'm back from vacation. I blissfully ignored the real world as I tromped across Europe with my gal-pal Krysten, and thus came back to a bit of stress. Money, work, life. Facebook always asking me what's on my mind. A LOT, Facebook. Leave me alone. (But, thanks for hosting my photos for all my friends to look at.)

I'm trying to get back in the swing of making my own food, working out, not having Krysten 2 feet away from me at any given moment. Thursday I spent on the couch resting up, and yesterday I headed out for a day of San Francisco. It's not Europe, but it's something pretty special. I met Scotty and KJ for lunch at Split Pea Seduction (always a pleasure), and then went solo to the Chagall exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. I love Chagall and have been wanting to see if for a while. There was also an exhibit called "Jews on Vinyl" and it was SO cool. I listened to music for about an hour, and then went to see Harry Potter. I love going to the movies alone, and I enjoyed the film. Then I went to Lulu for dinner with some old work friends from Dallas, and THEN went to the wine bar for more Scotty and KJ time. What a lovely day!

This morning I've been stressing about money, listening to a mostly spot-on playlist made for me by a special friend who has good taste (how you picked my all-time favourite Elton John song out of his entire library is a little amazing. kudos, btw), went to yoga, cleaned the bathroom, just normal stuff. It's been nice to have the house to myself for a couple of days while I recuperated. Roommate comes home tonight and regular life will be back in force.

So there ya have it. I'm back, and I will try my best to update more often! However, since I blew my wad on vacation I might not have anything to say more interesting than "I ate rice and beans and watched TV today." :)

Oh, one more thing-- in other news, I am strongly considering moving to Austin. I adore San Francisco but I'm a Texan at heart. I need to see how a couple of things pan out, but it's in my head and now it's out there in cyberspace.

book help

OK, 3 posts in a week; are you guys feeling the love?

I need some book help. I have a STACK of to-read books, and it's growing to the overwhelming stage. And when I get overwhelmed over too many decisions, I just need someone to tell me what to do (even though I really, really hate to be told what to do. I know-- I'm an enigma, wrapped in a conundrum, shrouded in a mystery, drinking a cup of coffee and whimpering about books).

I just read, nay-- devoured Orangette's A Homemade Life. I read it in one morning, curled up in the corner of Brian's bed while he packed for his trip. I just loved it, and if I could write a book, it would be this sort of book. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes her website, or food.

Now, in the nonfiction category, I also have:

(started)
Color, A Natural History of the Palette,
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife,
Bill Bryson's Shakespeare: The World's a Stage, and

(not yet started)
Gilda Radner's autobiography, It's Always Something,
The Worst Hard Times, about those who survived the Great American Dust Bowl, and
I'm Perfect, You're Doomed, the memoirs of a disfellowshipped Jehovah's Witness

Ohhhh, and my France guidebook.

In the fiction category, I have

(started)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and

(not started)
The Road
The Housekeeper and the Professor, and
Geek Love

aaaand, I really really want to re-read HP6 before the movie comes out.

Sooo, what do I do? Please help.

the wonder of technology

OK, so, you know how some people come into your life so circuitously, it's hard to even explain how they got there? It was always so easy when I was younger-- oh, we went to college together, or oh, we go to the same church. Now, 32 years, 4 states, an insanely crazy job, and an information superhighway later, I have these people, these lifeblood friends that I couldn't do without if I tried. I have bi-coastal coffee breaks with Ashley in Boston, talk to Erin while she's in Target in Texas, and watch the same DVR'd shows with Tom in New York while instant messaging. WOW, that's so nerdy and awesome.

Today I want to tell about the one that is Krysten. She and I met, as people these days often do, online. She grew up with an ex-boyfriend of mine, ran into him at their 10-year high school reunion, and they exchanged blog addresses, as we did in the pre-facebook era. She read my blog, which was linked on his blog, and I did the same. Soon we were exchanging blog comments... then e-mails... then phone calls... then one day (some time after the boyfriend had moved on,) I flew out to Phoenix to visit her. Four years later, I swear I see her more than any other friend or family member. At the very least, twice a year, sometimes for major holidays like Thanksgiving or Easter, always for at least one of our birthdays, and this year, a 2-week holiday to Europe. She is quite simply one of my most favourite people in the world, and one I wouldn't have met without the glory of the interwebs.

I bring her up today because she really made my day yesterday. We all have different friends who perform different roles in our lives. I always call Amy, for example, when I need a self-esteem boost, because she always always makes me feel good about myself. I call Danael when I need someone to really really listen. And I call Krysten when I need someone to reinforce what I already really know deep down, but am trying to justify something else. She is a hardass in the best possible sense of the word, and sometimes, I don't even need to call her, because I know what she'll say, and rather than disappoint her by telling her that I'm leaning toward the wrong decision, I just do what I know she'd tell me to do. I know that was like, the awkwardest sentence alive, but I trust she (at least) will know what I meant.

So, yesterday I was having somewhat of a low self-esteem day. It happens to the best of us, I know, and I'm not generally a low self-esteem kind of person, but I've been really busy, had a lot going on and not a lot of me time, and have had this one thing on my mind (the one I'm not asking her about because I know what she'll say) that is driving me crazy, with its little pointy edges, poking around in my head, and forcing me awake at 6am or God forbid, earlier. So yesterday, of course I was up early, forced that thing aside, spent the morning reading (I do love to escape into someone else's world for a bit), decided to go out, couldn't find a single outfit that made me feel any better about myself, got all disgruntled about money when my favourite sommelier was missing from the bar (the one that always refills my glass and "forgets" to charge me for it), until I got home, to a present from Krysten.

It wasn't anything major, just this fizzy bath thing from this store that we both like, but it was truly the thought that counted-- a surprise from one of my favourite people, for no reason at all, on a day when she had been on my mind. I stuck my nose down in the wrapping and immediately sneezed, a big, deep, fizzy-lemon sort of sneeze that made me laugh out loud and literally hug the box.

So, thanks, Krysten... for the gift of course-- I can't wait to use it, but also for being YOU, for inviting a stranger into your home and into your life, for always being thoughtful and supportive, and for being my conscience even when you don't know you're doing so. I think that's the very highest praise I can give you.

on the flip side

So, after working 14-16 hour days for 23 days straight (yes, 23 days STRAIGHT), it is my week off. The first day, understandably, was spent in the bar, as it was Cinco de Mayo, and I just couldn't face my mountain of laundry and dirty coffee cups and dust. Yes, there were mountains of dust. Where on earth does it come from? Yesterday I avoided housework again by meeting Seth for lunch and a movie (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past; it was truly awful), some shopping that I couldn't afford, then wine and cheese at the Biron, dinner at Zuni, and dancing with Brian and the Burrs. It was the funnest evening I've had out for a while, but despite my running around allll day and drinking well into the night, I popped up at 5am like I have every other day in the last 23. Grrrr!

I decided to pay attention to the universe (because honestly, it's been lobbing some doozies at me this week, and I just keep ducking... but that's another story for another conversation) and get my toosh out of bed and back to productivity.

By noon I had had a pot of coffee, watched LOST (kudos, really), washed, dried, and folded three loads of laundry (all pajamas and red shirts-- sad), gone to the market, made myself lunch, cleaned the kitchen, dusted and vacuumed the entire house, colored my hair, and had a long conversation with Krysten about whether we should take nicotine gum to Europe with us since neither of us have a prescription for Xanax. (Coincidentally, I tried a piece about an hour ago and it gave me a headache, so I think I'll pass. It was a good idea though.)

Now, back to me. I have Orangette's new book, A Homemade Life, a nice frosty glass of vinho verde in my hand, and the soundtrack to Amelie on my iPod. This is what days off are supposed to be. Enchanté.

Edited to add: the perfect cap to this afternoon? Sitting cross-legged on the kitchen counter talking on the phone to Erin, eating apricots, and having a 2nd glass of wine.

Big Brother on Twitter

Sorry for the delay (again, GRRR) but I was busy, then had Mom in town, then got sick, oh my. I was trying so hard for once a week. Send me reminder e-mails, please. Or tweets, because....

Want to hear something creepy that I just found out about, 2 months late (because I am still one of those dark-age losers who only tweets on her regular, non-iPhone phone)? Well, a couple of months ago I tweeted about Comcast, (text: "ok, so Comcast had to turn off my cable for a min. while they switched names on the account (stupid). now my router is not broadcasting.") and @ComcastBonnie REPLIED to me! Whhaaaaa? Text: "pull the power and plug it back in, chances are it's confused from the switch." CREEPY! Plus, she couldn't have been wronger about what was wrong. I hope she doesn't see this blog and show up on my front door or something. Stop watching me, Bonnie. It's weird.

In other Twitter news, Jacob from TwoP (he recaps my uber-geeky shows, like Doctor Who and BSG) is following me now. I sent him a private message to see if we somehow knew each other from college or something, because I can't IMAGINE why he would be interested in my tweets, but I never heard back. So, weird, again, but hey Jacob, I am a fan of your writing and even though it's creepy and way too Big Brother that you somehow know that, thanks for providing me with entertaining recaps of my favourite shows!

Last bit of Twittermania, I noticed Candybeans follows Tina Fey (text: "I don't even know why I bother chewing corn." -- brilliant) and I read an article in EW or somewhere recently about celeb twitter-ers... riddle me this: how do you know it's the real Whoever that you're following? I mean, couldn't I just make up a twitter account as David Lynch and post the weather in LA every morning? Color me skeptical but I'm curious.

ANYhoo, I gotta get to my day. Laundy, used book store, some actual work, etc. I go back to WORK work on Wednesday and PS> I won't have a day off AT ALL for almost a month. It's going to be Groundhog Day over here. (My alarm is already set to awaken me with "I've Got You, Babe.")

So, I need to enjoy these last two! XOXOX~

I KNOW.[/Monica]

I know, I know. It's been about eleventy billion years since I last updated. My story is always the same; I've been busy, not really sure doing what. I don't know what else to say; I have no better excuse. I've been meaning to update the template as well but yet been able to fit that into my schedule. As with everything else in life, that idea has been shelved with a "soon" label and a hopeful temperment!

In sunny Arizona this week, drying out like a prune. My hair looks like straw and I have chapstick, eye drops, and hand lotion on my person at all times. I feel like a broken record (seriously, it's "I JUST put on chapstick like 5 minutes ago!" every 5 minutes over here) but dude. I live within walking distance of the ocean. This is a long way from there.

We went to see the Greatest! Concert! Ever! last night. Billy Joel and Elton John- yes, their combined age is about 178- but they still put on a great show:

Sadly, that pole that is blocking the exact part of the stage holding the 2 grand pianos was exactly where it looks-- directly in my line of vision, so I spent most of the concert in Krysten's lap, who was weeping with delight. They didn't sing my all-time favourites (Elton: Someone Saved My Life Tonight, Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters, Blessed, and I Want Love, and Billy: Vienna, This Night, Sleeping with the Television On, and And So it Goes) but they hit most of the standard highlights, including the best renditions of Rocketman and Bennie & the Jets I've ever heard, and a great finale of the lyrically genius Piano Man. *sigh* Happy.

You guys know that Pepsi commercial with Bob Dylan and Will.I.Am, "Every Generation Replenishes the World"? I looooove it. Love love LOVE it. Anyway, last night, from our seats high atop the nosebleed section, we had a great view of the rest of the coliseum, and when they turned out the lights and everyone had their cell phones up and lit and waving, it reminded me of that commercial. We were all singing Piano Man together, holding up our 21st century digital lightning bugs. Nothing like 60,000 fans who know every word of every song to remind you how music can connect the masses, like a big emotional hug.

Anyway, tonight we're going bowling, and then I have to go back to work tomorrow, BOO.

re-immersion into the blogosphere

Hello all, and I'm so sorry I've been away so long. And ibym all... Alecia. She might be my lone reader. (Hee... "lone reed.") I have been very busy, and as usual, I'm not really sure doing what.

Let's see... to re-cap, since January 9th, I've been to San Jose, Santa Clara, and Los Angeles. Brian moved in with me. I got to see Charlemagne. I did a cleanse. I painted my toenails blue. I booked a lot of plane tickets. I took a lot of photos. I saw a lot of movies. But I have not dusted my room.

I got home from LA on Monday night and I've been Jamiepalooza-ing for the past 6 days. Usually on those personality test thingies I score about 50-50 on the introvert/extrovert parts, but for some reason I have been rocking it solo all week. And having a marvelous time, might I add! I attempted a "kidney cleanse"-- I made this super magic mineral/vitamin broth and only ate raw fruits and vegetables (and cheated at the movies with Seth for a bit o' popcorn-- what, that's a vegetable, right?). I got all caught up on Battlestar Galactica and LOST and holy CRAP could more be going on in those worlds right now? I painted a couple of canvases that have been partially started for almost a year. I am just really enjoying my time off.

Which is a great thing, because starting next week I have Austin, Long Beach, San Diego, Phoenix, and a visit from my mom for her 60th birthday, and then all of the sudden it's April. And if you work where I work, we all know how busy April, May, and June are going to be. And then I go to Europe in July!!! WTF!?

Did you know the literal translation of tempus fugit is less "time flies" and more "time flees." And boy-o, does that make so much more sense.