I'd like to thank the academy...

So the movie "Million Dollar Baby" just won all these awards and its funny cause I just saw that movie last night with a friend of mine and watched the Academy Awards with the same person, and after we saw the movie we went to a diner where I ordered a salad and then a gigantic, whopping slice of lemon merengue pie which I could not finish and which caused me to bounce around or tremor or something (according to him) and tonight just before it won an award I started craving another slice of that pie...I heard that wineries started selling out of Pinot Noir or whatever, just because of that "Sideways" movie. Wouldn't it be funny if diners all across America started selling out of lemon merengue pie? Hah.

--Insert lemon merengue pie graphic HERE

tea

There is an art to loose leaf tea, I'm discovering. Certain combinations are quite palatable; others are not.

For example, if you put 1-2 teaspoons of loose green tea in the bottom of a "grande" size mug and layer it with approximately half a dozen to a dozen dried chrysanthemum blossoms, & then pour boiling water over it...thats a pretty nice beverage.

But when you decide to go all crazy with it and enhance your drink with with a pink of rosebuds here, a sprinkle of uva ursi there, and why not tosss in some red clover while you're at it...ugh. Don't do it unless you feel like drinking a dried flower watery mess.

By the way I didn't mean to say "a pink of rosebuds" but I kept it in because I like it.

I am super post-happy on this blog.

I like to procrastinate and I have no television.

Today I bit it on a flight of icy steps. The chrysanthemum tea prescribed by the acupunturist flew out of the cup...a silver Copco cup I bought at Wegmans. That went flying, too, and the lid broke apart. Green tea/chrysanthemum mush was scattered over the sidewalk (also icy). "Are you okay?" the people next door asked, but only after I thought "hey, why aren't those people asking me if I'm okay already" "Yeah I'm okay." I said. My fingers were freezing as I walked a block and a half to my car and tried to put the plastic lid back together. I finally managed it after I sat in my car, got my fingers a bit warmed up a bit, and said to myself, "fuck, that was scary."

now in paperback...

Home repair...electrical wiring...alternative remedies...a history of famous seductresses...Barnes and Noble should love me for these impulse buys. Why would someone compulsively buy books, or spend money on expensive $1.99 amaretto truffles, and then (in an effort to curb spending) graduate on to a daily habit of melting a dish of chocolate chips in a stove top pan of boiling water & adding top shelf amaretto?

Maybe its because some people will say things like" I am not a good person" or "I am cruel." Some people think that since they've "come clean" and they've been "honest" about who they "really" are, that is the perfect excuse for them to act in a way that some would deem"cruel." I, however, think that should qualify as a logical fallacy...

"Dry. A memoir." by Augusten Burroughs was the most recent impulse buy. So far, its funny ;-)

Another one that I liked is "May and Amy" by Josceline Dimbleby. But its hardcover so I haven't bought it. Its all about relationships and letters exchanged between the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne Jones and Dimbleby's ancestors (a mother and a daughter).

In some ways, this has been a nice semester; it affords me some time to read for pleasure.

Rearranging furniture is fun, and being scared of where you live isn't. :-D

So about that website I mentioned earlier...it really is the most riveting procrastination tool that I've stumbled across in quite a while.

If you're into cartoons and eschew long paragraphs, check out Lenore's page.

If you like cooking, creative writing exercises, and don't mind knowing that a beautiful girl can eat whatever she wants and never gain an ounce (ha ha) check out Voltaire's page.

If you want to know what its like to get your body type brutally dissected on a message board by a bunch misogynists, check out Quinne's page.

Monet's page is interesting...she's an aspiring art student...also Al's page and the links to her friends' pages (can't think of anything catchy to say about them, I just think they're interesting.)

FYI

Woke up really early--like 4 or 5 a.m.--because of a terrifying ungodly noise that seemed to be coming into my apartment through the direction of the burglar bar windows. Lay in bed with stomach cramping from fear. Eventually managed to gear up the courage to peek out the window...saw nothing but the outline of the neighbors' burglar bar windows reflected on the snow...later when it became more light outside I went into the kitchen to eat some yogurt and the ungodly noise came back and I peeked out that window and saw a tiny bit of light sweeping the snow but still no indication of what the noise was. However, I think it might have just been a snow plow paving a parking lot or something.

Future entries may be dedicated to more pleasant and safe seeming topics, such as strawberries and Chinese restaurants. Don't ask me why those come to mind...probably at some point in life when I was feeling carefree I was cultivating an appreciation of those two things. Although, when I was a little kid a local Chinese restaurant burned down in a fire and I was in a state of disbelief about it because I liked it so much. They used to give me a little paper umbrella anytime I went in and make me twirl it over my head. "Umbella" they said. I told my parents that I had learned how to say umbrella in Chinese.

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After a scary experience several weeks ago, I am finally beginning to recover some sort of sense of security and safety but its a process. I am ever vigilant/watchful; however, I don't want it to completely spoil some of the quirky charms of the area where I am living.

More to come.

brrrr....

According to weather.com, the local forecast says its fair and only 5 degrees but feels like minus 9 degrees. I just came inside. I think its bitterly cold, bright and sunny, and to say that it only feels like 9 degrees below zero is a generous estimate. But I parked far away on a hill and it was very windy when I left the car. I'm just gathering the courage to venture outside again...I want to see if my school's bookstore sells better socks than the ones I'm wearing.

When I was 8, I left New York state. I was young but loyal. I vowed to myself that New York would always be my home. But after living in other places, who knew I'd feel like such a transplanted westcoast/southerner when I finally came back?

I just read "Seeing Red," an article in the Jan. 16th Washington Post magazine about the outcome of the election. The author states: "The decision to vote for Bush instead seemed wrapped up in the age-old city vs. rural dichotomy, change vs. tradition, theory vs. horse sense, new vs. familiar." This is what I remember about the election outcomes: I was in a cafe with an old friend and his friend, and both of them were railing against the voters who had re-elected Bush. They did indeed seem to embody what this author criticizes. That is to say, they were making broad generalizations in saying that the people who had voted for Bush were obviously so very closed minded and ignorant, etc. etc. etc. I told them I had many friends and family members who had voted for Bush. They treated me to an chilly, unforgiving, piteous silence and then resumed their railing against those voters. They'd also both donated to Kerry's campaign, and I do think that maybe it was just the heat of the moment and a bit of post election bitterness on their part. But I'd also have to say that, in that state of mind and verbal expression, they certainly were not the sort of people I'd nominate to go out and recruit to influence the vote. As an aside, in that chilly silence, I couldn't help but remind myself that both of them were in much better straits financially than I was, and had a lot more free time on their hands. (They didn't seem much happier for it in light of their supposedly wasted efforts due to the election results however!) So in reading this Washington Post article, I could relate to this author's take on the situation, i.e. that maybe there were a lot of people who voted for Bush, not because they absolutely loved him, but simply because he was less threatening and more importantly, because he didn't represent this idea that the "elitist intellectuals" don't respect their opinions. I personally disagree with that stance and I did not vote along those lines, but in light of that post election get together with a friend and an acquaintance, I feel like I can understand it. I thought that it was a good article with interesting photos, and a compelling graphic of "red America."

After reading Long Quiet Highway, by Natalie Goldberg

it is also very important to follow it up by reading The Great Failure.

http://www.nataliegoldberg.com/

Link to Bandelier

http://www.nps.gov/band/

Spent Christmas in Santa Fe, New Mexico and visited the Santo Domingo and Cochiti pueblos and watched the dances on Christmas day. There were smiling young men dressed in red around the kiva at the Santo Domingo reservation. At first, they reminded me of Buddhist monks...perhaps because I've been rereading Long Quiet Highway by Natalie Goldberg.
www.nataliegoldberg.com

Also revisited Bandelier National Park, which I visited when I was eight (?) I think, and my father was living in Los Alamos.

The large sky made me feel very present and human.

view the pre raphealite painting, and then the photo....

http://members.fortunecity.com/cadieux3/preraph.html

(by artist Marie Chantal Cadieux)

Tried to find a depiction of "Temperance" from Christine de Pizan's Epistle of Othea online, but I couldn't. Instead...

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/Images/ARTH_214images/Manuscripts/15_century/Chris_Front/BN_fr_848_pres.jpg&imgrefurl=http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/christin.html&h=450&w=254&sz=50&tbnid=h5lBAQBwi40J:&tbnh=122&tbnw=69&start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3DHector%2BOthea%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D

temperance in the history of ideas

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv4-49

Went apartment hunting and walked into an apartment filled with painted glass windows (not in the windows) and photography. An old fashioned film projector and a large silver screen in lieu of a television set in the living room. Upon leaving, discovered I was in the apartment of a kid from last year's yoga/meditation class.

new life over in a studio apartment over a health food store on another street in a new city folic acid 800 mcg 3x day paba boron vitamin e vitamin a dosage not determined

quote of the moment

"Just accept the fact" she said "that you work better under pressure."

songs

The Stranger

http://www.leonardcohen.com/lc14_07.html

Hang on Little Tomato

http://www.alwaysontherun.net/martini.htm#hang