Today is a lovely day. Yesterday and the day before were hot, with highs over 100 degrees. Now, before you chime in with comments about how much worse you have it wherever you live, I would like to state for...
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Getting older happens gradually. In fact, as I once told the owner of a convenience store that was about a block away from the house where I lived at the time, "I was old enough to buy cigarettes two months...
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My dog has become a vicious killer of opossums. Ivy: Vicious Killer of Opossums Napa: Enthusiastic Sidekick I bear no great love for opossums. In fact, they are one of my least favorite animals. If you were to ask me,...
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First things first: many thanks to sun_set_bravely and mabellongettifor the postcards and to mloconno for the care package! Michelle, the Rice Krispie treats were excellent, and you make a mean CD. It's quite possible that you and I are the...
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You're not really supposed to love Los Angeles. Or if you do, you're supposed to do it ironically: you can love L.A., but only in a Randy Newman kind of way. Part of the problem is that nobody really knows...
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The tattooing went very well. And it was fast! My appointment was for 11:30, and I left at about 1:00. My tattoo artist, Paul, said that the process went quickly in part because I'm good at not squirming and because...
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In just a few short hours, this will be what my upper back used to look like, because a man named Paul is going to put a shiny new astrolabe tattoo there. I'm kind of nervous. My other tattoo...
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I just sold my little Corolla to a random guy who appeared in my driveway and offered me cash for it as-is. For a variety of reasons, including a possible out-of-state move in the near future, Jeff and I have...
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Sometimes, when you wake up before 6:00 am for no good reason and decide it's important that you have soup for breakfast, you don't want a Wolfgang Puck hearty penne kind of soup. Nope. You don't want that, and you...
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My name is Shasta. I was born in 1971 to a pair of San Francisco hippies; my mother worked for the Grateful Dead at the time, and my father was--and still is--a luthier. When I was 5, my parents divorced,...
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You know, I am a relatively coordinated person. I move fairly well, and I pick up on things like dance steps quickly--not as quickly as some, but more quickly than most. In high school and college, I was even part...
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Interview questions from springheel_jack: To what does your username refer? It's from a Wallace Stevens poem, "Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction." If you go to my journal or friends page and look at the navigation bar on the right, you'll...
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Questions from alchemi: If a movie was made about your life, what essential scenes would have to be cut to come in below a NC-17 rating? If you're filming the gritty exposé, about half of college and a few stretches...
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Today, I went to Home Depot, and I bought some bags of dirt and some bags of rocks. I also bought some thirsty little plants in dirt and some unthirsty little plants in rocks, as well as a little tree...
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It occurs to me that LiveJournal users seem to get remarkably few comments from people who aren't registered LiveJournal users. In some cases, it's just not an option, as the only way for an unregistered reader to comment is to...
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I don't know what's with me. I keep starting short things that turn into long things. I'm sure it'll pass. My toothbrush is badass. Really, it's impossible to say enough about how badass my toothbrush is. If you took...
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Overheard in a waiting room: Man #1: "Well, that's just sick how O.J. got away with all that. Just plain sick. Somebody should do something about it." Man #2: "That's the Lord's job. O.J. will have his time of reckoning,...
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Hi. I have been feeling anti-Internet lately. I realize that's like being, say, anti-electricity, and it probably gets me put on some sort of List, along with anyone the Unabomber ever talked to and that crazy one-man militia on...
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"The day it rained," someone said to me this weekend, "I got stuck in traffic for over three hours." It took me a second to realize how absurd it was that I knew exactly which day she was talking about,...
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Hi there. I'm in one of those little stretches where I have nothing to say. It happens from time to time, especially after a big writey sort of time. It'll pass. It always does. So, if you'd like the...
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I said I was going to switch to swimming until my ankle healed enough to permit me to do other types of exercise, but I didn't. I finally got stressed out enough about the fact that I wasn't exercising to...
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Insomnia + avoidance of real work + not wanting to do laundry + vanity + distractibility + finding a dress you bought while on vacation + digital camera = posts like this one. It probably would have been good if...
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My ankle hadn't hurt at all for about three days, so I assumed it was fine. By the end of my step class last night, I realized that it felt fine just because I was sitting on a plane and...
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Original Plan: 11:30 - Leave for Claremont to pick up friend 12:15 - Leave Claremont for Redlands 1:00 - 3:00 - Attend baby shower 3:45 ish - Drop off friend in Claremont 4:30 ish - Arrive at home. Stop by...
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This country's going to hell in a handbasket. I've always had this idea that where I should really live is on a commune. Really. I want to buy a small, rustic inn somewhere near a lake, and then invite people...
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Beyond here, there be photos.
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It used to seem like I was always starting over. I went to thirteen schools in nine years, and I switched houses and apartments at even shorter intervals. There was always a new bed, a new room full of faces,...
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I'm not sure why I never heard it before, but somewhere nearby, there is a clock that chimes every hour. It's a few blocks away at the post office, perhaps? It sounds like the kind of grandfather clock I listened...
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I thought I was pretty safe. I really did. I didn't turn on the TV, and I didn't turn on the radio, and all I wanted to do was go to the gym. So, I go to a class I've...
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I make elaborate plans in my head for things that aren't at all likely to happen. Mostly, these things involve getting in my car and driving to places I've always wanted to see, as well as a few places I...
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Because I was going through some old pictures today, and because I really don't care if anyone thinks it's cheesy to post multiple photos of your pets....
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When I was in high school—and when I was home on breaks from college—I worked part-time as a clerk in a family-owned video store called Best Video. Only a few of us worked there, and we all knew the customer...
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You probably don't actually want to read this. Really. I have been cruising the web for bra size calculators this evening. The results have been strange. The calculator at afraidtoask.com tells me that my bra size is a 36 DD...
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I had this idea when I got in bed last night and tonight that I'd actually go to sleep. I guess that was wrong. I caved in and took a sleeping pill shortly before five last night, and I was...
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30 seemed very old to me when I was in my late teens and early twenties. It seemed like a sort of deadline for turning into a real adult. By that time, I thought, I'd have my Ph.D., and I'd...
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I conked out on the couch some time around 10 last night, woke up at 3, went back to sleep at 6, and then slept way too late. Usually, I'd feel terrible after getting so much sleep, but I actually...
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Somewhere around 5:00 pm... "Wow, honey, you're still organizing?" "Yup!" I say, diligently separating the tacks from the nails from the screws from the picture hangers and putting them into their proper compartments in my handy sorting box. "That's really...
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Last night, I filed... everything. No, really. This was a huge undertaking, as my file systems were truly a mess. I've been chipping away at it for weeks, and finally, I just decided to stay up until everything was sorted...
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I believe I have mentioned that we are having serious budget problems at work. In response, we've had to scale down our services dramatically. Hours had to be cut. My own hours were cut by more than half. We had...
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When I stay up this late, I find myself nearly buying things like Bettie Page lighters, retro cocktail sets, and backpacks for the dogs. It's a good thing there's a shred of reason left in my head somewhere. I am...
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Today is better. I am at home, and I have Rufus Wainwright to listen to, and I have Big Plans in the cleaning and organization department. Still, there are times when it starts to seem like there is something really...
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I hate it when my favorite clothes wear out. When I started grad school and was living on $12,000/year, I discovered that the best way to avoid wanting things was to avoid shopping entirely. Especially the mall. Never, ever go...
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I got out of the house for a while yesterday. I received an email on Friday saying that my brother's band would be in LA this weekend, and it suddenly seemed very important that I see him. They were playing...
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I don't remember learning how to swim. It seems like something I've always known how to do. I remember learning one stroke—the butterfly—some time in elementary school, but learning the other strokes was like learning how to read. Once I...
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1) Waking up on a cold weekend morning, feeling warm in bed, realizing I don't have to go anywhere, and snuggling back under the covers to drift asleep again. 2) Sitting in front of a window and watching a storm....
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Interviewing people for jobs is always interesting and a little draining. We've been interviewing candidates for positions at the Writing Center for next year, and it's really quite fascinating to see how differently people react under what is undoubtedly a...
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So, you know that wedding you went to ages ago, and at the reception, there was this godawful band with a lead singer who was bad when he sang, but even worse when he talked, which he never seemed to...
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I'd like to take a brief moment to welcome the kitty back to our family fold. After being gone for almost a week, he showed up outside the sliding glass door by our bedroom with a "meow," and he seems...
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The kitty has gone AWOL, and I miss him. Apparently, he got out while I was in Vegas, and it's now been almost four days since he's been home. He's normally mostly an indoor kitty who makes occasional forays outside,...
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We got almost all our stuff moved into the garage of the new place yesterday, and the process went about as well as such things can go. I sustained only minor injuries: a few bruises and a nasty cut on...
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I didn't do much today, but it was all good. We had fresh bagels from Noah's for breakfast and then took the dogs on a long walk. It was beautiful outside, and the puppies asked us if they please could...
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We had our inspection on the new house done yesterday, and it went just smashingly. The sellers were there, so we got a chance to meet them—I think they took a semi-paternal interest in us. They have kids who are...
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Our landlord is declaring bankruptcy. Apparently, his lawyer told him that he actually has to be living in our house to have the proceedings go through. He just gave us a month's notice to move. (We're on a month-to-month agreement)....
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I have old paper journals. I thought looking at them again would be embarrassing. like remembering when I slipped in front of my fifth grade class. or was a Methodist. or waved around crystals and pretended to be New Age....
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My space heater nearly caught on fire a couple of hours ago. I heard something break within its bowels, then I smelled that funny electrical burning smell, and then I saw a sort of glow begin to form in one...
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and from this site...Lost lands and peoples are not the province only of far-flung oceans. The west- coast region of the United States has also been attributed to have once been a part of Lemuria, remaining above water when...
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