Today is a day that requires puppies. Lots and lots of puppies.
1. My favorite tweet of recent memory, by marchinko: "Ricky Martin came out. I wish Sarah Palin would come out. I think she'd feel a lot better if she finally admitted, "Yep, I'm stupid.""
2. Don't ask for a blessing from my parents if you want to marry me. It...kind of creeps me out. Your mileage will, of course, vary but you know I'm 41, I own my own apartment it's a little weird if I'm not the first person you tell about your intentions.
3. I'm getting married next summer.
4. One of the first three things on this list is a lie.
5. Do you ever write fan letters to famous folk? Any tips?
6.
Checking in on The Year of Yes. New information is italicized.
1. Say yes - I struggle with this one. I've done a lot of saying yes to not doing things. It's still present in my everyday thinking, though.
2. Buy Flash - DONE
3. Write a book - Hit a snag, trying to write through it.
4. Singing lessons regularly
5. Perform
6. Fix house - DONE
7. Commit to writing and administration work for The Women's Colony for one year (I write twice per week and have agree to set up and oversee Twitter & Facebook for the site.) - Do we have any Twitter experts out there? I'm trying to figure out how to run a Twitter giveaway contest and the logistics are eluding me.
8. Plan Italy trip - Told mom about it so it's out there in the universe now. Now we HAVE to do it. I'm really glad!
9. Renew passport - Have resigned myself to not finding my old passport. Am working on paperwork for renewing it without that now.
10. Go to Blogher - August. I bought my ticket so it's official, I'm going!
11. Write Aunt Rena once a week
12. Sign up for some online dating site - I have followed the letter of this law but not the spirit, more work to be done, more yes to be said.
13. Go on enough dates to judge the dating site
14. At least one session with the fabulous PT, Shelley
15. Write a Life List (per the Maggie Mason model) - Look for an incarnation of this to appear in this space later this week. It's not 100 things long but that's OK, there's good stuff on it.
16. Take Flash class - DONE I took it and I loved it!
17. Attend live theatre - already seen Let Me Down Easy and In The Next Room, a Ping Chong piece. Saw Reduced Shakespeare with Carmencita & Alita. Saw Glee Club, which was a delight.
18. Mermaid Parade - June
19. Take Alita bowling
20. Composting - I've been doing this. Not every, every, every week but I'm saving the compostables and bringing them when I can. It's not so bad.
21. Lose 10-15lbs - Yeah, so this has been a month of setbacks on this. I'm at 136 and hoping for the best.
22. Visit Governor's Island
23. Sushi class with Chrome - Bought a coupon but haven't gotten confirmation on it yet, have to work on that.
24. Attend Charlie & Spoon's wedding - That's the Sunday before Memorial Day in Ohio.
25. Write an article to submit to magazines - Making good headway on this as well. It's very emotional, though.
26. Get a massage
27. Dental appointment
28 Gyn appointment
Against my better judgment I saw Greenberg today with some friends. It was...not my favorite. Which is fine, I've got opinions just like everyone else. What was my favorite, though, was the outraged old biddy I got trapped behind on the way out of the theatre. "That," she harped, "was garbage!" You know, the way certain old ladies will really put the emphasis on garbage so you know they don't mean a receipt you've recycled, they mean something awful, something much, much worse, something from the back of the fridge that you put in there last Thanksgiving and forgot about, seriously, garbage. "Garbage!" she repeated. Then she went on, "I just don't know. Why would he do that!" A big Ben Stiller fan, I guess. She's got a point, I mean, why would he choose to do this slightly artsy, insider Hollywood sort of flick? He's Ben Freaking Stiller. He did Starsky & Hutch and Dodgeball and Along Came Polly for heaven's sake, he's got standards!
I came to a horrible realization a couple of weeks ago by way of preparing my taxes. No, that realization was not that it's the middle of March and I haven't done my taxes yet. That actually doesn't bother me a whole lot. (Go ahead fan yourself and put a cold cloth on the back of your neck, I know. And you know I'm not this relaxed about most things.)
I realized that in 2009 I probably didn't do anything to justify being called an actor or a writer or a performer of any kind. At least in terms recognized by the Federal Government, that is. So I could spend all these hours gathering all these receipts and it might not matter a hoot. Administrative Assistants don't get to deduct much of anything except a little piece of our souls, every day.
I submitted the plays to a couple of things. I applied for a space grant, I believe. I didn't perform anywhere. I didn't get paid for anything, not even a laughable honorarium. I didn't even try.
Which is probably why I'm not that hard on myself for not having my taxes done a week before April sets in. I've got a lot bigger things of which to be ashamed.
I know that I'm a terrible primary source. I am, however, an excellent secondary one. I'm an observer girl, it's the way I'm wired. And what have I been observing lately? Oh what do you think?
10 Things Health and Healthcare Reform related
1. I don't think the bill is perfect. I'm learning more about it every day and I can see why people object to some of the parts of it. I do not see why anyone is saying we shouldn't have passed anything at all. I am choosing to see this as a foot in the door with improvements possible in the future. I could be wrong, it's happened before, but I do feel we're better off than we were before. At the same time I fear what many people will be proposing as "improvements."
2. Via Gothamist, an interactive (sort of) and simple guide from the NY Times to how the new law will impact you based on what your health care situation is right now.
3. Via Feministing, too many links to even count regarding how the new law will impact women, how it has failed in regard to reproductive rights and how it might be improved.
4. Dooce explained how and why this healthcare reform in particular will benefit her family.
5. Scalzi praises and scolds both sides of this debate relatively equally. He even does a little projecting about what this means for both parties politically in future. I had thought we'd have a similarly birpartisan response from MAB but nothing yet. Keep your eye on him, I'm willing to be he has something to say.
6. Susie Bright's tongue in cheek (I believe) round up of quotes from anti-reformists.
7. Here's Feministing's concise bullet point post just after the reform passed. Look there for a quick idea of what's good and what's going to come back to bite us (hello, Stupak!).
8. And here, also from Feministing, are the details on the anti-choice executive order that Obama signed which helped get the reform passed.
9. Chili's 10 Things today are all pro-choice, so big ups to her! (This is a hint about what I might label an "improvement" to our current healthcare reform.)
10. Let's close with food. Today is Ben & Jerry's free cone day so get thee on that. Also, Sars has kicked off the voting in the NCandyAA and you might want to put some fluoride in your water and check that out.
Wishing you a happy, healthy Tuesday.
I have some sinus issues. Given my family history I guess I've been lucky to have gone this long without really having to address them. The past few years, though, have been tough. I sometimes get headaches that are untouchable by any means at my disposal. I'm reluctant to try a lot of decongestants, especially systemic ones, because I battle the dehydration and nosebleed issues. I had one of these crippling headaches Saturday night and Sunday. I tried nasal spray and aleve and was about to go with an amateur craniotomy when I decided to go to Facebook for some help. Desperate times... My friend Kim said this:
"Eucalyptus oil or vicks on the soles of your feet, chest & under nose. Feet are the most important of this equation because large pores in feet carry the Eucalyptus through your system most fast. Had a boyfriend who knew all sorts of things like this & I'll tell you, I had congestion that I just could not deal with - he put Eucalyptus oil (diluted in some olive oil) on my feet & I was better in the morning."
Just filled out my 2010 Census form. It was hardly anything at all given that I'm the only human in this apartment. I thought they'd at least want to know what sort of dwelling I was in but I guess not.
I remember it being quite a long but fun process. Of course that's from the census of 1980. My mom sat me down and walked me through filling it out for our family that year. It was where I learned about racial identification since I grew up in an almost entirely white place. Of course I was filling it out for three people so I guess it would have been a slightly longer process in any case.
No memory at all of the census in 1990 and 2000. I was at college and then I was living on my own. Not sure if I filled anything out or not.
Have you been counted census-wise? Is this the first time?
I hate vomit, vomit skeeves me out beyond most things.
But I'm going to talk about it anyway.
Cats vomit, they just do, you know? It's gross and it can happen for a variety of non-emergent reasons but it's one of the many prices one pays for having the furry little fuckers around.
Recently my cats have been whooping it up like mardi gras. I think it's the weather. They chase each other over the furniture, they deliver repeated smack downs, tails are being corralled for punishment. It's sort of hilarious given that they're almost 10 years old at this point.
There was some chasing going on this morning. Huge circles around the apartment no matter what was in their way. I was sitting on the couch and the action took a pause near my feet. (It's OK, my feet don't get it.) The little furballs stared at each other a moment and one made a sort of "urp" kind of noise that was new to me. Then everything took off again.
Moments later I heard the terrifying precursor noise that hacking, gaggy sort of thing that gets you bolt out of bed to whip a cat onto bare floor. I checked it out and bare floor had already been achieved so I waited. Then I looked again.
Well, that was a mistake.
Due to complex digestive constraints my spoiled felines are restricted to eating a pretty expensive wet food made of venison and green peas. It looks basically the same coming out of the can as it does coming out of the cat. Miss Anna managed to give up everything she ate earlier. It was a lot of mess and man, did I ever not want to have anything to do with cleaning that up.
So I didn't.
I would have. I promise. But that food is expensive and so are paper towels and good lord it was gross. I needed a few minutes to steel myself for the task. By the time I turned around it was like nothing had ever happened.
I'll mop the floor when I clean tomorrow, I promise. I just really didn't want to scoop that up.
So the point of that last post was to explain why I didn't post a Nearly Wordless Wednesday even though today was St. Patrick's Day and I usually go out and take pictures since I work so close to the big parade but apparently once I got started I completely forgot why I was writing.
Couldn't take pictures. Was inside bleeding. Took pictures later. Haven't processed them yet.
Woof. Maybe I lost more blood than I thought.
My lunch break today found me sitting at my desk bleeding from the nose into a series of soggy tissues and waiting for the phone to ring. I couldn't leave the desk until my boss's lunch was delivered and bleeding in an open plan office in front a a bunch of people wearing shoes more expensive than my entire wardrobe makes me anxious. Which is always good for lowering the blood pressure.
I wound up begging a favor and sending someone else for the food when the call came in then hiding in the "lounge" area of the ladies' room. That particular area is decorated in bright white and mirrors like the room where they make you wait while they size your straight jacket. I imagine. The kindly receptionist brought me ice and a combination of icing my face and psychology produced a mind and matter situation that kept me from having to figure out where the nearest and/or best ER is to the office. (NYU is closest, Cornell/Weill is best, I've since decided.) The margins on that decision were slimmer than I like, though.
I think I bruised the bridge of my nose. Not with pressure but because the skin's so close to the bone and since the clotting has occurred there's not much room for the extra blood. My eyes feel swollen. I got blood on the crotch of my jeans. From my nose. That's new. I'd been doing so well this season, too. Nary a drop of nasal blood shed. I remember thinking that to myself earlier in the week. Won't make that mistake again. I probably should have left an apology note for the office cleaning lady because the ladies' bathroom trash looks like a scene out of Dexter.
I find my proclivity for bleeding from the schnozz sort of hilarious. I mean, I'm not allowed to donate blood for any sort of good cause but I've apparently got so much in there I can just waste it all over a white lounge and my cheap ass jeans. That seems...wrong, don't you think?
My mother, yesterday's birthday girl, believes quite strongly in mind over matter. If, for instance, you're afraid you might get laid off she'll quickly jump in, "Oh, that's not going to happen." Now, I haven't even gathered anecdotal evidence about her success rate but I've certainly inherited the impulse.
It's an especially useful sort of thing when you're babysitting. Some regular kid calamity will happen and faces will crumple and by my mother's law you say, kindly, "Oh, you're OK. You're fine!" while surreptitiously checking for any bones pointing in the wrong direction. Conservatively I'd say 99 kids out of 100 fail to work up a good cry. Even if you discover an errant bone in your search.
She's most likely to use it, though, on illness. "I think I'm coming down with _______." "Oh no, you're not going to get that!" Worked like a charm for me and H1N1 this year. Well, really it was the corollary that worked, "You know, I think you had a mild case of it before so you're immune now." (My mother is convinced that some rash I had on my hand when I was 10 was chicken pox and that's why I've never had a full blown case.)
As you know, I was planning a quick trip up to New England for a 70th birthday dinner with mom and Aunt Rena (who, not for nothing, turned 95 last Sunday). The plan was to drive up Friday. On Thursday afternoon mom called me at work to tell me there'd been an outbreak of stomach flu at her workplace. Did I still want to come? She didn't want to infect me. I assumed mom had already decided she wasn't getting it. Did she still want to have dinner? She did. So I'd stick to the plan.
While I was in the shower Friday morning she left a voice mail. Luckily I noticed it before I walked out the door. She'd gotten stomach flu and battled it all night. She didn't really feel like having dinner any more. So we rescheduled.
Rena, however, has declared she's not getting it. Considering how well she's doing with her vow not to die I'm inclined to believe her.
Well, here's the birthday girl.
OK, it's not a current photo.
I'm not having dinner with her tonight because the universe gave her a very special 70th birthday present: stomach flu.
We've decided to postpone.
The other girl had a birthday last Sunday. It was not her 70th. She's postponing as well.
I feel certain we've played this before but, hey, it's always a good game. When I'm trying to be careful of rewarding myself with food I sometimes buy myself a scratch off lottery ticket. The key here is not to scratch right away but to think seriously about what you'd do with it, really dream for a while, and then scratch it. That way, even if you don't win you have the present of your dreams.
I bought one that could yield $1,000 per week for life. (Cross your fingers.)
Often I say I'd quit my job but right now I think I'll keep it....for now. In December I'll probably see about cutting back to 2 days.
Mama wants new shoes and lots of 'em.
More money to Haiti and Cuba and the Humane Society and Donors Choose and a bunch of other places.
New glasses, even though they probably will be bifocals.
New, non-granny underwear and a couple of proper bras.
Ceiling fans.
Cleaning lady once a week.
Zip Car membership.
Go see Next to Normal, Fela!, The Fantastiks, Michael Feinstein, Wishful Drinking and many, many more.
A knit dress, I'm somehow fascinated by them right now.
Pay for all 4 of the proposed members of the mythical (but increasingly real) Italy trip.
Get my hair colored (thus making myself feel good and boosting the business of a small business owner that I love).
Big cocktail party with all my people. Catered. Natch.
Go to Portland, OR to see Todd in a play.
Visit Misti.
Visti Dion and see a bunch of Chicago theatre.
Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
New computer.
iPhone
Rent a theatre for a month and produce a whole lot of material in it.
And much, much more. What frivolous (and important) things are you dreaming of? Feel free to come back if you remember something. I'll be driving and eating and drinking and visiting but I'll come back to you soon.
So, back in Brooklyn in my 'hood (ish) there's a protest of magnitude to warrant a "Level 3 Mobilization" by the NYPD (Blue). I'm very much behind this protest and very much do not appreciate our happy-go-lucky borough Pres belittling the righteous anger.
What's going on in your neighborhood?
You guys, I'm so discouraged I'm in tears.
First, there's no reason to believe I'm going to lose my health insurance. My plan, is however, unsustainably expensive. I'm not going to go into the whole story right now, though I know I'll be writing it out soon. The upshot is that it's $1,529 per month just to cover me and that's the only individual POS plan available in my state right now.
For a couple of years now I've been trying to pull the costs down and have finally called in some big guns for help and my boss and the guns and I are having a conference call to discuss solutions. In preparation for that I called my current carrier, AETNA, to see if they had any comparable plans to the options the guns have given out which are Oxford/United Healthcare. I could switch to an HMO with AETNA, there's no out of network coverage, the co-pays are larger and the premium? $1,204 per month, which is what my current plan was up until last September.
There's another, more restrictive, plan I could try for. But I'd have to make under a certain amount and I think I'm just over it.
I almost cried on the phone. This deep inside part of me wanted to just unleash on this random AETNA lackie on the other end of the phone but I was so discouraged that I couldn't even do that, I just hung up and tried not to cry.
Some woman over at the Colony (can't remember where) left a comment about how she hasn't had health insurance for most of her adult life and she doesn't want to have any and she'd RATHER DIE than have government run health care. I don't really get where she was coming from and I haven't seen her explain herself. I'd rather not die, though. And I'd rather not go broke trying not to die. And I'd really like to get a whole bunch of insurance executives in a room and do a little round table discussion of our "health insurance stories."
But I guess the Obamas already have that covered and plenty of people have worse stories than me.
Which just makes me cry harder.
Had a composting fail today. Apparently you can only compost if you get out of the house early. Hmph.
It put me in mind of another epic fail of mine. You see, until I went to college I was never instrumental in a moving of house, as it were. We moved twice when I was a kid, once to the UK and once back from it, but I was a kid so I didn't have to do anything about it. So I hadn't had a lot of practice, is what I'm saying.
Right before I graduated from college I packed up all my things and a friend who was good at moving came to help put it all on the truck. She took one look around and said, "I can't do anything with this."
I had a method. I always have a method it just usually isn't one that works. It seemed dangerous to pack all the fragile things in one box. I mean, you drop that box and all your fragile things are gone! So I'd proceeded to pack one fragile thing in each box, surrounded by sturdy things. Every box was marked fragile.
What's more? I had trouble working out what should fit in what size box. Something was invariably sticking out the top of a box so I'd toss the top away and think, "Well, this one will just go on top." All of my boxes were top boxes. There just wasn't anything for them to go on top of.
As time has gone on I've gotten better at moving.
But not much.
In honor of Women's History Month I've got a question for you. During the 2008 Presidential election Audio Girl stood firm in her belief that sexism is more prevalent than racism in our society because we don't notice it. We assume that treating women in one way or another is just the way things are not an example of a deep seated agreement that women are less than men. Is it better than it used to be? Well, sure, I've watched as much Mad Men as the rest of you. That doesn't make it good, though.
I'm inclined to move over to Audio Girl's camp on this one. We have an African American president, not a female one.
What say you?
It's lunch time. I'm hungry. But I'm waiting for my boss's lunch to be delivered so can't leave the phone to get my own lunch lest I miss the call. I thought I had called in the order early enough to avoid this but I was wrong. Hence your 10 Things this week is going to be stuff I wish I was eating right this second.
1. Sushi. The order I'm waiting on? Sushi. But I packed my healthful and cheap lunch so I'm not getting any.
2. For some reason I've been craving tuna casserole lately. I've never made tuna casserole in my life but I'm all for it right now.
3. Moist chocolate cake with some kind of decadent frosting. How come no one frosts chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting?
4. Lobster. I pretty much always want lobster.
5. A really good champagne. Eden posted a photo of her fridge and it made me want some stellar stuff.
6. Pigs in blankets with some sort of sweetish dipping sauce.
7. A creamy soup of some sort. Seafood bisque, clam chowder, potato leek soup, almost anything will do.
8. An ice cream sundae with tons of hot fudge sauce, the real homemade kind.
9. Macaroni and cheese with four cheeses, carmelized onions and bacon crumbled on top. Alternatively, fettucine carbonara, which is pretty much the same thing.
10. A burrito with BBQ chicken, black beans, corn salsa and extra guacamole. A big one. Maybe with some guac on the side for dipping.
What are you hungry for? If you need inspiration, check out the Women's Colony photo stream. I'm curating a photo challenge right now and the challenge word is YUM!
Been a while since we've gone all Hot People here. The Olympics seem like a perfect excuse. For the most part I wanted to choose people who were perhaps less prominent in the games coverage (there will be no certain skater of Japanese descent here).
I am almost certain this is Meghan Agosta of the Canadian Women's Hockey Team. The ladies took a lot of guff for their choices in celebrating their gold medals. I think people should step the hell off. Any woman who can play like that and likes to drink a beer is OK in my book.
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