LoveFest

So when I got back on Monday, I took my dog for a stroll around my neighborhood. But first I went to the Produce Place and picked up my bi-weekly brown bag of goods. I love the Produce Place. I love buying groceries. I love putting my groceries away and seeing my full refrigerator and my full cupboards. It makes me feel like a grown up. As if I've accomplished a major feat by being able to feed myself (I guess I sort of have, but, you know). It makes me feel secure to see all of that food in there, especially the healthy stuff. Veggies for colorful salads and organic milk and quinoa. And I love my neighborhood. I love the houses. I love meandering through the state streets with my dog and never getting tired of picking out which house is my favorite. Which houses I'd want to live in. Which one is better than the other and for what reason. I love those first warm days when everyone is out. And I can get a glimpse of the people whose houses I've been envying for months. On days like this one, I love being alive. Can smell life in the air. The sadness and negativity and bullshit fall off, and what's left is the person that I wish I were all the time.

Fleeting, perhaps, but at least she's in there somewhere, right? Just waiting for a little sunshine...

So This Is What Happened...

I drove to Atlanta Thursday, drove to Destin Friday, went to the beach in the morning, went to another beach in the evening (for a wedding, I should add), arrived just after the ceremony happened, went to dinner for the reception, walked along the Fisherman's Wharf, drove back to Atlanta Sunday, and drove back home today.

Turns out I drove 1,151.64 miles for a pizza dinner and a sunburn.

Oy Vey

The smell of fried oil in my office is starting to make me queasy.

I can't decide if my aversion to everyone's disgusting habits is a product of my being overly attuned to what's going on around me or if my superhuman powers of scent and hearing aren't my fault.

Go Green!

Pretty sure this isn't the first time I've used that title, but it's March 21, and it's that time of year again. The Spartans are going to the Sweet 16. Thank god for the internet when you live in the South and your team hails from the Big 10. My borrowed internet connection came through like a champ and I got to watch the second half of the game and the so very enthralling last-second game-winning shot. It was truly beautiful.

Also this weekend we had our book club for "The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant. I pretty much forced this book for March (since I'd read it once before and really loved it). I was a little disappointed that two of our regulars didn't attend, because I was really interested in what they would think about it. It's a retelling of the Dinah story from The Bible. It's told from Dinah's perspective, as Dinah is Jacob's daughter who gets raped in Shechem, and then Jacob's sons slaughter all of the males in the city as revenge. But in the bible Dinah appears in one tiny passage and she has no voice in the story at all. The book is a work of fiction that imagines different motives and events, but spends a lot of time just describing daily life. There's a strong focus on women and I think it's pretty historically accurate in describing every day life and customs for these biblical women. Even the men in book club seemed to enjoy it. So check it out if you enjoy historical fiction. It may even inspire you to get familiar with more bible stories if, like me, you didn't attend Sunday school as a child.

A good friend from high school is getting married next weekend, so I'm looking forward to road tripping to the beach and making a little getaway in celebration of the beginning of Spring. It should be a lot of fun, and hopefully not too expensive. It will be nice to get a little break from routine. I'm rooting for one day of good weather on Saturday so that we can at least get some sun in the a.m. and make for a lovely sunset wedding.

Happy Sunday. Have a good week.

Your Hyacinth Is Starting To Smell

What I just said to myself, silently cracking myself up. You know, 'cause it sounds bad, but actually it's good.

I got a Spring Britebulb from Trader Joe's the other day (Sunday) for $2.99. I bought one that hadn't started blooming yet so that I could enjoy it in its entirety. It started blooming this morning. It came in a nice little ceramic pot, and once it withers I'm supposed to plant the bulb outside so that it will grow again next year.

Fabulous.

I also want to plant cucumbers, tomatoes and strawberries this year, but I haven't really been on top of getting that started, and if I recall, I should be starting the seeds, like, right now if I want to do them from baby hatchlings, which I do.

Lines Lines Lines

"Heart skipped a beat...

and when I caught it you were out of reach."

~ "Heart Skipped A Beat" The xx

"Oh tell me now, where was my fault,

in loving you with my whole heart."

~ "White Blank Page" Mumford & Sons

"Ill with want and poisoned by this ugly greed."

~ "Ill With Want" The Avett Brothers

"My, my, my heart like a kickdrum,

my, my heart like a kickdrum,

my, my heart like a kickdrum,

My, my love like a voice."

"It's not the chase that I love,

it's me followin' you."

~ "Kick Drum Heart" The Avett Brothers

"I hope we dance tonight,

before we get it wrong."

"Like whispering you know me, you know me."

~ "Three Rounds And A Sound" Blind Pilot

Some of my new favorite lyrics.

Green Hills

So I hate going to the mall. That being said, I decided yesterday that I would make the trek out to the land of compact parking spaces and S.U.V.'s in order to see if Bare Minerals make-up was all that the informercials cracked it up to be, and to use my free panty coupon at Victoria's Secret.

I wasn't super impressed with the make-up at first, but I liked it more the longer I wore it. And yet somehow, with that original goal in mind, the cashier at the Victoria's Secret store managed to sell me on Armani Face Fabric and #10 Sheer Blush with her amazing face get-up.

Now I just need someone to give me $300 spending money. Ha.

Mumford's The Word

Thingies:

I got my hair cut again. It basically looks like the cut I got three-ish years ago. It's not quite shoulder-length. I'm pleased with it. Somehow having less hair looks like more hair when you have my hair.

I've been trying to work out and count calories and not be a piglet. My weight on the scales is pretty stagnant, and my thighs are still rebelling in my jeans. I guess two weeks is a little soon to be expecting results. I've just realized that I love food. I think about food. All of the time. I think the world falls into two categories of people, and I fall into the one that thinks about food all of the time. I can't help it. I enjoy it.

I am going to a birthday celebration this evening which involves Indian food and rollerskating. I hope I'm not making a wardrobe mistake by choosing leggings to skate in. They seemed like the most comfortable option.

A work homey sent me Mumford & Songs - Sigh No More yesterday. I recommend. I started on track 7 and then looped back to the beginning. I'm finding the sound to be very pleasing right now.

My new job is...I'm not sure how to describe it. I guess I'm still getting adjusted. I keep having dreams about it. Not the office itself, or the people, but the actual work. That happens to me when I start at a new position, and it usually indicates a degree of stress. I'm a work in progress, I guess.

Today

Wake up to sunshine streaming through all five giant, campsite windows. Peek at my Tree Of Life. Lay in bed longer than I should while considering playing hooky on such a nice day. Make a delicious breakfast of (warmed) frozen berries, plain yogurt, and imitation honey bunches of oats. Read some Genesis. Shower but don't wash my hair. Get to work on time but not early like I'd hoped. Correspond with record labels and licensing. Set up label copy. Sneak out for a walk in the sun. Eat a delicious salad. Take another walk in the sun. Try not to be a piglet but fail. Make jokes with the EmoMullet instead of looking at the LTD. Start a project but leave at quittin' time instead of staying late like I should. Go to the Y. Sweat. Run 1.50 miles but not continously. Figure out that W&M and ODU stand for William & Mary and Old Dominion and secretly pat myself on the back for being so awesome at college basketball. Wonder to myself why I just can't get into women's basketball? Stare longingly at the game of full court basketball which is impeding my ability to shoot some hoops in the gymnasium. Drive home. Shower. Heat up frozen vegetables for dinner. Count my calories. Eat two extra Dove Bliss Caramel Filled chocolates for dessert 'cause the piglet managed to maintain her calorie count against all odds. Smush the biggest brown recluse I've ever seen. Watch his legs twitch and wonder if he's dead and it's just his nervous system or if the twitching amounts to his last pangs of death. Go pick up Nessa to take old books and bad cd's to McKay. Discuss The Wire. Peruse the aisles for Jay-Z's Black Album or The Blueprint. Sigh that people don't get rid of good cd's. Wander through aisles smelling the delicous smell of books. Get $33 for twenty years' worth of discarded books and cd's. Stop at CVS to spend windfall on unnecessary beauty products. Laugh with Nessa at the various and sundry items available for purchase at CVS (imitation George Foremans, dog Snuggies, Bumpits, small appliances). Make jokes with the cashier while purchasing $8 shampoo and conditioner and don't really feel guilty about it. Discuss Brangelina's absence from the Academy Awards last night. Drop off Nessa. Drive home. Get mail - nothing good. Sit in front of my laptop and long to write but can't capture my thoughts, and so instead type out in strange narrative form the events of my day. Eat too many caramel candies and ruin my daily calorie goal. Leave the windows open at bedtime to smell the rain coming in. Fall asleep after reading about Isaac and Rebekah.