The Atlantic | March 2003 | Caring for Your Introvert | Rauch
Ah, so I can now call myself "introvert" instead of "anti-social."
Welcome to Whoop-Whoop
Right. Cheers. Thanks alot.
Friday, February 28, 2003
Ah, so I can now call myself "introvert" instead of "anti-social."
Thursday, February 27, 2003
Wednesday, February 26, 2003
(T)witchy Woman
I used to joke with my sister that she attracted men that were just a bit "off." Thins like mysterious limps, or croaky voices from scarred vocal cords. There was one guy who had a nervous tic in his eye. Oh how I laughed about that one.
Well, I'm here to say that paybacks are HELL. Last night I developed the most hellacious of headaches. Really super bad. I won't call it a migraine, because I've never been diagnosed as having a migraine. But, I get these killer headaches sometimes (as opposed to your run of the mill over tired/over worked headache). Anyways, one valium later and a night with a heatingpad on my neck and there is something that is like a bruise where the headache used to be. But, it seems I've developed a twitchy eye over night. It's enough to make one mad (der).
Well, eye tic dude, where ever you may be? I apologize profusely for poking fun. Please make it stop.
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
TELEPOPMUSIK Genetic World
You've heard "breathe" on the tv (mitsubishi commercial), you should listen all of their stuff. Vera vera nice.
Monday, February 24, 2003
D and the Jehova's Witness Missionaries
There was a knock on the door this weekend and D was foolhardy enough to answer without a missionary check. He stepped outside to be able to politely tell them that he wasn't interested. But, they wouldn't let him get a word in edgewise. So he waited for the right moment. One of them finally said something like "In these difficult days we find a lot of people turning away from God in confustion..." At which point the D interjected with "Fellows, you are talking to the wrong guy, I never turned to him in the first place...."
Perhaps you had to be there...but JFC, he is the cheeriest of all people and smiley even when he's saying "no thanks."
There are oh so many reasons why I love Allison. Not only is she gorgeous, and smart, funny, keeper of the cutest cats in all the world, and my "supplier" of good literary tips....she's drawing a beag for us to use for Hound Rescue.
Don't be jealous, she's just a lover of the beags.
HoustonChronicle.com - Wife runs over husband in parking lot, police say
Does this make it a trend?
P.S.: Chubbys. I demand extra points for not making the obvious joke here.
Friday, February 21, 2003
HoustonChronicle.com - Transplant teen has severe brain damage
This story is not only sad for the poor girl and her family, but for the family of the donors of those two sets of heart and lungs.
Simple! A cure for insomnia....
All it takes 6 beagles, 1 blue tick coon hound, and 1 border terrier. All in the same house. While it pours rain outside.
If you aren't exhausted after that, then there may be no help for you.
Thursday, February 20, 2003
Can't get you out of my my head.....
Eres Tu - Mocedades
There is absolutely no reason for this. None.
All day long.
Only the refrain.
Over and over in my brains.
(Shut up, you do too know this song...you may not know it, but you do.)
(Kyle Minogue reference was only to throw you off.)
Beagle News
We've had some really good stories in beagle rescue lately, which kind of alleviates some of the sadness over Albie. One little guy just got placed. I was able to find a foster for an "emergency" case. Ginger made it through her last round of heartworm treatment. The hound girl I'm picking up today is heartworm negative! Yay!
Foreign Films
Last night, in another depressing bout of unable to sleep-edness I tuned the tv to the Sundance channel. The scene was somewhat dark and by the time I'd adjusted volume I noticed that there were english subtitles. I thought "GREAT! Subtitles! Yay!" as subtitles usually tire me out enough to make me sleepy. But, then I heard the dialogue and the characters were speaking english. The subtitles were in english, and the dialogue was in english. This confused me for a moment. Briefly, I thought this might be some sort of artistic statement. Then it hit me. The characters were speaking with a thick brogue. Ha! (This is the movie I watched for a bit last night.)
Amazing how your ear forgets that it once too could not easily understand a scottish accent. I remember the first time I saw Trainspotting in the theatre, I too had a hard time understanding the dialogue. A year later when I saw it on free to air TV in Australia, I understood everything they were saying perfectly. Sure, living in an environment where everyone thinks YOU have the accent (american vs. australian) helped, but I also worked in a company that was mostly scots. I even picked up a few (ok maybe like two) key phrases in Aberdonian.
So, this little experience got me thinking back to when I was a wee bairn (lassie) (sorry, I had to), when we first moved to the US I remember sitting in front of the telly unable to understand the dialogue on sesame street. Those where the days when spanish was my primary language. Now I can't imagine not being able to understand english. And, that includes all accents of english.
Right.
Second note to self: You are a knob. Now you've screwed up that previous note to yourself. This is where your wishlist is!
Wednesday, February 19, 2003
Forced Charity
Tonight, pencilled into my exciting social calendar out here in the 'burbs is an evening engagement. Scandalous! On a Wednesday night! What will the neighbours think!
Oh god, the truth is that I'm trying (futiley) to convince myself that this evening will be an honor. I will feel honored. The truth is, the only reason I HAVE to go is because of that silly incident earlier this year. You know the one. When I was roped into coordinating the corporate forced charity campaign? (The memory of which always sends me into paroxysms of annoyance due to the "chilli incident.")
One and half hours people! In Conroe. So we can receive our honor for being some big wheel corporate donor. Hors d'oevres to be served. I can only imagine...I see dried out trays of crudites (imagine the accent) and ranch dip, Bowls of chips (which will have been rummaged through by countless unwashed hands), delixmex microwaved taquitos.....
Will this torturous assignment of forced charity participation ever end?
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
You know that one of my steadfast rules in life is that lime makes everything taste better, right? Well, I thought I'd share with you my version of a "Michelada" which is really just a low-brow mexican style shandy.
First, put your beer mug in the freezer in happy anticipation. Gather your ingredients! Namely:
1 good dark mexican beer (Indio if you are lucky enough to get it, but Negra Modelo will do fine)
1 nice ripe lime
louisiana hot sauce
Juice the entire lime into the prepared icy mug and add a prodigious amount of louisiana hot sauce. No, not tabasco, louisiana hot sauce. Add a couple ice cubes and pour in your beer. Give it a swirl and enjoy!
It's like summer in a beer mug.
Monday, February 17, 2003
Sort-Of Game
There is this sort of game I play. I've played it all my life, I think. Well, actually it isn't a game at all, not when it comes down to it.
It's called the "what-if" game...but not to second-guess decisions (though I do that too.) This is a what-if disaster game. Like standing on the curb while a bus speeds by only inches away and thinking...."What if I'd stepped out in front of it..." I imagine it in vivid detail...would I get mashed under the tires or go bounding off the front? Would my body arc in the air? Or would it just fall over, legs askew?
No! I'm not sad or suicidal. It is just interesting to think about how close we all are to disaster every day.
What if I were to step off this ledge?
What if I were to cross the median?
What if I drove off this bridge?
I don't do it because I'm sad. But, it is a weird way of reminding myself how lucky it is that I'm still standing here every day...and how quickly that could change through a moment of carelessness or bad luck.
The stench, good god, the stench!
It is not even 11 am and somebody has already reheated their leftover dinner, which was obviously some fish concoction.
The smell is enough to make me retch.
Sunday, February 16, 2003
Baby, it's positively chilly out there!
So, what is one to do when it is cold outside? Why make a curry of course! Tonight I made chicken in a creamy tomato cashew sauce and coconut rice. (All from scratch thank you very much!)
Super yum!
Wanna come over for dinner sometime?
Friday, February 14, 2003
Much Obliged
I'm not one (at ALL) for manufactured holiday, especially those that encourage forced sentiment. The thought of thousands of people having obligatory forced chore-like sex with their "valentine" tonight, (you know, because, after all, it's valentine's day) just icks me out completely.
Instead of ranting on about how forced sentimentalism is not romantic at all, I thought I'd try a different tactic. For all of those actually into the whole "it's valentine's day, so let's talk about love" thing, I thought I'd put up a lovely little bit snipped from one of my favourite poets.
So, without further ado and general crabbiness about how revolting it is that there will be mad and feelingless coupling going on all over the shop tonight, here's a little something from Neruda:
De todas las cosas que he visto
a ti quiero seguirte viendo,
de todo lo que he tocado,
solo tu piel quiero ir tocando:
amo tu risa de naranja,
me gustas cuando estas dormida.
Que voy hacerle, amor, amada,
no se como quieren los otros,
no se como se amaron antes,
yo vivo viendote y amandote,
naturalmente enamorado.
(I'm sure you can find the translation in a million and one places as this is one of his best known pieces.)
Playse Exploooyn (tm: Pauline Hanson)
Can someone please explain to me why I have suddenly gotten a fascination with trying to download "french pop." (Which is more difficult than you think, as I am not french, do not have a clue about what french pop is, nor do I speak french.)
It all started rather nostalgically with my downloading of spanish pop (not spanish as in the language, but spanish as in from Spain)..and somehow ended up with me downloading some rather weird french music that is definately not pop. I think this is somehow connected to my recent fixation on listening to "La Vie En Rose" thanks to her and her daily specials.
Can anyone point me to some french pop charts? Or something? Or distract my pea brain with some other bizarreness?
Update: This is evlovling all rather badly. I've now moved on to brazilian pop. At this point, I'm no longer fighting it. Also if anyone can point me to an online resource of archived top 40 lists for Spanish charts...please do. (In particular, summer 1990).
Thursday, February 13, 2003
What this girl really wants...
Make no bones about it (and, no, that is not a sneak reference to a "boner"), what I want more than anything right now is to lay down in a freshly made bed in comfy jim-jams and drift off to the land of nod for about 3-6 weeks.
I am exhausted for no discernable reason.
True, I haven't been sleeping all too well lately...but this is nothing new for me. It's not so much insomnia (which I sometimes have) but interrupted sleep. That is, drifting off for a couple hours and then waking up. Getting annoyed and finally falling back asleep, only to wake up an hour later. Lather, rinse, repeat.
It occurrs to me that my grandmother has always complained about not being able to sleep for as long as I can remember.
Oh god.
29 and already turning into my grandmother?
Wednesday, February 12, 2003
Just Trying to be Helpful...
If you keep talking and talking and talking about all the different approaches we could take to building this financial comarison model, we will actually never get around to building it. Stop talking to me so that I can just get it done. It doesn't need to be this hard.
JUST SHUT UP!
Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!
You've had one more thought on it? Oh god! I'm going to have to punch you. Just stop. Let me just get on with it.
Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Somedays, the burbs aren't so bad....
Today was one long annoying sequence of dilbert-esque boring and disorganized work occurrences. It was one of those days that I worked with hardly a break, but still had nothing to show for it.
I have one of those slow but steady headaches.
Days like today, I have to tell you living in the 'burbs is not so bad. After my five minute drive home, we saddled up the dogs and went on walks (two shifts) on the manicured paths through the woods. Then I went upstairs with my glass of Fat Bastard shiraz and filled my jetted tub and spent a half-hour pretending I today didn't happen.
By the time I made it downstairs my dinner was already being cooked.
Life is fine, indeed.
PS. Pumpkin Pie flavoured cream cheese? So good! (Shut up you!)
Morrissey - Everyday Is Like Sunday
I find both smells and music evocative.
I hear this song and I'm 15 again, in Spain.....
Warning: Sad Beagle Story
Albert was a young, cute beagle. They thought maybe two years old at most. But, Albert had some problems. Most obvious was that he only had a partial tail. And, he seemed to be not put together right int he hind quarters. And, let's face it, Albert was a bit "Gumpish." But, damn, he was a cute boy. Very, very sweet. Lived to be by your side. He couldn't get enough of being cuddled and patted.
Albert began to exhibit signs of pain and loss of bladder control...so he was taken in to be assessed by a specialist. The news was pretty bad. Sometime in his short little life he'd suffered a pretty huge trauma that resulted in a broken pelvis and a broken leg. Both had obviously healed with no treatment, leaving him with a deformity in his pelvis and one leg shorter than the other. It was obvious he was suffering from some nerve damage, and for a moment there Sandra (the head of the Houston Hound Rescue program) considered letting Albert go. But, she couldn't without giving him every chance.
Yesterday, after exploratory surgery indicated that the injury to his nerves was irreperable and excrutiating pain unavoidable for little Albie...the hard decision was made and Albert was put to sleep.
We are just sick about it. He was such a happy-go-lucky dog, despite his injuries. He deserved so much more.
I encourage you to make a small donation in Albie's memory.....he's beyond help now, but as encouragement to help the next "Albie" that comes along.
Monday, February 10, 2003
There are STARVING! people in my office....
How do I know, you ask? Well, whenever there is leftovers from a working lunch somehow the hordes sense it and I can hear the migration of the herd towards the breakroom where they will eat leftover soggy sandwiches and whatever is left of the fruit salad like they haven't had food in years. Never mind they just came back from lunch smelling of fastfood grease.
Free food in the break room? RUN! don't walk...... You don't usually eat old potato salad? Who cares! Pile it in anyways...after all, it is food, and free and you are STARVING!
Sunday, February 09, 2003
Always Welcom in our House
We had houseguest this weekend. Let me tell you, they were the ideal guests. Firstly, they brough me the requested muffaletta (which I was only hoping for...not expecting), but not only that... They brought me bread pudding from Red Fish Grill, which you've probably heard me prattling on about before. It came complete with praline and bourbon vanilla sauces! That was beyond lovely of them to do.
Not only that, any houseguest that is comfortable to end up covered with dog hair and who will love on and let dogs sit by them on the couch are welcome in our house any time!
(Ruby espcially endorses B's scratching technique!)
Saturday, February 08, 2003
When it is cold and greay (<---apparently I couldn't decide between a or e, though I usually go with e) outside...
I suggest a cup of hot chocolate and a good movie in your pajamas.
Friday, February 07, 2003
Addendum
(And a preview to a new round of 100words entries)
You know what I find really interesting about the “human experience?” The fact that at base level, you really do feel everything is about you. What I mean is, no matter how you intellectualize it…as a knee-jerk reaction, everything feels like it is about you. Whether or not you act on this perception is another story. Undeniably, we are all the narrators of our own story, so the idea of you as a central point makes sense (ie. like Foucault’s Pendulum), but the truth is that sometimes things happen for reasons that have nothing to do with you at all.
Conspiracy of Idiocy
Do you ever have moments when you are convinced that people are being stupid just to annoy you?
Thursday, February 06, 2003
(Warning: "Bad" Words Ahead!)
Some people use pet names with each other.....
A snippet of a typical on-line "chat" between the D and I:
C: I'm coming home for lunch now FuckKnuckle.
D: Rightie-oh then, CuntFeatures
C: No need to get rude FuckNose.
D: Sorry, CuntFeatures is like infinity...there is nothing worse than that, so give up
C: True. Now go fix my lunch!
It's troo wub!
Wednesday, February 05, 2003
I'll never get voted Ms.Congeniality
An incident from my past that highlights this postulation:
My junior year at Rice, my roommate and I were assigned two freshman "suitemates" (our rooms shared a common bathroom). I didn't think much of it, as I'm usually a live and let live sort of person. I say usually. But, I soon was at direct odds with them. It wasn't so much the constant recorder concert that drifted from their room, nor the smell...it was the piles and piles of dishes in their sink in the bathroom. They would bring their meals upstairs and were too lazy to take their dishes back down to the commons. So they piled them in their sink and on the floor in front of their sink. That was revolting enough, but I gritted my teeth through it. The day I went to brush my teeth to find them using "our" sink and not exactly being quick about their zealous teeth brushing was the final straw. Not only did I have to clean up their spittle and toothpaste on the mirror...I had to wait until they were done to finish getting ready to get to class.
That was it.
I was pissed.
That day, after they merrily tripped off to class with recorder in hand...I picked up every single one of the dishes...put them in their beds, and neatly made the bed over the dishes.
They never said a thing to me about it, but there was never another dish piled in their sink.
Muffuletta!
A friend who lives in NOLA is coming to visit this friday. She asked if we had any requests from the big easy.....this was mine.
Tuesday, February 04, 2003
For those keeping score at home:
1. I did the only thing I could think to do to defeat the endless loop of "beyond bonny banks and beyond bonny braes...." in my head. I started singing "Danny Boy" over and over in my head. It was Ireland vs. Scotland. In the end they both gave up and went to the pub for rounds of pints.
2. Rufus has a new home. Aww. It was tough to say goodbye to him, though he's not far away. He'll be living close by and we'll probably see him now and again. In a way it's lucky he went, otherwise we'd have four dogs of our own.
3. We got a stationary bike this weekend. That's why I'm walking like this.
Monday, February 03, 2003
O ye’ll tak’ the high road and I’ll tak’ the low road,
And I’ll be in Scotland afore ye.
But me and my true love will never meet again,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond.
Any explanation why this is the song in my head today?
Any idea how to make it stop?
NEWS.com.au | Entertainment | Aussie behind Joe Millionaire (January 31, 2003)
This is HILARIOUS...Mick Dundee? Teaching this buffoon how to be "refined" and dress, eat, dance etc like a millionaire? Too funny!
I don't look for trouble...
trouble looks for me.
So, you ask, did you get that enormous "to do" list done THIS weekend? Well, funny you should ask, because the answer is no.
Sigh.
Trim still needs to be painted (ugh, I'm sure Kelly can sympathize), touch-up paint still needs to be done, carpets only half-cleaned, laundry to sort, etc etc etc.
Whatever was I doing?
Well, understand that at the moment we've got a "full inn" with regards to the hairy beasts. Ginger has been with us for just over a week. She is tiny and cute and has settled in just fine. She was staying with us during her heartworm treatment as dogs going through treatment really do need to be monitored throughout the day in case of any problems. Her foster mom was assigned to the latest space mission (RIP Colombia) and was going to be pretty much unavailable for intense monitoring. We anticipated that she was going to go back to her foster home this weekend and were lined up to take Kyle who is currently in a kennel. Well, as her mom works in psychological support at NASA, I'm assuming that Ginger will be with us for a while longer. She and the entire NASA family has been on our minds since the tragedy.
So, innocently, Saturday the D and I went to pick up some groceries. As we got out of our car a big black beauty came loping by with no owner to be seen. So we checked his collar. No tags. :( He was, literally, covered in shit and looked pretty panicked. Not good. So we shoved all 70 lbs of him into the small kennel that we usually have in the car for beagle business, retched and gagged from the smell all the way home, and threw him in the backyard for a bath. He cleaned up really well. We've posted "found" notices but so far no response. "Rufus" as we're calling him is the most gorgeous dog. Kennel trained, house trained and obedience trained. We still have yet to hear one bark out of him. He's got to be someone's dog, so we're hoping someone is looking for him. If not, I guess he'll be with us until we can find him a good home.
Needless to say, our weekend plans were pretty much moot. In all though, I'd rather be doing doggy stuff than painting trim any day. D said it was a rather elaborate way to procrastinate on the trim one more weekend.
How was you weekend?
