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25 October
anniversaries
link : thoughts (0) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff Hey, I just realized that this week marks the rough one year anniversary of what was formerly known as New Healthy Active Lifestyle (now simply the stuff I do) AND the four-year anniversary of my first blog entry (10/30/00, entitled "bite me, sierra club", back in the Diaryland days - one of a handful of entries I later copied to this site).
 
22 June
so... hawaii
link : thoughts (2) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff I wrote a little bit in my livejournal about Hawaii when we first got back. Then I got sleepy and busy and sick (not all at once) before I had a chance to post everything else I wanted to write.
So, the log of my Hawaii trip, for those of you who are interested.
but wait! there's more »
Day one. I really really really hate airplanes. The only watch I have is my cell phone, which adjusts to whatever time it is on the ground at each airport. This is very confusing.
I'd like to always fly during the day. I can't sleep on a plane anyhow, and I might as well be able to watch mountains and fields and cities as we pass them.
Even the airport smells fresh and floral and fruity. How do they do that?
When we get to O`ahu, there's a woman waiting with leis for us. More importantly, she points us to our luggage and the place to catch the rental car shuttle; we are really tired and might not have found these things on our own. Then the rental car place is a mess. I nearly cry, and curse my travel agent's name. But we get in a car and on the road. It's now like 9PM local time (six hours behind us) and we're really punchy, but even the drive up to the North Shore [to give you a sense of perspective, the drive from the southern coast to the north takes maybe 45 minutes] in the dark is beautiful and foreign. And being Hawaii, it rains off and on.
The resort we stay at for the first part of our trip [Turtle Bay] is lovely. The little bungalows on the beach manage to combine a military housing style with a sort of "grown out of the sand" quality that would make Howard Roark proud; inside it's gorgeous and comfy and outside it's like summer camp. They give us more leis. We watch a Korean soap opera set in some feudal era and fall asleep.
Day two. Despite having gone to bed around midnight local time, we wake up before six. We exercise on our little lawn, then attempt to walk in our little surf. Slade gets a weird little lava pebble stuck in his foot. We decide we need reef shoes.
There are mongoose and bird species I've never seen all over the place. Many "Riki Tiki Tavi" jokes are made.
Hours after we get up, but still early (I love travelling east), we go up to the main hotel for The Yummiest Breakfast Ever. They have seaweed salad and salted fish and fruit as good as tomatoes picked off the vine at dinnertime in August. The whole get up early, exercise, go have delicious food thing is basically our morning routine the days we're on the North Shore.
Then we hang out at the pool for hours and get sunburned and eat fish tacos and more fruit, wander around the resort, and generally vegetate. We run out and check out the local area on a little bitty road trip, and pick up a li hing mui (salted pickled plum) shaved ice, which begins our fascination with all things li hing mui. We order room service for dinner and watch the sunset. I love Hawaii.
We watch a Korean soap opera that spends a lot of time talking about cookie production. It's gripping. I end up watching the show ("Kuk Hee") every night.
Day three. So, yesterday was fun, but really a bit boring - we never left the resort. Today we're off to Mormon Polynesia Busch Gardens (aka the Polynesian Cultural Center). The place is a series of "islands" - that is, people who are local to several island groups and have come to school at BYU Hawaii work here (I think it's like a workstudy thing) demonstrating different crafts and arts and such. No rides, despite my allusion to theme parks - it's just very manicured and clean and deliberate.
The place is set up with scheduled presentations so you can't actually see everything in one day, which is disappointing - but then, it gives us something to do next year. We start off seeing a Samoan guy who seems to be the star of the center set things on fire and husk coconuts while telling jokes about "the happy people" (apparently what Samoans are known for). We also learn about Maori tatooing and watch some guys do a haka. The Maori scary face (bulging eyes and sticking your tongue out, basically) is in fact very frightening in person, not at all comical as it seems in pictures. And then we watch dancers from Tahiti and Marquesas, who are absolutely wonderful. We miss the stuff from Tonga, Hawaii and Fiji.
Part of the kinda expensive package at the center is a luau dinner, where I do my level best not to freak out at the crowd and lines and stuff. Food's good. Of the usual Hawaiian foods, poi is basically taro glue (nasty), poke (salty sashimi) is pretty tasty, lomi lomi salmon (basically tabouli with different spice and salmon instead of bulgar) is deeelicious, and haupia (crazy coconut custard) is a gift from the gods. But. We're seated at a table with people who are Not Having Fun. This is all followed by an evening show. Despite its resemblance to the usual amusement park "trip through rock and roll" sorts of shows, it's beautiful and moving in a "wow, look at the talent" way. The lead Tahitian dancer is astounding. I want to dance that well.
Oh, and Slade bought himself a manskirt. It's very cute, actually, but he doesn't have the right shirt for it.
Day four. We leave the North Shore and head for Waikiki. The ride takes us through a whole landscape of Hawaiian variation, including the ever-present rain and rainbows. Waikiki itself is rather frightening - it's cheesy and tourist-oriented, not in the way I'm imagining. I had imagined bumper boats and all-night minigolf, but taken to new extremes. What they actually have is five Chanel boutiques per block and all-night fine jewelry shopping. Boooooring.
But they do have a pretty nifty mall, including a Japanese department store and the aforementioned (on livejournal) astounding variety of food courty goodness.
The first day in Waikiki, we mostly wandered around looking at shops and restaurants. The much-vaunted-by-our-guidebook International Marketplace was actually a dense collection of stores selling cheap jewelry, aloha shirts, and other cheesy stuff. It was more oppressive than fascinating, but I imagine it's what you'd see in an area of Hong Kong or something aimed at American tourists. Though I had some brilliant pancit at a dive Filipino restaurant there.
At the end of each day in Waikiki, a couple of guys run down the street lighting the torches. And you can sit on your hotel lanai and watch hula and Tahitian dance from more than one hotel at a time.
We went to the beach for a very little while and then swam in the hotel pool. Waikiki/Kuhio Beach is fun for the crowds - which are really truly international (it's fun to hear different languages being spoken by beet-red families all around you), but kinda dirty.
Day five. We're very sad to be parted from our resort breakfasts and our exercise lawn.
We pack off in the car for the center of the island, where we take a gorgeous drive through the mountains to the Byodo-In (Buddhist) temple. It's in a place called the Valley of the Temples, which as far as I can tell is a vast multi-denominational cemetery.
On the way back, we attempted to hike Judd Trail, which is theoretically a rainforesty path with a waterfall at the end. We couldn't even find the trail, which we took as a sure sign it was tougher than our hiking abilities. But we did see some nice rainforesty residential area in the process, and drove up to the Pali Lookout, where you could see half of eastern O`ahu, I swear.
All of this takes us maybe half a day. I think we went back to the mall, or to Hilo Hattie (or both) after the hike-that-wasn't. At some point, we ended up buying a whole bunch of crazy dried fruit and teas. And we went gift shopping for various folks. And swam some more.
Day six, seven and eight. All the road trips blur together. We get up early (as usual) and head to Hanauma Bay, a nature preserve/beach/carved out crater, to snorkel and frolic. There's a little video you have to watch before you head to the beach with accompanying songs about how you shouldn't feed the fish; I think the "please don't feed me" song was in "The Little Mermaid".
It's ridiculously windy and surfy and rocky, and I get scraped and bruised all over the place, but we do get in some fun snorkeling finally. I love snorkeling. The beach is otherwise much too windy for sitting or anything, but the fishes were well worth driving up there at 6:30AM. Plus, we drive around Hawaii Kai and Koko Head, which is very pretty and residential. This and the North Shore are the areas I'd stay in next time I visit (next time, we'll rent a house I think).
We also go to the Dole Plantation, where they have a billion kinds of crazy pineapple growing, a maze that tried my patience, and the world's tastiest dessert: pineapple sorbetish stuff on top of pineapple chunks and covered with pineapple bits.
Slade makes me go, in the very hot sun, to the very tucked in the depths of campus bookstore at UHI Manoa. It isn't actually that cool for him - they don't have the exciting theatre books he'd hoped for - but I score a couple of graphically compelling chapbooks about random stuff and pidgin/HCE/Hawaiian Creole. So, yay - points for me, no points for him.
We buy a boatload of Portugese donuts (malasadas) from a bakery called Leonardo's, which seems to be a big local deal. We later eat many of them on the plan home to Richmond. And in the Atlanta airport at godawfulearly in the morning.
Slade goes on a surfing lesson and becomes very keen on surfing in general. I acquire my own snorkeling gear (minus flippers, which I hate) and read Jon Rauch's irksome book on the beach. Is it okay to loathe log cabin republicans? I mean, I did get a little sunburnt.
Another high point of the trip is the Bishop Museum, where we spend hours in the historical part of the museum watching dance and storytelling and learning all sorts of stuff about the various -nesias (Micro-, Poly- and Mela-)represented. They also have good books in their gift shop.
We also check out the North Shore beaches, which are nice but very rocky. I try to snorkel at Pupu`kea, but most end up just walking on a bunch of lava and peering at urchins. We do the sushi counter thing where you pick your food off a conveyor belt; hardly new, and I'm a little surprised we don't have one of those here, as we have so many other sushi places. We drive around Hale`iwa, but are really tired, so we add it to our "things to do [again] next year" list; it looks like a relaxing good time.
We eat at the mall a lot. I have better Thai food than I could ever get on the east coast, Hawaiian regional food, tropical-infused Mexican, and ramen, none of which are remotely like things you could find anywhere near a food court on this side of the country. In addition to the ramen place and requisite sushi bar, the place has Japanese curry, a donburyi restaurant, and a Japanese/Korean BBQ place. Even the mall food is better than eating in New York.
The only part of the island we don't see is Pearl Harbor and the southwest coast. Things to do next year. « get it out of my sight!
 
24 April
if you need to find me this weekend
link : thoughts (5) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff I'm in DC! (Well, I'm not yet, but I will be). Call me if you need me - 804-307-6943.
Today - driving up, picking up Ms. Nine, checking in to my schmancy hotel, and hightailing it over to the 9:30 Club to meet my friends, , , and others for the No More Freaks (Planned Parenthood/Punk Voter) benefit. 5:30 PM, kids, if you want to meet us there. I'm wearing a girly red dress and the world's biggest flip-flops. Also, my bag has a cartoon face on it and is bright orange, among other colors.
Then presumably getting some dinner and hooking up with Cinnamon and Roni cause Ms. Nine's shacking up with them tonight.
TOMORROW - WOO! I'm meeting a gang of folks at 10AM in front of the Smithsonian Castle/Info Center on the Mall. I'll be wearing a grey t-shirt that says "eat", black pants, pink chucks with pink star laces, and porting Cinnamon's super-fabulous pro-choice/Mommie Dearest messenger bag (my sarcastic friends interpret the beautimous clothes hanger icon as a "No more wire hangers!" statement). It's black, with a beaded logo on it.
 
22 April
march weekend
link : thoughts (2) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff This weekend is the March for choice/women's lives/whatever (not to demean the cause with my "whatever", but it's sorta become my name for the thing).
I'm so excited!
Really excited!
It started out several months ago as something I just knew I had to go do. A combination of celebrating and putting your money where your mouth is (or, actually, putting my body where my money and mouth have been for some time). I think this was the same for a lot of people I knew. It was just what needed to be done, one of many ways to express outrage at the Bush administration's reckless abuse of abortion rights and a way to congratulate and stand by the people who do the fighting for these rights on a daily basis.
But it has turned into what seems like the world's biggest feminist party. I mean, I was hesitant about the dilution of the message originally, but it's still clear from the press that we're talking about reproductive freedom. And. Wow. There are these really awesome feminists I half-know from all around the country coming. My friends are coming. It's a giant freaking party.
And it's still an important thing to do.
I'm going with a group of people to the show at 9:30 Club on Saturday night, and we'll be gathering to march on Sunday, presumably in front of the Smithsonian Information Center (see map).
If you're coming, I hope to see you there. And if you can't make it, I'll be there for you.
 
our friends are so cute!
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff For those of you who know Cz and J, I made a little website to put out information about their wedding this summer.
I think it looked better in Photoshop (I used an old layout as a template once we got to the whole HTMLy bit, thus the two thousand majillion tables like a bunch of little dolls stuffed inside each other thereby making the site load at about the speed of a very tired slug) and the font's too small (easily fixable), but it's still kinda pretty.
And they're getting married!
And they're pretty, too!
[And apologies to those of you who don't know me or my friends and are thinking "sheesh, and I was waiting for an abortion update or something".]
 
07 January
i started a livejournal
link : thoughts (2) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff I've held out for ages, but I finally caved and decided to create a livejournal. I kept finding things I wanted to comment on and being frustrated by the community's forced commenting anonymity if you're not a member. Plus it makes it easy to read other people's LJ's.
I have no idea what purpose this new site will serve. Perhaps as a cross-posting location for good blog writings. Perhaps as wholly original snippets of content.
If you have an LJ that I ought to be reading, let me know.
 
02 January
happy new year
link : thoughts (0) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff Happy New Year (Gregorian), kids.
We passed a sign outside a bar in Fell's Point (a semi-funky/semi-touristy shopping district in Baltimore, good record shop) that said that. Happy New Year (Gregorian). I like the specificity.
I spent a surprising quantity of my year-end vacation time in Maryland. First, visiting my parents, who live in the rural/coastal area. One of my grandmothers was there. That was strange, and made me think - not entirely in a good way. My parents were at their funniest, and my mother has started me on scrapbooking with a gift of more pretty and odd-shaped paper than I can imagine ever using. She's concerned I'll lose my creativity through lack of exercise.
Then I came home for a bit and watched many hours of Dark Angel on DVD. We've apparently started acquiring early-cancelled sci-fi shows, as we also picked up Firefly before the holiday. Hrr. Yes, I'm a geek.
And then we went to Baltimore for a chill new year celebration that included these rather confusing fireworks that seemed to happen in three places simultaneously. And I discovered Elizabeth "Grandma" Layton, whose drawings made me smile so much I wanted to cry. I bought a souvenir poster, which I almost never do, featuring one of them. The buttons say things like "FAT PRIDE" and "How dare you presume I'd rather be young" and "Gays are people too".
So, in all, a good holiday.
 
30 December
While the cat's away...
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff Can you believe that she's letting us do this? WOW! April sweetie, you're outta your mind! *evil cackle* Of course, I had to jump at the chance to guest blog here. Oh, wait, I haven't introduced myself? ta-da! I'm Roni!
April, I hope you understand how kewl and sexy you are. You inspire me to new heights in life. Well that's it. Just wanted you to know that and write it all over your blog.
APRIL IS KEWL & SEXY
APRIL IS KEWL & SEXY
APRIL IS KEWL & SEXY
APRIL IS KEWL & SEXY
APRIL IS KEWL & SEXY
APRIL IS KEWL & SEXY
APRIL IS KEWL & SEXY
APRIL IS KEWL & SEXY
 
vacation
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff I won't be around for the rest of this week. Vacation and all that stuff. Might post some pictures when I get back, though.
In the meantime, I picked up something from Eris that might entertain you (and me, when I'm back): you can write your own guest entries.
Just follow this link and log in. Username: guest. Password: redherring.
 
15 December
anyone looking for a host? i'm feeling generous.
link : thoughts (0) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff Dawn posted what looks to me like a really good idea. She has a bunch of extra space on her site, and figured she'd offer to host one of her readers/acquaintances.
As it turns out, I don't just have a bunch, but a nearly absurd amount of free space on this doman, and I am as annoyed as Dawn is by the fact that so many Blogspot blogs are so difficult to comment on sometimes. Sometimes the whole commenty script thing just flat-out breaks, which means I don't get to post back to bright folk like Karl and Kerri and Vic and others of you who probably know who you are.
This non-commenting thing annoys the heck out of me.
So, I figure if anyone I know and like would like to move their blog from one of these remote-hosted sites, I have space free. And I mean that - free. The circumstances of my domains are such that I have to pay for a lot more space than I actually need, and it's still not that expensive. If I'm going to pay for it anyway, someone ought to use it.
You'd have to learn how to use Movable Type and presumably keep your site under the 50MB mark (and, you know, not do anything illegal with your site). I'd hook you up with a subdomain like .redpolka.org (you could also be hosted on propagandafortoday.com, wehavebrains.com, or seventenseven.com, if you wanted), a Movable Type blog, and even FTP access to your subdomain or email addresses if you wanted these things. You could use the space for stuff other than a blog if you like.
It's a pretty good deal. Now, admittedly, you'd face the possibility that I'd do something really moronic like lose my domain name again - but really, how often does a person do something that stupid twice?
Email me if you're interested.
 
23 November
sick.
link : thoughts (2) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff I've been very very very sick.
Now I'm better.
That's all.
 
26 October
you win some
link : thoughts (0) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff We've established in the past that my parents like to get me to go to church with them and that I'm not a religious gal.
Well. What had been a mild annoyance at their conservative military pastor in the past came to something of a head a couple of months ago, last time I went to visit. Their old chaplain was back in town visiting and preaching, and about halfway through his sermon that Sunday, he started spewing some bile about all these problems with society, at some point going so far as to call homosexuality a "blight" or a "scourge" or something like that.
Out of courtesy to the family (and understanding this particular guy wouldn't be back, that it was up to his congregation to call him on it, etc.)), I made a point of not participating in the rest of the service and did not greet the guy on the way out the door, but did not march out mid-service or call him aside to discuss the issue.
It was incredibly frustrating feeling like I couldn't act on my principles and also get on okay with my family, but I erred on the side of family harmony in this case. Afterwards, I was very worked up about the whole thing - I mean, hell - the sorts of words he used I thought were relics of a conservative former decade - and rather impassionedly accused myself, my partner, and my parents of being implicitly discriminatory, basically just as big of assholes as he was. My parents came back that you never agreed 100% with anyone, and they came to church for community, not for the sermon.
And a few weeks ago, my mother told me they'd joined a new church. See, the new chaplain started spouting the same "gay = evil" line, and they couldn't ignore it anymore. Mom wrote an email to the chaplain explaining why they were upset by what he'd said, they went online to find out what Protestant sects were gay-friendly, and they came to the conclusion that they are, in fact, Methodists. So they've switched to a Methodist church, because they're alright with queer folk, and so are most other Methodists. Which is funny, because the time when we went to church regularly as a family was with a Methodist church, and I have to say the community was quite friendly and accepting. Perhaps mom and dad were Methodists all along.
The point behind all this story isn't that I had an argument with my family, but that we had a discussion about how upset I was that I hadn't felt able to do anything about a discriminatory act, and then my parents thought about what they could do the next time it happened. And I hope that chaplain will think about what he could do, too. You win some. Sometimes telling people what you think without yelling at them will make them realize you agree, and that something can be done.
 
17 October
bedding, yawn.
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff [Note: really quite boring and apolitical, but if you have an interest in interior design, I could use your help. Otherwise, skip this one, trust me.]
I have been trying for years to come up with some sort of integrated artistic design concept in our bedroom.
What I have to work with: one massive iron canopy bed (beautiful and apparently guaranteed to last more than one lifetime), several mismatched painted dressers and nightstands - none of which are on the same them and all of which are rather ramshackle, a whole load of white walls that can't be painted, and two rather large canvases I have yet to paint.
I need. Something. We keep acquiring (by "keep", I mean once every couple of years, not every payday) these semi-modern linens that work with the wacky painted furniture, sort of, but not the melodramatic goth-kid - or rather, heirloom - bed.
Presumably I have a queer eye (and a straight guy), ha, but this one room continues to have me design challenged. What I think I need is to replace or repair, varnish, etc. some of the wacky furniture bits and to put some sort of dramatically colorful, somewhat ethnic, yet in keeping with the artistic quality of the furniture, bedding on the, you know, bed. And also, to slap some of that old time art on the walls.
But it's really hard to find - the bedding, that is (art's all in my head, if only my fingers would translate). Most of the fascinating ethnic markets (i.e. Novica) only carry throws and coverlets, and I want a big foofy comforter/duvet thing. So far the closest I've come are wacky things like this and and this and a crazy satin-velvet thing from - of all places - Victorias Secret, and while they might make good use of the dern canopy for once, I'd really prefer to invest less than $500 on this project - and that's including furniture changes.
So, yeah, any ideas on places to acquire foofy yet arty bedding?
 
29 September
tomorrow is my birthday
link : thoughts (7) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (3) : in vaguely personal stuff I really don't get this thing with adults and laying claim to their ages. It's as if birthdays become verboten after you reach the ripe age of 21.
I have some important life rules on that subject.
1. Thirty is absolutely not old. Not even remotely.
2. Twenty-two, when you've graduated from college and run out of birthdays that grant you new freedoms, might seem old, but it's not, either.
3. People should never, ever make posters that say "lordy, lordy, look who's forty". It's a forced rhyme, and you should really only use those in truly clever poetry.
4. Not having some form of celebration of yourself during the course of each year (birthday or otherwise) is a sad, sad way to live. You rock, trust me.
5. There is absolutely nothing in your life that you must accomplish by a certain age. The only thing you can be positive about is that your life and your expectations will change.
Of course, I made up all these rules as I just wrote them, but they do represent my general birthday philosophy. I have the opposite problem from most adults, a trait I doubtless carried over from my [only] childhood: I totally build up the birthday, which makes it very hard for a single day (all too often a work day) to live up to my expectations.
I have another rule for that.
6. All birthday or birthday-like celebrations should be a week in duration. Hey, if the gods get weeklong festivals, why can't you?
So, the birthday actually started yesterday and culminates this Saturday night, as all good dionysian festivals should, with a semi-raucous party and lots of food.
 
23 September
hurricane
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff So. How often does a hurricane hit this town? Pretty much never.
But yes, last week, the entire state of Virginia was pretty much bathed in it. The office closed for two point five days, my house was without power for four days, there was flooding and there were falling trees and just all sorts of craziness.
Lucky for us the power outage was really the only problem we suffered at our house. Lots of stories of things collapsed by falling trees and power lines dangling for days and days. Yikes.
And guess where I was in the midst of this hurricane? At a conference in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Right in tourist central in a city you'd expect to get more severely hit than Richmond by a big fat water storm. There was quite a bit of truly eerie flooding, but the city seemed to leap right back up.
So I was forced to weather the hurricane eating room service and drinking with my colleagues. Oh, and occasionally shopping. It was horrible.
Er, well. Maybe not so horrible.
In any case, we're pulled through. We have a collection of very interesting unspoilable groceries to eat this week, and I had to bring my own drinking water to work, but those things just feel like some small part of me is camping.
The rest of you in the Carolina-Maryland area, I hope you're all safe and sound.
 
04 August
hiatus
link : thoughts (0) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff I consider it every blogger's obligation to periodically stop posting and see which readers stick around. It weeds out the riff-raff. Especially if you precede the hiatus with a lot of soul-searching about the meaning of blogging, life, the internet, then get really pissed and storm away from the computer one day. And if you then sashay back onto the scene, proclaiming you've had a lot of deep insight along with some serious shit going on in your life - well, that's really the ideal.
[Please note. Preceding paragraph laced with sarcasm. Don't do any of those things.]
Yes, I've been on a sort of unannounced hiatus. I was going to let it go unnoticed, but some of you have asked, so I'll tell you.
Hiatus is Latin for "yawn" or "gape" or "gap". My subjective experience was nothing like that. I got used to not being on the internet. I stopped feeling compelled to write. I started feeling compelled to do other things, lots of them (which I guess I already was, but I became more so). Life is pretty good. I'm complicated like Melanie Griffith in Working Girl.
People work in cycles.
In a very "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" way, I've undergone a microcosm of my own historical relationship to the internet in the past couple of months. Email only. Exchange with close friends. Designing. Lurking on blogs/diaries.
I think I'll be writing [regularly] again shortly. I have over a month worth of WHB topics that deserve responses, after all.
I might even have opinions. Ones that aren't all about myself and work.
 
10 July
return
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff So. After quite a long month of not having internet at home, I have internet.
And no time.
 
02 July
i am not dead
link : thoughts (0) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff ...just still having issues with the phone lines at home, despite attempts to fix the darn thing.
Updates have been particularly sporadic of late due to much working on my part and the resulting total lack of time to post from elsewhere.
However, the working has been rewarded with an unexpected nice-sized middle of year raise. So, yahoo. And so on.
I did manage to post a couple of journal entries lately, if you're desperate for something from me to read. Oh, and I made new desktop wallpaper (in the "art" section) last weekend while I was dog sitting!
 
27 May
bah!
link : thoughts (0) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff I'm taking an I hope brief forced hiatus on account of the phone lines at my house freaking out for a day or so everytime we use the Airport (that's our wireless internet hub, for you non-Mac savvy).
I think I'll collect the things I'd like to post in the meantime & stick them all up when I finally have a reliable connection.
If you're looking for something to read, check out Gloamling's heartfelt populist diatribe about American Idol. Good reading.
 
19 May
back from vacation
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff And feeling very rested. Read a ton. Book reports coming soon.
 
13 May
vacation!
link : thoughts (0) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff In case you're wondering why I haven't posted in a bit. Well, I'm on VACATION!
So, I may pop in occasionally, but mostly I'll be reading a combination of serious feminist critiques and idiotic "chick-lit" novels while shopping and lounging about at the pool.
 
02 March
apologies to you
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff I haven't slipped off the planet. But. I haven't been posting with my usual regularity for a couple of reasons.
There are the the two sites I've been setting up and designing, one of which is really slow going. [Note to self: do not, under any circumstance, simultaneously work on two full sites and MT installs. You will find yourself feeling stupid and confused most of the time.]
And then - this is the big one - our internet access at home has been really spotty. We've never had issues before; I think it's actually the phone line. In any case, I don't have time to post at work, even if I didn't think it would be frowned upon.
There will be more, regular posts coming as soon as these other things are out of the way. Soon. I swear.
 
01 January
what are you doing new year's, new year's eve
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff Next year I think we'll do new year's eve old school. You know, with idiot drunks on my sofa. I have no strong feelings about what one should do on new year's eve.
But this year was lovely. Basic family stuff. Only not my family. Rather odd.
I did, however, get to spend a fantastic afternoon at Little Five Points with Rev 9. For those uninformed, Little Five Points is not, as Rev and others might lead you to believe, a single beacon of funkiness in the dark of Georgia. It's more a consolidation of funky subcultures onto a couple of blocks. Those things exist elsewhere in the state, just not in concentration.
Also, Atlanta (or the north of Atlanta, which is a sprawling tangle of suburbs) has something vaguely akin to Koreatown. I forgot to tell her that.
Rev introduced me to Charis Books, which has to be one of the better independent bookshops I've seen. Now, all those book recommendations I give everyone have a great independent shop to point to, as Charis also ships. My local indie bookstore does not ship and carries many idiotic diet books. [Speaking of shipping books, if you ever want to borrow anything, I don't mind mailing books to people. Especially if it fostered some sort of land mail feminist book club.] And I've just started reading Bodies Out of Bounds, which is providing ballast at a time when I need to feel secure in my transgression as a fat person. There's something I have strong feelings about, new-year-wise: this reshaping the body thing that everyone "resolves" on. And then gives up on, in most cases. Bah. But I have ballast. Even if it is somewhat hung up on the word "discourse".
I don't know if it was the added extravert energy of being with someone new and fun, or simply the constant cycling of stores in funky areas of town, but there was much more excellent than usual shopping to be had on Tuesday. There's a store that sells masses of bellydance gear (which I fully intend to purchase in the event I've actually progressed dance-wise by the time we return for our summer visit). It was a nice reminder of how much my job, in addition to being enjoyable most times, enables all the happy bits of my life. Job good.
In any case, Rev does a spot-on and very funny summary of our lunch and shopping trip. Also, I went to the zoo on Monday. Pandas have thumbs.
Life. Is alright.
 
27 December
home!
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (2) : in vaguely personal stuff I'm home, briefly before starting the road trip to Georgia tomorrow, from the family holiday [more in journal]. Time to paint my toenails and then take a shower so all the excess nailpolish washes off my skin (hey, still cheaper than a pedicure).
And hey, gods of health [Hygenia, perhaps?] willing, I'll get to meet Rev 9 in person.
I don't have to go to work for another whole week. Huzzah! Even my shoulders are glad. Though my foot's asleep. I guess even feet need rest on vacation.
Must hobble off to pack now.
 
24 December
ready for vacation
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff I haven't been but so busy at work, but I'm ready for a vacation. I've been busy at life.
I think I might be ready for a vacation from How Things Are. Not that things are bad, just that it's nice to change. Even if change means being covered in yellow dog hair.
I'll see five states in a car over the next week (see, I'm going up one, back here, then down three), but none of the best parts of Virginia. None of my travels take me through the beach or the mountains anymore. I'm a little sad of that.
While I'm gone, I think I'll reopen my design "business". I'm planning on a new domain, something that will give me a whole new place to play. Nothing too elaborate, just - a sandbox.
 
13 December
celebration
link : thoughts (6) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff I am taking the day off next Wednesday. Well, most of it. I am taking the day off to entertain a friend in the midst of our twenty four hour Peter Jackson frenzy. It sounds like fun.
If you could take off, you know you'd do it, too.
It's not just for the movie, silly. It's for the company. You have to make time, sometimes, to celebrate without solid purpose.
but wait! there's more »
My parents allowed me one mental health day every three months or so throughout school. It makes sense. Kids don't get to control when they take vacation, so the ability to just dodge school now and then is valuable.
It's not as important as an adult. As a college student, you can usually sneak in a long roadtrip weekend without too much angst. In the working world, you pick your own vacations and can plan them around your yearly up-down cycle.
But the mental health day is still a useful tool. Maybe you only need one a year, but calling in sick or working harder most days of a week in order to skip one (what I'm doing next week) can be a blissful release.
In this case, it's not exactly necessary - it's just something to remind me that I'm still whimsical and fun. Even if I plan for it weeks in advance. « get it out of my sight!
 
06 December
snow!
link : thoughts (0) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff Snow.
You know, I think I've finally reached an age at which snow no longer holds unlimited fascination. Night before last, it snowed what could be construed [around here] as barrelsfull. I was not enthralled.
And. Like a little old lady, I nearly sprained my ankle while trying to unbury my car. It turns out that my car is too timid to make it over the gnome hill of snow behind it, so I could have skipped the ankle twisting and left the car there as a temporary Norse burial mound, minus corpse.
I look at snow and think of corpses, not snowpeople. This must mean old.
but wait! there's more »
At the office today, large chunks of ice (there's about a quarter inch of ice over all this snow, doubly unusual for central Virginia) were leaping from porticos and walkways.
Drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip DEATH FROM ABOVE. Repeat. That's roughly how it went. It started to take on a certain Super Mario Brothers quality. Made me want to put on some overalls and boots and try dodging the drips and chunks.
And then I realized. I may not be enthusiastic about snow. But I sure am thrilled about it melting. « get it out of my sight!
 
01 July
moved!
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff We've officially moved all of our worldly possessions to the new house.
You wouldn't think it would take two point five weeks just to move across town. It did. But now it's done and we're officially not midtown scenesters anymore.
It just struck me that no one here ever says "midtown". All of the neighborhoods have such specific names that there's just no such thing. I think.
Anyhow, we live far. Not really. We're actually as close to anything good as we ever were, just we're on the other side of it. Though we are awfully close to a county called "Goochland", which, if you're not from around here, is just as backwoodsy as the sound of its name might suggest.
 
26 June
girly stuff
link : thoughts (4) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff I've been slowly using the windfall of the first new job paycheck to sponsor cool women-owned businesses on the web.
I bought: super powered jewels!
I bought: funky underthings!
Just thought I'd share.
 
21 June
friday five (houses)
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff I found this one oddly appropriate, considering my current obsession.
1. Do you live in a house, an apartment or a condo? A townhouse. And an apartment, until the end of next week - then just the townhouse.
2. Do you rent or own? Rent.
3. Does anyone else live with you? The boy and two cats (who are both very clingy since the move).
4. How many times have you moved in your life? Here's my trajectory, since birth: Norfolk > Michigan > Norfolk > different apartment > another apartment > new house > dorm in Williamsburg > back to house > other dorm > back to house > apartment > back to house > back to same apartment > back to house > townhouse in Richmond > house > apartment > other apartment > townhouse. So, nineteen, counting those irritating summer shifts between college and home.
5. What are your plans for this weekend? Moving all our furniture. We have surprisingly little furniture, though.
 
18 June
faxes are the devil
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff It appears our new phone number was once someone's fax.
Yesterday, on the first night the phone number worked at all, we received upwards of twenty data calls between the hours of eleven at night and six in the morning.
Really.
This is no good. If anyone can suggest a good solution to this annoyance (short of simply a) changing the number or b) turning off the phone, as apparently we cannot turn off the ringer), I will be eternally grateful.
 
24 April
passing thoughts and parenting
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff I feel obliged to keep promises to my parents more now than I did when I lived with and depended upon them. Go figure.
I thought about this as I carefully squished my schedule for this weekend to accomodate both a promise to the parents and a desirable social engagement (party! featuring friends not seen in years!).
I think I'm a better kid now. Than when I was a kid. I hope I am, at least.
The boy is fixated on the teaching and raising of children (we have none; I want none) and has me reading books by John Holt. These books seem very outdated. I read them mostly because I am very, very afraid of children and I want to know why.
And I encountered, while browsing today, this zine: raising hell. It made me think of some friends of mine who are such unbelieveably good parents.
I'm working (mostly mentally) on the "your mom" issue of the zine. So I'm not exactly preoccupied with parenting, but I am noting my passing thoughts on the subject more than usual.
 
10 April
speaking of kentucky
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff While we were driving, we passed so many cows even I was bored with them. I usually tend to scream "cows" everytime I pass them. And so with pretty much any animal.
It's dorky, I know. But I'm a city girl.
Anyhow, I saw all these cows. They're dirty. Their hair sticks all up and they're just sort of ugly. We saw pigs, too, but the pigs were cute. And huge, I had no idea pigs were so big.
I have this thing with chicken; I can't eat it because, most of the time, looking at chicken makes me think of how tortured chickens are in industrial farms. I know they're desperately stupid birds, but I just can't eat while I'm thinking about their tiny cages. Ironically, I can't stand the gaminess of free-range chicken. So I just generally avoid it.
Now every time I eat beef, I think about how ugly cows are. And if I eat pork, I'm reminded of the cute, giant pigs I saw.
So I'm practically a vegetarian now. This isn't a moral issue, by the way. I mean, yes, I think industrial chicken farms could use more humane methods, but otherwise it's just a gross-out thing. Of course, by the time images of cows and pigs have left my mind, I may be used to eating like this. Who knows; I never ate much meat to begin with. My friend would call me a fishetarian.
We saw an ostrich farm, too. That really didn't affect my diet, but it did make me laugh. I wonder what all the other farmers in town say to the guy who started the ostrich farm?
 
07 April
vacation
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff Remember when I said I was going to Kentucky? You don't?
Well, I did. And not only did I go on vacation, but I went on vacation from the internet. I didn't even open the laptop all week. Which was, honestly, quite unexpected.
I'll tell you about it later. I have something in the neighborhood of one hundred fifty emails to read (and that's minus the completely useless and/or spam emails I got. I never realised I got that much mail. Almost makes me feel loved. You sweet things.
First, though, I'm going to sleep. Back to work in the morning!
 
15 March
friday five (pets)
link : thoughts (0) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff The Friday Five. And your little dog, too.
1. What's your favorite animal?
I like ladybugs and ants. They're fun to watch, have interesting habits if not exciting personalities. And cats.
2. What pets have you had in your lifetime?
Cats. Lots of cats. Excluding kittens (from one cat who kept getting pregnant), there have been 11. I also had goldfish (that didn't last long) and a newt I rescued from one of the cats and released into the wild after his limbs all grew back.
My parents have three golden retrievers, with a rotating fourth (foster dogs). I'm not sure whether they count as my pets, since I'd moved out of the house by the time the dogs moved in.
3. Is there any specific pet that you've wanted but never had? Why?
When I was little, I wanted to keep a sick baby rabbit that we found in our yard, but it died. It was so tiny, it fit in my little hand. And it shook constantly; it was a sad, scared little rabbit.
4. Are you allergic to any animals?
Dogs. I'm very allergic to dog dander and all animal hair (and my parents started collecting the hairiest dogs ever as soon as I moved out, hmm...). I'm also allergic to lanolin, which I guess makes me allergic to sheep, too.
5. Do you have any 'pet' pet peeves (your pets or others')?
That is the silliest phrase I've seen all day.
One of my cats knocks over the water bowl. Constantly. We thought it was a weird accident of the way she drank water until we got a second cat and (during the period when you keep the two separated) I watched her march into his room and deliberately smack his water over every morning.
 
08 March
friday five (home)
link : thoughts (1) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff 1. What makes you homesick?
My parents' (pending) move to another state. It reminds me of all the things I won't be able to do, nostalgic places that won't be a convenient visit anymore.
2. Where is "home" for you? Is it where you are living now, or somewhere else?
The beach. Pretty much any east-cost-US coastal town feels homey to me, even though I've lived away from water for five years.
3. What makes it home for you? People? Things?
Smells, mostly.
4. Where is the furthest you've been from home, miles-wise?
Roughly 2600 miles (other side of the country) to Los Angeles, when I was in college.
5. What are your plans for this weekend?
Catching up on some web stuff: starting this we have brains collab (join it!), finishing a diary design, starting a diary design, applying the new design to the rest of this site, and trying to get moveable type installed on somegirlsdesign.com. Also going to the movies and kicking off our search for a new apartment.
Q is for the Friday Five.
 
05 March
you're invited (or not)
link : thoughts (0) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff If you happen to be in town on April 13, and I like you enough to tell you my address, I'm having the annual April party then. You'll get your invites soon.
This year it's not just a celebration of all things me (we get enough of that at birthday time, anyhow); it's a celebration of all things prom. Yes. It's a prom party. I've even enlisted a band with no web presence.
I'm just that dorky.
 
26 February
everything smells
link : thoughts (0) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff i quit smoking. sort of. again.
i'm not sure i could have moved away from the water if i hadn't been a dedicated smoker at the time. i might have noticed how well the salt breeze covered the ick that was everything else.
i contend that the urban world is better smelled from behind a cloud of smoke. not just the obvious exhaust and fermentation of cars and trash, but the subtle things. living around the block from so many restaurants and their intermingled food smells. people who smoke. dogs. cheese. meat. your sweated out perfume. the insides of office buildings. standing water. gravelly dirt (it absorbs all the other bad smells for later rebroadcasts).
everything just smells so much, and the good smells are such light notes compared to. i mean, on a warm day, you can smell your cement sidewalk. it's horrid. and it's not that all urban smells are awful, particularly southern ones (blooming magnolias and hot streets, for instance, is a smell like an extraordinary thai meal). it's just that so many of them are noxious and vaguely smoky, which means that smoke, like defocusing your eyes on those mall posters, reveals the subtler fragrances.
maybe i need to get away. drive a few miles and smell walnuts fallen from trees. or water.
 
01 February
the friday five (bruises)
link : thoughts (0) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff My first ever Friday Five.
1. Have you ever had braces? Any other teeth trauma? I had braces largely because all the other kids had them when I was twelve-ish. It really wasn't a seminal event for me. As for teeth trauma. I hate the dentist, and have let an itsy chip in one tooth go unfixed for months, for fear I will be pestered once again to have my wisdom teeth removed.
2. Ever broken any bones? An ankle. Broken by leaping from a table and landing in lotus position. That was pretty stupid, but it did save me from going to daycamp that summer. Instead, I spent scads of time in hospitals with my dad and was largely spoiled; way better than mosquito bites.
3. Ever had stitches? Only inside. Wonky sinus surgery at age five. No cuts, though.
4. What are the stories behind some of your [physical] scars? I have a chicken pox scar (a white dot on my belly button. It's only remarkable because it matches a mole on the other side, so they're a pair - brown dot, white dot.
There's a set of concentric almost-circles on one of my ankles that has a better story. I was returning (on bus) from a trip to NYC one of the highlights of which was a nightlong debate over the relative merits of science and faith. The boy who had argued that science was based as much on faith as religion at one point exclaimed "Proove Gravity!" Which was so funny the conversation dissolved right there. And then, after surviving an eight-hour bus ride filled with twelve year olds by heavily dosing myself with Tylenol PM, I picked up my bag, swung it around my shoulder, and knocked myself into a gravel parking lot. I ended up with a stone stuck in my ankle, but the main thing I recall was thinking "So, there's your proof." It was really more an example of inertia, but hey, I was drugged.
5. How do you plan to spend your weekend? Boyless! Learning lines for a play and possibly redesigning a webzine.
 
25 March
sucks to your old white men
link : thoughts (0) (user/password is 'redpolka') : track it (0) : in vaguely personal stuff So. No one was number six thousand one. Or, at least. No one would lay claim to the distinction. I still don't know who the mysterious award nominator was. That's that. In case you were wondering. My company is, for better or for worse, on a handbasket trip to hell. It's become a place of bitterness and mistrust. With exceptions. Particularly my three nearest peers. They are wondrous people. They are reasons to hold out hope, however slim. And one of them was just given notice that he has to leave as soon as he finds a new job - because the powers that be want to hire a certified / more experienced person. Certified and more experienced, based on the interviewing candidates, appear to be synonyms for old and white guy.
My job, it seems, is safe. The bosslady thinks I'm unthreatening (despite my dangerous and fascinating feminism). And I'm considered to be junior enough that I can "assist" (that's a synonym for "make copies and PowerPoint presentations for") these new superguys.
For the record. I now officially hope the bosslady burns really slowly when we reach our destination. It's a sick, demented, desperate business decision. And she carried it out in the most pathetic fashion possible. Bad bosslady. Bad, indeed. I'm supposed to be hours away visiting my mommy. But I acquired a flat tire on the way, leading me back to town and the tire shop. This is the truly sad thing about the whole affair. I am such a loser that I couldn't get my own cheap hand-cranked jack to work. I need to buy one of those pedal jacks so I can do this whole thing myself, if needed, in the future. As it was, I had to call the boy from a gas station twenty minutes away to come help me. I had to call the boy. Forget what this says about my lack of upper-body strength (and he found the jack a nuisance, as well). I was at a gas station in a small town in Virginia. I even went inside to ask for help. The three strapping folks behind the counter flat-out rejected my desperate pleas. Nevermind my obvious effort. Nevermind I was dirty and near tears. At least they were able to point me to a pay phone. At least fifty people. Not an exaggeration. At least fifty people came and went from the parking lot (shared with a feed and hardware store) in the hour I was there. Not one of the burly looking white middle-aged southern not-quite-gentlemen even acknowledged my presence or asked if I needed help. Actually, the two guys who worked at the feed store stood out and watched me. But refused to help as well. Though, by their deft carrying of fifty pound bags of seed, I could tell they were weak and unable to offer a hand. What happened to southern manners? Two guys did actually stop to help when the boy was having trouble himself. The boy and I both being the "learn as we go" people we are, we had forgotten some of the specifics of tire changing. I don't consider it a coincidence that these two semi-heros were the only non-white men (one was black, the other [American] Indian) to come through the parking lot. I really do wonder what happened. To southern culture. In this small town, that is. Manners are still very much alive in the south, and they have really started to transcend racial and gender and cultural boundaries. So. What happened to this town? Is it like Derry, Maine - controlled by angry aliens that put people in icky green cocoons? Old white men. Today I hate you all. Except for the ones I don't hate. You know who you are.
 
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