Hoodoo Voodoo

I'm starting to realize how much I like my new job in L.A. I work at a furniture store in 2 different locations, one in L.A., one in Hermosa Beach. Today I'm at Hermosa Beach and was lucky to be visited by my manager/friend who bought a huge lunch, cookies, rice krispies, sodas and other goodies for us. I have ingested WAY too much sugar and caffeine today which are making me a little like a highly alert chicken.

Some really loud people were talking outside which turned out to be two guys who had collided cars. I watched them discuss this fender bump from where they couldn't see me. I'm so nosy.

There is a family who apparently owns a lonely and very vocal parrot near this store. We keep all the doors open and by mid afternoon said parrot gets very squacky. (sp?) sqwak squack squak - how do you spell that? Too lazy to look it up on google. sorry.

There was a spirit or ghost in here last weekend so I brought sage and white candles in here this morning and "cleansed" the place. I was telling my manager about it and said jokingly "Im a witch, I pick up on these things" She really believed that I was a witch. I'm so out there that those types of jokes are usually taken as fact or perhaps an explanation for why I act the way I do. The store has better energy now.

I've really got to poop but I'm always worried someone will come in when I'm stuck in the bathroom.

I ate another frosted sugar cookie. Oh man. I'm going to be sick.

I went to IKEA yesterday which was redonkulous as usual.

Streaming consciousness .... no order or logic....

boring blog #345

I like sports?

Lately I have been watching an abnormal amount of soccer, football and baseball.
This is due to:
a) living with a boy who likes sports
b) actually starting to like watching (not playing) sports
c) Stuart Scott



I'm a big fan of Stuart Scott from ESPN. He makes it much more fun to watch.



Here he is posing for a picture with a disabled fan. I love people with a heart for those less fortunate than them.

Stuart Scott for President! Or new and upcoming movie star!

Back From the Dead!!!!

It's been a long, hot and eventful summer where I deigned it necessary NOT to write my every neurotic thought and movement in this blog but instead devoted myself to my myspace blog. This is a terrible start.

Events of Note Out of Order:
1) Moved to L.A.
2) Got a jorb (furniture store w/ friends)
3) Got a cool place near Melrose
4) Saw Bill and Whitney who came from San Fran to visit
5) Saw Tom and Mark
6) Drove through Arizona and New Mexico
7) Hung out with Allison before I moved to L.A.
8) Didn't work all summer and got paid ha
9) Saw my mom in Texas
10) Found a good BBQ place in Hollywood
11) Ate at a Dennys for the first time (gross)
12) Got all new furniture for our living room including a wickedly awesome couch
13) Was visited by a ghost at work
14) Learned how to drive in L.A.
15) Met some cool new people

It has been a crazy past few months which involved planning, packing, moving, stressing, running and all other frantic transition activities.

This is a brief and overwhelming entry - not that anyone checks this site anymore. Now I can start dropping mental diarrhea again. yay for you.

Lunes

My lip hurts so bad b/c of a damn canker sore. They always take around a week to finally dissapear. You can see my pulse in the big, bump where the sore is. Gross.

The kids are really liking Anne Frank's Diary. We're reading the play and watching the movie. They love it when the Van Daans get in a fight.

I went to the Masquerade outdoor theater to see Modest Mouse on Saturday. I will never see a show there again. The retarded crowd, lack of stage visibility, death-choke amount of smoke and porta-pottys really made me NOT enjoy the evening. There were WAY too many 18 year olds who were high and drunk and screaming and crashing into people. I couldn't see the stage at all. Maybe I'm getting older and grumpier, but I don't see how anyone could enjoy not seeing a show and f-ing around like that after they paid to get in. I wish I had brought a bat with me.

PS to my grouchy coworkers - it's not my fault you didn't get any sleep last night. don't be an asshole to everyone else.

Mirror Mirror On the Wall

I went to see Arcade Fire last night in the ATL. It was an amazing show. Their new album is pretty awesome.
This compter sucks. It's the school loaned laptop from Dell. It has a shitfit if I open 2 browswers at the same time. Sadly, I'm back to my robo-dino-slomo HP after this. Time to start saving for a Macbook...
I'm attempting to teach my lowest class about the holocaust. They are absolutely uninterested and bored with it. I worry about people who aren't moved by mass murder and enslavement. How will they be when they are running things?
On a lighter note, it's a beautiful day.

"The Sleep of Reason . . .

. . . produces monsters" Goya


I got a ticket in front of my house yesterday. Seriously, about 20 feet from my driveway. Some dumbass sheriff followed me down my street and put on all the blue lights to inform me that my tag was expired. Then, it took him 20 minutes to write a ticket and make sure I wasn't wanted for meth sales and production. I can understand a ticket for speeding, running a stop sign or even not using your blinker. I think I deserved a warning for the tag, though. The fat old lady with the moustache at the DMV told me today that I didn't own the title to my car when she didn't punch in my liscence # correctly. Guess again, sasquatch!

Well, enough ranting for today. 2 more full weeks of school and I'm officially taking a break.

My sister is most likely moving to Miami from Boston for a job promotion. Now it will be easier to go see her. Yay. And Miami will be more fun to visit in the summer.

I might go see Arcade Fire tomorrow night in Atlanta.

I might be crazy.

suenos dulces

I want:
1) a totoro
2) a vacation to europe
3) a vacation to japan
4) a giant apartment in nyc
5) new furniure from ikea
6) an espresso machine
7) unlimited pens and paper
8) a ticket to Miami, Florida
9) an ice cream cone
10) 25 dresses

Sin Alas

Well, it's almost the end of the year. 2 more full weeks of school and then I'm officially not working and getting paid for it. Yeeha!
I've been super tired this week - I get sleepy around 9:30pm each night. Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's my routine, maybe it's my exhaustion from the year coming into full bloom.
I wish someone would call me about a job. I got 2 more rejection letters from UGA yesterday - it kind of put me in a mood.
This weekend I'm going to rest and read. Nothing else. Unless there happens to be some exciting events or shows that I'm unaware of.

And Away We Go

Tonight is the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah show at the 40 Watt. There is a group going to 6 Flags tomorrow - not sure if it will include me yet or not.
Tomorrow is teacher "planning day" which translates to "lots of boring meetings that could be summarized in a rather short email."
My friends Amanda and Ken opened up a restaurant/grocery store where Roosters used to be on Hiawasee. It's great food and there is also a large selection of handmade choclates. Open Tues-Fri 10-7 and Sat 10-5. Check it out.

"I heard it from a friend
The Revolution never happened
Sigh
A little die
No more a child
Goodbye

Now where's the woolen sweater
You mentioned in the letter?
Imply
The other guy
And scandalize the lion

A clean shave in the morning
And a full beard with no warning
Time has gotten by on alibis and wine

Success is so forbidding
But it makes me think I'm winning
Quiet
Dim the lights
Adopt another lifestyle

You look like David bowie
But you've nothing new to show me
Start another fire
and watch it slowly die" Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

I Was a Lover Before This War

What is hiding beneath all of our anxieties? Usually something we're trying to avoid thinking about...

It's Wednesday and I'm on break at school. Three full weeks after this - and then we'll see how summer goes. It's hard to be optimistic when you don't have a jorb.

I am going to see Robin in Boston in June, and maybe go to NYC with Allison in May or June. That would be most excellent if I can manage both. I also really want to go to the beach, but that probably won't happen.

Everything's up in the air, including myself. Flying around is fun until you start falling back towards land.

I keep hearing you're concerned

"Countin' flowers on the wall
That don't bother me at all
Playin' solitaire till dawn with a deck of fifty-one
Smokin' cigarettes and watchin' Captain Kangaroo
Now don't tell me I've nothin' to do" Statler Brothers

This will probably be my theme song this summer. I am officially discouraged by the job search today. 18 apps with UGA and NO calls. No promising Athens or Atlanta jobs either. I'm either WAY overqualified (ie secretary jobs) or WAY underqualified (no business/sales/pr experience). What's a bilingual teacher supposed to do? Besides work in public schools...

I always made fun of the kids in Terry College of Business...now I'm starting to understand why they were so rabid to take STAT2000 and CALC1001. Can I help it that math scares me to death?

For years people have been telling me, "You'll always have a job knowing Spanish"
Yeah, a job in the bowels of social work paying minimal wages. I'm a shoe in for:
bilingual bank teller, secretarial, teaching or hospital registration positions. All of which would probably bore me to death.

I'm calling Bulls#$% on the whole "Spanish is a ticket to the stars" and I'm deciding that one more year of a not so exciting job may be worth the future PhD program somewhere else. I do love teaching literature and I love graduate school.

Now about that thesis I need to write...

bryan lee, everybody. He's rolling into town tonight. It's going to be Crazy.

I'm wondering what part of my day:
1) coffee
2) pilates and hour workout
3) egg, bacon, cupcake breakfast

is making me feel poopy. I'll go ahead and blame it on the workout.
More notes on this weekend:
1) curse the cold weather
2) curse myself for watching Arrested Development for 2 hours straight
3) curse my poor digestive tract
4) curse the carpet begging to be vacuumed
5) curse the cupcakes begging me to eat more of them

Easter weekend. Sing its praises all god's people.

Sleeping Upright

If I don't start a sleeping pill habit I may never get a good night's sleep again. I took an allergy pill last night, which seems to have kicked in this morning at work. I feel like I'm on about 3 Xanax right now.
For some reason I get this really strange anxiety right at bed time when I'm sleepy and tired, which prevents me from falling asleep. I hate it.
6 more weeks of teaching. 3 1/2 more hours of it today. 3 days till Easter. 3 months till I see my mom and sister.
Allison and I went to Clocked and Little Kings and then watched 30 Rock last night. I fell asleep in her warm nest of a bed while she was snuggling with her wonderful cat Morrisey. It was a nice evening - until I couldn't sleep in my bed later on.
I'm debating on being a "cabaret dancer" at the Go Bar tonight. I'm pretty tired.
Bryan Lee is coming to Athens TOMORROW! Yeah!
I need to locate some coffee. I'm out.

Kitty Likes to Scratch

GOB is so frickin hilarious. I heart Arrested Development.

The pollen is driving me criggity crazy. I've been tired and cranky all week.
All of my job applications are currently sitting and stewing in a big, black witches pot floating on the internet.

Leather for all Weather

My great friend Bill and his lady Whitney went to a leather parade some months back in San Francisco where they live. He sent me some funny pictures I had forgotten about until today when I rediscovered them in my gmail inbox.

I really don't get the whole gas mask fetish. At all. Today I've got Supertramp stuck in my head. "Take a look at my girlfriend. She's the only one I got"
The oboe hook is a killer.

So Spring Break lays in wait. At 3:30 today it will devour me and suck the marrow from my bones. I will laze and eat and sleep and watch movies and go to the park. After I work out at the YMCA today. It feels so good to be in shape - something I'm not so familiar with. Now I look forward to going to the gym which is amazing.
I hear my colleagues debating on whether or not we have a meeting. Gotta go.

Domo Arregato

Target sighted, Mr. President.

"He has had four heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, two artery-clearing angioplasties and an operation to implant a special pacemaker in his chest." Andrew Bridges, Associated Press

Mr. Bridges is referring to Vice President Dick Cheney. Or maybe bionic devil man. I'm starting to think that Cheney, who now seems to have a life threatening blood clot, has been doubling as a human for quite sometime. He can't be real.

Maybe he has access to medicinal technology that we pleibs don't. Maybe he has a robo heart. Either way, was at some point way too high strung. I would step don't and retire in the Carribean if I was him. He strikes me as addicted to stress and work, though, so that will never happen.

I would like some machinized willpower. Or mabye a computerized work ethic.

making of a family

If I had to cast actors as my family:


Dad


Mom


Oldest daughter


Youngest daughter


Grandpa(father's side)


Grandma(father's side)

hey corleone!

"Don't ask me about my business, Kay."

Why is Diane Keaton such a whiny, spoiled, two-dimensional character in The Godfather? She really should have spoken up and asked the writers and director to develop Kay into a little more of a realistic personality. Well, maybe I shouldn't use the adjective realistic. There are weirdos like that running around and oblivious to anything but melodrama.



I've been watching Godfather I and II today. I think the couch has an impression of my body in it. I've also eaten too many choclate eggs. I love easter candy!

I read today that "spring forward" is three weeks early this year. March 11 don't forget! At least that will be during my spring break - adjustment time.

Uh oh. Don Ciccio is about to taste vengeance from Don Corleone's pistol. Gotta go.

lookie at the wookie

Currently: watching A and E murder mystery crime show.
Earlier today: Greasy breakfast at Zims, nap, online antics, secret squirrel art show

Personal likes: walks on the beach, choclate, discount shopping, picking nose, cheese, watching movies, cats standing on their hind legs, waking up at 4 am and realizing there is still time to sleep, dancing on the bed listening to Ipod, laptops, gorillas, backrubs/backstratches, dancing, matt, milk, coins, sincerity, reading

Personal dislikes: dog farts, cats on my face or running on me at 4 am, teen angst, junk mail, chimps, over 40 mom haircuts, chapped lips, when people don't pop their whiteheads, commercials, billboards, fermenting sink smell, indecision, onions

Future Goals: travel, get a new job, have children, picnics, make things, read, finish thesis, mature gracefully, keep excersing, eat healthy, budget, write

Favorite memories: playing with Robin, dinner with family, happy Christmases, being with Matt, sleeping at Grandma's house, Robin's surprise bday party, hanging with Julia, ally and ev's parties, jills' house in high school, walks with Linus, Spain part 1 and 2, Rome, riding my bike barefoot, dancing with mom, vacations

Panic Sets In

Oh it's Friday. One week until Spring Break. They passed out contracts for us to sign if we want to work here next year. I'm having enough doubts to kill a believer.
We're supposed to sign contracts before they tell us what position we will be filling. Thanks a lot!

I have applied online to around 15 jobs in the last 3 weeks. I have not heard from one of these companies as of yet. Even just a "we already filled the position" email would be nice. Oh well. Another job I was interested in pays less than what I owe in bills each month. Here's to poverty! Hurrah! Hurrah! I'll see you at Kmart next year. I'll be the one in the blue vest with the smug look on my face.

For some reason I have been sick off and on for the past few weeks. I also didn't go to the gym this week or shower most days. Diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, phantom abdominal pains, fatigue. Better get Midol!

I did get to hang out with Allison and celebrate her birthday two nights in a row. She is so wonderful - I'm so glad that she lives in Athens. It's nice to have a friend who has known you for a long time and is still somehow always going through the same thing you are.

I do so very much look forward to summer. I'm already shedding my shoes whenever possible and fantasizing about my sundresses. Hopefully I'll have a job by June so I can double my money as the school will pay me through August. Then maybe I can shake a little of this debt I'm so good at carrying around.

"It's dark and hell is hot." DMX

Laissez Faire

When I grow up next year, I want to be a flight attendant or a secretary.
Due to lack of employing agencies in the Athens Clarke County area, I am becoming enamored with jobs like administrative assistant to anyone at UGA and flight attendant for Airtran for peanuts a day.
70 guaranteed flying hours x $18.80 per hour = $1260 a month = PAYCUT
I feel guilted into staying in public school - but I would really rather NOT work in such a stressful environment. Hotel hopping and peanut popping sounds more fun than grading and breaking up fights fueled by hormones and unrequited love.
Sigh.
So much for my impending Master's degree.

Chemical Romance

This article I read this morning states that women are attracted to different types of men when they're on the pill. According to the study, women on the pill find "macho" types more attractive, and women off of the pill prefer more femenine features on males. Supposedly women who were off of the pill desired flings with macho types, while women on the pill had relationships with them. Maybe that explains some of our past relationships, ladies? So, risk pregnancy and avoid macho guys or stay baby proof and avoid dominant cave boys. I don't know, it's a toss up. The article features a picture of Russell Crowe as a macho/masculine type. I think he looks more like a bear. The only thing he hasn't scared me in was LA Confidential.
HORMONAL
Tonight is Julia's birthday celebration and I'm so excited! We're going to go out to eat, go downtown and then stay in the Hilton in Athens! Celebrate good times come on!

Hannibal the Cannibal

Why did they have to make Hannibal Lecter a dashing young man for the new movie "Hannibal Rising?" It's a strange feeling to watch the young and nubile Gaspard Ulleil make out with his cute asian costar - and know that he had been eating someone's face off two scenes prior. I always end up rooting for the bad guy if he's capable of romance and hot exchanges and has some sort of soft side.
Case in point:

What does this reveal about my psychological neuroses? Hmmm.
I even wanted Christine to hook up with this guy in his famous Broadway musical,

Something about being the underdog and an outcast. Maybe I was made fun of too much in middle school.
I also think Dracula is intriguing,

As well as his other vampy friends

Perhaps I've said too much.

Melted Brains

It's been a week of Technotronic's hit from circa 1990s spinning and wasting away at my grey matter:
"Pump up the jam
Pump it up
While your feet are stompin'
And the jam is pumpin'
Look at here the crowd is jumpin'

Pump it up a little more
Get the party going on the dance floor
Seek us that's where the party's at
And you'll find out if you're too bad

I don't want a place to stay
Get your boody on the floor tonight
Make my day
I don't want a place to stay
Get your boody on the floor tonight
Make my day"

I particularly like the spelling of "boody." Why do scary synth heavy songs sneak into my brain and take over? Another sign that middle school has strange effects on it's teaching staff. I'm really starting to lose it.
My students are making family trees and gossiping about uncle who and what he did and auntie she and her light skinned baby. Hmmm!
I'm sitting back and reminding them to stay on task at intervals. Mr. T and I have been working them really hard, so I figured a day of work and light talk would be a nice break. Oh, and I'm really out of it today.
Tomorrow I might take the day off and go to drop off my application at Gainesville College - and then drive around.
I drank too much coffee after lunch.

Esquiar

During the holiday weekend I went skiing in Snowshoe. It was awesome! Matt and I decided to take a trip for our 1 year anniversary and we had a great time. I snowplowed more than I actually sped down the mountain, though.
I also spent an exorbitant amout of money. But it was totally worth it!
Now I'm back at work counting down the days till May. I'm trying to decide what to do next year and also gearing up to finish my thesis.
My coworkers have been very cranky lately.
The kids have been really hyper.
Thank the lawd it's Friday.