all my memories...

i'm not afraid to admit it, i watch soap operas. well, one in particular: "all my children" (noon on abc). i've always watched it - even when i was little. my mom watched/watches it, my grandmother used to keep up with it. it's in my genes. my daughter will watch the show, so help me god. so i've accepted it and am not ashamed of this fact.

i was catching up on "my stories" this morning and found myself crying when dixie martin (a long-time, off-and-on figure in the story) died. it was an unfortunate death (i.e. she probably demanded more money, abc refused, and she was "terminated" - in more way than one), and as they always do with a death there was a 10 minute period of flashbacks.

during the flashbacks it was like they put me in a time machine and sent me right back to sitting in the kitchen at my old house, eating lunch, and watching "all my children" with my mom. the bad hair, the horrible mid-90's clothing, the poorly decorated mansions - it was all there. in some strange way i seriously feel like some of these people "raised" me (am i using a lot of quotation marks today, or is it just me?).

dixie martin was probably supposed to be my mom's age - i deduce this from the fact that she had 2 sons in thier mid-twenties (brad pitt look-a-like and hottie mc doesn't-wear-shirts) - and she was dead. it was like my aunt, or best friend's mom was gone. and this might seem bizarre, media-centric, sad, and/or fucked up to you, but it's just the only way i can think to explain why my eyes welled up.

and you know what, i know for a fact that my mom was sitting in her kitchen yesterday bawling her eyes out when she heard dixie flat line. just like she'd lost a sister or a dear, close friend. and people wonder why soap operas never end; how they are the only shows on television that get away with never having reruns, airing nearly 365 days a year.

things you find in a treasure island hotel room...

• two queen sized beds with "pillowtop luxury"
• one over-priced access to wireless internet
• one large mirror-paneled wall
• one phillips flat-screen TV with space-age like remote
• one killer view of the strip (scored by flirting with unattractive check-in gentleman)
• eight really, really soft pillows
• one me (unless using the mirror)

an avian annoucement...

has anybody else noticed all of the strange events surrounding birds lately?

first, my mom sent me a link to CNN about this:

"Police shut down 10 blocks of businesses in the heart of downtown Austin early Monday after dozens birds were found dead. ... There were no reports of any humans harmed, but a 10-block stretch of the main north-south route through downtown, several side streets and all buildings in the area were blocked off and expected to remain off-limits until about noon, Chovanetz said. ... The bird carcasses were found overnight along Congress Avenue between Sixth and Eighth streets."

then, i was talking to tim and a neighbor of ours about how the geese and ducks seem to be migrated late this year. i'm sure this can be blamed on the unusual winter we've all be having and perhaps the fact that they are just as confused as the blooming trees in our back yard. regardless, every day this week i have seen a flock of birds migrating. last year i remember seeing this happen about 2 months earlier.

and also, tim found this article about another incident in australia:

"Authorities believe a toxin may be responsible for the mystery deaths of about 5,000 birds around Esperance, in the state's south. ‘The birds are dying around sprinklers, water tanks, bird baths ... it seems as a result of them being ill. They're seeking water and they're dying around those water points,'' DEC district nature conservation co-ordinator Mike Fitzgerald said.’”

i don't really have a theory on it, just sort of think it's all bizarre. tim thinks it's the end of the world. i'm just not ready for that though...

on women in politics...

i just want to say, again, how much i LOVE nancy pelosi. this woman rocks my world. not only is she the first woman speaker of the house, an amazing thing alone. but, within the first few days of congress being in session she has

• increased the minimum wage by $2.10, for the first time since 1997. that's 10 years that people were being underpaid for no good reason. i cannot believe it was still $5.15/hour. that's insane!
• banned smoking in the speaker's lobby. something endangering everyone who walks into the building. any reason why the rest of the country figured this out before our capitol?
• made congressmen and women work a real work week. none of this getting off with 10 hours of work and playing for the rest of the time. politicians are people too, with jobs just like me and you. it's about time somebody held a mirror up to their faces and tell them to start commuting.

i know that's really only three things, and doesn't seem like much, but i just get excited when i see all the stuff she is doing. i think it's safe to say that i've never really liked a politician as much as her. sure, i know she probably has some faults (being TOO liberal might even be one of them), but i'm looking forward to the next few years.

comic of the day...

wish list...

iPhone, by apple.

complete with everything you need.

it knows where you are (gps) and will call the nearest starbucks for you with the click of the screen.

it doesn't have a keypad - it's all in your fingers. freakin' magic, if you ask me. they call it "mulit-touch."

you can show pictures to friends and listen to music.

you can send e-mails and check the weather on line, thanks to built in bluetooth and wifi.

it was built with the help of google. how can you go wrong with that?

it runs OSX.

you can e-mail somebody while on the phone with them. when you hang up, that song you were jamming to turns back up.

missed "the office" this past thursday? no problem - watch it on your iphone.

not enough? go here for the entire keynote speech transcript.

maybe this isn't the toy for everyone, especially when it's marked at $499 for the 4GB model, and a hundred more for the 8GB. but...for somebody who's been carrying around a cell phone they don't even make ring tones for any more, it's awesome. they ship to cingular stores in june, so look for my new hip-attachment some time after that. (that is, pending donations and/or lottery winnings.)

less work, more blog...

well, enjoy the multiple posts in one week thing, because it will stop as soon as work picks back up. once again, i am back in the mid-semester slump: the time of year in which my job is slower than molasses being poured down a flat sidewalk. i have a "to do" list sitting next to me on my desk, but all 4 things on it will take me, oh, a day total to do. so i've decided to spread it out over the next 2 weeks. that way i can say, and feel, like i accomplished something daily.

this morning i was reading my usuals (see right side of this blog) and came across a few interesting thing. one was this game boy, apparently destroyed in the gulf war, that still works. i agree with rob though, i'm sure the innards are new. i also visited "the big question," like i usually do and was forced to think about my "resolutions." i've really never liked the word "resolution," not for any reason except i associate it with promising to do things and never doing them. so, this year, in 2007 i decided to set "goals." i think it's a much more uplifting and positive. i am much more likely to achieve "goals," than i am to resolve anything. so, my goals for 2007 (because everyone else is posting them) are:

a. cook more. not necessarily anything fancy, just some basic meals. while tim doesn't really enjoy meals - he prefers a big slab of meat with a side of coke - i like to have my plate decorated with many colors. i suppose this comes from my mother, since my dad's eating habits consisted of about 7 meals in shades of beige, white, and brown. (not that they weren't good, just not as colorful). so i have set a goal to create more beautiful plates of food for me to scarf down.

b. keep the house in order. i don't really live in a pig-sty by any means, but things do tend to collect dust. and shit that should be in the trash forms large piles on tables throughout the house. and the fridge starts its own science experiments. so this goal is more to keep up with general organization and cleaning around the house, rather than doing a deep clean ever 3 months when i start to get annoyed by the new animal forming in the corner from all of the pet hair floating around.

c. work out at least 4 times a week. i'm not joining a gym. one, because there is a free one on the campus where i work and two, because i wouldn't ever go. instead, i got some exercise equipment for christmas and i now have enough things at home (free weights, pilates ball, a few yoga videos). there is no excuse any more. i've placed it all in the middle of the living room. that way, when my ass is glued to the couch watching t.v., all that stuff will be staring at me begging to be used. i started this goal before new years, which is good, because the week i was home i could tell that i missed my daily routine.

d. pay off credit card debt. i've been working toward this since i graduated from college (almost 2 years ago, wow!), but it's been a slow process. this year i am going to try and put any and all extra money (after bills and savings) toward my close to $2,500 debt. i know this might not seem like a lot to some of you, but it is enough to keep me awake at night. oh, and donations are always welcome of course.

there are a few other things that i am going to be working on too, but they are more personal overarching goals that i have always maintained - new years or not - and have been working on for a while. these are just my main 4 that i have set for myself in 2007 and plan to achieve.

in other news...tim is posting again!

happy new year...

a new year, a new look. not to say that i won't change the template again. and actually, i'm toying with the idea of moving my blog over to .mac - so i can create a whole website complete with pictures, playlists, and calendars. but, that's a project in the works, and it may not work out.

of course, like most of the world, i celebrated the arrival of 2007. tim and i joined a couple-friend of ours/co-worker of mine at a party in the city. well, it really wasn't IN san francisco...and it also happened to be in bay view, which is sort of the ghetto on the outskirts of the city...but i quickly learned that none of that mattered.

the house the party was at was a few generations old. it had been added on to, fixed up, refurbished, and turned inside out. it stands today as a funky laid-out house with old city charm and a kick-ass backyard (which is rare in my part of the country, unless you live further east than i do). when you stepped off the porch you were greeted by a treehouse, adorned with christmas lights, a fire pit, and a yard garnished with several different trees. it was a beautiful setting and a great landscape for a party.

we arrived around 1030pm (enough time to be ring in the new year, and bail quickly if things weren't too happening). turned out there was plenty of happening goin' on. the food table was overflowing, there were balloons tied up in preparation for a midnight drop, and people were mingling in nearly every room.

speaking of people...i think they are what made this party so awesome. it was not a party full of a certain type of person, that required a specific dress, or demanded you be of a certain upbringing. the group included a rastafarian man who passed out before midnight, an italian man who i couldn't understand (either because of his alcohol intake, or his accent), several typical san francisco city dwellers, a gentleman in his 60's who just got a new digital video camera, a few couples in their 20's and 30's, some chicks who looked like they were dressed for halloween, a few friends of friends that looked uncomfortable until somebody handed them a stiff drink (i probably fit into this category), and of course, i cannot forget: the fire-throwers.

the host of the party clearly had an eclectic group of friends (and friends of friends), which is how the fire-throwers ended up making an appearance. they kindly gave a free show for the people celebrating and did one hell of a job - complete with hoops of fire and close-call juggling amongst audience members. as some guy i only saw once during the night put it: "why the fuck is fire so cool?" i don't know man...it just is. and it's one hell of a way to ring in 2007.