My Life, As Told Between (Baby Cakes') Naps

I love this post and wanted to share.  In case you bypass the post (despite my insistence that you read it!), this is my favorite line:  “Prettiness is not rent you pay for occupying a space marked ‘female.'” 

I write this of course as I’m putting on makeup, worrying about my upper arms being flabby, and wondering if I should get a haircut soon!  =)

What I did this weekend:

• Met T’s mom. Tried to be charming.
• Ran 10 miles.
• Played frisbee and paddle-ball in the park. Found out am very bad at frisbee and paddle-ball.
• Watched Open Season. Cute.
• Ate at Shutters in Santa Monica and The Terrace in Venice. Yummm.
• Watched the first few episodes of Battlestar Galactica. Awesome.
• People watched on Third Street.
• Bought Christopher Moore’s The Stupidest Angel.
• Worked.

What I didn’t do this weekend:

• Laundry.
• Grocery Shopping.
• Get an oil change for Toby Too.
• Clean apartment.
• Buy dress for friend’s upcoming wedding.
• Wake up on time Saturday to run 13 miles, as planned.
• Start/finish any of the books on my to be read/am reading list.
• Eat less.

So I learned something new this weekend.  Throughout college, my friend D would jokingly say “They know not what they do” whenever he was feeling slightly slighted.  I loved it and incorporated it into my own repertoire.  This weekend, I learned that apparently D did not make this phrase up.  It turns out some guy named Jesus beat him to it.  Who knew? 

Spent some quality time yesterday with Roomie and my little sis B, both of whom are back in town after extended absences.  T says I plan my days around food.  Appearantly this runs in the family.  Roomie, B and I couldn’t pick between dim sum or Indian food for lunch, so we decided dim sum for lunch and Indian food for dinner.  The catch was that B actually lives about 60 miles away and had only planned to come by for lunch, but seeing the possibility of Indian food in sight (paid for by yours truly), she opted to stick around and kill the hours in-between until she was hungry again.  We watched Princess Mononoke (weird anime movie) and snacked.  At one point I had to notify her that the snacking was probably going to delay the onset of hunger, thus pushing our delicious Indian dinner further back.  We stopped snacking.

During the day outing with Roomie and B, the topic of my top 5 fans came up.  We all decided that I was probably at the top of the list, followed closely by my grandmother (who adores me) and T (who also adores me).  Roomie and B vied for fourth and fifth on the list. It was a good day yesterday.

Today didn’t start out so great when I locked myself out of my apartment for 25 minutes while trying to do laundry.  Fortunately, Roomie heard my fervant knocking eventually (she was in the shower) and let me in, but not until I’d wandered all over the complex in my PJ’s looking for the security guard to see if he had keys (he didn’t).  Thinking, “Well, at least with all this drama, the dryer’s almost done,” I promptly headed back to the laundry room to take out my clothes.  Only to realize that while I had put money in and waited for the top dryer to finish…my clothes laid waiting for me, soaking wet, in the bottom dryer.  

The rest of the day went much better.  Met T in the Valley for lunch before his shift started.  Had a pizzookie at BJ’s.  For those unfortunate few who are not familiar with the pizzookie – aka, the pizza cookie  – get yourself to a BJ’s ASAP!  It is a culinary delight not to be missed.  =) 

For those dying to know the minutia of my life – send me an email! 

For those just really, really bored at work, here are the highlights.  =)

• Life in general good.  Been doing a lot of weekend trips…despite the anxiety that something will come up at work and I won’t be able to get away. 
• Going to San Diego next weekend with T.  Hoping we’ll be able to squeeze in a visit to Sea World!
• Vegas was awesome.  Love hanging out with my girlfriends.  And I got to see M & M World. 
• Work is busy, as usual.  Preparing for an upcoming trial. 
• Running is not going so well.  Just not enough time in the day and too many weekends away.  Did do a long 22 mile run last month and a few 11 mile runs since then.  Need to make sure to do another 20+ mile run this month.  Marathon’s in October! 

So, yeah, basically, everything’s the same and nothing’s new.  This concludes a very boring post.

This may be the cleverest thing ever.  Or maybe I’m just easily amused.  Anyways, they’re available at William-Sonoma.

In non-fashion related news, I thought this article by Doug McIntyre was interesting. 

Yay!  New episodes of Futurama in 2008.  Yeah, I’m a geek.  Like y’all didn’t already know.  =)

I miss it.  I was listening to a song from its soundtrack today as I slaved away on a motion that’s due Monday, and thought, “Huh, I miss this show.”  I miss checking in with Meredith, Christina, McDreamy, Bailey and the rest of the characters.  I miss watching it on Sunday.  I miss talking about it on Monday.   

I think sitting alone in front of a computer all day on a beautiful Saturday is driving me slightly batty…slightly more coherent post when I’m done with this motion.  Maybe. 

Hope you all are able to usher in the official start of summer and enjoy the extra long day of sunshine today! 

I’m spending the rest of this week and a good portion of this weekend in the office, but am sneaking out for a hike Saturday morning (shhhh…) and hopefully going on a longish run Sunday.  Haven’t run more than 13 miles in awhile (mostly through lack of time) and am impatient to do some longer runs.  I’m hoping to stay in marathon shape, even though my next marathon isn’t until October.  Speaking of which, if anyone wants to do a full or half marathon in SF in October, and support a great cause while you’re at it, shoot me an email!

Take it easy all and have a great rest of the week!

Groan.  Ate too much and did too little this weekend.  Planned a hike.  Didn’t make it.  Planned a long run.  Didn’t make it.  Planned to go into the office.  Didn’t make it.   You get the idea.  Should have planned a nap so at least I could have checked something off the list.

Saw Cars.  Super cute.  May have teared up a bit.  Stay for the closing credits.  Best closing credits ever.   

Bought a new summer dress.  Much cuter (and more slimming) than pictured. 

Did I mention I ate a lot?  I did.  A lot.  Groan.

Back from Cabo.  Post about trip to follow.  Can’t wait for next year’s! 

The next couple of months will be hellishly busy in the office so postings will probably be short and intermittent.  Keep your fingers crossed that I survive it y’all…

Went to the Laugh Factory with the Frog this weekend.  She drove because there was the possibility of parallel parking.  As I was getting into her car after the show, I accidently made eye contact with a stranger. 

Stranger:  “You don’t want to get into that car – get into our limo!  All you have to do is riiiiiiide!!” 

Me:  (*Gasp*) [internal monologue]  “Is she talking to me?  Could she mean what I think she means?  But I’m wearing my glasses.  I’m invisible when I wear my glasses!  Should I be offended?  Flattered?  Flustered?” 

I opted for flustered…with maybe a touch of flattered.  =)

Overall, it was a great weekend, despite an emergency coming up Friday afternoon that necessitated me frantically working between bouts of fun. 

Dined at a fantastic Polynesian-esque restaurant.  Best mac and cheese ever.  Rivaled even the scrumptious mac and cheese at Luna Park.  Drank slightly too much at a friend’s party afterwards, which made waking up at 7am the next morning to rush into work etremely painful…but not as painful as it could have been thanks to T, who, I later learned, surreptitiously sipped my drinks all night so I wouldn’t be hungover the next morning!

Braved the (potential, but never realized) rain Sunday morning for a thirteen mile run all by myself, having skipped out on the Saturday morning run to go to work.  Oh, and for anyone interested, Gmaps Pedometer is awesome for figuring out distances and planning runs.

Finally signed up for a MySpace account.  Please won’t you be my friend?  =) 

Interesting list in the New York Times of the best works in American fiction in the last 25 years.  Toni Morrison’s Beloved topped the list. 

I think it’s an excellent choice, although I’m probably not in a position to say since I haven’t read many of the books on the list.  Sad considering the fact that I was an English Lit major and think of myself as a rather avid (or formerly avid) reader.  Unfortunately, reading cases all day has made a major dent in my propensity to read in my spare time.  And has significantly decreased the amount of spare time I have.  

I hate how work is always getting in the way of not working.

I’ve been exhausted and stressed out about work lately, more so than usual.  I was told recently though that “if this is you when you’re ‘miserable,’ I’m not sure I’d be able to stand how perky you’d be when you’re actually happy.” 

Funny, I’ve never really thought of myself as perky per se.  I think I’m much too cynical and my sense of humor has too much of a bite to be “perky,” but, whatever, I’m going to take it as a compliment anyways.  =) 

(Sorry, was that too perky?)

T:  What do you want to do tonight?

Me:  I don’t know.  What do you want to do?

T:  It’s Saturday night.  (*pause*) Maybe we should go out or something…

Me:  (*pause*)  Um, sure.

T:  Any ideas where you want to go?

Me:  I guess we could go out in Hermosa.  I hate going out in LA and all the bars around here are a little more dressed up than I feel like being tonight.

T:  Okay, sounds good.

[An hour later.  Have driven to Hermosa and circled looking for parking for what feels like a million years, but was actually probably 10 minutes.]

Me:  Sorry, I forgot what a pain parking is this late.  (*sigh*)  I really wish we’d just ordered a pizza and stayed in tonight.

T:  Yeah, that would have been perfect.

Me:  Wait – I thought you wanted to go out tonight?

T:  No, I LOVE staying in.  I thought YOU wanted to go out!

Me:  Seriously?  I’d like nothing better than to rent a video and order some pizza.  Wanna head back? 

T:  Oh, thank god.  I was afraid we’d actually have to go out tonight!

Me:  Me too.  Looks like we dodged the bullet on that one.  Well, technically, we’re in the vicinity of the bars.  That’s almost like we went, right?

T:  Um, sure.

Sorry about the lack of updates recently.  I keep sitting down to write something, but end up doing more online shopping.  Latest purchase?  These incredibly cute, but horribly impractical wedges:

Yes, they’re teal, and seude, and too high to be comfortable, but aren’t they adorable?

Aside from the distraction that is online shopping (speaking of which, now that Roomie’s no longer home to sign for things, I’m getting an embarassing amount of clothing/shoes/purses shipped to my work address), I’ve just been having an “eh” couple of weeks.  I’m in the midst of reassessing some things, which is making me a bit cranky.  I’m very bad at reassessment / introspection.  I’m much better at shopping.

I’ve also been suffering through, as the Frog so aptly stated, some Awkward Body Days (“ABD”).  I’ve found that there’s no rhyme or reason behind when ABD’s hit.  Sometimes, you just wake up to discover that overnight, your body’s been replaced by someone else’s.  And unfortunately, that other person’s body doesn’t quite fit right, that other person has bad hair, is breaking out, is pudgier than you are, and can’t seem to dress in anything flattering.  I don’t know if this situation is unique to girls, but I’m happy to report that the stranger has vacated (for now) and I’m back.

I think I’m going to celebrate my return by going to Disneyland this weekend! =) 

My friends and I call our friend DJS (whom I adore – just in case you’re reading this DJS!) “The Grump” sometimes.  When he’s tired, you can almost see the clouds forming over his head and the mope lines settle across his face.

I’ve been feeling a bit like The Grump the last week or so.  I’m normally a very upbeat person, I fear irritatingly so sometimes.  For the last several months, I’ve surprised even myself by bounding out of bed at six every morning excited about going to the gym.  This morning, I had to drag myself out of bed and only managed to do so after a very stern talking to.

The Frog thinks it might be the weather.  It’s been abnormally cold for Los Angeles and I think I’m suffering from a bit of seasonal depression, which is extremely odd because (a) it hasn’t been that bad, (b) it hasn’t been “bad” for long, (c) there have been several really nice days between the “bad” days, and (d) (as the Frog astutely pointed out), I freaking lived in Boston – aka Bad Weather, USA – for three years and was (relatively) fine.

You know you’re a spoiled Californian when…

Well, not really, but I feel much, much better after having taken the weekend off (despite all intentions of coming into the office Sunday).  Roomie’s in London for the next three months, so I spent a good portion of the weekend cleaning and straightening up the apartment.  Since I’m never there, I’m hoping it’ll remain clean until she gets back to take over the ordinary household duties. 

Didn’t manage to get around to doing my taxes, or even organizing my paperwork enough to get my taxes done by someone, but did do three loads of laundry, went grocery shopping, went running with some friends from my running group (the official group disband after the LA Marathon), ate entirely too much, had drinks at Lola’s and tried to catch up on my sleep.  Unfortunately, some of this sleeping happened over dinner at the Cheesecake Factory on Saturday.  I’m starting to worry that people will be afraid to be seen with me in public for fear that I will spontaneously nap on them. . .and I mean this literally.  I was reclined so far back in my chair that (I didn’t realize this until after the dinner was over) my head was practically in the lap of the poor unfortunate stranger sitting to my right. 

There’s a great article in today’s New York Times about Trader Joes.  There’s one in my neighborhood, but I haven’t been in months – the parking lot’s always crowded and it’s not on my way to or from anywhere.  Plus, as a very good friend of mine once pointed out, only “pointy-nosed white women” (remember – her words, not mine!) shop there.  =) 

More importantly, Trader Joes doesn’t carry 8th Continent’s fat free vanilla soy milk, a staple in my diet.  They do carry fantastic chocolate covered soy beans, caramel rice snacks, and dried strawberries however.  Yummmm. 

Wait – I think I feel my nose growing…I’ll be at TJ’s if anyone needs me…