i never want to leave

Well, after like, 2 days of travel (bad weather delays in Baltimore, missing my connection and having to stay overnight in Denver, etc.) I am finally in San Diego! The weather, I can't stop talking about the weather! Its..... perfect. Well, I don't want to gloat and brag and make everyone feel bad... well.... maybe a little....

so, if you are feeling bad about anything, or sad, or negative in any way about anything in your life, just know that things could be worse. Things could be A LOT worse. (sorry, that was gross!)

Well, I'm off to the Jane Goodall (the gorrilla woman, you know, Gorrillas in the Mist and all that) African-themed gala party event tonight, it should be pretty cool. She was the keynote speaker at the conference.

I'll tell you all about it tomorrow!

P.S. I hate when vegetarians get the shaft. $35 tickets, and the meal is curried chicken or beef. Thats just not right. I'm going to walk up to Jane and say, 'why do you only care about the gorillas, Jane, what about the cows and chickens!!'
totally the shaft.

Superwoman

So, today I am feeling like Superwoman. Last night I managed to sew a lion costume out of a toilet seat cover (who knew I could sew? I didn't!).
Since 'Scar' from the lion king has a black mane, the costume looks a tiny bit like...if Elvis was reincarnated as a lion. haha. It was miraculous that I was able to make something halfway decent in a few short hours. Cody kept saying, 'I can't believe you just made that. Like in an hour! It looks like soemthing you would buy!' (it doesn't, but thanks!)

...I broke the sewing machine though...whoops! the needle snapped in two.

Then I did three loads of laundry and packed for 3 people. It took me until 2 a.m. so I am tired as all get-out today, but maybe I will sleep on the plane.

San Diego baby!!

see ya, suckas!!

Report: Lazy Habits May Have Healthy Benefits

Yes! I knew it!

Bad Habits May Help Health

According to an article in the July issue of Glamour magazine, research shows drinking coffee, skipping the gym and gossiping and could be good for some people.

And as we all know, Glamour Magazine is the leading voice in scientific and health research!


sad but true.

boats r fun

This Saturday we were invited out on a boat with the daughter of Mrs. Gaither, a teacher that taught at my middle school. Isn't that wierd?

I learned several things from this experience.

1. Buy a boat, its worth it!
2. When invited on a boat, bring a bathing suit or you will end up topless under a lifejacket in soggy shorts.
3. If you are being pulled behind a boat on an innertube at top speed and the driver is intent on flipping you out of the tube, you are flipping out of the tube no matter how hard you hold on!
4. Holding on for dear life to an innertube when the boat driver is intent on flipping you will only result in dislocating your arms from your body.
5. This is a delicious sandwich: Wheat bread, yellow mustard, chunks of cheddar cheese, fresh grape tomatoes, a pickle slice, a wheat thin, and a cheese curl. If you don't believe me, try it.
6. The bay is as warm as bathwater.
8. Nothing feels better after you've been in seawater then taking a hot shower and putting on a giant white button-up men's dress shirt
9. Men appreciate a woman in a giant button-up men's shirt.
7. Buy a boat, its so fun!

No, the waiters don't have flies in their eyes.

And no, dinner doesn't consist of one grain of rice.

Ethiopian food is goood (well I've only had vegetarian Ethiopian, so that's all I can vouch for.)

My favorite Eth restaurant is in Adams Morgan in DC, its called Meskarem, but the one I went to yesterday in Mt. Vernon, Dukem, was pretty darn good (and no wait whatsoever- Meskarem is usually packed, at least on the weekends)

I recommend the vegetarian sampler plate. For anyone who's never eaten Ethiopian food, it is served atop the customary Ethiopian flatbread, injera, which kind of resembles a dirty dishtowel or sponge in texture (mmm, sounds good, doesn't it! ;-p). You eat with your hands, more specifically by tearing peices of injera and using them to scoop up bites of food. Its fun and its a nice change from the ordinary, and the spices are exotic. The spiciness fills your mouth rather than burning your tongue.

As much as I enjoy the cuisine, I don't recommend hosting your birthday dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant! People tend to either love it or hate it. For those of you who hate it, I implore you to give it another chance if you only had the meat dishes. And if you still don't like it, you are welcome to go back to your mundane diets of cold cut subs and macaroni and cheese!

V:

One ubiquitous seasoning is a piquant red paste called berbere. It’s made from peppers, garlic, onion, and other spices that are dried and ground into powder; mitmita is a similar but hotter blend. Berbere and mitmita, along with a seasoned, clarified butter called niter kibe—prepared with garlic, ginger, cardamom, and coriander—form the base for a variety of traditional stews.

Rant

Is it just me, or did most of the world blandly accept the information that on some days it is hazardous to your health to go outside and breathe! I mean, I'm sure there are some environmental groups (and some transportation planners!) that are buisily trying to work on the problem, or at least on trying to keep the public informed, but it seems that your average Joe Citizen just swallowed the information like the medicine that it was and went on with life. AM I THE ONLY ONE FREAKED OUT BY THIS?? I mean, it feels like I am living in a sci-fi movie about the future.

Little Johnny: Mom, can I go out to play?
Mother: No son, the air quality index today is code red. You could die if you breathe that air! Stay inside today and play your simulator. I'll whip you up some Bregit Lung in the replicator.

This didn't exist when we were little, right???

I just re-read Stephen King's "The Running Man" (you've probably seen the movie, but I bet you didn't know that it was directed by Dave Starsky from Starsky and Hutch! The book is a lot different, by the way) but anyway all of the poor people were getting lung cancer, like little kids and everything, because the air quality was so bad but the gov't was covering it up. After the index went over like, 300, they stopped releasing the data. And the rich people could afford filters to wear but poor people couldn't.

This is actually what is happening, I mean we aren't to that point yet but how long until we are? Within our lifetime? Our kids' lifetime? its freaking creepy, why doesn't anyone else think its freaking creepy!

Headline of the Day

be a *likeable* pig, and still live happily ever after. some moral!

So, this weekend I went to Dewey Beach with V and stayed for free at a cute little beach house that his mom rented like 10 steps from the beach. First I want to state the obvious-- its so much nicer having a place to stay at the beach rather then going for the day! The two major benefits were PARKING and SHOWER. The negatives were TV and SLEEPING ON BUNKBEDS. haha.

sexy legs - keep up that running!
Anyway, it was fun and pretty chill. When we left on Saturday morning, it was under a blanket of torrential rainfall, so strong that the Beemer was barely able to retain its grip on the road. We almost turned around... but then just said, 'screw it' and kept going, making jokes about how parking and traffic would be pretty good at the beach because what kind of idiots go to the beach in this weather!! ha.

Incredibly, as we approached our destination, we could see the end of the storm clouds in a distinctly drawn line, with clear blue skies ahead over the beach. As Jake said, 'the laws of physics don't apply'. :)

Basically it didn't rain the whole weekend. It was warm and sunny and perfect beach weather. No one ate a drop of meat all weekend, which was a double bonus, even if it was just random. Also, it wasn't weird at all, V hanging out with the kids, playing football with them and his little brother Christopher on the beach, frolicking in the water with the inflatable raft that obviously wasn't made for adult use (we found out the hard way!) There were disgusting little white crabs swimming with us, and piles of tiny white crab body parts floating around in the water, so I had to practice a bit of self-delusion and just try to imagine an alternate reality. Mostly it worked, except when Cody would say, "there's a crab crawling in your hair!!! just kiddin" or V would throw me into a pile of them, to everyone else's delight!! Blech.

All in all it was good, despite the self-inflicted drama of the previous evening, and the guilt at the thought that I have never gone to the beach with my own mother...

resemblance?
In other news, If you love comedies like Old School and Dodgeball, (which both happen to have the illustrious VINCE VAUGHN in them), but don't like their grating and overly-puerile counterparts such as Meet the Parents, GO SEE WEDDING CRASHERS! I love V.V. maybe that's why I am dating him.

will i ever have a phat ride?

so pretty it almost hurts to look at it...
All of my friends' cars are better then mine.


...but who cares.
bastards.

more photos of my friend Mo's new car, if you care to join me in my envy: http://www.mooshack.com/Pictures/Z4/index.html

sike, Angie drives a beater. haha.

What I am listening to:
7 by Prince (does anyone know what is this song about?? Is his name Prince again, or still that symbol?)

What I am eating right now for lunch:
Edamame
Fresh Pineapple
I might eat some coffee yogurt too

that sounds so weird. oh well, its what I felt like.

you rock, rock.

kudos to one of the few radio stations on the air worth listening to, for not playing the same old boring crap on heavy rotation until you think if you hear that song one more time you will claw your ear drums out. The station I'm talking about is 89.7, WTMD, which is broadcast from Towson University. They recently signed on with NPR and are now broadcasting NPR news reports as well. Heard a great acoustic set from Michael Penn last night on the way home from hell (A.K.A. suburban shopping mall).

Its not crazy....

Its not crazy...feeling uncomfortable with your boyfriend hanging out with his ex-girlfriend, is it?

I mean, I'm not trying to say I'M NOT CRAZY, because generally speaking I probably am...but thats not crazy is it?

I remember when my brother told me that his girlfriend told him he wasn't allowed to talk to his ex-girlfriend anymore. Period. They were still friends, although he lived in NY and she lived in Michigan, so it was mostly emails and the occasional phone call, I guess. Although I was thinking to myself not to jump to judge her, and after thinking it through I understood her motives and could see her perspective, my initial reaction was, 'wow thats so controlling. She can't tell you who you can hang out with and who you can't'.

I felt much more comfortable with this friendship when she lived hours away and maybe called once in a while to catch up. (Well, not MUCH more comfortable, but, somewhat more comfortable!) That's way less threatening then her moving back into the same town, 10 minutes down the road, when she obviously isn't in a great relationship currently if she is moving 2 hours away from her boyfriend, and is DEFINITELY going to want to hang out with my boyfriend, perhaps confide in him, etc.

I feel like I should apologize for being psycho and untrusting, but its not him I don't trust, its the situation. Its the potential. He may have innocent motives, but does that mean she does? And, even those with the most innocent of motives can have clouded judgement after a few drinks, or after an argument with their girlfriend.

The worst part of bringing up my fears is the potential to drive the friendship to the down-low: secret happy-hour meetings or dinners with the justification that 'its innocent' and to 'spare my feelings' or something. Argh, I wish she would just go away! Even though she's not even here yet...

Is that psycho girl issues and insecurity, or realism and logic??

...both?

Its All Good

This weekend I may go to Dewey Beach for the weekend or perhaps the 9th Annual Allgood Festival. Its kind of a hippy-fest I guess, and you camp out there over the weekend. Its at a place called 'Marvin's Mountaintop' which is awesome, because if I had a mountaintop I would totally name it after myself, too.

I've only heard of maybe 5 or 6 of the bands, but I spent some time last night downloading some Flaming Lips and I kind of like them, its like psychedelic alternative rock.

About their new album, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots:

"...a concept album about robots and karate that, somewhere along the line, strays into languorous, contemplative songs about mortality and death"

haha- what?

The coolest thing is that I thought the illegal download days were over, since most of what I have lately tried to download off of Kazaa has been fake songs, but I downloaded Limewire and it is working GREAT so far.

This guy is my hero.

Misogyny 101

So last night I was at the gym working out with my kid and the neighbor, and it comes out that at 6 flags, my Ex dared my son's friend to ask some 17 year old girls if they would lift up their skirts and flash them, which he proceeded to do, to which they reacted by giving them all the finger. Apparently this was described as a good thing because, "although the girls feel angry at the moment, at the end of the day they feel good because someone thought they were attractive"

Great lesson in misogyny for three twelve year olds and two seven year old boys.

Fortunately, because they trusted me enough to share this story with me, I had the opportunity to counter this lesson by telling them that basically, a good rule of thumb is, if you wouldn't want someone to say it to your mother or sister, then don't say it, and that when strange guys yell out stuff like that to me, I don't feel beautiful, I feel like a piece of meat being oggled by a disrespectful jerk.

What an idiot. How will I ever raise them to be gentleman with him as their male role-model?

Fantastic Fourtune (spent at the movies!)

Holy Cow I'm old. My kid just turned TWELVE this weekend. That's right, I have had children for 12 years! Yes, 12 years ago Saturday I lay prone on a hospital bed, writhing in pain as a mini human creature burst forth from my body in an agonizing and disturbingly sci-fi display, much like the mogwais which exploded from Gizmo's body when exposed to water. So, to celebrate, Saturday morning we made waffles with vanilla ice-cream, hot fudge, strawberries and whipped cream for birthday breakfast and then he went to six flags, and Sunday I took him and a friend to see Fantastic Four. I had really low expectations, in fact I thought it would be miserable, but it wasn't! I mean its still a lame comic book movie, but for what it was it wasn't that bad. And, I didn't see it with a boyfriend who would be drooling over Jessica Alba the whole time, but pretending not to, which was good. Jolene, Mohammad, and Chris met us at the theatre and we all hung out and got Johnny Rockets milkshakes before-hand. There are magicians that do tricks before the movies, and they came and did a magic trick just for Cody, for his birthday. All in all including tickets, milkshakes, candy and popcorn, I think I spent $50. Is it just me or is $9 for a movie ticket and $5 for a rotten bag of popcorn HIGHWAY ROBBERY?? The bad guy in the movie was named Victor Von Doom, by the way. haha. Saturday we built a miniature grill and semi-successfully grilled out, which was a fun experiment. Asparagus, and broccoli, yum. Next time I want to try to grill plantains, so if anyone knows any secrets, tell me!

I'm sexier then your girlfriend

Mood Swings Now Excused

"It's better to be a guy. I've always believed that. I think this gender narcissism originated when I was eight and saw a girl cry after getting plunked in the ass during dodgeball. But I never really gave it any thought beyond that. Just sort of took it on good faith.

In today's world, one's expected to defend such controversial and arrogant proclamations. Therefore, it's high time this premise received a closer look. I'm not really out to try and prove what gender is superior, Bobby Riggs already failed miserably trying to do that for us. All I'm looking to do is provide some insight into why women are so batty. I have a feeling when I reach the end of this article, I'm not going to be so hard on them for being crazy. "

The Bra Purchase
Imagine going to the local TJ Maxx to buy yourself some new tighty whities and noticing that the sizes are no longer categorized as S, M, or L, but instead "Small Penis," "Medium Penis," and "Large Penis." Girls are reminded every time they buy a new bra into which class their chest falls. For the fortunate few, it's a delightful task. But for most, it's a horrifying reminder of how small their boobies really are.

Sex Volume
Women are expected to be loud during sex, while men are just expected to give a courtesy grunt and make the bitter beer face upon climax. This has to be an unwelcome pressure."

Read on >>
then tell me if you agree or disagree. Basically is it better to be a man or a woman, and why?

wiggedy wack

Growing Nuggets Without the Chicken? Paper Says Edible Meat Can Be Grown in a Lab
COLLEGE PARK, Md., July 5 (AScribe Newswire)

Experiments for NASA space missions have shown that small amounts of edible meat can be created in a lab. But the technology that could grow chicken nuggets without the chicken, on a large scale, may not be just a science fiction fantasy.

In a paper in the June 29 issue of Tissue Engineering, a team of scientists, including University of Maryland doctoral student Jason Matheny, propose two new techniques of tissue engineering that may one day lead to affordable production of in vitro - lab grown -- meat for human consumption. It is the first peer-reviewed discussion of the prospects for industrial production of cultured meat.
Read the whole article! Seriously, don't be lazy. Click here. Its weird, especially the part about exercising the muscles.

Ganja-pop anyone?

Wish your parents were this cool?

whats scarier then bombs in the subway?

THIS :

Report: Lethal chemicals stored near largest population centers
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Experts call it one of the worst-case scenarios in a terror attack: a cloud of lung-melting gas or a toxic fireball ripping though a U.S. city. Potential casualties: 1 million or more. click here for full story

Tim Burton fans: Did you know about his upcoming movie, "Corpse Bride" starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonam Carter? See the trailer!Looks like a mix between A Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, and Edward Scissorhands, or something.


P.S. If you haven't checked out the site 'PostSecret', where people anonymously confess their most shameful thoughts and actions, click on the link in my link menu to check it out. People feel so alone with their dark pasts and uncomfortable thoughts- its beautiful, disturbing, haunting, sometimes amusing. Its updated with new postcards every Sunday.

Enter the "I Need a Bumper Sticker" contest

My car came with a lame bland bumper sticker ("Military Solutions are Problems") which I am dying to cover up, but I need to find the perfect one. My sister provided me with the perfect sticker for my last car:

Help! Send your suggestions, (with info on where to buy it if I choose your idea!)

This one seems a little too nihilistic, but mirrors the sentiments in the book I am currently reading:

(P.S., all you bloggers using Hello to upload photos: READ THIS!)

Tony's Pizza, Thrashers Fries, and chocolate-dipped soft serve ice cream at the Oshin, hon!

didgereedoo	yay, we aren't killing eachother!
Tony's Pizza !!	Looked sorta like this

They said it couldn't be done. They said it was crazy! But we proved them wrong, didn't we, preciousssss? Yes we did, we did. My crazy yearly jaunt to Ocean City and back on the 4th of July all in one day once again was an unequivocal success. There was NO TRAFFIC on the way there OR the way back, how money is that! We parked way down at the far end of the boardwalk, 76th Street, where the beach wasn't crowded and there were actually parking spots (one parking lot at the single-digit roads was charging $80 for parking!!) Then we frolicked in the sun and sand for 6 hours, where I started a new book (Survivor, by Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club), got a bit of a tan (you are soo not supposed to do that any more! P.S. WARNING: DO NOT do a google image search for 'melanoma'!!) packed up, drove down to 15th St. and miraculously found a parking spot there. Then down to the boardwalk for a giant Tony's Pizza which we took to the beach and ate while waiting for the fireworks, sitting in our self-constructed beach-couch (dig a trench, pushing all of the sand into a mountain behind the trench. Cover with a blanket, sit in the trench with your back on the mountain, and its as comfortable as watching fireworks from your living room!)

The fireworks blew, unfortunately, due to low lying clouds which swallowed them whole as they launched into the mist. But everything else was fantastic! The weird thing is, I don't consider myself especially patriotic, but everytime I go and they sing that token 4th of July song--

And I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

etc, no matter how bad the rendition is, I always get ever-so-slightly choked up. How corny of me.

Nostalgic song of the day: Free, by the Soup Dragons
I heard this on the way to work today, totally reminding me of seeing them perform this song at the very first HFStival when I was, I dunno, 14 or something! In a giant field in VA. No worries, no responsibilities, free, with my whole bright future ahead of me to mangle irreparably. haha.

Cuz I'm Free, to do what I want, any old tiiiime
Love me, hold me
Love me, hold me
'Cause I'm free

"No DUH" Article of the Day