Here's Something That Really Disturbed Me

Today I was reading the Wall Street Journal, actually it was last Thursday's edition, and I read a sentence that said something like this (not actual quote beacuse the paper is at home and I am at work): "In addition to advertising new shows by having the name stamped on eggs, CBS is launching an interactive advertising campaign..."

Um...

CBS has advertised shows by having them STAMPED on EGGS!?!?

This really makes me want to live in a fully sustainable adobe house in the middle of the friggin' desert. Tired, so tired.

Sonoma Weekend

Lyne and I had planned to go to Lake Sonoma on Saturday and after thinking about it for a minute, I decided that it might be nice to not have to rush back to the city after spending all day on the beach. So I cancelled my run and my swim and Lyne and I made plans to camp at the only drive in campsite at Lake Sonoma, Liberty Glen.
We got on the road by 10:45-ish and off we went out of the fog. We drove and drove, talked and talked, smoked and smoked (harsh times calls for harsh actions) and got to the Cloverdale area. Now, when we drive up to LS I can never remember the name of the exit, but I know what it looks like and it's usually not a problem. However, and I believe that PMS had a major part of this, I drove right by and we ended up at Fort Bragg. We kept saying, it's not this far is it? And how could we have missed it? So I turned around and headed back south and then we were at Healdsburg (home of the donut muffin) which I knew was way before Lake Sonoma coming north. So I turned around and headed north and took an exit which I am pretty sure was wrong but couldn't figure out where we were supposed to be going...all in all, we wasted about an hour and half and then finally figured it out. Lyne wrote the name of the exit down this time.

We hit the beach and I decided that I would get my swim workout in before too much beer and sun. So I put on my workout suit over my bikini (not a pretty sight) and my goggles and Lyne walked me to the waters edge to wave me off. I planned to swim out 15 minutes and then turn around. I got right in the water swam to the edge of the ropped off area, went under the rope, swam five feet and then felt weeds under there and freaked out and swam back under the rope and back to the shore. That was the end of that.


We played an exhilirating round of Scrabble. Layed around, read, ate chips and then left around 6pm to head to our camp site. Again we were crippled by PMS direction interfering hormones but finally arrived. We drove around til we found a spot. Set up camp and feasted on a dinner of pita sandwiches with tomato, cheese and avocado and after Lyne built a fire, marinated salmon. More cigarettes and beer and then we just looked at each other and said, let's go to bed. It was 9:30pm.

So, I'm not normally a camper. I think I like it and then I get there and am like, what the hell am I doing? It's weird because I don't mind getting dirty etc, but I don't know. I think it has a lot to do with how I sleep. I need a complex equation of head elevation, leg spreadability and spine curvature to get a good nights sleep. A sleeping bag is not conducive to any of my requirements. I woke up in the middle of the night with the most achey back and, before I hit my Indiglo on my watch, prayed that it was at least 5am. It was only 2am. And I had to pee. I decided to just stick it out. Put my hat on and hunkered down. I could hear Lyne waking up a little bit and right at that moment I heard the weirdest rumbling sound. It was as if a giant earthquake was happening and it produced this low rumbling that was heard through out the valley. Heh. I whispered to Lyne, do you hear that? Then it stopped and we fell asleep. At 6am I could hear Lyne coughing and being wrestless and talking to herself about how the ciggies are making her miserable and then I heard her rustle through her bag, fish out the tobacco, actually get out of the tent and dump all the tobacco into the fire pit. HAHAHAHA! I was just rolling my eyes in my half sleepy state. Then she came back and started to talk to me and I was all, hi? Sleeping!

We got up at 8am packed everything up and prepared to head out. I was just M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E. My back was killing me, it was cold and gray, my allergies had kicked in and I just wanted coffee. We headed into Healdsburg (home of the donut muffin) to get our coffee, my donut muffins and a little breakfast. I really wanted to go straight home, but we had planned to hit Cailistoga to try and get into Indian Springs spa to soak in a hot spring pool. We get there and are trying to figure out whether we can finagle a discount to the pool, whether we should pay full price or whether we should sneak in when Lyne runs into a woman she used to work with. This woman was there with her husband and they had an extra pass to the pool, which she gave us, scouted the situation and came back to tell us that a teenage boy was working the gate and that we could probably sneak the other of us through.

Which is exactly what we did! Lyne handed him the ticket and asked for a towel and we just walked in. We changed our clothes and stored them in lockers which, right when we shut the doors, realized that we actually needed a key to get our clothes back out. No keys in sight. But we asked the pool boy and he got us keys. We luxuriated by and swam in the hot spring pool, played more Scrabble and drank the cucumber water. We headed out around 2:30pm and after a quick stop at the supermarket for fruit and cold water, drove back to the city.

I was exhausted and sunburnt and after a shower settled in to watch season 2, disc 1 of Arrested Development with my donut muffin!

Pictures here.

Glamorizing Life

Do you know sometimes when you're totally disappointed about a relationship ending and you're totally keeping it together and then one day you're driving home in your car and then you're sobbing? You know how that happens?

Yeah.

It was this song, which I interpret as a person giving someone every part of them and the person rejecting them. Awesome. Then of course I have to listen the rest of the CD which just breaks my heart anyways.

That's fun. And mildly ironic since Cloud Cult did the honors of reminding me about my broken heart/dreams/etc, because I saw the band with Carlo and it was probalby the most happiest I was with him, at that show.

So I arrived at the pool a blubbering mess and swamswamswam. I managed 1.5 miles in 36 minutes and that is a personal record for me.

I was IMing with my awesome co-worker BW, the only one who talks to me at my job, and was saying that I might, unexpectedly, go camping this weekend:

HA: dude, i might go CAMPING this weekend
BW: I HATE camping!
HA: me too!
BW: What?!?! Why are going then?
HA: because i glamorize it when i am sitting at my desk and then i get there and am like what the hell?!?
BW: Girly, you glamorize life. That's why you're always disappointed.
(sigh)
Actually, I don't mind camping so much as long as there is booze and food...and maybe a toilet. I just really feel the need to get out of the city this weekend away from the flurry of dodgeball texts that just serve to remind me how lame my social life is because, when I receive them, I am laying on my couch watching So You Think You Can Dance.

So, I am kinda shocked that BW might be right. Maybe I do glamorize life? Maybe that's why I am never happy/fulfilled/settled etc? That BW, she is so Buddha sometimes. She's like my personal daily reflection calendar.

Of course this is my other IM conversation I am having today:

HA: do you have any molly hatchet?
bagelradio: do you order steak at vegetarian restaurants?
HA: yuh ok BOB DYLAN
bagelradio: if we asked all of the bands i play for influences i guarantee that many more would cite mr. zimmerman than mr. hatchet
HA: there is nothing wrong with molly hatchet

Lots of Time

A week or so ago, I was reading Karrie's blog and she posted (indirectly) about this movie called What the Bleep Do We Know? It sounded interesting so I immediately added and moved it up my Netflix queue. I just glanced at that Wikipedia entry before I got it and I'm glad I didn't read anythingm ore because it was nice to go into it without any expectations or judgements or skepticism. I suggest you do the same.

The film is a combination of interviews, fiction and animation. The filmmakers used a very interesting technique. You know in documentaries when they interview someone they show who they are and what they do etc? This film didn't do that and I spent the first part wondering why and wondering when they would (they did at the very end) but about halfway thru I forgot all about it and really started to listen to what these people were saying. I had to take what the interviewee said without the back up of credentials. I immediately connected with two or three of the interviewees and liked what they had to say. Was, in fact, drawn to two specific people and their message and thought, this film is about quantum mechanics and these people seem so enlightened and open.

The message of the film is about changing your perception, challenging reality and basically understanding that it's your choices that formulate your life but also restrict it in a way.

So finally, at the end of the film when they had the interviewees state their names, studies and occupations, I realized why the filmmakers chose to withhold this info. I know for sure that if I had known the credentials of a few of those experts I never would have connected with them (sad and weird). Watch it and you'll see.

In other news, Carlo didn't really work out. Apparently he broke up with me about 2 months ago but failed to actually articulate that information to me, even after when we were STILL spending time together. Yeah, so I don't ever really want to talk about him again. Thanks.

Ingenious

Nickelback

Hez Gets A Half Day

When I'm in my office, I don't get cell reception. So when I left for lunch today and went to my car, my phone said I had four messages. Whoa! I listen to the first message and can't even tell if the message is being left in English and figure it's a wrong number. I skip that message and go to the second message and can't understand that one either but realize it's the same guy. By the time I get to the third message, it's incomprehensible but gives me clues to realize that some words I heard in the first message were "black," "cat," "park," and my street. At this point I start to get nervous.

Ben Ben is an outdoor cat and every morning he goes outside when I leave. He wears an ID tag with my phone number on it as well the number of his "real" owner, Anita. Obviously, someone has seen his ID tag.

I call my landlady to see if she is home and can check if Ben is around. No answer. I call my front neighbor and she isn't home either. I call my nextdoor neightbor and he doesn't answer. I go back and listen to the first message and realize that it IS in English and also that the message leaver sounds drunk.

The message says: "I have a black cat at the park on the corner of [my street] and if you want it come and get it."

Oh God.

(You may know that at the corner of my block is a park that has a reputation for drugs, drunkards and thugs. I refer to this park as "crack park.")

That could mean anything! Ben doesn't really venture that far down the block but what if he got hit by a car and ended up down there? Bums/drunkards do hang on my front steps sometimes and what if they kidnapped him and are setting me up!?!? What if they are hurting him in some way?

I call 911 and, after I tell my story, the woman who answers tells me that this line is for emergencies. Hi? This IS an emergency! I ask her if they can send a car down to the park to look for people harrassing or holding a cat, or even to look for a dead cat. She tells me that there is nothing they can do because they have no one to ID the cat and that I should call a friend or family member. [insert blinky-eyed look here] UH DUH! Like I didn't think of that. And I start talkig loudly in an incredulous tone. She tells me that she can hear me fine and that I don't have to yell and says, that I should go home to look for that cat and I said: NO SHIT! but I am 30 miles away! Then she tells me that she doesn't appreciate me being abusive and I just say: Oh Hell, and hang up. Sigh.

I head home not even knowing what to expect, but I plan to drive by my house to see if Ben is on the front steps and if he isn't, then I'll swing by the park and see if there are any cats hanging from trees by their necks. Ugh. Melodramatic, and possibly a drunk-guy prank, but the guy called FOUR TIMES...I don't even know what my next step is if I can't find him at home.

I get home and no Ben on the steps. I swing by crack park and there are so many bag lady guys with shopping carts that Ben could be anywhere! I go back home and go inside. I look out the back window and there is my Ben sleeping on the deck. When I open the door he looks up and blinks a few times as if to say, why are you home so early? He stands up to greet me and he looks fine but has something on his tail and lower back. It looks like something got on him and it matted his fur and made it sticky. :(

He seems ok though and is sleeping at my feet right now. Phew!