the aforementioned kitten hickey

has turned out to just be some sort of "Bilge jumped on me with his big fingernails" wound. It is now a scab. Thank you all for your concern.

I just had a facial-ish thing at a medically based spa where I buy my facewash. She was just going to do some treatment I had a few years back, but instead did a "peel". My face is pink now, but it feels good. This bizness is kind of expensive, but then I'm like, well, it's my face. I should take care of it. I know you're thinking, well, but peeling off the top layer of skin is probably not taking care of it. That's possible, but I trust my face lady whose name is Joy.

3.5 pages left to write for my last paper for the ut. It's about how the excessive pride of Americans in the late 1800s and on led them to settle the American west which really is just a big desert and there really shouldn't be any farming on that land. Then the bureaucracies, congressmen, etc. went dam-building CRAZY and dammed every freaking river and stole water from here and there so that the idiot Americans who moved out there could sustain a life. Sorry, my western friends, but seriously...and LA is probably the worst of these situations.

Which brings me to another thing. People who live in places that are prone to being ravaged by natural disasters. If you live at the base of an active volcano, it should not be the government's responsibility to make life all better for you when the volcano blows. Likewise, don't move somewhere where it is impossible to farm without irrigation. And do you know who was behind most of this dam-building in the heyday? FDR. What would the environmental Dems say about that today?

saggy-crotch pants - stupid or aesthetic?

So, once upon a time it occurred to me that clothing is actually an art form. Things are "flattering" on us because they create illusions - black is slimming, boatneck tees make narrow shoulders look wider, halter tops make wide shoulders look narrower, low rider jeans make short waists look longer, etc.

This is not a new development. Big poofy skirts made waists look tiny as did big poofy sleeves. It's all relative - fatten up another body part that's near the waist and of course your waist looks smaller.

Then of course there are the fashion faux pas - where art fails! Ankle straps make short legs look shorter, tapered jeans make asses look huge, pleated pants add pounds to the hips, and mock turtlenecks...well they are just ugly.

So clearly there is some method to dressing. People who have style really just have a sense of aesthetics and couple that with whatever trend might be occurring - for instance, baby-doll dresses create a sort of androgenous appearance - so hey, apparently it's aesthetically pleasing for girls to look like boys or pre-teens right now. Those of us with childbearing hips, relatively tinier waists in comparison, and something of a chest luck out this season.

So, where do saggy-crotch pants fit into this? I mean what is visually pleasing about having your legs look like they are half their actual length and also that your ass is, well very long (don't misread), and yet very flat? Couple that with the swaggering gait, and, um, well I don't get it. I will ponder more and perhaps provide a second installment. Explanations are welcome.

Friiiiday

So I'm like buzzed up on iced espresso. I've always enjoyed a caramel latte or something but lately have switched to iced coffee which turns out to be less like iced tea and more like iced caffeine. I get all jittery, but it doesn't stop me from getting the grande size everytime I venture somewhere to do work. I cannot do work in my house for there are far to many distractions and I associate my house with laying on the couch or playing on my computer, so the thought of doing work here is sort of depressing.

In other news, we are getting a puppy. Actually, this is probably not news to anyone as I am obsessively forwarding the pictures on a regular basis to nearly everyone I know. I feel like a little kid right before Christmas. I love Bilge with all of my heart, but I cannot wait for little paws and ears and puppy breath again. It's been 9 years since we've had one and I just cannot wait. Too bad the little devil will arrive right after I get my wisdom teeth out. I only have three, but they are not in ideal positions and I've been warned that I will be out of it for at least 3 days. My mom thinks that surely I will be able to drag myself off of the couch to clean up a puddle or two.


Points of obsessing at the moment:

-I went to the Dr. in January due to a sinus infection and they weighed me. My weight was the same as it was like 4 months earlier and I tend to trust the dr's scale. I weighed myself not 4 weeks later at a friend's house and it showed that I was 7 lbs heavier. That's about as much weight as I put on in college and subsequently lost while walking all over Rome, Paris, Pompeii, and Venice for two weeks after that. Regardless, I feel as though I would notice if I had put 7 lbs on in a month. Convinced that said friend's scale was wrong, I weighed myself at the gym last night - same 7 lbs heavier. I think I eat well, I mean I eat like 4 meals a day in 4 hour increments, speed walk to class, walk the dog at least twice a week or walk on the treadmill, and really don't snack very much. I'm slightly baffled by said weight gain and am rather bothered by it.

-I walked the dog today and while wearing shorts outside for the first time in months, discovered a small strange spot on my leg amongst the spider veins which are another point of occasional obsessing. Said spot looks an awful lot like a small hickey, which it is not, although Camille is convinced I let a kitten give me a hickey on my calf. This is not true...gross. A quick pix message to a med school friend and online convo about it ended with me being advised to wait a couple of days and that it is probably just a bruise and not a kitten hickey. Well thank goodness. Regardless, of course I sit here believing I have leukemia like Izzy's daughter on Grey's last night or perhaps something worse. Camille's response to all of my leg/foot/knee/appendage issues is "let's cut it off". No thank you.

Cars

So I never really obsessed over cars before. Not that I am obsessing now. I guess I never just really thought about them or wanted one in particular. The Jeep's been good to me. It's approaching 10 years old, though, and that's how long my dad's lasted, so the reality that I will need a new one in the next couple of years is apparent.

Probably I think about cars more often now because I spend like an hour driving around each day. I notice every car I see...on the road, in the parking garage, etc. Anyways, I've narrowed it to three choices:

The Fit: Cute, spacious like small SUV which I am used to, good gas mileage, and a long-lasting Honda. However, has potential to look really dated in a couple of years and I need this thing to last me like 10. Not too expensive either, which is good. Sooo, main concern: not classic enough.

The Equinox: Which I love love love but it gets craaaapppy gas mileage compared to other options...sigh. It's so pretty though. That's a Quinn rationalization. I won't get one.

The Patriot: Now here's a nice compromise...SUV...ranked just behind the Escape hybrid for SUV gas mileage (25/29 I believe). My Jeep has been good to me, so why not another?

Thoughts?

Ok.

Trying this again. I finally have a weekend of few obligations. I started cleaning my room, but really I just made new piles out of the old piles and remarked in my head how ridiculous it is to have one's entire existence in ONE ROOM.

I'm so tired of the running around. Here is a typical Monday for me:

6:15 a.m.: groan and turn off cell phone alarm #1 and hope that the next ten minutes are the longest 10 minutes ever.

6:25 a.m.: groan and turn off alarm #2, lay there, trying to keep my eyes open so that I don't doze off again

6:30 a.m.: definitely get up and get into the shower like a zombie (although perhaps zombies don't shower, I don't know)

6:40 a.m.: get out of shower, put work clothes on, ponder styling hair, chose not to, wear same part-on-the-side, low maintenance messy bun thing AGAIN

6:50-7:20 a.m.: pack school clothes, pack lunch, eat breakfast, brush teeth, pack school bag and GROAN that I did not do 1 or 2 of these things the night before so that I might actually do my hair

7:25 a.m.: in the car, turn on Bob and Tom, drive to work

7:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.: work

12:00 p.m.: change into jeans because who needs to be in work clothes longer than they have to???

12:05 p.m.: leave downtown for school

12:20 p.m.: arrive in UT parking garage, eat lunch by my lonesome IN MY CAR sketchily while talking to Jishka on speakerphone about things like...lunch

12:40 p.m.: walk to class #1 where I am utterly baffled by probably 20-yr-old who text messages all through class OUR CLASS OF 15 PEOPLE, 9 of which are usually there, and then hits on me by telling me I smell "exquisite" when in fact it was the girl next to me, AND by getting 53%s on 5 page papers. Good work.

1:50 p.m.: leave with only UT friend to walk to our next class in a nearby building

2:00 p.m.: class begins and am again astounded by the guy who once fell asleep very loudly in class and who now sits in the very very front lone seat directly in front of the professor with no notebooks, pens, etc, but plays on his cell phone the entire time and the professor says NOTHING

3:15 p.m.: walk hurriedly back to car and drive home

3:35 p.m.: arrive home and pretend to do homework/cuddle with Bilge/walk Bilge/watch the Food Network/play online

7:oo p.m.: talk to Nick, Camille, and Ben online while they are in Fed Tax and they whine about it

7:58 p.m.: get ims that say "2 more minutes"!

8:00 p.m.: OK LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE and I leave for either a) Nick and Ben's apt. or b) Camille's where we have Jack Bauer night and food...Jack Bauer night really saves Mondays for us all

10:00 p.m.: leave or make everyone watch "What About Brian" with me real fast...then go home

11:00 p.m.: get ready for bed

12:00 p.m.: finally fall asleep and think about how tired I'll be with only 6.5 hours of sleep.


There you have it. This is why I have nothing exciting to comment on.

Thank you.