Wednesday, July 30, 2008

stink

Ugh.
Being in a stuffy place with other people totally icks me out. I don't want to have to smell the remnants of your lunch or your stinky perfume or yesterday's sweat. Please don't join a crowded all hands meeting if you have doused yourself with cologne, skipped showers for a week, or need to sigh deeply every five minutes onto the poor trapped sould around you.

Yesterday? At the gym, a guy came up to the treadmill next to me who smelled like mold. Ick. Like he put away his clothes wet. As soon as he started moving, that quickly gave way to BO, and once he started sweating, there was fresh BO on top of it. Totally gross.

SHOWERS, people! please! no gym if you haven't showered recently! And covering it up with cologne (or moldy clothes) does not count!

yuck.

Friday, July 25, 2008

I've been thinking a lot about imperfection lately, and today is the right day for this thought to be posted.

Maybe this is where my low stress level comes from when planning wedding stuff. Someone asks about linens and I just don't care.
Really? I do not want a Perfect Day for my wedding. Perfect days get filed into the unknown.

The other day, Paul and I rode by the Cycle Gear in San Jose on our way back from something. Every time I go by, I think of the time Charles and I got stuck there. He lived in the neighborhood, and he'd help me work on my bike all the time, so we must have gone there a lot in those days. But I only remember one time, when we got whatever we came for, then returned to the Mighty Festiva, where Charles promptly broke the key off in the ignition. He was pretty unhappy with this. We had to wait for someone to come save us, and in the meantime, Charles was not happy. We went to the bizarro grocery store in the strip mall, and bought a small plastic motorcycle to play with while we waited. It must have cost a whole dollar.

One time, we rode to Los Angeles together. That was memorable, but what was really memorable was when we got to the Grapevine and realized there was no brake fluid in my bike. Well, none that could be seen. And the screws holding the reservoir shut were completely chewed. Charles was apparently slightly terrified. We did make it to the Motel 6 at just off of Hollywood Blvd (you could see Frederick's from the window) without catastrophe, but it was a good story later. You know what would have been a boring story? "One time, Charles and I rode over the Grapevine with perfectly functioning brakes." When we got the the Motel 6, there was an ambulance outside already-- it was a "colorful" neighborhood, and only the finest of hotels.

When Charles had cancer, I would come and visit during the time in his chemo cycle when he was most able to eat (comparatively, but still felt like shit) We'd go eat at the Mexican joint, then go back to the house so he could throw up. Then? Ice Cream! Always throw up so you can have ice cream too!

When you are with the right people, in the right place, perfection isn't necessary. You know everything will be OK, and this will all come out as a good memory someday. I'm sure that we've had plenty of perfectly passable times together, but I simply don't remember them all that well. What I remember most, what I recount to others the most, is all the insanely stoopid things we did and broke and crashed and muddled through. The time we paid the carnie $5 to let us ride the zipper over and over again even though we were completely blotto, all the times Charles rescued me when my ratbike was broken on the side of the road, or bumpstarted my reluctant DR350. When he and his bike slid backwards on a trail into me and my bike, wrapping the four of us into a tangled mess, gas burns and all! Hooray for disgusting burns!

At least the burns are memorable (if not scarring)
I have a vague notion that we must have ridden many perfect miles, but they aren't the miles I'll tell my grandchildren about.

botox bridesmaids! hell yeah!

This is sheer awesome

Becky Lee, 39, a Manhattan photographer, declined when a friend asked her — and five other attendants — to have their breasts enhanced. “We’re all Asian and didn’t have a whole lot of cleavage, and she found a doctor in L.A. who was willing to do four for the price of two,” said Ms. Lee, who wore a push-up bra instead.



I'm totally doing this to my wedding party.

oh, and who in the hell gets surgery at a two-for-one place????

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

My Broken Heart...

... Rate Monitor

I am again in the market for a heart rate monitor. The one I bought a few weeks back worked great! For like two weeks! And now, apparently, is crapped out.

Any recommendations? NOt the uber-high-end expensive ones, I hope. I don't need GPS or any of that. I just need to keep accurate track of my little hummingbird heart while I go about my day and exercise.



I worked on writing a post covering my Atlanta trip, but who has time to finish such things?

Friday, July 04, 2008

Today

http://action.aclu.org/july4taf

I'm not a big fan of watching fireworks. Fun to set off, not so much fun to observe from a distance.
Flag wavers and "Support Our Troops" stickers worry me, and "These Colors Don't Run" trinkets make me cringe.

When Barack Obama failed to wear a lapel pin depicting the United States flag, his patriotism was questioned. What has this populace come to, that they overlook the substance of a man's body of work for the people, only to complain he is not wearing a pin? A pin that, like the bumper stickers, plastic flags, and yellow ribbon magnets, was probably imported from China?

How easily the public is outraged by a student burning a flag in protest, while we ignore the fact that America, our great experiment in democracy and equality, has taken to torturing people. Humans. Illegally detained humans, being tortured, not just on our watch, but at our hands. We've taken to not offering up our own freedoms and rights, as we've allowed ourselves to believe that this is the only way to security.

And even if it were true that such a trade would work, when did we shift to giving up freedom for security?

This day commemorates our independence. It commemorates something huge. A statement that, we, the people, were not going to take it anymore. And that we would fight for this, and it would be worth it. Because it was the right thing, that all of us were created equal, and that we had certain rights and they were worth protecting.

And somewhere along the way, it changed. Now we're told that the patriotic thing to do in the face of terror is to 1.) go shopping, 2.) give up some of those hard-won constitutional rights and freedoms. "You don't need rights. Let the government protect you," we're told, "after all, you're not a terrorist are you? You're either with us, or ag'in' us!"

All around us, people are nodding in agreement. And it's insane, and sad, and terrifying.

Today, of all days, please take the time to do something. This coming week, our Senate will be considering legislation that will essentially let Bush and the telecom industry off the hook for illegally spying on American citizens.

The simple version is that Bush told these companies to illegally spy on American Citizens, so that makes it legal. This logic, in short, says that if the president says something is ok, the law doesn't matter. That is, pardon my french, seriously fucked up. In my mind, this is probably one of the worst things to happen in this president's term (and that is saying a lot), and an extremely dangerous precedent.

Unfortunately, this has already made it through the House. Think you don't need to bother? Think your senator wouldn't possibly do this? The House members who caved on this shocked me. Pelosi voted FOR this. Please, take a minute, and send this on to your friends.

And remember what our ancestors fought to create when they declared their independence. It was not a nanny state where a big government spied on its own citizens, or where the president was above the law of the land.


From the ACLU:

As we are getting ready to celebrate Independence Day, the Senate is getting ready to sell out our freedom by passing an unconstitutional spying bill that lets lawbreaking telecom companies off the hook.

These companies handed over huge amounts of information to the Bush administration, potentially millions of emails and phone calls and more, without getting a warrant.

Without enough public outcry, the Senate will let these phone companies off the hook and let Bush and future presidents keep spying on Americans without getting a warrant. Will you please help stop this horrendous bill?

Send an email to your senators now and help protect freedom this Independence Day. Go to:
http://action.aclu.org/july4taf

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Since I am so far behind in blobbing, I'll just take some random events in the past few weeks to yammer about.

Paul heroically propped me up between late April and early June, while I attempted to prep for a PMP training class in Atlanta. When I signed up, I decided to read a book or two before going to class, so I'd be familiar with the vocabulary and concepts. No problem. I was reading (slowly... it was dull) one book and had another lined up behind it, when, six weeks before the class, I received a package from the AMA. It included a copy of the Guide to the PMBOK and a study guide. And instructions. Apparently, I was to read these two riveting works, which could be accomplished in 30 hours, and then do some practice tests, before arriving at the class. In six weeks. WTF?!

It's not that I didn't want to read these (OK, I didn't want to read the PMBOK. I tried once. It is not for reading. Referring to, yes) But dumping this much reading and work into the lap of a busy person with such a time constraint is a bit unfair. Presumably, we all have jobs, else we could not afford the high tuition associated with an AMA three-day course. And, you know, some of us have lives too. Like, kids, friends, school, um, WEDDINGS?

So for those six weeks I did work, and then came home and read, as hard as I could. I mean, this is not engaging reading. It was terrible. Blech. I read on the bus and in bed and when I wasn't reading, I crammed in a few wedding tasks. And fell behind. I never got to the PMBOK, and I didn't even *quite* finish the study guide. I fell hopelessly behind in wedding tasks. There was no way I could catch up on laundry or feeding myself. that's where Paul stepped in. Ever patient, he basically ran the house for that time. No complaining when I said I couldn't go for a walk because I had to read my damn book.

I flew to Atlanta on a Sunday and took the train (sort of like a BART train) to my place in Midtown. they were apparently having a little heatwave, so it was about 97 degrees, and a million percent humidity. I asked at the hotel desk where I might go for dinner, and they were like "there's nothing nearby! The closest thing is probably, like TEN MINUTES away!"

I had a hunch about a restaurant based solely on its name, and walked out to find it. About four blocks away is too far to walk? Probably because of the heat, but this wimpy Californian can rough it. And? It was awesome! The food was OK (veggie burger with dry-ish hummus) but they had beer, and the bestest patio to sit in.

The PMP Prep Express class at the AMA was actually really good. I mean, considering the dry subject and the silliness of trying to learn the PMI's specific vocabulary and processes (versus real-life), the class was pretty helpful. I would recommend it to anyone looking to prepare for the exam, or collect PDUs.