Tuesday

Had a great Easter celebration of wine, ribs, egg-coloring and good times with good friends. Here's Scott's pics of the day.

5:08am, Easter Sunday morning

I awoke around 3:20 in a slight sweat. After laying in the dark for half an hour, I realized that my insomnia might be due to needing to pee. I got up, padded to the toilet slightly chilly with the clammy sweat, then returned to bed. Another 20 minutes pass, and still not sleepy at all...

I got up to read, and as usual, first pulled my computer into my lap. I am quite comfortable all snuggly under the blanket, on the couch, in my robe, laptop in hand...

And decided to check M's blog, written in her native French, from China. And for the first time, I figured out Google Translate! I often test my French abilities, and can usually get about 40-50% of the gist of what she's writing. And now, it's about 99%. So, in honor of her honest self-reportage blog style, I decided to do the same, here, now.

I can hear a lovely happy bird song, and a few drips of rain falling from the window casing to the exterior window sill. And occasionally the sound of a car passing through the soggy intersection outside below.

I'm not sure why I now constantly have bouts of insomnia. I think it may be related to my monthly hormonal shifts. I'm a few days out from the end of this three week ring cycle... an

d am quite bummed that my period will be aligned with P's big book launch party. I intend to not let it get in the way, nor bog me down. I just don't want to feel bloated and chubby this week, and most certainly, not on Friday.

My dear mother-in-law arrives Wednesday morning. She's coming out to help, and to be here for his party. She'll be staying with us, a real treat, since she usually comes out with P's dad, and they stay in a hotel. I look forward to waking up and her being here every morning for 5 days!

And oh yes, it's Easter. Our only tradition has become, going to J&N's to color eggs. Its fun to be creative collectively. And this is the first Easter for lil Addie. Unfortunately, their parenting style has become a bit of a bummer, their daughter is so spoiled for anyone's arms but theirs. I oh so hope she becomes more well-adjusted as she gets older. N justifies her spoiling by saying that she knows her daughter, and is doing what is best (she still sleeps with them every night, my friend M would be simply aghast!). I had to hold my tongue when N confessed that their pediatrician told her that it was simply wrong that Addie wasn't sleeping through the night, that she needs to be put in her crib and left there to self-soothe, then sleep through the night. N is drunk on mother-love and doesn't know it. What, as a friend, am I to do? Not a thing. Let them figure it out. And for while, keep a safe distance. I'm sure (I hope) in years, it'll be a distant memory and Addie will assert herself, and make her own space. We can only hope...

In honor of Easter, I've included an egg P colored in '09. The other side reads, "Jesus Fucking Christ"

Wake up world. The time is now. Earth Day 2011

Pale Blue Dot - Animation from Ehdubya on Vimeo.

"It underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot."

Life highlight #1: Holding a human brain

I've been laid up for three days with a cold, trying to take it e-a-s-y to make sure it passes well before the busy week next week for P's big book launch.

Laying here at 2:23am on the couch, not sleepy after having napped all evening...

Reading something online got me to thinking about a few life highlights...

And one of them is holding a human brain, at Dartmouth, in the middle of the night, on JB's offer. It was so fun to walk across campus, sneak in the back of the building and into a lab on the third floor (four floors about the sub-basement where JB spent most of his waking hours). He pulled it out of a huge glass jar of formaldehyde and handed it to me.

It's smaller than I thought it would be, considering how much credit I give it for controlling my life.

It was pretty amazing though.

I got bangs today, or if I were British, "fringe"

"The term bangs, always used in the plural, is, as you know the fringe of hair usually cut squarely across the forehead. According to etymology scholar Robert Barnhart, the term is strictly American in origin (the Brits call it fringe) first surfacing in 1878. It was believed influenced by the adverbial use of bang in the meaning of abruptly, as in hair cut bang off; some sources offer a relation to earlier bangtailed (1861) of a horse's tail that has been cut horizontally across."

Source: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Etymology-Meaning-Words-1474/bangs-fringe.htm

I've decided to add another source, that basically confirms the above information, But mainly because this site "Word Detective" is awesome! How could I have never seen this before, especially with my insatiable curiosity...

Word Detective

As an afterthought, I just want to point out that today is also 4/20. Heh heh.

Less crazy about my toothpaste

I'm on the couch, where I've been most of the day, fighting off a dreaded cold. UGH! With the TV in the background as I've napped off and on, I awoke to a most disturbing program: Extreme Couponing! I can't believe it's even a subject for a show! This woman is nuts. She has 40 years of toilet paper in her "stockroom", along with $35,000 worth of other soaps, shampoos and all kinds of cleaning and household supplies. Her poor husband has been sucked into the insanity, too. Which in a pathetic way is kind-of sweet that he goes along on her shopping trips... filling 9 entire grocery carts with her 1000 coupons worth of products. SICK! And the poor guy has given up his mancave to her 269 boxes of pasta.

It really makes me look much less crazy with my obsession to buy our favorite brand of toothpaste when it's on sale. Arm & Hammer baking soda toothpaste is expensive, sometimes a tube is almost $6, so I always buy it on sale. And when I find it on sale, I typically buy 6 or more tubes at once, for about $2-3 each. P and I joke that it's like my grandmother buying and stocking up on her soaps and shampoos when they were on sale.

9.3

I walked 9.3 miles today between 7:25am and 10:40am.

And I'm tired now.

Taking responsibility for my own freedom

Last night we saw the A.C.T. presentation of No Exit written by Jean-Paul Sartre. The take away line of the evening: "People are hell!". It was a wonderful play with live-video feed from inside the Hotel room: hell for three people thrust together in the afterlife to torture each other with their thoughts, insecurities and conversations.

My favorite line from the Sartre bio I read in the program:

"You are free, therefore choose, that is to say, invent."

The theater encouraged the audience to pass by the room after the performance. I had even more respect for the actors after seeing the complicated array of cameras they had to choreograph and cue.

In honor of my own freedom... and life I've invented, I offer this image:

In Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, with my parasol I picked up in Beijing

Seven lucky pennies...

I am totally superstitious about picking up heads up pennines for good luck. If you see a penny laying on the ground and it is tails up, give it a swift kick to see if you can change the luck for the next person that comes along (but don't pick it up yourself!).

I had an especially lucky June in 2009... (and these aren't all the pennies that year, just the ones from June through August).

7 lucky pennies

I figure, if you see good luck laying there on the ground, how could you possibly pass it by? And if you find a dime? TEN TIMES the good luck, isn't that amazing?

Advice to a future self

I love going back and finding gems in old journals. This one was especially fun, the maker of the book had taken apart various other books and reassembled them with some plain paper into a fun journal!

No need to put pajamas on the cat!

Day 4001

Yesterday's celebration was soooooooooooo nice, just what the doctor ordered!

A leisurely lunch at Cavallo Point, a walk along the water and up to the battery, in the cold blustery wind. We stopped by the Warming Hut for an espresso (and P's book is out and on display there already, too) then came home, dropped the car and our extra layers... then went to go show him my few dress options for my party outfit. We got a glass of wine and muscles at Starbelly. Then settled in for a movie (An Education, a just okay coming-of-age story) and ordered-in Indian food! An absolute delight of a day!

And today was a good start to the next thousand days...

4-11-11

That was the date yesterday. My favorite number is 11. I know it's a little silly to have a favorite number, but I really can't help it. It's so equal, so parallel. Two strong pillars holding up the sky.

And I blew it on making a post. Dang.

Today, April 12, 2011 is mine and P's 4000 day anniversary! 4000 amazing days!

I love you, sweet cheeks! And to celebrate a day of sweetness, how about a teddy bear up in a tree, watching the world go by!

Cool mod leather chairs in T2 SFO

Twin Peaks walk

I walked 7.8 miles today, a huge part of which was up to and around Twin Peaks. Then back down, and home.

It feels *so good* to take long walks like that. My heart, spirit and soul are all lighter and happier because of it...

New Terminal 2 SFO

I know it's a little geeky to be airport-proud of the San Francisco new terminal, but it is quite lovely... here's a snapshot:

Cool bathroom with 3 airblades!

P's image

Beautiful floral tapestries

Water bottle refill station

Public art

Painfully cute images #1

Things that exist, though I've never seen happen

The shoes dangling from telephone lines - I've never seen kids or anyone else tossing them up and over the wires. But they are everywhere. Really, how do they get them up there?

Tagging - It is everywhere, and I've never seen the gangs of roving dumb kids doing it.

Car theft - I've never seen anyone break into a car, though window glass is all over the city.

Two self portraits, two beaches

I went looking through an old file of photos for a media image for P, and came across these two photos...

Feria Beach, Santa Barbara 2010

Ocean Beach, San Francisco 2010

Frustrating assumptions

I've seen it all. Today, in the local taqueria, an older woman came in with her daughter, who was wearing a headscarf. They came through the cramped doorway, and into the back of the restaurant where they found a table. They then proceeded back to the counter to put their order in. They couldn't believe how long the line had gotten, so asked if they could just cut to the front of the line! The cashier said they'd have to ask those who were next in line, and these two pushovers let them order! I was SO annoyed! Just because they asked to cut in line, they were allowed to? Yep, I've seen it all now.

9 Miles

I walked from the Marina Green to the Ballpark and back this morning. 9 miles total. It is such a wonderful way to spend a sunny Sunday morning, walking and talking with girlfriends.

Love it!

Dang, dang it!

I can't believe I blew it on posting yesterday. Maybe we'll call it my April Fool's post... But I hate starting the month with one day already missed. It makes it very difficult to want to post every day, when I've already blown it. Ah well...