burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

As I said, yesterday I didn't leave the house until I went to get my hair cut.  Despite having absorbed the information on weather.com, I was still thrown by just how cold it was when I left the house.  It was good for me to get out, though.  Walking from the salon to dinner, I found myself wishing I had my laptop with me because I wanted to work on my sermon (something I hadn't wanted to all day).

I forgot about Molly's Diesel office hours until I got the reminder email she sent to the listserv Tuesday night ("five golden rings"!), so I chose to sleep in -- having gotten home from dinner around 11:30pm and in bed around 1am.

Today I had a 2½ hr lunch with Cate and then went and gave blood at the Masonic Lodge near Porter Square (and got a free travel mug).

I don't have keys to the church, so I hung out at the library for about an hour (and had wireless, which surprised me).  I got a phone call at one point and went outside and was fine despite the fact that it was 25F (though I did go back inside after I was off the phone).  Yes, today was significantly warmer than yesterday and I remain made of polar bear.

Dear Church,

Tonight at Rest & Bread, we will reflect on the love of God in the flesh.

Music for meditation begins at 6:15 in the chapel, leading into our service of prayer & communion at 6:30.

Peace,
-Keith

It was literally me and Keith.

Call to Worship was:

Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word.

Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives.

Psalm was from Psalm 96 (vss. 1-3 and 10-13).  Sacred Text was John 1:1-5, 14. We talked about the language we use for Jesus and about finding language that speaks to our contemporary experience.  Keith suggested language of "guide" (as in, on a journey), and I talked about Tillich's Ground of Being and the idea of Jesus being transparent to the ground of his being and how for me that's one way in to understanding Jesus being fully divine and fully human.

I had dinner in Harvard Square with my brother and his girlfriend tonight.  We were thwarted in our attempts to get Thai food (both 9 Tastes and Spice were closed), so we ate at Uno's.

Tomorrow I'm getting up at 5:30am for morning prayer and the going on an adventure to Northampton and environs with Carolyn.  Yeah, I think when I get home I'm just gonna post year-end wrap-up posts and then fall into bed.

My mom emailed me this morning:

Happy Birthday Beautiful!

Happy birthday to you,
      Happy birthday to you,
              Happy birthday, dear Elizabeth ,
                      Happy birthday to you!

Did we get a gift? Yes
      Send a card? Yes
            Bake a cake?  Saturday

I think we got you covered :-)

Hope people are lovely to you today!
[if not, those mama bear claws will come out and git ‘em]

***

Unsolicited, Greg wished me a happy birthday and gave me a hug.

Ben picked up chocolate coffee cake at the grocery store (in honor of the incoming doctoral students, I think).  We each had 3 slices.

Rey the mail guy (37 tomorrow) gave me a hug.  \o/

***

I feel like I know very few people outside of my department, but the list of people I invited to lunch was actually really long -- except everyone had a summer class or a deadline or a doctor's appointment or was home sick or whatever, so that got deferred to next week.  Sigh.  (I was really kind of in the mood for Le's' peanut ginger tofu.  Boo.  I ended up having trail mix instead.  I thought about getting Spangler stirfry and eating outside with a book, except I just couldn't bring myself to -- I dunno, I had spates of weird today.  I came home and had leftover tofu stirfry and a banana, though, so I feel okay about my body.)

***

All the cheap hair places in Davis close at like 6pm, so I decided fuck it and went to Salon Cu.  Birthday present to myself, or something.  Fixing last month's haircut.

I forgot how nice it can be to get my hair cut at a f'real salon.  ("You have awesome hair," Lauren-the-stylist said.)  And they style it so it looks way nicer than it ever will on my own -- so arguably I should have done it Saturday before our big party.  Oh well.

I also feel really badass, 'cause coming home I was approaching the Boston Ave. intersection and it had a walk light and so I jogged across to make the light and I just kept jogging/running until I got home.  I remember when I lived in Norwood I'd be walking somewhere and would get in the mood to run and I'd probably more like sprint for a block or two and then have to stop so I didn't die.  So tonight I felt like, "Hey, this is what one is able to do after one has done the treadmill three times a week for months.  \o/"  (GoogleMaps Pedometer tells me the distance from the intersection to my house is ~0.488mi, so it's totally not wicked badass, and I was definitely breathing heavily by the end, but whatever.)

And wow, my whole mood was so improved by having happy hair.

And I laundered my winter sheets and put my spring sheets on my bed, and I washed dishes.  And I got to talk to my bff, and it was substantive and easy and just good.

And my housemate read me a bunch of #1stdraftmovielines.

I heard fireworks around 9:30 and 9:50.  I had forgotten that Somerville's fireworks were tonight until the hair stylist asked me if I was going.  I suppose I could have gone for my birthday, but I am very okay with my decision to not go.

***

Jeremy wished me "Happy "43 notifications from Facebook" day!" so of course I did up the stats:
facebook: 8 (plus Jeremy plus one early one from Alexis in Finland, and a facebook gift from another friend)
LJ: 3
email: 5 (not counting all the replies to my birthday lunch email that said things along the lines of "sorry I can't come to lunch, but have a happy birthday")
also: phonecall from my brother

Edit:
Following the posting of this (which was not a plea for more happy birthday wishes, I swear -- though I certainly will not reject them):
3 6 LJ comments, 3 LJ posts, 1 2 facebook Wall posts

I was gonna go out dancing tonight, but I got home around 3pm and puttered and ended up taking a nap (hi, I got like six and a half hours of sleep last night) and I was already feeling kinda done with going out and being social after Temple and I wasn't particularly in a mood to go out dancing anyway.  (I spent much of the afternoon going back and forth as to whether the response email I sent last night was a bad one or not, and while I wholeheartedly agree that what I need is distraction, I think that situations that I find inherently stressful would not work well.)

(In other news, where is my Catie Curtis Dreaming in Romance Languages CD?  Though "Saint Lucy" -- which is what I had running through my head earlier today -- and "The Trouble You Bring" are on one of the mixes I have on my computer, which I'd forgotten.)

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

Do not be afraid, I am with you
I have called you each by name
Come and follow Me
I will bring you home
I love you and you are mine
     -"You Are Mine" (David Haas)

Five good things about today:
1. I was totally awake the whole time I was at Temple.
2. People at Temple were nice.
3. Interesting stuff in the commentaries at Temple.
4. I got my hair cut.  $20 walk-in at Michael Anthony's on College Ave. right in Davis Square.  I felt kind of awkward with the hairdresser (Louise), but she did a decent job.  I'm not sure if it's uneven in the front because the part got shifted in all the wind or if she just did it wrong, but I can always change the part if it really bothers me.
5. mjules, your comment to me about rest has been a really good thing to return to throughout the afternoon today.  Thank you.

Three things I did well today:
1. I got up and went to Temple.
2. I did laundry.
3. I washed dishes.

Two things I am looking forward to (doing [better]) tomorrow:
["anything that you're looking forward to, that means you're facing tomorrow with joy, not trepidation," as Ari says]
1. CWM
2. phone call with Ari

Change and freedom are both excellent rewards for voting, but so is free ice cream.
-ilanabean42

Also: sex toys.

My state's gonna go blue as far as the Presidential election, so I want to vote 3rd party (that seems so weird to say given that I have 6 parties to choose from), but I'm really not excited about any of them.

I read stuff criticizing Obama, and part of me is really easily swayed.  In part because I really enjoy being contrarian (and I'm surrounded by left of center folk in just about all my spheres), but there's also the fact that I'm so hesitant to commit myself to actually being pro-anything because I'm always so conscious of the (potential) criticisms.  So I'm in my comfort zone when I'm criticizing (or not involved).  I'm some sort of lazy maximizer [Google: maximizer vs. satisficer].

But then I read stuff like [David Post, November 2, 2008 at 10:38am] Why I'll Be Voting for Obama and I feel like, "Yes!" and part of me really does want to be excited about Obama for President.

Andy Bryan (Enter the Rainbow) attended an Obama rally and wrote:

Two moments of the rally were most profound for me.  [...] The second moment was when he was contrasting one of his positions with McCain's position, and the crowd started booing. He kind of cut us off, saying, "You don't need to boo, just go vote." I had read about him saying that before, but to experience it made an impact on me. The crowd did not boo any more after that. By way of comparison and for what it's worth, Governor Palin did not stop the crowd at her rally from booing.

This struck me particularly because on CNN AM I'd seen clips from a McCain rally, and hearing the crowd boo in response to criticisms of Obama really bothered me -- not because it brought to mind accusations of hateful/violent things said by attendees at McCain-Palin rallies, but just because I don't like that emphasis on attacking the opposition (I complained about this during the RNC); and yes I know this sounds dissonant with my critique-stance, but I feel like there's a legitimate difference between "booing" and, y'know, actual critiquing.

liz_marcs linked to this macro from PunditKitchen, which I enjoyed.

from my housemate's flist: Les Misbarack ("One Day More") [YouTube]

***

the earth is a hard place to imagine
if you start from scratch
-from "Black Straw" by Don Domanski

( gym )

It's funny, when I'm feeling so tired/unfocused/motivated... I forget that Getting Shit Done really does help me feel better.  (Though I do think I needed the weekend to take a break from work and get some rest.  And I am rly looking forward to going to bed tonight.)

CallunaV recently said:

I suspect it's different for everyone, and my issues =/= your issues and so forth, but I feel like most of us are not so incredibly short-sighted and self-indulgent that we would squander our work time just for the hell of it. It's because we hate the work, or we hate the person we're working for, or we're afraid we can't do it, or we're afraid that doing it will make us feel horrible, or we don't want to face what comes next when it's done, or we're angry that we have to do it in the first place...things that aren't reasonable, so we don't admit them to ourselves a lot of the time, which makes everything more frustrating: why am I playing this solitaire game I don't even like instead of doing what I need to do when A: I know I need to do it, B: I don't actually dislike it, and C: I know I'll feel good when I'm done? Why? Why?

It was really useful to me to have that articulated like that -- because, yeah, there are real reasons I get avoidy, even when I know I'm being irrational.

wtg, DST, it was srsly dark out when I left work.  I kinda like it, though.  Walking across the river with all the lights -- it's... "romantic" has connotations I don't intend, but it makes me think of being downtown or something in winter with all the positive connotations of the Christmas season (stuff like Handel's Messiah).

----

I never did get to finishing last week's update post.

( Wed-Sat )

I was going to go to bed early tonight, but instead I ended up IMing with like a half a dozen people.  Which . . . yay for people.  I FINALLY heard back from Joe.  And had good conversation with Cat (and made plans for a visit).  And chatted with various other people, including a CL girl who is at least cooler in IM than she is in email.

I am impressed that I still haven't crashed any day this week despite consistently not getting enough sleep.  Last night I woke up after two and a half hours and turned off my fan.  And then woke up six hours later warm and sticking to my sheets.  (Ah the perils of having window fans rather than AC.  Though it certainly pleases me that it cools off sufficient overnight.)  I so did not want to get up, but eventually had to because I had an appointment to get my hair cut (Salon Cu with Christine).  I got it cut a little shorter than last time, so hopefully it won't start annoying me quite so quickly.

I considered going to ArtBeat despite the heat, but it wasn't even noon yet, so I figured nothing would be set up yet, and I felt like, "Didn't I do enough last night by going to the gallery opening and then chatting with my neighbors?"  (Yeah, you can tell I was highly motivated.)

I did do laundry, and picked up milk, and washed dishes, and cleaned the kitchen a little, and visited CWM!Beth.

Looking at all my furniture, I am seriously considering a U-Haul.  I did clear out three more bags of paper.  I left a bunch of college notebooks 'cause I just wasn't up for ripping out the pages I might wanna keep even though I know I should since notebooks take up space and are heavy and all.

Ari called me earlier to say they'd arrived safely in Kansas City -- everything's in the apartment now, though of course unpacking will take some time.

I woke up a little after 9 this morning and thought, "Seriously?  But I only went to bed like 7 hours ago."  I didn't get up, but I clearly wasn't deeply asleep because about twenty minutes later I woke up to my phone vibrating on my bedside table.  It was Terry.

You may recall that last Saturday I was supposed to have lunch with Terry but he had a family emergency.  I called him on Thursday evening, and he couldn't talk because he was at a wine auction.  So I was glad to actually get to talk to him, even though phone conversations are never optimal for us as a mode of interaction.

I'd been planning to just come back another Saturday for a rescheduled lunch, but I have so much stuff to do that I think I'll just leave it until the next time I'm scheduled to be out there -- which is the last weekend in May.

+

This week, my hair hit that point of desperately needing to be cut.  [The last time I got it cut was late December -- I'd been thinking about growing it out, but have firmly decided against that.]  I walked in to Salon Femia, where I've gotten decent cuts before.  I had a different woman this time, and I'm not sure that when I said I wanted something wash-n-wear that that really registered.  'Cause the end product I thought, "My hair does not naturally have that much volume, and I'm kind of freaked out."  It's calmer now, and I think it'll look fine with regular wash and air-dry.  She also gave me side sweep bangs, which are a mix of cool and annoying, but I'm not too stressed about that.

+

65F at 12pm?  It felt significantly warmer than that.  It is nice to see people outside, cleaning and playing.  This warm weather saps my energy, though.

+

I went to my mom's friend Susan's Passover seder tonight.  (Apparently this is her fortieth year hosting this seder.)  Every time someone mentioned that this was my first seder, I felt like those "Baby's First [Whatever]" books.

I was actually surprised at how familiar it felt.  At CAUMC Maundy Thursday service, Trelawney does the Jewish blessing when she lights the candles at the table; I know the Exodus story, of course; I read The Devil's Arithmetic when I was like 9 (I remember doing a book report on it in 4th grade) so I have some familiarity with the four questions, the hiding of the matzoh portion, the opening the door for Elijah; relatively recently I looked up what exactly the Four Questions are (it had come up in conversation somehow), and in the process I read the bit about the four different kinds of children; the bitter herb and the sweet are familiar from some sort of cultural osmosis.

One thing I was (pleasantly) surprised by was the bit about how we shouldn't rejoice at the destruction of our enemies (the ancient Egyptians or whomever) because they are God's children, too.

I totally want to edit their Haggadah, though, because if you've never been to a seder before there are places where you're unclear on what you're supposed to be doing (it reminded me of church bulletins -- and there were times when people like Susan would stumble over what we were supposed to be doing, which of course drove me extra-crazy), plus just typographical errors.  And sometimes there's just the transliteration for the Hebrew, which some of the Jews at the table stumbled over (said if it were the actual Hebrew they could read that no problem), so the Hebrew should be added in all the places it's absent.

The actual discussions during and after the meal didn't drive me too crazy -- despite politics featuring prominently.  It was kinda trippy that there were over a dozen people, many of them older, so people would hear bits of conversation and ask questions which had totally been answered like a minute earlier -- much like the last time we FA's went to Border Cafe and Cailin was talking to me and MaryAlice chimed in, saying exactly what Cailin had said earlier (in that instance it was because the environment was so noisy).  I commented as much to my mother, and then the same sort of thing happened and I just about died laughing -- I don't even remember what about it made me so punchy.

The seder started around 7pm, and around 11pm most people were dispersing.  My mom had driven in, so rather than my waiting for a 66 or doing the long route of Brookline Villlage (Green Line) to Park to Davis (Red Line), she drove me part of the way home (we ended up at Central Square, and I said she could just drop me there rather than having to mess around with going through Harvard Square).

I took the 66 from Harvard to get there, and I've rarely taken it past where it hits the B Line, so it was interesting paying attention to stuff.  As soon as you pass Now Entering Brookline or whatever the sign says, there are a whole bunch of Jewish stores and temples and stuff, which entertained me, like an unspoken subtitle to the Welcome sign.  (I also hadn't realized just how many restaurants there are on the Brighton Ave. stretch.  Nor that there are a million burrito joints everywhere -- the plethora of burrito joints is kind of a joke in davis_square, and there are an increasing number in Harvard Square though I tend to forget that since I don't actually live in Harvard Square, but it still threw me to see places on Brighton Ave./Harvard St. apparently selling primarily burritos etc.)

Friday night, Cate and I were gonna meet at the Qdoba by the Agganis Arena before going to Macbeth.  I walked from HBS to where the 66 meets the B Line, and figured I'd just walk along Comm. Ave., except my sense of direction is not great in that area, so I walked in the wrong direction and then hopped a B Line at Allston St.  The parallel street thing that Comm. Ave.'s got going on is weird and awkward.

The Qdoba was crazy busy.  We saw after we left that there was a hockey game that night.

The show was at Studio 102 at BU's College of Fine Arts.  I had thought I would have been to all the theatre venues in the city by now, but clearly I was wrong as I had discounted college venues.  This particular room had like no ventilation, so we were very glad to spend the intermission outside in the cold air.  (I'd been taking off as much of my clothing as I felt I could get away with sitting in a public venue.)

I say it's my (second) favorite play, but I become less and less sure about that.  Everything happens so quickly, for one.  And Lady Macbeth's all badass up until Duncan's murder and shortly thereafter she and Macbeth have a total role reversal, which I don't entirely understand.  And Macbeth goes seriously crazy (hello Banquo's ghost scene).  He spends like five seconds considering the possibility that the kingship will come to him without any effort on his part like Cawdor did, and completely dismisses the Banquo prophecy until after he gains the kingship.  A lot of this is understandable on reflection, but watching it happen in front of me I had difficulty finding it believable.
     It was an all-female cast, which neither added (except that girls are prettier than boys, on the whole /shallow) nor detracted for me, which I'm really okay with.  The animalistic costumes for the witches in the scene where Macbeth goes to look for them were visually v. interesting, though I'm undecided as to whether I find them problematic.  At the "all my pretties" bit, I teared up.

There's a Cold Stone Creamery next to the Qdoba now.
     I wanted something light-ish, but all the stuff that looked potential had mix-ins I wasn't in the mood for.  I felt like it would be lame to go to a ColdStone and just get a single flavor, so I got a Birthday Cake Remix.  The server asked me if I wanted it in a coconut-dipped waffle bowl and I said sure.  Turns out he waffle bowl is coated in chocolate and then coconut, so it's wicked rich plus hard to eat 'cause the waffle part is curved and it's coated in hard thick chocolate.  Eating it, I realized I think I've had their cake batter ice cream before and yeah, not a huge fan.  Sigh.
     Cate got an After Dinner Mint and decided that yeah, she should have just gotten the straight-up chocolate peppermint ice cream since the mix-ins (chocolate shavings, marshmallows) didn't really add anything.  (We both got samples of the chocolate peppermint ice cream, though, and it is tasty.)
     The cashier asked the girl behind us if she was a student.  (Apparently we don't look like we could be students?  Though possibly that girl was wearing some sort of college paraphernalia, which we definitely weren't.)  When we left we noticed the sign outside that we hadn't registered when we came in that said you get 10% off with a student ID.  Sigh.

***

I'd been getting 6 hours of sleep the past couple nights. Saturday I slept for nearly 12 hours.  It was AWESOME.

I got my hair cut at Salon Femia again.  Yay walk-ins.  I ended up getting the same woman I had last time; I should have asked her name since it totally escaped me from last time.  I actually enjoy that they don't chat with you while they're doing your hair. I'm not sure it's the best business practice for them to chat with each other and not so much the clients, but it works for me.  I'm not opposed to small talk in those settings per se, but I never have the right answers for small talk -- I dislike the hot weather, love the cold weather and not just in a cozy bundled-up kind of way, don't really follow sports, rarely have exciting vacation plans, etc.

I'm not sure my hair looks any prettier, but it's easier to manage, which is worth a fair amount.  (And Trevanna complimented me on it on Sunday, so that's yay.)

***

Michelle's living in Leominster at present, so she had her 30th birthday party ("karaoke, beer, and fun") at The Tiki in Westford.

Jess took initiative about getting directions and arranging carpooling.  Bless her.
     Michelle had said something about it being an hour drive, but it took us 40 minutes, so we arrived right at 8pm (the approximate start time we were given), beating Michelle and her sister.

I was deciding what to wear for the day and remembered that I was going to Michelle's party so I didn't need to wear anything classy.  Looking for a different black shirt and remembering queenmother49, I opted for my "Everyone loves a cunning linguist" t-shirt.  Practically the first thing Michelle said to me upon greeting me was love the shirt.

Eric and Trelawney bought her a bag of Doritos ("orange salty guilt," as she affectionately refers to it).  That was arguably the best gift of the night.  I fail 'cause it didn't even occur to me until she got her first gift that duh birthday party perhaps I should have gotten a gift or a card.  I just so rarely do obligatory gift-giving dates.  (And she didn't even say anything, I just felt sort of lame.)

I was in the mood for a side of fries or something, but the place serves Chinese food so my options were kind of limited.  I couldn't remember whether Spring Rolls or Egg Rolls were more likely to be vegetarian and just ordered a side of Spring Rolls.  The dominant taste was fried, and I couldn't tell whether I tasted meat in it or not.  The last bite I saw shrimp.  Sigh.  I was then mildly worried that I would get sick, which thankfully didn't happen.  Having gotten used to drink prices at real Boston restaurants (or, god forbid, clubs), I was really pleased to find that drinks were $5 (and beer $3.50).  Not that I ever drink a whole lot -- though I did buy the birthday girl two drinks.

I'd never been to karaoke before, and I was so grateful that neither Michelle nor anyone else pressured us to participate.  'Cause hi, I don't sing.  I had more fun watching/listening to other people's performances than I had expected, though.
     Someone did a a country song called "Big Deal," which I wouldn't have guessed was LeAnn Rimes.  The woman singing it had a country appropriate voice, just not a LeAnn Rimes voice.
     Someone else did "Goodbye Earl" (Dixie Chicks), which song I was surprised Mike didn't know -- yes, I know it's a girlie song and he doesn't listen to country, pop crossover or not.  Meredith was surprised I didn't know "Under the Boardwalk."  Someone did "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" -- which I didn't even know was a song until that night.  There was a lot of Frank Sinatra, which I wans't really into.  A couple guys actually came into the audience with the mic, which was cool.  Someone did "I Am... I Said" by Neil Diamond, which again I'd never heard before, but I liked it.
     Michelle's sister Nicole and their friend Denise signed up for a karaoke together, and the DJ called "Nicole and Dennis."  When we have him grief for it, he said he wished he had a projector so he could put up the slips of paper and see if we could do a better job than him of deciphering them.
     Michelle did "Trouble" (which Google tells me is by Pink), "Holdin' Out for a Hero" (Bonnie Tyler), and "Crucify" (Tori Amos).
     Mike did Billy Joel: "Keeping the Faith."  Again, new to me, but I liked it.
     Trelawney did "Head Over Feet" (Alanis Morissette) 'cause she and Eric are just that sappy.
     Eric did "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" (They Might Be Giants) which I thought was fabulous, since he and Trelawney went to Turkey on their honeymoon.
     Someone did eve 6 "Inside Out," and I was like: I love that song ... I could maybe even sing that song.  Though I'm not sure if it crosses the line from energetic to angry too much for me to really feel like singing it.

We stayed until closing (12:30) and driving home was a bit more difficult than driving there, but we made it, and I learned a bit more about driving in the Harvard etc. area (Jess was driving me and Jenny, who lives near the Washington Street stop on the B Line).

On my way to get my hair cut Saturday morning, someone asked me for directions to Davis Square. I gave them and said I was going that way myself, so we walked part way together.  He said he was looking for housing, was moving here to be a student.  I asked if he was going to Tufts, and almost sheepishly he said he was going to seminary, at Harvard.  I immediately responded that that was awesome and that I had a number of friends going to div school and was jealous of them that they got to spend all their time studying theology.  His name is Kieran.  I approve of him.

As I said, I went to Salon Femia and got my hair cut.  I think I like it.

I ended up having enough time to do laundry, have lunch, and pack with time to spare.  Nice.

On the train to South Station I started reading Breakfast at Tiffany's and wow, from the very beginning it's so much darker than the movie.  It also makes me really wanna rewatch the movie to compare.  (Not that I have the time to finish reading the novella, nevermind rewatch the movie.)

I stopped at Master Wok at South Station to get a drink.  I almost got an almond milk tea but decided instead to get a banana milk juice.  I'd never actually had boba before, and yeah, never again.  I don't really like the taste, and I'm also not a fan of chewy bits in my drinks.

( NYC: cut-tagging because people complain sometimes ;)  )

We seem to be back to having 2 trash barrels.  I approve.

P.S. Mark, the Shakespeare movie Keanu was in was the one I was thinking of.  It's called Much Ado About Nothing.

Apparently NewRoomie+gf had a small party last night with some friends, so I'm rather glad I didn't come straight home (though I probably would have been able to fall asleep no problem).

I got my hair cut this morning.  Wednesday Alyssa and Thursday Cailin both complimented me on my hair -- which as ironic since I was planning on getting it cut.  I had it in a more defined side part than I usually have it, and it did look good, but I felt fairly confident it would start annoying me again soon, so I kept my appointment.  I got it trimmed and layered, and of course now it's falling in my face a bit.  I definitely like the cut, though.

It really bothers me when people on the street ask you for money and then keep asking you for more (seventy-five cents, a dollar, three dollars, five dollars) -- you're being nice and giving them what they asked for and they're making you feel guilty for not giving them more.  I know [okay, technically, I "believe"] that Christ would take them to a sandwich shop and sit down to a meal with them, and I think that God wants us to be that good, but I'm just not (especially 'cause feeling like I'm being taken advantage of does not make me want to be good.).
"and it's bad to have eyes like neon signs flashing open open open open open open open open open all the time"
I came home and made donations to real charities (Doctors Without Borders and First Book), which I had been meaning to do for a while.

I spent way too much time on Ari's tags this afternoon.  (I corrected lots of tags, so you can sort by usage at Tags Management and delete the zero use tags.  It's probably good I can't access your Tag Management or I would be so tempted to rename tags by my own subcategorizing preferences.  There were some duplicates I left alone 'cause I didn't know what your preference was re: hyphens and underscores, and other 'cause I didn't know if the duplication was intentional -- though I often doubted it.)

via thistlerose: SCMA installation gets Golden Plunger award

----

Today I:
* mailed a package
* got my hair cut
* fixed lots of Ari's tags
* took out the trash
* washed dishes
* bought groceries [I splurged and bought egg nog.]
* cleared out some of the crap in my room (Yay, tomorrow is trash night!)
* took a long nap [I only got 5-6 hours of sleep last night.]
What's up with the superpowered dreams?  This morning between turning off my alarm and getting up I had a normal mundane pseudo-dream, but this evening I dreamt I was like Claire but also with phasing and I sort of had Lwaxana Troi as a mother and she didn't want me to tell anyone and I was a teen and met a my age Clark Kent a la Smallville sort of and later met a guy with a hanglider in a scene out of a Forester or Waugh type novel who may have been superpowered also and to whom I was telling my lifestory.
* read the "Penelope" chapter, and Blamires chapter thereon (i.e., have now read all of Ulysses)
Edit: * finally responded to comments about Episcopalianism

I haven't posted about it 'cause I'm behind in writeups, but I like the haircut I got on Saturday at Blu a lot.  I wanted to get my hair cut anyway, and this one turned out to be v. much worth the price (which, $35, is probably quite reasonable).  The stylist (Erin) really understood what I meant by wash 'n' wear, so my hair looks almost as good when I do it myself as it did that afternoon.

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Cailin convinced me to get my eyebrows done at Michaud.  This was way more a concession to Cailin than it was an excitement from my end.

I was warned it would hurt (Alyssa gave me Aleve a half hour beforehand) but was not warned that it would make me feel like sneezing.  It wasn't too bad, though.  And the pain really wasn't that bad (At one point Cailin said, "You're remarkably calm.") though obviously I'm not excited about doing it again (though yes I know it gets less painful the more you do it).

Sara (Cailin's recommended stylist) said I had a good line, so she was basically just going to do cleanup work.  This, of course, made me feel like, "And I'm paying $40 for this, why?"  It definitely looks different, though.  Which, y'know, is the point.  I don't have a good/bad opinion yet; am stuck on "different."  "Striking" is the word that keeps coming to mind.  Looking in the mirror at home, though, it's not quite as drastic as I had first thought -- which is good (though she really wasn't kidding that my right brow is higher than my left).  The spontaneous reaction of everyone was that they looked really good.  Cailin said I should ask Mary Alice and Eric (and Katie, but then she took that back, saying she hadn't known me that long and is too nice), that they would be totally straight with me -- not that she or any of the rest of them would be or had been dishonest with me.  The only haircut comments I've gotten since returning from New Haven were from Alyssa and Cailin (who knew I was getting my hair cut this past weekend), so I'm hardly optimistic about people actually noticing this (esp. given Eric's oblivion; and Mary Alice just has a lot on her mind right now) but we shall see.

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As with everything with the posse, this was a group event.

I vetoed Tapeo.  (Did I never write up my evening with Jonah back in August?  Basic story: Appetizers are expensive and small, and IIRC I didn't even think they were that yummy.)  Cailin's next suggestion was The Cheesecake Factory, which Alyssa isn't a fan of, so we went to California Pizza Kitchen.

Nicole was running late (of course), so we ordered Spinach Artichoke Dip ("Served hot with blue and white corn tortilla chips.") so we wouldn't starve.  The chips weren't great, but the dip was really yummy.

I splurged and got a Chocolate Banana Smoothie.  Yum.

I decided on a Pear & Gorgonzola Pizza ("Caramelized pears, Gorgonzola, Fontina, and Mozzarella cheeses, sweet caramelized onions, topped with chopped hazelnuts and served with field greens tossed in our garden-herb ranch dressing." -- oh and on honey wheat dough) in large part because I didn't expect I would find that anywhere else.  'Twas quite good (though I would have been fine without the dressed greens), and I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

I looked at the wine list on a whim to see if they had Riesling and they do (two kinds, even!) and serve it by the glass (most places you can only get it by the bottle).  I'm totally getting that next time I go.

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When we were heading to CPK, Cailin talked about free makeovers at Saks.  A no-pressure free makeover, playing with makeup, that I could enjoy.  She was saying how she doesn't wear makeup much, etc.  This makes me like her so much better.  I never really had much of a sense of her before because we didn't spend much time together, but I'm really glad she's growing on me.  (And dude, someone who will consistently tell me I'm pretty.)

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Emily was taking about perfume, and I was thinking of how fond I am of Eric's various colognes (except for the one I don't like) and more generally the idea of (people) wearing some sort of scent (the distinctiveness aspect and also the sense of intimacy of learning something new about someone when you get close in their personal space -- even when it's platonically like a hug) and then thinking it would be tempting to buy men's cologne, for the genderfuck, but I'm not sure that's really "me" and honestly I think I'm kind of not a scent person.  Was interesting to think about, though.