burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

It was so dark out this morning when I got up at 6:16. I'm really impressed that I actually got up. I feel like if I tell people I only spend ten minutes in the weight room they would react like that was so pointless, but *I* know it matters. I tried the dip machine this morning, but it scares me. (Sorry, I don't know what it's actually called. You kneel on this thing and do like chin-up motions, and it works your arms, but the pad you're kneeling on moves up and down -- which you're controlling, via aforementioned arm work ... and there are lower arm bars, too, for when you get off ... but still, scary.)

Learned this morning HBS-Mike is on vacation in Alaska (after a few days in Seattle). This is totally on our List of places we should go. Though I think that, like Yellowstone, it's a With Parents trip -- as opposed to Italy, returning to the American Southwest, etc.
     Sunday night, when my brother was confirming that I would be up for going to Italy with him, I was realizing how awesome it was that this 20-year-old kid was matter-of-factly planning a trip to Europe/roadtrip of some kind with his older sister, rather than some college buddies (and it's not like I'm the "cool" older sister or anything).

Dentist appointment today.
     My hygienist (Meg?) just bought a house in Dedham, and her mom works at Norwood Hospital. She says I brush "too hard." (The toothbrush she gave me is really skinny.)
     She and ComedyDentist were having a conversation, and I was snarking, and he said to me, "You have twelve cavities." She said that was never funny, but I hadn't even flinched. I said I knew he was gonna come back at me with something for not being on his side in this discussion, so I hadn't thought he was serious at all. (I didn't mention that if it had been a more moderate assertion I would have fallen for it, since I was totally expecting to be told I had at least one cavity. She had mentioned my wisdom teeth, but he didn't say anything about it. Which I'm a-okay with.)

We scheduled a six-month cleaning. I got a card recently from my endodontist for the free-of-charge six-month follow-up appointment, so I should take care of that. And actually schedule a physical. (Amusing sidenote: When my brother came to visit, he brought me my 2001 medical records -- and my weight is almost exactly the same now as it was then.) Should I get the HPV vaccine?

Benefits open enrollment runs from Oct. 23 - Nov. 6. NOTE TO SELF.

It occurred to me that I could look for a VCR on craigslist, and lo, $10, in Everett. With a starting point of Harvard Square, MBTA.com thought I should take the Orange Line to Wellington (and then the #110 bus to where I was going). I thought I should just take the Red Line to Davis and pick up the #90 to Wellington. The #90 was delayed, so I took the #89 to Sullivan and then the Orange Line one stop to Wellington -- apparently I should have just taken the #86 from HBS to Sullivan and then gone to Wellington from there.
     I was feeling a little scared when I was actually on the bus, because I've never really been out in that area (except for that one time I was hanging out with Cate and a housemate drove me to Sullivan so I didn't have to wait forever for a bus) and I get nervous with new stuff, but it was fine. Have I mentioned recently how much I love the interior displays on buses that announce each upcoming stop?
     On the way back, I walked to where there was both a 110 and a 112 stop, got a 112 back to Wellington, got a 90 to Davis, and then decided to walk home rather than take an 87 or 88 to right near my house. Yeah, I was carrying a VCR, but I like walking -- I think that's part of why I opted not to take the 86 initially.
     I still need to obtain a coaxial cable (quick trip to BestBuy after work on Friday, maybe?), but assuming I didn't break it from jostling it around and occasionally dropping it, I should be in business. Which I'm excited about. Definitely worth eating up my evening. (I finished The Golden Compass, though I had originally planned to finally finish writing a couple letters tonight, which clearly did not happen.)

I have no segue for this: lesbian pulp by M. E. Kerr

Edit: Semagic no longer adds in   for extra spaces. What UP? It seems to be operating somewhat more like a word processing program, with auto-correcting some spelling, and doing the red underlining which I recall noticing in post boxes when I upgraded Firefox at work a while back. Is this an XP thing? How do I get this function back?
     Nevermind: I found the Options and re-enabled that function -- as well as a bunch of other functions.