DANG IT! first finance charge on the mc. dang dang dang dang dang! i have NEVER paid one of those. dang it!

 Governor Kaine has appointed the three new members of the Board of Visitors.

Well, ok, no.  not sailing. no big blue wet thing, unless i get hideously terribly lost.  (This is, as you all know, a distinct possibility.)

But anyway, ADVENTURE!  I'm jaunting down to North Carolina for the weekend for swing dancery and salsa-ing and fun times with foxytypes.  So if you are an NC kind of person, you should be dancing this weekend.   

This past weekend was Bellydance Out The Wazoo! (tm).  Thursday rehearsal we finished (i think? i don't even remember) the BAST/Desert Wind piece, and that week or the week before we finished the Desert Breeze one.  The one with just Wind has *been* finished, but we haven't run it in ages.  ALL of them may or may not need/actually get some restaging.  Should be an interesting few weeks.  But anyhoo, Thursday we had a rehearsal for Saturday shows and discovered that only FOUR people were coming to perform in the two forty-five minute sets.  FANtastic.  So, I grudgingly agreed to do Firedance again (which i tried to get out of for the second show, to no avail)...I really liked it at the time, but i feel very silly when i get up there and blank on my choreography.  I'm already freaking out about being up there by myself; having no clue what TO do all by myself is alllllmost excruciating.   We (Tish and I) also did Bulgarian Chicks, the most recent tribal number, and (Mariellyn and I) ...salomet, or something similar, from the Aziza workshop.  The difference in my comfort level having just *one* more person with me is amazing - even when i don't know the choreography that well. 
Our first set was at a Williamsburg old folks home.  It wasn't the type where slightly older people just tend to live around each other and wreak havoc; more of the severe Alzheimers-y cases and otherwise struggling folks.  Aside from the guy whose wheelchair kept inching closer. and closer. every time we moved, it was a pretty nice group.  They did, mind you, keep up a running commentary the entire time, but i appreciated the "look at her hip GO!"

huh. i swear i wrote an entry about this already. it was funny. i don't know where it went.  Alas for you, folks, my funny is all spent.

Anyway, our second show was at a mall and was uneventful.  We posed with a Harley, since we performed right outside the Harley shop, but i didn't want to direct too much of the picture...so we're in FRONT of the harley and you can't see it.  ah well.  

In other news, Clauser continues to act...weird.  not even like nothing is wrong. just weird.  He wanted to talk earlier this week but i was too exhausted monday, he worked yesterday, and then he promised to 'hit me up' today and did not.  lo que sea. 
The exhausted on Monday being due to a Park Ops party, which was interesting.  Awkward.  It was a monopoly party, which i will splain later if you like, but basically it devolves into Truth or Dare.  This could lead to things like "you. hot guy. I'll give you $20 to walk around without your shirt all night."  He did. No one minded.  Or maybe like, "hm, i know X and Y are interested in each other, let's bribe them to make out."  I, in this case, was X.  Apparently though, Y is not remotely interested, judging from the reaction i got.  Kissing someone on the cheek and getting a look like "OH GOD. BATTERY ACID" is not, in my opinion, the preferred way of discovering their feelings. But whatever; it had already been unanimously decided that this party was one of those that we would enjoy thoroughly and then never discuss again. heh. It was, for the most part, a fun time.   Work the next day was slightly less so, but I was not hungover and i seriously deserved to be, so it's ok.

Very excited for ze weekend, though.  Salsa dancing! Bluesy goodness! *FROLIC!*

Avoided lunch w/ the new clerks today by having a previously set lunch date with Delores. Went EXACTLY not where Eddie said he was taking the clerks and had lunch at the garden cafe instead. Lunch lunch lunch....ahhh they are here. So we hid and ate lunch where they wouldn't spot us before sneaking out the alley door. I'm going to miss Delores.

this week i...
1) bought a new car battery.
2) went to court w/ my attorney and had my traffic tix dismissed.
3) am paying my September rent for my new place b/c I'm not exactly sure on when I will be paid again and I know that rent is due on the 1st.
4) got so far into debt that it ceased to worry me. my new mindset is that this will OBVIOUSLY be fixed at some point, but not today. I will probably spend the first 3 months of my new job recovering from the month between. Last year it took closer to 6 months, but I was unemployed for 3 months that time and my car needed much more expensive care.

In two weeks I will spend 1,600 to haul my antique furniture from richmond to danville. the firm will pay me back, at some point. go go mastercard!

I ended up actually passing 400 posts in a day on Friday!  I got some crazy link love, including one that garned over 1,000 views from a SEX BLOGGER.  I've decided to be flattered, link love is link love, and she loves my blog name!  After that I stayed around 300, and now I'm dropping off around 200, but it's a lovely boost.  I don't really know what's normal for small blog views, does anyone know?  All I know is Pharyngula gets 9,000 ish a day, and Coturnix gets something like 1,000, so I'm obviously not in that ballpark at all yet.

And now there are new posts up!  First one is one a rectal gel (I know, it sounds gross, but it's looking like a very effective preventative for HIV), and the second is my usually bunch of cool, geeky, and sometimes silly links, complete with an interview with a woman who has a hole drilled in her head.  Check it out.

And who knows, I may actually have a post where I bitch randomly about something sometime.  I can feel one building...

Dear Lunelle;

I know that I demand so much from you. Probably more than I should. What with the daily commutes and the random weekend trips. We had such a good time at Sim and Emily's didn't we? You like the beach, and the mountains, and the cities and the towns, don't you?

I know that sitting in the courthouse parking deck isn't your favorite, but sitting in my tiny windowless office isn't my favorite either - and we have to have gas and oil and parts to keep you running. I know that waiting around for dr's appointments and check-ups and chemos is tedious, but at least you are in a nice shady lot under the pin oaks.

I know that other owners could give you more, might drive you less, but don't throw it all away, baby. We got through your valve job this time last year and we'll get through a bad alternator or leaky radiator, or whatever else you are suffering from now.

I shoulda never let that neighbor touch your battery this morning, but I couldn't get you to turn over. I was panicked. You did start, but then you filled with the most ghastly swampy smell. I was worried that something died in the cabin of the car. I dunno what to do. Let's get outta here and get you some help.

Hey folks,

After over a year of robust growth, I've decided that my mane needs a good chop, with an ensuing donation to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program. What's the best place around here to get my cut per the stipulations of the program (that is, where are people familiar with hair donation)? What have your experiences been like (for reference, I'm a man with very wavy, almost curly hair) at the barber shop or whatnot? Do I need to do anything not listed in the Pantene website's instructions?

Thanks a bunch,

Paul

well, wigs sure as hell are fun! cass got two really nice ones yesterday at the prosthetic store. the thing is, a wig is called a cranial prosthesis. i always thought a prosthesis was named after the bodypart it replaced. we made lots of jokes about getting a new head.

chemo was as fun as chemo gets. i learned the crochet pattern for moms blanket and feel pretty good about that. keith asked us the world quiz questions. i correctly guessed that outside of africa, YEMIN has the highest reproductive rate in the world at something over 5 kids per chickie. ow.

i met a former mrs. universe with stage 4 lung cancer and 10 months into treatment. beautiful and back out of a 2 month remission and scared as hell that her doc would give up on her. she runs a ballet studio in the west end and cass knows her from work. we hugged her and told her all positive things and wished her well. we told her to kick cancer's ass. i hope she can.

chris and rj came in to town for the lewis black show. and bob treated us all to dinner beforehand. tarrant's so deliciously full. can't move...oh god...

pre-dinner bob, keith, and chris helped me move the new mattresses to my house as the surprise for rj - look look beds that don't injure you to sleep on them. woot!

really enjoyed lewis black at the landmark last night. he got so wrapped up in his tirade that he jumped up in down in pure frustration. so hilariously funny. so angry. he ranted about drilling for oil and i phones and politics and religion and kept the boys laughing so hard that chris laughed until he coughed and rj stopped breathing. good times.

slept pretty well but had more horrible dreams. tuesday night i dreamed of a bloody-effluvient plague that caused everyone to leach watery blood from their pores. my sister kept trying to engage in extreme sports and i spetn the entire dream trying to protect her.

this time a rabid cat kept biting and scratching me while i tried to corral it, separate it from all of these other pets that kept showing up in the house, and everyone else was of no help at all - not even in protecting themselves. at one point we found a puppy and my mom, rj, about 6 people who showed up in the dream, and 'the president' played the 'who will take care of this - not me' game.

made the absolutely wrong choice re: playing hookie today. chris wanted to stay and maybe do bg, but i felt like i should come in at least until lunch. boo. poor decision. not that i woulda skipped, but it's fun to pretend that i mighta. not much going on here. just trying to get orders signed and divorce people. most of it will wait till monday.

 Sometimes, when my cat is watching me do something, I can see her writing her memoirs in her head.  I think tonight goes something like this:

"It has been my life's work to discover the habits of these 'humans'.  They are quirky creatures, and prone to many odd habits.  Once in a while my human engages in something called "kleening".  It is a messy business, full of absurdities.  Humans apparently do not kleen unless they are soon to entertain other humans.  Perhaps the actions are a ritual or status symbol, designed to please their gods.  She kleens with a ferocity and stress which causes her to do the most extraordinary things.  Adult humans stand much upon their dignity, and I was taken aback this evening to find my human engaged in rubbing a brush back and forth across the floor, a brush which appears to be filled with some eye-searing substance.  And the brush moves...back and forth...across the floor...it...is...compelling...(pounce).  FAUGH!  The brush is WET.  Humans are indeed odd creatures. "

I'm going through what has turned into a several month "what IS this shit?" closet/drawer/underbed cleaning and gleaning and dusting extravaganza.  Today, i dusted the set of drawers and all the stuff on it. (to include: a bunch of russian stuff from the greek festival, two egyptian, one turkish, and one chinese perfume bottles, two frogs with crowns, one korean and one japanese doll in full costume, two pretty boxes, one teacups full of dried flowers from ring dance with first boyfriend.)  One of the pretty boxes rattled suspiciously.  In IT were contained: one cut crystal snowflake, from somewhere in Europe.  One crushed penny from high school trip to NYC.  Twenty-seven soda pull tabs, collected for KDR and forgotten.  One lens from a cow eyeball, from high school dissection. (it's gross, but not that gross; it was cleaned and dried, and does not include the squishybits.) 
Discoveries like this are why this project is taking forever.  Things being discarded: The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton. (oh god, dull book.)  The skirt I wore to my first BGW interview, i think.  Plush The Count.  a sweater I began referring to as "the bag lady sweater" shortly after purchase.  Inexplicably, a set of ultra-low size four skinny fit Levi's.  (Whose pants are these? I was a size four sometime in kindergarten!! I hate ultra low!!)
As I reluctantly slither towards being, officially, a Respectable Adult, I am finding that many of the garments in my tank top drawer are no longer "well that's nice" or even "I'll wear that to go dancing," but either "costume parts" or "well that's nice...under another shirt."  They're the same tops, just...different purposes. 

There is no excuse for the shoes at Penney's and Aldo today.  Sensible, clunky heeled, ugly brown, comfort soled.  They don't hurt any less than *pretty* shoes, and they crush your soul. (and your SOLE!)   (I'm sorry.)  It was depressing.

A new post is up at Neurotic Physiology!

This one is on Broca's Area, an area of the brain associated with language.  I'm covering the original paper from 1865.  Ah, back in the days when people still said stuff like "some idiots are not capable of speech", and it was considered politically correct!  I'm so glad I live in modern times.

Hopefully another one will go up either tonight or tomorrow (amongst the MANY other things I desperately need to get done).  It's Weird Science, and VERY strange.     

because the whole world loves you when you don't get down...ba.babababababa.

stuck in my head since i woke up this am. maybe it's in yours too now.

Mr. Zimm my tailor just called. I heart him. I wish i could afford a hand-tailored suit. As it is i heart that he can keep my 20 year old handmedowns running.

E> ZIMM <3

One of the judge's Civil Bailiffs just missed an opportunity to convert me to born again christendom. I think he was really bummed out that I already had my life-changing experience in high school and had felt the warm hand of love wrapped around my heart.

poor guy. he was looking forward to a real religious show-down.

August 23rd - Moria and Janna's Troupes Desert Wind and Desert Breeze will be at the W'burg Library. I think the show starts at 8 and I think it costs 10 bucks. I will check on that.

If you live in the area and I haven't seen you in forever, you have to come!!! (Gogo and Jules, this means you!)

Show at Williamsburg Regional Library Theater and Arts Center
515 Scotland Street, Williamsburg VA

so it's falling out. in clumps. she cut the dreads b/c they were hurting her head. she cancelled our swim class date tonight. she asked me to go buy her a new mattress for the couch b/c she doesn't want to go up and down the stairs.

this SUCKS. it sucks lumpy mashed potatoes through a cheap plastic straw.

glugh.

going over tonight to hang out and watch sex and the city, season 6 where the the chick deals w/ breast cancer. am bringing hair gel and trimming scissors. am making gurkensalat - http://www.gurkensalat.com/gurkensalat.html.

DAMN ALARM!

So the power must have gone out over the weekend while I was out.  I re-set my alarm but apparently did not actually turn it on.  My dad comes in this morning at 6:10 (I get up at 5:30), "don't you need to be up?"


"OH SHIT!!!!" (not even caring that I swore in front of my Dad)

Needless to say I'm a bit frazzled today.  Made it to work only 10 minutes late, but I don't even want to be 1 minute late to a new job.  Damn parkway traffic, 10 minutes could mean an extra half hour to the commute on any random day.  I'm working on finding an apartment in town again with a friend of mine, but its been difficult since I've been spending very little time at home the past few weeks.  I'm involved in a performance of La Boheme and this is dress week (aka HELL week) for us.  And since rehearsals are either in town or on the other side of town from where I live, I don't often go home after work.  I might even be spending a few nights in town at the boyfriend's place just so I can get a decent amount of sleep and not waste all that gas.  Not having a "home base" to go to every night is very stressful. 

oh well, time to scan some plates