What makes me tick (lately, y'know, because I'm fickle)

1. The Joy the Baker Podcast
2. Corn, Tomato, and Avocado Salad with Honey-Lime Dressing - Well, I'm not making it so much anymore now that it's getting to be fall-y out, but I probably made this about 15 times over the summer, and it is GOOD and EASY (like me (haha just kidding)).
3. Boot Camp - Actually, this makes me HURT more than tick, but I like it anyway... I'm kicking the asses of EVERYONE on the couch! If you're surprised that I wake up at 6:45 3 days a week to go run around and look like a moron; well, I am, too.
4. Painting my own nails. I haven't done it since I was in high school, and now I have THREE bottles of nail polish. There is just no time to get a manicure anymore. #firstworldproblems
5. Starbucks Decaf Via Packets - I'm off caffeine (sort of) so I opt for one of these most mornings now. How Seattle is this... they don't even brew decaf coffee in my office. They use the decaf pot for more leaded. Hence the need to bring my own.
6. Rosetta Stone Hindi - I'm learning Hindi. It is hard. I sound like an idiot. But I've learned foreign languages before (sort of), and I'll do it again.
7. Spotify - I didn't think anything would replace Pandora for me, but I really like the social aspect of Spotify. I can create playlists and share them. And if you connect Spotify to Facebook, you can see what your friends are listening to (and, therefore, discover new things), which is a great way to feed my music addiction without going bankrupt. Try it out!

What are you up to?

What I'm reading (because I sure as hell am not writing)

I went to a songwriting workshop at 826 Seattle a few weeks ago, mostly because the instructor was John Roderick of The Long Winters, and he's a very smart and talented guy. Before anyone gets all excited, nearly nothing came of this. I have never had the desire to be a songwriter, and I still don't. I thought maybe it would kick me into some sort of alternate universe where I was inspired to write and write and write every waking moment (that is, every waking moment I'm not writing web documentation, HOLDMEBACKNOW!) but it's mostly made me clean a lot. You know, to avoid the writing. Which is normal, I know.

Other bits of inspiration:

• Molly Wizenberg of Orangette talks about writing (and the prerequisite of avoiding doing so)
• The TED talk Molly linked to in the post above, led by Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat Pray Love)
• This Dear Sugar column, sent to me by my dear dear friend who knows my heart entirely too well and knew emailing me this column on doing what you're meant to do would make me start to cry at my desk

And meanwhile, I read. Right now on the Kindle:

• And Here's the Kicker: Conversations with 21 Top Humor Writers on Their Craft, edited by Mike Sacks. I had a humor column in my middle school newspaper. It was not funny at all, which, I suppose, made it just a "column". But regardless, this book called to me: Buck Henry, David Sedaris, Dave Barry, and Stephen Merchant? I would love to know how their minds work; this will have to suffice.
• Private Life by Jane Smiley. The book begins with an older woman in Vallejo after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, visiting her Japanese American neighbors interned at Tanforan. After that initial chapter, it flashes back to her younger self around the time of the Civil War. How can you not be interested in a book with this kind of flashback? It's good so far, though there are a LOT of characters, and it's difficult to keep them all straight.

The fall is coming, and I'll be less inclined to want to spend every moment outside soaking up what little sun we see up here in Seattle, and possibly more inclined to pursue my creative side. But first, that floor isn't going to sweep itself!

Oh wait, yes it will, we have a Roomba. I'm running out of excuses.

Little things

1) Walks around Green Lake.

2) These soups.

3) Big earrings.

4) Flash mobs.

5) Chicken Bahn mi.

6) Vampire Weekend.

7) Slam poetry.

8) Old pictures.

9) Eudora Welty.

10) Spring.

Before I even knew myself

New friends bring new perspective. You don't know what you don't know until a new person in your life tells you about their experiences. New people become old friends faster than you realize.

But I'm so equally thankful for the old friends, the people who knew me before I even knew myself. The people who have watched my adamant declarations of like and dislike, of love and hate, and nod along when those preferences switch completely.

I used to think it was easier to evolve into who you really are when there weren't people around who knew the old you. But recently I've realized that those people accepted who I am now long before I decided to become that person. They loved me for who I am today when I couldn't even imagine who that was going to be.

Old friends are magical.

The episode was ending.

I don't remember the plot, don't have the emotional stamina to go back and find out. The kids were singing that song my sister played by the pool at my aunt's house last summer when I'd gone home to visit. I was just back from there, though for a very different reason. I was just raw.

The song went on, gaining energy. The kids clapped and danced and joined the singing. Their voices were beautiful, as always. I get emotional when I watch that show, it's so close to home. So derivative of my own life in high school.

The song went on.

"Run fast for your mother, run fast for your father," they sang, smiling. My cheeks were soaked. This was not the first time that week, that day even. It had been happening spontaneously during everyone else's everyday moments. I had a plan to say I was having an allergy attack if anyone asked why.

"Leave all your love and all your longing behind. You can't take it with you if you want to survive." I continued on the couch, comfortable with neither what I wad hearing nor my reaction. They smiled and clapped. I still don't understand the clapping.

I have still never heard it without bursting into tears. I wonder every time if I'm the only one. I wonder if one day I'll hear it and clap.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sunrise, Sunset

Scene: AMC showed a clip from Fiddler on the Roof in a commercial for the same movie. I, therefore, had If I Were A Rich Man stuck in my head. When I have songs stuck in my head, I sing them.

HD: What is that from?

Me: Fiddler on the Roof.

HD: The old one or the new one?

Me: What do you mean, the old one or the new one?!

HD: Isn't the new one in 3D?!

Me: !