Truly sad news today over the AP wire: the company that originated the lawn flamingo is going out-of-business...
Pink, it's my new obsession
Pink, it's not even a question,
Pink, on the lips of your lover,
'Cause pink is the love you discover
Family visits in some ways really suck... mostly in the leaving part (at the moment). My mom's and step-dad's visit ends today, and I'm left in the wake of their departure. Actually, my visit to my dad and sister is California is so crammed into this visit, that I'm now pretty much dealing with being away from all of them.
In a way, this is good: it means I enjoyed their visits. But mostly, it just sucks because now they're gone away again, and I have to get used to them not being around...
Not really such a terrible thing, just not really fun. Particularly when I've not really a clue of when I'll see them again, and my phone's out-of-commission whilst I await for the replacement's arrival.
On the plus side, I watched Thank You for Smoking last night, which was quite humorous--it's a satire about the main spokesman (Aaron Eckhart) for the Tobacco lobby in D.C.
I just can't stand being alone
I'm gonna have to change that someday
There's a restless feeling in my bones
And I know that at times it just won't go away
Well, it's raining again in Fort Lauderdale, surprise, surprise.
But it's not been too bad. I'm hanging out with my mom and step-dad today, while also buying a new phone. The screen of my current phone went black yesterday, making it rather difficult to call people--I even inadvertently called someone at random, who I'm still trying to figure out who it was. So, with that, I spent 30 minutes sitting in a cingular store waiting to buy a phone and having to leave before being helped--a tad frustrating.
So instead, I've gone onto eBay, and bought a Motorola SLVR off there... which should arrive this week, hopefully. Until then, no phone, so it'll be a little quite. :)
Raindrops keep fallin' on my head
And just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed
Nothin' seems to fit
Those raindrops are fallin' on my head, they keep fallin'
Mom and step-dad are in town for a visit, so just a brief post...
Just one day out of life
It would be, it would be so nice
Everybody spread the word
Were gonna have a celebration
Actually, it's more like 2...
Ever get the feeling you're the butt of the joke, and everyone is in on it? Or pondered whether you're being asked too much or if you just can't handle it?
What about being told to take pride in what you're doing, then encouraged to do it half-assed? Wanted to get advice from someone, but not known which "someone" was safe to get it from? Wondered if someone was trying to get rid of you, or maybe just been so paranoid that you read too much into everything?
Wanted to leave but felt you couldn't or shouldn't... perhaps even because maybe you should stay?
Ever miss yelling out that you're rowing #4?
It's 6:00 in the morning
You're the last to hear the warning
You've been trying to throw your arms around the world
You've been falling off the sidewalk
Your lips move but you can't talk
You're tryin to throw your arms around the world
Today I am on my way back from California, and I do mean the "day" part of it--I've got to remember those red-eyes from the West Coast, cause this whole leave at 11 a.m. get in at 11 p.m. thing sucks.
My few days with dad and sister went well. It was great to see them again, and who knows when I'll get back out there (probably in another year or three; course I don't know when I'll get back to a visit to San Antonio, either). It also appeared Dad had a good 80th birthday.
I, myself, managed to pack in a few movies while away, catching The Devil Wears Prada on the plane out and back, and seeing The Guardian and Little Children with my sister. The Guardian was cool because 2 former Texas swimmers where extras in the movie spending basically the middle portion of the movie on screen. So getting to seem them on the big screen was nice; one even got to sit next to Ashton Kutcher in class--I'm so jealous.
As for Children, it was interesting, particularly as the movie made me realize the childishness of some of the things I've been doing of late--which in some aspects seemed to be the point of the movie.
Anyways, I'm headed back to Florida, and to an annual organization work review beginning tomorrow. Following that, my mom and step-dad are down for a week's visit, and the craziness of the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show. Joyous.
Her face is a map of the world, is a map of the world
You can see she's a beautiful girl, she's a beautiful girl
And everything around her is a silver pool of light
The people who surround her feel the benefit of it
It makes you calm
About a month ago, I dropped my phone. Since then my display is slowly being taken over by black from the upper left corner and white from the lower right--kinda like I have a fade-to-black and fade-to-white battling on the tiny little screen. So tonight, I finally got to cingular and found out I need to buy a new phone. Kinda sucky, cause I like my current phone, not to mention the cost. Added to all this, is that during the rainstorm while I was swimming the 10K a few weeks ago, my phone got wet--which is preventing a cheaper replacement option. C'est ma vie.
Otherwise things go alright. Over the weekend I managed to get some more stuff put away, which has allowed me to move a chair from the entryway into the kitchen (now I don't have to climb over said chair to get into the kitchen--which is nice). I'm in the midst of a 2-week trial with NetFlix. I watched Friends with Money over the weekend, and now have Oklahoma! on the way (not sure why it ended up on the list so high... it's just what's on it's way here).
And I'm prep'ing to head to California this weekend (or will be in the next day/two) for my dad's 80th birthday. All in all, doing alright. OH! and the exciting news: this morning, for the first time in 2 years or more, I filled my gas tank for under $20. :)
Well, I must be off to search for a phone.
Excuse me but can I be you for a while
My dog won't bite if you sit real still
I got the Antichrist in the kitchen yelling at me again
Yeah I can hear that
The story of this year's winner of the Nobel Peace Prize made me smile today...
about how a little can make a big difference.
(and, yes, it's Friday the 13th)
I have made it through Hell!
Well, more correctly (and less and more literally), I have finished reading Dante's Inferno; now I just need to decided whether I'm going to read through all the notes that accompany it (and aren't making a ton of sense since they relate to specific lines within the text and I'm not really keen on going back and reading the lines to know what's being talked about--presuming I understood it to begin with).
I'm also pondering whether/not to the read the rest of the Divine Comedy (i.e. Purgatorio and Paradiso)... though I'm not sure I'm ready for Purgatory and Paradise just yet.
So, instead, I did some more reading on the IgNobles. This one from 1995 sounds like something I could use:
"ECONOMICS: Gauri Nanda of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for inventing an alarm clock that runs away and hides, repeatedly, thus ensuring that people DO get out of bed, and thus theoretically adding many productive hours to the workday."
Y poco a poco olvidar,
el tiempo y su velocidad
Frenar el ritmo, ir muy lento,
Cada vez más lento
Today marked my 1-year anniversary at work: I started a year ago on October 10--last year it was Columbus Day, rather than the day after, though. All in all, nothing terribly exciting to report... I did get to test out my new parachute at practice. Nice, but not much on the exciting though.
The only other item of note from today was that I stumbled upon another article about James Madison University dropping its men's swimming team, and nine other sports, to come into compliance with Title IX. The most interesting thing about JMU's situation to me is that the school, itself, is way out of gender proportion: it's 61% female and 39% male. This is the parallel the JMU Athletics is aiming to match.
The U.S. population is 51% female, 49% male--according to the U.S. Census Bureau. As this is the case, why isn't Title IX (which is about gender equality in education) working to rectify the school's inequality? And couldn't men's sports teams be used to help address this trend?
Butterflies are free to fly and so they fly away
And I'm left to carry on and wonder why
Even through it all, I'm always on your side
I went and saw The Illusionist today, which was quite good.
Going in, I was a tad worried that it would be too similar to The Prestige, which comes out later this month, but I was glad I went. Having now seen it, I believe Prestige will only be similar in the fact that the main characters are illusionists/magicians.
And this reminds me that Hollywood amazingly seems to have the same 2 movies come out at the same time (this also happened last month with The Black Dahlia and Hollywoodland). And that doesn't even get into things like last year's Capote and this year's Infamous (the latter which I'll probably end up seeing because Sandra Bullock's in it--among others).
Course, in addition to a good cast and story, The Illusionist also benefited by having a Rufus in it--a name which since Dogma makes me smile (the 13th apostle, you know).
And what you want, what you really need are two different things wouldn't you say
The line is thin between fun and sin, and were all clockin' in for the day
(And our only care is what to wear)
Every day is a getaway when all of it goes unsaid
I got a holiday, a paid holiday
I got a holiday in my head
So, this evening, while waiting iTunes to finish downloading Project Runway, this is what I found:
A year ago this week was my 4-day drive to Florida, up and around the various mess along the Gulf Coast caused by Katrina and Rita. Kinda strange. I hadn't completely realized my year was upon me, until it had started.
Exactly a year ago today I was on day 3, driving from Atlanta, Georgia, to Leesburg, Florida--just under 400 miles, and probably the most uneventful leg of the whole trip.
This week has been going ok. Tuesday evening, the city deferred to decided on whether or not the team I'm training with will get to stay in the pool we're in. At lunch that day, I walked into a woman hollerin' at the staff to get her food prepared correctly--wreaking havoc on the staff's ability to actually prepare the food. After the woman left--completely ignoring that she'd made 7 other people wait longer for their food--and I'd made my order, the woman behind me in line proceeded to steal my food from the pick-up area and then brazenly ate it in the restaurant in front of everyone--as if she hadn't really taken it. It was even in a to-go bag, which she turned upside-down to get all the stuff out. And, man, did she scarf down that--I've never seen food disappear so fast.
But dinner last night helped balance things out... now if only I could get to unpacking. That, and if I could get iTunes to download faster, ahh...
Oh, and I watched TransAmerica last week--which I quite liked and recommend.
Well I can't tell you where I'm going, I'm not sure of where I've been
But I know I must keep travelin' till my road comes to an end
I'm out here on my journey, trying to make the most of it
I'm a puzzle, I must figure out where all my pieces fit
I survived yesterday's 10K, and am not feeling too terribly today. My time was 2:21:27 (and no, that second colon is not a mistake--that's 2 hours, 21 minutes and 27 seconds), which placed me 6th overall, 21 minutes behind the winner (who's an Olympian from Venezuela, by the way). Full results are here--the last finisher was in the water 4.5 hours.
After the races, awards (I won my age group!), and lunch, I arrived home to find my new upstairs neighbor (and 6-10 of her closest friends/family) moving into her apartment (along with 6 cars, taking up all the spaces at our small complex). So, I wasn't really able to get a nap, which was fine.
Rest of the day was uneventful. Oh, I should mention that the swim was staged from the Miami Rowing boathouse, and in their rowing venue (there's was a bunch of shells about... made me miss rowing, more). Regretfully, Virginia Key, where the house is, a ways away, and there's a pesky causeway toll (which, amazing, I guess correctly would exist, so I had money to pay for it). Ft. Lauderdale Rowing, however, should be way closer...
Oh, and the coolest part of the weekend: I found $40 in my wallet this morning--love that.
Sometimes, it's hard to know where I stand
It's hard to know where I am
Or maybe it's a puzzle I don't understand
Sometimes, I get the feeling that I'm
Stranded in the wrong time
Where love is just a lyric in children's rhyme...
