sometimes when i am suffering at the gym i ask myself why i am doing this. i think most people want to get in shape or drop a few pounds so they can wear swimwear in public without shame or look good in a cocktail dress or something. me, i realized i am exercising so i can fit into my robot blouse again which i put together 4 years ago.

i think sometimes sentimentality is my only motivation for making a concerted effort. sometimes. i know i can just pull the buttons off and put em on a new shirt, but i am too lazy to thread a needle. not too lazy i guess to feel the burn. no secret really, i’m a fickle one.

my drum lessons lately have been really constructive. i look forward to them every week, although there has been a few hiatuses recently with my teacher going to SXSW and just gigging a lot in general. lately our lessons have just been both of us on drum sets at the same time playing the same rhythm with him doing some fancy variation or drum fill intermittently and giving me a measure of time to mimic the exact thing. it’s very loose, i’m not always perfect but i am appreciating this kind of method because most of the drummers i admire show dexterity and can improvise off the pulse. i think it helps me learn creatively and intuitively instead of focusing too much on numbers and technical details. anyway, this weekend i upgraded to a better paiste high-hat and went into guitar center and got a used sabian crash and that made a world of difference. i love the way my drum kit sounds now and i spent most of sunday afternoon playing to the first sabbath album which probably made the neighboring restaurant hate me. i don’t care, i’ve heard them blast trance music really loud when i was trying to get some sleep one time. oh going into guitar center bummed me out a little though because there were 10 year olds being badasses on the drums and not only was it intimidating, but i felt at my age i was past the learning curve. i need more variety in my arsenal to son these brats. just kidding, i love kids that rock and that one jack black movie with the kids and the rock. dude my nephew shreds on Proud Mary, makes me a proud auntie. (Queue Whitney Houston) I believe the children are the future…

i browse the internet on city buildings.

birthday girl alexis mackenzie

katie explains how wii works to john of fecalface.com

“OMG I love Wii”

guess i’m really disconnected from my catholic heritage because it’s been at least a decade & 1/2 since my moms last badgered me about mass attendance and/or important catholic-related holidays that i must celebrate to avoid eternal damnation. so, i forgot how fun easter can be! i didn’t know until today, but the washington post has a peeps diorama contest. pretty fun me thinks. the birds one is killer - i loved that they used the boat scene. hitchcock & bodega bay forever. seriously, this scene looks like a scene i would enjoy eating.

i know i have mentioned flip flop flyin’ here before but i can’t remember why. these illustrations of famous artists/musicians craig robinson made remind me of playmobil figures. kinda fun trying to guess who they are

i picked up a some pins of legendary railways the last time i was at the san jose train station because i liked the logo/typography and i think i inadvertently started a collection. and possibly reached new levels of nerd.

i’d like to take a scenic cross-country trip on a luxury train one of these days.

i saw an american werewolf in london when i was really young and just watched it again. it was a lot more funny, entertaining & gorey than i remembered, almost in an evil dead way.

i think i have a crush on griffin dunne circa early-80s now.
yeah, that griffin dunne. the guy who chased madonna around in a 1 1/2 star movie and starred in a movie where he talks to his manhood for advice about career decisions. yeah, the guy that was named after a virile mythical greek beast. i’m grossed out by it too.

i’ve witnessed fires before but never a building engulfed in flames. this must have been on the back end of the building. the large group of spectators cheered when the firefighters got someone out of the building. it’s amazing the only casualties were cats. if this happened in the middle of the night, people would be screwed. unfortunately, 60 people are out of a home now.

when i was walking home out from the BART station after work i saw huge black billows of smoke in the sky blowing from the direction of my home as well as news copters flying above. i came up on that corner of my intersection scared stiff and kept thinking over and over please god, don’t let it be my building…

the fire was so big that it spread to 3 buildings (4 alarm = approx 130 firefighters). i never really thought of myself as a particularly lucky person, but god damn.

OMG, I discovered an excellent northern soul podcast. Finally! Check it out . If you want to subscribe in iTunes click this and if you want to subscribe in google reader click this.

last night young and i made pizzas at my house and watched the project runway finale. my pizza had bell peppers, fake sausage & broccoli on it. young’s had about 50 toppings. i was embarrassed when i realized i didn’t have a pizza cutter. now i want to make more and i want to start with recipes from this awesome recipe blog that i stumbled upon last week. i wish i took a picture of our pies cuz they looked pretty. not pretty like this one though

and by pretty i mean kinda terrifying. can you eat something when it’s looking at you like that?

sorry i haven’t been posting as often. i have a lil bit of insomnia now, so here is a megaupdate. going through a seasonal lo-key period where i’m enjoying a meandering pace a little too much and indulging in simple pleasures. watching a ton of movies on netflix, having dinners with friends, practicing drums and learning french thanks to rosetta stone and my weekends are spent with family in the sj burbs or the sonoma cuts instead of partying and getting wasted.

student loans are scheduled to get paid off this year and i am weirded out at how excited i am about that because i once thought there was no end in sight. somewhat unrelated, i deleted my myspace account. and as stupid as that sounds, it feels really good to not depend on that to keep in touch with people.

some random things i’ve enjoyed/enjoy during this hermity respite:

I rewatched the film adaptation of All The Pretty Horses- haven’t seen it since it came out and it was so beautiful & satisfying to me this time around. I saw it in the theater nearly 8 years ago with my pops and couldn’t get into it. probably cause i was into heavily stylized movies like Reservoir Dogs with clever editing and felt like an elite insider when i recognized pop culture references that were only a few inches outside the mainstream field of vision. it embarrasses me out how much i love books but am so disconnected and impatient when it comes to finishing them. no matter how much i love great fiction, i never can find a break in my daily routine to tell them how much i appreciate them. seems like i’ve spent more time with it in celluloid form than in print form because i am such a slow ass and have a short attn span.

anyway, i still read although it takes me forever. after reading The Road and watching and loving the Coen’s adaptation of No Country for Old Men, I realized I was already familiar with Cormac McCarthy stories unknowingly because i just realized that All The Pretty Horses was one of his books; i was surprised because i thought his range was limited and didn’t think he was more than being a really good dark townie grit & bloodbath author. rewatching this movie made me believe the hype cause it was so different than what i knew of C. McCarthy. i loved this romantic suffering plot as well as the reversal of stereotypes. two struggling white texans leave the US though the border to find work and a better life in Mexico. what?! and end up working on the estate of an affluent mexican blue blood taming wild horses. how awesome is that?

Spring cleaning in February has unearthed more strange things in my house,

I didn’t think that finding wtf relics after those proofs, archaic russian cameras, and news clippings was possible.

I do miss going to live shows, but i haven’t been as proactive about finding out when bands i like are performing in my neck of the woods and am too disconnected from the flavor of the month albums to get really excited. i’m really loving the new Beach House album though.

so out of touch with new music mainly because i’m judgmental and picky when it comes to music, but this album is getting lots of wear as my “fall asleep to” album and i didn’t think anything could replace my droney heaven that is Windy & Carl’s Introspective. That last Cass McCombs album came close but there were some upbeat tracks that woke me up. i really need to throw together another sleep mix. speaking of sleep, i just typed a bunch of stuff and uploaded pics, and christy brinkley is squinching her ass for some exercise informercial on my tv and now i’m tired. at least staring at a bunch of text on a monitor is still sure bet for making me sleepy. good night