An Arkansan blizzard and RuPaul.

Marvin got really excited about the snow. Partially because it got him out of half a day of work and partially because he hasn't seen a whole lot of it in his lifetime. Normally I have to pester him to smile in photos, but this time he supplied ample grins on his own:

Being the fatso that I am, I ate some flakes:

And we tried in vain to take a kissing pic:


Apparently we just aren't emo enough for that garbage.

This quote from RuPaul made my day: "Culturally, many women feel they have to play along with how things are set up. Women are supposed to 'be this' and 'do this,' but drag queens mock that setup. The whole identity of being a woman, and the rules about what a woman can or can't do, it's all such a crock of shit, and drag queens embody the hoax of it all."

Love it.

I also love being back on the Funeral. Daily doses of no-longer-local friends in a non-stalker setting can't hurt. Who needs Facebook when you've got a nineties style forum?

Other loves of the day: Quinoa & sauteed veggies, endless cups of hot cocoa, seeing the castle church in a winter wonderland, and BUST magazine. I usually read it straight through, but I'm having a hard time doing that with this issue because I'm dying to get to the article about Lurlene McDaniel. (No pun intended*, I promise.) She was my favorite author as a pre-teen.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Lurlene McDaniel, she writes books about girls who are faced with terminal illnesses.

It's almost February already?!?

I just read that the Center for Science in the Public Interest has suggest taxing soft drinks by the ounce and using the profits to improve meals in public schools. Excellent idea, I think.

In honor of the sleet and snow and bitter cold, I am wearing the snowman pajamas my mama made for me years ago. I plan to wear them until the accumulation melts. All of it. I might even wear them until spring. Constantly. Or at least for the entirety of my four day weekend. The only plans I have for this four day weekend are to read, watch movies, write letters, and finish projects that are scattered about. And eat a lot, of course.

I've actually written four letters already this week. I just don't know when I'll get around to mailing them. Lazy.

Two disappointing things I've recently learned after doing a bit of research:
1) John Wayne did not have forty pounds of impacted fecal matter in his colon.
2) Ear candles do not suck wax buildup out of your ears.

The next two health-related things I want to look into are bee pollen and those foot patches that allegedly detox your body. These two just sound too good to be true.

Two. Too. To.

Watch Umberto D. if you have the chance. It's a good 'n.

If you're easily grossed out, don't read this Birthday week post!

I'm twenty-six!
Marvin took me record shopping for my bee-day and we sat by the river a bunch and admired the lights on the water and it was a happy day and night. It was also the day that I started my raw foods diet. For the first forty-eight hours of raw fooding, I felt unbelievably energetic and very alert. Then, out of nowhere, I started puking and pooping like I'd never puked and pooped before. At first I blamed the raw foods, but I eventually came to the conclusion that I've developed a terrible allergy.........to GARBANZO BEANS! The last time I ate hummus and the last time I ate chickpea curry I felt horrible and on the day of violent stomach malfunction, I had eaten tons of raw chickpeas on my salad. Mystery solved. My new plan of dining is this: no meats, no chickpeas, very little dairy/white flour/sugar. I threw up too many fresh fruits and vegetables Tuesday night to want to go completely raw again any time soon. Yuck.
This week I've been a little obsessed with pioneers, Revelation, Henry Darger, Picnic at Hanging Rock, photographs of transparent balloons, and soup of all kinds.
I just learned that on St. Valentine's Day, Picnic at Hanging Rock is shown at Hanging Rock. That's one more thing to add to my bucket list.

The brightside.

I kind of like it when I loan Marvin the car and he forgets to pick me up from work, but only because his "apology" is typically in the form of Chinese food. Usually he doesn't forget me...just loses track of time while playing video games and doesn't hear the phone ring when I call him because of the noise canceling headphones I've already griped about in another post. It's convenient that he forgot me today - I need to load up on all the nutrient poor foods that I can before Tuesday rolls around. Tuesday will be day one of a week (or more) of raw vegan food. My raw foodist customers always have the most amazing conversion stories...so I'm gonna give it a try. After that week I'm hoping to stay 100% vegan...and 70+% raw. This will be a big deal for a sugar and carboholic. A very big deal. Even a week of it will be a big deal. HUGE, even! Wish me luck. And wish Marvin even more luck. He's shooting for a week of raw eating too, and the only vegetable that boy likes is the potato. And even the potato has to be either deep fried or smothered with butter and cheese. Oy.

I was curious about what the Freaks and Geeks kids looked like as adults so I did some research and found this (d'awwww):

And this (yowza!):


And this photo of the girl that played Cindy Sanders...the wholesome cheerleader:

These findings made my day.

Snowventures.

Last weekend was a winner. Friday night was spent playing cards with the ladies. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were devoted to a solo road trip into the mountains to visit my mama and daddy. I love a good drive alone periodically for planning, reminiscing, singing poorly, and admiring the scenery. I got to the snowy parts of the drive just at dusk and just as "Dreams" by The Cranberries started to play. I had an incredibly strong urge to veer off the road into a Narnia-esque field, get out of the car, and spin in circles. I reminded myself that the little events in my life are in fact NOT cheesy scenes from a movie and kept driving. But I smiled the rest of the way.

At home I ate some of my mama's homemade vegetable soup (canned with vegetables from last summers garden...including OKRA! mmm!) and sweet potato pie. We watched a bunch of Freaks and Geeks and went through mounds of old paperwork from the locksmith shop. Closing a business is a lot more tedious than I'd realized.

I miss living in such close proximity to trees and wildlife and falling asleep without the glow of a street light complicating things. I also miss snow.



[The last two photos are of a frozen waterfall and the rock I chose as my defense against potential forest predators after seeing some prints in the snow that either belonged to a big dog, a coyote, or a really big cat.]

(In)significant.

"Rationalist objections to the "absurdity" of religion, especially Christianity, have for a long time sounded to me like the sorts of objections that frustrated schoolchildren make when they cannot immediately comprehend a difficult concept. They will say, "This subject is useless, it's stupid, it has no value for me." What really frustrates them (or anyone who runs up against such difficulties) is that their inability to understand reveals their own deficiencies and failures, which are never pleasant to have revealed. Little wonder that in the era when confessing the Christian Faith became essentially optional many people in what was Christendom opted out all together, chose another religion, or chose the least challenging splinters or corruptions of the Faith."

Today I burned a lot of sage and thought a lot of good and was probably very irrational. I like that I'm (in)significant.

LOST

The beginning of the end of LOST is almost here. I'm pretty excited, nervous, and nerded out about it.

Apparently everything about this ^ poster is significant in the overall scheme of things...which leaves me wondering: Where is Walt? Where is Turnip Head? Is that Libby in the background? Why is Michael so dressed up? Why is Kate so annoying? Are crossed arms significant? Does Richard Alpert wear eyeliner...or not?

"The producers also plan to wrap up long-standing mysteries, such as the nature of the smoke monster, the four-toed statue of Taweret, the identity of the Adam & Eve skeletons from season one, and the reason the Dharma periodic resupply drops continue after the purge. Lindelof has also indicated that Walt's unusual abilities may be explained, although this may not necessarily require the character's direct involvement.Matthew Fox stated in an interview that in the final season, the characters of Jack Shephard and John Locke "will come head to head." A third of the way through the final season, the two time lines will be "solidified into one" and "will be very linear – no more flashbacks, nothing." He has also claimed to be the only cast member who knows the ending of the series,though Lindelof has clarified that Fox only knows things that are relevant to his character."

I think as long as somebody explains the four-toed statue, the smoke monster, the voices in the jungle, what was up with Libby, Walt's powers, and the disappearance of Claire I will be pleased. I would also like for Kate to be mauled by a polar bear while Juliet and Sawyer get married in the background. These aren't unreasonable requests, are they?

Courtney, don't be mad about this post. LOST is my Indiana Jones. Get hooked already.
Chase, watch this:

Weeshes.

Birthday wishlist. Go ahead - make my day.



Really all I want for my birthday is to eat catfish at that place on the river in Dardanelle and then look for fish bones and bottled messages. And maybe visit Goodwill and Vintage Books. And maybe drink too much coffee. And maybe, maybe, MAYBE get to see snowfall. It seems to always snow while I'm asleep and just be icy and treacherous by the time I'm up and around. Either treacherous or already melting. I braved the ice early yesterday morning to have my drivers license renewed. I thought (correctly) that there wouldn't be any lines at the revenue office during such horrible weather. I was pretty pleased with myself for being so line-avoidingly sneaky...and for only almost sliding off the road into someone's yard.

Work was hectic today. I got to do inventory on about a million new-agey fairy&angel greeting cards that all look pretty much the same. It made me really glad that I don't work at Hallmark. I don't know how much greeting card inventory I could handle. I could count probiotics and rainforest chocolates all day long, but not greeting cards. Nope. Not doing it.

And now for a brief list of weird things I've witnessed Mr. Eko eat this week:
1. a yogurt covered raisin
2. a tuft of another cat's fur
3. seaweed
4. paper

He and Shat are now best friends. Shat never befriends other cats, but she's been very motherly to Eko lately. It's cute. And surprising.

Happy Birfday, Marvin!

Today my sweet, sweet boy turned twenty-six. I am so happy that he was born!!!!! I left work early to make him a carrot cake.


There were so many candles on the cake that after he blew them out, smoke lingered for a solid fifteen minutes. Talk about being ANCIENT!


Marv requested his usual birthday hibachi dinner at Fuji. Lauren, David, Heath, and Josh partook in the festivities. The chef chose a particularly large piece of broccoli for me to try and catch in my mouth and asked, "You like the big ones, eh?" and then when I opened my mouth to have broccoli thrown at me, "AAAAAAH!!!! SHE LIKE THE BIG ONES!" I chose to just get a little embarrassed instead of making a crude joke about my husband vs. Asians. Hooray for my filter! Not so hooray for me being capable of coming up with a racial stereotyping penis joke as a defense mechanism.

I got a bunch of bargains with the $25 Hobby Lobby gift card from my boss: two 16" x 20" canvases, 100 tea light candles, a bamboo wind chime, a cute-ish mushroom decorative plant stake thing, modeling clay, and some freeze-dried space ice cream! I had intended to spend it on maybe some fancy baking supplies or an ant farm, but the 50% of sale flyer sucked me in. (And I thank it.)

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARVIN EDWARD REILLY, JR!
[Here is the mention of you being awesome at Modern Warfare that you requested. I love you!]

2.0.1.0.

Hey, New Year!
You're going to be an amazing one.
I spent the eve of 2010 playing Battleship with Marvin. We'd intended to go to Vino's to see Andy Warr play (and drink too much of the best root beer in the world) and then go to a more glamorous after-party at Hannah's, but we ended up hanging out at the apartment. Ignoring phone calls. Eating junk food. Being old, boring, married slobs. And it was delightful. As usual. Marvin pointed out that my Battleship game is the oldest he's ever seen:


It's the only Battleship I've ever known. He wants to get the computerized version, but I say, "NEVER!" 1971 isn't going anywhere.

So far this year I've accomplished two of my many mini-goals: making quiche (which turned out quite nicely) and making sushi (which ended up being sloppy, but delicious.)

[On the left - sushi roll attempt #1. On the right - sushi roll attempt #2...]

Mr. Eko really wanted a bite. I later learned that all of our kitties have big appetites for nori.

Here's Eko with my New Year's drawing contest submission:

Okay, who am I kidding. The cat drew that masterpiece, not me...

Walked to the grocery store today. Played tennis and did some yoga yesterday. Two for two on my fresh air and exercise resolution!

And finally, here is evidence that the lovely Mary Hollowell and I hung out over the Christmas holiday. It was the first time we'd seen each other in about six years. I love this girl so much!