The next Philip Pullman movie might be out before I blog again!

I was driving home last night from our new house in Northeast. I went up to the red light at 29th and Johnson and made out two figures walking together in the darkness. I could tell they had flowing garments and assumed that they were Somali women. As they stepped into the light of the street lamp (why isn't there more street lighting in Nordeast?) their features became apparent. Two Buddhist monks in saffron robes and shaven heads were walking calming up Johnson Street.

Eating and drinking in the library

There is a coffee shop in the basement of Walter Library. When it first opened, I was really concerned about books and coffee mingling in the same area. I was fully indoctrinated into the idea that these two things should not mix by my elementary school librarian. I went to visit it when it first opened and was relieved to see that the space between coffee shop and books was respected.

Now they have a small circulating fiction/nonfiction library in the coffee shop! I love the idea, but there is a confused 7-year-old inside that is wondering if it is some kind trap set by librarians.
You can go and see which titles are available online

Please don't eat the daisies

I just stumbled upon a very peculiar movie in the replay machine tonight. We recorded everything that was possible to record right before we moved so that we would have stuff to watch before the satellite gets installed in our new place.

It was called Please Don't Eat the Daisies. I have pages of pre-pubescient diary pages about random movies that I stumbled upon on cable, so this text going to be very similar to those.

It has Doris Day and David Niven as a couple with 4 children, all boys and 3 of which appear to be about the same age. The youngest son is kept in a cage because he is really silent and clever and gets into trouble(?) Strangers ask if he is queer.

It is your typical late 50's early 60's movie. Doris wants to move out to the country. David wants to stay in the Big Apple (the chores! the stores! kind of thing). In this case, Doris wins. The next thing that surprised me was the scene when the neighbors come over to welcome them. I think that these characters, a minister, a dowdy woman, and a veterinarian, are supposed to especially annoy the David Niven character, who is professor/theater critic. That is the only reason that I can think of to introduce such a motley crew. One of the boys rudely asks the veterinarian, "Hey, are you a man or woman" and the veterinarian cheerfully responds, "I'm a veterinarian!"

The other thing that I surprised me is that Doris never broke out into song in the normal fashion. Of course, she got to sing, but there were excuses worked in, for example, once she is singing because she got the lead in the community theater production. Or she was singing because she was taking care of elementary school students in the afternoon.

running a 5K this weekend

I'm running my first 5K on Sunday. It is the Race for Justice, put on by the U of M Law School to help lawyer do more pro bono work and still stay current on their student loan payments.

I'm thinking about getting rid of my Ross Compact. It was fun during the summer but now it is just big and heavy and I think that I can do better.

I finally started on the straps for the Oskar Werner bag. I also found out that my friend at Augsburg is doing film studies now, which sounds super cool. Another friend is in Budapest doing a masters in public policy, specifically software patent law.

rite of passage; eureka moment too late in life

So, my rite of passage is that I took the plunge and bought some SmartWool Adrenaline socks. They fit my feet perfectly. Just so you know, I have tiny feet for an adult (5.5 or 6 US) and I don't think that I have ever had socks that fit exactly. The oversized socks that I've lived with up to this moment have always made my Achilles tendon look like it was preggers.

I know that this sounds really stupid, but this morning I realized that Mr. Fahrenheit, the guy behind putting the 0 degree at the freezing point of sea water, was on to something. I also thought that it was a really sailor-centric system. It is also a system that is really useful for anyone who is wondering if their tears will freeze when they are waiting for the bus.

worst blogger ever

I was hoping that my witty descriptions of life would help compensate my complete lack of digital camera.

There is this bike in my 'hood that I see locked up all over with these tall kids-bike-esque handlebars but with a twist that I long to digitally photograph. Well actually a couple of twists. The tops are twisted around so that they resemble a brass instrument more than a handlebar. I was wondering how they made them look so shiny if they actually just fashioned by some welder. Would it be cool to make a brass instrument that could be used as handlebars? You could tool down the street playing Sousa?

Here is the latest results of a quick quiz that I took to help me procrastinate from making a yarn pom pom. Who really procrastinates making a yarn pom pom. I probably need help. I was think about making a "things to do before I'm 30" list and which would basically include a list of all of the drugs that I want to take, since I've pretty much done whatever the fuck I want for years. I don't suppose that it is appropriate to discuss this quiz in any personal statements that I might write for a grad school program. I'm pretty inappropriate anyway.

You Should Get a PhD in Science (like chemistry, math, or engineering)

You're both smart and innovative when it comes to ideas. Maybe you'll find a cure for cancer - or develop the latest underground drug.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

A Curious Sight

I suppose that is a title that could be used for most days to describe me. Today I was a curious sight because I procured a pair of metallic-looking plastic fenders at my favorite used bike place and then rode home with them in my Land's End "professional" briefcase that I got from my favorite uncle for high school graduation and have been using extensively ever since. Only half of the fender fit in the bag so the rear fender started out curved over my head like an iconic halo. Soon, however, because of my height and the flexibility of this thing, it sagged into my face, making me out to be a Jordi La Forge like character. It bonked against my forehead the entire way home and from the expression on most people's faces, it looked like I was being bonked by a heavy metal fender.

I raised the seat on my Schwinn Traveler which was a really good idea. Now I don't have the labia pains that I used to complain of.

I was obsessed last week with finding a good foul weather bicycle that I could potentially crap up. My biking coworker is a hard-core winter fixie fan. I was really curious about it for a while, but this week I decided to try the whole "riding through winter" thing with a Ross Compact that I bought for $20 this week. Maybe next year I will make it a fixie so I have a summer of practice before I'm carreening on icy roads. It has a decent derailler and everything. I put upside-down upright handlebars on it. It is blue with salmon and violet decals. I'm in denial about its salmon decals so I bought bright pink handlebar tape to go with the blue. The faux-metal fenders are for the Ross.

I was entertained today by a young man who came up to me at the Homecoming lunch on the McNamara lawn. I was reading the Women's Press and he came up unexpectedly. He thought that I was someone else but didn't realize it until he squatted down to talk and I looked up. I was friendly (not "why the fuck are you bothering me" or anything) He told me that he thought that he met me at the University Pegging Society. I asked him what that was and he didn't want to tell me. I said he didn't have to and to change the subject he asked me about my shirt. I happened to be wearing my favorite shirt today. My friends and I made it to commemerate the first and only trip taken by a baby elephant on public transportation. You see, in Wuppertal, Germany there is a monorail called the Schwebebahn. My friend and I became intrigued by it a few years about because of the movie "The Princess and the Warrior" The Schwebebahn is suspended over the River Wupper for a number of miles. In 1950, when the circus was in town, they thought that it would be a good idea to take the elephant for a ride on this monorail. It panicked, pushed out the wall of the carriage and jumped out into the river. The elephant was ok and apparently lived until the 1980s, according to the wikipedia article. This guy thought it was cool and got up to say good bye. After he had walked about 10 feet away, he turned around and said, "I'm going to tell my friends about your shirt".

Biked to Selby and Dale

I rode my bike to a monthly meeting that I have above the Mississippi Market at Selby and Dale. I couldn't believe how well I was treated by cars on Summit Ave!

2 strange observations:
A guy passed me near Snelling on Summit. He was large, spandexed, and on a mountain bike. I soon discovered that either he wasn't maintaining his speed or else he just passed me when I slowed up the hill, but I quickly found myself in the awkward position of practically drafting him. Should I pass him now? That just seemed tiresome.

I realized that I didn't want to pass him because he was fascinating. He was riding almost exclusively with his helmeted head down, looking at his front chainwheel. He kept changing the front gear and spinning. I think that he was in the lower one up front when he passed me and didn't expect me to be gaining on him, as I'm almost always in that highest one in front. I think that I introduced him to the mighty large front gear. He was playing with it for blocks. Finally he got it because he zapped away from me at Lexington.

On the way home I was on the east river road bike path. There is a part were the pedestrians and bikes mingle. I was cautiously going downhill and then up hill slightly. At the top of the hill stood a baby boomer couple with a poodle. Ever cautious of poodles (and baby boomers for that matter) I was relieved when I saw that they saw me and they moved their dog out of the way. As I passed them I said, "Hi". They said, "Hi" and the woman said in a really sarcastic upsetting tone, "Thanks for the light." I was so confused I didn't have retort. Clearly there has been some bad blood between cyclers and that couple. If they hadn't noticed me, I would have dinged my bell and everything. Geesh.

Read to your children on the bus

I was on the bus yesterday and first of all I believe that the Transit Librarian drove me down Nicollet on the 18.

Anyway, once at 4th and Nicollet there was a family with a small boy, about the age of Josua in Life is Beautiful. The reason why I thought of the little boy from that film is because he had the same intonation and voice. They were speaking a Slavic language that I couldn't pin down exactly. Anyway, we all got on the 16 going east and the family had a huge selection of seats to choose from because it was noonish on a Saturday. They sat all together in 2 seats with the boy in between on their laps. They were sitting behind me so I sort of zoned out and watched the landscape flip past until at Cedar I realized that the couple had whipped out a book and was reading to the child. I was curious about the content and the father was reading it rather quickly. At Cedar he said, "Ama, Ama, Ama" and continued as if to say, "said the blah blah blah blah blah".

Needless to say, it was very comforting and the mother laughed everysooften as well.

When I got up I ruled out a Slavic language that uses Cyrillic because I peeked over their shoulder and saw the Roman alphabet. Polish?

tenacious drunk?

My roommate and I were chilling in our living room last night. He, watching Star Trek intently; Me, knitting my neck gaitor with furvor because it was snowing and snowing means xc skiing.

We hear a loud crunch sound that doesn't at all resemble the crunch of icy snow. Out of our 3rd-story window we see that a little blue sporty sedan was struggling against a tree that it had just smashed against. Not only that, we followed the tire tracks back and see that it had first completely knocked down a telephone pole. While we were still at the window, the little car squirms its way back onto the street and shoots off.

Now there is a telephone pole lying across our apartment building's carriage drive. Yes, our building reminds everyone of Tara and now with the downed pole, it looks like the Union troops had their way with us. My boyfriend and I are going to put up sticks to mark the location of the pole because it is now submerged in snow.

Most puzzling dilemna all day

At Target today (make it rhyme) I was completely befuddled in the electric toothbrush isle. I have been thinking of buying a low-end Oral B toothbrush for a while now. I found the exact one that I wanted, the AdvancePower 950TX. I was pleasantly surprised that it was only $21. I was about to skip away with my purchase when something caught my eye. Right next to the classic recognizable light blue and white toothbrush of my youth that I had selected was a sparkly-glittery one that claimed to give you 3 mp3 downloads. There were actually people on the package. But they weren't brushing; they were crazy raver kids. Upon further examination I found that they were exactly the same toothbrush. They were identical twins, only one was wild and hip. Should I buy the juvenile sparkly brush that is $2 cheaper or should I get the more adult respectable brush that I could use far into old age (if these contraptions even make it that far). Who was this brush marketed too? Why didn't they try to trick the young kids with gabs of disposable income into bying the more expensive one. Were there people that would spend the extra 2 dollars to remain respectable?

Then it came to whether the sparkly brush would make me more immature. Then I realized that the most mature thing was to buy the cheap sparkly brush and be done with it. It is resting in my bathroom recharging as I type.