triumphantly going where everyone and their mother has already gone before...

into the land of plenty - the magical land of netbooks!

ok, so i was late in the game in terms of getting a personal computer. actually, that's not true. i had one back when i started college but it took a massive dump in the midst of fulfilling my similarly massive dream of downloading every song ever created in the history of forever. as you can imagine, my heart was crushed. and, as it turns out, so was my hard drive. for the next eight years or so, i would beg, borrow and steal (hey! it was for like a second! and i gave it back!) my way through the tawdry world of other people's computers and other people's itunes libraries. all this effort - only to find my soul empty at the end of every day. it just didn't feel real, you know? it felt like i was pretending. which i totally was cause i didn't pay for those computers and i sure as hell did not put the entire boys II men anthology into that library, ahem, terrance. but judgements aside, i must impart gratitude to where kindness was extended. if i harassed you over the years, thank you, i love you and seriously, terrance. it's twenty ten...let it go.

and so as i prepare to step off this precipice into a sea of telecommunicative ability, i must remember that with great power comes great responsibility. i will do my best to write frequently and to contribute thoughts of a classy nature. and if i can't stick to the high brow stuff, i'll at least vow to make my posts entertaining. and if i can't actually make time to post anything, i hope you'll be comforted in the thought that it's probably because i was too busy catching up on episodes of it's always sunny on hulu. i know i'll be comforted at least.

with that, i leave you your found item of the day:

i want a valentine like this.

reason #197 why i love seattle:

because when you finally have a day off and it's perpetually cloudy and rainy outside, staying in bed, watching movies and drinking coffee is a perfectly acceptable way to spend it. whether or not watching sleepless in seattle while in fact in seattle is acceptable - well, that is an entirely different matter but i'm willing to take the risk. don't look at me like that. rosie o'donnell's role as meg ryan's sassy but suppportive friend is downright shakespearean. there i said it. 

the main reason i'm laying low on my day off is because of the debilitating pain i'm in. three months of idleness came to a crashing end this past saturday with three hours of basketball. and while i consider myself the muggsy bogues of women's street ball, my body clearly does not agree. also, i'm not that good. as a result, i can't even sneeze without my eyes watering, and laughing is quite out of the question. i've never felt so old before. if this is indicative of my life at seventy, then no thank you. i'll take a cougar cruise at sixty and be done with it.

the upside to engaging in activities far beyond my actual ability is that i'm branching out and meeting new people. after all, it seems only appropriate that i attempt to you know, actually live here. so, in addition to basketball saturdays, i will also have volunteer wednesdays at the local soup kitchen. and if i play my cards right, getting lucky fridays. what? i didn't say that. 

  with that hanging awkwardly in the air, i leave you with your found item of the day:   

damn, it feels good to be a gangsta...

ok. so i'm pretty sure gangstas don't eat delicious vegan cinnamon rolls for breakfast or go for solitary walks in the rain, practicing russian on their iphones. but some might. and to them i say, спасибо. пожалуйста не убивайте меня. which of course means, thank you. please don't kill me.

so far, twenty ten has been awesome. in addition to the kick ass morning i had, in the scant four days of this new year, i've managed to do the following: create a realistic budget for my finances, get paid and pay off some debt, sign up for a swimming pass at the community pool, write some new riffs on the piano, roll multiple yatzhees and speed read tolstoy's war and peace. ok. so the last one was a lie. but i did roll multiple yatzhees, so suck it. and i do feel pretty damn productive.

but mostly, i feel free. it occurred to me the other day while riding the bus (and attempting to ignore the vagrant that was so blatantly JUST STARING at me WHILE DRINKING RUM OPENLY), that for the first time since 2006, i don't have feelings for anyone. my heart is not aching. it does not feel crushed, it does not feel alone. it feels quite simply, fucking fantastic. seriously. i don't owe anyone a damn thing, and no one has a piece of me. this, combined with the liberties of my favorite city, makes me feel downright untouchable. i'm right back to that new year's picture of aught six, where i am alone, wearing a black shirt and blue tie, drunk and blurry, lighting a cigarette with a purple flame. i'm back to being me, back to being completely independent. and that, my friends, is what makes me gangsta.

here's hoping this year brings you that feeling too. and happy birthday, jinxy! momma loves you! here's your found item of the day:

people after my own heart.