Last night Mike and I went to Zemeta, an Ethiopian restaurant on S. Clinton. I've been wanting to try Ethiopian food for a while and apparently there's been a good place hiding in my neighborhood the whole time. We both got the vegetarian buffet and Mike also ordered lamb. Everything I tried was very good, though I have no idea what any of it is called because the buffet wasn't labeled. They gave us forks, though traditionally I think Ethiopians eat with their right hands, using a spongy bread called injera to scoop up the food. Injera, while good, doesn't really taste like bread. I was curious what it's made of so I asked Mr. Internet and he told me it was teff flour. And that teff is a lovegrass native to Ethiopia and Eritrea. So to the list of things I've eaten I can now add lovegrass bread. If you are what you eat, might as well eat things made out of love. While chilling out to chill out music.
Zemeta is small inside, with only a few tables, but the atmosphere was nice (the TV in the corner was set to music videos of Ethiopian "Chill Out" music), the service was friendly and the food was good. I'd definitely go back there again, but I also want to try Abyssinia on Mount Hope Ave.
Lyric of the moment: "Something good gonna come your way, just look out your door...Tell my boy I love him so, tell him so he know. Lost in Ethiopia, walk out in that road..."
From Robot With Love
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Things I don't talk about
**Edit: I went back and forth all weekend about deleting this. Because maybe I lied when I said I wasn't embarrassed about it. It is embarrassing to reveal all the dark, ugly things about your insides. But maybe it's better to bring the dark parts out into the light. I don't know. Maybe some people will think less of me after reading this, but that's their prerogative. I know I'm not going to be everyone's cup of tea and that's ok with me. But if only one other person reads this and feels just the tiniest bit of comfort or understanding from it, it will be worth it.**
The road to Awesometown is not all sunshine and giggles. There are struggles. Sometimes you have to go through some deeply personal, existential crisis type struggles. There are certain things I don't talk about. Because I want this to be a place of lightness and love and awesomeness. But it's also a place of honesty. So this shit is about to get real. (If you want to skip it, that's totally cool. Tale of awesomeness and hilarity will resume tomorrow.)
As cliché as it sounds, I used to be that overachieving valedictorian runner with the eating disorder. It happened when I was in college, triggered by stress and change and family problems. Under-eating and over-exercising were my coping mechanisms, my outlets for all the negative emotions I didn't know how to deal with, my way of regaining some control. It's not that I'm ashamed of it or afraid of judgment. Judge away if you want. There's nothing anyone could say to me that is worse than the shit I've said to myself over the years. It's just that it dredges up painful memories that I'd rather leave in the past. I was never hospitalized but I had to go to this outpatient treatment center at Strong. It was the worst, most humiliating thing ever. Wearing nothing except a hospital gown, I had to stand on the scale backwards, because of course they'd never let me see how much I weighed. It was like some terrible judgment day where the doctors would come in and tell me it still wasn't enough. It was never enough. Whatever I was, it was not enough. I couldn't articulate it at the time, but inside I was screaming. This is a really fucked up thing to do to someone. Why do you think I'm here? It's not because I think I'm fat. Sometimes I can't sleep at night because my bones protrude so much it hurts when I lay down. I know I'm not fat. I know I'm not enough, so much so that I can't even feed myself properly. That's how little I think of myself, you fuckers.
If you were to ask me why I run, I would say because it makes me better, stronger, happier and saner. Which is true. But really it's because running saved me. And probably continues to do so. I call it the day I got stuck in slow motion. I was about 20. I wasn't supposed to be running so I'd get up in the middle of the night and run in the dark (I was always very stubborn. Nobody was going to be the boss of me). One morning, I suddenly felt like I was moving in slow motion. I had run a couple of miles and then I literally couldn't run another step. I was so thin and anemic that my body physically had nothing left. It was scary. I'd been on the edge for a while and that was the moment I knew I had to decide which side I was on. I chose life and running, I chose me. I'm not going to say it was easy, but once I made up my mind there was no stopping me. I already had all that willpower and determination, I just had to focus on using it for me instead of against me. A Jen divided against itself cannot stand, cannot run, cannot go on amazing adventures.
So those are the things I don't talk about, the ugly and dark parts of me that I try to leave further and further behind every day. But still, they happened and I can't change the past now. I don't want people to think of the bad parts when they see me or define me by past mistakes. But sometimes I wonder...where I am today - everything I have, all the amazing people I've met, this life of awesomeness and adventure I've been lucky enough to stumble into - was it in spite of the struggles or because of them?
Everyone has their own struggles, and while I may not have walked in their shoes, I understand how the pain and sorrow and darkness can get you down. So I try to live with compassion and love and open arms. As the saying goes "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."
So if you are fighting your own hard battle, I get it, man. That shit sucks. But keep going. You are an infinitely beautiful and lovable soul and the world is so lucky to have you.
Lyric of the moment: "Oh, why you look so sad? Tears are in your eyes, come on and come to me now. Don't be ashamed to cry. Let me see you through 'cause I've seen the dark side too. When the night falls on you, you don't know what to do. Nothing you confess could make me love you less. I'll stand by you..."
The road to Awesometown is not all sunshine and giggles. There are struggles. Sometimes you have to go through some deeply personal, existential crisis type struggles. There are certain things I don't talk about. Because I want this to be a place of lightness and love and awesomeness. But it's also a place of honesty. So this shit is about to get real. (If you want to skip it, that's totally cool. Tale of awesomeness and hilarity will resume tomorrow.)
As cliché as it sounds, I used to be that overachieving valedictorian runner with the eating disorder. It happened when I was in college, triggered by stress and change and family problems. Under-eating and over-exercising were my coping mechanisms, my outlets for all the negative emotions I didn't know how to deal with, my way of regaining some control. It's not that I'm ashamed of it or afraid of judgment. Judge away if you want. There's nothing anyone could say to me that is worse than the shit I've said to myself over the years. It's just that it dredges up painful memories that I'd rather leave in the past. I was never hospitalized but I had to go to this outpatient treatment center at Strong. It was the worst, most humiliating thing ever. Wearing nothing except a hospital gown, I had to stand on the scale backwards, because of course they'd never let me see how much I weighed. It was like some terrible judgment day where the doctors would come in and tell me it still wasn't enough. It was never enough. Whatever I was, it was not enough. I couldn't articulate it at the time, but inside I was screaming. This is a really fucked up thing to do to someone. Why do you think I'm here? It's not because I think I'm fat. Sometimes I can't sleep at night because my bones protrude so much it hurts when I lay down. I know I'm not fat. I know I'm not enough, so much so that I can't even feed myself properly. That's how little I think of myself, you fuckers.
If you were to ask me why I run, I would say because it makes me better, stronger, happier and saner. Which is true. But really it's because running saved me. And probably continues to do so. I call it the day I got stuck in slow motion. I was about 20. I wasn't supposed to be running so I'd get up in the middle of the night and run in the dark (I was always very stubborn. Nobody was going to be the boss of me). One morning, I suddenly felt like I was moving in slow motion. I had run a couple of miles and then I literally couldn't run another step. I was so thin and anemic that my body physically had nothing left. It was scary. I'd been on the edge for a while and that was the moment I knew I had to decide which side I was on. I chose life and running, I chose me. I'm not going to say it was easy, but once I made up my mind there was no stopping me. I already had all that willpower and determination, I just had to focus on using it for me instead of against me. A Jen divided against itself cannot stand, cannot run, cannot go on amazing adventures.
So those are the things I don't talk about, the ugly and dark parts of me that I try to leave further and further behind every day. But still, they happened and I can't change the past now. I don't want people to think of the bad parts when they see me or define me by past mistakes. But sometimes I wonder...where I am today - everything I have, all the amazing people I've met, this life of awesomeness and adventure I've been lucky enough to stumble into - was it in spite of the struggles or because of them?
Everyone has their own struggles, and while I may not have walked in their shoes, I understand how the pain and sorrow and darkness can get you down. So I try to live with compassion and love and open arms. As the saying goes "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."
So if you are fighting your own hard battle, I get it, man. That shit sucks. But keep going. You are an infinitely beautiful and lovable soul and the world is so lucky to have you.
Lyric of the moment: "Oh, why you look so sad? Tears are in your eyes, come on and come to me now. Don't be ashamed to cry. Let me see you through 'cause I've seen the dark side too. When the night falls on you, you don't know what to do. Nothing you confess could make me love you less. I'll stand by you..."
Thursday, February 20, 2014
That time I became an inadvertent mob boss
This morning, walking to the bathroom, I saw a shadow moving on the hallway floor. Upon closer inspection, it was a little bug, brownish and kind of weird looking, with a bunch of tiny legs. It looked almost like the Danny DeVito version of a centipede. I didn't really want it living all rent-free up in my hallway, but I didn't want to kill it either. So I went on my run, hoping it would move on to bug adventures not located in my house. Like wherever the bug equivalent of Disneyland is. I came back from my run and went upstairs to wake up Mozzie, having mostly forgotten about the bug. But Mozzie spotted it right away and his puppy nose was all over that bug. I took Mozzie outside to do his business and when we came back inside, the bug was just laying there, feet in the air, not moving. I told Mike about the dead bug and asked him to take care of it, which he did. Then, in the shower, it hit me: oh my god, I am the mob boss. Mozzie is the hitman and Mike is the fixer (or whatever they call the body disposal people. I'm not yet hip to all the mob lingo. It's my first day as a crime boss.)
Lyric of the moment: "And damn it feels good to be a gangsta..."
Lyric of the moment: "And damn it feels good to be a gangsta..."
Monday, February 17, 2014
2014 New Things #3: Gin
The card game, not the alcoholic beverage. Mike's grandma came up with the idea of having a family gin tournament, guys versus girls. I had never played gin before, but it's pretty easy to pick up on. Basically you have 10 cards in your hand and you try to make sets of 3 or 4 of a kind or runs of 3 or more sequential cards in the same suit (for example, 3 sevens or Jack + Queen + King of spades). Each turn, you can either pick up the card your opponent discarded or pick up a new card from the face-down stockpile, then you discard a card (from your hand if you want to keep the new card or the one you just picked up if you don't want it). The object is to get gin, where all 10 of your cards can be made into sets or runs. You can "knock" whenever the sum of your leftover (non-matched up) cards is 10 or less. Then both players show their hands and add up the points scored. You score 20 points for getting gin, plus the sum of your opponents' leftover cards (face cards count as 10 points). If you knock, you score the difference in points between the sum of your opponent's leftover cards and your leftover cards. If you were the one to knock but your opponent has a lower sum of leftover cards than you do, your opponent gets 10 points plus the difference in the sum of both players' leftover cards. If neither player has gin, the person who didn't knock can play off the knocker's sets/runs to reduce his/her leftover pile (for example, if your opponent knocked and one of his sets is three Queens and you have a Queen in your leftover pile, you can play your Queen on his set of Queens, thereby reducing the sum of your leftover pile by 10 points).
I think I'm getting that right. It's easier to play the game than to describe it.
Euchre is still my favorite, but gin night was definitely a good time. And I hope I grow up to be the kind of octogenarian who's organizing card game nights.
Lyric of the moment: "I remember thinking, sometimes we walk, sometimes we run away. But no matter how fast we are running, somehow we keep, somehow we keep up with each other..." (Because we were in the car Valentine's night, driving to the movie theater and this happened:
Me: What are some of your favorite love songs? Like good ones, not cheesy ones. I like Dave Matthews' I'll Back You Up.
Mike: I don't know, Rump Shaker?
And then we both tried to remember the words to Rump Shaker and mostly failed.)
I think I'm getting that right. It's easier to play the game than to describe it.
Euchre is still my favorite, but gin night was definitely a good time. And I hope I grow up to be the kind of octogenarian who's organizing card game nights.
Lyric of the moment: "I remember thinking, sometimes we walk, sometimes we run away. But no matter how fast we are running, somehow we keep, somehow we keep up with each other..." (Because we were in the car Valentine's night, driving to the movie theater and this happened:
Me: What are some of your favorite love songs? Like good ones, not cheesy ones. I like Dave Matthews' I'll Back You Up.
Mike: I don't know, Rump Shaker?
And then we both tried to remember the words to Rump Shaker and mostly failed.)
Friday, February 14, 2014
Things that are awesome: Valentine's Day edition
I like to think of Valentine's Day, not as the commercialized, cheesy, materialistic, depressing day it's sometimes made out to be, but as a day celebrating love and dessert, which are two of my most favorite things. It's another day in your life that you can make into whatever you want it to be. Ignore it, spend it with your posse of awesome humans, get some sweet lovin', treat yo'self, you know, whatever tickles your fancy.
And now, things that are awesome:
*I love that while we're at work, Mozzie makes little sleeping forts for himself out of all the couch pillows.
*Robot socks! With the robot socks Mike gave me for Valentine's Day, I now have two pairs. I'm not much of a collector, but I think I may have to start. Robot socks for every day! And then we will take over the world! Just kidding. Maybe.
*Mike also got me a scarf with these little stones on it and the tag said they are "Rose Quartz. The stone of unconditional love and infinite peace. It brings deep inner healing and self love. It is calming, reassuring, and excellent for use in trauma or crisis. Rose quartz is known to draw love and relationships towards you and is an excellent stone for "mid-life crisis." It is known as a fine healer and sooths internalized pain." I was instantly curious. So stones have powers? Where do they come from? Who determined which stones had which powers? Which stones have the superpowers, like x-ray vision or telepathy? Is this like the placebo effect where it only works if you believe in it? If stones have so many powers, how come jewelry stores get robbed? You would think the army of super-powered gemstones inside would thwart any thieves.
*I stopped at the little coffee shop around the corner, ordered a hot apple cider that cost $3.25 and only had to pay $2. I tried to pay the $3.25 tab with a twenty dollar bill and the owner asked me if I had anything less than a twenty but I only had a bunch of twenties and 2 ones. The owner said he needed ones so he would take my 2 ones and call it even. "It's your lucky day," he said. Story of my life, dude.
*And of course, you! I hope you want to join my posse of awesome humans.
Lyric of the moment: "Baby you the whole package, plus you pay your taxes..." (because I really wish they made valentines out of these lyrics. I would send them to everyone I know.)
And now, things that are awesome:
*I love that while we're at work, Mozzie makes little sleeping forts for himself out of all the couch pillows.
*Robot socks! With the robot socks Mike gave me for Valentine's Day, I now have two pairs. I'm not much of a collector, but I think I may have to start. Robot socks for every day! And then we will take over the world! Just kidding. Maybe.
*Mike also got me a scarf with these little stones on it and the tag said they are "Rose Quartz. The stone of unconditional love and infinite peace. It brings deep inner healing and self love. It is calming, reassuring, and excellent for use in trauma or crisis. Rose quartz is known to draw love and relationships towards you and is an excellent stone for "mid-life crisis." It is known as a fine healer and sooths internalized pain." I was instantly curious. So stones have powers? Where do they come from? Who determined which stones had which powers? Which stones have the superpowers, like x-ray vision or telepathy? Is this like the placebo effect where it only works if you believe in it? If stones have so many powers, how come jewelry stores get robbed? You would think the army of super-powered gemstones inside would thwart any thieves.
*I stopped at the little coffee shop around the corner, ordered a hot apple cider that cost $3.25 and only had to pay $2. I tried to pay the $3.25 tab with a twenty dollar bill and the owner asked me if I had anything less than a twenty but I only had a bunch of twenties and 2 ones. The owner said he needed ones so he would take my 2 ones and call it even. "It's your lucky day," he said. Story of my life, dude.
*And of course, you! I hope you want to join my posse of awesome humans.
Lyric of the moment: "Baby you the whole package, plus you pay your taxes..." (because I really wish they made valentines out of these lyrics. I would send them to everyone I know.)
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Fortress of solitude
I've always been far more wallflower than social butterfly, but in the winter I come perilously close to the precipice of reclusiveness. I'm not antisocial; I love people (though I cannot say if the feelings are mutual). But sometimes my awkward/introvert/robot-ness holds me back. And I just really, really, really hate being cold. I have no problem getting up early to run in the cold and dark, but at night...inertia, man. A robot at rest under all the warm blankets is staying at rest until acted upon by some serious sunshine.
Someone once told me I'm "a loner who likes people," which is an apt description. I need both solitude and company. I love being at home but I also want to see and do everything else. I can be passably human in one-on-one or small group interactions, but I'm terrible at parties and large gatherings (though I do enjoy any party that promises excellent people watching, good music you can actually listen to without being jostled about and/or delicious dessert). My default assumption is that my presence anywhere offends rather than pleases. I don't know why. It's just the way I've always been.
It's also one of the things I most want to change about myself, because people are the best part of life. It doesn't matter what else you have if you don't have people to share it with.
I'm never going to be the life of the party and that's ok. I just don't want to be the death of it. I just want to know how to skip all the small talk and get to the place where I can have a bona fide going-on-fabulous-adventures, holding-hands-in-victory-across-finish-lines, jumping-out-of-airplanes* posse.
*I think I really need to skydiving again soon.
Lyric of the moment: "Oh my darlin' keep your head up, keep you heart strong, keep your mind set in your ways. 'Cause I'll always remember you the same. Oh eyes like wild flowers within demons of change..."
Someone once told me I'm "a loner who likes people," which is an apt description. I need both solitude and company. I love being at home but I also want to see and do everything else. I can be passably human in one-on-one or small group interactions, but I'm terrible at parties and large gatherings (though I do enjoy any party that promises excellent people watching, good music you can actually listen to without being jostled about and/or delicious dessert). My default assumption is that my presence anywhere offends rather than pleases. I don't know why. It's just the way I've always been.
It's also one of the things I most want to change about myself, because people are the best part of life. It doesn't matter what else you have if you don't have people to share it with.
I'm never going to be the life of the party and that's ok. I just don't want to be the death of it. I just want to know how to skip all the small talk and get to the place where I can have a bona fide going-on-fabulous-adventures, holding-hands-in-victory-across-finish-lines, jumping-out-of-airplanes* posse.
*I think I really need to skydiving again soon.
Lyric of the moment: "Oh my darlin' keep your head up, keep you heart strong, keep your mind set in your ways. 'Cause I'll always remember you the same. Oh eyes like wild flowers within demons of change..."
Saturday, February 1, 2014
2014 New Things #2: Cancun, Mexico
We spent the past week enjoying the exquisite weather in Cancun and I also got to do a few new things, including visiting the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza (which is one of the 7 new wonders of the world. It took a long, cramped bus ride to get there, but that's how it goes. Sometimes you have to endure a little discomfort on the way to the extraordinary things), seeing a cenote (underwater sinkhole), taking a boat tour of Isla Mujeres (I can now add 'where Ricky Martin lives' to the list of things I know), eating cactus (on its own it wouldn't be my favorite, but as it was served, a "cactus tower" of mozzarella, tomatoes and cactus, it was pretty good), driving a golf cart and chasing iguanas while Mike played nine holes, exploring an abandoned hotel by the beach and being asked by a man in an alley if I wanted to hold a baby tiger for $10 (I kind of regret not taking him up on his offer, because when else am I going to get a chance to hold a baby tiger, but it was altogether quite a shady enterprise. I mean, where did he get this tiger and what will happen to it when it's no longer a baby? I doubt anyone will pay him $10 to run away from/get mauled by a grown up tiger.)
I also got to run on the beach, swim and read to my heart's content. It was a very welcome break from the doldrums of winter.And I love how travel always infuses me with such a feeling of spaciousness: space in my head for new perspectives, space in my heart for ever-increasing gratitude and space in my soul for an infinity of future adventures.
Lyric of the moment: "Don't worry about a thing, 'cause every little thing gonna be all right..." (because anywhere you can sit by the water and listen to Bob Marley is ok by me.)
Saturday, January 25, 2014
2014 Race #1: January Resolution Virtual Run
I always do this thing where, right before I'm about to embark on an awesome adventure, I get into this I'm-not-good-enough-funk. So I'll be psyched to get out of this depressingly cold weather for a week and then I'll psych myself out about how I'm too pasty and lumpy for warm weather clothes. It was really harshing my zen. I figured the fastest way out of the funk was some speed. So I signed up for a virtual 5K, Rocket Racing Production's January Resolution Run (which I picked because it had rocket in the name).
I cranked out a 22:34 5K on the treadmill in the middle of my 8 mile run this morning and called it a day. Funk alleviated. It felt good to run some faster miles, especially since I just got over some kind of respiratory infection that had been irritating and tiring the crap out of me for the past two weeks. It's not the same as running outside, but I have no motivation to do speed work in single digit temps, so the treadmill it is. Put on some music videos or any of the insane shows on Bravo and I actually kind of enjoy it.
And now off to the airport we go....
Lyric of the moment: "Not very pretty but we sure know how to run free..." (I think the real lyrics are "run things" but I like singing "run free" better.)
I cranked out a 22:34 5K on the treadmill in the middle of my 8 mile run this morning and called it a day. Funk alleviated. It felt good to run some faster miles, especially since I just got over some kind of respiratory infection that had been irritating and tiring the crap out of me for the past two weeks. It's not the same as running outside, but I have no motivation to do speed work in single digit temps, so the treadmill it is. Put on some music videos or any of the insane shows on Bravo and I actually kind of enjoy it.
And now off to the airport we go....
Lyric of the moment: "Not very pretty but we sure know how to run free..." (I think the real lyrics are "run things" but I like singing "run free" better.)
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Weird True Funny
I do so love WTF (weird, true, funny) things and, in that regard, 2014 is getting off to a good start.
One morning Bill came into my office and randomly gave me a ten dollar bill. That afternoon, he gave me a hoodie and sweatpants he bought at Wegmans. I wonder if I'm the first person whose boss has ever bought her sweatpants. Who is not, you know, like a professional athlete or sweatpants model.
I received a text message from a number I didn't recognize containing a picture of what appeared to be a bald guy flanked by two women in party dresses. I'm assuming this message was sent to me in error but I considered writing back way to go, dude! anyway.
I decided to stop eating like a 5 year old on a sugar high for a few days. But first I had to finish all the Twizzlers. In my defense, I was watching Warehouse 13 and I think season 2 was sponsored by Twizzlers because Myka was eating them in pretty much every episode (Aside from increasing my admittedly already high desire for Twizzlers, Warehouse 13 is a neat show. And I love that H.G. Wells is woman. And brilliant and endearing and slightly psycho). Anyway, I haven't eaten any dessert or candy in at least 5 days. And it's awful. I'm not craving sugar and I don't even really miss it, but I feel really tired for no reason and during my 10 mile run on Saturday, I felt out of breath even though I was going really slow. I thought giving up sugar was supposed to give me endless energy or superpowers or at the very least some Popeye-esque forearms. I don't know. Maybe I'm getting sick or maybe I really am a robot who runs on sugar. I will go another week or so sans the sweet stuff, but if I don't feel better, sugar and I are going to live happily ever after.
Nielsen is apparently very interested in paying me money for filling out surveys. They sent me a short survey and a five dollar bill in the mail, then called to thank me for filling out that survey and to tell me they're sending me another survey and $30. I like where this is going. It's about time TV paid me to watch it.
I saw a guy with two axes, among other things, tattooed on his face. At least I think they were axes. I didn't want to stare. Ok, I wanted to stare but I didn't want to get caught doing it. I totally wish there was a Pop Up Video for tattoos to inform me of interesting facts about the tattoo and why its owner decided to get it. Because I find people and their tattoos fascinating but it's probably against social convention to go up to some dude and ask why there's an axe on his face. Not that that would necessarily stop me. Get enough Diet Mountain Dew in me and you wouldn't be able to stop the questions coming out of my mouth.
Lyric of the moment: "We'll laugh until our ribs get tough. But that will never be enough..."
One morning Bill came into my office and randomly gave me a ten dollar bill. That afternoon, he gave me a hoodie and sweatpants he bought at Wegmans. I wonder if I'm the first person whose boss has ever bought her sweatpants. Who is not, you know, like a professional athlete or sweatpants model.
I received a text message from a number I didn't recognize containing a picture of what appeared to be a bald guy flanked by two women in party dresses. I'm assuming this message was sent to me in error but I considered writing back way to go, dude! anyway.
I decided to stop eating like a 5 year old on a sugar high for a few days. But first I had to finish all the Twizzlers. In my defense, I was watching Warehouse 13 and I think season 2 was sponsored by Twizzlers because Myka was eating them in pretty much every episode (Aside from increasing my admittedly already high desire for Twizzlers, Warehouse 13 is a neat show. And I love that H.G. Wells is woman. And brilliant and endearing and slightly psycho). Anyway, I haven't eaten any dessert or candy in at least 5 days. And it's awful. I'm not craving sugar and I don't even really miss it, but I feel really tired for no reason and during my 10 mile run on Saturday, I felt out of breath even though I was going really slow. I thought giving up sugar was supposed to give me endless energy or superpowers or at the very least some Popeye-esque forearms. I don't know. Maybe I'm getting sick or maybe I really am a robot who runs on sugar. I will go another week or so sans the sweet stuff, but if I don't feel better, sugar and I are going to live happily ever after.
Nielsen is apparently very interested in paying me money for filling out surveys. They sent me a short survey and a five dollar bill in the mail, then called to thank me for filling out that survey and to tell me they're sending me another survey and $30. I like where this is going. It's about time TV paid me to watch it.
I saw a guy with two axes, among other things, tattooed on his face. At least I think they were axes. I didn't want to stare. Ok, I wanted to stare but I didn't want to get caught doing it. I totally wish there was a Pop Up Video for tattoos to inform me of interesting facts about the tattoo and why its owner decided to get it. Because I find people and their tattoos fascinating but it's probably against social convention to go up to some dude and ask why there's an axe on his face. Not that that would necessarily stop me. Get enough Diet Mountain Dew in me and you wouldn't be able to stop the questions coming out of my mouth.
Lyric of the moment: "We'll laugh until our ribs get tough. But that will never be enough..."
Friday, January 3, 2014
2014 New Things #1: New Year's in NYC
My dad planned a family trip to New York City for New Year's to celebrate mom's 55th birthday in
December and TJ's 30th birthday in January. We walked around Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Little Italy (where a creepy guy in a fur coat who called himself "The Italian Bear" tried to entice us into his restaurant by telling us he had "a degree in pasta from Rochester University") and Chinatown (where Mom followed a Chinese lady into a sketchy, smelly basement to look at knock-off designer purses and I got yelled at in Chinese when I tried to leave said basement). Mom, Dad, Mike and I also went on a horse and carriage ride in Central Park, and it may have been our last chance to do so since the new mayor wants to shut it down for being inhumane (I don't know if the horses are mistreated or not, but I did appreciate the sign indicating that in lieu of tips passengers can clean up after the horses. That would be a crappy tip indeed.)
It was great to start off the new year in another city, but I'm glad I get to spend most of the other days this year in Rochester. And I'll definitely have to look into this "Rochester University" to see if I can get a degree in frozen yogurt with a minor in peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.
Lyric of the moment: "Another year you made a promise. Another chance to turn it all around. And do not save this for tomorrow. Embrace the past and you can live for now..."
It was great to start off the new year in another city, but I'm glad I get to spend most of the other days this year in Rochester. And I'll definitely have to look into this "Rochester University" to see if I can get a degree in frozen yogurt with a minor in peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.
Lyric of the moment: "Another year you made a promise. Another chance to turn it all around. And do not save this for tomorrow. Embrace the past and you can live for now..."
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