Sunday, November 2, 2008

weights on/weights off

weights on:

  • Have not lost any weight despite exercising 4x per week and cutting back snack intake.
  • Am currently major slacker in the online writing group department, must get act together.
  • Suddenly the entire house is grimy and/or dusty.
  • The child is sleeping terribly again.
  • J.Lo and I wonder when The Office, despite continuing to be funny this season, will actually get back into the actual office.

weights off:

  • Purchased two pairs of pants today that *gasp* FIT correctly.
  • Boxed/bagged up a half-ton of clothes to be donated.
  • Deleted Heroes from the DVR roll. It was us, not them.
  • Have early voted, procured sticker and sense of having done civic duty.
  • Car will be inspected tomorrow, will no longer be driving around conspicuously.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Halloween at Work, by M.

In a shocking display of team spirit I dressed up, brought my pumpkin and purple lights to work... ooo spooky. (pics of fellow dresser uppers forthcoming. ) We'll see how long i can keep this corset rockin'.











Wednesday, October 29, 2008

pen’s pumpkin

  

Pumpkin2008

Pumpkin Spirits

I told mom that in order to ward off evil spirits one actually had to carve the pumpkin and not just stare at it to see how long it lasts. the very big pumpkin i was going to let her hold, and pet and feed treats to until it started moldering into the ground and a little under three weeks at that! I blame the hot weather. Because there's no way I picked a bad pumpkin. But anyway, I had little pumpkin left, and rallied the troops last night in a grand hurrah. I think it reflects perfectly my internal mood, and the recent book mom and I finished. All in all, it makes me just a tad more happy, to smell that pumpkiny smell, light a candle and watch him to do his job of protecting us from evil. Here's to Halloween!



Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Tuesday Thoughts: regarding the rest of the week, by M

Apparently the week was not quite done with me.

Friday: The girl knew her check was coming late, so went out into the wide world for a respite. She hopped in her car and as she drove out of the garage, her breath was knocked from her by a large muscle on the left side of her back, and it's iron-fisted grip. She hunched forward, holyfuckingwhat, escaping her lips. She breathed out with wide eyes as her nerves now being stuck by pins spread across her back, her breath coming in deep sighs, felt tight and constricted as her back muscles fought the movement. Every breath uncomfortable. She pressed her back against the seat. FUCK, she thought, as she now could no longer turn her head to the left or tip it to the right. This was good times. But the girl did eventually go to the gym and jumped into the jacuzzi, then the pool, then the steam room, and shoveled some advil into her mouth, lathering herself in icy/hot and going to bed even as the headache spread and hovered at the base of her neck. Blissful sleep.

Saturday: The girl woke, not quite well but vowed to venture downtown to the fabric district. It was uncommon hot, and her friend had brought friends and they manically went from store to store to store until the girl grew dizzy from fabric options and wanted to just stand still and think. And as time tore from her at the 11th hour she found a different direction and spent $30 on 20yards. Gold. Mine. And although she fell further behind against the clock, things were going well, just ok, until the friend and the friend's friend started talking about religion. I suppose the girl had started it, fed it, when the friend said, this girl is all RELIGIOUS, despite the fact the girl sat there as a known church goer, she asked why? What do you mean? To which they said, we know you're not like that BUT, religion is brainwashing, religion is a republican fear-mongering tactic, religion is pathetic and pointless, and have it however you want as long as you don't PUSH IT ON ME. And the girl furrowed her brow and could not find the words, as she felt smashed against the pane of THEIR BELIEFS, and then she said, well religion is different than Jesus, to which her friend said, yah, but. And the girl said, so you don't believe in Jesus anymore? To which her friend went, eh.... And the girl turned her head to the window, and was very glad to have sunglasses on, as it seemed she'd just been told that her friend of 18 years didn't love HER anymore. And she found her heart just a little bit broken. And saw that her friend glanced over, but still could find nothing to say.

Sunday: She got a call from a friend who wanted to see her. So the girl saw her, and the girl stared with disdain at the Obama/Biden button, and wanted a McCain/Palin Button of her own to wear as they sat over their lunch salads and iced tea. But she didn't say anything but sat slumped and melancholy. They talked but the girl was not very good company. And then they went to leave, her beloved car lolly, went SCRUNCH against the pylon on the left. And the friend said, I saw that. THEN WHY THE FUCK DIDN"T YOU SAY SOMETHING. I thought, for sure you saw it. The girl said, PLEASE stop saying shit like that. When I ran the stoplight and you said, Are you sure? What the fuck was that suppose to mean. If you're not going to help, stop saying you could've helped but just refused to SAY SOMETHING. FUCK... Do you want to get out and look at it, asked the friend. NO I DO NOT, said the girl, who in all of her years of driving had NEVER done that particular maneuver, on any more or less important cars. She stared straight ahead and tried to make it home, and when her father suggested the friend stay for dinner she said NO, and when they suggested dinner next week, the girl said she'd have to check her schedule, because the girl no longer thought it right that the father could talk better to the friend than to her. And later, the girl read Dracula to her mother, and they watched Clue, and she had an allergic reaction to wheat cereal and felt, very, very sorry for herself.

Monday: The girl woke with a vow to not go to work, but found herself driving there anyway, and managed to vote (proud as she googled each proposition), and write a little something, and harass people about the prayer ministry meeting from last wednesday....and not do her french homework, but went to class anyway, only to feel her whole body humming and screeching and wanting to lay down. She thought, it could've been the cookie, brownie and ricekrispie treat I had earlier, but the girl thought it more likely was her back. And then as they sat talking about subjunctive clauses her left hand throbbed, and she turned it palm up and went to rub a sore spot on the pad of her palm, but it hurt more when she did it, and she could see a vien bulging up and turning purple with a swath of pink around it, but the girl didn't know why. She only hoped that, after spending 5 minutes resting her eyes in a bathroom stall that she would be able to make it home without further incident. She could only hope Tuesday would prove better. And the twinge in her eye indicated that she herself couldn't believe it.

senior prom, pen

PenSeniorProm

Why exactly are we doing this, anyway?

Monday, October 27, 2008

pen’s blast from the past

  MY1

MY2  MY3 MY4 MY7

And a bonus, from 1994, the true Pen. The 1996 YBY pic didn’t seem that far off.

BonusMY

Sunday, October 26, 2008

here's 1994 me...

my head looks gigantic in this photo and my eyes seem squinty. i don't know...

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Friday, October 24, 2008

Friday Thoughts, by M

Due to my lack of words in blogging I might have to institute a friday thoughts post where it's required I stream of conscious everything going on so that, I find purpose in spilling words out into the void...

My week recap:
Monday: The girl was trepidatious about french. She knew the result of the mid-term wasn't going to be stellar. The class itself was an exercise in fighting inadequacy, team work, and patience. None of which the girl had right then. She went to Portos and had a Chicken Cesar Salad and bought a meat pie and chocolate croissant for later. But later came on the way to class as she, ferme'd her livre in disgust at the blur of words before her. She debated turning back. But she was already a meer 5 minutes away. And she made it to the parking lot, read a little and thought, no, sir, not today. Not at all. And retreated west, to her home, down through the dark canyon and back out, where she ate a brownie, and thought, what is WRONG with me.

Tuesday: The girl realized "Expelled: No intelligence allowed" was out on DVD, but hadn't the chance to get it. And the girl liked intelligent design theory. But she sat watching "BiggestLoser: Couples" instead. Watching everyone uncouple, drop pounds and workout despite knee injuries. She does not remember much else.

Wednesday: The girl parked at a failed parking meter in the shade, in the rare heat of October in Hollywood, where Sunday meters will no longer be free. Sunday has become unsacred, fettered down and just like any other day of the week. She met with a man about a prayer community at church, and all the ways in which prayer can invade the lives of its people. They touched on healing. She felt bad after saying, you're a mess. But after all, she was also a mess. They touched on interceding, unburdening, fellowship and the holyspirit. They touched on retreats to Mexico and the waters of Baja. They touched on leadership for prayer and all the ways in which it should be, prayer, of paramount, but to the girl was far from being anything like. She did not think they were all on the same page. He paid for lunch, and it was good. She tried not to let it bother her that the restaurant got a B. She walked back to her car, no ticket, and was 10min late to a pitch meeting. She did not watch the lion being shot because he was eating his trainer, but she did watch a sea lion leaping waves beside a surfer. And she went to class and it didn't seem so nerve racking. She got a C- on her midterm and when in an exercise in class, she said, "J'ai oublie, frequemment..." the teacher added, "faire devoirs." And this was true. And she smiled.

Thursday: The girl knew the parents were returning to her now ordered and peaceful abode. So she watered in the morning. Took the dogs for a walk. Did the dishes. Thought about selling albums on e-bay. Her brother called her from Vegas and that she was missing out on her niece. To which she said, "hopefully I'll get to see her when she's walking and talking." She did not say that, she did not think much of him as a brother. That 4 years and no visits does just as much damage. That because you love your daughter does not mean the girl feels loved in the same way, or that she wants to be enveloped in the circumfrance of your distant family life, and the niece be the only reason to share your life with her. Perhaps she wants to be loved for herself and her interests, perhaps she wants her brother to ask about central america and how she will be leaving in 48 days, to take an interest. She told you anyway, like she told you before. And you said, don't get leeches. And she said, I'm going to marry a druglord instead.

Friday: The girl woke to the cat pawing her face, awake. She knocked him off the bed once but he did it again. She does not know how to stem this enduring yet, infuriating new and successful habit of his. He runs each time to see his foodbowl full. That is all he wants each time, and for her to groom his face. Which she does. She goes outside and watches the mums unfurling yellow and burgandy and the bees all round, doing their good work, and plays with the dogs, and thinks, work awaits me, along with a check, and her color me mine, sugar bowl, pictures forthcoming, and she thinks despite this nagging internal dialogue of hers about things to accomplish over the weekend, people and the communicating and the not communicating, mortality, therapy, invoices, her irritation over pettiness and the trashing of sarah palin, her annoyance at the screeching behaviors of john stewart who she liked, the Office, strange dreams, no massage, and the word for unfortunately is malarusement in french makes her smile... like bad amusement, or almost like happily bad... but anyway now she doesn't remember what else because all the words have taken her thoughts away, and made her breathe deep and wait for yoga tonight, and money in the bank, and her sugar bowl, glazed and waiting.