Thursday, March 29, 2007

Yes, I love technology.

At work today, I could barely hide my excitement for my new favorite feature Google has (no, not the themes, but those are good too) is Google Calendars. I love that I can keep my schedule in a variety of colors and I made all my coworkers share it with me. Upon my jumping about with the beautiful color coded calendar in my hands, our artist-in-residence and receptionist extraordinaire laughs at me and says,

"Who are you? Seriously, Jen, are you really 25? Because what are you going to be like when you're 40?"

And then we both fell over in giggle fits. Because its true. And I had this flashback to being a kid and I was sitting in the hospital waiting room making imaginary schedules and bar graphs. Its completely true, I've always been like this (and by "this" I mean, weirdly paradoxical in my organizational skills). My room may be a mess, but my life is color coded and organized, people.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Secret confessions of the tiny morsels of a joyful life.

It is entirely possible that the sunshine and warm weather and running my toes through the itchy grass on my one hour escapes from work gulping back green tea alternating with Diet Coke has caused me to listen to pop music and female vocalists almost exclusively lately:

+Rudebox by Robbie Williams
I have love for Robbie Williams because he's defiant and rebelious and that Gallagher fellow from Oasis called him the fat dancing guy in the British boy and. So not true. And those Gallagher brothers are complete morons.

+Traffic and Weather by Fountains of Wayne
This band always comes full forced with the great lyrics (although, to be fair, I thought Stacy's Mom had kind of weak lyrics, but still catchy as hell and an awesome homage to the Cars), and their new album is poppy and the sounds are lush and I just like them, ok?

+The Pipettes by The Pipettes
I dig these girls- I'm also going through a big female vocalist phase right now and I can't get enough of the hand claps and the 1960s girl group revival.

+The Bird & The Bee by The Bird & The Bee
Something about the synths and the pretty lady's sweet smooth singing evokes Ella Fitzgerald singing Desafinado. That kind of statement sounds mighty crass, but I am all about it this duo from Sweden, or wherever it is that synthy-pop duos are born.

+Mes Amours by Edith Piaf
This woman sounds like she led a wild life and I would have given anything to have seen her perform live in the 1950s. This is generally the album I start my morning with at work, its gentle but vibrant.

+Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem
LCD Soundsystem makes me want to have a dance party in my living room (or perhaps more appropriately, my kitchen which has more open space for dancing although the last time I was dancing in the kitchen, I broke my wrist in the 3rd grade- simply the mere beginnings of my clutzy nature). How you feel about Sound of Silver probably depends on how you feel about LCD Soundsystem. I feel extra crispy good about LCD Soundsystem so I am ALL ABOUT Sound of Silver.

In other news:
My days consist of working so hard my brain gives out on on my body by about 3pm most days, then coming home to make dinner and pack another box full of clothes or other junk I toted all the way to this state. My time to get myself together and Back to NY! is getting down to the wire as every day passes- most of next week is really out of the question since I'll be out of town then hosting my mum for Easter weekend. Per usual, I'm staying calm like its nothing and will probably be shoving things into beaten up boxes like its no big deal April 13th.

I think from now I'll just ruffle baby powder in my hair instead of washing it. George Washington wig style, everybody!

And now it is warm enough that I can stop at the coffee shop on the way to work each morning and order "one large, Iced Coffee please with room for cream," but they know that about me now. Instead of speaking of coffee, the girl who wears cute hats and I talk about the music they play- the other morning it was "the new Shins, don't you think its great?" and the morning before that....well, I don't remember. But I remember liking it even at such atrocious hours as 7:45 am. Maybe I will make them a CD, those friendly faces at the coffeeshop, although, maybe they'd find that presumptious. Or maybe I'll start giving one copy of my weekly mixes to one random person every week. Just to spread musical joy in the world. Yes, I feel a project forming.

There's a lot going on in my world right now, come share it with me.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

I AM FILLED WITH HEINOUS LIES.

Okay, so I am clearly a liar about the momentary hiatus.

Let's try a round of funny things people Googled to arrive here:

upshot photos of pussy
I am so incredibly sorry to have disappointed you.

ginny quit living on dreams
But dreams are all we have!

how to cross a river infested with piranhas
Carefully.

marry-a-greek
I-don't-think-hyphenating-words-is-going-to-convince-a-Greek-or-anyone-to-marry-you.

obnoxious foofy hair
See also: my cat.

honey bunches of oats review
My opinion: as long as you don't use them for bacon tang bars and Honey Bunches of Oats are delicious.

skittles bunny
I love that commercial too! Yoooooyoyoyoyoooooooo!

yummy yum yum
Are we still talking about the skittles bunny?

then i'll be the sky
Okay, I'm keeping my feet on the ground.

jenn l day
For me, that's every day!

it was a passing fad...a private project that became quite public.

this place has been dying a pretty slow death for going on six months now. i find the chronicle of life in such a public manner fascinating and yet, completely intimidating at this juncture. there's too much going on in my world to attempt communicativeness about all of it. and at the same time, i know so many far away friends count on this to be the insight into the happenings in my life. i'm stuck right now, this place has become pretty sterile of thoughtful and funny commentary reflective of me.

as a person who writes daily, it has become increasingly difficult to come home and put more words to the screen. there have been days, months in my life where i had to write to keep from completely losing it. frantic scribbles across any scraps of paper i could find. and to a certain extent, i can still recreate the stimuli for creative bursts of inspired writing, but really when it becomes that formulaic, it also becomes pretty exhausted.

i'm not promising anything, i'm not not promising anything.

truthfully, i don't like not knowing who is out there in internet-land reading this and on the other hand, putting an IP tracker was one of the worst moves i could have made because i know who reads my words and it has changed the parts of my life i am willing to share here. more than anyone, i realize how incredibly lame that sounds, but also. i'm really happy with anonymity. i'm glad my friends come here, its all the non-friends that stop by that i'm not very comfortable with anymore. you're all saying, "jen when have you ever cared about what people think of you?" and you'd be correct. until i can get back to an un-self-censored place, this feels pretty empty as an exercise in writing.

my writing isn't what it used to be and furthermore, i don't have the time or energy these days. i'd rather focus what little energy i have left at the end of the day to write a personal email, make a phone call, write a postcard.

i'm not gone forever, but let's just call it a (momentary) hiatus, ok? i'm in need of reinvention, recentering.

xoxo,
jenny

Monday, March 19, 2007

Touch, taste, smell, hear.

Everything is really crazy right now. I'm leading/teaching classes at work- teaching is not so easy. Appreciate the teachers in your life! I mean it.

Other than that, I'm handing my car to its new owner tomorrow. I briefly considered taking a cruise around in it one last time tonight, but then I remembered- its just a car. Really. A car is just a thing, a mode of transportation. But we had some fun times in that car. Driving to concerts, to far off cities. That car has been from Illinois to Massachusetts seven times! That's a lot of road tripping, my friends. So my dear little Toyota Corolla, thanks for all the goods times...



So all this moving business is coming along really smoothly so far. Car sold, check. Switched banks, check. One way ticket to LaGuardia Airport, check. (That was the weirdest part yet, was buying a one way ticket. That made it feel real.) Packing up boxes to ship...well, I'm working on that one.

Also, let me just get this out of the way and say, Wisconsin lost. I know. I'm eating my words right now. But, I watched every second with agony. Now I'm rooting for the Salukis (I probably shouldn't cause now they'll probably lose. Oh well.)

Friday, March 16, 2007

News, Breaking news!, Boring news, Sports News. Also, Huey Lewis & the News.

I finished writing a 350 page book. Soon it will be a real book with an ISBN like the Library of Congress uses. And as Jeffrey so kindly pointed out, I will now be able to use this tidbit of dad humour with the utmost conviction:

"I wrote the manual on that."

AH. This could be the best part of the whole experience.

AND NOW, I give you the timeline for my life in the next 2 - 3 months (abridged):

April 2 - 4th. Seattle, Washington.

April 14th. Move to Brooklyn, New York.

April 21 - 29th(ish). In the Northern Illinois region.

May 9th - 13th. Traipsing about Paris (France, not Texas).

TBA: Tokyo, Japan (probably the fall) and Memphis, TN.

I feel confident in announcing my whereabouts after weeks of speculation and trying to keep my big mouth shut until it was finalized. And now it is. And now you know where to find me and when. Yes, I'm moving to New York (finally).

I thought Esperanto was the universal language.
No matter what anyone tells you, if you have Photoshop installed on your Intel based Mac, DO NOT DELETE LANGUAGE FILES. Even if its ridiculous that Photoshop needs Klingon and Esperanto installed to run properly (and it is ridiculous). Furthermore, its not going to save you much space. And when you have to go to Mac's Genius Bar and eat your humble pie and tell them that you were stupid and want to repent for your stupid mistake, they won't laugh at you because that's poor customer service. Anyways, don't do that because it almost gave me a panic attack.

ALSO:
HOORAY FOR BASKETBALL! Just so you know, I think Wisconsin could win the Final Four. Any dissenting opinions can suck it because BUCKY BADGER WILL EAT YOUR FACE FOR BREAKFAST AND THEN DO COCK PUSHUPS ALL OVER YOUR EATEN OFF FACE.


Its hip to be square.
For your viewing pleasure, I present: Christian Bale (hotty), Jared Leto (post-hot Jordan Catalano, pre-fat goth), and my favorite scene from American Psycho:


Hearts and flowers,
xoxo.
-j

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Four way makeouts with movie stars.

I saw Zodiac and it was incredible how closely they followed the book. A synchronous adaptation, indeed. In what may be a first, I enjoyed the movie equally as much as the book. I'm going to dream of making out with a flamboyant Robert Downey Jr., a 1970s era Mark Ruffalo, and Donnie Darko tonight. Hot!

Friday, March 02, 2007

Paris in Springtime.

Anyone want to go to Paris for a long weekend in the first half of May? For serious.