Weekend Leftovers

So, congratulations to my lovely friend Jill, Esq. for passing the bar exam and being able to hang up a shingle, work for ContraCosta County DA's office, or doing whatever int he world she feels like doing!

Last night a friend came out and we made tacos for my birthday. (It's not my birthday, it's not today... Freddie, do you remember when it is yet?) We also had some good conversation. Which is immeasurable (although tacos are yummy they can be measured) Among the topics that left me thinking after he left (and spilled over into the season finale of Alias) were the following:
-Songwriting is hard. I'm my own worst critic, and so maybe I should just sit down and write a song and not worry about it so much. In fact just as I watched his feet pass my living room window (basement apt), I was overcome by this enormous urge to sit down with m guitar and try to fabricate what was whirling about in my busy little head, but the words didn't come out, and then Alias started. I think I'll buy a bottle of wine and try again tonight.
-Finding someone when you're not looking. I've said it before and I'll say it again. If I'm looking for someone to love me, it usually means I don't love myself enough... It's when I'm doing all right with myself that I am actually more receptive to being involved with someone because I'm not thinking about me, I'm thinking about them. And I just have to throw it out there, I think it's generally a really bad idea to get romantically involved with your roommates. But that's just my (very rarely) humble opinion, and I could be not the most objective person in the world on this topic.
-Spicy food is gooooooooood.
-Gin makes me happy because it smells like Christmas trees, but I don't believe I can drink it straight anymore.
-I love reading and thinking about what I've read.
-I wish that I did like writing because I'd likely travel and write all of the dissertations I have floating about in my busy little head (there are currently 5 theses in 4 distinct academic areas). I'd like to teach only at the university level because as horrible as it sounds, I'm not all that interested in making other people understand me.
-Scrabble by yourself, while sad, is quite challenging because you're equally motivated to win, but you somehow find yourself leaning toward one of the several players you represent.
-I'm all for looking for ways to get paid for what you think is fun so that you just really like your life. (Hello, I got paid for playing guitar and singing, reading books and dancing with kids). And I think that's one of the best ways ever to be ultimately happy in life.
-Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen are geniuses of songwriting. Their songs are almost always better when covered by someone else. Paul Simon is a genius of songwriting and arranging and performing, and very rarely does a good Paul Simon song lack either good lyrics or good music... (and "Sometimes even music cannot substitute for tears" is possibly one of the most jaw-droppingly insightful and perfect lyrics I've ever heard)
-There's way more but I need to move on.
So thanks for the good company and good food even though there was no wine to be had.

My aunt's cocker spaniel, Ollie, just got his spring haircut and they went a little nuts on his ear fur. He also looks about 1/2 as big as he did before the haircut when all the other dogs in the field would point and laugh, saying "baaaaaa" to him. He's sleeping next to me and has a rather impressive snore for a dog of his size.

I have had the worst time sleeping since I bought my bed 2 or 3 weeks ago. I can't fall asleep, and when I do, I usually am wide awake by about 3 and I have been feeding into this cycle by taking naps to compensate for the 3 hours of sleep I'm getting and it's all a very vicious circle. And it's been too blooming hot in my apartment because the heater's been kicking on (rather unnecessarily) and I have no control over the heater.

My mom and my sister have a layover in Denver on Wednesday, so I'm going to go out to the airport and visit with them. This is the first trip that's been non-medically motivated my sister has taken since she got sick in Jan. '00. The trip she took right before that, however was a doozy, and involved my family flying to New Orleans for my college graduation, we were all sick, my dad was in the hospital first in New Orleans, was expedited back to California and was re-admitted to Redlands Community Hospital that same night, I had to move out of my apartment that my roommates didn't help clean even a little, my mom and sister were SO sick with bronchitis that they took a cab to go 2 blocks down the street, and were lucky enough to see it SNOW in New Orleans as I took my car that was packed to the gills with my earthly posessions and I moved to Georgia. All of this happened 6 days before Christmas. When I finally moved in in Georgia, I had 2 days to collect myself, got on a plane and flew back to California.

I wonder how my dad will do in the 2 weeks he'll be alone.