baby, you're much too fast....

yesterday, i hit some DEBRIS in the road with my car.

i was going the speed limit (ok, well maybe 5 mph over) with my Corolla on highway 61. it was raining. hard. i could see something in the road up ahead, from far away it looked like a big piece of a tarp or some bark. as i got closer it looked bigger. more threatening. but, by then, there were cars in the passing lane around me, so i had no time to react. in the split second i could think, i figured out that i'd aim for it to go in-between my tires, under the car, then i braced myself.

it was a big object. bigger than i thought.

i hit it.
it was REALLY loud.
i pulled over my poor lil' silver bullet, right away.
there was fluid leaking everywhere. i don't know much about cars, but i sure as hell know that I won't get far without certain fluids.

luckily, it was only the oil pan that was damaged. even more luckily, i was not hurt; my car did NOT get a flat tire or do cartwheels down the highway ditch.

no big whoop.

but the part won't be in until Monday. until then, i am without a car. i actually find it kind of freeing. i can't go anywhere that does not involve my feet and legs. i cannot run silly errands. this gives me extra time (time that i used tonight to head out for ye olde 3-mile route for a nice run. whew- what a gorgeous night!)

i have to ask H to do stuff for me.
i need to ask co-workers to carpool.
i need to arrange for shared rides to meetings.
i need to let other people run the errands i can't get to (like momma-b picking up the gift for LL and the Cult Jam's baby shower on Saturday)

normally, i don't feel super comfortable asking for help. i don't know what it is. maybe its something about "owing" other people. but not having a car forces me to ask for things. and i think it helps me. it puts life into perspective, like "hey, we all need each other in this world".

its refreshingly humbling, once in awhile, to simply feel vulnerable and depend on other people. it makes you realize how lucky you are. and it makes you appreciate all the generous and wonderful people around you.

i think this country is heading somewhat in that same direction- we're hitting a bit of a vulnerable patch. i just hope we can collectively learn the same lesson...

cutthroat.

a friend showed me this. and i love it, on so many levels....

"i looked around and realized these kids do not respect me PROPERLY"

"is this a joke? what the fffffff....?"

"i tried standard diversion tactics..."

"that ball is lame..."

"maybe it hit a rock, a sharp rock."

"at least you ACT like you feel terrible"

"now i could grow up and work for Karl Rove in peace...."

hump-day letters

dear clouds,

in your face.

love,
feistyMNgirl

----------------------

dear legs,

i WILL be running again, starting in 10 minutes. think you can deal?

love,
feistyMNgirl

----------------------

dear JKB,

i owe you an email. i know this. i promise not to pull a Heise.

love,
feistyMNgirl

----------------------

dear fishing contest,

sorry, H is with ME this weekend. (read: suck it.)

love,
feistyMNgirl

----------------------

italian photos.

uploaded some photos from our Italy trip to my Flickr site.

man, revisiting vacation is a brutal, but good, kind of pain.

lyric love of the day

"i've got a restraining order
against satan's daughter
and i keep it at the bottom
of this jamison and water.
and when we get there
we can sit there and stare
from behind your mascara
and your thick hair."

- shoulda known -
atmosphere*

*from from when life gives you lemons you paint that shit gold, a perfect album for brightening a gloomy laundry day

and these children that you spit on, as they try to change their worlds...

my eldest niece turned 16. i spent last night with her "wastin' time" (as she calls it). i had a great time. we went to dinner, we hung out at "the Fetus" looking at records and posters, we shopped Ragstock, we drank espresso (me) and iced tea (her) while thumbing through books and magazines at Barnes and Noble.

nothing big. but, it was a great time. on the drive back to her house, i found out she is a fan of Labyrinth. of course, i happened to have the soundtrack on my iPod, so we cranked "magic dance" and took turns singing...

you remind me of the babe.
what babe?
the babe with the power.
what power?
the power of voodoo.
who do?
you do.
do what?
remind me of the babe....

today, older sis called up to tell me that K won't stop talking about how much fun she had hanging out last night. i am glad, because it was her 16th birthday present- a night on the town with aunty. now, i feel like i owe her more of a present, because as much fun as K had, i had more. that brown-eyed baby girl has grown up!

i loved hearing K's take on situations. all night long, i fed her questions and let her talk. its amazing. from her friends peer pressure to drink shasta with bacardi watermelon (eeew), to her new job, to some little chica that bullies her on myspace (you little bitch, leave K alone.), her new tastes in music (she likes atmosphere!) to failing her driver's permit test (next time's the charm)...she has become an independent, feisty young woman. and boy do i love seeing that.

not some upper middle-class priviledge thing.

so Italy was the perfect trip. well, it wasn't perfect, but darn near. it wasn't some "we're so rich we are jetting off to Italy thing", if that is what you are thinking. i do not think it is my naturally-born right to get to tour Europe. this was a deliberate choice we made, we saved up our money for it. we worked hard to get there. i don't know why i'm saying this, i guess i just don't want to seem like the other Americans that we met in Italy, who seemed awfully wealthy and privileged, and Europe wasn't a big deal for them. this really was a BIG DEAL for me.

so, to counter the "perfect" image i've thrown out there about our trip, i will start with the shaky spots. the first of these was that even before we landed in Amsterdam, i had a sore throat. and not an "oh, the airplane cabin air is dry, so my throat hurts" kind, but more the "OMG, this cold has attacked my entire sinus/throat/ear system and i feel like i'm dying" thing.

(sidenote: to those who may not know, i tend to store up all my sicknesses for weekends, holidays, and vacations. this has been one of the most annoying things about my body. my entire life- always sick at Christmas, always sick at thanksgiving. always sick on weekends. my body just knows when the stress lets up its time to get sick. annoying. but its usually helped me be a star employee at work and a good student at school.)

secondly, after arriving at the Rome airport, we realized our luggage had not made it on the plane. after asking everyone we could find, in broken Italian, "what do we do if our baggage is niente affado?", we waited in the lost luggage claim line. 2 hours later, H's luggage showed up, but mine was nowhere to be found. we sketched out our hotel address on a piece of scrap paper, hoped that my bag would be delivered, hailed a cab, and headed to central Rome.

on the first part of the drive to Rome, i was disappointed. see, there is this ring highway around Rome and on the outskirts of the airport, it looked like any other sparsely populated american highway. boring. but then, we saw the harsh building of the E.U.R. section- WHOA! then, we crossed underneath the aurelian wall and i held my breath through the drive amidst central Rome. so gorgeous. the driver took us around the Villa Borghese gardens. amazing!

i tried to shrug off the terrible cold. (it got worse as the trip goes on, you can see it in the photos. my nose is rudolph-red and with dry skin around it- in almost every picture! i had to blow my nose about every other minute. suckage.)

also, i tried to stay positive as my navigation skills from years of studying/making maps failed and i could not get us within a 1/4 mile of anywhere i meant to go in Rome luckily, everywhere you walk in Rome is adventure, and there is something to see around every corner, no matter how lost you are!

i tried to shrug off the fact that my luggage had not yet arrived. this was easy for the first 36 hours. i had packed one back-up outfit in H's carry-on, so i was smug in that comfort. but as the 2nd night in Rome closed in, and i washed my second pair of panties in the sink, it got harder to accept. i didn't want to hike around Cinque Terre without my shorts and light-weight shirts. and i certainly didn't want to stroll along the Arno River in Florence without my flirty little skirts.

glasses of wine helped with the cold.
we found our bearings and were able to navigate the city.
and eventually (minutes after i had my first and only temper tantrum of the trip) my luggage arrived at our hotel!

we celebrated my luggage arrival (which i believe was expedited by my throwing a coin in the Trevi fountain) with a bottle of red wine on the rooftop garden of our hotel before dinner. amid the utter chaos of the city and the screw-ups at the airport, AirItalia found me!

from then on, just about everything really WAS perfect.

for now, i'll leave it in Rome and work on downloading photos. also, its time to rest my softball-tortured body. the quick-fire muscles got a workout tonight, as i played second base. very FUN!

i haven't got time for the pain.

...its way too painful to re-adjust from vacation to real life. a reminder of more blissful times (in florence) is below.

ugh. i want to go back.

(trip stories and photos to come, but for now i haven't had any spare time!)

moving on....for the first time in 4 years, our first softball team's initial game of the season has NOT been canceled due to weather. yippee! and for the first time in 4 years, H has decided to pony up and join the league. his only question this afternoon?

"so, is there a home run limit so i should try to keep it in the park?"

hardy har. i hated to break it to him, but our team has only won 2 or 3 games TOTAL since i began playing with them....

via de porto rosso

ahhhh, florence. everything here is expensivo, but so worth it. today, i most enjoyed our hike up to the top of piazzala michaelangelo, the view of the city from up top, the cold mezzo-litre of heinekin we split on the steps while watching the sun slowly set over the city. bella.

today, i also scored a lovely italian purse. something very modern, square and very very thin, which seems to be the style here. i'll show a photo when we arrive home.

tomorrow, we venture to the tuscan countryside. and siena. cannot wait.

we are bleeding money like a non-catholic roman during the times of constantine. this, even though we are getting paninos for lunch and eating them in squares....trying to budget but even "due picco gelatos" can be 7E!

molto bene.

OK. i loved rome, but i love love loooooove the cinque terre. did an amazing day of hiking, more to see tomorrow. so many trails to follow....

ciao!

PS diatribes - i think you should reschedule the honeymoon from thailand to HERE! molto fantistico! new nickname for H: amorè.

va bene

roma is awesome. small streets, history, food, wine, people, the craziness!

i am loving this country. it is so bella.

ciao!

oh. my. goodness.

in 2 days i will step foot on foreign soil. it just hit me. i've been to far away places. i've taken long plane rides. but this is not the canadian arctic. nor mexico. nor st kitts. nor alaska or hawaii.

i mean, this will be reeeeealllly foreign soil. the likes of which i have never stepped on before.

where bridges can be 700 years old.

where civilizations have undergone feast and famine.

where world war I and world war II were fought.

oh my, its true. i am going to europe.

yippeee! finally!

(and not even the real possibility of a nasty cold can take the excitement away....)

this summer, i vow to see a movie in the park.

how have i missed two summers of movies in the park? i mean, there was Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, and even E.T.!

this summer, i vow to watch a movie on the shore of Lake Superior...

vacation truth.

when your yogurt container in the fridge at work doesn't expire until AFTER you will return, your vacation is not long enough.

it's priced like it needs updates....

tonight, we looked at a home 6 blocks north of ours. towards the park.

it is in a great neighborhood- full of young families. space galore. a nice rec room in the basement, just waiting for our Wii. a huge, fenced backyard with big pine trees. and a 10 x 20 vegetable garden, ready to be planted.

layout was decent, but the decor was throw-uppy. 80's dark wood trim, and those small 80's-style bathrooms- you know the wooden box vanities with the pearlized off-white sinks on top? oh, and gray carpet and cheap linoleum tile throughout. ick.

but it was priced accordingly. and at a price where an additional $10,000 in flooring would not break us...it's just....can i handle THAT many home improvement projects?

hmmmm. we'll discuss over vino rosso in Italia.

story of stuff.

i'm so glad i'm spending my "tax rebate" in europe:



learn more at Story Of Stuff with Annie Leonard, or YouTube her videos.

i find the disposal one most disturbing:

little fluffy cloud.

yesterday at softball practice, a fellow teammate handed me her newborn baby, wrapped in a fuzzy pastel blanket. M didn't really ask, just shoved the tiny bundle at me.

at first, i balked: "wait- i'm not sure how to hold it".

after being corrected (P reminded me NOT to call the baby an "it", but rather "her"), i forgot she was in my arms, and proceeded to talk shop with fellow female natural resource-related colleagues.

as we chatted, i noticed the other women from our group scanning the nearby playground with their eyes, every other minute or so. i could see them making X's on their mental checklists: yes, my toddler is still alive. i found myself doing the same, glancing down every once in awhile to check if the baby was still breathing in my arms: yes, little A is still there.

she really didn't feel like a baby. more like a sweet little ball of cotton. she smelled like lavender. and as soon as H walked over and started talking (in his super-loud, low voice), she woke up, moved her head towards him and smiled some big brown eyes.

ugh.

today, along with a sore shoulder from trying to show the boys i can indeed make the throw from 3rd base to 1st, i feel phantom pain in the ovarian area. like baby-A had been kicking me in tune with the tick-tock-tick-tock in my brain.

ah, so that's what that feels like. a first for me....

thank you: incredible ben and your giant piano.

last night's Ben Folds concert at UMD was superb. (despite the ticket-line fiasco, which allowed all the college kids into the venue for $5, while the pre-ordering $20 ticket-holders stood in a long line - it was a loooooong line). this was OK, if their goal was to give preference to college students, that is fine. but once inside, most of the students couldn't shut off their stupid phones for 2.5 hours to enjoy a show- seemed like every one of them were texting their stupid friends. (i wanted so badly to scream at them: "dudes, get some balance. learn how to enjoy your life dummies")

Ben was gracious to the crowd, he played a ton of songs. it sounded great (despite the slightly-annoying feedback "ping" echoing off the back of the gym). and H even appreciated Ben's generous use of cuss words.

it was a long show, filled with great tunes. in fact, i kept wishing for songs during the concert, and then he would PLAY them! (unfortunately it failed to work with Late and Trusted, two of my favorites from Songs for Silverman)

my highlights:
Still Fighting It - one of my all-time favs, if you haven't heard the song, click that link to watch the video. Ben Folds being cute, playing with his son.
Rockin the Suburbs- Ben led the audience in a repetitive "ya'll don't know what its like, being male, middle-class, and white" chant. funny, because that described most of the audience.
Bastard
Not the Same (this is my clip from the end of the song- Ben directed the crowd in a sing-a-long)
Jesusland
Gone
All U Can Eat (not a great video, but i had to stand on my tip-toes!)
Landed
The Luckiest
There's Always Someone Cooler Than You
Bitches ain't Shit: great duel synthesizer-piano work from Ben on this. hilarious to hear a crowd croon "bitches can't hang with the streets", similar to the end of this video
Hiroshima - new and fun song from upcoming album
Narcolepsy

also, many of Ben's "characters" showed up for the show:
Annie Waits
Kate
Fred Jones, Part 2
Zak and Sara
Losing Lisa
Alice Childress

Ben ended the show with the One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces. totally. rocked. out. afterwards (damn it, i stopped taping!) he even went rock-star and THREW his piano stool at the piano keyboard, making a great big crash. super f*cking cool.



for the 2nd monday in a row, i was tired from being out late at a concert. but, it was completely worth it.... along with waking up even earlier to post it on YouTube :)

leap frog

wanna know what's so funny about my new love of Wii? my only other gaming system is an Atari 2600.

i jumped from the late 1970s to the ultra-modern Wii.

that's skipping 2 entire DECADES of video games.

distractions....

this weekend, H and i are distracting ourselves with:

* running a 5k. (my goal: average 10 minute miles, piss poor, i realize, but it was a long winter of non-running, and a slow spring training schedule)

* playing a hell of a lot of wii. we finally found one last weekend, and we LOVE it. i want to install a bar in our living room, and pretend i am playing golden tee at the "old" Reef, not the newly redecorated, much-lamer, drinks-are-weaker Reef Bar and Lounge.