Springtime antsy

Like WHOA.

I hate lists

Things that make me feel fantastic about the day ahead of me:

• cold press coffee
• sunshine
• headphones so I can rock out at work

Seriously, I just want to be sure the internet understands how difficult it is to be cranky when you've got a glass of cold brew in front of you. (Very difficult. That's the answer. It is very difficult).



Note about cold press (i.e. learn from my mistakes) - if you rely on ice to dilute the coffee, don't drink it from an insulated mug. Because then the ice doesn't melt and the coffee doesn't dilute and you end up drinking VERY strong coffee much more quickly than you would have liked. It's still good... but it's all gone. :( It's 9:47am and I already drank all my cold brew.

I'm excited about:

• New season of Dr. Who starting this Saturday
• Ryan's birthday cake which I am going to make
• 5:30 pm
• Musa visiting me in May
• The sunflowers* and canna lilies planted in the front yard
• One day having my own house and getting, finally, after 15+ years of anticipation, a puppy

Things I'm not excited about:

• Getting my out-of-shape ass handed to me in the double header this weekend
• The potential for torrential downpour and/or hail on my way home from work
• 3:30-4:30 pm (always the worst part of the work day)

Also:

• This is a picture I took of a plant. I think it looks like a small, spiky sun.

• This is another picture I took of a plant. I think it looks like an alien.

*I originally typed "sunflower" as "sinflower."

This is what happens when my calories are mainly pizza and coffee:

I say things like "There is no plumber's butt in my workday."

No, really. There's not.

Hello, insomnia.

I didn't miss you at all. Welcome back.



edit: Let me clarify that by "welcome back" I mean "fuck off I hate you, you smelly turd."

I went to Costa Rica

for the first time in five years. To you, oh internet, that might not sound like so long, but to me, it is SO LONG. The longest I've gone without Costa Rica since I was 10 times two.

I went partially because I hadn't been in a long time, and partially to meet my baby! nephew! His name is Kaleb and he is precious.

The world is still very surprising at age 9 months, and he makes that face a lot. As a (major major major) bonus I got to see his mama, my unofficial sister Ileana. Who is, by the way, an amazing mother.

We hung out in our swimsuits in some volcano-warmed water and drank tasty fruity beverages. And by "beverage" I mean "there is so much fruit in there that there is no room for alcohol."

That, my friends, is the good life. The volcano made an appearance for me, too. (Yes, it is all about me. Obviously. This is my blog, living proof that the world revolves around me. Get with the picture.)

Oh, and did I mention there was a baby there?

A baby on the edge of toddlerhood, in fact. He took his first steps while I was there. While I was in the room admiring his precious adorableness, he saw fit to start walking. This, along with peaches, is why I (mostly) believe in a higher power.

After a few days in Ili's new hometown of La Fortuna, we went to Monteverde (my old hometown). Monteverde, in addition to being a tourist hotspot, is stunningly beautiful. You just have to go where the hotels aren't.

Oh yeah, I also saw a toucan. Right up close. Pretty sweet.

And the baby.

In case you had forgotten, it's all about the baby. Look at that face and try to disagree.

Steph knows me pretty well

Stephanie:  i had a dream about you last night

 me:  oh yeah?

was i eating something delicious?

Stephanie:  no you were wearing a pair of your fancy heels

and complaining that your feet hurt

 me:  haha

in character

 Stephanie:  but it was okay because you looked good


p.s. Don't be fooled by this post. I am in Costa Rica. Sucka whaaattt.

Thinking about the long term.

Maybe I could do journalism. I always used to pooh-pooh it (for myself, not in general), but the idea of writing mini-memoirs about the hear and now is kind of captivating. Is that journalism? Or maybe radio. Maybe I could do that. I'm out of official school, but I still have a lot of things I want to learn. At the moment, there are a few technologies I want to learn: I want to learn how to use Photoshop, although I think it would drive me nuts. I want to use InDesign, because Word is so limiting (and because I liked making labels at the bindery in QuarkXPress, especially when Bruce let me play with it a little bit). I want to learn how to mix audio. I would love to be able to take the testimonies we recorded from the CoMadres and do something with them, make them accessible to other people. Also, it would be amazing to re-write my undergrad thesis in audio form.


And completely unrelated: I went to Brazil. I haven't put any pictures on here, because I already put them on Facebook, and because this blog isn't something I feel obligated to, but rather began simply because I can't put pictures in my hard journal. Nevertheless, here is Brazil:

To the woman

who said "poor dog" so I could hear it as I biked by with Raleigh running alongside:

Here's how I know my dog really likes running with the bike - tonight when I took him to the Met Branch Trail late enough that no one was there and I could let him off leash, he still ran right next to the bike 80% of the time. I swear he was egging me on.