Opening Day!

3-31-11

Woohoo! Opening Day! Here is our resident baseball expert, and die hard Cardinals fan, with her favorite player - McGwire. Those muscles are completely natural, folks. It was a pretty fun Opening Day, even though the Giants and the Tigers both lost (BOO, YANKEES & DODGERS! BOOOOO!!! HISSSSSS!!!). Geez. Hopefully the A's have a better run at it tomorrow. And the Cardinals lost too...not that I care about them, really. I ran around all day yelling "Cubs win, Cubs win!" just to pester Terry...that is, until I started getting mistaken for Cubs fan. Really, I just like Will Ferrell.

Training

3-30-11

I went to a training on Crystal Reports today. Yep. That IS as exciting as it sounds. It was actually pretty informative in the sense that I just wanted to get a better feel for how the program "thinks" so I could mess around with it more and understand how to generate what I want/need, and the training certainly did that. However, as these sorts of trainings/seminars tend to be, it was a bit slow and dry. So I entertained myself by improving the coffee sleeve off my Starbucks coffee. I wanted to make her Medusa-like, but...instead I think I just made her into a weird snake-fish-queen-thingie.

The best part of the day was when I asked one of the bellhops (the training was held in a hotel) where I could find a bathroom. He led me to it, and on the way he asked me if what Crystal Reports was. I told him it was a computer program for reporting and he says, "oh! I thought you guys were doing like, crystal readings. You know like telling the future." Ha!

Clearly he hadn't seen the seminar speaker, who was the pretty much what you would picture if you imagined the quintessential IT guy. He was also from Philly and kept taking digs at the Giants, so on my evaluation I made sure to write "go Giants!!" 

Cesar's

3-29-11

Went out for a co-worker's 30th birthday. We had such a great time, starting at Cesars and ending at Triple Rock. If 30 is the new 20, then Tuesday night is definitely the new Friday night.

Attack of the Fuzzy Tomato

3-28-11

This tomato went bad over night. When I saw it on the counter this morning I immediately thought of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Remember that cartoon? It was a movie too (first), which I vaguely remember seeing at some point, but mostly I remember watching the cartoon on Saturday mornings. That show was hilarious!

Fun From Germany!

3-25-11

Katherine was in Germany last week and brought us all back Kinder Surprises!! If you've never had one, a Kinder Surprise is this amazing chocolate egg that is hollow. You break it along the seam and find a little capsule inside. Each capsule has a toy of some sort that you have to assemble. Last time I got an alien in a little space car, and this time I got this adorably weird bunny rabbit! The chocolate is good, and the toy inside is fun. Apparently, though, these are illegal in the US because of the small parts and because it's illegal to have something inedible inside of something edible? Weird, right? 

Traces

3-24-11

I often make a point to walk to BART down this street because I just love these buildings and the fading, but still vibrant, ads that are painted on top of one another. I also really like the panda peeking out from the roof. Nothing too exciting about this, I guess...I just like it. So I took a picture of it. The end. 

Momentary Clear

3-23-11

I had an interview in the City today. I got there about half an hour early, so I walked over to Crissy Field and enjoyed what was a surprisingly clear moment in an otherwise rainy, cloudy, WINDY, week. Beautiful! Cross your fingers, and pray to your gods that I get the job 'cause I think I'd really love it/it would be awesome.

Evil

3-22-11

I've never been a real big fan of squirrels, but I generally don't pay a lot of attention to their mindless chattering and annoyingly erratic behavior. However, in the past few weeks I've started cutting across Cal's campus on my way to work because it's a nicer walk and because it adds about 3 minutes to my walk which in effect allows me to get through an entire episode of Radiolab or This American Life (vs. having about 3 minutes left as I walk in the door - which is really troubling...I think about those last 3 minutes all day!). During this time I've noticed that the squirrels on Cal's campus are...how can I put this delicately? They're aggressive little mofos. This one followed me for a good block and he kept rearing up on his hind legs like he was gonna bust out some kung fu or an uzi or something. I noticed that they seem to have these weird dark patches/patterns on them. Do you see what I mean? Does that look like some sort of gang symbol to you? It looks like a gang symbol to me.

I don't trust you, squirrels. You were off my radar for a while, but congratulations. You freak me out, and you're on my shit list now. Right up there with those scary whales. 

Now in Technicolor

3-21-11

The Berkeley Guerrilla Knitters strike again! This is, I think, some of their better work. Usually they just knit sweaters for sign posts which is great and all, but the pattern of knitting interacting with the pattern of the bike rack creates a sort of movement that is far more visually appealing if you ask me. Plus they used a wider variety of patterns on this than usual.

Nice way to brighten up a dreary day!

Also, I'm finally getting caught up with This American Life again (being sick has its perks and one of those is the ability to listen to This American Life and Radilab undisturbed). This week's theme is Taking Charge of a situation, or saving the day. The Guerrilla Knitters certainly fit into that category as they take charge and attempt to bring color, life, and knitting "graffiti" into unexpected urban spaces. 

And Now For Something Completely Different

Daniel finally finished editing a video we made over Christmas break. He got me the most ridiculous deer costume for Christmas, so I told him we needed to make a movie. This is what happens when my brothers and I are stuck in Lansing, MI.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRUeh8CIac4

Venturing, Panicking, Drinking

I ventured outside the house yesterday! I went to work for about an hour since I had some reports due that obviously I hadn't been able to get to. Then I met Kap for coffee. -- If it hasn't become abundantly clear to you by now, several of us are being laid off. Our department was informed we were all getting the axe about a month ago, so we've been just waiting for it to finally become official and public. And that is what happened this week. -- My plan was to get coffee and then go back to work and attend the staff/faculty meeting about the layoffs, just to see what they would say and so I could let Nicole (who's out of town) know what was up. We got to the room where it was to be held; I reached out and grabbed the door handle, and was about to  push the door open when I looked through the window and saw that everyone was sitting in a big circle.

I panicked.

Completely unexpectedly, only somewhat inexplicably, and quite undeniably.

I let go of the handle and spun around:

Bekah: "Oh my god. I can't do it. They're sitting in a f***ing circle, Kap. A CIRCLE. I can't do it. I can't go in there."
Kap: "Oh thank god. To the car?"
Bekah: "YES, let's get out of here."

We practically ran to her car.

Kap: "Where to?"
Bekah: "TO BRENNAN'S!"

We drove to Brennan's and promptly ordered two irish coffees. Aaaaah. That's the ticket.

Hanging out at Brennan's is sort of like hanging out at Cheer's. I always expect Fraiser or Cliff to walk through the door at any moment. You get the feeling that if you go there more than once pretty soon everybody's going to know your name (got the song stuck in your head yet? I do.), since everyone seems to know everyone. But you don't feel like you're out of place at all. The bar tenders are amazing (and make the BEST Irish coffee). The napkin in the picture was given to us from a lovely woman called Dorothea, but who went by Bekah as a child (??? that's what she said (not a joke, that's just what she said)). She got laid off 3 months ago and carries these napkins around with her to console those who have recently found themselves in a similar predicament? Actually, I think she got them for her birthday last week. I wasn't completely clear on the story but she was great.

I can't totally explain my panic at seeing a room of people arranged in a circle. Part of it was the inability to slip in unnoticed and thus the inability to avoid the inevitable looks laced with pity (I swear to god people look at you as if you've just been diagnosed with a terminal illness). Part of it was the knowledge that the circle would most certainly turn into some sort of horrible prayer circle. And part of it was the fact that it would be impossible to slip out quietly. But I feel like the panic was more than the sum of its parts. Whatever the reason/s, I think retreating to Brennan's was more than certainly the right choice.

Sick, but Productive

3-18-11

Benefits of being sick on St. Patrick's Day: no hangover. Um. That's about it. In between sleeping (and watching 3 discs of Blood +. Hey, don't judge...and blame Delphine) I've been researching grad schools. Here is my little work station I set up in the living room. I go between sitting here for about an hour, and then sleeping/watching anime. Note my glass of orange juice. I'm being a good girl and drinking it even though I really dislike the stuff. Curse you, mono! 

Back to grad schools. This week I've researched CUNY, Gallaudet, SFSU, and Chicago. I must say I wasn't impressed with CUNY at all and am fairly positive it's off my list of possibilities. Gallaudet was basically exactly what I expected it to be. All the classes would be taught in ASL which is appealing to me, but I still can't shake the feeling that it might be TOO focused...and I'm not sure about Chicago. I got to the point where I was looking at individual professors and their work and I just ran out of energy and went to sleep. I'll try and finish that up today. Oh, and turns out that SFSU doesn't really have a linguistics program. It's an English degree with a focus on Linguistics. Not what I'm looking for so scratch that off the list (though it does sound interesting...but most things do).

Still remaining on my list: Stanford, Davis, UCSC, UW, UofM, and UCSB. Phew. Seems like a lot still! But at least I've done research on half of them. Narrowing it down, then I'll start to contact professors. 

In the meantime, I have a job interview this morning so wish me luck. Thank goodness it's a phone interview. And then I'm going to attempt to go into work for at least a couple of hours since I have tons of reports I was supposed to get to people this week, and obviously haven't. Sounds sort of like the apocalypse is going down there though so I'm a little nervous. We'll see how much I can handle...

Happy St. Pat's

3-17-11

Happy St. Patrick's Day! For the last couple of years I've made Irish stew today - because it's delicious - and every year of course I drink beerbeerbeer - because it's delicious. Not this year, though, sadly. I just do not have the energy due to the fact that I, apparently, have mono. Just like any self-respecting college kid would have. Except I'm not a self-respecting college kid any more. Personally, I wouldn't have used an exclamation mark to announce this message to one of my patients but I suppose she could be excited that it's not anything more serious. And it does make me feel a little bit better about the fact that I've had ZERO energy for the last few weeks. I'm not crazy or lazy, I've just been sick and didn't know it!

And look! Even Kaiser's website is green in honor of St. Patrick's Day AND in honor of my awesome dad, who's birthday is today. He always told us we couldn't pinch him even if he wasn't wearing green because since he was born on St. Patrick's Day it meant he had green blood.

I only sort of didn't believe him. 

Sick!

My lymph nodes are the size of golf balls! Yes that IS as sexy as it sounds. I don't normally go to the doctor, but after 2 weeks of swollen-ness and feeling kinda crappy, and a noticeable increase in the aforementioned swollen-ness and crappiness I figured I should go to the doctor (i.e. after an hour at work, feeling awful, my co-workers convinced me I should). I got my first ever doctor's note telling me to stay home for the rest of the week...which has allowed me to go back and read every single xkcd comic I'd not already read. Yep. I feel simultaneously smarter (because it's about science and math!) and stupider (because I don't know what they're talking about at least a third of the time). But I really like the katamari references and now I wish I had a PS2 and We Love Katamari. Also, funny thing I was just talking about how great Mathnet was the other day! Anyone else remember this show? XKCD DOES!

Don't worry. Between sleeping (copious amounts of sleeping) and reading xkcd I've also been somewhat productive.

I Surrender

Well it seems that the cold/flu thing I've been fighting/ignoring for 2 weeks has finally defeated my stubborn insistence that I am fine and don't need no stinkin' rest. I suppose you can't ignore the fact that your lymphs are swollen beyond all reason and that your body and head aches (although Tylenol/Ibuprofen do a good job at numbing the pain!) especially when you're only getting 3-4 hours of sleep a night for 2-3 weeks without your body finally rebelling and saying "Enough is enough!" Ok, body, I surrender. I took a sick day today and am home feeling quite miserable. However, the mere exhaustion of being sick seems to have finally taken precedence over my insomnia because I did also finally sleep really really well last night. For 10 hours. Oh sweet sweet slumber, you are everything I had hoped and more. I wish I could hug you and squeeze you to show you the depth and warmth of my love and affection.

So, although I plan to still be productive on this sick day (and eat soooooooouuuup!), I shall take this opportunity to post some pictures from this weekend down in LA and beyond!

Saturday we went and saw a rugby match in Culver City. I'd never seen rugby played before and I now have 2 things to say about it: 1) Rugby is way cooler than football. and 2) Rugby is way cooler than soccer. Basically, rugby is awesome. I don't completely understand all the rules yet, but it is so much fun to watch. I think it may  be my new favorite sport (after curling, of course). 

After rugby we headed over to Pasadena to check out the Art Blocks for Ghana exhibit because in addition to having a lot of amazing art and being for a good cause, Lindsey had a piece in it! You can see all of the pieces and bid on them here. 

Then, we headed to North Hollywood to try and get tickets to see Pinocchio at Deaf West Theatre. The show has been getting rave reviews and was sold out but we tried to get tickets anyway, to no avail. I started writing about this part of our weekend and realized it was going to get really long because I get too excited, so I'm going to save that for another blog entry for later. In the meantime, suffice it to say we didn't get to see Pinocchio but we DID get to see some really great Deaf theatre anyway! While we were waiting for that show to start we went and got some delicious Thai food:

Stir fly meat in garlic sauce. My faaaaaave.

Sunday we spent the day at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Not as good as Cedar Point, (the rides at Cedar Point are just bigger and faster), but it IS the best amusement park I've been to since Cedar Point ruined amusement parks for me. And the X2 ride? OMG. Like no ride I've ever experienced before in my life. Normally I'm a little scared right before the ride, or right before the 1st big drop. As most people are. Not on this one. I was scared the entire effing ride. It was amazing. The SEATS rotate so you never have any idea which way you're actually going to move, and sometimes you're looking straight down at the ground and others straight up at the sky. It's completely disorienting, completely terrifying, and completely AMAZING! Probably one of the best roller coasters I've ever been on. 

Great weekend. Great people. Great rides. Great shows. Great food. Yay! Now I'm going to go lie down! ;) 

Buck Up

You know, at some point, when you realize that every time you open your mouth to speak, in your head you're mocking yourself with "wah wah wah!" you know you're at that point where you've just gotta smack yourself around a little bit and tell yourself to stop feeling so g-damn sorry for yourself, stop wallowing and being such a big baby, buck up, put on your big girl pants and get on getting on. 

Also, good thoughts to Japan. I haven't heard from Masato yet (which is to be expected) (for those who don't know him, he's a friend from grad school and one of my most favorite people in the entire world), but from what I can gather from reports it doesn't sound like the area he lives in is in danger...but I'm also really horrible with geography so I could be totally wrong. Anyway uh, if you pray or whatever pray for him and his family...and everyone else in Japan and the surrounding tsunami-threatened areas. 

The Countdown is ON

3-9-11

I'm sure you've heard, or at least seen the billboards  (they're all over the place here in CA - has anyone seen them elsewhere?), declaring that the world is going to end on May 21, 2011. I checked out the radio station that's on the billboards a few weeks back and was only a little bit shocked when I realized that it was this guy who was preaching this. Seriously, watch the video of him. I dare you to see how long you can stand him. I swear to god that man is older than sin. I found myself watching him in my grad school days on TBN late at night when I was supposed to be working on my thesis, but I needed something to distract me from the fact that I felt like my writing was nothing more than pointless drivel and that really I had no idea wtf I was talking about. He's almost too painful to watch for more than 5 minutes or so, though. I don't even know how he's still alive. I think there are dark arts at work here. There is more to that man that meets the eye. Maybe he's actually an alien and on May 21st he's going to peel off his skin like a human suit and pull out his alien laser gun and blast us all away. That would actually be kinda sweet. Except, you know, for the whole blasting us away bit.

 Anyway, I'd sort of forgotten about all of this end of the world business since I've been rather distracted with things ending in my own personal world. Which obviously takes precedence over the rest of the world! Until I saw this guy when I was waiting to catch the bus to go try on more bridesmaid dresses during my lunch hour (I make my plea now:  Please. For the love of all things holy and sacred no one else get married this summer). I thought briefly "huh, I wonder if that has to do with the end of the world in May or whatever" and then went back to reading my book and cursing my family and friends for being disgustingly in love and forcing me to share in their joy.*

 Then I spotted him again on the edge of Cal's campus as I walked back to work, and it hit me. Seeing it in black and white like that really drives it home y'know? Only 73 days left. Why am I even wasting time trying to fight insomnia!??! I need to live it up! Paint the town! Eat and drink my weight in pizza and beer! Time's a runnin' out! As such, for Lent, which I never have "celebrated" ... is that the word you use? Celebrate? Meh, it is now... which I have never celebrated before in my life, I have decided to give up giving things up. Nothing shall be off limits to me! The world holds no rules or laws! Physics gots nothin' on me! The world is my matrix and I am Neo! I shall reach my hand into the cookie jar of life and scarf down every single cookie!

Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaahahahahah! 

You know what? I think I need more sleep...

*Actually, I'm only saying this for dramatic effect because I think it makes my blogging more entertaining and funny. In reality, I'm ridiculously happy for you all, and beyond excited to go to and be in your weddings!!! Par-TY! :) 

Welcome Back Old Friend

It has been a long day. A long day sans picture taking because I just didn't have the time. So instead I shall just blather on to you about how Insomnia, my dear friend for the last few weeks, has returned to me. I thought he was gone and I slept fairly well for almost an entire week. But once again, last night, who should appear but this evil visitor. I don't think it's any coincidence that the return of the mack haha, ok sorry just had to. Remember the 90s? Good times, good times. But I digress, what was I saying? Oh yes, I don't think it's any coincidence that insomnia returned just in time for Monday - Monday looming and reminding me that the past few weeks have felt months long, and that the other shoe is about to drop, causing me to stare wide-eyed into space with all the thoughts of all the things I need to do and all the worst-case scenarios and my possible reactions to said worst-case scenarios swimming around in my head.

No wonder I couldn't sleep.

The day was pretty good, though, considering I got 3 hours of sleep. And, at least at this point I recognize insomnia when it creeps into bed with me and figured I might as well get something done since just lying there wasn't going to fix anything. So I was productive in those sleepless hours instead of awake and frustrated that I'm both not sleeping and also not accomplishing anything. I got some good research done on 3 different grad schools. Although I'm trying not to make any firm judgements until I've looked through all the schools on my list (there are 13) so I can adequately compare them I am pretty sure I'd love Cal (got a few new names of people to contact). They do a LOT with cognitive linguistics which I'm thinking more and more I'd LOVE, and a lot of their professors incorporate signed languages into their articles. In contrast, I am pretty sure I'll end up ruling NYU out (Waaaaaaaaaaay too much phonology. Phonology is great and all but it just doesn't interest me beyond a 'huh, isn't that interesting' sort of reaction. Plus, I don't think any of their professors even touched on signed languages in any of their research).

And I'm unsure about Boston U. They were top of my list, but last night I realized their program is in Applied Linguistics...which actually sounds kinda good to me (implies a more practical focus vs. a focus on research, and they have this great Sign Language research foundation they've set up funded by the NSF!). Of anywhere (besides Gallaudet) I think I'd have the most opportunity to work directly on signed linguistics there. I'd just be concerned about applied translating into researchers who are trying to find a cure for deafness - something I cannot in good conscious support or engage in. I didn't get that impression from their website though so I'm hopeful that isn't the case.

Take THAT insomnia. Next on my list to research are Gallaudet (duh), Chicago, and SFSU. If I can't sleep tonight, you know what I'll be doing...but hopefully I'll sleep.

G'night.

Uh Oh, DISTRACTION!

3-6-11

I was trying so hard today to be good and study for Spanish. And then I got to this page. The people who made my Spanish text book apparently aren't aware that if they put sign language in the book, I'm going to become immediately distracted and go searching online for ways to learn it, and completely forget about the fact that I'm supposed to be learning Spanish. But...but look at those signs! They're so completely different! "Muy amigos"?!?! That's how they sign it? FASCINATING. I wonder how the linguistics differ? Are there completely different standards for hand shape and placement and movement and palm orientation?!?!!? I NEED TO KNOW!

I really need to find a way to learn more signed languages because a) they excite me far more than spoken languages (not that I should stop trying to learn Spanish, of course), and b) I am so much better at them! I guarantee you that I will remember all of those signs after looking at these pictures once or twice. As opposed to Spanish where I feel like the biggest idiot of all time in class. However! I did read the article about  LSM (Lengua de Señas Mexicana) in the book! And it was all in Spanish, and I understood 99% of it. I need to keep these small victories in mind when I get frustrated, because 6 months ago I wouldn't have been able to read an entire article in Spanish. 


Still.


I'm going to do some more research on LSM. Maybe I can get the basics down via the internet...and then take a trip to Mexico and try and use my Spanish AND learn more about LSM! Oh man. What if I could be a research assistant or intern or something in Mexico at some language institute and improve my Spanish AND learn LSM AND be doing something exciting and related to linguistics and...and...*hyperventilating* Ok...I'm off to do some research...and uh, finish my Spanish homework. Yeah.

Exciting Finds and Creations

 3-5-11

I mentioned that yesterday I went to Black Oak Books to use a groupon, and that I went to the Missing Link before that (I think I mentioned that part...I could check, but I won't). Well now, my friends, I answer the question that I know has been plaguing your mind for the past 24 hours: "What did Bekah buy?!" Well feast your eyes on the beauty that is before you. I made some amazing finds. First I got these awesome panniers for only $50!!! (That's a good price, if you didn't know). Aren't they adorable!?!? They're blue! I love blue! Well, truth be told Eric found them and showed them to me but still. I love them! I can totally fit a couple of bags of groceries in them if I want to! As I told Katherine, this is the next big bicycle step for me. It means I'm actually mentally capable of considering running errands on my bike, to the extent that I'm taking proactive measures to make that physically feasible. Which is exciting and scary. If you don't know, I have a sort of irrational fear of biking and being flattened into a pancake by a car, or just careening into a cement wall and dying (that has happened to me before. Minus the dying part) which I've been working to overcome for the past 2 years. And good thing I have been working on it too, considering I am now sans car and faced with biking as a real mode of transportation vs. an amusing hobby. For a girl who would hardly get on a bike a year and a half ago I think I'm getting pretty brave! 

Oh, the 2nd thing in this picture is one of the awesome books I got with my groupon! It's Art Spiegelman's "Breakdowns"! It's a collection of his comics, and some of them are the comics that led up to his creation of Maus, the first graphic novel I ever read (it was actually one of my brother's Christmas gifts one year. I had never heard of graphic novels, and I was all "What is THIS?" and proceeded to devour it before he even had a chance to open to the first page). So I was pretty excited when I saw this book! It's in perfect condition too. Squee! I also found the 2nd book in the New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, which was pretty exciting considering I haven't been able to find it anywhere besides amazon.

My other exciting news, and accomplishment this weekend is that tonight I made granola! It was really easy, much cheaper than buying it from Trader Joe's, and turned out really well, which is great because I really really REALLY love granola. Next time I'd cut the baking time down by maybe 2 minutes (the edges were a leetle burn-y)...and maybe add a little bit of vanilla, but otherwise this recipe worked out really well (I used cashews instead of hazelnuts).

Fin! 

Quintessential

 3-4-11

After biking down to Black Oak Books to use some groupons, Katherine, Eric and I found our tumblies makin' the rumblies, so we went to Anchalee, a really great Thai place. I'd been told that Chris C. thinks it's the best Thai place in Berkeley, but he also doesn't like the Lord of the Rings so his opinion doesn't hold a lot of weight now does it. So, I was skeptical (especially w/Cha Am and Thai Delight being so amazing). Well, I'm pleased to report that at least in this instance Chris wasn't totally off base. It was deeeeeeeelicious. I don't really know if it's "better" than the other 2; I feel like each Thai restaurant I go to has a very different flavor or focus, so they're difficult to compare. But it certainly was on par in general, and some of the dishes were better (soup. omg).

Getting to the picture: I was facing the window and the reflection of this Buddha kept catching my eye. It took a little bit of fiddling with the camera, but I finally was able to get a picture that wasn't either ruined by a flash or completely dark! It is, unfortunately, somewhat grainy, but I'll take what I can get. Little steps. I took a few pics of it, and had a hard time deciding which one to post. If you want to see the rest and tell me I made the wrong choice, they're on flickr. Anyway, I thought it looked pretty cool, and I loved that it said "Berkeley" right below the reflection because it's just so quintessentially Berkeley. 

Downtown

3-2-11

Spanish class was cancelled tonight, so I finished reading my book! And took pictures. Then I messed around with them instead of working on another cover letter. Sigh. Which is what I really should have been doing, but in all fairness I did spend an hour job searching. I just was going to actually get my stuff together for one of the ones I found during that hour, but I'll just have to do it tomorrow. Anyway, I really haven't had time to mess with photos so I took the other extra hour I had tonight to do so. I took this in downtown Berkeley...on Central or Addison, somewhere around there. I liked the softness of the lamplight against the dark sky and the hard concrete of the building. Something about it was comforting and eerie at the same time, so I took a picture of it and then tried to bring that feeling out more by messing with the colors. Voila. Someday I'll learn how to use photoshop instead of bumming around on gimp and piknic. Someday.

I Love Sleep and Books

Not only did I not have trouble falling asleep last night, but I did not wake up in the night, not once! Perhaps my battle with insomnia is finally coming to an end! I still had jacked up dreams, but they didn't keep waking me up. I'm starting to think my Glee dream was actually induced by a fever... Weird dreams are pretty normal for me, but they don't generally cause me fitful nights; rather, they just cause me to think "huh, THAT was bizarre!" when I wake up. I am trying to be more consistent in writing them down 'cause some of them are pretty good stories. My subconscious self is way more interesting than my conscious self is.

Speaking of stories - I'm almost done reading City of Glass by Paul Auster. You should read it. And then read the graphic novel version (I read it a couple of years ago and then found out it was based on a novel. It's really quite good). I want to read the other 2 now. I'm at that point in the book where all I want to do is read because the story in the book seems more like reality than real life does. Do you know what I mean? Where you get so into the book you're reading that it begins to seem more like what is actual and your daily life, when you're not reading, feels like the story. Albeit a less interesting and more mundane story, but maybe that's why the switch happens. And you find yourself throughout the day thinking "Why am I doing this right now? None of this is real. This is just a story. What's really happening is such and such from such and such book." And then you realize that the book has taken over your mind and until you finish it you won't be able to fully come back to "real" life. And the truly amazing books are those that you sort of keep believing are reality even after you've finished them, and later there are times when you can't remember if you read about so-and-so in a book or heard about such-and-such in a book, or if they were real.

You have no idea what I'm talking about? That only happens to me? I'm sort of a freak?

Fair enough.

Now where's some wood...I gotta knock on it really hard, or maybe punch it (just in case my insomnia-less joy was premature).