Too Many Trains

I have a question about livejournal. Well...more of a desire and question mark.

I want to take all of my entries since I joined livejournal and print them...like in a manuscript format...you know, to keep for posterity. Can that be done easily, or do I have to go through some kind of agonizing, painstaking process to make it happen?

aka, my new favorite actor.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scarlett-johansson/the-skinny_b_186233.html
I really appreciated this response, too. It reminded me of my days as a nanny, when a four-year-old girl turned to her full-time nanny and asked, "Does my butt look fat?" FOUR!

"Nice job, Scarlett. As a mom of two young girls this is an issue close to my heart. Last summer, I heard my stringbean 8-yr-old say to her friends "You know, I need to lose a few pounds". They were all putting on swimsuits in her room, and as I walked by and heard this, I had to just keep on walking to my room, sit down and breathe. I have battled anorexia for twenty years, and I am vigilant about weight/body-image bashing. My husband is, too. We don't have cable, have one TV on which we watch movies and PBS (kids' friends think we're SO weird). We don't read tabloids. My point is this: the body-image craziness is so pervasive that even very protected girls are learning it. I finally did go in that day and talk to the girls about healthy weight and differences in genetics, etc (one friend is heavier than the others, but super-athletic and a fairly healthy eater). They know about my struggles, and I make sure they see me exercising and eating well every day. I also think it's important to make sure they see me indulging from time to time, and really enjoying good food. I think you got it just right; the balance has to be there along with realistic expectations and also the realization that most people in magazines are working pretty hard at it."

I watched this at work, so it was on mute, but I loved it all the same: http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/OrenLavie/Her-Morning-Elegance--205809176

I generally dislike discussing politics. I get nervous about my lack of research. There is just a lot to know and, no matter what any candidate says, I can't shake the feeling that by the time anyone is placed under the spotlight he is already ruined. He has already been fitted with all of the necessary strings and has become blissfully apathetic in regard to the people pulling those strings. It is difficult to know what any candidate really thinks or feels about anything. They open their mouths to speak, but the content of their speeches is garbled by all of the gold coins stuffed in their cheeks. That's how I feel.

My friend told me that her three-year-old son saw the cover of Rolling Stone with the cartoon of W riding the Republican elephant. He exclaimed, "Look, Mommy! There's a monkey on an elephant!" You said it, kid! A monkey on an elephant in the middle of a big, freaking circus!

Tomorrow, I will answer that old question, "If your friends were to jump in a lake, would you?" with a resounding "YES! YES, I WOULD!" Again! I am rather stupidly excited about it. Wish me luck at the Madison Polar Plunge!

Well, not really! I'm really at work and having a personal dilemma. I don't want to go to practice tonight. It's not that I don't want to practice, because I do. It's not because I don't need the exercise. I definitely need it, but to be perfectly honest, I have gotten quite a bit of exercise from pushing cars in and out of parking spaces in the past couple of days. I don't want to go to practice because I want to go home and get a parking spot that I can get my car out of tomorrow morning. I'm sitting at my desk right now, my jeans are soaked up to my knees, I am cold, and I am pretty sure I smell like kitty litter...the unused kind. I was up at five this morning to check out the situation, and was right in my determination that I could, in fact, get to work. It wasn't without some major effort, though, and I know that if I go to practice tonight, I will have to go through it all again tomorrow.

I know we all have our snow stories, but I have never been more frightened driving than I was on I-94 last night. I could only make out the lights of the police car in front of me and the pale outline of the semi truck in front of him. I followed him until he abandoned me to help the line of folks trying to get onto I-90. At that point, as he pulled off to the side of the road, I thought I was going to cry. I couldn't see the road at all, but I could barely make out the tracks of the car that had just made the same journey. Every once in a while, I'd pass a car that was sitting astride a mound of snow, or flipped over in a ditch, but I just kept my pace and trudged home. I saw a billboard on Aberg that read "Get money when you need it," and another one behind it that read "Off to the races," which I thought was a very funny combo. I guess I was never going slow enough to see those clearly and make that connection. I finally got home and my car got stuck in the condo parking lot. I got out of my car, left it where it was and started to push some other stuck cars from their spots. When I finished helping them, the people helped me park my car about a block away from my place. I thought I might get a ticket because I couldn't really tell if my car was fully "in" a spot, but I stayed put because, really, I had no choice. At midnight, I peeked out my dining room window. No plows! I went to bed promising to try to get to work if the plow had come through by the time I woke up. I woke up at 5, peeked out my window and was amazed to see that the plow had been there. Granted, they didn't really make it all the way down to my car, but they had come. I dragged myself out of bed, grabbed my camera, helped push a woman out of her parking spot for about a half hour and then attempted my own getaway and got stuck. My car spun so that I was dangerously close to a small truck. I ran back to my place for kitty litter and stuffed it under three of the wheels. By some miracle, I hit workable ground and was able to maneuver around all of the other badly parked cars, past all of the other stuck cars and through the mound of snow at the end of the driveway. Driving on Madison roads was like driving on a tray of ice cubes, but Cottage Grove roads are beautifully paved.

...but I promised the fates that I would try to get to work. Every cell in my body is crying out to go back home after work is over, though. I just want to be safe and warm. Is that so bad?

I'm roasting Crackerjack tonight, and I need some people to come pretend I'm funny!

My most recent message from someone who obviously doesn't know me and my extreme sense of privacy:

"i saw you in the room and wanted to say hello. When was the last time you tied someone up or got tied up?"

My potential responses:

"You mean, like, on the phone?"
"I got tied up at work for the past two days.  Don't you hate that?"

or, and only hkpuss will probably get this at all:

"hahahahahahahahahaha...."  

any other suggestions?

So, I went to vote today.  I arrived at my designated polling place and gave my name.  The woman doling out the paper ballots noticed my address and talked excitedly about how she is my neighbor.  After I voted, and this took no more than five minutes, I made my way back to the polling table to formally introduce myself to my neighbor.  "What?" she barked at me.  I started again.  "I just wanted to introduce myself."  "What?  Why?" she demanded.  I looked nervously at the woman sitting next to her, and she smiled encouragingly at me.  "Since we're neighbors and all," I stammered, "I just wanted to introduce myself."  The woman leaned her head back as a peal of laughter escaped her mouth.  "Oh ho ho," she squealed.  "I didn't even know that."  She looked at me as though I had three heads.  I was speechless.  I glanced at the woman next to her, whose expression had changed from encouraging to apologetic, thanked them both and hurried on my way.

So, who's in charge of your vote?  and...um...who's your neighbor?

This morning, I wrote this:

I hope your day is as beautiful as mine is. I am sitting at my livingroom window, admiring the way that the light sifts through the branches of the trees. All of the red leaves litter the ground; only the gold leaves remain on the branches.

Today feels like a Sunday to me. I took a super-secret day off from work yesterday, did some cleaning and caught up on my long neglected sleep. I had wild dreams...lots of helicopters and airplanes in my dreams lately.

Then I read this horoscope (note: though I am a leo, I have scorpio rising, so those horoscopes often reflect me better...especially during times when a whold slew of planets are hovering around scorpio...like right now.)

Scorpio Horoscope for week of October 26, 2006  (www.freewillastrology.com)

You're ready for take-off. It's time to taxi to the launch location and prepare to go airborne. I suggest you do what birds and airplanes do, which is to fly directly into the wind as you leave the ground. As long as you're forcefully propelling yourself forward, that will give you maximum lift. Oh, and flap your wings gracefully, not frenetically. Don't stare at the ground right beneath you, but rather fix your gaze on a distant point high above you. Halloween costume suggestion: eagle, jet, hang-glider, dragonfly. 

...and isn't this the most beautiful fall leaf you have ever seen?



My cat, Petra, had other ideas, though.  She is busy re-designing the leaf.

If you haven't already, I highly recommend seeing Bee Season, an adaptation of one of my favorite books of all time. The filmmakers did a great job adapting the book for the screen. Richard Gere is in it, but don't let that discourage you. He does a fine job with this film. The rest of the cast is equally superb. ...and for godsake, if you see this movie or read this book and have a subsequent conversation with me about it, do not ask "what kaleidoscope?" 'cause I'm gonna have to hurt you if you do.