Ho ho ho




My plans to one day dress up as Angel for Christmas will not be thwarted. Next year, people! Next year! And I will spend Christmas day alone in a bar, too, just as I've always threatened...



At least this year I didn't have a nervous breakdown in the Home Depot parking lot in Macon, Georgia.



Tomorrow I head for the beach.

And what the hell is up for New Year's Eve? Is anyone throwing a total throw-down party or what?? ###

In love again




It's true. I'm in love again. With my city. With Atlanta.




I could chalk it up to the gorgeous weather the past week (high of 70 almost everyday with blue, blue skies) or the fact that the semester just ended, or that I'm at a good "moving on" point from the divorce, or that I'm back on the dating market, or a million other things. In actuality, I think my reborn love begins where all those millions of reasons meet.



It feels great to love Atlanta again. I mean, where but this city could I have sat next to a former WWE Women's Champion at 1 in the morning while watching ridiculous puppet antics and having bras tossed at me? I mean, really. Can you think of another city where all of that is possible? I can't. And then later, at a house party at 3 am, watching drunk dipshits nearly blow their hands off with roman candles brought in from North Carolina, I had fabulous conversation about the history of this city, about the local NPR news announcer, about writing and promise and hope for the future. Where but here is that possible? I tell you, it feels good to be happy in the geography of where I am right now, right this instant. It feels good.

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Japanese alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice



After a running thought that I couldn't let go on the proper way to spell 'saki', I looked it up and discovered that both 'sake' and 'saki' are correct. And, 'saki' is also a small arboreal monkey of tropical South America with long hair and bushy nonprehensile tail.

Now go forth with your newfound knowledge and wow your friends at trivia.

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The latest in 'Is this really my life?' news




Yes! Finals are over! Relief and joy is all around. Mostly. But not all is rosy and wonderful in my life. Yes, it's true, the friend who talked me into plunking down money and joining her in the dark, polluted waters of internet dating has, a mere 2 weeks into this bullshit, found a man. So that whole, "It'll be way more fun if we're doing this together and can compare battle stories" rah-rahing has turned into me trying to call her to hang out and being told she's going to the strip club with her new boyfriend, proving once again that you can't trust straight women; they'll sell you out at the first sign of interest from a boy with a dog and Christmas lights in his front yard.



Ok, all bitterness aside, I'm really happy for her. Sorta.



Then there's my friend who I went bath fixture and paint sample shopping with earlier in the week. She and her man are slated to close on their fixer-upper on the 20th, and my eyes are so green with envy I can hardly see straight. Real estate, people. Real estate! She's managed, in the words of another friend, to "con" some man into buying real estate with her. So. Jealous.



The worst is that every middle-aged woman who hears I'm internet dating says, "Don't do that! I have just the son/nephew/grandson for you." I start asking questions, and inevitably what comes out is that he's a) unemployed or b) a waiter and c) he still lives at home. What does this say about me as a person, that everyone is trying to set me up with their loser sons, not the ones who are 2nd-year-law students or work in high finance? The middle-aged women's explanation? "He's creative, like you..."



Oh, I get it. 'Creative' means 'undateable'. Thanks.



My personal life aside, I think I did really well in my classes this fall, despite experiencing XTREME burnout, and work is wonderful, as always. Have I mentioned I LOVE my job? I am a valued, appreciated team mate, and I now even have my own business cards. Maybe I'll just become one of those stereotypical balls-busting career women, feeding off the weakness of others to further her own ambition. Then, while no man would want to date me, at least I'd be making enough money to buy all the real estate my little bitter heart could ever desire.



(Considers this...)

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Almost done with Finals Week






Things I will not miss about college when I finally finish this stupid undergrad degree I was supposed to have finished three-and-a-half years ago:





--18-year-olds.


--Professors who became professors because they never wanted to grow up, and desperately want the 18-year-olds to think they're still cool, but really, the 18-year-olds only added them as a facebook friend because they were hoping it would help them get an A, and it totally did.


--Overpriced vending machines that eat your dimes.


--The humiliation of discovering the book you paid $95 + tax for in August is only worth $9.95 at book buyback in December.


--Finals Week.

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From The Oracle of Bacon



Mo Rocca has a Bacon number of 2. Mo Rocca was in Bewitched (2005) with David Alan Grier
David Alan Grier was in Woodsman, The (2004) with Kevin Bacon



I just love that DAVID ALAN GRIER is the link between Mo Rocca and Kevin Bacon. Who knew??

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Laughing At Self



I totally misspelled saki in my last post. Twice.



I'm working on a redesign of this blog's template. I'm gonna make it all pretty and slick one day soon.



I think Finals Week Stress has given me Heartburn. Way to feel too old for college.

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Post 102: In which our heroine goes to Athens, and eventually has homemade sushi and lots of wine and sake in Atlanta



You read that correctly; yesterday I made my every-couple-of-years pilgrimage to Athens, GA. I went there directly from my grandparents, where I'd been since Thursday afternoon. I went to Athens to hear my ex play from his new Great Directors album (yes, it is five tracks named for five directors, and each song is centered around its namesake. Kind of clever and cute.) and hear The Men of Science play their biggest show ever. If you know me, you know I never go to shows, especially not shows that require me to drive out of my way to places like Athens, but I had a good time and didn't complain. (Ok, I complained a little when I first arrived, but once I ate dinner I chilled out and enjoyed myself. Plus I got to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in months and months, so that was nice, too.)



I ended up driving home straight after the show, which got me home at about 2 in the morning. I got up this morning and took my time about life (rare for me, and something I should probably do more of). I eventually got lunch, drank a few cups of coffee, filed some stray documents, swept out my bedroom, put away my clean clothes, and even studied a bit. Then I picked up Bonnie & Bonnie's Rob, and we went and had (homemade!) sushi at another friend's house. Lots of red wine and sake were had by all. We even managed to connect Paul Giamatti to Kevin Bacon in exactly six degrees. (Yes, we did realize "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" is so 10 years ago, but we didn't care.)



I'm waiting to hear how a friend's first date went...since I haven't heard anything yet and it's 11PM and they met at 6:30ish, I'm thinking it's going well.



And I'm planning to update the links sidebar sometime this week. I'm thinking after my finals are all completed.

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Diners, Internet Dating, Tapas, and More!




CV and I are turning completely into this horrible, horrible single-girl-in-the-city cliche...so far this week we've commisserated at the same diner not once, but twice in the past 5 days. We had the same server both mornings, and today she saw fit to offer us man advice (uh, were we really being that loud and revealing? Answer: Yes.) In addition, we have now both entered the "money-back guarantee" world of internet dating. We thought it'd be more fun if we had each other. Or something.




Yesterday I had $1 tapas and $2 domestic bottles with Ori. We flirted shamelessly with the (cute) (artist) waiter. He remembered us from when we used to go there weekly over the summer, when we were both out of school. Ori and I make a rather striking pair, so we get recognized quite a lot out on the scene. Throw her man J in the mix and we three transform into a trio of devilish, multi-racial, pan-sexual trouble.



Before eating yesterday, Ori took me by the house she and J are hoping to buy. I am very, very jealous that she has a boy who wants to buy real estate with her. This is really all I want out of life: some man who wants to buy real estate with me. For real.

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I should be doing everything except this




I want someone to hold my hand while I walk alone.



I want to go on a million different adventures by myself and with you.



I want only the things that are mutually exclusive, and I want them all at once.




And in non-navel gazing news, the ex and I are working on a Christmas song for y'all. It's sort of a melancholy anti-love letter to the holidays and being alone with another person. Or something equally pretentious sounding.



And speaking of pretentious, how about this piece of intellectual creme puff from the paper I'm supposed to be finishing as I type this: "If viral marketing works as the post-modern incarnation of word-of-mouth, will every human soon become a walking barrage of advertisements?"



Ok, all for now.

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Tired of December



I'm tired of December. It's the worst month for me, what with the lack of decent sunshine any given day and the red-and-green cheer everywhere that I've never been able to get into. Great example: I only like the melancholy Christmas songs. If someone's voice isn't laced with heartbreak and disappointment I don't want to hear it.



I also think the lack of sunshine screwing with my seratonin levels makes me go a little crazier than I am the rest of the year. I feel a little unbalanced and in desperate need of attention. The "Look at me! Look at me!" compulsion kicks in and often gets me into impulsive trouble.



Yeah. I spent most of yesterday afternoon laying in my bed trying to keep the world from being my enemy.



I've got a paper to research and write, so I guess I'll write more later. Or not.
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This is a sort of an inebriated post, so I'll probably regret it later but...




I can't go anywhere in this town.




I am a foodie snob.




I like sherry.




My god, I need to stay underground. Seeing My Favorite Mistake at the bar is not worth seeing the guy-I-think-is-kinda-cute-and-maybe-we-could-date. And yes, I realize I'm referencing Sheryl Crow on that whole My Favorite Mistake bit, and no, I don't like her music at all, but it is just so appropriate I can't help it.



For Christin: It's not that hard. (2-pronged arguement). Don't change your plans for me.



Yeah, I need to go to bed.

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