here you have it

what day is it?

holy weekend rollercoaster, batman! i've been so busy this weekend, that i'm thankful i can use memorial day monday as a chance to sit down and catch my breath before i face another week at work. let's start at the beginning:

friday. the last friday of the month means one thing: critical mass. this week we had fantastic weather for a ride. i was so giddy, i could hardly contain myself. abby joined the ride this month (yay!) but had to cut out before the very best part: freewheel. freewheel is an organization of people who i could describe as anarchist gutter punks with a mission. they were hosting an event called the cycle circus. these people are so amazing, i almost don't believe they actually exist. long story short, they're riding their bicycles around the great lakes. AROUND the great freaking lakes to raise awareness about water. we're not talking hard bodied career cyclists with expensive bikes here, we're talking about regualr people with handmade and decorated bikes riding AROUND THE GREAT LAKES to raise awareness for clean safe drinking water, all while dressed as clowns. wow. wow and a half. unfortunately, i had to leave before the actual circus started to attend rob and janice's birthday party. it was an awesome time. nice to just hang out with some nice people. too bad coal train, rob and bri's kitten, got sick and had to be taken to the pet hospital. don't worry, i think he's doing better now. after that, i stopped by club 5 for an hour. just long enough to see abby and lindsay in their drag getups, and get dance floor attacked by a really tall woman dressed in vinyl.

saturday: operation amtrak. my buddy mike came in from winona to visit me for the weekend. it was beyond awesome to see him again, even though the train was 3 hours late. it gave molly and i a chance to explore the town of portage. they have a mulett street. we have photos. once the train came in, we came back to madison, hung out, ate good food and went dancing at club 5. in a word, i would describe the club experience that night as scandalous. lenita wins in the award for best on the dance floor. back home, mike calls himself "auntie mike" whenever he talks to my cat. hahaha.

sunday: goodbye auntie mike. we lounged on the couch all morning and went to find some food around noon. it was a good day. back at the train station, there was a guy who was stomping around looking very upset that the train was 10 minutes late. he reminded me of that guy in the movie "something about mary" you know, the girl's brother, the "where's my baseball" guy. the thing that creeped me out about him tho, was that he was dressed in very institutional looking clothes. had he escaped from somewhere? he certainly wasn't operating at a proper adult level. so he entertained us by stomping around talking to himself and announcing to us how long it takes for the train to get from here to there. the train came, mike boarded and i went to my car. the train leaves and the stompy guy was still on the platform. after all that, the guy didn't get on the train. instead he walked out to the parking lot, got in the passenger seat of an suv with a really big cross hanging from it's rearview and they drove away. weird. then molly, ryan, and i went to see the movie "the day after tomorrow." there isn't enough space on the internet for me to tell you how much that movie just plain SUCKS. the first 10 minutes are ok, the scientists warning the government that if we keep burning fossil fuels like we do it could be catastrophic for our environment, the government insisting that everything is ok, and that cleaning up the environment costs too much money, blah blah blah. but then the next day, the ice age comes and lots of people die. somehow though, the thing only effects the northern hemisphere. hmm. by 20 minutes into the movie, i was hoping that the entire human race would be violently extinct. only the 2 guys looking down on earth from the space station would survive. oh wait, but they can't revive the human race without women. i bet you wish you'd have put more women in your space program now, huh nasa. end human race, end movie. but no, the movie goes on with americans trying to flee to mexico and mexico not letting them in. hah! the whole movie is stereotypical crap, with some testosteronie heroics and a young love story put in there just for extra blandness. after the movie, ryan and i saw a green light in the sky. i'm serious. it looked like a green laser light pointing directly up from (or down to?) the atmospheric and oceanic sciences building that's across the street from my house. hmm. this weekend has been kinda weird.

monday: soccer day? today the only thing i have planned is to get together for a game of soccer with a fun group of people. ah, a day off of work. it's good to have a day to relax after a rather stimulating weekend. soccer, anyone?

ps
please check out the links i added to the "keep me informed" column to your left. there is some really good information out there.

you're a superstar, at the gay bar

this video has me laughing into next week. a friend sent me the link a while ago, before the iraq war was officially started, but then i lost it. yesterday i got the song stuck in my head so i did a google search. (by the way, my site is the very first site listed on google if you search for "i fucking care about you." sweet. i'm number one. you don't get the band's site, you get mine. hah.) anyway, back to the video... i don't like that it implies that g.w. bush and tony blair are gay, but i still think the video is hilarious. the way the facial expressions of both bush and blair are captured makes them look like morons, notsomuch queers. my favorite is the way they look when they're not "singing." the song is by a band called electric six. i'm pretty sure that this is not the official video, as it's not on the band's official website, and i've found another site with a different video. this one has two viking kittens and a flying puppy. hmm.

speaking of gay bars, my pal mike from winona is coming into town this coming saturday. we're going to go to club 5. you should join us. maybe he can teach the dykes how to dance ;)

ramblings of a spinney mind

the sounds of thunderstorms excite and calm me at the same time. they make me feel strange.

i probably use bad grammar, but i wouldn't know. i have not yet decided whether or not i care.

last weekend i went for a walk in the arboretum with raena. it made me homesick for quarry hill. remember going there and sitting on top of the hill, looking down on the city at sunset and at night? we spent hours there, content. growing. our lives changing all around us.... mine was. then spending more hours at denny's after we were too cold or bitten by mosquitoes to stay outside. i need a place like that in madison. a safe place to go alone or with specific friends, to sit, to reflect, to wonder, to find peace, to grow. does anyone know of a place like that in madison?

sometimes i sit in front of the computer, the paper, the canvas, the wood blocks and wires waiting for something to spill out. there's something in there, i can feel it stabbing at the muscles in my neck. it won't come out and i'm stuck here with this mental constipation.

i read lewis carroll's "alice's adventures in wonderland & through the looking glass" and decided that this is my favorite book passage ever: "visit either you like: they're both mad." "but i don't want to go among mad people," alice remarked. "Oh you can't help that," said the cat: "we're all mad here. i'm mad. you're mad." "how do you know i'm mad?" said alice. "you must be," said the cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

it pisses me off when people add "ette" or "ess" or the like to the ends of words when they realize i'm a female. like, "hey dude!... and dudette." or, "where is the waiter... or waitress." why aren't we all dudes or waiters? why dudette and waitress? thanks guys!... and girls.

when i go to work in the morning, and i say "good morning" to a certain individual, and he says, "yeah, it's a good day to die," it makes me want to quit my job. sometimes someone will ask "what are you looking for? and he will say "a reason to live," and then snort in the back of his throat with a toothpick between his teeth. i think he needs help.

some livejournal "current mood" icons are creepy. and they move.

currently: cold (physically), restless (mentally)

pirates?

You are Will Turner. A pining blacksmith, with a
hatred towards pirates and a love for the
prissy, "I can't save myself" girl.
Good swordplay though.


What "Pirates of the Caribbean" Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

i've never actually seen this movie, i just happened across dite's page and decided to find out who i am. dite, i don't think you're evil or bitter. quizilla must be bunk.

time to quit screwing around with the computer. it's beautiful outside, and i'm sitting here wasting daylight. call me of you wanna play outside.

the days of our lives...

this weekend marks the graduation of 2 of my superfriends from their undergrad studies. today a big group of us celebrated molly's graduation over lunch at the great dane. one side of the table was her family, the other side her friends. as we all sat there together, i basked in the love of friendship and family. it felt good, like home. it makes me feel warm inside to think about all the years we've been friends. i've known molly, simmi, and ryan for half of my life. an entire half. and the three of them go back even farther than that. it is the most comforting feeling in the world to have someone around like that.... people who call me when i'm down, people who will always celebrate with me, people who will come over to play with the cat when i'm gone for the weekend, people i will always feel safe with. i love you guys.

superduper congrats to molly and to simmi for your super hard work and super friendship.

superduper hugs to ryan for being such an awesome friend, but sorry man, i can't give you props for graduating. guess you'll just have to work harder. dude, stop reading this already, you've obviously got work to do. go on. go!

everyone who isn't ryan should check out my newly posted photo album. right now i've just got the ones from the earth day critical mass ride, but am planning on adding another album for other rides, and another album of random friend pics. stay tuned. unless you're ryan.

loose ends and a new beginning

loose end #1: my mom also rules because she made ME.

loose end #2: i did some thinking about why i wanted galactia to be executed at the end of the play "scenes from an execution," per my last post. if you're familiar with the story, great. if you're not, too bad, i'm not going to explain it. i don't think that it's so much that i'm missing a point (but it's still completely possible), as i was craving three additional points to be made. first and second, if the dignitary and the bishop had succeded in executing galactia for their disagreement of her portrayal of the battle which they hired her to paint, it would have sucessfully proven once and for all that both the government and the church are so completely corrupt that they blatantly kill people who don't agree with them. two birds, one stone. third, carpeta, what were you thinking? you can be in love all you want with a mad woman, but she won't be in love with you. she is in love only with her madness and (in this case) her paint, using you to fill the gaps in between, and only on her terms. admittedly, i don't think that galactia needs to be executed for this offense alone. however, it just would have been satisfying to see carpeta completely free of galactia's madness. jill sobule said it best, "love is never equal, after all."

loose end #3: i finally got back those pictures from the earth day and the monthly critical mass bike rides that i went on in the last few weeks. i'm still working on getting them all scanned in and looking pretty, but i will post a photo album soon. keep in touch.

new beginning: my contact lenses finally came in today. i had to go to the clinic to have a class on how to wear them, take them in and out, and take care of them. i had no idea this was going to be so much work. after wearing the little buggers for about 4 hours, my eyeballs totally freaked out. i don't really blame them; not only did i repeatedly poke them with my fingers, but i also stuck a little piece of plastic in there and expected them to like it. in more ways that one, i was schooled today. also, i've taken on a whole new appreciation of the word "eyeball."

mother's day

today i'm going to put away the political rants and come back to me. me, me, me.

actually, in honor of mother's day, i was going to make this post all about my mom, but i know she reads this, and i don't want her to write me completely out of her will. just kidding. seriously though, i don't think i would have anything negative to say about my mom even if i wanted to. it would be easy and fun to write something embarassing about her, but she could come back and write twice as many embarassing things about me, so i'm not even going to open that can. even my high school friends all think both of my parents are awesome. here's the best thing about my mom: she's tolerant. she's put up with my vegetarianism, and politics, my blue hair, green hair, and the mowhawk. she's put up with my tattoos, earrings and septum ring. she puts up with these things while respecting the person that i am, and trusting that i am a responsible human being. respect and trust mean a lot to me. thanks, mom.

the other item on my menu this weekend was seeing my friend angela star in the play "scenes from an execution" at gustavus adolphus college in st peter, minnesota. i had no idea what the play was about before i got there, and was nowhere near prepared for the intensity i was about to experience. i had really strange dreams all night, as i was cuddled up in "the pillow corner" of angela's apartment. in the morning, i got to hang out with angela and her roommates. then i got to meet a guy who must be angela's boyfriend. great. anyway, the play was awesome, just the kind of intensity i crave every now and then... although i think i would have liked the ending better had they actually executed galactia. the title had me all geared up for killing, but i don't think anyone actually died in any way in the entire play. perhaps i'm missing a point. either way, two thumbs up. a spectacular job was done by all.

i put over 700 miles on my car this weekend. even though all of those miles were done alone, it's still refreshing to be back home again with a warm little kitty purring on my lap as i type. sigh.

extra special thanks to molly for kitty sitting this weekend!

tuned in: "i fucking care about you" by ssion

what?!

aaaah. so after i got all of that other stuff out of my head this morning, i mucked about the house, doing some domestic sunday things, and then got back to the internet. karl rove? what was that site, anyway? i took my own advice and went back to that strange strange place. this time i started at the beginning (because the beginning is a very good place to star). it makes so much more sense now. i still don't have time to sit and read the whole thing, but i'm working on it.

from ilovekarlrove.com:
"Say my name, Virginia. Say my name."
"You're…Karl…Rove. Bush's…brain. You…run the country. You…stole the presidency…"
He leans in closer, brushes his soft, moist lips across my cheek and earlobe. They feel like raw bacon again the now-sizzling griddle of my skin, and I can feel my stomach starting to rumble. He moos, low and soft into my arching neck, "Stole is such an ugly word. Besides, all's fair in war and…"

i don't know whether this woman deserves an award or mental help...

"If having lusty dreams about Karl Rove is wrong, then I don't wanna be right."

oh my.

may day

in my mind, i have this vague childhood memory of celebrating the first day of may by putting flowers and dandelions (and maybe jelly beans?) in little paper cups and leaving them on the doorsteps of my neighbors and friends. a couple years ago, when i was in college, i took a candy filled may basket made of x-ray film to my mom's desk while she was away. why? i'm not really sure. so i did some good ol' internet research. what i found was... well, interesting....

from what i've read, may day started out hundreds of years ago as a pagan celebration of the various aspects of spring. this aspect is usually uncelebrated in the united states because these early festivals were banned by the catholic church once it came to power.

the more recent history of may day vary a little bit, depending on who you ask. labor organizations, socialists, even anarchists all have different spins of the story. the two best (and by "best" i mean that i was trying to find an article that seemed more fact, less opinion) articles that i found are here and here. it pretty much breaks down like this: working people were fighting for 8 hour work days. on may first, 1886 there was a massive strike. during the course of the strike, riots broke out in chicago. lots of people were injured and/or died. here's where things start getting twisted... i don't know when may day first became a labor holiday in europe, but it is. a big one, may day is their equivalent of our labor day, except that may day was decided by the workers and labor day was decided by the government. hmm. also, the fighting for the 8 hour day happened in chicago. last time i checked, chicago is in the united states. so why do people in europe take the day off work to protest and demonstrate for labor rights, but we don't do that here? even when we get our labor day off, we don't use the time to check in with our labor organizations, we use it as a 3 day weekend to get drunk down by the lake. productive. here's my favorite part: apparently george bush decided that he wanted to make for damn sure there would be no anti anything demonstrations going on in his country on may day, so last year, he went ahead and passed congressional public law 85-529, officially declaring may first as "loyalty day." wow. forget labor rights, lets get drunk and fly a flag.

so how did i celebrate may day? well, actually, i had to go to work. ah, the irony of life. but after work, molly and i promptly attended a peace rally in library mall. for the record, peace activists ARE supporting the troops. we want them out of iraq, out of the fighting. after the peace march (and the modification of our ears) molly and i braved the mifflin street block party for a little bit before heading to eat. there are so many rants i could go on about mifflin street, but i won't... right now... next up was the take back the night rally. the abnoxious comments by passing drunken frat boys was maddening, but the rally itself was inspiring. women and men alike came together for a few hours to create awareness of an issue that shouldn't even be an issue. why does violence against women continue to be a such a problem in such a civilized country? i guess the day wraps up like this: violence sucks.

ps
would someone please check out ilovekarlrove.com and tell me what you think. i am so completely confused.