the little things

Today I am thankful for:

cranberry juice
Shawn Colvin
University of Texas maps

My friend Paige took off all of a sudden for Peru for two weeks. This makes more sense when you know that in the last two years or so, she spent 18 months travelling. Two months in Europe, the rest in: India, Nepal, Thailand, Burma, and Vietnam. Also since reentering American life, she's been working her butt off, and has only been home one week in eight and living with her sister when she is home. (Not that there's anything wrong with living with one's sister's family, but one values one's privacy, right?) So it makes even more sense that she'd want to get away. But no beach in Cancun for this intrepid world traveller! She emailed a week ago with tales of Macchu Picchu (sp?) and other wonders--she inspires me! I hope to see her soon and get it from the horse's mouth.

P.S. I am thankful for more than those three things, but I'm sticking to three a day. In case I run out on a particularly dark morning.

back in black

I think maybe the reason I have a hard time keeping up with this blog on a daily basis is the time commitment I envision it as. I'm a compulsive editor--I derive more pleasure from the revision and correction of the text than from its creation. Or at least I can't help myself from the revision...this is part of the reason my NaNoWriMo novel defunked. Is defunct. So I will try not to edit. You get Nice Marmot raw and uncut (with typos and Freudian slips), and hopefully more regular updates. I get a regular little exercise in curbing my compulsive perfectionist nature as regards text. (If you look under my bed, you will see I do not have the compulsive perfectionist nature as regards housecleaning.)

So into the stream of consciousness we will dip each day, no matter how brief, tepid, or cheerless the dip may be.

Thanksgiving: blue skies and mountains. Warm family gathering. Southwestern squashy veggie soup, stuffing, mashy taters, and pie (pecan and pumpkin). Good chats with aunts, uncles, and cousins. Sister hugs. A bad movie: "Alexander." Getting lost on the way home from the outlet mall. A visit to kiddy chaos. Playing with the new digicam. A dusting of cold, dry snow. Player piano player piano.

Back to the grind today, my friends. Hup-la!

kittens and baked goods

MSH worked til 8 lastnight and we went to bed at 9:00. I was tired, too, having spent my evening doing laundry and cleaning the house. But MSH couldn't sleep in the wee hours so my sleep was interrupted, probably explaining my bizarre dreams. One featured: my (currently not living) grandmother fluffing pillows and a little boy who was six inches taller than me. (But he was still a little boy.) The other featured: me escaping from a terrorist organization in Paris and fleeing into a park. A sorority sister was being married in the park in a lavish ceremony--the perfect place for me to hide from the terrorists! Before the ceremony, guests were entertained by 75-ft-plus-tall figures, controlled by people from the inside, inflatable, illuminated, amplified--the first one was a giant two-headed woman, one was a giant plane, some were over 150 feet tall and held up with guide wires. Very weird.

I didn't really sleep in the hour before I got up to go running at Green Lake. I kept thinking I should get up and make some biscuits or maybe...some banana bread! I haven't thus far, but the run was nice. Looks to be another beautiful crisp fall day, which I will spend in the office. But I'm not bitter!

And just yesterday I was thinking I would sucker into getting a cat sooner (I really, really, really, really, really, really want a kitty) if an acquaintance had some they needed to find homes for. And lo, I get to work this morning and my mailbox contains an email with a photo of four adorable kittens. A coworker's cousin is trying to find homes for them--two are white with beige tabby markings and two black. They are, predictably, completely adorable. Will I go look at them? To look at them is to take home at least one! Stay tuned!

sorry

Last Tuesday morning I came down with a bug at work, and didn't go back to work until Friday. It was a fever/chills/lower respiratory type thing, and I didn't really feel like myself again til Sunday.

Friday went to Carmelita for dinner (4 stars out of 5) and "Bridget JOnes: Edge of Reason" (2.75 stars) with Kate. The movie was a lot of fun, but it wasn't, you know. Super DEE dooper. We did espy men in the thyatah, however. INteresting. Also I saw "Down With Love" for the 2nd time on cable over the weekend so Bridget Jones may have suffered by comparison with another, more delicious Renee Zellweger movie. Does anyone else find it fucking insane that they have to get a waifishly thin actress to put on 30 pounds to play Bridget Jones? Couldn't they have gotten a normal woman to play her? It's the waifishly thin that are the rare freaks, people.

Spent most of the weekend watching movies on cable and quilting. I'm very close to finished with Gavin's quilt. But I haven't made much progress on my NaNoWriMo novel! I"ve got to start taking my work keyboard home with me--I don't have an ergonomic keyboard at home, which was never a problem until this month, when I need to type for thousands of words at a stretch. I've gotten really used to an ergonomic one, so a regular one used for any length of time makes my wrists hurt. (Good procrastination excuse, no?!) And the only one they sell in brick stores is the Microsoft MultiMedia or some crap like that: $49. Um. No thanks. So my keyboard will be commuting with me, in the name of NaNoWriMo.

Before I got sick, I was almost completely at end-in-sight status with my work to-do list. Was just about to feel totally in-control and in-charge and very hoity toity. Then a virus struck, I was gone for three days, and I am in a gargantuan pile of shit. I can't even see the tunnel, let alone the light at the end of it, I'm just shoveling and shoveling and hoping someday I get out of the pile so I can get my bearings for the tunnel.

To wit, I must shovel away, and leave you, dear reader.

bright spots

Dear Reader,

I must apologize for my recent absence. I know you've probably been fairly PERISHING without me. But I was sick. And our internet access at home is indisposed. So I was stuck with nothing but 7 channels of HBO and three channels of Encore to keep me company.

Today, before heading to the store, I was craving a nice juicy peach. Of course, it being November and the Northern Hemisphere and all, no peach would be mine. I was belly-aching about this a bit, but then when I got to the store: LO! There were satsumas! Huzzah! A bright spot in an otherwise long and bleak fruit season. I eat these things with chocolatesque zeal. Eat up!

Tonight we are going to eat at Carmelita, a posh vegetarian restaurant, and then to see Bridge Jones: Edge of REason. By we, I mean myself and my well-dressed, energetic, highly competent coworker, Kate. (Obviously, cuz if you know MSH, you know homey don't play that.)

HAPPY FRIDAY TO YA!!!!!!!!

NaNoWriMo checkin

NaNoWriMo word count: 1,893

Don't worry. I plan to defy mathematics in the final two weeks of the month. And besides, I reorganized my bathroom cupboards. Nothing can stop me. Especially now that I've written the ending. I always write the end first. Then I can see where I'm going, even if I have to change it some when I get there. I might have to change it a lot, in this case. I have such a hard time moving FORWARD and writing the next words. I love to go back and reread and edit and edit and edit... Love to rewrite. Writing is hard. But editing often means cutting words out. And when you're aiming for 50,000 words by midnight November 30, every word is precious!

Peace.

on the run

At lunch today I went for a run at Green Lake. A woman was taking a picture with her phone--a picture of a big blue heron, standing nonchalantly at the edge of the lake, not eight feet from the path busy with noontime foot traffic. Also nearby: a blue-black goose and a white goose. It was an odd collection. Usually birds gather together. We call this "flocks."

As I continued along the path, I saw ahead of me two golden retrievers sniffing each other's butts and wagging their tails. Because I have bad eyes and because the goldens were very close in color, this parsed as a headless double-butted dog, wagging its two tails in delight. We call this nearsightedness, myopia, or I refuse to get contacts.

Had a fabulous fun-filled AND accomplishment-filled weekend. My friend Mrs. A (not her real name) was here! We made soup, went to teachings at Seattle's newly opened Nalandabodhi West, watched "The Big Lebowski," purged a bunch of clothes and many other items out of my house, arranged and organized my new creative/retreat space in my basement, organized my bathroom cupboards, went to dinner at the Fremont Classic, organized and purged at Sussespeck's apartment, had a kickin' fondue party with lots of peeps, and talked about scrapbooking. Basically, it was totally fun and totally getting things done. An excellent combination. Mrs. A's ideas and energy and encouragement to shed crap make me feel liberated and inspired!! I highly recommend her.

nothing shocking

It's not just that MSH and I differ politically, it just doesn't have the same importance to him that it does to me. He still doesn't understand why I was bawling Wednesday night, and I don't think he quite believes that many other women, probably women outside my immediate circle, were crying, too. It really freaks him out. Sorry.

I was in a really good mood lastnight because my friend Kirstin was coming. And she did! We made squash soup (yummmmmm) and watched the O.C. premier (yummmmmmm). I'm pretty disappointed there wasn't any hot action in this episode, but I still enjoyed it. Notable elements included:
1. Portland, Oregon! They had views of the city and Seth was camped out in a chic wood-panelled bungalow surrounded by leafy green foliage. Because Portland is rainy, see? THe plants grow and shit. (Seth mentioned they have "real people, real weather" in Portland.) Shout out, O.C. writers. I unsarcastically appreciate the good press for my ex-sort-of-hometown (as you may know, I kept it real in the _Beav_, not Portland itself. Real people. Sweet.
2. Ryan has tried to talk Seth into moving back to Newport, apparently unsuccessfully. And of course, Ryan can't move back in with Seth's parents, cuz that would be effed up. And Ryan just got booted out of the house with his baby mama and her mama. So Ryan goes to the cab, and they're playing this suspenseful music, and you see SEth (thinking) and Ryan (thinking) and Seth has a Van-clad foot a-twitchin' (guys' feet twitch, especially in high school) and then Seth runs through the house and pops open the front door and there's Ryan on the doormat, having deserted his cab and they have this cute exchange and Seth is like "oh dude there's no water polo team here" and between the water polo and just falling short of them RUNNING THROUGH A SOFT-FOCUS FIELD OF DAISIES TOWARD EACH OTHER, it totally seems like they're going to make out! But instead they just go back to Newport.
3. Marissa freaks out and screams (which was fairly freaky) but then she throws a deck chair in the pool. Wow. Scary. I hate it when WATERPROOF FURNITURE GETS THROWN IN THE POOL. Her weird "I must have had Marissa when I was 7 years old" mom was suitably freaked out, though, so maybe that was the point.

Sorry, I didn't mean to talk about the O.C. so much. But it's thooper thweet. And that's all I got because I'm taking the afternoon off so I have to do the old "look busy" routine. ;) Keep it real, Marmots!

last one i promise

From www.getyourwaron.com, which has links to other positive, looking-ahead-type articles:

CHIN UP.
We're smarter than those motherfuckers.
We can learn more quickly than those motherfuckers.
We can be more ruthless than those motherfuckers.
We can be some six-million-dollar motherfuckers ourselves.

Chin up.
We're more American than those motherfuckers.
We're more responsible than those motherfuckers.
We're more compassionate than those motherfuckers.

There's an election in two years.
There's nothing we can't do.

Chin up.
Because it's on, motherfuckers.
It is on.

an open email to jon stewart and the daily show staff

TO: Comedy Central (The Daily Show With Jon Stewart)
FROM: The Marmot
RE: Thank You and Keep It Up!

Dear Jon Stewart and All the Kids at The Daily Show,

You all are goddamn geniuses.

With the poo that has rained down via the Bush Administration for the last four years, you kept us laughing. Without you to deliver current events with your special brand of smart-ass humor, I'd have to stand up and shriek sarcastically at the "mainstream" newscasts myself. And at the end of my workday, I rarely have the energy, and when I do, my husband yells at me from the other room to keep it down.

As I was commiserating lastnight with a group of my fellow Progressives over the reelection of George II, we all echoed the same sentiment: The Daily Show shall be our salvation for the next four years. With your fresh hot laughs, you will keep us from gradually becoming hollow husks reeking of despair. I hope you are taking a little break now, and getting lots of aromatherapy massages for your humor muscles, because we're going to need your best, people. Please, continue to do as you have done, and make us laugh to keep us from crying.

Thank you, Daily Show. Thank God (Buddha, Jehovah, Allah) for you. And for His sake and ours, keep up the brilliant fucking work.

tomorrow IS another day!

Yesterday: Elliott Smith “Either/Or.” Smashing Pumpkins “Siamese Dream.” (But no track 3) And then more and more and more “Either/Or”…

Today: Nickel Creek and Vienna Teng.

Here are some positive thoughts for you Progressive Democrats out there. As my godmother wisely said when she called yesterday, moving me from denial into grief, we must not give in to negative energy, because thinking negatively disempowers us.

1. The world is not going to come to an end.

2. It’s going to be OK.

3. In record numbers, our voices were heard. It was a VERY close race. So, there are millions and millions and millions of people who feel as you do.

4. Millions of people who had never engaged in political activity, did. (Like me!) That momentum will only continue to grow. The progressive movement has changed for the better because of this election.

5. We had a very high voter turnout. This strengthens our democracy.

6. If you were inspired and hopeful during this election season, that’s a _good_ thing. Don’t lose it. Build on it.

7. My (male) friend is excited about a Hillary Rodham Clinton nomination in 2008!

8. From my friend Kate, who worked hard for the Kerry campaign: Bush may have more power, but I (along with the Progressives) have more heart. Heart trumps power as MLK, Mandela, Angelou, Jefferson, Washington, Mother Theresa, Gandhi and so many more have proved.

Here are some ways to cheer up:

1. Call a progressive group that champions a cause important to you. Volunteer.
2. Be in nature. There’s something inherently calming about being in the forest/in the meadow/by the creek, etc.

3. If you have cable, watch “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” This man is hilarious, and honey, we need to laugh. Getting my news pre-sprinkled with sarcastic humor is just about the only way I can take it these days. Which brings me to number 4.

4. Don’t watch the news. I’m not saying you should bury your head in the sand. Stay informed. But the televised news, especially the local news in my town, exists purely to breed fear. Fear never helped anyone accomplish something positive. There are plenty of other ways to get your news—the radio, the internet, the newspaper. These options don’t seem to spew the fear-porn the way TV does.

5. Seek out like-minded people . Talk to them. Talk some more. It helps. Share positive energy and ideas. Hug.

6. Thank people you know who gave their time and energy to defeat Bush. Their sacrifices were important. Let them know.

the morning after

fuck me gently with a chainsaw.

my day so far!

7:33 AM
Wake up. Clash on radio. Kickin'. Jump out of bed and swing arms around. Start taking piles of laundry down hall, throw down stairs. "Vertigo" by U2 on radio. Heavy rain outside. Tell MSH this is because JUSTICE IS RAINING DOWN. MSH dourly informs me that this will keep people away from the polls. I tell him his negativity bounces off of me today, and make rickashay noises.

7:40 AM
Turn off radio when DJ starts blah blah. Crawl over gigantic laundry pile in stairwell; start a load of towels.

7:42 AM
MSH making eggs...

7:45 AM
Explain to MSH why using liquid olive oil will reduce egg stickage to Calphalon One pan. Strip sheets off bed, throw downstairs.

7:47 AM
Shower, try to coerce MSH into revealing who he voted for absentee. MSH dodges question, goes to work. Take pills, spray shower, moisturize and perfume.

7:56AM
Exit shower, put on clothes. Go downstairs to don blue "Alaska is for Players" T-shirt. Briefly consider carrying load of clean laundry upstairs.

8:01AM
Blow-dry hair (incompletely).

8:07 AM
Eat cold eggs out of pan. Yick. Put orange in coat pocket. Briefly consider voting at lunch to save time, but would like to face coworkers having already had my say.

8:09 AM
Panic--has MSH taken out trash?! He has. Add bag of trash to the can. Actually squat black plastic box.

8:11 AM
Walk out of house. Man in blue raincoat with carbon copy papers in gallon Ziploc bag on sidewalk. View suspiciously. Get in car and lock doors. Man seems disoriented, looking at my house, house next door. Hails me. I roll down window. "Does Mike live here?" I give up the goods--the man is making sure Mike voted. "Have you voted?" he asks. "I'm on my way!" I report, and off I go.

8:16 AM
Park at Eckstein Middle School (polling place for 46th precinct). Walk in. Orchestra practicing. Ouch, but still v. cute. Enter school auditorium, no line, but booths are full up. Obtain ballot, stand at piano to vote. So I know hanging chads are bad, but filling in those ovals wank ass!!

8:37 AM
Exit school, head to work. Call office on cell phone to report the obvious: I am late. "But the good news," I tell Kate, " is that I was voting!" "You were SMOKING?!" "No, I was voting!! I voted!!" "Oh!" she says, "Hooray! Thank you thank you thank you!" Kate has a lot of energy and enthusiasm. I keep an eye out, but there is no election hoopla on 35th Ave. NE. Too bad I don't commute under those pedestrian bridges on 99--there there would be some peeps to either flash the victory sign and honk at, or flip the F-bird at. (I know! I know I shouldn't! I'm NAUGHTY!!)

8:44 AM
Arrive work. Hang up coat. Complain about filly-in ovals. Check email. Commence blogging.

Dear Reader: Make sure and vote. Work it. Get down with your bad voting self. Get up!

P.S. Haven't started my novel (for NaNoWriMo.) But I shall!!

jeans

The thing about jeans is there's always ONE good pair. The pair you always want to wear when it's in the wash. The pair you wouldn't wash your car or help your friend move in. But there's only ONE pair like this, right? For example, my One Pair (GAP boot cut stretch) were getting worn out, so I got a pair from Old Navy ( Stretch, "Just Below the Waist"--the highest-on-the-waist cut they have, which means I'm reasonably out of danger of exposing my ass crack. Fuckers.) So now the Old Navy Pair is my new best pair, and if I'm going "out" I would likely dig the Old Navy pair out of the hamper in order to avoid wearing the slightly worn-out GAP pair. (Because jeans don't really get dirty all that quickly, right? Discuss.) Solution, of course, is to purchase a second pair of Old Navy jeans exactly the same. Which would definitely be affordable if they're the same bargain price..hmmm....

We're anxious about the election. We want some Maalox. We're grateful for friends inviting us to dinner so we can stay away from the television.

We had a Halloween party! (This is the MSH and I we, not the Royal We from the previous paragraph.) The party was KICKIN' and included the musical stylings of DJ Michael. We were all up very late, and there were costumes galore. MSH tried 487 times to get the women to take their tops off. Later, he took his bottom off. But I don't mind--work is hell for him right now, so he needed to blow off some steam.

Hope you had a Happy Halloween yourself, dear reader. And though it pains me to note it, I must advise you that there are eight weeks til Christmas!! Aieee! I am feeling relatively in-control because I have already purchased stamps for Christmas cards online. I highly recommend this process.