Undermine the underground
Sep. 11th, 2007 05:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
raybearI've gotten rather diligent about pursuing free tickets contests and promotions, putting my name in for things that even just remotely interest me, especially knowing they're free. Its how I ended up seeing Janeane Garaefalo and some other dude do stand-up (which ended up being the activity for a first date, and I will say, taking a blind date to something like that is a good revealer of how things stand, i.e., if they are laughing at the fcked-up unfunny jokes, I'm glad to know this now before I got swindled into sleeping or making out with them). A couple days ago, I won tickets to see Emmylou Harris at Ravinia this upcoming weekend. Luckily, DYA is free that night too, so we're making it a picnic date night. I only own Emmylou Harris albums where she's collaborated with other people, I like her, but I'm not some huge fan, but I trust it will be a good show. Plus, free. Plus, lying on a blanket and eating good snacks with DYA. So yesterday, the envelope arrived with my tickets and there were three of them, not two. Strange. Since it was a planned date night, I decided to offer the ticket on Craigslist to a stranger and was sort of overwhelmed by the response. And by the number of things in the FREE section. I had never really explored this part of Craiglist fully, but it might become a new hobby. There's something about the direct connection aspect, the idea of offering new homes, of wanting to relinquishing things into the world but have them be used and not just tossed into a landfill or gather dust in the back of a thrift store. But also, so many things available! I'm in the midst of wanting to get rid of things, but still.
Except for towels in the bathroom. We need some new towels badly. And like underwear, socks, and undershirts, I'm not really wanting to get those secondhand. I have my limits, even about community-minded free-lovin' bartering.
For the past few days, I have been in a state of ever-so-slightly manic. Except, I think maybe I'm just happy, or 'in good spirits' as the kids say these days, but I'm so used to working really hard to get myself moving and going and living, that when I'm actually antsy and bouncy and easily motivated, I suddenly feel compelled to pathologize it.
Here's a random list of things that I'm obsessing about:
Patak's Biryani Paste. Oh, this stuff is great. You cook some onions, add this paste, chicken, tomatoes, water, rice, cover and simmer and heavenly. The first time I did it plain, just adding spinach. Today I did it using coconut milk instead of water and added peas. Amazing, amazing. When I go back to the store, I want to try them all. I know, I'm trying to be all "eat from things within 100 miles" but I think hitting 90% of that goal is fine and recognizing the pleasure in the privilege of delicious canned spices from Britain that enable yummy meals at home.
smelling good. This isn't new, its just sometimes my campaigns vary. On Saturday I took![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
torreycanyon to Merz's and we were perusing a long time in the men's toiletries products and he came across Helan Natural products and I want very badly to have them all, because the scent is exactly what I love, a variation of bay rum, but less sweet and candylike, and more grassy in how it complements the spice. I'm slightly disappointed and amused in how much in love I am with a perfume that seems to pride itself on perfectly encapsulating the magical notions of 18th century colonialism. But hey. I was trying to conserve money though, and instead only spent $6 on a bar of soap from Pre De Provence, and it smells great, but it dries out my skin a bit, which is not so much needed as fall seems to be bearing down on us quickly, which means dry skin season in Chicago. But, unscrambled gave me three - three! - bars of homemade soap. I might start bathing twice a day. Also, I've been using aromatherapy in the form of essential oils for ritual stuff, but also digging through my imps of BPAL and being more adventurous in going out the door. anjibobanji wrote today about putting on perfume for bed, and I'm trying that next. Cause she's got lots of good ideas, that one. But, I'm still obsessed with that vetiver&rum in bottles with ships on them. I got a courtesy call from my student loan people today, in case I had questions about my upcoming first payment, so, that helps me not cave.
medical maintenance. Tomorrow is my last root canal visit (I hope). But I realized I'm now overdue for cleaning and check-up. Am I right in assuming that there will probably be no cavities found? That during this year of dental work, they would have been noticed then? So this will just be scraping and cleaning and a lecture on flossing, right? Also tomorrow, I'm going to get an eye exam, and I think it will be covered by insurance. The glasses, no, but the exam, yes, I think. Then I will take my prescription to my favorite guy at New Days optical and hopefully get a pair of prescription sunglasses too. I know its fall, not summer, but its sunny in the winter time too. But the real thing I'm trying to build up my courage for is to make an appointment with a new primary care physician, because I think its time to leave Dr. Snag. Nothing happened specifically, just more of a gut thing, and the goal is to finally talk to someone about possible digestive health issues that I've just been constantly self-diagnosing and erratically treating, as well as finally look into getting the ball rolling on a hysterectomy. Which is really about getting the ball rolling on all the legal rigamarole required to obtain a proper passport.
< / list>
This last part reminds me of how I recently watched Wanda Sykes: Sick & Tired and she had this whole bit about the space program and wanting to build a space station on the moon so we can travel there, and she's like 70% of americans don't have a passport -- we can't get people to leave the country, much less the planet. Also, she called NASA welfare for really really smart people. They're so smart, they're useless, so we let them work on things that are completely irrelevant to 99.9% of people's lives, like figuring out there used to be water on Mars.
But the funniest bit was the part about the mouse on fire.
Except for towels in the bathroom. We need some new towels badly. And like underwear, socks, and undershirts, I'm not really wanting to get those secondhand. I have my limits, even about community-minded free-lovin' bartering.
For the past few days, I have been in a state of ever-so-slightly manic. Except, I think maybe I'm just happy, or 'in good spirits' as the kids say these days, but I'm so used to working really hard to get myself moving and going and living, that when I'm actually antsy and bouncy and easily motivated, I suddenly feel compelled to pathologize it.
Here's a random list of things that I'm obsessing about:
Patak's Biryani Paste. Oh, this stuff is great. You cook some onions, add this paste, chicken, tomatoes, water, rice, cover and simmer and heavenly. The first time I did it plain, just adding spinach. Today I did it using coconut milk instead of water and added peas. Amazing, amazing. When I go back to the store, I want to try them all. I know, I'm trying to be all "eat from things within 100 miles" but I think hitting 90% of that goal is fine and recognizing the pleasure in the privilege of delicious canned spices from Britain that enable yummy meals at home.
smelling good. This isn't new, its just sometimes my campaigns vary. On Saturday I took
torreycanyon to Merz's and we were perusing a long time in the men's toiletries products and he came across Helan Natural products and I want very badly to have them all, because the scent is exactly what I love, a variation of bay rum, but less sweet and candylike, and more grassy in how it complements the spice. I'm slightly disappointed and amused in how much in love I am with a perfume that seems to pride itself on perfectly encapsulating the magical notions of 18th century colonialism. But hey. I was trying to conserve money though, and instead only spent $6 on a bar of soap from Pre De Provence, and it smells great, but it dries out my skin a bit, which is not so much needed as fall seems to be bearing down on us quickly, which means dry skin season in Chicago. But, unscrambled gave me three - three! - bars of homemade soap. I might start bathing twice a day. Also, I've been using aromatherapy in the form of essential oils for ritual stuff, but also digging through my imps of BPAL and being more adventurous in going out the door. anjibobanji wrote today about putting on perfume for bed, and I'm trying that next. Cause she's got lots of good ideas, that one. But, I'm still obsessed with that vetiver&rum in bottles with ships on them. I got a courtesy call from my student loan people today, in case I had questions about my upcoming first payment, so, that helps me not cave.medical maintenance. Tomorrow is my last root canal visit (I hope). But I realized I'm now overdue for cleaning and check-up. Am I right in assuming that there will probably be no cavities found? That during this year of dental work, they would have been noticed then? So this will just be scraping and cleaning and a lecture on flossing, right? Also tomorrow, I'm going to get an eye exam, and I think it will be covered by insurance. The glasses, no, but the exam, yes, I think. Then I will take my prescription to my favorite guy at New Days optical and hopefully get a pair of prescription sunglasses too. I know its fall, not summer, but its sunny in the winter time too. But the real thing I'm trying to build up my courage for is to make an appointment with a new primary care physician, because I think its time to leave Dr. Snag. Nothing happened specifically, just more of a gut thing, and the goal is to finally talk to someone about possible digestive health issues that I've just been constantly self-diagnosing and erratically treating, as well as finally look into getting the ball rolling on a hysterectomy. Which is really about getting the ball rolling on all the legal rigamarole required to obtain a proper passport.
< / list>
This last part reminds me of how I recently watched Wanda Sykes: Sick & Tired and she had this whole bit about the space program and wanting to build a space station on the moon so we can travel there, and she's like 70% of americans don't have a passport -- we can't get people to leave the country, much less the planet. Also, she called NASA welfare for really really smart people. They're so smart, they're useless, so we let them work on things that are completely irrelevant to 99.9% of people's lives, like figuring out there used to be water on Mars.
But the funniest bit was the part about the mouse on fire.
