I'm so hungry

Last week I was craving chocolate cake, but I was too lazy to bake my own, so I sauntered over to the Hostess display at my local Safeway. It took me a while, but I finally decided on a Suzy Q. I took it home, ate it, and haven't been able to stop thinking about getting another one since then. Trouble is, I haven't been able to find another Suzy Q! Twinkies, yes. Ding-dongs, yes. Ho-ho's, yes. But where are the Suzy Q's??? I'm going crazy here! I need my fix! Even finding a picture of a Suzy Q on the internet was difficult. One person who devoted their website to the luscious treats said that it took them 3 hours to even find a picture of it.

It doesn't help that lately I have been really, really, hungry. Every day at about 10 am I'm thinking, "I'm so hungry, I could eat everything!" Literally. Everything. Of course, I don't eat everything--just my yogurt or some other snack. I don't know why I'm so voraciously hungry. Just before the Suzy Q incident, I was at work and I was feeling so weak and drained that I thought I was coming down with the flu. But after work I decided to have McDonald's for dinner, and afterward, I felt good as new. Since then, I've been wanting to eat everything. And it's not as if I've gained 50 pounds or anything. I'm just hungry. I want my Suzy Q's.

Where are they?????

Oh Happy Day!

In today's mail I received a large envelope which contained this:



It's a hand-made, signed copy of On Ensemble's first CD, Works in Progress '04 Live. I am completely thrilled by this! First off, it's hand-made, and I know a thing or two about working in editions with paper. Folding, cutting, stuffing, trimming--I've been there. This is beautiful. The bamboo green CD cover opens like a flower to reveal the real treasure--the CD itself. It contains 4 tracks from a concert On Ensemble held in December.

If you haven't heard of On, check them out:
http://www.onensemble.org/

Here you can find out all sorts of information about On, taiko, and how to get their new CD. You can also hear a track off the CD. A line from the personalized (to little ole me!!) letter says: "In contrast to the recent uproar from the recording industry about online music downloading, On Ensemble believes that sharing music is a good thing." In other words, they encourage sharing. I suggest you pick up your own copy of the CD while they're still available, cause I'm not sharing mine anytime soon. Uh-uh. Mine's in my walkman and it's staying there.

I could never even imagine being as cool as On are. I once took a dance workshop with Michelle. She was graceful and awe-inspiring, while I, on the other hand, looked like one of those newborn african gazelles, teetering and tottering this way and that like I was just learning how to walk. Come to think of it, I still look like that.

It's not like I even talk this much in real life . . .

so don't get used to me blogging several times a day, or even on a daily basis. Sheesh! No one is that interesting. I'm just trying to figure out how to use this blog thingie. Consider this entry, and any others today, a test.

This is not how to play chappa

No, no, no! It is important to keep your head away from the chappa at all times. Fingers and toes too. Last week, I was suddenly forced to play atarigane, an equally, undeniably loud clanging instrument. It kind of looks like a large, metal petri dish that is hit with a small mallet made from deer horn (deers are messengers of the gods by the way, and I love deer). Not only had I absolutely no experience playing the thing, but it was for a video to try to get into a taiko playing competition. I had to learn how to get a good sound out of the thing, dance around with it, and make up patterns to match the song we were performing--all on the spot. Talk about pressure! I pretended like I knew what I was doing, and no one really noticed, so I guess it'll work.

Hangin' with Haruki

There are times, especially in the middle of the night or on weekends, when I don't want the Haruki Murakami novel I'm reading to end. I love to inhabit the anal-retentive, obsessive compulsive worlds that he lays out. In one of his novels, the protagonist is ironing his shirts, telling us that there are 16 steps (or something like that) involved in ironing a dress shirt. I so love that! I especially love the moments the protagonists are in their homes, between oh-so-Haruki existential moments, and are just being. They go shopping for groceries and shoelaces and razors and sit at home sipping beer and listening to classical music while his famous spaghetti sauce simmers away at the stove and the cat naps. If only you could hang out with fictional characters!

The fate of the dojo

My dear dojo is yet again on the chopping block. Money hungry Landlord Man is psycho and going through with a lawsuit against us to get us evicted. It actually took him several tries to finally figure out the correct procedure to bring about an eviction. It's all just awful. We go to court on Friday and I suppose we'll learn more about our fate then. The fact is, the tenant next door wants to take over our space so he can add shower and sauna facilities to his gym, which by the way, is always empty. I hope he goes down. If I had my mother's power of cursing people (which is real by the way, it actually works! People have literally died or succomed to other horrible things once my mom makes up her mind she hates someone) I would curse him. Or the landlord. I can't decide, and since I don't know if I have mom's powers, I shouldn't toy with my cursing capabilities. What if I'm more evil and powerful than mom? What if by simply invoking their name they suddenly trip over their cat or something? I should be very careful.

So, what have I to blog about?

I love to read blogs. They're addictive and you get to peek into other people's lives even though they're the ones showing them off. I guess it's only fair then that I start my own blog. I asked KB, "So if I had a blog, what would I talk about?" And she came up with all sorts of interesting topics, but I don't know if this will really pan out. Maybe I'll blog a couple of times, but then things will get busy and I'll keep putting it off until google sends me an email saying yoo-hoo? if you don't blog we're cutting you off.

But ok, let's give it a shot. Speaking of cutting you off, that's what my boss asks me every Friday around 4 p.m.--"So when are you cutting me off?" What that means, is when is the last moment she can give me files to process before I produce her precious weekly report. The weekly is a report that shows our progress and compares it with the last 4 years of data we have for the same week. I don't mind producing this report because right now, we're doing fabulously. But I like the idea of my boss asking me what time she's cutting me off because what it really means, is what time would I like to get the weekend started. When I cut her off, I get to let the files pile up, hide unfinished work in a bottom drawer, and kick my feet up and surf the internet. When 5 o'clock rolls around I'm out of there.

Which gives the impression that I have wild weekends or something. But no, weekends are for relaxing, and weekends are for recharging my batteries. I feel like I'm constantly sleep deprived, but even on weekends I don't manage to sleep in much. This weekend, I took a nap, which is something I haven't done in months, I know because I mentally went over every last weekend and couldn't think of a time when I was able to nap.