PickledCherub

Still my Birthday, and things are looking pretty good. The lady at PastaWorks gave me some free cheese, and then I got some other cheese and stuff, and some vegetables. I'm listening to Kate Bush on my new record player. She's awesome. It's so beautiful and sunny outside. The cats are looking out the window. Mom said that I'm the best child she has!

I'm 25 years old today. I don't feel half bad. It's not that big of a deal, but it's nice to be 25 at last.

I miss Chris, so I bought a plant and named him Ernie. I named some of the other plants, too. Elliott and Enrique ("Ricky").

Maraget Cho has a clothing line.

I still don't have any real plans for my Birthday. I'll figure it out tomorrow.

I was so productive today. I cleaned the studio and organized all of the cables and microphones and other little bits of music making. I'm also doing lots of laundry. Two people can make a lot of laundry.

I felt really poopy at work tonight, flushed and sick. I hope that it goes away. It was a slow night, though. Not much money, but slow. Lindsay made a yummy scramble, and I mixed a bunch of leftovers into a delicious treat. And cleaned out the fridge. And did the dishes.

yesterday i woke up with a red bunpy rash all over my body. I'm better now. I guess.

last night I dreamt that I was brushing my teeth and tongue, and the angle and the light was just right, and I could see directly down my esophagus. It looked roughly like the inside of a dryer vent, but with a mouth attached. My mouth. It was awesome and I decided to show Chris and Lindsay. As I turned away from the mirror, I realized that I'd never be able to see inside my esophagus again. At least not by accident.

Since the new food pyramid came out (and all the media hoopla), I've been trying, struggling, to eat more vegetables. And fruits, too. Who eats fruit in the winter anyway? I might buy a clementine as a treat every few days, but what else is there? So this morning, I made myself some breakfast using two of my own guidlines: Use eggs, use vegetables. (And the third, and implicit guidline, Use cheese). I made a scramble with asparagus and broccoli and cauliflower and cheddar and emmenthaler. Chris is still asleep, having stayed up all night with Greg talking about tagging and stuff. Boys.

After work last night, Minna and Meghan and Paige (from Seattle) and Drew came into work, and we sat around and ate the lemon meringue pie someone submited to the Bake-Off, and drank fancy beers. Work went really well last night, despite my dropping a tray of coffees on a blind man (although it was technically his fault, since he was stretching and knocked the tray with his arm), and dropped a very expensive bottle of beer in the kitchen. We were all clumsy Claras last night. I'm hoping Meghan will collaborate with me on my next podcast.

I've been mostly in bed since I got off of work, first with a bit of a crying jag, now with the rumblings of a Holiday Tummy (read: "the shits"). I've finished watching the whole first season of Arrested Development, and now I'm just feeling poopy and tired. Part of me wants to go out to a bar and drink it out of my system. But, really, I just feel like staying in bed, waiting.

Lindsay's little sister Martha is in town for a couple of days, and we went out for pizza at Apizza Scholls (here's a Slow Food discussion about it here) and then to the gellato place on 28th.

Now they say that it's totally cool to get an epidural early on during childbirth. It makes the labor quicker, easier, less painful, and, yes, les laborious. Why is human childbirth so painful? Greg said yesterday that your IQ drops ten points after giving birth. Chris thinks it has more to do with having a newborn baby around. I think it has to do with intense physical trauma. Anyway, I once thought that natural childbirth was the way to go, but now, I'm going to be on epidurals from the third trimester on!

Last night I dreamt about the worst customers in the world, who came in after I'd closed and stayed until the next morning. I asked some guy to pretend to be a cop to get rid of them, but that didn't work, and they ended up stiffing me. It's nice that even when I sleep I can at least feel like I'm at work.

When I was a wee thing, maybe eleven through thirteen, I red countless Grisham novels, all about crafty lawyers. I read and re-read them, as I did with almost every book I had. I was a big re-reader. I even re-read the encyclopedias. Anyway, I read a lot of Grisham novels, and his protagonists always ended up drinking in some Caribbean bar, pounding Red Stripes while making tax shelters or eluding the mafia. I didn't know what Red Stripe was, but I had this great and vivid association with it: it was the drink of the rich, wealthy, and relaxed.

Now I don't so much read Grisham any more, but I sure do love Red Stripe. I know I serve the fanciest beers at work, and I enjoy them, but these Red Stripes are something else. Like PBR, but breadier. Little stout compact round bottles. Easy drinking. Do I feel the in tune with "the spirit, rhythm and pulse of Jamaica and its people"? Not so much. But I do feel a little more like I'm twelve. Drunk, but twelve nonetheless.

I've finally gotten around to pod cast number 2. It went like this:

Here's something on the guitar

Here's a beat

Here's a piano part

Let's mute the piano and sing three parts

Let's put the piano back in. Does it work?

Mostly

Let's attempt to mix it down three times

Let's add an introduction

Let's watch Law and Order: SVU with Lindsay and Sedna

Let's go back upstairs and finish this up

Let's keep drinking Red Stripe

And that's how I make a pod cast. Christ.

Bread, bread, chocolate pudding, fish, will it end?

I made focaccia with a big heart in the middle for dinner last night.

I've started a podcast. You should listen. I'm going to write and record a new song in one sitting, and then post it, as per Greg's suggestion.

Happy Birthday to Marian and Alexia!

I just looked over to watch my cat drink from the water fountain, and I noticed that there was a big electrical cord sitting in the dish.

I think I'm going to give up coffee for Lent, but then again, what did Jesus ever give up for us? I'm switching to Green Tea for a little bit.

What have I been doing with my life? Watching too many DVDs. Drinking too much espresso. Sleeping.

I'm not often alone.

I broke two mason jars and my hippie crystal deodorant today. Lindsay carried me out of the kitchen, into the safety zone, because I was barefoot. I'm in hyper clumsy mode, so it's good I didn't have to go into work today.

Project clean house is still underway. I've got my painting closet almost set up. We put out a lot of recycling. Things are getting cleaner.

I'm working on setting up a "pod-cast" per Greg's suggestion. I remember reading about them a few months ago and thinking, for a bit, about how I could do it. Now I'm almost sure that I can! I think it would be a good way to make me make songs.

I'm watching the local news right now, and there's a story about stolen garden gnomes. Slow news night.