happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear meeee, happy birthday to meeeeee

this is a shout out to my roommate who said, when confronted with a progressively slower and slower draining shower, "Maybe it will just fix itself."

at the time i rolled my eyes and said 'yeah right, things don't just fix themselves!' on the inside, but you know what? the damn thing fixed itself.

this is me, going to bed before it's dark out.

today i ate the first blackberry of summer.

q: what is worse than running over one roadkill on your bike on the way home?

a: running over two. duh! :P

i can keep up with e-tards and still be dancing strong long after their high has worn off.

now if only there was somewhere to dance like that every weekend.

ironically, our provided-by-the-city water saving super efficient shower head has started dripping.

it's me against the bugs.

i went to go see this guy perform today:



the acoustics in that video are much higher quality than at the local library.

lost my phone.

found my phone, with a shattered screen.

was complimented.

was serenaded by proxy.

made pots and pots and pots of coffee.

made valuable business contacts.

listened to music, watched dance.

danced.

was complimented on dancing.

met people.

defused a nasty situation before it got nasty.

listened to world class eastern european music.

biked 16 miles. yeah. 16.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/20/catastrophic.insurance.invincibles/index.html#cnnSTCText

"Instead of paying exorbitant prices, many young people choose to remain uninsured, risking injury while harboring the belief that youth alone can buffer them from illness."

Yeah, right, I totally CHOOSE to remain uninsured. I mean, I could stop getting mani/pedis and going to the spa every week, but having health insurance is just not that high on my priority list.


"You would hear stories about people giving fake names at the ER or blowing out before being discharged so they wouldn't be responsible for the bill," said McPartland."

Yes, that is because they have a serious injury that needs medical treatment, and they cannot afford it. Obviously they should not pay rent, or go without food for several months to pay their several thousand dollar medical bill out of pocket. Bankrupting yourself to pay for your health is the american way of life!

Dance when you're broken open.
Dance when you've torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance when you're perfectly free.
Struck, the dancer hears a tambourine inside her,
like a wave that crests into foam at the very top,
Begins.
Maybe you don't hear that tambourine,
or the tree leaves clapping time.
Close the ears on your head,
that listen mostly to lies and cynical jokes.
There are other things to see, and hear.
Music. Dance.
A brilliant city inside your soul!

today is a beautiful california winter day, when the sun is shining and it's warm brisk and feels like it's spring even though it's january. because of this, i'm going to go for a walk with my roommate and her kids, instead of getting a job.

children are a major distraction from everything that you don't want to do.

falling asleep while reading the old man and the sea brings very strange dreams.

okay. the city.

firstly, there is a city-ness in big cities, that i think is probably the same no matter where you go. buenos aires. chicago. new york. philadelphia. grand rapids. there are streets and shops and apartments and cafes and kiosks selling magazines and porn and candy. so in this regard, buenos aires is familiar.

the streets all go one way, and most of the cars spew exhaust , enough to make me light headed if the wind isn't blowing. "we'd be more polluted than l.a. if we where in a valley." i'm told, but because the city is flat, and next to the ocean, the air is reasonably clear.

the walls of every building, every monument, are covered with political graffiti. from rhymes about the president's pants to economic policy to questions that otherwise wouldn't be asked. (where is diego?) i ask what they mean, and i'm told that people are still occasionally disappeared here. i feel guilty, because there's more anti-bush graffiti in this country thousands of miles away than in the u.s.

there are purple flowering trees everywhere here, that are utterly gorgeous, and no one knows what they're called.

the buildings are ancient and beautiful. people casually live and graffiti in works of art. it's special, to live somewhere that is literally history. it kills me to not have a camera, but it's probably a good thing, because otherwise when i got back my friends would be treated to rolls and rolls of architecture shots.

i really, really suck at journaling my experiences. whenever i'm doing something unusual or worth writing about, i'm too busy doing stuff. so i end up only updating when i'm bored.

i'm in buenos aires, and i'll do my gosh darned best to write about it... tomorrow. really. i swear.

hahaha, i have figured out my costume!

i am going as snow white for halloween- i can do it without buying anything, get it put together in one day and i've never done it before.

suck it, to all the people trying to get me to go out and buy stuff!

hearing an iconic leonard cohen song sung all smooth jazz style by some chick on the radio at 4:00 in the morning? extremely surreal.

i have had my last night at work, and now, after eight months of working the night shift and not being able to fall asleep every morning... i am fucking exhausted.

irony is a bitch.

i am officially tired of working nights. it was fun for a while, but it's definitely not a viable long term option.

the pizza smelled delicious, but did it taste delicious? NO.

yuck. next time, stick with smelling.

at work today i not once, but twice, narrowly missed getting morphine spit in my face.

however, i got to ride my bike through a flock of wild turkeys on the way home, so that makes up for it.