Lest the liberal leaning side of my moderate self forget, this IS still the state that Dubya built. Governor Good Hair, as I've heard him aptly called -- I mean, he does have a nice head of hair, found the perfect soundbite to turn the media's attention.
Perry: Teachers should be allowed to carry guns on campus if appropriately trained and licensed
Sigh. WTF, right?
Home now, after a long weekend away visiting the boy, and as is best in these situations, the homecoming is bittersweet.
Good to be home with the animals and all my little trappings of comfort and routine...and so clumsily exasperating and disappointing to know I will crawl in bed alone tonight, and that tomorrow I won't wake first in the morning and have a moment to notice how long his lashes are before he consciously or otherwise pulls me back into his arms for a few minutes of sleep
Sigh.
It is always the little things, isn't it?
It's going to be a crazy couple of weeks ahead. I have tons of work to catch up on, despite my working remotely, and of course my tri workouts to ramp up in preparation for the September 1 Austin Triathlon. I'm spending the coming weekend in El Paso too, which will present its own training challenges, not to mention the challenges of seeing friends and family and fielding the usual questions and answers. Glad, though, to have the opportunity to be doing too much instead of pining that life is filled with too little this, that, or the other. For now, I'll take the competing interests of work, sport, family, romance, writing, and leisure as they come, and try to make more hours out of the usual 24 in the day.
Just finished paying bills and I figured I might as well post.
So much going on in the neighborhood...weddings, site launches, moves...it seems we're all taking wild leaps lately. More power to us! After all, it's the things you don't do that you most regret.
It's that kind of guilty thought mongering that I used to finally lure two of my best girlfriends--the two I kept from high school--to visit me this weekend. It was their first visit to see me out here eh-vah! And I've been in Austin since 2001. Pathetic, no?
We had a great time mostly hanging out, razzing on eachother, and catching up. We did go see Brian Pohsen on Saturday night at Cap City Comedy club, courtesy of two co-workers who are also local stand-up comics. And today we went a little farther out into the hill country to my favorite restaurant, Trattoria Lisina, on the Mandola Estate Winery.
We had a long, leisurely, Italian style lunch and then came home in time to finish the last 3 episodes of the first season of The Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Like me, the girls are now hooked.
I hung out with another buddy of mine after I dropped the girls at the airport and now I'm here, starting to drift into sleep and about to teeter off my kitchen chair. I hope I will wake up for the boy's call later tonight, but if not I'm certain he will understand that I've likely slipped into a much needed coma...
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
On whom do you have your most embarrassing/scariest crush?
Submitted by Jillzey.
Oh Tony, Tony, Tony...
I love me some Anthony Bourdain. I’m not entirely sure what it is…it’s not that he’s movie star good looking, though I wouldn’t exactly call him homely either. He’s tall, lanky, with too-sunned skin and the look of a smoker, which he is or has been at times. He does have quite a charming smile that reaches his eyes, and he’s funny as helI, with a mischievous look of the grown-up bad boy about him. Still, I wouldn’t say he’s ‘my type.’ And yet, there is the definite possibility that I would cast shy eyes down at my toes if I’d ever the opportunity to meet him in person. (Either that or drunkenly attempt to jump his bones.) I would hope, though, that I’d have the maturity to shake his hand, look him in the eye, and say thanks instead.
Crush aside, I’m know I’m not alone when I say that for a clutch of reasons I admire Bourdain’s approach to travel, food, and culture. The ultimate American asshole—dry, jaded, and seeming to expect the worst of everything—he is about the best example of cultural ambassadorship I think this country has…on mainstream TV or anywhere else for that matter. And maybe that’s where the attraction comes into play. (That and the grown up bad boy thing...)
The cadence of his voice in the setup narration, discussing the clichés of the American tourist travel experience, says, ‘Fuck off. I don’t want to know you.’ Yet in the next moment he can be seen to offer a friendly handshake, a humble head nod of appreciation…and most importantly, self-deprecating acknowledgment of his misconceptions, his shortcomings, and his pleasant surprise at finding, again, so much beauty in the simple-nothing-special food, routine, and celebrations of whatever locale he is visiting.
Don’t misunderstand. His show is not some slick pre-scripted Samantha Brown travelogue. The show doesn’t stay in the guidebooks, and it doesn’t toe the line of any convention and visitors’ bureau. It’s not a sugar coating, but a painting of a reality in all its heartbreaking dualism…ugliness and kindness, exploitation and triumph, passion and apathy, poverty and wealth…all through the joy of food.
Ah…a man after my own heart.
I recommend the episodes of No Reservations where Anthony goes to Hawaii, to the U.S.- Mexico border, to China, and to Beirut. All of the episodes, frankly, are pretty great but these are good examples of both the food and social commentary that appear in each episode.
(It just so happens I wrote this on the way back from Hawaii last week...actually, I slept on that flight...I wrote this on the leg from Phoenix to Austin after I watched the Hawaii episode on iTunes, but I digress.)
Share a song that explains your current state of being.
This song just feels like me right now. Plus I love the lyric, "You know you're something special and you look like you're the best." Just call me Rio. :)
There's this addiction I'm feeding. Every day I'm working out...it's hard to take a break. If I'm outside, my mind clears and I enjoy the beauty or the heat or the rain around me while I push myself...steady, even, breathe, go harder, faster, slow the pace, pick it up...If I'm inside, my mind clears and I look into my reflection in the mirror, or the voice that echoes back against the soundtrack. My time in the gym, on the bike, on the track, in the pool...it feels a little like punishment and pleasure at the same time, an exercise in pushing my body beyond itself and my mind outside itself and somewhere in the middle is where I meet.
I've been researching and putting together a couple of weeks of lifting routines to change it up from what I've already been doing. My interest's been peaked in no small way by the boy's discipline, but I've wanted to go about this on my own. It's my way...not to ask for help. I was already lifting once or twice a week, but now I think I'm going to go intense for a bit while the tri-club is on a 2 week break. I plan to keep up the swimming and let the bike and long runs go for a little while. My left knee is a bit tweaked...something from Hawaii maybe...and I think I need to lay off on the high impact activity. Anyhow, I started tonight, piecing together a 20 minute speed cardio run (I will be switching to elliptical to lay off the knee tomorrow), new movements for the abs using a ball with 2 minutes of jump rope between, and then day 1 of a 6 day split using free weights and various machines. Legs tomorrow. I'm so excited.
Yes, I've managed to take even this to the geek level.
And then, there's that soundtrack I mentioned...the one that gets into my head and lets me use the beat to set the pace, lets me soothe and shove and build up my ego. I love when music does that.
There are a few songs I've kept with me over the years, even as my tastes have changed, to use for motivation. You might laugh, but I swear that almost the entire soundtrack of the original Mortal Kombat movie is perfection. Don't knock it till you try it.
Of course, I'm always adding a few new songs from time to time. The best eventually slip into permanent rotation. For now, there is one relatively new addition that's on its way to becoming a fixture. Since her newest album came out in January, Mary J's been playing in my ear as often as possible. I had to leave the latter half of the album behind--it was too much looking back instead of looking forward--but the first few songs are just perfect beats and crazy sexy cool Mary J. And "Grown Woman" is perfectly paced with lyrics of confidence--in a non-Oprah bullshit kind of way--and a little 'fuck-you-very-much' thrown in for good measure. I highly recommend it. [Note: It's heavy on the hip hop and pretty loud and obnoxious from the beginning--you may not want to play this at volume in the office. Oh and be sure to kick up your bass--the Vox player seems to default to a pathetically low level.]
And here's my favorite bit from Mortal Kombat. I use it with yoga, or for warm up or cool down in general. It just about screams 1990s.
Yup, I'm back and just a wee jet lagged. Still, a little bit goes a long way and I'm exhausted. No really, I pulled quite the dork move today. After calling in for 2 conference calls, I left for the office and only made it about halfway before I realized I desperately needed some coffee. So I stopped at Starbucks...and fell asleep multiple times while waiting in the drive-thru. So many times that after I was handed my grande soy latte, I pulled into a parking spot, set my phone alarm for 10 minutes, and passed the F out.
But I'm okay now. Multi-tasking in an all-hands meeting...in a darkened room no less, and I'm still awake.
The trip was lovely and exciting and challenging. I think the highlight for me was being able to catch a wave on my own, paddling furiously to the speed of the wave, and riding it all the way in without falling off. Another unexpected pleasure happened after my workday in L.A. when I drove through part of my old SC neighborhood and had the greatest burrito ever, washing it down with perfectly sweetened horchata. See pics of all the exploits below
I'm turning my trip into one long training jag. I'm loving it.
- Ran on Saturday morning around Princeville neighborhood and a couple hotel beaches and trails--about 3 miles
- Drove to Hanalei Beach early Sunday morning and ran 4 miles, about 1.5 in shoes, the rest barefoot; then abs work, some yoga, and swim--actually, just getting accustomed to swimming in open water--first time in non-pool since that one episode of water panic
- Today, up at 3:30 a.m. for work, went to local golf club at 7 (the noon hour back in austin) where my pop's round of golf allowed me a free day pass--did 15 minutes high intensity cardio, then weights--day 2 of a new upper/lower split; abs work; back to work until noon; then to Hanalei for surfing lesson (after catching a few with the instructor's help, I insisted, stubbornly, on trying on my own, so I missed a lot of the waves my sibs caught, but...I did catch one on my own in the end!); then after brief shopping and dinner in Hanalei, I headed back to the golf club for 300 m swim in the lap pool and some sauna time.
I can barely keep my eyes open. It's bedtime. Especially since I need to be up again at 3:30. No pics today--too active for camera work. Hope all is well with the hood. Goodnight.
Woke early this morning to see the sky change from cornflower to brilliant blue. The condo is lovely, well cared for, and has everything we need. Molly and I went running this morning past wild chickens, tourists, and beautiful foliage and beach views...did some hill and sand running too. We came back to the condo and made breakfast--eggs and fresh baked wheat bread with juice and mint tea--that we ate out on one of 2 lanais. And it's barely 11 a.m. Good morning to all.
It's just after 6 a.m. and I've opened the door of my hotel room balcony to smell ocean air...I'm staying at a place in El Segundo, not far from my old haunts of Hermosa and Manhattan Beach, though considerably more inland. A great big part of me wants to ditch the working remotely routine today, throw on my workout stuff and just spend the morning at the beach, running the strand and having breakfast at Good Stuff. It certainly beats the hotel fitness center I'm about to hit up instead. Of course, tomorrow morning I'll have the North Shore of Kauai to run...so maybe I'll just wait to get my beach time in then.
But I do love L.A. Walking off the plane last night, stepping onto walkway from the doors, it was just a rush of memory as the air dropped to a comfy 68 degrees, perpetually breezy; I took a deep breath and sighed. That's what the air is like right now
On some level I recognize that the air is some of the most polluted in the world...that last night as we were making our descent we couldn't see the Hollywood sign or the buildings of Century City because the soup of smog was so thick...but eh, what the hell. It's Califas. You win some, you lose some.
When I came out here for college I spent most of my time doing poorly in school (trauma + depression = academic probation) and letting the city heal me. I ate my way through all the fabulous food--of all cultures and quantities--that the city offers, swam in the ocean and attempted to surf with new friends...I made local buddies and dated a wiry Persian boy who still lived with his parents in Claremont...I loved spending the weekend at their house...the scent of jasmine and juniper, taste of homemade Persian food, and a grandma who liked me made up for the coolness that mama and sister eyed me with (I'm sure they still thought their 26 year old boy was only dating a 19 year old for, well, nefarious reasons...and that I was the temptress, but I digress). I bought an annual passport to Disneyland and treated the place like a public park. I'd wander through in the afternoons and evenings, looking at the decorations and people watching, not getting on any rides, but generally drinking "The Happiest Place on Earth" kool-aid. And through it all, I wrote my ass off and spent hours poring over online kindred spirits "web logs" (yes, before blog was coined as a phrase, and before sites like vox made life easy...in particularly, Maggy , Derek, and others fed my heart and mind).
Yes, I would say that L.A. was good to me...like anything worth doing, it took a lot of work and it was the setting of many a lesson learned, but we've come through the rough times like champs.
There's a whole lot I hate about L.A. but you've heard them all from others before, and besides, it's not nice to criticize your host. Ultimately, L.A. and I have an enduring long distance friendship...despite pain, heartache, and financial ruin, we're still on speaking terms and can even have a good time together. And when I come to town, she pulls out all the stops for me.
Maybe that's part of why I love L.A.... L.A. still loves me.
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
