Northfield in May

It's cold. I'm at Carleton for the weekend for more of my volunteer stuff. And it's cold. Okay, yes, I'm the jerk who ran around California for four years saying, "If you can breathe, it ain't cold." And in a sense that is true. But seriously, a five minute walk on May second should not leave my knuckles stiff and my ears numb.

So now I'm sitting in the Goodbye Blue Monday coffee house - ah, Blue Monday. I've got my laptop on a sticky, yellow, Formica table, which is painfully retro in its coolness. The music is downbeat and inaccessible and I'm not quite apathetic enough to really occupy this space in any other than a sarcastic manner. Plus I need to go to the bathroom but I don't want to either leave my laptop unsupervised nor pack it all up for a four minute sojourn. So I'll have to make this a quick post.

I feel nostalgic and sad and very loving towards the campus and yet very trapped by it all at once. I remember being seriously bummed by cold weather in May, and yet thinking about snow this afternoon I felt almost homesick. I feel at a huge crossroads with lots of options down very unknown paths - mostly career-wise, but also in terms of what city Matt and I should really lay down roots in. Just when I thought I had made my peace with being in So Cal for the foreseeable future, my tremendous capacity for indecision rears its ugly head again. I finally told Matt that with anything more important than dinner or weekend plans he should wait to hear the same answer out of my mouth four consecutive times at least a day apart each before he believes me. I mean, ask him what my current top priority redecorating purchase is. Go ahead. Poor guy. The good news is I almost never act impulsively on anything more momentous than shoes.

So you can see how I ended up in dire need of this cup of hot cocoa I just slurped down. I always find myself drinking the cocoa faster than I meant to in an attempt to get the whipped cream before it melts. Didn't think to get a spoon until I was half done with the cup.

Sign

You know you're a finance geek when you see a Better Business Bureau sign on a business and think, "wow, only one grade shy of junk bond status."

Business Idea

I think we should start a travel company which focuses on eating and then working off the calories. So like, huge awesome local pancake genius breakfast, bike ride past the river, fancy lunch, nap, yoga class, jog around downtown, huge dinner, moonlit stroll, epsom salts bath, bed, as a typical day's plan. I would SO take that trip.

Kickboxing! RRRROWR!

I went to kickboxing class last night. It was awesome! I mean this quite literally - I am in awe that I neither injured myself nor barfed. Our instructor, Attilla, is aptly named. He is a Hungarian immigrant, and seems as broad as he is tall. This is an exaggeration but anyway. Interesting to note - all these kickboxing instructors and even competitive boxers at my gym have these total teddy bear personalities. Perhaps it's because they can afford to? "I know you aren't going to mess with me, so I don't have to put on a grumpy front." Or something.

Anyway, this is fabulous exercise. It's challenging enough coordination-wise that I am distracted from the fact that I'm working really hard and sweating a lot. I have also recently discovered the joy of the epsom salt bath.

Year-end post

And so the Year of the Something has drawn to a close. Well, here on the Left Coast it's got a few hours of partying left in it, but I'm scared of New Year's Eve drivers (having lost a friend to one in high school) so we're hiding at home and listening to interesting music, making a yummy dinner, and relaxing. I have a glass of White Truck (Red Truck is better but this is quite tasty) and the hubby is on zucchini duty, so all is well. My carpool home took me past Colorado Blvd (Rose Parade route) which is in full Running Amok mode already, including caravans of VW microbusses and idiots blocking the intersection and getting out of their cars to make angry noises at each other. I think when we finally own a house one thing that would be fun to do would be to have a New Year's Eve slumber party. I like New Year's parties but I don't want my friends driving around with lunatics on the streets. Well, okay, drunk lunatics. I realize the lunatics are there every day of the year, but they are particularly bad this night. So a New Year's Slumber Party seems like the right answer, but most of us have outgrown sleeping bags on the living room, so I'm going to need some more bedrooms.

But my point was going to be to reflect on 2007. It has been a good year, I think. We attended three weddings. Friends had babies (on purpose). I didn't have to take any big exams. I didn't clonk any heads together. Vocational things progressed for both me and my hubby. We got to do a lot of travel and fun things like that. We have a lot to be grateful for - a warm home, plenty of food, clean water and medical care at our beck and call, and most of all, one another. Yes, I would say it was a good year. I even exercised some - and kept a log of it all year, which I'm a little afraid to look at, although the last quarter of the year was pretty strong on that front.

We joined a newly-started book club and made new friends. I got a new car (because I totaled the old one with a baby in the back seat but let's stay positive here - the baby is fine and her parents are still my friends - yet more for which I can be grateful!) I read a lot of books, and enjoyed most of them. I started a blog, which I even write in sometimes. I baked a lot of bread. I rode my bicycle twice (an opportunity for more progress in 2008). I outlined a book I want to write. I sang in front of my whole company (upon request- long story) and they appear to have liked it. I got to know my sister-in-law and her honey better (and like them even more!) I can think of more things, too.

Thank you all for your contributions to my well-being in 2007. I lift my glass to you and look forward to a lovely 2008!

Spendy Jeans

There are a bunch of new boutiques in Claremont, so that now I have at least three options for stores that would love to charge me over $100 for a pair of blue jeans. I don't get this. I know I'm not a fashionista, but seriously, $178 for a pair of jeans? I have trouble bringing myself to spend $100 for dress slacks, where it's arguably worth while. Jeans I put on to be comfortable, not scared of puddles. One of the newer shops is also offering a pair of very comfortable-looking pajama pants type things for $84. This is the sort of garment that I would spend half the weekend in and get covered in cat hair and possibly various food products. Eighty-four dollars. Did togas get really high-end and expensive before Rome fell?

Dorking Around on Facebook

So, I have been kindly invited by a few friends to join Facebook. This has been interesting. Most of my work on the Facebook page I have created has been accomplished while nursing an upset stomach. I wonder if I'll go back and look at it later and be horrified at what I posted when I was too ill to know better? I also wonder if there is a selection bias towards geekiness (geek is sexy!) in the sub-group of friends who are using Facebook? Coming from me, this is a compliment, so please remember that before bristling, o dear ones. For example, one friend of mine appears (judging by his friends list, which is one female) to have joined just to be friends with one chyck. Probably a strategically wise move. And then there is one guy, whom we shall call KON, for King of Networking. He has a ridiculous number of friends. Next we see GooberJock, who is one of my favorite people ever. He immediately sent me six widget requests of some sort or another, involving alcohol, hotness, and werewolves. I called him and asked why he had so much time to be dorking around on Facebook.

I'm starting to feel a bit like the cyberworld of Ender's Game is upon us. Not the war part, but the part where his siblings are writing stuff on the net, or whatever they call it. Hey, maybe that would be a good book for bookclub. Nothing to get political about in there, right? ha ha. Anyway, it feels like there is a whole universe in there, which of course only exists in a couple of really huge servers in Virginia? No, that can't be right. I have a lot of resistance towards learning how the internet actually works - because it sounds terrifically boring to me - but it seems important, like knowing how to change a tire. Maybe a responsible adult should know the rudimentary workings of the internet. Although unlike the tire, I am not going to be called upon to fix it ever. But it seems like I ought to know how it works, like I know how the electoral college works, or where the food I eat comes from - you know, Jeffersonian Citizen sort of thing. Come to think of it maybe I should look that up... But I'm a little afraid, like if I learn too much I'll get sucked into it a la Tron, and be forced to wear glowing spandex and throw frisbees to save my life, neither of which I would want to be called upon to do under even less dire circumstances.

Interestingly, I used to have a similar level of resistance towards learning how the stock market works... Hopefully this doesn't mean we'll find me making my living at something to do with the Internet in ten years.

So, I better go find something to eat that won't worsen my tummy.