Wednesday, February 27, 2002
Not only is it a light, it's huge and warm and encompassing and rather sun-like.
I think I can pause to breathe now. Note to Prospective Cybercafé users:
The time you spend in front of a terminal at a cybercafé is rarely completely or totally free.
Saying "I didn't see the sign" does not get you out of having to pay for it.
If the cost is a big concern for you, ask for the rates.
Thank you. That is all. Oh yes, I think it is one of those universal laws that the most spectacular spills in the history of the world occur when there are a distinct lack of available towels to mop them up. That light you see at the end of the tunnel may actually be a light, and not in fact an oncoming train.
Otherwise, I curse the English language for the vagueness that is born at times when one is excitedly uttering at one's parents for a grand generosity bestowed on oneself. And for that sentence too.
Tuesday, February 26, 2002
Small. Impossibly small change purse into which a bundle of bills (mostly ones) are crammed, along with change. I can't see it, but I can hear it. And twine. I suppose it must come in handy.
"The movie with that football guy who goes to outerspace and saves the universe." I don't know what's scarier. The description, or the fact that I guessed it (Flash Gordon). After several years of not having a crockpot (extended loan to a friend, and then it broke), we were given one to replace the one we had. This morning I filled it with chicken broth and pre-soaked beans and spices, and am terrified that I somehow did something wrong and I'm going to come home to a crock filled with multi bean burned slop. Is it possible to burn something in a crock pot?
(note to self: Pick up a bottle of beano.) Happy birthday, Erin!
My unabashedly straightforward cousin has launched her own line of greeting cards, entitled, appropriately enough, To The Point. I'm completely amused.
Monday, February 25, 2002
Another Monday, another week begins, another month comes to an end. It's all moving so fast in so many ways, and yet not fast enough in others. Watching Julia Roberts out on the Mongolian Steppes again made my heart ache for simplicity and the kind of happiness that one can only achieve when one's life is uncomplicated.
Another modern master lost. We'll all miss you, Chuck.
Friday, February 22, 2002
Let me tell you about the woman who bumped the mouse she was using into the side of her keyboard trying to click a button on the far left side of the screen. When I told her pick up the mouse to reposition the cursor, she picked up the mouse, hovered it over the keyboard, and wondered why the arrow wasn't moving...
I could write a book about the people I encounter every day. I really could.
I'm Sarah. I'm imaginative and creative, though a bit of a brat sometimes. If I use my wits, I'll get what I want. Nobody has power over me!
Take the "Which Labyrinth character are you most like?" quiz by 
smarmy
Thursday, February 21, 2002
So, if I guess if you can't go to Hawaii, Hawaii will come to you. Currently feeding off of a wind current from that part of the Pacific, the temperature here in western Oregon is an unseasonably warm 67 degrees this afternoon, sunny... not at all tropical, true, but warm enough that I turned off the furnace, opened the window, and let a blast of fresh air into the house. The cat immediately perched on the sill, sniffing furiously as if trying all at once to remember all of the smells of the great, big Outside on the other side of the screen.
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Wednesday, February 20, 2002
My latest mixer CD (yet to be burned):
Girlfriend, Matthew Sweet
One Week, Barenaked Ladies
This & That, Michael Penn
Fall At Your Feet, Crowded House
Bad, Luka Bloom
All for You (live), Sister Hazel
Adia, Sarah McLachlan
Ghost of a Chance, Rush
A Thousand Years, Sting
No Myth, Michael Penn
Pinch Me, Barenaked Ladies
Ol' 55, Sarah McLachlan
The Boxer (live), The Waltons
Karma Chameleon, Culture Club
Dancing Barefoot (Live), Patti Smith
Me in Honey, R.E.M.
Ojos Asi (live, MTV Unplugged), Shakira
Before I Go, John Hiatt
Quite the mix, eh? By the way, only one of these tracks came from an MP3 file I got off of the internet. The rest are from cds that were actually purchased. So the record industry can kiss my butt. :) Heart racing, unblinking, nails clenching into the sofa cushions. "24" is such an amazingly suspenseful show, fast paced and unstopping, the rightful heir to "The X-Files"' famous mantra Trust No One. Practically every moment of every show blows me away. Last week, for example, when Kevin (a bad guy played by the guy who was in "Sentinel"), trapped in the back seat of a limo, pulls a gun on Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) in the driver's seat, and fires into the invisible bulletproof divide -- and Jack doesn't flinch. It's a shame that it's on Tuesday night at 9pm, because all the adrenaline it generates makes it awfully difficult to get to sleep afterwards....
There is, of course, the smallest part of my brain that's going do these people ever get to eat? pee? sleep?
We're now halfway through the day.
Monday, February 18, 2002
There's a quote that occasionally pops up on the right hand side there: "Time is what keeps everything from happening at once" (or something like that). Sometimes not even time helps, as evidenced by the triple conjunction of a coffee airpot needing to be brewed 10 minutes ago (my fault for losing track of time) for a meeting, a blender mocha at the counter, and a cookie order arriving.
"They're a cross between sex and Christmas." Well, that would certainly explain their popularity, eh? Not that I'm obsessed or anything.
Much sadness: the death of Kevin "Ares" Smith. Especially on the cusp of a major Hollywood breakthrough role. He was one of my favourite reasons for watching Xena: Warrior Princess (Lucy and Renee notwithstanding). (Link swiped from Julie)
Weekend didn't exactly go as planned. Spent Saturday afternoon at the café, where I finished painting the sign ("HOT COFFEE, COLD DRINKS, INTERNET"-- with bright colours and lots of eye-catching zig zags) to hang facing the bus station. I had a great time doing it. I never did get to reading my cousin's stories, but I did bake my first ever plum cobbler and it turned out amazingly well, even if I did forget to add the sugar.
Friday, February 15, 2002
I've never done the Friday Five before, but I saw via mollie that it's about cooking this week, and what the hey.
1. What was the first thing you ever cooked? If you don't count the occasional Cup of Soup or boil-in-bag beef and gravy, it would probably be either pasta and sauce (the poor college student's staple) or a grilled cheese sandwich.
2. What's your signature dish? Well, I invented a cold Chinese noodle salad last summer that went over really well. And I hear I make a pretty mean pad thai.
3. Ever had a cooking disaster? (tasted like crap, didn't work, etc.) Describe. The one that immediately comes to mind when you say 'cooking disaster' is the time I took a pan of lasagna out of the freezer (because the recipe makes so much, I make up lots of small pans and freeze what I don't immedately bake) and popped it into the oven. Unfortunately, I neglected to remove the plastic lid; thanks to the modern miracle of microwave cooking I hadn't even given it a second thought. So we ended up with lasagna a la plastic lid. Fortunately, it only really took out the topmost layer; after peeling that off we still enjoyed the lasagna.
4. If skill and money were no object, what would make for your dream meal? Oooh. Tough call. I'm quite enjoying the new tradition of Moroccan feast for Yule dinner, and delight in the total sensory experience of pulling apart the basteeyah (which we do make with boneless chicken) and licking the lemony spicy tahjeen sauce off of your fingers, because it's not properly done if you don't use your fingers. There's way too many varieties of food that I love too much to just make one meal though.
5. What are you doing this weekend? Reading children's book stories that my cousin Jen wrote, and sent me, because she wants someone to illustrate them and you know what? That's what I really want to do when I grow up. :)
Thursday, February 14, 2002
Just followed my own advice. It was good to hear my grandmother's voice.
I always identified very strongly with Charlie Brown, even though my favourite Peanuts character has always been Snoopy. Never was that more apparent than on Valentine's Day. That's not to say that I never got a single valentine ever, because that wouldn't be true and would surely minimize how important the sincere ones were to me. In grade school especially, most of the ones I got were clearly the result of a well-meaning mother; ordinarily "they" would never have given me the time of day. Because, you know, insincere valentines hurt so much less than getting nothing at all. Right. Not bitter. :)
If you don't have a Valentine per se, take this opportunity to let someone close to you know that you love them.
As a slight tangent, there is a special place in hell for companies that send spam in the guise of a Valentine greeting card. At least I hope so.
[edited later to convert to actual grammatical English. I should not write entries before noon.]
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
This must be what it feels like, falling from the sky, mere seconds before impact.
Tuesday, February 12, 2002
To quote a friend of mine: Gong Xi! Gong Xi!!
It is now the Year of the Water Horse. If this is anything to go by, we're in for an interesting year!
It's also Mardi Gras. I think it's a sign to go out and have a good time!
Monday, February 11, 2002
Not feeling particularly inspired today. Just a quick note to let y'all know I haven't croaked.
Friday, February 08, 2002
Chainsaws revving up in the middle of the day are not a common occurrance in my neighbourhood. Of course, neither are windstorms topping out with 60-70mph gusts of wind (as happened yesterday). I was standing in my kitchen and happened to be looking out the back window at the row of (thankfully very flexible) hazelnut trees that reside just on the other side of our back fence: one moment they were just standing there as trees do, and suddenly, they were vying to be parallel to the ground. I blinked in disbelief because surely a sight like that was only meant for a special effect in a movie and not in my immediate proximity.
We never lost power and in fact our house (which had been scheduled to be the host house for a local meeting about scribal arts) became a sort of gathering spot for a few people who had lost power and never got the cancellation email. Other places around this town weren't so lucky; some places up the McKenzie River aren't expecting power back until sometime over the weekend. There were crushed pickups and streetlights out all over the place. We were terribly worried about a fragile tree in Marian's backyard, because if it went, it wouldhave either taken out part of her house, or an apartment building (thankfully, it did neither).
It is humbling to see a giant construction crane turning from the wind like some kind of god-sized weather vane. It's true what they say: nature always bats last.
Thursday, February 07, 2002
When I was in kindergarten, I distinctly remember thinking that if I held hands with a dark skinned kid (in class, for playtime or whatever), the colour would rub off on my hand. Mind you, I had no negative associations or even subconscious feelings that dark-skinned people are "dirty" or bad... I just thought that, like ink on newsprint, it would come off on my hands. What did I know... I was just 4 or 5.
I admit that I didn't have many multicultural friends, not really by choice; the neighbourhood that I grew up in was relatively white, my school was predominantly white. College was an eye opener to the cultures of the world. I have always tried, when I meet people of colour, to just be myself, which often translates as "trying way too hard", which I'm always afraid might translate on the receiving end into "your colour makes me nervous." In actuality, I make me nervous trying not to make you uncomfortable. It's often said that the people who have to proclaim "I'm not a racist" are in fact the biggest racists of them all, but really, I'm not a racist. I'm a self-conscious dork. This has got to be the most accurate (or at least, most amusing) description of the evolution of a blog I've ever seen: You start off rather shy, not really sure of what to say .... Slowly you move beyond "i ate a sandwich" to describing the sandwich and then finally to how sandwiches are destroying the world.
Wednesday, February 06, 2002
I was leafing though a book borrowed from my friend Erika -- Art and Fear -- and felt profoundly fraudulent as an artist. She had highlighted passages like "don't be afraid to produce crap as it will only lead to your best work" (ok, paraphrased) and other similar bon mots with exclamation points and heavy pencil circles... passages that, for the most part made me say, "Well, of course." Actually, let me amend that: I'm either hugely fraudulent, or the "Nothing is Precious" mantra from my freshman year art class with good old Gary has stuck with me all too well. Maybe there was something to the book that I missed by not reading the entire thing.
Right now, things are about as anti-magical as they come. Found out that the Software Company we've been waiting to get word from started interviewing last Thursday. This of course doesn't mean they won't still call, but it sure feels less likely. I hate this treading water business, waiting for something to come along and let me push myself out of the depths.
Of course, along with all of this, the hazelnut trees have decided to start pushing out their pollen-producing tendrils. I, or course, am sensitive to this, and have had a non-stop headache for a couple of days now. Add to that a sore wrist and a still-backlogged workload...
Monday, February 04, 2002
Somehow, it is both foggy and sunny at the same time, right now. A perfect analogy for how I feel.
Come on, let this be the week that something magical happens.
Friday, February 01, 2002
The thrift stores around here have all decided to be competitve on the last day of the month and offer 50% off anything (used) in the store. I took a stroll around our very large Goodwill yesterday when I spotted something that I think I would never ever buy used: an ant farm. I don't even want to contemplate why it's at a thrift store. Have those little things breached the hull previously? Come to think of it, I doubt I'd ever buy one new either. Intentionally foster a colony of those useful somewhere in nature but undoubtedly pestiferous critters inside my house? Nothin' doin'.
I did, however, buy a comfy sagegreen linen jumper for $3. I'm just a natural fiber junkie at heart. Checklist for today:
