NaNoWriMo

Less than 6 hours until i begin something either rediculously stupid, or amazingly fulfilling. I'm thinking it will be a little bit of both. Ya see, NaNoWriMo stands for "National Novel Writing Month". Right now, many thousands around the world are preparing to spend the entire month of November creating 50,000 words worth of brain children....and i'm one of those nutballs. I'm both excited and fearful. We'll see how it goes. oy vey...

Also...
this poem has nothing to do with NaNoWriMo, but i found it in my folder 'o stuff...and i need to get into a writing mood. Time to tap into what well of creative energy I have in me. So, here's a poem...cuz for a whole month I'll be writing nothing but prose.

The life of a poet.
Creeping in silent fashion through
Paraphrase and parable,
A master of rhyme and meter;
A master, yet unholy in a quest to spill
A lifetime of brain jelly onto paper,
Capsized thoughts ambitiously defined,
Whimsical has a life of it’s own coupled
With the correct adverb…
Sigh, and surrender to the fashion that is ceremonious
Art.
Urge and passion swept into a net of exotically woven verse.
Madness seems better. Discomfort more real.
Truth, most sincere.
Poets are the wind silently humming in the trees,
An artifact of nature.

Un-Halloweened

Well, this weekend was less than exciting. It was less than average. It was un-Shannan like. And that's coming from a general optimist. I've discovered Halloween just isn't as fun when you don't have your friends around. These are the people that appreciate how much you worked on your costume, and how it fits your personality, and how humorous (while gross) it really is. The scenario was something like this: Shannan walks into party and is greeted by store-bought female pirate, store-bought rainbow brite, store-bought playboy bunny, and various other clean, no-muss, no-fuss costumes. Not one zombie, or one person with corpse-like features and face make-up. My torn-off wings with blood on them were the closest thing to "scary" anywhere near the party. Someone asked if I was a "sadistic angel". Some were just like "oh, I get what you are". The party was nice enough i guess, and the people were nice enough...i just felt like a lonely little fallen angel on the island of misfit halloween costumes. One nice fellow came up and told me the wings were awesome and was really psyched about it...and i appreciated that sooo much. I musta had a huuuge smile. He was a scarecrow...a homemade scarecrow with white face make-up. His costume was the best. The guy that dressed up as obi-wan was pretty good too. He fashioned it out of a bath towel and big fisherman type brown boots. It looked like the real deal. Way better than store-bought chewbacca and store-bought beer bottle, and store-bought beer keg....do you see a theme here???? I just don't see the fun of going to the store and picking something to be. It would be okay, if supported with some other props and face make-up. Maybe I should just shut-up and stop being a Halloween grinch. I had such high hopes for this Halloween though, and it ended up feeling like I was at a really preppy frat party with no-one I knew and a drunk boyfriend. what fun.

a good distraction

CAT BOWLING ...I scored 100 on my first try. I vow to not play it again until lunchtime (i'll just blog instead....MUHAHAHAHAHA). So tomorrow starts the weekend of debauchery. I'm in a haze, not really believing we'll be traveling and embarking on a full weekend of socialization and merriment (or rather, scariment). What happened to those days of depressive lonliness? I had a few weeks of blahs... feeling lonely and hermit-like, but since that time it's been a whirlwind of interactions and events. It's amazing what happens when you stay busy. Plus, I'm a comfort creature...I like familiar faces and gatherings on the horizon...and there are so many in the next few months! Not to mention, snow. Snow, snow, SNOW! I'll severely miss Seven Springs this year. Having the option to ride every weekend was my crack. Something I'd been wanting to do for so long suddenly became an every weekend occurence. It was like a long winter dream. I'll find a way to relive the dream this year. Stratton, Mt. Snow...nice to meet ya.

afterthought

Somedays, statements like that make me feel guilty. Not guilty for my life or what's in it, but guilty for forgetting these things. Forgetting for even a minute, the existence of impoverished people. And forgetting for even a second, how nice a life i really have here. Life itself, the quality we maintain....well, there has to be a yin to the yang of poverty. I can't feel bad about having clean water, sanitation, and nice things, because that's what we hope for and try to deliver to the third world. There has to be a silver lining. That's how i like to think of myself, and of all of us...part of the silver lining. It's a comforting thought. I like to live simply and be happy and enjoy what (and who) is around me.

a humbling statement

And I’m afraid a rock concert every 20 years isn’t enough. Perhaps what we need instead are a thousand “town criers” like Bob Barker, the venerable game show host who closes every Price is Right with an admonition to “spay or neuter your pet. "If we ended every TV broadcast, from Good Morning America to Six Feet Under, with "every day 35 million children die of extreme poverty" or “the average per capita yearly income in Sri Lanka is $880,” or “the infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births in Angola is 187,” this apathetic (and often selfish) country might finally come to realize how the other half lives.

from emagazines "Poverty is terrorism"

random food-ology

I have a love affair with olives. Lately, I want them all the time. I don't usually have them at home, but any sandwich I get at work must have olives. black olives to be precise. It's not so much the taste. Well, a little the taste...but even moreso I like the color and texture it adds to a sandwich. As a bonus, I found out that olives are a good source of monounsaturated fats (can help lower the risk of cellular damage and inflammation) and vitamin E (antioxidant)...so this makes me love olives even more.

In other randomness, I started growing my own garlic. It wasn't intentional. I had a lonely forgotten bulb in my refrigerator, and one day I noticed it was not only there, but it was sprouting. Then i read a little and discovered that fall is a great time to plant garlic...so i took that little clove sprout and made it a home in my window. Now I have a green shoot about 8 inches tall. I'll have fresh garlic! (eventually) I'm not really a green thumb, so when a chance plant event occurs...I figure I best make the most of it and propigate away.

Thus ends my ode to olives and garlic. Happy N'oreaster Tuesday.

this Is Halloween

Less than one week before i get to dress up, spend an entire weekend looking un-myself, and acting intoxicated and impish. what a grand holiday. I used to not like Halloween so much. I'm Halloween bi-polar. I like it when things fall into place. When I'm not sure what's going on and not sure about a costume, I just get annoyed. Last year I went out but didn't dress up...not this year though. I had a Halloween rebirth the other night at the party store. All of my costume woes melted as I looked at all the little do-dads and trinkets and fun props. oooh, fun stuff. I'm gonna be a fallen angel. No, not a short skirt, black winged, low cut top, fallen tramp...but a fallen angel. I happened upon this long shear getup at the thrift store and i'm gonna cut a couple holes in the back, paste tufts of white feathers around the edges, and dribble fake blood to make it look like my poor wings were torn off as i was tossed outta heaven. I'll make flowy arm thingies and wear all black underneath...plus wear a store bought black halo and black necklace with a little white jewel on it. I think i spent about $10 total on the ensemble. that's the fun of Halloween. I hope it turns out as good as it sounds. I have visions of myself sitting on the floor sometime this week with feathers glued to myself and shear material all torn up and un-wearable. I already put a runner in the black tights i bought. But i figure the tights should be torn up anyway. Can't fall that far without looking disheveled. So that's my project for the week. Finish the costume. oooh, ahhh!
Happy week before Halloween.

head full of stuff

stuff-i-ness. yup. I'm Sick. Know what's worse than being sick? Being sick on a friday. I've been trying to trick the sickness for almost three days now. On Wednesday I got home and felt crazy not wanting to move tired. I almost became a couch ornament, but fought the urge...took a shower, went to the bike shop to play, and ate pizza. At the shop I rode a tandem with Jake (a freakin tandem mountain bike, it was funny and damn fun too), then I rode a Kona Coiler. OOOOOOhhhhh, I've never riddin full suspension before. That sucker took sidewalks like nothing! I was flying around the bike shop parking lot, up and down on curbs, yippin and "woo-hoo"-ing. It felt so good. Rode a Kona Stinky too...too downhill for my tastes. I then got my camera out and started taking a bazillion bike pictures, just for kicks cuz bike porn is entertaining. I took close-ups, and far-aways, and bright-lights, and dim-lights, and bikes on ceilings, and bike parts, and whole bikes, and accessories, and....on and on. I'm very easily entertained. So then yesterday the sickness grew. I now had the every 2 second sniffle accompanied by the drugged up stupor. So what'd I do last night? Made a lemon loaf. Yup, I made a freakin lemon loaf. Call me crazy, but i don't like being sick...so I'll psyche myself out of it for as long as I can. Though, the end result of not giving into the sickness is ending up extra tired. I woke up at 7am and couldn't crawl out of bed until 9am. But I'm at work. Tonight I'll relax. Promise. Movies and take-out. thas right.

delayed reaction

Mountaineer Inn, Vermont. This is where we went a few weeks ago. It's situated at the base of Mount Snow. I'm in the mood to think about vacationing and bike riding and crisp but not freezing weather. So there ya go...
(that's the good 'ol jeep, and the bikes, and the Jake in front of the Inn)

more les

I nearly forgot. Gabby La La played sitar last night with Les. She had this crazy electric green wig on. Awesomeness all around. There was a xylophone player too.

locals and Les

Les Claypool. An ingenius crazy-man. I've seen Primus live. I've seen Oysterhead live. Last night I stood 6 rows back staring into the sunglassed eyeballs of Les Claypool. Plastic cup of Guiness in hand, eyes glazed, and feet a tap-tap-tappin to every bass lines spastically smooth birth from the hands of Claypool. Not only that, but I had a posse of locals. For the first time since moving, I had a group. Jake invited these 3 guys over to the apartment before the show. We slugged down about 3 beers each, bullshat, and made our way to the final destination... Toad's Place. Toad's Place is New Haven's music mecca (good music mecca anyway). It's the kind of place with no seating, several bars, and a large coziness about it. It's the kind of place you here once-in-a-lifetime stories about...secret shows, special guests. It's had a history of legendary live performance. And we live within walking distance. So we walked. The full moon lighting our way. My 3 beer jacket kept me warm and cozy, and if that hadn't done it, the excitement would have made up the difference. To be walking down the street under a full moon, with a group of people, on the way to see Les Claypool live at Toad's Place. Yup, that's about as good as it gets on a Monday night. I had a few minutes where i wanted to kick myself for not bringing a camera. We had the kind of magical view where any snapshot would have been amazing. No enhancing, no digital resizing. I could have captured a moment and hung it in my living room. Damn, it would have been Picasso on film. Then Jake said the best thing in response to my mutterings about wishing I had a camera. He said something along the lines of "well, that makes this moment just for us". I don't think he even realized just how sweet and sentimental it sounded. What a great reason not to have a camera. Though i wished I had pictures to show, we had a moment. A moment we can share in words, and smile to ourselves as it plays out in our heads. It's a warm cuddly thought. And it happened at a Les Claypool show. ah, life is sweet.

uh huh

Listening to blackbird (Crosby, Stills, and Nash). I love when iTunes pleasantly surprises me. This most happens with favorite phish songs, or a good tea leaf green or acoustic syndicate extended jam, or a horn heavy jazz tune. When you're in a particular mood, and just such a song plays to compliment that mood...then all is right with the world.

full moon, full of rooftop expectation

Full Moon Tonight. After 1 full week of rain. After 7 complete days of soaked self and sodden clothes...our reward is a clear sky and a full moon. I'll take it. This is the type of night I wish I had my deck at home, but then again I have my city porch (fire escape) and my penthouse balcony (roof). Last time we spent time on the roof was the fourth of July. We were on our way home from somewhere...maybe a bike ride, maybe Pittsburgh. I'm really not sure. I know we had bikes on the roof. Connecticut is so flat that we saw about a dozen simultaneous sets of fireworks as we drove. I kept craning my neck every way I could to catch a glimpse of fire in the sky. Jake laughed. I laughed, and kept craning my neck every which way. As we pulled onto our street we had to dodge kids igniting mini explosions in the middle of the street. We jumped out of the car, grabbed 2 sierra nevadas, and went to the roof. We got there just in time to see the finale erupt in the sky above New Haven Harbor. Despite the lights, the sirens, the chill in the air, and the light drizzle...it was a great few moments. Cuddled next to each other speculating about where we'd be next year. On the same roof? In the suburbs? In a different state? The rain was so light and subtle, you could barely see it, only feel it gently touch our skin. Jake noticed that part about it. He noticed the rain was so nearly invisible and silent, had we been inside we wouldn't have even known it rained. We would have missed that whole part of the night. That part of nature. mmm. it was good. So a full moon? A clear sky? I think that calls for a six pack and a roof. The roof is like my holiday from the city.

If I were a movie...

I'd sound something like this:

The tale of a young researcher attempting to find her way in a town entrenched in academia. As she struggles to pay her bills and find some way to afford one day entering graduate school, she comes to the realization that nothing worth having is easy. Follow her on a journey through mountain towns and big cities where a strong beer and a good cup of coffee are the answers to every problem. A story of aimless thought, frenzied melody, books, simplicity, and sustenance...where a bike is more that 2 wheels and the trail never ends.

(movie descriptions have to be a little cheesy and somewhat obscurely generalized, i'd be genreless, i could never be an action or drama...and it would be tiring to always be a comedy)

Nikos Logothetis

Doing a typical afternoon perusal of Nature, I came across this man Nikos. This is the type of neuroscientist I would like to be. Here's one quote I'd love to shout from the rooftops for every over-analyzing, non-hypothesizing, grasping at straws neuroscientist to hear...and another that depicts what every neuroscientist shoud aspire to achieve (in my world anyways):

The brain is a very accommodating structure,” he warns. “It will let you generate a mass of data and interpret them to support your idea.” The key, he says, is strict quality of methodology and keeping the ears resolutely plugged against the siren song of over-interpretation.

Unlike many lab chiefs, Logothetis says he will continue to deploy the hands-on skills that made his name. “I prefer to work more like a postdoc than a research director,” he says. “I like to do experiments myself.” Typically, he runs experiments in the mornings and crunches data until the small hours.

40 days???

Is that how long it's planning on raining? It won't stop. I thought I was being clever last night. Pulled around my block and parked under a tree...so that I'd have a natural umbrella when manuevering my self, bag, and mug 'o coffee into the jeep this morning. It worked pretty well. The unclever part was leaving my umbrella in the jeep and thus practicing my apartment to jeep 50 yard dash skills while carrying a steaming mug of java. The mug was closed, but java began seeping out the lid and sloshing around the top. I narrowly escaped 3rd degree java burns. But myself and the java are alive and well...and i'm on the road to sublime caffeination.

Rainy weather means lack of biking :o( I'm still holding out for that silver lining, but if not...it's okay. I went out and equipped myself with a full collection of fall baking spices last night (nutmeg, cloves, allspice). It's a Pumpkin Bread weekend. Once I'm done making bread I have to find some other clever uses for these spices (I have a drawer FULL of spices that I don't use enough). I'm starting with the allspice...

Allspice is commonly used in both savory and sweet foods. Try mixing 1/4 teaspoon ground Allspice with 2 pounds of ground beef to give a unique flavor to meatloaf or hamburgers. Or, add 1 teaspoon of ground Allspice to angel food or white cake mix for a sensational spicy flavor. Aromatic whole Allspice is a great addition to potpourri. Add a few Whole Allspice to your pepper grinder, along with a mixture of black, white, and green peppercorns for a unique seasoning blend. For an intriguing spiciness, add whole, cracked berries to marinades for chicken and pork, simmering beef stew, pot roasts, or hearty bean soups. Enhance simple desserts such as applesauce, fruit compotes, and oatmeal cookies with the warm, sweet flavor of Ground Allspice. Add a pinch of Ground Allspice to barbecue and tomato sauces as well as cooked winter squash and carrots. (from Culinary Cafe)

Snow Report...yes, snow

Okay. Breckenridge Colorado has 2 feet of snow. 2 feet! While I'm side-stepping my way past puddles and fording sidewalk rivers to get into my jeep (i'm seriously thinking of beginning a canoe to work program...it's been raining so much I'll surely have a river from my apartment to work in the near future)... breckenridge is covered in the white stuff! Locals are sled-riding! It's 29 days 'til they're open for the season!!! oohhhhh! Ah well, the northeast will get some precipitation soon enough. In the meantime, I have a snowboard to wax and lift ticket prices to scope out. Must feed the habit!!

greetings from the 'burgh

Yes indeed, It's a weekend in Pittsburgh. I enjoy living in New England, but there's nothing like a trip home. I spent entirely too many hours at the local watering hole last night drinking, and laughing, and telling rediculous stories, and playing darts, and playing the jukebox. It was wonderful. I went to bed around 4am, and when I hopped (or rather, crawled) out of bed this morning, daddio was ready and waiting with fruit salad and the skillet ready for some serious omelette making. ROCK ON!! I still lack any form of good friends to chill with in New Haven, and I never really realize just how unbalanced I feel until I make a trip to Pittsburgh and find myself surrounded by a horde of smiling hugging people. It's the best. *sigh* I have great co-workers back in Connecticut, and nothing but fun with the boyfriend, and even have had tons of weekend trips and visitors...but not havin someone to call up and meet at the local coffee shop/bar/whatever to just chill and bullshit...it's an odd thing. I've never lived anywhere there wasn't someone down the hall, or the street, or on the other end of the phone planning a night out. It's a different experience. Not completely terrible, but different. hrm.

The Ultimate Hippie Vacation

Oh Boy. Funny.

The Ebay Auction

The official website

"Okay, the deal is, my brother-in-law and his huge hippie bus moved into our backyard. AND WE WANT HIM OUT! Please help us by bidding on this auction! Every bid moves him one step farther out of our yard!"

"About my brother-in-law, he may be a little "touched in the head." He just showed up a few weeks ago (unannounced of course) from California and parked his Hippie Bus in our yard. Apparently, he was fleeing from some sort of alien or supernatural invasion or something like that. (If you win, he'll be MORE THAN HAPPY to explain that one to you.) Anyway, his bus really stands out up here in the Ozarks of NW Arkansas (not too many hippies around here), and the neighbors have started to "talk"."

2 wheels are better than 4

Of course I've had my share of complaining over the escalating gas prices. It always sucks to pay more, no matter what. But the more I stop to think about it, this is about the best thing that could have possibly happened to America and its extreme environmental apathy. SUV sales are down (woe is me for owning an SUV, I've been trying to drive it less and less and less, I researched selling it...but the loss I'd take is severe), Bike sales are up uP UP!!! So not only are less carbon emissions being piped into the environment, but more people are exercising and experiencing the joy of riding a bike. Many people hadn't ridden bikes since childhood and are now re-visiting bikes out of necessity. And they love it!! This far outweighs my disgust at having a lighter wallet. I know it doesn't help those that have been hit hard by gas increases, those with low incomes that may not be able to afford bikes. I also know there are a lot of low income people out there that manage to have cable TV, smoke cigarettes, or have some form of habit they could decrease to lighten the blow....or help buy themselves a bicycle. who knows. just my 2 cents.

ode to fallin' and gettin back up

A few weeks ago I experienced my first night ride. I never thought I'd be able to careen through the woods with a light attached to the top of my head. It's amazing how I just rolled down sections and didn't think twice. This weekend was a a different story. We rode up to Mt.Snow on saturday, got a room at the Mountaineer Inn (B&B near the base of the mountain), and set out to ride the trails. We did some semi-downhilling. Semi meaning we climbing about halfway up on fireroad (rather than taking the chairlift to the top), and road the trails down from there. I did pretty well, but then I tried riding with my seat lower... and I crashed, BAD. Not broken bones bad, but confidence-killing, couldn't get up, black and blue bad. The rest of the day I was pretty skiddish and when we woke up the next morning I totally freaked at the thought of taking the chairlift up and riding down 1500ft. Down, Down, Down. I had been pretty psyched for trying out a bike with more travel, putting some pads on, and just going for it. Maybe next time. The good thing is, we drove back to New Haven Sunday afternoon and rode a more familiar trail...and I feel soo much better. My bike and I are friends again after I made a few nice rollovers without impaling myself on the handlebars or kissing the ground. Maybe I'm just not a downhiller. Or maybe I just need more practice.