my superhero necklace came today. i'm in love. i need to write andrea scher an unabashed fan mail.

this may spawn a previously dormant necklace addiction.

music and mozilla

a tip for the folky crew. run do not walk to get the new patty griffin, 1000 Kisses. it is so good and i can't stop listening. ;) i've already learned the chords for my favorite song on it (making pies, which is a song for judy). listen for yourself:

for the non-folky crew (and for them too)... run do not walk to get the new wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. que bueno. ;)

and did you know that if you use mozilla as your browser that you can choose not to open any "unwanted" windows -- which means those obnoxious ad windows that pop up in salon, la times, and your favorite porn site [ahem], never get to the forefront of your browser. i love that! there are other cool features too. ;)

overheards

truly, does junior high ever end?

craig: meow
marya: meow
craig: me-wow?
marya: me-wow!

i've been very torn about my living situation lately. on one hand -- my place is newly painted and so improved and wonderful. my space is big with amazingly tall ceilings and huge huge huge windows that let light pour in. i love the people that live in my building and the fun events that seem to blossom all around us.

but there is another part of me that feels that if i want other things in my life (l-o-v-e)... i need to move on. sigh.

it's been a topic on my list-serv.

there have been very many interesting, thought-provoking comments surrounding this indecisive, wishy-washy, conflicted-feeling circus i'm putting myself through, but i especially like what jeanne had to say:

If I could find some other relatively quiet, semi-anti-social, art-loving, TV adverse, Mac using, alternative, vegetarian, buddhist types who think that cultural anthropology is a lifestyle and that urban decay is meant to be explored, I'd probably even turn my house-under-construction into a communal living space.

test -- changing my settings and this requires a test.

french roast blues

i wrote a new song this morning. it's called I've Got the French Roast Blues. i'm a little surprised that no one here at work is really interested in the lyrics or in me singing it to them. okay, not surprised. but you think they would want a little fun in the morning. losers. oh well, it's for the best, since i've got to don a mississippi blues man's mean low growl which is hard on my little ol' feminine vocal chords. but still, it is fun to sing. ;)

well i woke up this morning, with the sun in my eyes
i said i woke up this morning, with the sun in my eyes
i'd better hang a curtain rod, so i can shut the blinds

well i woke up this morning, with no bread for my toast
well i woke up this morning baby, with no bread for my toast
not a heal or a crumb, left in the loaf

i woke up this morning and got the french roast blues
i said i woke up tired this morning and got me the french roast blues
so pour me some columbian, i guess that beggars can't choose

(works best if you can growl yer voice and leave lots of pauses between lines and play the guitar and slowly shake your head and add some cool little finger picking)

overheards

john (who's last name is olmstead) might have to move workspaces.

jaxon: so, are you moving?
john: i don't know yet
jaxon: i don't want them to move my homie, olmie

rem's whiteboard is full of terrifying creature standoffs. the crocalope vs. the sharkbot. "which scares you more?" he wanted to know. i thought the sharkbot. "really?" he asked and then added, "they get rusty. the crocalope can run." i pondered this and finally acquiesced. i mean truthfully, a gracefully leaping creature bounding over the savannah with choppers that could crush you in two... that is scary. i tried to think of my own scary creature and came up with the anaconda-hah. "anaconda-hah?" asked rem, "don't you mean cheataconda?" from there we also came up with the lionasaurus rex.

but when you think about it, the lionasaurus rex doesn't really count. i mean, really, it's just about the same as a tyranasaurus rex proper. just with fur and purring.

overheards

rem: it's absolutely gosh-wow
marya: is that french?

well it was a jam-packed weekend, to say the least

friday night my dad and his girlfriend invited me and shane to a winemakers dinner. hosted by le cuvier, it was held at inn paradiso.

inn paradiso is perfectly named and really ought to be my house. it is my dream house. situated in the paso robles hills, you drive only a few blocks off of niblick (a main road) and you find yourself far from any type of civilization. it is a fairytale place. the building is amazing (there are actually two main buildings: one is the home of the innkeeper and the other is the bed and breakfast). rochelle has an amazing design eye and bold taste. she perfectly blended the heavy-wood of the house with bright colors and eclectic touches. i loved it. inside the main house are open-beams from salvaged train trestles from a 19th century portland railroad. there are southwestern balconies that look over the great room. the dining room is a great shade of orange can seat 30 quite comfortably. and the suites are little nooks of comfortable, calm coziness you'd never want to leave.

the paso countryside is steinbeckian (though not an official locale of the salinas valley "steibeck country"). it's a countryside i love. rolling golden hills dappled with oak tree beauty marks. light breeze. magpies and scrub jays and hawks and cayote and rabbits. and real cowboys once or twice removed caught somewhere between their shitkicking roots and the pull of the vineyards they now corral.

inn paradiso is my new dream life.

saturday was my mom's birthday and we mosied on down to santa barbara for a little shopping, a little dinner, and then a little concert in the sings like hell series. the laurie lewis trio headlined and after the disappointing lucinda concert from a couple of weeks ago, laurie cleansed our music palette. she was awesome! her bandmates were great too. laurie lewis is steeped in bluegrass, but the trio went well beyond what you might be thinking.

she is my new hero. my goal is to learn a couple carter family songs.

before the show we hit anthropologie and the sojourner for dinner. it has now been proven and awarded that i am the queen and all-knowing ruler of the anthropologie sale rack. my newly painted and carpeted digs require new curtains and i found two perfect panels -- originally $80, marked down to $40. two for one, i thought -- perfect deal. but at the register they rang in at 20 bucks a pop so my deal got all that sweeter. i wear my crown proudly.

needless to say there wasn't a lot of sleeping this weekend, and since i am still dealing with the last vestiges of this rzzl-frzzl cold/virus/sickness-from-hell, sleep is a precious commodity i'm not too keen to let go of. yesterday morning was a yardsale for my building. and instead of battling with trying to get more sleep, i instead poured myself a cup of joe and brought my beach chair out to the curb. my friends kept me sufficiently amused. plus i scored heavy duty on some upholstery material (retail: $120; yard sale: $20) and a paperback version of jon krakauer's book into thin air, which was serendipitously coincidental. since last week i'd been meaning to read it.

later in the day my mom and i extended her birthday to birthweekend and we caught the cat's meow (she hated it; i thought it was okay; i'm pretty lenient when it comes to either kirstin dunst or eddie izzard), birthday cake at linn's, and a perusal of the b&n bookshelves.

for the last two years i've avoided buying books. they've felt a like clutter. and i didn't want to keep buying books to just sit on my shelves when if i hadn't read the ones i already owned. when moving to get my place painted and carpeted, i had to move all my books. and in doing so realized i had read most of my books. i think atleast 80%. somehow i was relieved. i know that sounds corny....

books -- i guess that will be left for another journal entry since this one is getting so long -- but i've got some thoughts on book ownership.

anyhow, i've had a gift certificate burning my pocket for almost half the year. i kept going in to b&n trying to decide what i was going to get, since i didn't want it to be just any old book. last night i found the perfect three: a book on climbing the great himalayan peaks, with awesome photos of the the different routes, the top of the peaks from all different vantages, history and stories, etc; an inspiring art/creativity book; and the adventures of kavelier and clay by michael chabon, a favorite author. i've been meaning to buy this book for well over a year.

i think i was skipping home.

things have come to a head

jaxon complains about the men's restroom. there are about 35 men who work on site. and about six women. the men have one toilet and a urinal. the women have two toilets. this makes no sense to jaxon.

jaxon: at a bare minimum we should have the same number that the women have.
marya dabs at imaginary tear from eyes
jaxon: oh. right. cuz you don't care!
jim: she'll care once we switch the signs.

what does it mean to be unfaithful?

my thoughts on being unfaithful are downright strict. i have to say. i believe that if you do something that you cannot tell your significant other about, that is being unfaithful. i guess i believe in full disclosure. now the rules of your relationship can vary widely. you might have an open relationship. you might have a super-rigid relationship. whatever. but if you can't talk about what you are doing, you are in breach of contract.

i think this extends into email, phone calls, lunches, etc. if you are having conversations that you can't tell your partner about... you better be looking at your actions.

so what do you think? too puritanical?

meanwhile...

my mom and i saw unfaithful last night. this was a great movie. diane lane was my favorite actress when i was 12. she was my idol. she owns her character in unfaithful. i can't imagine a better performance. salon ripped this movie to shreds, but you can rarely trust their reactionary, overopinionated reviewers. i agree with them about a quarter of the time, if that. but it's always interesting to read their take nonetheless.

currently listening to leonard cohen, ten new songs. and, ironically in regards to this entry, my favorite song is hands down "in my secret life." (you can hear a clip on the amazon site).

m.

overheards

aj told the bad priest joke (i'm sure you've heard it or one like it in the last few weeks). i told the brown and sticky joke. (q: what's brown and sticky? a: a stick!). and then the pirate joke (hey aj, did you here about the new pirate movie? it's rated arrrrrgh.) aj rolled his eyes.

marya: it's good to always have a joke you can tell a six year old.
aj: most of the six year old's i know prefer the priest joke.
marya: aj!
aj: hey! what?! it's not my fault! kids grow up fast these days.

i am my own superhero!

i just ordered a necklace and earrings from andrea scher and i am stoked! i just like her. okay i don't know her. but i like her site and her jewelry. nows i just gots to send her my check and we are good to go. yeehaw!

overheards

the thread which won't die...

jaxon: what's on for tonight? i want to see queen amadala!
jaxon: i'm a quarter
chester: dalai lama?

i am the local drug pusher

now that i am almost all better (day 16 and counting), i have the smarts to start taking vitamins. and now that i am getting better and i can see quite clearly that people are dropping like flies at the office, i have started to push the vitamins on my coworkers. specifically i am handing out doses of wellness formula (1 if you are feeling well; 3 if you are feeling a little peculiar) and hi potency b-stress. i went to everyone's desk. i told them that all the cool kids were taking them. i promised them excellent results. i know they'll be coming back for more.

btw, first symptom of getting this ailment is that you automatically lose 30 iq points. now, for some of you this is going to be particularly uncomfortable. you know who you are (tho you might not once you lose those precious 30).

currently listening to old zap mama, seven.

overheards

Jaxon and I were discussing the differences between creating an em-dash on a Mac and on a PC. Jaxon says it doesn't exist on the PC. I say it does.

marya: jaxon, I *know* you can use it on the PC! you can get it by --
jaxon: i don't believe you. i can't see it. you can't show me. so until then, it's the loch ness monster. it's big foot. it's a yedi.
(a minute passes)
jaxon: did you find it? your phoenix? your lucky charms?

**********************

carsten wrote in to offer this piece of advice: alt-0151 works in the latin 1 8859-1 (western european) character set. alt-
0150 is an endash.

i forwarded this to jaxon who said, "that's it? that's your unicorn?"

i am a bad blogger who has not posted anything substantial for close to two weeks (longer you say? whole time you say? pshaw). i've been sick.

my room is too bright. the creamy yellow is more like an... icecream yellow. the wine red is straight out chinese red. the periwinkle which was going to be the dusty, dark-ish twilight color is purple. sigh. but i do have carpet. and clean, nice walls. and am all moved in.

meanwhile i am still sick. this is day 15. i could go for a looooooooong nap tonight. but am supposed to see dogtown. which i do really want to see. but how can you argue with a body that is crying out for horizontal dreamy goodness?

jan was in town this weekend. last year jan visited for a month before her sojourn to honduras. this time we only got her for two days before her year-long stint in tajikistan starts. i'm proud of jan and love telling of her adventures, but it is so good to hang out and spend time with her when she is here, that i wish we could persuade her to postpone tajikistan for a month or so. just so we could sip tea and talk. drink a beer and laugh and laugh. she is so inspiring and truthful and fun and open. and real.

i miss her already.

overheards

jaxon: i just want to watch queen amadala
rem: queen i'm a dahl-a?
marya: queen i'm-a-gonna-make-you-holla?
rem: scream if i holla?
jim: queen i-can-charge-a-dolla?
chester: queen dalai lama?

overheards

marya: jaxon, you missed your calling.
jaxon: somebody called me?

life's too mysterious, don't take it serious

a story i heard recently...

a friend (let's call him Tom) of a friend (let's call him Jim) had quit smoking. a few weeks later, Tom and Jim were hanging out with a big group of friends. Someone lit up, and as will happen with a group of smokers, soon everyone was smoking except for Jim.

a couple of minutes later Tom says to Jim, "I forgot you quit smoking. Do you want us to stop?"

"No," said Jim.

"But doesn't the smoke bother you?" asked Tom.

"No," said Jim.

"Doesn't it make you crave a cigarette?" asked Tom.

"Well, yeah," said Jim, "but I don't take it personally."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Interesting article in LA Times yesterday about accident prone people. I'm personally not accident prone, but know a couple people who are (no offense guys, but you gotta admit it is true). In "A Life of Accidents, a Quest for Answers," the author looks for reasons why some people are accident prone, or why at certain times people experience a rash of accidents or mishaps.

I always take accidents as a time to wake up or pay closer attention to my life. God's little wake up call.

happiness is a warm teaspoon of codeine with cough syrup

marya's get-afternoon-energy-while-sick recipe

2 t guiatuss ac syrup
2 tablets dayquill
1 glass water
1 homemade chocolate chip cookie
halls defense throat lozenges (too taste)

add guiatuss to body orally with teaspoon. put dayquill tablets in mouth, add 1/4 water and mix by swallowing. take a few minutes to disolve a throat lozenge in your mouth. have co-worker offer you homemade chocolate chip cookie, but wait to eat it until you have another throat lozenge. drink 1/4 water. eat cookie. profess the deliciousness of said cookie to co-worker. drink 1/4 water. have a few more throat lozenges. drink the remaining water.

optional: ask for another cookie.

after 30 minutes, check spirits. you should find yourself to have more energy than you did in the morning. if not, consider napping and recheck in 30 minutes.

i am virgo. here me go on and on and on about my state of health

sick. i've been sick. and it sucks. missed three days of work. i keep thinking i'm getting better. today i almost went into work until doctor said "better not." said, stay home so you don't relapse. that sounded good. and right since i was still just out of it all day. acupuncture today and went home with bags full of mysterious ingredients for ancient chinese secret cure. so bitter, instructions say "eat some raisins first, drink the tea, and then eat more raisins." it took 90 minutes to prepare. basically, it puts the Ass in Nassty. but i sucked it down. blech. thanks to heather who very sweetly made the tea for me, making sure it was done perfectly. sigh. i just want to be better so i can go out and do something.