overheard

kristin was a bit taken with the cookies i brought into work -- there were lemon ones and chocolate ones.

kristin: laaast cookie! (taking the lemon one)
marya: laaast cookie! (taking the chocolate one)
kristin: good bye evil ones. (as she swallows)

says adrien brody...

“That suffering has existed for many, many people and still exists. On a simple level, it’s made me appreciate to be able to eat, be with friends, having shelter. These are things that I have taken for granted, and that we have all taken for granted,” Brody acknowledges. He moves onto an anecdote, discussing one of the film’s pivotal scenes where Szpilman has gone many days without eating, himself fasting before the shoot. “I cried because I smelled the bread. I hadn’t had any carbohydrate, any, any, any period. It was a loaf or real baked bread, Eastern European thick hearty bread. I kept thinking what it was like to feel to get this bread. Szpilman was probably more hungry then I ever could have been.”

emdot down?

bummer. i think emdot is down. so no graphics for you. i'm going to give it an hour before i call my host...

exodus

somehow the book exodus wound up in my adolescent paws when i was 13 years old. i'll never forget it, as it made a huge impact. teenage angst is a cliched term and you often think of kids getting into goth, metal, drugs, punk, what have you. i got into the warsaw uprising and the plight of the jews. i became a bit obsessed with judaism back then... obsessed is a strong word. let's say finely interested. and to this day i find the religion mysterious and appealing. time goes on and strong interests weaken... by 15, 16 i wasn't swept up into daydreams about it (or nightmares, as the case may be). and now... it is a dusty, hazy summer-before-high-school memory.

but it all came back to me last night. dooly and i caught the 8:00 showing of the pianist. i'm not sure if either of us was necessarily in the mood for such a ... sad, dark, hopeless movie. but i'm really glad we went. check out the site, which is very well done.

afterwards, me and dools went to linnaea's for a bite of something sweet. we talked a bit about the movie. my question, what i kept wondering while watching the film, is... is it better to sentence yourself to death by helping people — and then dying and not being able to do more... or do nothing and keep your head down to survive at the risk of not contributing anything and also being killed anyway.

and i was overcome by how life is... luck of the draw... being at the right place, the wrong place, etc. which makes me think of there but for the grace by wislawa szymborska who won the nobel. sigh. life.

and one more thought, and now i'm rambling and i need to find an editor.... the protagonist in the movie, wladyslaw szpilman, was such a noble human being. in love with his art, yes, it is obvious. but also humble and dedicated to the well being of others, above art. a very sympathetic character. and the movie is based on this man's real life. amazing.

i hope adrien brody gets an award.

and meanwhile... talking with carsten about visiting berlin... he said, "where else should we go?" not wanting to revisit any of his latest travels. he suggested warsaw, krakow, not knowing about my adolescent interest and i said "yes! poland! great!" that trip might not happen as soon as planned, but something to look forward to.

nice surprise

this morning: focused! this afternoon: not so focused. but i tried. and in a moment of great unfocusability i cruised a couple sites and one was wooden cracker and — wow! nice surprise. he totally put a smile on my face as he included a picture of the building i live in. this world is small and lemme tell you: slo town is smaller yet. it's funny that brian and i don't know each other as he used to work across the street from my house and knows at least three of my friends and has been over for a few parties. six degrees of separation? sometimes san luis is one-sixth degree separation.

touched

the power of meditation. i haven't been sitting regularly for months. meditation is nothing short of magical. and if you don't sit, it's hard to describe it to you in a way that would be meaningful. sitting is like a silent panacea. anodyne. an invisible antibiotic — more like an antineurotic. i don't know how it works, but for me, it is calming, it is centering, and it cuts through the crap. i find that i am less ... argumentative; less sensitive to criticism yet more sensitive to other people; it's heart softening and back strengthening. so why am i not sitting? good question.

my teacher patrick once said: every day sit for forty minutes; if forty minutes is too long, sit for twenty. if twenty is too long, sit for ten. if you can't do ten, do five. if you can't do five do two and a half. and if you can't do two and a half, stand by your cushion and ask yourself, "why am i not sitting?"

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

i miss rebel.

rebel is a lot of things. but mostly she is this rare and fine balance between fun, light-hearted girl and big-hearted, calm-loving girl. she was fun and serious. she was an includer. she made people feel like they belonged, like they were welcomed, like they were special. she did all of this with the lightest touch. she, like meditation, seems to work invisibly. all you might see is a smile. all you might feel is the squeeze of herhand, but the effect was felt throughout the house and where ever she seemed to be.

at the risk of sounding melodramatic, i feel like reb's another of my teachers. a little bodhisattva that came into my life — by sheer luck. luck brought her in. she and jeffrey live in boston now and have been gone since june. the house is fine -- we are all doing well and the house itself is doing well, but in the last few weeks, more than ever i have been missing her presense — this invisible, kind presense that you can only sense by a laugh from the kitchen. your world might get smaller when she leaves. the question becomes, how do you retain the space? how do retain the largeness? how can you perpetuate this ... love and lightness and sweetness?

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

more and more i think of the poem i posted here last week A Ritual To Read To Each Other. that poem touches me in so many different ways. but more than anything it reminds me... i am the girl who will let the little things slip by — and by little things i mean, the lost communication, the missed nuances, the opportunity to connect. i am that person. i look for the solid and the solid rarely exists. the solid, i have a feeling, makes our world a little smaller. the smaller is exclusive instead of inclusive. i can see myself miss the connection in one area and then not even notice i am letting it slip by in another.

life is full of these little nuances.

i guess i am feeling a little sentimental today. my heart feels like it is in my throat. this isn't a bad thing or a heavy thing — or anything at all. it just is.

bittersweet. the beauty of life and waking up.

a quietish saturday

daily web perusals take me to bean land (in berliniamsburgh). if you feel the need to travel vicariously, check out bean's friend daniel deep in the heart of bolivia. (note: bean, bad girl! and i feel somewhat complicite since i did the same with rebel's letters while she was traveling down under; i understand that pull to share the word joy.)(and i'm glad you did).

i am now officially 100% wireless! went wireless at work this week and went wireless at home a month or so ago... but now my airport cardy dealy thing is only hooked up for work, so i must figure this out. all this to say... there might be very little postings in the next few days and fewer emailings (checking/sending).

kinda a quiet weekend ahead... and it's nice to have a little breather after the whirlwind of the last few weekends... or all weekends since before thanksgiving. i'm catching up with stuff and finally learning style sheets (oh, all you web geeks out there are shaking your heads that i haven't learned it yet — i know i know and it's pretty dang darn easy so far). emdot'll be going through some overhauls very soon... you can see traces of it already happening in navigational elements on the site.

meanwhile, more and more friends are hooking up with blogspots of their own.... this will all be reflected in the redoing of the site... but in the meantime check out raebean, stephs, and mizz yellerbelly herself. blogs from jason j. and shawn t. to come. yum.

love and bugs, m.

the rookie monk

In depth article about a Laguna Niguel boy whose parents believed he was a lama and who now lives in Dharamsala. It's a long piece, but you can always take it in bits and pieces. There are photos, too, to flip through if you just want to get a feel. Overall, very interesting story and kinda "out there" for conservative, right-wing, church-lurvin' Orange County. ;) Shared by my dad who is currently "reporting to you from deep in the wilds of Orange County, CA ... yes, that bastion of conservative right politics, where creature comforts and social status are the values of the day."

check your biases

i got raked over the coals by a few souls on my list-serv by speaking lightly about last weekend's peace rally (i didn't talk much about the speakers, but spent time desribing the hula hoopers, the capoiestas and other goings on). my deal is, why does a rally have to be this somber event?

and then i realized...

as long as protestors — be they pro-life or pro-peace or anti-wto or what have you — as long as they are perceived as outside the "norm" or "brick-throwing, profanity yelling" extremists, nobody has to take them seriously. so, the media and Average Joe American watches the melodrama. they ignore the peaceful protestors, the people standing up next to one another to be counted as one of the many against or for a certain ideology.

by marginalizing protestors in this way, we don't have question our beliefs, our biases, our prejudices, our laziness, or our ignorance.

so, it actually is worth it (for the status quo) to show the protestors as wound up, brick-throwing, screaming crazies.

pictures stephen passed on (he's one of the all-black body bags seen in the first photo) really sum up my personal experiences in rallies... peaceful, friendly, full of hope with a tweaking of not being too serious *and* trying to get a message across.

* * * * *

yesterday at lunch i heard a snippet from the humankind radio show.

today's show was about abortion activism (both pro-life and pro-choice) and what happened in massachusets a few years back when a pro-lifer went and gunned down some health workers.

the show focused on the dialogue that began between the two camps.

what they found was, before the attack and the mediator, the two camps did not talk.

the main pro-lifer they interviewed said she went out of her way to not speak to people in the other camp. i didn't get to hear what the pro-choicer had to say, but i assumed it was the same thing.

and i began to think about it and how common this is.

if you don't talk to the people in your other camp, your opinion doesn't need to be challenged. you don't have to think of these people as people just like you.

but once a dialog begins, the differences begin to melt. sure: there will always be differences... but... if you are really talking, you will have to question your own belief system and the way you choose to view the other side.

this was a great example of peacemaking i thought.

i was pretty bummed i didn't get to hear the whole thing.

peace rally in s.f.

my friend steve is in these pictures (second to the last one), but you can't tell cuz he is covered in a trash bag a la a body bag. i think the s.f. rally was a little... umm... bigger that the slo gig.

baldwin boogie

so, the other night i was hanging out with tom and he had some cool tunes playing on the stereo. who is this i asked. "baldwin brothers," he said.

two years ago i went to a poi show at house of blues in l.a. so stoked to see poi in all its glory. but the unknown benefit of that show were the two opening acts. first the baldwin brothers and then jack johnson, both of whom i'd never heard before. jack became all the rage here on the west coast (he was practically the music god of the cal poly female population for a solid year). i never heard much more about the badlwins, but i never forgot them. they were so groovin and so nice and mellow and fun and funky. perfect dance music.

so it was cool to be reminded about them at tom's. picked up "cooking with lasers" at lunch and now i'm boogying in my seat before the next meeting.

the weather is still unbearably beautiful here, though we have 50% chance of rain for tomorrow. and i cross my fingers.

it's not that i don't love this weather. i love it. it's awesome. but there is a sunflower blooming in our side yard. the entire walk from my house to downtown is one big fragrant orange blossom. it smells like spring and looks like summer. and it's not even february yet.

overheard

fedex just came by and within two minutes kristin was surrounded by four or more engineers.

chester: what is this?
kristin: i bought a new computer.
chester: a laptop?
kevin: couldn't you smell the new hardware?

the beautiful day

winter days like this should be outlawed. it's about 70-some odd degrees. beautiful blue sky. gorgeous day. i had to run an errand before lunch, so had the pleasure of a mid-morning drive down field-lined streets. and it was gorgeous. perfect. mid-morning smile. i should be wearing sandals. and as nice as it is to have these late-summer-ish type days in the dead of winter, i want to prolong the green hills as long as possible. everything is blooming too early. we have a sunflower in our side yard right now. global warming becomes global blooming.

and the moon has been incredible. it woke me up the other night as it lit up my bedroom like the sun.

in my daily web perusing ritual, i just got back from woodencracker. he's got some cool pictures of the moon as well as the outskirts of los osos, my home town.

A Ritual To Read To Each Other

If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dyke.

And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,
but if one wanders the circus won't find the park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.

And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider—
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.

For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give—yes or no, or maybe—
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.

—William Stafford from Stories That Could Be True

overheard

stu (singing): it's popcorn time.
kb: wah! i'm going into meeting.
stu: well, maybe you should take a big bowl of popcorn...
kb: maybe i should take a big bowl of something else.

East Ironbound

I.

It is not unreachable

Wherever you think you are starting from
however far you think you have to go

whether you trust in your craft and your instruments

or would like to set out in a little round boat
to depend on the will of the wind or the gods
or simply because you were there at the auction
and had change in your pocket, and thought
"How curious, to have died in a curragh"


II.

It is not a fake period village in a park of amusements
where you pay for 'the time of your life'.
Here admission is subtle — the gates thrown wide for everyone.
Here the crippled must enter the weight-lifting trials,
the deaf must discern the approach of the nightowl
before being carried away in its claws,
the dumb serve as traffic controllers at Newark and Heathrow
and the blind have as long to complete their first landscape
as it takes to fall down

down and down

from the plane


III.

It is not undesirable, though it can seem excessive

Including the skin, for example, when shaving the leg hair or beard
might result in the loss of a client, a family's wholesale disapproval,
an aversion to mirrors, not to speak of the shock of the unshielded nerves —
the slightest chill evokes tears

Even worse, should we take to the feel or the look
we might want to go further, cut deeper
make such an abominable mess
only the sky could take pity and not look away

Only the sky, the compassionate sky, by not looking away
could let us see ourselves
reflected in its eye
in an entirely new way


IV.

Looking out from East Ironbound
the trip in seems a dream

the sickening pounding
the seams working
the pump on all the time
the gap in the granite so long in appearing

DOES THE CHART HAVE IT WRONG
DO WE HAVE THE WRONG CHART

Now looking out, it rather seems
as if we'd been here all along

as if the voyage were the myth
and not East Ironbound

— Jim Lindsey
15 January 2003

overheard

marya: jim, take note, it is behavior like this that drives l.j. to try to kill him.
bill: it's true! she did try to kill me! with her scarf. i told her it was her accessory to murder.

overheard

heidi is having a valentine's day party and i got invited when we ran into each other at utopia. i was having lunch with wyeth and bret....

heidi, looking at wyeth and bret: it's girls only...
bret: (look of shock and astonishment).
heidi: we like boys—they're kinda like a hobby.

heidi is hands down the most stylish person in slo. we also talked about the possibility of a chinese new year's party, which i'm all for. let's get rid of the year of the horse (shoot -- i'm born in the year of the horse -- it should be a good year). it's been a hard year. for almost everybody. and heidi noted that it had been a bit of a tragic year for many people. and on reflection i have to agree. many people i know had real heartbreak and sadness.... so: out with the old, in with the new... but looking it up i see it will be the year of the sheep -- the black sheep. argh! i need to do some more research. can't we have the year of the happy puppy or something?

the fabulous day

today was fabulous. first, i won those tickets to see twyla tharp. and then everything else just fell into place. nice. easy. breezy. plus, fun fantasies of getting outta dodge and visiting carstereo. and little snippets of email encouragement from the bean of new england (okay, she's not in new england, but she is on the east coast and i couldn't resist):

"ok, what was it i wanted to say next...um.. oh yes, i
would advise may. april is still 'wintery' in lots of
northern places. may is definitely warmer. not quite
swamped witb tourists like june, but just warm enough
to bait those germans out of the house and into public
nudeness. yes! biggest park in berlin, right next to
so serious historical strausses and businessplatz' you
are walking along and then suddenly everyone in the
grass (ok, like 70%) has abandoned that fear-invoking
german solemnity and dropped their clothes in favor of
nude frisbee and nude dog walking. marya, you simply
couldnt miss sharing beers in the bier garten with
this side of germans."

and what else? early morning gym run with kristin and di and cutting out of ablab so we could have time for early morning coffee run. hair cut by A. lunch at linnaea's and i saw jamie and mr. harvey. deposited an extra $200 into el banco (ch-ching). bought a new book. and dinner with kristin. plus, the project is really wrapping up nicely. they love it. [smile].

i jumped the gun and the gun won

i am such a ... patienceless (new word!), tail-wagging puppy. i don't know how other people can keep their mouth shut about opportunities or new fun things or things they are excited about. my mouth is part of the enthusiasm train.

i just checked out prices for airfare to berlin. $528 round trip. lax to berlin. ohmigod! this could happen so easily and be so much fun! and carsten is up for all kinds of adventuring.......

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

the new question becomes.... april or may? april or may april or may april or may.... other countries?

overheard

diana, heather, and i were drinking wine in dan's place while dan cleaned up... and cholla's coming into town next weekend...

marya (clapping hands): okay, so girls night out next friday!
dan: how 'bout girls night out right now? out! out! all of you out of my room!
(motionlessly, the girls look in dan's general direction and then go on making plans)

overheard

jenn: raelene introduced me to the futang.
rem: what's the tang?
jenn: it was on a platform, torso high, a big peice of foam covered in fabric.
rem: so this is like a stage with a big bed on it?
jenn: uh huh, so it was more than just a futon
rem: this is like -- my dream
and in unison i say with him: your dream!
rem: jinks.
jenn: she also introduced me to futopia...

a beautiful saturday morning

my little brother evan turns 16 today (i don't have any recent pics scanned in). evan lives in halifax, nova scotia and i missed his visit to the states over christmas because of my ridiculous work schedule. so this summer i will hopefully visit him on his tiny canadian penninsula and see if he is taller than me yet. he almost was last summer.

* * * *

it is a beautiful day. not a gloriously sunny day with not a cloud in the sky. but an almost chilly day with everything clean and damp from yesterday's rain. the air smells fresh and the birds are singing in the trees. amanda, joe and i mosied down to farmer's market. slo's saturday farmers is my favorite. and there is always someone you know to chat with (today it was johnny b and markus and zach). and the girl who sells me tomatoes (and today i added basil and brown jumbo eggs) recognizes me now from my hat. "there's that hat again," she said sweetly this morning.

the hat is an old nike cap that i've always loved, but hated the logo. so i covered with a felt heart that everyone seems compelled to comment on.

* * * *

yesterday i got to leave work two hours early. and as it was misty and rainy i bundled up in my bed and finished my book. what a great afternoon/fun read. i totally cried near the end -- which caught me by surprise. but you gotta love a writer that can actually make you cry while reading. that doesn't happen very often.

* * * *

illinios govenor jim ryan (r) pardoned four men on death row yesterday after determining that all four had been tortured into confessing to crimes that they did not commit. torture included beatings, electric shock, and being smothered. today he commuted 160 inmates death sentences to life in prison.

i want to write that man a letter and shake his hand for doing the morally correct thing in the face of a state and nation that still supports (no -- demands!) the death penalty. that took some guts.

our mothers, our radio stations

i am ridiculously in love with public radio (minus most of the classical and half of the jazz). seriously. saturdays? made for kcbx (except from 11 to 1 -- freedom jazz -- which is a good time to do other things). i get a weekly email update from kcbx... i need to bring a radio into work so i can listen to new dimensions, alternative radio, humankind (my friend stacia says "humankind: be both." i love that), the infinite mind, this american life, and anything that features garrison keillor (writer's almanac and phc).

and of course, morning becomes eclectic (streaming goodness) (they are playing badly drawn boy right now; it's been a good morning for music as kotr played biko as i drove to work).

this week's weekly mailer included a chance to win two tickets to the twyla tharp dance performance on the 19th. i almost bought two tickets last night (fourth row center, my favorite seats in the house), but they were $80 and i hesitated. if i don't win these though, i'll have to kick down. i can't miss this performance.

and speaking of january 19th, it's the busiest day of the month already: shane's birthday, rosemary's birthday, meeting with patrick, twyla tharp, rehearsal, and the Waybacks at the Cambria Hoot. damn.

song and rehearsal

yesterday i heard the sweetest song by paul simon. it's called "father and daughter" and for a short time you can download it from my site. i'll take it down soonly. i shared this with stephen m. yesterday and he thought it was too straight-forward drummy ("I like "slippery" beats," he said.). so if you can get over the drums and into the loping guitar and sweet lyrics, you might like this song. i sent it to my dad.

rehearsals started. the space is in a warehouse and is shivery cold from concrete floors and metal chairs. it is strictly barebones. jenn (my sweet little bne -- best neighbor ever) has reported that it's getting lots of community buzz. slo was one of only four cities in the US selected to produce the play -- so that adds to the coolness. each thursday night performance will be for a specific charity and all proceeds will be doled out accordingly.

xo.m.

overheard (aka, i have the best clients)

marya: do you still sit next to neal?
bill: no, hp has divorced us.
marya: i hope you got to keep the kids.
bill: i did! wait — i am the kids.

overheard

shawn: he can do the WYSIWYG editor. What do you need me to do the WYSIWYG editor for?
jb: it breaks each time i turn it on.
shawn: oh yeah...

we are so close to having the whole thing done!!!

calling all last-week versions of newsweek

because he's berlin bound (as in kept, not heading towards) carsten can't get a copy of last week's newsweek with keanu reeves on the cover. no no no, carsten's not hot for keanu. carsten is a software developer working on the matrix. specifically, the agent's hair. that's carsten's handy work. so if you have a copy... [NEW: magazine found and on its way to germany.]

it was a big day for carstereo. not only was there mention in newsweek, but there were tv spots on german television and recognition from the Motion Picture Academy. Details on his blog, realityblur (scroll down and look for the bolded text).

apple geeking

our design guys are glued to their monitor screens, watching the webcast of MacWorld's Keynote (aka, steve jobs in the turtleneck talking about new shtuff). yeah, of course i got sucked in. mmmm... new powerbook (17" screen, less than an inch thick -- but what i really thought was cool was the ambient lighting). sometimes i find the keynote depressing, cuz it always one-ups what you've got sitting on your desktop real time. and c'mon. you can't update everything every year.

and though a 17" monitor would be sweet (as would the G4 and the superdrive and all the rest) i really like my little ibook (even though it gave me the flashing questionmark this weekend).

so instead i've got my sites on an iPod.

kristin became Employee of the Year on friday night at our work party. no one else could even come close to deserving it, with all the tireless days and nights little miss kb put into wa last year. the coolest part was, not only does she get her little award, the company also got her an iPod. engraved even! very cool. we can have matching iPods. :)

overheard

marya: but i don't want it to look like star trek. does it glow blue?
jim: it doesn't glow blue and it passes the Thick Fluffy Blanket Test.

return of the bean queen

raelene's gotta brand new blog: raefried beans ("bites of my little apple"). go go go and taste the goodness. little snippets of funky monkey. and this is what makes me want to squeeze her:

ezpei: "your nurses outfit over your track suit?"
bean: "i'm sick."

get snippets of newyorkcity life. of hitting the unknown bars and cool celebrity sitings (bjork and bjork's baby?!). send kisses and skip down the street. it's all good.

sitting

for any of you interested in more info on mediation or shambhala centers and what they are like... here's a little story in the New York Times from a writer who was encouraged to try meditating to calm her writing style... "The Racing Mind Races Past Meditation."

the little things

stephan has a cool boss...

"In a time when businesses (even in Humboldt) feel that they will lose business if they don't put up an American flag, our store flies the flag of the United Nations. In our shop window we have the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle of January 17, 1991 which reads "US planes attack targets in Kuwait, Baghdad" and something about Bush addressing the American People. Will history repeat itself this January? Anyway, that's the kind of place I work in. Pretty lucky."

Stephs and his gf will visit from Arcada on Tuesday. I can't wait to see them.

Meanwhile, a seemingly very interesting Paul Hawken movie will be playing at the Palm that same night. I can't seem to find an official or definitive link for him...

In looking for a link on Paul Hawken I initially went the The Sun Magazine archives. If you've read my blog for a while you know how I feel about The Sun (I love it). I have given the Sun as a present more often than any other thing. I want everyone to have a subscription. Going back and searching for the Paul Hawkin article (which I never found; I am impatient) I stumbled across so many other amazing interviews that this magazine has blessed us with. Amazing people are on this planet and working to make a difference. Just read these articles. And one of them is Sy Safransky, the Sun's tireless editor. Someone I would love to meet.

the sharing of the utopian cookie

utopia bakery is my favorite place on earth these days. more than big sur or yosemite or [fill in the name of your favorite place]. they have these cookies that are the most amazing things. you think they are going to taste one way, but they totally taste another. you think they are going to be a little crunchy. and instead they slowly melt in your mouth and kind of dissolve/explode in a very nice enjoyable flavor.

today i bought twelve of them and handed them out at work.

mark: what are these called?
marya: sex cookie.
stu: hey, that's what i call my wife.
ben: hey, that's too much information.

overheard

marya: wow. we are totally in sync.
jeff davis road: cool. i always wanted to be in a boy band.

bits and pieces

the party was a blast. and i won't go into details here, but this is one of the first parties in a long time (i mean, besides the halloween parties) when i've heard so many people utter "i hope i wasn't too out of control..." with downwardly cast and then upwardly hopeful eyes. mine included. but no matter. the party was a blast. great convos. new friends. and the last guests didn't leave until well into the morning. or after that. ;)

i finally got to meet woodencracker. unfortunately i didn't really get to talk to him. just a quick convo on the dance floor and now i wish we could have chatted more. all in due time, i am sure. meanwhile, check out his photos from 12/31/02. the shot of linnaea's musta been taken in the morning. i can tell by the shadows. and the emptiness of the street.

dan and i had lunch today which is something we rarely do outside of our home. we ended up at mo's, sitting at the bar that runs along the window facing all the downtown shoppers and strollers. afterwards we mosied down to booboo's and the phoenix, to pick up CDs and a calendar, in that order.

today's musical meanderings were very "wyeth's circle" inspired. on our way to peter gabriel last month stephen talked about a band called galactic, which i've never heard of. they played a big gig in sc and steve was all stoked to go. afterwards he said it was an amazing show, so i checked 'em out online and liked what i heard, so i picked up one of their cds. i also got an actual copy of geggy tah's into the oh (i'd been listening to a burned copy this whole time). into the oh was one of my favorite cds last year (no, the year before). and i also got... hmmm... what was the third cd. oh yes, passion by peter gabriel and this purchase was inspired by lief, of lief-and-sara fame because he said for the longest time it had been his favorite and that he never has favorites. ever. and i didn't have that pg, so i decided to grab it while the grabbing was good.

email overheard

louis: I had lots of fun that night - maybe a little too much fun!
wyeth: Hmm...my imagination is running wild...
louis: let's say I had a few drinks & I remember playing a trumpet and dancing in a smoke machine...
wyeth: hmmm...I heard something about a Hell's Angel rally in Marya's room...
marya: well... i think we did rally hell but i didn't see any angels. ;)

overheard

as you know, we've been working a lot. evenings. weekends. holidays. and the project continues. me, shawn, jb and bret were talking about a page layout that has dynamic functionality. in the comps the submit button is outside the box, but after adding the functionality the submit button now appears inside the box. bret doesn't think he can get the submit button to work outside. shawn thinks it should.

shawn: but you have to think outside the box.
bret: yeah, but it will take a lot longer and i like to think inside the working week.

overheard
bret: but he isn't a player.
mar: oh. i thought he was.
bret: he's not a player. just playful.

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we just realized today is 01/02/03. it would be a cool day to be born. ;)


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carsten's latest travel pages are up. in november 2002 he went to italy with his friend gio.check out his rome and tuscany pics. beautiful. the only problem with carsten's photos is that he is never in any of them. which is a shame.

christopher is in trouble. he has a blog and didn't tell me?? how can this be? check out his blog, salacious monkey. perfect for those of you who need a vicarious nightlife. also, i see he has smartly linked to strongbad in his side nav. okay, for that i forgive him the rest.

last night... still woozy from the previous night's escapades, a group of us gathered in cinema one (aka, dan's place) for livingroom lolling and possible nappage to watch "unfaithful" one of the best movies of 2002. jenn hated it. "i hate this i hate this i hate this" she said in every suspenseful scene. "marya, what's going to happen. no no no no."

heh.

best ending of all time in that movie. i tell ya.