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November 30, 2004
preemptive measures
oh this is a fabulous idea!
think of all the trouble this kind of service could intercept! even more useful than a predictably ineffective warning label.
sign me up.
Posted by heidijanet at 08:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 29, 2004
thinner
it's a freezing 63 degrees in los angeles today and windy.
standing outside in my wool skirt, scarf, cardigan and jacket, it's as dry as a bone and i'm feeling as frozen as i once did on the slopes of little cottonwood canyon in february.
good lord my blood has thinned here in the southland. i'm slightly embarassed at my weenie-ness.
Posted by heidijanet at 03:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 28, 2004
thankful
this year's thanksgiving celebration was significantly less stressful than last year, with my wholly domesticated cousins and their amazing home-cooked pies and stuffing competition. my poor aunt had to cook a third turkey to go with all the leftover stuffing.
my aunt has honed her hostess skills to a science like few have ever seen. if anyone questions where my fussiness and control freaky tendencies come from, look no further than my immediate family, where i am decidedly laid-back, low key and practically slovenly by comparison.
the best moment of the afternoon came as all twenty of us were finishing up our meticulously prepared salads. my cousin jenny prepared to get up to clear the salad plates so we could move to the next course, and abruptly received a refresher course for her mother's "system".
aunt joyce: "sit down, i have this handled."
jenny: "but i was just trying to help clear the salad plates."
aunt joyce: "i have a system. please sit down."
jenny: "i know about the system, aren't i part of the system?"
aunt joyce: "no, you're not part of the system. please sit down."
jenny: "what, do you think i can't handle your system?"
as my cousin andy came up behind me to gather up my salad plate, i held on to it and suspiciously asked, "i don't know andy, are you part of the system?"
i might add that jenny is a mother of five, is the president of her ladies church group, and runs marathons and triathalons...and had, as a matter of fact, participated in the dana point turkey trot just that morning. all this while still managing to prepare homemade stuffing and two amazing pies for dinner.
as a girl that can barely manage to find the time to order take out at the end of an evening after a 14 hour workday, i threw my poor body into shock eating my way through three full days of turkey, stuffing, pies and loooong naps.
Posted by heidijanet at 05:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 24, 2004
office politics
more in the series of life's little annoyances:
#1 if you're going to have a little chat with your girlfriend on company time, at least don't just stand there with your paper half on the copy machine as though your poised to make a copy any moment now. for ten minutes. especially when i'm impatiently standing right there with my own frigging copies to make.
#2 the person with the most paperwork in their hands has the right-of-way in the hallway. period. if it appears to be a tie, then heels trump flats.
#3 if you're going to hang out in my office and you knock stuff down or move stuff around. put it back.
#4 please ask if you can borrow my pen first, instead of just reaching over and grabbing my .20mm Pigma Micron fine tip felt pens and grinding the tip down to uselessness, then ask to borrow a pen that works.
#5 in my personal opinion, "hi, how are you?" implies interest in an answer. if you don't actually want to know, don't ask me.
Posted by heidijanet at 03:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 20, 2004
who was that girl?
when i was nineteen years old, i had just moved back from the east coast and to utah, where i had poorly thought-out plans to head back to school, get my degree and do...something.
well i ran into the small problem of, well, money. so a girlfriend and i decided to get jobs. we headed up to the slopes and landed jobs at snowbird, working as what was affectionately known as liftie scum. i drove my 1972 bronco up to little cottonwood canyon every morning at the crack of dawn to help tourists and locals on and off the lifts all day long in sub-zero weather. i shovelled snow, skied in hip-deep powder, reprimanded unruly snowboarders, snuck my way into the bar at 4:30 in the afternoon to illegally down $2 pitchers of michelob with my friends, then headed right back down the mountain to manage a pizza restaurant four days a week.
even with all this it was still barely enough to cover the gas to get me back and forth (granted it was at eight miles to the gallon, but gas was cheap and i was oblivious), cover my tiny little studio rented for a whopping $230 a month and cover my phone bill. thank god i had unlimited access to pizza dough, chopped mushrooms, ham, peppers and other condiment-like items because i had nothing in the fridge except milk to mix with the cereal that i stored in my oven.
i never seemed to get tired, rarely got sick, didn't feel lonely or spend a single moment fussing about what i was doing with my life or where the hell i was headed.
i was the kind of girl who laughed so loud it echoed in the canyon, and long lost friends could identify me a half-mile away. when a telemarketer called to tell me i won a giant prize--all i had to do was pony up $29.95--i believed them. i drove 60 miles an hour up the two-lane winding canyon road passing slow, silly californians chunking along with chains on their tires without thinking a moment about my mortality. i trailed (far) behind members of the us ski team kerplunking over moguls that could have (and frankly should have) torn me in two, laughing all the way down.
i didn't think about politics, taxes, car payments, deadlines, budgets, where to have dinner, whether or not to head home for the holidays, what my parents thought, what my friends thought, and i never hesitated fearing a broken heart before falling in love. and i never thought that time would really, pass.
nights like tonight feeling worn down, sick, overworked and a little stressed out with all these things weighing on me...i miss that girl. a lot.
Posted by heidijanet at 09:14 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
disappointed.
so i've been looking forward to this party tonight all week. pre-thanksgiving at chez warren, erin's amazing food, good people.
but then i wake up this morning and i'm SICK! 100 degree temp. sore throat. aches. pains. headache.
i'd force myself to go, but i don't want to get everyone else sick too.
*sniffle*
Posted by heidijanet at 04:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 19, 2004
overstatement
i just mentally complimented myself for having the foresight to pick up a chocolate bar for my post-take out mexican food sweets fix.
then gently reprimanded myself for lowering the culinary bar just a little too far.
Posted by heidijanet at 11:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
jailbait
oh my god, if i lived in bay city, michigan i would have racked up a few consecutive life sentences on this one...
Posted by heidijanet at 04:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 18, 2004
life's little questions
post-it note stuck on my monitor yesterday by a friend/co-worker:
"remind me why we aren't independently wealthy and traveling the world..."
good question...
Posted by heidijanet at 12:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 17, 2004
raise the debt ceiling
how cool would it be if when you maxed out your credit cards, you could just call up your credit card companies and request they raise your limit with no promises for when they would be repaid?
perhaps george thinks that our deficit is kind of like his daddy's bank account? given his track record of running companies into the ground, this seems like a strangely familiar pattern.
Posted by heidijanet at 02:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
cross-dressing ---> camoflauge dressing
on my way into work this morning there was a short bit on a tiny school in east texas that came under fire from conservative groups for their annual TWIRP day, on which the students cross-dress in a fun little role reversal for homecoming week.
apparently the concern was that this pushed a liberal agenda promoting a homosexual lifestyle among their students.
the day will hence forth be known as "camo-day" and the students will now dress as soldiers.
because you would never find homosexuals dressing up as soldiers...
Posted by heidijanet at 10:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 16, 2004
repeater
chatting with my sister on the phone while she tries to wrangle and appease my one and half year old niece:
s: "isabella you can't watch beavis and butthead!"
i: "butthead!" *wild toddler giggling*
s: "oh so cute..."
i: "cute. BUTTHEAD!" *toddler cackling*
Posted by heidijanet at 12:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 14, 2004
love ride 21
i'm back from love ride 21. i'm exhasuted and windblown. so until i get the energy to fill in a little more detail, take a look over here.
Posted by heidijanet at 09:34 PM | TrackBack
November 13, 2004
vigilante on the side
i had a wonderful dinner with my dad and lee tonight at the buffalo club. i rode on the back of my dad's harley, which i love because you really get to see things differently on the back of a bike.
on the way home, we stopped at a light at 17th and pico, and were waiting to turn right to head home.
a woman in a saturn turned left in front of us, when suddenly a small ford truck sped into view out of nowhere and slammed into the woman's car. her car turned 180 degrees spinning right toward us. for a split second i thought she was going to slide right into us. thankfully her car stopped a few feet short.
then, we realized that the truck that slammed into the woman just kept on driving. my inner vigilante kicked into gear, and i leaned forward and yelled, "hey that guys just taking off! we need to get his plate number!!"
but lee and my dad were on the same wavelength. we sped off down the street after the guy and lee got his plate number.
we turned around to head back to the scene of the accident, and realized that the woman had also sped down the street and was right behind us. i motioned for her to follow us back to the scene of the accident.
then of course, i chastised her for trying to chase him down herself. a single girl alone in her car should never try to chase someone down like that...well unless she had a couple of harley guys at her back. ;)
anyway, we gave the police the information they needed to track the guy who just hit her and ran. fortunately no one was hurt. but man, i just hate it when i see people just run away like that. but talking to the police, i guess it happens all the time.
i feel bad for the girl, but it felt really good to step in and help. vigilante work is very exciting.
Posted by heidijanet at 10:39 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
November 11, 2004
daddyo!
my dad's down for the annual love run, and this year i get to go!
me & my dad
Originally uploaded by in retrospect.
he drove down on his harley with his good friend lee and i met up with them for a drink tonight. sharing fun bar tricks, i challenged them to a classic passed along to me by daniela...
m: "so you push the cork into the empty wine bottle and then fish it out only using the things available at the table"
lee: "suction?"
dad: "heat it up?"
lee: "use a knife."
me: "nope. nope. and nope."
lee: "fill it with water?"
dad: "fill it with beer!"
me: "um no."
lee: (to me) "you're drunk!"
dad: (to lee) "no, WE'RE drunk."
lee: "oh. yeah, right. we're drunk."
interesting role reversal to hang out with one's dad and his buddy while they're throwing 'em back on a road trip.
Posted by heidijanet at 10:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 10, 2004
ring around a story
today a friend complimented me my garnet ring. i replied by launching into a lengthy little story about how it was a man's ring that belonged to my great-grandmother's high school sweetheart in austria...did they have high schools in 19th century austria?...anyway whatever the equivalent would be...and she had it resized to fit her hand.
then she married someone else, moved to america and had a bunch of kids.
but then, the high school sweetheart came to america, found her in the dakotas and they ran off to california.
my friend blinked a few times, and remarked, "well, now that's a ring with a story."
thinking back...perhaps that was a bit more information than he was looking for.
Posted by heidijanet at 09:06 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 05, 2004
beast of burden
i had the strangest dream this morning. i woke up around 3am, which has become a frustrating nightly pattern for the last couple of weeks.
just to put this into context, my instincts have been firing off alarms at my psyche for about two months now. it started sometime in late july/early august as a nagging feeling that the tide was changing somehow--but with everything going so well in my life, i casually brushed it aside like a buzzing fly around my head.
then slowly i started down a path of going out less and less, diminishing enthusiasm at work, more and more time spent up into the wee hours of the morning, not so much mind racing as blank confusion. i know this sounds awfully vague, but it IS vague.
so this week i've begun to wake up suddenly around 3am and i just lie there, mind wandering. i can't help but suspect it's an alarm of some kind. now this happens from time to time...but i ususally manage to resolve it or figure it out. this time, i just don't know.
so, going back to my dream. it's just a regular day littered with meetings, phone calls and other usual activities. then at some point i found myself in an open space behind a building. it resembled a home, but it was an office building where i was working, situated a few miles off the coast. out of nowhere, the ocean surf surged in from the coast washing all kinds of random objects and people around where i was standing. now, the details are a little fuzzy on how the next thing happened, but suddenly i'm trudging across the sand deposited around the building by the rogue surf, back into to the office with a emaciated, helpless, seemingly terminally-ill man in my arms.
his thin bony arms and legs were wrapped tightly around my body and he gazed up into my eyes blank and lethargic as i walked with incredible difficulty. i was also having a really hard time keeping a good hold on him. but it was clear that putting him down was not an option. for some reason i was charged with carrying this man around indefinitely.
the rest of the dream was pretty ordinary, me looking for my car in the parking lot, going out with friends, shopping for groceries, crossing the street...boring regular life stuff...all with this sick and helpless guy in my arms.
i became more and more tired, and simple everyday things became harder and harder to accomplish. i began to feel self-conscious that people would start treating me differently with a strange man in my arms...then i woke up.
i'm not sure what to think of it, but it's another one those dreams that's been bothering me all day.
Posted by heidijanet at 01:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 03, 2004
i agree. with me.
reading through post-election analysis over at salon, i stumbled across an article illuminating the very issue that i was pondering around 3am lying in my bed sleepless and disturbed by the election results.
as an information junkie of enormous porportions digging daily through the news, listening to NPR all the way into work and all the way home, while persistently checking in at metafilter, salon, various web logs and performing countless random online queries for everything from the name of an actor i can't place after watching an obscure film to wondering why water always swirls in the same direction while headed down the drain. and along with everyone else in the country--learning as much about the candidates for this election as possible.
i spent several months assuming that the most emailed stories over at yahoo were an indication of what folks were paying attention to. i got tangled up in the thinking that endorsements for Kerry by The New Yorker (endorsing a candidate for the 1st time in history), The Washinton Post, Chicago Sun-Times, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle and the Seattle Times (who endorsed Bush last time)would sway the minds of voters. i was certain that revelations of incompetence, draft dodging, 9/11 exploiting, finger pointing (and finger flipping), war-mongering, and even outright lying would count for something.
i spent lots and lots of time laughing and agreeing with information sources mostly because...well the information also agreed with me.
then a couple of weeks ago i decided to poke around the bush re-election site and while disgusted by its negativity, undaunted i proceeded to dig through every article, several speeches, links to party-line press...and started feeling a little disconcerted. i remarked to a friend that night that even though i couldn't stand bush, i was beginning to think he would actually win. my friend responded with a frightened gasp, "oh no! don't say that!"
recoiling from the thought, i rushed back into the arms of my like-minded information sources, reinforcing my sense of hope and optimism for the outcome of the election.
i never expected that the 18-34 year old voters, wouldn't show up at the polls. i didn't think that a majority of the population would care more about preventing gay marriage, than preventing an unjustified invasion of a country. i thought that certainly people would understand that costs to our envirmonment might be more critical to us than the cost of oil. but feeding myself my own rhetoric, and only giving weight to the information that agreed with me, left me feeling disillusioned and disappointed. and more than a little helpless.
it's not the first time. and i'm certain it won't be the last.
Posted by heidijanet at 12:42 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
November 02, 2004
defection
such high hopes for the day. i got up early. i voted, optimistically tracked the polls all day. met friends for drinks...thinking maybe there'd be cause for celebration.
it's 11:00pm PST and it's not looking good. not good at all.
if (when) bush takes it, i'm defecting. who's with me?
Posted by heidijanet at 11:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack