apologies

dear visitor,
I have apparently lost almost all interest in my blog - I'm sorry if you miss hearing my literary voice. It's just that I'm all involved in other stuff, and blogging is low priority, plus... it's been less and less appealing to put my heart out on an electronic page, so posts for the last months have been about things I don't really care about, so it all seems a bit pointless anyway. And then again as Bridget said when she stopped her blog (but I still have a link to it nevertheless), the home laptop is a lot less appealing when you've been sitting in front of a computer screen all day. Not officially, but because it looks like it's just happened, this blog is in a state of suspended animation until further notice.

But feel free to add recipes to http://forgetramen.wordpress.com cause that is my recipe-share blog and I love cooking :-)

cheers,
Julie

Today I bought 3 apples, 4 organic pears, 3 roma tomatoes, some brown rice, some cocoa powder, and a two dollar box of spaghetti for $5.17. Awesome.

a smile, a ray of sun

Some things I thought were important this week: tasting the scents on the air during my nighttime runs. chopping up 5 pounds of meat for future use. teaching my first Bible study to a group at church. finding out I was overqualified for the first temp job I applied for. settling on the 900 minute phone plan. getting my money back from my Australian bank. petting kitties at the Petsmart adoption center. overwriting painful memories at SDSU. deciding not to encourage someone who likes me. hearing about a friend's day. handling my oral fidgets with unshelled raw sunflower seeds. seeing an old sort-of friend without it turning into a heavy deal. receiving reassurance about an old doubt. praying powerfully on tuesday. I am glad of my week. God is good. all. the time.

stupid things I have done lately

-driving without my seatbelt on (for brief periods of time) (intentional)
-having a 2006 registration sticker on my car until late January 2007 (laziness)
-washing my car at a do-it-yourself place, spending $7.50 in quarters, and ending with plenty of dirt and soap scum still left on it (a combination of inexperience and 9 months' accumulated dirt)
-stopping at a red light and then going through it because the motion of the cars turning left made me think we were all going (unintentional)
-leaving my right sideview mirror very badly adjusted so that I had a blind spot on that side (unintentional)
-nearly changing lanes into a car on my left (twice) (I looked first...) (unintentional)
-coasting through a red light (at least I think it was red- I barely noticed there was a stoplight there at all until I was passing under it) because I was looking for my freeway entrance (there was no one around and it was night) (unintentional)
-mangaged to get from my small group leader's house and onto the freeway at 9:00 at night before realizing that I was driving without any headlights (unintentional, and unbelievable)

I fear I have gone stupid about driving. I have been trying really hard to focus, look, and be aware, plus going over what I learned about driving, but it seems like most days I do something potentially dangerous or illegal. Not sure what to do about this. Ideas??

a series of punchlines

I can't come up with anything as immediately satisfying as my carne asada burrito was for me this afternoon, with guacamole and hot sauce, at 3pm when I was most ravenous, from a hole-in-the-wall drivethru Mexican restaurant that was painted in wide stripes of yellow and red. Don't talk to me about questionable food sources and cockroaches; they had an "A" grade from the health department posted in the window.

My new boyfriend is named Ikea. He takes me beautiful places but also takes my money.

Verizon Man - who is he? What does he do? His onesie would indicate he's an auto mechanic, his manicure would indicate he's a jewelry salesman, his glasses and haircut insinuate that he's really a cooler-than-thou hipster, but since I've come back from Australia he's taken to showing tooth when he smiles, and when he does that he just looks like a print model who's sick of being the face of Verizon but keeps doing it cause he signed a contract.

I may not be addicted to transitions, but I sure get enough of them.

Yesterday was what they would have called ‘travel day’ if they gave you travel days around the vacations at Hillsdale. It made me sympathize with all those people from Alaska (yeah, all two of those people) and the southwest who had to zigzag across the country to get to Michigan and college. It wasn’t really that bad, but it did take a while. This was partly due to my own choice. I was supposed to go Detroit-Minneapolis-San Diego, and when I got to the Twin Cities they had overbooked and were offering $300 vouchers to anyone who would give up their seat and take a later flight. As I had no particular time I had to be in San Diego I took this excellent offer, so I got home at 8pm instead of the original 1pm, and had another leg added to my journey. Detroit-Minneapolis-Seattle-San Diego. Probably another hour and a half of flight time. But, you know, it was good, cause it meant I achieved the following firsts:
-free airline ticket (probably to be used for the family reunion in July)
-sleeping in an airport (1 ½ hours dozing during my Minneapolis layover, much welcomed after 4 hours of sleep the previous night)
-not one but TWO flights seated in first class! (they upgraded me for being a volunteer! My opinion is yes it’s a little bit nicer, roomier, but not worth the extra prices. Free alcohol if you like that but I wasn’t drinking. They do take your coat and hang it up for you, which I enjoyed.)

So I moved into my apartment! Well, more accurately I met Tunisia, parked my car, hauled my bedding and suitcase upstairs, and fell asleep on the sofa in my room. It’s 4 ½ feet long. Comfortable, but not really any room to stretch one’s legs out J Buying a bed is the first thing on my list. I’ve got plenty to keep me busy this week, and I think it’s going to be fun unpacking all my stuff I haven’t seen for 9 months. Kind of like Christmas. At my house we have all these unique ornaments for the Christmas tree, from my mom’s travels in Europe, from this cool store from when we lived in L.A., and recent acquisitions from World Market. It’s always exciting to decorate the tree and find old friends as you unwrap each ornament. I figure moving in is going to be kind of like that.

That’s my situation at the moment! I feel like an explorer. Watch this space!!!