Oh, Kate

Okay, so they brought H&M, Mango and Zara here... why the hell can't they bring Topshop? Pout, pout, pout.

oh, crap!

They were talking about it in yoga this morning, and I thought maybe a lane collapsed, or the guardrail or something... not the whole thing! I guess it's a good thing I decided not to stop by Acme this morning.

ugh

The hubby is out of town, so I've been trying to occupy myself with social outings and various events. I think all the activity is catching up to me. I feel a trace of a cold coming (it's allergies! it's allergies!). Tonight, I had to cancel dinner (for like, the 4th time) with a friend and I didn't get to go to swimming because Comcast came to install a new phone line, which took four hours, as opposed to the twenty minutes predicted when I made the appointment. And I think I lost sunglasses last night. This is the second pair of sunglasses I've lost in a month. Plus I might have lost the shoes I use for my dance class, right after I got them topy'd. And I lost a BART ticket. This sucks. Maybe I'll buy another pair of sunglasses. And another pair of shoes. I'm going to bed.

La dee dah dee dah dee dah dee daaaaaah....

Just came back from the Decemberists show, and it rocked. I highly recommend checking them out live.

Reasons why:

1. There's a whale
2. There's stage diving and crowd surfing
3. You get to scream and tear your hair out and gnash your teeth
4. There was an opera singer tonight!
5. The drummer dances a hoedown-style jig
6. Imagine that you're a 16th century mason in Portugal, squatting in a dusty cul-de-sac, snacking on a jug of olives...

Audience participation is somewhat mandated. That is all.

Serendipity

I ran into a fellow student from my regular Berkeley Yoga Mandala class at Rusty Wells' class at the Castro Yoga Tree this evening. After an especially vigorous (and pore cleansingly sweaty) class, we decided to cool down by walking the long route back to BART together. As we walked past Delfina, we happened upon our Berkeley instructor leaving from dinner. We had just been talking about him less than a block beforehand. Talk about coincidence! Sometimes, San Francisco really is a small town.

At the Rack

I f'ing love this jacket! When I first spotted it, I thought it was a simple double breasted jacket, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it had asymmetrical lapels. Isn't that collar amazing? And the tailoring at the waist has that nipped Savile Row fit. Look at how the notched bottom (the correct term escapes) falls perfectly in the midline, despite the asymmetry. I should know McQueen better than to think he would do something as pedestrian as a double breasted jacket. Sigh. To bad it was two sizes too big!

Drishti Goals

I'll come clean. In order to support my ridiculous eating habits, I have to work out an insane amount. ISince I stopped seeing a trainer, I don't do much ab work (other than in yoga class) or lift weights anymore, and I don't run or spin. I go to a lot of yoga, and I swim on a masters team. In the past couple of months, I started taking a crazy-ass dance class at my gym. Now, I'm not much of a dancer. I took maybe one tap/ballet class when I was like, 5 at the local rec center, and yes, I took bellydancing on and off for a few years, but we won't go there (when the bellydance class started to involve performances and recitals I bailed). I'm terribly uncoordinated and ultraklutzy. All those wacky dance steps and combos really make my brain go dizzy. And a dizzy cross-eyed chick trying to get her bearings is NOT graceful. Despite that, the class is a great deal of fun (mostly because I spend a great deal of time laughing my ass off at myself) so I'll probably keep taking it, but I think it's done something weird to my right shoulder (long story). Like, there's a big knot or tightness in it. I wouldn't exactly call it an injury, but I definitely notice it in yoga, when certain poses are noticeably more difficult to get into, and in swimming - the reach on my right arm when I extend it feels shorter. I think I might be rounding my shoulders too - my yoga instructor (yay! David's back) kept telling me to stop "nosediving" in the transition from Urdhva Hastasana (standing upright with arms raised over the head) to Uttanasana (standing forward bend) in my sun salutation. Last week, he had told us to find a drishti (focused eye gaze) in order to prevent collapsing the shoulders. Guess I need to work on that. And get a massage.

Cognitive Dissonance?

So during a very long drive on the I-5 back from SoCal, I finally caught up on all TAL podcast shows that I'd been missing since my iPod crapped out on me. As usual, some of the stories were a little slow, some were gut-bustingly hilarious ("Do it for the LOTTO!!!") and some were absolutely heartrending. I swear, I'll be listening, put-putting along, and towards the end of the act, the storyteller will say something, Jon Brion soundtrack music will cue in and the next thing I know my chest gets that achy feeling and my eyes are a watery and my nose is all sniffly. But the most surprising moment for me was when Ira Glass (squeee!) revealed his enthusiasm for "The O.C." Apparently, he and his wife would sit on the couch and sing along to the Phantom Planet "California" themesong every week. "They could have killed off Marissa in the first season, as far as I was concerned," said Ira. Spoken like a true fan. He went on to play the segment in which Seth namechecks TAL, and Summer responds with derision. Ira nearly goes apoplectic with fanboy delight. It was all very endearing but...

HEY IRA MAKE YER DAMN NEW TV SHOW AVAILABLE ON ITUNES CAUSE I SURE AS HELL DON'T NEED TO SUBSCRIBE TO SHOWTIME !!!

Oh, and speaking of podcasts, Ron Moore (producer of BSG) revealed that he liked to watch Cheaters. "It's the worst show ever on TV. Just awful." I understand, Ron. And yet when it's on, you just have to keep watching.

Ten years

since Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired on T.V. Lord I feel old. You know, I just can't let a few months slide by without mentioning Buffy, that's how much this show has sunk its fangs into my heart. It is my personal opinion (probably expressed several times in this very blog) that the musical episode, "Once More, With Feeling" might be the most perfect hour of television ever. Whenever I've had a horrible day, or when I'm feeling down in the dumps, nothing cheers me up quite like BTVS. The episodes where Buffy loses her virginity, Angel's soul is restored, and Buffy and Angel break up (for real)... sigh. Makes my life seem a hell of a lot less tragic.