And in this dream tell us are you satisfied with...

Lately my dreams have been crazy. I don't mean just weird, I mean crazy. Last night Dave Matthews died in my dream. I can remember being distraught and talking with my sister about it (I believe we were both crying). Thinking how I'd never see the band live again and being so upset about it. But then, the sister laid a bombshell on me.

Dave had died in scandalous circumstances. He was shooting some kind of dirty movie and was dressed up like a woman at the time of his death. At this point, the dream morphed into some kind of reality show, involving a very complicated group obstacle course/maze.

Lately I've been thinking about music a lot. I used to live for seeing DMB live. And I can remember (which is shocking) many great shows. After high school the crowds got worse and worse until it has been virtually impossible for me to go to a show and sit on the lawn. Even in the seats inevitably there will be a girl behind you peeing or drunk obnoxious businessmen next to you wooing in the lead up to Warehouse. I HATE those woos.

I haven't been able to listen to Coldplay for at least 6 months. I don't know why. I just CAN'T listen to it. I can't figure out why and I have tried to force myself but to no avail. I feel this way about half of my music right now. Coldplay is probably the worst, I can listen to maybe two of their songs. Dashboard is right behind them, followed by DMB. I am not even really enjoying Death Cab. It all makes listening to the IPod really difficult. Hopefully my distaste for all my music will fade...

Make it stop...

For the past week (at least) I've been feeling seriously crappy for a few hours and then miraculously cured for a few and back again. Last night I went to bed feeling chipper and breathing through two nostrils quite happily and woke up with a clog in one nostril and wetness in the other. I'm sure this is what you want to read about - my bogeys.

But yeah, with my health all over the place so is my mood. Some minutes I'm cranky as a tired toddler and others I couldn't be happier.

This is one of those posts that has absolutely no purpose, but I'm going to put it out there anyway. Cause if you were sick, I'd read about it on your blog.

What I really wanted to say is that I wish I weren't sick so that I could enjoy the weather. I walked out of work this evening and it was chilly and it felt like (and smelled a little like) fall. And I love it!

Health update...

Obviously no news on the pap - that takes a week+.

But instant gratification on my cholesterol. It has quite improved. But someone (I'm going to go ahead and blame George W. Bush) has lowered the acceptable LDL limit (if you don't know what this means, go here). Which means that in terms of what they were comparing my LDL cholesterol to last year (needs to be below 130) I am golden. In terms of this year (needs to be below 100) I am not meeting this limit. I am only really slightly above this limit. So George W. - I blame you for my still sort of slightly high cholesterol. Because before? Before I would have had low cholesterol.

As for my HDL? Looking awesome. You're in a good position healthwise if it's above 40. Anything greater than 65 is a negative predictor for heart disease. Mine is just a tidge greater than 65. Way to go HDL!

And how will my health insurance handle this? We'll have to wait and see (until March...don't hold your breath).

Me + stirrups + a speculum =....

It's that time of year. AGAIN.

I need you all to cross your fingers (or legs - that seems more appropriate) that my womb has behaved. That it has grown like any normal womb (which I picture to be fluffy, velvety layers). That it is no longer wacky.

How about a chant. Nor-mal pap, nor-mal pap, nor-mal pap!

In any case, the goal here is:

1. Be allowed to have a pap smear only every 6 months? Or better yet, only once a year like the rest of you?
2. To have a normal womb so that my health insurance can take the rider off of my policy - no payment for cervical dysplasia. That way, if my womb does eventually go all dysplasic I am covered.
3. To never, ever have a colposcopy again.

And as a side note, let's hope for a normal cholesterol level. Then the cost of my individually purchased health care policy will go down.

Let's have a party...

A pity party.

Do you ever have one of those days where all you want is someone to email you? Right now I feel like I'd be happy if I got an email from one of the many online stores that emails me. But no one is emailing me. Partially my own fault...I mean, it's not like I have a lot (or any?) of emails out there awaiting response.

In the end it all boils down to 2 things:

1. I am bored stiff here at work. I feel like I might not live to see 5:00 because every minute is taking an hour.
2. I am not feeling well. So I am really mopey. Having a grand time pitying myself over here.

And of course, there is the impending doom/boredom of my Thursday night class. I think this class is going to be the one that is so hard to go to. My body will resist every Thursday. The content is similar in boredom to my Monday night class...but my Monday class has something Thursday doesn't: a very cute deaf man. Why does this matter? Because the class is translated for him by two signers (that's not a real term/word is it? sign-speakers? That doesn't make sense either). And, I don't know if everyone has this reaction, but watching sign is mesmerizing.

So yeah, try to ignore me here. I just needed to pity myself a little, get it over with...and now I'm moving on.

Crafting frustration...

With school on, I rarely get as much time as usual to craft. Past crafts include color books and cards. The current craft is a seriously large knitting project (I don't want to tell what it is because there is a small, very slim chance that the recipient of said craft reads this blog). There have been many varied frustrations with the knitting project. At one point I had to unknit about 500 stitches to make a yarn switch look better. I dropped half a stitch at one point and couldn't figure it out. Basically Mary over at the Knitting Workshop has been an invaluable resource.

But tonight, tonight I have a frustration that is not of my making. I am about 20 stitches into a row when all of the sudden my skein produces a knotted piece of yarn. I assume I made a loopy knot (easy to correct). No. Not so. The skein has a knot in it, connecting two cut pieces of string. That is bad business! The skein can't be doing this to me! I'm in shock. I called Mary and left a message...and I'm going to see her on Friday. So frustrating! I'm going to have to waste half a skein with a yarn switch that isn't necessary. And, I can only imagine that Mary or the yarn producers are going to think I cut the yarn accidentally and made the knot myself. Which is annoying.

One of the worst parts is that I can't work on the project anymore tonight - my one night off a week when I have time. I feel like it is NEVER going to be done!

Keeping the doctor away...

Honey crisp apples are in season. My favorite time of year! I have a half-peck of them at home in the fridge. I'm wondering how quickly I have to eat them before they start to go bad...

Around this time of year my apple consumption increases by 100%. I don't eat normal apples. Only Honey Crisp. I was curious what all these apples were doing for my autumnal health. A lot actually. Turns out if I eat 2 apples a day, my cholesterol can go down by as much as 10%. Sad that I didn't know this earlier (my cholesterol test is on Friday). Looks like I'll be chowing two a day for the next 3 days. It can help with digestion - if you feel constipated, go eat an apple. At the same time, it can help with diarrhea (have a bad case? Mix apples with yogurt). And finally, besides all the nutrients and cancer fighting goodness, it can help with a diet. Because of the fiber involved (20% of your daily recommended in one medium apple!) and because it's a filling, 0 calorie (ish) snack. Look at that, you learned something from my blog today! I'd post links to all the places I picked up these facts, but I've already closed out the browsers and I'm too lazy to go find them again.

Go eat an apple. Fresh apples (like mine from Kuipers Family Farm) are better due to no wax. Many (possibly all?) major apple producers wax the apples to make them shine - to entice you, you sucker of a consumer, to buy them. The problem? You're eating wax (which isn't so bad) BUT the wax, in turn, is sealing all those bad pesticides in. So, even if you rinse your apple before eating - still getting a mouthful of pesticide. Or you could be safe and boring and just drink 100% apple juice.

Book Quest ...

Update time. I finished A Passage to India. I definitely didn't hate it. But I really feel lukewarm about it. It took me a long time to even build up slight interest in it. The first third of the book I slogged through slowly. It was a nice story. Enjoyable. But as a whole, it didn't thrill me.

Next up: An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

Bonus book: My sister just brought me the His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman (which is actually 3 separate books that only count as one) and it turns out I have read them before! I just didn't remember. It was a long time ago (probably when I was in college) but I do remember enjoying them (there is no way I would have read all 3 books if I didn't enjoy them somewhat. At the time I wasn't trying to finish huge lists of supposedly great fiction).

Brings my count to 37 books read, 85 to go.

Those flashing lights come from everywhere...

On the way home from suburbia (long, fulfilling day spent with some old school friends, the dad and the mom), I was hating the driving and loving the view. I hate driving at night because tail-lights do something weird to my eyes. I've heard tale that people with astigmatism have a sort of blurred halo thing that happens with car lights at night, but I only have slight astigmatism. And only in one eye. But I digress. I was listening to a new Justin song, just able to see the city when Justin sang:

She looks like a model, except she's got a little more ass.

A bit lame, yes? But my first thought was: how Chicago does look like a model and I bet if you measured all the asses in Chicago, the average ass of Chicago would be big. Yes, I thought that.

The view of Chicago tonight from 290 (the Eisenhower, right?) was amazing. Breathtaking. All I could think is that I love this city. I always slow down a bit closer to the city because I just drink in the view. I've talked about it before, how it makes my heart swell up. How I love the sight of the city at night. Tonight the sky was grey but wonderfully clear. And as I got closer and the city got bigger and more heart-filling, a certain part of that Justin song came on, minute 4:40. And it was perfect. And eventually the words were:

Those flashing lights go from everywhere
The way they hit it I just stop and stare
She's got me lovestoned
I think I'm lovestoned
She's got me lovestoned
I think that she knows, I think that she knows...

And silly me, I had a moment with this song. Thinking about how Chicago has me lovestoned.

Go here (possibly eventual relocation of this blog? No idea yet) to hear the song.

Today...

Professor explaining features of an editor: "It's like, come to daddy! Come play with it!"

And yes, he says everything with an exclamation point; no, English is NOT his first language; yes, he did realize he had said something sort of dirty. Next: "I didn't mean to sound like that! (giggle, giggle)."

He may be my new favorite professor (as if I even had one before) because he is silly, he seems really enthusiastic and made time go quickly and most importantly he let us out early. Which means I am currently watching Project Runway ALMOST in real time (slight delay). Sad though that there are no more Project Runway nights with the sister.

From Amazon at 8:00 am this morning: Your order has been delayed. Shipment expected between Sept 13 - 22. (was supposed to be shipped today).

Me, this morning sometime: Um, why is my shipment delayed? Please break it into smaller shipments if you can.

Amazon at 1:45 this afternoon: Your order has been shipped!

Note: they shipped all 6 items today...so what the hell was the original delay?? What the hell? They were just seeing if they could get away with delaying it for shits and giggles?

School...

I'm gearing up to start back to school tomorrow. I know I wasn't really on a summer vacation because I did take a class, but fall is different. Fall always feels like a new start.

For some reason the 3 quarters that I have been in grad school I have felt weirdly excited to start my classes. I always think, Yeah! This class sounds great! I never remember feeling this way in college. Sadly, the past 2 quarters were a disappointment - the classes were informative but boring. But this one...I think there might be an exciting class here. For real this time! Because strangely, I find this site really, really interesting (look at the right side-bar, the examples pages. Really good stuff) - and according to my professor, this is just a lead-in. Our first class is going over this stuff and then we're into ASP.net. So yes, for this 3rd quarter I am once again, excited. But I have high hopes that it is true this time!

Either way, even if the class is boring that site our professor provided already made the class worth it. A great resource!

Seriously?

I don't know where people find this blog or what kind of person you have to be to comment on someone's blog and say the following:

where to begin. manmeat? you are trying so hard NOT to be a lesbian it hurts. screech.

my favorite is you not remembering if you listened to screech's cd 2 OR 3 times. who confuses 2 and 3??? I know - idiots on "Cops" that can't remember whether they had two or three DUIs.

But I do know that this is MY blog - and so these comments will be deleted. And, what is truly hilarious is that this anonymous commenter who so clearly hated my blog the first time they came, came back again. If you hated it, why'd you come back?

Let's address this comment: You are right, I'm a lesbian because I find Justin Timberlake sexy - and somehow my use of the term man-meat shows this also? I also must be like an idiot on cops because I didn't keep track of how many times I listened to the CD at work. Since listening to Justin Timberlake's CD is just as memorable as being arrested for drunk driving. Very obvious assumptions you're making here (read: sarcasm).

I'm now going to moderate my comments. So, sure you can still tell me you hate me anonymous, but at least other people won't have to read it. And I just HATE that people can be this rude. I truly do not know how this person can feel good about leaving these comments - it's so petty and small to "attack" someone you don't know. It boggles.

My sister was pretty horrified by the first comment, but I said, well, everyone doesn't have to like this blog, that's fine, I'll leave it, it's sort of funny. But now it's clear this commenter is a bully, that's the best term I can think of, and is going to continue commenting in a negative fashion. So commenter, you hate this blog - you're not welcome here, GO AWAY.

It's stuff like this that makes me question this blogging thing.

I can see us holding hands...

So I probably shouldn't admit this on the internets (will I be sued??) but I have a copy of the new Justin Timberlake CD. Of course illegally. I will NOT reveal my sources, but let me just say I did not download it or purchase it in any manner...and I won't "roll over" on the person who I obtained it from.

I've listened to the CD maybe 2 times? Possibly 3. My first impression: sounds like much of what I hear on the radio. My second: it's growing on me. Some of the songs will continue to annoy. It sort of annoys me that Justin says he wants to do something different....and then it's not all that different.

I know some rude reader from anonymous comment land has an aversion to my Timberlake love. Whatever weirdos...nobody forces you to read this blog and then post a rude comment. Really. My original point here was that despite all of the pop culture snobbery in the world and the stigma associated with blatant Timberlake love, I still heart him. I heart him enough to turn on MTV occasionally. I heart him enough to keep on listening to his album even though I was not loving it the first time (yes, that was a Justin Timberlake pun. Did you get it?).

Either way, I forgot how awesome it was to watch man-meat Timberlake prance around on stage. Yes, I said man-meat. I wonder what kind of rude comments I'll get this time?

And, if you thought I was some kind of creepy stalker girl because of the post title, you are mistaken. Song lyric.

Quest....

Book Quest update! If you're not interested in my reading patterns, read no more.

Finished Neuromancer. I thought it was OK, I really got into it towards the end - I just wanted to know what was going to happen. As far as the book goes, it's a science fiction caper book. Sort of action-adventure. This is not my genre. But I didn't hate reading it - I'd put it up there in my top ten of the list so far (I've only read 35. Which means: 87 left!)

Next up: A Passage to India by E.M. Forster.

Two's a perfect number....

Happy blog-iversary to me! Today is the 2 year anniversary of Katie + Blog = fun?. It's been some fun and some depression and some annoyance. I think fun with a ? just about describes it.

In order to celebrate this anniversary of mine, I went out shopping for a "Two" meme. I came up with two and decided to go with both. First one found here.

Two Names You Go By
1. Katie, Kate to my family/good friends
2. Laur. Long story.

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now:
1. the cutest underwear EVER
2. surfboard boxer shorts

Two Things You Want in a Relationship:
1. humor
2. independence

Two Things You Want Really Badly:
1. A donut
2. a cute little kitten (ok, i want this, but KNOW i can't have it - so i'll give you a 2.5)
2.5. Honey crisp apples

Two pets you had/have:
1. Mona - silly calico cat
2. Boku - stately calico cat

Two Favorite Sports:
1. Hockey
2. um....

Two people who will fill this out:
1. sometimes my sister is a good bet
2. as is J, red-headed Minnesotan

Two things you did last night:
1. changed the sheets on my bed
2. changed the cat litter (fun!)

Two Favorite Places to eat:
(ever-changing - right now I'd love to go:)
1. Frontera
2. Sweet Mandy B's

Two People that live in your house:
1. Me
2. um, do cats count?

Two things you like about yourself:
1. independence
2. my ass

Two things you ate today:
1. a granola bar
2. a bagel smeared with peanut butter

Two people you Last Talked To:
(decided co-workers and cats do not count)
1. the sister
2. if emails count: the Dad. If not, friend Katy.

Two Things You're doing tomorrow:
1. going to work
2. watching Project Runway (Vincent ARRRGH, go home)

Two things that make you laugh:
1. always that one scene in Elf where he gets hit by a cab. I don't know why.
2. Daily Show

Two Favorite Holidays:
1. Halloween
2. Christmas

Two last films you've seen:
1. Odd Girl Out
2. Crash

Meme number two...found here:

Two Names You Go By:
(guess I should try to think of two more)
1. Katrink
2. Kitschqa

Two Parts of your Heritage
1. Italian
2. German (hmmm, I guess I really have dictator in my blood)

Two Things that Scare you
1. Falling (of any kind: heights, water, etc)
2. The idea of a fire in this apartment...more the scary prospect of herding the cats to save them from a fiery death

Two Everyday Essentials
1. my backpack
2. water

Two Things you are wearing right now
(again time to think of 2 more)
1. a coraly-reddy bra
2. an old AOII seniors shirt

Two of your Favorite Bands or Musical Artists
(ever-changing)
1. Death Cab for Cutie
2. Keane

Two Things you want in a relationship
(lots of repeats in these twofer memes)
1. Hot sex (he he he he he)
2. Trust

Two Truths
1. There is always a happy medium
2. Every action has a consequence

Two Things you Hate
1. Music snobbery (maybe Pop Culture snobbery in general - what you read, who you listen to, what you watch)
2. Summer

Two Physical Features that Appeal to You
1. Do I even need to say it? Teeth.
2. Bald headed-ness.

Two of Your Favorite Hobbies
1. Watching TV
2. Reading

Two Things you Want Really Badly
(the second)
1. a return trip to London (of course AFTER all the new security measures are a little less crazy. I need to carry-on something, a book, an IPod, SOMETHING)
2. A huge, beautiful painting for my mantle

Two Places you Want to Go On Vacation:
(I'll not mention London)
1. I'm thinking either San Diego or DC for the next vacay
2. the constants: Disney World, Arizona, and added last year Hawaii

Two Things you Want to Do Before you Die
1. Own some Chicago real estate
2. Watch my friends and family grow old - celebrate weddings, birthdays, births etc.

Two Ways that you are Stereotypically a Chick/Guy
1. My hyper-critical view of my body
2. My love of Justin Timberlake

Two Things You Normally Wouldn't Admit
1. I pick my nose and sometimes, I eat it(you know you all do it too)
2. Sometimes I sit around in my bra and underwear (I tend to be prudish about this kind of thing)