Friday, January 30, 2009

Here We Go!

You probably know some people who feel compelled to chime in about everything. Those people suck. They suck! It’s going on right now. Someone with no love for sports, and no place in her heart for the beloved Pittsburgh Steelers, is talking about her plans for the Super Bowl, a game in which she has no interest. She’s interested in watching the commercials. Super Bowl commercials are a scam. They cost a shitload of money and corporations have built an audience of retards who actually get interested in them. Do you know why they suck? Because they’re commercials. If you like commercials, you probably suck, too.

So, anyway, the Steelers are going to slam the Cardinals. I’m not superstitious, so I have no qualms about making that call right now.

I should have gone to the Burgh, but my schedule didn’t really permit it. Tanya and I are off to Florida at the tail end of next week to go see my parents for a minute.

Go Steelers!

My inbox has been flooded with all things Steelers all week, and I don’t feel like picking and choosing from all of it, so instead I’ll leave you with this reminder that sometimes a sore loser can also be a fat and pathetic one. Props to New York women who seem to have the strength to deal with giant babies like this and tell them what time it is. I know this video has been everywhere.



Okay, not all commercials suck.

“You’re going to love my nuts.”

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Life Right Now

I am officially sick of winter and I have a cold. It’s one of those “gotcha!” colds. A “gotcha!” cold is a cold that seems to completely go away after you’ve had it for a couple of days – only to come back with a vengeance when you least expect it to. I started feeling the symptoms of the cold back on Sunday, but on Tuesday it was pretty much gone and I was happy while I danced around Skaht, praising the curative effects of maximum doses of vitamin C. Then, all of a sudden, Wednesday morning rolls around and I woke up feeling like Monkey had run a cat-sized truck back and forth over my face as I slept. Last night was worse and I ended up not getting any sleep due to multiple coughing fits. Thankfully, Skaht slept okay through all of that fun.

Our dance class was cancelled last night since the weather was so bad (rain/snow storm.) In a way, I was good with that since I felt like crap. I’m excited to get back to class next week though because we will be learning the Waltz. We just wrapped up the Foxtrot and Skaht and I have been practicing here and there, so we are improving. After next week’s class, we’re off to Tampa where I’ll get to meet Mr.and Mrs. Sand and be happy that we are somewhere where it’s not 20 degrees out.

Oh, my inner dork has resurfaced and I decided to download a free 10 day trial of the latest Warcraft expansion called “Wrath of the Lich King.” It’s actually pretty awesome because there is a whole new class to play with called the Death Knights. You start off as a level 55 character and you get to chill with the Lich King who gives you some pretty bad-ass quests. The game play experience is really dark and you get to raid a village and kill people while they plead for their lives (that's actually a little difficult psychologically at times.) After you get to around level 58, the special Lich King sequence ends and you go back to the original Warcraft game in Ogrimmar. I’m at that point now and I’m starting to get bored, since I’ve already completed all of those quests with my old character. However, I might keep up with it because my Death Knight is totally pimped out and she can make corpses explode.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Dance

Tanya and I started ballroom dance classes last night. Here’s what happened:

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Fourteen per Day

Tanya sent me this link to all these facts on farts.



Sunday, January 11, 2009

Surprise Day!

Yesterday was Surprise Day. This month, we both surprised each other with books.

I got Skaht "Inbound Volume 1" which is a book of comics from Boston writers.



Skaht got me "Oblivion" by David Foster Wallace.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Just like that Enigma song...

The Saint Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, MA allows women to stay at the end of each month for either a weekend or a week and I am contemplating a retreat there in October. You might have heard of the monks of Saint Joseph’s – they make Trappist Preserves. Trappist Preserves are the very best preserves in the whole wide world and while I was spreading some delicious Damson Plum on an English muffin this morning, I thought “hey, wouldn’t it be great to stay at a monastery some day?”

Skaht probably thinks I’m going a little crazy, wanting to stay at a religious institution and all. I am not a fan of organized religion and of course, if I were to stay at the monastery, there would be all kinds of religious things going on all around me. All the time. So, why go?

I’m kind of asking myself that right now. I’ll be honest and say that I’m not surprised by my excitement over such an endeavor. I have always had great respect for those who decide to live according to such strict principles. There is something that is so beautiful about living an ascetic life where you must live quietly, simply and in total submission to a higher power. That sense of devotion, which upholds everything, is an amazing thing.

It would be a really wonderful experience to live a similar life, just for a short while. I wouldn’t come back reformed and religious, I’m sure of that. But, I would learn a lot about devotion and self-sacrifice by watching others and taking part. From what I can tell, I’d have to be silent for the entire day and night, breaking silence only to sing at set times during the day. I’d wake up at 3:15am and go to bed at 8.

A monk is available for private talks at specific times and I would look forward to meeting with him. I’d be honest about where I stand on terms of religion, but I have a feeling that whoever I speak to wouldn’t be offended by it. I don’t feel that any of the brothers there would try to convert me. Hopefully, he would understand my desire to be there as just what it is. Even though I am opposed to much of what organized religion teaches, there is a part of me that is sometimes sad that I can’t believe in a higher power. It’s not that I won’t believe…it’s just that I can’t.

I am not looking for a way to have faith. I just want to know what it’s like to be around others who can. Maybe it’s because I tend to look down on religious people in general society and I want to be more open minded. The strange thing is that I don’t have that same prejudice when I think of ascetics; I hold them in high regard. Does that make sense to anyone? Is this way hokey for this blog?

Anyway, I made it a point in my calendar to call in April so I can ask about a spot in October. Hopefully I’ll be able to go and experience this new life for a short while and then I’ll come back to Skaht, who will undoubtedly take me out for cocktails in an effort to shake the dogma out of me. No worries, he won’t have to do that much to get me back the way I already am.

In related news, Skaht and I saw "Into Great Silence" a while ago. It's a documentary about the monks of Chartreuse. I thought that it was a great film. Here is the trailer: