me leave you long time

sorry about that. i've been BUSY yall! but i was just inspired tonight by the newly-established blog-of-a-friend (started in a library!) and now want to get back to posting myself. having just read through my most recent post, i have some updating-you to do:
1. i am about to sign an offer letter with aforementioned animal rights organization.
2. still vegan, though a sometimes cheatin' one. (the cheatin vegans have GOT to be a band already, don't they?)
3. i'm getting nervous about leaving my work/my people - and a little bit: good money & a burgeoning career.
4. i'm done running marathons for a while and i'm feeling like a porker. my friend (former friend that is) at work today called me Gorda. that wasn't funny.
5. my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in vegas last month.
6. i went to hong kong, china and taiwan for work two weeks ago for 10 days and my head exploded.

details on a few of these: 1 is self explanatory - i've got 6 weeks till i start and am hoping to get to Peru to see a travelling friend-i-never-met-yet before i start. that will be interesting, travel always rules. nothin more to say on 2 - oh, except that i think i'm the only vegan in the history of man to actually GAIN weight after givin up The Cheese. oh yeah, and i discovered a friggin DULISHUS (!) soy icecream tonight from traders - holy crap. 3. ooh, 3 is a big one. see, i'm a social kinda gal - like, a REALLY social one. working with my CATS from HOME will have its benefits - but it also freaks my shit out. i laugh (and hard!) every damn day of work, i'm not exaggerating. these people are awesome. you know who you are kittens - you are the Wind beneath my Wings. okay, that seemed funnier when i was singing it to myself. anyhow - wait, this deserves a paragraph break - this is (i think) a thought which i want to concentrate on by itself:

change is effing hard. maybe b/c life is CONSTANTLY changing - that the world NEVER stops spinning, the light of day is FOREVER changing, plants/animals/people are growing/changing/dying/etc and it seems logical that, as a species, we would look for some consistency - some ritual, yeah? i love ritual. i'm nothing without my coffee-in-a-coffeeshop before work, by the way. anyway - my new mantra is (oh and it's a doozy, an original, prepare yourself): Change Is Good. even change JUST for the sake of change, i think. - but even moreso when it's pointed, directed. and dammit it's hard to lift yourself (myself) out of my current situation. but (!) - i've found a little trick to get me back on track and excited: whenever i think i should continue making bike seats (and holy crap, now that i've been to the chinese factories where they're made, it's easier to see i should get out of this business - but still, i have moments - okay days - of weakness) , i envision an elephant doing a handstand in a circus. or a monkey stuck in some weird machine. and i remember. okay. i'm done. where was i.

4. who cares. there's fat-times and thin-times and no one else ever fucking notices a difference anyway - so that's a supreme waste of energy. 5. that was bizarre. awesome AWESOME to see some fam members i haven't seen in years - i'll try to attach a pic of my much-adored nephew henry and me. (my parents renewed their vows in the shopping mall at the Venetian!?!? and rode the gondola!?!? i'm tellin you, my last month has been SUR-REAL. 6. HK was rad and crazy and i realized i can never live in an enormous city where you literally cannot walk a straight line hardly anywhere. yikes. china scared the crap outta me. i have a lot to say about that, but i think this post - she be gettin too long. i'll let it lie there, yeah?

thanks peoples! xo

hi everyone, no one - whoever's out there and knows about this (i think there may be two of you.)
it's tuesday morning and i just voted. i gotta admit, i *LOVE* voting. there is something so classicly kitsch about the setup - in some random church with 5 senior citizens sitting cutely behind a card table fumbling through the process of finding your name, crossing it off, and asking you to sign. then you're handed your BALLOT. i love the little standing desk areas with their own personal fluorescent lights - and the big marker. i love the ballots. i love how 1968-school-document they look. i love the sense of completing my civic duty. i believe so whole-heartedly in the concept of democracy. it is so radical and so awesome - or it was in its day. sort of heading back to the ways of despotism, it seems. (i've never used that word before, hope i'm using it right.) i've been REPREZENTIN' with my "NO ON 73!" pin for the last few weeks - and i was actually asked to remove it at the polling place. pretty cool.

the last two weeks have been interesting ones for me:
1. i interviewed with the animal rights group PETA.
2. i applied for nursing school at Columbia University
3. i volunteered with and became a founding member of Helmets for Life.
4. i administered an anatomy lab test.
5. i started volunteering at Planned Parenthood.
6. i became vegan.

it feels like change is entirely afoot. i feel like i'm about to move out of my 6-year-home of Santa Cruz, CA. within 6 months, i should be living in either Seattle, NY, Baltimore or San Francisco (god-willin). i will no longer be Walmart's Bitch - and i will no longer be a 9-to-5'er. it is with some sadness that i will be leaving the marketing profession, as i've discovered i'm quite good at marketing. The whole PETA thing is very tempting. it's a marketing position and i could do it from ANYWHERE (portland OR! portland ME! asheville NC! brattleboro VT! ANYWHERE!!!) - and that is damn tempting, people. but the truth is, i think i need to work in an environment that's not my home. i'm a social cat, honestly. i'd go nuts in my home alone all day. even IF i were being alone for the animalllzzzz.... dammit i love animals. and i don't spend enough time with my cats. shoot, options can be confusing.

so VEGANism. this is a really fun game. i feel so strangely RIGHT ON about this. like, the timing is just right and it is so right for me, physiologically and otherwise. i suddenly have no nasal congestion, and my (sorry) GAS has abated considerably. i've also been eating more and smaller meals during the day - as opposed to 3 giant ones that invariably leave me holding my gut or rolling around on the floor and ALWAYS complaining about my stomach hurting. i'm like a cartoon of a caveman, i swear - like "Urg hit head on wall. Urg hurt. Urg hit head again." doy.

well, i have to go to work - but this is fun. i was inspired to write this morning by the lovely SUMMER PIERRE's blog (www.summerpierre.com). i haven't sorted out how to make links in here yet.

anyway. life feels good right now. i'm off to get my second coffee of the day - not b/c i need one, but b/c there is a CUTE BARISTA in this little coffeeshack near my work, which my friend and i have coined (for reasons you might guess) "Hair Coffee." actually, maybe you're thinking barista-boy has great hair (which he does) - but the fact is that my friend found not 1, not TWO, buT THREE HAIRS in his iced coffee one day. hahaa, makes me laugh thinking aobut it.

OH, and i forgot to mention that i met two ADORABLE AWESOME OLD EAST COAST MEN in my coffee shop here this morning. Henry and Mel. Mel's from Brooklyn and Henry's from Detroit via Baltimore via Fort Collins. i friggin love east-coasters, they are so easy to talk to and accessible. californians...? my jury is still out on them. ok, really - off to work.

jz

rockstar

well it's thursday night, after 10pm, and you know what that means. or maybe you don't - if you don't know me. it means i've spent 4 of the last 5 hours with my dear dear friend and man it is always amazing and shocking and awesome and surprising in some way. tonight we:
*ate the cheapest, best meal in santa cruz (giant tacos and delicious yummy chips & endless radishes for $3.08)
*watched a mild-mannered and not-at-all offensive homelessy sorta guy get booted out of a cafe for bringing outside food in, while the seat he had occupied (right next to us) promptly got filled by an irritating look-at-me young guy who tried to be cool by refusing to touch the listerine bottle full of tequila the former neighbor-guy had left behind with his hands and so kicking it with his foot instead - just as the #1 guy was coming back to retrieve it. this moment was really depressing and very much spoiled the mood. i'm not talking about the how-sad-there-are-homeless-people aspect, though that's absolutely depressing and wrong -- but the disrespect and i guess disgust that the young guy showed by kicking his bottle... damn, just makes me sad. homelessy guy went on to just quietly tuck the listerine bottle into his pants and very amiably (i gotta say) left the building. dang. bums me out. people are so vulnerable. and people can be so mean. shit. anyway.
*had tea and a sundae at a place with outrageously good chocolate - and tonight, an insanely adorable indian baby whose mom was so chatty and cute too.
*laughed our asses off in the bookstore. i don't know what it is about the bookstore - but we invariably bust up in there, breaking the semi-library code of hushed talking. but my friend is so friggin funny, what are you gonna do?

speaking of my friend: i got issues, people. [not that it's not apparent, but] do you have any friends around whom you feel like the least interesting, least attractive, humorous, thoughtful, smart person alive? i have a little bit of that goin with this wonderwoman. her skin is flawless; her brain is literally a biography library for incredible people in the world and their stories - not to mention quotes from them, fascinating facts about their lives and their loves; she can turn anything you say into the most hysterical BRILLIANT joke you've ever heard (and you're there going "hey, i was right here and i saw the exact same thing happen - how did that not occur to me?!"), she is sympathetic, compassionate, driven - all this doesn't even touch on her wealth of creative talents. it's almost overwhelming, every thursday. it's hard to feel impressive around beautiful, talented, amazing people, isn't it? or am i just a maroon... in fact: the truth is that i am INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL to call such a miracle-girl my friend. our time together is so rich, and so inspiring - every single time. she is outrageously cool, and new york is one lucky state - they get her in 4 weeks. dang again.

alright. this wasn't meant to be a tribute per se - it's just what's on my mind/in my heart tonight. i love that girl!

superhuman

wow. i never ever ever see movies at the cineplex - i'm more of a let's-cry-about-the-holocaust-again or woe-is-me-why-am-iiiii-not-french-and-in-love-with-a-german-guy-in-prague kinda movie-goer. don't ask why. it is wierd, i grant you that. but after a really irritating commute home (3 miles in an hour - woohoo!), and a missed yoga class (b/c of the heinous traffic), i thought better to join my friends jess & ryan out for a movie than to sit around at home with the rain and a book and the cat (though that is extremely & eternally appealing as well). and MAN AM I GLAD I WENT! it's wierd how i think i'm so smart about myself - how i think i know stuff and think i even know what i enjoy or think i know what a movie experience will be like. what a dumb way to live. cuz the truth is revealed to me over and over: i don't know shit.

ANYWAY. BATMAN is my new favorite superhero. not that i really had one before - i never really had any interest. but the coolest thing about batman is that he's just a human like me or you - just with rad gadgets that help him do amazing stuff. and i love that the whole premise is about him facing his fears - i love the imagery & symbolism of him descending deep deep into the batcave, and emerging so strong. i feel cheesy even enumerating these points b/c they're so obvious, but it's all kinda new to me. and so pure. and so cool. i love metaphors - that's what's so great about movies and folk tales and even some tv -- all metaphors for life. rad. okay i have some wierd ache in my forearm so i'm gonna cut this short, but i just wanted to spew somewhere about how inspiring this movie was. not that it was the best-acted, best-filmed, best-scripted movie ever, but there's just something so elemental and inspiring about a tale like that: kid grows a fear, has good role models, grows up to face fears, get strong and make the world better. so simple. so true! i love it.

i'm getting a batman t-shirt. i don't care.
love jen

The Middles

well here it is again, 10:15 wednesday night, and i'm desperately surfing the internet for some sort of meaning/direction. so far tonight's online activities have included:
*looking for a new apartment
*researching nursing schools in ca, or and vt
*trying to find my favorite jeans on ebay (mine just got their first hole)
*getting a free tarot reading
*reading old emails.

i'm directionless and facing backwards, it appears. not to mention trying-to-distract myself. i hate this habit of mine. what a waste of time. god, my blogs are negative. you wouldn't believe me probably - but i'm actually a fairly positive person. i think i just get all this negativity and crud out of me here. thank god no one's reading. i need to do like my blogging pal has done, and write myself a mission for this blog - it (like me) lacks direction.

i decided on my run today that i have no patience for people [like myself] between the ages of ...say... 15 and .. 57. up till 15, you're still trying to figure shit out and you're still open to hearing other ideas and you're still interesting and fresh and funny and promising. at 57, maybe you start to go "wheeeee" and enjoy the ride. i hope so anyway. it is my experience that old people are rad - they tell cool stories or they know how to do wierd things and they're just chill and not stressin anymore. those of us in the middle - we're just sort of pains in the ass, i think. and we think we're really important. i guess that's the main point. we're sure we're important and our shit is the most important - and it's just boring. kinda like this blog. man, where is my normal self? i am evil on this thing! mental note: never tell anyone where it is.

i also talked to my good friend erika tonight, on the phone. she is a new yorker all the way. she cracks me up. she's having one of those spells i have every... i dunno, 3 months or so, wherein not only can i not remember what i like in the world, but how i ever thought life was livable and passable. i feel all incredulous - like i'd been dreaming - like "how in the FUCK did i think this was a good excuse for a life? what in the HELL did i find even mildly amusing or sweet about any of this?" man, it's a sucky place to be. and despite a really wretched past 3-4 weeks [on the love-front, especially], i've managed not to dive fully into that ditch. though the tires have been slippin a bit, that's for sure.

okay, i swear this will be nicer to read one of these days. seriously, i promise. i need a mission statement. but then i'll feel so didactic and (to use my favorite of erika's words) "douche-y." like, do i really have anything i need to tell the world? does anyone really need to hear this crap? good grief, i am a tornado unto myself. it's like i'm in a play with a lot of conflict - and i'm all the actors. FREAAAAKSHOOOOOWWWW. see what i said about us Middles? we're nuts. we're not worth your time. go find a kid or a grandma.

later that day

hi. i'm home now, after a beer with my friend don. i'm trying to do something with all the feeling i have inside me. i'm painting a picture and waiting for the brown mass that was supposed to be a flower to dry before i put some pink on it. i am a mess. i guess this blog winds up being a bit more of a complaint section than anything else. i'm always compelled to write when i'm hurting. you wanna know what happened? i fell in love. for the first time. at 35. the first time that i could say unequivocally, anyway, that i absolutely was in love. everything was wonderful - my job was a pleasure, i loved the corporate suit guys in my office all of a sudden - no disdain, i noticed the beauty in mice and dead moths, felt grateful for every single bone in my body, etc. - you know the feeling. well, suddenly (and i'm realizing as i write this that this is probably about the oldest story in the book and that my experience is not at all unique or interesting but hell it is mine) - he takes the love away. all the openness, all the beauty, all the trust he had in me, the faith in us - gone. i was just confused for the first week - and i'm still fairly flummoxed - but i think i'm starting to get it. and i just never expected this in my life. this situation - where i would be trying to lure someone ELSE out of hiding - that's always been MY role. and now i'm the one who just has to throw up her hands and go "well, you can't show someone what they don't want to see" or something.


sigh.

and you may not know me well enough to know that i'm not a freak - that he should feel actually pretty damn stoked for all the goods i'm throwing his way. really.

anyway, i really can't paint. and i can't write. maybe i'll try playing my guitar later - or just read a book. you know i don't think i ever want anyone reading this blog. i am a mess. i distract myself endlessly - with bullshit - i never get anything done. no progress. ugh. stop.

oh man

i think i am the most boring blogger in the world. and an inconsistent one at that. last night, after spending a glorious evening with summersue [best jr. high slow-dancing re-enacter EVAH], i came home to my friends jess & jen popping by my house to recover a bit from The Drink before making The Drive back to The Home. anyway, after THAT, i was able to log on to summer's site, which always rocks me world (summerpierre.com) - so insightful, so full-of-hope & beauty
***crap, have to go to lunch with the BOSS -- what kinda lunch is that, honestly? it is my FREE TIME for crying out loud!!! more later ***
okay i'm back - and yep, surlier than effing EVER. there is nothing that makes me feel less like the person i am and more heinous in my skin than sitting around a restaurant i would otherwise never go to with three (republican, mind you) men with whom i would otherwise NEVER share a meal, talking about PROFIT MARGINS. WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO MY LIFE? IS THIS A JOKE? AM I AN INGRATE? WHY SO DISGUSTED? alright, chill sister... it's just a job. just doing this for a little while to make some dough. okay focus focus... well, this whole lunch shenanigans only serves to reinforce my point from earlier in this blog -- that i am left feeling, after looking at such amazing sites as summer's and kai's (kaismart.com) and orion's (elenzil.com), that the wealth, the riches in my life are really comign from the wrong place right now. the fact that i can buy a pair of expensive jeans (and when, incidentally, did the avg price of jeans become $140? that freaks me out) or a shirt i want is NOTHING next to the fact that i spend 40+ hours a week (okay, sometimes less) in a grey padded cell. this is all effed up and i don't know exactly how i came to swallow this pill and think this is a fine life - a suitable life - a life i should be grateful to have -- wait, i AM grateful for my life, don't mean to sound like i'm not. oh shit, i have to work and all i want to do is write. i don't even know what my blog name is to tell people how to find it. more later!!