I am Loving... /I am Hating ...

A cop-out no less, but it's Friday and my mental state is fair to middling. Too much refined sugar, too much aspartame. Not enough

I am loving...having nothing to do at work this week. I should be working on the book, but instead I play blog roulette and watch clips from the Daily Show.

I am hating...saying good-bye to friends from far away. Usually I'm okay with the short visits, but today I'm sad to see people go unexpectedly.


Addendum: I am also loving this pic I caught on Bourbon Street last weekend. As if you needed a reminder in N.O. to drink more.

Inaugural: "I am Loving..." / "I am Hating..." of the Day

An easy way to post for the day: what I'm currently loving and hating at this hour. (and their tentative link to my simplicity practice).

I am loving... comment cards and customer service numbers. It's a cathartic outlet (and possibly a fool's errand) but there's just something about expressing my opinion that gets me going. Over the past week I've called the smoking ban hotline for a violation (Union Cattle Ranch in Hermosa Beach, bad! bad!), written my two cents on a card at the Getty Center, and getting together my thoughts to rate the 4 Motel 6 chains I stayed in over the long weekend. I think of it as a training exercise to build up to larger issues and my eventual crazy old lady letter writing campaign about whatever sticks in my craw.

I am hating...In and Out Burgers from sub-par branches. Why you gotta sully the reputation of the greatest hamburger chain in the land?!

Traveling: Spontaneity is actually the spice of life

So one of my favorite joys of simplicity is the ability to be spontaneous. After getting too sick to fly to a friend's wedding in New Orleans last week, spontaneity kicked in. Boarding pass in hand, announcement to board, and I'm throwing up in the restroom. Less than 3 minutes later, I've gotten my bag off the plane, I've driven out of the parking garage and realizing that I really did not want to miss the wedding of two of my best friends. So my highly trained driving skills kicked into high gear. That's right, I literally drove out of the airport parking garage to New Orleans. Well, I stopped, but not as often and others might think necessary. 2 days later (and 1,900 miles) I was in Louisiana. Now many would stop and say, "that doesn't seem like a very simple way to get across the country!" But I beg to differ. Stick to the interstate (I-10 will get you the whole way there), drink only water (caffeine will actually make you more tired eventually and play tricks with your mind), stop at grocery stores instead of fast food places, and Motel 6 will always leave the light on for you. Believe it or not, the wedding truly proved to be worth the 4,000 mile round trip. Good friends, good times. Even got to meet a new baby cousin on my way back through Tucson.

There's always room for improvement of course, and next time I'd like to research locations of BP gas stations in Texas (due to their alternative energy commitment, they're my gas of choice...I saw a few, but none ended up being readily convienent like they are in LA), I would also research Amtrak's Super Liner service which was partially suspended by Katrina but still runs on a limited basis (driving to Tucson then trainining it would have been a nice combination), and it probably would have been a good idea to have a check up on my car before embarking on a road trip of this caliber. But the 'brid performed wonderfully, (even against Texas drivers who are among the country's rudest.)

Hopefully this excursion will quash any long distance driving tendencies for the immediate future!


View from the road: Wind power in the southland!

Traveling: Sin City Day 2

Day 2, my room at the Nugget isn't too shabby. My original plan was to at least try to take the stairs from my 15th floor room to get at least SOME exercise during my stay here. After noticing the Emergency Exit sign on the door, I thought it best to call before setting off an alarm that would empty the building. Alas, the operator informed me that the door was in fact alarmed (despite nothing saying so on the sign nor the notation Emergency Exit ONLY which usually deter me from opening such doors). Staying simple in sin city is not simple at all.

Traveling: Sin City Day 1

I have arrived in Vegas, and only a few hours in I can feel the effect of cigarette smoke on my body: headache, dry mouth, watery eyes. But I'm committed to this experience and I have resolved not to complain too much about it. With that said, before I left LA I loaded the car up with my favorite snacks: apples, trail mix, clif bars, which will see me through a few meals a day and keep me out of the buffet and fast food options. I also packed a bunch of my own water since from the experiences of 17 trips cross country, I have learned that if I don't my mouth will get all chewed up from the change in mineral content of local waters. Plus it saves a few bucks at the C-store. Meant to bring my own sheets since I've also noticed that hotel sheets have always made me super itchy (can't decide if it's bed bugs or super bleach and detergent combo either way, I rarely sleep well in hotels). Trying to stay hydrated and have snarfed a few Emergen-C's to keep my white blood cells perky.

Traveling: Simple in Sin City v.1

So I'm off to Vegas this weekend for a week long job ... and beginning a private experiment on how to keep simple while on the road. It's an ambitious destination to start the project but they're sending me there, so I go. My tolerance of Vegas is usually 48 hours max before I start begging to get the hell out: I never gamble, my body hates cigarette smoke, and the blatant excess and waste of resources just makes my skin crawl. Can a simplist survive in Sin City for a full week? Stay tuned...

Recycling: Old Papasan, New Tuffet!

Here's one of my recent postings to Craftster.org:
I finally got up the nerve to dispense with the beast known as the papasan chair (cool when you're 20, not so much when you're 30...and even the Salvation Army won't accept them as a donation) but Mojo kitty seemed to like the coziness of the stand,

so I decided to see what I could come up with in terms of recycling it into something I could use. (I swear I am reincarnated from someone who lived during the Great Depression, normal people do not think like this, sadly!) I finally figured that the stand is just the right height to act as a foot stool (something I was lacking to begin with and not ready to part with $70 at Ikea to buy one). I used some of this crappy cheap ribbon that I had to buy 75 yards of for a halloween costume to create the cradle to hold the pillow.


I then unstuffed the big papasan pillow (I now have batting to last a long, long time) and traced a circle onto the fabric to fit the stand. I sewed it up, restuffed with fill and dried lavender, put my feet up and aaaaah time to relax with my brand new tuffet.

Thinking of adding a small zipper so that it can be opened easily and washed... and maybe adding buttons to give it better shaping.



Feet up, Mojo checks out original papasan frame for potential "Beyond Thunder-cat Dome"?

I was trying to think of something creative to do with that frame, but kicking the crap out of it to get it dismantled (GREAT stress relief) destroyed the coil of bamboo (or whatever the heck this indestructible material is). Finally got it down to a giant circle with 4 bracing arms and just couldn't get it dismantled any further without a saw or stronger thighs. It's currently in the area above my shower and threatening to inspire me to create some funky hanging mobile thing... stay tuned...
 

Link of the Day

Today's link is a musical tribute, just chilling on a Friday, trying to get thru the end of the week, listening to a little Simply Red. AAAAAAHHHHH.

Link of the Day

Well them folks over at Union of Concerned Scientists finally uploaded my Hybrid pic to their "Who's Got Hybrids" page.
(Though clicking it doesn't always cause my page to pop up first.) For those of you who haven't switched to hybrid yet, there's many a testimonial from satisfied customers.

Day One on the Blogging Frontier

Well here goes nothing, the first day on the blog highway. It's going to be a learning experience for both of us, dear reader. And while Blogger makes blogging simple, even my knowledge of html code is 10 years out of date and I'm starting to feel like my grandmother here, with little or no clue of how I'm supposed to get this program to do what I want it to do. (No peaking at my homepage just yet, it's way messy.) So here goes nothing, hope you enjoy the ride. Here's me. Get to know me.

Blogging, Day 1...

Well here we go, I have finally decided to dip my toe into Lake Blog. The water is warm, the climate is hospitable. Let's see if I can manage not to screw this up.