• to challenge myself
• would be great to have this in common when I next run into haruki murakami
• running is an actvitiy that takes up time, thereby keeping you from other goals but is ostensibly good for you so you don't have to feel guilty about not achieving your other goals
• I'd like to run a marathon on a beautiful island somewhere, maybe bali
• runners make up a quirky, yet supportive subculture. I mi...

• it will be a terrible time suck
• could be that I'm just romanticizing the experience because I'm reading murakami's book about running right now
• pedicures will only draw attention to blisters
• sore leg muscles
• distance running inevitably turns you a little bit odd
• I'll start to obsess over "the perfect podcast" - I don't run with music unless doing intervals
• I'll start to obsess about improving my time an...

• more yoga
• more books
• work a bit harder on goals
• pay off the credit card
• stop doing the "dance" and just go for it

ages 4 to 11ish

• philadelphia freedom - elton john: The first 45 I ever requested and received
• just the way you are - reminds me of riding in the car with my mom
• mr. roboto - styx
• stone in love - journey
• bad girls - donna summer: a favorite of mine and my sister. Odd that my mother encouraged us considering the song's subject matter
• sunshine on my shoulders - john denver
• those were the days - mary hopkin ...

• We had a meal at a spanish restauarant in havana that will hands down go down in my history as the most hedonistically gargantuan I have ever had. A paella arrived that literally weighed about 8 pounds. I wish I were kidding.
• I had an amazing salsa lesson from Amelki in Vinales that has single-handedly turned me into a latin dance afficionado. It's now on my to-do list for 2008 (learn to properly s...

but I now do and love-strange because I never thought I was an athletic-minded person, but I guess I was wrong

• wake up at 4:30am to work out on beach M-F (Ilove doing this, but I also love being on the beach at sunrise)
• swimming laps (WTF?!)
• training for a sprint triathlon
• going to yoga 3 nights a week
• eating fish and colorful veg every night for dinner
• oatmeal with fruit for breakfast
• mentally pushing m...

• the rugby hooligan
• the guy who spent more time getting ready to go out than I did/the product whore/the gay man
• the one who could fit into my jeans
• the punk rocker
• the foreigner (there were many of these)
• the drunken irishman
• the playful australian with crinkly eyes and sparkly teeth
• the musician
• the loser
• the one who pulled my pigtails (figuratively speaking)
• the wiseacre
• the pretty boy/one I couldn't hold ...

• got some fresh air
• said hi to some dogs
• watched some 4-year-olds doing tai chi
• watched some 80-year-olds doing tai chi
• saw one of "the others" (ethan) outside the brentwood country mart - he scared me a little bit (for real)
• listened to radiolab podcast
• listened to radiohead
• gave a really ill-appearing old man bum a fiver
• got a little giddy about being alive, living so close to so much beauty
• scolded mysel...

lyrically speaking

• it's okay to eat fish

cause they don't have any feelings (something in the way)

• I need an easy friend

I do with an ear to lend (about a girl)

• I wish I was like you

easily amused (all apologies)

• come as you are

as you were as I want you to be as a friend as a friend as a known memory (come as you are)

• Hey!

Wait! I've got a new complaint (heart shaped box)

• give me a leonard cohen afterworld ...

turning me on to...

• The A-Sides
• Os Mutantes
• Robbers on High Street
• Goodbye Kumiko
• Dr. Dog
• The Rosewood Thieves
• Vampire Weekend
• Okkervil River

• schulz, david michaelis
• schooled, anisha lakhani
• all we ever wanted was everything, janelle brown
• special topics in calamity physics, marisha pessl (unfinished, abandoned, impossible)
• what I talk about when I talk about running, haruki murakami
• the wentworths, katie arnoldi
• the night of the gun, david carr
• lush life, richard price
• sharp objects, gillian flynn
• gossip of the starlings, nina de gramont
• three g...

• she gifted us each with iphones for christmas
• she helped me look for apartments and didn't mind when I moved in with a co-worker instead
• when she heard I was going to Cuba and Mexico City she offered to pay for part of the trip if I did a little work while I was there
• she loaned me some killer heels last weekend

and a suggested title if you want to check any of them out....

• josef Škvorecký - the swell season
• tibor fischer - under the frog
• junichiro tanizaki - the makioka sisters
• andrzej stasiuk - Nine
• ann cummins - red ant house
• pico iyer - the global soul
• peter sis - the wall
• imre kertész - fateless

I think this odd little car obsession may have all started with karmann ghia

• lada
• trabant (trabi)
• Škoda (1985)
• volga
• nissan figaro
• wartburg

High on vicodin after having outpatient surgery earlier in the day

• Shins, The Celibate Life
• The Killers, Believe Me Natalie
• The Cure, A Night Like This
• Billie Holliday, Let’s Do It
• Elton John, I think I’m Going to Kill Myself
• Death Cab, Death of an Interior Decorator
• Grizzly Bear, Little Brother
• Simon & Garfunkel, Mrs. Robinson
• The Figurines, All Night
• Chiquitita, ABBA
• Figurines, Ghost Towns
• REM, The Side...

• New Orleans, Jan 28-31 (work)
• Phoenix, Feb 1-4
• Phoenix, March 7-10
• Mexico City/Cuba, Mar 12-25 (work & play)
• Phoenix, March 28-30-xxld
• San Francisco, April 2-3 (work)
• Napa, April 4-6 (play)
• Vancouver, May 15-16 (work)
• Seattle, May 17-18 (play)
• Phoenix, June (play)
• San Diego, July (play on boat for 4th)
• Phoenix, July (play)
• Coronado Island, July (play)
• Phoenix/Tucson, August (Phoenix play/work, Tucson work)
• phoe...

• Express yourself
• Open your heart
• Don't forget that your family is gold (Keep it Together)
• I'll remember happiness
• All the little things you do will end up coming back to you (Deeper & Deeper)
• I know a place where you can get away, it's called a dance floor and here's what it's for (Vogue)
• give me faith give me joy (cherish)
• no more sadness, I kiss it goodbye (true blue)
• Ignorance is not bliss (in this lif...

If you can't actually go somewhere, these films represent the places they are set particularly well...

1. Paris, Je T'Aime
2. LA Story
3. Marie Antoinette
4. The Commitments
5. The Break Up
6. Darjeeling Limited
7. Xích lô
8. The Tao of Steve
9. Sliding Doors, About a Boy

• the novels of thomas pynchon
• most maths (I need a calculator for everything)
• car stuff
• RAM (most computer stuff, really)
• Most Lars von Trier films (esp. dancer in the dark)
• some radiohead (I love the bends)
• metric conversions in cooking
• self-destruction - though I am familiar with self-sabotage. I see a distinction
• hungarian
• Middle Eastern politics
• the electoral process in America

could also be subtitled...things everyone in culinary school but me seemed to know straight out of the gate

1. you should always cut tomatoes with a serrated knife
2. Knife skills, shmife skills
3. (not for the squeamish) Cooks sweat into their pots. really.
4. never wear nailpolish in a commercial kitchen. never.
5. there are no timers or clocks in commercial kitchens. It's done when it's done. if you don't have an ...

• old friends
• coffee
• topshop
• random acts of kindness
• the fam
• speaking of which, especially erin
• and furthermore, john and isabel
• and let's not forget, jack and diane
• ...and the zygote
• "the genoa"
• caprese salads
• jack daniels
• romance
• guinness
• music
• red
• red meat
• red hats
• red cheeks
• red nailpolish
• truth
• consequences
• spice
• heart
• yoga
• running
• live shows
• heirloom tomatoes
• snow
• new york
• new friends
• books
• cooks
• enigmas
• chloe anything
• gavin, b...

• actions speak louder than words
• what goes around comes around
• tomorrow is another day
• what doesn't kill me makes me stronger
• nobody's perfect
• the waiting is the hardest part

• been pierced
• had someone leave a girlfriend for me
• been engaged
• seen gone with the wind and silence of the lambs an embarrassing number of times
• worked hard for everything I have
• been depressed
• eaten carrot cake
• read the great gatsby and oliver twist and the swell season more times than I could count
• met some cool famous people
• camped on the ganges, hiked the grand canyon and done some climbing in the alps...

• been tattooed
• stolen a boyfriend from someone else
• been married
• seen the godfather or jaws
• been independently wealthy
• been suicidal
• eaten a raw carrot
• read moby dick or crime and punishment or the fountainhead
• asked a celebrity for an autograph
• been to yosemite or joshua tree
• shown anyone my tits when someone yelled 'show us your tits'
• understood when people say they are 'too selfish' to have children
• wanted ...

• keane, the echo (12.4)
• gogol bordello, detour fest (10.3)
• noah & the whale, detour fest (10.3)
• radiohead, hollywood bowl (8.25)
• daKAH Hip Hop Orchestra, California Plaza (8.23)
• sharon jones & the dap kings, feist-hollywood bowl (7.20)
• jimmy and mike - jimmy's room
• coachella-the raconteurs, tegan and sara, the swell season, vampire weekend, sharon jones & the dap kings, prince, portishead, death cab, cold...

• lust: I have a book lust that can't be satisfied no matter how many books I buy and no matter how large the 'to read' list gets. It's a problem.
• gluttony: I can eat an entire box of thin mint girl scout cookies in one sitting.
• greed: more money would be good
• envy: I would love to be one of those people I see on the beach/walking their dog/hanging out in a coffeehouse during regular business hours. Ca...

• the take away shows
• superbad
• apartmenttherapy
• gofugyourself
• listography
• pestiside
• learning to love you more
• post secret
• global exchange
• netflix
• amazon

• james gandolfini
• hugh laurie
• alan cumming
• tim curry in the rocky horror picture show, Dr. Franknfurter
• seth green
• jeremy sisto in 6 feet under
• dave grohl
• michael cera (because he is barely 18)

• rilo kiley, under the blacklight
• beirut, lon gisland
• stars, in our bedroom after the war
• maria mckee, late december
• MIA, kala
• bonde de role, with lasers
• iron & wine, the shepherd's dog
• imperial teen, the hair the tv the baby and the band

• every state but Alaska
• cuba
• mexico
• canada
• hungary
• poland
• czech republic
• france
• ireland
• vietnam
• germany
• austria
• romania
• croatia
• bulgaria
• serbia
• russia (only moscow)
• italy
• belgium
• nepal
• india
• the netherlands
• bosnia
• the slovak republic
• switzerland
• england - how did I forget england?
• slovenia

• chimera
• dragons
• drop bears
• fairies
• fauns
• genies
• giants
• golem (from jewish folklore not tolkien books or peter jackson movies)
• griffins
• nessie
• nymphs
• ogres
• pixies
• sagitarius'
• underwater panthers
• wood people

• the artful dodger
• benjamin braddock
• scarlett o'hara
• cameron frye
• maude chardin
• sam weir & bill haverchuck
• holly golightly
• count laszlo de almasy
• lucy ricardo & ethel mertz
• brian krakow
• woody boyd
• willy wonka
• james 'sawyer' ford
• ET
• atticus finch
• maria von trapp
• sally bowles
• bonnie parker & clyde barrow (the movie versions of these real life gangsters)
• zack mayo
• heathcliff

• raggedy ann and andy
• lucy Kadoocie and Shya (my imaginary friends who disappeared when erin was born)
• ballet lessons
• bubbles
• running through grass barefoot
• climbing into mom and dad's bed on sunday morning
• going to sleep on christmas eve
• waking up before sun-up on christmas morning
• my dog pierre
• driving with my mom and listening to billy joel
• trips to GEMCO
• climbing our avocado tree
• playing library/bank/super...

UPDATE: To no one's surprise, she quit. Abruptly, dramatically, ridiculously

• How do you feel about parsley?
• I'm not racist in any way. I do live in Little Armenia however and I now realize that I hate Armenians.
• I am the best at making fudge.
• I look hot today, don't I?
• I've always been known as the hot blonde in my family.
• I have such a bad bladder infection that I spent the whole weekend putting ice cu...

• spoon
• iron & wine
• calexico
• gogol bordello

• my mom used to dress up as different characters and appear in disguise at our birthday parties (her gypsy fortune teller was my favorite)
• they stayed married
• I caught them "wrestling" on the living room floor when I was 29
• my mom let me read anything I could get my hands on and always had a huge library of books from which to pick
• my dad rarely yelled and never hit us so we always knew he was serious ...

1. someone who will call me on my bullshit
2. the ability to hang out on the sofa under a blanket all day and watch bad tv when we had planned something much more exciting (the key is that we end up having a better time in our jammies).
3. happy to put on uncomfortable shoes and occasionally strut through hotspots, go dancing, shimmy
4. can laugh so hard various substances come out of nose and/or snorting ensues...

• dancing and dinner with a Romany (gypsy) family in Romania
• paragliding over Neuschwanstein Castle south of Munich
• roadside chai near New Delhi
• getting trapped inside nepal cut off from all communication (cell phone, email, etc.) when the king closed the borders and shut down phone lines (02/05)
• running into an old friend from India on the streets in Budapest
• camping on the banks of the ganges
• Halong Bay...

• sincerity at the expense of coolness
• my nephew and niece
• expensive heels, the more impractical the better
• brilliant food
• tapas and sangria
• crumbly old buildings that have been reinvented and put to new use
• viszlas
• warm sugar cookies
• amateur photography
• people who put other people first (not countries or governments), even when it can harm them to do so
• inclement weather with belle & sebastian
• spoon-kill the ...

• puerto escondido in mexico
• kenya and tanzania
• bali
• spain
• madagascar and timbuktu
• iran, israel and jordan
• india again (southern this time)
• south africa
• japan
• cambodia
• thailand
• argentina
• antarctica
• lapland
• sri lanka
• the maldives
• new zealand and australia