interesting

I keep finding interesting internet articles.

"And as research in the wild becomes more and more forensic, even animals we counted in our small alliance for fidelity have recently been proved fallible. Swans, that elegant emblem of faithfulness, glided away from the hallowed statistical minority; it has come to light that they cheat and divorce too. Red-winged blackbird couples thought to be devoted surprised scientists that had given vasectomies to the males for population control; the females kept laying eggs that hatched. Somewhere, there's a blackbird Holiday Inn with a discreet parking lot."

LOL.

groan...

I couldn't resist...

There were three Indian squaws. One slept on a deer skin, one slept on an elk skin, and the third slept on a hippopotamus skin. All three became pregnant, and the first two each had a baby boy. The one who slept on the hippopotamus skin had twin boys. This goes to prove that the squaw of the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaws of the other two hides.

Badum-tchshhh...

Today...

... not really an exciting post.

I made a 7-shot latte today. It took a while, but I didn't mind because the last time he came in and ordered it, he left a $5 tip.

I found a silver quarter. That was exciting.

I had an awkward convo with my mom. What was in my head wasn't coming out my mouth so I ended up feeling like a bragging slut when I later reviewed in my head what I said.

I ran into someone I haven't seen in years. She seemed to be like me. Happy outside, something disturbing inside. Only I knew her well enough before we fell out of contact that I knew right away that she had carefully wrapped herself in a shroud of secrecy, whereas, I won't hide the fact that I have secrets. I just won't tell them to you. I'm so glad I got to see her again, but so off balance now, because I guess this is it- I'm worried about her.

Ok that's it. I think getting it off my chest makes me less off balance.

More randomness

Espresso sometimes smells like smoked whiting.

I had a what if situation for Scott but I forgot it. It involved someone getting tripped. Darn.

He is a smoker. Oh well.

I went to the police station today. The officer who called to say they found my three-years-missing bike was the kind of guy my mom would have talked about later. Given the choice, if she could choose a match for her daughter, there is one type of "look" she would choose. Its scary cause Scott fits those requirements too except for the ring on his finger. I guess she has good taste. I am just not as picky I suppose.

I am not using apostrophes because this keyboard thinks the apostrophe key is actually control+f and the computer puts up a find window instead of an apostrophe. Its annoying.

I closed by myself today, which gave me a lot of time to reflect on things. The mall was dead today so it also gave the guys in Shoes time to come flirt with- I mean BUG- me. So in my moments alone I started thinking about the Jean Grey comments. Do guys idolize Jean Grey? I mean, is it a compliment or not? Cause I didnt like her that much in the third movie. Dont get me wrong, I love the concept of a Phoenix. But too much went wrong because of her. From the point of view of the other X-men, she was a downright nuisance. Any guys out there reading this? Should I be offended when the guys in the shoe department call me Jean?

Its almost 1 am and I just got a text message from my mom. Shes delusional.

I am reading a novel, A Game of Thrones. Its a medieval kinda thing, telling the story of this kingdom where- you guessed it- everyone is trying to play the game of thrones without dying. Instead of the hack, slice, and dice of some medieval novels, and instead of the magic and dragons of other medieval novels, its political. Unusual for me to enjoy, since I hate politics in general, but it is kind of eye-opening. I mean, everyone complains about our president or the president-wannabes who are going to be running next year but if they could see what goes on in this throne room, there would be no comparison. It makes me feel like everyone in this world is just whining too much when things could be as bad as they are in this medieval world.

Mom just sent me another text message. "Guy crotches are good!" I swear, some day she is going to learn that stuff can be taken out of context. (In case anyone was wondering, she was talking about a pair of pants.)

Alright bedtime before mom goes over our texting limit on the phone plan.

National ICantConcentrateToday Day

Espresso grinds smell like morning breath. Or maybe the two smells just hit my nose at the same time every morning so now I can't smell one without thinking of the other.

Henna is derived from the leaf of the henna plant, therefore it smells leafy. This is increased by water, so when I take a shower, my hair smells like the feed room at the goat farm where I used to work.

Today I used Herbal Essence on my hair, the old kind, not the post-bottle-change. So it also brought back memories of spring time, and cleaning the house with my mom, and sunshine in the fall, bike helmets, and cozy blankets.

The wrestling room at the gym smells faintly like battleships. Not that battleship-dieselly-paint smell like the elevator of my freshman dorm, but the smell of men working their bodies to the limit for something they believe in.

Steve smells like french fries.

There actually is an explanation for why I'm exploring the world in smells.

Today I went to waltz lessons. The instructor was explaining how to turn in the dance. As you step, you don't just move your feet, but you turn from the hips, letting your hips send your body where it needs to go, and face in the direction it needs to face.

Anyone with even a couple classes of jujitsu will think that sounds familiar, so that got me thinking about jujitsu and how it seems that everything is integrated when it comes to moving the body. Letting my mind wander to jujitsu effectively got me completely lost when it comes to waltz. I couldn't remember which steps we were doing in which order. Was it box step then travel then quarter turn? Or was it just the quarter turns followed by a direction change? I didn't even know which foot we were starting on.

That's ok, I can solve that. Jujitsu has taught me that people telegraph their future intent, whether its winding up an arm for a punch or simply leaning more weight on one foot than the other. So all I have to do is look at my partner to see what he's about to do and step accordingly. Ok that works I've stepped on the correct foot, but I'm so excited about integrating jujitsu into this that I'm not really learning the answers to my initial questions.

The whole class was a big snowball of not paying attention. The instructor demonstrates his points sometimes and needs a partner to do it, so he'll randomly select a girl to help him. Once he picked me and since I had no idea what we were doing, I stepped on the wrong foot. He readjusted his hand position, and suddenly, it didn't matter one bit what I did, his hands and arms provided enough weight on the correct side that I HAD to step on the correct foot. It was like some of our jujitsu moves where we want our partner to step back on their left foot so we push their left shoulder while holding their right arm stationary. We don't do anything to the left foot, but we still acheive our goal. This was just like that- he was shifting my weight for me so that the foot he wanted me to have free would be free.

Then I felt bad, one that I wasn't paying attention to him and two that it forced him to do my work in addition to his.

Thankfully that class is fairly short so it was off to the wrestling room for jujitsu. When Scott was explaining to the white belts how we can tell where to stand when we're lining up by rank, he used Dan and me as an example. "You'll notice they both have blue belts with one stripe, but Red tested before Dan."

I think I like Jean Grey better. Scott's other comment was that I did it just in time for Saint Patrick's Day, which is a good point. I should find an Irish pub somewhere.

Back to jujitsu, Steve took the colored belts and Scott took the white belts. Steve had us work on foot work, practicing turning 90 and 180 degrees, and looky there its a 1-2-3 step just like a waltz.

By that time I was pretty fed up with my brain because it wouldn't stay in one place, ideally the wrestling room in the College Ave Gym but if not there it could at least have picked ONE place to go. But when Steve asked me later what was wrong, I listed all the places my mind had gone. The list started on Louis Street and didn't come to a complete stop until we got to Livingston, which would be maybe 3-4 minutes.

Anyway, I'm usually not that unfocused on the mat. I don't know what happened today. Oh right, so the reason for the smells was because when I got fed up I sat out on the side of the mat and let my mind go. For some reason when I did that, I could feel my body more strongly, could feel where my aches and pains are, could hear all the voices in the room louder, and the red of the mats got brighter. But my nose was stuffy so I didn't smell anything. It felt vacant somehow, so I decided to sit here and think about all the smells I have come in contact with recently.

So yeah that's all I suppose. I'm gonna go chat with Steve for a while. Goodnight.

Photos...

Ok, so unfortunately, I can't find a good before picture with my hair down. Some were taken recently, however my hair was tied up in a clip. You will all have to just rely on memory.

Here are the after pictures: