But Call Me Betsy

The Weatherman and Craig are in a fight, but Craig should really watch out because WMan knows tai kwan chi do. The Weatherman reminds me so so so so much of Tom Cruise. He interrupted the guy with the diamond stud in his ear who also appears to be wearing a tarantula around his neck. Tom Cruise is wearing a white faux leather jacket from the 80s and is worried that he will have to break the face of Craig totally off. Ali can't stop giggling. Weatherman has got a short guy complex. I think most of the guys are totally drunk. Craig asks the Weatherman if he let other people talk  and if he was allowed to sit in a booster chair to talk to her. That is kind of mean. But he is also kind of short. The other guys are wondering what date they are going to get. Chris L.'s hair is sky-rocketing to the ceiling. Where the hell are they? China? Chinatown? The rippled guy is keeping his eye on the prize. So is his teeny tiny soul patch. Some of the guys  have giant heads. Here's the guy ...

Had dinner at Bomb Bomb last night. An authentic South Philly restaurant where the wait staff calls you "hon" and the menu lists spaghetti sauce as gravy.  Here are some other things seen around town lately. This is where you can train your little precocious dancers so that they can aspire to audition and be rejected for a reality show at some point. And a cat I pass frequently and have probably already featured on one of these posts. Different cat. Not sure what that black thing is to the left of him. A black wooden duck? Jenn and I went to GreensGrow Gardens last weekend and I bought some plants, including a gladiola or a hyacinth or some such thing. I may have already killed it. \ A single red rose is like a single tear coursing down your cheek................................................... Cats dutifully killing and eating something gross. Yeah! It's some kind of holiday on Monday! Bring out the flags! (I passed a white-haired old man on the sid...

I experienced this graph just this morning with Emma Carol (from http://graphjam.com):

That's part of a conversation I overheard on my way to work today---a man and a woman waiting for the bus, and the guy was obviously hitting on the woman. He said, "You together with someone? You got a man?" The lady just laughed and I kept going and so didn't get to hear the rest of the discussion.I walked up 15th street today for a change of pace and scenery. Saw a cute little white and black patched three legged dog, but resisted petting him for fear he would topple over. Went to Zumba last night, but we had a different teacher--one with a very round bottom and a penchant for Hawaiian-ish luau moves. She kept a smile on her face the whole time. We did a lot of jiggedy-jiggedy hip movements and thrusts. I didn't hate it, but the other teacher's class is much more high energy and the time seems to fly by. Here is how nice my friends are. Julie in State College sent me a birthday present, though I have probably never, ever have gotten her anything and have...

I just don't know if I can do the updates for this next season...I only caught the last 45 minutes of Monday's season premiere and it doesn't seem in the least bit interesting, not that it ever was, but it's the same thing, every show. It's a show on auto-pilot. As in the last however many iterations of The Bachelorette , all the guys can talk about is who's not there for "the right reasons." NO ONE is there for the right reasons; they are all on there to be on TV. No one can seriously expect to fall in love while being filmed. It's hard enough in real life. Then add a generic hot tub, fake champagne, and 6 cameras and see how well it goes. And supposedly there's all of this added fake drama with some guy having a girlfriend or two already, same old, same old. Also, Ali's hair is suddenly ten feet longer than it used to be. I think she's cute, but I wonder if there is any such thing as an interesting person on one of these shows. Probab...

I don't have much in the way of South Philly photos because this week, I've been walking from Broad/Walnut to work and that's mostly a business-y district. However, I can offer you a few crumbs. Three different South Philly cats this weekend. Here is one looking longingly through a screen door. And then this one was outside on 11th Street. She was wearing a collar with something like "Lulu" written on it, but she wasn't very friendly. I tried to pet her about 25 times. Two images of a ginger (as Padhraig would say). One from afar in noble profile and one shot closer up.  This would be Leigh Ann modeling after the gold Buddha from last week's celebration. I told her that she had to close her eyes to look exactly like the statue. She is super obedient. My new hair cut. I got this done yesterday at Saturn. It's very brown and it's also short. I know, I look exactly like Katie Holmes.

I need to figure out how to log into my other laptop at home and access the web, because I am sick of all of my music. I realized lately that the songs are mostly from the 80s and 90s and most of them have some kind of memory attached to them, so that every time I listen to a particular song, I trigger that memory. It's not that they are good or bad associations; most are pretty simple and silly, like Rod Stewart's "Forever Young," reminds me of my college roommate, Lauren, who dedicated that song to her parent's at her graduation. I always thought it was a funny thing to do--like, the song seems more as if the parent's would dedicate it to their kids and not vice versa. Liz Phair songs remind me of State College and GFTEO. The Outkast song, "Your Love," reminds me of a night in high school with the kids from Countryside High. The theme from Oklahoma reminds me also of high school, because that was the first musical I was in and where I had exactly o...

In my last meditation class, I embarrassed myself by asking a dumb question. I had it all planned before I spoke, and thought it would come out funny, but it didn't. It was only our second class, so no one really knows each other very well, and so when I said, "I have a question about cats" no one laughed. It reminded me of my elementary school friend's adult sister, who once asked at a dairy how they made chocolate milk. But she also had brain damage, so that made it okay. I blushed. The answer is simple. Either ignore the cats or put them away.

Just a few photos this week--I didn't find anything inspiring. We're in between holidays, so there's not much that people have to showcase just now. This first one is a scary doll mannequin. I don't think I've ever seen a stuffed mannequin before. And here are two more, taken from afar, lest they think I am making fun of them, come to life, and kill me. Why are these two kids dressed like detectives? I can't remember it this is like a costume store or what. I like how this cat is staring into the distance at something and I like his folded over paw. Here is a plant box growing sticks. And do I need to remind any of you that it's now May? This is my favorite one this week. My leggy shadow from this morning.

On campus today, I overheard two guys talking about friends who had recently broken up with someone and were lamenting the loss. The one guys said, And I told Abigal, but he's an asshole! She didn't email me back. She likes him, even though he told her she was too much work." The other guy said, "Yeah, my friend in New York had a guy break up with her by going, 'You're exhausting.' I mean, what a lame thing to say. They should have a cautionary list of bad break-up lines." Which of course made me think of myself (they could be discussing Auschwitz and I could find a way to reference it back to me, me, me). I've heard a few good break-up lines in my life, some of which I may have mentioned before: 1. Not-yet-over-his-wife-philosophy-professor. After six months of dating, I said, I love you. He said, I think of you fondly. The end. 2. "I don't think I can match your level of intensity." Guy who wanted me to do unspeakable things t...

In January, I started a meditation class, but stopped when I realized that I was going to have to miss two night classes and the day-long meditation practice. Today, I started again--this time in a class with quite a few more people, a good range of ages and professions. Quite a few are already meditation practitioners, and a couple of them work as either social workers or therapists. We also have one scientist and someone interested in researching meditation. I didn't say much today, realizing that I always feel compelled to come up with something funny or insightful or confessional. Wish I could write more about the class members, but confidentiality was emphasized, so I won't. I can mention that the 8-week class is held by the Penn Program for Mindfulness , if you are so inclined to join in. We did a 25 minute body scan meditation and I very nearly tipped over the edge into sleep. Like, I could feel that moment happen where your brain starts doing nonsensical things, such ...

Nothing is better than a rainy Monday, unless you can also have a rainy Monday where your entire body is eclipsed by an umbrella. I realized this morning that I left my normal-sized bumbershoot at work and so was forced to use the one given to me by Drexel. Here is about how big it is: It looks like it should be accompanied by a set of four patio chairs. I felt like apologizing to everyone who crossed my path as it required them to skirt to the edges of the sidewalk to avoid being gouged. However, I arrived to work completely dry. Took 2 yoga classes this weekend at Sweat. The one on Saturday was taught by an older woman who warned us ahead of time that she had a cold and so would not be touching us much during class. Yet somehow, she managed to put her hands on all of us. She asked our names at the beginning of the session and then referred to Jen and me throughout most of the class. "Jen, watch your arms. Jen, take a wider stance. Aimee, please stop falling over..." I...