Happiness: November 30

THING THIRTY:

Ok, today is the last day of Month of Happiness. Rough, right? so here we have a good one.

Stomping in puddles!!! wearing rain boots!!!

I was on my way to work today, and it was raining, and I was cranky a little bit mostly because I was going to work on the weekend. I stomped along the bridge over the Pike, which is the safer way for me to go to work albeit a little longer, because it doesn't involve me crossing 11 lanes of Death Traffic, but only 4 lanes of Death Traffic. there are big wide steps at the end of the bridge that lead down to the Rockville Town Centre (it's -re instead of -er, because the Rockvillains Rockvillians out there in 'burbtown are verrrry sophistique), which has a delicious California Tortilla, and also a movie theater, and some other stuff.

On the 7th step down, I could see that there was a puddle! and so I figured that it would be the perfect time to jump off the 6th onto the 7th. So I jumped with both feet/polka dotted boots.

Turns out the 7th Step Puddle was much deeper than I expected! Suddenly I was soaked up to my knees, and down inside my boots, and simultanously I remembered that I had experienced 7th Step Puddle previously, with a similar result... only at that time, I was in my Danskos and didn't splash, but did end up briefly standing in 2 inches of water.

I was dismayed for about 4 seconds, until I realized: I had just splashed in a big puddle! AWESOME.

Then I stomped in three or four more puddles on the way. None quite as deep, but still satisfactorily splashy.

I am incrimentally realizing how much I love it when it rains. It makes me cranky for a little while, until I realize how infrequently it does rain here. and really, that is what makes me cranky.

Washington DC, I command you to be more like Oregon!!!

Egg Nog Frappucino and Snowman Gingerbread Cookie (Day 29)

I offered to trade with my sister, who is doing NaPhoPoMo on her blog, so that she could post a happy thing today and I could post a photo, so here I have a photo for today that I took!

Ok this is a little bit more consumerist than I would like, but this is what made me happy today:

it is out of focus because it is my cell phone camera, and these things happen.

An egg nog frappucino and a gingerbread snowman cookie from Starbucks!! The key here is the egg nog and the gingerbread cookie, not the "frappucino" or "snowman" or "Starbucks." Actually the snowman bit was pretty cool, and I had a really hard time eating his face; he was just so happy!!

There was Christmas music playing, which was okay, even though it's only 2 days after Thanksgiving, because it was all pretty good. In fact, the second song that I heard after I arrived was by Alison Krauss, and Alison never ever gets old.

Anyone in DC want to go ice skating right now? The rink in the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art opened 2 weeks ago and I haven't been yet...

Happiness: November 26, 27, 28

Okay I have been lazy... or busy and sleeping and eating. So here are some happy things!!!

THING TWENTY-SIX: good dance music! This includes Single Ladies, and Piece of Me (I know, months later and I'm still obsessed with the song), as well as the MJ classic Beat It, and above all, any pajduska, or cocek. (you really just have to watch that video, of the weird Serbian dude...)

THING TWENTY-SEVEN: Stuffing. I just really love stuffing. with or without pinenuts. I hate celery in almost all forms, unless it's in stuffing. Apricots in my stuffing, great. Gravy on or off, great. freaking. love. stuffing. also, most of the rest of Thanksgiving food, but especially stuffing.

THING TWENTY-EIGHT: Etsy.com. Seriously! so great! you can find soooo much cool stuff (for example), and usually at pretty reasonable prices with super awesomely cheap shipping! I really want this, with the year 1859, but I could probably find similar/better for cheaper, so I am waiting.

Happiness: November 25

THING TWENTY-FIVE: Baloney Cat. You might find this lame, but the following picture, without fail, always makes me happy.

(from icanhascheezburger.com)

This cat sings the baloney song to me in a Cookie Monster voice. man it just looooves its lunchmeat.

and really, who doesn't?

So whenever I am feeling crappy, or someone else is feeling crappy, I open up this picture and then dance around my apartment singing Baloney Cat's baloney song. I mean, literally, 4 minutes ago, I was crying because I read a sad obituary, and then I thought "well there's nothing I can do about it, so I'm going to look at Baloney Cat" so I did, and now I feel much better. and my throat hurts a little from doing Baloney Cat/Cookie Monster's voice. so worth it.

Happiness: November 24

THING TWENTY-FOUR: what makes me happy today is combining multiple Happy Things!

Currently, I am working on Thing 18, Thing 22, and Thing 23, with a modified Thing 3 (I am reading ExpressNightOut, which is the online version of Thing 3's job, and it is this which is causing Thing 18).

I feel a little like an Oregon hippy transplanted to DC... oh wait!

Happiness: November 23

THING TWENTY-THREE: Well, today seems to be the right day for me to profess my love of salad.

salad salad salad.

A couple weeks ago, we were trying to decide what we were going to have for lunch (a life-or-death dilemma every.single.day), and all of a sudden one of my bosses goes "GIANT! SALAD! SALAD!??? GIANT!! SALAD!!!!" and I stared at him for about three seconds and broke out laughing. Then he looked at me as if I didn't know what he was talking about, which I obviously didn't. Apparently Giant Food has a crazytastic salad bar, a la Whole Foods, but cheaper? by about $1/lb. but still, that adds up when you get 4 pounds of salad.

That salad was mighty delicious. Especially since Giant Salad Boss bought! that is always nice.

I had another salad today! this time it was a post-mock trial breakdown from Whole Foods. 2 pounds of lettuce, beets, garbanzo beans, carrots, corn, peas, a chunk of char, some maple sweet potatoes, three whole wheat dumplings, some shrimps, grilled mango, and some dressing that was mislabeled as balsamic vinaigrette but tasted more sesame-ish, a shot of curry pumpkin soup, and then also some of my friend Lauren's rice and curry chicken. I especially love salad when it has 3 million random things included with it!

Happiness: November 22

THING TWENTY-TWO: I FREAKING LOVE NPR.

NATIONAL. PUBLIC. RADIO. I LOVE YOU.

Last night in the cab home from formal, I realized the radio was tuned to WAMU, and suddenly started professing my undying love for NPR. The cab driver giggled at me, and then I continued to explain all the programs I listen to... It was really dorky but you know what? I don't care. because NPR and me, we're like this:

Happiness: November 21

THING TWENTY-ONE: Ice cream sammiches!! I have had two in the past two days! it's 32 degrees out and has been snowing on and off, so I figure now is as good a time as any to have ice cream sammiches.

mmm, high fructose corn syrup.

Also another thing that makes me happy, the word sammich.

Happiness: November 20

THING TWENTY: Yes, I'm posting late and post-dating back to the 20th. But it's for a good reason. Because Thing That Makes Me Happy #20 is a clean apartment! and clean sheets! and a clean litterbox! and clean laundry (put away!!!)!

Clean fridge and clean dishes are coming up next.

also, I clean the litterbox every day, but I really just wanted to add something more to the clean theme. and it makes the kittens happy.

Happiness: November 19

THING NINETEEN: going to bed early!!

going to bed early with kittens!

Slow News Day

Except it's not really slow! the media just wants us to THINK it's slow because there's nothing outrageous that Amy Winehouse has done in the past 24 hours,

Three news stories which should be a huge deal for everyone, but you probably don't know much about. Here, I have done the first step in your research:

1. Somali Pirates! This shit is CRAZY. these pirates (far more Johnny Depp than Napster) have been taking over ships and holding them ransom. And then India blew up one of the pirate ships! It's very exciting and dramatic, but I'm also kind of worried that the Somali Pirates will take over the world. This is the Next Big Thing.
   
2. Cyber bullying is really shitty. This adult woman pretended to be a 16 year old boy online, and deceived a 13 (THIRTEEN!!) year old girl, ended up telling the girl that no one would ever want her and that she'd be better off dead. The girl hanged herself. Not ok, folks, not ok. Also, this is a huge deal because it's going to revolutionize Internet law, of which there is relatively little currently.
   
3. VP Cheney and former AG Gonzales were indicted yesterday in South Texas. I don't understand it other than that it involves federal prisons. We'll see more on this in the future, likely. Here is another article about the same story, but with a really funny picture.
   

I fully expect you to take this and run with it. Do research! Google News is your friend! Learn about what is happening! It's worth putting off your homework for. The world is more important than stats problems.

Also it was 20 degrees outside when I left for work today. augh!

Happiness: November 18

THING EIGHTEEN: Laughing. Ok, that's cliche. but it's more specific than that!

My enjoyment of laughter causes me to appreciate other things! Things such as:

• Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me! I know my momma says it's bad for me, but I like to listen to the podcast of Wait Wait before I go to sleep at night. She says it will give me weird dreams, but it doesn't seem to. I just really love laughing as I fall asleep. Nothing during the day can bother me, and stuff can't hang over my head, because I'm laughing at something Paula Poundstone said to Tom Brokaw. I like that. The side effect of this, of course, is that I repeat episodes because there is only one a week, and I have to fall asleep 7 days in every week. I think I am probably their most avid listener. I listen nearly every single day!
  

• 30 Rock Yay for Netflix! I have the 3rd disc of Season 1 right now. and I'm being surprisingly good about not watching it all at once!

• Tina Fey, in general

• funny things that my kittens do, such as beg me for piggyback rides, and knock things over and then look at me like "You can't do anything to me, because (a) you love me and (b) I'm really cute!" This is the kind of situation in which I look sternly at kitten on top of bookshelf, with glass on carpet (unbroken, thankfully) and 50 bottlecaps all over everywhere, and then I turn around and giggle, so he can't see me.
  

• RUBY JUNE!!!!!!!

Happiness: November 17

THING SEVENTEEN: The voicemail from my sister that I got on Saturday night! My phone died, and I just checked my messages today because I'm lame at checking voicemail.

"[robot woman voice] Next message, received Saturday November 15th at 5:17pm [end robot woman voice, begin sister woman voice] I put Ruby in my sweatshirt, and it's really funny. Your phone went dead; I hope that you're not being mugged. Ruby's wearing my sweatshirt. Okbye!"

For anyone who is not familiar, this is Ruby:

(She's the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House)

Yes. She is very silly. This is why she makes me happy! Both Ruby, and my sister!!

Happiness: November 16

THING SIXTEEN: Soup. Soup makes me really happy.

TOO BAD I DON'T HAVE ANY.

Happiness: November 15

THING FIFTEEN: Protests!!!!

Today a friend from high school, who is in DC, and I had lunch on Capitol Hill, and then headed over towards the Capitol reflecting pool to find the protest against California Proposition 8. or perhaps, the rally in support of overturning Prop 8, or maybe just the rally in support of gay rights. In any case, we were like 2 hours late, so by the time we got to the reflecting pool, after walking through five minutes of torrential downpour, the march was already at the Washington Monument.

We didn't know it was quite that far ahead of us, so we ended up getting sidetracked in a bunch of people with Tibetan flags, which I finally realized was the protest against China at the G20 summit today, here in Washington. The Chinese guys were across the street, with Chinese and American flags. Go Tibet!!




Further down, past the Monument, we finally caught up with the couple thousand people marching. we were going towards the White House when suddenly Marine One flew over and landed on the South Lawn! so that was pretty cool. Then we ended up in Lafayette Park, which is where we were on Election Night, only there were far less people, but the same general spirit of excitement that comes when you have a large group of people together excited about doing things.


And so that was the first two protests, and then of course there is the protest against nuclear warfare that has been in front of the White House since the late 1980s, I believe. So those were my three protests today!!

(I edited the colors and stuff on this so you could read the sign a little better--it just looked like "Marriage Bigotry," which is not the point at all)

Then I protested going to choir by accidentally sleeping until 5 minutes after call time, so I showed up 35 minutes late. However, this turned out to be fortuitous, because first! I was walking up Massachusetts Avenue and saw two flying squirrels on a tree! and then there were loud sirens, which is not out of the ordinary, but it was for the South Korean Presidential Motorcade! So I saw some flying squirrels and the South Korean President('s limo and other cars)!!!

kitten is protesting the flash on my camera.

this is what happens when you wear your most favorite cushy comfy socks in your Danskos in the torrential rain. They're so soaking you can see my toes through them, and these are thick socks. You're lucky I didnt take a picture of the bottom... it's pretty gross.

Also, because I have been slacking on on-time posting lately, here is a bonus happy thing:



it starts a little lame but it gets really good, so just wait for it.

Happiness: November 14

THING FOURTEEN: This is an abstract thing, but hopefully it makes sense. The thing that makes me happy today is things that are familiar.

For example, I was in the elevator coming up from the Metro yesterday and saw a dude with an old Nokia candy bar phone, which just happened to be very similar to my mom's first (or maybe second) cell phone. Something about his phone was very comforting. Like a blast from the past. Simpler times, when phones didn't take pictures or video or have the internet. Not that I don't love those things, because I do.

And then tonight I had a meeting with a professor that I had in Freshman year. We weren't meeting on anything in particular, we planned just to have s soda or whatever, and chat about the election. We didn't talk much about the election, but instead mostly about me, which made me uncomfortable a little bit. In any case, she's one of my favorite professors ever, and she reminds me that good, intelligent people always exist somewhere.

Happiness: November 13

THING THIRTEEN: Ethiopian food! I'm craving it. no time this weekend, unfortunately. :( also, expensive, and far. but it will make me sooo happy when I get it!!

Happiness: November 12

THING TWELVE: THIS makes me so. freaking. happy.

Woo Oregon!

Keith Olbermann on Proposition 8

However much I think that Keith Olbermann is a tool, he has some very poignant and emotional things to say.



Too bad the man didn't vote...

Happiness: November 11

THING ELEVEN: Maybe this is a cop-out for today, but I'm cranky because I have to go to work on Armistice Day/Veterans' Day, and my eyeballs hurt and my head hurts and my face hurts.

Anyway! Complaining is not the point of November posts! the point is happiness.

What makes me happy on November 11, 2008:

SLEEP!!!!

Enough said, I believe.

Happiness: November 10

THING TEN: THIS GIRL!!! she is right here also-->


Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

Ten happy things already! and still 20 more to come! I'm very excited.

Happiness: November 9

THING NINE: Planning surprises for other people. I can't say more than that, because of, you know, it being the internet and all. I'm terrible at it, though, I always want to tell the person what I got her! or him! my mother and sister both have extensive experience with this.

I was going to try and find a clip of the crazy surprise lady on Saturday Night Live, but now I'm just distracted watching funny sketches, so I'm just going to go ahead and post.

Edit: I can't find the first one, so here's the second one Surprise Lady sketch.

Happiness: November 8

THING EIGHT: Random dance parties. I just got home from dinner and a movie with some girls from freshman year, who I barely ever see. I texted Maeg to see if my friends were still awake when I got home, and when she didn't respond I just decided to go over anyway. The music was really loud and so I knocked for like an hour, and then I heard Tim say "I hope that's Marika!" and hey! It was. Everyone was there, playing Apples to Apples, and it was so fun, even though we stopped playing when Niki got home because she hates the game.

Then we danced around to Prince and Queen (total coincidence on the names) and the Beatles and a little bit of everything else. we couldn't get Maeg to dance but it's ok, because she's going to be my roommate, and I forgive her. She was very floppy, and it was very funny.

PS! me and Maeg are moving in together!

Happiness: November 7

THING SEVEN: Yogurt-covered pretzels. Seriously. These things are the shit. It's like, two of my favorite things, yogurt, and pretzels, but combined!

When I was in grade school I had pretzels in my lunch almost every day, and frequently yogurt as well, and at some point I got the brilliant idea to dip my pretzels in the yogurt. so good. Turns out it's even better when the store has already made it for you, with delicious caked-on yogurt that I'm sure is full of chemical additives to give it its wonderful sweetened hardness.

White chocolate covered pretzels are also delicious.

Happiness: November 6

THING SIX: Gummy LifeSavers. Chock full of delicious corn syrup, that is what it's all about!

Ok I lied. Really my favorite thing is this: finding new places that were there all along! For example, today I went into the WVAU studio for the first time ever. I'm pretty sure the only other time I've been in a radio station is KMUN, in Astoria, but that doesn't really count because I don't really remember it. The only time I was there for a substantial amount of time was to read bedtime stories once with Margit, and I think I might have been 12.

In any case, this awesome studio is tiny but really cool. I was there while my friend Michal was DJing, and it just seemed so magical that she could be working two turntables and two CD players and a complex-looking board that adjusted levels and I don't know what and she could make it all look so easy. So I hung out there for a while and was mystified by the workings of this place that has been there all along, I've just never seen it!

The kittens got a new bag of food, so Thing One is back in action.

Also, I really do love gummy LifeSavers. I ate a whole bag of them today in about 7 minutes. It was awesome.

Omnes una manet nox

One night awaits us all. 

I didn't take my camera last night downtown, which is probably good because it would have broken, I know it. So you'll just have to believe my saga.

Niki and I drove with Meris, Dashy, Tanya, and Mark to Dashy's apartment in Dupont-ish area. as soon as we got out of the garage, we see hundreds of people running. Of course, we decide to run with them! Niki and I get separated from the other 4, and we just kept running and running down the middle of the street, screaming and shouting "I love you!" and "We did it!" and high-fiving and hugging people leaning out their car windows. 

We had no idea where we were, so Niki and I hailed a cab and told him to take us to the White House. He said "Still?" and we said "YES!" and then I made friends with him. He is from Iran! I told him that I would like to go there someday. We got out of the cab and gave him like a 70% tip, and then started running some random way, screaming and hugging the whole way. 

Somehow we realized we were going the wrong way, so we turned around and went back towards our goal, the White House. We had just hugged and high-fived a block full of people and we did covered the same folks all over again. A random guy with a snare drum appeared out of nowhere, so we started following him and screaming "O-BA-MA!" to his drum beat, and it turned into a little mini-parade through the park that's behind the White House (Liberty Park? something like that. It's supposedly haunted. very creepy).

We finally got to the front/back of the White House (the back is technically the Ellipse side, and you can get much closer to the back, but most people don't know that, so we were at the front but it seems like it's the back), and there were at least a couple thousand people there. Throngs and throngs of people. A giant cardboard cutout of President Elect Obama, people with signs, people with flags, people with drums. Everyone hugging everyone. High fives for all. conversations with people who had to be at work at nine, just like me, about how we changed the world tonight. Everyone screaming Congratulations we did it, Yes We Can, Yes We Did. 

At some point we met a man from Kenya, who gave Niki his email address because she's going to Kenya next term. He's going to hook her up with his cousins in Nairobi! Hugs all around. 

We finally caught a cab, split with some random guy from some small news network, but then we actually drove past Mark, Meris, Tanya, and Dashy, so we hopped out, tipped the driver 120% or so (he drove us maybe 1/2 a mile, and we were in love with everyone), and got in Mark's car to get home. We drove all the way home with the windows down, screaming out the window at every person we saw. 

Oh, and at some point on the street we made friends with a random French dude, and he was on the phone with the French radio, so we were on the radio?? I screamed in French "VIVE LA FRANCE JE VOUZ AIMEZ" which I'm not sure is right. I spoke some French to someone else from France, and he said I had a good accent even though I spoke the wrong words to him (I told him "bonne nuit, which I knew is wrong, but still. Oops.) And then I ran across some people from Spain, and I yelled at them "VIVA ESPANA" as they were sucked back into the crowd. And I missed Lindsey, and everyone who is abroad, and wished that you all had been there dancing in front of the White House on this wonderful night of victory

VICTORY

OBAMERICA!!!!

Happiness, November 5

THING FIVE. Drinking tea to soothe my sore throat, but this only qualifies as a Happy Thing because of the source of my sore throat. Standing in front of the White House at 3am on Election Night with at least 1,000 other people and hugging literally every person I come across and screaming "We did it!" and "Congratulations!" and "Can you believe it!" and "O-Ba-Ma!" at the top of my lungs is a good reason to have a sore throat. And a sore throat is a good reason to have tea.

So really, this is kind of like Victory Tea.

Election Day, Part III (THREE!!!)

Guys. I just got back from the White House. THE WHITE HOUSE.

Remind me to post about it in the morning. OH WAIT IT IS THE MORNING. AAAH!!!!!

Omnes una manet nox

Oregon: unsafe at any speed

Election Day, Part II

WE WOONNNNNNNNNNN

Cheers, Senator McCain. Great concession speech. Good campaign, minus the whole Governor Palin bit. You're a good man. Great Senator.

MSNBC is reporting 338-156 EV

No news yet on CA Propositions 4 and 8, but SD defeated their abortion ban bill, and marijuana has been decriminalized in MA and MI.

FLORIDA, OHIO, NEVADA, VIRGINIA, this shit ROCKSSSSS

Edit 1: Tim just said, "Our work starts tomorrow." How true.

Election Day, Part I

So, folks. It's Election Day. I'm already going insane.

From fivethirtyeight.com, here is a list of 10 reasons why I should be ignoring exit polls.

1. Exit polls have a much larger intrinsic margin for error than regular polls.
2. Exit polls have consistently overstated the Democratic share of the vote.
3. Exit polls were particularly bad in this year's primaries.
4. Exit polls challenge the definition of a random sample.
5. Democrats may be more likely to participate in exit polls.
6. Exit polls may have problems calibrating results from early voting.
7. Exit polls may also miss late voters.
8. "Leaked" exit poll results may not be the genuine article.
9. A high-turnout election may make demographic weighting difficult.
10. You'll know the actual results soon enough anyway.

Nevertheless, in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, the first city to vote in primaries and general elections, there were 15 votes for Senator Obama, and 6 votes for Senator McCain. Of 21 voters. Woohoo Dixville Notch!

Earl Blumenauer has given me this lovely thing!! It is an Election Night Scorecard. Not sure how it works yet but I AM GOING TO FIND OUT. And update when I figure it out. I'm currently making predictions of states. I'm going to get SO much work done today. Just like the rest of America.

Edit 1: Read this article. It's beautiful, and reflects why I have my burning desire to get an "I Voted" sticker... which I will never get on my own so long as Oregon votes by mail. I'll just have to steal my coworkers'.

Happiness: November 4

THING FOUR. Ok judge all you want, but I really love instant oatmeal, Maple & Brown Sugar flavor. It's basically the highlight of my morning, when I get to work and have a ton of nervously exhausted energy, but my tummy is soooo empty. So then I dance around stand in front of the microwave for 2 minutes, and then ding! I have delicious warm globs of brown sugar to put into my mouth. My coworkers make fun of me for this, but I put in less water than you're "supposed" to, because if you put in the amount of water that it calls for, the sugar and maple gets all diluted! and that is not as delicious.

Month of Happiness, November 3

So, November is notoriously a month where one tries to do things. Such as:

1) Write a novel (see: NaNoWriMo)
2) Write a tune every day (see: my friend's crazy flute playing mom)
3) Post a picture every day (see: NaPhoPoMo, my sister)
4) One blog post every day (see: various)

I have decided to extrapolate on this theme, and post to my blog every day. Not only that! But the theme of the post will be something that makes me happy.

Today, since it's already November 3 and I have missed days 1 and 2, I will post THREE WHOLE THINGS that make me happy.


THING ONE. That my kitten will continually dig the old kitten food bag out of the trash and carry it around the apartment. He's a die hard kitten food fan. It's very cute.

THING TWO. Photos of friends. I recently printed many and got some of those frames that have many slots, and put them on my wall. Not only does it make my wall look less depressing, it is nice for my friends and family to tell me hello when I come home, or wake up in the morning.

THING THREE. The man who hands out Express at the Rockville Metro Station. He stands at the top of the stairs and hollers to everyone to have a great week. One of my roughest mornings was the first time he talked to me personally, probably a couple weeks ago, and he told me, "Stay strong, pretty eyes." I almost cried, because at that point I think I had no makeup on, I was probably about 30 minutes late to work, and I was starving and cranky. Several days since then he's told me the same thing, and I'm sure that he tells lots of people that, but I don't care.

This morning, he told me that I looked beautiful. I grinned all the way down the Pike to my office. I think I'm his biggest fan.