ok, livejournal, i've reached a point of some kind.

as you may or may not know, matt broke up with me about 7 weeks ago, leaving me for someone else. he's since moved out. as you might expect, having a nine year relationship end with pretty much no warning has been pretty traumatic. some days i'm doing fine, and then others i have no idea what i'm doing.

today has been one of those no idea days. plus i got lost in stupid coon rapids for half an hour trying to get back on to highway 10.

one thing i have figured out (why did it take me so long), is that i need to distance myself from some things in my life and one of those is this live journal. for those of you who are interested, i would love to have you join me at aflamingstar. some of you (pretty much just the local [and also pre-livejournal] friends) have no choice but to come along as i've already friended you over there.

i don't want to have an airing of all the grievances, even though it's a traditional part of festivus, because no one needs that.

i'll screen comments if you have anything you'd like to say.

(since i know everyone cares, ha ha)

• haircut, hooray!


• go to lowe's to look at doors (and buy more mouse traps)


• look around the foundation of my house to see if i can find mouse entrances


• post pictures from the christmas festivities


• hit up bed, bath and beyond for a small water heater upper (electric carafe)


• think about what to wear for new year's

what else, i feel sure there is more...

i cannot even tell you how happy i am that i have only three more days of work before i go on vacation. and then i'll be back for a week and then is MLK day which is now a paid holiday for us, so 4 day work week. i am sooooo sick of my job. and several of the people. i won't go into specifics because no one really cares about them.

today also, mouse in trap. boo.

RIP James Brown, godfather of soul.

Everyone go watch the Blues Brothers now.

Merry happy all who are into that kind of thing.

Good presents, good food, good peeps. Lingering mental weirdness, but that was to be expected I suppose.

I won Mexican Train last night, and did not lose at hearts or O Hell.

For my sister I made a jacket/sweater out of sweaters that I got at Savers and felted and then cut up and sewed together into a fabulous new thing. Unfortunately, I don't have my camera's cord here so no pictures yet.

I got my camera two months ago and have never charged the battery in the interim. And I've taken maybe 50 pictures. Excitement.

i'm not much of a god person or an organized religion person, but today i went to the minneapolis central library to drop off a job application and also wandered around the library some. it is a surprisingly quiet place for one filled with so many people, but i guess that's kind of a library thing, eh? i cannot help but describe it as a prayerful space, one that can inspire contemplation and awe. from the cathedral-like central atrium, connecting hennepin and nicollet avenues, to the prevalence of blond wood and glass, this building soothes me.

probably this is part of why i am going to be a librarian.

also, dream job: librarian for NPR (always credited at the end of talk of the nation science friday). kay mileski, i am coming for your job.

and, hooray snow!

and, and, reminder to go here to leave me your address if you would like a road trip post card.

so there's a guy in ipswitch who has been arrested and will be arraigned on 12/22 who allegedly murdered 5 prostitutes. his name? steven wright. how does the comedian feel about this?

in unrelated news, a pretty good mail delivery today: card from rowie and mike, card from my realtor who made a donation in my name to the minneapolis crisis nursery, bibliogrrl's x-mess mix cd plus custom buttons(!). also the cable bill, but whatever. and sunday family christmas (minus brie who had to visit her aunt in the hospital, which suck) and a good time was had by all, except, man the vikings suck.

happy happy, and safe travels to those who are going places this holiday weekend. i'm glad i don't have much of anywhere to go tomorrow. well except three places, but whatever.

television that's not interesting to everyone: i'm now into my third half hour of watching the stihl timbersports series on espn2. this is round one action from dubuque ia, the second round will take/took place in alabama, and the finals were at lumberjack days in stillwater. (why did we not know about this?) anyhow, these guys are amazing. and there are plenty of chainsaw commercials, and a commercial for bod man spray (who did their market research?), and a kenny mayne-style vignette which focused on champ super dave jewett, who last year failed to make the finals of the STsS, and shows his journey, from trying to be a professional hockey player (where he chops at someone's legs with his stick, probably a slashing penalty), then to make the bass fishing tour. then he becomes a homeless, foot-long bearded drunk. then the announcers call him to ask if he's coming back and he agrees, running away from the railroad track verge he's slumped on, stealing a small child's bike, cutting off his beard while riding the bike, and arrives in time to compete in this first round's iowan action. hilarious.

( some pictures from friday's festivities )

yesterday's texas brisket made with nicole's bbq sauce was delicious, as were all the sides. well, not all since i didn't eat any green bean casserole. i tried it once and it goes on the list of things i don't think i'll ever eat again. blecky.

also, watching 4 tvs at once is hilarious. and the office still rules, now that i've seen the last 18 minutes of this week's episode that my dvr didn't seem to want to record.

EDIT: also, brad radke will apparently announce his retirement tomorrow. bradke, we'll miss you. thanks for being the one bright spot on some very shitty teams. sorry we couldn't get it done for you before your shoulder was done. thanks for pitching through a broken shoulder socket for much of the season. thanks for gutting it out and pitching at the end of the regular season and in the playoffs this year. much love.

a new thing today...

there's a woman in one of our dressing rooms praying right now. that's what you have to do if you're at the mall and it's time to pray. i'm glad we had an available room to give her some space and privacy. the christmas-busy mall is probably not the best place for reflection and prayer.

also, dear nye's, i love you and your jumbo caucasians.

<3, julia

Something I don't understand?

Air freshener. I mean, I think it's good that places I am smell nice, but I also think the air freshener industry is an interesting one. I think if you're cleaning on an adequate basis, your house or car will smell fine, not bad. At least just a neutral smell. But why do I need my house to smell like green apples, or three different alternating scents, or to smell like something and also light up?

Maybe it's a function of always having the allergies that make me not be able to smell very well, I don't know, but I have never ever wanted to buy a Glade Plug In.

So, two weeks ago when I tripped over and broke my laptop's power cord, I switched to using the one from my old computer. Yesterday, that power cord also decided to break. Thus the two days of radio silence.

Oh well.

My DVR failed to tape all of the office. :(

This is all I have to say right now.

Phil Kessel diagnosed with testicular cancer.

Damn.

Dear people from the corporate office.

You never come when we have any notice. Please stop threatening to show up. I hate that I have to go in early and everyone gets all riled up for nothing. I wore my nice outfit and put on liquid eyeliner and mascara for nothing. Now you might be coming any day this week, but maybe not Wednesday. I hate having to be coached for what to say to them when my boss isn't there. And make excuses for decisions I feel perfectly good about making.

I need a new job.

On the good side, it looks like I'll be driving with Nicole to DC. She's moving there for work and would otherwise be driving there alone. She's going to be a spy. Then I'll get to visit cakeandmilque and go to the Library of Congress, and Lush, and various other places where I will totally geek out. Yay!

( here's some stuff i did this weekend, illustrated )

( cut for those who don't care or haven't seen it yet )

games aren't played in blogs, they're played inside tv sets.

also, i read in usa today (shut up, it's what we get at work, and sometimes when i forget a book, i read that) that the new survivor is filming in fiji where there has recently been a military coup. apparently the military has guaranteed the safety of cast and crew. excitement!

why is it, after 5 years in retail (ack, it's true) and years before that in theatre, am i still so excited for the weekend? even when i have to work! i guess because everyone else is more willing to go out on weekend days, but still. it's not the best of times when i have to work til 10:30 or 11 tonight and then be back at 10am tomorrow. at least i have sunday off, one of two weekend days this month (also christmas eve).

will someone give me a new job please?

Can't remember if I posted yet today... Oh well, I was pretty productive before work, going to get a prescription refill, picking some stuff up at my parents' house, making a return and a purchase at IKEA, making a return and a purchase at my store. Much commerce. Then a boring day at work. Next hopefully Town Talk if people are still there.

Apparently you could buy a wedding gift for Dontrelle Willis if you'd like (posted on Deadspin, sorry no linky).

That is all.

so, no new criminal minds or csi:ny=sad. watching holiday mythbusters=awesome.

also, i finally caved and signed up for nexflix. i am actually excited to watch more movies now. and december is the dark tea time of the soul where there's no college hockey and the regular hockey season isn't exciting yet. plus versus? crap channel that doesn't show nearly enough games. jerks.

also, i have a guest room now, so if places are needed for crashing, you no longer have to sleep on a couch at my house. hooray!

I am currently posting from the bowling alley. We've discovered that Memory Lanes, by far the closest bowling alley to my house, also has wireless internet, and thus I'm not bored while everyone else is bowling, plus I don't have to talk to anyone. Hooray! Downside: no working outlets in the vicinity of the lanes so no power for me. Which is bad since my laptop battery is now three years old and doesn't so much hold a charge very well anymore.

Also, on the way home from The Sunday House (what I've decided to call it, since it's not the boys' place any more now that Christa lives there), I was listening to what I guess is Studio 360 on MPR. They were talking about the biology of creativity. I only heard the beginning part of it since I was in the car and then I got home, but it got me to thinking. The basic thrust was that in the movies madness accompanies genius. That to create you have to suffer some or a lot in another area of your life. Van Gogh with the ear thing. Numerous artists and musicians killing themselves. Studies have found that the incidence of depression and mental issues is higher among poets, especially female ones, than among the general population.

Now, I've spent a lot of time on artist-y pursuits, from many kinds of music lessons to art classes, to getting my undergrad degree in theatre specializing in lighting design. However, I've come to realize that in these areas, as well as in the crafty things like knitting that I do now, I'm really more of an artisan or craftsperson than I am an artist and I'm pretty much ok with that. I'll most probably never gain wide recognition for these things I do, but I also am not likely to suffer like Edvard Munch who was bipolar and produced his best work during crushing depression.

The radio piece also talked about a musician who would go off his meds to write songs. He could tell, when he'd need a lift, so he'd stop taking the antidepressants and other drugs to get back in the good songwriting place. Hmm. I am also glad to not have heavy drugs in my life.

Ok, that's enough.

know what i want? a flat pen that could be used as a book mark. i'm thinking something that would store flat that you then make a tube out of to hold. it would maybe have a tab a/slot b kind of thing to hold the pen in the circle shape while you write, a flat thing not being the best for holding on to/comfort whilst writing.

no cut for you.

(Note: Apparently last night I forgot to hit the Update button. Oops.)

On the way to Pete and Klein's after work (how could I turn down "If you supply the nog I'll supply the amaretto?"), I saw a guy up on a ladder on a billboard by 694. He appeared to be spraypainting the message "Jennifer will you marry me." Well that's dedication. (Or actually a brilliant ad by a jewelry store. It is a fake guy, but very realistic.)

Also, on the way home just now, there was a story about Mozart's 250th birthday on the radio and they played a bit of the Requiem. It made me think about how as a singer I am a Latin-diction snob, most of the time. So in Mozart's day, did they, as German speakers, use their own pronunciation, or were they also Latin snobs. Obviously Latin was more in use then, not as a vernacular, but as a scholarly language, so there would have been more familiarity with it, especially among the elite. But who knows what their pronunciation standards were. Ah-leh-loo-ee-ah not all-lay-loo-ya.

I'm pretty sure I'm not making much sense right now.

Bah.

( Survivor spoilers below )

Wow, that was a lot of thinking about Survivor.

I all most had a DVR freakout since it didn't tape Numb3rs last night, however, it was a rerun, so no worries.

My fine people. Was there a new episode of The Office on Thanksgiving? If so, that didn't tape. I don't think there was, but who knows.

Gophers, you're tying with Mankato at home??? WTF, people, WTF.

Also I heard on the radio that some people (I don't know who, but whatever) don't want my newly elected Congressman Keith Ellison, the first ever Muslim to be elected to Congress, to be sworn in on the Koran. So you'd prefer him to swear on the Bible? It's like me being sworn in on Ayn Rand's Fountainhead—not so much something I believe in, and not a document or sentiment likely to get me to take more seriously my duties as an elected official. Oy.