Oxymoron of the Moment: Quiet Moring in the City

Do you know that feeling, when you wake up and maybe the most you're hearing are the birds outside but everything else is very much the opening scenes of "Abre los Ojos" or maybe some zombie flick where the absence of noise is the loudest thing you hear?

Moving down to South Lake Union has me missing that time of the morning.

There is always noise.

And seagulls? So not the same as the little birds that peeped out the window in Gas Works. The random car going down the freeway? Is a constant muffled drone here, no matter what time of day, I think it's the tunnel...or the HVAC systems maybe? People are having, um, moments 17 (okay, 16 as we found out there is no 13th floor) stories down and letting the entire neighborhood know.

Somehow I think it'd be quieter if we did live smack downtown just because it would be 99% abandoned after 5PM once everyone started heading home.

It makes me wonder, is this why my parents surrounded themselves with chickens and dogs (now cats) and pheasants and doves and gardens and trees? Their little oasis in the middle of 10 minutes East of downtown LA? It's not quite suburbia...that's further East. It's the last mix of houses and businesses...Given the proximity of the fire station? Not the quietest area in the world either. Which makes my new apartment not something I'm unused to (in the distant past), but um, it is amazing what 15 years of living in various small towns, pueblos, anchorages, and suburbs will influence that whole definition of quiet that I was becoming accustomed to.

I will miss that.

And yet, it is oddly comforting to hear the roaring of the bus at omg-thirty in the AM. At least I know the zombie Apocalypse hasn't begun.

So Much to Say That I Just Can't Say Anything...

I think I understand the twitter now.

But for me it's like an affliction of Random Wednesday (or whatever day you like for your lists of non sequiturs). I get all these "one liner" thoughts popping into my head, but by the time I can sit down and log in and start typing? Gone. And they like, expect me to work if I'm like, at work, not blog. Can you believe?

Maybe if I did the iPhone thing I'd be twitting. Of course if I did the iPhone thing I'd be able to post my one-liners here too, so there goes the twitter thing.

I have been face-booking though. Again, I can update my "status" a million times a day just like that! Were it not for the "eep-ness" I get about possible typ-os and the lack of editing, I might do that more often...but um, I don't even know how to post a picture there.

I know, not like I've posted anything over here in a million years. Not like I've taking pictures in a million years either.

I'm glad I can blame the summer for the super slothy nature I've taken on the blogging and the posting (and the knitting as well...). It all does slow down a bit. All that sunlight tends to lure me outside...especially right now when I feel like if I'm not doing something that involves outside and fun I should be unpacking. The guilt meter in me is so very ridiculous at times.

So I guess I should go and unpack another box...more random later.

Ten Years Younger...and Ten Years Older

So, I just finished watching Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (thanks Hulu, because if I'd spent money even to rent it, I'd have felt cheated somehow).

It is amazing what interesting bits of Robo-trivia still lurk in my head. As I filled in the blanks and mondo-missing plot line for Andy, I realized that its only because my X had a box of video tapes in our first apartment which included most, if not all, the shows as he recorded them when the shows first came out. So as little as, yipes, 11 years ago, I watched the whole thing that summer after I graduated from Stanford.

It was about all I could handle after that awesome-yet-brain-crushing Masters program.

Watching the bad animation and even worse story-telling, and my god, could the boobs be any bigger and so, well, molded? Regardless, I totally felt ten years younger.

Which was awesome as it compensated for my feeling at least 10 years older from earlier today...See, I went to the gym today to see if I could still ride a bike. I have not tried to get back on my broken bike since the accident. It was a big step for me. I rode the cycle on the easiest setting for 20 minutes. After doing a 15 minute "cool down" on the treadmill? I realized maybe 15 or even 10 minutes on the bike would have been better. I am actually a wee bit saddle sore. But I can ignore that because people? I rode a bike and my kneecap did not explode into a million pieces!

Okay, not a real bike, and at the lowest setting possible, but hi! No shattered pieces of bone! I feel like this is very important to note, at least for just the joy of knowing if I was coasting on a totally flat, non-hilly, road on like first gear all around, I'd be super, thanks for asking!

Of course when I went to do the last bit of exercise that my OD has been asking me to do? The leg extension weight lifting thingie bopper where you're sitting down on a bench and lift a weight using your ankles and theoretically your thighs by extending your leg up/out? Not only was the sound of my knees like nails are on chalkboard to some people (yes, I was wearing my knee brace, it does not muffle the snap, crackle, or the pop, but I was only able to lift 20 measly lbs for 20 times at a pitiful 25-30 degree angle.

My leg is so weak. I totally felt like a little old lady as I limped back home...Yeah, there was a little limping...

The good news is, though, unless I tumble down another flight of stairs, get run over, or (highly unlikely as I no longer have the means for one) get into another bicycle accident, there is nothing else to do but get stronger from here.

Don't Even Get Me Started

I had Friday off. Had I not slept through it, I might have noticed.

I've been a little ill.

At first it was your run of the mill sinus infection...well, huge throbbing headaches (yes, one after the other building and building until I thought my eyeballs were going to pop out of their sockets from the pressure...fun times.) I woke up long enough to watch the fireworks as recorded by the local news channel on Saturday...

Sudafed used to be my friend...I went home a little early on Monday cuz I just didn't feel right.

I am counting all my blessings that Andy had to borrow my car yesterday to get everything out of storage before they billed for another month. He dropped me off at work and as the hours started to pass on by I realized I was worse Tuesday than I had been on Monday...much worse. So bad that had I driven? I'da been stuck. Andy picked me up after his errand running and I went straight to bed...and woke up with a fever last night...it hit hard and quick.

But I'm all better now, well almost*, so I don't know if it was trying to turn into this week's superflu and failed, or it's hibernating and waiting for better days...

So, um, yeah, still alive, WAY behind on anything and everything...and as per usual, more later, promise.

*Kids, just because the package says you can take up to X doses of Sudafed and Advil in a 24 hour period does not mean it's not going to mess with your system later. I'll leave it at that.

Redefining Tired

I write to you from work (shh...well actually, it's my mandated 15 min. break, so I will post if I please....).

Officially we are out of the lower Walligford/Gas Works Park area.

Unofficially, we rented a storage unit just up the ways from the old apartment so we could decide what, oh dear gods, what, we will do with all the junk that's been collected these past two (maybe several) years. (Hello Goodwill!)

And what, oh what, shall I do with my banana-tired broken bicycle. As Andy was cleaning out some of his life's baggage memorabilia, I realized I've shed many things in the last 17 years. (you know, pretty much the last time I had a stable home)...every so often something gets lost or just needs to go...I'm thinking of the huge purge my X and I had when we were packing to go off to Mexico...I thought myself pretty good at the not being connected to a bunch of things that meant so much I needed to keep them forever and ever.

Yes, I know I was only lying to myself. I cherish certain pieces of jewelry, doo dads, and gee gaws and should not be so shocked that I am having a really hard time parting with my bike. Maybe because there was a fight to keep it? Maybe because it's gone from the Big Island of Hawai'i to Los Angeles to Seattle? It's a pretty big gee gaw, that's for sure.

Because really? It needs to go. It's too heavy for me now, thanks to my still healing sternum, and for at least one year (until the lease is up, you see) I will not be riding my bike. I'm not so crazy that I think I can ride my bike in South Lake Union with all the cars and the busses and the silent but very deadly electric trolley thing!

This is also what they call growing up or something, right?

So I've emailed the one bike shop that I know of that sells Ralieghs and that took a whole lot out of me.

More than moving.

More than hunting around for hours the other day looking for one measly bowl to eat my cereal out of. (Let me not get started on the boxes that now need to become unpacked and their innards put away somewhere...)

Ugh.