Friends

Yesterday, some of my friends decided to do a little Sex and the City-style girls' night out (in Minneapolis, not NYC. We did our best. :)). We were fierce!

First we went to this trendy new place that, thankfully, had a buffet, to help offset the horrendous cost of parking. It had framed photographs of celebrities such as Hugh Grant, Cameron Diaz, and Sarah Michelle Gellar on the walls and high-finance, power-suit-wearing happy hour attendees all over the place. Then, we went to another pricey place before deciding on a seafood place for dinner. I had oysters on the half-shell, which I hadn't had for about 20 years. Heaven. Then salmon pasta, yum--and after that, I called it a night...a great night of girl talk and fun. Tomorrow some of us are going downtown again for the sales at Marshall Field's and Neiman-Marcus. I'm still looking for some Doc Martens sandals.

Leigh Anne's July 29 post. I always read Leigh Anne's blog because I appreciate her wit and grace. She's the only one who could write in such a way about being simultaneously the owner of a store that sells sex toys and the mother of two toddlers. But the July 29 story is too much. Charlie, you've said I'll change my mind (I'm 28 years old, will be 29 in about six weeks), but when I think of myself as a parent, I picture Leigh Anne on July 29, but WITHOUT the wit and grace.

Edited to add: I love children--and I know parenting is difficult and of utmost importance. I hope I didn't come off sounding like I think otherwise. It's just that stories like the one I linked to scare me, which says more about me than anyone else.

I love burritos from Chipotle. I could eat them every day for lunch and dinner, and maybe breakfast too if they were to come out with a breakfast burrito. :-)

My friends are having babies faster than I can knit blankets and booties and stuff for them! Amanda, I'm working on something for little Milo now. I really hope you guys like it.

Welcome to the world, Zachary Paul. :-) We'll have your blanket done in a couple of days.

Recently, Scott made this comment to one of my earlier posts. He makes some really good points, and presents a valid challenge: "If your privacy is so valuable that you fear exposing it, maybe you shouldn't blog. Or maybe you should consider why you blog in the first place."

I've been thinking about the real me and my blog persona. Maybe some people who know me well would say that the two are continuous, but most wouldn't, I bet. I think that revealing personal information on my blog is, for me, an ongoing process. I just need time, I guess. If CultureCat were a topic-driven, filter-style blog, saying nothing about my personal life would be expected, but I can only assume that you who come here and read my posts do so because you maybe think we have something(s) in common. I need to put myself out there more...and face the fear of being judged.

My friend Cristina told me about an old Romanian saying--she said it in Romanian, and then said that the English translation isn't exact, but loosely is "Out of poo, you can make a whip." Hahaha! Too bad we don't have sayings that good in English.

From The Rub's 25 June post:

That poor, mistreated roadie. Apparently, this joe claims he came up with the title for Blink 182's last album, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. Try again, roadie. The only thing older than that pun is the pair of orange and purple Jamz you bought in high school (yet, continue to wear nightly).

One of my interests, as you know, is intellectual property. This is a great example of just how absurd this stuff can get, and Paul's accompanying commentary is hilarious; I had to pass it on.

What a doubleplusungood night. I moved all day today to my new apartment...all alone. I do feel kind of proud of the fact that I did it all myself, but it was lonely and depressing, quite a "nobody likes me, everybody hates me, think I'll go eat worms" experience. My feet would wail if they could. Tomorrow I'll give them plenty of time in their foot spa.

I'm stressing out about teaching this summer (it starts next week!). I'll post a link to my syllabus on Sunday evening; it would be great if anyone who's reading would give me feedback on it.

In my last apartment, I had my desk on the wall opposite my window. I read somewhere that that is bad feng shui, so this time it's different. I can avert my eyes to the left and see out the window. Hopefully this is the start of a better year.