cageyness

Ah-ah-ah-ah...ah-CHOO!

nobody@vox.com(cageyness) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 23:06:46 -0700

It's been about two weeks now since my allergies decided to try to kill me. While trimming the Lilu cat the other night couldn't have helped, it's just the general Austin weather and air full of pollen and such that is bringing me down.

It hasn't been this bad in a couple of years. For a long time now, whenever I felt my allergies might be kicking in, I just started taking a 24-hour Claritin (and then its OTC generic) religiously and I wouldn't have to deal with them at all. I could mow the lawn, wash the dogs, whatever I needed to do outdoors or inside and still be okay.

Well, Claritin appeared to have joined the long list of allergy meds that have stopped working for me--the first being Actifed (which, by the way, is still THE worst tasting pill ever--it started dissolving the instant it entered your mouth so that tasting it was unavoidable--like strange, bitter, sour, metallic lemon rind, or something like that--blech!) I swapped to Benadryl, but that didn't seem to do much other than make me a little drowsy. I finally went to the store and did some comparison shopping. I never took Zyrtec when it was a prescription--I never needed to--but I figured I'd give it a shot. I bought a pack of the generic stuff last Sunday and had high hopes it would save the day. A week later, things are hardly better if not worse. There don't seem to be any other alternative meds, can you think of any?

Today, while mowing the yard, I was so horribly sneezy and runny nose-ed that I actually just took off my t-shirt and started using it as a hankerchief. I know, gross, but I was desperate. (No, I did not put the shirt back on--I'm not that gross.) I'm vacuuming constantly and I've changed my sheets again, I try to change my clothes and brush out my hair as soon as I get home in case I have residual allergens on me. I use rewetting drops all the time to try to keep me from rubbing the hell out of my eyes. (But oh how I would love to rub the hell out of them right now.) I haven't been this bad since two jobs ago when I couldn't even put my contacts in for two weeks and had to wear my glasses to work the entire time. As I type this I am holding back sneezes and trying not to breathe too deeply for fear of starting a major fit of them...I'm a serial sneezer...fourteen in a row is not unheard of for me.

Anyway, since nothing pharmocological is doing the trick, I've decided to go back to nature--which I should have remembered sooner than this--for another tactic. What's the answer? Honey! LOCAL honey produced by bees who are gathering pollen from all the stuff that's making me sneeze. They say a teaspoon a day is a good supplement. I've already had my first dose. Cross your fingers for me that this will work for me since I really do feel like digging my eyes out of their sockets right now. And my throat? I won't even get into how itchy that is. I feel it in my ears!

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I ran my first Capitol 10K!

nobody@vox.com(cageyness) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:28:11 -0700

With the remains of a sinus infection and cough, and in the rain no less! All things considered, I'm very pleased with my time. I ran a solid ten minute mile throughout and have only just stiffened up a bit. I'm tired and will likely be sore tomorrow, but I'm really glad I went through with it, cough and all.

I woke up late this morning, finally rolling out of bed after hitting the snooze button a half-dozen times, and promptly had an argument with myself about whether I should go at all. Obviously, my lazy self lost the argument, and I got my butt in gear. I dressed, handled the dogs, pinned my race bib on my shirt, took my shot of cough syrup and bolted out the door with water bottle and extra Clif bar in hand

The race started at 8:45. I walked into my place in the middle of the red pack (which is basically the middle of the middle) at about 8:35, just before the rain started coming down. It was mostly a light rain, but it was definitely constant and I was sopping wet before I even started running.

I have to say it was a great experience; it was so surreal to be running down Congress Avenue toward and around the Capitol building with no cars around. Just the sound of other runners' feet on the pavement and the soundtrack on my mp3 player. Then all the way around the backside of downtown, up past MoPac (Loop 1) and back through the heart of the city and finishing at Auditorium Shores. [By the way, my running soundtrack was great and quite eclectic. It consisted of some of the Legally Blonde musical numbers, about half of the soundtrack to Mortal Kombat--probably the best workout music EVER--and a little George to top things off. In fact, I was listening to Flawless as I crossed the finish line at 1:02:30.]

I don't want to get too crazy about this, but as I was running and the rain ran into my eyes, music in my ears, I was fortunate to find and listen to a little voice inside my head that kept a smile on my face for most of the course. Today was almost a year to the day since my husband left, and with every mile I reflected on just how far I've come in that time. I'm not the same and I'm not completely healed, but I'm alive, I'm hopeful, I'm daring and I'm proud. A few years ago I would never have considered doing an event like this and I would certainly never have shown up and done it on my own, but today it felt good...it felt comfortable and natural. Looking up at the sky through the trees over Enfield road, I said my great big thank you for a year of time well spent.

I can't wait to see what next year brings.

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The Stills at the Fader Fort stage, SXSW

nobody@vox.com(cageyness) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:22:15 -0700

the stills

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On the seventh day, she rested...

nobody@vox.com(cageyness) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 10:32:24 -0700

Made it back from San Antonio later than planned (that story will have to wait for another time...too much reality for a Sunday), so I missed most of the day parties and even some of the evening concerts. A co-worker friend and I met up at Auditorium Shores to see Ice Cube, then left early to catch Paul's last set at the Irie Bean. [Cube was good, but the sound setup was of lesser quality than I've experienced at the Shores before.]

Unfortunately, Paul's lead guitarist was MIA and the set was, well, the last set of many over the last several days...he's the first to admit it didn't go very well, BUT Mister Paul has a great voice with lots of range over different genres and I can definitely see him standing up well to some more back-end orchestration. I think keyboards and a horn might be in order...

Anyhow, we got there just after 9, thinking we were late, but the brother didn't go on for another hour and a half during which time the temperature dropped considerably and my friend and I were left to curse our couture. Lucky for us, I remembered I had some jackets and a fleece blanket in my car...so we ruined our look by bundling up, draping the blanket over our laps, and staying through all but Paul's last song when the wind got the better of us.

There were still a couple of shows we could have hit up, but we opted for food, conversation and relative warmth instead, ending the night at Magnolia on Congress.

I'm going to do absolutely nothing today except yoga and laundry, and food and water. I only had a glass of wine and a latte last night, but I think I'm still recovering from Friday...I feel kind of grungy and cotton-mouthed. Ick.

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Have a little faith in the music, man...

nobody@vox.com(cageyness) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 09:52:48 -0700

So my RSVPs to free shows paid off. Every venue we tried to get in yesterday let us in with no problems, and we saw a handful of bands, had enough free drinks to make me dehydrated this morning, and purchased 2 of the greatest meals ever, at the beginning and end of the night.

We started at Casino El Camino on 6th at about 4:30 where we ordered drinks and had fabulous burgers and chili cheese fries outside on the patio. Obviously, my nutritional rules went on hiatus yesterday. I mean, come on, free drinks and not just the cheap stuff...screw it, might as well go all the way. It was a beautiful summer day yesterday too, over 90 degrees with a breeze here and there...I was tooling around in shorts, a polo, and my sneaks and feeling mighty fine.

Then we went over the Fader Fort stage, grabbed our wristbands, and settled ourselves with drinks in time to catch The Stills, who were quite good and were great fun to watch--their faces twisting with musical angst, rocker hair tossed from side to side. I love getting to watch bands in these smaller settings where you can be right up near the stage without being jostled by bodies. Folks were just standing around these tall tables or gathered in groups, but it wasn't even crowded enough that you had to touch.

After that we walked back under I-35 to the eastside of town to relax a bit and for me to change clothes. (A decision that included a pair of heels that I later ditched for a pair of too-big chanclas, hence, the blister on my right foot this morning.) We walked back toward Town Lake/Lady Bird Lake, grabbed some more freebies and watched Amigos Invicibles give a long, non-stop show, one song leading into the other as the mark of musicians who've been doing this for quite a while and have their shite down.

Ditching the heels for the chanclas, we walked first to the Pure Volume Ranch at Fuego bar, a name too ridiculous not to mention. While the drinks were strong, the music wasn't quite my style, plus...there was another girl wearing my same dress and we kept finding ourselves standing near eachother. It just looked silly.

So off we went again, this time cutting through the mania of 6th street over to 7th and Trinity to Orchid, home of L.A.'s Viper Room Austin event. After a bit of a wait and an appropriate amount of 'tude from the door man, he found my name and graciously handed us a VIP badge that we could use again later. The band we caught there was Helmet. Yes, as in 40-plus-year-old rockers Helmet. The crowd was full of real fans, and though I'm not exactly a metal enthusiast, I grew up in El Paso, so I can appreciate the experience of a mostly well-behaved but super jazzed older metal crowd. The energy in the room was really high and infectious, but a couple of songs almost tipped the man-boys in the audience into a mosh-pit like frenzy, so we decided to call it a night after a few songs and save ourselves the bruising.

The return walk down 6th took as right past The Best Wurst, a 6th street staple I've never actually tried. Another line, short this time, $8 and two tasty bratwursts with all the fixings later, we made it back to the eastside. Tummy full and hurrying to stave off sleep, I gratefully changed back into sneaks and made the drive home.

I got to bed around 3 and was up again at 9, handling animals, etc. and planning my day which includes a drive to San Antonio to spend a few hours with my grandmother. (More on that later.) I want to back in time to beat the crowds again and stake out the right spots downtown. I have wristbands and passes to use again tonight, but the choices really are about doubled today with big name acts like 2 Live Crew (not sure if I'm interested beyond their historical significance--plus, I've already seen them), Talib Kwali, Ice Cube, and of course my co-worker's band, Paul Banks and the Carousels, who I did not get to see yesterday after all because I couldn't leave work early enough.

What to do, what to do...first things first, hydrate!

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It's go time!

nobody@vox.com(cageyness) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 20:20:10 -0800

I have officially registered for my first timed athletic event. Yes, on March 30, I will be running the Austin-American Statesman Capitol 10K through downtown Austin. My goal is to finish in time to (a) not get too bored and (b) not finish sad and alone, panting and dragging my ass across the finish line with only the streetsweepers for company.

I feel really good about my training lately, and I feel it's an experience I'm in shape enough to enjoy. I am, however, going to push it in my training these next few weeks just in case. It's not like the distance is that daunting--it's only 6.2 miles--but I think it's smart for me to treat this, my rookie experience, with a great big dose of respect. And fear...fear of tripping over my own feet and being trampled by a thousand runners before you can say, "Sucker!"

:-)

Cheers!

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Welcome to Austin, all you geeks and freaks!

nobody@vox.com(cageyness) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:16:06 -0800

It's SXSW time again. I was out of town last year, but I'm all primed and ready to make up for lost time. And no, I don't do the badge thing--puh-lease, those things are expensive with a capital FU.

Luckily, a friend of mine introduced me to all the side shows a couple of years ago, and that's how I'm hoping to get into the action again this year. Plus, one of my co-workers' has a band that's playing some shows too. So hopefully this coming week will have lots of music and the occassional free drink thrown in for good measure.

l culled my list of possible events from the larger list at austin360.com (this link is now fixed). Pay attention to the venues that say "Free, Open to the Public, Free Drinks."

And if you're in town for this or any other event I HIGHLY recommend a trip to Homeslice Pizza on South Congress. I was there again tonight, and it is just tasty goodness that should not be missed. They have a walk-up by-the-slice window open till 3 am on weekends--a much welcome alternative to the traditional pizza dives on 6th street and in the warehouse district.

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Post-election recovery, Texas, Day 1

nobody@vox.com(cageyness) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:17:50 -0800

This way!

I have pictures and news, ~~but not the time to actually post everything~~, so here's a brief rundown. UPDATE: Photos made it in after all!

Voting at my precinct didn't finish until almost 9--meaning the last person in line at 7 didn't vote until almost 2 hours later, and yes, the line wound up and down inside the building when I arrived.

That kept all would-be caucus-ers (?) outside the building until 9, and it took another 2 hours to finish the process after that, including reading resolutions, etc. As has been reported, organization at the caucus level was somewhat lacking, which wasn't helped by the fact that most people who showed up had never participated in a caucus before--including me, but I had done my research and so I just tried to go with the flow.

Excuse me, is this precinct 223?

Chief among misunderstandings is that at caucus time people are, in fact, allowed to show their candidate support and talk about their candidate and even attempt to sway others to their side. The caucus is not an anonymous process--it's not like your vote (although, if you still believe your vote is anonymous you are very, very trusting...I have some beachfront property in Arizona to sell you.) I'm sure there were some nefarious deeds going down in other places, but all I saw last night were people making honest mistakes and the best quick-fix decisions they could make on the fly. The worst part about the night was the wait--not for me, but rather for the folks who showed up with 1 or 2 or 3 kids in tow. How's that for dedication?!

The best part about the night was being stuck in a room with people from the community who had never spoken with eachother before. People kept finding connections and striking up conversations...at the end of the night, with 30 plus people still hanging around to vote on resolutions, I think there was a general sense of "So THIS is why civic participation used to hold society together! Interesting...perhaps we should do this again sometime."

crowd waits to caucus

As you've likely seen, Obama was better at getting his supporters out to the caucuses, but boy was it close. My precinct went 14 delegates to the county convention for Obama and 13 delegates to the county convention for Clinton. And, um, oh yeah...I'm one of those Clinton delegates! Basically, we had 14 Clinton supporters at the end of the night, one who didn't want to be a delegate, and so we unanimously nominated and voted the remaining 13 of us as delegates. The alternate delegates will be chosen from the list of people who caucused and said they would like to be delegates, but didn't stay for the nominating and voting process.

crowds on the other side of bldg

And whether you're a Democrat, a Republican, or whether your candidate did well in your eyes last night, I will tell you this...this primary has done great things for my generation of voters in Texas. Today at the office, THE talk of every stolen social minute was about the election, about voting, about being part of the caucus and how "next time, I'm going to try to get involved to help things run more smoothly." Next time?! Such talk is unheard of in my voting experience. I loved it!

i voted on the fridge scrapbook

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Proactivity can be its own reward...but Amy's Ice Cream ain't half bad either

nobody@vox.com(cageyness) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:51:25 -0800

Many tasks being crossed off the to-do list these days. Return books to library. Check. Clean the cat boxes. Check. Buy groceries. Check. Kindly request that Sallie Mae aka "the mother of all bookies" reduce her take for a little while because she can't get blood from this stone. Check.

Today's task--go for doctor's appointment and request a full STD screening--just in case. I'm not saying he cheated, I'm just saying that the trust was broken and, frankly, a gal can't be too careful. Hey, at least this way I will know that I'm ready to play when I decide to 'get in the game'.

(Oh, sports metaphors, you've added such richness to the world of cliches!)

As I started to drive away from the doc's I remembered there was a Bath & Body Works in the little shopping center across the street, and I decided to use the last of my gift certificate to replenish some soaps for my parents' visit this weekend. Then as I was driving through the parking lot I saw an Amy's Ice Cream and decided also to treat myself to a scoop. And so, I now have just two words for you...Thin Mint...Amy's Sweet Cream ice cream pre-mixed with actual Girl Scouts Thin Mint cookies 'crush-ins'. It was even better than it sounds and I could have eaten my weight in it.

It's barely coming on 10 pm and I'm exhausted--full work day, doctor's visit, ice cream eating, then yard work, catboxes, laundry, yoga, abs routine, and homecooked dinner instead of just cereal. I think I may just crawl into bed and see if sleep will take me early tonight. Good night all!

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Thankfully, a lazy Sunday...

nobody@vox.com(cageyness) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:02:47 -0800

It's Academy Awards night and I haven't seen a single one of the films that are nominated this year. No really, not a single one--and I'm not talking about the big five, I mean every category. For shame. Oh well, I've been, shall we say, busy. Perhaps I will spend the next couple of weeks catching up, and then stay caught up in the coming year.

I have, however, been reading like a mofo this year, [Side note: What in the hell is up with Travolta's hair? I'm watching the red carpet pre-show and he looks like the old Moss Man action figure from He-Man.] but I've been completely non-committal--you know, reading several books, sometimes half a dozen or more, at a time. One of the books that I picked up a loooong while ago, and then immediately put down, was Eat, Pray, Love. I thought, at first, 'Aw Jesus, a book by a divorcee about a divorce and her journey back from it...I don't need to read that shite right now.' A wee bit reactive and negative, perhaps, but it was probably a good idea not to dive in while the wound was still bleeding. I'm up to my neck in it now, though--the book, that is--and I'm loving it. I highly recommend it if you are interested in any of the following: good food, Italy, religion, yoga, India, love, divorce, good food, men...did I mention good food?

Simple_and_divine

One particular passage inspired my early evening meal today, which I lovingly gathered at the store and then arranged so prettily on the plate that I just had to take a picture--as I'm often wont to do these days. Feast your eyes, my lovelies.

No, I didn't eat everything. I tried, but there was no way. (Plus, it just looked so nice all piled up like that.) At least half the sliced meats went to my doggies, and though I made it through the goat cheese, I left the mozarella mostly alone. The bread and strawberries and most of the asparagus is in my belly, along with some Topo Chico and dark chocolate (not pictured).

The earlier part of the day was spent running a few errands in the loveliest of Austin spring weather--78 degrees or something like that--and an impromptu meet-up with friends at Birds on Lamar for a trim. (My bangs are no longer impairing my vision like a shaggy dog.) And now I'm vegging on the sofa, watching Jon Stewart, and being thankful that such a simple day can leave me happy and sated.

Ready_for_my_closeup

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