can we all just agree that "fade into you," by mazzy star, is a fantastic song?

BUT, that the cover by pedro the lion is even better? it is achingly good. it's that kind of song.

can we all just agree that half nelson is an excellent movie?

and that the music is also wonderful?

i saw it in the theater and i really liked it (although i was surprised i did, because i usually prefer ridiculously happy endings [amelie, i'm looking at you] and movies about crack-addicted junior high school teachers cannot have ridiculously happy endings [i'm talking princess bride-style ridiculous happiness here, dudes]) and i just watched it again today and it is excellent. i would recommend it to a friend.

can we all just agree that pulling muscles by coughing is a bummer?

dude, my side hurts so bad. at least i didn't break a rib.

can we all just agree that blogging while mostly asleep produces interesting results?

see below.

can we all just agree that i am pushing the frontiers of dream technology?

so i've been having really strange dreams for almost my whole life. (like the minotaur dream when i was in the first grade. i still remember that dream, and think about it sometimes during the day, and that it was terrifying. totally terrifying.)

it's 5:20, and i'm awake right now because of a really strange dream occurrance i just had that was really strange even for me. i was having a long dream in which i was buying things from a bike shop several times (don't ask, it made sense while it was happening) while watching someone recount (with photos) a trip to a concert that was also combined with waiting at the emergency room...except that the concert and the e-room trip were occurring not only concurrently with each other, but with the show-and-tell photo time. confused already? i'm not!

but here's the really weird part: i ended up waking myself up by crying out, because i started having two distinct dreams at once. i was going up into the balcony section of a giant theater to get someone out of my luggage, having brought overnight stuff to this concert, but then left it in one of several unused balconies. i flipped the light switch, but it was slow to turn on, and i started up the stairs anyway. i heard another person who was also ascending the stairs to the same room for which i was bound. i simultaneously experienced that person's experience of climbing the stairs, but taking a slightly different route. as two distinct people who could only hear one another and not really see each other (it was nighttime, and quite dark in the middle of the old, huge theater). one of me (the one of me most closely resembling not-asleep me) became genuinely concerned that the other of me (who was a male) might pose a threat to first me (because, you know, encountering strange men when you're all by yourself, no one knows where you are, it's dark and you can't see, and everything around you is stairs isn't exactly the ideal state of affairs.) first one of me tried to avoid second one of me, but at a stairway landing we collided, and first one of me was so afraid that i cried out in real life, and i woke up terrified. like afraid to turn on the light, afraid to walk to the bathroom, afraid to leave the bathroom terrified.

so, that is what happened. i had three dreams at once (bike shop, emergency room, concert), which didn't really surprise me, but then i was two people at once. and it wasn't like i was switching back and forth between them. i was having both experiences simultaneously, and they were completely separate. separate enough for me to be terrified by my experience of the other being, who i also was completely. and that is just crazy. also crazy is that i'm sick and my alarm isn't supposed to go off until 11:30 because i need to sleep off whatever ridiculous lung ailment i'm experiencing right now. i am going back to bed, because i'm now awake enough to not be really scared (since it was just a dream.) so, dear readers, i hope you've enjoyed my first foray into mostly-asleep rambly dream blogging. goodnight.

¿podemos estar de acuerdo que labios compartidos tiene letras fantásticas?*

amigos con derechos / sin derecho de tenerte siempre / y siempre tengo que esperarte paciente

ay. entiendo ese problema.

*todos mis amigos mexicanos me burlan por amar a maná. uds. pueden también; no me molestará. solamente escuchará a la musica fabulosa de maná...sí.

okay, amigos que no hablan español, it's c.w.a.j.a.?. translatin' time! labios compartidos means "shared lips," and the song is about a situation of, um, friends-with-benefits,* or, as they apparently say en español, "friends with rights." (seriously, that's what amigos con derechos means!) as we all know, either from life experience, or by reading about this sort of thing in a book one time, amigos con derechos can be a really difficult way to do things. especially if you are more into the person than they are into you, which is the situation described in the song. so labios compartidos is about that. does that clear things up a little bit?

*i hate that term, btw.

more on c.w.a.j.a.?. about "labios compartidos" / más en ¿p.e.d.a.?. acerca de "labios compartidos":
the excellence of maná / la excelencia de maná
lyrics and translation / letras y traducción

¿podemos estar de acuerdo que maná es totalmente fiable...pero fantastico?

en serio...una amiga me ha dado un disco con unas canción de maná, y estaba buscando todos los títulos, pero es increible facíl. ¿la canción acerca de labios compartidos? ¡se llama labios compartidos! ¡claro!

(hispanohablantes queridos, disculpe los errores...¡hace mucho tiempo que practique!)

more on c.w.a.j.a.?. about "labios compartidos" / más en ¿p.e.d.a.?. acerca de "labios compartidos":
general comments and meaning / comentarios generales y significancia
lyrics and translation / letras y traducción

can we all just agree that being unable to breathe properly is quite tiresome?

i'm ready to stop being sick now.

can we all just agree that there are many places where ants do not belong, but that my bed is at the top of the list?

can we all just agree that ann coulter is horrible?

i'm not sure where i stand with each of the democratic candidates for 2008, but i am totally sure that ann coulter is horrible. from the edwards campaign, comes a video that made my jaw drop. literally. if you are in the mood for total awfulness, i've got it for you right here. i gave him $25.

can we all just agree that the adventures of the greatest paws is pretty much the best blog ever?

seriously, dudes, go look at it. RIGHT NOW. i'll wait.

did you like it too? it makes me smile, every time.

can we all just agree that audra is awesome?

"it's 90210-tastic!" she says, both concisely and hilariously describing a situation (possibly accurately too, but with fewer high heels)...and meriting herself the first person-specific tag that doesn't belong to an immediate family member.

(so now, for audra's greatest hits, just click on the little teeny "audra" tag just below this post! yes!)

can we all just agree that beautiful art mail from foreign lands is really, really exciting?

yes! it is! especially when you have some craft mail to send in return! yes!

can we all just agree that the original shape of one's knee is a reasonable, if sentimental, thing to miss?

seriously dudes, it's been more than a month since the crash, and little knee friends, especially right knee, are just not the same. i have to give extra style points to right knee for managing to locate my dramatic deep purple scar directly on top of a scar that i've had since i was eight or so—that was impressive.

all the same, i miss how they used to look (from an architectural perspective; i'm totally unconcerned about scars) and i have started to wonder if they're ever going to go back to how they were.

can we all just agree that it's nice to have your little compy fixed?

it's been almost unspeakably difficult to get compy 3000 all fixed up. the short version is this: applecare sucks. so does the apple store that is nearest to my house.

maybe i will tell you more later, but mostly, i'm back.

can we all just agree that today is a beautiful day?

i hope that your valentine's day, or your singles awareness day (s.a.d.), or your totally ordinary, nothing special wednesday (or thursday, depending on where you live) is totally glorious.

today in the town, the sun is shining, and i woke up joyful. the valentine's spoke cards project is continuing, i will be making cookie deliveries later today, and last night i enacted a secret plan with a nice friend.

and life is good. i hope yours feels the same.

can we all just agree that three is a nice number too?

can we all just agree that riding bicycles is dangerous enough without people in cars deliberately backing into you?

for pete's sake, dudes. i watched it happen today; this dude in a car got really really really angry at a cyclist for no good reason, and pulled over to fight him, i guess...but then changed his mind (maybe because his kid was in the car?) and decided to back into him instead and then drive off really fast. that was not cool. not at all.

if you drive, be nice to bikes. sometimes cyclists might not see you, and sometimes they might be real jerks...but seriously, cut them a break, okay? geez.

update: so that situation was totally lame, but then later last night i ran into the same guy (the cyclist, not the scary driver) and got to chat with him some more. and gave him a "good-job-you're-alive" beer and hooked him up with a mechanic friend who said he'd look at his bike. so yes, it was lame, but it was really good to see him.

update #2: i've talked to the cyclist a few times since this happened, and the police don't appear to be moving on it at all. which is lame. they have the license plate number, which seems like it would make it a lot easier to, you know, FIND THE DRIVER (or at least the owner of the car) and have a little chat. sheesh.

can we all just agree that the city is good, but that the town is sometimes even better?

so today i was riding my bicycle around the lake, and i saw two people on the side of the road, staring at something. they were arguing, and it was going like this:

"that's his chicken!"
"that's not his chicken!"
"it is!"
"no, it's not!"

and sure enough, there was a chicken standing on the island in the middle of the street. just chillin. a chicken.

can we all just agree that isabel allende's of love and shadows is a stunning book?

please read it. it might break your heart, and it gave me terrible nightmares when i read it right before bed, but it is beautiful and it has incredible tenacious strands of hope and dignity and quiet defiance, and a gorgeous love story interwoven with a brave and unflinching depiction of the dirty wars in latin america. (which, especially if you are a north american, you should know about.)

also, it has this passage, which i want you to read:

"'Gustavo has waited for me all his life,' Irene said, 'I am going to marry him.'
'I don't believe it,' whispered Francisco.
She clasped Francisco's dark head in her hands and looked into his eyes. They smiled, comforted, joyful, trembling, certain that they would never settle for a brief adventure, because they were born to share life in its totality and to undertake the audacity of loving each other forever."

amen.

can we all just agree that sometimes all it takes is deciding?

can we all just agree that three hours is far too long for a committee meeting to last?

seriously, guys.

can we all just agree that thursday is a terrible time for rain?

lame!

can we all just agree that audra is a veritable repository of funny things people say?

"she wasn't disturbing to look at, in any way."

seriously, audra, where do you come up with these things?

can we all just agree that this explains a lot?

"oh my god! he's like dr. jekyl and mr. ass!"

-audra (explains it all, really.)