i bought two rings for $5.00 each last weekend. both are made of sterling silver, a little thick for my taste, but comforting in a chunky, durable kind of way. one of them is shaped like a butterfly. The other ring is extraordinary--it looks like a crown from far away, but is acutally a row of tiny elephant heads, tusks and trunks and all!

i was a little drunk when i picked them out ( i had a bottle of wine plus a hefeweizen) and i am happy that even though i was inebriated, i still managed to pick two adorable rings.

i locked my keys in my car today, along with both of my spare keys... three keys in all, all locked in my car. i didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

tomorrow i get to drive a big truck and move furniture, and eat at phillippe's!

AlterNet -- Once-Secret "Nixon Tapes" Show Why the U.S. Outlawed Pot
Indisputable proof that he was a crook!

i have a rental car! i can drive anywhere i want and leave cigarette marks on the seats and rev the engine like a maniac and not feel guilty! the sad thing is that my rental car is worlds better than the car i'm paying to be fixed.... where shall i drive tonight?

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book i'm currently reading: Islands in the Stream by Hemingway

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THIS TIME NEXT WEEK I WILL BE IN PARIS!!!!! WOOHOOOHOOOHOOOOOHOOOOOO!

but meanwhile, back at the ranch...i just got back from yoga class. my car's "check engine" light is on, and the people at the dealership didn't fix the problem, and i paid them $430! i have piles and piles of work (my inbox is literally 4 feet high, at least)..... and i am now convinced that i must emit some pheremone that attracts strange, strange guys, and i am deeply, deeply saddened that the one relationship i thought had any potential turned out to be a two-year exercise in futility. wow. i NEED yoga class.

what i would give to be stressing out over finals right now... instead, i have a full week of administrative inanities to look forward to. le sigh.

IMmed to a friend earlier today:
Baby61212: i've been telling everyone this, but i've been feeling so strange lately
Baby61212: the only way i can explain is that it seems like there's something tugging at me
Baby61212: i asked my church friends if they thought it was god... but it doesn't feel like god....
Baby61212: i told my one friend and he suggested that i get more digestible fiber in my diet (?!?!)
Baby61212: so i guess it's either god or my intestines

AlterNet -- The People's Prozac
one of the more interesting stories i've read on the inconsistencies of our national drug control policy....

books i've read lately... Paris to the Moon, Speaker for the Dead, and The Botany of Desire .
books i want to read: the age of spritiual machines, neuromancer, the old man and the sea, the count of monte cristo,
love in the time of cholera, a hitchhiker's guide to the universe, xenocide, and les fleurs du mal.

so i went to jabberwocky again today to see what it looked like at night, but it was windy and cold so we couldn't sit outside. it IS beautiful at night, but you can't see the koi. our waitress told me that people keep stealing the fish. i described the one that sherry liked (it was big and had a long swishy tail) and the waitress informed me that that particular fish was named edgar allen poe (edgar for short).

i'm finally sitting down tonight to organize and compile my europe pictures in an album. pretty soon, i'll be reminiscing about paris, amsterdam, prague, venice, vienna, rome, florence, riomaggiore, and barcelona, with a dreamy, far-off look in my eyes, completely unable to deal with the fact that i'm now back in fullerton.

sometimes i think about just picking up and leaving, charging an unholy amount on my credit card going around the world, and coming back and declaring bankruptcy. hell, i'm only 21, and i'll only be 28 when my credit clears up again. but then the practical voice inside me whispers, all too loudly, that i have to...

applytolawschoolandgetmyjdmbaandagoodjobandaniceapartmentandastripeycatandmakesomethingofmylife.

sometimes it seems like my goals hamper my life to an almost unbearable degree.

or is it the other way around?

I ate at a cafe called Jabberwocky for lunch. It had a Koi pond in the back patio area, the unnervingly giant Koi circling slowly in the murky green water. The man at the next table terrified me by ordering a huge pile of cottage cheese and sprinkling pepper all over it. He finished his sandwich at an alarming pace and set about shoveling huge gobs of peppered cottage cheese down his throat. I almost screamed. Instead, I ordered a meatloaf sandwich with broasted potatoes. Great food, but excruciatingly slow service. Clear christmas lights are strung all around the two giant trees whose branches shade the entire patio, and whose foliage the Koi fishes seem to like eating. Tiki torches line the pond. This place must look gorgeous at night.

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Yesterday, I went paintballing and was completely demolished by a fearless 8-year old boy. True, I was hiding in a bush like a coward and couldn't hear him creeping up, but dammit, those paintballs hurt!

worlds apart...

i went to venice last weekend and saw people riding around in these hilariously fun-looking contraptions that are a cross between a tricycle and a dune buggy. and i ate too much pasta and drank too much sangria. only 19 days until i land in paris, head straight to amsterdam, and get too stoned to speak. six million tulips are blooming in haarlem.... 19 days.... i can't wait.