argh

Through no fault of my own (ha), my back has seized up and I have been sitting here, most of the day, grimacing and feeling like someone has rammed a steel poker up my spine. One of the unspoken rules of management is one can not run up to one's employees and demand massages. One can, however, do this to one's manager-peer colleagues, and so the production manager did just rub some kind of tension taming oil on me (the production manager carries a satchel of various herbal remedies each day; we live in Santa Fe people).
The weekend brought the beginning of one-week visit from the female parental unit and her female sibling (see Julia talk like she's an alien). We went, on Sunday, for a walk up Canyon Road to look into galleries. I never, normally, do things like that. And now I know why! No, it was fine, a beautiful day. I'm just not much of a window shopper. What else? Had a great dinner at Cafe Cafe, which I highly recommend. Their gelato is deliciato.
And Dan was in town, so I got to visit with him, having not seen him in quite a while. And the boy has learned he must move, as his house is for sale, so we're kind of pretending that's not happening. Nero went to the dog park and made many friends, but forgot all of them immediately. And I sneezed approximately 840 times.
Former staff writer Maya Hoffman nee Sinha, stopped by today with her very cute 9 month old baby. It is always great to see former staffers who are doing well (Maya also is a lawyer, in addition to a mother). It is particularly nice when you haven't seen them in years and they look exactly the same because you can pretend that maybe you look exactly the same too.
Wednesday is Halloween and SFR's Halloween party. I am going to dress up as Amy Winehouse, so if you come to the party, just look for the beehive.
And maybe tomorrow I'll blog about something newsy, but today it's all personal catchup and physical complaints. If you're near my office and not a pyscho and you'd like to come by and rub my shoulders, feel free.

Live from tipton hall

It is 603. Reading was supposed to start @ 6. Nothing ever happens on
time. My 3 pm meeting happened at 415. I am basically just waiting for
dinner, having missed breakfast and lunch. This is not an interesting
blog post, but since I am just sitting here waiting for things to start,
it seemed like a good way to kill a minute. Now its 605.

poor neglected blog

Sorry, it's been a week. And it went by SO fast. Tomorrow begins visit from female parental unit. Tonight, at 6 pm, I'm going to CSF (Tipton Hall) to see SFR's music writer Gabe Gomez read from his new book of poetry and then the boy and I are going to grab some sushi. He's been working like crazy on SFr's Halloween Haunted House (6 pm Wed., Bert's Taquiria, wrong spelling, but be there) and with school, so we will hopefully get to decompress a bit tonight. What else? Um, I have a manager's meeting at 4 pm today (a 4 pm meeting on a Friday...is that cruel or what?) And we've been busy here getting stuff planned for the holidays and the end of the year, which is CRAZY, but it will be here before we know it. Eh?
OK, have a great weekend, I'll try to be a better blogger next week. Road to hell, yada yada yada

start hunting for costumes

freedom of the press

You may recall last week I blogged on the arrests of New Times executives over the a story they published.
Today, SFR joins other altweeklies in denouncing the arrests.
Also, check out SFR staff writer Dave Maass' great post on the topic.

and another

Sheesh, not a good week to be employed by an alt.weekly. Note to self: Try not to get arrested!

this is insane.

blogroll please

At the urgings of various peoples, and my various inner voices, I did a little updating on my blogroll. I'd been meaning to, anyway, because SFR has a semi-new Bill Richardson blog and a newer arts and culture blog that I wanted to get up here. And various friends' blogs etc., but I'd been putting it off since I always manage to screw something up in my template when I do so. My self-designed template is all crazy! So crazy! that I can't even convert this blog to the new blogger ready-made template thingie because I've written so many weird things into my template that I can't get it to translate and I don't feel like starting over. I mean, this blog is kind of old already, yo. Like web 1.0 for realz!
I think I am cracking up. Must stop living on coffee and power bars.

fall days

It's a quintessential fall day, with a little bluster, the hint of snow on the mountain, darkening skies and, oh yes, my ongoing inability to dress appropriately. Yesterday I had several layers on and was down to a tank top by the end of the day. Today I'm sporting a T-shirt and shivering when I step outside and roasting when I come in. Oh the inhumanity of it all!
And now I'm on the phone again!
And then I have to go to a meeting.
But I'm trying to blog. Credit for effort?

voting

According to this quiz, I am closest in beliefs/opinions to Chris Dodd and Dennis Kucinich. And, says the quiz, Bill Richardson is not my man.

law school blues

This hilarious video is courtesy of Tom Blog, who once ran for county commission and is now in law school. Hang in there, Tom!

I'm happy Al Gore won the Nobel prize.
I'll be even happier when he announces he's running for president.

where have I been?

I have no ready excuse for my lack of blogging. I have been a bit sick for a week or so, but really I think facebook is to blame. If you aren't involved in facebook, one of its little things is a sentence that begins "Julia is" that one can edit each day. It turns out, I don't really need to blog. I just write my one sentence ("Julia is jealous of her dog" is today's) and that pretty much does me. Not to mention all of facebook's other cuteness, like the ability to throw sheep at your friends and play online scrabble games with your ex-husband and his girlfriend (they are both kicking my ass). I mean, what's the point of writing anyway?
The news has been nothing but political, of course, with the post-Pete scramble. I, for one, was somewhat disappointed to see John Grubesic won't be running for re-election for Senate. What a strange and manic one termer he turned out to be. I guess I am disappointed because it is so challenging and rare for anyone to actually beat an incumbent and be a newcomer, it might have been nice to see his officialdom go a little better. But that's just me.
Meanwhile, it's Wednesday and I have 19 phone messages from yesterday I need to listen to. 19! I've decided answering my phone on Tuesday is just impossible, because no one is ever brief and our deadlines are so tight that a few long calls and I'm screwed. So Wednesday is phone day and meeting day.
In other "news," plans for our Oct. 31 Halloween Party are progressing nicely. The boy has been put in charge of developing the Haunted House for the party, so make sure to come out and appreciate his creepy visionary skills!
And have a great day.

huh?

I'm kind of hoping the folks at the Alibi aren't actually so dopey they can't process a little sarcasm. Maybe it was a slow week for finding asshats.
In other news, I'm a little worn out with the hagiography of Pete Domenici. I mean, yes, he got lots of money for the state. And yet, New Mexico remains, for the most part, very, very poor. He was completely unaccessible to the media (well, to the media he didn't like, ahem). And he was the main proponent for nuclear weapons work in this state, which, last time I checked, isn't something everyone supports.
If the Dems can't get someone good to win that seat, if they put up Patsy again to lose to Heather, I will throw up my hands. What is wrong with the Democratic Party? Right now, they've got the whole country behind them, and yet they can't do anything. I mean, does anyone believe this crap? And will there be any repercussions for what is going on?
Last night, my old friend Tony Lagouranis spoke at CSF about his time as an army interrogator in Iraq where he did, indeed, torture people. Not as bad as some, but, you know, enough. It was a great turnout, lots of good questions, Tony did really well. And it was an interesting discourse, but after finishing his book, I felt really sad and sickened that anyone, particularly someone I know and care about, was put into such a position. Which isn't to say that Tony doesn't bear personal responsibility—which he's taken in spades—but I think he's right, that it would be the rare person who would have refused to do what he did.
Why Tony spoke at CSF, rather than our alma mater, St. John's, is a topic for a rant another day. Actually, as soon as I'm feeling better, I plan to write old SJC a little angry alumna note.
But for now, I will blow my nose, and return to my facebook scrabble game, where my exhusband and his girlfriend are kicking my ass.

what's the point of having health insurance

if the reaction to a weird sinus infection/headache/toothache is to:

1. ignore it
2. be woken up at 2 am in the morning from the sinus pain
3. Drink old cough syrup in the hopes it will knock you out
4. Drink some brandy in hopes of same
5. Take four ibuprofin and two excedrin sinus in complete violation of dosage rules
6. bum a sleeping pill off a coworker

Clearly, not a model for responsible health care. But quicker than sitting in a doctor's office waiting to find out that I have some horrible disease and will probably have my face fall off at any moment.
Oh well, at least the day is almost over.