Dec

4

Conversation with Grumplestiltskin

Category: ma says... | 4 Comments

oops I mean Conversation with Mom. Sal and her Tractor last summer It seems that parental stress always goes up during the holiday season, regardless of whether your kids have flown the coop and/or have their own kids. At least, this is what my highly scientific experiment of "does my own personal mom always freakout at the holidays" has revealed to me... Last week I called my mom the day after Thanksgiving, which was my own fault, because I already knew that she'd had 22 people over for turkey and food, so obviously calling during the aftermath was a ...
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Nov

11

E.R. = EXCITEMENT Room!

Category: North Seattle Community College, cool stuff, ma says..., trials and tribs | 8 Comments

Excitement and high drama. Yesterday I was feeling kind of not-awesome, but I was at work, and I don't know, work doesn't usually make me feel awesome, so I was ready to just chalk it up to "rainy Tuesday in Seattle in November" blues. Except by 4 p.m., all I'd had the appetite for was a grapefruit, a small coffee, and a bar - normally this would not get me past 9 a.m.! Perhaps my feelings of not-awesome were legit. The evening went by fairly normally - I worked on stuff, Ben worked on stuff, we helped each other with stuff, I made him feel my forehead a billion times, we both decided that the only thing that was feverish was his ...
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Oct

24

Gossip

Category: Showbox at the Market, ma says... | 1 Comment

Word on the street (omg don't tell anyone, PROMISE) is that BEN and I went to a SHOW last night. Whoa. Can you even believe that?! WTF?! The band was Gossip, the venue was Showbox, the opener that we caught the end of and wish we'd caught more of was MEN, new project of JD Samson (from Le Tigre). And the night was awesome, if you ask me. Ben saw Gossip back in July and lamented that last night's set list was nearly identical, which is a somewhat inexplicable shame considering that they have been together for 10 years and must have some sort ...
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Jun

4

Oooooo beware Mom’s threats

Category: four-leggeds, ma says... | Leave a Comment

The other day, my mom marched in from the barn and announced: "Courtenay. Sijui is BANNED from her STALL." (Sijui is my horse, I got her in 8th grade and now she is retired at my mom's house.) Why is she banned, I asked. "As SOON as I let her in to eat, she always PEES. It drives me MAD. I JUST cleaned it! She is BANNED." See technically, Sal and Sij are friends Then yesterday... deja vu. Sal marches up to make an announcement, hands on hips and feet splayed as usual... "Courtenay. Sijui is BANNED from her stall. ...
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Jun

1

Further Adventures of Charles Tasker

Category: ma says..., training | 5 Comments

Eagleman 70.3 is now less than two weeks away. Today I did my last long run before the race, tomorrow I'll do my last threshold intervals on the bike, then Wednesday I'll do my last mile repeats. Actually the long run was supposed to happen yesterday, and the miles would be happening tomorrow after my LT intervals, but last week I did something dumb. I saw a photo of myself from the bike leg at Columbia, decided I looked retarded, decided I would look less retarded if I moved my saddle up 2 millimeters, did intervals on the raised saddle, then oh shock surprise my left hamstring got super tight and made my knee really sore. So, I put the ...
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May

31

The most exciting word in the English Language

Category: ma says... | 1 Comment

After four weeks at my mom's house, I have determined the most exciting word in the English language. It's "WELL." Spoken by my mom, preceded by a deep breath in, accompanied by a hand gesture of some kind, and most important, this kind of "WELL." is always followed by some form of "news". My mom loooooves her neighborhood news, she is on top of it and very analytical about local happenings and personalities. She actually apologizes on the phone to people when she has no news! But "WELL." means she has something really good. "WELL. She claimed that he started smoking pot so that's why she had an affair, but I know for a fact that the pot situation was a ...
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May

20

New Kitty

Category: four-leggeds, ma says... | 4 Comments

OK, I have definitely moved on from my race this weekend, time for my blog to do the same! The new kitty (prematurely named Thor) is doing well. He's been eating and drinking and beginning to make friends with one of the other cats, although he is still generally hissing at them. The best is when he hisses at the deaf cats when they walk by... they can't hear you, little one! He's still really skinny but it's only been a few days. It seems pretty obvious that he was someone's pet and they dumped him off, which sucks because people suck and are dumb, but maybe he is happier here and will have a better life. He's been neutered, and ...
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Jan

14

Ugh. Nothing. Napping.

Category: enjoy the blog, ma says... | 8 Comments

O.K. so just to clarify, from yesterday: I totally don't have a job. I just meant that since I don't have all the proper I.D. (god) I can't even work until at least next week, even if someone were giving me a job, which they aren't, not yet anyway! Speaking of: today, my mom called me. "Hi Sweetie!!! SO, what are you doing to find a JOB today?!" "ugh. nothing. napping." Somehow she's really good at eliciting very teen-aged responses from me. I identify with Jeremy from Zits really well. Anyway after that her mom instincts totally kicked in to roust me from my depression (really it was just that I had just finished all my workouts and was thinking about ...
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Dec

3

Take On Sweet Child of Karma Chameleon in the Dance Hall of Ruby Soho

Category: enjoy the blog, ma says... | 6 Comments

Tomorrow is 80's Day at Ben's spin class!!! I get to work on his playlist while he's at his Biochem class. I totally got the fun end of this arrangement - the other night after class he was telling us about ATP and all I could say was "?". But spin class and playlists are right up my alley. I went to his spin class yesterday and it was really fun, I had planned to just tootle along at a high easy cadence but I got really into it and I'm excited for tomorrow. I am just worried about what to wear, it being 80's day and all - i don't really have many hot pink thong one-pieces ...
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Nov

20

A Conversation with Mom

Category: ma says... | 8 Comments

Today I was on the phone with my mom. About whom I'd like to say three things: 1. Her nickname is Adventure Sal, because she constantly doing something inspiring/exhausting. Here is a photo of her hiking the Milford Track in my U.S.S. Pelelieu hat that I insisted on getting in the 7th grade and then was too embarrassed to wear since it is pretty bright, and during my formative years I spent 89% of my time worrying about what people think (as opposed to now, when I am down to ~63%). 2. I know it's weird that I call her Sal. My brother and sister do it too. Occasionally we ...
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