Maggie Never Sleeps

Last week I went and saw Tom Hooper's Les Miserables. It's not a story that I was previously familiar with -- I've never seen the play and I didn't read any summaries before I went.

I did not particularly like the movie. I left the theater feeling confused and off-balance.

Spoilers below. I wrote a lot.

( Why Sometimes a Play Should Stay a Play )

Below please find my thoroughly biased, unscientific, unacademic take on the best and worst movies of 2012. This is all from the heart, with a little from the head to back it up. I love movies; consider this my love letter to 2012.

 

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And so it begins: blanket on the bed, sweater and socks, hot tea. Cold, cold, cold.

And a hat too. I may be getting sick actually.

I need some exercise/eating advice and I know that lots of folks on my flist are dedicated to health and fitness improvement, so I thought I'd run my question by you all.
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TLDR:
Does anyone have any suggestions for calorie-dense foods I could try? I've been eating a lot of eggs and I'm kindof sick of them. I do drink a protein shake every morning post workout (with almond milk and frozen strawberries) -- I could see drinking another one in the afternoon maybe (they never make me feel full). Does anyone have any other suggestions for a mostly vegetarian? Any help appreciated.

I haven't dreamed about Colorado or Apple in months. Just now, it was both, together all mixed up. The genius bar in the middle of the store like a Joann's cutting table, but otherwise all Apple-y. My co-workers were there, recognizable and talking. On my lunch break I had to go visit someone I'd known during school -- now she had two pre-teen daughters living in her house.

The dream had the distinct feeling of returning to somewhere left behind long ago. This wasn't a normal workday -- I was coming back for a one-time fill-in of some kind. And I wasn't normally in Colorado either -- somehow I was just visiting.

Lately, I've been thinking about all the lives that I've had. It's felt for a while now like people of my generation reincarnate over and over during their normal lifespan. I don't know anyone who has a career, something they've done for decades. I know very few people who are using what they went to college for.

In my life I've been a religious studies graduate student, I've cut fabric, I've worked in an animal hospital, I've run help desks, I've fixed computers, I've programmed, I've cut bagels, I've given telephone surveys. Some are similar seeming on the outside, but culturally they couldn't be more different.

The life we had in Colorado seems like a dream now -- except Pat and I both remember it together. It was a part of our lives that no one else here shared, except for some visits from family. It was completely different from here and now.

Likewise pre-Colorado was a different life. All that Rutgers jazz, just doesn't seem real anymore.

I feel like I'm walking around with the weight of all these other people inside me, the people I've been. I feel heavy. The dream last night put me two lives back at the same time.

Ten years is a very long time. And ten years ago today, Pat told me he loved me for the first time.

We were babies back then, both only 19 years old. We really grew up together, into the people we are now. Only a month later the world completely changed and we lived through it together. We moved across the country together and then back again. We've had more weddings than I can count, because every day he asks me to marry him again. One third of our lives spent together, those particular crazy years where people figure out how to be people and live.

And I can't imagine life without him. He's my other half, without whom I would not truly be whole.

Just got home from a awesome road-trip weekend with Pat and my sisters. Molly wanted to head out to Pittsburgh for her birthday weekend (which is why no Halloween-in-July today -- we're having a makeup version next Saturday, details to follow) and it turned out to be a blast.

Saturday we drove out to southwestern PA. We checked out Ohiopyle State Park and Fallingwater (the Frank Lloyd Wright house). Both were gorgeous in their own way. I could easily see spending a weekend just out there, going kayaking, hiking, and checking out all the little eating places and weird stopoffs. Fallingwater is amazing and everyone should take a look.

Later that day we headed up to Pittsburgh. We stayed in the Oakland part of town -- which is where many of the universities are. Really nice, quiet, walkable.

Pittsburgh is a great town with lots to do, at a slow, relaxing pace. I definitely want to go back out there too, to see some of the things we didn't have time for.

What we did get to see:

* Andy Warhol museum = awesome.
* So many bridges and tunnels and hills and valleys and twisty-crazy roads
* Lots of dinosaurs
* Lots of great food -- German food, pub food, good beers, Pierogies, ice cream -- too much food to eat in one weekend.
* Gorgeous buildings and all kinds of architecture tucked into rolling hills and rivers

So, yeah, good times. All the people who thought we were crazy for going out there were completely wrong.

Also, road trips = love. Short ones, long ones, whatever. I love seeing the countryside roll by. I love being able to just change course and figure out a new route. Awesomeness.

Where to next?

Wow, i am in a bad way today.

"My daughter was first sued in the womb. It was all very new then. I'd posted ultrasound scans online for friends and family. I didn't know the scans had steganographic thumbprints. A giant electronics company that made ultrasound machines acquired a speculative law firm for many tens of millions of dollars. The new legal division cut a deal with all five Big Socials to dig out contact information for anyone who'd posted pictures of their babies in-utero. It turns out the ultrasounds had no clear rights story; I didn't actually own mine. It sounds stupid now but we didn't know. The first backsuits named millions of people, and the Big Socials just caved, ripped up their privacy policies in exchange for a cut. So five months after I posted the ultrasounds, one month before my daughter was born, we received a letter (back then a paper letter) naming myself, my wife, and one or more unidentified fetal defendants in a suit. We faced, I learned, unspecified penalties for copyright violation and theft of trade secrets, and risked, it was implied, that my daughter would be born bankrupt.

But for $50.00 and processing fees the ultrasound shots I'd posted (copies attached) were mine forever, as long as I didn't republish without permission."

-- Nanolaw with Daughter a very interesting short story.

test.