my (not so) secret garden

so yesterday i really busted ass. and i am so sore because of it.

we have this little patch of grass out the back door that looks out onto the small grassy area where my neighbors do the running of the children/dogs every night. when az was here he talked about that patch of grass as a garden but said it would take a lot of tools to get the job done. money is tight, so i didn't want to go to the garden center and buy a lot of stuff. so i talked to jes and she said maybe i could borrow some stuff from her folks. i thought this was a great idea. but a better idea would be if her (retired) mom would come and supervise my creation of a garden. and supervise she did.

yall she was like garden angel sent from the heavens (ok really from marietta, but you get the idea). she was here by 10am. i thought early was better because the sun doesn't hit that patch of grass until about noon but it is there until the sun goes down around 8pm, and it was going to be HOT yesterday (it was, about 85). so she showed up and yall, she had rakes and shovels and a fucking rototiller. yeah, that's right- its this thing that you crank up and it just churns up all the dirt. i mean this lady knows how to make a garden. check out this two pictures of her working it out with the rototiller:





now i know we are talking about jes's mom, but i do declare, with that rototiller, she was almost butch.

after "we" (she really took the lead on the work while i stood there mouth agape) tore up all the grass and tilled up the soil, we headed to the ace hardware garden center and got a whole lotta plants. i love all of them, but my favorite is the mandivilla that is in front. my hope is that it will snake up the trellis (how do you spell that?) by the front door. so we get the plants and then come back and she helps me plot them out AND plant them. she didn't leave until just after 2pm. seriously, she was a real champ. i told jes i need to get something extra for mother's day because really she went the extra mile. also, when chatting with one of our neighbors (they are all so jelly of our garden by the way) she referred to herself as my mother in law. how cute is that? adorable.

so here is a run down of the plants i planted: pole beans, rosemary, basil, roma tomatoes, big boy tomatoes, marigolds, jalapeno peppers, cowhorn (?) peppers, zucchini and yellow squash. i may also plant some garlic but i have to talk to azad about that. in pots up front i have lavender (LOVES IT) and some purple flowers (she picked them) and then some peppermint. and then there is my lovely mandivilla, who i think i will from now on call mandi.

so here are some pics. if these bore you dear reader, i am sorry. they are mostly to make azad proud and jes wish EVEN MORE that she was here in atlanta instead of studying for finals in brooklyn.

here is one of the whole garden:



and here is one of our peppers (i think this will be jes's favorite part of the garden):



here is the pretty basil plant:



and here are the bean poles jes's mom configured. if these work out, i am going to be a very happy dj because i love me some green beans yall:



and here is a picture of mandi the lovely mandivilla:



and here is the little rugrat that woke me up three times last night meowing. i think it's because he misses jes b/c when i got downstairs to check his food bowl you know it was near full every time.



and here is one of the sleepiest orange kitty this side of the mississippi-emilina:



after i was done gardening, i went to the farmers market to recycle the twelve million boxes we had from moving. then i did a little grocery shopping. when i got home i cleaned and cut up some strawberries, cleaned and cut up some spinach, and most excitingly: used my new juicer from kim & sarah to make fresh squeezed orange juice. i had a glass this morning. it was divine. after showering (DID I NEED IT!) i headed back to target to get a few things i forgot to get the day before.

it's another sunny and warm day here in the atl. i have errands to run and house stuff to organize, so i should get going.
happy first day of may yall.

the move: part dos

so after az and i rolled up to the apartment, angie b. came and helped us unload. shortly thereafter, sarah s. showed up and finally we were joined by nikki c. they were all so helpful. angie even got whacked in the eye by my bike. ugh.

so after we had everything inside, sarah took us to return the truck and then we all went out to dinner at some chain-ish italian restaurant. i was so hungry and tired, it didn't really matter what i ate, but it was pretty good. then sarah dropped me and az off and seriously, we made enough room in the dining room to lay down and we fell asleep for a couple of hours. then wegot up and did some work. we both slept like babies that night.

on monday morning, we got up and took the bus to crescent moon. az ate not one, not two, but FOUR eggs. and then some pancakes and bacon. i ate a veggie heap and drank a delish glass of grapefruit juice. from there we walked to natural body to see if they had massage appointments for later that day. they did indeed. we rejoiced. then we hopped on the marta to the georgia aquarium. az was really amped to see all the fish and i was amped to see him see all the fish. its a really cool place yall. hella expensive to get in ($24) and it kind of looks like a mall, but there are some really cool parts. here are some photos of it (this is mostly to remind az and entice ali):

at the beginning there is just this wall of fish. here is az in front of it:



at the beginning you can also take a picture with the aquarium's mascot named "deepo" who looks *very* similar to nemo. i mostly took this pic for rowan. she loves nemo.



one cool attraction is the beluga whale tank. here is a pic of some baby belugas:



there is also this walkway of fish. basically it is as if they cut a tunnel through a fish tank and you get to walk through it. here is one with az in that walkway:



my favorite in this tank was the stingray. it looks like he is smiling:



the most breathtaking thing there was this huge tropical tank. it holds something like 6 million gallons of water. its bonkers. here are two pics of it:





i like this pic of a turtle b/c it looks like she is doing yoga:



and lastly, here is me and az after three hours at the aquarium:



after the aquarium we headed home, doing a little grocery shopping on the way, then chilled and headed back up to decatur to get our massages. we planned on taking the bus both ways but it never came so we walked. az was really done with walking after a day of walking in brooklyn before we moved and then lots of walking once we got to atlanta.

our massages were divine. both of us used the term "jacked up" to describe different body parts to our massage ladies (him describing his shoulder, me describing my lower back). it was a totally decadent and luxurious thing to do and we both loved it. all oiled up and glowing, we headed home, got some willy's burritos, ate and then probably went to bed.

the next day we did some shopping at the ace hardware and rainbow foods and ran into dawn at the chocolatte. i took the marta to the airport with az to see him off later that day. it was so great to have him here and i was very lonely once he left.

i had a huge day today and i am exhausted. i will try to blog and post pics tomorrow.
good night.

the move: part uno

so, i officially live in georgia again. after two long weeks of driving and planning and worrying, we are, for the most part, set up in our apartment back in atlanta. but before i speak of the present, let me tell you about the past.

while there has been much planning to get all this in place, i will begin with two thursdays ago when jes and i hopped in seafoam and drove out to maple leaf, new jersey to pick up a penske moving truck. it was a brand new yellow truck with only 191 miles on it. it cost us about a million dollars in tolls to get there and back, but whatevs, going to jersey saved us a lot of money on the actual rental. so as we are pulling up in front of our apartment (me in the van, jes in our car) i call jes and ask her where she thinks i should park it. as we begin to discuss the pros and cons of 17th street vs. 8th avenue, a lightbulb comes on over jes's head and she realizes that we probably can not park the van ANYWHERE on ANY STREET in brooklyn. so she quickly goes inside the apartment, looks it up, and lo and behold there is no commercial truck parking allowed ANYWHERE in new york city (including its buroughs. good times. jes starts to panic a bit and i start thinking of all the businesses we use around our neighborhood and which ones might let us park in their parking lot. over our years in brooklyn we developed a pretty good relationship with the dudes at pep boys, so i suggest that. she hops in little miss sunshine (what i named the yellow van) and we head out to pep boys.

luckily when i approach the desk, one of our friends (a guy who has helped us before) is working. i ask him how he is, he says he is hungry. i explain my dilemma about having the truck for two more nights before we load it up and he says we can park it in his lot no problem. so to thank him and his coworker that also agreed it was ok, jes and i go and get them each baked ziti and then a small cheese pizza. we also get them an orange juice and a chocolate milk (of all the drinks out there, that is what they requested). i think they were very surprised by our kindness. i was thrilled by theirs. as we walked home, i told jes that on that day, i loved new york.

we checked on the truck every day and it was absolutely fine. no break ins, and more importantly, no grafitti tagging. that is what i was most worried about. on saturday morning, at the ass crack of dawn, az and i walked over to the pep boys and picked up the truck, then we picked up ali and headed to the apartment. it was warm and sunny when we got started moving stuff at 7:30am. from the beginning, i was worried the truck was going to be too small. jes didn't start to worry until half way through, az got worried about 3/4 of the way through. basically jes stayed in the truck and organized stuff while the rest of us brought her things. when kim arrived, az joined jes in a very serious game of moving truck tetris. the cats were locked up in the back bedroom and they were pissed. around 9 or 10 i did a bagel sammie run with ali, we all took a break and ate. the entire truck was packed up by 10:30am. I took a shower, kissed the kitties and by 11:30am, az and i were on the road to atlanta.

here are some pictures of the truck packed to the gills:





and here is a pic of ali and kim, working it out:



we drove to high point, north carolina on the first day (apparently this is the home of fantasia barrino of american idol fame- who knew) and spent the night at a hotel there. it felt great to stop driving, eat a nice sammie and watch the sopranos. after that, az watched sports center (imagine that) and i fell the hell asleep. we were up and out by 8 or 9am the next morning and we rolled into atlanta around 2:30pm on sunday. the drive was lovely, weather warm and clear, and we laughed and talked a lot. i borrowed some black wrist bands with skulls on them from jes and both az and i wore one. they were our special moving bands. the skull looked a little like the skull from the posters of the movie "the punisher" so az said we were the FUNishers b/c we were having so much fun. here is a pic of him showing off his band (and his bulging bicep):



when i was getting tired in the passenger seat, az suggested i use his neck pillow. its the kind you have to blow up yourself. lets just say i had some difficulties getting it blown up and put back in its soft cozy fleece cover. az was disgusted by how inept i was. i thought i should at least get a pic of me with it inflated and on:



now the first pic i took of me with the pillow on, i had like twelve chins, so i deleted it and took this one. az looked at it and asked why i cocked my head like that, and i was like "to avoid having a double chin." he said i should put the camera up high next time instead of my chin b/c my expression makes me look "hard" (like a tough guy). i mean nothing really says "hard" like a neck pillow, don't you think?

ok tomorrow or the next day i will report on our first few days in atlanta together. i have lots of pics. good night.

miscellany

so i know it has been quite some time since i blogged. this is in a large part due to the fact that "we" have moved back to atlanta. i put the "we" in quotes because really just me and the cats have moved while jes stays in brooklyn to take her finals. i have much to report, but before i do, here are three cute pictures and short anecdotes that accompany them.

1. flowers: here is a picture of the lovely flowers that mary and dusty sent me after i turned in my dissertation. they were fragrant and divine.



i am a really a sucker for fresh cut flowers. they are such a luxury.

2. termites: the last two weeks in our apartment in brooklyn we were swarmed with termites. it was in large part b/c of all the rain we were having. they would literally pour out of the floor boards and based boards, some flying up and driving horace bonkers, then an hour later all their wings would fall off and then would take off and fuck. really that is what they were doing. one morning i found a whole lot of them floating dead in the cats water bowl. good times.



3. one of the cutest pictures ever: az flew into new york from chicago to help us load up the truck and drive it down to atlanta with me. he got in on thursday night, and on friday it was warm and sunny and lovely. we met jes over at the brooklyn botanic gardens. i am a tool, and forgot my camera, so he is going to send me pics and when he does, i will post them. the gardens were amazing. so serene and lovely. we got to bonsai and a japanese garden and lots of turtles sunning their buns. my favorite "house" of plants was the tropical. they were so fragrant and vibrant. they inspired me to have more plants in our apartment in atlanta. it will be a slow process, but i am excited nonetheless. anywho that night larry was loving on az. first he just had his paw on az's shoulder, but by the end he was full out snuggling with az. too bad he makes az sneeze. here is a pic of the cross species boylove:



now, without further ado, let me move on to stories of the move down south.

some people i love

this rain has got me down yall
so i thought i would post some pics that have been hanging out on my desktop of folks i love
and then they will be archived in the blog.

first up is mary, dusty and their wonder dog, davis:



next is eden, the very adorable daughter of sile and erin:



and last, but certainly not least, is ru ru the wonder dog in her easter bunny drag:



now if that doesn't make a dreary monday better, what will?

some funny shit yall

yall HAVE to watch this
it was posted on this blog i read and i almost wet my pants watching it

here is the link:

http://funnyordie.com/v1/view_video.php?viewkey=3efbc24c7d2583be6925

i mean i love me some will ferrell but this puts it over the edge

enjoy!

for the record

that last picture is PINK
not avril lavinge (or however you spell it)
i mean please people
give me more credit than that
is avril even 21 yet?

thank you sweet jesus

for this:




i mean really if she worked at the pep boys on 4th avenue, i might not mind taking in the saturn to get an oil change every 3,000 miles. okay????

these last few weeks...

i have really just been relishing time with my new york friends, applying for jobs, watching a lot of TLC and doing a little shopping here and there. for the most part the weather has been really cold and i hate it, but jes says that it is supposed to start warming up this week. we'll see if that happens.

so last weekend jes and ali and i went out to the target by jfk. it was supposed to be a quick trip to just get a few things and b/c we are the three most spontaneous people in the world (not really we are all serious PLANNERS), it ending up taking us hours as we hopped from target to staples to old navy. i got a new pair of jeans at target and i am thrilled with them. they are a dark wash, the right size in the body and legs, but way too long, so for now i fold them over and let the sidewalk wear away at them. eventually they will start to tear and i can just rip off the part of the bottom i don't need. or maybe i will get crazy and have them altered. i just think its cheaper to let the sidewalk do it.

at old navy we all tried on a lots of clothes. ali bought three things and only one was black (for those of you who don't know she pretty much only wears black). jes and i got a bunch of stuff we can share like two pair of boy shorts, two polos, a button down linen shirt that would be good for work or play and then jes got this real nice brown leather belt. i wasn't feeling great that day so when we got back, i took an amazing three hour nap and jes and ali went to barcade and played video games. ali had never been and she loved it.

some time last week we also went with supper club folks to this new restaurant in north slope called chiles & chocolate. it is authentic oaxacan mexican food and i thought it was really good. the guacamole was good, but the portion was small, and i got some sopa de tortilla y pollo (chicken tortilla soup) and it was DIVINE. jes loved it too. she got something called enchiladas xoxo. they were chicken with mole sauce and they were pretty good the night she got them but they were DIVINE the next afternoon for lunch as left overs. i was seriously floored at how much better they were the next day. glennda got chicken with mole, kim got chicken quesadillas and ali got some veggie plate something. they all thought their food was ok, but they were not overwhelmed with joy over it. after dinner we went back to ali's and played a mean game of apples to apples. i think that all three of them are sufficiently hooked on the game which is great. i look forward to playing it again with them some time soon. i can't remember who won, i think it was kim or glennda.

last monday kim and ali joined jes, me, christian and steph at nowhere (a bar in the city) to play wii, that video game system where you hold a wand and actually play the sport. we had played with christian the week before and i was immediately hooked. ali had played before but kim hadn't, nor had steph. everyone was hooked by the end. i still like tennis the best. jes and christian still played tennis with a beer in their hand (nice) and i tried a new drink called a kamikaze. its buy one get one free and i wanted something fruity, but not too sweet and sort of fizzy and refreshing. it really hit the spizzot. i think we might meet up again tomorrow night to start a sort of wii playing league.

yesterday jes and i went into the city to turn in some of her old cell phones to the body shop. they donate them to the national coalition against domestic violence. i think they give them to women who are in abusive relationships so they have a safe way to call 911 if their partners are threatening them. i am sure i got that wrong, ali can comment and correct me. anywho, we turned those in and then went shopping for nicole's birthday which is in a week or two. it was kind of fun. we also looked at shoes. both jes and i have been looking for this certain type of adidas and i think she was looking for a nice affordable pair of slip ons too for the summer. we didn't buy any shoes, but again, it was kind of fun to look. i can handle the city on the weekends in small doses, and luckily i was dressed warm enough b/c it was cold again.

then last night jes and i took the bus up to the brooklyn museum of art where ali and glennda met us (kim was in staten island with her familia) for first saturday. this is a free event every first saturday of the month sponsored by target. the theme for this time was feminist art (YEAH FOR FEMINISTS). we got to see all this amazing art by feminists (my favorite was the photograph by cass bird that i think is titled "i look like my daddy"). what we did not get to see b/c it was booked solid was the dinner table by judy chicago. jes and i are going to try and see it this week or next. after we looked at the art, we went to the dance party that was deejayed by jd who used to be in le tigre. she was spinning all kinds of old school stuff from aretha to salt n pepa and there was all kinds of people cutting a rug. i mean all kinds. old folks and young toddlers, straight families, queers, people of all races and abilities. it was seriously the most diverse environment i think i have been in maybe ever. sort of like if the subway just got dumped in a room. anywho it was so great b/c everyone was having such a great time and all these little kids were running around and just going bonkers b/c they felt so free. it made me really, really happy. after that, g & a went and got some food and me and jes went to carroll gardens to say happy birthday to her classmate max (wolverine max not bike max) who just turned thirty. bless his heart.

along with miami ink, i have fallen in love with this other tv show called "little people, big world" about this family in oregon called the roloffs. the mom and dad are both little people (formerly known as "dwarfs") and they own this farm (and the mom is a teacher too i think) and then they have four kids. the oldest are twin boys who are 16, one is average size and the other is a little person. then they have a girl who is like 11, who is average size, and a boy who is maybe 8 and is also average size. ali told me about it and i watched it and now i am hooked. i tivoed six episodes and she came over today and we watched them. it is by far my new favorite show.

we have also watched a few movies over the last few weeks. they are:

1. the namesake. saw this at BAM with the bambucks higgins got us. it stars kal penn (of harold and kumar fame) and i loved it. about a south asian (indian) family that moves to new york and what is it like to navigate indian and american identity at the same time. really great film. jes thought it was a tad too long. go see it or at least rent it. i love kal and the guy who plays the dad, and the woman who plays the mom is hot.

2. volver. watched it at glennda's on friday night. had no idea what it was about. was very surprised by the storyline and i loved it. first of all, penelope cruz is one of the most beautiful women in the world. she did an outstanding job in this (as did most of the actors) and she is also one of the prettiest cryers i have ever seen. it has subtitles, so if you don't like to read your movies, this ain't for you. but really you should rent it. pretty powerful stuff and very very funny in places.

3. the holiday. with cameron d. kate winslet, jack black and jude law. lots of pretty people in this movie. pretty predictable mainstream romance, but i still liked it a lot. pretty scenery, pretty people, good soundtrack, jack black is fucking hilarious, and so on. a good mindless movie to pick you up if you are blue.

4. babel. yeah so i have wanted to see this since it was in the theaters, but just never got to it. it came on netflix and i was so excited. dude that movie is INTENSE. it really focuses on several different stories that are interrelated (not just on brad pitt and cate blanchett like the commericals lead you to believe). there is some amazing acting and i was seriously stressed out and involved in each story. i would forget the other ones were happening b/c i was so engrossed on the one i was focusing on. i liked that it told the story of a young japanese woman who was deaf (how often is that a focus of a mainstream movie) but i wish she would have stopped flashing her parts to everyone. yeah you are intrigued and now you want to see it. do rent it, it's intense and fairly thoughtful.

as soon as jes finishes studying we are going to watch the good shepard. i love me some matt damon and angelina jolie. hope your easter and passover went well (if you celebrate them) and if not, hope your weekend was restful and divine.

peace.

my new girlfriend

remember how i said i have a crush on the lady on miami ink?
here she is, here name is kat von d:



isn't she so pretty
and she can tattoo for reals yall

does it get cuter than this?

i think not:



thats daryl mcdaniels of run dmc kickin it live one time with some teletubbies.

loves it.

my newest obsession...

miami ink
on TLC
i can not get enough of it
i just spent HOURS watching it
and now it is after 1am and i am tired
i have a wee bit of a crush on kat von d
and would love to get a tattoo from her or chris carver
ok must sleep now

dear diary

i have had a busy past few days, so lets get to it.

last saturday, higgs and her sweetie bobby came over to love on the kitties before we proceeded to Rice to get a delicious and nutritious dinner. they went for the special where you pay like $25 and then eat all these different things. jes and i went for the mexican chicken soup (good but i could have done without the corn), arepas- divine as always, and the vegetable dumpling things (i really only like the sauce you dip them in). we all shared some not so salty edamame up front and i partook in a divine cup of hot spicy ginger tea. it burns going down and i love it.

after dinner we headed over to this great bar in fort green called moe's. jes and i had said we wanted to go and figured higgs and bobby would like to hang for a little bit longer, but not too long b/c higgs had a marathon on sunday morning. so we walked on over and when we walked in i saw ali and i thought "oh that is so weird b/c we were maybe going to try and get a drink with ali after this, but look she is here now." then i looked across from ali and saw beth, one of jes's school mates and i thought "oh how curious they are both coincidentally here, i guess they saw each other and decided to sit near each other." then i looked to my left and saw botacelli and her boyfriend steve and i was like "wait a minute, there is something going on here." that is when higgs was like "surprise dr. donna, congrats on finishing your disseration" and then i looked around and in fact i knew everyone in the front of the bar, b/c they were there for a surprise gathering for me. isn't that silly? i felt very stupid at first and then i was like "how did you keep this from me" and jes was like "it was not easy, i almost told you a million times" i guess she, higgs and ali put their big brains together and made it work. stinkers.

so it was this amazing time. i got to see so many folks i hadn't seen and some i do see but i got to see them MORE. first i chatted with botacelli and steve about their lives and work and such. then i talked to the bls crew: erica and her sweetie, beth and linda. then i chatted with my suppa club ladies: ali, glennda and kim, then i busted chats with the folks by the jukebox: pony, thibot, darelle, tara, christian and charlie. then in came max (wolverine, not max bike- he was sick, so was liz) and niki and julie and their straight roommate who apparently had the hots for jes. i felt so loved and i got all these great presents and people kept buying me drinks. needless to say i was hungover the next morning from three vodka tonics with lime. nothing a lot of water and a little tylenol couldn't fix.

jes had to work all day on sunday so i did some work here in the morning and then ali came over so we could walk down to key food to buy an ice cream cake for the l word finale get together at kim and glennda's. we went for a bunny cake. i said it was a passover bunny so people who don't celebrate easter didn't feel left out. on the way home, ali and i picked up a slice at joe's then ate it when we got home. she helped me pack up a few more boxes too, which was great. the last few days ali has had this really bad heart burn, so while we were eating, i got out my digestive wellness book and we read up on how to deal with it. she found that they suggested this "test" with apple cider vinegar. basically you do a shot of apple cider vinegar and if it burns you have enough or too much acid in your stomach, if it doesn't you may have too little acid. neither of us felt a burn so we think we may have low acid bellies. it tasted pretty gross and i think ali will never do it again. i laughed at her grimace.

the lword party was divine. lovely ladies, great food and horrible lesbian drama (on the tv). i was really hoping they would kill off jenny and tina in a car wreck or something but they didn't. though i did appreciate how things ended with jenny at least. yesterday i traveled into the city to look at some books in the nyu library. i can't check books out so i have to just look at them and then xerox what i need. the staff was really less than helpful, but at least i got a start on identifying good readings for this queer theory course i might be teaching. after that i went to a coffee shop (SNice- i love it) and read what i had xeroxed, then i met jes at curly's for a delish avocado melt and some curly fries. we met christian at nowhere (the gay bar) next door and at first he seemed a bit tired or down in the dumps. even a few games of erotic photo hunt didn't bring him up. then we saw some bar patrons playing the new playstation or nintendo Wii, the video game with the wands. we asked if we could play and they said yes. for the next few hours we played baseball, golf, bowling and tennis. we tried to do boxing but you needed some other attachment. it was so much fucking fun. what was totally hilarious was watching jes and christian play with the wand in one hand and a beer in the other. my favorite (i think) was tennis or maybe baseball b/c those were the ones i was best at. seriously the shit is addictive and i even *for one moment* considered getting one. then i reminded myself that paying off student loans is a smarter way to use my money.

so its a gorgeous warm and sunny day today. i have some work here to do and then i am heading out into the neighborhood to run errands: mail stuff, grocery shop, pick up a few other things and then tonight i think we are going to pack some more and watch babel. jes finished watching fast food nation last night. that is a seriously intense movie. i really liked it.

ok happy tuesday.

where you been?

just kidding, as per usual, its me that has been remiss. i have to say though, i have a pretty good reason. see what i didn't tell you, dear reader, in my last post and the post before that is that i was gearing up to get surgery. nothing major yall, don't worry.

so when i went to turn in my dissertation last month, i also made a visit to the girl doctor. i have been having some spotting during ovulation (for like a year) and after SEVERAL of my friends said "you should get that checked out" i did. so long story short, mr. doctor found what he thought was an ovarian cyst during a routine ultrasound. i was a little "wha???" but tried to keep it in check. from there he sent me to get a mac daddy ultrasound and from that he found that i not only had a cyst i ALSO had two polyps on my uterus (i mean b/c really one thing isn't enough). to take care of it all at once, he suggested i come in for some outpatient surgery.

after much planning, we worked it out so that i could to atlanta to get the surgery during the same time jes was going for spring break and for summer internship interviews. my sister also agreed to come for a few days before jes could get there and so that they could kind of tag team during my recovery. i have never had surgery really (i did have tubes put in my ears when i was four but i don't think that counts...) so i have to say i was pretty apprehensive about it. what i was most worried about was going under. i do not like the idea of not knowing what is going on when i am very vulnerable (naked, someone up in my parts, etc). luckily my doctor told me i could take a happy pill the morning of surgery so once i took that, i really relaxed and just let them do their thing.

about twelve seconds after the anesthesiologist gave me the "happy drugs" (her term not mine) i was OUT. i think i may have woke up for one second when we got to the operating room b/c i remember seeing the big lights. after the surgery this resident came and talked to me, the nurses took great care of me, and thirty minutes later, i was out the door. and by out the door, i mean wheeled out in a wheelchair after chatting with another patient about the color purple on broadway-random. i got a little queasy from the drive home but was able to hold it together enough to pass the fuck out for several hours in the bed. for the next day or two, kath and jes took good care of me and i pretty much just laid in the bed with breaks for the bathroom. because my belly hurt from the laproscopic surgery i kind of wobbled to the bathroom which jes thought was HILARIOUS. while i felt like someone had punched me right in the bellybutton (and i have bruises to further support this theory), the hardest part for me was the gas that they fill your belly with during the hysteroscopy (what they did to remove the polyps). they basically blow your belly up so its easier to see (i think that is why they do it). either way i felt like i was ABOUT six months pregnant and my belly hurt. the worst was saturday night. there i was, watching "stranger than fiction" (a really good movie by the way) trying not to laugh b/c it hurt (did i mention will ferrell is in the movie- so that was hard to do). i was standing up holding on to the back of chair rocking back and forth. again, jes found this HILARIOUS.

so it has been a little over a week since i got the surgery and i am feeling pretty much back to normal. i am still a little bit achy and not too keen on heavy lifting just yet, but other than that, i am golden. what the surgery taught us is this:

1. the cyst WAS NOT an ovarian cyst, that is, it was not attached to the ovary (which is good). it was a paratubal cyst just hanging out NEAR my right ovary. that also means that i have probably had this cyst for my whole life. how crazy is that? what is also crazy is that the cyst was bigger than they thought (originally it was measured at 7cm) and it was TOTALLY pushing my uterus out of the way. like the cyst was way bigger than my uterus. you would think i would have felt this. not so much.

2. after doing the polyp removal it also became clear that i have a mild case of endometriosis. you'd a thought that in twenty years of menstruating i would have known that too. again, not so much.

if these in depth details about my reproductive organs are not enough for you and you want to see pictures, send me an email and i will send them to you. yeah, that's right, i asked him to make a copy of the pictures for me. i mean how often do you get to see pictures of the inside of your body? not often. originally i was going to post them here, but then i thought maybe they are too gory and i don't want folks to get sick reading my blog.

on a happier note: while in atlanta jes and i got to see our friend dawn for coffee one afternoon AND we got to eat at el myr with kim and sarah one evening in celebration of sarah's birthday. her actual birthday was on friday. Happy Birthday Sarah!

ok enough from me. happy sunday yall.

not much going on here

i feel bad because i haven't posted in a while, but frankly, i don't have much to report. surely something has been going on in my life, let me think....

well, the other day jes and i went into the city to register for a bone marrow drive. all they did was have us swab the insides of our cheeks. not too exciting. on the way there, jes saw molly shannon jogging. i missed her. and earlier in the week, i saw john cameron mitchell get off the f train right near the movie theater. i thought he was a cute short haired lesbian with high heeled blue boots. instead he was a cute short haired gay man with high heeled boots.

this past weekend we went to a birthday party for glennda. it was fun. she had this real fancy spread with lots of cheese and OLIVES! we brought the fixins for these champagne drinks, they weren't so good, but we also made pears with honey and walnuts and those were delish, so we redeemed ourselves. we made a few new friends at the party: ruben, joaquin (not sure on the spelling there) and c.j. so not only did i make THREE new friends, they were all MEN. go figure. we talked about madonna and justin timberlake and perezhilton.com. why yes, they were gay men, how'd you guess?

jes started working at the circulation desk at her school library. that is kind of hot. she and i have been diligently working on applications: job apps for me and internship apps for her. we are both kind of tired of the process already. too bad. i am officially unemployed. my job ended the last day of february. still not entirely sure what i am going to do with my life. trying to not let it freak me out too much.

my friend higgins came over on sunday and i made a version of chicken picatta that we paired with a nice spinach salad. for dessert we had some dark chocolate with raspberry pieces in it and higgs and jes also had some gross milk chocolate i don't care for.

it was freezing cold today in brooklyn even though it looked like it was a sunny warm day, it wasn't. i left the house ONCE to get some juice and a lottery ticket for tonight's drawing. oh how i hope we win the $370 million. that would be so nice.

ok yall. that is all i gots to say for now. i hope your week is going well.
take care.

an another thing

yall is it really that hard to choose between the pillsbury dough boy* and ms. mchottymangrooves?
not for me.



i mean really something that hot should be against the law


*don't get me wrong, i love me some justin timberlake as much as the next guy (and i do mean guy) but here he is not doing it for me.

paging dr. troka, paging dr. troka

the day after aly, nic, and ro left, jes and i made the long trek on the A train to JFK airport to catch a plane to Atlanta.
we got to the airport with plenty of time but were taken aback at the anger hissing from most people. because of the terrible weather in the midwest, and then later along the eastern seaboard, lots and lots of folks had been in the airport for a really long time. people were yelling and shoving and pushing. it was bonkers.

we finally made it through security and set ourselves up in some of these recliner like massage chairs. you put in a dollar and it gives you this amazing back massage. i loved it. jes didn't love it. here is a picture of jes in her chair:



our flight was supposed to leave at 5:40pm. we got on the plane about 6:30 when they told us that we were ready to go but all we needed was our pilots. long story short, four hours later (for reals), after many lies, some snacks, the movie "man of the year" (not good) and (thank god) a vodka and tonic, they cancelled the flight. we were off the flight and in line to re-book at 11pm. we were about twelve people back from the front. we got up to the agent at 2am at which time he re-booked us for a flight that was scheduled to leave at 11am on thursday morning. the idea of having to take a two hour train ride home made us both cry a little so we called a car and we were home in our beds, with our kitties by 3am. our alarm went off at 8am, the car got us at 9am and we were back at the gate for our re-booked flight at 10:30am. we boarded the plane at
12:30pm, sat there until 3:30pm and finally touched down in Atlanta at 6:00pm or so. we got our rental car (PT cruiser yall) and headed to el myr. there i had the best fish burrito in the world and could only drink one pint of PBR b/c I was so tired.

Now we had planned this trip so i could TURN IN MY DISSERTATION and so that jes could use the career services at the law school at emory to search for a summer internship in Atlanta. I had planned on gathering all my signatures on Thursday, but that all had to be re-scheduled for Friday since I spent most of Thursday sitting on a plane or in an airport. I was a little bit nervous b/c my advisor was leaving town for the weekend on Friday afternoon, but I kept a postitive attitude and hoped for the best. jes had pretty much mapped out the day in an hour by hour schedule. i love her for that. we first went to java monkey to meet up with my advisor, dr. kim to get her signature. jes let me know what time we had to leave there to get to our next appt. on time. here is a picture of dr. kim and me:



she was so chill about everything and after she signed four thousand copies of shit, she made me stand up and she held my hands and then she said all this nice stuff that made me squirm and then cry and even jes teared up. it was nice. i am really excited b/c she and saralyn are going to hood me at graduation and neither of them have done that before. GO TEAM!

next we were off to layli's house to get her signatures. her house smelled of satsuma so i was instantly invigorated. we got her signatures, chatted briefly, and then headed off to our next meeting. but not before we took this pic:



as we drove away, jes briefed me on our next stop and said "i feel like we are on the amazing race." and race, we did, back to campus where jes stopped off at the law school and i went to a doctor's appointment. of course we got there just on time and i got stuck behind this fucknut in the parking deck that SERIOUSLY was going one mile an hour. jes said she was going to unleash some of her pent up flight delay rage on them, but luckily, we found a spot and headed out.

after my appt. i met up with jes, and we headed to get my third and final signature from saralyn. she was real cute too and said she really liked my diss. i was like "would you tell me if you didn't like it?" and she said "i wouldn't be signing off on it if i didn't like it." so that was nice. she is the head of the office of lgbt life on campus so we made sure our picture together was totally gay:



i've got a pretty good looking committee, don't i? they are smart too.

so that was the easy part, sort of. next up was a woman named queen. she is the woman who works in the graduate school and who you turn your five copies of your dissertation into. i was very worried about queen. i pictured her pulling out a ruler and when she found my margins were wrong, she would hit me with it. of course, none of that happened. i had all the right forms signed in all the right ways and all the right copies and after i filled out some other paperwork, she took my diss. simple as pie. here is a picture of her, jes and me:



after she took all the copies off my hands i really wanted to kiss her on the mouth, but i don't think she rolls that way. now i guess the dean of the graduate school still needs to sign off on it, so they could demand that i reprint some pages or something, but for the most part I AM DONE WITH MY PH.D.

can i get an amen?
amen.
i graduate in may. i can't wait.

i don't remember what we did after that, but later on in the day, we met up with christina and nikki for some celebratory salsa and margaritas at taqueria del sol. then we went back to sarah and kim's and chilled. here is a picture of their dog ruthie engaging in a little interspecies love with the stuffed animal we got her:



overall, it was a great trip. i got to see lots of folks i love, and turning in the diss has taken a load off my mind. but honestly, i don't feel any different and i still have no job come wednesday even though i do have a ph.d.

oh bother.

on a happier note: last night jes made the most divine snack and so simple: a bartlett pear cut in half and cored. drizzle honey on it and top wiht walnuts. SO DELISH- try it!

kickin it in the big apple

our time with alyson, nicole and ro ro was really great. we did a lot of stuff, visited places we had not been yet, and got to spend some quality time just hanging out and making dinner and stuff. it was pretty cold the whole time they were here but we worked it out.

so right when they arrived i asked alyson if she liked imogen heap's music. she was like "oh my god, i just stumbled on her music and i LOVE it." and then she told me how one day when she was listening to it at home, ro just started doing this crazy dance to the first song "headlock." the song starts out real slow and then it picks up and really takes off. at the slow beginning, she pushes all her hair in her face and then when it takes off she just starts MOVING. of course, i had to see this first hand. here is a picture of the beginning of the dance:



now you know i can't pass up some dance action, so i got into with her. she was better at it and has a lot more hair than me so that part she definitely did better. by the end of their visit, we had listened to the song about twelve million times. good thing i like it. they arrived on thursday and i think we mostly chilled and got bagels for lunch and pizza for dinner. they got here so early that they were pretty exhausted from leaving their house at the ass crack. it was a nice relaxing day.

on friday we headed to the american museum of natural history. as per usual, ro fell asleep on the train and slept through the first hour of the museum. this gave us some time to just see stuff she might not be thrilled to see. my favorite part was the room with the huge whale that is all dark and blue like its underwater. they have this big screen and they show images of water and sea life. ro was still asleep and shortly thereafter, nicole took a little nap too:





ro woke up in that room and we started looking around. we spent the most time in the dinosaur area. she was really into the bones and the interactive exhibits with video and sound and of course she was READING everything. seriously yall, she is brilliant. she just reads like a maniac. here is a picture of the whole family, and then after that of just nicole and alyson. so cute.





the next day we went to the brooklyn children's museum and jes came with us on this day. i thought the museum was up near grand army plaza in north slope, but i was wrong. luckily, we drove because it was a cold day and we would have had walk some serious blocks. this museum is sort of nestled in maybe prospect heights or crown heights and it is so cool! it is really a hodge podge of all kinds of exhibits but i think ro (and us grown ups) really liked it. we knew there were going to be some special events for the chinese new year, so we excited about that too.

right at the beginning there was an exhibit on like bugs and snakes and stuff. here is a picture of rowan drawing something, maybe a turtle. they had these little benches with easels and pencil sharpeners. adorable.



and here is jes on nemo duty:



they also had this HUGE yellow python in a glass case (which was kind of sad). anywho when we first approached the case, she was kind of just chilling. then alyson came over with rowan and charmed her and she got all up and was smelling the glass:



there was also a music room where you could play different instruments. alyson was playing the tube drums:



while nicole and ro were breaking it down on the xylophones:



now there were two special programs that day. one was learn how to do a chinese yo yo and the other was the chinese lion dance. rowan was all about both. she sat right up front and when they asked for participants she was all over it. here is a picture of her learning how to do the yo yo:



and then here are two pictures of the chinese dragon. the big one is the dude who put on the program, and the little one is ro-ro trying it out for herself. how cute is that?





once it started to warm up, we headed to the park to play. we also went and saw the movie " a night at the museum" which takes place in the natural history museum we had visited a few days earlier. its a pretty funny movie. definitely worth renting on dvd.

at nights after rowan went to sleep we would either watch some tv or, on one night, we introduced nicole and alyson to apples to apples. i think they loved it. both of them were cracking up laughing within five minutes. i am not sure who won. either jes or alyson. they were both talking trash. as per usual, i pretty much sucked at it.

they left out on the beginning of the bad weather so i think they were delayed for many hours at jfk, which sucked, and then once they got to chicago the roads were a mess so driving home was hard too. luckily they made it home safe and sound. we all miss them terribly. except horace. he hid in some secret place for most of their stay.

whew that was a long post. one more to go and then yall are caught up.

why i have been remiss

Really there are a number of reasons, all of them understandable. They are:

1. Alyson, Nicole and Rowan visited and we took in the town.
2. Because of bad weather here in New York and a poor response in general from JFK (the airport not the president), our flight to Atlanta was cancelled on Wednesday and we didn’t get to Atlanta until Thursday night. Lots of fun details about that to follow.
3. I turned in my dissertation to the graduate school and they accepted it, so I guess I am done. Unless I get a call from the dean, I am graduating in May. HOLLA.

So lets just re-cap what the next few posts will cover: aly, nick & ro, why we hated delta for a minute & finishing the diss. It will probably take at least three posts, with pictures of course. So here we go.

Actually before I launch into my time with my peeps, let me tell you quickly about making waffles. One day I noticed that Ali had a waffle maker. I love homemade waffles. Growing up my mom, and then later on in life, my dad would make a triple batch of homemade waffles and freeze them and that would be our breakfast for weeks. Now when Jes and I go to Colorado to see my sister and her family, we often make waffles. So I got the recipe from her and invited Ali over for a waffle extravaganza. Long story short, her waffle maker was for Belgian waffles, my recipe was for regular waffles, so they didn’t turn out great, but they were certainly edible. Here are some photos of Jes and Ali eating waffles. Jes has preserves on hers, Ali has peanut butter and maple syrup on hers (I know, that sounds gross, but you should try it, its pretty good).





and here is just a cute picture of the kitties-- all three of them-- on the kitty condo:



A few weeks later, my nephew Ben (read: his mom, my big sister) sent Jes and I a fancy waffle maker: Belgian on one side, heart shaped regular waffles on the other side. Can’t wait to fire that bad boy up.

ok i am going to make a new post for each new topic.
next topic:
aly, nik and ro in the big apple

15 years ago today...

i kissed a girl for the first time
on my roommate joie's bed
in my dorm room
at university of illinois
and i haven't looked back since

fifteen years of lady lovin
praise baby jesus
even if he did let the colts win

a letter to baby jesus

dear sweet baby jesus:

chillin in your golden baby robe with your blue and orange bears onesie underneath

please help sexy rexy throw lots of hail mary (in tribute to your momma) passes that other bears dudes catch for touchdowns

please also help sexy rexy not get sacked too much. i hate when that happens.

also, babyjesus, can you help the bears defensive line (is that right?) sack that manning guy a lot. watching our opponents quarterback get sacked is fun.

i know you are going to be real busy this weekend and all with the tornado in florida that happened recently, but if you could just give da bears your blessing, i'd really appreciate it.

have a great saturday baby jesus.

love,
donna

a short film you can watch on line

hey yall:

you might want to check out this film called "girl like me." you can watch it on line at:

http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/6/a_girl_like_me/

to watch it, click underneath the picture of the sweet little girl with the dolls.

maybe post what you think about it.

love, dj

a few things that have happened in the last few days

jes is still asleep, so i figured i would use this time to blog one more time. then i will be totally caught up and tonight i can gather pictures of bambino to create my l word post. perhaps you remember it from last year, that one was according to theo, sand's wonder dog.

ok so what has been going on?

1. this morning i woke up and had a bloody nose. not a run down your face and cake your skin bloody nose, but more of a blow your nose in the morning, the tissue is filled with blood so you stick another tissue up your nostrils and let that soak with blood.i think its b/c our apartment is so hot and dry. good times.

2. yesterday afternoon jes and i went to her school to study. then we picked up ali and kim and headed to this tattoo joint in williamsburg called saved. kim and i talked to joseph about our tattoos. she is getting hers in february. if she lets me, i will post a pic of it on the blog. i just explained mine some more and then he did a tracing of my arm. i have to call him at the end of february to see if he has a drawing finished.

3. after tattoo consults we went to key food to get the fixins for waffles. kim got the fixins for some chicken cutlet with bacon or something. she was making dinner for her and glennda. we dropped off kim and came back here to make waffles. ali has a waffle maker. what we learned throughout the course of the night was this: her waffle maker is a BELGIAN WAFFLE MAKER. my recipe for batter was for regular waffles. so they turned out ok but not like when we make them at kath's. needless to say, we each ate a few. jes had hers with butter and jam, i had mine with organic maple syrup and ali had hers with PEANUT BUTTER & MAPLE SYRUP. sounds gross doesn't it? its not so bad. you should try it. i took pics. i will post them later. then we watched an old episode of "heros." ali has hooked jes into it.

4. on friday night it was artic cold out. jes and i met ali up at jes's school for a wine tasting that was sponsored by this food and wine student group at jes's school. now the last wine tasting i went to was at emory and i got FUCKED UP. i was de-runk. this was because a. i drank everything they put in front of me and b. i did not eat before hand. so jes and i carb loaded before hand and i only had sips of the white wine (there were FIVE) and a couple of sips of the red wine (ALSO FIVE). i did drink the entire serving of the rosso she gave us and most of the pinot noir (who knew i was so mainstream in my wine tastes?) anywho it was headed up by this quirky old white lady with long thin white and silver hair piled on top of her head, baggy black stretch pants, a tan fisherman's sweater and a silver cat pin right over her left boob. she was crazy knowledgable and by wine six or so, she was swearing up a storm saying "fuck" and "shit" and "piss." we were laughing our asses off.

jes and ali were tipsy by wine 7 for sure even though we each ate a loaf of bread and three pounds of cheese. ali DID NOT eat before the tasting, even though we told her to. bad ali.

now the funniest part was when we got there (it was in this lovely reception room at the top of feil hall that has these amazing views of brooklyn and manhattan), anywho there were three round tables that sat about 8-10 people each. when we arrived, there were four women at one table and no one at the other two. i chose our seats at one of the vacant tables. do you know that every single person that came in chose to sit at both the other tables INSTEAD of sitting with jes, ali and i, to the point that they BROUGHT CHAIRS OVER TO THE OTHER TABLES so they wouldn't have to sit with the queers.
(lets just say there was no real gender non-normativity going on at the other tables so we stuck out a bit). ali kept saying "but all the girls look the same" and they sort of did. i reminded her they were probably saying the same thing about us.

aside from the "avoid the queer cooties" incident, it was a good time. the guy who planned it, j.j. sat with us, so that was nice. and we learned a lot about wine for sure. after eating all that bread and cheese, we took the bus to daisy's diner where we had???? you guessed it: grilled cheese and fries. the weird thing there was that of the six or eight booths at the front of the diner, three of the four that were occupied were occupied by lesbo couples. who knew daisy's was so queer? after that, jes and i went home and crashed and ali walked up to gingers and met up with glennda and kim.

today our plan is to work out, get a bagel from terrace bagels, do work all day and then head to g & k's for l word.

hope yall have a great day.