an occasional feature

March

Spent today working with the Bungee Sex people trying to get the bondage kit pictures looking right on their web site. See what you think. This place is a great mom n' pop company, super nice, know what they want in a web site, and I work there for trade. I went home on the bus to be squished in with bunch of 9 to 5-ers who don't even know how to move towards the back of the bus when it gets full, much less how to enjoy their days [judging by the looks on their faces]. I don't know wether this experience makes me happy to not be one of them or sad because there's so damned many of them.

3/29/98

Lest anyone think that my radical politics make me a tax evader, I am going to talk about taxes. I made about eleven thousand dollars last year at a total of five jobs and I just sent a check to the IRS for about $1800. This is partly because I'm self-employed and so I pay my own social security whether I want to or not. It also had to do with my cashing out some of my mutual funds to buy my house. This would also get me a tidy tax break if I had a mortgage but I don't, so there's more paying through the nose to do. I have a home office but I don't pay any rent, so I can't deduct it. This year, I'm going to get an IRA of some sort.

All in all, I put about 70% of my income [pre-taxes] into the bank, so I'm not complaining, but I did pay more in taxes than Boeing, which kinda gets on my nerves. I didn't build a single missle either, which should count for something.

3/26/98

I have been getting a lot of pleasant email lately from folks who don't know me super well. This is all well and good but I think it's time for me to come clean about the fact that while I have a good sense of humor and graphic design, a spirit of volunteerism and will always take you to the airport at 5 am, deep down I am bad... or lazy ... or however you want to think about it. In the interest of coming clean, here are the Top Reasons That I Am Bad:

1. I haven't done my laundry since the last time I wrote about it in this journal
2. I haven't paid my Vermont electrical bill yet meaning that Jack may be without lights once he gets there
3. I was supposed to call the dentist on March 1st for an appointment [if you have been following the saga of my teeth, you know how bad this is]
4. the only reason I ever do my dishes is because I made a deal with myself to do them while my coffee is brewing [or whatever espresso does] and there's no coffee if the dishes aren't done. I drive a hard bargain.
5. I have a similar deal with cleaning the cat box and brushing my teeth but I tend to do neither
6. I never mailed back the broken CD-ROM drive to Gateway when they sent me a new one
7. My furniture still isn't all moved [see 3/8/98]
8. I am learning to drink my coffee black because I can't be bothered to shop for milk
9. there is a pumpkin rotting on my front steps

3/25/98

I worry a bit about people who talk too much about how little they eat or how much or how little they sleep. Seems to be a sign of an inner disturbance. That said, my new bed is great. I moved it into the room without the hum and I sleep like crazy hell. All the time. My absolute enchantment with this bed [which I found here in the basement and got the matress from a friend for free] is actually taking time away from my computer! I woke up this morning at 8 to take a good friend of mine to the train after being up bowling [poorly] until 2 and came home and went back to sleep until 4. Yes, I have a job, I just don't work much Tuesdays. I also dream wildly. I briefly flirted with putting a dream journal on my pages somewhere but took a peek at a few and decided it might actually be too much info...

3/23/98

3/20/98

Damn it's nice out. Y'know, I don't know that it's Spring by all the usual indicators [sun, people - myself included - doing crazy stuff on accounta hormones {and possibly allergies}, my cat running for the door every time I open it] but because people are visiting alla sudden. It started late February where three of my friends migrated up this way for Odd Stock. Then two of 'em came back last weekend for a comics convention of sorts. Now a pal o' mine from DC is going to be here Monday, I'm going visiting to Bellingham next Friday, then a good friend, and an email acquaintance who seems friendly will be in town. Then my Mom's visiting for Folklife. Then I go to DC for reciprocal visiting. That takes care of me pretty much until June. If anyone wants to come to Seattle, there's lots of extra space here at Hotel Odd.

This nice weather made me a little crazy and I was feeling so good that I didn't have any coffee until about 5 pm. This was a mistake. This time last year I was in Alaska.

3/18/98

Sometimes I wish this journal would update itself and tell me what the heck I've been up to.

3/16/98

I went to a wedding in a parking lot in the middle of the night yesterday. The wedding had its high points and low points. The good stuff was: cool vows [which I will post when I find them]; a very alternative ceremony reflecting the participants' personal views on marriage, not some government's; nice folks who were all into it and happy; and a rad minister or whatever he was. The downside was the same as many ceremonial occasions: prescribed ritual. While I am completely in favor of people "owning" their ceremonies and making them personally significant, I spent about half an hour in a parking lot in bare feet wanting the cermony to be over because I was cold and uncomfortable and trying to be agreeable to a very dear friend. The fact that this was a wedding, in my opinion, took away my right to opt out because I didn't want to wreck it, just like I always tried [and failed] not to wreck Christmas. Then again, everyone knows I can be hard to please.

3/13/98

3/12/98

My damned toolchest inexplicably lost a wheel yesterday so I've been emptying it out in order to turn it over. Seemed like a good time for a tool photo op. I have also been thinking about taking a welding class again -- it's been a while -- so I wanted to check out my gear.

In other que es mas macho news, I went riding with my pal Kenny on his super slick Ducati somethingorother motorcycle. It's yellow and I love it. If it were orange it would be perfect.

3/10/98

Saw Ladysmith Black Mambazo tonight, thanks to KCMU. They were terrific and exactly perfect for the kind of can't-wake-up day that I've been having. Want to know one of the secrets to winning tickets on KCMU? Put their number [543-kcmu] in your speed dialler. The other secret is to stay home a lot and listen to the radio, which can have other positive benefits.

3/9/98

Happy birthday Mom!

3/8/98

I spent the better part of today [both quantitatively and qualitatively] rearranging my furniture, the biggest part of which was schlepping all my books around to get them out of my way. So now, my bed is in the room that is usually the living room, the kitchen table is in the previous living room which used to be an office and the room that really should be a bedroom [except for the hum] is still my office and sitting room and room fulla clothes. And the TV is under the kitchen table and so is the cat. I expect at least one of those arrangements to be temporary.

So has anyone else heard that we now have a sixth Great Lake and it is Lake Champlain, in Vermont/New York? Apparently it's some sort of attempt to grab more federal research dollars. So, all the textbooks will have to be rewritten, just like the ones that say that Pluto is the farthest planet from the sun. Did you know it isn't?

3/6/98

My articles are finished and I am in a state of relaxation hitherto unknown [or at least for the past few weeks]. The last article was on pornography, which made for interesting research, but what exactly do you say about pornography as it relates to Religion in American Politics? As a kid who was raised more or less heathen, I dunno. I devoted a fair amount of time talking about the misguided Communications Decency Act and that Marty Rimm guy who ruined it for good porno fans everywhere.

So back to my boring domestic life... I saw The Big Lebowski, the new Coen Brothers flick which was good as movies go [and excellent for free...] but not all that as far as the Coen Bros. are concerned.

3/4/98

All I'm saying, is that it's hard to research an article on pornography because all the search engines come up with these crazy ads in response to your search queries. I think this question seems to be asking "Do you like it to take very little time and be difficult?" To which my reply is "Of course, I'm a complicated and busy woman."

3/3/98

For those of you who don't understand what all the hype is about, I am providing an approximate setlist

First Set	Second Set	Third Set
Jack's intro Anne & Jeff's Odd Stock Theme John's folks songs Bob & Liz's dog song Sharon's Jamaican poetry Mark's 8-Ball poem Billy & Jenny's Ballard Blues Jeff D's Prague story	Joe hates people from CT [song] Clinton stacks dice [magic] Matt loves the sun [poetry] Holly is a dying whale [gutsy acapella song] Jack's life is harder than yours [poem] Kill Devil Hill are not satanists [woodley woo] Sean has a hunky voice [poetry] Madeline's story was longer than 2-3 minutes Dan does a Morocco Mole impersonation [story] Mango Kings sing songs of love [rock on!]	Shane "I like you like I like death..." Holly & Steve "Barney Miller..." Mimi does a gutsy acapella song August Colin "I'm slow..." Sara "#6, they have a cat..." Steve "You don't deserve pencils..." John & Nir sing songs of Shakespeare

Odd Stock IV is still ringing in my ears. I believe I still have a copy of the set list floating around upstairs which I will try to post. The party was large, long and fun; a lot more guys-n-guitars, chicks-n-basses, poets and writers than usual with the occasional flag-draped wig-wearing nutty guy, four-year-old in a princess dress, and buff guy with a tail to keep everyone on their toes. My favorite councilperson was even there, but the Real World [who, I have on good authority, asked for and received directions to Hattie's yesterday] was noticeably absent.