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Saturday, July 10, 2004

I was supposed to work out this afternoon, but on the way to the gym I stopped to get a latte and then decided to go and sit at Justin Herman Plaza to sit in the sun and enjoy my coffee. This was a mistake.

That 70's band Kansas was playing, and I think I was in the middel of some kind of Harley Rider biker club convention because there were a ton of people walking around with leather chaps and Harley Riders owners jacket.

So instead of heading to the gym, I stayed and watched Kansas play for an hour. I don't even know most of this music, and the sound was pretty bad for a free concert. But I was rewarded for my hour when Kansas played their radio hits, the ones they always play on the old fart rock and roll radio.

And yes, it was worth missing my workout to hear a live version of "Dust in the Wind" and "Carry on my warward son." I love free concerts at Justin Herman Plaza. I saw the band "Radiohead" for free there when there just starting out that way, and look how far they've come.

By the way, Radiohead was great in concert, with a darn good skinny little red haired singer and a great guitarist. Who knew they'd be so popular? When I saw them they did their big hit at the time "Creep".

It was so funny to see the biker people rocking out to Kansas. I had to call my friend K, my rockstar drummer friend, because he said he toured with Kansas 20 years ago in Europe. K just laughed and said Kansas was so old, they have to play at Conocti Harbor, which is some club in Northern California where all the old rock and roll bands go to play and die. And then K had to launch into one his doggie rockstar tales of groupie shagging. Whatever!

I am dying to check out Conocti Harbor, but none of my friends want go. It's such a bummer! I want to see aging rockstars still going at it. Those guys can still play, who cares if they look like beer bellied old decrepit grandfatherly types.
It was a short work week so it passed very quickly. I received my first Netflix cds on Friday. That was quick wasn't it?

On Thursday I went to "The Good Body" by Eve Ensler, who wrote "The Vagina Monologues". It was an hour and a half one woman show on her "fat stomach". Ensler was very entertaining, and her ability to do different characters and voices was amazing.

She has a bit about fat women in India at the gym. The word hindi word for fat is 'Jaadi'. I love this word. I am a "jaadi chickie!". And yes by the way, if you're too thin and have no hips you'll never be able to wear a sari right. The sari's six yards of fabric needs a butt to sit on to hang right. Ensler does a darn good woman from India accent. She also does a great puerto rican woman accent as well.

I'm not a big fan of Ensler. I saw "The Vagina Monologues" and while very good, I thought there were parts of it that would prevent me from recommending the play to anyone. I felt the same way about "The Good Body". Parts of it are very funny, and Ensler's ability to play different characters is nothing short of brilliant, but you walk away thinking "did I learn anything or was it just a bit of entertainment?"

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

So I joined Netflix and ended up putting 55 movies in my rental queue. I've got all the Zatoichi the Blind Samurai movies lined up, although there are seven more movies in the series. Then I picked a bunch from my film history class that I wanted to see.

I was looking for this french spy movie called "The Tall Blonde Man with One Black Shoe", but they didn't have it. It's a very, very funny movie. They didn't have any early Bernardo Bertolucci films either. I'm going to have to do some digging to find that one Bertolucci early Bertolucci film that I still remember. I have no idea what the name of it is, and I shall probably have the watch all of Bertolucci's earlier films to figure it out.

I'd also love to see "Ran" by Akira Kurosawa again. It's been years since I've seen that movie. Then I put silly movies in there like "Tank Girl", which I've always wanted to see but never did. And of course, all the of the Keanu Reeves movies that I haven't watched on on my list.

I saw the french movie "Diva' in the french film section. A friend from college said there's a character in that movie that reminds him of me.

I can't believe how many foreign movies I've seen. During college I don't think I ever watched a movie that wasn't subtitled, and when I left college it was weird to watch movies where everyone spoke english.

I never checked to see if Netflix had this movie that I watched on TV as a child, "What's so bad about feeling good?" It's a very thought provoking movie and the story line is something I still remember.

I remember watching "Of Human Bondage" with my grandma as a child. She loved that movie, and I was too young to really undertand the story. It might be interesting to watch that movie as an adult, or at least read the book.

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

I've gained weight. Not all of the weight I lost last year, but a good 15 pounds of it. My skirts are tight and my shirts are snug. The jeans that used to be huge on me, not fit again. It's so depressing.

Last week I decided I needed to start exercising again, so I went to the gym three times and ran. I ran for two miles during my first visit to the gym, and then did two miles on the eliptical machine. Then the next time I went to the gym I decided to just walk two miles and do another two miles on the eliptical machine, because my knees were starting to hurt. Then during my third visit I ran again for two miles, and then did two miles on the eliptical machine.

On Saturday afternoon, I started getting the sniffles. I was thinking I had worn my body out and I was paying for it by coming down with a cold. I vitamined myself out Saturday night, and woke up on Sunday feeling better and able to go the baseball game without having to take cold medicine. On Monday, I stayed at home and lounged around in my jammies and watched TV all day.

I woke up this morning feeling like I never had a cold. So I went back to the gym and ran two miles and then did another two miles on the eliptical trainer. I'm like clocking four miles a day, which is a lot for me.

My weight hasn't changed, but on Friday I wore my Tommy Hilfiger size 8 jeans and they were loose. My size 8 Ralph Laurens are still snug, but not uncomfortably so. Maybe the running is taking the weight off my hips and legs at least. Now if I can just unstress myself and stop the chocolate binge eating I've been going through.

I only crave chocolate when I'm stressed out, and I have no idea what I'm so stressed out about. Chocolate calories go straight to my waist. Maybe I have that cortisol problem that they keep talking about on infomercial tv.

I have problems digesting food so I'm going to try some herbal formulas to improve my digestion. Supposedly I have a hard time absorbing nutrients from my food, so no matter how much I eat my body thinks I'm starving it to death. I have to test whether this diagnosis is true, because something has to explain my chocolate binging.

Chocolate is like a drug to me. No matter how much I eat of it, I can never get enough. I jsut love the taste of it, and if I had my way, I wish I could it constantly and not gain weight or have bad skin because of it.