nap time

For reasons unknown, I have been feeling utterly exhausted all week. At first I thought it was my perennially bad sleeping habits causing it; I don't sleep much on weekdays and play catchup on weekends. So I decided to start going to bed an hour earlier. But this didn't help at all. I think it may have made it worse.

PMS was another suspect, but now that that phase has passed, I'm no less tired.

I am beginning to suspect it's connected with work-related burnout. It's just as well I'm taking a week off later this month.

zzzzzz...

today's cringe, courtesy of Rick Perry

Here's Perry's take on the Deepwater Horizon disaster:

The Republican governor, speaking at the Chamber of Commerce in Washington, warned against a “a knee-jerk reaction” to the spill and said the government doesn’t know what caused the leak, which took 11 lives and threatens the Gulf coast’s vast fishing industry.

“From time to time there are going to be things that occur that are acts of God that cannot be prevented,” Perry said.

Is anyone else offended that he is blaming the Almighty for this?

Perhaps we should take up a collection and order Perry his own shirt from despair.com:

the ultimate cat

These are the opening credits of a 1962 film called Walk On the Wild Side. If truth be told, the film was a stinker, but I love the credits. If only I could figure out how to download this...usually I can rip any video out there, but this one is playing hard to get.

Walk on The Wild Side-Opening Credits

Johnny | MySpace Video

on yer bike*

For any reader who may be wondering why I'm not crowing about the joys of motorcycle ownership, it's because I ended up not owning the pretty blue Suzuki I was going to claim this weekend. This is although it's allegedly mine. And I'm still trying to make up my mind how I feel about it.

Herewith the explanation: since I didn't want to ride an unfamiliar motorcycle all the way from Frisco to Chez Melina - especially since I haven't ridden one that much in over 20 years - my biker friend Ryan kindly offered to drive up from Lake Whitney with his motorcycle trailer. We planned to meet up at the seller's house in Frisco at 2:00 on Sunday.

However, Ryan showed up at 1:30 on Sunday, and paid for the motorcycle before I arrived.

This was not what I had planned, and it made me angry, but I couldn't express myself honestly without resembling an absolute bitch. And why embarrass a stranger, especially a stranger who was selling me (or Ryan) such a nice motorcycle? The two of them were all smiles and I turned in what I hope was a believable performance of "geez, how nice!". Blech.

After the bike was loaded onto the trailer, I decided to insist that Ryan take it down to his place in Lake Whitney so I could practice riding in a rural area. He was more than happy with this suggestion. I suspect he'd have suggested it if I hadn't. So off he went with the motorcycle, and off I went to Chez Melina to stew and feel alternately pissed off, annoyed, and confused about the situation.

If anyone is wondering why I didn't rip into him after the seller was out of earshot, it was because I felt foolish for not seeing it coming. And I would have felt mean doing it. Maybe he really didn't know how I'd feel.

Later that day, I got together with coffee with my doctor friend. She had just returned from doing one of her Doctors Without Borders trips, which always makes me want to spray her with Lysol as she tends to come back from these trips proverbially sick as a dog. But this time, she didn't.

After hearing the motorcycle saga, Elizabeth had a different reaction. In short, she thought I should accept the gift since $3,000 was obviously not a lot of money to Ryan. She also pointed out that I was happy to accept lesser gifts from other males, and insisted I was being a bit OCD about the price.

But I can't help it. $3,000 is too much, especially from someone who I don't see that often. And it sends the wrong message.

Now I can't decide whether to:

a. Stop seeing him altogether;
b. Insist he take $3,000 off me;
c. Do what Elizabeth says and not worry about it.

I have a feeling I will probably take the a. route, but have decided not to make a decision for another two or three days.

* This is actually an English expression that can either mean "get lost" or "go find work elsewhere if the job market's bad here". Norman Tebbit was infamous for using it.

A Tiny Apartment Transforms into 24 Rooms

While being fascinated by this person did with a tiny flat, I was also reminded of how claustrophobic I often felt during my time in Hong Kong.