kung fu new job

First week at new job report: Things look promising. we haven't gotten into full gear because we are waiting for my fearless counterpart to arrive to start training in tandem. apparently the training process takes a full 8 months or so, though we start with certain classes after about 3 months. i love the activist sort of feel thus far--emails are going around about housing lawsuits and new regulations and news among the 3000 PHAs (public housing authorities) we work with. petitions to senators for more funding, etc. and, my commute and daily schedule are everything i dreamed they would be. we get off at 430, so i am generally home by 4:50. yes. the 4 o clock hour. i am dazzled by the prospects for my newfound hours. i'm thinking of trying to learn to ice skate. not that i want to be a star or anything, but it's getting hot outside and ice rinks are cool, and there is one about 15 minutes away. and i've always wanted to learn how to skate backwards. that's my goal. i have another goal which is, by the end of the year, to be able to bike to work. that is a much more ambitious goal actually. not because it is so far, but because i am not great on a bicycle and am terrified of traffic, going over cracks, bumps, passing people, trying to stop, etc. yes, virtually everything.

so, like the rest of the nation, apparently, i am addicted to the new coldplay song viva la vida. it does speak to that part of me that has been crushed and humbled, but in a rather orchestral hopeful sort of way.

so the other day i went to a birthday party and my friend's cousin was there and she is tall and incredibly thin. and she doesnt even have the decency to be awkward about it. she fully struts it like a model. she's very sweet and friendly and adorable. and this is my problem, God. if people are allowed to be that skinny shouldnt it be because they eat so little that they cant even really function? i want developmental disability and cognitive malfunction. men will still drool on them. i want them to be like "i am so hungry that my synapses cant fire." i do not want to be able to see them eat cake and talk. it's cruel. there's my disenfranchised woman complaint of the day.

we took owen to see kung fu panda yesterday, and he loved it. he started doing his 3 year old approximation of kung fu moves right after we left the theater. i highly recommend it if you have a toddler to bring. he also yelled at the screen at various points. like "stop hitting him!" when the villain was fighting the panda, Po. not as witty as a pixar movie, but definitely entertaining enough.