This post has no coherent theme...but thanks for reading

My current list of blog topics that I must write about range from: "The strange indian painting hanging in my room" to "Can I carry a rainbow bag without being gay?"

For now, I'll stick to the topics that seem most pressing, such as, what exactly is a turducken? I was amazed to find the answer to this question through a great blog that I recently found, the julie/julia project (the inspiration for the upcoming movie and another item on my list of things I must blog about - killing two birds with one stone! I love it! Not killing birds but, you know). A turducken is a "a turkey, stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken, with oyster dressing inside the chicken, andouille dressing between the chicken and the duck, and cornbread dressing between the duck and the turkey" (source) Gross. But it would make a nice name for a little pet dog.

To venture off-topic, I have a little gripe to share. It's great to have friends. I'm realizing this more now that I have none within a 500-mile radius. Not being a fan of the cell phone, I keep in touch with people mostly through email and text-messages. So when I have a problem, I talk about it - seek advice or maybe just someone to listen. Listen is the operative word here. I'll cut to the chase. I have had more than one person say recently, "I don't know anything about_____ but I think you should________"

I can personally attest to an inability to admitting that I don't know something. To be honest, I try to make an educated guess and then I usually go look it up online. It's hard to admit you don't know when it's so easy to find out. In matters of giving advice however, I think it's important to say "I don't know. It's up to you to decide."

Since this blog clearly has no subject, defying all rules of good writing, I'll just continue on with a thought I had last night. I've been watching a lot of movies lately - I really enjoy them. I consider t.v. a distraction, but movies are different. Much more intentional. It occurred to me last night that what I'm actually doing is trading in 90-120 minutes of my time to watch something that someone has spent months and years creating - all compressed into this little package. It is potential energy. The difference between eating a slice of white bread and a slice of sprouted grain bread. The same goes for books, a labor of love, laid out on a platter to just soak up at your leisure. The best way I can think to spend time, until I can create something as brilliant.

And for your enjoyment, a picture (above) taken today at Hollywood Video, encouraging healthy behavior (photo cred: jonah and his ability to be stealthy)

Judging a book by its cover

Books are amazing. They are like little packages that are portable, available and of course, tell a story. I've always been attracted to books because of their covers - sadly, I've not yet read any of the books above, but I thoroughly appreciate their visual appeal. They are all put out by New Directions - on their website, they have SO many awesome covers - I just couldn't post them all, so I chose some from the nearest bookshelf...

Post-weekend

I drank a bottle of wine on Monday and haven't felt the same since. Since then, my body has worked hard to recover - to filter out the poison that I ingested - that I enjoy - and that joins me now as I sit at my new favorite coffeeshop. That is, coffee. I sit in coffeshops a lot, for hours, and I never tire of the environment. Today is especially exciting because there is a job interview going on to my left - not the first time this has happened - and again, I never tire of it - watching job interviews that is. During a momentary break from the interview process, the interviewer went outside and came back smelling of perfume... During her absence, a man who intermitently attempted conversation with the woman, was shaking his foot rapidly-that kind of unconscious nervous foot/knee shake that happens when taking a written test. I gave him a half-turn glance and the frantic movement ceased. The second person to be interviewed had terrible posture, much like I have now, but have since adjusted.

Yoga helps posture, I've heard, and flexibility. I came across a website earlier designed by a girl I sort of knew from Boston. She tried to name all the poses because it seemed (to her) that poses were being called contradictory names in the years of her practice. It seems to me that there are definite names of poses that exist in Sanskrit and perhaps these are the names that have been lost in translation. She drinks a lot, as shown by her pictures, but also likes yoga. I can add this to the things that I don't understand and the things that I also engage in myself.

In this coffeeshop, it feels safe to leave my laptop, keys and purse at my table while I visit the restroom. It is Nashville, after all, and I feel a sense of communal safety here, at my new favorite coffeeshop. Plus, everyone else here already has a laptop and a set of keys and a purse or a wallet.... I wish that stealing was more accepted or at least more commonplace - actually I just wish I could steal something every so often, but I get so nervous. I especially like to steal food b/c it's already too expensive and all the people who should profit from it, never do.

But stealing is wrong and I already feel guilty enough. Guilt - an emotion that my sculpture teacher once said, was the most useless emotion of all - a statement that shocked us all, not because we didn't agree, but because it didn't seem as though he had a past or regrets or emotions. Just a pair of eyeglasses and a ranging vocabulary that included words like 'negative space' and 'figurative.' But anyway, I know the commandments and all, not sure which number is the one for stealing. I went to church but missed the basics. This has continued to happen all my life - I miss the basics. Prefer the end result. Love cooking, hate washing dishes.