Sleep deficit week.

Woke up last night at 1:30 a.m. with my bedroom once again filled with smoke and the smell of cooking meat from the neighbor downstairs. Openened all the windows and the screen door, turned down the thermostat so as not to waste as much energy and slept on my moldy old couch with at the quilt over my head. Too late at night to run to my parents house to sleep and my good neighbor with the welcome living room is out of town this week. If it happens again tonight I probably will start staying in Smyrna during the week.

Sunday was also a nearly sleepless night because of my own poor judgement in eating a very large seafood dinner before going to bed. No more salmon before bedtime. Maybe salmon at brunch, followed by a long walk, next time.

Woke up with a scratchy throat this morning. My eyes itch. Driving to work, the sky had a strange kinda west coast haze between me and the rest of the city.

I turned on the radio. There's a Code Red smog alert today in Atlanta.

Quite appropriately, a friend sent this letter to us. I thought it was good and am sharing it here:

Bad things are about to happen to our Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests. The U.S. Forest Service's 15 year plan is a rotten betrayal of the Georgia Forest Watch's recommendations - which they previously agreed with. Read about it here:
http://www.gafw.org/spring%202002/spring_2003.htm It's sad and wrong. Less wilderness designations, more ATV trails, more approved logging, zero watershed protections. And no forum for public comment except to write to a committee in Utah by July 3rd. Take a minute and bitch them out. Here's my letter:

Dear Chattahoochee-Oconee Content Analysis Team,

So why the big point to limit public comment? Hmmmm? Up to no good?

I work on the 54th floor of the Suntrust Plaza building in Atlanta every day. On a good day, I can see the North Georgia mountains. On a bad day, I can watch the band of yellow-brown goo spread from the north west and completely encircle the city. It's the old coal burning power plants that the EPA protects. I think to myself; "at least there's the Chattahoochee Oconee National Forest up there, 750,000 acres of trees has to help ".
Unfortunately, the U.S. Forest Service has become infested with timber industry folks. The Forest Service's 15 year plan for the last of Georgia's wild lands has got to be changed. Four million people really need the oxygen. All summer our local health officials advise us, especially children, not to exercise outside. Our kids can't ride bikes in the summer but we need more ATV trails and less wilderness? We shouldn't buy gas until the sun goes down, but more land has been approved for commercial logging. Last summer Atlanta hit water usage numbers projected for 2020 and watershed we drink from has no special protection.

How is our country so hard up for cash that we need to hock our trees, wildlife, water and air? I notice the National Forests Content Analysis Team is sitting in Utah. Utah has 9 million acres of National Forest and less than 3 million people in the state. Nice. Decisions about Georgia's natural resources should be made by people who have to breathe here.

Last night after working late and missing aerobics class, I ended up going out to eat with the boy next door and his pal.
We had an outdoor table at Apre Diem, where the men both eat beef and I filled up on fresh bread and mussels. Delicious. I made them help me finish off the plate, telling them it was a good source of zinc in an Auntie Jules voice. We chatted about brilliant ideas, political and economic theories, and I watched and listened to the two of them watching the waitresses. Apre Diem does have one of the most attractive staffs in Atlanta. Funny watching males gush over cute girls and talk about the girls they're dating and long for. And we think women only think and worry about these things...

Tonight is Screen on the Green with Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. Two of Hollywood's greatest bitches battling onscreen (and off if the legend is true).

I shouldn't have eaten so much so late at night. I need at least one good night of sleep this week.

Went to see 2001 Space Oddesy at Screen on the Green this week. Halfway throught the film, a large part of the park crowd left. Apparently they couldn't take the lack of narrative and dialogue and I suppose most people don't know what a visually impressive film it was for its time.

You are 49% geek

You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator. Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend. You [to Geek]: We need more than that, Scotty. You'll have to stay until you can squeeze more outta them engines! Geek [to You]: I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain, but we need more dilithium crystals! You [to Normal]: He wants to know if he gets overtime.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

His eye will be alright. Didn't slow him down at all. When he got back from the emergency room, he immediately started working on the same part again that he was rebuilding when the accident happened. I don't know if I should question his common sense or admire his tenacity.

Got together with Randy, Sandy, and Jae for sushi at Harada. my sushi was great and Sandy ordered the Spring bento that was huge and looked equally wonderful. We ended up feverishly chatting about everything until midnight, when the call on nature and husbands finally provided a break. It as a really really fun night with my favorite people.

This is officially chill at home night. Tomorrow - out with a friend for a show.

Lots of public events are in the near future - Screen on the Green and free ASO performances at Piedmont Park, Concerts at the Botanical Gardens, etc. Should be a good summer.

ughhh...

Just finished a series of brief phone conversations with the nice boy, who has somehow superglued his eye tonight. Seems like he'll be fine just from flushing the eye and letting tears do the rest, but there's a flek of something still on his eye and I worry that he'll have a scratched cornea. I'll hear in the morning how the rest of the night goes for him.

The drugs are working.

I'm beginning to feel much better now. Thank heavens for modern medicine.

Looking forward to the gathering at Jae & Bill's house to hang out with Randy tomorrow. It'll be good to see my favorite devil's advocate and professional malcontent. I've missed our combined power to clear a room since he's been living on the left coast.

cystitis

Late night visit to a pharmacy my doctor knew was open 24 hours.

Vowing to sleep most of the weekend and spend as much time out of my body as possible.

I am too tired to really go out tonight and too bored to immediately sleep.

I feel too cheap to buy food but, again, too tired too cook. And I crave avocado tonight. I need guac. Or california rolls. And maybe one glass of wine to help me on my way to slumbers. Or a massage, but I know I'm not getting that tonight. *sigh*

Rain thunder lightning.

Yes. I'll be turning the computer off as soon as I post this.

I gotta get ready to pick up Sandy at the airport tonight. Her car is still in the shop and husband Charlie's truck isn't starting.

The weather forecast says rain in store for Atlanta for the entire week. I fear I won't be able to view the total lunar eclipse tomorrow night. I had creatively envisioned how nice it would be to spend the evening on a rooftop somewhere looking up at the slowly disappearing moon in the sky.

Unexpected pleasant events: Last night the folks at work invited me to join them for dinner at Fronteria. Ended up being a fun evening. This morning my boss came in bringing me coffee and Krispy Kreme donuts.

Why can't they make Listerine breath strips with vasopressin?

My teeth ache today. All of them. Why?