The Future Is Now

Earlier in the month, I alluded to a future (and potentially weird) post about sex, violence, and hamsters. What I'm actually referring to is a bizarre anime show called Ebichu The Housekeeping Hamster. E stumbled across the show on the internet and I wound up with a dvd containing most, if not all, of the episodes. I'm frequently fascinated by Japanese pop culture, especially when it has to do with hamsters.

At first I was disturbed, but now am mostly just amused at the snarky little hamster, who in one episode is a sexual psychic with a pizza delivery business who can tell a person's sexual proclivities by what they order. In another episode, Ebichu gets in trouble for washing her master's panties incorrectly. I haven't watched all of the shows yet, but my favorite may be when Ebichu and a friend protest the low price of hamsters at a pet store. So random.

Not only is there a lot of innuendo and sex, but a bit of violence too. Ebichu gets the shit kicked out of her quite often. When she "messes up," her master throws her against the wall and she slides down into a bloody heap. This of course bothers me a bit.

On a different note, the theme song is quite catchy and one episode is called "The Camembert Cheese Incident." Oh yeah.

Here's To Better Health

In case you're new around here, I was really sick for most of the month of July. I think that was the kick in the ass I needed to get back in shape. I've really let myself go by eating like crap, not exercising, and subsequently weighing more than I ever have in my life. It can't be good for my immune system. Last week, I went back to Weight Watchers. Yes, back. I did the program several years ago and lost more than 50 pounds. I just didn't maintain it. I didn't realize that I had to keep doing it (duh!), so here I am, in worse shape than ever, and starting over. At least I can start over and that's what I've done.

My first week was pretty successful and I'm already feeling a little better. So many things are chaotic in my life right now and I feel like what I to eat and how much I exercise are definitely things I can control. I don't plan on turning this into a 'monitor my weight loss' blog, but if I politely refuse to eat certain things, you'll know why. That's the beauty of Weight Watchers though...I can eat (or drink) anything I want, as long as I account for it.

*Wow, this post isn't very snarky or dorky. I'll try to do better.

Good Things

I've certainly had a weekend full of distractions from my previous week-from-hell at work. I'd be lying if I said things were 100% perfect over that past few days, but isn't that life? Among some expected unpleasantness, there were many, many good things.

E and I enjoyed the annual Tchaikovsky Spectacular at the Hollywood Bowl on Friday night. I always enjoy the program as I am pretty ignorant about most classical music, but do recognize quite a bit of Tchaikovsky's pieces. Every year, the evening ends with the orchestra playing his 1812 Overture, accompanied by the USC Trojan Marching Band, and some glorious fireworks. If you are in or near L.A. and haven't seen a pyrotechnics show at the Bowl, I recommend it.

I had planned on getting an early start on Saturday and possibly checking out this month's Felt Club with a friend. That didn't quite work out, mostly because I was feeling very ill from an antibiotic I'm currently taking.* E and I did stop by the craft fair, very briefly, much later in the day. I was distracted by another objective though, which was to find out if Meltdown would consider my book for its self-published section. Much to my surprise, the buyer took a quick look and said he'd buy three copies from me. I got really excited and subsequently turned off my brain. Only after E and I did some calculating, did I realize that I'd actually paid the store a small fee to sell Hamster Haiku. Oh well...my book is for sale at Meltdown!!!

After leaving Meltdown, we took a quick detour down to Melrose for a quick slice at Albano's, our favorite place for pizza in L.A. Luckily, it agreed with my troubled gut.

We'd purchased tickets in advance for Miranda July's show at the Steve Allen Theater for Saturday night. It was a fun and very interactive show. In fact, E and I were picked near the beginning of the show to participate (one of my worst nightmares!) and it actually turned out okay. Our selection was based on us being the couple in the audience who had been together the longest. We were whisked out of the theater, given ill-fitting shirts to put on over our clothes, and brought on stage with Miranda where we answered questions about how we met. Her assistants then led us to the backstage area where there was a bed. They instructed us to lie in various positions (spooning, back-to-back, etc) with our eyes closed. There was a video camera above us and we were being broadcast onto a screen onstage while Miranda told a story relating to us (we were 'Donny' and 'Fiona'). Back in our seats, we enjoyed the rest of the multimedia program, which continued to tell Donny and Fiona's story. The groovy thing was that at the very end, Miranda wrapped up the story by bringing it around to our story, complete with details we had shared while up on stage. Initially, when we were chosen to participate, I was mortified, but it ended up being very cool. We even chatted with Miranda briefly afterwards and she seemed quite pleased with our "performance." Apparently, several people thought we were actors who were just part of the show.

After the theater event, we ended up going to a low-key party to see a friend of ours who lives in England, but was in town visiting family. It was good to catch up, not only with her, but with some of her other friends that we haven't seen since she moved.

I slept in later than planned on Sunday. I did manage to get up and take care of some chores and errands. It was a beautiful, cloudless day, but we didn't make it outside until nearly 5pm. We did take a nice walk around the neighborhood though for about an hour-and-a-half. Then we hopped in the car and went to Asssscat, a free improv show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Even though E and I were, by far, two of the oldest people in the mostly college-age crowd, it was a good time with lots of laughs.

Yes, I'm tired and up late again, but I am off from work Monday. Another good thing.

*Part of me my** hellish week was contracting some random infection in one of my fingers, which continued swelling and being quite painful.

**What the hell? I've turned into a pirate or a leprechaun!