Sastre impostor

My friend Adame has a very unusual name in Spain, much less in the United States. How to explain, then, his name scrawled in the sidewalk next to a pay phone on Durant Ave. in Berkeley?

SJB x 30

Click on the photo above to enjoy a visual tour through my 30th birthday extravaganza...

Lemon-Lyman-Bolten

Quick question: Is there any chance that G.W. picked Joshua Bolten as his new Chief of Staff because he's an avid West Wing watcher, and president-elect Matt Santos just picked Joshua Lyman as his new Chief of Staff? Maybe Bush, too, is living the alternate reality of the Bartlett administration, thinking: "Yeah, a Chief of Staff named Josh. Who do I know named Josh? It'd be like my own reality t.v. show!"

What else is Bush likely to steal from the Bartlett administration? Does he have M.S.? Is one of his daughters a nerdy scientist who's getting married to another nerdy scientist even though she's a lesbian? After Iran, is he primed to invade Kazakhstan? Is he an economist in disguise? Is Rove being "reassigned" because Toby's off the show? Is he, too, mesmerized by Mary-Louise Parker? I think there could be a vast right-wing conspiracy here, and someone needs to alert Aaron Sorkin to the theft of his intellectual property.

The things I'm doing when I should be working

When I actually get down to the business of writing my dissertation, which is currently in its final stages (for those of you keeping score at home), I need lots of distraction. After every paragraph, I'm off surfing the Internet, reading blogs, watching random YouTube videos, you name it. Here are a few of my latest distractions:

5ives - These are hilarious and wierd lists of 5 things. You could read them for days...

Quakes! - Sometimes I'm sitting at my desk when I feel the earth move and I think: Was that an earthquake? Now that I've found this site, I can immediately check and usually confirm -- yes, that was an earthquake, centered in Walnut Creek and a measely 2.6 on the Richter scale. Back to work.

WERN - The Bay Area has a seriously sucky classical music station that plays top 40 Beethoven hits and then interrupts them every 5 minutes for 10 minutes of inane commercials (not even regular commercials -- they're always ads for diamond rings and timeshare condos). Madison, on the other hand, has a great classical music and NPR station, and now that I've finally figured out how to listen to it over the Internet, I'll be writing with a lovely soundtrack punctuated by weather reports from Wausau, Osseo and Superior.

Michellepedia - This woman who writes the Online Shopper column for the New York Times sometimes has crazy tips about hemming jeans or how to get her kids into college, and the stuff that doesn't fit in her column she puts in her blog. Hit or miss, but for some reason I keep reading it.

TV without Pity - First I read what all the nerds on the blog are saying about the latest "How I Met Your Mother" episode; then I delve into the Josh and Donna "West Wing" thread; then I read the snarky summary of the latest episode of "The O.C." (beats actually watching it); then it's an hour later and I really need to get back to work on my dissertation...

When you're 30...

. . . you get the biggest cocktail in the room!

Yeesss! Disgraced High Five!!

This image of Tom Delay high-fiving his way out of office in today's New York Times has an eerie similarity to a photo taken of me in Seattle in February. But, let's see here, what are the differences between me and Tom?

• I don't take bribes from lobbyists, especially not moron lobbyists who send emails to each other about how awesome they are at swindling people.
• I don't feel the need to fraudulently redistrict my neighborhood so me and my friends can win elections.
• I haven't become a crazed warlord, reigning over my feeble adversaries with a combination of corruption, lies and threats of a "whoopin.'"
  
• If you look closely, you'll see the shame and disgrace of Congress and the Republicans on Delay's hand; I've got fudge on mine.

Rainy Days and Mondays

It has been raining for over a month. I am thinking of growing banana plants in the trunk of my car. Every attempt to gel my hair into submission results in chaos and curl anarchy minutes later. The dog is unclean, and it seems like giving her a bath would be as futile as washing the car. A trip to scenic Yountville proved that there is nothing to do in scenic Yountville when it's raining. My apartment smells. I'm sick of my sweaters. The streets never drain. Puddles are always much deeper than you think they're going to be. Springing forward only resulted in one more hour of rain. The sidewalks are littered with snail remains. The only thing to do on a Sunday is watch three episodes of "Buffy" and complain about the rain. Even my blog suffers, enduring the embarrassment of a post entitled with a Carpenter's song. Woe is me.