Had a nice long weekend before the start of school tomorrow. I forsee these next few months being extremely busy, as I have also been given overtime projects to work on at home, so it has been making for some long days. But I enjoy doing it - trademark-related stuff which I am finding quite interesting.


Today I tried acupuncture and cupping for the first time. The acupuncture definitely hurt in some places; in other places I couldn't even tell she had done anything. The practitioner said the needles hurt in the places where you have the most energy blockages: for me this was in my lungs (makes sense as I've had the flu and been congested for three weeks), my liver, and spleen. She needled my back up then left me alone for 20 minutes. After the first ten minutes I started to feel dizzy and like I was falling off the table. Apparently this my stagnant energy starting to flow. It subsided and I then became extremely relaxed.

She took the needles out and then did the cupping. In a word: unpleasant. She only left them on for five minutes, luckily, and I didn't bruise much, so I guess I didn't have much stagnant blood sitting around. Then she gave me a killer massage, and by "killer" I mean it hurt like hell, particularly my shoulders, and specifically my right shoulder, which, interstingly, was the only spot I bruised in from the cupping. I'm convinced this is because of my desk job where I am constantly typing and mousing with my right hand.

Anyway, I left feeling extremely relaxed, and I'd like to go back and have her work on my shoulders more so all my typing tension (and tension in general) doesn't get out of hand.

Saw Sideways, which I really enjoyed. The two guys made a good duo - good casting on that one. Paul Giamatti is amazingly expressive; Miles' depression just oozed off the screen and enveloped me. It makes me think back to Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation and what a crappy job she did conveying her misery. Watching her performance I just had no idea what her problem was. I was overall annoyed by that movie anyway, but that's another story.

So of course we left Sideways and promptly headed to our local wine merchant.I asked the guy how many people had been leaving Sideways and then coming in and asking for Pinot Noir and he said "oh god....SOOOO many." They were actually having a tasting of a Pinot Noir, which I didn't like so we got some other red, which now I don't remember what it was. Great story, um, ok, moving on...

Did anyone see Madonna singing "Imagine" on that tsunami celebrity telethon thing? I was stunned at how atrocious she sounded. Good god it was painful. Man does she owe William Orbit big time.

In exciting news, G and I have booked a trip to Paris, in March during my spring break! Holy crow I cannot wait. I've been studying my French phrase book and I'm amazed at what's coming back to me from high school. I can't remember a damn thing from Italian, which I took in college. Probably because I was obsessed with X-Files at the time and all I cared about learning was "special agent," "believe," "the truth is out there," and "flying saucer." And from that all I remember is flying saucer: "disco volante."

Anyway, I'm so excited and anxiously awaiting my new passport in the mail, which the USPS better not fuck up. I'm a little worried about getting it since I received a totally mangled package from a friend in the U.K. Actually, it wasn't even a package: it was a friggin' copy of Environmental Fluid Mechanics journal with her address label stuck sideways on the front! This is NOT what she sent me, needless to say. She thinks it was the Royal Mail's fault. I hope so.

While clicking around Expedia for activities to book on our trip, I came across this Paris Segway Tour. Ha! Those pictures are hilarious. I could just see myself crashing into the glass entrace of the Louvre.

And while reading about Paris on Frommer's, I decided to see what they had to say about "Playing it Safe" in New York City. A couple friends and I actually had someone fall down in front of us totally out of the blue, but I don't think it was part of a scam. None of us got pickpocketed or anything. This kind of heavyset woman was hobbling toward us with a cane, when all of a sudden she literally threw her cane down and then collapsed to the sidewalk in a big wobbly heap. One of my friends rushed over and helped her up. She seemed totally fine and just got up and hobbled away.