Wednesday, May 30, 2007

The Gender Police

On our way back from taking the boy to meet up with Omi & Opa this weekend (we were treated to a couple of days of just-us time for our fourth anniversary... thanks mom!), we decided to do some shopping for an upcoming black-tie event.

Passing through the behemoth "factory outlets" we decided to bop around in case there were anything appropriate. While browsing in a clothing section of a Puma shop (i remember when they sold shoes, don't you?) a over-smiling cheerleader-barbie-esque staffmember approached.

o-s c-b-e s: "You guys shopping for someone else?"

us: "Not particularly."

o-s c-b-e s (condescendingly): "Just shopping in the women's section?" blahblahblah, saleprice, blahblahblah.

Busted! The gender police totally nailed us for looking in the "wrong" section. It gave us a good laugh and made sure we wouldn't foolishly give any money to this person's employer on overpriced crap shipped here from overseas (even if it was cute).

Sunday, May 20, 2007

mad max-y

There's a caravan moving through crowded streets at high speed, the people lining the streets are mostly bystanders with no ill intent, but parts of the milling hordes are in league with the party in pursuit of the caravan. The dream includes ninja-esque combatants in powered armor. The scene appears to have been directed by Michael Bay. It's a conglomeration of scenes from Blackhawk Down, the Island, and the Grapes of Wrath.

The salient plot point comes with a closeup of an individual scout wading into the crowd and eliminating anyone that seemed like a threat, using split-second judgement calls that seemed very unlikely to have any accuracy. Every so often, passing similar groups of people, the scout kills clusters of five or six, leaving one or two alive, with apparently nothing indicating why some died and others lived. Hello, modern warfare.

This contrasted strongly with the scene in Grapes in which the committeemen organize a quashing of riot-inciters sent in by anti-labor groups, which was highly selective, and marginally violent: "If you gotta sock 'em, sock 'em where they ain't going to bleed."

Friday, May 18, 2007

crushes, milton bradley, and a sheriff

Last night's dream found me getting involved with a crush i've had for a while... this probably could have filled an entire dream, but in this case was merely the beginning of a truly bizarre series of events.

After staying the night at said crush's place, I went to an A's game. Home plate, and the batter's box, was up in the stands, and a woman next to me was ecstatically cheering on one of the players, Milton Bradley (i think that's an actual player). He called time, stepped from the box, and looked around for the source of the incredibly loud, screechy noise, looking enraged. He marched toward the woman, and i stood up next to her to try and help him understand that she was cheering for him. I failed, or he didn't care, or something else, and he punched her really hard in the stomach.

I took him into custody, citizen's arrest style, and marched him out of the park and to a sheriff.

End of weird part 1, segue to weird part 2:
The sheriff and i (why am i with him? i have no idea) arrive at Milton's house, only instead of being a big baseball player dude, it's the guy who plays Sylar, and he's threatening to do himself harm... until i show concern for him, when both he and the sheriff start canoodling and carrying on. It turns out, they're boyfriends, and the tell me how i'm done for. So i take off, and bicycle away, as they throw spinny-blade things which i dodge on my way out... down through some streets and bikepaths/greenways i remember from Portland. My recollection of the dream ends with me trying to get past a big group of little kids on bikes who are having a great time, and seem creepily oblivious to the peril i flee.

I woke up with the familiar feeling of dread that always comes when i reflect on ceasing to exist, because that seemed to be where the dream was headed... children are oblivious to this (at least, most of them are) and seem much happier for it. The fruit of knowledge totally sucks.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Diverticulitis

My mom has an annoying, though easily controlled, condition. Armed with knowledge and proper diet, she'll be completely fine. If never eating raspberries again can be considered "fine."

Without antibiotics, she'd be gone now. Thanks, western medicine! You made mother's day possible for me this year.

possible worlds

Some physicists think that there are many possible worlds: that at every juncture ever faced, the universe splits to allow for every possible variation. Assuming this idea has any validity, there are at least three worlds now that i am glad to not exist in. The first world split when there was a chance Antonio had suffered some venomous bite that would take him away from me. The second world split when there was a chance my mom had some kind of incurable pancreatitis. And the third world split when i fell out of a tree Saturday, narrowly avoiding serious injury at the hands of several sharp corners raised from the ground i fell on.

We're all living on borrowed time, so let's do the best we can, ok?

Friday, May 11, 2007

Hospitals

Last night A-train freaked me and Andy the f out. He started crying inconsolably, clutching at his left foot, and then switching to his left forearm, which has a little bugbite on it. I had noticed it a day earlier, but just thought it a mosquito bite, but it had become more swollen, and in the context of inconsolable crying i suspected a venomous spider bite, and we made our way to the ER with haste.

Two blocks from the ER, Antonio is babbling happily about the trees and cars and various other things. No sign of pain at all. No discomfort upon re-inspection of the bite, or his foot, or anything. Just mild crankiness from not eating (as we hadn't had dinner yet). I opted out of visiting the ER with a (now) happy toddler, and went home, where he proceeded to have a mellow evening with me.

This morning, my stepdad calls me to tell me my mom is in the hospital, after being nauseated all night. She's so dehydrated that when they drew blood, it came out black. She has such extreme pain that whatever they're giving her IV is having no effect, and she seems to be suffering more pain as time goes on. They've done a first set of abdominal x-rays, but have found nothing yet. They suspect pancreatitis, which is dreadful, but survivable. I can only hope that it's nothing chronic or fatal, and that we can make it up there relatively quickly.

I have a strong dislike for hospitals, but the past seventeen hours makes me glad that both we and my folks live relatively near to them.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Bike-to-work challenge

Pixar is a very bike-friendly place: we have three teams of five competing in a "bike-to-work" competition, where individuals get points for every day a bike is used for transportation purposes. The competition runs the entire month of May, and my goal is to ride for a point every day this month. So far, so good. I've even broken my fear-of-rain this week past, and managed to make a store trip yesterday and a trip (combined with bart) out to Walnut Creek today.

My big challenge will happen next weekend, when we're slated to visit my mom in the decidedly bike-unfriendly rural area around Placerville. Getting the mail (2 miles from their house) could count for saturday, but i'm not sure what i'm going to do Sunday, unless i can get home and make a grocery trip to the store before midnight.

Go Team Red's Dream!