that annually repetitive meme

...maybe the test should be if you can catch me pulling a John Kerry. you know, "flip flopping." from year to year, i mean. thanks to amanda for sending this along. a more point-ful post to follow.

Welcome to the 2008 edition of getting to know your friends. Change all the answers so they apply to you, and then forward this to your friends including the person who sent it to you. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends that you might not have known!

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:00AM

2. Diamonds or pearls? both. not together.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? ur. oh, egads: 10,000 B.C. yes, we laughed so hard we cried. there was groaning, too. audience-wide groaning.

4. What is your favorite TV show? currently don't have one. in the past, it's been the Biggest Loser, but i think that's run its course for me.

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? whatever's around.

6. What is your middle name? haven't one.

7. What food do you dislike? sea cucumbers.

8. What is your favorite CD at moment? haven't one. i think the one leslie gave to me last year is still really good. it's a compilation.

9. What kind of car do you drive? still jim's PT cruiser.

10. Favorite Sandwich ? boar's head roast beast; horseradish sauce; rye bread or sourdough, cheddar, lettuce, tomato.

11. What characteristic do you despise? ignorance

12. Favorite item of clothing? at the moment, my green horny toad skirt.

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? on vacation? someplace i haven't been yet that had friends in it.

14. Favorite brand of clothing? theory.

15. Where would you retire? dunno yet.

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? 27. or 30.

17. Favorite sport to watch? baseball. with friends. live.

18. Farthest place you are sending this? i think someone in taiwan reads this blog.

21. Are you a morning person or a night person? both.

22. What is your shoe size? 8.5. i need a good pair of oxfords/loafers to wear with my jeans in the winter, in case anyone has a pair lying about.

23. Pets? amanda has a crab!!! i have a dog. i'd like a hedgehog.

24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? no. i am crabby today.

25. What did you want to be when you were little? a writer

26. What are you today? a little less spastic.

27. What is your favorite candy? swedish fish. ditto, amanda.

28. What is your favorite flower? dunno. but i really don't like hydrangeas very much.

29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? tomorrow. ditto again.

30. What is your full name? Y1 Shun La1.

31. What are you listening to right now? birds chirping.

32. What is the last thing you ate? a caramel candy.

33. Do you wish on stars? no.

34. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? red?

35. How is the weather right now? hot, humid, sunny.

36. Last person you spoke to on the phone? jim, i think.

37. Favorite soft drink? club soda.

38. Favorite restaurant? don't have one yet, but Violet on Southport is running a good race for it.

39. Hair color? black

40. What was your favorite toy as a child? an ernie doll, and then lop-sided-bottom bear.

41. Summer or winter? winter.

42. Hugs or kisses? hugs

43. Chocolate or Vanilla? vanilla.

44. Coffee or tea? coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon.

45. Do you want your friends to email you back? it's only polite.

46. When was the last time you cried? this morning. something on TV. oh, the end of that silly Adam Sandler movie, Click. no one ever said i was discriminating in my weepage.

47. What is under your bed? maps.

48. What did you do last night? ran with my running group, had two beers, was shunned by the CARA organizers. lovely!

50. What are you afraid of? something terrible happening to someone i care about. sharks.

51. Salty or sweet? eee-ther, eye-ther.

52. How many keys on your key ring? 3.

53. How many years at your current job? over a decade and a half!

54. Favorite day of the week? every day!

55. How many towns have you lived in? can't count. too crabby to.

56. Do you make friends easily? i make acquaintances easily.

60. Who sent this email to you? amanda!

uh

fast forward to 2:30 or so.
and put in yer earplugs. the women in this video are ri-donk-donk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXjPQYgT25Q

pop quiz

what does yi shun do when she has to write a presentation, clean the house, proof a short story, and pick up her brother at the airport all in the next four hours?

A. knuckle down and get to work
B. randomly chat up friends online
C. make a list
D. check for dustbunnies in the corners
E. write blog entries.

got your answer? got it? okay...



ready?...



ah ha!!! it was a TRICK QUESTION! you thought the answer was going to be "E," didn't you? wrong! wrong! the answer is EVERYTHING BUT A.


smart.



this is why i went to college. that, and without college, i may not have met such stunning paragons of friendship as these. (from janey's camera, but one year late.)

argh agh klabble flabble

mmhmmm. that's about all i'm capable of at this point in the morning.
it's 9:25, i've been up since 6:30 ("working," ostensibly, although i doubt that the strict definition of work does not involve the watching of this video over and over again), and i am but a wee step further than i was yesterday in my search for the origins of the fountain pen.
in fact, i am, as we speak, downloading the patent from the U.S. Patent Office for said writing instrument. yes, yes, it's an assignment. i've had over a month to work on it and i've gotten exactly nowhere.
next on the list is brassieres and suspenders. yes, i created this list for myself. why didn't i pick less obscure items? i mean, i love digging for the origins of things, but this is ridiculous. i mean, did you know that the origins of the chocolate truffle are virtually indiscernible?
it probably ought to be said that the other writers are probably not approaching this project with the same technique i am. i went immediately in search of experts to whom i could speak on the phone. most people, i bet, went straight to the library, which i finally did yesterday.
let it be said that one major disadvantage of living in a city is that the branch libraries tend to be not as well equipped. i grew up in a college town, where our community library, while small, had just about everything a schoolkid could want. and if i couldn't find it there, all i had to do was wander up the street to the university library.
at some point this weekend, by contrast, i will have to meander downtown to the harold washington library to suss out the origins of suspenders and brassieres. the information, alas, is deemed too racy, it seems, for the lincoln-belmont branch of the chicago public library. hmph.
sprocket seems at a loss, by the way. i've moved my workstation to the dining room table temporarily, while i transfer everything from my desktop to my macbook, which i'm now going to use for my permanent workstation. consequently, sprocket's customary spot, in his papasan chair by my desk, has gone unused since i've taken over the dining room. it seems he prefers to be closer than one whole room away.

some late immdiate impressions

1. once you've had good coffee from a good machine complete with frothy milk for four days straight, drip coffee seems woefully, desperately lacking, even if the pretty machine is from your much loved boyfriend.

2. a city with a two permanent spaces dedicated to fashion history and culture is completely worth visiting again and again, and most likely worth living in.

3. three days straight of art exhibits is still not enough.

4. "art" seems less visual, more experiential, these days. i'm not sure i like the shift, but paddling about on a rooftop and bobbing about on a plastic bubble were great fun.

5. everything, from riding your bike to failing miserably at a triathlon, is better with friends coffee is better with two! snorting at pretentious art is better with two! faffing about on your computer is better than two! even owning up to your own desperate blondness is better than two!!!

6. keeping up with twitter is almost pointless when there is so much in your day to relay. 140 characters is just little room to relay anythin...

7. it is really hard to concentrate when your hound is resting his chin on your lap, wanting to be let out.

8. coming home to two deadlines really really sucks.

9. it's pretty amazing, how easily you can fall into a routine with someone.

10. making new friends on a trip completes it.

and now, some photos.

here are me, emily, dan, and sioned (all serpentine triathlon club members) on the beach after the race, hunting for dinner.



and here are me and lara pre-race.



right, then. to work!

mechanical failure; stopped triathlon short.
kinda broken up over it; lots of thinking about Why I Race; general processing of thought and pissiness over incredibly bad luck.
making it through to the next round of ShelterBox interviews tempers the poopiness somewhat. also, long mindless-yet-charming drive through cornwall and returning to friendly london flat, good conversation and waiting glass of red...very soothing.
not so good: finding out that literary journal has butchered your latest short story and wants you to "sign off" on the changes so they can go to press.
hmmm. an angry e-mail is brewing.

bollocks!...

...that's me, practicing my British. mmhmmm. let it not be said that the Brits are always so polite. clearly, they're not, when schooling Americans on our untoward pronunciations of words.
it's been incredible to be back. there's obviously something inherently terrific about being in a foreign country, far away from all of your cares and work and duties, but coming to spend time with friends and do normal city-things: grocery shopping, the odd art gallery, meeting other friends for dinner and drinks and such--that is really lovely.
i mentioned to lara this morning that it was so terrific to be here, but that it only just occured to me this morning after over 24 hours here that i really ought to remember better that i'm in london, a good quarter-world away from where i usually am, and that i ought to take advantage of the situation. she noted that i was, after all, here for the race. after some thought, the reality is that i've lived in two major cities and already visited a great many other, including this one, and when you've seen them one, you've pretty much seen them all.
therefore, i'm left with feeling that really, the reason for being here is not to experience the different places, but the people in those places, particularly those friends that are few and far in between, and as i'm doing that to the full, i can count this a trip well spent, even if i don't make it to the V&A this time.
i've often thought that the best way to see a place, anyway, is through either a sporting event or even just a sport, so if i managed to play a game of pickup volleyball in new york, or pickup soccer--sAHrry, futball--here in london, i'd be well within my limits to call it a trip well spent. as it is, i've gone swimming in the serpentine already TWICE, and there's obviously plenty of other athletic adventures to be had while i'm' here in britain, so i can rest easy that i'll be making the absolute most of this trip anyway.
not that that was ever a worry.
lara's new place in montagu square is absolutely gorgeous. there is a ton of light, which makes the most of her inherently good taste in arrangement and furniture. it's been nice to spend time with miles and jody, as well, who were very very small when i saw them last. seeing roj is always a good time--part of me always wonders what to say to husbands of friends during dinner or whatever, but it never turns out to be a worry when the people around that table are smart and have things to say and experiences to relay.
saw mark hudson today for dinner and drinks, and finally finally met ilyana, his girfriend of 12 long years. it's always a bittersweet meeting with mark--we were pen pals in college, and when we see each other it's always with the underscored point that we're too far away to actually see each other on a regular basis. there is always a ton to say and do, and getting to know a whole new person is always nice.
so. two days until race start. mmhmmmm.