just a quick entry today, because i have lots of things to do. for instance, i have to take down my christmas tree. i don't particularly want to, because it's still green, and i paid 25 bucks for it! at $25 for a three-foot tree, it should have carried itself up my stairs and into the tree stand, and it should carry itself back out. but the holiday season is well and truly over, and garbage pickup is tomorrow, so i really do need to get it done.

i also have to go to target, because i am out of EVERYTHING. i will never understand this phenomenon. i didn't buy everything at the same time, and everything has a different lifespan, to be sure==i just finished up the same bottle of dish detergent that i bought back in september, when my apartment was new, but i've gone through at least three bottles of shampoo since then. and yet, they've run out in the same week. not to mention i'm out of bathtub spray and all-purpose kitchen spray, too. oh, and laundry detergent, but i'm holding off on that til next pay, because i'm taking my laundry to my parents' house next weekend in true adult-child fashion. and while i'm yammering on about cleaning products, i'm going to tell you what i use. because this is my diary, and i can. and because i've decided to name myself as an apostle of the method brand of cleaners. i tell people about them every chance i get. they're a tiny company based in san francisco that makes environmentally responsible and animal-friendly cleaning products. oh, and they WORK. they work better than anything i've ever used, EVER, and they smell good while they're doing it. they don't use any harsh chemicals, they use essential oils and other naturally-derived ingredients, and everything is super-concentrated. my absolute favorite is their laundry detergent, because i can carry two tiny bottles into the laundromat instead of lugging around a giant jug of tide, which is mostly water in the first place. and since i'm usually carrying two enormous bags of laundry, it's a blessing. and the writing on the bottles sounds like it's been written by people who keep snarky diaries somewhere, and the bottles themselves are designed by famous packaging experts so they look nice, too. oh, and did i mention that target, in their quest for carrying All Good Things, carries very nearly the full line of method products? because they do. and i swear, i do not get paid to represent these people, i just really really love them.

i should have done most of this yesterday, but i wasn't up to it. why? well, it's a silly story, actually...i get a free membership to the YMCA, since i work for them. so i went to the gym friday night with some of the girls from work. it's a nice gym--there's a pool, a weight room, every kind of cardio machine i could possibly want, and a sauna. and really, i've missed weight training. i like lifting; i like feeling strong and toned and like i could kick someone's ass if i needed to. and i'd like to start being less winded after carrying things up my stairs. so i woke up yesterday morning with the predictable result. PAIN. ok yeah i'm sore pretty much everywhere, but i think i inflamed my shoulder somehow because i woke up feeling like someone was stabbing me in the shoulder, with a knife made of fire. lots of advil and heating pads and whatnot, i can move again today, but yesterday mostly consisted of gritting my teeth and trying not to vomit from the pain. that, and doing laundry. which was total hell with the whole shoulder pain thing, of course--lifting a bag of laundry into my trunk, dragging it into the 'mat, and then of course it's saturday so the place is packed and there's nowhere to sit down and i've already seen all these episodes of jimmy neutron but at least i can stand with my back to the dryer, that's one good thing. and then dragging the bag back out to my car, and then of course there's no parking in front of my apartment, of course i have to park around the corner and then try to carry the bag back down the block, which is an obstacle course of uneven cement and cars sticking out of their driveways and ice in the potholes. and then there's the climb up two flights with the laundry bag. see, going down, i can just kick it down the stairs. it sounds like a dead body, and it would take out anyone who gets in the way, but at least it's easier letting gravity do the work for me. the way upstairs is harder. god, i'm such a whiny baby.

ok so i actually wanted to write to talk about how i'm suddenly obsessed with my sitemeter. i've been running banner ads, so people have actually been coming in occasionally by clicking them. and since i'm slightly obsessive that way, i've been looking. i like to look anyway to see if i can find funny google moments (i had one recently for "snorting ginseng." i am pleased to announce that i was not only the first result, but the only result). but what i've discovered is that i can view my hits by world map. so i can see where people are visiting from. this has spawned something of a contest with chiv, since he has one as well. in the past few weeks, i've had hits from australia, finland, maylasia, the united arab emirates, pakistan, israel, turkey, and shanghai china. so if any of those people are back reading this, hi! thanks for stopping by here! what i've discovered isn't terribly surprising otherwise. most of my visits come from north america and europe, while i'm utterly non-visited by south america and africa. but really, how cool is it that people from as far away as shanghai, or as diverse as israel and pakistan, are stopping by here? it makes me hope they've found what they're looking for. it also kind of makes me want to be some sort of diaryland cultural ambassador, of the "hello, not all americans are idiots, i swear" variety, which probably isn't helped much by the ridiculous self-absorbed post whining about my sore muscles from voluntary exercise and gushing over cleaning products when there are people who would love sore muscles from something other than hard labor and physical trauma, and who would rather have clean water than cleaning products. and really, when you look at your culture from the outside everything really does start to look rather silly. so ok, many if not most americans are selfish idiots, but some of us are trying harder not to be, ok?

ok i really need to do something today that doesn't involve sitting on my ass in front of this glowing box while drinking orange soda and wearing a heating pad. next time, more on teaching inner city kids how to write poetry, and less whining about how i hurt.

happy sunday,
beatpoetgrrl

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