on shaving in small spaces

the shower in my new place is tiny, like dorm-bathroom tiny. it is WEE. there's no tub, and the shower itself is so small that i barely have room to rotate, much less shave my legs.

as i contorted myself tonight, i noticed myelf employing various yoga poses in an awkward attempt to make myself all smooth and pretty-like. there's this one move where you stand on one leg and put your other foot by your knee -- i have no idea what it's called, and in the end result you look like an epileptic crane, so i'll call it the epileptic crane -- and that's pretty much the only way the back of my knee is touching razor. other showertime-yoga favorites are the trapped bear and the bleeding swan.

it's uncanny

mural, originally uploaded by brookage.

side-by-side comparison of butthead and andrew jackson as seen on a mural in our office

i'm missing out on nachos

it's 12:43 a.m. on what is now technically a sunday, and i am not at a bar. i am at my desk, in my tiny terrarium-office, and i am waiting for the press to run.

this has pretty much been the story of my last six months. luckily for all involved (including you, gentle reader), mama is about to get a brand new bag in the form of a brand new schedule. due to an ever-fluctuating staff (and my general awesomeness), i now get to design pretty lifestyle pages. this is good for a panoply of reasons -- who doesn't love pretty things, right? -- a major one of which is the upcoming schedule change. no longer will i toil crazy late hours. no longer will my weekend fall on sundays and mondays. no longer will my social life consist mainly of tivo and reading material! i'm beyond thrilled, as you can probably tell by the exclamation point. i am not a woman who toys idly with punctuation.

i also moved this past week (third time in a year. i'm beyond thrilled, so far beyond it that i somehow circled back to annoyance). mama and i worked on making the new digs cozy, and after a day's worth of paint and a couple trips to ikea, i think this is the beginning of a beautiful tenantship. it's a tiny basement apartment in a house in va-hi, and for the first time ever i live by myself. i worry about getting lonely, but hopefully kickball and volunteering and freelance will keep me plenty busy.

the bad side of moving all the damn time: mama is broke. (i've started to refer to myself in third person as 'mama' all the time. it's becoming a problem.) so no fun in the immediate future where money's concerned.

so while i may be broke and stuck at work on a perfectly lovely saturday night, every cloud has a silver lining. my silver lining at the moment is the summer kickball league.

country roads, take me home

am stuck in leesburg until tomorrow for sister's graduation. rode down in station wagon with grandparents. grandmother kept yelling for grandfather to stop at roadside stands so she could buy tomatoes. grandmother was repeatedly denied. i tried to drown them out with the new charlotte gainsbourg album (it's fabulous and you must own it).

rue!

rue!, originally uploaded by brookage.

we got a free copy of rue mcclanahan's autobiography, "my first five husbands and the ones who got away," at my paper a few weeks ago, and i ripped through it in record time.

rue, as i like to call her, is best known as blanche from 'the golden girls," and she has had a lot of sex. as of page 87, she'd already had more sex than i will ever have in my entire life.

upon my sparkling recommendation, rue's book has become required reading for females on the copy desk. she was in atlanta tonight for a book signing, so a couple friends (and one very patient fiance) and i went to look upon the face of a woman who taught us all that it's better late than pregnant.

the line was pretty long (most rue disciples were gay men. i think her legions of fans should be called rue-fies), but a small-screen legend awaited us at the end. i told her that i liked the book (i did, actually, it was a fun, scandalous read), and she seemed surprised. i think she was just intimidated (thanks, karen) by my massive rack.

william miles grem

william miles grem, originally uploaded by brookage.

behold! it is the progeny of darren and jenna, and lo, the lord was pleased. wmg is the first of what i'm sure will be many babies born to friends of mine.

but you never forget your first time, folks. look upon him and know cuteness. and do check out the knitted cap (handmade, i'm guessing).

the fighting scooter libbys never say die

i am sad to report that my kickball team, the fighting scooter libbys, did not win their first game. we lost 5-6 to nkotb. it started raining before the game even started, and because of that I had to take off my glasses, so i was blind, cold, wet and, upon sprinting from second base to home to score one of our first runs, extremely winded.

despite these hardships, i think everyone had a good time. we will play this sunday at noon at field 4 in piedmont park. as i told the team in my weekly inspirational e-mail:

our narrow loss -- by one point! in the pouring rain! with no beer! -- is nothing to be upset about. trust me. i lose a lot, and i know when to get upset and when to let the failure wash over me so that i may rise, phoenix-like, to win another day.

i also went to a benefit called baconfest this weekend. all proceeds went to dad's garage, and i was luckily able to convince fowler to go with me, because i knew next to no one. it's still jarring to come from athens, where i knew everyone and their junkman's daughter's brother, to atlanta, where i work at night and barely see people i know anyway, much less make new friends.

an improv show followed the bacon+beer+bands. every time i see improv -- even bad improv, which this definitely wasn't -- i'm reminded of how fun it is. i really miss making an ass of myself for the amusement of others.

which brings me to another item of note. remember how you told me i was the funniest bitch you knew? no, not that time. the other time. well, you were right. i found out last week that i won first place in the georgia press association's humorous column competition. this is awesome, because it means i am retroactively hilarious. i've thought about going through my old news stories to make sure i wasn't cloaking any morsels of hilarity within tired prose about bostwick's possible subdivison regulations that they might talk about maybe thinking about getting some time in the indefinite future maybe if the cotton crop doesn't spoil.

i doubt that venture would be very successful. i won a feature writing award as well, and a couple of minor design awards, but my staff won a general excellence award for lifestyle coverage. it was gratifying , because i know everyone at my old paper (ok, most people) worked incredibly hard, and we busted our asses week after week for a labor of love and a miniscule paycheck.

i now have a job where i don't routinely have panic attacks, though, so i guess that's nice too.