let's get serious for a moment, shall we?

I'm participating in AIDS Walk Atlanta, a yearly 5k fundraising walkathon that raises funds for AIDS organizations in the metro Atlanta area. These programs provide essential care to men and women in our area who are living with HIV/AIDS. Beneficiaries of the 5k are listed here. The walk takes place Sunday, Oct. 21, and I'm on Creative Loafing's team.

Small donations can do a lot of good, especially if we're all willing to give a little.

Even if you don't make a donation in my name, any money you can throw at this 5K is tax-deductible and will earn you massive good karma points.

my donation site is here.

some things

1. my car was towed on sunday night from an empty parking lot in a strip mall where none of the businesses were open. also, my debit card has gone missing, so i canceled it the day before. two things about towing companies: they are run by people who daily accrue a massive karmic debt, and they only take cash. you can see why, then, my whitehot rage has only just now started to subside.

2. i went to the gym today, and realized that i always park right by the door so i don't have to walk as far. seems a little counterintuitive, but i'll probably keep right on doing it.

3. i went to see nickel creek on friday, and during the concert the guy playing upright bass busted out his clogging skills. my friend emily turned to me and said "wow, i didn't see that clogging coming." does anyone see clogging coming? ever?

don't speak

earlier this week i made my first foray into oral surgery. i underwent a procedure called gum grafting, which entails cutting gum tissue from the roof of my mouth and stitching it to the gum below my front bottom teeth. (i had an overzealous orthodonist, and long story short, i have receding gums, so this was a totally necessary surgery).

the end result will be delightful, but for the moment my mouth is a war zone. i have stitches on the bottom half my mouth, and i have a clear plastic retainer that i have to wear for the next few days to protect the wounds on the roof of my mouth. this means i can't eat solid food (boo)or talk (double boo!). i dearly love both of those things, so you can imagine the hardship. also, my face is swollen and i think i kind of look like rumer willis. so for the next two weeks, if i seem irritable, it's probably because i am.

but in better news, i got a new job! one that i'm really excited about! one that in no way involves working for a rag run by a classist old white bigot! in two weeks, ill be a page designer for creative loafing, inc., and i couldnt be more pumped. i don't think i've ever worked for a publication for whom i'm also the target audience, so i think i can bring a lot to the position.

i'm sort of nervous, too, because i'm going to be working with actual designers instead of copy editors who paginate on the side, but i'm thrilled to be working alongside people who know a thing or two about design. i always learn best by observation, so this is a perfect opportunity for me to learn more and eventually take over the world.

this new employment development, paired with the ton of freelance i've been doing lately, has kept me pretty busy, but that's when i'm happiest anyhow. i'm also trying to take some improv classes in the next month or so, which means i'll probably stay busy. good thing i'm into all that.

a text message conversation

adam (my friend who lives in nyc): i just passed joanna gleason on the street

me: i just drove past a hardees

adam: doesn't compare

me: f you, frisco burgers are awesome

adam: dude (she was) the bakers wife

me: dude chicken nuggets shaped like stars

adam: omg they do that now

today, in jay mccarroll

as a pretty intense fan of project runway, i found this new york magazine article really interesting. i love jay! why oh why does success still elude him? give the man a talk show. i'd watch.

most terrifying web ad ever?

also

i watch a lot of 'scrubs,' because it's on when i get home from work and because donald faison and john c. mcginley are hilarious. by the time the show is over, i'm usually checking e-mail or something in my room, so i end up listening to the first few minutes of 'becker' before i remember that 'becker' sucks harder than a prostitute comprised of black holes and turn off the television.

now for something kinda different.

one of the comic strips we run at work, funky winkerbean, is AWFUL. when it tried to be funny, it fails. when it tries to (incredibly heavyhandedly) talk about The Issues Facing Teens Today, it fails. yet we run it, because old white men apparently looooove their crappy comics. but almost once a day one of the hip kids on the copy desk makes a crack about how awful the strip is. for a while, to have someone annoy you about something stupid was to be 'funky winkerbeaned.'

anywho, tonight i realized that 'becker' is the funky winkerbean of syndicated sitcoms.