I like fancy french cookware, and you should too. Thursday 13.

Dear Diary,

13. I don't know if I've ever written about this before, but I have this whole, late 50s/early 60s thing going on in my kitchen. I've been buying things that are aqua- and jadite-colored. All thanks to Ebay.

12.  When I posted that snarky comment about having half a dozen readers last week i was horrified later to realize that it may have been seen as a thinly veiled beg for comments. That was never my intention. But I appreciate the comments, nonetheless.  I was especially horrified to realize that Jennie reads this, beaing as she is a published writer, teaches college writing, and probably in a lot of pain due to all my typos.

In my defense, Jennie, this is all written from an iPad. I haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet.

11. Little blind kitty is 100% kitteh, with or without the eyes. She gets the morning crazies, flips around turns somersaults, chases her tail, etc.  She has gotten into the habit of swatting my face when I talk.

Last Friday, I was lying in bed, talking to baboo, when I happened to notice her at the end of the bed, crouched, pointed in my direction, her little butt wiggling as she prepared for attack.

"Surely," i thought, "she's not about to--" and at that instant, she launched herself the length of the bed, claws unsheathed, toward my face.

Luckily, I deflected her off to the side, thanks to the single semester of Tai Kwan Do I had in college. Wax on, wax off. NOW DON'T YELL AT ME I WASN'T TRYING TO HURT HER IT WAS INSTINCTUAL.


 She shook her head for a moment, dazed, and headed over to chew on Baboo's ankles while he shaved.

10. Friday morning, after 'attack of the kitteh' subsided, i ventured forth. I love the weeks of Christmakwanzakah. There is so much room on the freeway I pretty much had it to myself.

I went down to the juvenile detention center.  I feel awkward being there during the holidays. I have to do something called a mental status exam, and ask someone how they're feeling, what's your mood? And, I mean, how are they supposed to respond? They wanted to be adults. They tried to be tough, and then the cold reality slaps them in the face: it's Christmas, they're kids, and they're in jail. My mood is low, thank you very much.

9. Sweet Baboo and have taken to staying in bed late on weekends during this unusually cold December. This is bad because we get to running late, if at all. Joining us are the three cats, perched strategically at points on the bed so that none of them are too close to one another (they don't get along). 

The trouble is that there's lots to do in bed these days other than, well, the obvious. While Baboo was away at OBC, i put in Apple TV, and bought him a harmony remote control for everything.

So now we just watch netflix, or listen to music from The Cloud. We also have cable, and wi-fi, so...I am beginning to understand while greater and greater proportions of Americans are becoming obese. And why adult footed pajamas are being sold on TV.

8. Eventually, though Sweet says in his own, mild manner: were you planning on runnung today? And as I am sitting in bed in running clothes, I have to admit that, yes, that was the plan.

7. Ok, i will come clean and admit that I was nearly 10 miles under my planned running last week. I blame procrastination. And laziness.  And the diarrheah I got this weekend during which I said, oh yeah, that,s why I can't eat corn.

6. So far for this week, I am on track. But I have lost so much base.  New Year's Day, we are having a 50K Fatass that we have so far termed, Kelly's Fat Ass because of the person that organized it.  NOT because she has a fat ass.  Just because she organized it.  It'll be interesting to see how much base I have left.

5. The New Mexico Board of licensing git it together and said yes, you have spent at least 2000 hours face to face with clients, we will give you an LPCC lisense. If I pass a test by 7/2012, I get to keep it. 

4. Here is another reason to hate me. Himself, the Baboo did all his Christmas shopping for me at Williams-Sonoma. I've gotten more interested in cooking in the past few years, and now I have very cool stuff to do it with. II have silicone tools and enameled cast iron.  Like many of the things Baboo has gotten me, they are things I wouldn't have gotten for myself because in addition to the fact that I. Am Lazy. Comes the fact that I. Am Cheap.

I am loathe to spend lots of moneu on myself. I am always looking for the cheaper, faster way to get things done, even given my own level of vanity.   For instance, I just bought an epilator, which I will be reporting on, soon.  But fancy French cookware, well, that's the kind of stuff that Baboo buys. For me. I got him a new GoPro Hero.  

3. My envisioned future of accidentally stepping on a small blind cat has come true.  I spend a lot of time staring at the floor as I walk through the house.

2. Okay, I am just going say it.  I hate foreign movies.  Nothing fills me with more bitterness than picking an interesting movie through Netflix and hearing the somber overtones of the backstory in Finnish or some other language.
I'm an uncultured boob, I know. But at least I know myself. If I wanted to read, I'd buy a book.

Part of the exercise room.

1. This week I was feeling a little burned out on work. Maybe it was the sneering teenager gang banger who was trying to avoid jail by telling me he felt depressed.

Maybe it was the 2% raise I got, the first raise I've gotten after two years of service which, given that the cost of living rises around 3% each year, is essentially a pay cut from an already abysmal salary. This after giving me a stellar annual review. 2% is the maximum amount you can get.

Maybe it was my "Christmas bonus," which was one of those huge coupon books they use to force me to get my students to sell when I was a teacher.  Eventually, even the most interesting jobs get old if you feel like you're not valued, and are paid the same as a first year school teacher despite having three masters degrees in your field.

Yup. 2012 will be the year of moving on.

...