ma - mooth

i feel insanely dirty right now.  i was at the tar pits today, working on freeing a complete mammoth lower jaw from its plaster + dirt + asphalt prison, and as removing the dirt required brushing dust into the air, i am covered in a fine layer of filth.  my hair feels very much like it used to when i'd go camping - like every single strand of it is perfectly coated with gross.  also, i smell like a fossil.  also also, i have a fat blister on my thumb from hacking away at the rock-hard grime with a dental pick all day long, despite having worn hardcore gloves.  however, i'm totally ok with it, because i was one of the very few people to see the largest, most complete mammoth jaw ever found at the tar pits completely clean and raw for the first time.

definitely worth the shower.

treading

this weekend, our treadmill was finally deemed fit for use, as luke cleaned off all the many layers of dust its insides had accumulated in the five years since someone used it.  it has always been a dream of mine to have a treadmill in my house, because i felt that its absolute convenience would produce huge amounts of guilt should i decide not to exercise, and guilt is an emotion much more powerful for me than laziness.  if i had a treadmill in my house, i would run all the time!  and be in shape again!  and not run a ten minute mile (like i did tonight)!  so, imagine how awful it's been for me to have something shaped like a treadmill, something that whispered the promise of a treadmill, in the apartment for months, without being able to use it for fear that the dirty old gears would combust.  that's all done now, thankfully.  i had my (severely disappointing) run tonight and feel accomplished, as i always do after i actually move around a little bit.  my ultimate goal is the elusive six minute mile, which i ran as a high school freshman when i was still running track.  however, even if that never happens, i will still carry with me always how hysterical it was to watch penny (below)

actually love the treadmill.  she learned how to walk on it all by herself, out of sheer curiosity and genius.

god, people are going to hate talking to me when i have my own children.  i'm already way too obnoxious about these cats.

i planned a potluck!

my brain is fried.  totally.  just from working three consecutive days at the children's clothing store.  i've wrapped countless christmas/hanukkah/birthday presents and burned countless more name-specific sing-along CDs.  the manager of the store* can often to be caustic and demeaning, but i'll give her one thing - she can work there ten hours a day, six days a week and still put together sentences, which is requiring far too much energy for me at the moment.

due to this inability to think coherently (and because the heels of my feet are screaming at me for forcing them to stand in terrible flats for nine hours today), luke and i ordered in thai food and watched "national lampoon's christmas vacation" when i finally got home from work.  i'm trying to become better at enjoying the time i have to myself because i've been pretty miserable across the board lately - i hated staying home all day by myself when i wasn't working, and i'm not particularly fond of working where i do.  it surprises me that i've gotten so bad at making the best of my situation, because usually, i'm overwhelmingly cheery (to which all my more serious friends can attest).  i realized today that since i've committed to working at the store until just before christmas, i should knock off the attitude, and i spearheaded the planning of a store potluck to be held on tuesday.  everyone at work is bringing something delicious, and so we'll have lots of sugary things to gorge on whenever we sneak into the storage/break room to get chapstick or water or just five seconds of silence.  i'm so proud of myself; i feel like mary poppins.  i don't know why i didn't think of organizing a feast long ago.

*this same manager has a terrible cold and spent the whole day sneezing and coughing up phlegm into a kleenex and touching doorknobs and keyboards and all the other various communal spaces.  i can most definitely relate to feeling horrible (as you might have noticed, i'm a bit of a whiner), but now i'm so upset about being exposed to such a vicious virus that i'm going to be downing cold-eeze lozenges until the massive doses of zinc fry off my taste buds.