I did go out today to celebrate Record Store Day a little. I held off for a couple of weeks just for this occasion. See? Here is me browsing at my local shop (hanging out in the lower left corner, as I do) along with a bunch of other people who got there right when they opened.

(Shh...I stole this picture from the store's Facebook)

Anybody else go out? Tell me all about it. Where did you go and what did you get?

It's heeeeeere...

Happy Record Store Day, people!

Go out and get you some!

It's like Bonnaroo, but different...

I happened to come across an article on the New York Times website today about what it feels like to have long-term insomnia. It was a really interesting thing to me, because I can definitely identify with lots of what the writer had to say.

When I was younger and still living at home, I often didn't sleep at night. It wasn't because I couldn't, it was just because I preferred not to do so. It was easier for me to get things done at night when the house was quiet, and it was a time when I could do the things I wanted to instead of fulfilling the obligations I had during the day.

My junior year in high school, I had a solid year of good sleep before, sometime in my senior year, I started having awful nightmares and waking up in the middle of the night. I'd be absolutely terrified of absurd things that weren't putting me in danger or circumstances that didn't even exist. I really struggled with this situation, because my boyfriend at the time (who I lived with for most of this period) didn't understand what was going on and didn't really want to. So I'd sit up at night, crying and just generally freaking out while he slept like a baby and had no concern for what was going on. I knew that he couldn't fix the problem, because I didn't have any idea how to fix it, and I didn't expect him to sit up all night with me every night. But I think what I really wanted from him was just some sort of understanding - an acknowledgement that what was happening was a real issue to me, and that, even though he wasn't experiencing it, he understood that it really took a toll on me.

After awhile, I drifted out of that phase and got back into a normal sleep pattern again. I woke up every morning feeling ready to get out and do something new. I took good care of myself and was happy to be making some sort of a life on my own.

Then in 2008, my headaches started getting worse and I had them more frequently. I slept a lot more than normal, because my sleep at night was so disrupted. In 2009, I started having problems even falling asleep. Since then, I've been mostly awake until 4 a.m. every night. I've tried melatonin and Ambien and all of that fun stuff, to no great avail. So at around 11 each night, I get myself ready for bed and usually even try to go to sleep. If I do happen to have such luck, I wake up within an hour or two and can't get back to sleep until early in the morning.

All of this wouldn't be so bad if my body didn't automatically wake up at 7 or 8 every morning. Occasionally, I'll get a nap in before noon or in the early evening, but more often than not, I'm running on 4 or less disjointed hours of sleep a night.

Anyway, I guess my point to all of this is that a lot of people don't understand (either because they don't have the problem and can't grasp it, or they think it's fake, or they just don't care) the effects that constant sleeplessness can have on a person.

So go over and read the article here. It's by Lindsey Anderson, and if you want, you can also visit her blog here. It's not a call for pity for people who can't sleep - it's just kind of an insight. I like to understand things in other people's lives, so I found the article interesting.

April bores me.

I feel like I'm in a huge, disgusting rut right now and I'm having a hard time getting out. So I'm trying to mix up my life a little bit and see if anything clicks. So far, nada.

Last night, Staci was over to my place and I made vegan pizza for us (since Earthfare now has Daiya - thank you, Lord) and we watched the Evil Dead 2 DVD which Netflix so graciously bestowed upon me this week. It was pretty much the Bruce Campbell show, and we both decided that the first was more fun to watch.

Tonight, I went to this little bar across the street called the Tin Roof (with Staci, of course). They were having an MST3K night and were set to show two episodes (Crash of the Moons and Menace from Outer Space), with some fun little shorts in between. When we got there, this was not the case. They showed two sci-fi movies and were set up to have some local folks sort of riff on them, but these folks didn't show I guess and nobody really stepped up. So we were left as a tiny group hovering at the bar making our own jokes - I have to say the bartender and one other patron were doing really well. The first movie they ran was The Astral Factor and it was honestly very hard to watch. Staci and I didn't stick around for the second, and most of the other people had left as well. It was a fun night. I think we both really enjoyed it, but it was kind of awkward. It felt like we walked into a modern day Cheers, where everybody knew each other and we were kind of intruding on their space. So we were just two nerdy girls sitting in a room full of nerdy guys. Anyway, the place is actually really cool and very comfortable, so it may become a new haunt for us and hopefully these people will become accustomed to our presence.

I'm shocked that Staci is not totally bored with me yet. We spend a lot of time together, but it seems that we get along well. And we take breaks in between of a couple of days. I think we're both kind of stuck and looking for change in our lives, so we sort of get each other.

In other news, this article popped up on my Facebook feed today, courtesy of Charleston's City Paper. I know I beat the proverbial dead horse about Food Revolution - but I just find it important and interesting. The article sort of mentions the situation here in the Charleston area in relation to the current buzz surrounding Jamie's show.

Other than all of that, my life has been kind of slow compared to the way it was in March. It's nice to have a slow day to just rest every now and then, but I feel like I have them all the time, and I feel sort of like I need them more often. It's frustrating to feel like a 90-year-old and be in pain or sick or fatigued or whatever. But I'm hoping things will get a bit better in the next week or so.

Not much to say, but I did watch episode four of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution today. Really great episode. So if you haven't seen it, you should go do that over on Hulu. It's worth the 45 minutes, promise.

Everybody should probably click this link. Just sayin...

At least my bad habits were discouraged...

I haven't really had an appetite for anything the past two weeks. I don't feel motivated to eat lunch or dinner, or even munch on veggies during the day. It's strange. But today I went to Whole Foods to pick up a few things and stuff sort of started jumping out at me.

Of course, I got some of the normal stuff that I do - stuff to make meals for the week, brazil nuts, grapes and other stuff to munch on. But for some reason today, sweets were hanging around in the back of my head too. I'm not big on that sort of stuff usually, but apparently I'm all about it now.

I really, really did not like ice cream when I was a kid, and even as I've gotten older, I've not really been so keen on it. But I discovered that I really like this:

So it hopped on into my basket. By itself. It grew legs and launched itself out of the freezer case and into the basket.

I thought that was kind of bad enough. A pint-sized death trap sitting in the freezer is more than I need. But then I walked over to the bakery to get bread. And they started having these vegan cupcakes in the bakery case like a year ago. At first, it was just boring, completely untempting shit like chocolate and vanilla. But then a couple of months ago, the good flavors started. Like today's orange cupcake with chocolate ganache on top. Soooo I couldn't say no.

Anyway. This cupcake came home and I ate my dinner and stared at the mini-cake on the counter. Annnnd I had a fairly small and wholesome dinner, so I figured why the hell not. Here is where I begin my letter to the bakers at Whole Foods.

Dear Whole Foods "Bakers" -

I don't know what kind of training you have to have to work in the bakery at a supermarket. And I don't know if the recipes are providing for you or if you get to experiment a little bit. But there is absolutely NO EXCUSE for the travesty that was the orange vegan cupcake with chocolate ganache. I have never seen any cake or bread product in my life so dense - it was comparable to eating a memory foam mattress. I know that baking is harrrdddd and vegan baking is probably hardderrr, but I also know for a fact that there are hundreds of awesome vegan cupcake recipes available. Ones that you can chew without dislocating your jaw. The flavor was ace - really perfect - and the ganache was just right, but even a perfect ganache could not rescue such a sad attempt at a cake. Please fix this.

Love and kisses, me.

Really. It was that bad, I promise. I threw all but 3 bites of it away. I just don't get how anyone in that bakery could've tasted that product when it was finished and still deemed it fit to go out for sale. It broke my little heart and shattered my dreams. So I suppose I will stick to baking my own cuppies at home.

Anyway, this entire entry is kind of bullshit. I had a mostly boring day and it looks like there are many to follow. Maybe I'll get to work on fixing Whole Foods' recipe for them.

Mail Call: Part 3

This is the final installment for awhile, until I get some more mail! The cards today are all kind of things that made me giggle a little bit or are just kind of strange.

It took me more than a day to understand this joke. I looked at it, didn't get it, put it down, came back later, rinse, repeat...and then one day it clicked!

Supersquirrel flew in from a woman in the Netherlands.

I'm a nerd, so obviously, I enjoy this.

It's a bunny with condoms on its ears - self explanatory.

And RARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! Note the inadequacies of the tool in iPhoto I use to make sure people from the internet don't kill me in my sleep. Instead of just smudging white over my address, it smudged random words from the text. Awesome.

That's it. No more! Not unless people send me mail! Hinthint!

Happy Easter!

This is what happens to people who expect things of bunnies that aren't in the bunnies' job descriptions - i.e., delivering candy and eggs, and going bawk bawk bawk...