What Happened in the last 8 months?

Um...lotsa stuff!

I improved my uke skills & am now practicing with a group of 3 other players, Julia, Karen, and Carla. Whee! Words can't express how nice it is to be able to play music with other people after years of just practicing on my own.

My hair got better.

I put in a succulent garden in the back yard.

Jossie, Jason, Jake & Jonah moved to Alameda. I miss them!

Rose started meeting more other dogs, and is continuing to improve her social skills. Also she loves her red ball. Which is now a yellow ball.

I tried wearing high heels for a few months, and have now given it up as a bad idea, since I am not actually fond of crippling pain. Oh, and I stubbed my right pinky toe really really bad and have only been able to wear flip-flops for the last month or so.

And probably some other stuff has happened, but I forget what.

Whut?

I was thinking today that there are a lot of things I would like to do if only I could get off my butt long enough to do them...everything from going back to horseback riding to jumping out of an airplane (though to be honest I don't actually want to jump out of an airplane but it sounds nice and extreme.)

I'd like to bake some cookies.

I'd like to move to the beach.

I'd like to drive a car.

And then there are things that I am going to do--there is no doubt, I did them yesterday, I will likely do them again tomorrow or some time soon: eat breakfast, go to work, buy new clothes, take out the trash. Walk the dog (she is so cute!)

The thing is I am wondering now if it is time to convert some of the things I want to do into some of the things I am going to do?

Oooh, I can feel myself oozing into sluggish apathy at the very thought. Time to take a nap.

The picture is of Jelly, my friend Karen's dog. He is named after the famous jazz pianist and composer Jelly Roll Morton.

Glimpses

Tuesday, walking from work to the bus stop--there's a group of little Japanese maples, their bare brown twigs jeweled with drops of rainwater. I know it's a cliche, but still totally gorgeous.

Then on the way to the store, a girl darted by me. I just saw her from the corner of my eye, grave elfin face framed by perfectly straight light red shoulder length hair, all at a slant as she hurried off to wherever.

Late at night, walking Rose, we passed by two women involved in some quiet, intense conversation, Eastern European accents, heads leaning together as they walk down Monte Vista. One woman's perfume was a burst of Narcissus, followed by the smell of a dentist's office. ???, I thought. Oh yeah, she smells like novocaine.

Then I realized the tip of my tongue was numb. Very odd airborne novocaine-narcissus perfume.

The Amazing Disappearing, Reappearing, Disappearing Hilltroll

Well here I am again.

Coming up on the horizon is Pantheacon, where I work the registration desk every year. For those of you who don't know about p-con, it is a gathering of Pagans and other weirdos to go to workshops about religion and magic, and also don outrageous drag and attend wild rituals and balls. It's on Presidents' Day Weekend every year for the last 14 years.

I will get there a day early so as to attend the staff meeting on Thursday night, which means that it will be Feb 14--you guessed it, Valentine's Day!! Since last year I missed my chance to do the Bittersweet Valentine Sad Love Song Sing-Along...I figure this is my chance to make it up! I have had a lot of time to practice songs and get better on my uke, so I am pretty excited. Here is my tentative song list, and I hope if you can think of additional songs you will write in! The more sentimental and over-the-top the better. So in no particular order:

Plaisir D'Amour
Love Hurts by Nazareth
Love Stinks by J Geils Band
Ring of Fire--Johnny Cash
Hopelessly Devoted to You-Olivia Newton John
I've Heard the Tearstained Monologue You Do there by the Door Before You Go--William Mason
Your Cheatin Heart--Hank Williams
Banks of the Ohio (traditional)
Banks of the River (Stanley Brothers--hey, does anyone know how to get the chords for this?)
One (Is the Loneliest Number that You'll Ever know)--3 Dog Night
Landslide (Stevie Nicks)
I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)
You Suck (Ais Harvey)
Against All Odds (Phil Collins)
Yesterday (Beatles)
Tainted Love (Soft Cell--I also need chords for this one if anyone has them)
Cries for No One (Beatles)
Below in the Valley (Brahms)
If I Loved You (Rodgers & Hammerstein)
I Ain't Missin You (Tyler Hilton)
Sandy (John Travolta)
Unchained Melody (Righteous Brothers)
Oh Darling (Beatles)
Tear in my Beer (Hank Williams)
Crazy (Patsy Cline)
St Louis Blues (I think this is traditional, that or Gershwin)

Still Waiting

Perhaps I should have referred to my previous list as Predilictions for 2008, rather than predictions. Here's what is actually happening so far:
1. Threw my back out on Jan 1 trying to demo a hip hop move for my mom.
2. Decided grocery shopping is a waste of time after purchasing crumpets at Trader Joe's.
3. No one is interested in slidewalks as a form of transportation except me but while I was looking for someone who and is not a sci-fi nerd I found this guy who is pretty funny.
4. I have lost my interest in TV. I will miss all my new TV friends, but it's probably for the best.
5. Remembered what PGAPTA means.
6. No one reads my blog anymore since I stopped posting for 5 months.
7. Got a free show at work yesterday: 5 agitated co-workers bobbing around my desk at a quarter to 5, waving their arms around after getting stirred up by the uberboss. I was astounded at my aplomb! Suddenly I am unflappable.

Year of the Troll Top Ten Premonitions

Hilltroll's premonitions for 2008 include:

1. Increase in tree-planting, organic gardening, and nature-based spiritualism.
2. Less TV, more books.
3. Less cars, more bikes, legs, and those annoying little scooters that I always see kids on and think they are going to veer into traffic
4. Popularity of gnomes will peak and then dwindle as people tire of the Travelocity ad campaign and their obvious theft of the gnome theme from the movie Amelie.
5. With the end of gnomish world cultural domination will come the day of the troll! Troll dolls shall abound! A trollish renaissance will light the fires of creative genius and inspire a new world order!
6. The whole world will at last realize the genius of John Bauer.
7. More butter. I like butter. This will be butter from nicely-treated cows.
8. More peace.
9. Less commuting.
10. Slidewalks.