Thanks!

Thank you to everyone who pre-ordered Chocolate & Vicodin: My Quest for Relief from the Headache that Wouldn’t Go Away the last few days! The Amazon book rank got up into the 3000′s, which is really great for a book that’s not even out yet. It was a fantastic birthday present, and I hope you all enjoy the book when it comes out.

Congrats!

Congratulations to Heather from Illinois who won the Subway Commit to Fit Giveaway: iPod Shuffle and $10 iTunes gift card and has accepted her prize. There were lots of great song recommendations in the comments of that entry. I also learned that I’ve greatly underestimated the popularity of Eye of the Tiger, which was second perhaps only to Lady Gaga’s Poker Face, which most people seemed more embarrassed to be listening to than 80′s power rock. Ain’t no shame in bluffin’ with your muffin’, y’all!

See ya’ later!

I’ve finalized the plans for a meetup this Thursday Saturday, October 30th before the Rally to Restore Sanity in DC. I emailed everyone who commented on the [...]

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Photo by bicameral / by Attribution 2.0 Generic CC

I dashed to the room where my smartphone was blaring a sitar ringtone, and pressed the red button, happy that I’d managed to locate the device before voice mail picked up. Well, I was happy until I realized I’d hung up on the caller, which is what the red button does, which you’d think I would know after having had the phone for three months.

So I opened the call log and returned the call to hear my brother’s voice on the line saying, “Hello?…..Hello?…..Is anyone there?” as I filled in the ellipsis with my own responses that he couldn’t hear with my mute button on. I figured out how to unmute the phone, but only after he hung up. So I tried calling him back again only to get a confused, Spanish-speaking person on the other end of the line, who I knew was not my brother because my brother took German in high school, not Spanish.

Then, finally, I managed to call my brother back at the [...]

• Continue reading "Happy birthday to me! Thirty trips around the sun and not done spinning yet"

The book cover for Chocolate & Vicodin: My Quest for Relief from the Headache that Wouldn’t Go Away appeared on Amazon.com yesterday, so I guess that’s a sign that it’s time to unveil it on the blog:

Please, resist the urge to lick your screen. I hear computers are dirtier than public restrooms because people rarely clean their monitors. I would hate for you to catch an infection because my book cover looked so delectable. Mmmmm, cupcake. Chocolate cupcake. With pills!

I first saw the cover concept for Chocolate & Vicodin at the end of March 2010, long before the final text of the book was completed, which is sort of odd and slightly scary since it’s like taking your wedding photos before you’ve met your groom. However, the cover is needed for placement in the sales catalog the publisher puts together each season to pitch their books to booksellers. Thus, it’s usually created before the book is complete to give booksellers enough lead time to place their orders.

I immediately loved the cover because, really, what formerly [...]

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Being a sane person who now lives within a five-hour drive of Washington DC, I’ve decided to attend the Rally to Restore Sanity/March to Keep Fear Alive next Saturday, October 30th. For those of you who live in foreign lands or don’t have cable, this event is being held by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, hosts of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. They generally serve as court jesters pointing out the absurdity in American politics. Anyway, they are hella’ funny and smart, and I think the rally will be a blast as long as I bring several layers and a polar fleece. I’m also exactly the type of person the rally is intended for—someone who believes in sanity in politics, but is too lazy to leave my apartment to campaign or attend any rallies to do anything about it. It’s a rally for people who don’t usually attend rallies! That’s me!

I’m crashing with an old high school friend Friday night, and I’m leaving the city right after the rally ends at 3pm. But [...]

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In the spirit of giving away other people’s loot, it’s time for another Subway Commit to Fit giveaway. As I mentioned before, the Commit to Fit program is encouraging people to set their own fitness goals, like Jared Fogle aka Jared the Subway Guy who is training for the New York City Marathon. This time around, they’re giving away a green iPod shuffle and a $10 iTunes gift card. (For the tech geeks among us, this is the 4th generation 2BG iPod shuffle.)

There is no doubt a good playlist can help you keep moving. When I ran a half-marathon, it was only a dance remix of Bryan Adams singing “Run to You” that got me through mile 10. Here are some of the songs I’ve been listening to on my walks recently. Links go to YouTube or iLike, and occasionally feature an anime fan video:

Catie Curtis – You Can Always Be Gone

Justice – D.A.N.C.E. (Not only a catchy song, but a good review of spelling.)

Seasun – Delorean

The Veils – Sit Down by the Fire

Carbon [...]

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