i've been running in the mornings, pretty regularly at 3x/week (monday, wednesday, friday, with tuesday and thursday left for riding), and feeling fitter and fitter. i still hate hearing the alarm go off, and dragging myself out of bed, and my body definitely feels stiff as i set out (this is how it starts, isn't it? getting old, i mean. just a little bodily grumpiness as you set off on your morning run. it sneaks up on you), but when i get back, dripping in sweat, and get in the cold shower, it feels GREAT. it doesn't seem to be helping with the goal of having a really bikini-worthy stomach, but that could be because of the coconut maccaroons from trader j0e's. but i'm sure it's doing my heart some good, and it makes me feel like not as much a sloth.

this week marks several things: 1. my first week with no class to teach (yay! laura and i spent a pleasant saturday on my balcony, grading. we listened to, among other things, a mix of summertime songs. 'walking on sunshine' is the final one on the cd, and i can't get it out of my head. sadly, two students are going to fail). 2. the 4th of july, which is my favorite holiday of the year. it's summertime at its best, with chili cook-offs, carnival games, days off from work, ice cream, and best of all, fireworks. i've always loved fireworks, unlike my sister, who as a child had to be taken inside and comforted on the evening of the 4th. i put some of my love of the 4th down to birthday anticipation. my birthday is on the 6th (the 4th thing being marked this week), and back when birthday anticipation was second only to christmas anticipation for good times, i'm sure the 4th of july got some rub-off good feelings from being right smack at the pinnacle of birthday anticipation. but now, i love it for its own merits. 3. cirque du soleil. karl told me that we're going to see varekai in new york on friday night for my birthday. i've never seen them live, and am SO looking forward to it. 4. my birthday, which has already been mentioned. i'll be 28. my mom (and possibly dad, if he can get off reserve at work) are coming up for the weekend, as usual. several years ago, my mom pointed out that she has seen me, in person, on each of my birthdays. i am loathe to break the chain.

now that i'm all in a good mood because it's not raining, and it's summer, and it's the 4th of july (almost) and my birthday (almost), it's time to complain just a bit:

note to the guy who lives above me: please stop bathing in your cologne. when i happen to leave the building shortly after you in the morning, i nearly asphyxiate from the cologne cloud that persists in the stairwell long after you've gone.

note to my landlord: cut the grass already! it's going to seed! it's a foot and a half high!

note to my landlord: the basement is yucky. it must've gotten all floody with the 40 days and 40 nights we had, and it needs a good scouring. can you do that please?

note to the litterbugs in my neighborhood: i don't know who you are, though i suspect you are either the cologne guys living above me or the small children living below me, but didn't your mothers ever tell you that the world is not your trash can? though i find rap snacks to be a fabulous addition to the snacking world (no really, i do! my favoritely named rap snack is "bar-b-quing with my honey" chips. honey bbq! brilliant!), and have extended my knowledge of rappers by looking at the wrappers, i do not appreciate finding mack 10 suffocating my flowers.

note to the little old ladies in the supermarket: we will not begrudge you the walking very slowly.* that is fine. but we will not put up with you stopping in the middle of the milk/yogurt/sour cream area, each with your own shopping cart, taking up the entire, fairly spacious aisle, and chatting like you're the only ones in the store. we will especially not put up with it when you fail to even acKNOWledge that you are blocking all dairy traffic, and get all hissy when we try to gently move your cart a bit out of the way so we can squeeze by and grab it back to you.

*karl and i have different theories about the slow motion movement of really old people. his theory is that they know they're getting close to death, and, on the chance that life is a race, are walking slow on purpose to make sure they *don't* win the race, the prize for which is death. my theory, on the other hand, is that they're really fuckin bored, what with no job and no kids and only alex trebek at home to keep them company, so they try to draw out, as long as possible, any activity that gets them out of the house and in the company of other people. hence, church and bingo.

(and one cheer, among the complaints) note to all y'all: the new google toolbar is the light of my life. i haven't previously had a toolbar installed on my laptop because the screen is small enough as it is, but i installed the google toolbar this morning after reading that it has new features that include (but are not limited to) a pop-up ad blocker. three cheers for google! pop-up ad blocker located conveniently in their toolbar, which is itself eminently convenient! it makes a little pop noise when it blocks something, and you can customize it to not block pop-ups on sites were you want/need to see them, and it keeps track of how many pop-ups it's blocked, so you can check, at any time, how much crap you are not having to look at!