I Still Lost with 332 Points

I scored 123 points in Scrabble with the word "equator." That's right, folks, I am a genius. Q on the triple letter score, the whole word on a double word score, and using every single letter I had on my rack equals 123 points. I'm also a nerd.

Calm! I'm Calm! I'm Always Calm!

The guy who works at the garage came around to the driver's side to give me my ticket.
"I'll be here around 5:30," I said.
"Okay...what's your name?"
"Dina."
"Are you always calm like this? You're always so calm."
I smiled.
"Well, it's the morning...calm's the best way to start your day."
He laughed and got into my car as I walked outside to buy a coffee.

I Finished 0-4

We had an Arm Wrestling Tournament over Shabbos. In the first round, my brother Ari beat my sister 2-0 and Josh beat her 1-0. For the second round, Ari changed the rules to: "if I get your arm down in under two seconds, you have to use two hands." After beating me in under one second, he beat me again even though I used both hands. Josh beat me too.
The standings were: Ari: 4-0, Josh: 2-0, Dasa: 0-3, Dina: 0-3 (I know that seems inconsistent, but bear with me).
It was time for the final round: Dasa vs. Dina.
The crowd gathered around the corner of the kitchen table, ready to see if our claim that Das is really strong was true. The wrestle started and when both arms were still up after two seconds, it appeared that I might have had a chance at winning. At three seconds, Das had my arm 45* from the table and when I realized she was winning, I started to scream. This happened about the same time she realized she was winning, and started to scream. She got my arm down on the table to a duet of, "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" and when we were done and laughing, my brothers had nothing to say but, "wow."

Did You Know the Song "Levon" is Named After Levon Helms?

I realized I was up when I realized the light was coming from the hallway light I left on before going to sleep. I realized it was 3-something am when I realized I didn't know why I was up. And let me tell you--of all the nights to not sleep, this is quite a surprise for me. I did a ridiculous amount of relaxing things today (yoga class, pedicure, etc.). But no. No, I can't sleep. After fighting reality for twenty minutes, I started coming up with ideas. Perhaps the air conditioner is too loud and I keep waking up when it goes into power save cycles. Lower went the air conditioner setting. Perhaps I need music to calm me. I put my ipod on and found myself having thoughts such as, "you sing it, Elton!" Clearly, I was well beyond the hope of intervention. Plus, every time he says, "frozen here on the ladder of my life" I laugh. Something having to do with frozen hairs on a ladder...long story.
On another vaguely related note, I'm experiencing sharp hunger pains. But it's 4 am and I'm not eating now. Why can't a 9 pm falafel tide me over at least until morning? I'll just have to sit these pains out.
So this morning, a woman wheeling a double stroller nearly ran me over. I know they're hard to handle, but seriously, I was walking in a straight line at an 8:15 am pace (read: slow). Really, that was my first thought. My second thought was more along the lines of, "how did I miss a double stroller barreling across the park directly across my path?" and then I felt bad. Later when I was walking down 5th I sneezed. The only person who offered her blessing was a woman wheeling her toddler in a stroller. So you see? Moms are awesome.
In other news, I'm never going to rid my habit of walking in on people in the bathroom at work until said people learn to use the little lock. You're not the only one privy to knowing the code to get into the women's bathroom. Hence, the little lock. I'd love it if you could please lock me out when you go in there.
It has now officially been an hour since I woke up for good this morning. It wasn't all that great a sleep to begin with and I'm starting to fantasize about ice cream sandwiches. But I hate eating in the middle of my sleep; it's so disruptive. Remember when Steve used 78 semi-colons in one paper and got a C for making the teacher laugh?
I wanna have a baby.

What Can I Say?

Sometimes, you get a song stuck in your head. You sing it walking down the street. You sing it when you're alone. You even find yourself singing it when other songs are playing on the radio. A sad situation, yes, but not as sad as when you get just a line or two of a song stuck in your head. Then it's "you told me good-bye, how was I to know you didn't mean good-bye, you meant please don't let me go? I was having a high time, living the good life" all day long. Even more unfortunate, if you can stand to hear this, is when you get a word stuck in your head. Over and over the word twirls around your mind dancing with different meanings that you're not sure but think it could possibly work with. Then it settles on your tongue and you find yourself mouthing the word 3600 times an hour.
The last time I was afflicted with single word lodging was when I was doing a two-hour drive home from New Jersey. Gubernatorial somehow popped into my brain and I couldn't figure out what it meant. The more I mouthed it the more I realized how poppy and exciting it was to say. Gubernatorial stuck. Luckily, that was only a two hour affair--something I can't say about today's word.
Today's word was Schlumberger. Schlumberger Limited, the oilfield service company. You see, one Friday about a month ago, I traded some Schlumberger. That night my grandfather mentioned the company. Only, he pronounced the French owned and operated company "Schlumber-jhay," a far-cry from my American-sounding pronunciation: Schlumberger. And so all today whenever I had a free moment to think or wonder or daydream, all my brain would produce was, "Schlumberger, Schlumber-jhay, Schlumber-jhay? Schlumber-jhay...Schlumberger!" Etc.
It's been a long day.

Cafe au lait avec glace?

This past week I went to London and Paris and had a number of fun language experiences. However, the best language experience was the one waiting for me when I got home. There, sitting on the kitchen counter were some signs my brother made to welcome all of us home (he was the only one around this week).
One sign read:

Cheerio, mite

and another read:

bon sowr (boon swah)
and
madam, madam roselle (or something like that)

I love them.