my agenda for the day, should anyone need to find me:

workout (off to do that in a few minutes)

get ready for power to the peaceful.

go to power to the peaceful. stake out a spot.

SEE THE INDIGO GIRLS AND THREE5HUMAN AT POWER TO THE PEACEFUL!

do a few random things...

possibly hit up the power to the peaceful after party, possibly see brandi carlile at the fillmore (i have a ticket, but i am not sure i'm going), possibly just chill with out of town friends.

crash. hard.

it's an indigo day!!!! last one for a while, though.... :( but power to the peaceful is a *perfect* little extra ending for an amazing summer tour. i really can't complain!

this weekend, my goal was to get my flickr organized. i just got some moo mini cards that i plan on handing out when people ask me "where can i find your photos?" and i don't really want to give something out with my flickr address on it with the state that my flickr was in. so i went through *every* photo (not all at once, thankfully) and made sure the tags were correct (i am not so concerned with title and/or caption). i made sure to tag *everyone* who was in the photo, so that meant adding a lot of "mattchamberlain," "carolisaacs," and "clarekenny" tags. i missed a few, but for the most part indigo girls's band is tagged. i also made the vast majority of my non indigo girls photos "friends only" (or whatever), because my main flickr site is devoted to my IG (ok, and other concert) photos. i kept the freeway disaster ones public because, well, just because. but most of my travel photos that i had up there are no longer public. i just want to keep my site somewhat focused.

since my blog is also on my moo cards, i wanted to go through and properly tag everything here (especially my uploads, for easy access). however, livejournal's system kind of sucks. you can only view back 140 entries by tag. kind of insane and useless for some of my larger tags (like "indigo girls" and "amy ray"). i was going to make the majority of my non indigo girls stuff "friends only" but it wasn't worth the effort. however, i am seriously considering making ALL of my non indigo girls, non music blog posts friends only in the future, thus making my blog a total music/IG/amy ray blog. i am weighing the pros and cons to that at the moment, but it could happen. i do know that i am going to start making more and more non-IG posts "friends only." i just don't know if i'm ready to agree to make everything that's not related to IG "friends only."

anyway, that (along with some major working out and some major major major outdoor time, since it's soooo nice outside) is how i spent my weekend.

i'm sitting in a park in palm desert, california jacking some free wifi. the venue is across the street, and, as always, i am early. that's ok. so far this park has been the highlight of my day. i drove. a lot. and shopped. a lot. those outlet malls near palm springs off the 10 were calling my name. "spiiiiike, come on in, try on some new clothes. look, that necklace has your name on it. spiiiiiiiiiiike." needless to say, i am wearing a brand new outfit (for the most part). a blue off the shoulders stretchy shirt (size extra small, thank you very much), white beads, and white flip flops. the skirt (yes, skirt) is not new. for once in my life, i wasn't feeling as fat today, so i decided to take advantage of that feeling by hitting up those outlets. of course i had not eaten anything all day either.

i arrived in the palm desert area at around noon desperate to find a target. there was none to be found (at least near the freeway). reluctantly, i went to check into my hotel. i did crunches and watched kathy griffin (she really should consider jumping the fence). then i left to "go find something to do." i ended up at yet another mall. i didn't buy anything. i really wish i had found this park (with free wifi!) earlier!

(by the way, a family of ducks just walked by and i am talking to them. that has been the extent of my daily animal contact. i do miss my kitties.)

so it's been a pretty low-key day. once i did find my way to the park, i walked around for a bit. despite the wind storm (yes...) it's beautiful out now. the afternoon heat is gone, making way for a warm and breezy windy desert evening. i love the desert. i do. i love the feelings that it evokes, the vast emptiness, and the sand. i want to go play in the sand, but i don't want to make a mess of myself. it's quite a "world falls" interlude.

right now i am having that wonderful pre indigo girls show feeling. there's excitement, anticipation, and even some calmness (which is unusual for me before an IG show). while i am ready to go see my girls sing their hearts out from the front row, i am really enjoying my time at this park. we, in the bay area, have had the *coldest* summer, and it is so refreshing to be able just to sit outside and smell the fresh desert air. tomorrow it's a flight back home followed by a hometown(ish) indigo girls show. i added the "ish" because the south bay (saratoga) really isn't home. it's part of the bay area, yes, but it's to the extreme south. and i hate the south bay. and i'm not wild about the mountain winery either. the fillmore, next monday, is my true hometown show.

there's a group of people doing pilates nearby. i would join them except that i am wearing a skirt and don't really need to be flashing the world the nice people of palm desert. so instead i'll just sit here and write. and think. and soak up this awesome pre show feeling, because this is one of my favorite feelings in the world, and it's a fleeing moment.

uggh, can i just say that i hate it when it's not sunny outside? especially when i am off work and would love to be outside hiking, running, or biking. yesterday i took my bike on BART and biked around san francisco for a while, but it was DAMN cold. i was supposed to go for a nice long hike today, but there's no way that i'm dragging my "i'm-always-cold" ass up any mountain when it's foggy and drizzly. uggh! if the sun comes out later, i am going for a nice long bike ride. i need it. i'm feeling really out of shape today.

this morning i have already screwed around with a photoshop-like program (i need to lighten up some of my long beach pride pics), watched some crappy tv, did pilates, situps, and crunches, and played "chase the catnip ball" with frisco (prince of darkness participated for about seven seconds until he decided that he had 'better' things to do).

tonight i am hanging out with friends, but i REALLY hope i can get a decent bike ride in before that. i need to tone. so badly. arrrgh!

there are a few other things i feel the need to share:

in celeb trash news, it appears that lindsey lohan was arrested again. not only was se driving through beverly hills drunk off her ass, but they found some coke in her car. classy. it seems that rehab really helped her. maybe she and paris can be roomies in the slammer.

speaking of paris and the slammer, isn't she supposed to go soon? i, for one, can not wait. oh the stories on buzztracker.com will be a-mazing. (yes, this is how i occupy myself during low season at work).

and while i'm still speaking of celebrity trash, i used to have a major femme-girl crush on scarlett johansson. she was fucking fiiiiine in lost in translation, which is, of course, one of my favorite films. however she has gotten so trashy, hence my femme-girl crush is officially over. so sorry, scarlett. clean it up and then come talk to me.

and finally, the BBC is reporting that one day it might be illegal to cross the street while listening to your ipod in new york city. ok, fine. just ask nate, of girlyman fame, how dangerous those NYC streets can be.

a week from now, my crappy united express flight will be touching down in the old people's and gay boy's heaven called palm springs. and i will be kicking off the REAL indigo girls west coast tour down in southern california. i'm just a little excited. just a *little*.

in honor of earth day, i am going to the bike shop to pick up my bike, which is finally ready!

then i'm going for a looooooong bike ride.

YAY!

ok, i was actually productive today. i woke up early to work out. then i went back to sleep for a bit before indigo girls tickets at humphreys went on sale. thanks to the cornfusion/indigokare team, we have our lovely FRAS (Front Row Amy Side) tickets. san diego is going to rock it this year. then i laid around in bed and did nothing. it was lovely.

when i was ready to leave the house again, i decided to actually be productive and go to get my car smoged. it passed, of course (gotta love hondas!), but i am now $87 poorer. seriously, i don't understand why it costs so much to have a car smog checked. i think the state of california has teamed up with the auto repair shops to rip everyone off.

then it was off to the uppity fourth street shopping district. the berkeley humane society (which is where prince of darkness came from. well via hell...) was having an adoption fair. i am such a sucker for pet adoption fairs. they had three tuxedo cats that looked very similar to my prince of darkness. their descriptions all read "friendly." i almost went home, got prince of darkness, brought him to the adoption fair, and, when no one was looking, swapped him out for a nice tuxedo cat. ok, not really but the thought crossed my mind. ;) it would make frisco's (and my) life so much more fufilling. the cats seriously looked like his identical twins. no one would notice... ;)

on fourth street i emptied my wallet even further at the mac store (the cosemetics store, NOT the ipod store). but new makeup to play with makes me happy. errgh... yes, i am so femme at times.

after calculating how broke i really am (thanks to the IG tickets, the smog test, and the mac store) i ran a few more random errands (starbucks, elephant pharmacy, and whole foods) and then came home.

i need to do something free now, since i is so po. it's beautiful outside, so i'm going back out for another workout. at least running is free...

i went on a nice long hike in redwood regional park today. i climbed a mountain, walked through a bunch of redwood groves, and walked along a stream. the whole thing was very beautiful, of course. it's amazing that such beauty exists virtually within city limits. that is one thing i love about the bay area. nature and city are not far apart. the drive to the park feels like a rural northern california mountain drive. there are even signs reminding drivers that the roads can be icy. i love the smell of redwoods. i love the smell of nature in general. i love being outdoors. i love hiking. i love the physical and spiritual feeling that hiking gives me. i love that it's a fun way to workout. i had intended to take many photos, but i was overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of it all, and was pretty damn tired from hiking uphill all day. so i never got around to photo taking. but i did take this one photo at the park's enterance:



yes, newts in the road. i want nate, from girlyman, to write a song titled "newt in the road."

so i did manage to get the world's quickest run in this morning. i went out as the sun was coming up. i am glad i managed that. i feel so much better now that i ran and did pilates.

off to get ready. will update before i leave...

i, not being a morning person, completely forgot that the sun doesn't come out until around 7am. i can't exactly go for a run in the hood in the dark. that just isn't safe. so it looks like i won't have time to get my pre-longhaul flight run in. :( damnit. why can't the sun come out at 615?!

i suppose i can do some pilates, but i wanted the cardio too. :(

pigri stated my reasons for not watching the grammies here. i don't have anything else to add to that.

in other news, i am pretty much ready to leave for england tomorrow morning. my bag is packed. my carry-on liquids and gels are in a small ziplock baggie. i have plenty of health bars and special k for the flight tomorrow. and my alarm is set for an ungodly hour (so i can go for a run in the morning before being stuck on a plane for 11 hours), but appropriatly enough, "land of canaan" will wake me up. "it's just the LONDON skyline sweetheart..." in about 26 hours, i will be landing at heathrow, flying over that london skyline. i am going to go to sleep now. i really want to be able to drag my ass out of bed at 6am for that run tomorrow morning.

i still can't believe it's tomorrow.

this weekend i practiced a big round of consumer whorism. h&m and a bunch of other stores were calling my name. i bought way too many clothes. i'm probably not keeping everything i purchases - i need to try on some of the stuff with some of the stuff i already have. and having the case of shoppers' bulemia that i do have, i am guessing that once i try everything on, i will take back more than i will keep. but i did buy a lot of really hot/cute/whatever stuff to wear in the uk. people in london just dress nice, no crappy jeans and tee shirts, and i like to TRY to blend. i also decided i needed some new nice clothes for going out here in san francisco at night. my "nice" clothes are all way too big on me and therefore i hardly ever wear them. don't get me wrong, when i go out, i don't look like a slob. i have a few appropriate outfits for going out, but i still wanted new stuff, damnit.

in other weekend news, this afternoon i attempted to watch grass that documentry about how the us government spread propaganda and lies about mairjuana use. but i thought it was pretty boring for the most part, and it was mostly stuff i already knew. so i fell asleep halfway through it. tonight it's the l word pajama party at liz and annalea's. yah for horrible faux lesbian drama! i swear, i have such a love/hate relationship with that show. earlier in the weekend, i did a LOT of cleaning, working out, and hanging out with friends. i am sooooo glad that my doctor gave me permission to go back to almost ALL of my pilates routine. and in a little while, i should be given permission by the same doctor to start running and playing soccer again! YAH!

tomorrow it's back to work. blah. i also have a really busy week ahead. mostly fun stuff, but i'll still be tired. i'm having dinner and drinks with friends at a new mexican place in soma on tuesday. then on wednesday i am hooking up with an old friend who i have not seen since i got sick. friday night there's a party at another friend's house. and on saturday night, a bunch of us are going to a small club in the haight to see one of our other friends, who is a musician, play. busy busy week.

i am now officially hangover free! wheeeee!

i'm going to workout now. then i need to start getting ready to go over to l&c's for the afternoon. our other friend is coming over too and we are going to eat (c's special mac and cheese!) and watch that food network reality show that i somehow managed to get hooked on.

ok, time's a wastin - i got 45 mins of pilates to do and another 25 mins of abs/arms training to do.

later.