sandalous girl

i am getting stranger and stranger by the minute. today i tried on a skirt (no, this is not the strange part), and the shop assistant brought me a pair of strappy sandals with 6 cm (2.4 in) heels just to see what it looked like with "proper" shoes.

me: "nice, but exactly the kind of shoes i absolutely don't wear. can't wear."

her: "why?"

me: "because i can't walk in such shoes. i'd break every possible bone in my feet and legs within five minutes!"

her: "then it's about time you started practising!"

me: "no way!"

fast forward, an hour (and approx. 12 trousers, 2 dresses (!), 3 t-shirts, and 3 skirts) later: michi leaves the shop with a pair of jeans, a skirt, a t-shirt - and the sandals which she has grown rather fond of over the past hour. something odd is going on here. hmmm.

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in the mailbox today: patrick carrington's Hard Blessings and suzanne frischkorn's American Flamingo, both in exchange for my secret meanings.

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i still have not made the final decisions re what to read at the lit fest - which is in 8 days!! slowly getting a little panicky here. i heard yesterday that there will be a reception for authors reading at the festival, next friday at 1pm. now if only i can get rid of this horrible cold before next thursday ...

the vienna lit fest programme (click to enlarge):



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kaizers orchestra concert with sabine and valerio tomorrow! yay!!

song of the day: we had it right by nellie mckay & k d lang.

one laptop, a name stamp, three tops, a trench coat and a pair of jeans later ...

yep. i spent loads of €€€ today. actually, no. make that L O A D S. all i wanted to do after a very nice lunch with birgit at akakiko, was check out whether a store across the street had laptops with XP installed and not the horrid, crappy vista. [insert rant here.] what i did not know before was that i would walk out with one. it actually has both vista and XP installed, but i already know what i will and won't be using. so this is the new addition to the household:



i checked out one clothes store, s. oliver, where i had never actually found anything - but today was different. of course, having lost so much weight means that i find more things to wear. the shop assistant was very sweet, and also honest enough to say "nah, that doesn't suit you" or "that's not your colour". i ended up buying three tops (one of them is this, in marjoram), a short beige trench coat, and i even found a (much-needed) pair of jeans! yay! for someone who does not normally enjoy shopping, it was surprisingly fun this afternoon. (and hooray for credit cards! *g*)

i am quite tired right now, though cheerful. and i found out that kristy bowen's billet-doux project (dancing girl press) has been finalized! the limited-edition boxes containing 15 poems by 15 female poets can be bought through dancing girl press. i am sooooo thrilled to be part of this, and i am in such excellent company - this is the line-up: jayne pupek, erin bertram, bronwen tate, cecelia pinto, shawn fawson, diane kendig, christine hamm, jeannette sayers, suzanne frischkorn, annie finch, emma bolden, julie enszer, ariana-sophia kartsonis, kelli russell agodon, and yours truly.

if i can manage to stay awake, i will be at the movies tonight, looking at mr depp.

song of the day: mercy by duffy.

why is it that a girl ...

... sets out to buy a light bulb, an ink cartridge, a pc cable for the new phone, and a few things from the chemist's and grocer's, and returns home with said articles PLUS photo paper, cd paper sleeves (okay, i'll need them in a week anyway), nice green envelopes, the "ice age 2" dvd (another one i am soooo going to use in one of my english classes *g*), chocolate, a red ring, a black choker, two red&white hair clips, two ear studs (okay, i have been meaning to get some for about 18 months now), black mascara, and "eden green" eyeshadow (the first eyeshadow i've bought since, um, about 1993? never used it when i wore contacts)? but then again - i *did* resist a second ring, and did not even look at cds or go through any more dvd racks.

at the supermarket, i was about to pay with my atm card, when i was told the machine didn't work. i hate it when that happens - of course i did not have enough cash on me, so i had to go to another checkout counter. i often have less than 10 € on me these days; usually the only playce where i pay cash is at the bakery on my way to work ... i think that is still unusual in austria, people tend to like cash hereabouts, and many shops were reluctant to accept atm cards at first. one supermarket chain didn't accept them until 2 years ago!

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now for something completely different: i received my two contributor copies of redactions! yay! some familiar names in this issue: kelli russell agodon, jason fraley, jeannine hall gailey, nathan mcclain, steve mueske, gerald schwartz.

since i have two copies, and a girl only needs one, i am giving one away - to the person who comes closest to guessing how many cherry tomatoes there were in my 250g box today. i'll give it until thursday evening my time. leave your answer in the comments box. (if two or more people happen to guess the correct number, i'll give it to whoever comes and cleans my windows. *g*)

song of the day: gravity by john mayer.