i scream

mom and i were working outside last night and i suddenly started hearing music. we live in the woods, and it took me a minute to realize what it was. until i remembered the ice cream truck i passed on our road the other day (which i mistook for an ambulance from far away b/c it had a flashing light on it's roof)… and then i realized the music was coming from the new neighborhood that was built down the road from us. it was BLASTING its music and it made me sad to realize how close to the suburbs our house is now. it was always close to town, but every time i come home there is a new neighborhood built on an old forest or farm and it's sickening. i hate hate hate the suburbs. o, and by the way, after sitting through an episode of 'date my mom' on mtv ive now switched to trading spaces and they painted ANOTHER ROOM RED. arent these people supposed to be designers? maybe with an inch of creativity? TLC is like the suburbs of television. i dont understand the sick pleasure i get out of watching others ugly failures.

+++++++++++++++++

i just finished my workout. this includes a run (i think i mightve passed david - the one who posts here - pulling into his old driveway while on my run, but he didnt see me and then when i got up to their house he was still in the car. so hi david. i felt bad not stopping but i wasnt finished my run and i hate having to gain momentum again.) anyhow, i just finished the second part of my workout, which is push ups and sit ups and LEG LIFTS (which are SO 80s but im doing them anyway) and squats and other shit. i know it all sounds absurd, and if i had the luxury of belonging to a gym this summer, i would, but i have no cash and no yale gym to satiate me. so at the beginning of the summer i bought one of those

big exercise balls

. i dont really believe that one needs exercise equipment to get a good workout, but i knew this would help me do more exercises since i dont have weights here. and i have grown to fucking love this thing. we used to use them a lot in a sculpting class i took every week in DC, but we also used medicine balls and tension cords and dumbbells. so basically ive adapted that routine to my exercise ball and im able to do just about everything we did in that sculpting class.im just amazed that this thing has provided so much motivation.

the best part of my workout are the double windows in my room that look out to the woods behind our house, and most importantly, my workout mix. here it is, in case you too need some summer motivation:

hollaback girl, gwen stefani
diamonds, kanye west
been around the world, mase
mo money, mo problems, biggie feat. mase + puff
sock it 2 me, missy feat da brat
try again, aaliyah
stand back, stevie nicks
loverboy, billy ocean
part-time lover, stevie wonder
easy lover, phil collins
lady (you bring me up), the commodores
higher ground, stevie wonder
higher love, steve winwood
i cant go for that (no can do), hall + oates
worked up so sexual, the faint
call call, the faint

and that, my friends, is what i listen to every weekday. and i dont apologize for listening to music that you might be embarrassed to have in your collection. o, no. i do my crunches and my push ups and then i have a dance-a-thon, party of one, in my room. as goose says, RnR.