Me, pre-dinner: 126.2 pounds
Me, post-dinner: 128.6 pounds
Dinner: 2.4 pounds

And I only had one plateful. Half of the weight is probably ginger ale, but still. Nom nom nom.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Have y’all heard about Terry Gross’s interview with Tracy Morgan? It’s … weird.

I’d never seen or heard Tracy Morgan interviewed before this, so I had no idea how much the real Tracy resembled the characters he plays. He’s not clueless like they are, for sure, but he’s just as intense and unpredictable.

The tension in the interview is so uncomfortable that it made me physically squirmy. Or at least Terry seems tense. Tracy’s personality is so far from my own that I don’t know how to begin to project my feelings onto him.

I’m not sure why Terry seems to be criticizing Tracy sometimes, really jabbing at him. I listen to more than my fair share of NPR, but in Houston Fresh Air plays on Sunday mornings, so I don’t know much about Terry. Is this her usual style?

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If you’re already prone to extended naps on your days off, and then you get sick, don’t even bother making plans. Sixteen hours, bitches.

The Alexandria concert was tons of fun. The cold rain that tracked us all the way there didn’t promise a great experience, but our hosts found us an indoor location, and the show was a smashing success. Alexandria turned out IN FORCE, let me tell you.

We weren’t sure what to expect from a small-ish city, but the crowd packed City Hall so thoroughly that the organizers had to delay the start of the show for ten minutes while they brought in extra chairs. Every number got an enthusiastic response, and this audience wasn’t shy about cheering us on while we played. I can’t tell you how much easier it is to play for an audience that actually seems to be enjoying themselves.

In related news, I woke up this morning with a sore throat. I thought it was from all the yelling I did during the show, but over the course of the day the unpleasantness crept into my ears and nose. Sometimes I cough so hard that I gag.

I don’t have a fever, so I’m thinking it’s not swine flu. Goodness knows what was floating around in that crowded hall, or what lingered on the door handles of all the gas stations we stopped at. I’m hoping a good night’s sleep tonight and a day off tomorrow will vanquish these teeny intruders, whoever they are.

Here’s an old standby post topic I haven’t pulled out in a while: things people were searching for when they found my blog. The popular search terms haven’t changed much over the last year or two. I’m a little disappointed, honestly. I’ve changed, really I have! Surely my best work isn’t behind me.

Let’s start with People Who Probably Found What They Were Looking For:

adjectives that end in ly This search, with all its variations of phrasing and spelling, accounts for more traffic than the number one search term, “prepoceros.” This post of mine is the second or third result in many of these searches. What can I say? The people love a good list.

natalie hudson houston That’s my name, and that’s where I live. This search turns up at least a couple times a month. I figure it’s mostly people who know me in person. I haven’t put my last name on the blog until now, but if it’s leading people here in searches, I think I’ve lost the fight. Not that I fought tooth and nail. I mean, I link here from my Facebook, for crying out loud.

motherfucking fleas Sam had a bout with fleas a few years ago, and those critters were indeed motherfuckers.

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…is not sexy, y’all. To me he looks greasy and icky. I don’t have any desire to even shake his hand, much less touch his boy parts.

He looks like he should be selling cigarettes to kids a third his age out of an old beat-up El Camino. Get a haircut already, dude. Yick.

Good news! Google Scholar has added a vast swath of federal and state opinions, journal articles, and patents to its database. Huzzah!

As a law student, I have free suck-you-in-and-get-you-hooked full access to Lexis and Westlaw, but that will evaporate when I graduate**. Getting access to the pay databases through a firm is expensive and can be touchy, especially if you’re made to feel guilty for every minute you spend logged in and every case you print; the expense can keep smaller firms and solo practitioners out of the easy-online-access game altogether.

I’ve spent a few minutes poking around Google Scholar’s legal offerings by looking up a case we’re discussing tonight in Professional Responsibility: Gaspard v. Beadle, 36 S.W.3d 229. It’s worth a skim, even if you’re not used to reading cases; sex, betrayal, and a UH Law grad in the role of the asshole lawyer make for a juicy story.

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No, my Kroger card will not let me into the law school basement. Not the debit card, either.

It’s been a long day.

So yeah, my level of fail at NaBlo 2009 is reaching epic proportions. I’ve come to accept it. November’s been busy, and it’s flying by. Ten pages of my journal paper, complete with footnotes, due in two days? Criminy.

Today was my third day in a row of taiko performances—two at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in the Woodlands, and one in College Station. Next weekend we’re on the road again to Alexandria, and it’s a 90-minute show, so we’ve got two practices (maybe three) this week to prepare for that.

But right now, if I can deny the existence of my paper deadline for a little longer, life is good. I just took a hot shower, and now I’m sitting on John’s balcony with a beer and my laptop, enjoying the November weather. What’s that? It’s snowing where you live? You can’t go outside with wet hair and bare feet? Suck it. This is our reward for making it through the summer.

Also, I just got to watch a guy throw up over the side of his balcony at an apartment across the street. So that’s nice.

I was on the road with Kaminari from 9:30 Saturday morning to 1:15 Monday morning, making our annual appearance at the New Orleans Japan Fest. When we got to the hotel, I was disappointed to find that my laptop didn’t like the smell of the hotel’s wireless.

New Orleans, the gig, and my taiko family managed to keep me alive and happy for a whole weekend without internet access. I did tweet a lot, though, especially on the bus ride home. The fuse to the interior lights and the door blew in the first hour, so our entertainment options got pretty limited. But you won’t hear any complaints from me—having to climb in and out of the driver’s door a few times and riding home in the dark are two of smaller sacrifices we’ve had to make for this poor bus.

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