how many times does a person have to do the same thing on a regular basis for it to be considered a "habit?" i know there's a set number. i think i've probably surpassed it. my current habits (assuming i may refer to them as such) are as follows: -doing the crossword puzzle in the shepherd express every week -eating a cheese and tomato sandwich for lunch every day -spending saturday afternoons learning to distinguish sambas from calypsos from russian gypsy music from spanish gypsy music from new orleans from chicago from god-knows-what-else. from slava, a middle- aged russian street musician. i think i've mentioned him before. now i've mentioned him again. -sundays at the antique market how depressing. really. yesterday, i stood behind a faded curtain in a pink chiffon cocktail dress and a string of pearls, pinning back my hair and humming along with moon river. and then i realized that as much as i might sometimes like to be some mysterious, worldweary cynic lurking in dark corners and just aching with sophistication, i'm really nothing more than a sap romantic who talks to puppies and paints her toenails while singing along with billie holiday. i would probably make fun of me. well, i do. but...sheesh. so i wandered around for about an hour, trying on coats and gloves and opening umbrellas, trying to imagine each item in a context...a hat someone wore to a funeral, a polished cane that leaned against a wall for years after its owner didn't need it anymore, someone's favorite dress, a dumb ashtray someone bought on a family vacation to south dakota...i can almost hear some of you gagging. i am a S-A-P. i eat this stuff up. i smiled at a lot of really old people in embroidered sweatshirts. i bought some fake jade monkeys. they need names. i NAME everything. more SAP. i think that misty is a good name for a monkey. and maybe oberon. and hank. if you met three monkeys named misty, oberon, and hank, which one would you think was pretentious? it's totally hank, in case you wanted to know. i watched chinatown. i like when jack nicholson says that he likes breathing through his nose. i mean, i think we can all relate to that. i think that when people make films, it's really good when they make them so people who watch them can sit back and think "yeah, i get that." this really good friend of mine made a really interesting website that you might be really interested in if you like really good movies, especially ones that are from the nineties and are starring kid n play. i can't remember the link right now, but you really should check it out when i get around to posting it. guess what! i'm taking a college writing class! we get to do peer editing. it's so much fun. also, i have a history class. we were instructed to bring items that we thought represented life in the year 1900. anywhere in the world. very very broad assignment, and much like show and tell, only for older kids. i brought some farmer's diary. in this dialogue, let V represent the teacher, while O and M will be students. V: what did you bring? O: a photo of magic johnson. V: why? O: um. magic johnson has AIDS. V: i see. and what does this have to do with life in 1900? O: (stares at the wall with mouth hanging slightly open) V: and what did you bring along? M: i brought a glue gun. V: an electric glue gun? M: mm-hmm. V: (silence) O: (cough) M: electricity is important. (long pause) i guess i misunderstood the assignment. I Think that's enough love kirsten x Care2 make the world greener! http://www.care2.com - Get your Free e-mail account that helps save Wildlife! +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+