I was going to say “preoccupations” or “favorites”, but really, they’re obsessions.

Food-wise: Last week I had a little thing with Mexican food. I think I had it five times last week – that is, just about every time I went out to eat, I had Mexican. I’m pretty sure I’m over that one now.

Music-wise: I just discoved the song “How to be Dead” by Snow Patrol and I’ve listened to it multiple times today. I made a little “on the go” playlist today of all the newer music I’ve been listening to today and listened to just that list (30 songs) all day. Yeah. I don’t know, when I really start to dig a song, I just want to put it on repeat and listen to it over and over again. It takes me about that long to learn all the words anyway. Though, even with as many times I’ve listened to that Snow Patrol song, I don’t know the words to it yet. Maybe in another day or two… Also very into the band “Say Anything” and “Plain White T’s” right now. Oh, and the Killers. But I think a lot of people are way into the Killers. I’m just late to the game.

Game-wise: Hotel Dusk. I just finished it last night. It is awesome, if you like mysteries and noir-type things. If you are looking for an action packed game though… well, this doesn’t really fit that bill. But its got puzzles. And you hold your DS sidewides like a novel. Neat. Need something new to obsess over in this department.

TV-wise: I was really into Six Feet Under and watching them all on Bravo – but watching things edited sucks. And the first season was on HBO on demand, which excited me greatly. But now there are no more on demand. Sigh. Am I going to be forced to rent the rest of the seasons? What a bummer.

Eye-candy-wise: Liev Schreiber. Thank you, CSI.

Crafts-wise: Been wanting to make more bottle cap magnets. I made some not too long ago for the boy and I want to make some more. The boy actually had a brilliant idea to make up a whole bunch and then just leave them places. Because while I do want to make more – what do I do with all of them? My need for magnets is not very great and I’m pretty sure everyone I know has already received magnets from me. So why not just leave them places for strangers? Awesome. Now, to just actually make em…

I made this. I sent it to a boy. I hope he liked it.

There’s a poem inside, but you can’t read it. Nah-uh. Sorry. Try again later.

I was a good girl tonight and I prepared my lunch in advance. I’m trying this whole “take your own lunch to work” thing to save money. Today I went out for lunch though. I was kind of lazy and I had a craving for some greasy, delicious mexican food. It was worth it. I think I just need to get into the habit of cooking more. I don’t cook nearly as much as I used to. I made some good beef stir fry a couple of weeks ago when the boy came over and I put some noodles in and mmm. Tasty. And earlier that week my friends came over and we made shrimp tempura and udon noodle soup. And some other vegetable tempura. Tempura is so delicious. I don’t know why I don’t make it more often. You can buy a box of the batter for less than a dollar and it’ll make enough batter to fry more stuff than you will ever eat (unless my boy is there, because he will eat it all). That was a fairly cheap meal, too. It fed the three of us for less than $5 each. I love the asian market. I think I’ll go after work tomorrow and pick up a few things (like delicious noodles!) for the rest of the week. I bought these Archer Farms crackers at Target this week but I don’t like them. Too cardboard tasting. Don’t buy them. Other Archer Farms stuff is usually good, but those crackers were not. I did try these crackers I got at Ralphs (can’t remember the name at the moment…) but they were so good – they kind of had that shine on them that you find on chinese crackers but with a more wheat-y/not so spicy flavor and with seasame seeds in them. Need more of those. Mmm. And there are a bunch of restaurants that the boy and I want to try out together, but one of us is like broke every other week. We need some kind of food funding so we can explore and eat tasty things. Please sponsor us. I’ll even blog about food again! If I were hardcore, I’d setup a Paypal donation system and cry with joy if I got even a dollar from a stranger.

So last week I was food shopping. And I saw these “Trivial Pursuit” Pop Tarts at the grocery store and laughed very hard while standing in the aisle staring at them. I don’t know why I find them so funny. Probably because its a stupid idea. And questions like those do not ever show up in Trivial Pursuit! It’s always questions about basketball players whose names I don’t know, unless they played for the Celtics. Really, the only sports questions I can answer have to deal with some kind of Boston sport. Boston sports teams were the only ones I paid attention to, I guess. Anyway. Trivial Pursuit pop-tarts! Why? It’d be cool though if the answer appeared after you toasted them. It could do that for all I know, but I didn’t look at the packaging very closely. But I doubt they’re that cool.

I love it when people make things for me. I know they put time and effort into it and it really shows they care. So when the boy presented me with this surprise mug, I thought it was the cutest thing ever. It’s got Maya in the park on it, Super Mario Brothers, and a flower with our intials. Aww.

I posted this over on that myspace profile I have since I had my “Jesus is my best friend” piece there but felt like it needed to be swapped out for something else. I don’t know where these random needs and thoughts come from, but I just simply obey and go on with life. This is a little piece I wrote a long time ago, but I tweaked it up a little bit tonight. I’ve always liked it but I don’t think I’ve shared it with anyone before. I figured I’d share it here, too, since I don’t think many people read my myspace thing. It’s not that exciting. But my blog! Wonders and excitment galore! Anyway. Read. Enjoy. The end.

A Gummy Bear Memory

It’s a stupid thing to keep, really. Why would a person keep a pair of stuck together gummy bears for so long? Because they remind me of you. Even after we drifted apart, I kept this little gummy bear statue in tact. I remember wrapping it in a piece of saran wrap and tucking it away inside an old box that I had where I kept a bunch of old letters. Going through that box, I spotted the saran wrapped bears at the bottom, still stuck together like glue after all this time. And I remember the day I put the pair together and was tickled pink by my own creation. I remember that I showed it to you and I said “Look, it’s like Christmas!” and you rolled your eyes at me and said, “How is that like Christmas?”

“I put together a green one and a red one, that’s just like Christmas,” I told you. But you weren’t convinced.

“Just because one is green and one is red doesn’t spell out Christmas to me.” You were so hardheaded sometimes, not always enjoying the little things that I did.

“Well it seems kind of Christmasy to me,” I said back to you. “And anyway, I really put together the green one with the red because green is your favorite color and red is mine. But then I thought it looked like Christmas, so I said that instead.” You looked at me then and smiled, and I’ll always remember that smile.

“You should have said that in the first place,” you said to me, touching my arm. “That’s better than Christmas.” And it was.

Hey folks! It’s Mary here, again reporting from the land of the sick, this time with an old time favorite illness: bronchitis! I feel like I should have some kind of sickness chart on the sidebar of my blog here to count the number of illness I get, but that might be a little depressing. I got some codeine though which should happily let me sleep the night away tonight. And someday I’ll get my voice back and everything will be peaches and cream again.

While waiting to get my blessed codeine, I spotted some Munchos in the rack of chips that they were selling. Munchos! Why is it that you can only find Munchos in convenience type places and like, not in the grocery store? The wikipedia entry claims that, “Due to the high production costs, advertising and prolific commercial distribution of Munchos is limited, if not nonexistant.” I’m not sure how much I can trust an encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone, but hey, it might be true. In any case, I want you all to know that my love for Munchos is honest and true. The end.

PS – Here’s a photo of me in the dress I wore to the New Year’s party. It is the same dress I wore to Jen’s wedding!