Too lazy to do aught but list

Things that make me happy:

1. Seeing a gentleman by the name of Ishmael Beah read excerpts from his book and answer questions at the U Village Starbucks last night. As an adolescent in Sierra Leone, Beah was forced into the conflict there; his book is apparently (I haven't read it) an account of that experience and the process of rehabilitation that helped him, in his words, "regain his humanity." The excerpts he read aloud made me want to get the book myself (library, Thel, wait for the library to get it...). Unfortunately the event itself was pretty ill-planned. I guess Starbucks is sponsoring part of his book tour, so they had the reading in the Starbucks--but they seemed to think they could also just have business as usual. So there were a hundred or 150 people trying to smash into this Starbucks to hear Ishmael Beah speak, but at the same time other people were plowing through the crowd to get their Starbucks fix. In fact, during Beah's reading someone must have ordered a Frappucino, and the blender's grinding all but drowned out his voice. Still, Beah had some really interesting points to make about effective responses in the aftermath of conflicts such as Sierra Leone's, and it was a pleasure to be able to go out and hear him on a random Tuesday night.

2. Listening to Lily Allen's CD Smile. I heard "LDN" on the radio a year ago (? Last summer? In Greenwood, anyway, so sometime before October) and liked it; it's a catchy, summery little ditty, and it features a couplet that rhymes "Tesco" with "al fresco," which delights me no end. The whole CD is like that, catchy and boppy and hooky and fun without effort. (No need to look up the meaning of a word like "fontanelles" when listening to this one.) Hey, I like a little ear candy now and then. It's the kind of album that makes me want to cut my hair short, dye it an outrageous color, go out dancing every Friday night, get a tattoo, and learn to play drums. Come to think of it, why haven't I done any of those things?

3. Realizing that it's already Wednesday. Thanks, Presidents' Day!