So I'm officially 31, and it's a nice feeling so far. Hopefully my 31st year will be better than the mind-fuck that my 30th turned out to be.

On my birthday last Thursday I finally got to go to Ecopolitan, a vegan restaurant in uptown Minneapolis that I have been salivating over for months (ever since I saw the Yellow Pages ad), but had never actually visited. My friend Anna went with me. She's pretty adventurous cuisine-wise, I suppose, but she is definitely not a vegan, vegetarian, or anything in between. She does enjoy her meat and potatoes, that one. But since it was my birthday, she agreed to go with me after some blackmailing and a little bribery, and she even paid. She had quite a different experience of the food there than I did (she hated it), but, as I pointed out to her, all she had was a salad--and a cabbage salad at that (who eats cabbage salad? That really is rabbit food). I, on the other hand, enjoyed a raw pizza (they don't cook anything over 105 degrees there because, it's like, healthier or something). The pizza consisted of a buckwheat crust (awesome), spread with spicy red avocado sauce, sprouts, finely sliced green peppers, and pine nuts (yes, pine nuts! They rock!) All this and a side of grapes, too. Anna tried some of my pizza and she liked it (again, I told her to order more than a damn cabbage salad), but she declined. I'm glad it was my birthday, because it was the only way I could have gotten her to go there with me. I don't think she'll be a repeat customer, but I will definitely be back--give me some carrot juice and raw pizza! Woo hoo! I'll be so healthy I'll be shitting whole cucumbers.

Since I finally got paid (no more donations please, but I'll leave the Honor System icon up a bit longer in case you really really want to), I was able to buy a new bike as a birthday present to myself. It's a very cute little hot pink mountain bike that kicks all kinds of ass, even though it's a bit girly. I think I'll name it Christine, after the murderous car in the Stephen King book. I like the idea of having a deadly hot pink bike.

So I'm working for a Jewish organization now (which is funny, because I look pretty damn goy-ish, according to most Jewish people I know), but they hired me anyway. They don't mind a Gentile or two hanging around, I guess. I work in the Education Department, and even though I like the place and my co-workers so far, the job itself is giving me migraines. I've been there three weeks now, and although I feel like I'm getting the hang of certain aspects of my job, there is so much shit to do and still so much to learn before the girl training me (my predecessor) leaves next week. And what sucks is, although I have full-time hours (+ full-time pay and benefits, thank God), she is only there part-time because she has a kid and stuff. In a way, it's good that she's not there all the time, because it forces me to try to figure out shit for myself instead of asking her, but on the other hand it's a giant pain in the ass for me because I'm fucking up a lot, since there is no one there to ask (a Catch-22, as they say in Boogie Nights. "That's not an M.P. That's a Y.P....your problem!" Sorry, I love that movie). So, aside from the boss (a nice woman, BTW) looking at me like I'm mildly retarded from time to time, I think I'm doing all right. At least, I don't think I'm in danger of getting canned anytime soon.

I rented a movie last night out of sheer boredom (oh yeah--when I left my old job they gave me a TV and a VCR as a going-away present! Yay!) I wasn't in the mood for anything heavy, since it was Sunday night and all, so I rented the latest Adam Sandler epic, 50 First Dates (out of the newly released comedies that I hadn't seen, it was either that or Lizzie Maguire Takes Manhattan or whatever, so Adam Sandler won). Anyhoo, it was actually pretty good....while the first half hour featured a lot of unfunny slapstick, it got better after that. The ending was sweet without being too cloying, and both Sandler and Drew Barrymore kept the shameless mugging down to a minimum, for a change. I didn't used to be so wary of Adam Sandler comedies. I loved The Wedding Singer, (more for the eighties references than anything else), and Happy Gilmore was pretty damn funny. But The Waterboy made me lose a little faith in Sandler's comic ability, and Mr. Deeds made me lose a little faith in humanity (good God, I hated that one). But after seeing this latest one, I haven't totally written him off. I'd still like to see Punch Drunk Love, although most people I know who've seen it have told me not to waste my time.

Okay, I just caught a glimpse of the date on the computer. I turn 31 in three days.

Holy shit.

See the obnoxious box to the right? Yeah, that one.

Here's the deal:
I just got a new job (more on that later). I started on July 26th. It's a good job, good pay, non-profit organization (more on that later, too). But here's what royally sucks--I get paid once a month. Once. On the 20th. This is really going to fuck me over for the next few weeks, because not only do I have the usual paycheck gap you get when you switch jobs, I also have to wait extra time to get paid. How does this suck? Let me count the ways. Well, I guess I just did. It sucks twice, because of, um, what I said above. So I got this idea....my birthday is coming up (August 19--Leo, for those who care). So I thought that any of my friends, family, etc. who are regular visitors to this site could help me out (if they wanted to) by clicking the icon on the right to donate. It's really not as shameless as it sounds. Look at it this way...say you were going to buy me a birthday card or something. Take the $2.00 you would have spent on the card and give to my fund instead. That way, I can buy some beans and rice at the store. This will help hold me over until I get paid. And only give if you want to...and only if you were going to buy me something anyway. At the same time, don't deprive yourself. For instance, say you were shopping for a birthday card for me, but decided to buy one of those monster bags of Peanut M&Ms for like, $1.60 instead. I'd still love you. And also, I'd never know. So give if you want. Or buy M&Ms.

Oh, and if you don't know me from Adam, but you like reading this blog? You can still click 'n give to my August Food Fund--I won't stop you. In fact, that would totally rock.