I’m obsessed over a mattress. A memory foam, feels like floating, open cell, space age, ergonomic, hypo-allergenic, pain free, Sonna Versa mattress. I NEED one!

While in Chicago last weekend, SB and I visited the Evanston Design Within Reach store. We tested both mattress options, the single-sided firm mattress and the double-sided option rich mattress set. At first the mattress felt too soft but then all of my achy muscles and joints started to relax and I knew this was something special.

Matched with memory foam pillows at $140/pillow and the mattress at $1900, I’ve fallen in love with a piece of furniture that will cost as much as my other current obsession, a new mac laptop.

I remember when I was much younger I would obsess over things that cost $20, then $100, more recently $500. But to make the leap to desiring and considering items around $2000 seems excessive. Does this make me a “real” adult or just a woman living outside of her means?

If I had $2000 to spend on one item, would I be happier with a new laptop or a new mattress? Oh the decisions of fantasy. Actually, in my true fantasy world I would already own both.

Mmmm…samosa

On Saturday night we had heavenly samosas with heavenly company in Chicago. Crazy Rosie reviews our night.

Everyday for the past week I’ve wanted to write, I’ve wanted to blog, but I just can’t find the words, the theme. My head has been filled with thoughts of work, thoughts about work, thoughts about new work. My conversations are all about scenarios, what if this, what if that and discussions of happiness. What is happiness made of? Is it location, people, work, food?

Much of what fills my head lately are not things I can share on this web site, at least not yet and maybe not ever. What I can share is a diagram of my brain today, as depicted using this great visual thinking software, Inspiration.

I’ve been using Inspiration at work to graph plans for the information architecture of a new web site to serve 700 plus employees across our state. It is such a slick method of organizing and visualizing relationships. Maybe it can help me organize my life and brain.

The green goo that I nurtured all winter has finally been killed off by chalky white pills, lots of water and a few rounds of acupuncture. I’ve now been headache free for almost a week. Life is looking and feeling good, but it is smelling terrible!

The green goo must have invaded my olfactory glands, cutting off any sense of smell. After their almost 6 month hiatus, covered in slime, my nose hairs are at full throttle. The office has become a maze of smell clouds to be avoided. I hadn’t realized how many people wear cologne or perfume. Or how many people have scented shampoo or strong deodorant.

Yesterday, after hours of enduring his smell, I turned to my office-mate and said, “Are you wearing a new cologne?”

He said, “No, it’s the same stuff I’ve had for years. Why, can you smell it?”

I made a little coughing noise, waving my hands in front of my face. “It is so strong over here, I can hardly stand it.”

He looked at me like I’d gone crazy and turned back to his work.

A little later we had a series of visitors to our office. Each person left a perfumed trail behind. *cough *cough My stomach started to churn and my head began to ache from the over whelming smells in our little room.

If only I could harness this acute sense of smell. The ability to turn it on and off when appropriate would be fantastic. I’d have it turned up to full smell power when eating a savory curry and then turn it all the way off at the gym.

On the final day of the festival I did not volunteer. I simply attended films with friends. Again, after sleeping until 10am, I was ready for a final day of movie going.

Vodka Lemon (why don’t all films have good web sites?). This was a film I was excited about seeing but was bored while watching. It is the story of a small Armenian village in late winter. The characters are all very poor and quirky. Sounds good, right? The landscape, clothes and behavior were all fascinating to see. However, the pace of the film was incredibly slow. There was an emptiness to the story line and characters that made it difficult to watch. Also, while the film was depicting the poverty, it still had a feeling of being on a film set. I was disappointed by this film.

Kontroll - Wow! The best film I saw at the festival. Possibly the best film I’ve seen in the past year. The story of a misfit gang of ticket takers on the Budapest subway system. Fantastic! It was dark, funny, endearing. It had great pacing, wonderful visuals and a fun soundtrack. I enjoyed the whole ride. Hopefully it will be back for a wider release in the states. If you see it listed in your town run out and watch it.

Plagues and Pleasures of the Salton Sea was a documentary about a man-made inland sea in southern California which has now turned into a large scale natural disaster. It had an amateur quality to the entire piece, from the hand held DV camera work to the low budget information graphics. I’m a firm believer that quality can come out of low budget work, and this film was rolling along, making good points, showing good interviews but the wrap-up was non-existent. The film makers never made a point, never reached a conclusion. Sure I learned about the Salton Sea but I didn’t feel like I was lead to any new ideas or visions of the future.