I have three pieces left to write for this performance guide I'm working on. And they're due Friday. Preferably Thursday. Basically, three pieces of academic writing. And I work in an open office. With people who are loud. And I have ADD. And am a major perfectionist and can't allow myself to turn work in that I know is not 100 percent right.
And I've just been told that I am supposed to spend half of every day working in our ticketing database seating subscribers. By the same guy who took away my part-time job and handed me the speeding ticket the other day.
If I believed in re-incarnation, I would believe he was Pharoah. But that's another song for another day.
The point is.. I'm under pressure here and trying real hard to curb the ADD, so I probably won't be posting for the next few days. Try not to be too disappointed.
Why you should love it:
I think we've been over this... Queen? David Bowie? What's not to love?
Wedding season is upon us. I have one friend in particular who is attending SIX weddings this summer! Fortunately for both my sanity and my bank account I don't have that many friends getting married this year. Nonetheless, I have spent the past two saturdays at big catholic weddings.
Last weekend, I was my cousin's plus one at a wedding, which is always fun, because as a plus one you can be as judgmental as you want about the wedding and reception and have zero guilt about it. For example, the bridesmaids dresses were mint green floor length satin with baby pink sashes. WHY on earth would you do that to your best friends?!? I actually overheard one of them talking about how they "could totally have it hemmed and wear it again as a cocktail dress." Oh really? Is Baby Bop having a cocktail party? Because that is pretty much the only occasion for which I can ever imagine wearing a pastel green dress in any style. I know this because I HAVE a (much prettier) pastel green dress from David's Bridal hanging in my closet at my parents house, and while it looked perfect on the day I wore it, it will likely never make an appearance again. Of course, I could always dress up like faberge egg for halloween...
Anyway, as mentioned yesterday, this weekend was the wedding of one of my dear friends from college. Fortunately, her bridesmaids' dresses were lovely and totally re-wearable (kudos to the bride on that one). But unfortunately, instead of being the completely random date attending solely for the free food and booze, I came alone and actually had to converse with the other guests, most of whom were minor acquaintances (read: Facebook friends) from college. During every conversation, the same thought kept running through my head: did this person make the cut when I did my post-college Facebook purge 2 months ago. A word to the wise: when impulsively deleting 500"friendships," it's not a bad idea to take a moment and think about the chance that you might actually have to face them again at a less-disposable friend's wedding. Whoops.
The conclusion I have come to is this: if you are single, weddings are not really that much fun. The exception, of course, is for those in the bridal party or close relatives and friends who know lots of the guests-- they can boogie without shame. For the rest of us, weddings are really just a cross between high school reunions and high school dances. On the reunion side, there are the aforementioned chats with people you never really liked or expected to see again. And the fact that you have to look good and make your job sound exciting and exotic (if you, like myself, are not in med school and about to start your second full-time internship after college, good luck with that one). On the high-school dance side, there is the singles table, which might as well be the punch bowl at homecoming that year you thought it would be a good idea to go "stag." Then the dancing begins, which is fine when everyone's doing the cupid shuffle, but the minute the DJ decides to take it slow-- if you're anything like me, you're headed for a refill on that awful glass of white zin you just chugged.
Case in point: last night I knew no males at the wedding. No biggie. Until, no lie, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith starts playing. (Um, hello, flashback to 7th grade!!) At this point, I am already off the dance floor, so I've dodged the embarrassment of having to bashfully exit when a slow song begins, and I'm talking to one of the bridesmaids. Mid chat, one of the groomsmen comes up to her and asks her to dance--totally legit. So I turn to talk to another friend, who is behind me. Or was behind me. except she got asked to dance at the exact same time as the bridesmaid I was talking to and is now exiting stage left. Cut to me standing awkwardly in front of a table of people I don't know. It was like a moment straight out of a John Hughes film, and I was Anthony Michael Hall.
Ever the resilient one, I managed to bounce back and cut a rug on the fast songs. I even had one sweaty-palmed slow dance with one of the groom's teammates from JMU track. But the highlight of the night by far was when the groom's grandmother tracked me down to tell me that she "had watched me all night and I did I know that I was stunning?" (Do you know that you are the sweetest woman ever and maybe just redeemed my night of shame??)
Still, you better believe that when Beyonce started belting "All the Single Ladies," I was leading the conga line! Hey girl, heyyyy!
Do any of you remember the children's book Alexander and the No Good Very Bad Day? If not, I think the title is pretty self-explanatory.
Yesterday I had a No Good Very Bad Day. First off, when I went to pay my credit card, which I thought was due on the 6th, I had a 30 buck late fee. The payment was actually due on the 3rd. Strike One. I decided to try and call the company and sweet talk them out of the charge, except when I went to my purse to find my card, my wallet was not there. I figured I had just left it at home, but I hadn't had time to make lunch or eat breakfast and now couldn't purchase anything to eat. Strike Two. In the meantime, it was raining and I had also forgotten my glasses. Cue the major headache. Finally, at 6:00, I headed home to eat something, grab my glasses and hopefully find my wallet. Pretty much the only thing I'd been happy about all day were my plans to see Up in 3d with a cute boy. Except I got home and my wallet was absolutely nowhere to be found. Strike Three.
I searched everywhere. Under my bed. In my laundry basket. In the freezer, even (don't judge me for having lost stuff and found it there before). I went back to the place I'd last used my wallet. They had nothing. Went back to work. Maybe it had fallen out of my purse and was under my desk. Nope. Finally, I had to call said cute boy and cancel. 15 minutes later I found my wallet in my pajama drawer. I'd run home from dinner in the rain the night before and immediately changed into pjs. Somehow, I'd left my wallet in the drawer and closed it. When I called the boy back--voicemail.
I wanted to cry. Real bad. Instead, I walked to McDonalds (dangerously close to my apartment), got a cheeseburger and fries, came home, drank half a bottle of wine and watched three episodes of My So Called Life. All better.
So here's where REM ccomes in. At the end of the pilot episode, Angela (Claire Danes) is also having a No Good Very Bad Day. She'd gotten in a fight with her mom, her old best friend won't even look at her, her best friend just got sexually assaulted in front of her, and the boy she totally sweats doesn't even know she exists. Then she sees her dad having a heated argument with a 20 something woman. Cue the anthem for angst in the 90s.
I jest now, but be aware that last night, this moment happened at exactly the same time that the half-bottle of wine hit me. And I cried. A lot.
Why you should love it:
I don't even know how to answer that one. It's universal, right?No good very bad days befall even the best of us.
So go ahead, eat that cheeseburger. Drink that wine. Wallow in self pity while watching hours of early 90's television. But remember. You are not alone. Everybody hurts.
At about 7:00pm last night the heavens opened up and poured down rain on Washington, DC. I was eating dinner outside at the time. Cool.
About an hour later, as the storm raged on outside, the fire alarm in our building started going off for no apparent reason. About the same time, the basement started flooding. So, my housemate Carrie and I did what any rational people would do. We ignored both problems and went puddle jumping.
I may have contracted the hiv from jumping around in DC puddles.(I think at one point my exact words were, "something sharp is stuck in my shoe, I hope it's not a syringe.") BUT. It was worth it. Most fun I've had in weeks!
In the meantime, our more responsible housemate Kate called the alarm company and swept the water out of the basement. She's not bitter at all.
Why you should love it
Well for one, it was on an episode of Friday Night Lights, which has one of the best soundtracks of any show on TV right now (Let's face it, FNLis the best show on TV right now, but I'll save that for another post).
But it's also just a downright great song. For more rainy day fun, play it with your windows open in a downpour. And then watch Friday Night Lights season one episode 20-- "Mud Bowl." You won't regret it.
In light of last night's post about GM, it's just too perfect a choice.
"God made the automobile to pass all the pretty girls The smoke by the side of the road, the blues lovin' boys in tow To drive to the end of the day and bow to a borrowed flag To ride all the brave and the blind, and men without men in mind
To pass all the things He made and then never bothered to name And no one will tell the truth, and no one will hide it from you Like birds around the grave "
I think there is some truth in those lines today, for sure.
Why you should love it:
Well, the YouTube version is just Sam Beam and his guitar, which i am NEVER opposed to, but it is a lot slower and generally less musically interesting than the version that is track 14 on Around the Well, Iron & Wine's new CD. The cd version has some light percussion and really beautiful harmonies that are missing here. So, if you're an I&W fan at all or if you like folksy acoustic music, I highly recommend downloading the track. Or better yet, buy the whole CD, which is a collection of tracks recorded and previously cut from other projects. (Read the review here) I've been listening to it all week and love it!
Just a spot of personal history: I first discovered Iron and Wine my freshman year of college, when one of my high school friends brought their CD on a ski trip one weekend. We built a fire and played it on repeat all night. I've been hooked ever since.
As mentioned in my previous post, my computer was stolen a little over a month ago. About a month before that, my hard drive crashed and I lost all of my music and photos.
I don’t have very good luck with computers.
But an up side to these technical difficulties was that, not being able to rely on my faithful ITunes library, I started to venture out and discover some new music, soliciting mix CDs and downloads from friends and listening to a LOT of Pandora.
I should interrupt programming here for a brief public service announcement: If you do not use Pandora.com to listen to music.You should start. Immediately. It is BETTER than sliced bread. Maybe even better than Gmail (wrap your head around that!).
Basically, how it works is this: you type in an artist or song that you like and it generates a (Free!) radio station based on the musical qualities of your selection. For example, it is summer now, so I could pretty much lie around and listen to James Taylor all day. So I just type in “James Taylor” and Voila! I have a whole station of folksy, acoustic goodness. If you like variety, you can add other artists to the same station, or, my personal preference, you can create new stations with completely different genres and use the underutilized “quick mix” button which will make the player jump from station to station. Currently, I have my quick mix set to rotate from Ghetto Fabolousness (Kanye, Girl Talk, Beyonce), to Girlie Poppiness (Kate Nash, Ingrid Michaelson, Lilly Allen), to Indie Rockness(Arcade Fire, The Strokes, Modest Mouse), with a little Explosions in the Sky and Sufjan Stevens thrown in for good measure. The result: musical euphoria!
My office is completely open… we don’t even have cubicles. Just desks. And, if you haven’t noticed by the fact that I am posting this in the middle of my work day…I have ADD. And my job requires me to sit at my desk and research and write all day. So. To tune out the distracting work environment, I rock a pair of headphones and Pandora at all hours. Of course, now instead of being distracted by the people around me, I spend about half of my day going, “ooh, what’s this song….” But, at least I’m not blankly staring into space, right?
Speaking of ADD. I should get to the point here. Which is not Pandora at all (remember, that was just a PSA).
So, when I lost my music files the first time, my friend Michael Zanchelli started sending me a Song of the Day via Gmail. It fizzled and now it’s pretty much a song of the month, if that (hint, hint, zanchema…). BUT. The idea was pretty freaking awesome, and I have decided to employ it here.
I should forewarn you all that I am not very hip. I don't know who's big in music right now. Or who sounds like who with traces of whoever else. Or who was big like 2 years ago and is SO overdone now. I just know what I like listening to. Today. Take it or leave it.
So, that said, I now present without any further freaking ado...
LadyGoWest's Song of the Day, June 2, 2009: "Hometown Glory" by Adele
Why it's SOTD:
Are you kidding me!? Listen to that freaking voice. If I could sing like that, I would tell this place to shove it, stand on a corner and sing my little heart out. ( i'd probably make more than I'm making now, too)
Also the lyrics just SCREAM "Hey, y'all, it's June in DC"
"I like it in the city when the air is so thick and opaque I love to see everybody in short skirts, shorts and shades I like it in the city when two worlds collide You get the people and the government Everybody taking different sides."
Oh hey, 90 degrees and humid. Adele kinda makes you seem sexy.
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