Sunday, August 13, 2006

Sunday, August 13, 2006 Cats and dogs and nights out. Current mood: surprised My cat is walking, pacing rather, around the house growling. I have no idea what is going on in Feline World to elicit such behaviour. Very strange. He's all puffed up and just generally in a huff. I've tried to pick him up and calm him down but he's having none of it. I guess he just wants to walk around and growl. There was a dog barking outside and he HATES dogs, but that doesn't usually do it. Ahhh, the weird and wonderful world of the cat. I went out tonight. It wasn't much different from most of the nights out we have. Except. I wore a dress. I was supposed to go out to dinner, but that fell through, so I took a nap instead, in the dress I meant to go out in. I got a phonecall about ten and decided, hell, it's not too late, why not. I wore this dress which my bestest friend randomly sent to me in the mail because she thought it would look good on me. I denied it and said, "no way, it'll show way too much flesh." She basically said this wasn't a bad thing and if I wasn't careful, one would show up on my doorstep, which it did, delivered by a not-bad-looking Fed Ex guy. I debuted the dress a couple of weeks ago. I wore it during the day to go and get a haircut, office supplies, and my tags renewed. It had an impact I didn't expect. Everywhere I went, I was suddenly very visible. I got asked at Staples if I needed help several times. I was like, "you already helped me once." To which I got the reply, "can I help you some more?" Weird. I'm just used to buying my printer cartridges and leaving. But everywhere I went that day was like that. And I just wore it with flip-flops.' Tonight, I decided to wear it again. Apparently it was a good choice. I am, it seems, completely oblivious to people noticing me. Completely. It just doesn't occur to me. But I went out with a friend and she was like "damn, the dress was such a good choice, when eight out of ten men in a room stare at you, then it can't be that bad." I said, "don't be silly, they're not." And she said, "oh yes, they are." She's not the type to say it if it's not true. It definitely makes a difference though. I think there's something to wearing a really girly dress or skirt or something sometimes. Anyone who says you don't get treated differently hasn't done it in a while. I'm not a believer that such things can make a difference, but apparently all you have to do is show some flesh. Who knew? 4:37 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Saturday, August 12, 2006 New Toy Current mood: tired I acquired a new toy today. I got a digital camera. It's this tiny Canon with 7.1 Megapixals. While my number one love is old Nikons, old manual Nikons, sometimes they just aren't practical for dragging around in one's purse to take pictures of friends and cats and random things you see. So I finally decided to go digital. I don't have a clue how to use the thing yet. I took some pictures tonight at a friend's house, but I discovered much better ways I could have while sitting out on my front porch tonight. I will keep you updated, but I love it so far. I usually would have much more enthusiasm, but I have had about 4 and a half hours sleep in the past two days. I don't function well without sleep (and that's an understatement). 2:24 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Monday, August 07, 2006 Still Sick Current mood: sick Today there is no silver lining. I woke up today still feeling rotten. I can't believe that whatever it is I have has lasted so long. I started feeling bad on Thursday. When I went to the doctor, she did tell me that it would last for five to seven days. Well, tomorrow will be five. As of right now, I don't think I can go into work tomorrow. I hate taking time off work. I always feel like people will think I'm just slacking off. Honestly, I don't want to feel like this and I don't want to give it to anyone either. It's nasty, nasty, nasty. It's kind of an undefined sick too. I feel generally rotten - really tired, no energy, my sinuses are stuffed up, I feel dizzy, I'm coughing a little, but not badly - it's not like flu or strep throat where you want to die, but it is enough that leaving the couch/bed is a major effort. The doctor said it was going around and it's just a really nasty strain of a cold virus, but it's so bad, it's forcing people to stay home. My roommate had almost three days off work with it last week. I hope I wake up tomorrow with it magically gone so my life can go back to normal. I hate hate hate being sick. 9:31 PM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Saturday, August 05, 2006 Silver Lining Current mood: sick Isn't it always the way that you get sick right at the time you don't need to? I'm trying to be busy with school stuff, but I just can't concentrate because I've been really sick for the past couple of days. I'm hoping it will clear up tomorrow and I can get on with what I need to do. There's always a bright side though, even to being sick. Last night, I had a conversation about milkshakes and I realised that I hadn't had a milkshake in about four years, amazingly enough. I was feeling rotten and had just woken up from a nap when my roommate came in. I told her how disgusting I felt and she said, "you need a milkshake." Hmmm, I thought, synchronicity, it's been four years, why not? So off we went to Bobbie's Dairy Dip where I procured a banana pineapple milkshake. It was everything I hoped it would be. They put loads of real pineapple and banana in it and it was worth all the millions of calories it, no doubt, contains. 10:05 PM - 2 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Friday, August 04, 2006 Out on the town Current mood: so So, I listened to my gut tonight. I went out, and I went to different places. I had a hankering to try new things because I was dissatisfied with my routine. I had heard a lot about Mafiosas, from various people, so I decided to check it out. Big disappointment. We went, had a crappy waitress, waited way too long for food that, although it was decent when it finally arrived, wasn't worth the anticipation. We ordered pizza at about 8 or so and got it about 9, 9:30 ish. And they tried to give us the wrong pizza, twice. Hmmm. So in my frustration, and hungriness, I tried to order another drink. The waitress got my friend's drink and dropped it off. No comment about mine. So, uncharacteristically, I asked her rather pointedly about the status of mine. "Oh we're out of that." Hmmm. When were you planning to tell me? Then, rather absentmindedly, almost as an afterthought, she asked, "would you like something else?" At this point I thought, mmm, well at this rate another drink will take, what, another hour or so. So I said "no, don't worry about it, why don't you just get us our check?" She did, and I have to admit, that although I have been through Food Service Bootcamp, this was one of the rare times I didn't leave a 20% tip. I left 10%, barely. She was cool when it wasn't busy, but when it got busy, she ignored us, although we had been nice the whole time. We gave her the whole staring down-we want something look and she looked, and ignored (which is one of my pet peeves - just tell me you'll come back for crying out loud) and walked away. I longed for my favourite bar where all my whims are catered to. I thought, why am I giving my money to people who don't give a shit? Maybe I'm too imbued with my "local" mentality, but really, sometimes you just want what you want. Tonight, although I got to hang out with friends, which is always good, was a disappointment. I went out looking for a new and different experience and all I found was shit. I went to Mafiosas, which was new to me, and I also went to On The Rocks, which I knew I hated, but was full of (and I hate to validate my opinions in this way) was full of shallow people trying to grind (and badly, I might add) on each other. I really just want to go to a dive bar, or my "local" and have fun. I'm really not into that whole scene where single people are trying to hook up for one night of pleasure, and yeah, while it is pleasurable in its own way, for that time, it's realy not my bag, baby. I kept thinking, when do I get to go home and hang out on my deck with Stephen (my grill) and my fairy lights and my cat and just chill the hell out. I've felt this way ever since I came back from Vegas. (I went there, by the way, a couple of weeks ago). I have been trying to make Nashville into what it isn't. It isn't that, and I know it, and I should be happy. My way to do that, I think, is to concentrate on my friends, my school, and be happy with what can be found within my own sphere. I seem to generate more from that. I was truly happy to see my friends tonight, but I coouldn't give a shit about the places we went. True, I love Dan McGuinness, but tonight it was dead and uninterersting. I think that's because I was looking for something that wasn't there - it's also the lull that happens before school starts. But I thought, maybe it's all here, inside me, and I don't need to search outside of that. Much money later, I don't feel any more complete. Yet somehow, cooking for friends on my deck does that. Accomplishing stuff at school does that. Maybe there's my lesson. It's hard to quantify general dissatisfaction, but when you pull into your driveway and think, thank God I'm home, that says something, and I plan to listen. 1:19 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Tuesday, August 01, 2006 Network TV Show I Actually Like Current mood: accomplished Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities There's a network TV show I actually like. I even got off the phone yesterday to watch it. Believe me, this surprises me as much as it surprises you. It's called "How I Met Your Mother" and it's on some network channel, maybe channel 5 or something at 7:30 or 8 or 8:30 or something like that on a Monday night. It's kind of like "Friends," but, you know, funny and you don't want to shoot the characters in the head. It's about a group of late twenty somethings who live in NY (yeah, I know - this sounds familiar), who are friends and have different kinds of relationships with each other that intertwine. If you've ever seen the British version of "Coupling" then this is about as close as I've seen on American television. The episode I was watching last night involved Ted (who is adorable and whom I have a great-big crush on) going over to his best friend's house (who is a girl, and hot, and who likes him and whom he likes too) to make "juice" at 2:30 in the morning. She called him to come over and make "juice" because she's lonely. All the way over there, in the cab, he hears his mother's voice saying "nothing good ever happens after 2am." He says, "the decisions you make after 2am are inevitably the wrong ones." I'm not going to go into detall, but I can say that I chuckled in the way that painful experience makes you chuckle. Of course, in true sitcom fashion, it turns out that Ted's head is indeed pretty fuzzy after 2am and he does make some pretty awful decisions. I still love him anyway, and if I can remember my date with the television next Monday, we'll still see each other again. 10:10 PM - 1 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Saturday, July 29, 2006 Just 'cause you like it You know, I think sometimes people like music because they think they are supposed to like it. And, the reverse. i think they resist certain music because they think they ought not to like it for some reason. And yeah, I've been guilty of that. But I think once you get past your mid-twenties, if you don't have something somewhat questionable in your music listings, then (and yeah, I'm going to say it) you're somewhat questionable. Your're trying to fall into the teenage "I'm so cool" thing rather than just being who you are. Everyone has that dark side, and it seeps out through everything we do, even music. I think people are a lot more forgiving of "questionable" taste in movies and books than they are in music, but you know, sometimes, you just have to let it go and be who you are. On my myspace profile, I don't claim to like Country or Rap, but there are a couple of songs from each that, if I'm honest, I can't be ashamed to like. Do I have early Rod Stewart listed as one of my likes? No. Why not? I love the early Faces stuff. Am I ashamed? No. Did I like the "every time I scratch my nails down someone else's back" song of Alannis's ? Yep, I did. Do I like the Killers? Yep, I do (and no, I haven't heard the new stuff, so I'm not commenting, I'm purely going on Hot Fuss). Anyway, you get the point. C Currently listening : Ogden's Nut Gone Flake By The Small Faces Release date: 30 May, 2006 1:58 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Thursday, July 06, 2006 Reading Current mood: booklusty I look longingly at the profiles of people who are not currently in graduate school and drool shamelessly over the lists of books they read for pleasure. I remember those days when I read for fun. Now I pour over endless tomes of composition theory. It's not that I don't love it - but it's not the same as just reading on your own time. 11:08 PM - 3 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Saturday, July 01, 2006 On Your Own Now, I know people in today's society scoff at the idea of a person drinking by herself. Bah, humbug I say to that. Sometimes there's nothing more soothing to the soul than spending a Friday night (or whichever night one should choose) listening to music and sipping a chosen alcoholic beverage. Sometimes only doing these things alone can allow you to reap the full benefits. Sometimes, just by being alone, your senses are heightened by the experience. I am, of course, listening to South and drinking wine. I think if I were doing that right now with someone else, it might cheapen the experience. I'm enjoying it so much myself that I don't see how it could be any better. Currently listening : From Here On In By South Release date: 19 February, 2002 12:54 AM - 4 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Wednesday, June 21, 2006 World Cup Fever Category: Sports I have spent my entire day watching World Cup matches. I am now officially a victim of World Cup fever. This morning, I watched a great game between Mexico and Portugal. There were three goals scored in the first thirty minutes. It was pretty intense. Then Mexico missed a penalty and couldn't draw with Portugal. Then one of their men dived in the box and got sent off for arguing with the referee. Good stuff! The stakes weren't too high in that game because it was pretty much ensured that both teams were already going through to what the commentators keep annoyingly calling "The Round of Sixteen." Why do sports commentators latch onto a phrase and keep saying it over and over? I'm currently watching Argentina and the Netherlands. I just want the Netherlands to beat Argentina. I love to watch people trash Argentina - dirty rotten cheats that they are. They're not being too nasty in this game, but they don't even really have to win it, so they're not bothering to be their usual nasty-horrible selves. I haven't yet managed to catch either an England match or a U.S. match. I would like to see both as those are the teams I'm technically supporting. Sometimes I'm a adamant reverse fan though, as in the case of Argentina and I will watch matches just based on who I want to lose. Anyway, I now have the fever. Don't think you'll hear anything non-soccer related from me in the next week and a half.