Sunday, November 30, 2003
So - this morning while I was lying in bed... I started thinking, "Hey! I have a vacation coming up!" But shortly afterwards, it dawned on me that this VK isn't really my idea of a pleasurable escape from my life. Instead, I'm going to be stuck in my hometown of
Steamboat the whole time. Which, as nice as it is to see my family and all, to me being in my hometown is a very stuck feeling.
I hate feeling stuck and feeling like things are slow moving... hence why I live in the city!! I like options and I like having things moving around me... and choosing to be slow here feels comfy and by choice... not like there, where it just feels like nothing is going anywhere.
Now, I know some of you are saying, "Oh sure,
poor you, you have to spend winter break in a beautiful resort town and not
Small Town, Ohio!"
I know... I should feel lucky in that regard. I mean, really when it comes down to it - it probably won't be
that bad. I'll hang out w/ old friends and get to spend time with my family and meet their new little dog. And go snowboarding (if it's not too deathly cold)... and we can go sledding, and drink hot chocolate and soak in the hot tub.
Oh but how I wouldn't give *anything* to be on a sandy warm beach instead!!! All I have to look forward to is 25+ feet of snow, ice, bundling up with 10 layers of clothing and feeling my nose hairs freeze breathing in the 5 degree weather!! What's worse is that every winter I go there, my skin gets horribly dry and I feel itchy and uncomfortable in my clothes. hmph.
Plus, I'm going to miss my friends here :( and my kitty... and twistedly enough, my work and my computer :) I don't want to be stuck somewhere not able to do anything for *my life*. I don't have enough time for it as it is let alone being away from it for several days!!
Yes, I'm exposing what a total control freak I am :) And this is where I slowly start slipping out of reality and start dreaming of a delicious tropical vacation on a far away island.... where I'll be in my bikini all day, getting massaged with oil, sipping on yummy drinks, tanning and swimming in the hot sun with the perfect breeze.....
I've hit a wall. I want to hole up in my little house for days and not let anyone in. This is my red flag for "willo needs some
me time". Which, being the social butterfly I am, will only last for a couple days and I'll eventually be craving human interaction again... but right now I just want to selfishly get my life back in order.
I stayed home all day yesterday and lastnight and it was so nice. It hasn't even had a chance to get really nice in a 'productive clean my house way' yet, cuz it just feels so good to be home and actually chill and do nothing for awhile. I worked for most of the day yesterday and then stopped around 8:30 or so, made dinner and tried to catch up on a little TIVO (before it started deleting recorded shows, since I haven't watched anything in weeks!!). It felt good to just chill and zone out... but it got late before I knew it and I had once again put myself to bed later than I would have liked.
I'm tired of giving people a line about being so busy. I feel like I've been bitching and whining about it... which I hate, too. I mean, I definitely have been sooo busy, but as with everything it's all by choice! I chose to take on these projects... and I choose to still go see 3-4 live shows a week... :) If I was only more of a dork, I'd be so productive! :p
Really being this busy with projects is so fantastic... and I think more than anything it's just surprised me! How is it possible that every day seems so short and my list is still so long? Let alone all the things I want and need to do for me! I look around and it seems like nobody else has this much to do... Everyone else had a luxurious 4 day weekend this weekend and I just felt like any other day where I have to just hurry up and start working to utilize the hours. So today I woke up thinking, "You know what? I'm tired of being sooo terribly busy and feeling like I can't catch up! I am starting Project Get Willo's Life Back in Order?!" This means cleaning my house, kicking this godfersaken cold once and for all by trying to get to bed early, and working as much as possible in between to get all the things done that I have to do.
*sigh* doesn't that sound familiar? Isn't that what I've been trying to do? That's what feels so f*g out of control is that I feel like I've been trying to do that and it's not working!!!
So part of my new project is that I will change the way I think of my busy-ness. Instead of bitching and whining, instead I will use the power of positive thinking! (a.k.a. maintain the illusion of control!) I will simply start saying "I am accomplishing everything on time and my life is in perfect order!" and "I have plenty of time!" and "My house is perfectly clean!" and maybe all of it will magically start happening :)
So, first things first... and today, as much as I don't want to, I'm getting my ass out of the house and going to the gym. I know some of this funk can be lifted just getting my body moving... and as much as I want to justify I don't have time, I know that going will only make me feel better, which will only make me more productive in my life. Or atleast I hope so, cuz right now I've got some serious rainy day blues.
Saturday, November 29, 2003
I want
these and
these and
this and
this.
Friday, November 28, 2003
I only have a minute to post - but wanted to report that our Turkey Day Adventure? went swimmingly. Everyone was so welcoming and we all definitely share the love of having an absolute throw-down good time. Very, very cool. We drank lots-o-wine, had an amazing FEAST and then all cozied up on these kick ass couches and watched Finding Nemo.
Later on Rick's other friends met up with us there, joined the party for awhile - and we all rallied to go out & hit a few bars (Rick & I were psyched on how empty
Sadie's was... we had full reign over the jukebox!).
All & all just a rockin night - I even got this *amazing* new ring from awesome lady,
Darilyn. It's so rad... it's a big red stone surrounded in a fat silver setting... and I was coveting it so much, she just gave it to me!! That was probably one of the *best* things about my night. Any of you who know me well know that I'm a total ring-a-holic, so I'm really excited about it :)
Today I worked all day (or as much of the day as I could get myself working anyway) and now I'm about to hop out for some sushi with friends - and then off to the Sondre Lerche show with Rebecca, Jem & Tania. Oh, and
Aaron (ex-
bamboozled youth/design student) is up here for the weekend from UCLA so he's joining us, too! yay!
I will still be posting a write up about Les Savy Fav - and photos too! Stay tuned.
update - here's the
photos
p.s. My GCB came out great! However, lesson #2: Don't add the +1 cans of water to the condensed soup... I did, thinking thats what I needed to do (they don't tell you on the recipe!) and not realizing until later when it seemed so sloshy that I shouldn't have. Oops! So I just cooked it a little longer. :) However, between that & then having it stay heated up in the oven for a couple more hours till we all sat down to eat, it seemed a little off... but it was still good!!! :)
Thursday, November 27, 2003
I'm listening to some
Sondre Lerche, watching
my cat freak over his mouse (I give him 3 minutes before it gets lost under the couch again) and trying to get a few little things done before going over to the "Orphan Thanksgiving Dinner" party.
I'm attempting to make a nice Green Bean Casserole for everyone. I personally *love* GBC - and last year attempted to make it & learned the hard way you don't want the no salt added green beans... you need lots o salt to make this dish good :) We picked up some wine & Rick's buddy Bruno flew in from Brazil yesterday, so he's joining us, too. Should be a great time!
Lastnight's show ROCKED THE F*in HOUSE!!!!!! Les Savy Fav - oh my gawd the lead singer is HILARIOUS!!! I'll have to tell you all about it... but right now I need to quickly start some laundry, finish up something for a client quick, make a GBC, hop in the shower & then go eat some TURKEY!! :) 2 hours to do all that... think I can do it?
update: here's
photos from the les savy fav show - you probably had to be there to appreciate these. :)
Hope you all are enjoying your Thanksgivings around the world. mmmoooii!!!
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Man, those Swedes - they just know how to stand on a stage like rockstars. Their stance, holding the guitars, staring out into the crowd. Not to mention play - they totally rocked!!!
They played practically every song on
their newest album, which Rick bought for us about a month or so ago... so it just made the show that much better that we knew every song and then to see them perform em sooo well. They didn't let me down *one bit*. They are excellent live and really know how to get the crowd goin'. I wasn't just bobbin my head - I was full force jumpin up & down!! It was awesome. Definitely a show I'd see again in a second!
I'm moving to Sweden now.
p.s. How psyched am I, I have another *KICK ASS* show to go to tonite!? GAWD, life is *good*!!!!!!
After posting that message yesterday I've had a few concerned friends and darling aquaintances from afar, emailing and IMing to see if I've found something yet. One email was from a total stranger here in SF who apparently hosts a big Orphan Dinner Thanksgiving at his loft in Mission/Potrero. They seem like a lot of fun peeps around my age who like to drink wine & have a good time - sounds like my kinda crowd!
Update: turns out my friend Rachel knows a ton of these peeps - and she used to work w/ Ian who sent me the CDs
last week. So cool! ha! This is *such* a small town!
Rick is sorta orphaned too, so I think we're both going to go over there and eat Thanksgiving w/ 25-30 new friends! :) haha! We love meeting new people - so I'm actually really looking forward to it. Thank you Brian W.!!!
Mmm, I'm getting quite excited for the delicious smells that fill a house on Thanksgiving Day... !!
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
The
Mando Diao show is tonite! I'm pretty psyched to see this band play live. I sure as hell hope they're good. I hate falling in love with a CD and getting all excited to see a show to find they suck live. The pressure is on, Swedey boys!! They have a couple video's on their site that make em look like they'll be a fun band. I'll of course bring my good attitude and give them the benefit of the doubt, be sure my head is "bobbable" for any tunes that may strike it's fancy to do just that. I'm no stiff at these shows - I'll shake if I'm moved to! shake shake shake it!
Ok so then tomorrow night is
Les Savy Fav at GAMH - which I'm psyched about TOO! They're more like that NY punk rock sound that I *luv*... so between the two of em we've got some pretty rockin shows! wahoo! vs. the more emo slower type stuff we've been seeing... It's good to have bands that make you wanna move and shake shake shake it.
I'm starting to get white... I need a tan. I wish I was going to Costa Rica like
Jee and
Sarah!! My mom even just got back from a quick Cozumel trip. I'm pretty much *always* dreaming of tropical vacations. Sandy - if you're reading this - I *WILL* be coming to see you in Maui dammit! (and
email me for goodness sakes, how are you guys doing out there?)
I'm still sitting here working away, wishing someone was cleaning my house. (I know, don't we all?) I think that's most likely how I'll spend my holiday (thanksgiving) morning: Cleaning.
Speaking of - Can you believe I don't have anywhere to go eat turkey on Turkey Day?!
Matt & I had a whole
group of friends we used to do Thanksgiving with every year... in fact last year we even held it at our house for the first time!
We had a great group of friends we always did Easter and even most 4th of July's, etc. It was nice. Now 2 or 3 of them are married w/ kids, one couple is moving away I heard, and Matt & I have split up. Life goes on I guess... it's just weird to feel so orphaned this year.
I wish I could even go back and be with my family for 24 hours. They're all having dinner at my
Aunt & Uncle's new home in Denver. I could see my family and everyone's kiddos (cousins of mine) for the first time in a couple years since the last
O'Brien reunion.
Then again I am pretty easy - I could just as easily go get some take out somewhere, too. But then I start thinking of homemade pies, and stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean cassarole... I'm sure I'll find someplace by Thursday.
I post a lot of movies & I often get asked what the best way is to optimize video for the web. So forever in the left column I had a "Here Soon (possibly)" thing saying I was going to post my tips for optimizing video for the web using Quicktime Pro. It's nothing fancy by any means - but a lot of newbie digital camera users have the option for 30sec-1min video clips packaged in their nifty little camera, but then don't know how easy it is to take those 7MB files and make them only 1MB or so for the web & email.
So, it's pretty basic - and I'm sure could use some advice from someone who's played around with it more... but here's my
Tips on Optimizing Quicktime Vids - and even a
How-To on making Poster Frames.
And show me your movies! Or better yet - submit them to
WeeklyDV.com!
Monday, November 24, 2003
Huzzah! I didn't realize
Haloscan was so easy! cool!
I've been wanting to ask you all - Do any of you use that check box thing up there? The "Click this to open links in new window" thing? I think it's a cool feature - and I used to want blogs to open things in a new window - but now I like it when they don't. So - just wondering if
any of you use that.
UPDATE 11/25, 12pm: Wouldn't ya know it implementing my comments messed w/ that code for the "open links in new window" thingy - so I stripped it out. Ajax might be the smarty pants that comes up w/ a solution - so keep commenting if you DID in fact use that handly lil' thing. (and if you don't know what the heck I'm talking about now, since it's no longer on my page - then don't worry about it. )
Alright - I must get myself tucked in now so I can get up for the gym tomorrow! (my only motivation is to read
my book!)
Update again: I didn't go workout - cuz I stayed up till 2am implementing Haloscan! And I'm *STILL* trying to kick this godfersaken cold!! ARG!
I like all things smooth.
I like friendships that go smooth... and
Craigslist deals that go smooth. I like smooth clean sheets - and pretty smooth
new CDs.
My arms are really smooth right now cuz I just showered and put on a bunch of yummy smelling lotion. As I type I can feel my smooth buttered up arms greasin around on the desk. (uh... that part is nicer than it may sound :)
Friendster is so *not* smooth. GAWD. Can that site get any more SLOW? hmph!
My computer not having enough RAM, and pissing me off on a daily basis because of it, is SOO not smooth.
My kitchen floor is way *not* smooth because it needs to be mopped worse than possibly any kitchen floor in this whole city. I hate mopping. And scrubbing the tub. Seriously, does anyone want to take care of those two things for me? Actually - if you can do that & take care of the damn dog next door who barks ALL. THE. DAMN. TIME. that would be great. Cute dog & all - but someone save her from her miserable "I'm so bored all I can do is bark to keep myself company" existance in her backyard that is LITERALLY pushing me over the edge!!!! I wake up to it every morning & have to hear it all day. That put's serious ripples in my otherwise smooth like butta' disposition.
My day has gone pretty smooth. Working my booty off has helped... but the long list still remains. Working hard is fun though... and rewarding. Concept on that one, huh?
You know what smooth and creamy delight I get to have later? Homemade punkin pie!!! Lyne unfortunately can't come to Kristin's dinner party tonite, but I still get to swing by & pick up her pie... oh man am I excited!! I love whip cream so much I'm almost a tad more excited for that!!
Sunday, November 23, 2003
Lastnight, after some *delicious*
sushi, I went & checked out
Kill Bill - finally! It was good... funny in a badass, bloodbath sorta way. But I liked the story telling and animation - very cool.
I still can't wait to see
Lost In Translation!!!!
I got a great package in the mail yesterday w/ ton of new music from this guy Ian:
The Stills,
Longwave,
Clientele,
Jim Yoshii PileUp (which he plays in), a mix,
Kelly Stoltz and maybe even something else that I can remember right now. Anyway - it's always great to get goodies via mail like that - I'm psyched!!!
OK back to work..
Saturday, November 22, 2003
Lastnight Rick & I went to
The Darkness show at Slims. These guys are *hilarious*, not to mention talented musically. If you haven't heard of them yet - you've got to go
check out their videos right this second.
They're actually playing "I Believe In a Thing Called Love" a ton on LIVE105 and MTV these days and apparently they're playing for stadiums of like 15K people in Europe - so we were really lucky to see them at a small venue like Slims! The band is like this British metal band - sorta like
Queen with the
spandex & hittin the high notes - but they also can laugh at themselves. Too many musicians take themselves so seriously these days - so it's always refreshing to see a band that can make hilarious videos and have such a great time rockin out.
The show totally ROCKED and was PACKED at Slims. I got super lucky scoring tickets last week at the last minute after they were all sold out. I emailed a guy on
CL and when he wrote back saying he was just looking for the highest bidder (which I'm not such a fan of), I simply offered him just a little over face value and said pretty, pretty please - hoping that
somehow it would work.
Turns out the CL guy took a peek around my site and saw
my Mars Volta review. He had wanted to go to that show too, and after reading my review & seeing my site he could tell I'd be someone who would appreciate this show. YAY!!! I was thrilled and so grateful. He had even flown down to see them in LA! Anyway - nice guy, we were so psyched to have the hookup.
The show itself was awesome! Rick and I are spoiled on our small venue front row spots we score at almost every show - and this one was so packed we couldn't get up much closer than probably 20 rows back, but it was still an awesome show. The lead, Justin had originally come out in some leather pants & some crazy tshirt - which I was bummed about cuz I was set on seeing the spandexy outfits :)
However, it was hilarious to find out this image of a
flames tatoo on his pelvis is really his tatoo there!!
He also had one of his arm that was classic -
his name with a lighting bolt... It was so
Steve-O, Rick & I loved it. Luckily about 1/2 way through he changed into some of that good ol' spandex - aww yaa!! And then even changed one more time! I loved it & the crowd was so psyched - and Justin had all of our thumbs up in the air all at once which was hilarious and of course the classic lighter tribute. Totally ROCK. So much fun!
After that we decided to head over to Rick's friend's opening night for a new bar here in town. Its where that Jack's Elixer bar used to be (not sure of the new name). We went hoping to run into some friends of his and I thought we might see
Sarah there, too, since a couple months back when Rick & Sarah met they realized they both knew "H"! And we did! She was there w/ Mat, Kathleen and some others. It was great to see her & rap w/ Mat about what we missed at the TV on the Radio show last Tuesday. Much fun.... it was a fantastic Friday night :)
Friday, November 21, 2003
Sorry - I meant to post this yesterday but just worked, worked, worked instead.
Thursday night
Jane & I hit
Sleepy Jackson at
Ameoba - they were great!! I was psyched to have been listening to
their CD for awhile. And even as *bright* and acoustic the Ameoba setup is, they sounded fantastic. On the postcard they handed out it had a quote from Rolling Stone I hadn't seen yet - and I thought it summed it up perfectly:
"The evidence here suggests the Sleepy Jackson could make a great punk album, or a great country album, or a great psychedelic album. Instead, they've simply made a great album, and one of the best debuts of the year." ~ Rolling Stone
Here's some
more reviews of their new album, if you're interested. The lead singer is really talented. Go get the album - they're awesome.
After that Jane & I couldn't muster up the energy to clack through the used CD's at Ameoba - so we went & had dinner at
Asqew Grill before I dropped her off & I headed over to meet Rick for the
Broken Social Scene show at
GAMH.
The opener
Jason Collett was pretty good - he reminded me a lot of Ryan Adams.... we were a little caught up in just taking notice to him being all about becoming
someone like Ryan Adams, but he actually does have a nice voice and a fairly good stage presence - so I'm sure if we actually knew some of his songs we woulda been having fun like some of the *true* fans jammin out with him in the front row. He ended up playing w/ everyone the rest of the night through, which was cool too.
Stars went on 2nd and I thought they were great. I want that CD actually. The lead singer guy was "interesting" but harmless and I kinda liked how cooky he was coming off - but then again, I have a soft spot for freaks. And the other lead, Amy Millan has SUCH a beautiful voice (OMG!!!) just beautiful... I can't wait to hear more of her.
About this time I was starting to totally stress out - I'm on all these major deadlines and despite the great music I felt myself just totally freaking about all the work I have to do - and who was I to think I could just be here at this show and not home working!??! I tell you this for the review to come...
Broken Social Scene: Again - so happy that I had their CD for awhile before I saw them... but I am not even sure I would have needed it because I *LOVED* their set. They opened w/ the instrumental songs they have (no vocals) and I was so into it. By the 3rd song, my stress had melted away (well, for the most part - enough to let myself stay for one more hour & THEN go home & work till 2am!)... I was just loving every bit of their diversity, energy, style, horns!!!!They're all just phenominal musicians. So professional and such a family on stage - it was EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wish I would have gone to this show Wednesday night - so that I could have told 10 more people to go w/ me again lastnight.
Interestingly enough my friend Rick didn't get into it as much as me... Granted I think he was just in the mood for a more rockin show (which he got lastnight at
The Darkness!!!!!!) But it's funny cuz it was our same experience w/
Mars Volta where I totally freaked I loved them so much - and he was like "ya, it was good, sure".
Anyway, that's the best thing about music, it moves everyone in different ways..... I personally feel HEALED by a great show. I felt great after lastnight's and was SOO happy that despite my work and stress I stayed for the experience. It was fantastic.
Thursday, November 20, 2003
here's something to spruce up that last boring post.. I was just going through some old files and found this funny animation of myself:
This is back when I had bangs... about a year ago... very
Chan Marshall looking at it now.
Now my bangs are all grown out.
see?
What's hilarious is that shot of me w/ my mouth open (if you're not seein that you might need to refresh) totally reminds me of my good friend
Michelle from HS. The girl cracks me up - I swear she should be on SNL. One of the best things about her is the hilarious faces she makes... I can't even count how many times the girl has had me crying laughing. God love'r.
I feel like I have nothing interesting to say right now.. but I always think that when I start posting and then once I'm rollin' stuff comes out and it might be sorta slightly interesting - depending on who you are out there.
Part of the reason I feel particularly boring right now is that my stupid sore throat is back. hmph. :( I have been taking such good care of myself! I've been taking vitamins and garlic and Emergen-C and orange juice and drinking a ton of fluids.... Really good besides maybe getting like 6.5-7 hours of sleep a couple nights in a row. Do I really need 8 hours a night all the time now? 28 is so *old* all of a sudden. I can't party like I used to without paying for it the next day... and now I have to consistantly sleep more? I don't have time for that!! This getting older crap is overrated! Oh wait, then again nobody said it was good anyway huh? Well, actually I did. Personally I can't wait to be 30 something. The 20's are fun and all - but a lot of the first 1/2 was just painful figuring out who I am crap....... and I'm already loving 28 more than any other year in my life... it's only getting better. Except at this rate I'll need a cane and a urine bag soon. (I just said "urine" for the first time on my blog.)
Matt (my "ex") came over for lunch today. It was the first time we've seen eachother in weeks... he's been gone away to Italy & the East coast. I loved his family so much - it's weird to think I might not see them all ever again. He brought me over some of the Chicken Caccitore (too lazy to look up the right spelling of that) he made lastnight. It was yummy. He's an amazing cook - he was always way more into it than I feel like I will ever be... which worked out nicely for me in the 4+ years we were together. He always made us some really yummy food.
So he got to see
Kazoo and reminded me I need to be, as he says, "combing the shit out of him". Matt's a big proponent of the combing. I totally need to, too - especially with him not shedding as much as the spring - my poor lil' buddy boy has puked a couple times in the last 24 hours due to hairball action.
Wow, this is exciting huh? urine & puke so far. waahoo, this site is so cutting edge. (she says with a straight face, looking tired and bitter at this stupid goddamn cold that won't just go the F*** away!)
Oh let's see - so anyway - Matt brought a new toy - we looked at photos from his trip - blah blah blah. It was good to see him... and I got
the new Ryan Adams from him, too.
I have a lot of work to do... I have so much work right now - it's a great thing, but stressful. Especially when really I'd love to take a nap and see if it'd help my dumb cold take a hike to a far away place. But alas - more work & then off to a show later this evening. I'm not missing this one - I missed 2 shows already this week due to work and being sick. I'm actually jonesin' to get better so I can party! How sad is that? it might be alarming actually - but really it's just my plight to feel normal.
alrighty - boring mcboringster signing off.
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Check it!! When I signed this
5 days ago there was 99 signatures - now there's over 3000!! WAHOO!!
If you haven't signed it yet and you live in the bay area, please sign the petition to
Keep BART running till 3am!
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
- went to
deathcab show lastnight - i might write a review... might not. i like em but it didn't move me. there - that's my review.
- worked all day today
- worked tonite, had to cancel my plans to hit the tv on the radio/kill me tomorrow show
- working now and don't have time to post
- got my zappos shoes, tried them on quick - but need to do it again w/ a pair of jeans on to really figure out which ones i like. 1 out of 3 is already nixed... so it's between 2 of em. and really they're not comparing to how great my old boots were :(
- i'm addicted to
ajax's blog, but that might just be me. i'm only telling you because i'm trying to "share". i'm a share-er.
-
kazoobie is *really* into his mouse. he keeps finding it and batting it around the house and then losing it. and then finding it again, and whipping it up in the air and jumping around! and then he looses it again. then he finds it again and zoom it's across the floor! and he likes to chew on it. it's hardly recognizable anymore. when he looses it he misses it and meows till i help him find it. i just love that fuzzy guy. (my kitty that is, not that mangey, wet chewed on toy mouse)
- does anyone have an extra 24 hours layin around they could lend me? i hate time.
Monday, November 17, 2003
As I sit here & eat my
yummy turkey burger, I will post a little too.
First of all, I'm in love with
zappos.com so much I want to marry it. I posted about that in the one that got lost - all about how f*in great this site is that it's basically this site with a HUGE selection where you can find exactly what you're looking for at a click(s) of a button and pick a couple out, get them sent to you - decide which one's you like & send the one's you don't want back - no strings attached!
Aaaand free shipping to you AND free return shipping! No JOKE!
Ya see, I have been looking for a replacement for these boots I used to wear all the time that busted back in February (and after 3 years the soles were kinda getting uncomfortable & such anyway), but I haven't been able to find anything in stores... nor do I really have the time or patience to wade downtown in the masses, through the stores, that don't have my size - blah blah blah. So I found some I like on there & ordered 3 different pairs and I hope one works out! So the COOLEST thing is they upgraded my shipping to 1 business day!! AND then they even wrote to say something was wrong w/ one of the boxes - so they credited me $5. Wow are they making me love them more or what!? I do. I want to marry them.
Except this is where I'll add a relationship note - you HAVE to be funny to be with Willo. I almost went on a date with some cute guy last week (a fireman no less, some of you ladies probably get off on that eh?)... but boy was he BORING!!!!! How can I talk on the phone w/ you 2 different times and not laugh
once? In fact, me being fairly chatty - so chatty I could probably hold up a conversation with a fence for christ sake - with this guy I was like, "Soooooo....... " and - "Uh huh, riiiiiight... well then...." And I think on every call I was the one that was like, "well, gotta go!" thinking if I could just hold out for the dinner out (cuz like
Kat says, "A girl's gotta eat!") that maybe he'd get more interesting through dinner and a few drinks. But I couldn't do it. I thought I better save the embarrassment of me falling asleep in my soup - so I called the date off. I'm relieved, but my girlfriends who love firemen were sad - they were rootin' for me to atleast get as far as having him naked in just his yellow suspender'd firemen pants and to take a photo for them. I admit that might have been fun... but there's gotta be rental places around here that rent those puppies out? Hmm, I'll just find a funny guy who also loves music as much as I do... and we'll see if we can't work that out ladies. :)
Alright - so we've covered my great lunch, the kick ass shoe site and a personality requirement to date Willo... The only other thing is I wanted to say is...
shoot I forgot. I'll post it later if I remember. Time to get back to work!
i need to hire someone to come over around 11:30 every night to tuck me in. that way I'd really go to bed instead of staying up and realizing it's almost 2am and I really should have gone to bed 2 hours ago.
Sunday, November 16, 2003
Gravy Train wasn't the show I thought it would be. Rick & I had bought tix after hearing that the show was hilarious and it sounded like a good time... especially after seeing
their website.
Turned out Rick had tix to
Cracker at Bimbos, so I brought
Lyne &
Rachel along for a girls night.
Rebecca (of
Becca's Picks) even showed up later w/ some friends of hers, too!
Lyne took off after awhile, she had a fun party to go to and spending the evening surrounded by 15-17 year olds wasn't her cuppa tea. Understandable!! She did however just love their little 80's outfits. We saw some awesome ones... Even Rachel had to hold back from telling a few of them that she had that exact same outfit on in 8th grade (20 years ago!) :) It's pretty wild to see trends cycle through again. We saw headbands, leg warmers, shorty shorts and some kid had totally sewn his own crazy get up. Quite creative really!
The most entertaining part of the night was Willpower, who's basically Will Schwartz of
Imperial Teen. Which means nothing to me, cuz I never listened to them.. but he was great. He sings and was totally on fire. His songs were really fun to dance too - and soo sexy!! He was so fun to watch - and he even had little back up dancers where they all did choreographed little moves in full 80's regalia. It was awesome.
Gravy Train however was..... oy... I dunno... I mean I guess if I listened to the CD a lot and new the words already - and I'd had like 8 drinks, I'd have probably have had a better time. But instead I had these teeny bopper girls totally making out in front of me and waay to into my personal space to the point I had to keep yelling STOP-IT! to make them stop deep-throating eachother all over the place while I was trying to watch the show - not to mention the time the one girl was telling a story soo loud about "this one time she was so coked-up she couldn't even... " oy... kids these days!!
The most over the top part was the ultra-OUT black boy of Gravy Train who just has no fear in his little tighty whities, gettin up on stage and shakin his business everywhere. Which is fine and all - and most certainly welcome there in the Sea of Youth?, all of which seemed "queer cuz it's cool" - but it got a little too much for me after
somehow his little tighties got a rip in them, so the last 1/2 of the show was pretty much him shakin his assless underweared booty aaall over the place. Poll dancing and all. The boy's got a future at one of the gay sex clubs downtown for sure... but that wasn't what I had paid to see lastnight and just overall wasn't that impressed.
I wish I had gone to the Cracker show instead.
Yesterday
the Six Girls planned a day together: Brunch at the Embarcadero Farmers Market - (which is now called
The Ferry Building Marketplace) & a shopping trip to the
Red Dot Outlet. For me this was a TOTAL luxury, since usually my Saturday mornings are practically like every other day where I just get up & start working... (which I *should* have done yesterday, too since I'm still trying to catch up like crazy - but I let myself go anyway. Yes, I'm feelin the guilt!!)
In addition to us six, Ashley brought her lovely friends
Marissa & Russ. Marissa is the most adorable pregnant woman I think I've ever seen :) They're an adorable couple. We also invited
Jane Pinkard along, who constantly amazes me how adorably sweet as can be she is.
::::::
CRAP!!!!!!!! The rest of this post just got wiped out :(
BLAH!!!!!!!!!!!
SOMETIMES I HATE BLOGGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm sorry but I'm not writing it again.
f*** f*** f*** f*** f***
Friday, November 14, 2003
My fabulous friend,
Jish (who's been givin me some
postcard lovin lately - wahoo!), just
recently posted about his
uber-metrosexual skin care regimen!! And I say, good for him!! Moisturizing and taking care of your skin isn't for just the ladies! I personally ♥ LOVE ♥ a man with soft skin and one who cares
a little about those wrinkles forming. I have encouraged many boys in my life to moisturize!
First of all, (as you may not be able to imagine) I was a total pizza face when I was young. Well, not total pizza face in high school, but it felt like it, as I battled greasy skin and breakouts for sure. But there was a stint between high school and in the first year of college - around that "Freshman 15" time when all we were eating was large greasy pizzas and beer till 2:30 in the morning? oh ya.. my face and my hips saw that action tenfold! uug! But I actually blame it all on that horrible skin regimen Clinique has that just dried my face out soo bad that it broke out even worse. It was horrible - and in college I had to get on
major medication for it which gave me nightmares and my skin literally flaked off - it sucked! :( The happy ending to that was that I started working out like crazy... I had a lovely routine walking around Wash park in Denver every day for an hour w/ my walkman - and lost 20lbs!! My face cleared up and I felt great. Anyway - that was a dumb painful memory story way to get to telling you why I believe so much in good skin care.... here's what I do now....
In general I try to use more natural products... and as many of my friends (and long-time readers) know - I LOVE LOVE LOVE Origins. I can feel (reasonably) good about their ingredients since they try to gear their stuff to the more au-natural! For YEARS I've sworn by their Fine Tuner moisturizer, which they don't display anymore, but it has so many long time users, you can go ask for it by name and they'll get it for you. It's the best for combination skin - I just recently stepped up the moisturizing ladder and now I use their
Look Alive moisturizer during the day - and their
Night-A-Mins moisturizer at night (it has this yummy tangerine smell to it!) and sometimes I use the
Starting Over and the
Eye Doctor. See? I'm a *nut* for Origins!!
I use
Aveeno Skin Clarifying cleanser face wash and LOVE it. It takes of makeup in a breeze (which I'm sure all you men need right? :p ), a little goes a long way, it's inexpensive and it doesn't dry out my face horribly bad like some. (It's soap-free and oil-free!) I have tried some Neutrogena SPF Moisturizer and am currently using an
Aveeno SPF Moisturizer (that is if my skin *ever* sees the light of day, which these days isn't too often sadly enough!)
Every once and awhile I'll exfoliate w/ those little scrubby pads, too. It's pretty basic - but the older I get I am so serious about moisturizing and SPF protection. Make sure you take your makeup off at night, too - someone I know sleeps in hers every night and that's so bad!
So there ya have it. Now go out & MOISTURIZE!!!
p.s. While I'm just being totally girlied out - I just HAVE to add, Origins makes this great product called
Underwear for Lashes and it's the BEST!!! It really does make such a difference in making your lashes fuller & longer. You put it on under your normal mascara - which I used to use Lancome for years but just recently coverted to
L'oreal's 3D Architect Mascara - and love it! :)
Keep BART running till 3am!!
SIGN THIS PETITION!!
I could have been at an AWESOME show tonite* in no time and come back all on the safe lil' BARTy-poo if the damn thing would run after midnight!!! But noooo-ooo-ooo... somehow a long time ago the ol' farts on the BART commitee thought nobody needed a ride after 12am... What kind of insanity is that!? There are TONS of Bay Area peeps that want to go to & from SF/East Bay for concerts, the airport, bars, theatre productions, dinners, friends houses and more. The worst part is that it's *no doubt* MANY people drive drunk to/from SF to East Bay due to the lack of alternative transportation.
That's why this petition is a great way for us to speak up & request that they atleast run one train an hour till 3am. Please
go sign it & pass it on!!
YAY for the petition people for getting this started - please help spread the word and let's make some change!
*Well, I was gonna go if I wasn't sick AND BART would ride my tipsy booty home! So there!
Thursday, November 13, 2003
I'm making turkey burgers & watching
Orange County tonite (finally). Should be pretty funny. Funnier than the last movie I saw,
Punch Drunk Love... boy was that wierd and nothing like I expected it to be.
I *still* haven't seen
Lost in Translation yet either! I might go tomorrow - even if I have to go by myself. But that'd be no fun - anyone wanna go?
Didn't hit
The Rapture show tonite due to being "under the weather" - and I'm saving my energy for some ridiculous good times standing around with a bunch of 16 year old girls at the
Gravy Train show this weekend. ha! I'm 16 still, too!! :p I only know that there's gonna be a bunch of youngins there cuz when I mentioned it to the kids at
BAM, they said 1/2 their school was gonna be there. It's actually become quite common us standing around in a sea of youth. (that should be a band name: Sea of Youth, prolly already is.) Well, we have the drinking stamp - so there - hah!!
Ok - off to get a little more work done & then it's finally chill time.
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
(I wrote this lastnight but then blogger went down, so it's just going up now)
I am sick :( AGAIN! I was just sick
2 months ago (in live music terms that was right around the
hot, hot heat show) But to be sick again only 2 months later!? Good christ people, germs are contagious - stay home!!! I think I got it at the gym (eww) and hypocritically I must admit I probably gave it to someone else by being a "trooper" and going to the gym anyway this week despite my phlem. baah.
So, I know it's probably apparent why I'm sick - being the rockstar concert goer that I am... but lest you forget I do actually work my ass off too!! I just don't post about it. I feel like all my friends get so tired of hearing how damn busy I am. I literally wake up & work all day and then leave at 7 or 8 to a show - and that's just a couple nights a week... there's a couple days I work all day & all night - and most weekends too! Tonite I went & worked w/ the
BAM kids and then I went grocery shopping... (because I swear the only time I can find to grocery shop is like at 10pm these days!) all to get home & have to work a little before I could finally crash out.
It's horrible when you're sick how early in the morning & late at night is when you feel the shittiest. Really bad for me since I'm such a night owl - it ruins my whole night mojo when I usually get so much done. I was super spacey at the grocery store... my credit card looked familiar and pretty, but no sh*t it didn't work cuz I was using the wrong one with the wrong pin - boy was I out of it!!
Anyway - so just cuz all I post about is all my good times, don't think I'm not workin my bootay off too! :) It's just a tad less interesting. Well, not to me cuz I love it - and I'm LOVING all my clients lately. I just haven't felt like blogging about it till it's all live and stuff. I have a terrific handful of clients keeping me busy and I have no complaints about that at all :) It's just that lately I've felt like I'm scrambling to keep up with it all... Some things were on hold and then it seemed like everyone woke up at the same time and I don't have enough hours in the day! Kinda stressful... but overall a positive problem.
So as soon as some of the smoke clears I'll be posting some new items to my portfolio & maybe even cleaning up this site overall... boy does it need it! I also have been doing so much
corporate UI/design work that I haven't been able to do my illustration animation at all. I even have a client right now I need to get to her illustration... maybe I can work on that this weekend a bit.
Aaanyway, I am going to bed now... my chest hurts from coughing and even though I have all my pantry goods still on the floor in the kitchen waiting to be put away, clean clothes in the laundry basket waiting to be put away and dirty dishes in the sink waiting to be cleaned - I am skipping it all, flippin on the electric blanket and hoppin in to bed-e-bye.
Hey you - I have realized if you blogroll my homepage you don't see when it's updated. Probably because I use PHP includes. (?) Anyone know how to remedy that?
Anyway, here's
the link to my RSS feed... and if you have no idea what I'm talking about - check out
Blogrolling.com and
this great article about RSS feeds.
(article link via crackers & honey. buy me those cute undies!)
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
This show was so f*in amazing. It was my first time seeing them live and I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY. I swear I feel like I was just a part of a concert that will go down in history. I felt like I was at the epicenter of the coooooolest sh*t goin down anywhere. I was so SLAYED beyond belief that this band could make such beautiful music - such kick ass music.
People have said they remind them of Santana/Led Zepplin, and I can see a little "crazy / wild / sexy / Van Morrison style" in the lead singer for sure.... but these guys are a tremendous new psychedelic and progressive deal all their own. MAN, WAS IT AWESOME!!!!!!!!!
To give you an idea of some of the details of the show - they played for almost 2 hours - and they opened with "Haunt of Roulette Dares" which they played for about 20 minutes.... the lead singer totally ROCKIN OUT on the stage, leaping everywhere, throwing his microphone around, jumping off the amps and singing his heart out.... so awesome. At one point in the night he let out the BEST scream I have EVER heard. It was awesome.
I was soooo into all the sounds - the guitar of course is awesome awesome awesome - the leads vocals are amazing and beautiful and rockin! the bass solo rocked, I even zoned in on the keyboards and totally vibed on the awesome sounds he was mixing in (i'm not often a keyboards girl). And can we talk about the drums - OH MY GAWD!!!!!!!!!!!! I am madly in love with that drummer. Not only is he glistening hot hot hot, but holy sh*t can that man play!!!!!!! He totally slayed me as he just *kicked so much ass* on those drums. Overall it was just epic. Totally totally EPIC.
I wished I had a camera - I saw some of you sneakyvonsneaksters taking photos, so please email me if you have some!!!
We were up front in about the 3rd row for the first couple songs, but it was crazy after the first song started.... it got really, really tight - and one of my friends even had to bail out, but Rick & I stayed. It was so awesome to feel the energy in the crowd all flowing along to this psychedelic, rock & roll fantastic going on before our eyes. I seriously felt like I was a part of one of the most kick ass concerts of the year.
We fell back a few once hard core moshers came forward... and there were a few a**holes who insisted on being hurricanes of death. can't you get your aggression out in the gym or something? I swear someone HAD to have gotten a bloody nose from your f*ing hate filled whirlwinds (grrr). It would be a different story if we were at Rage Against the Machine or something, but I just felt like it put this agro hate into the air of a concert that was so euphorically trippy and phenomenal.
So, that sent us back a few more rows till we felt like we weren't going to get mauled. But I did LOVE seeing the crowd surfers go nuts - and how everyone would just totally feel the music when it ramped up & got hard core, we'd all start jumpin & moving together - SOOO COOOOL!!!!
Coming out I was just high on the whole experience and soo blown away that it was that f*in amazing. Rick said he totally dug it but wasn't sure he loved it as much as I did (cuz I was really psyched on it as you can tell) however coming out I overheard others who felt the same way I did about it just being the most amazing concert they'd ever been to. That's seriously how I felt - I was just moved - I thought it was f*ing amazing.
Don't ever, ever let yourself miss this band live.. they're so awesome.
I bought a tshirt and I can't wait to wear it. Most of all I can't wait to see them again!!!!!
stay tuned... this blog will return to it's regularly scheduled programming of reviewing kick ass concerts and spilling tidbits of debaucherous details of my rockstar lifestyle in just a few hours. (after I get some work done!!)
but just for a teaser... it was sooo soo good.
A few of you saw the post I put up yesterday before I took it down. It was only up for maybe 15 minutes or so - but since then I've gotten a few IM's/emails from friends that did see it & wonder why I took it down.
It's really no big deal I guess... I mean... I liked what I said, and I meant it, but my brain kept asking myself if I was just posting it because I was feeling some sort of displaced guilt... cuz really there is no *one* person that this was about - it was more of a blanket "I wanna make everything better for everyone, but I can't even though I try" sort of weird thing. A mixture of different people in my life here and there.
I dunno, it just felt a little too touchy/feely/deep and it just didn't feel as good to post as I thought it would, so I just decided I'd take it down. I think I felt like I was blaming myself for something I didn't do. Or trying to write my own gravestone of "she meant well, she really did
try to be nice and supportive all the time". Ug... something about it just didn't feel right. Maybe deep feelings have been making me uncomfortable lately. Keeping it light and happy feels a bit more comfortable... the other parts just want to lie dormant for a little while longer. Ignorance is bliss.
I also felt like if one person actually had "this issue" with me, they should talk to me about it directly or vis versa if I'm feeling that I have, in fact, directly been that way with someone that I should go to them with my divulgence.
blaaaah. I need blogger therapy. hahaaa
Monday, November 10, 2003
Oh alright - I'm publishing it.
Brendan said I shouldn't be allowed to censor myself like that. ha! :) Thank god I can, cuz it's really a good thing I haven't posted some of the things I've wanted to here :)
But in the end, it's all about expression and just getting it out there. It doesn't have to be right or perfect and dammit it's not, and I'm not - so whatever!!!!!!! So since you're all just so damn curious now, here it is. And one more thing, isn't it so obvious I'm PMSing?
::::::::::::::::::::::::::
To all my friends and family I just want to say thank you. Thank you for still loving me even though sometimes I open my big mouth and am so opinionated and headstrong like I know whats best for you. I'm sorry if I've ever done this in a way that makes you feel like I'm not supporting you. I want to support you in the best way I can... and often I am only so outspoken with my feelings or POV because I want to see you happy and help you... but I know you're on top of it. I know you are doing everything you need to do... and that it takes time sometimes to get through the hard times and find the good again - and that nobody can tell you to be happy or make a change, it has to come from you.
So I'm here to say I'm sorry. I can listen without opening my big mouth. I have good intentions and I hope that you realize that I want nothing more than to see your beautiful smile shining back at me when everything is feeling more right in your world.
xoxo
Friendships are so important to me. I do my best to try to be aware of how I am with the friendships in my life... I try to be very clear w/ how I'm feeling and am willing to take responsibility of my own stuff... i.e. if someone's buggin me, realizing it could just as well be *me* and not just *them*. I give people the benefit of the doubt and try to see the good in them. Boy don't I wish everyone did this :)
I've done "the work" and still continue to do so everyday to try to be aware of who I am and how I am being towards the people in my life. It's not perfect, but I'm doing the best I can. Above all else, communication is key... so thank you for communicating with me.
Sunday, November 09, 2003
Six of us (
The Six Girls:
jane,
jee,
hillary,
ashley,
kat and me) get together once a month for Girls Night Out. Our first one started almost 6 months ago (arranged by jane) and for me personally it was so wonderful, as I had just begun the seperation process with my boyfriend and it was so nice to have their support.
Since then I've been living on my own and enjoying this grand new chapter in my life. We've all had an awesome summer getting to know eachother with parties, bbq's, brunches, movies and more. They're just how good girlfriends should be: we can confide in eachother, get advice, go grab a quick drink, throw kick ass parties, get jiggy on the dancefloor, talk books, music, traveling, life goals, health issues, make eachother laugh and much more. Life is a much better place with a good set of girlfriends at your side :)
So every month we celebrate this on the full moon. Sometimes it's mellow and we just have dinner, and other times it's a bit more rowdy. Seeing as how this month's full moon landed on a Saturday night, we expanded the circle and invited a bunch of other girls to join us out for a night on the town.
The rain, however, put a bit of a damper on our full force, dressed to kill, bar hopping plans... but we had a great time anyway. After a change of venues the core 6 started at
Esperpento for dinner. We ate some yummy tapas, caught up on the new developments in eachothers lives and had a tasty pitcher of sangria preparing us just perfectly for the next part of our evening.
We met the rest of the girls at our regular hangout, the LAC (
Latin American Club), and I'd say at our peak we had about 12 girls there - which didn't go un-noticed by the men in the bar, mind you! Any time I went up for a drink I got asked about this strange phenominon of a whole table full of cute girls by some guy. "How do you all know eachother?" "Whats the big occasion?" A couple of which even asked if they could join our girls night by expressing "Hey, I'm sensitive!". ha! One even made the sly move to sit down with us - but I immediately said, "Sorry buddy - this is girls only! SCRAM!" :)
The evening turned out to be such a great time. We even went out and basked in the beautiful glow of the full moon... it looked so awesome with the clouds rushing by so fast!
Thanks for another great night, girls.... you rock!! mmoooiiiii!!!!! xoxo
(Update 11/10, 5pm: I just fixed up some of the bad writing goin on in this one :)
hey - fyi I just added a few new shows to the events on the left. TV on the Radio are coming, but we have tix to a Du Nord show that night, so we'll miss it :( darnit! (again, cloning machine please?)
ok, sorry - I'll curb the music talk & post about my girls night :)
