Women Who Behave

# Studying has turned into doing crosswords and pretending to study.

This is from just now. We're sitting outside the classroom we'll have a midterm in in half an hour and giving up on studying.

# Stupid snoring kept me up half the night. Need it to stop now.

My roommate's boyfriend slept over last night. I was studying, so I was up later than they were, so I couldn't get to sleep for the loud snoring coming from across the room. Then when I woke up this morning he was even louder than he'd been then somehow. He finally woke up when I was putting on my shoes to go to class. My roommate had left before even I'd woken up to head to her own class.

# #murdermonday Geez, I dunno. I'll hafta think. RT @MSI FUCK musicmonday it doz nutin 4 anyone SO I'm officialy changing it to murdermonday.

This amused me at about 3AM last night. I still haven't come up with anyone I would actually like to see killed.

# Torchwood just made me spasm in surprise. It was most uncomfortable a movement, and I should have seen it coming.

I was watching the third episode of the first season and there's a moment that I knew was coming, but it still managed to startle me. Because I was laying on my stomach and my roommate and her boyfriend were asleep in the room, my reflexive reaction was to spasm and sorta-hump the bed. It actually hurt quite a bit.

# Man, I'm still digging confetti out of my OTHER bag...

After the TMBG show at the NYU auditorium yesterday I picked up my bag which was covered in confetti and watched as a bunch of it fell in. This was a different bag than the one I'd taken to the Museum of Natural History show, which I actually did find confetti in again today.

# So many kiddies. They're so cute.

I was watching all the kids file into the auditorium. I really really need to find a babysitting job. One of the best moments was the kid next to me was sitting on his mom's lap, and after the confetti went off he was completely distracted from the music and focused solely on playing with confetti. (I'd estimate he was about 4.) Eventually he reached over a bunch and kept plucking confetti off my lap, and his mom was all "No! We don't touch other people." I laughed and said I didn't mind, then picked up a handful and blew it into his face. I have a cute picture of his brother too, I need to upload the photos from the show.

# Concert time moved. I forgot. Fail. Could have hung out with Marcos for longer.

I met my friend for brunch around 12:30, as he was visiting the city for the week. I thought I had to send him up to Grand Central by 2, because that was the original time of the concert and I completely forgot that the time had moved to 4. As I was wandering around wondering why the doors were locked, I passed by Danny trying to figure out how to get in, and ended up getting coffee with another couple who'd gotten there early and then went across the street to the Library to study a little tiny bit before heading back over to Skirball.

# Either that ambulance's siren was just awesome or the paramedics were having a bit of fun.

Walking to meet Marcos, an ambulance siren kept going in a cool rhythm. I'm pretty sure it was whoever was pressing the button amusing themselves.

# RT Watch! @Katie_Buchanan Attention World: The MOVING ON MUSIC VIDEO http://bit.ly/kAON9

I helped my friend make a music video a few weeks ago. Call time was 6am at the Brooklyn Bridge. I was supposed to be set photographer, but my battery died after one photo, so I ended up just being the pack mule. It was cool though, because it was me and two good friends. The finished video is gorgeous. I embedded it:




# @defleper I don't like any of his movies. I just liked the SNL sketch.

My friend replied about The Rock's new movie looking shitty to my below thing about his being on SNL.

# WHY DID YOU LET GERARD BUTLER SING!?

They let him sing "Music of the Night," which he butchered in that movie, and trying to sing it live while throwing in elements of how he only plays action or romantic roles was an epic fail.

# Dwanye Johnson on SNL is AWESOME!

His Obama impression was actually better than the cast member who always has to be Obama.

# @AlanGordon Musical taste is only one aspect of people. They have other qualities that more than make up for this.

He was about the third person to tell me to drop my friends because of what happened below. I was sick of it.

# <--- I am making this face right now.

My Twitter picture is my hands over my face.

# Oh god. Jonas Brothers. AND THEY KNOW THE WORDS! WHAT THE FUCK!?

After this they moved on to the Bee Gees, which was better. This was a low point of the night. My other friend and I sat there staring at each other and them with our mouths open not believing what was happening.

# Why are the people I'm with blasting Taylor Swift? WHY ARE MY FRIENDS INSANE?!

I was scared. Very scared.

# A line? What is this foreign concept? Empty amusement parks FTW.

At Six Flags it was rainy and cold, so the first line we encountered all day was making me impatient.

# Tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world. Check.

Kingda Ka at Six Flags in New Jersey. 45 stories tall/128 MPH. It's over in like 20 seconds, but it's probably the second most awesome adrenaline rush I've had after bungee jumping. I almost didn't do it too, but then one of my friends decided to so I sucked it up and am so glad I did.

# @SpectralSpark SPOILERS.

I thought my friend had posted a spoiler for a show I'm a couple episodes behind on. I went back and re-read it later and it turns out that in my It's-7am-and-I-just-woke-up-after-about-4-hours-of-sleep stupor I misread the word "religion" as "rebellion." I should probably apologize to him for that.

# Hmmmm, thinking of heading to bed. Getting up around 7 for SIX FLAGS. First, a little more Friday night loserdom. #LOFNOTC

LOFNOTC = Losers of Friday Night On Their Computers. It was accidentally started by Amanda Palmer over the summer and it basically ends up being a bunch of drunk people celebrating being in on Friday night. I wasn't drunk, but it was still fun.

# @amandapalmer For even more indoors fun...Uncomfortable Plot Summaries! http://bit.ly/NFfY #LOFNOTC

Yeah, there were a few things related to LOFNOTC this night. They kinda explain themselves for the most part.

# I'm very glad to finally be able to participate in #LOFNOTC. It started 5 months ago...

# RT: @amandapalmer WE WILL USE CAPS LOCK WE WILL STAY AT HOME WE WILL TAKE NO PRISONERS!! ALL HAIL #LOFNOTC!! HTTP://TWITGOO.COM/4DJ5E

# Joining the ranks of #LOFNOTC! Woo!

# Hey, remember when the Blue Scholars played in my high school's gym? They've come a long way...XD Good on them.

Blue Scholars are playing CMJ. I was amused and had a burst of Seattle pride.

# Looking up CMJ bands again. Some of these bands have practically no online presence. It's insane.

I like that my task for work is sending a list of bands I like or want to check out to my boss. However, some of them only have like one song on their MySpace which just doesn't make sense in this day and age.

# That was fun. Now, food, back to NY, and work for a couple of hours.

# Hanging out at the World Cafe. Lucero will play on Live at Noon soon on WXPN. Take a listen.

Trip to Philly was spend entirely at WXPN, but it was really fun. I got to meet the programming director of the station, and the Universal Music AAA radio rep.

# First cab ride of the semester. Stupid, unreliable L train.

I left at a good time to get me where I needed to meet my boss at 9:30 for our trip to Philly, but the L train was just sitting down the tunnel and didn't move in 7 minutes so I wasted $2.25 swiping in just to leave and find a cab. I ended up only being a couple minutes late and the timing worked perfectly because Thaddeus was a little late too so he only had to wait for about a minute for me to finish getting our coffee before I came out and hopped in the car.

# I wish he would stop implying that blogs are an inherently inferior form of music writing.

We have this one awful class on Thursday evenings. It's supposed to be a writing class but none of us feel like we're actually learning anything after the other 4 required writing classes. Especially because the teacher is veering off in a completely different direction. It's become that the people who got the best grades in the other classes are almost failing for some unknown reason.

# Wish I had a drink. Coffee or tea would be very nice right now.

At the beginning of the above class. I just wanted something to keep me occupied in some way. I'll have to remember to bring a paper with a crossword in it next class because I'll go crazy if I give the teacher my full attention.

# Walking to class is gonna be fun considering the mini-adventure that was walking across Union Square to get food. Wish I had wellies.

It was raining harder than it really had so far this year. I don't currently own an umbrella so it was a ridiculous adventure even walking three or four blocks to Wendy's for food. Luckily by the time class rolled around the rain had let up quite a bit.

Well, the midterm is over. I think I did pretty well, but there were definitely some things I could have studied better. Like the specific terms/acronyms rather than just what they meant when applied. I think overall I'll be fine though. One down, two? to go. I have to double check for a couple of classes.

Now, transferring some money onto my ID/into Campus Cash so I can get food before my next class. I left my wallet at home. Luckily the internet is awesome. I needed to put more money on my ID anyway for laundry so it's really just win/win.

I leave you with...one of my favorite of the TMBG pictures from yesterday:

So, yesterday we had Jeff Rosen come to speak in our Music Marketing class. He's Bob Dylan's manager. That was really awesome. The conversation was mostly my teacher asking him questions and them kinda talking, but at the end a couple of the students got to ask questions too. I'm not actually allowed to talk about WHAT was said, but overall it was kinda negative. Errol (teacher) pointed out later that he's still thinking within the current system of the music industry which is clearly dying, but not thinking beyond, which is what Errol (our whole department really) is encouraging us to do.

But yeah, that was exciting and I wasn't allowed to say anything about it beforehand, so I was bursting a bit.

In other news, my GPA is not good enough to warrant NYU letting me study abroad in London next semester. I get that it's a - if not the most - popular site, but really? No, "we'll see how you're doing around midterms"? I'm gonna e-mail my advisor and see if there's anything I can do to try to appeal. Next semester is the only one I have to go abroad, and I've kinda been planning on doing so since...elementary school? Something like that. If worse comes to worse, I guess I can just move to London for six months or so after graduation.

So anyway, that was my mini-update that served as a procrastination tool. I'm really starting to loathe my Writing about Popular Music class. The teacher isn't clear in his prompts and then grades us horribly, and it's about the 5th required writing class we've had. We're all a bit sick of it, and most of us know we don't want to go into journalism. So, back to reading about how to write about music. And wondering if I'll be able to make it through the quizzes without "The Elements of Style". It didn't get cracked Freshman year so I threw it away. I would really rather not have to buy it again. I don't have any space for it anyway.

I'm giving up my ambition to write a real review of the TMBG show. Too much time has passed. HOWEVER, I went to Comic Con this past weekend, and many things happened.

Friday, I did not attend, though my friends did. I, instead, went to class and work. In class, Chris Blackwell came to speak to us. He's the man who founded Island Records back in the day to promote Jamaican music in England. This was Bob Marley's record label. Super awesome. Then work, where nothing extremely special happened. After work, I headed up to Penn Station to pick up Mr Bill Remmers. He spent Friday and Saturday nights at my apartment so he could go to Comic Con both Saturday and Sunday. When we got back to the dorm, we set up his bed and got his stuff settled. We decided what we were going to get up to the next day: how early, when to meet his friend, etc., then headed next door to watch Val's brand new copy of Firefly and hang out. Much later, we finally went to bed.

Saturday we headed out around 8:45, to meet Bill's friend Ryan at the train station around 9:15. We ended up missing him, but getting to the Jarvits Center at the same time, so we all picked up our tickets and got in the underground line to enter the main floor. Bill was excited when we ran into Colin Baker. Shortly after, they left me waiting in line to meet the guys from Cyanide and Happiness to further wander. I then got a call from Jayme and Rachel saying they were in line for the Penny Arcade panel already. So, I hurried down to join them. On the way I ran into the lovely Emmy (binsybaby) and said a quick, and slightly awkward hello. A bit of the way through the Penny Arcade panel, it was decided that we weren't gong to get into Robot Chicken unless we left early to grab a spot in line. I decided I was more familiar with Robot Chicken than Penny Arcade, so was the one to leave and get in line. I there ran into Mike (aka TDK), and befrended the people in front of and behind me. In front was a journalist who reminded me a bit of Sarah Vowell (I think her name was Kristin) and a guy who does camerawork for reality shows and his friend. They were really fun to spend about an hour talking to as we waited to get in. I took pictures during this panel. Seth Green is fucking hilarious, and Breckin Meyer isn't very much less so. They kept rambling on instead of getting to next questions, and just generally dicking about. It was great. My favorite was when all five guys on the panel had their cameras out taking pictures of Dark Anakin standing next to the guy who dressed up as the chicken. After, I met back up with Jayme, Val and Rachel. Rachel wandered off to watch the Jedi performance, and Val and Jayme and I decided to leave for an hour or so to find cheaper food for lunch. On the way out, I spotted Neil (trapezzoid) and went over to say hello. He recognized my screenname (I have been semi-creepily commenting on his journal since like 2003 or 2004 now...), and gave me a hug in greeting. That was awesome, mainly because I love hugs and don't get them enough so it was awesome to get one from someone I was meeting in person for the first time. I do feel bad though, as I did not say hello to the beautiful and talented Ming. I was too preoccupied with saying hello but not imposing and getting back to my friends who were waiting to leave. So, we headed to Subway/Taco Bell for lunch. Upon returning, they headed to stand in line for the Venture Brothers panel, and I went back into the exhibition floor for a bit. I bought a petticoat skirt and nifty colored contacts (non-prescription so I have to either wear them with my glasses or be blind) before realizing there was nothing left to do on the exhibition floor and they wouldn't get out until 7:45. So, I went and got in line for Venture Brothers, and they eventually let everyone in. Bill and Ryan came to join me, and we hung out until the end of the panel. Then we escorted Ryan back to Penn Station before heading back to my dorm. There I switched out my Comic Con stuff for recording stuff and left Bill to take a nap while I went back up to campus for a recording session. We had the last session of the night, then the first the next morning. It made it nice not having to completely normal everything at midnight.

When I got home, I woke up Bill, decided I was not ambitious enough to wake up and try to get Joss Whedon autograph tickets at 7am, and went to bed. In the morning, we left around 8:40, and then Bill accidentally dropped his wallet on the subway as we were getting off so we had to take care of that a bit before heading back to the studio. We ended up being about half an hour late, which Doug luckily didn't mind. They'd gone ahead and continued vocal takes and were just starting to set up for ambient guitar sounds. The bass was waiting for me, because we decided that Doug kept coming up with basslines just slightly too complicated for the song. I'd barely changed what I'd played when we tried tracking it live two weeks previously, and the writer liked how simple I was keeping it. So, I plugged Doug's bass into two DI boxes and recorded several takes. With just the basics (guitar, bass, and vocals) the song sounds kinda Moldy Peaches-esque, but we're putting lots of ridiculousness on top of it. It should turn out pretty well.

After the session, I headed back up to the Jarvits Center. Bill had left earlier to meet the lady who found his wallet on the subway up at a church coffee. I'd loaned him $20 for a cab, and said I'd meet him back at the Jarvits' Center. I found him at Colin Baker's booth again, and we wandered around for a bit. He left me in line for funnel cake and went to get me a spot in line for the Fringe panel, as he had to leave to go to the last showing of Equus before the panel started, but I really really wanted to go to it. That is the most ridiculously badass show on TV right now. I was unable to get into the Dollhouse panel just before it because of my session and not getting in line in time, but the Fringe panel I was determined to go to. I left during the Q&A because I wanted to be home in time to watch the Grammy's pre-telecast. First, I went to check out the kids area and then stopped by the Penny Arcade booth to say hello to the fellow Seattleites. I got home around 3:30, and accompanied Val, Jayme, and a very high Ryan to Burger King. I left them there to get soda, and then came back in time to catch about three awards before the Best Children's Album category. As I predicted when I saw the nominations, TMBG won. It was awesome, though as soon as they started walking towards the stage I went "Wait, where's Flans?!" I thought it was really adorable how Danny jumped in to say something too though. Then I went next door with the soda, and we watched more Firefly. Then for some reason we ended up watching almost all of the rest of the televised Grammys. I kept trying to mute stuff that sucked, and a couple times people protested because they actually liked it, so I unmuted it, but I still seem to have gained the reputation of Music Nazi from that, as last night watching Leno and waiting for Conan, Duffy was the musical act and Sean asked if I could not mute her as he actually liked her. I hadn't even reached for the remote. But yeah, everyone in the room was yelling at the TV in outrage while we had it on mute when the Jonas Brothers performed with Stevie Wonder. We all were upset that he was introduced as Stevie Jonas, and whenever they jumped onto the platform he was playing on we yelled at them to get away from him. It was fun. Radiohead with the USC marching band was awesome, as was Paul McCartney with Dave Grohl. I absolutely love that song, so I had to get up and dance for most of it.

So, that was my weekend. Lots and lots of fun. I'm so tired now though. I really wanted to take a nap this afternoon, but I had to get some stuff done.

10th show (in one year. Holy shit that's kinda sad.) was last night. Will make an actual writeup later. I got a setlist:

( Setlist under cut )

So much good banter. They were being hilarious.

Went out to breakfast at Starbucks with Val, Gillian, Byron, and Rachel this morning. Was filled in on last night. Apparently none of the guys remember anything, Jayme and Monse hooked up like usual, and John Phair possibly hooked up with the bartender.

Then we bought chips and a baguette for the Super Bowl party tonight.

Then we watched the new Flight of the Conchords song, and then 10 Things I Hate About You because Val and Ryan had never seen it before.

Now we've got Stop Making Sense on, and I can't talk or sing along because Val jinxed me and was being a dick about it. Now I'm just going to spite him because he DOES want to talk to me but I'm just not gonna buy him a Coke. I can't believe we actually still play this game.

On break at Girlie Action right now. I helped them set up an accocunt with a conference call place. Also there was a huge mailing earlier. I hope I get to write more newsblurbs too. Those are fun, and I got complimented on the first one I ever did on Monday. I also got to do a press clipping for the show I'm going to Saturday. That was funny.

It snowed last night, but warmed up today and is now raining. So there's just mounds of slush everywhere. I now understand why so many people hate when it snows in the city. There will be an upcoming post related to this. But anyway, I definitely did not dress for the weather. Converse with holes and them, plus too-long jeans = soggy feet that won't get to dry util I rip everything off them once I get home after class at like 10 tonight. I can deal with the damp sweatshirt and gloves, but the feet are what kill. I should stop courting pneumonia. It seems that I only ever decide to wear my Chucks nowadays when I forget that it's raining really hard outside.

Blah. Two more hours before I leave for class. Back to work.

Well, I'm all better. I think my body just crashed after the festivities, in much the same way that when people get married they'll be fine through the wedding but get sick on their honeymoon. I dunno, I heard about it somewhere with that same example. And it's the only way I can explain being unable (well, partially unwilling) to get out of bed for a day, then being back at close to 80% the next day, and pretty much completely fine today.

I went to see Burn After Reading tonight with Abby, Demetre, Anna, and Rachel. I'd seen the first half before, with my cousin and brother, and was really confused at times because I was a little stoned. I'd thought it was hilarious then, though, and this viewing didn't disappoint. So ridiculous. Honestly, I think this is one of my favorite Brad Pitt characters, though I wanted to punch George Clooney's character. Anyway, because of that I missed The Daily Show tonight, and tonight was the first episode of the new year. I follow one of the producers, Miles Kahn, on Twitter and he keeps talking about his Anderson Cooper with puppies segment that was bumped for like a week before the break. So...I'm looking forward to puppies in half an hour.

Holy crap one of the lights out here is humming really high-pitched and it's the most annoying sound ever. I only realized it was the light and not the TV or my brother's PS2 or something was because it flickered and the sound stopped for a second. I was relieved, but then it brightened a bit again and came back. Oh wait, it flickered again, and it hasn't come back on yet. *knocks on coffee table* Let's hope it doesn't.

Also, Dave, I made you a copy of that CD you wanted. Call me sometime tomorrow (or, you know, just before the 18th) so we can figure out when I can get that to you.

So, I just had my last (and second...for the same class) midterm. It went a lot better than I thought it was going to, but it still wasn't great. Hopefully I get another high B or low A or something. I'd like to not get lower than my last test, but we'll see. I didn't study ALL that much harder, and started skipping lecture. We'll see on Wednesday.

I have another test, only a quiz, in my Industry class in a couple hours here, but it's over stuff we've covered pretty well in class and a chapter I actually went out and read on my own before I knew it was assigned. So I'm not too worried about this.

I'm super excited recently because my bike came and I've actually been riding it and it's wonderful. I DID almost get hit once already but it didn't happen so we can forget about that, right? I had to go get a backpack for that though because I only had messenger bags, and those are a bit unbalanced when biking. So I went to the bookstore after class this morning and got the backpack, a hole punch that I need for Studio, and then saw a really good deal on a combo Benny & Joon/The Man in the Moon DVD set and a Forgotten English desk calendar for next year. I'm excited about this, especially because I was able to put it on my Dad's card since it was a mostly academic purchase.

I feel kinda bad, because I've skipped out on two concerts in the past two weeks with Alan, but I've just been getting a bit of overload with that kid. I know we're supposed to be good friends, but sometimes you just need a break from someone, ya know? Anyway, I was supposed to go to a Halloween concert and to his favorite band's CD release on the past two Fridays. The first one I really just wasn't feeling up to going out, so I used that as an excuse. Then, I DID have a lot of work over this weekend so I begged out again. I feel bad because he's been coming to TMBG and I told him like two months ago I'd go, but I just haven't been excited about going out for the past couple of weeks. I partially blame Paco. Who, by the way, hasn't come to any further conclusions that he's told me about even though we've been talking a bit. Frustrating.

Also, I seem to be immune to the cold again. Well, not that it's been very cold...It dipped into the 40s for a few days before Halloween, but it's been staying in the 50s and 60s lately. But people are starting to get all bundled up in their winter coats and scarves, and I'm still traipsing around in a relatively thin sweatshirt. *shrug* I only find it odd because I wore jeans pretty much all summer, even though it was in the 70s and 80s. Also, they've started blasting the heat in the buildings so it's just fucking hot inside. Especially my dorm.

I just acquired the rest of Sarah Vowell's books, as well as John Hodgman's new one. I'm excited to get started on those. I just have to find time. I also found this torrent of like 1000 popular sci-fi books, (something like 6 gB worth of pdfs) so if anyone wants to read one that they aren't excited enough about to buy, hit me up and I can send you that particular pdf. I'm excited for Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, the rest of Neil Gaiman's works (which I'll probably end up buying anyway, I like him lots), and Terry Pratchett's works (also a possible future purchase). So far the N-R torrent has finished downloading (alphabetical by author's first name), so I have tons of that.

Aaaaand, I should get some lunch and head over to 194.

Tomorrow is my birthday. That should be pretty fun. Laura and I are heading up to Whistler to celebrate being able to go to my friends' shows without sneaking in anymore. (Ok, I can buy alcohol too...but that shit's expensive.) Yay 19. Also, my parents decided my present is going to be plane tickets to come back and attend our friends' wedding. I think that's a wonderful present because I really wanted to go even though it's the weekend after my classes start for the semester and about a week and a half after I leave this side of the country to go back to school.

This morning Paco and I went on our first official date thing. He didn't work until 1:30 today, so he came and picked me up around 9:30 and we went out to breakfast, then went and picked up my paychecks I forgot to snag yesterday and got some stuff. I got earrings and he got a hat and shoes. He keeps hinting at something he's planning for my bday (well, once I get back into town on Sunday) and I'm starting to get scared. He apparently needs to talk to my brother, and all our mutual friends. Eep!

I go back to New York on Tuesday. That's hella soon. I have some clothes that I haven't touched since I bought them, so I guess technically I've started packing a little. I have to figure out what exactly I want to bring and what I can fit in suitcases and what I can go without for a couple weeks and what I want to ship out. Actually, with all the stuff I sent to Elyssa's and Lisa's for the summer, I'll probably be fine with two checked bags, a carry on suitcase and my backpack/purse/Mary Poppins bag thing. We'll see though, I always do find I have more shit than I remember.

My glasses came in on Wednesday. They're the teal ones I posted way at the beginning of the summer. They're really cute and it was funny wearing them at Apple because the teal in the glasses is almost exactly the same shade as the shirts we wear.

I got in trouble a few times at Ruby's for stupid mistakes and miscommunications over the last month. Apparently though it almost lead to my being fired. Luckily it didn't, and they're still willing to have me come back and work at winter break. Sounds good to me, and that uniform is gonna make a sweet Halloween costume if I decide I don't wanna be a gypsy again.

Apple went super smoothly, probably because I was only there for like three weeks or something ridiculous. I worked a ton though, I think I was there the last 8 days in a row; every day except today since I got back from New Orleans. I like it there though. Most of the time people are absolutely sure of what they want and you don't have to do much other than get it for them and ring it out. Also, I know enough that it's pretty easy to talk about them or help people out who are having problems. I'm pretty glad that it's not a commission-driven job though and that pretty much the main focus is on doing everything possible to make sure people get what they need help- or product-wise. I'm gonna apply to the SoHo one (if not the other two as well) and let my manager here know that I did so he can e-mail the manager over there. I guess three weeks isn't really long enough for a transfer.

I'm just waiting for the laundry to be done, and then I'm packing and off to Whistler for the weekend. Happy Early Birthday to trapezzoid in case the internet isn't working up there. Also Happy Birthday today to my cousin Alec and my friend's little brother (and my little brother's friend) Rick. I'm pretty pumped for the closing ceremony of the Olympics on Sunday as well. I hear Mr. Jimmy Page will be playing a bit and it's probably just gonna be pretty awesome overall.

Ooh, maybe my ski coach will be able to come celebrate my birthday with me. That'd be hella fun.

So, my solstice celebration on Saturday evening was technically a day late, but I figure that since the actual solstice was at 11:59pm on the 20th some leeway is given. We started out by gathering at Max's house, then Phatty, Derek, Max and I hopped in Max's car and headed over to Megan's. There we enjoyed burgers outside in the rain (it only rained while we were eating), and chatted a bit before having to head over to Phatty's family friend's house up near where Sophie lives. Here we snacked a little more on one of those wonderful veggie platters, before heading out to their fire pit. Donna then led us in a ritual welcoming the summer. We honored nine elements by throwing 9 representational herbs onto the fire. I had lavender. Then, I did a simple banishing spell, asking for a bit of help on that bad habit/personality trait I was writing about earlier. We talked a little about the solstice and mysticism in general, and when I piped up with some fact Donna and Kim (Phatty's mom) asked how long I'd been into Paganism and we all went off on various tangents from there. I'm trying to remember some of the books Donna recommended. Then, as Max had plans with a friend, I had to leave just before they went out to leave offerings for the faeries.

From there we left Max at his house, realized that sadly it would make the most sense for the three of us to each take our own cars, and went to Jeff's to pick him up. From there we stopped at Tina's work, where she'd just gotten off. She works at a retirement home in Woodinville, and they had free coffee and tea in the foyer so that was yummy. Then we went to Phatty's house to hang out for a little bit, and Katrina joined us once she got off work. Ended up leaving around 2:30.
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The most interesting part about that whole day was my truck's detrioration that occurred. The first bit was my fault, as I'd accidentally left the headlights on the night before. So, my brother and I jumped it before I headed out, and in a moment of foresight I threw the jumper cables into the bed. Then, just before I got to Max's house, I stalled. Luckily there was a rush just then so a couple people helped me push it off to the side. Luckily it's a super light truck. Then Max and them came down and we jumped it and just moved it into the church parking lot that happened to be right there because Max's driveway up the hill was full of other cars. Then it was off to Megan's. We knew we'd have to jump it again later as I didn't have time to let it run for about 15 minutes to charge up the battery. We got back, pushed it out of the corner it was in, jumped it again, and headed out. At Jeff's I left it idling as we debated briefly on what we wanted to do after getting Tina. At Tina's work, I turned it off, started it, and sighed with relief. When we left, it was fine and we headed to Phatty's. I made sure I'd turned off everything that was taking power from the battery before I turned it off once we arrived. However, when we all came out to leave, I turned the key and nothing happened. I mean, the dash lights lit up, but the engine didn't even turn over once. We tried jumping it with both Derek and Jeff's cars, but no luck. So between fifteen and thirty minutes later we finally gave up and I left my car at Phatty's and got a ride home with Jeff. The next morning my dad and I headed out, and he compression started it. This is a handy trick for any manual car driver to know. Basically, you hope it's on a hill, or have someone push you. You push the clutch in, put it in first, turn the key to "On", have the pushing start, and then once you get a bit of speed, you pop the clutch out, forcing the engine to turn over. It's pretty easy and I've now done it a bunch.

So anyway, we got it home, and parked it so it was facing downhill. Then today my brother and I took it down to Shucks so they could do some free tests on it to see what was wrong. Turns out I had a dead starter. My battery was actually mostly charged, and we took it out and charged it all the way up for free. Then we called AAA to have them tow it to a mechanic four blocks away. It was a pretty cheap fix ($176 or so), and only took about an hour. However, when he went to move it out it took a few times to start, so he said that something else might be wrong and if I keep having problems to call him and he'll take another look. I need it to go pick Alan up at the airport tomorrow though, and when he opened the hood and had me try to start it a bunch to figure out what else might be wrong it started every time. So it should be fine for the most part. I'm so glad it was pretty simple. Now I get my truck back. :) I actually really really like this car. It's small, light, manual, and kinda unexpected from someone just meeting me and trying to figure out what I drive.
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The rest of today has had me in one of those stupid, whining-in-my-head "nobody called me", pouty sort of moods. (There has also been a lot of yelling between me and my parents today. Hmm. Yay PMS? Probably.) I texted Carolyn (who got back from Hawaii yesterday), but according to her brother she'd delegated today as a her and Brian sort of night. I still don't know if they're actually together again or just spending a lot of time "talking" and around nobody else. I mean, it doesn't really matter, I'm just curious. I also called Abby and Alex, but neither picked up their phone or called me back. I scrolled through the rest of my numbers, but didn't see anyone else I felt particularly comfortable calling out of the blue around 8pm and saying "I'm bored, let's hang out," to. I'm weird like that. I don't like calling anyone other than my super close friends anyway because I'm afraid I'll be interrupting something. I know, they should just not answer their phone if it would be an interruption, but I'm just weird.
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Tomorrow is the day to pick up Alan at the airport a little after noon, and then go to my orientation at Ruby's Diner in Redmond. Exciting.

Also, slfcllednowhere is moving up here this week if I remember correctly. YAY!

RIP George Carlin. I only knew a little of your comedy, but I really liked what I knew. You were also great in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

I'm excited for going to Whistler this weekend.

Oh! Jobs! I told Jet City I wouldn't be able to work for them on Sunday right after I heard back from the Apple Store. So, now I am a part-time specialist at the Apple Store and a part-time hostess at Ruby's Diner. (Am I the only one in the world who thinks eliminating the waiter/waitress, host/hostess, actor/actress thing in favor of servers, hosts, and actors is not a feminism gain? It just never seemed all that important to me. Being a waitress instead of a server didn't seem demeaning, it seemed like the title of the position for someone who was a woman. Sure, maybe we would have had to come up with some other word for the gender-neutral people, but claiming that eliminating the -ess job titles was for feminism was over the top for me.)

I just spent $400+ on 5 "$70" tickets to Avenue Q. I don't understand how they get away with doing convenience charges per ticket, it would make SO much more sense to do it per order, but no. They have to squeeze as many pennies out of you as is possible.

Also, I just accidentally spent the night at Alex's house, which included tagging along to drive his parents to the airport at 4am. Yay. Why do I keep accidentally not sleeping the night before having to deal with the company that just hired me? Didn't sleep before the interview, and the training starts later today. Whoops.