Well, I'm another year older. Birthday number 28 passed with a bang and a whimper over the weekend, thwarting my desire to have a nice, quiet birthday with my very closest friends....by robbing one of them blind. We spent the evening hanging out at her place while she called and cancelled all her credit cards before the bastard of a thief could spend more than $400. The next day, we wrestled with a monster birch tree and two rototillers to plant a flowerbed in the rain, and wound up soaked to the skin and covered in mud...which was sort of satisfying in a visceral, Taurus way....and sort of yucky in a prissy, girlie sort of way. Sunday was spent recovering from the weekend, ignoring the phone and trying to avoid talking to anyone.
I'm staring down the barrel of 30, here, starting to feel my Saturn return, and quite ready for some changes in my life. Bring it on!
I've been lax about updating this diary for....what, like, the past year? That's partly because I've been ridiculously busy and caught up in stuff that was either not mine to share, or not really worth sharing in the first place. One could make the argument that I was too busy living my life to write about it....and one would be kind and generous - and dead wrong. I recently recognized that I was doing a lot of stuff that didn't do much to enrich my life, even though I flatter myself i've been of service and support to lots of other people, directly or indirectly. Anyway, in the process of this epiphany, I decided to make a transition. I'm going to re-focus my life on me, and get back in the saddle of doing what I want, what makes me happy, and what will put me where I want to be. Or something like that.
I've been working on this for awhile now, and I've got some plans in place and in the works to make it happen. One of the cool things I'm bringing back to the center is music - I have ambitious plans to get out and do some coffeehouse gigging starting in July, hopefully with a finished self-recorded EP in hand - very exciting! Once I get all the ducks in a row, I plan to have a kick-off house concert by invite only....e-mail me if you want on the list!
I've picked up some new characters in the dram-edy of my life:
The Oversharing Barista
This is a very sweet guy who can't seem to stop telling me about his boyfriend troubles or the latest tragedy in his life whenever I grab a latte at the office Starbucks. I feel bad, 'cause it sounds like he has a rough life, but I have to wonder if he moans to every customer, or just me, 'cause I have that tattoo on my forehead that says, "Please tell me every gory detail about your life. No, really, I want to hear it all."
The Hot Security Guy
This is the hottie at the security desk in the lobby who goes out of his way to say good morning or goodnight every now and then....just often enough for me to wonder if he's trying to flirt, or if he's just really friendly to everyone. At least once a week, I have to resist the urge to drop off a business card with a pick-up line written on the back.
The 7-11 Lech
Occasionally, on the way into work, I hit a 7-11 and grab some coffee. The usual guy behind the counter at that time is this bug-eyed dude who can't seem to keep his eyeballs out of my cleavage. At first, you know, it's flattering....after months of my breasts getting a leering "good morning," I'm kind of tired of it. I'm thinking of a t-shirt that says, "Talk to my face, 'cause my boobs ain't listening."
The Internet Stalker
Yeah, this is more of an archetype than a specific person. I've dived into the (seedy, frightening, and desperate) world of on-line personals, and through this process have managed to catch the eyes of a particular type of person that feels it necessary to constantly be checking my website and diary, sending me e-mails, and generally behaving as if they are involved in my life and have a right to some of my time or attention. I'm not saying I'm any kind of celebrity, but I bet this has sort of a similar feeling to being dogged by paparazzi everywhere you go. Definitely makes me want to reconsider my whole dream of being a rich and famous rock star.
Cool things I've recently discovered and am enjoying the hell out of:
P!nk's new album
The whole thing is damn good, but I'm particularly fond of "Dear Mr. President," "The One That Got Away" (weird since I have a song of the same title - we have totally different takes on it, though), and "Nobody Knows." Well, and "Stupid Girls," of course. That just plain rocks.
Custom Google Portal
I've been a fan of My Yahoo! since it came out years ago, since I like anything customizable...and since it was awesome to be able to create a page with hand-picked headlines, movie times, weather, an e-mail preview, TV Guide, links, etc. Google's custom interface totally hands Yahoo its ass, though. Not only is there more diversity of module (WikiPedia search, Webster's Word of the Day, diverse news sources, and hello, Pac Man!!), but the modules themselves are more easily moveable and it's a piece of cake to change them up in a flash (I've evolved mine about sixteen times since I put it together a week ago). I don't care if Ask.com is the better search engine....I love me some Google!
Old Navy's ONBody products
Okay, so I know that Old Navy is the devil...but they seduce me with their reasonably priced jeans that make my ass look fabulous. So, I was recently there scouting for summer wear, when I stumbled onto their bath line. I'd seen it before, but never bothered to take a look, because, well, come ON - they're the devil! How could their bath products be any good? But I took a quick glance and saw two words that changed my mind immediately: lavender sandalwood. Oh my gods, it's like heaven. It combines two of my all time favorite scents in one delicious combo of bath-time goodness that leaves me smelling awesome all day. Plus, they're allegedly all natural, all animal-friendly, and organic....and I didn't have to shell out a million bucks for it, which makes me way happy.
I joined Myspace forever ago....I forget why - I think a friend had wanted me to do some checking up on someone else, and I had to join to see something-or-other....meanwhile, my profile (such as it was) sat there for moooooonths and months, untouched. Until my sister joined and started buging me. So, okay, I made some connections, I added some formatting to take away the plain and boring black and white (black and pink all the way, baby!). I uploaded some pictures. I started getting spammed by bands galore - the usual myspace thing. I kind of started enjoying it...which of course meant disaster had to strike.
First, Rupert Murdoch, of evil News Corporation fame, bought it. Myspace is now owned by the same dudes that own Fox News! You'd think no greater crisis could ever occur! I mean, even though Myspace is a great promo tool for bands (and with my refocus on music later this summer, I'm sure I could use some help in that department), it's owned by the devil, and I'm not sure how I can face myself every morning with that on my conscience...but it got worse.
My ten year high school class reunion is this year. Now, I'm not dreading it, exactly...I mean, I just plan on not going. Frankly, I already keep in touch with the folks I care about from high school, and I'm (mostly) over any need I had to flex my bitterness muscles and be all "look how fabulous I am now!" So why go? I hope that the rest of the class is doing well, but only peripherally care one way or the other, in a general caring-about-humanity kinda way. So, yeah, wasn't really planning on going.
But then, I got the myspace message from the class president...which was actually really friendly and very nice. I took some time to think about it....meanwhile, the prez got in touch with my sister (president of the class two years behind us), who proceeded to add some pressure. So, I responded. Now, I see that a fair number of people in my class are on Myspace, and it's this weird networking thing all of a sudden, and I'm worried I'm going to actually feel compelled to go to the reunion out of courtesy or something. Ye gods, you'd think that living four hours away would be enough of a buffer zone!
Not so much.
Recent entries...
27 December 2007: 2007: Finis.
17 December 2007: A ruse, a rant, and a poem. It's short.
11 December 2007: Music & falling....story of my life.
08 December 2007: Briefly...ish.
29 November 2007: A poem, a rant, a lesson.