I think the mail guy in the office is going to start thinking that I'm peddling some illicit goods from my office. Every so often I receive these thick padded envelopes from strangers which are usually followed with mailing similar packages days later. Yes, my office is the West Coast center for audiophiles everywhere. I just get tired of missing the UPS man to get my deliveries so I thought I would use my work address to take care of business.
Speaking of office mail guys...well, in this case file room guy. When I was at the Truxtun office to pick up our intern on Tuesday I saw the guy who used to make me my Grande Cinnamon Mocha in the morning at Starbucks. He works in the central file room there and I now know his name is Doug. Makes me feel bad that I never knew that while he was feeding my daily addiction, an addiction which I've since broken from since carpooling with Erin. I only have the occasional slip up now and again...usually after hitting a show in LA on a weekday night and crawling into bed at 2am or something as insane.
I do my fair share of downloading, checking out new music and what not. Some time ago, before Napster went caput more or less, I'd grabbed a few songs by The Twilight Singers (side project of Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs) after some guy that writes for the Bakersfield Californian mentioned them in an email (I'd written to share my ability to insert foot in mouth when talking to "rock stars" and yes, i'm nearly fearless over email). Anyway, I'd given them a quick listen but didn't catch my ear until tonight as one came up on random play. I suggest you check them out.
If I ever decide to quit T-co and when sitting in the exit interview, to the question "Why are you leaving?" I will answer this: Because of the dirt and spiderwebs. Seriously, it's enough to make me want to pack my bags and leave. There is something wrong when you can't even see "the mountains" in the distance when the distance is 30 miles or less. We are number two in air quality only behind LA which means dirt and dust pretty much everywhere. No need to wash your car after a few days...oh no, that's a protective layer that seals off the paint from the atmosphere. Did I mention the spiderwebs? I can understand having to clean out the corners of the ceiling, but when you've graduated from using a broom for the task to running around the apartment vacuuming the ceiling there's something wrong. And it isn't even just the ceiling. I have to do this to my front door. Wrong, it's just wrong.
So damn bored and not a bit tired. Read a bunch today, so I'm not really wanting to do that right now. I could be thinking about what I'm going to talk to my intern about tomorrow, but I think I'm blocking that out right now.
Was down on the Santa Monica Pier this weekend and saw something I wanted to share. The Pier/Promenade area is usually full of street performers and artists offering you their talents for your entertainment or to write your name on a piece of rice. Nothing unusual at first at the mirade of performers, but then I saw them. The Devil with the pointed fork, and on the left an angel - both with rubber masks. In front of each of them sat a bucket. Odd. Wasn't sure what to think of this. I mean, why exactly would you give one or the other money for just standing there. Then it happened. Someone dropped a dollar in the Devil's bucket and WHAMP! he hits Angel in the stomach with a large padded hammer. Then a few coins drop in Angel's bucket and it's retaliation time. Hate to admit it, but damn, talk about funny in an obsurd sort of way.
it's days like this, when the halls are empty, that i'm tempted to either roll down the hall in my chair or take off running and pull a volleyball dive. yea, there's a useful skill i picked up in high school. how to throw your body onto the ground (without kneepads even) and not get hurt. is it time to go home yet? didn't think so.
Uploaded some photos here. Let me know if you have any problems with them. I know that some of the files are a bit large...I need to take the time to organize a bit more, but not today. Also scanned a few photos in...took long enough to break out the scanner (after having it for 6 months...it came with the computer).
i was again reminded how good life has been to me. the most traumatic experience i've had in life is our house burning down when i was 6, which has since resulted in a fascination and respect of fire. i can handle candles, but don't ask me to light a bunsen burner or the grill. i have two loving parents that are still together and who've been supportive of me and my brother all our lives. i have a good relationship with my brother if you look past that he threw darts at me while growing up as well as giving me a black eye (which wasn't my fault at all was it...). i have friends that accept me for who i am, and give me shit when i need it. my social life could use a little spicing up (step away from the damn computer...). i have a job that i don't hate and i've been successful at so far and it affords me the opportunity to do the things i love like traveling and seeing concerts. i don't tend to get in any sort of trouble (yes, i'm just that nice). if anything, my life tends towards the boring, but you know, that's alright by me. makes boring reading for you all, but like i said, this is for my own amusement.
yea, so the guestbook now works (not that it mattered) and i thought i'd try out BlogVoices for comments. Again, not that it will matter, this is all for my own amusement.
don't you just hate it when you want to tell something to someone and they aren't around? usually by the time i do get ahold of them, i've forgotten what it was i wanted to tell them.
Drove to Los Angeles last night to see Dispatch open for G. Love and Special Sauce at the House of Blues. As much as I love that venue, I absolutely hate the whole LA crowd that has shown up the last few times. It's usually a smattering of trendy teenagers and LA hipsters that fill the room. Don't get me wrong, while I love the fact that I can say I was listening to the band way back when, the main goal of a band is to get their music out there and they are accomplishing that. I'm probably not making as much sense as I would hope here going on only 3 hours of sleep since last night. At least I can stand back, watch, and laugh. I'm sorry, but when you see the people that are there to there to see/hear/touch the band. I'm there to experience the music live. It's all about the music.
So here's where I let you on the little secret, deep down I'm probably jealous of the fans that can go up and talk to these "Rockstars". I think Jenn said something to that effect last night, that I can't just go up to Rockstars and talk to them. Oh, it's not because I couldn't talk music with them, because I probably bore my friends to death talking about how the new DMB video is has the water (waves, rain) synched to the music. Maybe it's just the pressure situation and how I don't do well in large crowds of people I do not know. Like I said, you have all these fans that want a piece for themselves to take home.
So where has my attention span gone? I've only been out of college for 2 years and I can't stand to sit in a meeting for more than an hour at a time let alone a 5 day class.
So my addiction to music has lead me to sign up on a few mailing lists here and there for specific bands. Just to keep up on the news and talk to others with the same interests in music. But on these lists you find there's always one or two of those people when seeing them post you instantly hit the delete button. That was until it dawned on me to just block sender on them. Today, I blocked someone because of this line: "what and who is Weezer?" I'm not a big Weezer fan, don't even own one of their cds or an mp3 on my computer but come on....really.
It's always a complete surprise to me when the final parts of the day can be so productive and satisfying that it makes up for nearly a days worth of suck-itude. I'm in this economics evaluation class all week long and at the risk of alienating my more business sauve friends and family, I just can't get excited over doing Net Present Worth calculations. But, the class is something I have to take and the part that sucks, is so far it's been redundant to classes I had in college. The only thing new I learned today is how to use one of those special financial calculators.
Well, on the way out the door to catch my carpool home, I swing by my mailbox at work to find a cd sized box sitting there. I'm expecting a big fat envelope from the AwareStore any day now, but that wasn't it. No, my copy of Dezeray's Hammer - Mortified finally got here. The album came high recommended from a loyal emploree of Aware Records with the suggestion to get it quick. Seems like the band has recently been signed to Sony/Edel. Damn fine music if I do say so myself.
But it did not end there, oh no. Had to come home and bake a birthday cake for one of my LOs and wanted to bake some banana bread too. Figured if I'm going to fire up the oven might as well get down to business. In doing this, I also needed to run by Trader Joe's for some free range eggs (not really...just eggs) and that's when I saw it. Nantucket Nectars Big Cran. It's the little things in life...
So, I worked today like I did last Friday. While you may not think anything different about that, I work a 9/80 schedule which means I should get every other Friday off. The nice thing about my company, is they decided that you can take your "Friday" off any time within the month. This will work out great for those of us who are low on the totem poll and only get 9 days of vacation a year. Anyway, so I worked this Friday so I can take a Wednesday off later this month after the DMB show in LA. It's worth it. The pisser is, I have this Economics class that although I could bail on it, it would be "a very good idea" to take it. That doesn't mean I won't driving down to LA to see Dispatch open for G. Love & Special Sauce.
I do this knowing that I will have to drive back from LA that night and try to survive the class the next day. It's not so much the surviving the class as it is making it home. The last couple of times I've driven back I've been extremely tired. Knowing that my mom reads this let me point out that I do stop before it gets too bad. I've actually pulled off into a truck stop and taken a nap only 30 minute from Bakersfield. While music has a special place in my life I don't think I'm ready to perish returning from a concert.
I am ready for bed though...unless you IM me right now to stop me...
Listened to a little Joan Osbourne - Relish at work today and was reminded of all those long hours spent in the computer lab freshman year of college. Those days seem to be so long ago. That has to be one of the greatest gifts that music gives me; the ability to place myself into a specific moment in the past and remember is as if it were only yesterday. Real deep, eh?
Been on a bit of a cleaning spree this last week. It runs in the family, the pack-it-away-for-another-day-itis. I always assumed it came from my dad's side of the family but my mom does it quite well also (well you do). Maybe it's that whole spring cleaning fever that's gotten into me. I'd like to think that something within myself has changed. For so long I've not been able to let things go so easily. Hell, I still have things in my old bedroom at home and unless I get motivated over Christmas it's probably going to be there until my folks decide to convert our rooms into something else (yea, I doubt that day will ever come...but this is theoretical).
Drove Sara's convertible into work today since it's been sitting there for almost two weeks and it will be another two until she gets back. I'm so used to driving trucks and SUV types that it was so strange to be sitting low to the ground. Definitely not the car for me, but there's something to driving with the top down with the a/c on....so California.
Where the hell is Belk lately? She doesn't call, she doesn't write... Did she run off with a Canadian or decide to move to Guatemala at the spur of the moment? Safari in Africa?
Today is International Tuba Day (first Friday in May) - a day set aside to honor those tuba players who hassle with those large instruments. I tried playing the tuba once my senior year of high school. It was about this time of year when you were almost done with classes and you wouldn't be playing any more concerts that year so our teacher let us swap instruments. Being a trumpet player my options for having a chance of making decent noises were limited and I'd already played french horn earlier in my musical career. All I can remember is BOUMP boump BOUMP.
all i wanted to do tonight was go home and watch survivor. that's all i should have done, but noooooooooo...had to catch up on the news on cnn.com. were they had the winner's name posted already. why couldn't they have been like usatoday and only post a link to an article on the winner without their name. pisser.
