Talblog

Back from Italy!

I just posted the pictures right now. Check out the panoramas, though they are large. It was a great time, and I spent a good day going through the photos. I am planning to write a big blog about the whole ordeal, but in the meantime, enjoy the pics! (click on the picture above to go there)

Haloweeeeeen

Hey everyone. This year I have absolutely no plans for Halloween. Just wanted to see if anyone else did - and what you are going to dress up as if you are in a costumey mood. Last year the best Halloween party happened in Baltimore. Anyway, I wish there was a good horror movie out this weekend. The Grudge was kinda weak - creepy, but not really scary. I am going to see Saw tonight, even though I read a really bad review - the things you do to hang out with friends.

Cops or Robbers

So this morning i did the usual...set my alarms extra early, then decided to sleep through all of them. oddly, i heard a BOOM sound in the distance around 7:20 AM, but didn't really pay much attention at the time. finally, at 7:30, i set my snooze for ten more minutes and snuggled happily back in my covers....only to be jolted up minutes later by POUNDING on my front door. startled, i had no idea who it could be, but it didn't seem like a knock that would go away, so i threw on my glasses and stumbled to the peep hole.

there, before my very eyes, were three oufitted police men.... HALLELUJAH! they knew it's been a while since i've been on a date, so they were getting delivered directly to my door!!! just like the sparkletts water. well that thought lasted all of about .0000465 seconds. then the fear set in, omg is my car okay? did my neighbors have a shoot out? I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! finally i opened the door and BOY WAS I A VISION...i mean my hair was sticking out equally to all sides of my head, my eyes were all glassy and my "Fair Lakes 10K race" t-shirt fit JUST RIGHT. in retrospect it's pretty funny, cause i think the cops were spread out outside my apartment, set up in a security stance, like osama would be opening the door. nope, just me, miss america.

so cop #1 launches into: MA'AM WE RECEIVED A 911 CALL THIS MORNING.
me: huh?
cop #1: DID YOU CALL 911 THIS MORNING!?
me: uh, no.
(granted this is all a blur, so this is what i THINK happened)

then the cops all decided to crowd around my apartment like it was the zoo and we just got some baby pandas in..... so i opened the door wider to let them see that my apartment was, in fact, criminal free. not good enough. they all came in, asking what was around corners, in closets, under beds etc etc. last night, my starbucks mug leaked water all in my purse so i had to dump everything out on my floor. they thought the dispersed contents were "suspect". uh, no. i'm just an idiot, thanks. cop #1 then took the helm again, asking if we had a computer? the internet? was anyone on the phone? etc etc. yeah we have wireless internet (i failed to mention that i steal it). i pointed to the barely used phone in the corner and said, uh well there it is, don't use it much. he then asks what my phone number is.....

(insert crickets here)

me: um, i, uh, don't use my phone much, it's uh, 310-5.... 310-5-8.....um,

so he radios dispatch, confirming the number. the dispatch chick has obviously been conscious FAR beyond my four minutes. she rattles off ten digits, but i only catch the last four,

cop #1: ARE THE LAST FOUR DIGITS 1-0-5-3 ma'am?
me: errr, yeah? (lightbulb) yeah, yes, yes they are, 581-1053, but i didn't hear the middle three numbers. what were they?
cop #1: that's okay ma'am we only need the last four.
cop #2: IS THERE ANYONE IN YOUR CLOSET?
me: no, it's just, um clothes (so i had to prove this by going in my room and opening doors)
cop #2: WHAT ABOUT IN THIS ROOM OVER HERE?
me: that's my roommate, she's sleeping. (they were like yeah, so, PROVE IT)

(knock knock knock, raaaachel? is anyone in there?)

rachel: (mumbled) juss me, sleeping.
me: just her, she's sleeping.
(cops made me open the door anyway, granted rachel is redoing her room, so her floor is stripped to the wood and the furniture is all moved around. alas, it was just rachel in the room, huddled in her covers. the cops are like, uh is that, uh okay fine.)

so everything was okay, they were satisfied, yet had no answers as to how the call came in. luckily my apartment is about two feet by four feet, so they were only there maybe five minutes, but i was completely confused. cop #1 ends it by asking what my name is (FINALLY, i mean he already has my #)... so i spout it off, spelling the last name and soon after they file out and i thank them for the wake up call.....as my alarm is going off. at this point i'm still only about 70% conscious and kind of rattled. how does one follow up a morning like that?

there were three cops, but i can't even tell you what the third one looked like. it all went by so fast..now i have so many questions for them...what's your name? where do you live? does 911 really only match the last four digits of a number? can i get a ride in your cruiser?

*sigh*..... so i made it to work, i have no idea what the boom sound was, i'm still confused, and hoping those were real policemen. especially since i didn't get any of their names. this would be non-pleasant event #2 in the past 24 hours. last night on my way home, i saw a car hit a motorcyclist in the dark, pouring rain. i only caught the tail end of it, but it seems a jetta-type car was trying to make an illegal maneuver, didn't see the motor-dude and slammed right into him. i only caught it b/c the bike was sliding across the center of the road. it was fairly low speed, but still the dude was on the pavement rolling around.... poor guy. i hope he's okay.

moral of the day....watch out for motorcycles and don't crank call 9-1-1.

addendum to story: i called two police stations tonight to verify that i was not a stupid girl and just let total strangers into my apartment without verfication or names. indeedly, they were officers Cortes and Hillard...the third guy was not important enough to have a name, i guess. rookie.

Selling stuff

Kurt turned me on to selling stuff on Amazon.com marketplace and it can be very addictive. I told my friend Sonya about it as well. At first she wasn't that impressed, but once she started selling stuff she became obsessed. Its a great way to get rid of those old books, games, cds that are collecting dust on your shelves.

Body Movin'

if you need a laugh... this is compliments of one of the hobbits at my office... if you don't know what i'm talking about when i say "hobbits" well then that calls for another blog. muahahahahahaha....i love it. i love it so much.

http://www.softcitizen.com/director-movie.php?director=Jaron%20Albertin&movie=5

AWESOME French Short Film

Watch it here.

It's so great.

Too bad it's not in Italian otherwise we could relate it to Jeremie and Becky in Italy.

Benvenuto a Italia

i think we should take a moment to focus on the less fortunate, aka us. while we sit in our offices (cubes) or non-offices (b/c we were recently laid off) or even the comforts of our own home (b/c we have nothing better to do)... we must remember that becky and jeremie are in italy, exploring the world. the lucky bastards.

whilest i truly hope they are having the most amazing time; indulging in decadent european cuisine and avoiding nimble-fingered pickpockets, it's my wild imagination that get me through the day:

simple little daydream scenarios, like:

*becky and jeremie fumbling around with their oversized backpacks (TOURIST RIGHT HERE, EVERYONE, WE'RE TOURISTS),
*jeremie getting frustrated and raging when something won't fit properly (DANG IT! stupid piece of crap, just FIT! blahaowieoi#$^w&$eo*ira!!!),
*taking super campy photos in quaint little italian villages (cheeeese).
*jeremie's scalp getting burned the farther south they travel (heh heh heh, eh?).
*becky wanting to sleep in while jeremie whines b/c he wants coffee and a pastry (pleaaaaaaaase becky, get up?!?).
*both eventually complaining b/c they ate too much (oooh man, i just tweezed my stomach, but it was sooooooo good).
*we need to go north, north is left...NOOO, north is right. but...
*subways, taxi cabs, renting cars, different languages, oooh the delightful frustrations of travelling.

i can't wait to hear about it all. =P

ooooooooh just read their itinerary, looks like they're in florence and it's gonna be rainy and in the low 70s for the next few days. since when has weather.com been right?

Live shows

In thinking about live shows I thought about trying to remember the ones I have been to. Don't think that I will get them all, because it is rather difficult. Brings back memories of 4 am dunkin donuts just trying though, so here it is:

1. Stone Temple Pilots
2. Nine Inch Nails w/ Manson
3. Nine Inch Nails w/ Melvins
4. Pearl Jam, of cours
5. Nine Inch Nails w/ David Bowie
6. Lords of Acid (YES) w/ Dink!
7. Frontline Assembly
8. Aphex Twin
9. Mike Paradinas (mu-ziq) with matt in some little balti-lounge
10. Download

11. Jimmy's Chicken Shack featuring drunken college frat stagedivers
12. Tibetan Freedom Concert (Becky won em! whooo!)

There are so many in between that I forget with kurt, matt etc. Dammit.

13. Massive Attack In L.A.
14. St. Etienne
14b. That girl from the show "felicity" (goth one) doing acoustic singing)
14c. Rollins Spoken word
15. Deftones
15b. Rocket From the Crypt on Halloween!
15c. Sixteen Horsepower
15d. Rage Against the Machine in L.a for the battle of los angeles!
16. Korn w/ Rob Zombie
16b. Rocket From the Crypt about 6 more times
17. Hot Snakes
17b. Radiohead (Kid A - won em!)
17c. Snuck into the woods to listen to Pearl Jam at the Greek in L.A.
18. Pinback
19. Postal Service
20. Death Cab Fer Cutie
21. Yeah Yeah Yeahs
21b. Some show with dudes in Mexican Wrestling masks - Los Straightjackets
22. Against Me w/Blood Brothers
23. Jack Dangers at some art thing or something.
24. The Distillers
25. Stellastarr
26. The Killers
27. Mum
28. Built To Spill
29. Mogwai

Dang it.. I can't remember so many. I will have to pull out the stubs to try and figure it out. Give me some help here people!

Against Me

What a great show... Against ME... they are touring right now and heading east for all you people on the other coast - go to their site

Solid punk show that makes you just want to fucking drink and sweat. Only it was sunday and I am old. I stood to the side and drank a couple beers. I got antsy near the end because is was really high energy, ran up front and got smashed in the head. Almost lost my glasses on that routine. Good times though. So I went home with a headache, bloated from two beers and a fucked up foot because someone mashed it.

Anyway... GO, it was lots of FUN. Liz, Kurt, you would both love it. I didn't know what to expect because I hadn't actually heard them before. Not to mention the completely flamboyant "screamcore" (As adam likes to call them) band the blood brothers - which - were - interesting. Yay.

Miss me?

Hi Guys,
I have been lurking. Still here.
Thats shit about Brett and Loren. Don't buy porn, make porn. Shit, your in California! That's where it comes from! I think Ron Jeremy started out drawing cells for Disney until they let him go.
Trying to think of something wise to say to make you feel better, I am drawn to the famous last word of Socrates:
"I drank what?"

See? Could be worse. Enjoy the sun. (Give the porn thing some thought)

chicken scratch

i love paper. wrapping paper, tissue paper, cards, envelopes, stationary, ribbons, pens and tablets. i love it all. stationary stores are one of my poisons. i can't go in and not buy anything. it's a sickness. i love writing cards, letters and putting forth way too much effort, just to send a little message. not to mention my notes are often late, as i tend to misplace my stamps.

sticky notes of all shapes and sizes adorn my desks, as well as multi-colored pens and sharpies. don't worry i don't have glittery unicorn folders or anything, more like martha stewart style. classy, fun and humorous. as the world slowly phases paper out, i continue to encourage the destruction of forests, for my own enjoyment.

today i finished one of my notepads at work. i like to doodle or write down notes that reflect the conversation when taking messages etc. so as i was sifting through the pages before i threw it in the recycle bin, i noticed that perhaps i'm not as professional as i'd presumed...

amidst messages and random meeting minutes that i "coincidentally" forgot to pass on, there are gems like "CRAM IT IN YOUR CRAMHOLE" scripted across the margin. or "smoke crack". then "cramhole" again on another page, written alone next to a vendor's name and number.

focusing on the message itself is an area i should strengthen, as is evident through these notes...."kylie: needs the undisclosed energy bar." hmm pretty sure that's not what she needed. she was most likely waddling by, demanding something, while pounding the energy bar.... or how about, "reset Ahole." i don't think that was a "note to self." i should have scrawled a name beside it, b/c there are a few a-holes around here that could be reset. specificity is a necessity.

that reminds me, i have to go get a birthday card at lunch today. getting sucked back to the darkside. damnit.

No mo' brett and loren

Well, Monday is almost over and it has been pretty lame without brett and loren here.

They were two of the closest guys to me at work and they were laid off on friday. Anyway, I thought I would be totally cool with it. Everytime something like that has ever happened to me it has turned out for the better.. career wise. However, it always ends with you not being able to sit next to your buds anymore - ironically that is the worst part about it. (i.e. rocco, joe jackman, mark lipsmeyer, mark wells, willie williams, aladino debert, esdras, erik, leigh, freaking jon marc, jerry weil, dan kramer, dan dimian, etc etc etc etc)

I liken it to campbells soup deciding they don't want to make chicken noodle anymore. You really just took for granted it would always be there, ready to help you out when you feel like crap, it is suddenly gone! Now what the hell are you going to do... you can't eat campbells soup no mo!

Where was this going? I don't know... change sucks and it is quiet over here.