When I am Old I will dye my hair red but not until then.

Sometimes I should not watch the music video for a song that I like.

November 22!

Whoops, forgot about yesterday. It was a good day, though.

This is my walk home from my new choir which I love love love.


The choir, that is, not my walk home. Though, it is not a bad walk, seeing as how it is a walk, not a 10 mile, 90 minute public transit journey / 30 minute drive, like my old choir was. New choir is SO MUCH BETTER.

November 6!

Today it gets dark early, and also the trees are very bright. this photo obviously does no justice.

I learned a really excellent Ysaye Barnwell song yesterday and I will try to find a good link to it.

All I Do Is Win

Snoop has been running this rap game since he was 20 years old. Man, I am 2 years late, I better get my act together.
if you aren't familiar, and I'm very hopeful that you aren't, this is maybe the worst/best song ever. I am going through yet another of my terrible music phases. One cannot listen to New Pornographers, David Bowie, Old 97s, Fruit Bats, and Guided by Voices always. Well, maybe one can, but I cannot.

The story behind this fantastic/terrible song is that it was the pump-up song for my mock trial babies this year! I went to a round of regionals this year to root for my babies. It was weird, I guess, I thought I was going to be able to be more involved in the program this year, but I didn't end up with enough time or energy. SURPRISE. so, this was the third year of the AU program competing in regionals (when I showed up at AU there was practically no program [AU students are notoriously flaky], my junior year was the first time I captained a team at a regional), and one of the AU teams placed! That means they're going to the opening round of national championship qualifiers. I am so proud of my little mock trialers, most of whom started from scratch last year. They are fully informed that they are to name the AU invitational tournament after me, the program's unofficial founder and first official captain.

It has been raining all day, which is great, even though today has been a cranky one. curse you, barometric pressure changes! Because of the advent of allergy season, I've increased my daily intake of various pills now to a grand total of 13. Apparently Costco sells a giant bottle of knock-off Zyrtec for $dirtcheap.99? Stuff saved my life when Capital R and I went to West Virginia and I had relatively miserable sinus issues - it's cool to mix allergy meds with too much champagne, right?? Anyway I'm beginning to wonder if I'm over-supplemental-ing, is that a thing?

Soon I have to make a decision about what to do when the lease on my house is up. Which is in 2 months and 22 days. which is 1,992 hours, or just over 7 million seconds. I'm dreading everything about that.

Flamingos in Siberia

Here is a really excellent story about flamingos in Siberia: locals mystified.

One time Baby Biebz and I were sitting in the kitchen playing with Tupperware, and I was bored, so I got out my phone and opened my music player, and played that stupid terrible fantastic Train song, Hey Soul Sister, which, as I suspected might happen, Biebz loooved. Yes I have that song on my phone, it just happens to be a really great song to wake up to in the morning. Shut up. Anyway, I did the same thing the next time we did Tupperware time, because it's hilarious to see Biebzbear dancing.

So now, every time the little dude sees my phone, he starts dancing, which I figure is a cue that he wants to hear that stupid song. And then when I play it, he immediately runs to the kitchen and brings me Tupperware. Have I classically conditioned him!? I think when he wakes up from his nap this afternoon, I will try playing a different song on the phone, and see if he does the Tupperware thing. I have some pretty excellent Neko Case on my phone, it's just not as conducive to adorable babydancing as the stupid excellent Train song.

Speaking of my phone and Baby Bieber Bear, I took some pretty excellent photographs last night of him chowing down on delicious black beans from the tasty Salvadoran place at Eastern Market. They're pretty much the only grown-up food he will eat, besides muffins. Anyway, he was funny with food all over his face. Alas, I believe in internet-anonymity for children who are not mine, and honestly if I had children I would believe in internet-anonymity for them as well, so I will not post these excellent photographs! SUCKS TO BE YOU, INTERNET.

Yesterday I didn't do any of the things that I said I would do except take my vitamins! I did that. I did not put shoes away or make my bed, because I got distracted by the internet and went to bed an hour early, which was pretty great. Today I will try harder! because today is a different day than yesterday.

I have a combination of Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love" and Jamie Foxx's "Blame It feat. T-Pain" stuck in my head. The former because of a friend's G-Chat status, the latter because I am in the process of downloading trashy pop music for motivation. I do not think these two would make a very good mash-up.

No Space Monkey yet! soon, soon, a Space Monkey will come.

How Can It Be

I have a terrible terrible Methodist hymn stuck in my head. Today church went on forever, I guess Methodists aren't used to communion so it takes a really long time?? anyway it got to be like 11:50 and the pastor was like "You know what? Go in peace to love and serve the Lord" (which I almost just spelled "swerve") and we skipped the last page of the bulletin.

It's the little things, you know?

the King's Speech was excellent, I am very glad that Mr. Firth got his little golden statue for his role.

outside is storming and windy and police sirens, and on my iTunes is a sweet track from the King's Speech soundtrack that I got for free from Fandango for buying my advance movie tickets through them? I spent only $9 on two movie tickets instead of $24.50 AND got a free dramatized arrangement of the second movement of Beethoven's seventh?? I am a fan of this situation. Also, it feels like a trap, somehow.

The extended forecast on Accuweather.com shows me that the weather for the beginning of Lenten Project Oh-Eleven looks good! Right now I am going to put the shoes away into my closet and take my vitamins and make my bed, and those will be my small projects for today.

Come By Here

February sucked. March is doing okay, I guess. For a few days I was completely insane, crying at the drop of a hat and wanting to break things. Then I had a tiny mini-vacation day where I got to eat sushi, and frozen yogurt with mochi, and a nummy pastry, and I got my nails did, and I have been mostly better since then. Also, it turns out that getting manicures is awkward, and considering I messed mine up in 4 places within fifteen minutes, I don't believe I am built for it. This is fine. It was pretty effective in getting my hands to stop shaking post-doctor appointment.

Imminent Space Monkey is still Imminent, getting more and more so every day. Stellina went through a week where she was terrified of baby brudder and didn't want to see her mom, but now she is back to checking brudder's room every night before bed to make sure everything is in order. Due date isn't until the 18th, but I guess babby could come anytime between now and then. New Babbies! They are so great.

BiebzBear is either growing out of his annoying-as-hell stage, or I am getting more tolerant, and I think it is both. I have been reading lots of parenting books which I think is helping with my ability to understand why he does the annoying shit that he does, and/or to change things so he doesn't do them. I spend most of my time with him, now, usually 20-25 hours a week.

I seem to have picked up a church gig now at a small Methodist congregation in Arlington. It is fine. They pay me decently for minimum-impact work, though they have a 10:30am Sunday service - 9:30 call time is so early! Hymns and simple anthems are fine but I desperately miss singing in Latin and I miss singing early music and I miss singing anything challenging. The choir members are mostly older folks, with two other paid youngsters like me, and everyone is really friendly and nice. But Methodists are weird, and also this church is in the middle of nowhere. If I could find a Catholic or Episcopal church that was easier to get to and wanted to pay me to sing for them in a slightly more professional choir, I would miss my friendly little Methodists, but I would be less bored. In rehearsal yesterday we started working on a simple Thomas Tallis piece, which made me miss early music in a way I never thought I would.

Speaking of church, I am planning to do a Lent project. I seem to do okay when I have projects to accomplish, with little steps and an end-date, and not so well when I have a giant amorphous "do this until you are done with it" assignment. So I am going to try to exercise every day from Ash Wednesday to Easter, I guess with Sundays off?, in some manner or another. I am hoping it will help with my general lethargy and low energy/motivation levels, since it really couldn't get much worse. However, because I believe that running is for chumps, I am tasked with coming up with better ideas for exercise. I am thinking lots of dance classes and bicycle (impending warmer weather = a huge plus for bicycle), and maybe I'll find a yoga class even though I do not like yoga, or do a trial membership at a gym or something. Also, I hate running not only because it sucks and it's for chumps only, but also I can never get my iPod headphones to stay in my ears just while I'm walking, let alone running. What is the solution to this! Are there excellent running headphones out there that anyone knows? Also are there good exercise ideas?

Anyway, Lenten Project Oh-Eleven. I don't know if it will work and maybe it won't, but I will try. I am bored and I can never get anything done. I feel like I am always trying to play catch-up with myself. I can never make any positive progress because my room is never clean, and I can never clean my room because I have too many things to do, and I can't do those things because I am at work or sleeping.

When I first started watching Stellina I used to marvel at how Stellina's mom kept her house so impeccably clean with a such little kid. It didn't take long for me to realize that her secret, I guess, is that she never lets herself get behind in the stuff she has to do. StellinaMom keeps their days so regimented that everything always gets done when it needs to get done: laundry, dishes, wiping down all non-porous surfaces, putting away toys. Stellina's up at 6:30 or 7, lunch is at 12, nap is from 1 to 3, dinner is at 6:30, bathtime at 7:15, in bed at 8. Scheduling gets harder, of course, now that Stellina is the Queen of Stalling. Stall-ina, haha, get it. She also refuses to use toothpaste, what's up with that!? She and I discussed why, and she said, "Because it's too blue." A likely story.

Back to always playing catch-up. Every task I ever have always seems just a tiny bit out of hand. Too much laundry, too many shoes to put away, too much floor to sweep. It's so much easier to get in the bed and stay there for three hours, until it's time to find food and then get back in bed for the nighttime sleeping. I almost wish for a fresh start but I think that would require moving, and not only does moving REALLY suck, it never quite seems to be a fresh start, because I'm always running out of packing/moving time, so I put everything in boxes as quickly as possible. Then on the other side I'm just unpacking boxes of crap that I don't know what to do with, and then I still have the same piles of crap that I had in my old residence. I think what I need is two days where I can mega-dose with speed, I mean... caffeine? and do all my cleaning that I could ever possibly need to do, and everything else I've been avoiding, and then a mini-vacation, and then I can manage to have a mini-fresh start and be happy. And I can do my best to channel StellinaMom and never get behind in small, daily tasks.

Why does my happiness depend on how clean my living space is?!

Today is Thursday

and I am cold.

I understand it is the case that I have not blogged in a long time. It is now October. It gets cold at night and often during the day it is not all that warm.

One of our biggest squashes is moldy?? Not rotting, moldy on the surface. I discovered this with no time to deal with it today, so I will deal with it tomorrow.

I have been listening to wayyyy too much pop music, but I did get to see the New Pornographers again on Sunday!

I was pretty disappointed by 30 Rock's live show last week, but I found the west coast show much more entertaining. Kelsey Grammer is guest on tonight's show!

I have almost finished my November budget! My finances are in pretty decent order, as it turns out.

For how short my attention span is, I can't stand flipping channels.

I keep having dreams that I wake up and my hair is long again.

Now that it is cold, Rhett is cranky again, and Zoe is cuddly except she keeps trying to escape.

Nine days until the Rally to Restore Sanity!

These are things that I know.

Matt Lauer was shaking his head

Sometimes I forget how great Girlyman is, and then I smack myself in the head for wasting time listening to other, lesser music.

I am a border collie when it comes to listening to music. I listen to one artist / band over and over until I get sick of them, and then I go to another artist, and listen to that over and over, etc. This happens with Neko Case, the New Pornographers, Girlyman, Rhett Miller, the Old 97s, Michael Jackson, Glee, Chuckanut Drive, and sometimes Dar Williams too. (Side note, you should listen to all of these things, except Glee, omg Gleeeee it's so bad) Right now I'm taking a break from the NPs to have this song infiltrate my brain, or rather to listen to that song repeatedly and wonder how Girlyman infiltrated my brain. Also, that whole album.

OH ALSO one of the other ones that I cycle through is Lady Gaga. of course.

Anyway the point is I am not very good at mixing things up.

Um so yeah, this is an example of me trying to get any work done at all at the Eastern Market Starbucks and FAILING MISERABLY. it's so cold here and there is just so much free internet and so many amusing bougie white girls to watch and did you know that a dirty chai frap tastes just like gingerbread??

there is a girl here in a pink and white striped boatneck 3/4 length sleeved shirt, and also snakeskin gladiator sandals, and also high-waisted shorts that are navy blue with tan diamonds on them, and her pink shirt is tucked into her shorts, which is a thing I don't understand. It is maybe one of the weirdest fashion choices I have ever seen. Power to her for wearing sleeves in 8109283 degrees Celsius. Amusing white girls.

It is too hot to get work done at home, and everywhere else is too air-conditioned.

A roommate and I went on a bike ride yesterday and it was like 15 miles (or, at least, over 10, and I am rounding up because it was so hot) and I got a new stem on my bike, and it is so great and I never want to get off my bike but my butt hurts from riding and also I need a little bit of a break from being drenched in sweat.

Today is Stellina's birthday! She is two now. Later I will write about our trip to the bike shop last week, which was super fun and great.

THIS HAS BEEN A SUPER INFORMATIVE AND INTERESTING POST THANKS FOR READING GUYS

Leave it there for safekeeping

Certainly one of the greatest nights of my life.

(my new bride)

Themselves in Rockband / Guitar Hero? version. They made jokes about how AC Newman was only 85% of ... himself. On the song that he wrote.

(The New Pornographers at DC's 9:30 Club - June 23, 2010)

Things For Which I Am Eternally Grateful, episode II

Kisses from babies.

Free stuff at baseball games.

Popsicles in summer (not serial killers, though).

Beautiful women.

The flea market at approximately New York Ave, NE and Florida Ave, NE, and also the wholesalers around there.

Fresh mangoes. $7 a box!

My ticket to the New Pornographers show! which is 27 hours in the future from now!

Kisses from babies. Back me up on this one, they're just that fantastic.

The Letter C

I finally figured out how to keep score at yesterday's Nats-White Sox game... Except not until halfway through the fifth inning, so there's a scorecard that doesn't make any sense for half the game. I moved around a bunch and decided Section 416 is where to be when I'm alone and want to keep score. At least 'til I move down to the 100s in the 7th inning.
Demonstration:


I feel like such a nerd going to the games alone, mostly because I laugh out loud at some songs that the organist plays. Yesterday I texted him and asked him to play Hey, Soul Sister (my favorite guilty pleasure song, as has been previously demonstrated), and he was all "Oh man I don't know if I can fit it in today, I'm trying to play songs that fit with Father's Day! but I'll try to squeeze it in" but then, there in the middle of the 8th inning, at double speed, were the tiny electric notes of Train! And then I laughed, and looked at the audio/visual box grinning, and everyone thought I was insane.

In other news, I have unmistakable tan lines on my feet from the sandals that I've been wearing every single day, which is pretty crazy, because I have never been tan in my life. I also still have tan lines from this time, in which I am wearing convertible tights from ballet class that stop mid-calf. I burned slightly from that mark down, though the rest of me was not burned, thankfully, because burns are bad. Instead of just going back to white like normal, it turned into tan, which now looks like a reverse sock tan on my legs. With sandal marks on my feet.

Here is a present for Solstice: the blog of my friend James! Read it, it's real real good, and also funny, and I'm not just saying that because it's my friend writing it. Especially read this page.

Things For Which I Am Eternally Grateful, episode I

Sleep.

Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me.

Really good cheeseburgers.

Excellent hair days.

Feminist men (real ones, not fake ones).

YouTube.

Playlists containing only the best Chuckanut Drive, Rhett Miller, Old 97s, Neko Case, and New Pornographers songs.

Progress.

Having too many clothes.

Best friends that email a link to the cast of Glee singing the National Anthem just 30 minutes after you emailed to that person the cast of Glee singing a cover of Charlie Chaplin's "Smile."

Time waits for no man but for woman it stops

This morning Brad recorded the radio show on a minidisc, so ... that is likely where it will stay for the rest of eternity. Is it possible to transfer minidisc to any other format? isn't that why minidiscs failed? also, because you can only record like 20 minutes on each? I am probably wrong. Anyway, I'm sure the show was entertaining.

Yesterday I saw Stellina for the first time in two weeks, and she was confused that I cut all my hair off. She is getting bigger all the time!! Funny how that happens.

I've got Fidelity Grange cycling through again and again, especially "Falling Still." It's just been that week.

Here's a photo from New Orleans:

Honey, I'm searching still.

Don't look down, don't look now

Sister was correct when she told me to listen to "Blacklisted" today. such a great album.

How's hope feeling today

Tired and sick of this place

Red wine is fast at the lip of your glass

Saying I'm going to ruin everything

Everything

So it's better, my sweet, that we hover like bees

'Cause there's no sure footing

No love, I believe

Watch this one all the way to the end, then go to BriTANick.com and watch all their videos.

Fire it up

This is a very important follow-up to viewing the "Telephone" video, which you cannot possibly have avoided by now. I was gettin mah hurrs did yesterday morning and convinced my stylist (who I love to death zomg) that she needed to go google it up as soon as she was done for the day. Anyway, read that Feministe post, it is hilarious.

So, I'm on the plane (literally, right now, on the plane, wifi for free. I knew AirTran was a good idea, somehow??) and I was reading my New Orleans guidebook from Lonely Planet, and I turned to a page and saw a dude that I recognize! He is really only someone that I know of, so that's all well and good.

Lindsey accidentally called me this morning at about 1:30(??), and apparently I was having a lucid dream about a really strange- and scary-looking bug, because the first thing I said to her was "man you're right, that bug is fucking weird!" I don't think she heard me because it was an accidental dial, but I hope she did. And also, even though at that point I woke up enough to realize that the bug wasn't real, I still moved to the other side of the bed because I was jeeshed out.

I have had little sleep.

(For Some Inexplicable Reason the) British Train Mascot is a Mexican Wrestler

I found this blog post title in the list of auto-complete suggestions.

The interwebben are alight with chatter about Lady Gaga's new music video. It took me a bit to come around to Gaga; I mostly just thought she was a nutter with a penchant for strange hair. And then I realized that she and her production team are crazyinsane artistic geniuses.

Her video for "Telephone" picks up where the "Paparazzi" video leaves off, and includes Beyonce, sunglasses made of lit cigarettes, poison honey, and the Pussy Wagon, so, um, it couldn't possibly get much better. Here I have embedded it from MTVMusic.com, which I try to use as often as possible, in support of MTV's lost music days.

Lady Gaga |MTV Music

Also on the interwebben, the new OK Go video for "This Too Shall Pass," which I can't embed, but here it is. The official video of the marching band version has been out for a couple months and it's pretty cool, but this new one is AWESOME. Like a bunch (most? all?) of their other videos, it's one continuous shot, and they filmed in a warehouse in 60+ takes over two days. It's well worth the less than 4 minutes of your life.



Thirdly and finally in music news for today, I got a ticket to the Pavement show in Philly in September. I'm pretty pumped about that! My friend Steve bought his ticket separately from me, and ended up 5 seats away purely by luck. We're in Orchestra A, Row C, which is pretty sweet, though we're a little over to the right, I guess. If you're in DC or Philly, or anywhere else close, there are still tickets available, so you should come!!!


Today I was standing in the living room and my kitchen sink made a funny noise. I looked at it and it looked normal, and then 20 seconds later I looked at it again and it looked like this:



WHAT.


Time to finish my food desert paper and experiential map, and start packing for New Orleans. I'm taking my computer, so maybe I will bloggy while I'm there.

Tomorrow is my first adventure with a Zipcar! I get to go buy cat food and cat litter in Bethesda, so... that's cool. My Honda Civic's name is Carl. First time driving in DC! wooo

Reasons to stay

My set list so far, for a show in 2 weeks:

1. If She Wants Me - Belle & Sebastian, Dear Catastrophe Waitress
2. Challengers - The New Pornographers, Challengers
3. Your Hands (Together) - The New Pornographers (from Together, which is dropping May 4)
4. Major Leagues - Pavement, Terror Twilight
5. Kickin' In Your Door - Chuckanut Drive, Fidelity Grange (or maybe Mexican Daydream instead, from Chuckanut Drive?)
6. People Got a Lotta Nerve - Neko Case, Middle Cyclone
7. Everything's Easy - Girlyman, Everything's Easy
8. something from Rhett Miller's latest album, I'm not sure yet if it will be I Need To Know Where I Stand, or the demo of I Know It's Wrong, or If It's Not Love, or Another Girlfriend, or Refusing Temptation, because it's a pretty excellent album, but there's not one song that is my by-far favorite.

Any suggestions? I think I get to have two more songs. Please keep all suggestions restricted to the category of "obscure" and "deserves lots of airtime"


And now, the saga of the sign.



When I asked for a sign, this is not what I wanted!!
ha ha, that was a funny joke.

No really, this sign showed up in my hallway, and then I wanted it but realized I totally can't have it, because it's hell of heavy, ten feet long, and a total cesspool of tetanus and a plethora of other diseases, I'm sure. So Nick helped me try to unscrew the sign part from the post, but it's way too rusted to get undone.

The next day, the sign was gone, but this morning the sign was in the stairwell! I am so glad it's not gone. I love the sign.

I leave that to your discretion

Further inroads have been made towards the singularity.

Here is my cat.


There is a rumor that I may guest-DJ on my friend's radio show in a few weeks. I have to brush up on my indie. I feel like this is just going to make my urgent desire to be in a band even worse. I have to make up for lost time! Quarter-life crisis!

(this kid I know started a band once, and it was called Quarter Life Crisis, and it was really shitty and it lasted for about 10 days because everyone in the band sucked. SO, if any potential future bandmates are reading this, this is me putting on the record that I don't want to be in a shitty band.)

I wore my HRC polo today, totally forgetting that it is March 3, and therefore anyone who wants to get gay married in DC can now go stand in line and pay $35 for a marriage license, just like everyone else! so that is FUCKING RAD. Happy gay marriage Wednesday, District!

Wednesdays are always good for me. they are going to stop being so good, though, because in 2 weeks I have to start going to class again on Wednesdays. Blerg. so what I can say is that things are happening, and that is better than no things happening.

Tomorrow is Stellina day! it is still so cold at the park. I cannot wait until it is warm out, because during the time when it has been cold, she has grown almost big enough to do stuff that bigger kids can do! Someday she and I will go to the National Building Museum, which I am going to have to talk Mamma Stellina into allowing, because there are germs and stuff there. I went once over the summer with Captain Bananio and Prince Philip and it was such an excellent time, and then after, both the boys slept for many many lengths.

When I am wondering who

This weekend I went and saw the Washington Ballet's production of The Great Gatsby. Yeah. F. Scott Fitzgerald in all his ... balletic glory? Anyway, it was pretty horrifying. WHY, SEPTIME, WHY.

But! there were some excellent parts. It's been a while since they've been able to afford live music! I'm so glad my $90 ticket (at 16% on my credit card) could contribute to that. /bitter

I've had Irving Berlin's "What'll I Do" stuck in my head since Saturday. So here it is, via Frank.