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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Track 03

I have been listening to an unknown song on my ipod this week on repeat. I have no idea how it got to be on my ipod; no idea who's or what mix it was on, but i've been listening to this song merely titled Track 03 for days. Today I googled one of the lines that I could remember and found it listed under two artists that I already like, The Knife and Jose Gonzalez. I had an inkling that it was Gonzalez, but like the anonmnity of Track 03. The version I have is Gonzalez covering The Knife's 'Heartbeats', he mumbles, so I also wanted to know what he was saying:

Heartbeats
One night to be confused
One night to speed up truth
We had a promise made
Four hands and then away

Both under influence
We had divine scent
To know what to say
Mind is a razor blade

To call for hands of above
To lean on
Wouldn't be good enough
For me, no

One night of magic rush
The start a simple touch
One night to push and scream
And then relief

Ten days of perfect tunes
The colors red and blue
We had a promise made
We were in love

To call for hands of above
To lean on
Wouldn't be good enough
For me, no

To call for hands of above
To lean on
Wouldn't be good enough

And you, you knew the hands of the devil
And you, kept us awake with wolf teeth
Sharing different heartbeats
In one night

To call for hands of above
To lean on
Wouldn't be good enough
For me, no

To call for hands of above
To lean on
Wouldn't be good enough
For me, no


If you haven't seen the Gonzalez video before, they got that whole video on one try. Awesome, and very American Beauty beautiful.

Monday, November 17, 2008

What the Cool Kids Drive


I have had my car for about two weeks. The first day having it I got two flat tires. Not one, but TWO! I still have no idea how this happened.

It was a Sunday morning and I was on my way to Millie's to have brunch with April and Steven. I had parked on the street the night before and nothing was wrong then. And then Sunday morning I didn't notice the front passenger side until I was turning up twelfth street and noticed a funny sound. It was a nice day, so I had my windows down. I pulled over, emptied the trunk, only to find that I didn't have a jack. I then flagged down some dude to see if he had a jack, he did, but we couldn't figure out how to remove it from his trunk.

I then proceeded to call April, over and over again, she didn't answer, so I called Steven, thankfully he did answer.

By the time they arrived I was done crying. And Steven took care of everything, and then we all hopped in their car and drove to the gas station to fill the tire with air and check for any leaks. We couldn't find any leaks, but we put the spare on anyway just in case. Well, then the spare went flat. So I pulled into an empty parking lot and we all drove back to their house to get some tools that Steven needed and then he and I drove back to try and fix it yet again.

One of the bolts (I think that's what they're called) was almost impossible to remove, even with the electric wrench (?) that Steven had brought. He eventually got it off, but we found that it had skipped a thread and part of it and the screw had been stripped. So, adding to the adventure, we drove to three car part stores, finally found one that was open and were able to get all the parts we needed, and eventually were able to get the original tire put back on and drive safely back to April and Steven's house.

I am a Pittman, and should have anticipated something to go wrong, because it always does.

And not a week later, I got a huge semi-circle shaped crack on my windshield from a rock hitting it on 95.

And now my car is always hot because the heat doesn't turn off. I would expect the opposite to happen, but no, even when the switch is turned all the way to the off position, heat is definitely still being blown from the air vents. I should probably be more worried about this, but as it happens, it is winter and there are worse things that could happen; and with my luck, I'll take what I can get.

On the upside, it gets tremendous mileage, I go to DC and back on about half a tank of gas. That is awesome. And it is cleaner than all of my friends' cars, though it could use a vacuuming. I'm kind of a freak about not having junk in my car. I'm not an exceptionally tidy person, but I am very OCD about odd things (thank you, Dad), and clean cars is one of them.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

girls suck

Boys suck. A lot. And so do their gal pals.

I had a recent encounter with a girl that is friends with guy-friend of mine. She thought it would be appropriate to go on about how "he's not worth (my) time" and "he will always belong to (this other chick who was a rebound to begin with)" and on about that sort of stuff. I explained to her that we're just friends, and retained my left hook.

I do not understand where girls get off being so overly protective of their guy-friends. I mean, this is not the first time this has happened to me and I haven't told him about it.

I played nice that evening and even went home and added her on facebook, she of course declined and well, that's just petty.

I have plenty of guy friends and while I'll tell them what I think of the other people they hang out with, I would never in my life dream of being as rude as this chick.

For example, I have a friend I'll call Mark, and he's liked this chick for most of this semester. But she is boring and unmotivated and doesn't have an opinion about anything, she is a follower, and they are annoying. It has taken weeks for him to realize this. I got it from the first time I met her, but I am cordial and polite, and make friendly conversation. I would never have told her, "Hey, Mark prefers girls that have ambition and opinions and enjoy being out and about as much as he does. He's also not over his ex, so you should really stop wasting your time." That would have been rude, and while I'm known for being very outspoken, I know where to draw the line.

I understand that people want what is best for their friends, I certainly do, but one can encourage what they believe is best without imposing, no? Of course we are attracted to all our friends, so maybe what she meant to say was "I am in love with him and am moving farfar away to try and get over him, he knows this and is encouraging me to do so." Yeah, I think that's what she meant. And that's what is happening at least as far as I understand.

I would like to say more, because I am just so angry, but I will restrain myself and hope that in the future she will as well.

The end.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Dance Dance Dance

On Friday I had made plans to meet some friends in The City (DC, never Richmond) for lunch. Well that didn't happen. Instead I got stuck in Richmond for and extra hour because my dad sent tickets to my sister's priority mail - meaning because they weren't there when the "package" came and my sister and her husband both work, and I got out of class at eleven, I had to go pick up the "package."

I'm calling it a "package" because really it was a series of envelopes. Five to be exact. Five freaking envelopes for three measly tickets to Celtic Thunder, a show that my dad has supposedly picked out for my birthday.

My dad is incapable of making things convenient. He had sealed the ticketmaster envelope, put it inside a white letter envelope and put tape over all the seals, put that inside an orange padded (???) envelope and again put tape over all the seals and edges and corners but this time it was that horrible tape with the strings in it that makes anything impossible to open, then all of that into a cardboard envelope, and then into a large bag-like envelope. It took me about ten minutes to get through it all with the help of my keys. Then I had to drop two of them off at my sister's house.

I could go on about all the different ways my dad could have distributed the tickets to us in a more convenient way (a single envelope, for example, willcall...).

Then I texted my friends and told them I would be late, at which point they had to cancel because they were using their lunch breaks and had to be back at work. So I was pissed. And I got lost. Somehow, upon leaving April's house I got onto 295 South instead of North. So I took an hour long detour around Richmond. And on my way back through RIchmond a huge rock hit my windshield. It came from a bulldozer that was on a flatbed in the next lane about three cars in front of me.

This was not what I had planned for an enjoyable weekend.

I finally made it to DC around four. Ridiculous. And since everyone was at work, I went shopping. At Coup de Foudre, a lingerie shop across from E Street Cinema. I've known about this place for awhile and thought about going there before, but hadn't, mostly because it is very expensive. But, since I was feeling somewhat irrational, I figured why not. A good bra is an investment, right?

I spent approximately three hundred dollars in an hour. I bought two sets. And got refitted. And for someone who has sworn by Victoria's Secret since the seventh grade, I have changed my mind completely. Apparently lace can be supportive. AND! And they had pretty bras in my size (enormous). After wearing one for the past two days, I can tell you that it's already made a huge difference. They just feel better and if you're currently wearing a shitty, stretched out elastic band of a bra, reconsider.

Afterwards I decided that I needed something cute to wear to Sorted that night after Celtic Thunder, so I went to H&M. And surprisingly didn't find nearly as many things as I usually do. I only tried on three things. I ended up buying shiney, blue, shirt-dress. I'll admit, it came up kind of high on the sides, and I probably should have worn it with leggings (real leggings) or my black skinny pants, but instead I wore it with black hose and heels. I'm not really sure if I was wearing hose as pants, or a shirt as a dress, probably both, but whatever, I looked fabulous.

At this point I had not had anthing solid to eat all day, so I grabbed a smoothie from Maggie Moo's and headed to Baltimore. I got there at about a quarter to eight. I was feeling very irritable from having driven for about five hours that day and not having eaten anything. And I snapped ay my parents, mostly my dad for picking the most horrible birthday present earlier. I mean my parents have always been bad at birthdays. And every year, if I wanted anything to happen I had to plan it, except last year, when my mom decided to have a failed surprise party that turned into a roast. Anyway, no one has ever thrown me a birthday party and I resent that because I'm pretty good about birthdays. Anyone that knows me knows what a huge fucking deal they are.

I've digressed. When I told my dad all this, he said that it wasn't even for my birthday, which would mean that my parents didn't do shit for my big day. I didn't even get a fucking card. Or a cake, or candles. And aside from the movies that my roommate got me and the most beautiful roses you've ever seen from another friend, I didn't get any presents. My mom tried to say that the car was my present, but I reminded her that I would have gotten that anyway. My dad agreed and asked what I wanted. I had told them that I wanted accupuncture over a month ago, several times and each time I brought it up my mom said that our insurance wouldn't cover it. DUH! That's why it's a gift.

So after crying and being a total brat, April and Steven arrived and we took in the audience, a sea of sixty-five to seventy year olds, and waited for the show to start.

Celtic Thunder is like Disney on Ice for the elderly, but without the ice. The stage was set up to look like a rocky shore in a storm. The preformers were five men, and all the songs were chauvenist and trite. "...life is an ocean, love is a boat...I'm the captain, you're my first mate...we have our own crew..." Really, those were lyrics in one of the songs.

One of the guys was like fourteen and sang a song about pupply love, during which he waved around a shirt. Some girl, who was probably like twelve ran up to try and catch it when he threw it and completely missed. So sad, she's lucky no one knows who she is.

April, Steven and I spent the entire show laughing. It was so ridiculous. My mom kept nudging us to be quiet because we were "making a scene." I almost feel bad for possibly ruining the show for the people around us, but it was just so bad, so I don't. There wasn't anything "celtic" about it except for the fact that the guys were Irish and they sang Danny Boy, but that was it.

I left for DC as soon as soon as it was over. And after parking I changed into the aforementioned dress and hose in my car and was ready to dancedancedance. And I did, for at least three hours.

For those that aren't aware of my awful stage fright, dancing on the stage at a backstage dance night at The Cat is about as close to preforming as I will ever get. And I don't grind, I simply dance the way I would in my room, and since most of the people there don't know me and those that do, think I'm adorable (because I am), I am somehow able to completely let go. And that for me is very difficult. So I danced and danced. And at one point was offered a double shot of bourbon which I had to decline because you know, I was at the Cat and I'm underage (but bourbon is so good). Later when I was in towards the back of the stage, some girl grabbed my hand pulled me to the front of the stage. I had seen her grinding with another girl earlier and told her I didn't do that, she laughed and told me to "give them what they want." At this point I was very confused. She made me look out at the room. People were watching me. I mean, people that I didn't know. And for probably the first time in my life, I didn't care.

So I danced and danced and danced. And David wanted to dance with me. He was a very awkward twenty-eight year old who had no rythm. I danced with him, I danced with a lot of people. But Idanced with him for three songs. He was drunk and told me that I beautiful and that he wanted to kiss me. I explained to him that that would be inappropriate and that we could just dance. By the third song I was sick of him and told him that that was the last dance. He didn't like that and tried to continue dancing with me, so I pushed him away and explained that this was my song* and I didn't want to dance with anyone else.

Eventually it was over. I got asked for drugs, also a first. Apparently is was difficult for people to believe that I was sober.

What a crazy day.


* I am a much better dancer than that girl in the video, and I wish there was a better video for that song. This and this are both equally dancable and all are sad.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

America is Awake this Morning


Yesterday my roommate and I drove down to the train station to cast our ballots. For us, this was our "First Election" (it says so on my calendar) and luckily there wasn't a line; apparently they had all dissipated after the morning rush.

It was only a minute, but during that time I felt incredibly awake. Seeing Barack Obama and Joe Biden at the top of the ballot felt incredibly surreal. The time was finally there to vote!

Afterward, Jessica and I soaked in it. There was truly a sense of elation that came from that experience.

I have always thought that voting was important, but because I was previously underage and therefore not allowed to, I didn't quite understand how important. I do now.

Last night we started keeping watch on everything via the internet. Then I had to go do some radio station (www.wvcw.org) stuff and I ended up at Empire watching MSNBC on a projector above a bar. I cannot tell you how nervous I was. My body would not stop moving and Landis (who was with me) kept going on about what was "bothering me." Nothing was bothering me except the thought of the possiblity of McCain being president.

Unfortuneately around ten I had to head to Bagel Czar to some metal show to promote WVCW, but I really didn't do that and no one came anyway. Everyone was at a viewing party of some sort, of course! We were all checking CNN.com every five seconds. And at eleven I got a text from AJ, the first of exchanges between me and everyone over the Obama/Biden win!

At this poinst I was hysterical. I literally jumped up and down for about fifteen minutes. Everyone poured into the streets around campus. There were fireworks, carhorns, screaming, hugging, kissing, high fives, every form of introduction and affection could be seen. People expanded down Broad Street for about six to eight blocks. Intersections were closed down. Cops were everywhere (though, not really doing anything exceptin directing traffic).

Last night the only feelings present were those of love, beauty and unity. Never before have I experienced those feelings to that degree and with so many people.

America is forever changed by this election, and if last night was any indeication of the direction it's going, these next four years are going to be some of the most influential in histroy - not just for our government and country, but for our csociety and culture. Obama has sparked a tiny flame in us all to be better people, and that's change we can believe in.