Can I get a refund on this brain? It's not working right...

Image via Wikipedia

ACTUAL THOUGHT PROCESS WHILE I WAS DRIVING HOME TONIGHT. I was alone:

"La la la, la la la What a nice night. Oooh - smells like popcorn! Where is that coming from? Mnn. Smells delicious. It's really a strong smell.... Where IS it coming from? I should have already passed.... Did someone pour popcorn into my engine? Is the heat making it pop? IS THERE POPCORN IN MY ENGINE? Is my car going to break? That's kind of clever... Wait... What's that smell that people smell right before they have a stroke? Is it popcorn? It's burned something... Toast, maybe. OR MAYBE IT WAS BURNT POPCORN!!! Am I about to have a stroke? Should I pull over? OH GOD, IS IT BURNT POPCORN?!?!?"

And that's how it went for a little while until I realized that it had, in fact, been a little while and the stroke hadn't started yet. Then everything was fine again.

So, erm.... I'm still here....

Wow - the last entry promised that I would keep up with my blogging and then there's Radio Silence for six weeks. Sorry about that.
It's been a very crazy, very busy, very good six weeks. I've been five weeks into a job that I'm very happy with and about two weeks into living with a kitten that is very slowly learning that people NEED TO SLEEP AT NIGHT.
I don't have any pictures of the job yet, but I can show you a picture of a person that has the same job title as me.That's Joan. She's in Mad Men and while we're both office managers, she has much better clothing than me and it KILLS ME. This is a situation that will be remedied.

That is Ferris. He's named after my favorite carnival ride, not the Bueller. I took this picture the first day he was in my apartment and if you look past the filthiness, you can clearly make out his deep distrust of me. This distrust was justified the next day when I gave him his first bath. It took about a week but we've become friends now. He's still shy and will hide out in my closet whenever anyone comes to visit but when I'm alone, and he's awake, he'll come by for some head scratchies before he gets back to work - systematically destroying everything I own. I don't have any other pictures of him yet but I'll try and get a few that are slightly less demonic.


You'd think that after weeks of silence I'd have so much to say but I don't. Now that I'm sitting here thinking of all the things that have been going on this month, my mind has gone completely blank. I saw some great shows (Jarvis Cocker was amazing!), a few fun movies (I loved 500 Days of Summer), went on a few fantastic dates (I saved one of the targets from the shooting range - turns out I have some skill with a handgun and in the inevitable zombie apocalypse, I will totally save your butt and/or brains), and have spent a lot of time at work, learning the ins and outs of running a successful business.

Puple Rain and organ harvesting

It's been a few weeks since I've updated - I'm not so good with the blogging, lately. Especially since I do this primarily for my grandmother (Hi, Granma!) and she's joined Facebook, which I update a little more frequently than this blog. I am going to continue blogging, though. I've discovered that I enjoy telling little stories here and I like having good memories of my friends and family so easily accessible to them*

The last three weeks have been mostly about job-hunting, anyway. I've had extrordinarily bad luck when it comes to employment this year and, unfortunately, the last job has not broken the streak. I'm still angry with the whole thing so I'm not going to get into it - you can only rant about the same thing so many times and all my friends have already been subject to my job-related Righteous Indignation. I'm even starting to bore myself and when you're as self-absorbed as I am, that's not an easy thing to do.
Last week was a break for me. The adorable TAFKAM bought me a ticket to fly out and stay a few days with him and I had a wonderful time. We had lots of Good Talks, went to museums and galleries, I helped him make Art, we went drinking with friends, played with a Wii, discovered that we are just as competitive now as we were when we were six, proved that my Wii Fit skills are infinitely superior to his, and visited our favorite cousin. It was a fantastic time. He's offered his apartment to me, should my financial situation not improve soon, and I'm seriously considering it. We get along well, I really like San Francisco, and it would definitely help my personal economic crisis. The thing that keeps me from packing up and shipping out is knowing that in San Francisco, I could never afford to live alone. I love living alone. I love it so much that I'd live alone even if I married. Future Husband will ideally be cool with this.

Back in LA again, I've resumed the hunt for Job, hung out with friends, and last night, attended a Purple Rain party. I'd only been invited the day before and I've never seen the film so instead of dressing like Prince, I wore a purple skirt, black top, tights, heels, and a tiara

Cover of Purple Rain (Two-Disc Special Edition)

. Nothing says 'costume party' like a tiara, I always say. Or, rather, have started saying since last night. My date was a guy I've just started seeing and this was the first time I've met any of his friends (not counting the very drunk rocker dude who happened to be at the same place we were on our first date. Very Drunk Rocker Dude recognized my date while I was in the restroom and, much to my date's dismay, stumbled up to our table for a chat. When I came back to the table, my date was trying to convince him to go away, hissing, I'm on a date. Seriously. I can't talk now. On a date! I liked the VDRD, thought he was funny and, in a strange way, made the date that much more fun.)
Meeting a guys friends for the first time is usually pretty nerve-wracking. Meeting them while they're all dressed as Prince during the Purple Rain era is magical. I had a fantastic time, ate tasty cheese with crackers, and finally got to see something everyone my age seems to have seen a million times. One of the Kids In The Hall was there, too, and because I expect everyone to be my personal performing seal, I was expecting lots of funny stuff from the guy - he's a famous comedian, fercryingoutloud - but he was pretty quiet. Sat in the corner, watched the film with minimal commentary, left with his posse when it was over. Apparently, he saves the good stuff for when the cameras are rolling.

Today, I have no idea what I'm doing. A girl I used to work with that I've barely spoken to in over a year sent me a text message a couple of days ago, asking me to show up at a certain adress at four o'clock today. Wear whatever I want, bring whomever I'd like, and no, she isn't going to tell me what it's all about. Mysterious. I'm fairly certain I won't be kidnapped by white slavers or have my organs removed and sold in the black market but just in case, I've given the address to a few reliable friends. Should they not hear from me by the end of the day, the troops will mobilize.

I'll let you know what happens, assuming, of course, nothing happens to my fingers.


*And me - my feeble brain can only retain so much. It seems six months is about my limit when it comes to Remembering Things. Every now and then, I'll look back over something I've written, say, last year, and be surprised at what I was up to then.

will work for clothes.

The new job is kind of awesome. It's not what I want to be doing for the rest of my life but it will pay the rent and I'm having a fantastic time while I'm there. Last night, there were three shows, two dance performances and one theater thing, all of them wildly different and all of them amazing. After the final show, and at the end of my shift, I took a picture with terrifying clowns, and another picture with a giant snake around my neck. Both the clowns and the snake were part of the final show.
Tonight, there was a wrap party and because I had an early shift, I was done early and spent the rest of the evening as a guest, schmoozing and dancing. Dancing!
I've had a pretty dismal track record when it comes to employment this past couple of years - I kept stumbling into places that were just awful, awful jobs, working for terrible people. After three of these, I was starting to wonder if maybe the problem was me but nope! Turns out, I was just having a run of really bad luck. It's still pretty early to say (I've only been there a week) but I'm thinking my luck seems to have turned around. I'll be having a fun time with cool people and making decent money while I work on getting my own business off the ground.

In news of the Extremely Shallow, one of my outfits was featured on Weardrobe, a fashion site I joined recently. This is very gratifying. I figured it would take months, maybe years, to be noticed by the style mavens that run the site. As it is, I think I only joined up about a week ago. The site features new clothes every day so I think my picture will only be up there for a few more days before it scrolls right off the page. This means I shall have to continue to wow them with my mad style, so as to be a regular feature. I'm all about winning things. Also, my fashion sense, it is strong.

It's a small world, after all

Yesterday was my last day of unemployment and I woke up not knowing what I'd be doing, but hoping it'd be good. The universe totally delivered.
Parties and clubs are fun and I always have a good time but my favorite thing in the world is spending time with my favorite people, just hanging out at restaurants or in living rooms and laughing and talking for hours. That's my perfect day.
There are lots of people in my world that I enjoy spending time with but there are a few special favorites - five people in particular (and my brother, TAFKAM, who is my very best friend but doesn't count right now because we're related) that I'm much closer to. These five know about each other but a few have never met and none of them are close to any other one.
Today, I'd only planned to see Neil for lunch but because the world is an awesome place, I ended up hanging out with Sooz, Robin, and Talia as well. These are all very busy people who move in different social circles, with me as the only connecting factor so spending time with four out of five of them on the same day? That never happens. Ever.
Except today, I mean. All the stars were lined up and Sooz just happened to be outside when Neil showed up to meet me. Talia happened to be walking past the (favorite) restaurant Neil and I had lunch at. Robin only lives a couple of blocks from the restaurant and always has ice cream so after lunch, Neil and I were knocking at her door, ready for dessert. Because Neil is the most likable guy ON THE PLANET (introducing him to people gets annoyingly predictable because there are never any surprises. Everyone's just going to love him.), he was the perfect bestie to have with me when I was running into all the other besties. Everybody was thrilled to see everybody else and I had an absolutely fantastic day.
I know this isn't very exciting to anyone else - look at me, running into people I know! - but it makes me happy, and it's my blog.

Today, I start training at my latest New Job. I interviewed on Monday and got hired on the spot, which is usually a good sign. These past couple of years have been kind of ridiculous, job-wise. Normally, I get hired someplace and stay there for YEARS but lately? Not so much. This will be the fourth job I've had in two years so I'm hoping it works out better than the last few did. I can't handle all this instability. It makes me nervous.
So shoulders back, head up, smile plastered on, and back into the fray I go.

Winning things is my favorite.

Image by ipythias via Flickr

It turns out the secret to winning bets while playing pool is to play with someone that isn't very good. I had no idea. Here I was, wasting years of my life trying to hit all the little balls into all the little holes when all I had to do, really, was stand around and wait for my opponent to scratch on the eight-ball.
Last night, a friend of mine and I had a very high-stakes tournament going (the loser cooks a fancy-shmancy dinner for the winner) and I was all serious and aiming and calling and just as I was about to lose (you totally know where this is going), I won. Javier scratched the eight ball. Yay, me! We were playing best three out of five so I went into the next game thinking that I'd totally rock this one, THIS was the game where I'd blow him out of the water and instead, I played even worse than before. And he totally scratched the eight ball. Third game, I didn't even bother. I just sort of walked around the table and tapped haphazardly at striped balls. And then Javier scratched the eight ball. This, as I made sure to inform him repeatedly, made me the winner. I am the winner, Javier is the loser, and the world is a good, good place.
I'm thinking of making a career out of this. If you aren't very good at pool, I will totally play you for money. Call me.
Did I mention that I am a winner? Because I am. I totally win things.

Rock Nerd

It's been one of those weeks. I keep thinking I should update and then I remember that I've got absolutely nothing to talk about. There hasn't been much going on round these parts, aside from a couple of shows this week and a baby birthday party over the weekend. Hm. So there was some stuff going on. These last couple of days have felt so long that there's no way the weekend was only three days ago.
Let's see... Saturday was a very weirdly rock and roll kind of weekend. Lemme 'splain: One of the kids I babysit has a father, and this father is the frontman of a big rock 'n' roll band. Last Saturday, his parents threw a birthday party for the baby and a whole bunch of their friends/bandmates/fellow rock dudes with wives and small children were there. So I was hanging out with all these rocknrollas, talking about children's television and watching kids trip all over themselves during the mad rush for cake and goodies. It was pretty awesome.
After, I headed to downtown L.A. to see the Battlestar Galactica band (super-nerd!) at the California Plaza. They were playing a free show and since I dig the T.V. series soundtrack, I thought it might be fun to check out. I was expecting a mellow, magical, sort of classical vibe. What I got was mind-blowing military rock. At one point during the show, the composer told the crowd that the next song we'd be hearing was it's live debut. They'd never played it in concert before because, "Well.... I just didn't think it was possible." They launched into it and my head exploded. One of the fiddlers was THISCLOSE to giving himself a heart attack, it was that physically taxing for him to keep up with what was going on all around him on that stage.
Here's a link to the song - Prelude to War
It was an incredible show and I'm so glad I saw it.
I left the plaza on a total music high and promptly got lost. I spent the next twenty minutes wandering through downtown L.A, wondering if I should have made that last right at Hill St. It wasn't too scary, though. Lots of people wandering in and out of clubs, bars and restaurants, lots of valets and doormen to rush to my rescue should anything happen. All the tall buildings were lit up and as I wandered the streets, gawking up at the pretty lights, I nearly fell down the steps of the subway station I'd been looking for. Got home safe and sound.
I forgot what I did Sunday but Monday was pretty great. I spent most of the day hanging out with my neighbors and, that night, went to the Silverlake Lounge to hear a friend of ours play. I'd never heard this particular friend play before and I wasn't sure what to expect. You know how sometimes you have to go and see a friend's band and they aren't very good and then they come up to you afterwards and they're, all, "What did you think?" and you're, like, "Um. I liked that thing you do with your shoe." and they're, like, "What?" and then it's awkward? This wasn't like that at all. Tim was absolutely fantastic. Brilliant musician and a total charmer with the crowd. One of my favorite song introductions: "This next song is kind of a cliché. Everyone writes about Hollywood. This one, though, is from the perspective of a small, drunken Englishman." Tim is absolutely all three of those things. He had a sort of Kentucky hoe-down meets alt rock vibe that I really enjoyed. I'm always surprised when the British peoples play country music.
Anyway, it was a great time and I have a really bad picture.
Tim is the small, drunken Englishman over on the right. Aaron, the guy actually looking (blurrily) at the camera, may be one of the greatest guitar players I have ever seen. I've got to remember to ask Tim about that guy -he's gonna be huge, I tell ya. HUGE.