secrets and lies

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 23:39:30 GMT

Planning a wedding reception is a lot of work. But it's fun. It's sort of like planning the biggest cocktail party I've ever had. Which, essentially, is what it's going to be.

So far we're thinking next August, and definitely here in town. The wedding will be totally private and involve only witnesses and the person marrying us, which I believe will be our parents and possibly our friend, if he's able to do it. The reception will be a big catered buffet-style event with a full bar and live music. At first I wanted Que La Chinga and Dragged by Horses to play, but then I realized DbH might be a bit much for my family, so I'm considering having Ian ask the Lowlights to play. Dress will be totally casual, because I don't want anybody NOT to come because they either don't have fancy clothes or don't like to wear them. I may even wear pajamas.

That's about as far as I've gotten. And I think it'll be a lot of fun. Not having to worry about dresses, a wedding party, flowers, etc., makes it much less stressful.

Everything else is going OK right now too. All of my medications seem to be working well together and I have fewer side effects than I did when I first started taking them, and my doctor said my blood results are improving, so at least I'm on the right track. I should be tip-top by Christmas, which I'll need if I'm seriously going to embark on a holiday trip to my mom's in the Bay Area.

I'm only 3 levels from 60 and I'm MC attuned and getting excited about doing serious raids with my guild. So far, BRD and ST are the extent of what I do on a regular basis. But soon!

That's all.

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 03:36:36 GMT

Hey guess what? I'm getting married! And you're all invited. To the reception, that is. The wedding is going to be private.

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 20:41:49 GMT

OK, I have an appointment in approximately 48 hours to have the big ECG test run to find out if there's anything structurally wrong with my heart. If I drop dead before then, it's obviously fate.

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 02:56:57 GMT

During this time of unbelievable mental stress, missed deadlines and piles of work at the paper, I want to make this little list of Why I Actually Still Love My Job:

-I only work three days a week with stereotypical "office" people (you know, the ones who change into their sneakers to take a walk during lunch and have inspirational desk items such as the kitten on the branch "hangin' in there"), and on those days, it's only four hours. Twelve hours a week total isn't too bad.

-I never get bored. Every other desk-type job I've had has turned me into a clockwatcher and caused me to become unbearably sleepy in the afternoons. Here I'm still a clockwatcher, but of the opposite type: time goes too quickly. I frequently find myself looking at the clock and thinking, 'Oh shit, I only have an hour left to finish this!' It can be stressful, but the time passes quickly.

-Some of the people I work with are really amazingly cool. Some are total morons, but that's a different (nonpublic!) entry. Most of our reporters are good writers who actually give a shit about their work and working with Jen is the only thing that makes some nights bearable. I especially appreciate that if I get pissed off, I can tell her so and we don't have that weird sulking tension friends who work together can get, and she can bitch at me about things without making me feel defensive.

-It's just a block from one of the best bars ever.

-But really, the best thing ever, is that on any given day, such as yesterday for example, I get to bear witness to all kinds of little tidbits of ghetto life. Watching a sobbing semi-retarded man, his (twin?) brother and a crazy woman who simply appeared in the alley do lines off the sidewalk four inches away from the door to our office was truly a Sunday treat.

So that's that. Things are going surprisingly quickly tonight considering I'm the only copy editor and there's only one designer, and I'm going to try my best to get off by 9:30 so I can watch the Sopranos rerun with Ian at 10. And after that, I really want to play World of Warcraft. I've been making a concerted effort to save enough money to be able to by my mount outright in two levels (2.5 really; I'm only halfway to 38) and I somehow managed to save that much and then some, so now I want to buy new armor and check out weapons and, well, play and get to the point where I can ride around on a giant cat. I just joined a new guild yesterday and I'm also interested in seeing how it is playing with them. So far I suspect they're all boys between the ages of 16-25. Nothing new to a girl gamer, I suppose...

Thu, 02 Feb 2006 02:54:30 GMT

I know I shouldn't even read this utter bullshit, but I can't help it. This is one of the 'guestbook' entries on Cathy's obit:

"I was the officiant at the marriage of Ron & Cathy. It was a beautiful morning, Love was in the air. Ron & Cathy knew the path before them was going to be full of kindness, caring & appreciation of their lives together. Clearly, the times were changing in their hearts. They are once again together, we will always feel the JOY they left us. My hope is the family feels some gratitude that Cathy spent the final days with those that loved her. Ron was awaiting her arrival & preparing a heavenly home for Cathy.
Rest in Peace my Sweet Friends."

You have got to be fucking kidding me. This person drove to my dad's house and married my sick, frail father, who couldn't even stand up, to a woman who'd never so much as shared an apartment with him, for purely financial reasons, in front of the required two witnesses. A beautiful morning? Yeah, I'm sure my dad felt that way when he was vomiting after chemo. The photos from the "wedding" are snapshots of my dad leaning on my brother for support, gazing unsmilingly in the direction of the camera. And let me tell you one thing; if he was "awaiting her arrival," it sure as hell wasn't for the purpose of bringing her into a 'heavenly home.' Love was in the air? Yeah, about as much as when people order brides from the internet for $8, only my dad — and my family — ended up paying a hell of a lot more.

And although that all pisses me off because it's inaccurate and is offensive to the memory of who my father really was, I'm trying to simultaneously allow myself to feel anger and resentment while not allowing myself to let it control me. Sadly, it seems that even in light of Cathy's very early, very painful death, my brother can't resolve it in his mind. He called my house last night while I was at work and left a ranting, drunken message that I never even heard, because Ian asked for permission to delete it and I granted it figuring he wouldn't ask unless he thought it would really upset me. It's a shame that even now, my brother doesn't feel any sense of it being over. It's a testament to why the death penalty used as revenge is really hollow, when it all comes down to it. Her death, as awful as it really was to her and her family, can never 'fix' the things she did while she was alive and is ultimately unsatisfying for my brother, and I think that's probably going to be worse for him than having a living target for his hatred.

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 21:58:58 GMT

I know it's been forever and this seems like a bizarre time to suddenly return, but I had to write this down somewhere.

This morning, early, I received an email from my mom with a link to a death notice in the Sacramento Bee. The woman who married my father on his deathbed and then abandoned me and my brother, taking one of the houses and more than $100,000 in cash with her, has died from cancer. She was 45.

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 01:40:10 GMT

I can be very stupid sometimes. I totally spaced the fact that last night was, for all intents and purposes, Halloween. When Halloween falls on a Monday, you can always, always, always expect the bars to be jammed with ridiculous people in stupid, obnoxious costumes the Saturday before. They didn't disappoint. The one funny thing is that I always refer to "Stupid drunk people wearing fairy wings," but you know what? That's what a lot of them were. I took in about $450 at the door (working by myself!), mostly people who had come to see DbH and were pleasantly surprised to find that Que La Chinga had replaced Gargantula on the bill. There were a handful of genuinely interesting and cool costumes, which I acknowledged despite my general loathing of the whole practice, but for the most part it would seem that for men, Halloween is an excuse to dress up like a woman, and for women, Halloween is an excuse to dress up like a hooker. There was actually even one woman wearing a vintage hooker costume, the kind the whores wear on Deadwood. I was terrified at the prospect of working the door at a show like this both alone and with a brand new door person for the bar, but Matt Gann got back into town in the nick of time and worked the front door with one of the new guys. I was exceedingly happy to have him there, and I'm sure the bar was too; it was also pretty good practice and experience for the new guy, whose name I don't know how to spell but is pronounced "Hair-non." Probably Hernon.

Anyway, the show was really great and there were only a few really obnoxious people. I had seen Chris on Friday for physical therapy and told her she and Greg should come out to see the show, and lo and behold they were there eating dinner when we arrived. She left before QLC even started (she just found out she's going to have twins and is growing at an alarming rate), but Greg stayed for most of the show. When I finished taking money I was sort of drunk and found myself immediately swept into drinking more with Nate, Judd, and Brian G. Jervis got there late and I barely remember talking to him, but I'm pretty sure he didn't have the opportunity to buy Ashley (she's a copy editor at the paper too and came to the show as Ian's guest) a belated birthday drink. When DbH finally finished I waited around for a few minutes and then decided I should probably get my ass home, so I sought Ian out and found him not putting gear away, but drinking whiskey with Kyle. I left him there to take a cab and came home, ate some Pringles and chocolates from my big box (next time I'm getting only nuts and chews; I hate those icky creamy fruit ones), and completely passed out. I didn't even hear him come home.

Today we surveyed the house, which is in sore need of major cleaning, and forced ourselves to get some of it done. Ian fixed the washing machine (yay for handy boyfriends!) and I did all the dishes and swept all the floors and the front walk/porch, then we went grocery shopping and stocked up on just about everything. The friendly-bordering-on-creepily-nosy checker made a point of saying, not once but twice, that most people can't afford to buy a cart full of groceries at the end of the month. I should have said, "Not that it's any of your business, but we just harvested." Actually, I've just been exceptionally good with my unemployment/cashed out vacation/etc. money and I still have several thousand in the bank, so groceries are always something I can afford. I splurged a little bit and bought some actual ghee (clarified butter) and all the other ingredients I need to make curried potatoes, usually used as a filling for fried Indian pastries, but which I think we're just going to shove into pitas instead. The dough takes ten thousand years to make anyway, and it isn't that great.

I can hear Ian shuffling things around in the kitchen, so I think it's almost dinner time. We're making burritos with his delicious homemade Spanish rice and tons of fresh cilantro. Well, and other stuff too. I love when we both want the same thing for dinner and eat together. I know it's an inevitable part of having different eating habits (he's mostly vegetarian; I'm not), but it always seems slightly depressing when we cook separate meals. Tomorrow we're both hiding out in the bedroom to avoid the beggars and taking a bunch of vicodin, eating Indian food, and watching movies. He has to work tonight, so after dinner I'm going to hole up in the bedroom (it's really the only place to "hide out" in a house with no window coverings) and play some more Champions of Norrath. I beat the game but my character is only level 23, so I'm going to play through again and get more experience before I play online or import my character to Return to Arms.

Right now I'm going to go pour myself a glass of wine. Happy New Year!

Fri, 28 Oct 2005 21:40:04 GMT

I'm going to try my best not to do the whole "I HATE HALLOWEEN" thing this year, because I know it annoys everyone and I don't want to annoy people OR be annoyed by them rolling their eyes at my "making too big of a deal out of it." But I hate it. And you should all know that. And fortunately, I don't even have to leave my house on Halloween this year, so I can just turn off the porch light (go away, you little beggars!) and hide in my room playing video games. Or, who knows...maybe I'll have a change of heart and dress up like an enchanted fairy and get drunk and throw up in a trash can. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I'm nearly finished (I think) with Champions of Norrath, and I still haven't bothered to get a network card for the PS2, so I've only played offline. I'm a little shy about playing co-op with people online because I've never done it and I'm not sure how "good" I am at the game. I use cheats sometimes when I'm playing to make it more fun (and to avoid repeating frustrating tasks) and I know there are plenty of people who would rather be impaled on an Dwarf's spear and be fed live African bees than use a cheat because it "ruins the game," so I'm going to have to contend with that too. I've considered just finishing this one and starting Champions of Norrath: Return to Arms, which I bought a couple of weeks ago and have forbidden myself to so much as look at until I complete the first one. I also bought LOTR: The Two Towers, but I'm not sure how much I'll actually play it. I never play Return of the King. But this one was only five bucks, so if I play it once or twice it's worth it.

Nothing exciting planned this weekend. I'm working the door for the Dragged by Horses show tomorrow night, which I'm looking forward to. I'm going to avoid drinking an entire bottle of wine and throwing up at 3am this time and see if that makes the show a bit more enjoyable. Oh, I forgot to mention it in the excitement of the new job, but the show on Ian's birthday was great. Boxcar Satan was really good and super nice; they gave me two (count 'em, two!) free cds just for buying a t-shirt. Of course, I didn't get to spend very much time with Ian because he was running the show and talking to everyone, but it was still a good time. I have a very long list of things I need to do, but right now I need to get my shoes on and go drop off some stuff at the paper and go to a doctor's appointment. Also, I think I need a snack. And I might buy a cake, because I keep dreaming about cakes with fondant icing. And now this is getting a bit rambly, so I'll end it.

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 06:37:16 GMT

Well, I am officially leaving the ranks of the unemployed: the paper hired me. I went in today to fill out the paperwork and then had drinks with Ian, Dave, and Christopher at the Shanty. Ian bought Todd a shot and we had a little celebratory drink, then Ian and I had some dinner at Hurricane Kate's. If I've got to work in Eureka, thank god it's close to the Shanty.

So the saga is over. I can't express how happy I am that I got fired from my last job, and how relieved and pleased I am to be back in the world of writing. Editing is something I could easily see doing as my career, and it's wonderful to know I'm going to be around other people who value writing as much as I do, as opposed to the half-wits at my last job. And it's definitely a bonus that I'm going to be working with several people I know and like; who would have thought all those years ago when Jervis and I were broke and unemployed and miserable every night at the Alibi that we'd end up working together in the future?

And to top off good news with more, they don't need me to start for two more weeks. I can actually enjoy my unemployment and have a two-week vacation without the stress of looking for a job. Overall, I'd have to say things are going my way right now.

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 02:13:17 GMT

Busy week for a girl with no job. Went out last night after Ian's radio show for some early birthday drinks (for him; my birthday is in June, of course) and was pleasantly surprised to see a whole bunch of our friends down there just waiting to buy them. Today is his actual birthday, so we're getting ready to leave for dinner and then go to the Graves Brothers Deluxe/Boxcar Satan/I WILL KILL YOU FUCKER! show. I can't remember if I already mentioned this, but last year we went down to the city on his birthday to see Boxcar Satan (and missed them because we ended up at The Eagle), so I guess he's just seeing them a year late. And this time, they came to him!

Thank god I'm not working the door tonight. I imagine it's going to be rather busy. Tomorrow Ian works a half day, and I'm going to play Champions of Norrath in my pajamas the entire time he's gone.

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 23:24:32 GMT

Things are going well. Chloe is slowly but surely getting better and seems to be content enough that she's playing and biting ferociously again, and eating like a little piglet. I still don't know whether or not the vet is going to reimburse me for the hospitalization costs, but they did get a letter from my attorney demanding that they do so, so we'll see how that goes. (Heh. My attorney. Thanks Xan!)

Been going to lots of shows (read: working the door for Ian) and hanging out at the bar a lot. Annette was up this past weekend and she helped out by stamping wrists while I fumbled with change at both the Lolita/LA Gentlemen Callers show and the Campo Bravo/Lowlights show. My friend Davis fell in love with the Lowlights, so I got Dameon to sign a couple of cds and I'm going to send them to him down south.

Nothing terribly exciting on the job front. I applied half-heartedly for a few jobs that I don't really care about, and I was invited to come for an interview where I want to work (but not for the position I want, so we'll have to see how that goes), but otherwise I'm still floating on unemployment. Tonight I'm helping out at the Orick/Blackfire Revelation show, which I hadn't even planned on attending, but there you go...and Saturday I'm working the Smashed Glass show, which is sure to be fun. I hung out and had way too many drinks with Chris, Jervis, John, and Mig Monday night and I seriously planned to abstain until this Saturday, but what can you do?

Right now Ian's making "brunch," which I find funny because it's 4:30pm. In a few hours I have to get in the shower and start getting ready to go out. I think I'm officially turning into the kind of person who doesn't leave the house during daytime hours.

Sat, 24 Sep 2005 23:05:55 GMT

Too tired to update other than to say I'm home, Chloe's okay (although has to be treated at home for almost a month), and I'm tired and dehydrated and starving. Maybe more later tonight when we're all settled in.

Wed, 21 Sep 2005 01:25:32 GMT

I've been talking about nothing but this for the past four days, so this is going to be something of a synopsis.

-Friday my cat Chloe went into the vet to be sedated and have her teeth cleaned if necessary, and to get a haircut because she's mean and I can't cut her hair without suffering damage. This is the second time she's been sedated for a haircut, and the third time she's been sedated in her life (the first was when she was spayed 9 years ago.)

-The vet called and told me I could pick her up around 3pm. I drove down and got her and came home, and as soon as I let her out of the carrier I noticed she looked enormous, and even commented on this to some friends. Within an hour or so she was even bigger and her skin was "crackly," a sign of air trapped in the subcutaneous tissues.

-I called the vet first thing Saturday morning and told them what was going on, and they had me bring her back for xrays and observation. They sent her home with me the same day saying she needed to reabsorb the air, and to just watch her breathing to make sure she was getting enough oxygen (like I can tell?) and to call the emergency vet line if anything went wrong. By Sunday I had researched this problem enough to know that the air under the skin (subcutaneous emphysema) is most often caused by trauma to the animal's trachea, which happens when a tube is pushed down the throat during sedation. My vet, of course, didn't mention this. I was getting angry and worried because Chloe hadn't eaten or had any liquids since Thursday, so I called the emergency line and my vet very uneasily told me that if she were me, she'd get Chloe to a specialist (in Rohnert Park, about 240 miles from my house) as soon as possible.

-I threw together a few things and raced down to Rohnert Park, getting Chloe checked in by 7pm Sunday night. They did xrays and hooked her up to an IV for fluids and told me her lungs were beginning to collapse due to the pressure from all the air in her system. Their diagnosis? A hole in the trachea. Gee, I wonder what caused it? They haven't given me anything in writing yet, but I plan to approach my vet in Arcata with the expectation that they will pay for all costs associated with this, including the $45 in gas it cost me to get here (and eventually, back.) Chloe has been hospitalized for almost 48 hours now and has not shown significant improvement, but she's hydrated, she ate a bit of food on her own last night, and she doesn't seem to be getting any bigger, which hopefully means the "leak" caused by the tracheal hole has healed or at least is being held together by the tracheal cuff (bandage tape wrapped very snugly around her neck) they put on her.

-Needless to say, I'm absolutely fucking livid. So far, aside from the 24 hour observation, this (VERY EXPENSIVE) vet hasn't done anything that couldn't have been done at my normal vet in Arcata. Several comments by my vet at home have led me to believe this all happened as a result of negligence on their part, and I plan to pursue it in any way necessary to get reimbursed for all the costs. I'm totally stressed out that Chloe may not make it, as she isn't really improving significantly, but I'm trying to be optimistic that because she's not getting worse, there's a good chance she'll get better; it's just a slow process. I need to keep reminding myself that although this is costing several thousand dollars, 1. at least I have the money available, and 2. it's only money. If it saves her, it's worth it.

-I'm staying at my mom's in Pleasanton for the time being. Ian's at home taking care of everything there, so at least I'm not worrying about all three pets. My mom gave me some valium to keep me from totally freaking out (which comes and goes) and I'm trying to think positive and hope that even if it takes all week, this is a better route than exploratory surgery, which is much more expensive and much more dangerous. Anyway, that's all I'm doing this week. Everybody cross your fingers for me...

Tue, 13 Sep 2005 20:21:29 GMT

Just a quick upate before I head out for a doctor's appointment and some errands. It's 1pm and Ian's still sleeping, which probably means he stayed up until 5am watching rock videos or something. We got drunk very early yesterday (I met Jervis at the bar around 5 and Ian joined us when he got off work at 6:30) and I think we were home by 9:30 or so. I'm not sure. I know we were only there a short while after laurendujour showed up. We watched a dvd of Trash and Roll (which was hilarious and featured Ian pouring beer from a pitcher into John and Danny's mouths) and marveled at how talented Danny is for being so young. I fully expect him to be a rock star one of these days.

My mom got into town late Saturday with Paul and Uncle Buzzy and Aunt Lori in tow. We had to cancel our dinner reservations due to their schedule, so we ended up eating at the bar. They were exhausted and left almost immediately after, so I worked the door for a bit with Kate at the Waxfire/Blue Dot show, but everybody, and I mean everybody was getting on my nerves, so I left while the Blue Dot were setting up. I skipped the show Sunday night altogether because I had an early dinner with the family at Abruzzi, which resulted in early wine drinking and the notion that I couldn't think of a single person I'd want to have a conversation with at the bar.

Yesterday and today I also worked on my living trust. It's a very depressing document to create, but I realize it's necessary and I'm glad I'm finally getting it done (they have software for that shit now! Willmaker 2006!) I'm not sure what I'm going to do after my appointment at 2pm, but it seems like I've got to have some errands I need to run. I'm having a massive craving to buy things, which is dangerous for a variety of reasons, the most dangerous of which being that I actually have quite a bit of money right now. However, I don't have a JOB, so I need to check myself before I end up broke.

Oh, I got my new glasses. Nobody noticed, so I guess they aren't as different as I thought. Maybe I'll take a picture later. Ian just woke up and staggered out into the kitchen, where he is undoutedly making a huge mess.

Mon, 05 Sep 2005 21:00:06 GMT

The show last night was...well, unspectacular. Both bands were good and a lot of my friends were there (including Wade and Sonia), but it all just felt slightly lackluster. Didn't really have any problems at the door, so I suppose that's a blessing. Again, I left pretty much as soon as I was done taking money and had finished my current drink. Ian was let off a bit early too as he's working the day shift today, so we ate the pizza leftover from dinner and talked a little before going to bed. I set the coffee maker and sliced up bagels for him for this morning, but apparently he was only interested in the coffee, as the bagels are untouched.

I can't decide what to do with myself today. I have almost five hours before Ian gets home and can do whatever I want with no interruptions--watch movies, read, play video games, nap, whatever...but, of course, nothing sounds appealing. I don't even want to open the blinds. I feel like I wasted yet another summer and then I start thinking about it more and trying to figure out how I managed to be so active during the previous summers; it seems like I was always going to the river or a bbq or something...and now I'm home all day and sometimes out at night, for an average of four hours out of the house. It's just weird. Maybe the "depression" (I use quotes because I haven't officially been dianosed or anything) has more to do with it than I realized. One thing I did was find a giant Mason jar and put all my spare change into it. One thing I can't stand is piles of change lying all over desks and tables and whatnot. So I guess that's my big accomplishment for the day, eh?

I sort of want to play God of War, but I have to admit I'm afraid to after the rage it threw me into last time. Maybe I should wait until I'm good and dosed up on SSRIs or something. In the meantime, I guess I'll just have to make do.

Oh, today is someone's birthday. Can you guess who? (No, it's not me.) It's Jervis! Everyone wish Jervis a happy birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JERVIS. Now respond to my email and tell me what you want to do for dinner.

That's all.

Mon, 05 Sep 2005 04:36:31 GMT

quick note: i fucking hate the stupid filthy mittenhead sohum pot growers who come into the alibi and act like assholes because they have wads of cash in their pockets (and piles of bodies buried in their backyards, no doubt.) guess what, assholes? you're not the mafia. working the door last night and dealing with those motherfuckers was an absolute nightmare, AND kate called in sick so i did it alone. fuckers.

working the lowlights show tonight and i swear if one of them shows up and gives me any trouble, i will make an executive decision and kick them the fuck out.

Sat, 03 Sep 2005 22:43:16 GMT

I'm sitting on a damp chair right now. Ian tossed Chloe outside the day before yesterday and made her spend the entire day outside after a scooting incident that left the white carpet in the office streaked with..well, I think you understand what happens when animals scoot. Anyway, as revenge, she waited until we were gone last night and then (and I can just picture it, too) climbed up on the brand new desk in my room and daintily tipped over the full glass of water I'd left sitting there. Fortunately the wood on this desk is well-sealed and the water was still all sitting on top of the surface when I came home, but the fabric of the chair was soaked.

I switched it out with one of Ian's camping chairs, which leaves me in a very awkward position; the keyboard is now at chest level. God damned cat!

Anyway. So last night I worked the Lopez/Crooks show, which was great. Kate came to help and was all dressed up as usual, flirting with all the boys at the door. I always feel like a boy hanging out with her; anytime I work the door I dress comfortably, usually just a t-shirt and pants and sneakers, but she always wears fancy dresses, stockings with garters, high heels, and tons of makeup. I don't even know how much money we took in, but it was quite a bit. I know I've said this before, but I really like working the door with Mig. He's good at dealing with the kind of people who would come to a Crooks/Lopez show. Kate still needs some work, but I'm training her each time. She REALLY likes to hold the money and handle that aspect of it, so I'm trying to train her to be a bit quicker and more efficient when making change to keep traffic moving. I thought she'd pee her pants with joy when I told her I was working the Strix Vega/Dirt Nap Band show tonight and that she was welcome to help. I'm also working the Lowlights/Rademacher show Sunday night, and then I think I'm going to take a break for most of the month. My mom and Paul are coming up with my aunt and uncle from Philadelphia on the 10th, so I doubt I'll even attend that show, let alone work.

Today I'm trying to get some work done around the house, which is sort of coming along, but not as quickly as I'd have liked. The sheets and towels in the dryer have been sitting there for a week waiting to be folded, so I figured I'd fluff them for ten minutes and then take them out and put them away while my clothes were in the washer. Wrong! Ian, in his one burst of housecleaning energy this week, decided to throw a sleeping bag into the washer, so now I have to deal with drying that before I can get my own clothes done. Also, I forced myself to rinse all the dishes and get the dishwasher going, and of course there are still five things sitting on the counter, either because the dishwasher was too full or because they're too large to fit into it anyway. I feel like I can't ever catch up around here. Ian keeps telling me it'll take a while, but we'll get it all sorted out (a lot of the mess is from my having just bought a new vacuum cleaner and desk, so the kitchen has tons of cardboard/styrofoam in it, as well as, well, the old desk and whatnot), but sometimes it's just too overwhelming, so I end up hiding in my room all the time, because it's a small space I can keep relatively tidy. So that's the housecleaning update from my house on the hill.

For all my bitching, I've gotten a lot done lately. My huge closet is almost completely cleaned out, after which I can paint it and start actually using it, which will then allow me to order that bed. Actually, Arcata Exchange is having a huge sale this weekend; I should go down there tomorrow and see if I can get the bed any cheaper by buying it now. Also, I finally resigned myself to just getting rid of some of my smaller clothes/clothes I haven't worn in years, which has made it easier to get dressed in general because at least now I know everything in the closet/dresser is something I actually wear and which actually fits me. Jesus, I'm still talking about cleaning. Okay, something else.

Ian and I are now halfway through the fifth season of The Sopranos (do you italicize tv shows? quotes? what's correct here?) and I'm sort of afraid to watch the rest, because then I'll be like everyone else: waiting for season six. I'm a bit sad, now that I'm so addicted to the show, that it's going to be the final season, but all things must come to an end. Speaking of which, I also managed to catch the SFU marathon over the past few nights and got to see all the episodes I missed. I was sobbing like a baby throughout the two I watched last night, and showed up at the bar with swollen eyes and a runny nose. Fortunately, it was pretty dark in there, so I don't think anybody really noticed. I also watched Napoleon Dynamite, which I didn't really think was all that funny. Like I told Jervis, it's like they took a mediocre screenplay and tried to make it funny by having everyone deliver their lines with no inflection or emotion. It had a few funny moments (I actually involuntarily laughed aloud when Napoleon slapped his brother and then ran), but it didn't live up to the hype. Also, I didn't know that ligers (and tigons) are actual animals! I saw a picture of a very fat one. I rented some Family Guy dvds for Ian (I've seen every episode so many times it'd ridiculous) and Requiem for a Dream for myself, which I haven't yet watched. Maybe I'll watch that after I get the next load of laundry going, to get myself appropriately depressed for tonight's show. I lovelovelove Strix Vega.

Oh! And after like, three years, I'm finally getting new glasses, because my prescription has changed a teensy bit, and I'm paying for the insurance, so I may as well get some new frames. I'm freaking out now about the frames I chose because I'm so used to plain black wing-style frames, and these are a very dark brown and sort of squarish. Oh well; if I hate them when I get them I'll just get different frames. Not the end of the world. Also, I completely ran out of soap and decided to spend some of that cashed-out 401k at Bubbles, where I got my hands on several bars of my favorite avocado, milk, and almond oil soaps, plus some new lotion and an actual bottle of perfume oil (I know; who woulda guessed? I usually hate perfume.) Bubbles, in return, got their hands on about seventy of my dollars. I also went to the dentist and learned that I need about $1200 of dental work (that's pre-insurance; hopefully my portion will come to less than $300) to crown a cracked tooth and re-fill an old filling that looks fine, but is the old styled amalgam filling and is so deep that I've started experiencing extreme sensitivity to cold. On the upside, my dentist said I have a beautiful set of teeth and that I must have had a very good orthodontist to make them look so perfect. So boo to all you people who made fun of my buck teeth in sixth grade! Lastly, I went to see Chris (McKnight) for physical therapy last week and I'm going to start seeing her and a massage therapist working under her license alternately each week. My shoulder hasn't been the same since that last car accident, so hopefully this will work it all out. I'm amazed at how strong Chris is for being such a tiny little thing. Also, she's starting to show a little bit. It's freaky to think of everyone having babies, but I guess that's what people do when they grow up and get married. She and Greg were at the show last night, but she of course went home early. I wonder what things are going to be like for the Hitch when she has the baby; I can't imagine Greg going on tour and leaving her to take care of it alone.

That's about all for me right now. I'm going to go switch out the laundry and try to avoid waking Ian from his nap, because frankly I get a hell of a lot more done during the day when he's out of commission.

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 08:56:07 GMT

i fucking love the episode of space ghost with the tall boys (they make you feel like a cowboy!), and it just happened to be starting when i got home tonight. "you have a drinking problem, don't i?"

the show was good tonight, if sparsely attended. i worked the door for a while and i think i took all of six dollars. the music eventually made me sad and i came home before dameon finished his set. also, i love jervis because he walked to long's in the middle of everything to buy nikola cigarettes and to buy me shampoo and conditioner, because i ran out tonight. jervis, i love you.

i also love sleep, and that's where i'm going now. that's where i'm a viking.

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 00:39:48 GMT

Let the minute detail recounting begin! Last night was fun. I went downtown around ten and immediately took some vicodin with my cocktail, then set up camp at the door with Kate and Mig for the show. The Bottom Dwellers didn't show up until like, fifteen minutes before we were going to start charging, and Ian was freaking out a little bit, but they made it fine and they sounded absolutely great. Kate loves working the door, but has a tendency to wander away every so often when I need her to be right there with the money, or to get slightly flustered when several people are coming in at once (last night she dropped a large amount of money on the floor and had to put her foot on top of it to keep it in place while she made change for about five people.) She really likes handling the money, so my job is really easy: Mig checks the ID, Kate takes the money, and I stamp the wrist. Johnny came in and gave me a break for a while (the vicodin made me more than a little woozy after a few drinks) and while it seemed ridiculous to have four people working the door, it really was necessary for the crowd we had surging through there.

Everyone was very nice except for one annoying drunk snotty bitch who told me to "convince her" why she should pay to get in (and this was after we dropped the cover from $3 to $2.) She stood in front of me, swaying slightly, and slurred, "Well, are they any good?" I said, "No, actually they really suck" with the most condescending tone I could muster. She replied, "Don't be a bitch," which made me immediately want to slap the shit out of her, but instead I retorted, "Then don't ask stupid questions. Of course they're good." I don't know if her drunkenness was emboldening or what, but she pressed on and said, "I don't need your attitude!" so I told her we didn't need her business and moved on to the next two people coming through the door. These were two regulars who are both very friendly and always pay the cover without complaint, and because I can cut deals when I want to, I only charged them a dollar each. This outraged the drunk girl, who said, "Oh, okay, well I'll pay then, so here's my dollar." At that point I was about to strangle her, so I handed Kate the stamp, told Mig the girl was uninvited to the show, and let Ian know that I made an executive decision to disallow three customers because one called me a bitch (well she did, sort of), and that was that. She shuffled out the door with her two skanky drunk friends, undoubtedly resolving to complain about me to the owner, but who the fuck cares? I don't work there. Oh, and some other girl who didn't want to fork over a whole two dollars for a show actually asked me if Justin was there. Uh yeah, let me just call the owner at home and get you a pass. Jesus, people can be cheap. My only other problem the entire night, which probably shouldn't have bothered me as much as it did, was a couple who came in and immediately started chatting with Kate, as they're friends of hers. Eventually we asked them to please move away from the door, which essentially means you can either leave or pay and find somewhere else to stand. Instead, they walked over to the bar and started chatting with Chris, then eventually just sat down and ordered beers and watched the entire show for free. I just kept looking at them and seething and wanting to approach them and make a snarky remark about how the cover applies to everyone, even people who have friends behind the bar. Kate said "Oh, they're good friends of ours and I would have let them in for free anyway." Well, that isn't her call. I know I frequently let certain "VIPs" in for free or for a reduced cover, but that really isn't an option for her yet. Anyway, other than that it went well and I'm not sure, but I think the station made a decent amount after paying the bands.

Tonight is "singer songwriter night," or, as Ian calls it, "your boyfriends." Dameon, Colin, and a guy named Deric who's now playing in the Lowlights will be taking turns playing. I may or may not be working the door, but I'm definitely picking the interlude music, and it's going to be nothing but posthumous Elliott Smith. I do believe it's gonna be a two-vicodin night, folks. It's getting late and I need to get some shit done, so that's all for today. Maybe later I'll write about Nikola's birthday extravaganza at the fair, which resulted in everybody losing lots of money at the track, Jervis losing all of his pocket change on the Zipper, me losing my temper (and a filthy juicebox lucky she didn't lose her front teeth), Jervis losing his cell phone, everyone at one point or another losing each other, and a whole hell of a lot of drinking. Good times.

Sun, 28 Aug 2005 02:25:15 GMT

Okay, so I'm going to write an entry that's going to take me a very long time and be comprised of many details, because I know all of you have been dying to know what's been happening since I abruptly stopped writing here/logging into YIM/etc. So here we go. I'll be alternately typing and folding laundry, and might...why the fuck am I saying all this? It isn't as though it'll come through in the post. Either way, I started this at 5pm Saturday. Let's start with June.

In very early June, I got fired. That's right, not laid off, not let go, FIRED. Of course, my supervisor used the word "terminate," but I wish he'd just said "You're fucking fired," because that's what happened: he showed up, we met in the food court at the Bayshore Mall (no lie) and I became separated from the company. I was briefly surprised and offended, but then realized--what the fuck? I hated that job with the hatred of a thousand desert suns, and they knew it. Most days I wasn't even waking up until 10 or 11, and barely made it to conference calls in my pajamas. Quitting would have gotten me nowhere but sans house, but getting fired? Now I'm raking in the government checks and biding my time, waiting to find a job that won't make me want to kill myself. That was June 8th, which was also my brother's birthday, resulting in my wishing I hadn't spent quite so much on his gift. But what's done is done, and I left the mall and drove home to wake up Ian, at which point my incredulous horror at having been fired for the first time in my life turned to utter indescribable joy at never having to see or speak to that fat fuck Corky again, and we went to the bar for breakfast and cocktails. I had to do a few uncomfortable and awkward post-firing task after that, such as returning my corporate cards and laptop to the retail store, and converting my free employee cell plan to a normal consumer one, but I was pleasantly surprised at how casual everyone seemed about it at the store. One girl I'd worked with the entire five years, who was still on one of the lowest rungs after being there nine years herself, congratulated me on my freedom and told me to "get away from this place as fast as you can." The company generously allowed me to keep my company-issued phone, which surprised me because I'd only received the latest one a week or so prior, and also because it's such a nice phone, but maybe that's their way of keeping things as easy and quick as possible. Give us back the computer and credit cards and never speak to us again. Fine by me--the irony is that I stayed there for so long because I feared being unable to make the house payment, but now with my unemployment (which is a lot because of an unusually large bonus received in the first quarter of last year) and Ian's share of the bills, I'm actually making MORE than I was at my job. As Jervis would say, Watt Avenue, and goodbye USfuckingCellular.

Later in June I turned 32. I'm trying to remember what I did. Oh yes, let me back up. In mid-June, about a week after I got canned, I had surgery to remove my gall bladder, which turned out to contain exactly one gall stone. But one hell of a stone it was--the size of a very large marble, and pretty, like an agate crystal. The surgery aftermath sucked; I puked up lots of bile and was in so much pain from the carbon dioxide they fill you with that I was in tears. Also, despite barely being able to move, I was required to get up and walk around the hospital, trailing my little IV stand with me, every four hours or so. Naturally I just wanted to sleep, but the mean nurse made me get up over and over, but of course I realize it was necessary to get rid of all that air in my abdomen. I couldn't keep any food or vicodin down, so they pumped me with some IV morphine and sent Ian home, leaving me to spend my first and only night alone in a hospital. Fortunately I had my own room, so I essentially stayed up all night watching cartoons, requesting painkillers at each and every four-hour nurse visit. Eventually I started eating crackers and feeling strong enough to walk around even when I didn't have to, so they let Ian pick me up early in the morning. I think he probably got about four hours of sleep total over the entire day before/day of/day after surgery. I took lots of drugs and slept a lot over the next four or five days, and found it quite fortunate that returning to work was not an issue during my recovery. As Bridget Jones might say, love the lovely vicodin. I took it every four hours whether I needed it or not and drifted in and out of blissful painless sleep for days on end. Sometimes I wish I could spend my entire life that way, but then I realize that's crazy and..well, let's just move on, shall we?

So my birthday. Yeah, so without the gall bladder, I was free to eat anything I wanted (Ian's wonderfully sweet mother had brought me flowers and bakery treats right after my surgery by the way; just wanted to give her a little shout out there), so on my birthday Ian and I went to Hurricane Kate's and I ate all manner of fried and fat-filled things, all of which were delicious, but frankly I think I'm as good a cook as anyone working there. But dinner was fun and the cocktails were delicious. Afterward we went to the Shanty, but I can't remember if anybody met us there or if we just had a drink or two and headed back to the Alibi. Anyway, we did eventually end up back at the Alibi, and I'm sure I saw a bunch of people and all that, but I don't recall anything spectacular. Nice birthday overall. Maybe there were some pictures I can link to later. Jervis actually bought me a birthday gift, I think for the first time in the entire decade or so we've been friends: four beautiful official blue shot glasses from the Clinton Presidential Center. That was a Very Cool thing to do, which makes Jervis a Very Cool guy. Oh, and speaking of glassware, Annette brought me some really cool cocktail glasses etched with the famous "I (heart) vodka" logo.

Early in July I went to visit my mother in the bay area for about a week. It was nice, but it was hotter than fuck down there and my system hadn't quite adjusted yet to living without the gall bladder, so I felt sick much of the time and wanted to spend most of the days and nights just hanging out at her house. She was fine with that too; we had cocktails each night and sat in the spare bedroom and chatted while she played games on her computer and I tried to get her new laptop set up on her network. Annette came in on BART one night and we all went out for Indian food, which was my first in more than six months and was absolutely delicious. One day my mom and I went to the mall and I got my very first ever spa pedicure, which was nice but tickled like hell. I had to struggle to keep from giggling and jerking my foot away from the poor guy. My mom also wanted to treat me to a brow wax (wtf? what's wrong with my eyebrows??) but I declined and opted for another dinner out. The Thai place near my mom's house is great, and as it was also my first Thai food in many months, I appreciated it quite a bit. Ian "officially" moved in while I was gone. It's been working out fine so far.

To be honest, the rest of July was something of a blur. With no job to sort of count the days and weeks, everything just flows along seamlessly. I saw lots and lots of shows, and Kate came back from Yosemite and we had lots of drinks. Come to think of it, that pretty much sums up the month of August too. (Or maybe I'm just getting bored with this update, seeing as it's now 7pm and I have to get in the shower soon.) Things around the house have been a bit hectic lately as I move furniture and sort through old clothes and crap to make room for a new bed. Yes, it's time I had a grown-up bed, so the full-sized futon is destined to become the new couch, and I'm buying a new king-sized platform bed as soon as I get the room painted and situated. For those of you who may wonder how an unemployed loser like myself can afford such luxuries, I have two words for you: pension plan. Apparently my company was just saving up for the day when I'd get fired and need to buy a new bed, so hallelujah for that.

Okay, I think that about brings us up to date. Tonight I'm going to help work the door for the Bottom Dwellers/Slewfoot String Band show, for which Ian has very cutely outfitted himself in a vintage western shirt from Nikola's shop. I feel like taking a nap, but that's ludicrous...maybe instead, I should turn off Elliott Smith and put on Queens of the Stone Age or something. Or take an ice cold shower, which I may end up doing anyway, what with Ian's shower and the loads of laundry and dishes. In an hour I'm going to start systematically taking pills of all kinds to keep myself in a perpetual state of...well, whatever. Working the door requires more than a cocktail, that's all I'm saying.

So there you have it.

here we go again!

Sat, 27 Aug 2005 23:56:24 GMT

so i'm back here again. i'm trying to figure out a good way to consolidate harpy.net (which is basically empty right now, and being used for nothing but image hosting and email) with this and a weird sort-of journal thing i started using on myspace. i really like the ease of LJ, but i feel like i need to do something substantial with my domain too. i dunno. myspace is stupid and i don't know why i started writing there instead of here. how does everyone else consolidate their domains with their LJs?

Fri, 20 May 2005 23:49:31 GMT

why i love the shanty, or adventures in ditching work:

incidentally, these were all taken with my phone. not bad for such a small camera. lots of other stuff going on, but i don't feel like writing anything down. so consider that an update.

Tue, 10 May 2005 04:34:14 GMT

i'm so very glad this weekend is over, even though it was a lot of fun. don't believe all those people who say colonoscopy prep is the bee's knees; in reality, it's not all that fun. according to some reports it could have been worse, however, so i'm not going to complain. i spent all day thursday drinking laxative-laced gatorade and, well, getting rid of it as quickly as i was taking it in. no need for excessive details in that department. i will say that i decided after nearly twelve hours of excruciating stomach cramps alternating with severe hunger pangs that unless i was riddled with cancer i was never going to subject myself to this again. ian came home from work around 3:30am and went to sleep while i sat up watching cartoons, having long ago given up on sleep. at 4:45am i got up and showered and dressed, then woke ian up and got him into the car in time to leave for the hospital by 5:30am. i don't believe he said one word the entire way to eureka; had he not just worked for six hours and slept for only two i may have taken it personally.

once i got checked in and taken into a room, my usual irrational nervous terror started to take hold. the nurse asked me six million questions and i made sure to punctuate as many answers as possible with "...and i'm terrified of being in the hospital." i don't know why the hell i had to check in at 6am for an 8am appointment; i had far too much time to think about all the horrible things that might happen once the IV line went in. fortunately, none of them came true: the nurse and tech assisting my doctor were very nice and comforting and gave me an anti-anxiety along with the pain meds and sedative to keep me totally calm. the upper endoscopy was totally painless other than the difficult task of having to consciously swallow the scope, which made me choke the first time i tried. they kept telling me to breathe (i had a little oxygen nose strap thingie) despite the fact that breathing isn't a viable option when you're choking on a camera tube. panic set in after a moment and i reached up and yanked the entire thing out of my mouth, prompting them to administer more meds and try again. second time around, piece of cake. the lower scope was incredibly painful at one or two points, which again led to additional meds being injected, so by the time they took me into recovery i was happy as can be. they immediately brought ian in and i tried to tell him all the details before i forgot them, as they started getting hazy almost immediately. some crazy nurse hovered around and eavesdropped and commented on our entire conversation, which was both annoying and sort of confusing; i have no idea why she thought i cared about her kids or her favorite number or whatever the hell it was she kept babbling about. after about thirty minutes my doctor came in bearing color photographs of my guts, which i still find somewhat mesmerizing several days later. everything turned out a-ok and i'm cleared for surgery in a month. thank christ this whole thing is almost over.

after my hospital ordeal i wanted nothing other than some food (nothing to eat since wednesday, after all) and a very long nap, in that order. ian drove me home (we stopped at murphy's but i can't for the life of me remember anything about being there), made me some tea and half a bagel, then put me to bed. amazingly, rather than napping himself, he cleaned my house while i slept so it wouldn't be trashed when my mom showed up. he seriously is the best boyfriend in the universe. he left to handle some pirate radio stuff and i was awakened shortly after by my mom ringing the doorbell. i adore my mother, but all i wanted to do was sleep, and instead i ended up chatting and eating salad and trying to maintain some kind of order between her dog sophie, who wanted to kill all of my cats, and my cats, none of whom were interested in being killed by a dog. thankfully my mom and her husband go to bed early, so i was able to retire to my room fairly early as well. saturday morning the sedative still hadn't completely worn off, so my mom ended up doing most of the work for what was supposed to be her mother's day brunch. she and i spent most of the day drinking tea and talking in the living room while her husband did handyman things around the house, most notably some work on my leaning fence which is now standing nice and straight again (but for how long?)

i started feeling semi-normal again in the late afternoon, so we showered and got dressed and headed to eureka for some mexican food. i love the carnitas at chapala. i think i've had it four times in the past three weeks. we tried some mango margaritas, which were tasty but not something i could see myself ordering again, and then opted to skip the shanty and head straight to the alibi. i bought my mom some more margaritas and a couple of scotches for her husband while we waited for ian to show up. he came in with chris (female chris, not christopher) around 9pm totally keyed up on caffeine and chocolate and had to pretty much immediately get to work setting up for the show. chris stuck around for a while and then went home to enjoy having the house to herself (greg's on tour; when chris mentioned it my mom got all intrigued and said, "oh, your husband's a musician?" i'm sure she'd just love the hitch), and my mom and paul left shortly after, leaving me to wait for kate.

the show was unbelievably fun: the con-tra-band was fun if a bit cliched and the smashed glass sounded great. kate was absolutely ecstatic watching christopher play (as evidenced by this picture of her) and dave and christopher came through on their promise to sweat more than the first band. i tried like hell to get the crazy red eyes out of this picture to no avail, and i had to put this one up to give the other band members some camera time. by the time they finished their set (which included lots of whiskey, all furnished by either me or kate's cousin mary, shown here) i was pretty drunk, so ian called cedric (plaza cab) to come pick me up (thank god ian called early; by the time we got up to my house cedric was telling people it would be at least a half hour before he could pick them up.) i ate a bagel and tried to watch tv quietly to avoid waking my mom or paul, but my ears were ringing so loudly i couldn't hear the television and was certain it was blaring, so i gave up and went to sleep.

mom and paul left fairly early sunday morning because they wanted to try the samoa cookhouse for breakfast on the way home (whatever.) i politely declined their invitation to join them and went back to sleep for several hours; by the time i finally got up and out of bed i felt cheerful and well-rested, a nice change from my usual sunday malaise. ian came over and we ate snacks and watched various tv shows until deadwood came on, after which i dropped him off at work and indulged in some girly shopping at long's. i bought mascara, which is ridiculous considering 1. i probably have five or six tubes of it scattered around the house and 2. i'll never wear it because every time i do my lashes hit my glasses and the mascara flakes off into my eyes. i also bought some badly-needed hair dye, a new brand of shampoo and conditioner, and some intriguing-looking salt scrub that ended up being terribly disappointing (it's an oil-based product masquerading as a cleanser, and it smells like mint. i hate mint body products.) i spent about two hours indulging in hair-coloring and leg-shaving and the like, then headed downtown to meet up with kate to see the colin/franklin delano show. it was a really pleasant evening; i sat with kate and jay and mike d. and was pleasantly surprised to see colin brought a couple of the moom/rasper guys with him to play his set. i still find it kind of amusing and weird that he has no idea who i am and i listen to his cd in my car all the time. it seems almost deceptive of me not to approach him and tell him how much i like it.

franklin delano (from italy) was really great--folky shoegazey stuff. i'm not really sure how to describe it. either way, i liked it so much i bought their cd (well, technically ian paid for it and kate went to buy it for me because i'm shy) and agreed to let them stay at my house before heading down to san francisco for their show tonight (they're playing at the makeout room for any bay area folks who might be interested.) here's what they look like in case you're curious. they were perfect guests; i'm pretty sure the house was cleaner when they left this morning than it was when they got here last night. i hope ian books them again. although exhausting at times, it was generally a really great weekend.

work was crazy today after my being gone for two days, but i got lots done and now i'm just hanging out and waiting for my pizza to show up. tomorrow i'm going to weaverville and spending another quiet night alone--having so many people around this weekend really reminded me how much i like being alone.

and that's all for me! in closing, here are some random photos for you to enjoy:

-beau, taken during his march visit
-christopher giving the thumbs up to his shredded pants
-miguel, justin, and tiffany a few days before the hawaii trip

cheers, folks.

Thu, 05 May 2005 01:13:37 GMT

wonderful exciting discovery of the day (well, technically jervis helped me discover this sunday night): pork rinds, which are one of my guiltiest of guilty snack pleasures, turn out to have less fat than potato chips--even less fat than the low-fat potato chips i've resigned myself to eating until my surgery. this means, of course, that i can eat pork rinds instead! yay for low-fat deep-fried pig epidermis!

Thu, 05 May 2005 00:30:41 GMT

there's been plenty going on, but i just haven't had much time or desire to sit down and type about it. here's what's going on right now:

i've been catching up rather nicely at work, although it's required some weekend work and lots of work done at home. this couldn't come at a better time, as i'm off tomorrow and friday to get some procedures done at the hospital. i've got a list of chores that i have to finish before my mom and paul show up friday, and it's looking rather daunting right now. we'll see how it is when the vicoprofen kicks in.

so friday night will be mellow, as i'll be coming down from heavy sedatives, and then saturday i'm making a champagne brunch for my mom for mother's day. saturday night should be a great show with some uk band and the smashed glass, which is essentially made up of the dt's and my friend chris. ian and i went to see them play at the metro a few weeks ago and i was duly impressed. sunday is mother's day and another show at the bar that i can't miss, and then monday is back to work.

yesterday i went to eureka to meet with my doctor about my blood test results, but she was running behind and i opted to discuss the lab work over the phone. she gave me a copy of the paperwork and ian and i took that and went to she shanty, which was understandably empty at 4:00pm. mike j. was filling in for a while and bought us a round, then we walked over to chapala and had dinner before ian went to work. god knows i love the alibi, but the shanty really is one of my favorite places. lately i've been trying to hang out there more; we had dinner with chris and greg last weekend at chapala and stopped by the shanty first to have a few drinks with dave from the dt's and some other random que la chinga people i didn't really pay much attention to. (rather, we ran into them there; we didn't plan it. we also ran into dave/paul/ian a few weeks ago when the crooks were going live on that new show on public access. we offered them all free whiskey if they took their pants off on the show, and lo and behold after the first segment there they were, all in boxer shorts--except for dave, who was also wearing a freakishly real-looking bush sr. mask.) anyway, i digress. when i got home i had a message from the doctor's office telling me that although my iron levels are still low, they're stable. good news, because this means i can proceed with my other medical stuff now.

other than that, i'm just hanging out with kate and jervis and nate and ian, reading books, playing with the computer, and watching movies. to avoid a ten page entry about each individual night i've spent drinking, reading, and/or watching movies, i'll just leave it at that, and try to update in a more timely manner from here on out.