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**this is a blog post about a cat, you have been warned**
Monkey is a morning person. It's wrong and probably torture that he's here with the rest of us non-morning people. He wakes up every morning and is instantly happy. He's chatty and sweet and wants to be your bestest friend. And he pretty much carries on like that until early afternoon when Ryan and Ruckus wake up. How do I know? Because I am working at home today and he keeps walking by me and making happy noises or jumping on to the chair next to me to rub noses and chat (my cats are both talkers). While on a conference call, he was walking back and forth saying "bow-rowr? bow-rowr?" which means that there is something that he wants (usually attention) and everyone else on the call was laughing. We're accustomed to hearing people's kids in the background, but not cats so much. Only mine, I guess.
Right now, he's sitting in the window, keeping an eye on the landscapers. Making sure they don't, you know, not cut the grass or whatever. He's good like that. But probably he just wants to say "hi" and have someone wave back to him.
UPDATE: as soon as I posted this, he walked straight in to the fireplace to sit and get covered with soot.
"Release Me" - Wilson Philips
[feel free to play along]
I just heard the live version of Shakira's "Whenever, Wherever" and it's actually really good. It's like 10 mins long, so the 20 second Amazon clip doesn't do it justice.
Lyrics below, if you click for more. God, I am a dork.
Lucky you were born that far away so
So we could both make fun of distance
Lucky that I love a foreign land for
The lucky fact of your existence
Baby I would climb the Andes solely
To count the freckles on your body
Never could imagine there were only
ten Million ways to love somebody
Lero lo le lo le
Lero lo le lo le
Can't you see...I'm at your feet
Whenever, wherever
We're ment to be together
I'll be there and you'll be near
And that's the deal my dear
You're over, You're under
You'll never have to wonder
We can always play by ear
But that's the deal my dear
Lucky that my lips not only mumble
They spill kisses like a fountain
Lucky that my breasts are small and humble
So you don't confuse them with mountains
Lucky I have strong legs like my mother
To run for cover when I need it
And these two eyes are for no other
The day you leave we'll cry a river
Lero lo le lo le
Lero lo le lo le
At your feet...I'm at your feet
Whenever, Wherever
We're meant to be together
I'll be there and you'll be near
And that's the deal my dear
You're over, You're under
You'll never have to wonder
We can always play by ear
But that's the deal my dear
Lero lo le lo le
Lero lo le lo le
sink or fly, say it again
Lero lo le lo le lo le
Tell me one more time
That you'll live
Lost in my eyes
Whenever, wherever
We'll learn to be together
I'll be there and you'll be near
And that's the deal my dear
You're over, You're under
You've got me head over heels
There's nothing left to fear
If you really feel the way I feel
Whenever, wherever
We're meant to be together
I'll be there and you'll be near
And that's the deal my dear
You're over, You're under
You've got me head over heels
There's nothing left to fear
If you really feel the way I feel
Last week I kept having the same running argument with myself over and over (in my head, of course. I'm not crazy enough to yell at myself out loud. yet.) about how I need to get my shit together. I started thinking about how we're supposed to be having an "open house" party in a couple of weeks and I STILL haven't painted the kitchen or finished the curtains or made the slipcovers for the couch or... well, anything really. The garage is filled to the brim with unpacked boxes. If someone could just come and firebomb them, it would be great. I obviously don't need that stuff badly or else it wouldn't still be there, right?
Then I started thinking about how I really need to be more polished for work. I mean, I wear clothes that don't show my bajingo but my wardrobe sucks. Everyone else looks all business casual and I look all... Mia-ish. Which wouldn't even be all that bad, except for some days it's cutesy and the next day it's ponytails and pajama pants. I need a more "put together" kind of look. A style maybe? Some pizzazz!
THEN, instead of saying "hey dork, you wore those jeans yesterday", my boss said "you won a major award!" Well, not quite like that... but close enough. I did win an award and I did get a prize. Also, this was the same day that I got a raise. So basically now I am reconsidering the wardrobe change... if I start dressing like, say, a normal person will I lose some of my Tiny Tim charm?
This weekend while thinking about the things that I should be doing (cleaning floors, scrubbing toilets, etc.) I was instead dreaming up my next crafting challenges and consulting Ryan on his diving skills. Which worked out well. After only 1 test run, Ryan and Daniel were able to synchronize their dives and look completely COOL doing it. I don't think that I have to tell you that we had to drag them out of the pool, kicking and screaming, when it was time to go home.
It came to the front of my brain, so I decided to make a category for all the interesting things that I have seen in my life.
...A man commit suicide by throwing himself off the roof of an outdoor mall in Hawaii. He fell right past me, but I wasn't 100% sure it was a person, so I looked over the ledge and saw him mangled and splattered.
I've been trying to wrap my brain around it all weekend... exactly what to say about the Roger Waters show on Friday. It's kind of hard to explain -- and near impossible to say it in words that don't make you sound like an utter fruitcake. But to boil it down, plain and simple, that show changed my life (go ahead and snicker, I can take it).
I think it was so profound because I was raised on Pink Floyd. And I don't mean that my parents listened to it on the "classic rock" station, but I was literally incubated to Pink Floyd. My parents were card-carrying hippies (if hippies could be bothered to carry cards of any sort) and even though Dark Side of the Moon was 4 years old by the time I was gestating, it was a constant in our house. My parents were infatuated with Pink Floyd. One of my earliest memories is watching The Wall. My dad was the music scrutinizer of the family and even when I was very small, he would make sure that I could understand the lyrics. The story that my mom always tells (and retells) about what a bizarre child I was is that at 4 years old, I would lower the lights and float in the bath listening to Pink Floyd. Dark Side of the Moon was a favorite, the Delicate Sound of Thunder a close second.
So anyway, seeing the music performed live -- and spectacularly well! -- was something unworldly. It's hard to explain. It's like if you have only ever had strawberry flavored candy all your life and then one day you get to eat an actual berry -- sweet and ripe and juicy. I was so blissed out on the experience and the energy flowing through the amphitheater. It was intense. So many people swaying slightly, softly singing along. In very many ways it was the 'softly spoken magic spell'. You could just feel the good vibrations coming from everyone everywhere. I've never experienced anything like it.
And before you come to any grand conclusions - NO, I was not taking mushrooms or anything (although I got offered several on my way up to the lawn seats. People were standing on the sides of the walkways whispering "shrooms? coke? shrooms? coke?"). It was just a very powerful thing to witness. The people on the blanket immediately to our right were a middle-aged father and his young teenagers who he "dragged" there because he wanted them to experience it. Behind them was a woman 8 months pregnant and her husband and toddler aged daughter (mind you, the trek to the lawn seats is literally 1 mile from the parking lot and the hill to the lawn is extremely steep). There were people young and old, families and singles. It was a great mix of people.
Because our world is so small, Ryan and I can barely step foot outside our door without bumping in to people we know. We were wondering about who were going to see at the show (his dad? mine?) and the whole night I had Evan on my mind. I felt bad that he didn't buy a ticket and was kicking myself for not getting one for him. I was sending out all my happy thoughts to him anyway, and feeling like a shit. Then we sat on the grass and someone called out Ryan's name and it turned out to be Greg who came with a bunch of other people. It was cool to see him, and we were glad that the people we would run in to would be "good" people to see at the show. Then after the show was over, we were sloooowly filing out toward the entrance and we heard someone calling Ryan again. We found the source and it was Dan, Evan's best friend and pulling up the rear was... of course, Evan. I squeezed him too tight I think. I was so glad that he was there. As it turns out, he wasn't far from us on the lawn, but there were just too many people and we missed him. (The venue holds almost 6,000 people on the lawn)
It was such an incredible night. Sometime I need to sit and actually write it all out. The flying pig. The incredible laser show. The props and backdrops. The $6 kettlecorn and $13 Coronas. John and Mike (who came with us and yet I have barely mentioned them!). My blankets that people kept stopping to stare at.
I didn't write down the set list, but I have heard that the set has stayed pretty static for about the past year and below is the set list from the June 9th show. It feels right to me.
First Set
1. In The Flesh
2. Mother
3. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
4. Shine On You Crazy Diamond
5. Have A Cigar
6. Wish You Were Here
7. Southampton Dock
8. The Fletcher Memorial Home
9. Perfect Sense
10. Leaving Beirut
11. Sheep
Dark Side of the Moon
12. Speak to Me/Breathe
13. On the Run
14. Time
15. The Great Gig In The Sky
16. Money
17. Us And Them
18. Any Colour You Like
19. Brain Damage
20. Eclipse
Encore
21. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
22. Another Brick In The Wall, Part II
23. Vera
24. Bring The Boys Back Home
25. Comfortably Numb
I am so excited that I peed a little. Tonight, we see Roger Waters performing "Dark Side of the Moon" in its entirety. I... uh... no words. I am so excited. Pictures (and mosquito bites) forthcoming.
While you're waiting for me to come down from the clouds, why don't you make yourself a Utah Blanket.
Sometime last year, Ryan had a brainstorm for a comic book about [sorry that information is classified] that he wanted help writing, so he tapped me and Miss Bliss to help out. We gladly came along and promptly began to go wild with the concept. Now we need YOUR help, because you know you want to see your friends succeed!
What we're looking for are college life stories: parties, pranks, drugs, sex, rock-n-roll, death on campus, etc. When you think of your time in college, what are some of the stories that come to mind?
Note: you have to be willing to give us the story, because we may alter/edit it and may not be able to give you printed credit. If we use part/all of your story you will be included in the comic book some way or another (Maybe a cameo shot? Maybe an ad for your website or band?).
If you're open to sharing stories, you can either leave them in the comments here or email them to me directly at giddy [@] giddygirlie [dot] com.
This weekend went by in such a whirl that I didn't do ANY of the things that I was supposed to/need to. Instead I spent all day Saturday hanging out with Miss Bliss and working on our story, which holy shitz is awesome. We had like eleventy billion brainstorms and it was so awesome. I am still jittery from all the goodness. And, per usual, we kept her out way past her bedtime ("I just realized that, crap, I need to be awake in 4 hours to meet with Kate. I should probably go soon" - which means that she left an hour later and had an hour long drive home). Miss Bliss is nothing if not dedicated.
Sunday I slept in too late and then worked on Ryan's solicitations for Hiding in Time and then basically lazed away the rest of the time watching My Name is Earl on dvd. LAME.
A short list by which to chastise myself all week:
1. smog & register my car
2. pedicure/manicure (badly needed!)
3. make dentist appointment
4. make neurologist appointment (to discuss my brain hate issues)
5. eyebrow wax (severely needed!!)
6. dye my hair (the roots they are a'showin)
7. sew black out curtains for the bedroom (so poor Ryan can sleep during the day)
8. buy East of Eden which is the one of the few Steinbeck books that I haven't read and was a topic of discussion yesterday.
So my migraine finally creeped away, but now I am dealing with the after effects. It's kind of like a hurricane -- lots of big noise and scariness, and then once it's gone there's an assload of cleanup to do. Which for me, means reassembling my stomach (medicine messes with me something fierce) and stabilizing my sleep patterns. Yay fun! At least it's Friday and I have an AWESOME weekend to look forward to:
1. Miss Bliss is coming over tomorrow for Writer's Dork Club. We'd love to tell you all about it, except the first rule is...
2. Midnight No Reason Comic Book Sale tonight means that Ryan gets out of the house for a bit (always a good thing) and I prolly get something new to read. Fables #9? Plz? kthx.
3. LOLcats eating my brain. Seriously? Love.
4. Monkey Butt Powder - my new must-have item. For what? I dunno, but I will find something.
Oh, Chicago. I feel like a bad boyfriend. I say that I am going to come back and see you real soon and then when I do, I barely give you a kiss on the cheek and now you're probably wondering if it was a mistake to have gone all the way that first night.
---
I was in Chicago for 26 hours, 3 of which were spent being transported to/from the airport. Thank you to all the good people of the world who played text message games with me while I was stuck in traffic on Monday. The cabbie didn't speak conversational english so I was all alone for more than 90 minutes in the back of a cab. STAB!
I got to stay at the Drake Hotel, which was super swanky and I actually got a room that is one of the rooms that links to the Presidential Suite. I guess they mistakenly thought I was important. Ha! It was a nice room, but a total waste of beauty, since I was only there one night. The bed was THE most comfortable thing I have ever felt in my life. But still, I couldn't sleep. Insomnia + time change = trouble. I got less than 2 hours of sleep, after traveling across the country and doing the site inspection for the event, etc. Tuesday was BRUTAL, but I made it through the event (12 hours) and got home more or less in one piece. But by the time I put on my pajamas at home, my headache had grown into a full-blown migraine. I took my whole arsenal of drugs and it barely helped. I was thisclose to taking myself to the hospital. If nothing else, morphine knocks you OUT.
Luckily, I was able to limp by and my chiropractor adjusted my neck and shoulders yesterday and I got a deep tissue massage that really helped. Although I was a total zombie because of all the drugs. I made Ryan drive me everywhere, because I didn't trust myself at the wheel, which was good because during dinner he said "hello? Are you in there?" to me twice because I spaced out.
On my shit list today: planes, brains
