Songs Due July 25th

I thought I would remind our hardy band of three or four participants! Come on let's get it up to five this time. Five songs about animals is like half of a They Might Be Giants cd.

Meanwhile I am ridiculously tired. I think I will just sleep the day away in front of the computer. Until I drool on the keyboard. And jam up the keys. And knock over my open water bottle. And fall out of my chair. And get fired.

Staying up til midnight for me right now is like staying up til 3 am when I do not have a little kicking monster inside of me.

Little Kicking Monster's first rock concert with (theoretically) the ability to hear was pretty excellent though. LKM seemed a lot more active during Conor Oberst but I think it is because Wilco lulled him/her into a dream-like trance of magical rock musicland. And because we ate right before Conor Oberst.

Just to Say

I have agreed
to buy tickets
to Wilco
off Craigslist

even though
we hadn't discussed
spending
the money

Forgive me
they were face value
in the orchestra
and it's almost my birthday


Song-writing contest below

Song Contest # 4

Holy pregnancy brain, Batman! I keep forgetting to post this. We have another song writing contest, courtesy of the previous winner, as follows . . .

This is my idea for another Song Writing Competition. Maybe it's not a good idea, but whatever, I won so I can do whatever I want right? This is it: you must write a song whose main emphasis/thematic motivation is either (1) an animal [as in a specific, individual animal like Tony the Tiger] or (2) animals [as in tigers in general].

Freakin' animals! I mean WHY NOT? Just--I don't know if it can be wolves. Never mind, it's not my contest. Let's regroup in a month, okay? Send your (basic and lo-fi) song to rocktastica at gmail dot com. Stop being a wuss about it. Just be like Nike. You know, feel the "Instant Karma." Do It.

What kind?

So, I'm starting to show this week. It looks slightly more likely that I could be pregnant than that I had a few too many beers in college. When I look back I realize that this whole pregnancy thing is going pretty quickly, even though l am counting down the weeks until the break in the clouds known as the end of my current full-time employment happens: 22 weeks until Thanksgiving day! Not that my job is bad--it's just FINE (and I am lucky to HAVE a job), yes that's the word. But I'm about ready for a ch-ch-change.

Now people keep asking when we will find out what "kind" of baby we are having. What kind I think is a freaking genius rockstar. A drummer if we get lucky. Or maybe an accountant. Who hates the outdoors. There's nothing wrong with accountants at all. My brother is an accountant. Sort of. I mean he was and then he found something related that was more interesting. But my sister-in-law is an accountant. Sometimes. Really she's a mom, but whatever.

So far most people are guessing "girl" as the "kind" of baby we will have. Really I'm hoping "healthy, happy, non-sociopath." But (though I would love a girl kind), due to the fact that people keep telling me what they think, un-prompted of course, based on whatever brand of voo doo they may subscribe to, I am secretly kind of pulling for the "boy kind." Oops, secret is out. Though I will go back and edit this particular blog entry in a couple weeks to say the opposite for the sake of my future child's self-esteem if necessary.

Huh?

This morning I ran out of my house to drive my car to the train station, late as always, but noticed there were at least ten emergency vehicles on the road in front of my townhouse complex. Then I noticed that there were several non-emergency vehicles also clogging up the road and that my little service road/parking lot was blocked off with cones and orange tape just a few houses down. On the other side of the cones was an armored truck (I think--it looked like one). Various uniformed officials were all over the street. We spied for a while and saw some camoflauged dudes (National Guard, maybe?). El Esposo swears one of them was carrying an assault rifle. My neighbor had been outside for a while watching and his guess was bomb threat. Seriously, bomb threat in a residential neighborhood in the suburbs?

Clearly I missed my train, so I decided to take the next one. Since I had plenty of time and the road was clogged up I thought I might walk to the station, but the uniformed dudes would not let me. They wouldn't give me any info but I wasn't allowed to go that way. Now I realize I should have been more demanding as I have found no info on the incident via google. I did see a channel 4 helicopter flying around but I have not seen any info on the incident (whatever it was) on their site. I'm guessing whatever it was was a false alarm.

Meantime the news is all about the seriously scary metro incident. The Red Line has always sucked--they seem to have the most delays and problems--but this is REALLY bad. Last I heard there were nine casualties. I read a bit of Metroman's play-by-play - so terrible and bizarre.

STUCK

SO yesterday after reading Sherpa's blog entry I got really excited about working on my novel, which, I wonder if that even could have been the original writer's intent. I mean probably not, but I find all the time these days I am choosing to think of the opposite of the cynical thing, which makes me happy. So it can't be that bad, right? Even jokes referring to Sheryl Crow songs are not so bad. They aren't!

[Oh right, if you just happened upon by my blog you might have no idea that I am supposed to be A WRITER. I even went to three years of grad school for it. I certainly don't show it on this blog as I think I am usually embarassed about my recent lack of efforts in this area. I also do very little editing on this blog b/c I am SOOO sick of it. It is the main thing I do at work, where I have sold my soul to the man. I justify the job by saying it helps support El Esposo to save souls.]

Anyway I have written many a short story and I have tried to write a novel before but it just ended up being eighty pages of ruminations on "what if I were a twelve year old again?" Then at the end of last year I got a good idea. Something I really, really want to explore in fiction. Most of the fiction I write tends to answer the question "why does a person act like X or do Y?" and this one is a really interesting question to me. The gist is "How can a person possibly forgive something THAT bad? PLUS, how can a person change into something so forgiveable?" I'm not going to get into the specifics so you don't steal my idea, but anyway I've been writing many scenes with the main character and watching her morph and be funny and obnoxious and sweet and vindictive and cunning and clueless and just ALL HER and I LOVE IT.

However, I am STUCK. I have BEEN stuck, actually. This is because I am horrible at plotting. Seriously, if I could just steal an ounce of John Irving's plotting skills or maybe even J.K. Rowling's (the lady can write a compelling plot), I think I would probably be unstoppable.

Okay, enough self-congratulation plus self-pity. What I need is to figure out a couple of key things: 1) How does the betrayal go down? and 2) What does character X do for a living when he grows up?

I learned something in grad school. I learned a lot of somethings, but I learned something about myself. I learned that it is out of my weakness that I will find the pieces to build the grandest stories. It is only after much pain and defeat that I can do anything really. It's possible that this is true for lots of people.

Yet here I am waiting for brilliance to descend upon me . . .

The thing I already know is if I care enough to write a good novel I will have to slog through my own suckiness for many miles. It's called "get to work."

Sights from/on the train

...The trees are absolutely choked by Kudzu. I see it all passing in my window. The concrete canal. A woman sitting in the grass with a dog tail wagging behind her. Two men walking around in jumpsuits and hardhats. Piles of gravel. Huge satellite dishes. The VRE train official dude comes to announce that the LAW is gonna come down on us. The LAWuh! Fare evasion is now a $500 fine. The cute little lake with the dam. Trees and trees upon trees with trees standing on their heads. Trees hiding behind the backs of other trees. Poison ivy. Tennis courts and condos. Condo fees. Now approaching my stop...Approaching...

The other day I was sitting on the train next to a dude who was talking on his cell phone about someone's username and password to a government system of some kind. Just absorb that for a minute. Um ... seriously?

Update 6/16: Today the train was packed and there were NO SEATS. How does it happen that there are no available seats for anyone at my stop when normally every single one of us gets a seat? Was today "everyone new ride the VRE" day? Anyway I sure TRIED to look as pregnant as possible in the hopes that someone would gallantly offer me their seat, but the bump just is not big enough to garner any sympathy at this point. I just look a little bit chubby. Anyway I was totally fine, but sometimes I do feel light-headed so I hope today was a fluke. Today is the first day I have WANTED special treatment. I am so glad it never happened on all the days I felt like I was about to puke.

Check back in six months

So predicts Madame Zaritska:

The day you deliver, outside will be overcast. Your baby will arrive in the evening. After a labor lasting approximately 18 hours, your child, a boy, will be born. Your baby will weigh about 8 pounds, 11 ounces, and will be 22-1/2 inches long. This child will have light gray eyes and curly red hair.

Substitutes

I was going to post pictures from out trip some weeks ago, but I can't find that stupid cord that goes from my camera to my computer. And, I always forget to look for it when I actually have the time. Meanwhile, congratulations to my brother and sister-in-law that probably don't even know this blog exists! Healthy baby girl # 4born 1:30 am today! (I guess that means my new niece has the same birthday as my pal, Abz! Happy Birthday to both!) And now, here are the substitutes from google images:

The Rantings of a Street "Crazy" (a transcription)

I heard this being shouted to the general populace around noon today:

"The things they teach you
You are a Pinnochio puppet
You are a puppet with a ventriloquist
Everything THEY say
Comes through YOU
And THAT worries ME"

I thought it was pretty good.

This blog is on hold

Like that's new, right? This oh-so-active blog will be taking a two week hiatus while I am out of the country.

How did I get here? (part A)

Sometimes I have a Talking Heads moment. You know "This is not my beautiful house. This is not my beautiful [husband]" etc. Not that I'm living some kind of pool-side charmed life, but sometimes it seems like just yesterday I was starting my first part-time job at KFC. So anyway I feel like tracing all the jobs I have held in my life in the hopes of establishing a pattern. My guess is the pattern will spell F-E-A-R O-F C-O-M-M-I-T-M-E-N-T.

1) KFC - age 16 summer through early fall until my Dad told me I needed to quit to concentrate on my "studies." Maybe he thought I was going on to become a neuro-physicist (does that exist?)

2) Pizza Hut - age 17 near the end of Senior Year, I think through the summer before college. I was actually quite bad at this job. I was a Pizza Hut waitress, but usually everyone just got the buffet.

3) Boston Market - about the same time as Pizza Hut. Yes, my food service career continues, but Boston Market felt like a step up. Not so greasy and less creeps working there.

4) McDonald's - I honestly got this job just to feel well-rounded in fast food. I got this my freshman year of college and quit two weeks later. (p.s., there is a pattern coming--it's called freshman year).

5) Telemarketing job #1 - I can't remember the name of the company b/c I held this job for about a week. I really wanted some extra money freshman year, but I just couldn't get myself to keep any of these jobs, b/c - let's face it - they sucked (and I was too busy having fun and getting crappy grades I would have to make up for later). I remember calling a few people and hearing some sad stories about how they just lost their job, their mom died, they were paying off an operation b/c they didn't have health insurance and numerous other good reasons for leaving them alone. I basically agreed that I should leave them alone and quit.

6) Enzo's Pizza - this might have happened at an earlier or later time, I can't remember, but it was when I lived at home with my parents so probably during the summer. I got the job and was fired a couple days later b/c oh yeah I'm not old enough to serve alcohol.

7) Data Entry Job - at home, very early summer after Freshman year (actually I'm sure it was still spring). I had this job for a week and got fired b/c I actually suck at data entry. I really, really suck at it. I remember crying all the way home. It is to this day the only time I have been fired for pure incompetence and the last time I was fired at all.

8) Chester Diner - Waitress. Also summer freshman year. This job was all right and I was all right at it, but it was really hard sometimes. I would work til 2 am sometimes and there was always all this bustling around, barking voices, intense looks from managers and the need to smile at the customers always. Once someone told me I looked like I'd been raised on a farm. Most of the waitresses there were world-weary single moms with two jobs, trying to get by. I was instead a college student home for the summer. So yes there was a difference.

9) Lab Technician - I got this job solely b/c my dad worked for the company. (that's right--privilege of the upper middle class). Also I had been thinking about majoring in microbiology b/c I really liked my freshman biology class. This lasted from June through August, summer of 97 after Freshman Year. Because this was a good solid full-time job that paid very well compared to what I was used to, I eventually quit the waitress job (for a while I did both). This is easily the most mind-numbing job I have ever had. But it was good money. I took this same job in summer 98, but i felt a little guilty b/c during my sophomore year I dropped out of microbiology and became an English major (shh: all the English major "internships" don't pay anything).

10) Dishwasher - I don't remember having any job experiences during sophomore year. I was lucky enough to have earned enough at my death-to-personality lab tech job to pay tuition (BYU is cheap and my parents paid for room and board). However early in my junior year Fall 98, I started getting that I'm going to need some money itch again and signed up to be a dishwasher. Another job I quit within the week. Seriously, $5/hour to wear an apron and stand all day and wash dishes full of gross fatty college food. I mean KFC was way better than that. Why I kept taking these jobs I would inevitably quit is probably based on some deep psychological need. Or pure stupidity of someone whose brain is not yet fully developed.

11) Assisted Living (fake) CNA - This job I kept for about a year. Yes, job #11 was the one that finally ended the pattern of starting and quitting on a whim. It was hard, but I liked it. I really liked the old people. I really liked being trusted with the responsibility to care for them. I really liked the homey atmosphere (there were about ten residents). There was plenty of gross stuff to deal with--three words: Exploding Colostomy Bag. But it was the first job where I felt like I was really doing something useful. I liked it so much more. This brings us to age twenty and a good stopping point.

tryptophan

Somebody brought in a fried turkey to work. So nice of them. I just finished eating my portion about ten minutes ago

I'm already feeling tired lately so tired + durgs, I mean drugs, even if naturally occuring = me passed out and slobbering on the keyboard in a few more minutes . . .

Everyone gets a second chance at rock stardom

The band is preparing for a gig, despite lacking our co-leader, which seems to make me the leader, which is okay but a little weird. Can we confirm that this gig is happening? Anyway, we may well play all eight songs that we know, which will be most triumphant. I am teaching the bass player to play lead guitar on one song. Our drummer is going to sing one song. I guess it makes no sense for me to play the drums on any of the songs, especially because I'm not any good, but I wish I could. At the very least I will stomp on a tambourine while playing rhythm guitar. Everybody wants to stomp on a tambourine.

Winners

So it looks like the poll is over and we have a winner and that winner is Jordan. Though Jordan does have the advantage of a more polished sound than the rest of the entries (according to association rules only the song itself matters), I think this was a fair assessment as it was one very catchy tune. The association rules also say Jordan is now in charge of picking the next challenge, but that may or may not happen on this blog.

Anyway we are really all winners as those were all pretty decent entries. Isn't it fantastic? Just by trying you win. Feel proud of yourselves.

And yes I do think it is fair to cite association rules even though there may technically be no association.

Tales of woe and woah (challenge # 3 answered)

So the contest this time ended up being between me and my brother and my brother's friends. This is because all the other songwriters I know are either a)lazy or b)afraid. Oh, except of course there's El Esposo, who--though a wonderful non-lazy non-afraid human being, has been busy with "other stuff." And I better come out with this: My song is not really MINE, though I did perform it solo. It belongs to the band Minus Dave, which consists of former members of the band The Curators, excepting co-lead singer and little brother, Dave (in other words Me--who wrote the melody and half the lyrics, the Drummer and Future Senator--who wrote the music, and the Enigmatic Bass Player--who wrote the other half of the lyrics).

FYI, Little Brother's friends are actually pretty darn good. This is going to be a hard vote. Just like American Idol!

For your listening pleasure, entries by:

Dave
Minus Dave
Jordan
Spencer

Minor setback, down in flames, or into the sunset

So far I have received two entries to the songwriting challenge. I am told there will be two more. I am still working on mine. I've got the beginning and the middle, but I can't decide on the ending. I am torn almost equally between the protagonist experiencing a minor setback, going down in flames, or riding off into the sunset. I have always felt this way, but ever since seeing the movie Stranger than Fiction, I feel even more the burden it is to decide the fate of made-up people.

Here's a question: Would some kind of two-way radio device work inside a hot air balloon with the other party several miles away on the ground?

If yes I can totally finish the song.

I think I'm converting

(Don't forget the Songwriter's Challenge.)

To the VRE, of course! I've spent the past two and a half years taking the bus and metro every day and now I'm turning my back on all that. This would never have been possible without the sponsorship of my dear employer, who is now reimbursing for travel expenses as the VRE is only a hair cheaper than parking downtown everyday.

In total the VRE is not really faster than bus/metro since it doesn't stop that near to my office. However, there are other pluses.

#1. Built in Exercise. I really mean to exercise more but I don't usually. When I get home I usually start working on a side project I have going on (because I love love work). The VRE stop is somewhere around eight or nine blocks from my office instead of the one block I used to walk from the metro. Not only that but I get to walk across the national mall when it is relatively peaceful and gee, it's kind of pretty. Also, when I get up early enough I can also walk to the station from my house.

#2. It's Comfier. It is easier to both sleep my way to work and, if I choose to, work on my laptop, as it is less bumpy and the chairs are a wee bit nicer on the bottom.

#3. More Reliable. I know VRE has not won any awards for reliability so in general it may not be more reliable than metro. But it is much more reliable than MY bus route. I have missed the morning bus on an average of once per week since I moved. I was probably spoiled where I used to live as the bus route was one of the most reliable in the system, but I just can not deal with standing outside for 15 minutes in the cold for no reason at a rate of once per week when no other buses are coming because the last bus of the morning came five minutes early! So far the VRE never comes earlier than I expect, and if it's coming later at least I KNOW I haven't missed it due to the other hundred people at the station.

#4. There's a bathroom AND you're allowed to drink water. I don't think I need to explain this one, but just say Hallelujah.

Don't get me wrong; there are things that bother me about the VRE, not the least of which being the tomb-like silence that pervades. Sometimes I wonder whether anyone would make a peep if I started having a heart attack. You think the metro is quiet? Try the VRE. However, this morning I met a nice woman named Patricia, and the tomb-like silence was broken.

Fiscal Responsibility and Rock

Though I may have been called a liberal, politically, I am quite fiscally conservative in my personal life. El Esposo and I just bought some musical instruments the other day, but the money we spent is completely accounted for within our budget and no credit was necessary. Little things like taking lunch to work, making my falling apart boots last one more winter, holding onto my "allowance" money like a miser over the months, often using the "cash back" feature of my credit card to pay for our entertainment (yes, I am THAT cheap), and El Esposo saving every last penny of the tip money he has made (very much in the style of obsessive compulsive) over a couple years playing gui-tar at a certain place every week, make it so we can afford a new keyboard:



and the guitar El Esposo has been drooling over since birth:

We also shopped around A LOT before dropping the cash and made a list of must have and nice-to-have features for the keyboard, did a cost-benefit analysis, and voila.

On the other hand, we are fiscally lucky to the max. Neither of us has lost a job as the economy has been tanking and the money we lost in the stock market was pretty small potatoes since we're young. My raise last year was perfectly the amount we needed to buy our new place with enough money down so we won't have to worry as much to pay the mortgage, which is technically less than the rent of our last relatively affordable one bedroom apartment (not including taxes and stuff).

So, this is where our fiscal luck starts to run out: Because we bought our house a week before the end of last year instead of this year, we will have to pay back the $8000 first-time homebuyer tax credit we get this year. But, the truth is, that's more our style anyway. Though I would like to add a provision that since we are paying our tax break back, our children owe $8000 less towards the deficit, but instead I guess we'll just have to try and teach them fiscal responsibility so they can handle whatever is asked of them.

In this attitude, I went to the recovery.gov website and left this comment, which possibly no one will ever read:

"I really like the idea of this site and hope that it lives up to its promise to track how the money is spent and how the recovery is manifest. We have all heard a lot about accountability and transparency from President Obama, and I am sure that he realizes accountability means not only reporting on the good stuff. What I would really like to see added, either here or elsewhere as a .gov site is a way to track how the stimulus/recovery is being paid for. I realize it is not being paid for up front and the government is essentially taking out a gigantic loan to be paid for by our future prosperity. I'm not going to object to that idea as I have not done enough research to counter it. However, since all loans need to be paid back, I would like to see that activity tracked. I understand that the immediate focus is economic recovery, but following quickly on its heels has got to be balancing the budget and reducing the deficit. I would love to see the connection made between the two. I supported President Obama in the election and especially identified with his talk of responsibility. Why not use the government to model the kind of responsibility we all need in our own individual households?"

And, if you'll excuse me, it is now time to rock.

P.S., THE CONTEST IS STILL RUNNING THROUGH FEB 28.

Challenge #3: Story Time

It's songwriting challenge # 3!!! Ladies and gents, you know the rules. 1)Write a marvelous song that involves singing (or something like it) and an instrument of some kind based on a prompt, 2)record that song using the most basic of equipment (e.g., garageband on mac or whatever you can download free on your pc) on one track if at all possible, 3)email that track to rocktastica at gmail dot com, and 4)then we (participants and the huge audience at rocktastica) vote. For this one you get until Saturday, February 28th.

The prompt: Write a song that tells a story. A song that just sort of refers to events that might make up a story does not count. This should be a regular beginning-middle-end type of story. For examples, see Springsteen's The River or Clem Snide's Mike Kalinsky.

Of wasteful spending and stimuli

On facebook, one of the many people that signed up to be "friends" with me because el esposo refuses to succumb to facebook . . .
(both of which are fine, by the way -- 1) there's a very good reason to stay away from facebook: the like i need more ways to waste time online argument, AND 2) people I don't really know might want to someday see pictures of our future progeny to satisfy their curiousity and whatever that's probably ok as long as el esposo knows that you are not a psycho). . .
anyway, this guy, posted this article about what's wrong with the stimulus bill currently under debate.

I don't doubt that there may be some things wrong with the stimulus bill, but I do think that we should take time to get past the semantics that make something seem bad (let's face it; anything can be made to seem bad or good) and understand the programs we are talking about before getting all smug and sneery about the horrible wasteful spending or anything for that matter. It's called critical reading, my friends. I'm sure YOU all understand that anyway, but I don't think everyone does. And politicians often count on the fact that we aren't critical readers and prefer sound-bytes for rallying around. Have I ever fallen for this? Almost definitely.

For example, on their list of offenders is this beauty: $160 million for "paid volunteers" at the Corporation for National and Community Service.

I cringe to hear the term "paid volunteers." Isn't that an oxymoron? How can this be? And look how they put it in quotes! The ultimate shame.

But wait, I've actually been a "paid volunteer" before, haven't I? In a program that fell under the Corporation for National and Community Service, and Americorps, called the Student Conservation Association (which gets a lot of their donations from individuals and some of their donations through Americorps). I made a cool $42 per "paycheck" (every two weeks) so that I could buy dirt cheap groceries for myself. I also received an education award at the end of my three-month stint for $1000.

In return I was a park ranger and led student groups on tours and educational activities, sometimes taking kids that had lived their whole lives inside the city on a hike in the mountains, and teaching all ages about the world around them. The experience really changed my life and I like to think I helped change the lives of some of the children, who got to learn in a different environment for once, and maybe become interested in biology in a way they never had before. Most of the SCA volunteers I have known, though, are workhorses, while I in comparison was a bit of a wuss. They are doing hard labor maintaining and updating trails all over the country. And of course Americorps sponsors all kinds of volunteerism, from conservation activities to community development to youth programs. Last I checked, a year-long volunteer in Americorps programs got a teeny-tiny stipend like mine and an education award of around $5000. These kind of programs serve mainly college-age young adults, but it varies, and they provide the opportunity to do something good for someone else on a full-time basis and not have to get an extra job on the side to afford it.

So that's a "paid volunteer." Just in case you were wondering.

The rub is that I'm pretty lazy about this stuff. Am I "MJ the soon-to-be-business-owner Writer" taxpayer generica going to examine the whole stinkin' stimulus bill? Nah. I just hope they don't screw up too bad and that they include some smart energy technology stuff. And okay the $7500 tax credit for homebuyers would really sweeten our deal. But truth be told, I'm not so sure that's a good idea to not make us pay that back. I mean we are going to need to create some revenue at some point, right? Or is that the job of my unborn progeny?

The only real point I have is that not everything is as it seems.

zero to awesome

the songwriter's challenge returns. i bet you thought i'd given up. well, i nearly had but little brother came up with a challenge. i'm just waiting for a return phone call to clarify something and it will be posted here in the rare case that random-person-i'm-not-already-related-to wants to participate.

in other news, minus dave might be getting together soon (aka the curators minus little brother) for a reunion show at my friend's house party.

also, el esposo played a show last friday with such style. it was too short though.

and the band room is ready for action. we christened it with a jam session the other day and i'm thinking we need to bang the hll out of the drums while the townhouse next to ours is still vacant. ideally we need to get really good at the drums, lay down some tracks for the cds we were working on oh a couple years ago or so, and finally be done with it. any tips from drummers out there? zero to awesome in one month?

Because your kiss is on my . . .

El Esposo and I are sitting in Taco Bell last night (that's right, Taco Bell--eat your heart out--this is our awesome life) when this charming mediocre elevator-y number from the eighties comes on. I'll refresh you: "Because your kiss, your kiss is on my . . . because your kiss, your kiss I can't resist. Because your kiss is on my . . . for the rest of my life." (Basically it sucks). Anyway, we are in the mood to have fun with song lyrics on our way to check out this sledding hill down the road for what may be our one and only chance this year.

Side-note: Every year El Esposo gets excited about sledding and is always talking about how we should go and I'm always like, "On 1/2 an inch of snow? At the most? That's not sledding; that's called grassburn." I'm a party pooper, right? So last night I'm trying to make up for it since we live in the suburbs now and we got maybe two inches before that nice layer of ice, and anyway we find ourselves at Taco Bell because our kitchen is half-tiled and not really usable.

So I'm making Jerry Seinfeld-style jokes:

"What sort of list are we talking about here? The good list? The bad list? A list? B list? Naughty list? List of people I have kissed before? That's not really saying much."

And El Esposo asks what am I talking about. "Um," I hesitate because I'm thinking it's pretty seriously obvious, and then I say "Your kiss is on my list?"

To which El Esposo replies, "It's lips, not list. List doesn't even make sense."

It's a good point, but I'm still thinking, "Who said anything about sense? It rhymes with can't resist."

So which is it? Try and resist the temptation to google.

p.s., sledding was not bad at all

Working from home

It's 2:37 pm and I am still in my PJ's. I have more reasons than that to thank Martin Luther King, Jr. (who seriously was inspirational beyond almost anyone except maybe Helen Keller, right?), but nevertheless it is a perk I enjoy, and it is no small thing as my commute is increasingly burdensome.

Yesterday, El Esposo and I cataloged all of our home improvement completed so far and what still remains. It's a lot on both ends, but I'm beginning to really like this place. Just for fun, here's some stuff that was on the list for week one (aka Christmas week)

12/22
Closed on house
Painted master bedroom
Up until 2:30am with the intoxicated carpet dude
12/23
Finished painting master bedroom
Spackled hole in office wall and a little throughout house
12/24
Painted office
Painted living room/hallways/stairway
12/26
Painted dining room
Hung blinds in office
Installed switch covers
Carpet installed
De-Christmased the tree in front yard (for the first time in years)
Installed powder room light fixture and mirror
12/27
Moved out and in/assembled furniture (bed, bookshelf, etc.)
Moved and installed fridge
Installed cupboard “liners”
Unpacked essentials

Here's a picture of the dining room, where I ate my lunch today.

Bah. I spent most of today troubleshooting technology.

whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever it’s whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever like whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever today whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever never whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever happened whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever

It's time to name . . . . . . the company

Nope, not the baby.

Anyway, one of my freelance non-profit "clients" wants to actually pay me to do some actual writing, so it occurs to me that I need to be able to actually bill them, so I need an actual company. Yes, actually. Even though I fancy myself a writer, I am crap at titles. My main idea right now is "Melissa, the writer" with or without the comma. That's the sort of ideas a near-genius-level IQ will get you.

What does your near-genius-level IQ have for me?

I will not be running into the President-Elect at Subway after all

Apparently we are not allowed to leave the building right now as it is a security risk because Obama's doing . . . something (leaving for or coming back from his big meeting at the white house today?). Glad I brought my lunch today.

So, do we need to get Obama a pope-mobile or something?

Update: Okay, it was a suspicious package issue. Obama probably wasn't even there at all today since he was having lunch with 4 presidents.

No I did not catch a glimpse of the President-elect from the window this morning

But several of my coworkers did.

Obama's transition team HQ is in the building across the street, which appears as drab as ours. I heard the rumor of Obama arriving from my cubicle, but did not clamor at the window across the room. It's a long walk and I'm not very fond of clamoring. Maybe later this week. Or maybe I'll run into him at Subway or Potbelly. Wreck on wheat?

We are homeowners!

At least I think we are. We were in the house last night until almost 2:00 AM with the insane carpet guy, so I hope there was a good reason for that. That carpet guy was wi-red. I am unsure how many chemicals were competing in his system, but I am pretty sure he got us a good deal. Yesterday was such a day and my vacation starting tomorrow is shaping up to be hardcore, but we OWN a house now. We could tell some discouraging stories about the journey, but now they have a big, bright light at the end of the tunnel (not a train).

Catch Up on Events

Happy Solstice! I am grateful that the sun shall start returning to us northerners now. Sorry southern hemisphere, but you had a good run.

Anyway, here's some stuff that has happened somewhat recently in no particular order:


We delve into the enigma that is Thomas Jefferson.

Brother and Sister-in-law shoot guns.

El Esposo goes for the ride of his life in Maw Maw and Paw Paw's front yard.

Handling our weapons.

We shop for tile.

We celebrate -- us.

Not pictured: I finally give in to the scorn and ridicule and go to the eye doctor to get some more contacts. And, we buy lots of painting supplies, a hot water heater, and a dishwasher.

-- Tomorrow's big adventure?



Merry Christmas! It's true us Christians co-opted the actual day from the Pagans, but why not? It is the first day the sun starts "heading back north" (aka the earth's axis starts to rotate that way). So it represents hope for all northern hemisphereans. Happy day of hope, northerners. Catch you on the flipside southerners? Or something.

Hooray, we made it past the celebrity novelty/starter marriage marker!

I don't think you normally put a comma after "Hooray," but I felt good about it here.

But, this deserves many exclamation points and title case:
Our First Anniversary!!!
(It was on the first, actually, but I wasn't about to blog on that day.)

I can assure all two blog readers that my husband is wonderful and that I am lucky to be married to him (but if you know him you already realize this). Male odors notwithstanding, I pretty much hit the jackpot. A year later this is only more so.

*** Originally I wrote a whole blog full of musings and reflections on marriage year one, but this just doesn't seem like the right forum after all ***

Going to the swampland

I'm leaving in fifteen minutes to go to my birthplace: Lake Charles, Louisiana. I haven't practiced my cajun yell in years, so I'm sure it sucks. AAAAAAAIIEEEEEE. It's actually a very bizarre feeling to go there now as we used to be so close to that side of the family when I was growing up in the south but as soon as we moved to Kansas in Jr. High (and then New Jersey, and then all the places I've been since then) we've been the outsiders. We see them every few years at best for a day or two. El Esposo has never met any of my mom's family so it's going to be a treat. I'm excited for the warmth and for the re-forging of family connections and the totally-different-from-D.C. culture, but I'm trepidatious too. I feel like such a Yankee going to the Southland where I no longer belong.

Know Your Onion

Zombie Steve tagged me on this a while ago, and today I found my shuffle (which means I have not been running lately, since that's what I primarily use it for) and am waiting for someone to finish a paper for class so we can eat dinner, so it seems the time is ripe . . .

1. Put Your iTunes, Windows Media Player, Winamp, etc on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
4. Put the artist after a dash following the song name.
5. Put any comments in brackets.
6. Tag some lucky people to spread the disease.

How would you describe yourself?
Love Spreads Around - The Stone Roses (ok?)

How do you feel today?
The District Sleeps Alone Tonight - Postal Service (Hmm. I will not be sleeping alone, but the mood of this song is kind of fitting? Lethargic and poco melancholic.)

What is your life’s purpose?
Creep - Radiohead (Now that's a lovely assessment. I normally skip this song when I'm running, so I don't buy it.)

What is your motto?
Got You (end of a century) - Wilco

What do you think about very often?
Legal Man - Belle and Sebastian (I do work at the Department of Justice)

What is your life story?
"In the Backseat" - Arcade Fire (When I was growing up my family had this awesome full sized fan with the plush captain's chairs and stuff and my spot on all of our long trips was lying down in the back seat, two brothers in the captains chairs in front of me and the other brother sprawling on the floor - awesomely safe, I know, but this was the eighties - of course my parents were in the front)

What do you want to be when you grow up?
No Cars Go - Arcade Fire (I have a lot of Arcade Fire on my shuffle. I like running to them)

What will you dance to at your wedding?
Barstow - Jay Farrar (Aw. This is kind of sweet, because el esposo spent about half of his mission (for the LDS church) in this city. Great song, of course.)

What will they play at your funeral?
Near Wild Heaven - REM (Awesomely apt!)

What is your hobby/interest?
The Projectionist - The Places (I dunno, but I'm glad I looked this up b/c I meant to get this whole album a while ago)

If you could do anything right now, what would it be?
Shelter From the Storm - Bob Dylan (it is pretty cold outside.)

What do you want most of all?
Lady Madonna - Beatles (uh . . . no I do not WANT to be a single mom. That would be hard.)

What is your greatest fear?
This Heart's on Fire - Wolf Parade

What is your darkest secret?
Act of the Apostle 1 - Belle and Sebastian (uh . . .)

What is your favorite thing in the world?
July - Decemberists (Not my favorite thing in the world but this weird song is wonderful pop that I love dance-running to)

If you could have one wish, what would you wish for?
I Am Superman - REM (Ha. REM is here for comic relief, I think)

What is your theme song?
True Love Will Find You in the End - Daniel Johnston (This absolutely IS my theme song. I didn't know it before, but yeah.)

The next time you hear this song (aside from now, that is), you must dance.
Chicago - Sufjan Stevens (not really a problem)

What will you post this as?
Know Your Onion - The Shins


Ok, I tag Lizzie if she happens to read this b/c she is good at these tag things and she has good music.

This post is for Robyn, but she'll have to get some speakers

I was over at SJ's blog, making some comment about Jurassic Park and the late Michael Chrichton. So, I got curious and googled Michael Chrichton, only to find out that he was the genius behind the movie Westworld. If you have never seen it, it is so worth the rental/netflix/etc. In the words of Steven Malkmus pretending to be Yul Brenner: "Perhaps you saw me in Westworld / I acted like a robotic cowboy / It was my best role / I cannot deny I / felt right home deep inside / that electronic carcass." If you've seen the episode of the Simpsons where they go to Itchy and Scratchy Land and all hell breaks loose, you already know the plot, but it is the stellar acting of Yul Brenner that makes the movie.

Apparently Michael Chrichton had no involvement in Futureworld, the sequel to Westworld, a decision he likely never regretted. However, it has to be said that lackluster though the majority of the movie is, Futureworld has the best dream sequence ever recorded on film, during which Yul Brenner makes his only appearance to reprise his role as the gunslinger. (Warning, I guess, this is kind of erotic, but mostly in a weird way, not a sexy way.) Behold:

Motivation . . . or "I'll see you in Hell"

I'm thinking about adding this phrase to the end of all polite written/email requests I send, just to give them a little more context. "Please get back to me by COB Tuesday or I'll see you in Hell." It's all in good fun, of course. Or is it?

El Esposo and I were especially thinking about ending our latest addendum (#4) to a certain contract (the one we've been waiting on since August 3rd) with the words "Or we'll see you in hell," right after the new deadline. You know something like, "Respond by X date or we'll see you in Hell." What do you think? Would that motivate you? Maybe I could soften it with a smiley face :-).

My subconscious told me to post this

Last night I dreamt that Michelle Obama came to my Sunday School class at church. Only it wasn't my regular sunday school class; there were only about eight people in it. Weirdly, no one was really talking to her. No one was saying "Oh my gosh, you're Michelle Obama," or anything of the sort. I was feeling very shy, but I kept stealing glances at her. Later, I followed her out to the parking lot and told her that I really admired her and that I was very "proud" of her husband. She was gracious about it, but also very guarded. I realized that she had started smoking a cigarette but was trying to hide it, especially from the group of kids that had apparently followed me out. I decided that maybe she was embarassed so I abruptly/politely ended the conversation, walked away and brought all the kids back with me so they wouldn't have to know she smoked.

Later in the dream I was thinking to myself about how I totally needed to blog about my run-in with Michelle Obama.

And now I have.

Over 25% of Identity Theft Involves Someone You Know

I just saw this ad (see the title) on bankrate as I was perusing the daily mortgage rates (which I do every single day) and it made me laugh, so I thought I would share it with you two or three people.

I'm just wondering why the criminals are targeting the people I know so hard? Or is it the people I know that are the perpetrators in 25% of cases? I mean, seriously, how many people do I know? A few hundred? Okay, maybe a thousand if we're stretching it to include all possible acquaintances? And there are what like 6 billion people on the planet? If you're reading this and you know me, you better be careful.

Everything is New Again

Last night el Esposo and I exchanged a high-five when President-Elect Obama (that seems so weird to say) mentioned people that stood in line for three or four hours to vote. I think that might have been the moment the realization started to flood, the full knowledge of what the country had just done. I actually like McCain pretty well. I would have voted for him in 2000 (at which time he seemed much more moderate). But the tide has very much turned since then and his time has passed and in 2009 the United States of America will inaugurate our first black president. Not only that, but our president is going to be a guy with a name unlike any of the 43 before him. Just saying it-President Obama-seems so surreal. The movies can no longer indicate "the future" by showing a black president on a tv screen. We are already there. It is so cool.

I am wary of the coming years a bit because there are going to be a ton of challenges for a president who really is pretty untried in challenging situations as an executive. Of course, I only have to think about Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was a state legislator for 8 years and a U.S. Congressman for 2 years (during which he did not particularly stand out) before he was elected president.

Three hours later . . .

I voted! And I got a sticker. And I was very late to work. And everyone was cool with it. Yay for living in a democratic society. Yay for election volunteers. Yay for not drinking anything before I got in line.

My Uber Fandom is Out of Control

I figure it's almost election day, might as well post something of transcendent value. Anyway, somehow in the last month, El Esposo and I have become "huge fans" of the kid from the movie Holes.

The place we stayed in Vermont had satellite TV and we watched the movie Transformers. Then the weekend before last we went on a double date with our friends we've been meaning to hang out with for over a year. We saw Eagle Eye. And finally this weekend, we rented the new Indiana Jones. All movies starring our friend from Holes and Disney Channel fame. I feel like it is my duty to review each film and particularly the performance of the kid from Holes, as I am now an expert on his body of work.

Holes

In the movie, Holes, the kid from Holes begins to establish his street cred as the go-to young male actor for the harmless outcast/underdog role. He plays a kid with a long history of bad luck who is trying to change his fortune and break the "curse" on his family. He is sent to some sort of juvenile prison camp in some random out-of-the-way desert area in the lovely United States. There he interacts with several outcast/reject types with various issues, teaches a boy to read, escapes, brings down the evil prison camp, and clears his name. This movie is good fun. I watched it with five or six thirteen year old boys and we were all equally satisfied. It's a touching film.

Next we have Transformers
In this film, the kid from Holes plays a high school outcast who bought a car that turned out to be alive. The car "chose" him because his grandfather was the discoverer of this thing-a-ma-jig that will destroy earth or something. Anyway he fights the evil machines with the help of the good machines and saves the world. This movie plays especially to the adolescent male crowd with the fantasy of the nerd/underdog getting the "hot chick." That angle was pretty amusing, but the dialogue in this movie was also quite amusing. I think a fun game to play with the movie Transformers might be to count the non sequiturs. The plot is not very developed, but the random things people say in the movie make for some good entertainment.

Eagle Eye


To continue the historical journey we should have the Indiana Jones movie next, but I'd rather go in the order that I saw the films. So next we have Eagle Eye, complete with family baggage and evil machines. The kid from Holes plays the less-favored, less-capable, dare-I-say "outcast" twin brother who is thrust into this mega- super- hyper- uber- intense series of high impact action where he is being monitored and told what to do through technology. It's a classic fear of technology film, but I found it to be good fun and I would highly recommend it. It's quite enjoyable to make jokes about technology controlling our lives after viewing this film. The kid from Holes continues his accidental action hero routine.

Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Finally, we have the new Indiana Jones movie. To be frank, it is not very good. Ten minutes in, we paused it to get our frozen pizza out of the oven and El Esposo was already saying Harrison Ford is not delivering the goods as normal. I assured him that it's Harrison Ford and if anybody can charm with witty remarks amidst unlikely action it is him. He just needs something to work with. Wait for it. So we waited and waited and then it was over. The Holes kid plays the secret son of Indiana Jones, who has a bit of a tough kid outcast act (though of course he's loveable and harmless) and, oh yeah, family baggage from not ever knowing his father. The action in the movie is pretty inventive and it's not like the acting is actually bad, just adequate. It's mostly a weak script here that is at fault, but the difference between this movie and every other movie on this list is that this not fully realized script has pretty much no redeeming qualities. No entertaining non-sequitirs, no playing on real fears in real life, and no classic Harrison Ford wit.

In summary, I remain a huge fan of the kid from Holes, but break from the super-fan sentiment that he can do no wrong and every picture he is in shines.

Bobby Pins

Something woke me at 7:57 am. It was not my alarm. No, that had long since failed. It must have been my conscience. Or my instinctive fight-or-flight mechanism. The thing that sometimes motivates me when nothing else will:

OK, the fear of getting fired.

I woke, I turned to my trusty phone and saw the numbers 7-5-7. "What?" I said. And then for good measure, "What?" El Esposo mumbled something and turned over. I was supposed to catch the 8:05 bus.

As I leapt and ran across to the bathroom, I briefly considered going as is. But then I remembered that I had not showered post-yoga last night. Cute as my hair looked curled in a nest atop my head, I was not going to work stinky. We have no showers there and grossing out the client is not good business practice. My best hope was the 8:17 bus.

About 8:13 I was clean and dressed and looking at my partially dry, mostly wild-looking hair style in the mirror. No time for niceties such as hair product, I turned to that trusted and true standard of hair taming, the bobby pin. Grabbed a few on my way out the door, ran all the way to the stop, and have been living fabulous ever since. Wikipedia says this hair fastener became the standard in the twenties when the bob was in style. What I could not find out, though, was exactly when it was invented.

My mini epiphany about doctors

So not that long ago, I am sitting in my doctor's office on the bed with the butcher paper for a checkup and I say:
"So doc, I started taking this herbal stuff for this annoyance of mine. What do you think?"
And doc said, "If it works for you, you should use it."
"You don't have any recommendations about it?"
"Not if you like it."
"And on the bottle there's some bit about seeing your doctor about whether to use this stuff if you get pregnant*. But it's really just like a type of sugar, so I'm thinking, how bad can it be?"
"Right. Sounds like BS to me," says the doc. "I wouldn't worry."
(*I'm not pregnant, just thorough.)

I nod, but I immediately start going over the conversation in my head and I realize that all the doctor had really done is agree with me. So I start to think what use is his expertise. He's the doctor, not me. Shouldn't HE be telling ME whether or not this stuff works well? And then it hits me. The answer to this question is NO. The doctor does not know more about me than I do. And why, in fact, should he? He's trying to see as many of us as quickly as possible and why should I blame him as something has got to keep my insurance premiums down?

A short few weeks later I'm rowing a canoe with el esposo (see pic below) and I start telling him what I think about doctors. I tell him I think sometimes people get the wrong idea. They expect doctors to be like this omniscient being that knows exactly what's wrong with them and how to fix it. So then when the doctor misses something and gets a diagnosis wrong or gives them a medication that doesn't fix everything, people get so angry. On the other hand, some people assume their doctor is preaching the truth even when it doesn't seem quite right to them based on their experience, because as everyone knows doctors are omniscient. I think we can assign both too much power and too much guilt to doctors. I tell El Esposo that we are the ones that are really responsible for our own health.

El Esposo agrees and offers the addition that people often don't keep track of themselves and their illnesses enough to give their doctors all the info they need to make the correct diagnosis. His grandfather has always received excellent medical care because he keeps excellent notes.

I'm not saying doctors don't do amazing things and don't have loads of valuable experience and knowledge from years of intense schooling. Of course they do. I respect them and their expertise. They can also be responsible for the severe errors in judgment they sometimes make. However, I think in most circumstances the onus of responsibility for our health is on us (or the parents of a child, of course). Feel empowered. I do.

And I'm not even going to talk about health care coverage. I'm just not. Because that is a whole other topic.

The most relaxing vacation of my life

It's not really that hard to earn the title of "most relaxing vacation of my life" since I am used to family vacations where you wake up around 6 AM every day to cram as much high-velocity action! action! action! as possible into the minutes and hours. And of course there's often some sort of melt-down to add to the excitement. In short, my family is awesome. But just as there is a time to be awesome, there is a time to chill . . . (That was definitely a quote from the Bible, yes?)

This vacation also easily beat out the honeymoon for most relaxing since I did not have vertigo and we made zero stops at the emergency room. Though true that you have never lived unless you have spent hours just sitting in a chair trying not to move so as not to disrupt the ear canal or better yet walked down the street in a jaggedy un-pattern just waiting to fall on your face, sometimes you just want to have some control over a few simple bodily functions . . .

This trip was basically perfect. It was beautiful, tranquil, and felt very much like the calm before the storm. (No, I'm not pregnant.) Though by the end of the week we were pretty much ready to get back to the semi-city life. Ah, Vermont. Land of the unpopulous, where the only major chain restaurant is Ben and Jerry's, where hippies and kids that belong in the movie Juno (wielding pipes--what WERE they doing?)roam the streets of your capital city by night, where reside the paradoxical friendly/guarded folk, where everyone is conscientious and conscious and McCain stands no chance, where every town is a small town, and the hills/mountains roll on in unobtrusive beauty. We probably couldn't live there long term (well maybe if I become a famous writer and am asked to teach at Middlebury), but a week was wonderful.

Quick, before the memories starts to fade, here are some photos:


This is the view from our back porch where we stayed on Lake Elmore:

This is in Burlington:

El Esposo is standing on the remains of a cabin overlooking a vista on our hike up Mt. Elmore.

This is the only picture we remembered to take at the Ben and Jerry's tour. I think it's supposed to be a giant straw or something?

Us Canoeing. The picture is kind of odd, but I kind of like it.

Middlebury:

BACK to work on a holiday

The hard thing about coming back to work on a federal holiday after a week's vacation is the nagging conscience that seems to think it might be a good idea for me to consider at least pretending that I might possibly care about trying to complete any actual work with 3/4 of the workforce at my office gone.

I would insert a youtube clip of Gwyneth Paltrow in The Royal Tennenbaums if that didn't conflict with my desire to do nothing.

Ch- ch- ch- changes are my favorite

So I've been living in the same metro area for over five years! It's insane. The only plausible explanation would be that I did it for a boy, and that would be basically true. And of course it's worth it.

I have also now been working at my same job for two years, which is easily a record. I sort of tried to leave earlier this year but then I got one of those offers you can't refuse.

Interestingly, one of my biggest fears is stagnation. (Okay I'll confess "interestingly" is an inside joke between me and a co-worker that does not read this blog, based on an email that was sent to us that included a bunch of work for us to do. "Interestingly" was the first word in the email and it had absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the contents, which were the opposite of interesting. Just a common case of adverb overuse, I guess.)

So, yes, staganation. I used to fight stagnation by going to some random location (like a national park) that I'd never been to work for the summer. Now I have to live vicariously through others doing really exciting stuff and take on random projects like say teaching a class, taking a class, doing some pro-bono freelancing, planning a wedding, writing a novel, what-have-you. This way I can ingore when my job gets REALLY boring so that I can continue to collect a paycheck and sock it away for an eventual world takeover (or to buy a house, gosh darnit, silly willy little short sale madness arrgh, me matey!!!).

Also, I occasionally get massive haircuts. Like the one I'm getting today. Two fun bonus things about really massive haircuts: a) you can congratulate yourself for doing good by donating your hair to make wigs for kids and b) you can get someone at a decent salon to cut your hair for free. I would say that these two items are of equal importance to me, but the thing I like most is the big change in appearance. There is some fear involved, certainly (like I hope I don't get really terrible looking too-short boy hair), but that makes it all the more exciting.

Before and After photos to come as events unfold . . .

OK. So no real "normal" before pictures. We were in a hurry, but there was some documentation, via camera phone, as follows:


My luxurious locks. If you look closely, you may see the photographer.

The stylist is cutting into my defenseless little braid!

The look immediately after first chop

The final product, from the back.

Still working on the exact stylin' but I think I like it. Perhaps I'll get a better photo soon, also.

In the meantime I am going on vacation with El Esposo and will be sans internets. "Catch you on the flipside."

Thursday Thing One and Thing Two (letters)

Yes it's Friday, but these happened on Thursday:

1) I finally wrote a letter (well email) to my high school English teacher, thanking him for being so awesome. He was by far my best teacher in high school and his influence lasted for long after that. Not only did his enthusiasm and sheer coolness (he was the teacher that wore jeans, talked about music, and some of the girls had crushes on - yep, I was included) turn me onto literature like never before, but really it was the respect for his students that made the biggest difference. He led us in these great philosophical discussions, but he was much more the facilitator than the taskmaster. He expected us to have good ideas and to help him arrive at a better understanding of the meaning of literature, just like he helped us. I was already a pretty independent person, but he helped me trust and challenge my own brain as a teenager when we got plenty of messages that we were not good enough and the bane of everyone's existence. I have also tried to emulate his style in teaching when I have taught, which is above all else to expect your students to be up to the challenge, to respect them and their ideas, and to treat them as near-equals (hey, you still have to give them a grade).

He replied to my email soon after I sent it, sincerely and sweetly telling how much it had meant to him. I could also tell he is still the intelligent, sensitive, and hip person I remember. I thought to myself how easy it is sometimes to make another person feel good. That was cool.

2)I got a letter from my sponsored child Raul Esteban who lives in Chile. I've been sponsoring him for over two years now and I have been mostly lazy about my sponsorship: the money gets extracted every month and I hardly notice it. Recently for his birthday, I actually sent him a real letter and birthday greeting. He returned my letter with a very enthusiastic and authentic-sounding letter of his own. I had a great time trying to translate it and then checking with the version the Children International people had put underneath it. It was such a sweet and grateful reply. I had told him about getting married and he congratulated me and "sent" me a big hug and a kiss (for El Esposo too). He said he hoped El esposo would be a good husband. It was so nice. And, by the way, yes I do have a very good husband.

It's a whole bunch of little things that make up our lives, and sometimes the little things don't seem to amount to much. But then again, sometimes they do, and then I'm like, Oh yeah, duh. That's what it's supposed to be like.

Book Club

At work we started a book club. Actually, I didn't start it but I was invited to join. It's not a book reading club. It's a book writing club. I've got to say it adds an extra sense of purpose to my work day on Friday. We meet during lunch on Fridays and one person is kind of the star of the show and talks about their book and we offer feedback. Some of these people in the club are people I work with closely and I was a bit worried as the "team" structure of my office is not really that team-y. One of them is someone that tells me what to do some of the time and one of them is someone I tell what to do some of the time. So I thought it might be awkward. But it's not. Anyway, if you want to spice up your office and put a new spin on traditional reporting structures, I offer this book writing club as a good idea.

Today's Couplet

It's not exactly a couplet, but it feels like one.


I know someone who’s wasting her life
And that someone is me
All my new devices
Quickly becoming vices


I wrote it yesterday after work when I was surfing this world wide web thing instead of working on two projects I knew I needed to work on.

Round Two

I figured out how to convert the errant file format. Turns out it was really easy. Anyway, these are the answers to the challenge question: 4 songs whose lyrics start with the words "I lost."

Cardboard on the Dance Floor

Napkin

Fifty Bucks (or Someone Else's Wife)

(In Which I Fight the Devil in the Guise of Trenton Ashburn)


Feel free to vote your favorite. If you pick mine I will appreciate your loyalty, but may question your taste (I am working on a new version with completely different less annoying music). Nevertheless, the buzzer went off. And yes, I suppose I am giving myself the luxury of a caveat because it is my blog. Discuss amongst yourselves the fairness of that. Thank you all participants! Winner chooses the next challenge!

NEWSFLASH: Presidential Candidates Have Big Egos and other items

I know, I know, I need to post the songs. A certain someone needs to send me theirs in the right format, also.

Anyway, this post is not going to be about the headline so much, it just kind of bugs me when people talk about how they could never vote for the "other" candidate because he/she has way too much self love, as though their candidate is the model, the paragon, the quintessence, the tumescence of humility. Their candidate who is running for President. Of the United States.

Now then, I watched the Obama acceptance speech last night and I liked it. There were a few honestly inspirational moments. Like when he talked about taking action on consensus:

We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America's promise - the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.

Or when he basically quoted me about inidividual responsibility and mutual responsibility--that we can't let government solve all of our problems for us; we need to take repsonsibility for our own actions as well. (Once upon a time, when we were feeling fed up with political parties, Ms. Tom and I were going to create a political party founded on the values of reponsibility: personal, mutual, corporate, etc. We decided not to reinvent the wheel after all.)

Anyway, I support the general message of Barack Obama's speech, the idea that our country can do better 1) to give its citizens access to the resources they need, 2)to regain the bit of respect we used to have in the world, 3) to work together, despite our differences.

Then, there were a few things that gave me that not-so-gung-ho feeling.

One in particular that I have heard politicians, most often democrats, give lip service to a lot in the past several years, is the idea that we can somehow stop jobs from going overseas--often manufacturing jobs or even jobs that are on their way to being technologically obsolete, and of course there are always the call centers and help desks. No doubt it sucks to work in a factory for 25 years and suddenly the plant closes down and you have no job. But, we are never going to be able to give businesses the number of tax credits they would need to make it financially smart to keep these jobs here. I just don't see how it is a viable solution in our global economy. Can we do something to promote job growth? Sure, we can encourage new technologies. Can we do something to help train people that lost their jobs to do something else? Yes, why not? I just don't think we can keep these jobs from going away. Maybe I'm missing something.

And yes, like most of the country I doubt that we can afford to do everything Obama has in his plan.

Also, anytime the supporters started chanting something, I will admit I got creeped out.

Nevertheless, I do feel he expresses the needs and hopes of the country, particularly the disenfranchised, better than most, and I feel that the direction he talks about is the right one.

Just some thoughts and my reactions. I was also very interested to see McCain's VP pick. I know nothing about her, but I am kind of stoked that either way we are starting to break away from the two white guys mold.

The Quest for Joint Expression

Or QJE.

El Esposo and I spent a couple hours last night trying to write music together. Here's the rub: El Esposo is leaps and bounds ahead of me in skill on the gui-tar. He'll be like "What do you think of this?" and play some multi-layered complexity, "And then we could go into something like this for the chorus," and the multi-layered complexity continues, but with different underlying chords. And then inevitably I'll say something like "OK, so what was that first chord again?" We'll do this sort of thing for a while and in the meantime I'll be searching for some gnarly new chord to START a song with and all you'll hear out of my guitar is an occasional plink.

The problem with a songwriting team, if it truly is going to be a team:

. . . is that you are limited by the ability of the lowest skilled contributor.

So, for a while, when little brother and I lived in the same town, and we were roughly at the same skill level (I was probably slightly better but he was catching up to me fast), this was not much of a handicap for us and we wrote some fun songs. They might not have been utterly brilliant (I still think "Climb Trees, Please" was pretty close at its apex--can't remember how to play it anymore, unfortunately), but they held together nicely and were easy to sing along to.

So then El Esposo says, "How did you write songs with your brother?" And I tell him one person has to play four chords or so over and over and over and over while the other person tries out what to play along with it. So we do this, and it starts to work. Of course El Esposo keeps wanting to break out into something more challenging, but he is pretty patient with me. Then we get to the lyrics and realize here is another barrier. Because we think differently. So what do we do? We make a rough recording of what we have so far and we take a break.

And so, bit by bit, we are closing in on joint expression and a more unified marriage.

******************************************************************************
The current status of the songwriting challenge is that three songs have been written that I know of. I still need to write and record mine by this Saturday. Rumor has it the competition is fierce this time. Have fun.

Songwriting Challenge # 2: Loss or whatever

It is time to open up the songwriting challenge to all my fellow songwriters. For any first-timers, the rules are simple:

a) Write a song based on the prompt (you are encouraged to put your own spin on it)
b) Practice it a little
c) Record the song in the simplest fashion available to you: one-track-one-take is the general rule, but if you really screw up it's ok to do another take
d) Send it to me by the deadline via rocktastica at gmail dot com
e) I will post links to them for all to hear and vote upon

Note: It's more of a challenge than a contest per se, but if you want to believe there's a lot of competition involved, feel free to indulge yourself. I think of it as just a little exercise to stretch the muscles.

The challenge this time is very simple:

Write a song starting with the lyric "I lost . . ."

The deadline is Saturday, August 23rd.

For Challenge #1 entries, scroll down a bit. The results of the voting for Challenge #1 were not unlike a soccer game for toddlers: a big fat tie. Everyone's a winner.

Hush, hush, keep it down now . . .

So it's been a while since I've caught any live music, and it's been even longer since I blogged about live music. But here's the thing: Aimee Mann is so darn unassuming that when we saw her Saturday, she actually played her big hit "Voices Carry," from the 80's, when she had a band called Til Tuesday and a rat tail:



She said she did this in order to balance out all the new songs she had played. Many indie musicians get all uppity about playing their one mega radio hit, perhaps because of the intense cuteness and lack of irony involved, but she was so cool.

Another thing about that show: electric guitar-free. It was so interesting to see and hear all of her tunes played with keyboards, organs and the like (plus her acoustic guitar). She had two guys playing the keys and they were excellent. I think there were a total of maybe eight different kinds of keyboards on stage. It was very fascinating/fun.