Hoosier daddy?

Hello from Indiana - the red part of the state!



So I am visiting my dad for just a few days, I have to drive back to the city on Monday, but until then, I am soaking up some serious Midwest. I played the shit out of poker yesterday - Texas Hold'Em to be exact. They like their gambling and their smoking in this part of the country - I probably second-hand smoked a carton of Marlboro's yesterday while kicking ass in the cash game. Small sacrifices to hone one's poker skills.

I was in Cleveland over Thanksgiving and it was much needed - lots of cooking and sipping beverages and hanging in hottub and playing music and Wii and sitting by the fire and talking and laughing and you know, living. It's nice to do that on occasion.

It's snowing now and the weather is supposed to be shitty all around so good thing not driving back today. Here is the baby dog looking out into my dad's backyard while it snows and while she watches the squirrels. I left the big dog back with the agent for this trip so it's just baby dog and me. I woke up this morning and she was snoring in my face with her head on my pillow. Dogs..



I'm going to take a trip to see my old home town and my old house, check things out a bit and maybe take a picture or two. I am much appreciating the open space and cornfields, definitely gives me a chance to breathe. We all need a dose of that once in a while I say. Or at least I do. You city folk can have your constant noise and a million people if it works for you - whatever floats your boat/makes you happy and hello, in the profound words of that philosopher Sheryl Crow: If it makes you happy, it can't be that bad (which quite frankly I think is a fallacy because presumably doing meth makes some people happy but no one is out saying 'smoke it if you got it', you know?).

Where was I? Oh yes, northern Indiana. I ain't complaining.

How bout them Cubbies?

If you've been following my Tweets, you know I am in Chicago as we speak. Beyond being in the Midwest (which always puts me at ease), what I happen to appreciate about this city in comparison to DC (which will now always be compared to other places, quite possibly unfavorably at that) are the tall buildings. The skyline looks like a skyline and what you expect to see in a city. Because there are no buildings above like 4 stories or something in DC, everything is then squished down flat and out or underground so therefore, when you have to drop your dogs at the kennel on a weekday morning, there is still a traffic jam in what is basically West Virginia. This makes you sad and long for the open road of like Utah or something.

Also with all those short squat buildings in DC, you really can never tell where you are by looking around, which for a reluctant transplant means you just kind of walk around until you hit a street with a letter on it or a number and see if it matches up to your shitty mapquest directions. No point of reference whatsoever in that city and tall buildings are all outside of the city limits in Reston or wherever. Because people just love walking around the quaint downtown of Herndon gazing up at the architecture of an SAIC building or the beauty of a Lockheed Martin masterpiece.

Not going to keep dumping on DC (at least not anymore in this post!), but I am appreciating the skyline of Chicago and of course my favorite restaurants and I have a few people here too which helps. Too bad the trip is quick, but at least I got to take a shitty blurberry photo in the cab on the way back after dinner last night:



At least here, I always know where I'm at - in more ways than one.

Live long and prosper

This morning on the plane, I sat right behind this man:



(No, the one on the right)

His eyebrows gave him away. But unfortunately, I could only discreetly capture the below image of your hero:



You can rest easy now, America. The hair is indeed his own.

The pack's all here

I could literally watch this all f-ing day. If this does not melt your cruel cold heart, I don't know who or what you've become. A live puppy cam = enough to break the ice queen I've become.

They are sleeping in a big pile right now, I can't stand it!!

Resistance is futile:



They are crawling on top of each other to sleep on each others' heads! Who can stand to not watch this??



ETA: I can't stand it! The carrot! The pups on their backs!

Why does she get to have all the fun?

Well hello there, abuelitas. What up?

I have not too much to report in general, but will summarize a few key points regarding my life, this planet, and everything else of late:

1. I just got off the phone with my dad in Indiana. Among the many things we discussed (e.g., the lake being dredged, painting the bathroom, bedding down the flowers for winter, my cuckcoo clock (that he bought me), donating items for the new historical society depot, what are my plans for thanksgiving (I am going back home for a few days and he has signed me up for a $50 Texas Hold'Em buy-in game on Sat already), visiting the VFW in my old small town, and his plans to go to one of those new fangled flu shot drive-through windows he saw advertised), we talked about politics a bit. Personally, I can hardly believe IN is deadlocked at the moment and even more so, I am amazed that my dad plans to vote for Obama. Amazed for many many reasons having to do with my dad and his age and Indiana and various and sundry other issues (read: racism), but there you go. His main argument though is that he doesn't think that an old guy like McCain can clean up the mess that the damn Republicans put us in and that it's going to require a young guy. Whatever works, I say.

2. I have a cold which I am pretending not to have and which made me hunker down in my apt last night. But here is the great thing about last night in my apartment: Not a single trick or treater! You know how I feel about Halloween so was thrilled with the fact that I did not have to leave my place of residence to avoid the hobgoblins.

3. On Thurs, I sat through a government agency awards ceremony for which Robotech received one such award. I came away with the impression that there exists an Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Assistant Commissioner of the Office of the Assistant Deputy Director of the Secretary of a Cabinet Level Agency. Yay, bureaucracy!

4. My friends back home have not forgotten me. They texted me all last night telling of the adventures of a small cardboard cutout of me that they made by gluing a picture of my face on it and have placed me upon a stick. They made several of these and they pull out Cardboard Me at various/sundry events and take pictures of me doing (often naughty) things with people, animals, and objects. Aww, isn't that sweet? Apparently, they lost the one of me in blond wig one winter night last year while out drinking - she was the Jezebel whore of the bunch so god knows what she's doing with some stranger as we speak.

When I was back there in Sept for a wedding, my strai friend A (who keeps CB me in a potted plant or a cup full of pens most of the time) insisted that I take pictures with myself, one of which was very very wrong on many levels. Placing my tongue upon my own cardboard breasts = kinky! Good times, good times..

ETA: Here I am holding myself which is weird to say:



ETA2: My friend sent me a picture from Fri night where I apparently was enjoying a little beer with my chili -- I assume things got steamer as the night wore on. I was probably tucked into the bosom of a hooker or the asscrack of a go-go boy by night's end.




5. FYI - still in love with a hockey-loving eh-saying dark sexy soft Canadian drummer!

That is all, good day to you and don't forget to vote for the young guy on Tues!

code breakers

For your aural/visual pleasure on this Saturday night:

Calexico - Two Silver Trees



Calexico - Man Made Lake



Jenny Lewis - Pretty Bird

8 = my favorite number FYI

So I just got back from the state of California, such a lovely place...

Much like other states in this country, I feel like it's a very nice place to visit though I am not entirely sold on living there. I say the same about DC. However, I like the idea of it being perpetually spring/summer/fall for the most part and honestly, the Pacific is nothing one can complain about. So all in all, CA is OK with me. And hello, LL Cool J = mmm, I don't think so.

So soon enough, there are elections and whatnots going on. I am preaching to the choir of course, but if I were to marry anything (which I probably would not in general, but hey, I do not begrudge others), it would be:

1. my Blackberry
2. a field in KS or
3. possibly one of my two favor-ite blogger galfriends, Ms. Dorothy Snarker - Euchre player and fellow hoosier and Win - my favorite late night poet.

The other 6 girls I am sure are cool too, so support a good cause and check out the below. Seriously - smoke 'em if you got 'em, marry 'em if you want.

creep

Hi, Bandwagon? I'm jumping on.

Tiny wooden hands holding a tiny wooden bible

Fine fine, here's a picture from my teen years:



..which reminded me of this Wonder Killer classique.

Yeah, that's all I got. I've been in a perpetual bad mood despite a few positive things that have happened. I feel like I don't have much room to bitch about life and my woe is me bullshit given everything else going on around us so I'd rather just lay low until this too shall have passed.

Instead, I will briefly tell you the story of an act of human kindness thrust upon me by a citizen of this cruel cruel city wherein my faith in humanity was restored for a brief bright flicker.

Friday night I came home on the Metro and went through the station and walked out to my car. When I got to the my car, I couldn't find my little wallet thing I had just used to get off the train. Inside said wallet: $45, my drivers license, 1 credit card, 1 check/ATM card, 1 insurance card, 1 MetroSmartrip with $90 on it, and two Mega Million lottery tickets. <-- I could still be a winner, haven't checked yet.

As a result of losing above mentioned and not being able to find it, I had to go to the Metro station office since I couldn't get out of the parking lot. While there, the Metro guys were assuring me that usually people turn that stuff in. Me, I assumed the worst. Gave up hope and got in a really bad mood thinking about having to deal with canceling the cards and replacing the stuff. You know how my trips to the DMV go.

So I get home and am ready to take the dogs out when I notice someone has slipped a note under my apt door. It said: "I found your wallet!!" and gave his name and number. It was written on what appeared to be some kind of Bible card (for which the person apologized that it was the only paper he had). I was like, whaa?

I call and the guy had just dropped off the note, was still in my parking lot, and walked back to meet me at my door to give me my wallet. To say I was dumbfounded is an understatement. I naturally thanked him profusely several times. This was some youngish guy (maybe around 28 or so) who found my wallet, apparently put my address in his GPS or something, drove from the Metro to my apt (not far, but still) on a Fri night to return it to me. I just...

..you know? So I am trying trying trying to be open to the fact that people are people and we're all just trying to get along in this world and that despite this being a city that drives me nuts in every sense of the word (watched a guy pee into a trash can today while walking to a meeting; the Metro has been extra crowded lately; Robotech is getting the best of me, etc), there just might be some good folks out there if I stop being so pissed off and bitter. Easier said than done, of course, but things like this certainly do help adjust my attitude.

Oh, and the bible card he left it on?

2 Corinthians 4.9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed

I'm not into that sort of thing (i.e., the bible, jesus, god), but I am keeping the card anyway.d

the novelty has worn off

Living in Ghost World

This is what it feels like.


DC Blogs

This was your life

I may be entering a period of taking stock of where I was/where I am/where I'm going, so beware. Or I may continue to blog about vice, music (the new Calexico cd is really good, ps), and missing the midwest. Hard telling. Life is like that = introspection followed by distraction mixed in with nostalgia and heartbreak and happiness. Or so I've read.

So I was digging through some boxes yesterday looking for something or other and came across some pictures from days gone by. In light of feeling oldish, it was good to remember that I wasn't always that way.

5 = when playing with sand is enough to make you happy:



6 = when you are the shrimpiest cousin of the batch:



7 = when your older sister and her friend are still cool:



8-9 = when your lifelong habit of making faces for the camera begins:



10 = when everything changed for the first time:



Maybe if I'm feeling brave, I'll do the teen years, but sweet lord, we all know how the 80s looked. Not pretty, not pretty at all.

I'm a few years older than you..

Let us just say that as a consequence of being in Kentucky for much of the week, the following is true:

1. I am now sick, like with a head cold
2. I seem to have a knack for finding free booze
3. I am apparently a cougar

Let me back up. I'm not actually a cougar, the feeling isn't mutual. I hate to break it to the two young 24 year old Kentucky boys hitting on my (older) friend and I, but I'm no Demi (and hello, they definitely aren't my type). Here is a sample of the lines that were thrown our way and no I am not kidding:

"Girls our age aren't interesting to talk to, they're not deep like you probably are"

"I've always been a feminist, objectifying women simply perpetuates gender stereotypes about men and women"

"I'm more interested in getting to know you as a person, but if you offered, I'd go back to your hotel room"

Needless to say, we did not offer. But I do have to give them props for trying. My friend was like "I am old enough to be your mother, are you crazy?" And granted, if I had pulled a Juno, I probably could have been their mom too which is really starting to freak me out about now. Age ain't nothing but a number = what I am trying to tell myself.

And with that, I am off to watch that way old guy debate the young guy. Good times!

ps. And a special happy bday shout-out to my favorite cougar and fellow Libran, Miss Vivian Darkbloom without whom I am nothing. Darling, I'll always bust you out of Betty Ford with a bottle of Stoli and a blunt from your homies. Did you receive the pair of thong panties I had LiLo sign for you?? What I had to go through to get them, you will not want to know. May they keep you warm at night, sweetie! Hope your bday was grand!

I'm the pretender

Well, so another week down. It's kind of funny, but sometimes I feel like I'm scratching another mark on the wall and looking at all the lines and being secretly glad it feels like time is going fast. Like eventually I will get this over with and can move on. What I don't like, though, is that one of these days (maybe even now), I'll wish, in general, time had not gone so quickly. O, the human condition! Time, the revelator!

I had a dream last night with my people in it; we were having a party with a bunch of folks there and apparently it was a breakfast party because we were preparing things like fruit and waffles and there was beer. Like I always say, ain't no party like a pancake party cuz a pancake party don't stop. Then the dream veered off into bizarro land and I somehow was going to have sex with Michael Phelps so I could sell the pics to the paps. Yeah, I don't know. Let's not speak of it again.

So tonight I am going into the city to meet some people I don't know except for two of them and not even that well. I feel like I need to get out a bit even though I'm not particularly interested in dealing with strangers and/or people and/or both, but I am also feeling a bit restless. Restlessness always gets me in trouble and frankly, all work/no play is starting to get to me and I need something to fill the void. I miss my people and my state and space enough to be happy.

So another week down. According to special relativity, time moves more slowly if you stand still in space so the way to make it happen faster is to increase your velocity through spacetime.

It's time to increase my velocity just a bit.

Throw me a rope

Bob said you'd like these:

Fleet Foxes - Mykonos



Dar Williams - If I Wrote You



Gillian Welch - The Way It Would Be

take a picture/lasts longer

I see myself in you

So quick note: I can't even tell you how tired I am from all my gallivanting here/there etc and the fact that I am headed back to my favorite state/home for a weekend wedding is even better though honestly I am exhausted thinking about staying up late and having beverages with my people. One does what one must do = what I say. So no more bawlbabying. I will however attempt to take salacious photographias and post them here during my visit/when I return. If nothing else, you'll at least get a picture of a big open field of green grass which in my book is better than.

Ok, I am off to bed to please sleep hard sans dreams of work and/or tornadoes. Catch you on the flip side = not what the kids are saying these days btw. I took a poll at the show tonight, not really, but I'm quite confident.

ps. My Morning Jacket was great, very loud, very good. Here is a very poor quality/really shitty sounding video taken with my Blurberry for your lack of musical enjoyment:




pps. Calling Canada: you still feel me?

bob's your uncle

Yeah, so I'm outta here for the weekend. I'm worn down again and need to go recharge so I'm off to Cleveland to hang with my friends + beverages + cooking + music-making + too hot in the hottub, woo!

Very necessary because I've been laboring too much and need a day. See ya!

let them eat cake

I'm totally going to be late for Good Time Island if I don't find this. Won't you please think of the children and search your couch and/or bed for the below item?

sorry mate

When Aussie's get mad:



Unfortunately, they came up short this year again, but worse news for my Storm is LJ having surgery after the Olys and will miss the rest of the season. Dang. I thought this might have been their year again. Oh well. And now gotta wait four more years before the Down Under unitards are worn again.

Next stop: hell

My commute home tonight:






Because really, can you ever get enough of the Metro? I think not. It's like a rollercoaster. Without the fun.