happy halloween!

happy day to my favorite ghouls and goblins, vampires and zombies.

today is my favorite holiday - to be able to dress up and play the part of anyone you wish is such a fun, freeing sensation. always a fun time ...

ok, you got me. the costumes are fine enough. it's all about the candy. ;-)

heehee. this year i'm playing it pretty safe, as i'll probably wind up interviewing people while i'm out and about - i thought it would be tricky to carry on conversation while worrying that the fangs i bought for my "victoria the vampire" ensemble would dig into my lower lip or something (note: i realize this after buying the fangs ... beth's comment last night, after i told her i'd be going as a flower child instead : "well, you could be a vampire hippie!"), so instead i'm paying homage to the sixties ... flowers in the hair and all. should be a good time in fair burlington ...

speaking of which ... i got the call and it's official. for the next couple of months, i'm going to be working at the newspaper full-time in the news section, one day of each week devoted to my column.

hurrah! who made the right decision in coming back to vermont?

it's me ...

anyhoo. time to go hippie-ify myself. happy halloween ... have fun tricking and treating!

oh, and look for the northern lights tonight ... i heard they're supposed to be visible again ...

herzlich gluckwunch zum geburtstag zur dir ...

in high school, i always used to like singing the german version of "happy birthday" simply because it was so long - i'd try to cram it all into one breath and the same amount of time the traditional version required. sure, i could have gone with the shorter "froh geburtstag," but where's the fun in that, i ask you?

nevertheless. as i tried to find ways of ignoring the fact that i need to head to work this morning, i discovered that it's someone's birthday ... let's give it up for scorpios, eh?

herzlich gluckwunch zum geburstag, chad.

northern skies smilin' at me ...

red sun at morning, sailors take warning. red sun at night, sailors delight.

rosy aurora borealis, vickie loves life.

as i drove home from a highly exciting afternoon in burlington, i enjoyed the winding roads, singing along to my selected soundtrack of singer-songwriters. rufus, jason, howie, ben and i traveled down route 7 while i celebrated feelings of joy and anxious anticipation.

i half noticed the magenta glow to my left shortly after driving through middlebury but paid little attention, as my eyes were focus on the road, my mind of the next song lyric to sing. just before pittsford, however, i took a serious look and noticed the jacob's ladder-like beams in the sky, the stars poking holes through the rose-colored haze. i thought to myself for a moment, trying to determine the approximate locations of any possible airports/spotlight-needed places. realizing there was no logical man-made source of the light display, i wondered if i was in fact seeing the northern lights for the first time.

assuming i was, i continued to drive, periodically casting glances to my left (at any point where the road provided an adequate straightaway) and being dazzled by the sight. the lights were brightest just before rutland town, the entire sky on that side of the road cast in some shade of burgandy.

i told myself that it was mother nature's way of encouraging me, telling me that i was on the right path, heading in the right direction. a way of casting the world in the hue of the rose-colored glasses i feel as if i could be wearing at present.

upon arriving home (after making a couple of stops for halloween costumage), i walked in to the living room and greeted my mother and dozing father. mum instantly asked, "did you see the northern lights?"

contentment.

in other news. i don't want to put all of my eggs in one basket. or count chickens before they're hatched. or any other poultry-like figure of speech that may apply (why am i just thinking of jason mraz rock the cock?). but i can say that it appears as if things MIGHT be looking very, very promising. i find out tomorrow.

keep your fingers crossed for me.

the dancing lights on the horizon tonight reflect the dancing light of my spirit ...

the gods are smiling

it's all happening ...

now to work on apartments.

i don't squeal very often these days, but it's appropriate.

*SQUEAL*

absolute, utter hilarity

i received the most surprising of all possible voicemails this afternoon and could not stop laughing for a good five minutes after.

one of my college theater professors left a message asking if i would be interested in guest lecturing one class in a couple of weeks - intro the theater is going to be learning how to be a critic and she figured i was a great person to invite into the class to talk to them about how i became a critic.

?????????

i love it. of course i'm going to do it - it's much too fun an opportunity to pass up. i wouldn't describe myself as a theater critic as of yet, but hey - it'll be very neat to do. but surreal, as i myself only took the class a few years ago - junior year, i believe? yep, first semester junior year. and the first theater review i ever wrote was for that class ... about dear shenandoah shakespeare (who will, might i add, be performing either "two gentlemen," "henry iv," or "the importance of being earnest" at uvm on the night of my birthday - who's there? oh wait. it's me) ...

anyway. i wish there had been a camera in my car as i made the drive up to burlington today - postcard moments were had by the handful. driving up one particular stretch of route 7, the golden light was hitting the trees at just the right angle, making them glow. gorgeous. while there's a substantial part of the foliage in southern vermont that has already fallen, it's still peak season farther north ... can we just forgo the harshness of winter and live in a state of perpetual autumn?

pure pop didn't have matthew jay - i think i might have to do an online purchase for this one.

i made myself feel better with josh rouse's "1972."

and it begins.

after work tomorrow, i'm heading up to burlington and making the circuit for a new day job. as in one in burlington. as in moving there asap. as in screw you ronald, i'll no longer serve as your bitch.

;-)

wish me luck.

yet another example of how in print is better than online ...

i'm pleased with the story online but love it in crisp black and white newsprint.

yes, there are obvious advantages to the online world, but give me a good old fashioned newspaper over any online news source. it still retains some of the ... romance, i guess, of journalism.

in other news. the latest vanity fair - the music issue - caught my eye today, so i figured i'd pick it up. overall, not too shabby. the issue once again reminded me that one of my goals - and one of the ways i will know i have made it in whatever i wind up making it in - is to be photographed by annie leibovitz. or interview annie leibovitz. i haven't decided which yet. C) all of the above?

but it reaffirmed something else, as well ... liz phair. i must state that i haven't heard much of liz's music at all. i haven't heard her past work, i haven't even heard all that much of "liz phair." but i picked it up the other day while perusing the racks at a music store and went over to the little "scan and sneak preview" thing to take a listen. i've got to admit that, while i like to think of myself as open to a lot of new music - and, depsite having a pretty particular genre of favorites, still enjoy a wide range of music - i'm just not getting what all the fuss is about with liz phair. too poppy without some standout edge, the lyrics seem cliched and her voice, while pretty decent, isn't showcased to its full advantage.

granted, many would say the same about the albums released by many of my favorites, but i'm just trying to understand. a lot of people who enjoy my music (which i've playfully dubbed the "male archetype #22 genre" thanks to the advocate) really dig liz's stuff ... and i'm just not seeing it. anyone care to enlighten me?

the previous tirade makes this all the more amusing ...

i am an indie snob!




How indie are you? test by ridethefader

You're just too cool for school, aren't you? You're pretty narrow minded
and opinionated with regards to music (and probably most other things
as well). But you're allowed to be, because you really are better
than everyone else. You take pride in obscurity.
You probably prefer vinyl too, you elitist bitch.


upcoming purchases: ben kweller (i saw it in the same store the other day and was shocked - but incredibly delighted - and wound up passing it by for sake of buying bjork. biiiiiiig mistake. guess what cd's getting sold back this week? and guess what cd's getting picked up?) and matthew jay. i hereby revoke any self-righteous right i have to comment on elliott smith's posthumous album sales, as i heard about matthew jay as people were commenting on suicidal singer-songwriters. i intended to purchase it friday when i bought figure 8, but couldn't find it anywhere in rutland. i'm assuming i'll have to hold off until i get up to burlington sometime this week.

SPEAKING of burlington ... anidifrancoonnovember16atmemorialaudisgoingtokickassespeciallynowthatwehaveticketsforit.

oh, and - rufus needs to get his magical, wonderous self to the greater victoria area on a weekend night. but since that doesn't appear to be happening any time in the near future, it's now time to figure out when to go - where to go. northampton, boston, albany or montreal?

teehee. let the concert revelry continue ...

oh, probably the most amusing site i've found since the dullest blog ever ... emotion eric. hilarious ...

ok. randomness over. this concludes our victoria broadcast day.

feeling reckless

i.
want.
to.
go.
to.
new.
york.

12/11/03 Madison Square Garden
New York, NY
Jason Mraz with Maroon 5, Guster & Howie Day

well, ok. part of me does. the lineup is so incredibly sweet. mraz, howie AND guster? and i've wanted to see maroon 5 for awhile now. i'd be in heaven.

but would i really want to see everyone freaking out over my favorite musicians at bloody madison square garden? depends. if i was in the first few rows, i'd be totally down with it. but otherwise - if i had enough of a problem seeing mayer at lupos, howie at avalon and gmu because it felt so large, i'd loathe sitting in some balcony miles away from the stage.

i think i just want to see any of them again - i should just throw common sense away, be silly and impulsive and head down to dc to see mraz at 9:30.

but what a sweeeeeet lineup that other show would be ...

it's baaaaack ...

i've been suffering writer's block for the past couple of weeks. well, in my newspaper writing, that is (it's obviously not the case here, eh?). i don't know if it was the combination of having attended impressive events i wanted to capture and show my readers, the weekly grind starting to take a toll (while i've been doing a ton of fun things as of late and absolutely love it, i think tonight will be the first night in awhile when i'm relaxing at home without being sick) or what, but i've attended events, gotten home, nestled into my desk chair and - nothing. only drivel would come out of me.

fortunately, i am incredibly pleased with my eclipse column. really, surprisingly pleased. so perhaps my writer's block has taken a bit of a reprieve.

or, ideally, it's gone for good - or at least awhile. we shall see.

... and i get paid for this?

the eclipse theater was astounding. i don't think i've been in such a unique theater in ages.

as i interviewed one of the owners in the lobby during the concert tonight, a friend of his stopped in and commented on how he wishes wishes wishes peter would hold an event where people could come in, spread out on the floor and look up at the lobby ceiling while "dark side of the moon" plays over the soundsystem.

i wish wish wish he would too - it would be killer.

confused yet? read my review on sunday ... teehee.

i had the first experience where someone recognized me by name because of my column - that was pretty cool. we were chatting about the show and, when we went through introductions, he said, "hey! yes you are! i've read your column," and proceeded to ask me some questions about the gezellig space because he was intrigued after reading my column about it.

revelrevel.

ok, i'm abandoning rodney here in favor of internet- and distraction-free seymour (i've got a habit of naming things - rodney here was dubbed such about a month and a half ago after i realized that i need to get rid of some files on the near-capacity drive. it freezes on me, i curse at it, it gets no respect. hence, rodney. seymour was just dubbed that because i fancied the name and was feeling silly at the time) so i can write my column while listening to some mraz and then head to bed. i was good this time and wrote a great deal of what i believe will ultimately be my final draft while i was there and feeling inspired by the place.

i know - me, not procrastinating?

i'm just as scared as you are.

WHAT?!?!?!?!

ok, two more emails related to the review were waiting for me, one from devlin, which pleased me, but was quite a surprise. i never gave him the credit he deserved when i was at st. mike's - i only begrudgingly began talking to him because we were both working on "arcadia." even then, i felt as if i was betraying louns - i was not supposed to appreciate the work or personality of someone who replaced him, as far as i was concerned. a juvenile reaction to the way louns' time at the college came to an end, i admit, but then again, the manner in which he was treated was juvenile as well, so why not, right? trying to take the high road hadn't worked - they still gave his job away, he left and devlin arrived on the scene.

the fact that devlin never held my initial refusal to acknowledge him against me shows just what a good guy he is. and for him to send me email was incredibly kind, particularly making references to actf and being incredibly complimentary. i hope perhaps i can stop by mccarthy sometime and visit with him - maybe have a conversation with him about whatever that i should have had while i was still a student.

but i digress. devlin said he's been psyched to work on kirk's play this semester for a number of reasons, including that it was the first opportunity he's had to work with louns.

!?!?!??!?!?!?!

on a different note, i found the site for a singer/songwriter named brady brock and downloaded a few mp3s - not shabby. take a listen if you wish ...

... thank you elliott.

why should you want any other, when you're a world within a world?

it's sad to think that elliott's record sales will probably increase this week after people learn of his death ... but i can't really say anything, as i finally bought "figure 8" early this afternoon.

i wish i'd bought it sooner - it would have been especially good for me while i was in dc. his voice just puts me in this suspended state of reality - it's about time i bought the album.

margaret cho, kickass woman and fellow blogger, wrote an amazing post about elliott on her site - i highly recommend everyone check it out. if you were a fan of elliott's, you'll understand what she's talking about. if you weren't a fan or you didn't know who he was, you'll be blown away by the writing. it demonstrates just how true the line from "almost famous" is - "to truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts."

Cut me up like a jigsaw, whole reflection cracked apart
Like the lines on my hand or the map of a broken heart

bah. i'm feeling lazy and need to get fired up for this evening's performance in waitsfield. but, after sleeping in this morning, i'd just love to curl up with a book, a movie and a blanket. and just relax. or read. or write a novel. i feel like i could do it - it feels as if my mind is in the state for it today.

the review does look pretty decent on the page, having bought a copy of the paper on my way home. it makes me feel better about it, as i was not particularly pleased with the final result when i filed it. i wanted to do the production justic e and felt as if i had failed it in some manner. but at that point i was completely crashing and the words just refused to come to me in the manner i hoped they would.

c'est la vie.

for the record.

10.23.03 The Night Spot Killington VT Intimate show with Averi 8:00pm no cover 21+

there.

so it has been officially decided, after far too many incidents that have offered evidence to support it, that the adventures (or should i say misadventures?) that inevitably find elizabeth and me are not the result of our seeking them out. it's exactly what i said - they find us. and don't get me wrong - i'm not complaining. they create hilarious moments and fun stories that are reminisced countless times following.

last night provided yet another example of such amusement. it seemed quite simple. averi was playing at the night spot - a venue neither of us had visited before, but only twenty minutes from home. averi playing right by us? of course we were going. i was a bit puzzled by the "intimate evening" aspect of the concert listing, but figured it was because the guys were playing in a small venue away from the majority of averi's fan base at killington, where there aren't a ton of people at this time of year, as the mountains haven't officially opening up to skiiers yet.

so we pile into red and head up the mountain, where there's already some natural accumulation of the dreaded white stuff - ACK. we find the venue and pull into the parking lot a bit early, but not too bad.

beth notices the marquee first.

"vickie, look at the sign. i think this is a birthday party."

oh no. "i don't want to look at it."

"no, look! it's a birthday party!"

"I DON'T WANT TO LOOK! NO!"

sure enough, the marquee says something about joining miranda for her 21st birthday - and, in smaller letters, "live w/ averi."

oh shit. we can already tell that the evening is taking an interesting turn, more so than we already expected, as we were seeing averi for the first time in awhile outside of boston. supressing our laughter, we walk into the venue and see balloons, streamers - birthday party stuff. and no one around.

(side note: the night spot looks like a cool place - it reminded me a lot of buffalo billiards, without, well, front page above it and all.)

as we stand there, feeling out of place and trying not to burst into laughter on the spot, a man walks up to us with a smile.

"hi! are you here for the party?"

oh good lord. it's a birthday party.

i, of course, being naturally witty and quick on my feet, reply with my usual sparkling conversation skills.

"um ... not really ... we're here for the concert?"

he gives us a quizzical look and shrugs his shoulders, telling us that the band is out that way (pointing off into the distance) and smiling. we can see chad and mike setting up some equipment at the stage.

did we mention there was NO ONE ELSE THERE?

now, were some of the variables here, well, varied, our resulting course of action would be entirely different from the one we ultimately select. had the band not been averi, we would have reveled in the fact that we had inadvertantly crashed a birthday party and would have rocked out to the musical entertainment, ringing in miranda's 21st with the best of them.

but the particulars in this equation were 1) we knew the band 2) the band knew us 3) there was no one else there at the moment 4) it was a birthday party and 5) the venue probably just couldn't make it a private party, but the only people who would really be there were people who, well, knew miranda.

we weren't feeling down with looking stupid, so we contemplated what to do for a bit before casually turning around, quickly walking out of the venue and dashing to the car, where we jumped inside, closed the doors and prompty burst into hysterical laughter.

with that, we left. now, it very well could have been a coincidence or something - it could have been an open concert and all. but frankly, we weren't going to find out and face the possibility of discovering that it really was a party. with the agreement that we would see averi again soon somewhere else - non-birthday party type of gig - i started up the car and we headed back down the mountain and to fair haven, laughing the whole way and honoring our new friend miranda with renditions of many a birthday song.

so happy 21st miranda - hope you're not feeling too hungover today! the birthday girl has great taste in music, that's at least a certainty. hey, my birthday is in a little over a week - if anyone wants to book averi to help celebrate my 23rd, go nuts! ;-)

i tell you - the situations find us. not the other way around. we just welcome them upon realization. bwahaha.

friday five and feedback

1. what is your favorite scary movie?
i've never been overly down with scary movies - not necessarily that they freak me out, but that i just find them boring a great deal of the time. gore, scream. gore, gasp. gore, gore, gore. whoopdedo.
that said, i suppose my favorite would probably have to be "blair witch project." i was infatuated with the movie when it first came out - i loved that i was able to come up with my own ideas of the scariest kind of monster ever and affix those ideas to the actual film. it's one of those films that's considered by many to be cliched now, but at the time, it was killer.
that and "evil dead 2" - the cheesiest, most hilarious horror film in history, as far as i'm concerned ... the hand flipping over the main character and smashing plates against his head ... priceless.

2. what is your favorite halloween treat?
hmm ... probably sugar babies or milk duds? and of course peanut butter cups were always a major score.

3. do you dress up for halloween? if so, describe your best halloween costume.
i used to when i was little (let's give it up to going as rainbow brite back in my massachusetts days!) but stopped when i reached junior high because as a member of the marching band, we'd have to dress up for the halloween parade each year in some horrible costume relating to our song selection. so i wasn't able to dress up with my own free will. and some of the costumes were just wretched ... let's see - we did "phantom of the opera" (we looked more like washed-out vampires than phantoms), "the flinstones," "eye of the tiger," a christmas melody, "the simpsons," and ... oh yes, "the pink panther."
so i didn't have fun coming up with my own costumes until college. i think my favorite would probably have to have been ... little red riding hussy junior year (resurrected last year for the c.u. party). it's an adorable little red riding hood costume that, when i don't wear the hood, makes me look like i could very easily be a barwench for some pirate watering hole.

arrrrr, matey ...

4. do you enjoy going to haunted houses or other spooky events?
yes yes yes. pittsford holds a haunted house every year that's a lot of fun - the first time i went was in sixth grade, when i had a birthday party/sleepover where we all went to the haunted house and then came back home for movies and whatnot. my father chaperoned us and they made me be at the front of the line because it was my birthday (you go in a group, forming a line and holding each other's hand as you weave in and out of the rooms, led by a guide). now i get startled easily and at this time, i was scared very easily. by the second room, i was in tears and they moved me back to the back of the line with my father, the guide radioing ahead to be nice to the girl in the back because she's scared to death.

now, i love being scared. bring it on. i've been contemplating going to the haunted house again this year, as well as the ghost walk up in burlington.

5. will you dress up for halloween this year?
i think so ... there's not a lot to do around this area as far as celebration goes (i certainly would not have the opportunity to rock it at hard rock cafe like i did last year), but with halloween being a friday, i have a feeling i'll probably be assigned to something fun, hopefully requiring a costume, for my column. so i've got to figure out if i want to be l.r.r.h. again or if it's time to bust out the flapper dress. i love this stuff ...

i received my first correspondence relating to my writing from someone i've known in the past - the professor of one of my favorite college classes (shakespeare) sent an email this morning commenting on (praising) my "proof" review. hurrah!

waltzing ...

just as i was about to turn away from the computer, i stumble across this and my jaw drops.

elliott smith ... i'm shocked. elliott has never been right at the top of my favorite artists list, but he's always lurked in the shadows, waiting to take out some unsuspecting favorite. from the time i first heard "waltz no. 2," i was hooked.

he always made me feel mellow, introspective (i know, as if it's that difficult, but still), and romantic, in a melancholy sort of way. i was set to see him back during college when he played higher ground but, for whatever reason, was prevented (perhaps defender?) and assumed i'd see him next time around.

i think i'm going to have to pick up either either/or (whoa, bad sentence construction there ...) or figure 8 tomorrow during my morning and afternoon of freedom. i always meant to buy them - just never did.

wow.

*yawn*

i have work in, well, three hours. i'm supposed to wake up in two. but wait, here's one girl, still awake, still trying to write her review ...

i've had a horrible case of writer's block as of late - it's driving me mad.

have to finish it tomorrow, i suppose - it's so late at this point that i'm just coming up with gibberish anyway.

oh yes, averi this evening. fun times to be had, i'm sure ...

flashback ... a moment frozen in time ...

this evening, i found myself curious and decided to do some backtracking. a sort of "back in the day - this day" type of thing.

2002:
so someone, who shall remain sheepishly nameless, inadvertently partied like a rock star friday night...

i didn't intend to, it just sort of happened.

we used to joke in college about how the term "happy hour" is incredibly misleading--as it's actually "happy hours." well, friday night happy hours with everyone from work always turns into "happy night." we got out of work around 4. i stumbled into my apartment between 2 and 2:30.

fun times were had at buffalo billiards, dan's cafe, millie & al's and a random, mystery bar (long story and rather embarrassing). i had the opportunity to talk to some people i haven't chatted with in a bit and enjoyed drunken debauchery. apparently i made a phone call around 8:15 that i have absolutely no recollection of making...

i know i say this every week, but this time really hammered the point home for me: must eat something of substance on fridays--whether a more substantial lunch or something more than half an order of appetizer chicken fingers while drinking.

2001:
fun times at 203! :)

there's nothign like having a bunch of fun people around that make me happy. yay yay yay...

and, in other amusement, i found this ... i still cannot believe there were no hangover symptoms the next day:

i earned tonight.

so fucking fun. heaven, hell, and purgatory in the 3s. i'm not one to sit there and party just because eveyrone else is partying. i've been partying because i've earned the right to do so. and i'ev had a blast. i'd prefer to ignore what i've had to drink this evening, because it surprises/amazes me...we've done so well...

... rumdiddlyumdiddlyumdiddly ...

childish - damien rice
I'm so childish, a little bit wildish
With my rumdiddlyumdiddlyumdiddly, I'm so deep

Well I'm so garish, a little unfairish
The way I pick you up, and drop you in a heap

I'm so unfaithful, in fact I'm a plateful
I won't kiss her, but I'll stare her up all night

I'm a stormy little singer, an unstable little swinger
If you're coming, come prepared for a fight

Well I'm so childish, a little bit wildish
With my rumdiddlyumdiddlyumdiddly, I'm so deep

Well I'm so uncaring, do far too much swearing
And if you read through my behaviour, you'll find I'm a creep

I'll play a stormer, yet in the corner
I'll be grumpy on my own, like I don't care

I'm a stormy little singer, an unstable little swinger
With a big rip, in the arsehole of my flares

Well I'm so childish, a little bit wildish
With my rumdiddlyumdiddlyumdiddly, I'm so mad

I'm so truthful, a little bit bruteful
But in sooth I know not, why I am so sad

I try my bestest, well as far the restest
Well it's just stuff that comes out wrong, and gets misunderstood

I'm a dandy little dreamer, a doctored misdemeanour
A didactic destiny schemer, bare with me if you would

while i'm just a fan of the plays on words found in this song anyway, damien makes my head spin by being able to fit in "in sooth" and "didactic."

rumdiddlyumdiddlyumdiddly ... rumdiddlyumdiddlyumdiddly ...

*cough*

very busy week and here i am, sick. murphy's law, i suppose. but nevertheless. work, apartment/job hunting, a play to review (hurrah!!!!!!!) and i believe another column to write ... not to mention averi on thursday night.

it has the potential to be a great week, but it sucks to be kickin things off with a cold ...

off to prepare for work and down some orange juice.

*sniffle*

i protest this week's recycled friday five. therefore, i found my own old school one to do today.

1. what's your favorite time of day?
ten minutes after the sun slips beneath the horizon for the night. the sky grows dark, the bright orange and pinks of the sunset dulling, deepening into shades of plum, indigo, green and turqouise against the black of the mountains.

2. what's your least favorite time of day?
those inevitable fifteen minutes after you first wake up, when all you want to do is remain curled up in the warm nest of blankets and sheets. the feeling of warmth and coziness is delightful, but it's spoiled by the realization that the warm fuzziness is ultimately going to be snatched away by responsibilities, replaced by cool floorboards and the shiver of early morning.

3. are you a morning person or a night owl? does it cause any problems?
although i've been trying to play the part of the morning person lately, with work and all, i am and always have been a lover of the night. i work best when the sky is dark and the energy and creativity flows ... as well as the realization that deadline is generally the next day, so there is no time left to procrastinate.

but i've just always loved everything that comes with night - the quiet, the peace, the opportunity to explore. as well as night's activities - concerts, clubs, bars, coffeehouses, movies, plays - night seems to hold so much more than day sometimes.

4. if you had an entire worry- and obligation-free day, what would you do with it?
mmm ... i'd have gone to sleep early the night before so i could be nice and energized upon waking. the day would include some combination of the following (in no particular order): reading, writing, iced coffee, guitar, quality time with friends both local and in far away lands, some form of performance, an engaging interview/conversation with someone who inspires me, good food, good laughs, perhaps a bottle of red wine.

5. how do you plan to spend your weekend?
hmm ... not sure as of yet. tonight will be spent relaxing and finishing my column. tomorrow remains to be seen, but i'm looking forward to the nothingness with a great deal of happy anticipation. sunday i work and see how the column turned out.

oh - i suppose i should comment on the whole red sox debacle. i will say that watching the game was great until the eighth ... paul called while on his way home from class, so i provided play-by-play, experiencing a surround-sound celebration on successful plays, as paul and my father both cheered, as well as surround-sound disbelief as little kept pedro in time and time again. but, then again, i was right in there with the disbelief as well.

i cannot understand what little was thinking. i knew what pedro was thinking - no pitcher wants to give up the chance to finish the game if you think you can do it ... i've been there and it took a great deal to say to my coaches, "yeah, i'm done." you don't want to look like you're giving up - and hell, you want to be the one to win it!

but little should have known better. put in timlin - he'd been kicking ass all postseason. i know it's still mostly because i'm still stinging from the loss, but i'd say right now that little owes the red sox players an apology. not to mention the rest of "red sox nation."

good blasted lord - for once i didn't want to focus on the fact that there's "always next year ..."

"... sneaking up on the skylines at daybreak ..."

the survey says ... i'm a dramatic idealist.

this is what i find out when i'm suffering from writer's block.

i also find myself ridiculously frustrated by the ease with which some others can provide such vivid, glowing, jump-off-the-page-i'm-that-good writing in such a seemingly breezy, hey-this-is-my-journal-of-sorts style. mraz added two gorgeous entries to his road journal that make me almost green with linguistic envy.

Okay, now I’m bummed at George all of a sudden and I’ve switched over to the Kronos Quartet. They provide the proper soundtrack to my fury in fours. Sometimes evil they are… other times passionate and melodramatic, it’s perfect for either falling in love, or scooting out of it. You’ll feel all cartoon-like or like a silent film character when you feel your true love would rather run away and be with the villain, little do you know that love was just kidnapped or borrowed, set up somehow for you to save them.

and, my favorite part ...

The moon is following me. Not a bad stalker I suppose. At least she keeps her distance. At least her presence is pleasant. She glows. She comes and goes through the clouds, the sprinting trees, the morning mist. I’ll miss her in a few minutes when the Saturday sun rises.

grrrrrrrrrr. to be able to phrase things so beautifully on an everyday basis.

ok, back to my own word-smithing ... i'll just take the frustration and appreciative envy and tranform it into fuel and motivation ...

pot kettle black

crazy rides rockets
waves a magic wand
empty out your pockets
words without a song

i myself have found a rival in myself

i am hoping for the rearrival of my health

sleeping eye sockets
baby suck your thumb
i'll keep you in my locket
a string i never strum

it's become so obvious
you are so oblivious to yourself

i'm tied in a knot
but i'm not
gonna get caught
calling a pot kettle black
every song's a comeback
every moment's a little bit later

lazy locomotives
wherever you may roll
i think you have no motive
i know you have no home

it's become so obvious
you are so oblivious to yourself

i'm tied in a knot
but i'm not
gonna get caught
calling a pot kettle black
every song's a comeback
every moment's a little bit later

- wilco

i love trot nixon.

boston 4 - 0 in the fourth.

byebye roger, don't let the door kick your arse on the way out.

regardless of how the rest of the game goes, the fact that roger clemens walked off the field at yankee stadium in game seven of the american league championship having been trounced by boston - possibly his final game ever - makes this boston fan sigh with delight.

he might be a great guy - who knows. but i've been bred to believe that if you leave boston and wind up as a yankee, you're lower than low.

karma just came back to bite him in the ass. finally.

hurrah!!!!

sushi-fest every night at 6 and from eight to midnight we dance ...

october - i love this time of year. the trees are burning orange, yellow, red and green, having burst into color seemingly overnight. the drive to and from work (well, either to or from, as one part of the trip is always in darkness) has become all the more gorgeous, as i cruise past fields and forests ...

the drive up to burlington tuesday was blissful. the sun shone into my car, seeming as if it must still provide some of the summer heat. but when i lowered my window, the crisp breeze of autumn cooled my face and made me feel glad to have worn a nice warm, cozy sweater. ah ... there's just something about this month - the last desperate games of baseball season, the crisp, almost raw days bleeding into the bracing nights. breaking out the flannel sheets and curling up in a warm cocoon of comforter and blankets. the anticipation of my favorite holiday - halloween (must be the theater side), which kicks off the annual "let's cram everything into two months" celebration series - halloween, my birthday, my father's birthday, thanksgiving, christmas, new year's ... it all seems to race together. i like to think of it as a big ol' celebration, since it'll be too cold to do much outdoors ...

more concert revelry on the horizon. averi next week, followed by a little break before the possibility of badly drawn boy and the definite attendance at ani (rockonrockonrockon ...). furthermore, i will heed paul's advice (as he's yet to lead me wrong) and definitely partake in rufus wainwright goodness in mid-november(revelrevelrevelrevel ...). avalon or iron horse? or perchance montreal? who is up for some traveling and where do you want to go?

i think that this is the ultimate in amusing online mraz goodness ... and no, i did not find this on my own - i don't have that much spare time.

but it amuses me, particularly the video (click on the building with the guitar on it).

dear trot nixon - thank you. xoxox, vickie.

last night i threw fear of jinxing aside and thoroughly enjoyed the bit of the red sox game i was home to see. i told my father that if they came back and beat the yankees in that game, they'd wind up taking the series.

should they wind up in the world series, i intend to spend one of the games in boston on yawkey way. who's with me?

i'm sick. well, kind of. my throat is absolutely raw. i'm learning to make my words count today ... not good for a rambler.

... um ... well ...

you know, sometimes i wish i didn't look to see how people found my blog ...

but nevertheless. tonight proved interesting in many ways ... first, i don't know whether i should be excited or saddened by the discovery i made at pure pop this evening. i decided that, since i'd had a rough day, i would treat myself to a new cd after all (of course, we must keep in mind that i've become far too accustomed to treating myself to a cd for 'special occasions' - bad day, good day, tuesday, whatever - but hey, it's all good, i'm still catching up from my lack of music purchasing - say, pretty much all of last year ...). i knew the new travis album was out, so i figured i'd probably pick that up, as travis brings me happy frappy british joy. so i walk into pure pop, take a look at the new music rack ...

and there it is. no, not travis - i had to search for that one. right in front of me was mraz's live cd. the one i'd thought was only available at shows and on the website ... but there it was. live at java joe's ... of course i picked it up ... but it was yet another reminder of how he's rocketing up the ladder of success (no pun intended, i swear - that's far too cheesy for even me to have done intentionally).

i did, however, also get the travis album - i wasn't sure if i was going to, but once i saw that a track was titled "peace the fuck out," i knew i had to. if it had been "peace the fuck eight" or on track eight, i would have freaked out right there in the store. as it was, i did all i could not to burst into laughter ...

one hot, non-gingered muddy cider later, i'm on the road trying to find the space where the movie was being held. i'd been told it was at radio bean. um ... ok. i'd never gone to radio bean during college. i looked it up on mapquest and none of the street names looked familiar. so i took a lil' drive ... and wound up on the phone with beth as she navigated for me, looking at directions SHE found online. traumatizing. i realize now just how little sense the city's setup is, navigationally speaking. one way roads = bad. north being west and south going uphill = v. bad. but hilarious, once we kind of figured it out (for the record, where i was actually supposed to be was waaaaaay down the street from radio bean. and i wouldn't have known it was the actual place had there not been a crowd outdoors. may i also mention that i received a call from the photographer, trying to figure out where the hell to go. so HA!). major points for miss elizabeth for not hanging up on me and being convinced i'm utterly daft ...

but the drive, one-way streets, beer bottles on the road and all that fun stuff were worth it. definitely one of the coolest things i've gone to in ages. if kerouac were alive and in his prime today - and, well, based in burlington - he would have been at this. i can't say much more now, because i'm still processing it and figuring out what to write about it, but i can say that it was very, very cool.

all i need is a nice bubble boy for our nice bubble life ...

i stumbled across something interesting last night. if you're curious, stop by RKOP's future show gatherings/reviews/etc. area and read the first post of "insanity at EMU." i couldn't believe how similar the sentiments, style, etc. are to my northampton review here ... looks like courtney and i share a point of view, that's for sure.

and ... i meant to post this, as i found it very amusing. i picked up a copy of the valley advocate while in northampton (think phoenix/seven days/citypaper.) and found the following listing under "happenings" - daniel oppenheimer hit it perfectly:

male archetype #22
in high school, he was the soft-spoken boy who managed to make friends with the good-looking girls. their boyfriends hoped that he was gay, but worried that he wasn't, and that the platonic friendships might evolve, late one night after a deeply felt conversation, into something more.

now in his mid-twenties, he's come into his own. people pay money to see him play acoustic guitar and sing folksy songs with thoughtful and funny lyrics. women swoon as he serenades them with lines like, "your body is a wonderland." his features, which in high school seemed too feminine, are now percieved as either delicate (elfin) or gentle (hobbit-ish). his clever t-shirts, faded jeans, retro sportscoats and surfer-boy necklaces, which at once seemed odd, now say sensitive in his own skin. women - mostly white women - love him. gay men ignore him. straight men, inclined to hate him, find him so unthreatening, and his music so appealing, that they end up liking him (though they don't admit so to his friends).

celebrity incarnations: john mayer, jason mraz (pictured), jack johnson.
local incarnation: stephen kellogg.
opening act incantation for local incantation: ari hest.

anyhoo. my new nickname at work is bubble girl. because i have suddenly become even more accident-prone. in the past week alone, i have fallen (see earlier tirade about TSFH), spilled steaming, THICK soup all over my arm, burned myself on a tray, burned myself on the landing zone, burned myself with hot water (notice a trend?), burn myself after spilling maranara sauce all over myself and smacked my head against a printer that we have set on a suspended shelf.

then there's today. during an eight-hour shift, i managed to:
- hit my head on a shelf after picking something up off the ground (i, being stupid, raised my head very quickly and i swear i saw stars - twas grand).
- ran into people three different times while walking quickly.
- yanked my headset off my head after one of the collisions, as we both stepped away and our headsets somehow got tangled together.
- spill hot coffee all over my arm (same arm as the soup incident).
- burn myself with hot vegetable oil.

after awhile, people were watching just to see how i'd managed to find a way to hurt myself next. i, of course, became so determined NOT to hurt myself that everything went even more wrong. the headset was the last straw. i went into a self-imposed exile in the drive corner, half laughing, half crying and shooting playful looks of death at matthew, who was out back in hysterics.

it was decided that either the entire store needed to be padded or i need to pad myself - that's where the bubble concept came into play.

grrr.

now i'm preparing to relax briefly before heading up to burlington for my column ... i'm not in the mood to really make the trip, but i'm focusing on the fact that i've gotten all of my calamities for the day out of the way and if i get everything for this week's column done early, i have the weekend free to enjoy my college homecoming (ack!) and whatnot.

while up north, i'm thinking i will treat myself to something, as i need some form of reward for getting through the day ... maybe some (more) new music or something? as if i need an excuse to buy another cd ... good lord. but i think travis might have a new album out ...

speaking of newly acquired music, i am really liking damien rice's disc, "o." while i enjoy his voice and the composition of songs (as well as some bloody fantastic lyrics), i'm most impressed by the backing vocals/sounds. if you listen to no other song, listen to "cheers, darlin'" - the way the clink of two glasses is utilized is brilliant. and i love "cannonball."

there's no way i can hurt myself while watching a movie, right?

right????

once an hour i light the flower and burn, baby, burn

thursday, may 4, 2001 : pictures came back today--at least roll one that is. roll two will be developed when i get home. they came out very well--my photo at the vietnam memorial is my favorite, the one of myself with the jfk bust the second best, because it shows exactly how massive the bust is--something i didn't even realize while i was there. for a simple point and shoot camera, my trusty photo-taker is very impressive.

shortly after writing that post, "the second roll," as it has become known to historians and archaeologists around the world, disappeared - lost in the abyss of moving from room to room, state to state. the world mourned the loss of photographs of the dc "skyline," pictures of arlington and amusing pictures of victoria as a happy-go-lucky theater-lovin-theater-writin lass of twenty.

that is, until yesterday, when the prints taken from "the second roll" came to light. my father found the roll somewhere (i intend to find out where, but haven't seen him in two days, as i've been busy trapsing around new england with the revelry concert tour and all, so i haven't been able to ask) and dropped it off.

i literally squealed when i looked at them. and the funny thing is that the pictures aren't even all that significant - they're just your basic tourist shots. but they had taken on this mythical quality, having been lost for over two years, and i just couldn't believe they were actually found.

who woulda thunk it, eh?

for whatever reason, i haven't been able to stop singing "childlike wildlife" for a good solid two days now.

... still a little bit of your song in my ear ...

music whore symptoms continue. after waking up far too late (12:30ish) after a late drive back from northampton and mraz (more to follow later), i relaxed a bit, did some writing for my column, then headed up to burlington to finish getting material about the gallery exhibit. after picking up a copy of damien rice's album, as i'd been meaning to check out his work and chelsea from last night told me i'd love it, i stopped for hot cider at muddy's (note: do not try the hot ginger cider) and wrote up most of the story (well, for now, anyway - i'll probably change it) before heading to higher ground for mike doughty. where i wound up buying a copy of his album too.

i know - i'm horrible. but i love it. bwahahaha!

anyway, before i ran into danelle and during mason jenning's set, i settled into my chair to do a little writing about last night. mainly to kill time - while i like mason jenning's music enough, i find it better for background music than something to focus on. if i focus on it, it becomes somewhat repetitive.

nevertheless. like i was saying, i wrote. and here's some of what i came up with (***official disclaimer: what follows is somewhat cyncial and might make me sound like a hypocrite. there, i've covered my arse***):

i stood past the fringes late last night, beyond the horde of young girls who were crowding mraz as if he was the fifth beetle. i stood just past the parents who waited to drive their daughters home, smiling as they watched the girls swoon over their heartthrob.

i had neither the desire nor intention to join the masses and clamour for an autograph or forced photo opportunity. yes, i waited by the tour bus - i don't want to seem hypocritical - but i wanted something else entirely (beth, get your head out of the gutter). i wanted to say hello, tell him that i enjoyed the set. perhaps, if he had the time, share a laugh as i recounted the misadventures that had prevented me from seeing him previously, at the numerous non-teenyboppery shows i had missed. i wanted to talk to a guy around my age who comes off as a pretty kickass fellow. i didn't want a dreamy celebrity to sign my shoe (someone else at in the crowd wanted just that), hug me because my birthday is four and a half months away or tell me if he wears boxers or briefs.

i'm not trying to say it's the young girls' fault - far from it. they don't know any better. i've been there - i cried at nkotb concerts. i screamed upon receiving jonathon brandis' autographed photo in the mail. i kept a rider strong scrapbook updated with the lastest pinups in bop and bb magazines. i know how it is to be unable to control overwheming sensations of star-struck love and idolatry. hell, i still occasionally fall victim to older, less OHMIGOD versions of it - it's one of my favorite defining qualities.

that said, as i stood there and watched jason's face, a bit bewildered (and rightly so), light up again and again with flashes from camera bulbs, i felt regretful. as if i should apologize to joe mcintyre, jon and rider. because jason just finished playing a strong set, singing his heart out, and he was being rewarded with what? frantic requests to sign posters, tickets, SHOES. orders to smile into endless cameras, arm around stranger after stranger.

he deserved to be able to relax. reflect on the night - to wonder if toca was going to kick his ass for giving out his phone number (or at least pretending to). to mull over how well the bjork cover worked. to, if he felt like it, discuss music or whatever with someone his age who has listened to more of his music than simply "waiting for my rocket to come" (and someone who would much rather hear something other than "the remedy").

but as i watched him hide at the side of the bus to smoke in peace and talk with some of the members of steadman, i knew that a normal moment of interaction was impossible. so i pulled out my trusty notebook and pen, writing a short note to tell him that i had a good time, i dug the unknown song (i didn't realize it was a bjork cover at the time) and that i hoped to be able to say hi at some point in the future.

i have no idea if he wound up getting it - i hung out for awhile, after the parents dragged the kids home, after the women who looked like they wanted to make like penny lane either headed for the hotel or headed home, but soon realized that i still had a two hour-plus drive ahead of me. so i handed it to a girl who had announced that she was ready to wait for him until he came out or the bus pulled away, asking her to give it to him if he did reemerge. she said she would - whatever.

at that point, i left - somewhat disappointed, but also glad to be removing myself from the group of people who seemed as if they NEEDED to see him. i didn't need to - i just hoped to let him know that not everyone there was squealing over his hair or what he was wearing or whatnot. oh, and that someone there was actually legal.

but nevertheless. who knows? there is the possibility that he knew i was there - he just didn't know who i was. i know that i can file the following under the "yeah, and howie was looking at me while he sang 'she says' - haha, right", but i can still smile about my interpretations of them:

- perhaps the smirk on his face during a few moments of "the remedy" while looking at the crowd in my general area was a reaction to the expression of cynicism-tinged amusement as i finished looking around me at the fans screaming each word, shrugged and wound up caving in and singing along.
- maybe it wasn't coincidence that he smiled my way and started mirroring the head bobbing i was doing while singing along to "so unusual."
- perchance he was smiling back at me while singing part of "1,000 things."
- and who knows if it was just coincidence that the two guitar picks he tossed into the audience landed two people to my left and one person to my right?

the point is that i don't need anything else other than those possibilities. that's the magic of performance - you get everything you need from the experience (well, except for if you don't have the music on cd - in which case you hit up the merch table, that is, if you're a music whore like we've determined myself to be). which is why i stood beyond the fringe and let them have him.

and why i felt good about it.

ok. tirade over. i can now say that, lame audience aside, the set was pretty tight.

tonight, not again
curbside prophet
i'll do anything
absolutely zero
happy birthday
1,000 things
unfold
stuck on you -> dreamlife of rand mcnally <- superstitious -> (jason, toca, ian)
sleeping to dream (jason, toca, ian)
unravel (bjork cover - full band)
right kind of phrase
so unusual
common pleasure
no stopping us
the remedy
you & i both

encore:
too much food

there were aspects of it i didn't go nuts over, but i attribute much of that to the fact that the kids didn't want to hear a lot from toca - or that toca appropriately didn't want to share a lot with them. i wouldn't want to say a lot after a lame guy ordered me to "tell the squirrel joke." fuck that - y'all won't get any joke. take that, bee-atch.

hearing two of my favorite songs - "unfold" and "so unusual" - was a highlight. being one of the only people in my area to know the third verse to "curbside" earned me odd glances from the people in front of me (HA! i thought to myself). i loved the bjork cover and knew i wouldn't hear some of the songs i might have liked to have heard ("older lover," "galaxy," and "childlike wildlife"), so i just had fun with what he did play, singing along from my place in the fourth row, slightly off-center.

the light show was amazing and reflected his theater background, as did his commanding stage presence. the man clearly knows how to work a crowd - from his scat to pondering why no one has manufactured a mic in the shape of the human body (and demonstrating just why it hasn't happened as of yet). he was playful, earnest and charismatic. besides the fact that there wasn't as much banter as i might have liked, he was just as i hoped he'd be. if anything, his entire demeanor, from thanking both his crew and the calvin staff to his gracious-toleration-with-borderline-annoyance after the show, made me think well of him all the more. he just seems like a cool guy - someone who'd be willing and capable to provide enjoyable conversation (unlike howie, no offense intended) and without the "yeah, i'm a rockstar, everyone loves me" swagger (hello, mr. mayer, offense intended). while it all could be an act, i prefer to think otherwise and will focus on the fact that he's just a cool bloke who won't be spoiled by success.

and hopefully someone i'll be able to discuss that with someday.

being in northampton provided another, embarrassingly unanticipated, bonus. it wasn't until i saw a reference to smith college that i realized that i had entered an area rich with sylvia plath history ... upon this realization, i felt a huge surge of energy. there i was, in the area where my favorite writer honed her voice! i wandered around the center of town a bit, perusing the shelves of some bookstores, looking in shop windows, before settling down in front of the Meeting House to let the inspiration pour onto the pages of my notebook. sure, most of the writing produced was about being inspired by sylvia, which rather defeats the purpose, but hey. i was writing. in northampton. and it felt grand. i felt in tune with her, seeing the same things she saw, walking the streets down which she must have strolled - albeit a good fifty years after she did. the entire spectrum of sylvia/vickie similarities - tone, experiences, even handwriting - hit me (note: the similarities end way before the oven bit, thank you). i felt as if she could have been sitting behind me, writing in her own journal, occasionally looking over my shoulder to read my notebook and tell me that everything was as it should be - that i was meant to experience my previous successes and failures in order to reach this point and the points to come.

i know it sounds both presumptuous and crazy to think such things, but it's been well-established that i have an over-zealous imagination.

it's ok. sylvia plath did too. HA!

hand now cramped from typing too much. as a result of writing too much. ;-) but a couple of quick notes before i head to my bed and my story, which needs editing before typing and filing tomorrow morning:

- danelle and nickie provided much-appreciated self-confidence boosts this evening. not only was it great to see the danelley, but she told me that my carson review had been discussed in her art class and people respected my opinions and thought i sounded like i knew what i was talking about. running into nickie while preparing to leave, we caught up on what we've each been up to. hearing someone say to me, "so what are you doing now? please tell me you're writing!" brings me joy.

- doughty was amazing. paul is right yet again. great guitarist, nice distinctive voice, fun stage presence ("robots? yes i like robots. but no, i'm not going to do you. sorry, i just can't. requests? nope. getting to it. maybe later. probably not. definitely not. what??? did you just ask me to do a counting crows song???") and just an all-around great show. crowd was into it, he was into it, and everyone had fun. furthermore, anyone who can fit "oscillation" into a song earns my respect. the respect is doubled when he then covers mary j. blige's "real love" and tripled when he can fit mary j. in the same set as an impression of axel rose.

now that takes skill.

he was great - sat on the edge of the stage after his set, selling cds, meeting fans and whatnot. after chatting for a moment or two, he signed my ticket as well as my newly acquired copy of "skittish." i definitely hope to see him again soon and encourage y'all to check him out. see him when he plays your town and/or check out the website.

ok, i've got stories in spades to share with you, boys and girls, but if i'm going to get any rest this evening/morning, i must away now. time to switch mediums, giving up the ease of the keyboard and screen for the good, old fashioned comfort of a paper and pen. ah ... much as i enjoy the whole blog thing, i still fail to understand why doogie howser just didn't buy a composition book. he didn't have the internet to post to back then - all he had was a nasty font and funny background music. oh, and vinnie popping in from time to time.

call me boring, but if it came down to one or the other - computer or notebook - i'd take the notebook just about every time. i prefer to think of it as comfortable.

traditional, if you will.

and with that, i return to my traditional ways and bid you sweet dreams. and congratulate you if you actually read this whole thing ... i think i just wrote my great american novel right there ...

friday five ...

1. do you watch sports? if so, which ones?
it depends. i've never been a huge fan of watching sports on television - i don't find it as stimulating to sit in front of the tv and cheer on a team unless we're talking about a damn big game. in which case, i'll watch and get into it or, depending on what the game is, i won't allow myself to watch for fear of jinxing it.

but if you're talking about watching sports when i'm actually at the game - most definitely. lately i've been attending high school football, but i'm not crazy about that. i'm a huge fan of going to just about any other sporting event - i love soccer, i'm down with basketball, baseball is great and i love love love going to hockey games. i go nuts - it's awesome.

2. what/who are your favorite sports teams and/or favorite athletes?
boston all the way, baby! my all-time favorite team out of any team in any sport is the red sox (that sounds so gramatically incorrect it pains me to write it, even thought it's properly written). i was trained to be a boston fan practically since i was in the womb. i love everything about the sox - i love fenway, i love how the city loves the team, i love the players, i love being able to love a team that's struggled to overcome the curse for eighty-five years. once someone affiliated with boston willingly leaves (i say willingly so as to not include my dear beloved shea - who i will say didn't handle his exit with the grace i expected), i will no longer cheer for them with half of my former gusto. once someone who was a red sox becomes a yankee, they're dead to me (example: my favorite player used to be wade boggs. i wouldn't want to meet him for the world now. and roger clemens is the embodiment of athletic evil.).

but i love all of the boston teams - i've been fortunate enough to see each of them at one point or another - all except the patriots, who aren't strictly affiliated with boston anyway. and, like i said, i'm not down with football.

3. are there any sports you hate?
have i mentioned that i'm not crazy about football?

4. have you ever been to a sports event?
*feeling ridiculously redundant* uh ... yeah.

5. do/did you play any sports (in school or other)? how long did you play?
sports always were/are very important to my family. i grew up playing something or another, something i thank my parents for today. i started playing baseball when i was ... hmm ... in second or third grade? maybe younger - can't recall. i switched to softball in fourth grade and played up through my first year of college. we won the state championship my senior year of high school.
i started playing team basketball in fifth grade and continued through high school.
soccer started when i was in sixth grade, but i didn't play during my first year of junior high. i picked it up again the following year and ran with it during high school. it was my favorite sport and i cried like a baby when my soccer career ended. i still miss it - i hope to join a rec team sometime.

forget american football - give me european football anyday.

it almost happened.

what is it that will prevent me from seeing mraz? i wondered this until approximately 7:30 this evening, when fate tried to intervene.

let me first say that today was The Shift From Hell. out of the four people originally scheduled to close, i was the only one - ONLY one - who wound up closing. add a whole bunch of unpleasantries and i was pretty much freaking out at any point i wasn't on the floor playing responsible manager girl.

after spilling something, i went to get a towel. on my return to the scene of the spillage (that's an amusing phrase), i passed mike, who was saying something to jean about the floors ...

WHOOSH - BAM. the whoosh was the sensation of flying as my quickly moving feet hit the wet floor. the bam was the sound of my body hitting the floor - knees first, slamming onto the tile.

it hurt like a bitch, not going to lie about that. but it was primarily the shock of falling and the opportunity to release all of the frustration in me that had been building up for the previous five and a half hours. i rested there for a moment, stunned, then rose shakily to my feet, walked out back and promptly burst into tears. it's a good thing jean (who had just mopped the floor - mike, it turns out, had been scolding her for yet another example of her mopping and THEN putting up a wet floor sign - he was saying "you realize someone could fall and get hurt" just as i hit the floor.) didn't come near me - i would have ripped her head off.

the running joke, how i would be prevented from going to tomorrow night's show (well, technically, since it's after midnight as i write this, TONIGHT's show), almost appeared to conclude with a vicious punchline. when i hit the ground, i was sure that i'd hurt myself - must have sprained my knee or broken something. so i wouldn't get to the show because of a fun-filled hospital trip the night before.

talking with paula in the back room afterwards, i laughed with her as i wiped the tears from my eyes as she told me that she was sure i had injured myself and wouldn't be able to get to the show.

"screw that," i replied. "at this point, i could be in traction and i'd still drag my broken self to the concert."

but i'm ok, albeit bruised and sore. i made it through my obstacle and came out fine on the other end - a sign that i'll be rocking out to mraz in no time. hurrah!

speaking of hurrah - I LOVE THE RED SOX! what a great surprise to come home to ... i only wish i could have seen jeter's face as we walked off the field victorious ...

this one was for johnny!

end of streaks and curses?

well, tomorrow is c day - as in concert goodness, northampton-style. beth and i have spent the past week speculating about what it will be to prevent me from seeing mraz live - it'll have to be something random, as the show is, well, tomorrow. but what do i know? i was at iota, ten or fifteen minutes from when they started selling tickets, when i left the first time i had a chance to see him ...

but i'm looking forward to it. i'm about to look up driving directions (i know how to get to northampton but have no clue as to where the venue is) before heading to work. just figured i'd leave a quick post, as i work tomorrow morning and then will be heading down for some relaxation/wandering time in northampton before the show. i have simple needs: i want to be able to explore, then find a coffeeshop where i can sit down with a cup of caffeinated goodness, my copy of "hitchiker's" and my journal. mmm ...

i believe the sox are playing tonight. the one advantage to my closing shift is that i will be unable to watch the game even if i wanted to.

therefore, i predict a win. i know i will be making my phone calls for updates - if anyone wishes to let me know how we're doing, call me at work - but not during the busy times of the shift, obviously.

i want a chicago/boston world series ... come on guys ...

the good, the bad and the ugly

the good news is that, should i get entirely frustrated, i have options. kind of.

the bad news is that i think i'm losing out on some of the so-called perks of being a freelancer.

the ugly was ct on "real world" tonight. oh goodness ...

so today is october 7 - a lovely tuesday, which means new music hit the shelves of music stores across the country. why would this be of particular note? am i that excited about the new ludacris album? well, obviously. ;-) but there's also the album by that howie day guy ...

having given "stop all the world now" the ultimate test drive - literally, as i traveled down route 4 this evening - i can say that i am extremely impressed. i'm really digging it ... while i don't think any studio release will be able to capture the essence of howie's live performance, at least this does howie the justice that "australia" does not, much as that particular album will always hold a nostalgic place in my heart.

a few particular notes:

- howie told the avalon audience that "numbness of sound" was his favorite track off the album. while it's not one of my favorite new songs, i do agree that it's a great studio track - very simple, very brooding (as howie put it, "it's a total kill yourself song") and one of those tracks i'd love to listen to with big old school headphones on, much like how i like to listen to jeff buckley's cover of "lilac wine." the lyric "asleep on a shoulder that i never met" is gorgeous.

- collide = good in the sentimental "aw shucks" or "this is the song i play to get laid" manner. which naturally means that i love it. the line "even the wrong words seem to rhyme" sticks out as one i particularly enjoy.

- the album version of "sunday morning song" does not do the song justice. i'm glad i heard it live first, as i fell in love with it. if i'd heard the studio version first, it would have been forgotten almost immediately. it's too simple a song for such a basic treatment - and the harmonies, particularly on the "yeah"s, give it a tinge of WB-theme song quality.

- i'm still surprised by how much i love "you & a promise." for whatever reason, i was convinced that it would be one of my least favorites. i was wrong.

- "brace yourself." i loved it when i heard the mp3 after last summer's free boston show, i loved it at avalon and i love it on the album. i think it serves as the transitional song from older howie to the new with-band sound, a role many would think would be reserved for ...

- "she says," which is the howie constant. on the blue ep, on "australia" and on "satwn." i like aspects of this version (primarily the little flourishes he adds at points late in the song), but overall disapprove of the faster tempo. this track also strays into WB land. but i'm also biased, as i don't think i'll ever hear a better version of it than when i stood right in front of him while he belted it out at paradise in june 2001. great version of the song and the first time i heard the "one" outro.
and, no matter what he does to the song, whenever i hear those first chords, i smile. those chords have been a part of me for over three years now - it's almost instinctual to feel good when i hear them.

- one of my absolute favorite tracks is "end of our days." love it love it love it. howie + simple romantic lyrics + piano = bliss.

- i like the lyrics of "come lay down." i hate the studio track. it's as if he was trying to channel sting, dmb and thom yorke all at once. while i love each of the previously mentioned artists individually, howie can't take the bits and pieces of each he particularly likes and jam them all together. but he tried, creating this out-of-india, hip "hi i'm trying something new" voyage of sound that, in my opinion, just makes him sound strange.

- symphony backing on several of the songs = sehr sehr gut.

- it was neat to see who he thanked in the linear notes ... amazing to see how many names i recognized (shows i've spent too much time over the years following his career) and which names weren't mentioned (there was a vague alusion to, but no specific mention of jaime ... who, by the way, was at the avalon show, i was pleased to note. i always heard great things about him and, while i never spoke with him directly, always seemed like a mad cool bloke.). he also gets a gold star for specifically mentioning and thanking all of the reps. good to remember them.

i could not stop grinning as i listened to the album. partly because i've been looking forward to it for so long, partly because i think he did an amazing job. mostly because i'm happy to finally have a full-length studio album that shows what he can do. and because it's great to see him growing up and achieving the success he's worked so hard for - it makes me feel as if its possible for me to do the same.

an apology.

if the red sox lose tonight, i claim full responsibility.

i promised myself and other die-hard sox fans that i would not watch the game tonight, as there appears to be a direct link between the outcome of the games and whether or not i watched any of them on television.

i saw (accidentally, i swear!) approximately .05 seconds of it earlier this evening. shortly thereafter, the damon collision (something i'm dreading the replays of on sportscenter but, much like a train wreck, i know i need to see with my own eyes) occurred.

i'm now sitting here, knowing i shouldn't watch - knowing if i do, the sox will lose. but i can't NOT watch at least a little. the suspense is killing me ...

i'm on my way to the television. stop me now!!!!

oh - by the way - howie day. "stop all the world now." comes out tomorrow. as in tuesday. as in buy it. i'm going to be looking forward to the opportunity to get home from work tomorrow and hopefully have my copy waiting for me (if the "arrive by or around october 7" turns into "around" - as in not tomorrow - i'm going to kick some sony online store arse ...).

ok, i know - shameless, horrible plug for an album i haven't even heard in its entirety yet. but i've heard the material and it's great!

'k. plug over.

buyitbuyitbuyit.

ok, done. i mean it this time. ;-)

*****editor's note: the author resisted the lure of the game, thus proving her dedication to killing the curse of the bambino. for that reason, she forced herself to watch an episode of "sex & the city" (thank god for hbo pacific) and is now dragging herself to bed. this is done for the sake of the entire red sox organization (well, that and the fact that i've got my lovely 4:25 a.m. wakeup call tomorrow morning - but if i thought - er, i meant, if she thought - the team could win while she watched the game, she'd defy common sense - and the threat of being dead to the world at work tomorrow - by watching the game ... *****

tis monday, which means ...

... that someone gets to experience live howie this evening. well, ok, a whole lot of someones, as 9:30 is a good-sized club. but i digress.

just wanted to say have fun and enjoy!

forget kevin bacon ... i've got my own degree game goin on

during a moment of silliness today, a few of us were discussing people we've met, playing our own "six degrees" games. i found some amusing things for myself:

technically, i'm two degrees from sirhan sirhan, as i met and shook the hand of george plimpton. this also makes me two degrees from robert kennedy, jfk, ali, etc. whole bunch of people.

i'm also two degrees from one of my favorite actresses during high school, that being kate winslet. i met and spoke with sydney pollack, who produced "sense & sensibility." this also makes me three degrees from leonardo dicaprio, one of my obsessions in high school. ;-)

two degrees stand between myself and everyone's favorite candidate for california governor (haha) - as i met eunice schriver.

there are others, but i can't think of them right now. twas a fun game to play.

oh yeah, and if i stretch it, i'm one degree from kevin bacon - as i took a voicemail from him one morning after he had called the office. it's definitely a stretch, but it amuses me nonetheless so i go with it, dammit.

... a bad case of the 'whatever happened to"s ...

after a ridiculously long, somewhat frustrating day at work, i arrived at home and promptly threw myself into a comfy chair to unwind and relax. looking around for my copy of "hitchiker's guide," i came across a couple of framed items i'd brought back from d.c. with me - my autographed averi glossy (which still makes me smile when i think of how excited all the guys were to be signing autographs at the sad cafe) and my actf/o'neill photos and nametags i'd made into a mini-collage.

staring at the photos of smiling faces from around the country, i instantly went back to the last night of actf - hearing daniel's name announced as the winner of the critics' competition and realizing he was nowhere to be found - finding him out on the terrace after the awards ceremony and giving him a huge hug of congratulations. following the pied piper of alcohol (xoxoxo for mark) to the brasserie at the watergate for the post-festival celebration, where we drank our libations and prided ourselves on being young, creative and inebriated. the photo i have framed was taken there - the group of us posing playfully, holding drinks and cigarettes aloft. daniel's drink caught the flash of the camera and glows in the frozen moment, held in his hand as he looks coquettishy at the camera, one leg up and in front of me. i'm holding it with a grin of my face, a long island iced tea in my hand (back in those days i drank like a champ), mark's arm around my shoulders, giving the camera the finger.

it was such a fun night - the end to an incredible week. looking back on it, realizing it was over a year and a half ago now, i am all too aware of how carefree and fun the experience was and miss it. the way all of us (well, ok, almost all of us) came together so quickly, forming a unit of critics, theater lovers and young lovers of life. meeting at the first get-together and heading to marshall's for snacks and drinks before the first performance. gathering in spencer's room after each show to drink, write, compare our turns of phrase (i still remember the laughter i earned as i sat cross-legged on spencer's bed in front of my laptop, holding a tall screwdriver in my hand, asking the room how one properly spelled dirge - "as in, like, a funeral dirge????"). leaving my room one morning to find a small cluster of tall flowers on the stoop - a gift from my drunk friends ("admirers" as they referred to themselves) the night before. sitting on the white marble surrounding one of the fountains, talking animatedly about plays, experiences, music and loves with daniel, sitting on the cold pavement outside the state plaza at 2:30 a.m. with rhiannon, lamenting writers block and eating delivery chinese while people passed by and laughed. running through the rain to pile far too many people into a cab to get from the kennedy center to our hotel (i actually made the trip sitting on laps and bumping my head against the car roof), where, upon arriving, daniel started playing gene kelley in "singin' in the rain." laughing with clint outside the shakespeare theater while my friends asked him all about aspects of the "romeo & juliet" production we'd seen. walking down to the gas station for supplies while discussing faulkner, whisky and our desires to get to the o'neill. sitting in an oversized purple leather chair, waiting for the person across the table to finish talking so i could offer my opinion, knowing he would counter my points and i'd futher debate ...

i want to know how everyone's doing. particularly my three favorite people - spencer, rhiannon and daniel. spence and i have kept in touch very periodically over the months - emails sent to each other every few months, shocking and surprising us. i'd hoped to catch rhiannon at the o'neill last summer, but she had already left when i arrived. i was able to spend about a half hour with daniel before he left to catch his train, which was grand - once he'd left, i found that he and mark had left me notes, as they hadn't expected to run into me. daniel's read: "vickie - do you like me? check one: yes. no. maybe. go vickie, u r awsum! you rawk. <3 daniel"

so incredibly appropriate.

so here i am, thinking back, wanting to connect again. i think i'll have to send out a few emails to addresses i hope are still periodically checked - see what i can come up with. i know it's somewhat random, but really taking a look at the photo made me realize it was worth the potential surprise on the other ends of the emails - these are not people i want to know strictly as faces in a photograph.

[[10 Bands You've Seen Live ]]
(i'm going with a random, crazy mix here - do not think i'm selecting my 10 favorite or anything)
1.. dave matthews band (1999, 2000. 2001)
2.. korn (1999)
3.. coldplay (2000)
4.. aerosmith (1993, 2000)
5.. new kids on the block (1989, 1990)
6.. live (1999, 2000)
7.. reel big fish (1998, 1999)
8.. edna's goldfish/step lively (1999)
9.. rancid (1998)
10.. cherry poppin' daddies (1998, 1999)

[[09 Things You're Looking Forward To]]
1.. breaking the mraz-less streak on thursday
2.. burlington
3.. paying my brother a proper visit
4.. the publication of the great american novel
5.. averi shows
6.. visiting friends in dc
7.. howie day's new album
8.. jason mraz's next album
9.. catching up with college cronies

[[08 Things You Wear Daily]]
1.. two rings - a comedy/tragendy mask ring on my right ring finger, a banded mood ring on my left middle finger.
2.. a necklace of some sort (generally either a small silver star or my irish knot pendant)
3.. now that it's getting colder, socks of some sort. :-(
4.. lip gloss of some kind - as i am, afterall, addicted
5.. underwear is rather essential, don't you think?
6.. glasses (at some point during the day)
7.. a pair of well-worn jeans (also at some point during the day)
8.. my quasi-messenger bag is on my person at some point during each day

[[07 Things That Annoy You]]
1.. people who see/want/crave drama (we're talking melodrama here)
2.. tickets sold to the public in a manner that the majority of the public can't take advantage of the opportunity (hi, union c.)
3.. day jobs
4.. cold, raw rain
5.. lack of communication
6.. bad editing
7.. not being able to remember details of specific memories

[[06 Things You Touch Every Day]]
1.. my computer keyboard
2.. my hair
3.. food
4.. my car keys
5.. a cup of coffee, whether iced or regular
6.. my cd player

[[05 People You'd Want to Spend More Time or Hang out With]]
1.. college friends
2.. paul
3.. my brother
4.. the staff of the f when i'm full-time
5.. jasonmraz. ;-)

[[04 Things You Do Every Day]]
1.. drive
2.. eat
3.. type
4.. laugh

[[03 Movies You Could Watch Over and Over]]
1.. yankee doodle dandy
2.. dead poet's society
3.. almost famous

[[02 Of Your Favorite Songs At This Moment]]
1.. galaxy - jason mraz (or jesus bobezus - hehehehe)
2.. sunday morning drive - howie day

[[01 Person You Could Spend the Rest of Your Life With]]
1.. i've gotta go with myself on this one right now.

storytime, kids ...

it's a basic fact that people are more inclined to speak out when they don't like what they hear, see or read. i figure i'll get some response to this one.

yesterday's dreariness, provided by cold, raw rain and an overall sense of blah (not helped by the fact that i spent most of the late afternoon and evening curled up in a little ball, sipping peppermint tea and feeling sick) has developed into a crisp autumn day, hopefully filled with better feelings and positivity.

i tried to catch mayer on SNL, but the state of general misery provided by my body forced me to curl up under my blankets around 11. grrr. i'll have to wait to see and laugh at it on reruns.

at least i can focus on the fact that i wouldn't have felt well at mraz's union college show. it apparently rocked ... i'm very much looking forward to thursday.

for some reason, my ftp client's giving me a hard time ... i can only download one hd2003-09-29 track at a time. this annoys me.

ok, time to prepare for work. bah.

... wouldn't it be a lovely headline: "life is beautiful" on the new york times ...

a packet of love letters:

dear rufus -
thank you for "want one" and reminding me tonight, of all nights, that it is capable to show sadness, melancholy and despair beautifully and full of life and passion.
thank you for getting better and releasing such a gorgeous album.
thank you for living now and not back in the '30s, the time for which a voice like yours was intended.
thank you for brass instruments, sweeping choruses and the fabulous rich use of harmony and minor keys.
thank you for writing "this album is dedicated to me."
thank you for the fairytale theme to your album art and making a fabulous vanquished (or, as i prefer to think, sleeping) launcelot.
thank you for "now upon a time ..."

dear staff and mangement of muddy's -
thank you for providing happy, relaxing moments of contentment, sipping java goodness from a hot paper cup while perusing employment and apartment classifides, giving me the opportunity to look forward to the near future with delight and anticipation.

dear john -
thank you for a huge smile, laugh of delight and a squeeze-me-tight-and-pick-me-up hug, one i have missed since graduation. thank you for the funniest phone number ever and the delight of having a chance to catch up soon. and thank you in advance for telling me all about pete yorn and rem (hint, hint).

dear rachel c. -
thank you for finally succuming to cancer so i could leave the show and go home.

dear random fellow traveler -
thank you for stopping your car and facing the rath of the long line of vehicles behind you so i could get back onto route 7 and head home.

dear howie -
thank you for "sunday morning drive."

dear jasonmraz -
thank you for continuing to make me laugh my arse off with "jesus bobezus" and the say anything game in "rand mcnally." and thank you for a reason to have a countdown to the end of The Streak.

dear deer -
thank you for showing that you possess the brains of your species by staying on the other side of the road and not attempting suicide by way of my car.

dear rush -
thank you for showing that karma does exist in the world by getting payback in spades for giving out my former boss' office phone number while i was still working there, thus leading to an overabundance of phone calls from irate republicans. take that, sucka ...

xoxoxoxox - vickie

a resurgence of sorts ...

i'm apparently making up for lost time in a number of respects.

i just took a look at my calendar to figure out what i have coming up and realized just how many concerts are on the vickie wishlist. to think, i've attended more shows in the past month or so than in the previous year - numerous times over. granted, a large number of them are for work, but still. i was looking at next weekend in particular ... thursday night is mraz in northampton, hopefully followed by doughty/jennings at higher ground friday night. two concerts this week (hd on monday, the singer-songwriter at the flynn tonight), plus guster last friday and the trooper/shindell show the night before that ... keep in mind that i am doing anything but complaining - this is bloody fantastic.

and i downloaded disc one of the two-disc set from the avalon show. i've been listening to it nonstop and have started returning to check out howieday.com and thehdtb ... it was never that i stopped listening to howie or anything, but i used to be completely up on the latest news and information. and then i just sort of ... didn't keep up, i guess. he was in the studio, i was going through the whole relocation process and whatnot - i mean, i saw him when he opened for tori (and the mhz studio taping after walking through the monsoon with beth), but other than that, i knew i loved his music, but i just didn't listen to it a hell of a lot anymore.

and now, here i am, looking forward to tuesday and the arrival of my copy of "stop all the world now," hoping he makes his way back to the northeast in december or early in the new year so i can see him perform again, after he and the band have polished things and kick it up another notch.

in other news, i'm going to have to make my way to burlington if i want to hit up pure pop before the show tonight ... i realized today that rufus' new album is out and immediately decided that i must have it. since i wasn't as fortunate as some to get to see him live (grrrrr ... heehee)!

oh - i was amused to see that john mayer's lack of photogenics continues ... as i saw one of the commercials for SNL yesterday and realized he still looks like a vampire. for those who haven't been able to meet him, let me assure you that he is ridiculously better-looking in person.

particularly when discussing the philosophical aspects of count chocula.
or singing "your body is a taco stand."
or discussing david gray.
or playing "babylon" during soundcheck, smiling when i realize it and blow him a kiss.
or when laughing while we rock out to the "quick game of chess with my salt and pepper shakers" line in "my stupid mouth."

god, i miss old john.

side note: anyone heard of owen beverly? i downloaded a couple of mp3s today and am really digging what i heard ...

alright, my car beckons. the night calls. the flynn awaits. and a muddy's iced coffee is unknowingly poised to be consumed latenight.

leave love, yo. - <3 vickie

disappointing friday five ...

but nevertheless, here goes.

1. what vehicle do you drive?
i drive red - a hunter green (don't ask) 1992 saturn sl1.

2. how long have you had it?
i've had it since the august before my senior year of college - we celebrated our two-year anniversary this summer.

3. what is the coolest feature on your vehicle?
well, it used to be surfer bob, but obviously we know that that's no longer the case ... so i will say that currently it would have to be my cd player. simply because i think i would go crazy without it providing the soundtrack to my revelrous (i think i might have just created a word - i'm having a moment) journeys.

4. what is the most annoying thing about your vehicle?
my blasted window. the driver side window has a little glitch in the belt (the windows are electric), so when i lower or raise it, it catches in a couple of different spots. it simply requires some delicate maneuvering (driving while tugging at the glass - those well-versed in riding in my car now know just when to assist me in getting the window up. bwahahaha - my unknowingly trained passengers. first the window, next world domination.
the window was going to be fixed as a christmas present the year i got the car, but i was given the cd player instead. i can certainly deal with the window if i have musical goodness pouring out of the speakers ...

5. if money were no object, what vehicle would you be driving right now?
i've always been a sucker for jeep cherokees. black jeep cherokee laredo, to be precise. but i'm also keen on rav 4s and i enjoy honda civics (the little funny-looking hatchback ones, that is). and i feel an obligation to own a volkswagen at some point in my lifetime. i need to drive a car that has VW prominantly displayed on front and back of it - who needs a vanity plate when i have a whole bloody car named after me?

boredom overtook me.

my apologies.

A - Act your age - despite how i appear, 22. actually, exactly one month away from the big 2-3. let the countdown begin.
B - Boyfriend - many. they just do not realize it yet. ;-)
C - Chore you hate - cleaning the shower
D - Dad's name - michael
E - Essential make up item - gloss/lipstick. dr. pepper lip smacker is da bomb.
F - Favorite actress - kate hudson and/or claire danes.
G - Gold or silver - good god, silver.
H - Hometown - proctor, vermont.
I - Instruments you play - trained in flute for eight years (fifth grade - end of high school). want to learn guitar but currently lack the time/tolerance.
J - Job title - managerial enforcer at the day job (otherwise known as "the bitch of the managers"), freelance writer at the night job.
K - Kids - i can't even spend a lot of time thinking about next week ... let alone terrifying concepts like children.
L - Living arrangements - hopefully changing. soon.
M - Mom's name - paula
N - Number of people you've slept with - let's pretend i'm a brazen hussy and say 97453
O - Overnight hospital stays - a young babe slept amidst the other newborns ... other than that, no overnight hospital stays to report. hospitals and i don't have much experience.
P - Phobia - bees/hornets.
Q - Quote you like - "oh, only left to myself, what a poet i would flay myself into." - sylvia plath
R - Religious affiliation - technically a non-practicing catholic, but i think we've established that i'm just going straight to hell to assume my responsibility of driving the shuttle bus down.
S - Sibling - one younger, 20-year-old brother.
T - Time you wake up? - lately, it's been far too early. my vampiric side weeps.
U - Unique habit - filling out lame quizzes/surveys. when i start to fall asleep at night, i must be facing the door. shortly before i fall asleep, i have to roll over away from the door. otherwise, i won't fall asleep.
V - Vegetable you refuse to eat - to be honest, i can't think of one.
W - Worst habit - a habit that will be kicked.
X - X-rays you've had - besides dental x-rays, none.
Y - Yummy food you make - my pasta salad is divine.
Z - Zodiac Sign - scorpio with gemini rising.


Have you ever ..
{x} Fallen for your best friend?: yes
{x} Been rejected?: yes
{x} Been in love?: yes
{x} Been in lust?: yes
{x} Used someone?: yep.
{x} Been used?: "i was used! hey, i was uuuuused!" - american pie. oh, yes, by the way.
{x} Cheated on someone?: despite differing opinions at the time, no.
{x} Been cheated on?: good god was i foolish.
{x} Done something you regret?: if i knew then what i know now, yadda yadda. that record's already been spun, it's gotten me here.

last person you
{x} You touched? a hug for miss elizabeth outside applebees.
{x} You talked to?: i'm carrying on a half-conversation with my mother as i type this.
{x} You hugged?: uh ... miss elizabeth ...
{x} You instant messaged?: my brother.
{x} You kissed?: as the great wooly mammoth lumbered across the plain ... i can't remember.
{x} You yelled at?: my mother.
{x} You laughed with?: see above.

Have you/are you/do you....
{x} Considered a life of crime?: ???????? duh, of course i have. hasn't everyone?
{x} Considered being a hooker? despite the potential of a julia robers/richard gere liason (or at least a quick romp with hugh grant), oddly enough, no.
{x} Are you psycho?: i am slowly going crazy ... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 switch ...
{x} Schizophrenic?: not that i'm aware of.
{x} Obsessive?: of course.
{x} Obsessive compulsive?: sometimes
{x} Anxiety?: frequently.
{x} Depressed?: happier now, thanks.
{x} Suicidal?: that's a big negative ghostrider.
{x} Obsessed with hate?: ???? can you be obsessed with hate? no thanks.
{x} Understanding: understanding of logical things, yes. but i do have a hard time understanding some of the crap people try explaining to me on a regular basis - as common sense and logic seem not to apply.
{x} Open-minded: i'd say so.
{x} Arrogant: alternately arrogant and incredibly insecure. balls of steel disappear into nothing at the blink of an eye.
{x} Insecure: oh whoops, answered it already.
{x} Hungry: i'm stuffed like a pre-thanksgiving turkey.
{x} Friendly: i believe so.
{x} Smart: i'm wicked smart.
{x} Moody: ok, i admit it. yes, i'm moody.
{x} Childish: of course - you have to be.
{x} Independent: don't oppress me, fucker. ;-)
{x} Hard working: if it's something i'm passionate about, i'll work it or myself to the bone. if it's something i'm not passionate about, i'll do it if i absolutely have to, but really, what's the point?
{x} Organized: hahahaha - creatively organized? note to self: clean my car/organize my life.
{x} Healthy: working on balancing out.
{x} Emotionally Stable: remarkably peppy as of late.
{x} Shy: extremely.
{x} Difficult: define "difficult" ... i'm actually pretty easygoing. but i'm also stubborn as hell and i do not forget.
{x} Attractive: it's hard to be attractive when one doesn't look a day over 18.
{x} Bored Easily: can be.
{x} Responsible: bwahahaha - i've fooled them all.

Currents
{x} Current Clothes: shorts and t-shirt for pjs.
{x} Current Taste: toothpaste
{x} Current Hair: disheveled
{x} Current Annoyance: union college being sold out.
{x} Current Smell: apple cinnamon tea.
{x} Current thing you ought to be doing: taking a shower so i can get my hair cut.
{x} Current Desktop Picture: mraz polaroid ("jasonmraz demonstration")
{x} Current Favorite Group: as in musical? group would be averi.
{x} Current Book: hitchiker's guide to the galaxy.
{x} Current DVD In Player: bend it like beckham. :-) finally.
{x} Current Refreshment: none.
{x} Current Worry: balancing out.
{x} Current Crush: howie day. again. ;-) and of course mraz.
{x} Current Favorite Celebrity: uh ... i miss george plimpton? in honor of his recent passing and the fact that he was a sweetheart when i met him at the office, i'll say him.

Favorite...
{x} Food: chipotle chicken fajita burrito. lament.
{x} Drink: iced coffee.
{x} Color: black/blue
{x} Shoes: adidas sambas/swinger shoes.
{x} Candy: sugar babies.
{x} Movie: there's no way i could chose one.
{x} Dance: the running man.
{x} Vegetable: broccoli.
{x} Fruit: apples.

On preferences...
{x} Chocolate milk or hot chocolate?: coffee, please.
{x} bk or mcdonals?: chipotle.
{x} Marry the perfect lover or the perfect friend?: i will now begin a policy of crossing out stupid questions.
{x} Sweet or sour?: depends.
{x} Root Beer or Dr. Pepper?: ew and ew. but yay for dr. pepper lip smacker.
{x} Sappy/action/comedy/horror?: and drama isn't listed why?
{x} Cool Ranch or Nacho Cheese?: hmm ... i like both. probably nacho cheese edging out cool ranch, though.
{x} Mud or Jell-O wrestling?:
{x} With or without ice-cubes?: oh with, please. i'd be lost in europe.
{x} Shine or rain?: shine, although i love warm rain. especially walking at night in the warm rain.
{x} Winter/Summer/Fall/Spring?: this is best time of the year right here.
{x} Vanilla or Chocolate?: vanilla.
{x} Eyes open or closed?:
{x} Fly or breathe under water?: fly.
{x} Bunk-bed or waterbed?: waterbed would be interesting to try.
{x} Chewing gum or hard candy?: i'm a gum addict.
{x} Motor boat or sailboat?: i've never been on a sailboat. i want to try.
{x} Lights on or off?:
{x} Chicken or fish?: *clucking* chicken.

What's your favorite:
{x} Number?: in descending order of preference: 13, 28, 9.
{x} Holiday?: halloween.
{x} Place?: a club or theater, just before the show takes place. empty stage, lights on. standing/sitting in the audience gazing at the stage, feeling the buzz of anticipation pulse through me.
oh, you meant geographically. burlington, boston. adams morgan on a saturday night. ;-) on a new england highway or byway in early autumn.
{x} Flower?: pretty ones.
{x} Scent?: vanilla, cinammon.
{x} If you could be anywhere, where would you be?: conducting an interview.
{x} What are you listening to?: nothing. waiting for hd's 9.29 show to download.
{x} Can you do anything freakish with your body?: it's the amazing shrinking girl ...
{x} Do you have a favorite animal: kangaroos and wallabys.