Bagels and good MARTA karma

It's rare that I have a really nice morning. I hate getting up and very rarely do I have time for any semblance of breakfast. But this morning seemed to be the exception. I got up on time (a rarity), found clothing to wear with no problem (it was even something cute), and was out the door in time stop into Belly for one of their awesome bagels and coffee. Then, as soon as I walked up to my bus stop (just across the street) the 45 drove right up and opened up the doors. It dropped me off at the Midtown station just as a Northbound train was pulling up, so I was able to get to work 20 minutes early. Did I mention how perfect the weather is, too?

Maybe I'm pushing my luck, but perhaps I'll ride down to North Avenue and go to the Varsity for "lunch".

It's not often that I'm not bitching about something or the other, so it's really great to be able to write about a nice morning. I've still got to get through two shows today, but I think it's shaping up to be a nice day.

Cheers!

The grizzly bear diaries.

I've been sitting here watching the grizzly bear diaries. Wow. I've heard about it, but never watched it. All I can say is, that guy was a dumbass. I know that I call many people dumbasses and douchebags here at Donutorama, but this dude is exceptional. Don't EVER go live with grizzly bears. For obvious reasons. He got ate up. That's what happens. He kept referring to the bears the way one would refer to a dog. They are not dogs, dammit, they are bears, and will eat you, which they did. As cute as the baby cubs are, there is a vicious mama bear right there who will surely devour you soon as look at you. It kind of reminds me of the time when we were kids and I suffered the greatest ass whipping I've ever suffered at the hands of my Mama. We were catching baby alligators. Trust me, not good.

Don't get me wrong. I love animals. I would never even consider dating someone who didn't have some kind of pet, because I believe that pet ownership is the true expression of one's character. I have two cats, was raised with dogs, cats, guinea pigs, even a baby possum once. But I respect them. My cats can claw the crap out of me (they don't, but could), hunting dogs stay outside in the pen, and when the possum grows up, it's time to let it go out at the farm. So I'm not the least bit interested in adopting a baby alligator, much less living with bears.

On a brighter note, a few months ago I acquired an awesome pair of old skool shell top Adidas with grrly pink stripes. I've been wearing them fairly regularly (cuz they're AWESOME) and they had gotten fairly worn looking. Being the genius that I am, I threw them in the washing machine tonight. Now they look almost as good as new. I am happy.

There's my boring ass update. It's late, and I don't really feel like wrapping this up in a civilized way. I'm off like an 80's prom dress.

Where can I get one of these kittehs?

more animals

Kind of looks a bit like my Lulu. If you look closely, it appears that the victim has dirty ears. Eww..

I don't have gas..

I stopped by the Standard Oil (in)convenience store on my way home from the big house tonight and there was no gas. There was, however, a hippie pontificating on how the lack of gasoline was just mother earth issuing her own correction for our inability to go green. I got into my v8 and drove away.

I'm not sure about Buddy's. Maybe they have gas and don't have hippies.

It was enough to keep me away from the NRPS show tonight.

Nuff said.

Once again..

....I couldn't resist.

Now that I'm getting back to my regular "show call" schedule, I'm a much happier donut. That meant that I was off yesterday. It's really nice to be off on the day when most people are just starting their work weeks. That way, I can get things done that would otherwise take me a long time to get done or would have to take time off work to do. The big thing yesterday was getting a new car tag and I was dreading it with a capital D. I can't think of a more unpleasant way to spend a day off, in a government office in a long line, waiting to talk to a government employee who can't WAIT to actively NOT help you.

I was pleasantly surprised.

The Fulton County Tax and Tag office was surprisingly easy to find (Thanks J!), the line amazingly short, and everyone I dealt with was incredibly pleasant. It was like bizarro Tag office. Twenty minutes and twenty dollars later, I walked out with a new Fulton County tag. Yay Fulton County! Right now, I totally heart you.

I spent the rest of my day enjoying the sunshine, had a nice lunch at Marco's Pita with awesome company, took a walk, had a few cocktails and watched a movie. The Kite Runner, to be exact, and it is definitely a must see. Beautiful cinematography, some of which was actually filmed in Kabul. Just the kind of flick to feed my obsession with central Asia. I even got to sleep in a little this morning, since rehearsal wasn't until 4pm. My kind of time off.

I think I'm going to try to catch a few shows this week, even if they are kind of hippie shows. New Riders of the Purple Sage are at Smith's tonight, and Blueground Undergrass are there on Thursday. Should be some decent shows.

Fashion question of the day: Is it too late in the year to wear jelly shoes? Because I TOTALLY wore mine today.

Let's not panic

Around the Big House today, much of the talk has been about gasoline, or the lack thereof. It seems that numerous people have been having trouble finding filling stations that have any, escalating to the point that some people have been changing plans due to the fact that their cars won't go with out it. I realize that the more we all collectively talk about it, the more the panic increases, just exacerbating the situation. In fact, I recently yelled at T-Baby for releasing her employees so that they could "go out and get gas before it's all gone".

For the most part, I ride MARTA. It's cheap, convenient (for where I live), easy, and usually entertaining. I will say that I've certainly noticed increased ridership lately, and that's a good thing. Kate over at Indignity, Thy Name is MARTA had a great post recently about seeing a girl do the "MARTA walk of shame". I suspect we'll be seeing more of that sort of thing.

Good thing I didn't buy that V-8, 5.7l....oh...wait....

What the hell is wrong with me?

So I've been having these massive, mind numbing headaches lately, and instead of taking my sorry ass to the doctor, I've decided that WebMD is the best place to find out what's wrong with me. Ever seen this thing? You just click on the part of the body that feels bad, click on a description of the symptom, and the cyber-doc spits out possible diagnoses. Awesome! I'll never have to wait in a waiting room, reading issues of Golfer Weekly from 1986 again! Except that the my doc in a laptop isn't really all that specific. According to Web MD, I could be suffering from, and I quote, cluster headaches, insomnia, anemia, methamphetamine withdrawal, too much caffeine, schizophrenia, or an aneurysm. Great. That really narrows it down for me. And makes me feel so much better. I think I'll just go take some more Advil, follow it with a cup of bad coffee, and hope it keeps my potential schizophrenia at bay.


Well kids, one more show then a blessed day day off! Sunday IS the new Friday.

Exceptional douche-baggery

So I stopped into Smith's Olde Bar tonight because it was "Americana" night of the Atlantis music festival. If you know me, you know I love Americana and am a devotee of local music so it seemed perfect. I wasn't there long, but I did get to hear one great band, Missy Gossip and the Secret Keepers. I think they're probably keepers..hehehe..yeah, I'm punny. Sorry I missed the Beggar's Guild, love those guys, but they were on at 10.30 and I was still at the theater factory.

While I think the Atlantis Music Conference is a great thing, giving local and regional band priority in the "good" rooms, there was a bizarre phenomenon I witnessed tonight. EVERYONE was wearing a douch-ey lanyard with an AMC lammie. DUDE! Seriously. It should have been called the Middle Georgia Douchebag Conference. If you are wearing a lanyard at a club gig, you MIGHT be douchebag. Keep the lammie in your pocket and use it for entrance to the events. I think it's great that we has this music festival that goes out of its way to make local musicians feel like rock stars, but just damn. It would be a good thing to know the guys who actually do the work find that the lanyards get in the way of DOING THEIR WORK. Where I work (a MAJOR venue) I am required to have my laminated, RF chip embedded badge on me at all times. But you won't find me wearing it on a lanyard. I did that for tooooo long (yep, I'm guilty of douchebaggery in my past, but never in an f'in BAR) and that shit just gets in my way. You know, what with the falling over my shoulder, etc, getting caught up in the electrical tie in...If you simply must wear it all the time, get thyself one of those little clippy do-dads (I have one!) and clip to your belt loop or the hem of your shirt. If I wasn't required to display it at all times, I'd put the damn thing in my pocket, except that I really need the little RF chip to work so that I can actually enter the building.

Don't get me wrong, kids. I have an entire collections of lanyards and lammies and I keep them hanging in my kitchen as an "interesting item". I've got 'em from v-Dosc, D&B Acoustics, Meyer Sound, Midas, Blue Collar TV, Big Night Out, Turner Studios (actually, that's the ONLY place I wear it because I can't get into craft services without it), Gospel Music Network, and numerous swag festivals that never amounted to a tumbleweed of cat hair. But I just keep those because my mom thinks they're cool.

And just so you know, you indie kids out there, a lanyard REALLY interferes with the visual impact of your ironic t-shit, I mean t-shirt.

I'll leave you guys with this one...How many indie rock kids from Athens, GA does it take to change a lightbulb? What! You don't know!

Love, peace and lotsa hair grease.

It's the most wonderful time of the year..

Yep, boys and grrls, it's that time again. Talk Like a Pirate Day! That will certainly cheer me up, thinking about all the scurvy bilge rats that I will make swab the deck and walk the plank.

So break out the rum and the jolly roger and enjoy!

Someone should let my uncle know

I couldn't help myself

more animals

Fuck the poice..wait, what?

see

Obviously we haven't adopted "No Cop Left Behind" here in Atlanta.

U R DOIN IT RONG

see

I saw it on Ponce, I swear.

So yesterday I was cruising over to ye olde liquor store (yes, I'm fully aware that it was 4.30 on a Thursday, but hey! A girl's got deadlines here!) and damn near crashed my car. This is because at the corner of Ponce and Ponce Place, there was a white dude wearing an afro wig, Magnum P.I. sunglasses, a pair of blue Speedos, and roller skates. That is an image that will forever be burned in my mind. I wish to hell I'd had the presence of mind to snap a picture, even if it was just with my phone. But I was simply too busy staring in amazement and wonder. I swear to God, every day is frickin' Halloween in my neighborhood.

On another, somewhat related note, Shannie over at Where is My Freakin' Mind wanted to know if 8am is too early to start drinking. I told her no, she has two kids. She should be constantly drunk.

I seem to have taken sorry...

...my blog posts haven't been very creative lately. I guess I've been a little stagnant, which is a little ironic since I've been invited to join a local writer's guild. Perhaps these other women can enlighten me as to how to be funny when I feel incredibly unfunny.

Just got the new Chris Knight CD, Enough Rope. Definitely worth a listen, especially "Don't go Lookin for Trouble" and that other song about being on the road. Many of us have been there, and I wouldn't go back to that for the world or all the money in it. I gotta say "Cry Lonely" was pretty pertinent to my life 9 months ago.

Looking back as to the past 12 months, I would say that I've made some fairly good progress. I'm done with the deadwood that dragging me down for so long, but I will say that I've been so ADD at work that I'm having a hard time accomplishing anything. I had to put off programming my console today because I just simply couldn't focus. I'm pretty fortunate in that I have the luxury of postponing those kinds of tasks.

BTW, the Chris Knight shows at Smith's Olde Bar this past weekend were pretty stellar. Friday night left a little to be desired, lacking in energy, but the delivery was still there. Saturday night was filled with 1k and 4k feeding in the vox monitor, but the energy was there, and a much better show. I'm sure Billy got his share of text messages telling him what the problem was....ooohhh poor Billy, or Cosmo as we like to call him. Oh to be 21 and mixing in a rock venue again...and a good venue at that..with other engineers who protect you...

Peace out.

As you can see...

..I'm working VERY HARD today...

more music charts

My new clear com system

see more pwn and owned pictures

Parent of the year.

see more pwn and owned pictures

Trying something different.

I'm trying to claim this blog on Technorati and having some difficult logging in with OpenID, so I'm trying to execute my claim by publishing the code here.

Technorati Profile

On Republicans and fisher(wo)men

First off, I never created this blog to discuss politics. Myself, I believe that Americans take politics incredibly too personally. I have never dissolved a friendship because of opposing politics, but I know people who have. I hate hearing the personal attacks hurled at Republican/Democratic/Libertarian/Communist/Socialist/Catfishitarian candidates from the lunch tables of my workplace. I believe that if one is going to debate (notice I did not use the word "argue") politics, then the statements should be based in fact and reality, not speculation or personal feelings. Statements like "he's just evil" have no place in a rational marketplace of ideas. But we all seem to have a hard time staying away from those sort of things, so I tend to stay out of it.

But I would like just to say one thing. I REALLY REALLY wanted to like Sarah Palin. She was an unknown to me. I mean, I knew that Alaska had a governor, I just wasn't familiar with who it actually was. Come on, kids. It's Alaska. Who cares? Just wasn't on my radar. But when I found out a little more about her, I was intrigued. A maverick leader who ran on a ticket out to defeat corruption sounded okay by me. A hunter and fisherman, well, I could relate to that, having grown up in a culture of hunting and fishing (and not in a quaint, recreational way, nor a redneck, possum eating kind of way, either). I imagined a hippie libertarian with bold new ideas. Someone rather new to the political arena who might not have been brainwashed enough to just nod and smile and keep her mouth shut.

But I just can't like her. And not because her vetting has developed the appearance of a Saturday Night Live skit. That part, I actually love, proving that even politicians are human and that I have a depraved sense of humor. But because SHE seems so devoid of a sense of humor and greatly lacking in any good sense.

My $.02, for what it's worth.

Flame away. I'm sure I've got it coming.

For Joe

I found out this morning that my old friend Joe died on Saturday morning. He was 35, and I've known him since 1990, when I was a freshman at Wesleyan. One of the funniest people I've ever known, Joe was the inventor of "tie dancing", which he performed with utter perfection at every Wesleyan date event from 1990 until 1994. He also drove a car that had the most, um, interesting interior I've ever seen. And by interesting interior,I mean that on any given day, in the backseat was a couple or three half empty Dominoes pizza boxes (he worked as a pizza guy all through school), some Co-cola cans (half empty as well), and often dirty underwear and socks. His girlfriend at the time (still my best friend) would often refuse to ride in the Escort, preferring my truck or her Mitsubishi to The Rolling Trashcan.

Joe's idea of a joke was wearing a Green Bay Packers hat backwards. We're still not really sure what it meant, but was exceedingly funny at the time. I called him Toe Sucker and he called me his little Toe Ho. I think I still have emails in my inbox that contain nothing but the text "Did you get a pedicure this week?"

Good bye my little Toe Sucker. You will be missed.