beautiful, funny, sad & true

A couple of weeks ago, I made a passing reference to the fact that the BMW 2002 is my favorite car. Since then, this blog has gotten an incredible number of hits from people who are doing Google searches for “BMW 2002”. I mean, it makes sense, but if I’d known how many hits I’d get, I would’ve included that little tidbit a long time ago, along with others like music, sex, the Beatles, Japan, France, Ralph Nader, guitars, Oriental rugs, sushi, Mellotrons, Chamberlins, Haruki Murakami, Jon Brion, cuddling, This American Life, and countless other references to things that I’m interested in.

Who knew that such an innocuous reference would generate so much traffic?

Word to the wise, fellow bloggers. . .word to the wise.

This week has been a bit much.

Friday night was the marathon night; straight from work to Ratatouille, then to the Gypsy bar, then to the Flaming Lips listening party, then to the double-shot of gay bars.

Saturday was a big show–the second week of the Voices For Silent Disasters series–at the Mission Theater with both Susie (I played accordion) and Breanna (I played piano, believe it or not). Very fun.

Sunday was dinner with John, where the waiter thought we were a couple and told us to “keep taking care of each other.”

Monday was a well-deserved Crash and Do Laundry Day.

Tuesday was SarahC Night, which originally meant that she and I were going to see the movie “Darjeeling Limited”, but the theater didn’t take credit cards, which was all we had. So we ended up hanging out and talking at the Sapphire Hotel–where they gladly accept credit cards–for a few hours instead.

Wednesday was another of TossedIn’s play readings. The play this time was a not-for-the-faint-of-heart epic that was written by one of the members of the group. It was hilarious and over-the-top. The author had his head in his hands for much of the play, saying, “I’m sorry,” for the unimaginably X-rated language and situations involved. He even told us at one point about how his so-called friend had said, “Look buddy, I don’t think this play is really ready for reading, so I’m not going to make it to the reading tonight” and that he’d “see if I can give you some criticism that would help you out.” Isn’t that a horrible thing to say about a work-in-progress? Anyway, after that, T and I and a couple other people from the group went on a bit of a scavenger hunt. Apparently there’s a game that’s sweeping the world, and it involves using your GPS unit (assuming that you have a GPS unit) to find hidden trinkets and coins, and signing your name on a tiny paper scroll inside. It was a total blast. I still have one of the coins; I need to figure out what to do with it. Hopefully someone’s not going to show up on my doorstep with a GPS and start digging around my apartment building.

Last night was a Breanna gig. There were two other songwriters on the bill, and the show went from 9:00 until midnight. It was pretty grueling. Also, there were only about eight people in the audience for the entire show. Oh well; I’ve played for fewer people, and for far less attentive ones too. So it was a good show, but pretty exhausting. Thank gawd for cheap food and free drinks.

And that’s not even saying anything about work, which was extremely stressful this week, especially yesterday and today. It’s also not saying anything about the fact that J started seeing a new guy this week, which brought a heaviness to my heart because of the connection that she and I have, even despite (or maybe because of. . .?) everything we’ve been through, and as close as we still are. Incidentally, she’s had the same lump-in-the-throat feeling whenever I’ve met someone new, so it goes both ways. We both care about each other so much that it’s sometimes hard to believe that a romantic relationship between us would never work, but we both know it. The good news is that her new guy seems really great, and even from the little bit she’s told me about him, I give their relationship my full support. Can’t wait to meet him. But it’s still kinda bittersweet for me at the same time.

So after this crazy week, I really needed to do simple, relaxing stuff that’s good for me, and that I just enjoy doing. It’s the kind of night that if I was a girl, I’d rejuvenate myself by taking a bath and painting my toenails or something, but what does the trick for me is cooking. I always feel like I’m Taking Care of Myself if I make a nice dinner, because I love to cook, but I never take the time to do it anymore. So tonight I made this:

It’s pasta with Alfredo sauce, smoked salmon, green onions and whole peppercorns. I got the idea from a meal I had at a local restaurant, and then I added my own touches to it. I’m still trying to improve it but even so, it’s always excellent and super easy. Tonight was no exception.

So that was Part One for tonight. Part Two involves watching a DVD I just rented called Haibane Renmei, which was written by the same guy who wrote Serial Experiments: Lain, a very dark, strange, and beautiful anime series. It’s one of my favorites, and I’m very much looking forward to this newer one.

Well, this entry turned out to be quite the novel. I really appreciate you for sticking with it clear through to the end.

Today is Thursday, which means that it’s Donut Day at work. It’s a simple concept, if you’re not familiar with it. On a pre-determined day, donuts arrive at the office, as if by divine providence. When I first started working there, the donuts were late one day, and everyone was freaking out. I asked my friend, “What is up with this place? People freak out if the donuts are even a few minutes late.” Nowadays, I have to admit that I’m one of the restless natives. If I have to wait for my donut until the unacceptable hour of, say, nine o’clock, you’d better look out, because heads are gonna roll, et cetera. Thank gawd that didn’t happen today, but something else funny did happen.

There were a handful of people in the break room at the same time this morning, getting their donut fix. One was our head manager–who isn’t the most popular person in the place–and another was a really attractive woman in her mid-twenties. The manager saw the woman grabbing a donut and commented, “Hey [woman’s last name], I didn’t think you ate stuff like that,” because she’s really thin.

She replied curtly, “Yeah, well, they don’t do anything to me, so–” shrugged her shoulders, smiled a little, turned and walked out of the break room, ending the conversation. The manager stood and stared out the window with a funny, faraway look in his eyes, and I could see that he was daydreaming of the two of them sitting on a sofa somewhere, sharing a plate of donuts in front of the TV, then rolling over, putting the plate on the floor and settling in for another hand job.

Last night I went to another of Tossed In’s play readings. I have to be a little more secretive about this one, because it was comprised of plays that either haven’t been performed publicly before, or were works in progress that are still being written. But I think last night was my favorite night so far.

On my way over, I stopped at InexpensiveOrganicGroceryWhereHippiesShop. Just before I got out of the car, my friend Blaine called. He asked if I had time to talk. I said, ‘of course’, and we proceeded to talk for a few minutes until I went into the store. I bought what I needed and came back out, only to find that I’d left my keys in the locked car. Thpffft. So I called FamousInsuranceCompany and got their after-hours answering service. I told the girl I’d locked my keys in my car, so she started calling locksmiths in the greater Portland area. “Locksmiths?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said. “They can help get you a new key.”

“Did you already check for towing companies?”

“Oh. . .no, I didn’t. FamousInsuranceCompany doesn’t have any business partnerships with any towing companies, so you can use whichever one you want. You may have to pay a fee, though.” Grrrrr. So I gave her the name of one I had used before, and she found the number, saying, “Okay, they should be there in about thirty to sixty minutes.”

Ten minutes later, the guy showed up. He had my car open in about twenty seconds, took a look at my insurance card and found that I do indeed have roadside assistance, so this visit was free. “Oh yeah, FamousInsuranceCompany has a special deal with us; we do everything for them.”

“Really?” I asked. “That’s great! I was told that they don’t have any partnerships or anything, and that I’d have to pay you, and maybe I’d get reimbursed.”

He laughed. “Who the heck did you talk to?”

Long story short, it turned out to be really super easy, took a fraction of the time I was estimated, and didn’t even cost me anything. I was expecting to have to give the play reading a miss, but ended up going, just a half-hour late. And boy, was I glad I did. Besides the plays being great, Tossed In surprised me by bringing me a DVD full of Jon Brion music he’s been stockpiling. Some of it I already owned, but the majority of it was live recordings and home demos and all kinds of other cool stuff; a treasure trove, really.

Tonight may very well be Laundry Night. It was a little tricky finding clean things to wear this morning. I got up ridiculously late, but I still might have made it to work on time, except that I made the mistake of reading my e-mail first, and my friend had sent me a link to a hilarious video. Curses, FamousVideoSite! Why must you have everything imaginable?

I finally joined the frickin’ twenty-first century and signed up with OnlineDVDRentalCompany the other day, so I should be getting my first one today; “Who Killed The Electric Car?” The documentary section on there is gigantic. I’m very excited about that.

That’s a ten-four, good buddy. Put the hammer down.

Over and out.

Despite my melancholy-ness in the morning, yesterday and today were great.

In the afternoon, I recorded more accordion parts for the upcoming Susie Blue CD. We also tried some piano, glockenspiel, and acoustic guitar parts, but as usual, the unsung hero of the day was the Omnichord. That little thing has proven to be worth its weight in gold.

After I got home from the recording session, Joan and I went to see Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox, and it was amazing. We were surprised by the amount of sadness and pain their family has endured throughout the generations, including the current one. Fantastic story; much more about family dynamics and spiritual worldviews than about soap, definitely.

From there we went to Hama Sushi, where neither of us had been before, but turned out to be a hidden treasure. Their sushi was incredibly affordable, yet still very well-made and tasty at the same time.

After we’d had our fill of sushi, we went to Ikea. It wasn’t Joan’s first time there, but it was mine. She bought a small bag full of cool things for like $35, but somehow I ended up empty-handed. I was really only there to look, since I’ve bought so much new stuff for my apartment already. I was impressed by their use of space in their designs. Many of the pieces are meant to cram as much functionality as possible into as small a space as possible. Oh, and they also have frozen yogurt cones. :)

This morning was S & W’s wedding, which was beautiful, personal, and incredibly touching. My favorite part was where they had each guest drop a rock into a container while they poured salt over it, creating a container full of salt and stones, which symbolized the friends’ good wishes and hopes for their future. It was really beautiful. I dropped in the biggest stone I could find. Oh, and during the reception, guess who caught the garter? That’s right; good ol’ Mr. T.

Oh yeah; in case you didn’t know, my nickname is Mr. T.

The rest of the day I spent on apartment-related stuff. I found out last night that what I’d bought last week and had been using as an incredibly uncomfortable, heavy, small comforter actually turned out to be something called a ‘featherbed’ which is supposed to go UNDERNEATH the mattress pad, and make your bed softer and more padded than it was before. Sweet! As if it was possible to love my bed any more. So I put the featherbed where it belonged, and got an actual comforter.

In addition to that, I got rid of my old CD shelf (it went to someone else in my building) and a bunch of books and stuff are going to Goodwill tomorrow morning. I also put the little shelves I got from Alyssa in my bedroom, and rearranged my books and CD’s appropriately, which means that the living room is now even more opened up, and the bedroom no longer has books, CD’s, and instruments strewn all over the floor. Quite a successful day, I’d say.

Now I’m having a glass of wine and watching a nature show about macaws.

Can’t wait to try out my new-and-even-better-than-it-was-before bed. If you’ve been reading my blogs since the MySpace days, you already know how much I was in love with it, and that I’ve already raved about it at great length, but now it should be even softer and more amazing. I’m not sure how that’s possible, but I can tell you that a third–or for me, it’s probably more like a fourth–of my life just got that much better.

Even I am amazed at the amount of stuff I crammed into one day. Here’s what today consisted of:

1) got up at 8:00 and sold my oak bookcase (you know, the one that was in my living room), then helped the buyer load it into his truck

2) did three loads of laundry

3) washed the dishes

4) took out the trash and recycling

5) transferred the files I needed from my old computer onto my new computer

6) went to Fred Meyer and bought a dining table and chairs for the kitchen, and food for the trip to Cannon Beach tomorrow

7) assembled the table and almost finished one of the chairs

8) vacuumed the living room floor and did SpiderWebRemoval along the ceiling and corners with the vacuum throughout the entire apartment

9) swept the kitchen floor

10) disassembled the old table that was in my kitchen, and took it to the basement

11) disassembled the new table because it wouldn’t fit through the hallway to get to the kitchen (Grrrr!)

12) reassembled the new table in the kitchen

13) took a shower

14) loaded my instruments in the car and made the hour-long drive down to Salem for a two-hour gig with Breanna Paletta. It was a blast, by the way. I played cello mostly, but also accordion and a little bit of acoustic guitar. My favorite songs were the ones with Breanna singing and playing guitar, her friend Karli playing violin, and me playing cello. Seriously amazing combination.

15) drove the hour-long drive home and unpacked all the instruments from the car

16) wrote this blog entry

17) probably see who’s on Austin City Limits and have a glass of wine. Words cannot express how tired and sore I am right now.

18) go to bed and sleep like an effin’ baby