beautiful, funny, sad & true

Today I nonchalantly sent what may have been the best text message ever.

“What do you mean?  I mean, I KNOW what you mean, but what do you MEAN?”

I was tempted to explain the context, and the conversation we were having, but I actually think it’s much more effective if I just leave it hanging there, undefined, on its own merit.

Was today frickin’ Christmas and nobody told me?  I got so many random gifts, it was absolutely unreal.

At work, my friend LC sent me an e-mail that said, “Are you here?” and then showed up with a bag full of CD cases.  There must have been twenty-five or thirty cases, and in each case was three CD’s!  I mean. . .oh my GOD that’s a lot of CD’s.  And best of all?  They’re all 80’s metal.  (Except for maybe a handful, like the New York Dolls and At The Drive In.  But otherwise. . .)  Seriously.  I was shaking, I was so excited to start listening to them.  After listening to the inauguration speech and a little bit of the commentary, I got through two Dio’s, a Mötley Crüe, and At The Drive In.

So then I called my mom while I was on my lunch break, and she happened to be over at her friend’s house.  This friend is my adopted aunt, by the way, who recently tracked us down on the net after we’d all been out of contact for almost thirty years.  Turns out that she lives about two blocks from my mom, so she wrote to my mom a few weeks ago and they’ve been reconnecting and spending incredible amounts of time together, which is mind-boggling and also makes perfect sense at the same time.  Naturally, my mom passed the phone to her, so I got to talk to her too.  In fact, here’s a picture of us together, which was taken when I was about a year old.

It was. . .I mean, I was practically speechless by then.

But there’s more.  My friend VL-W sent me a message which said, “Come in and see me when you can.  I have something for you.”  We were super busy, so it took me about an hour and a half, but when I was finally able to make it in there, I found that she had a super-cool black bowler hat waiting for me, which was the same one she let me borrow the other night at the IrishBand show.  She said that I could borrow it until I got one, but then wrote back right afterwards to say, “You know what?  I always think I look like a dyke in that hat, and you totally rock it.  It’s yours.”  Again. . .oh my GOD.

So I got home and there were two copies of the new Susie Blue CD waiting on my doorstep for me.  I’m in her band, and on this CD, which looks great and sounds great.  The other copy is for GuitaristDavid, my neighbor and friend, who also played on the CD.

Oh yeah.  The Susie Blue CD’s were resting on top of a box from my mom, which I didn’t even know that she’d mailed!  It  was full of new towels and kitchen stuff that she just randomly got just because she’s nice that way.

So. . .between the 75 new 80’s metal CD’s, the Susie Blue CD that I’m on, the hat, the box of housewares, the fact that Barack Obama is president now, AND I have an IrishBand show-slash-Obama-celebration tonight which is gonna frickin’ RULE. . . could today be any better?

I suppose that if I didn’t have to work (and work overtime at that) it would’ve been better.  But then again, if I hadn’t gone to work, I wouldn’t have the 75 CD’s or the hat.  So there you go.  Pretty damn good day, if I do say so myself, and it ain’t even close to being over yet.

When I was younger, I used to have this unstoppable urge to correct peoples’ grammar.  Thankfully, that impulse seems to have dissipated as I’ve gotten older, but I found out yesterday that it’s not entirely gone.

I walked over to FamousCoffeeCompany for a bit of the old you-know-what, and I was wearing my dark brown corduroy jacket.  The barista commented on it, saying that she loved it and that it was very teacher-esque.  My first thought was, “I think you mean ‘profesorial,’ ” and if this encounter had happened when I was twenty, I’m quite sure that’s what would have come flying out of my mouth.  With age comes dementia wisdom, however, so I said, “Thank you.”  Smile.  “Yeah, it even has patches on the elbows.” I raised an arm in front of me to show her.

“Nice,” she said, smiling back.  “Well, it looks great.”

I’m learning.  Slowly but surely, I’m learning.  Flirtation is much better than pedantry.  Or should that have been ‘pedanticism’?

After over a year of the black template, it was time for a change around here.

I finally stumbled across a new template that I liked, after much searching.  I don’t like everything about it (specifically some of the fonts; I’m trying to figure out how to change them) and I had to change the header to keep it from changing away from the color bar to other images.  The original also has a biplane, a night sky, and a Japanese rising sun, all of which have exactly nothing to do with this blog, so they’re gone now.

Nice to see a brighter, happier version of BFST, I have to admit.  I loved the old design, but in these dark times I wanted something a bit more cheerful.  Just one more example of my ‘Out With Crappy Old 2008, Cause Here Comes 2009!’ ethos.

I also took the opportunity to check in on Twitter and see if they’ve made any changes too.  Turns out they have, as you may have noticed.  I went for the Flash version this time.  Let me know if you have difficulty seeing it.  Actually, y’know what?  I take that back.  Just go download a newer version of Flash, would you?  Sheesh.

I volunteered to go in to work for a couple of hours of overtime this afternoon, which I almost never do.  Some people live to work, and others work to live.  I’m definitely in the latter category, but this time I thought a couple hours here and there would be a good idea to improve my reputation around the office a little.

Came across a new blog today, thanks to Twitter, that I really enjoy.  It’s called the list of now, and I’m adding it to my blogroll, but I also wanted to share it with you publicly and give her a little ‘shout out’ or whatever the kids these days are calling them.

OneYearAgo

Incidentally, I just realized that BFST has been around long enough that I can start doing TwoYearsAgo now.  Cool.

Riding my bike home from work at night:  check.
Riding without lights of any kind:  check.
Riding without a helmet:  check.
Riding home at night, without lights or helmet, while wearing a black hoodie:  check.
Riding home at night, no lights or helmet, with said black hoodie, carrying a bag of groceries:  check.

Yup, I’m officially an idiot.

In other news, IrishBand is doing a write-in interview for MessengerGodAlternativeNewspaper.  I need to somehow get enough energy tonight to whip up some compelling, insightful, and hopefully witty and intelligent answers to their questions, many of which are political in nature, rather than just musical, so they’re not ones I can just answer automatically.

First of all, dinner.  I’m going to attempt stuffed bell peppers, but I only have energy for chips and salsa.  Perhaps some chips and salsa while I’m making the stuffed peppers.  Hmmm. . .I like the sound of that.