Thursday, June 28, 2007

I love a rainy night

The storm I've been waiting for finally broke. I couldn't resist going out in the rain to feel it and smell it. Everything feels so clean and so good. Now that the thunder and lightning have come, I just want to get in the car and go somewhere pretty to watch. I love the sound of rain beating down on the car and the way the air feels heavy and soft. I like walking barefoot in wet grass. I love the way my hair gets curly again. I've missed the feeling of damp t-shirts and wet hems of jeans. I hope it doesn't stop before I leave work.

wet pavement

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Fifteen years

I still have a few boxes around from my move last year and today I went through a couple of them. Why do I keep this stuff? I have a huge box of nothing but old notebooks and day planners from college. It appears that I once took very neat notes in tiny, tiny printing on chemistry and biology, complete with meticulous diagrams.

Also included in one of the boxes were the old journals I was thinking about a while ago. I've always been a list maker, though I tend to not be a list completer. One of the more interesting ones I found was an inventory of the shows I saw the summer of 1992 and may be incomplete. It's definitely not chronological. Here it is:
  1. Lollapalooza: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ministry, Ice Cube, Soundgarden, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Pearl Jam, Lush (Kitsap County Fairground, July 22)
  2. Endfest: Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, L-7, Sara Maclachlan, Charlatans UK, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Mudhoney, the Posies (Kitsap County Fairground, August 8)
  3. the Posies with Flop and Sky Cries Mary (Moore Theatre, June 26)
  4. Nirvana with Helmet (Seattle Center Coliseum, August 23)
  5. Morrissey with Gallon Drunk (Paramount Theatre)
  6. the Posies with Flop and Gnome (Moore Theatre)
  7. Drop in the Park: Pearl Jam with Cypress Hill and Seaweed (Magnuson Park, September 20)
  8. Sun 60 (OK Hotel)
  9. Hammerbox
  10. Treepeople
  11. Bumbershoot: They Might Be Giants, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Queen Latifah, many more (Seattle Center, Labor Day Weekend)
  12. Jr. Cadillac
  13. Violent Femmes (Paramount Theatre, April 8)
  14. Popllama Picnic: the Posies, the Fastbacks, Stumpy Joe, the Squirrels, the Picketts, Conrad Uno (Volunteer Park)
  15. the Cure with the Cranes (Seattle Center Coliseum, July 1)
Isn't it amazing what you can accomplish when you work part-time at an ice cream store and live at home? It was fun, but I wouldn't really want to be 18 again.

Friday, June 22, 2007

How I roll


Oh, hey, dirty red Pumas. I forgot I had you. The red shoes are just busting right out of my closet lately.

This week has flown by in a big, messy blur. How about some highlights and lowlights? Okay. (Aside: Dudes, I just had to add "okay" to my spell check dictionary. WTF? Are we not spelling things out in the age of lolspeak and l33tspeak?) Anyway, I'll let you decide for yourselves which of these are the highs and which are the lows.

I saw a movie in an actual theater. It was pretty good. I'm still mulling over how I feel about it.

Two days ago, I was walking to my car after work and in a v. good mood. I was wearing a dress and heels, and of course I was texting while rooting around in my bag for a lip gloss with the other hand. Not surprisingly, I caught my heel in a crack in the sidewalk and fell completely down. Now I have a scraped up knee and assorted bruises. Classic Kaijsa.

I made a mix CD this morning. It's pretty fabulous, in my expert opinion.

One workshop I led went really well, and I totally sucked in another.

I drank vast quantities of coffee this morning and could barely write legibly due to the shakes.

I've talked to/emailed with/texted with SJ several times this week, which is fabulous. I'm so happy we're in touch as much as we were when we were both in Sea-town.

A student totally busted me dancing in my office to "Standing in the Way of Control." I defy you to listen to the Gossip without doing same. Viva la PNW disco-punk!

Yesterday morning, some teenagers in a hydraulics-enhanced Chevelle hollered at me in my neighborhood, "hey mama, want a ride?" And while catcalling normally makes me cross, they were so friendly about it AND they were bouncing the car at the same time that it cracked me up. And it was a pretty rad car.

I have determined that the climate here is aging me. In defense, my water consumption is up to an all-time high. I've resorted to tap water at work. That's how serious I am.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

blather

One of my more obnoxious qualities is my tendency to run off at the mouth, especially when I'm a little nervous. My brain goes into overdrive, I can't keep to a single conversational thread, and I tend to interrupt the other person with stupid asides. It's embarrassing, especially in retrospect. I'd like to believe I'm a relatively intelligent and mannerly person, but you wouldn't think so if you've had a conversation with me lately.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

I have a problem



Why are red shoes so irresistible? I'm powerless to resist them. The picture on the far right is today's outfit. Those Biviels were on sale and I had to have them. There are at least two more pairs of red shoes in my closet that aren't represented above, but no sling-backs with a round toe. So you can see why I needed these.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

more stuff I want to do and see

It's another pretty day and I wish I were sitting outside, drinking a margarita. Instead, I got a cherry limeade from Sonic and drank it at my desk.

cherry limeaid
May I have a sip of your tasty beverage?

Summer also makes me want to go to a baseball game. I wish the Rockies were in the same league as the Mariners so I could see them play here. They're not playing over Labor Day weekend, but the Aquasocks have a homestand against Vancouver. I didn't really think about baseball when I gave up on television.

You know what else summer brings? Lots of awesome shows. I haven't been getting to things in Denver because everything falls on weeknights and/or I have no available partners-in-crime. Anybody want to go to Silversun Pickups on July 30 or this show on July 31? Or the crazy delicious combination of Band of Horses and Modest Mouse on August 1? Also, how crazy is this lineup: Ryan Adams, Devotchka, Jessie Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, Lucinda Williams, and Old 97's? Can we also talk about music festivals? Capitol Hill Block Party is probably out because I can't justify flying back to Seattle twice in one summer. I'm currently madly budgeting for Bumbershoot and Monolith, and now I find out about another awesome show! September is going to be bananas.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Summer songs

Does the weather affect your choice in music? I know I complain about the weather around here and moan about the lack of rain, but the sunshine really is pretty. A bonus is being able to bust out all my summer dresses and skirts. When it's lovely and summery, it seems I always reach for power pop. I was listening to Matthew Sweet yesterday and it occurred to me that his music, especially on Girlfriend always reminds me of Echo and the Bunnymen's Evergreen. You might think I'm crazy. It's the guitars.

Compare the title tracks of each for yourself:

Girlfriend (Matthew Sweet)
Evergreen (Echo and the Bunnymen)

Sunday, June 17, 2007

kill your television

Ever since I quit the cable entirely, I've been turning over my Netflix much faster. I thought about upping my plan so I'd never be without something. Then today, I discovered that my membership comes with an allottment of streaming video each month. Truth to tell, I don't really like watching on the computer. It makes me antsy, although I did enjoy being able to follow Veronica Mars to the end on the network website. So I tried the "watch now" feature, and tried out a couple of episodes of Coupling, which was kind of disappointing. I expected it to be funnier and not so...juvenile about sex. Whatever. The movies/shows I've watched this month have been mostly good: Vanity Fair, The History Boys, The Bourne Identity, Weeds (season 1), and Bright Young Things.

I thought I might spend some time outside now that the weather is so nice. The mosquitos have been terrorizing me, though. After a few hours drinking wine in a friend's backyard on two occasions this week, I have two dozen or so bites. Those suckers got me through my clothes and a fog of DEET. Maybe I'm tasty or something.

Another thing that keeps me from being outdoorsier is that I'm generally shod in impractical footware. So, no spur of the moment hikes or even long walks are really in the cards for me. It's not that I don't have any sensible shoes. It's just that they're hard to dress around because I don't do sporty well, even though I was once on actual sports teams and the whole nine yards. It seems so weird now. When contemplating a walk this afternoon, I looked at some walking shoes in my closet and grimaced, reaching instead for some teva flip-flops. I guess I'm going for incremental change. But my new silver wedge sandals are much, much cuter.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Travelin'

When I made my traveled states map back in October '05, it looked like this:



create your own visited states map

One of my previously unvisited states is WY, where I live now. Just living here brings me to CO often. I also took a road trip through MT and ID and on a seperate trip, went to UT. A conference took me to MD. Here's where I currently stand:



create your own visited states map

It looks like Nevada will remain a giant hole in the west for a while, unless I go to LOEX of the West next spring.

I'm planning a trip to New Mexico next month, so I probably should have waited on this. Guess I get to inflict this on you again, especially after Midwinter in PA and possibly a drive to NE this summer for some dorky crafy shopping.

Edit: it really annoys me that the east coast doesn't show up. Although, it is kind of funny that my blog seems to understand that west is best.

Almost summer

Sunset view from my yard
Sunset view from my front yard tonight, 9:19 p.m. MST

On her way to other western places, my friend M. and her dad J. drove through Laramie and stayed with me for a night. In the 15 months I've been here, I've been lucky to have my parents and my two best friends come to visit, and the weather was beautiful each time. Both my mom and sister-in-law helped me move during the winter, so they experienced the snow and cold. If they hadn't, I bet my loved ones would have already stopped listening to me or believing me when I complain about the weather here.

Anyway, it was fun to have guests over and especially fun to have these particular guests. They made it from Seattle to Laramie in 28 hours, which included a couple of hours in Yellowstone and the Tetons. That's pretty much awesome. I took them downtown for dinner then back home where J. crashed and M. and I had cocktails and caught up. In the morning, there was more gabbing and coffee and breakfast out, followed by a trip to my office and a bit of campus and a little driving around town. Finally, we picked up more coffee and my two guests departed for the next leg of their journey. My one regret is that I didn't take more pictures while they were here.

After they left, I realized how nice it was to actually talk to other human beings on the weekends. I'm so social at work that I tend to kind of retreat into my own personal cocoon when I'm off. In the city I had more motivation to go do and see stuff on the weekend, but I don't know what to do here. Perhaps now that summer is approaching, I'll actually leave the house and socialize. We'll see.

Iris
The irises live to die another day


Speaking of pictures and weather, I finally remembered to snap the flowers of the resurrection. This spring, I was surprised with the arrival of tulips, daffodils, and irises in my yard. I don't remember them last year, so either they were dormant, or elves planted bulbs last fall when I wasn't looking. Anything's possible, as my yard does magically mow itself on the weekends. Okay, I know my landlord mows it, but I've only actually seen him do it once. Anyway, these poor spring flowers just emerged a couple of weeks ago and then were brutally snowed and hailed upon. In true frontier spirit, they picked themselves up and dusted themselves off, though. I kept forgetting to take pictures and finally ended up going out there in the semi-dark this evening. You'll just have to imagine the daffodils and tulips because I wasn't going to traipse about the yard in my pyjamas for too long.