you'll thank me later
well now. i'm going to get some coffee in a minute but first i wanted to post a little update about my life. i'm finished with school for the summer and i'm happy. i changed my major to english shortly before the quarter ended; i feel much less conflicted about my life now, although i feel like the punchline of a garrison keillor joke. i've planned out all the classes i need to take in order to graduate, including my major, my honors program, and an intended minor in anthropology. i'll come out with some extra credits but whatever. i've gotten grades back from two of my three classes - both a's - i pretty much decided, when i went back to school for what god in heaven i hope will be the last time before i get a degree of *some* kind, that if i'm going to do this i'd better do it right and get a's. obviously if i take a class in which i completely suck, i will be fine with not having an a as long as i worked hard to figure out what's going on. if, for example, i manage to completely screw up my required course in logic, this will not be a tragedy. (by the way, symbolic or inductive - i can take either one - recommendations pls?)
the rest of my life lately has been about getting ready for colorado. i'm making the trip at the end of the month and it will be the event of the year. i've already doodled most of my packing list. i originally started doodling these lists out of boredom at a mall kiosk job, and then i discovered that this was a good way to figure out what clothing to wear. i can't keep it all in my head, so if i want to plan my outfits in advance, either i put it down on paper or i pull it all out of the closet and scratch my head for a bit. the former is a little easier to do at work lunch in the break room, which is not in my closet.
saturday night was great. katy and i shopped for new clothes (i have gone up a size and also should probably stop shopping in juniors before i turn thirty), then grabbed m and went to noble roman's for dinner before heading downtown for a concert at canal street tavern. the room is great - it's a bar, first off, but mostly a performance space. much of the seating comes in the form of church pews; more in the back is old wooden stadium seating from what must have been the old ballpark. there's a long bar mirror behind the stage and a woody guthrie poster off to the right. this place has got it, whatever it is.
the opener was erin mckeown, and she's the one we actually went to see. several of you know that erin's music and i go way back (right, chicky?), and her shows are even indirectly responsible for at least one relationship. she bounded out with lightsocket hair and a mechanic's shirt on and proceeded to completely charm the crowd with her readings on ohio industry and her audience participation. she asked for requests and i shouted out "dirt gardener," which totally wouldn't have worked at ALL (very long, quiet song, downer backstory) and i realized that as soon as i said it. so it was a good thing she said no, too hard, to that one. afterward, i grabbed a copy of her latest cd and waited to speak with her. one of the people in front of me produced a bunch of photos of herself and erin at various shows and offered to buy erin a drink, a little desperately. another one had just graduated from umass and got into a discussion with erin about the housing market in the pioneer valley. people kept butting in just as i was about to speak, and then i was in the way of the cd sales, and finally i just had to cross the aisle and squeeze in right next to erin. i'd forgotten how tiny she is. i was in wedges that gave me a few inches, granted, but i looked down to her and i'm only 5'1" in my stocking feet. she'd seen me waiting and addressed me as soon as the last person stopped talking.
"would you like me to sign your cd?" she asked. no no no, you don't have to, i said, and she smiled and relaxed a little. i told her i just wanted to say sorry about the dirt gardener thing, and she was animatedly apologetic, if that makes any sense, and said she'd hoped i hadn't taken it the wrong way, it's just a really tough one to play and maybe she'll get the right room someday, but she was afraid she'd lose them, and i said no problem, i totally understood. and she thanked me for coming and shook my hand. then, just as a parting shot, i mentioned that i used to go to fire & water back in the day. her whole face changed. her eyes grew huge and round. "oh my GOD," she said. "that was a long time ago!" her smile was different then when she thanked me for going to see her then and said she'd see me again soon. i offered my hand as a goodbye and we shook once more.
the main act came on. i'd never heard of johnny a, but i'd checked out clips on his website when i saw he was playing. he's strictly a guitar man, not a singer, and travels with a drummer and a bassist from the other side of hell. he was phenomenal. he played a number of originals but also several covers, including a whimsical rendition of a beatles tune and a terrifically unrecognizable, very jazzy "the wind cries mary." his cover of "texas flood" was a religious experience. the crowd whooped in a frenzy of amens. we couldn't stay for the whole thing, so we called the game at ten minutes to midnight, slipping out into the city.
the rest of my life lately has been about getting ready for colorado. i'm making the trip at the end of the month and it will be the event of the year. i've already doodled most of my packing list. i originally started doodling these lists out of boredom at a mall kiosk job, and then i discovered that this was a good way to figure out what clothing to wear. i can't keep it all in my head, so if i want to plan my outfits in advance, either i put it down on paper or i pull it all out of the closet and scratch my head for a bit. the former is a little easier to do at work lunch in the break room, which is not in my closet.
saturday night was great. katy and i shopped for new clothes (i have gone up a size and also should probably stop shopping in juniors before i turn thirty), then grabbed m and went to noble roman's for dinner before heading downtown for a concert at canal street tavern. the room is great - it's a bar, first off, but mostly a performance space. much of the seating comes in the form of church pews; more in the back is old wooden stadium seating from what must have been the old ballpark. there's a long bar mirror behind the stage and a woody guthrie poster off to the right. this place has got it, whatever it is.
the opener was erin mckeown, and she's the one we actually went to see. several of you know that erin's music and i go way back (right, chicky?), and her shows are even indirectly responsible for at least one relationship. she bounded out with lightsocket hair and a mechanic's shirt on and proceeded to completely charm the crowd with her readings on ohio industry and her audience participation. she asked for requests and i shouted out "dirt gardener," which totally wouldn't have worked at ALL (very long, quiet song, downer backstory) and i realized that as soon as i said it. so it was a good thing she said no, too hard, to that one. afterward, i grabbed a copy of her latest cd and waited to speak with her. one of the people in front of me produced a bunch of photos of herself and erin at various shows and offered to buy erin a drink, a little desperately. another one had just graduated from umass and got into a discussion with erin about the housing market in the pioneer valley. people kept butting in just as i was about to speak, and then i was in the way of the cd sales, and finally i just had to cross the aisle and squeeze in right next to erin. i'd forgotten how tiny she is. i was in wedges that gave me a few inches, granted, but i looked down to her and i'm only 5'1" in my stocking feet. she'd seen me waiting and addressed me as soon as the last person stopped talking.
"would you like me to sign your cd?" she asked. no no no, you don't have to, i said, and she smiled and relaxed a little. i told her i just wanted to say sorry about the dirt gardener thing, and she was animatedly apologetic, if that makes any sense, and said she'd hoped i hadn't taken it the wrong way, it's just a really tough one to play and maybe she'll get the right room someday, but she was afraid she'd lose them, and i said no problem, i totally understood. and she thanked me for coming and shook my hand. then, just as a parting shot, i mentioned that i used to go to fire & water back in the day. her whole face changed. her eyes grew huge and round. "oh my GOD," she said. "that was a long time ago!" her smile was different then when she thanked me for going to see her then and said she'd see me again soon. i offered my hand as a goodbye and we shook once more.
the main act came on. i'd never heard of johnny a, but i'd checked out clips on his website when i saw he was playing. he's strictly a guitar man, not a singer, and travels with a drummer and a bassist from the other side of hell. he was phenomenal. he played a number of originals but also several covers, including a whimsical rendition of a beatles tune and a terrifically unrecognizable, very jazzy "the wind cries mary." his cover of "texas flood" was a religious experience. the crowd whooped in a frenzy of amens. we couldn't stay for the whole thing, so we called the game at ten minutes to midnight, slipping out into the city.