godream

So remind me, why can't we all just get along again? There's so much passive-aggressive nastiness floating around that it's more of a problem than the stuff we're all getting worked up about. If life were a movie, this would be about where something terrible and horrible happens and we're all forced to band together and resolve our differences in order to get over it. Here, catastrophe catastrophe catastrophe...

My first assignment for 21w.772 didn't suck nearly as much as I think it did, I'm told. This makes me extremely happy.

I'm still winning the battle against homework, I think.

I donated blood today, which wasn't nearly as scary as I was worried it would be.

This weekend is going to be awesome.

And I feel like (knock on wood) the current tally of things I'm happy about is greater that the tally of things I'm regretful or resentful about, so today goes firmly in the success column. :)

My loft is finally together! (With much, much, much help from beat_the_beaver and other friendly hall denizens.) It's a tiiiiny bit taller than EC regulations say it should be, but hopefully I'll get away with it. I forgot how much I love bunk beds -- maybe it's just the association with home, but I really like sleeping, reading, tooling, whatever, while way high up. And I now have lots more floor space too, which is really nice.

Plus, it looks like my stepsister is going to be un-grounded and able to visit after all this weekend, so there will be baking of Pie. Probably at least three, thus the capital letter. In fact, if you're reading this, you enjoy delicious fruit pie, and you're going to be around EC Saturday afternoon, leave me a comment and I'll try to remember to drop you an e-mail when it comes out of the oven -- I'm going home Sunday afternoon sometime and I'd feel better if it were eaten before then so I can put away the dishes, which may require more help than will be available on 4e alone. (Although most of the people who fall in those categories and will be reading this are already on summersalt so you'll get the e-mail whether you want it or not.)

Three more days left at work -- weird how fast perception changes from "this summer just keeps going" to "whoa, what do you mean school starts back up in three weeks?"

Yesterday morning it was proven to me that canned cream of mushroom soup (unlike canned spaghetti) can be eaten at least two months after the printed expiration date. Go figure.

I'm thinking I'm going to bake cookies tonight, and they're going to be everything-that-I-have-kicking-around kind of cookies. Currently debating if I can get away with loads of chocolate and cinnamon in the same cookie -- it sounds like a good idea to me. Anyone with brilliant recipes, feel free to share...

Carbon Leaf was pretty awesome, in spite of arriving too late to hear What About Everything, my favoritest song. (I cried. On the inside. In my bitter, angry heart.) The band's performance was interesting to watch in a couple of ways: for one, I've gotten used to watching lead singers who also play an instrument at the same time, generally guitar, and Carbon Leaf's lead singer whose name I can't be bothered to look up doesn't do that (though he did kick out the harmonica and a wind instrument I wasn't close enough to identify -- maybe electronic?) and by contrast with what I'm accustomed to, the just standing in front of the mike looked a little odd. Which of course says more about my concert habits than the band itself. :P The bassist had an interesting acoustic bass -- oddly proportioned, like an anorexic cello, but I think it was some sort of upright bass. And although the banter left something to be desired (that other city in Massachusetts is pronounced wusstah, not wor-ces-ter, and it got less funny every time, and there was a whole bunch of dead time to fill 'cause the humidity and temperature were all over the place -- if you don't like the weather in MA, wait a minute -- and kept messing with the instruments' tuning) the music was fantastic, which is really what it's all about anyways. I thought one of the guitarists in particular was really incredible, but the whole band was awesome and made me extremely happy.

One more week left at work, then maybe I'll go home for a week or so, then back here probably just as the huge wave of incoming frosh show up. Which I'm actually really looking forwards to -- it'll be weird for us not to be the frosh anymore, but it should be fun. And people will be coming back from their various summer things, and it will be Good, 'cause I miss everyone. I'm looking forwards to the school year starting (although also panicking a bit, 'cause omigod suddenly it's so soon.)

Okay, so an informal poll has concluded that nobody actually gets what terms such as "date" mean. And both girls and guys are always complaining about how completely bewildering the opposite sex is. So here's the solution.

( Elementary, my dear Watson! )

Copley Square concerts could very easily become a new habit. Saw half of Maia Sharp's set (really good) and all of Mike Doughty's (fantastic) yesterday... the concerts are nestled in this grassy area, a little crowded but not too bad -- I was close enough to the stage to watch guitar fingerings (with the side effect that my left ear will never be the same), and it was an absolutely beautiful day, and really nice on the whole.

Then off to hear Speakeasy at the Middle East -- as usual the sound setup there made me a little sad; the upstairs room is not a huge space and I imagine there's only so much you can do (and the sound tech was definitely walking around the room and listening and balancing actively the whole time) but it seems like the solution they use every time (the only solution, probably) is to up the volume on everything until it can compete with the drums, which imho ends up just being way too much for the room and hurts the band's sound. Last time I saw Speakeasy there one of the things that set them above the just-okay bands was their use of varying dynamics; they didn't seem to do that quite so much this time, but were still good, especially the second half of their set.

Shakespeare on the Common on Wednesday was pretty good too -- I was sort of disappointed that they reserved a whole lot of space in front of the stage for sponsors of the performance, most of which wasn't even filled up, so we couldn't get all that close to the stage. :/ But they did a good job -- ( I'm cutting half a sentence here because it's hilarious and if you plan to see this I don't want to ruin the surprise ) -- and it must be tough logistically to figure out how to stage a performance like that on a limited budget, outside, in such a way that it can be repeated nightly for three weeks. I thought it was pulled off well.

I really should be working.

News from my life: On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the strangest Bond flick *ever*. I still haven't dragged myself through the last couple hundred pages of Quicksilver. (But I'm going to win my battle against that book, I really am.) I made banana bread. I need to make cheesecake because I bought six slabs of cream cheese for that specific purpose. I got addicted to Battlestar Galactica (Fridays at ten, definitely worth your time.)

Concerts possibly in my future: Speakeasy at the Middle East on Thursday July 21st, Speechwriters LLC at the Paradise on Monday July 25th, Carbon Leaf at Copley Square on Thursday August 11th. Whee! All fantastic bands and you should come too. That last one's even free.

Meanwhile, ( one of my favorite time-wasting guilty pleasures. )

Oh boy, I haven't been this sunburned since our family trip to Disneyland (Disneyworld? I can't keep them straight; the Florida one) when I was nine or ten and hadn't yet had the Fear Of Skin Cancer beat into me. The beach was totally worth it, though. ( For any fellow Massachusetts people wondering about beach info, anyone afflicted with random curiosity, and personal reference: Back Beach, Rockport. ) I really enjoyed spending a day beaching. Definitely something to do again in the very near future.

The shampoo I bought last week labeled "Tangerine Tickle" would be better named "Tangerine Sledgehammer". It's a lovely scent, but a wee bit intense first thing in the morning.

Wood is a.) expensive and b.) heavy. (Or to get all Mastercard on you: truck rental, $19.99 plus sixty-some cents per mile; lumber, $100; hardware, $25; friendly hall people who will help carry loft parts up three flights of stairs, priceless.)

Speechwriters LLC = fantastic. (And playing in Boston on July 25th -- who's with me?) You should download and listen to Acetate now, because it is acoustic awesomeness (and not even piracy 'cause that link is via their official site, yay legal mp3s.)

Everyone's starting to leave.

I just realized how much I'm going to miss people over the summer.

I really hate it when that happens.