Circle of Friends

Tonight I met up with my friends for a girls' nite out dinner.  It was great to catch up on each others' lives and have a few laughs over cheesecake.  Most of us have been friends since elementary school or at least middle school.  The only one of us missing was Jami, who just had a baby a few weeks ago back in Washington.  These girls are truly special to me since we share so much history from growing up together! 


R to L Kate, Tricia, Julie, Heather

The Song Stylings of Weekend Cheese

So my friends Sara and Rob got Rock Band 2, which I of course had to play because it comes with drums.  I've always wanted to play the drums, not sure why, but Sara knows this because I got a pair of drum sticks at the Joint in Las Vegas one year and then proceeded to drum all sort of songs in our dorm room.... which inevitably ended up in me getting my sticks taken away by her.  

You can play Rock Band with two turntables and a microphone (I said clap your hands) or actually it's two guitars, a microphone, and a drum kit.  They should make turntables part of Rock Band 3.  Sara and Rob let me join their indie band, Weekend Cheese.  You get to create characters, unlike in Guitar Hero, and then you can give them crazy hair cuts, tattoos, and buy sweet outfits and accessories.  Rob and I found that to be extremely entertaining.  Sara suggested that we find a game that's just about shopping and get back to rocking. 

Anyway, I didn't get a warm up session or any practice.  It was right into the first set.  I can't remember what the first song was because it was all a blur of beats and drum pedals.  Thankfully I didn't get us booed off stage!   The way it works is colored bars come at you that are coordinated with the colors of the four drums.  When you need to use the kick pedal, an orange line comes across.  During transitions between verses, you can fill in with creative solo beats and get bonus points so long as you hit the last green note in that section.  I finally figured that out by about the fifth song.  Rob was the master at the solo beats... he would go crazy and score like a million points.  Or something like that.

A couple of the songs that I rocked on were PDA by Interpol and Chop Suey by System of a Down.  It definitely helps if you know the song so you can get the beat.  That goes for singing too.  Sara's vocal stylings were always 100% spot on!   I switched it up and sang a few songs, like Blondie's One Way Or Another, Alanis' You Outta Know, and POTUSOA's Lump.  I really only like to sing in my car, but Sara and Rob didn't feel like moving the band to be near the cars.  Only then would we be a true garage band.

Here are some pix of our Rock Band night.  Curtis and Martin (cats) were our groupies.  They told us we were pretty good.

Yay vacation!!

So today is my first official day of vacation.  I don't count yesterday because the morning was spent packing up, then I had to drive to San Diego, then I waited around the airport, and then I finally got here at 6:30pm.  I got home in time to eat my favorite dinner... my Mom's spaghetti and meatballs.  It's the best!  She makes her sauce and meatballs from scratch.  It's just not quite the same when I make it.  It's good to be home.

My first day of vacation started off by being awoken by my mom at 6:45am so we could go to 7:30 church.  Yikes... that was so early!  Not to mention cold!  I know I have been complaining about being so hot in California, but it was only 22 this morning.  I should've brought more shoes.  I doubt I'll be getting much use out of my flip flops.   Speaking of which, I'm heading over to REI with Sara to check out their big sale.  We need to get a few items for the b-day ski trip!

Yay vacation

I am officially on vacation, which feels great.  It's been a pretty stressful week, month, .... well year really.   I am glad to get a few days off to recoup.  I'm heading to St. Louis tomorrow to visit my friends and family for Thanksgiving.  I am looking forward to cold weather!!  Stay tuned for some updates from the central time zone....

Bad luck or incredibly bad timing?

You may or may not know this, but I like the Cure.  That may come as a surprise to you.  They are still incredibly good live in concert, as Sara and I found out earlier this summer, and every time we see them we assume it could be the "last" time.   

Last week I heard that they were coming to LA to tape episodes of Jay Leno, Carson Daly, and Jimmy Kimmel in December.  That got rumors going that they were going to headline KROQ's Acoustic Christmas.  This is a very real possibility because Robert Smith does not like to fly, so when the band does travel, it's usually by boat.  If they're going to come to Southern California by boat/bus/dirigiberbil/etc., chances are it's not just to film a couple US tv shows.  

Here's where the bad luck/bad timing comes in.

First the bad timing.  When I heard they were taping Leno, I thought this would be too good to be true because I have connections at NBC and could score tickets to the show, no problem.  In fact, just last year, I got hooked up with front row tix, so I figured I was in like Flynn.... until I found out the taping was on December 11th.  Why is this a problem?  Well, because 11 months of hard work is culminating on the 12th at a 9:00am meeting.  Thereby making it extremely unlikely that I would be done early enough to skip a 1/2 day to go trouncing around LA to see them play one song.  Okay, I'll live.  They're still playing Acoustic Christmas, right?

Here's the bad luck part.  Normally the AC concert is held on the first weekend of December, which would be a perfect excuse to skip my office's annual holiday party, but I digress.  Today they made the announcement on the line up and the dates.  ::Drum Roll Please::  The Cure is headlining and this year it's on the second weekend in December.  Guess what.  I've already got plans that weekend to go to Mammoth with friends for my b-day ski trip!   Now, I am totally stoked about the trip and wouldn't reconsider for anything... all I'm sayin' is today was a real bummer of a day to find all this out!  Aaaarrrgh!!!

I just want to...

...give a single finger salute to the crooks over at NCL Financial. They have made my life a nightmare for more than 3 months.

It all started back in June when I went to the emergency room in Las Vegas with pneumonia/bronchitis. I was on vacation and extremely ill, so ill, that my mom found it necessary to take me to the ER. Beginning in early August the bills began to roll in. There were bills from the nurse on duty, bills for the antibiotics they administered via a shot in the butt (ow), bills for the anesthetics prior to the shot in the butt, bills for breathing treatments, and bills for the specialist doctor. In any regard, knowing I had received treatment and it was considered out of network by my insurance, I paid whatever bill came my way. Or so I thought.

One day early in September, I received a call on my cell phone from a 1-800 number. There was a voicemail from an automated system stating that they were attempting to collect a debt and that I needed to call back right away with a specific case number. Seeing as how it was a generic message and that I knew I always paid all my bills, I ignored it. Well, unfortunately the calls kept coming. They were coming 2-3 times per week at first and then it got to be almost every day. Even on the weekend! For several weeks straight I was getting a call at 6:03am on Sunday mornings. Gee, these people really know how to piss someone off.

I finally called them back early one morning and to my surprise, I was put on hold for 10 minutes which turned to 20 minutes, then 30, then 45! I hung up disgusted. The calls kept coming. It made no difference if you picked up the call because it was always the same automated system. I tried calling again later that week and same thing. Put on hold for 25 minutes. It was so aggravating! Finally in October, I called back again and this time I was passed from operator to operator until FINALLY someone took my call. I did not want to give them any personal information, but before I could even speak, they addressed me by name. Apparently they had caller ID. The operator said that I had an outstanding bill for $26.62 from the ER which I never paid and now they were going to damage my credit that I had worked so hard to build if I didn't pay them. Were they threatening me? I told them that I had NEVER received a bill and if I had, I certainly would have paid it. I demanded that they send a bill in the mail and I would pay it if it was legit. I made them confirm my address. The operator agreed and then hung up on me!

Fast forward a few weeks. I did some research online and found that this outfit is extremely shady (changing their phone numbers all the time) and often try to collect debts well outside the statute of limitations. In case you aren't familiar, the way debt collectors usually work is that they "buy" debt from creditors for a fraction of what the debt is worth and then do everything they can to collect because every penny above what they paid for the debt is pure profit.

Anyway, more than 4 weeks went by and I never got anything in the mail. No calls, nothing. I thought the nightmare was over. Until last week. The dreaded calls started up again nearly everyday. It is so FRUSTRATING to see that 1-800 number pop up on the phone. It's like a predator slowing stalking you. So last Tuesday I called them back. This time I was really irate. The person on the phone was accusing me of being a deadbeat and they were going to do everything they could to "ruin my financial future and prevent me from ever getting a mortgage." I stated (again) that I have never gotten anything in the mail. The guy at x2225 said that they had sent me three bills and obviously I was not going to pay so they were going to start charging fees if I didn't pay up. Of course I was not going to give these crooks a credit card number, so I demanded that another bill be sent out. He told me that they had sent one out on November 10th. Well this was the 11th and mail doesn't appear in my box by magic dumbass. I made him confirm my address and as it turns out, he didn't have my apartment number.

So today I got a bill in the mail from them dated the 12th (liars) and their cover letter had my correct address, but the actual bill did not have my apartment number. It's kind of hard to pay something that isn't addressed correctly, isn't it?  Stupid bastards. Thanks for making my life miserable the past few months for no reason. Thanks for making me spend extra money on fraud protection and checking my credit reports and FICO scores. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it. I will be sending a money order tomorrow (no personal checks Suze Orman says) and hopefully this nightmare will be over for good.

Fire everywhere

Once again, California is on fire. Today will be 95 with single-digit humidity. I felt guilty last night coming home from a great evening out with friends in Laguna Beach and turning on the news only to see that another wildfire had started in LA destroying people's homes. I slept on the couch because the carpet wasn't dry (see below) and there was NBC coverage all night on the fire. At one point I actually incorporated some of the fire coverage into my dreams and dreamt that Ladera was on fire and I needed to evacuate! This morning, the fire is even bigger and some 2,500 acres have burned. RIght now the 5, 405, 14, 118, and 210 freeways are all shut down right now in the vicinity of the fire. It's unreal. There are some high-voltage power lines in the path of the fire, so we may end up with rolling blackouts if and when those are affected. On top of that, this doesn't help our water shortage issues.

Last year was one of the worst fire seasons on record. There was on fire that was only a few miles from work and it eventually made it down to only a few miles from where I live. It was eerie! Each day I packed up important documents, photos, etc., in my car just in case it got closer and we were asked to evacuate. Here is a photo from last year where the fire is above Lake Mission Viejo. It's beautiful, yet frightening.

Borderline OCD?

Anyone who knows me knows I'm obsessed with cleaning. Last weekend I was thinking that I should put up my Christmas tree because I'm going to be out of town for the next several weekends, which naturally means I have to get my carpet cleaned.

Okay, now that you're questioning how a Christmas tree = carpet cleaning, let me explain. Once the wheels started turning, one thing led to another and before I knew what happened, I had this huge list of things that needed to be done before I could put up the tree! One of those things was to have the carpet cleaned. If I am going to take the time to move stuff around in my apartment, which I inevitably have to do because it's so small and introducing something as large as a tree requires a bit of magic and some Crisco, I wanted to get other tasks out of the way so I don't have to move everything again later for cleaning. SO, here I am, waiting for the carpet cleaners to come. I requested the morning time slot, so I am going to be extremely disappointed if they don't show up soon because I'm also supposed to be at work.

Is it too much to ask...

...for someone to not touch the glass when shutting my car door? I realize that my car does not have a door frame around the window for your convenience, but that does not make it okay to put your fingerprints all over the window while shutting the door. Use the handle! I'm just sayin'.

Overactive Imagination

So I had this really realistic dream last night that I got laid off from work. It was so vivid and emotional, that I swear I probably yelled out in my sleep at some point. It started with some gossip around the office that more layoffs were coming (we had one earlier this year). The way the layoffs were circulated were, oddly enough, via a PDF in email. You basically looked for your name and hoped it wasn't there. Anyway, I didn't pay attention because I thought no way would my name be on there. But, I got nosy and looked just as I was going to delete the email... and there was my name. Funny thing was that my name was under the heading of "Transportation", which is the group I worked in when I first joined B&V in 2001 but switched to water when I moved to CA. I got really upset and started demanding an explanation. The only explanation I could get was that each department head had to pick a name and since the Transportation head probably didn't know me, he picked my name. It apparently didn't matter that I was no longer in that department. What bothered me the most is that others in my office knew about this before me and did nothing to stand up for me!! I was absolutely devastated. I remember crying in my dream and thinking how I was going to move back to St. Louis, but I would have to leave all the friends I made here. It was an awful dream and I think I woke up more tired than before I went to bed!!

So all you dream interpreters out there...what does this mean?

Jewelry, makeup, and.... wine

Today was about as girly of a day you can get.  My friend Jane was hosting a Silpada jewelry party at her house and my friend Lori was also selling her Mary Kay makeup.  The day began with me heading over to Lori's house to help her pack and schlep her wares over to Jane's house in Dove Canyon.   We needed lots of time to set up and also to make hors d'oeuvres for all the women who were about to be descending on her home.   While we were setting up the Mary Kay table, Jane popped the first bottle of wine.  Who cares that it wasn't even noon!

Jane's daughter-in-law, Courtney, and I then moved to making tasty appetizers and tasting each one (just to make sure they went with the wine, of course).  A couple hours (and glasses) later, Mary and her partner Nicole arrived to start setting up their jewelry displays.  If you've never heard of it, Silpada jewelry is sterling silver jewelry that can be both casual and dressy.  It is not costume jewelry since the pieces are made with fine materials like sterling silver, rare stones, beads, shells, and leather, by artisans all over the world.  It was fun trying on the different pieces and also perusing the catalog.  Based on my experience at the party today, I developed a complex mathematical relationship (below) that I shall abide by on all future endeavors.  Don't be surprised if you get jewelry or makeup for Christmas!!

The hapa hapa hapa happy world

This is my current favorite song.  Just give it a chance.

4:13 Dream Track by Track

What can I say? “4:13 Dream” gets better with every listen. Interesting, yet sometimes heart-wrenching lyrics, the music you can’t get out of your head… Awesome guitar and bass parts, all kinds of sounds that make you wonder.   Experimental, biting vocals.  What else can you wish for? But I have to say – this album is not as accessible as some people might think. It seems to be pretty upbeat – mostly, but the lyrics are not, Robert managed to wrap serious, sad, honest words with intense hooks and melodies.  This album will not be light, poppy fare that's candy to your ears – it makes you listen attentively and think hard, only then you will really hear it. 

I'm not sure anyone could have predicted 4:13 Dream before they first heard it - and that is a good thing.  4:13 Dream is today's Cure, unapologetically guitar-driven and intense (as their live shows of this year demonstrated), but still capable of being melodic and full of intrigue, creating unique soundscapes and dream imagery that is reminiscent of the drug-laden era of Pornography and The Top while preserving the hard, yet melodic moments seen on Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and Wish. It's hard, it's intense, and it's visual. Listening to the album takes you on a wild journey of imagery starting off with the dreamy  "Underneath the Stars", descending into the depths of The Cure's dreamworld, traveling through a variety of scenes before hitting bottom with the nightmare of "The Scream" and being spit back into consciousness after enduring the frenetic mania of "It's Over".   It's a crazy trip, and it's one that you'll find yourself wanting to repeat over again and again ... and again and again and again!  (Okay, blatant reference to "A Forest".)

The album title is not as cryptic as it may seem.  This is the band's 13th studio album and they released four singles on the 13th of four consecutive months.  Rumor has it that they recorded another 20 songs and the "dark" companion album will be released next year when Robert turns 50.  50!  Can you believe it???

If I haven't bored you to death yet, here are some notes I took while listening:

1. "Underneath the Stars" (6:17)
This is a slow ballad the band used to open many shows on the U.S. tour. The familiar chimes take you back to "Pictures of You" of the Disintegration era, but for me, the song fails to deliver.  Robert's nearly unintelligible vocals are drowned in echo effects, thickening the song's moody ambiance.  In a way, it lulls you into thinking this is going to be an uplifting album ala "Wish"... oh but it's about to get much, much darker.

2. "The Only One" (3:57)
This jangly, effervescent pop tune is a song reminiscent of Wish-era Cure and was released as the album's first single back in May.  Robert delivers his happiest and most enthusiastic vocals talking about all the things you could do to him.  It could be a bit creepy, hearing those words sung by a 50 year old man, but c'mon, it's Robert!

3. "The Reasons Why" (4:35)
Tension returns on this mid-tempo rocker, punctuated by Simon's melodic basslines. Robert's melancholy lyrics ("I won't try to bring you down about my suicide...") set the tone as the song builds from its subdued opening to an explosive climax.

4. "Freakshow" (2:30)
Freakshow is the Cure at its funkiest and friskiest.  It has cowbell!!!  You can tell because Robert puts on his deeper voice, which is his way of putting on another persona.   Freakshow presents a scene frothing with seediness and gives a taste of what's to come.  It seems to me like a throwback to the B-side called "A Man Inside My Mouth", but yet still catchy and fun to sing along to.


5. "Sirensong" (2:22)
Robert gets romantic! Slide-guitar moans, acoustic strums, and piano melodies highlight this airy, whimsical pop waltz.

6. "The Real Snow White" (4:43)
Robert begins this song chanting "You've got what I want" in a snarl that's almost ... sexy? But the flirtatious opening takes a dark turn as the band lays down some of the album's darkest grooves. I wasn't sure what to make of this song the first time I heard it, and was certain that I couldn't stand it. But before I knew it, TRSW was running constantly through my head and I was sucked into its dark, sleazy scene. This song is full of drug references, sexual innuendo, and Robert's seductive and incessant insistence that, "You've got what I want," TRSW leaves your head spinning, unsure of what you just witnessed. All you know is that it was dirty, seedy, and that you liked it more than you probably should've. I love the throaty tone with which he utters the last words, "I swear."

7. "The Hungry Ghost" (4:29)
This bouncy tune could have been pulled straight from the Bloodflowers cutting room floor. Greed is the focus of the poppy, guitar-driven song.  This song was one that I had to listen to several times before I got into the hooky groove and now it's one of my favorites on the album.

8. "Switch" (3:44)
A robotic drum beat and distorted guitar squalor kick off this mid-album highlight. The band picks up the pace, and Robert adds to the intensity by delivering paranoid lyrics that lament his isolation... "And I'm sick of being alone with myself"

9. "The Perfect Boy" (3:21)
In this song, Robert presents both sides of a doomed love affair on the album's most sentimental cut.  This is a quintessential Cure song from a happier time.  To me, this seems like an odd place for this song. I think it should have gone earlier in the track listing, before things started getting crazy. I have a hard time going from "Switch" into this and on into the next song.

10. "This. Here and Now. With You." (4:06)
A quirky, mid-tempo track, highlighted by chiming guitar melodies, heavy bass tones and another bright, easy to like chorus.  Once again, I think it belongs earlier in the album, knowing where the album is headed.

11. 'Sleep When I'm Dead" (3:51)

This song was one of those that stood out to me during the live shows.  It was a song that left me wanting to hear more.  It was also a song that Robert would often dance around on stage to.  The hooks are catchy and the lyrics are intriguing.  It's an all-around satisfying song, reminiscent of the Head on the Door era.

12. "The Scream" (4:13)
Right off the bat I found it interesting that this song, a veritable turning point in the album, is 4 minutes and 13 seconds long.  A dense, brooding track, the song explodes into a hurricane of howling vocals, screeching guitars and frantic rhythms, resulting in the album's most intense emotion. This song's darkly delicate opening quickly descends into nightmare territory, with increasingly frightening words and sounds (Robert's scream is 15 seconds long!) and images culminating in terror as Robert insists that, "this is not a dream." This one makes my heart pound.

13. "It's Over" (4:16)
Contrary to most Cure albums, 4:13 Dream ends on a fast-and-furious note. "It's Over" kicks off loud, noisy and nasty, and the energy only grows from there. Robert rattles off lyrics like a madman as the world crumbles around him. Now that your heart is pounding, get ready for it to race.  By the end of this one, you're bracing yourself for the crash. You're speeding out of control towards the end of the album - towards waking up out of the dream - and it's frightening and exhilarating all at once. Yet once it's done, you're ready to start the whole dream over again. 

What if your bed commented on your blog?

I love Anne and today her bed posted a comment on her blog. I'm serious. Okay, maybe it wasn't her bed, but rather the sales person for her bed. You see, recently Anne was complaining of back pain, so she decided to go and buy a new bed from the people who make beds with numbers in them. I am afraid to type the name here for fear that they will seek me out and try to sell me a bed too. And then comment on it. If you don't believe me, go here and here.

I may sleep on the couch tonight.

Welcome Andrew Carter!!

I just want to give a shoutout to my good friend Jami and her husband David, who welcomed their new son, Andrew, into the world on Halloween! I have to say that we were all a bit surprised by the name they chose. You see, Jami has always been a HUGE fan of the show 'Friends'. Her first son's name is Joseph Chandler, aka "Joey", so the name Ross was a 2-1 favorite amongst our friends. We thought something perhaps like Ross Phoebe or Ross An'Rachel might be in there somewhere. But, Andrew is a great name. What's awesome is their last name is Jackson, so he's a namesake for the 7th President of the United States!

Anyway, I am just very excited that everything is going well and I hope to get to see them soon. Jami and I have been friends at least since 3rd grade, maybe earlier. I don't get to see her often, since she had been living in Alaska for several years and now lives outside Seattle. Here are some of my favorite memories with Jami:

1. We were the only two in our group of friends who loved Star Trek: The Next Generation, so we often nerded out in middle school and wrote notes to each other in class with our code names. I was "Troi" and she was "Geordi". Yeah, we were dorks, but it was fun! I wouldn't trade it for anything.

2. She was there for me when I got my foot stuck in the basket beneath the desk in front of me in 8th grade Spanish class, even though she couldn't stop laughing.

3. I went to her New Kids on the Block birthday party when I didn't even like them and actually spent the evening shooting pool in the basement with her neighbor, Kevin, listening to this new band called "The Offspring".

4. For another birthday, Jami had a slumber party where we played "Truth or Dare" and had our sleeping bags all arranged in a circle in her living room. When it was my turn, I asked Ehren Ressell "Truth or Dare" and she chose dare..... so I told her to stick her naked butt on the living room plate glass window until a car drove by. Just as Ehren was doing so, Jami's mom came out and caught her!! Her mom said that we all had to clean the windows the next morning! Then, her mom sat there to make sure we were all going to sleep. Unfortunately, I wasn't in my sleeping bag, because I had gone to lay next to my friend Ali, but I didn't dare make a move!

5. Jami has a huge famiy that goes to Table Rock Lake every summer. I got to tag along in the once and had the best time water skiing and riding wave runners.

Here are some pix that I dug up... Jami's gonna kill me!! :)

March 2006: Me, Jami, and Katie (Tricia was taking the photo)

LHS Varsity Tennis Team 1996:
Jami is second from the left and I'm on the far right.

Jami's Basement 1996:
Jami had a dark room in her basement and took and developed this photo.

Table Rock Lake 1995:
Wave runner fun! We were racing her uncle's boat.

The Perfect Boy

I've had the new Cure album, 4:13 Dream, for about a week now. I'll post a complete review later, but for now, the song on the album that stands out to me is "The Perfect Boy". Its quintessential Robert Smith. One of the main reasons I like the Cure is the poetic, deep, emotional lyrics and that is what had been lacking on the last album. His greatest talent is telling stories with music and this album seems to go back to those days.

Where is my perfect boy? I've been waiting so long...



"You and me are the world”
She said
“Nothing else is real
The two of us is all there is
The rest is just a dream…
Always meant to be
I can feel it
Like a destiny thing
Written in the stars
Inescapable fate
Yeah it’s out of my hands
Falling into your arms”

“And I don’t want to get innocent
But I would love you to take my time
We’re on the edge of a beautiful thing”
She said
“Come on…
Let’s stay here for a while”

Oh girl!
He is the one for sure
Oh girl!
He is the perfect boy

“Yeah me and you are a world”
He said
“But not the only one I need
The two of us is never all there is
That doesn’t happen for real
If it was meant to be us
It was meant to be now
Don’t see the sense in wasting time
If you’re so sure about this
Laurel kismet hardy thing
You know tonight you’re mine”

“And I don’t want to get obvious
But I have to be gone by three
Were on the edge of a beautiful thing”
He said
“So come on… jump with me”

Oh girl!
He’s not the one for sure
Oh girl!
He’s not so wonderful
Oh girl!
He’s not the one for sure
Oh girl!
He’s not the perfect boy at all

“You and me are the world”
She says
“Nothing else is real
The two of us is all there is
The rest is just a dream… ”

And her heart may be broken
A hundred times
But the hurt will never destroy
Her hope…

The happy ever after girl
One day finds the perfect boy