Blather, rinse, repeat

Adam Lazzara practically sexing himself in the shower. Adam Lazzara killing his bandmates. This video's a new one on me.

Love this band. ^_^

I've been trying to write this entry for like a week and just never got a chance to post it. So to keep myself from spamming with a bunch of separate entries, I'm just gonna put it all in one and lj cut much of it.

One thing that happened on Tuesday I want to remember. My friend just came back from Ireland and she bought me this beautiful gift. It's a buckskin colored cotton throw, Celtic knots all surrounding an image of who I think is the goddess Brigid; at any rate she's holding a sword and she's got a dog with her. She got it for me to thank me for sending good vibes to her flights and all of her traveling. She also said, "It's you, see? Because she's a warrior. And she has a dog." Dude, I nearly busted out crying. (Some warrior! Getting emo over gifts. ^_^ ) I have it on my couch and I keep looking at it. The color is so cool and unique.

( From Thursday and Friday, some funny things at work: )

I also have some pics from work those two days.

( On thursday, we actually did have that bloodbath.  )

( Anyone want a kitten? This made me so emo! )

Let's see, what else happened this week? Oh, of course. HO, SNAP!!!! Okay, way off topic and something to really inspire me. Is this for real? Stephen Colbert running for president? I mean I know it's a snark-run, but still.

Even bigger news: Dumbedore is gay! I love you for this, JK Rowling. I love you for your "argument for tolerance" and having a positive gay character. But why the hell couldn't you say these things in the book itself? Once in a while these things she does feel tacked on. Like the "real ending" of the book that she didn't write. I think JKR is a terrific role model and superfly entertaining writer and I look up to her a lot. But once in a while these sorts of things annoy me just a little. Yes, most people will go back and re-read the books to see it in a whole new light, and that's kind of neat. But a simple, "by the way, he's gay" in the prose would have been cool. I felt the same away about the entire ending of the series.

Right, so that's the pointless stuff I wrote on Thursday and Friday.

Yesterday started out with early morning Tai Chi, just me, Chris, Lee and Raq. And of course Sifu. And of course Raq's puppy Onyx, who always joins us. He jumps on the matt and runs around throwing his toys at us, or jumping up to bite or lick during stretches. He's the cutest thing and he's totally in love with Chris. Everytime Chris gets on the floor, Onyx needs to be all over him. (Admittedly he's really good-looking, but Onyx should have no concern for this.)

( Onyx just loves him to death. )

( He also loves his Mommy. )

That was all too adorable. Then I jetted home and cleaned my house as quickly as I could, because I hadn't been home to do it all freaking week and my brother James was coming out really early, like noon. I managed to get it all done and get Havok's cage all cleaned up, too.

( Jimmy brought over some pastries that cracked me up. )

We were at my parents' and we just sat around gabbing. I only see my brother once every two years or so, so there's always so much to talk about. It always goes back to things like music (he's a classical guitarist,) politics (stuff he was saying about Bush, the war, the ecomony, health care etc. and especially one comment that Bush and Bin Ladin were two sides of the same coin made me bang my palm on the table in agreement like Fenster in The Usual Suspects. "THERE YA GO!") He told me he met Joaquin Phoenix and I just about died. (My brother works on the Conan show.) He said that Joaquin was walking around outside of his dressing room and Jimmy asked him if the dressing room was okay, and Joaquin said, "Yeah it's fine. It's just hot in there." My reply? "zOMGzz I BET IT WAS!!!!1111" He also said that Joaquin was really super nice and polite, but terrified of elevators. Could I love Joaquin any more? No. I could not. Then we talked about when MCR was on a few years ago and I asked, "Did you see when the lead singer and the guitarist kissed each other after the performance? And it wasn't supposed to be on film?" He was like, "Uhh, yeah...." I got all, "OMG! He was standing right there during a historical Frank/Gerard kiss!" How funny is that?

Chris and Tim showed up next; the other two birthday people. Chrissie and Jimmy haven't seen each other in a few years, and Jimmy has never met Tim before. I'm glad they finally got to meet! Right after that Gran came up; the last of the birthday cluster for this year. Da and Jimmy went out to get pizza. Once he got back, Uncle Don, Betsy and Meghan showed up. I just don't get to see any of these people often enough, you know? Soon after, Spencer drove up, too. We had pizza and then birthday cake.

( Everybody sang. Sort of. )

( MOAR PICS. )

I got some birthday money from Gran and my aunt and uncle, awesome Target gift card from Chris and Tim, and my folks got me the pro-shiatsu computer chair back thingie (I had one for years but I broke it from overuse!) and the GODFATHER GAME!! OMG! I just need a memory card and then I can veg out and play it. It looks like loads of fun. You can ice people and rough them up, and you get to read Tom Hagen's report. I gave my brother a computer program for changing music formats and putting tapes, records etc. onto CD and mp3 players and editing out noise of older recordings. I got my Gran a Claddagh pin for her coat and some imported Irish lotion, and I got Chris and Tim a candle in a glass holder that matches the theme of their yard and bathroom, and each of them a gift card, Chrissie to Wild By Nature and Tim to Best Buy.

The rest of the night we sat around telling ghost stories, hilarious stories, and fight stories. Because this family is all about the supernatural, humor, and violence. It is the best kind of day, because all of my favorite people are in the same room together, and that only happens once a year, if even that.

Today is so mellow. I already went grocery shopping early and also got some toys for the Ninja Wizards and for Havok. I got him these shiny plastic bird-safe toys and he is freaking out over them, he won't put them down. One of the toys that I got for Sano had an important life message on the package.
( THIS IS TRUE. )

I can either write some nonsense junk that no one will ever read but me, put away my laundry, or play my new video game. Except I don't have a memory card for that yet so it might have to wait. Oh, I also bought the Transformers DVD so I will watch that tonight while eating a pomegranate. I kinda really love Autumn!

Oh, remember last night I posted that random babble about the Leathermouth show, about Joaquin Phoenix and how I was in love with the fact that Adam Lazzara stutters? Can I Lazzara-fanpoodle a little more for a sec? Good, I thought you'd be okay with it.
( Reasons why this will be my desktop for a few ages )

"L-O-L. That means 'laugh out loud!'"

Hope you've all had just as fine a weekend as I have. ^_^

I have so much to write about and catch up on, s many pictures et. and just so much to say, but I'm so tired after today's party (and getting up early for Tai Chi today) that I'm gonna have to do it tomorrow instead.

Three things, though. One: I only just got rid of Outerinfo last week by startin in sfe mode and deleting that bitch, and it's aleady back. If' I'm missing letters in this post it's because my keyboard is running really effing slowly. I think that all advertisers that sneak into your computer should die lingering deaths. No hyperbole.

Two: Tonight is Leathermouth's first concer, it's in Manhattan. Pretty sure something went omewhere where Frank was inviting a certain group of people to go. Very sorry I missed out on this, but the party OTOH was so much fun today. Still I just fngirl over Iero, I don't deny.

Three, ( Adam Lazzarahas a ver pronouncd stutter. )
Could he be any more beautiful?

Oh wait, one more thing! My brothr met Joaquin Phoenix at his work. Says he's taller than mst people think and really weird. I just about died. I don't get starstruck but I fangirl over Joaquin like to the point of insanity. OMG.

More tomorrow, for now goodnight!

It's really a shame I forgot my camera yesterday at work, because I could totally have had a cool pic spam. OTOH it would have been hard to find time to get the cool pics, because we were shorthanded again and it was mad busy. Ugh. Anyway, early in the morning I found a really awesome wolf spider, I mean this baby was HUGE. She was on the door and I didn't want her to get squashed so I put her in a cup. I brought her up front to show some of the receptionists, which freaked most of them out. There was a client there dropping her dogs off for boarding and I can't stand her because she's the one who ditched a dog with us for over a year and didn't pay a cent. Once I placed that dog for her, she went out and got another one which she tired of within a week and then ditched THAT one with us, too. I don't even know why she's still allowed to even look any of us in the face, but she always comes in like nothing's happened and drops her dogs off. Anyway, she saw my huge spider in a cup and was all like "EEEK! OMGz IT'S A RECLUSE!" I was like, Whore, it's a wolf spider. Only I didn't really say whore, but seriously, how hilarious would it have been if I had? I wish I could say to people exactly what I want.

Then later we had this really mean parrot come in and I was trying to get him in his cage and he kept talking and babbling. Jenn W. was with me and we were already laughing because of something I thought she'd said (she was telling me about something she'd seen on TV and she said, "It came on the TV" and I thought she said "I came on the TV" and I asked her, "Dude, what were you watching?") so we were pretty much falling all over ourselves laughing. Then the bird started laughing along with us, like a real, human sounding laugh and we were both like "WTF?!" And then the bird says to us, "Don't go there!" and we nearly fell on the floor laughing. I've never had a bird tell me not to go there before. Good times.

This morning I went to Tai Chi and we did line basics there, too. My legs were shaking by the time we were done. Then I went way the hell out to the dance studio because I'd asked if we had rehearsal this morning and no one got back to me so I assumed that we had, except I guess we didn't because I was the only one who showed up. So thanks for the heads up, guys.

On my way home I got pulled over and the cop was really nice, he was nice even before he saw my Dad's badge in my wallet. He asked me whose it was and I told him it was my Dad's. Then we chatted for a while about the Sherriff's department and what year my Dad had retired etc. I asked him how fast I'd been going and he said that at one point I was doing 87, but when he stopped me it was 76. The 87 MPH did surprise me, I had no idea. I told him, "Wow, I'm really sorry. It's a new car." He laughed and said, "I understand. Have fun, but just be careful," and he let me go. He was a really nice guy and all, but I doubt he would have let me go without a ticket if not for the shield. I shouldn't have been doing 87 though, that is pretty fast.

Then I came home and decided to remodel the kitchen. Another case of the whim-whams to be sure, but like when I usually get the whim-whams, I'm going to go ahead and do it. I want a stove and oven, a real one, nut a stupid little thing and a microwave like I've got now. (Although I still should probably keep the microwave because I use it to melt wax when I wax my eyebrows, true story.) And I want to take down part of the bar that makes up the counter, and put cabinets up instead of shelves. And I want a bigger sink. All of which is ridiculous and of course I would decide to do this when I have these new car payments and when the holidays are right around the corner, right?

After deciding to remodel the kitchen I went out shopping, both for groceries (OH HAI $76 for hardly anything!!) and stuff for my Halloween costume. At Michael's craft store, I ran into many hilarious things and I was glad to have my camera.

( Enter her? Umm... )

( Spooky balls! )
Soft fiber fill! Safe for indoor use!

( WTF is this skeleton doing? )
How rude!

And just because I feel like sharing: ( My lovely, srcummy desktop. )
^____^ A little distracting though, to be sure.

Well, I have all day tomorrow to work on my costume and whatever else I want. Fun!

Wow, I have lots of catching up to do. Well first and most importantly, Saturday's baby shower was fantastic. It all went smoothly, there was more than enough food, everyone seemed to have a great time. I kept turning to Chrissie and saying, "Chris... it's your baby shower!" The actual party really brought the fact straight home. I'm so thrilled that their dream is finally coming true. Now they just need the baby.

Anyway, here are some pics from that day.

( Here is the cake that I designed and iced.  )
That stupid crappy flower is supposed to be the rose of Sharon, which is the Korean flower. The ladybug is the Korean symbol for motherhood, or children on the way. The Hangul script reads "precious child."

( The good table. ;)  )
I only call it "the good table" because I knew everyone there. My Mom, Dad, Gran, Betsy, Jo-chan (UD was at work and SB was picking up his girlfriend,) Timmy, my Uncle Joey and Aunt Bridgitte who is from Ireland but has since lost her accent.

( Gran with three of her kids. )
She's actually got two more. We don't talk about them, though. ^_~

( Gran with her grandchildren. )
She's actually got about five hundred more. But we are the ones she knows the best. ^_^ (There's a pic of Gran with her great grandchildren, but it didn't come out on my camera and my Mom has it. Gran has about NINE THOUSAND great grandchildren and a few great-great grandchildren too.)

( Wish I could remember what was so effing funny. )

( That's better. Parents and god(dess) parents. :D )

( Chrissie's ladybug. )
Funny, huh? Chrissie found a ladybug as we were cleaning up that night.


The only complaint I could have about the entire day is the weather. It was about 85 degrees that day, really stupid hot. Then Monday hit around 87. Hello, October? WTF? The last two days it's been rainy and chillier, into the 60's. It's a start, but I mean, come on people. Can we get highs in the 50's sometime before Halloween?

Speaking of, I really have to start working on my costume today. But before I do, I promised some folks from over at The Blog Wars some really tremendous and beautiful music from a superfly band.

Following: Some music from Taking Back Sunday.
I've had to link a few of these because they weren't playing all the way through. WTF?

SPIN!

"Open arms reject assuming hands...." True story. The lyrics have him saying at the end, "Spin, spin sugar!" I don't hear that, but big huge HURRAY to these guys for shouting out one of the coolest techno-rave dance songs ever; it's by the Sneaker Pimps. I love that song and I have it on my iPod. It's enough for me that he's just screaming "SPIN! SPIN! SPIN!" in the background throughout the end. Oh, and quite possibly? This song has the best tag ending I've ever heard. Tell me I'm wrong. DAYAM, boy.

Here's a ballady one, New American Classic:

It's just pretty and sweet and sad and ballady. Good for driving long, deserted, farm-lined Long Island highways on rainy days.

Another ballady one, Divine Intervention.
I love this one, but I put it here because it's hyenarave's favorite. "Something real, make it timeless." Not "make it TONGUE-LOVE." El to the Oh to the El. Check out the random dog barking at 1:44.

Cute Without The E:

I know everyone knows this song, but still. Gotta be one of my favorite opening lines ever. "Your lipstick, his collar, don't bother, angel; I know exactly what goes on." This band has a way with words. Favorite part? "You're such a sucker for a sweet talker," (but I love John Nolan in the background with his disgusted, "You're such a sucker!")

I saved the best two for last.
The Ballad of Sal Villanueva:

"You've got your high as a kite tricks in the bag..." This one is one of my favorites by them, and as far as I know it's an unreleased, or a B side or something. It's complicated and beautiful and angry and sad, self-deprecating and snarky all mixed in. "Hope that when he leave you still smell him on your sheets, cause I can, I can..." and "You'd say 'we're only friends', yeah, real good friends, I bet, I bet" are some of the most brutal How could you! lyrics ever. Okay, so anyone who knows anything about music, clue me in, because I don't know how to put this into musical words. Check out this one chord, or note, or sound they keep repeating during each part that goes "you're down for selling me out while I play dumb..." It comes right during the words, "while I'm..." (2:29-21, 2:42-44, and especially 3:03-3.) I know, how random could I get, right? But that one chord reminds me of every 1950's heartbreak song I've ever heard. Why? BTW, yes, I get obsessed with sounds.

My favorite ever, My Blue Heaven.
I won't lie, this song still makes me cry nearly everytime. I pretty much have to listen to it by myself. From around 2:35-ish till pretty much the end, really. The arrangement, the strings, the drums, the lyrics, everything. I absolutely can't put my finger on why, but when Adam Lazzara sings "you're safe, child, you are safe," I utterly believe it. My favorite part is "more than anything you wanted to be right" and I don't know exactly why.

Enjoy!

Hmm, the good: well just that it's a nice day and tomorrow is Friday when I get to work with a good crew of people and with any luck there will be a typical Friday nuclear LOLocaust. Oh, and work at SITF today was pretty cool, the wild crows are starting to fancy me. That came as a shock, I was just around by their pen, and no one can really get near them 'cause, well they're wild and they freak out. But I was talking to Tucker and I hear this noise over my shoulder like "Coo! Coo!" and I turn around and there is the biggest wild crow on the perch nearest to me, bowing and going, "S'up, girl?" only not in so many words, you see. Now everytime I go by he bows to me and makes the "s'up girl" noises. It's really weird.

Also good was going out to the movies tonight with Nancy F. Jenn W., and Jenny and Dan. the movie sucked REALLY hard (it was the remake of Halloween) but I swear I'd go see pretty much anything with nancy and Jenn W just for the giggles. The entire audience seemed to be in agreement that it was perfectly fine to not only laugh at the film, but to MST3K it pretty much all the way through. As for the movie itself, like I said, it was BAD. I didn't have sympathy for any of the characters, (in fact I couldn't wait for most of them to up and die,) it wasn't scary or tense or suspensful in the least, and parts of it were just plain dumb. Like having Mike Meyers be like 8 effing feet tall. Especially at that one part where he comes back with the sheet over his head pretending to be the boyfriend. I'm like, does she not wonder why the dude has GROWN DRAMATICALLY since he went to get a beer? Jesus. The best part was actually this woman a few rows ahead of us who jumped out of her seat everytime a loud noise would happen, but still laughed and commented through the whole thing. I have to say, though, the kid playing young Mike Meyers was pretty good. I mean, it must be hard for a little kid to go that nutty. Looked like fun, though. The worst part of the whole thing was that he original Halloween DID scare me (the part with the sheet and the glasses scared me the most,) in fact it scared the christ out of me when I was a kid, and it seriously did not need to be "remade."

The bad. I think, well, scratch the "I think." I'm still in denial. I have to get over it. I DO need a new car. After all the money and time this summer getting it fixed repeatedly for the same effing thing, and this is the FIFTH TIME, on my way home tonight the same exact thing started to happen. The dashboard lights came on, everything was disabled. It was right around the corner (it usually is,) and I made it to my house. I had a feeling it was going to start again when I was coming home from Kung Fu last night and it felt, very briefly, like my power steering was going out again. I guess now, looking back, it was.

Yeah, and I cried as I was going into my house. I kissed my car's steering wheel when I parked it and walked in crying. It's ridiculous.

I'd really love to have a hybrid, but it's a matter of, can I afford one and still be able to do the stuff I like (need) to do? Like travel at will etc.? I don't know. Plus, hybrids are small and they don't come with 8 cylinders and I will not be able to race people around the bend and win So yeah, not sure if I can afford one.

Oh, here's the hilarious. I sent this gif to my Mom:


Yes, Frank Iero is humping Gerard Way's head. When I first saw that on youtube it was from a closer angle and all you could see what him grabbing his face. Here you can see that he is HUMPING THE BEJESUS OUT OF HIS HEAD prompting many thoughts of UR DOING IT WRONG and other LOLs. But what it really reminds me of is Haku and Sano. Because Haku does the same thing to Sano, sometimes to his head, and he has the exact same look when he does it. Anyway so I sent that to my Mom and her answer cracked me up, she said, Nothing wrong with a "tete a tete" once in a while. ...I think Haku & Sano do it better. Is it still a dominance thing? LOL@ MY MOM.

And LOL@ Frank, ILU Frankles, y u so cracked, bb? Cracked in a good, fun way, not cracked in a "HO-MI-GOD I'm 30 and must marry first female human within a five foot radius of me and scribble on myself with magic markers all summer, randomly attack my guitarist and vomit on stage! Does anyone have a sofa for me to leap on, or perhaps a pop culture icon talk show host for me to nearly throttle?" Oh, G-Way, what has become of you, lad?

Ahh, fandom.

As an aside, I feel I must mention that my current song obsession is "The Ballad Of Sal Villanueva" by Taking Back Sunday. It's gotten so bad that just listen to it on repeat like five times in a row. I'm ridiculous like that.

Guys, my CAR. My SHINIGAMI.

This was going to be a happy, floofy post involving my thoughts on tomorrow's show, some stuff about work and the birds I'm working with, some of Friday's (yesterday's) drama and angst and hilarity and teeth-gritting and then bonding, and a few spammy thoughts on some bands I love and some boys I think are cute and some videos I wanted to share because I'm falling in love with different songs and bands etc and I can't wait for Projekt Revolution and tomorrow is Solar Fest and I bought some cool shorts today (s'up, size four?!) and how I'm driving along today listening to a song that for some random reason makes me cry in a happy way and I'm thinking, Something good is going to happen to me.

Then I came home and got an email and now I'm just angry and disappointed.

But let me start at the beginning. I got an email from Jeremy a few days ago, and it was basically, "Okay, I'm over it, I miss you, I'm sorry I said and implied the things I said and implied, can we go back to where we were?" And I answered him--as I invariably do--"Yes, of course we can, I've missed you, too." Because it was worth it to me, we've been friends since high school, that is a very long time, you know? And it's not in me to just give up. But because we've had these issues (which, remember, I absolutely did not either bring about or encourage in any way,) I had a few conditions, or at least requests. Which, I think I'm entitled to those after he's spent the last seven years running out on me everytime I wouldn't marry him. (And if I seem unfair when I say that or if you think I'm being hyperbolic because I'm angry, well, it's not unfair and I'm not being hyperbolic. Because that's exactly how it went each time.) My first condition was that this on-again/off-again thing has to stop. I asked him to make sure he had come to terms with whatever he had to deal with, because I hated this "I can't take it anymore! Get out of my life!" thing he keeps doing. My second condition was based on the fact that he got really bugged out last year when I started doing the dolphin team and I didn't have Sundays free to hang out anymore. (And he couldn't change his work schedule in order to hang out with me.) So he felt like I was pushing him away and he wanted more out of the friendship than I was "willing" to give. More time, more attention, more everything. So up front I told him this time, please don't take it personally if I can't hang out sometimes ir if I'm slow with getting back to you in email. There isn't a day in the week for this entire month and half of next month when I'm going to be home all day, and then I'm going away at the end of July for a big Hula thing, too. I told him, I'm doing three jobs this summer as well as Kung Fu. So please don't take that personally.

( And then it all went to hell. )

So there you have it, guys. Those friends of mine, that I'm always writing about and how much fun we have in our limited, but cherished time together? Yeah, those aren't "real friends" and I'm only working because I really want to push them away. Now you know.

But I didn't write all of that in my reply to him. Instead I wrote him something more like, "Hey, guess what? I do have 'real friends.' They understand."

So now I'm all pissed off and self-righteous and indignant, and all of a sudden I'm just not feeling as Aloha like I was this afternoon when I was riding in the car listening to that beloved song. It occurs to me that maybe I should listen to that beloved song again and try to find that place in my head again, leave this behind. I dunno, it feels final this time.

But eff that, I'm going to go go back to where I was this afternoon, before all of this, I'm going to make the post I meant to make. It was going to start and probably finish with a song called "My Blue Heaven" by Taking Back Sunday. It was going to be about how some songs grab me by the throat right away and I'm completely obssessed on the first listen and I have to own the entire CD to see if it measures up, then search out lyrics and meanings and videos and interviews to see where they were in their minds when they wrote something that got me so emotionally involved in it, etc. Because that's what happened the first time I heard "The Kill" by 30 Seconds to Mars and the first time I heard "I'm Not Okay" by MCR. (And later, after about two listens discovered I was kind of obssessed with the melody of "Helena" too. See because with me, sometimes it's more melody than lyrics.) I was not immediately obssessed with My Blue Heaven.

Okay, first let me backtrack a little. Remember that I saw Taking Back Sunday last summer and I enjoyed them even if they didn't grab me by the throat right away, (and honestly one of the best moments of that night was the way my friend--you know, those imaginary beings which I apparently don't really have and just make up in my mind to fill the void in my cold, dead heart?--utterly lost her crap the moment they took the stage; seriously it was awesome,) and that I saw The Used for a few minutes (and heard them for about an hour) during Taste Of Chaos and wasn't overly impressed; all I could hear was Bert (Phil) McCracken screaming the entire time, no melody--I get obssessed with melodies, remember--and then later that night Bert came to where we were hanging out, he was so self-involved with his crazy antics and he shoved Meghan out of his way as he was running past us while he was getting chased by fangirls, I saw him a few minutes later signing autographs or saying that he was going to sign autographs in a few minutes or something and I thought, "This is silly." (It totally was.)

So anyway on Tuesday night I was trolling youtube, and I don't quite remember what it was that I was looking for though I'll admit it was probably something like Bert and Gerard making out, when a link for The Used's video The Bird And The Worm came up, and because I was bored and the centerpoint still of the video looked interesting, I clicked on it. To my surprise and chargrin, I immediately loved the song. (And the video. It's just so freaking bizarre. I think it gave me nightmares or something.) So off I went to download another one of their songs, just randomly to see if I liked the sound of it. (If I like two songs from the same band which I downloaded randomly, I'll usually buy the CD.) I ended up with a song called "Buried Myself Alive" (see subject line for my favorite lyric) and that melody completely hooked me, I liked it better than The Bird and the Worm, actually. So now I've bought "Lies For The Liars" (even though that song isn't on it) and so far I like about 70% of it, but honestly a lot of it is just screaming. I like the melodic ones best.

This is all going somewhere, I promise.

There are some songs that I love and obssess over immediately, like that one, like The Kill and like I'm Not Okay, ones where as soon as I hear the opening few notes, I'm in a totally different zone; music is really emotional for me in case you haven't noticed. So anyway, I also decided to finally buy Taking Back Sunday's CD "Louder Now" because I only really knew a bunch of their older songs (which I mostly liked) and ony two songs off that CD, both of which I liked. And I got the CD and I listened to it for like a day, and while I found it completely listenable from start to finish (sometimes as much as I love a band there are songs I always skip on the CD; see "The Story" and "Was It A Dream" from A Beautiful Lie,) nothing on the CD immediately grabbed me by the throat. I just enjoyed it and played it repeatedly, in the car and on my iPod at work.

The other thing that sometimes happens to me is that I'll listen to a song a bunch of times before I really hear it. It gets lost in the mix and even though I'm singing along or whatever, I'm not totally hearing it, and then one day, for some random reason, I'll finally hear the song and go, "OH! There you are." And that's how it happened with "My Blue Heaven." Which is funny, because if I had to pick one song on the CD that I would have skipped after the first listen, or after hearing the first few notes, it might have been that one, because it's the second half of the song that knocks me out the most. Funny thing with that song, I think it's obviously supposed to knock you out in the second half, that's what they meant for it to do. It wasn't until Wednesday when I was cleaning the pigeons at SITF and this song came on my iPod (I was halfway through the top cages, holding that one white pigeon that insists on being held when I clean his cage,) when the second half of the song kicked in and I went, "Oh, wait. I think I just fell in love."

I love it so much that I'm giving it to those of you who want it on yousendit until the link runs out. Because now I love the entire song and not just the second half. I think the melody is beautiful and the lyrics are incredibly special. I fully own up to the fact that I sometimes bust out crying between 2:50 and 3:00 when he sings "you're safe, child, you are safe" and even at 3:20 with "Is this all too familiar? Does it happen all the time?" and 3:27-3:38 with "I'm just asking you to hear me, Could you please, just once, just hear me? More then anything you wanted to be right..."

Do you see how I obssess with music? It's insane. Listen to the song and then fall in love with Adam Lazzara because he is funny and crazy and adorable and I want one just like this. (LOL at him not even singing, when he's the singer. "'Geese a-laying, were they laying down, or like..... laying?" and "Like, THE DARK LOOOOORDS!!") Can I have one, pls? I promise to be nice to him!

Welp, this post has already gone on way too long and I have to get all my costumes and music and maps (jeez, this place is on the other frigging end of the Island) everything together, so I'm gonna STFU right now and get going.

And I still think something good is going to happen to me tomorrow. So there.

And here we are, with the concert all over and the VMAs tonight and my favorite band nominated.

Yesterday really started when Brittany got here and we ran out to the train station. We missed the first train, but it's just as well, because we got there in plenty of time. The train ride in was uneventful yet fun. The cab ride to Webster Hall was brief and only $7.

( Making the important donation, waiting on line, getting to know my camera intimately. )

( Inside Webster Hall )

( Biting Ozzy's style, how awesome Shannon is, Tomo hiding behind equipment, and the set list. )

( Turorial: how to get acknowledged by Jared, how to get a kiss from Jared. What became of our donations. )

( This is the story of my life... )

Ahh, then they played The Kill, which was the highlight of the night, if you ask me. Not only because it's one of my favorites, but because the crowd was so into it, and the band was so into the crowd being into it, and it was great fun to sing along. Jared did a really cool crowd-walk. If anyone would like to watch the video for The Kill that I taped, you may see it here, ( behind the cut. )

The sound totally sucks. Sorry about that.

( Do you kiss your Mom with that mouth? Or, alternately: No, YOUR mom is in the audience! )

With a slightly (unintentionall, I'm sure) hubristic toss of his black and red hair, an "OMGs I am SO OUTTA HERE!!" hand gesture, and a friendly pat to Matt's arm, Jared was the first to leave the stage. He was followed by Matt and Tomo, then Shannon came down from his drum kit. ( See the ending here. Watch as the sight of Shannon with his shirt off makes me drop my camera. That's me you hear giggling at my own stupidity. )

Seriously, how funny was that?

Sadly, all of my pictures really suck, too. ( But here are a few of them anyway. )

And then it was over! The rest of the night was kind of anticlimactic for me, although it was now Brittany's turn to go all kinds of crazy.

( Drunk girls still love Jordan Catalano. Seriously. )

( Taking Back Sunday, and getting bounced. )

So Brit and I headed back to Penn Station, where some guy was puking very loudly right next to us as we walked to the entrance. I thought that was gross and kind of ignored him. I mean, really! Go puke somewhere else, not in public! Later, I was to have more sympathy for him.

( Obnoxious Bellowing Boy who HATES CHRISTY OMGS!! And a creepy, staring boy. )

The car ride home was atrocious. Props to Brittany for keeping me occupied and alert, but all I wanted to do was throw up. My head was pounding and all I could taste was sour ice cream and orange juice. I've never gotten car sick while I was actually driving before; it was ridiculous. That's the worst feeling. Makes me sick again just thinking of it.

I guess we got home at around 3 AM. I took a shower and checked my email. I had, earlier, entered the latest MTV contest to go to the VMA thing with 30 STM. They were looking for 20 fans to accompany them. I thought, What a wonderful idea, and sent in my entry. Once again, MTV asked for photographs. Once again I sent some, but this time with the message telling them how I felt about their beauty contests--we really should not be required to send photos to prove we love a band's music--and that if that was the case, I knew I couldn't win and really didn't want to. Part of me was thinking, Maybe MTV will respect that attitude, you know?

Needless to say, I didn't win. So I went to bed at around 3:30.

I'm still thankful that I got to see them. It was an oddly fulfilling time, and even though it was like 60 degrees or less when Brittany and I got home, it's still technically summer. Now after Sunday's BBQ--a big, family gathering for one last hurrah, as I like to think of it--I think I can give summer a kiss goodbye for a while, and start thinking about Autumn.

And 30 Seconds To Mars' Autumn Tour. ^_^