I break bones and laugh.

So. Last time I said that I'd write about what I did the weekend before but then I realized that it really wasn't all that interesting. I went to some restaurants with the Prom King, including the Buffalo Wild Wings in Montgomery, where I kicked trivia ass. We watched a lot of Scrubs episodes and I finished watching all of Arrested Development.

I met with my would-be boss and found out that his idea of marketing is my walking around and passing out flyers. And no. So I'm back to the drawing board. My plan now is to go to work with my mom and attend a workshop or two to build up my skills and thus, make myself more marketable. That's one of the problems I've run into--employers want people who are very skilled in a variety of techniques, not seeming to realize that those people don't want to work for anyone. The other problem I'm running into is businesses wanting to offer massage but not doing even the most rudimentary research. You mean we have to have a license? Whores.

So anyway, I'll be doing that. Besides all that fascinating stuff, I've:

*planned the end of my Some Band hiatus, which will be happening in November, and which will be a spectacular trip for my 10 year SomeBandiversary
*received my hotel info for that trip
--on an unrelated note, look how cute this random group of musos all dressed up is (bonus points to the Limey for keepin' it real)
*watched football and drank beer with my boyfriend (A+++)
*accepted zooby's pumpkin challenge
*and that seekrit challenge
*exchanged many mocking text messages with my ex (p.s.: gl today bb and thanx for the new song)
*monooka, STOP READING NOW--discovered that Joe Muggs is making Arctic Lemonade with pomegranate now--RESUME READING
*missed monooka
*received many happy birthday wishes from many lovely people--thank you all, so much!

Now I'm going to watch the second half of 1st season Weeds. Write back soon!

P.S.: The Outback ads using Of Montreal's music freak me out, even more so now that they've made the jump to TV from radio.

Can I just say that I love Two-A-Days? I could never get interested in Laguna Beach but football? At an Alabama high school? OMG, I'm so there. Coach Propst worked at my high school for two years and of course, I know all the landmarks and whatnot in Birmingham so it's very fun to watch. I could have done without seeing a certain 103.7 DJ but that's okay. Besides that, I love this show! This question from TWoP amused me:

"Did we answer the question about the boys and their hair? They all look the same hair combed over their foreheads. Is it a football team bonding thing or is this popular in the south right now?"

I guess it's a southern thing or at least an Alabama thing because nearly every teenage boy I know does his hair like that.

While I'm on the subject of football, roll tide. And okay...War damn eagle. I guess I have to be magnaninous now that I'm in a "mixed" relationship, as they say down here.

Today we had a surprise birthday party for my dad, since he's turning 50 and a not surprise birthday party for me. My dad's birthday isn't actually until the 20th (and mine is actually Tuesday) but he and my stepmother came up to visit for Labor Day weekend so we all gathered at my aunt and uncle's house. This is the same aunt and uncle whose son was dating my former coworker and I didn't even think until I got there that Duke, the pit bull who used to be theirs and is now his, would be there. He is so big now! I wish I'd brought my camera because he was a widdle puppy the last time I saw him and now he's nearly full-grown. He may already be fully grown but a little scrawny because he had parvo as a pup, though. He's so cute now!

Most of my dad's family was there, like my female college-age cousin who was there with her boyfriend. I suspect that he's the type of guy that I would have liked in college as my cousin is like a mini-rockgeisha in college. Nowadays, though, I'm like, LOL. The boyfriend is not nearly as weird or edgy as he thinks he is. He goes to Alabama so we did the whole what-dorm-do-you-live-in thing and he gave me this annoying knowing look when I said that although I lived in Tutwiler (kind of a sorority feeder hall), I spent a lot of free time at Mallet. I also spent a lot of time on Old Row. I contain multitudes, sucka! (P.S.: The Machine doesn't exist.)

When I went outside with my dad so he could look at my tires (this is a totally normal thing in my family), I was shocked that she hadn't cleaned up her car before she came over. In this family, you always clean out your car before you see your dad!

My sister and I entertained our dad with impressions. She did impressions of his brothers and I did impressions of the horribly untalented, heavily Canadian-accented "actors" in the godawful horror movie I watched Friday--Dark Fields. "Josh, I'm not kidding! Get your hand oat!" It's not on IMDB! It's that bad! [I will soon write more about this in my really needs to be updated horror blog.]

Tomorrow (later today, really), I'm going to Montgomery for my birthday date. I don't know what exactly we're going to do--dinner and something (movie? bowling? batting cage?)--but I'm sure we'll have fun. Especially since my boyfriend is a complete lunatic who called me Thursday night to ask me why I wasn't watching the Mississippi game. Er, because there are three episodes of The Office on? I don't care about Mississippi? He is crazy?

I was thinking about Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner tomorrow. Is it good? Mainly I want to go for the trivia game--we're so competitive about everything anyway that I think it'd be better to focus that energy for good or for awesome. Instead of at each other, like when we almost killed each other during the World Series of Pop Culture.

I'll start work this week. Well, I'm going to meet with my new boss and discuss my marketing plan, so I should really make a new one soon. I'm very excited about all this. I've been feeling lately like life has been boring and I finally feel like I'm going to have adventures again soon. And also a new cell phone. The important things in life.

My whole life was leading up to the cinematic experience I had last night. I have to go have breakfast right now but I just wanted to say that.

Friday I went for an interview at the place I've wanted to work since I got my license. It was a two-part interview. The first part was a regular interview, which I love because all you have to do is talk about how awesome you are, and the second part was supposed to be three massages in a row. I got through the first part and as I was halfway through the first massage, it struck me--I don't want to work there. So I finished the massage (I am such a professional!) and told them that.

It was a combo of reasons: I'd have to get up at 5am (I thank the Lord for the nighttime), there are actual shifts instead of a flexible schedule, to be considered full-time I'd have to work six-hour shifts five days a week, pay is 37%, it is so far out that my phone goes to roaming...all adding up to no, thank you.

So I'm going to go with the job I posted about the other day. It's a much shorter commute, much more flexible, better pay rate, and I think I'll like it more.

After all that, I went home and changed and then returned to Birmingham to see Giant Bear, Rantings of Eva and Young Agent Jones at the Nick. I'd never seen any of them but my friend's in Rantings of Eva. The first band was Giant Bear and OMG, I love them. They did this funk blues cover of NIN's "Head Like a Hole" and that was off the rails. It sounded so different that at first, I couldn't figure out what it was but I was like, "What is this song?! I know I know it!"

After their set, I struck up a conversation with a few of the members and they were such sweethearts. Very smart, too.

"Not just the same old guitar, bass and drums rock band, Memphis’ Giant Bear creates its folk- and bluegrass-oriented Americana eclecticism by blending banjo, cello, flute, lap steel and mandolin with conventional bass and guitar."

Love them! The next band was Rantings of Eva and they were quite good. Reminded me a little of the Cure mixed with Embrace. I liked it. Next up was Young Agent Jones and they were very fun.

All in all, Friday night was more fun than a frog in a glass of milk. And I even fell in love at first sight!

Saturday, I went to see the Prom King. We didn't really have any plans and I was very tired from the night before, so we ordered in pizza and went to see Talladega Nights. And I loved every minute of it. I liked Anchorman okay and I expected to like TN but I was surprised at how much I adored it and all the dead-on bits--the idiosyncrasies of professional racing, the propensity of southerners to threaten violence at the slightest offense, the references to Nascar's early history*, etc.

*Gary Cole's car has to be a reference to Smokey Yunick, the legendary Nascar designer and mechanic. And cheater. Cheating was pretty much par for the course in early Nascar but he made it into an art. My favorite Smokey story:

Another Yunick innovation was getting around the regulations specifying a maximum size for the fuel tank, by using coils of eleven feet of two inch diameter tubing for the fuel line to add about 5 gallons to the car's fuel capacity. Once, NASCAR officials came up with a list of nine items for Yunick to fix before the car would be allowed on the track. The suspicious NASCAR officials had removed the tank for inspection. Yunick started the car with no gas tank and said "Better make it ten," and drove it back to the pits.

Sunday was a fairly lazy day. We watched the Braves and just for synchronicity, one of my favorite X-Files episodes--"The Unnatural." I think that one's really underrated--I see something different in it every time I watch it. *Sniff* I ended up spending the night Sunday, too.

Today has been fairly sedate barring the worst chore ever, which was too horrifying to relate right now. Laziness is okay, though, since I'll be busy again soon enough. I am looking forward to that. I am also looking forward to indulging in retail therapy, visiting NYC (and LA and everywhere else I wanna go), and Tinkerbelling my musical Lost Boys in this, the year of my ten year SomeBandiversary. Now if only mercury retrograde would stop kicking my ass.

So, I got a job. Yep.

1) I have a new Firefox theme. It's unbelievably tacky and I love it! It's called Pimpzilla and it's brilliant--fake fur, leopard print, and sparkly gold and diamond bling icons. Beautiful!

2) The tour dates were publicly announced today so I'll clarify my locked post from yesterday. I'm seeing Atlanta (13 November) and probably the three following Florida dates, maybe the fourth Florida date.

Publicly is a weird-looking word.

3) Holy crap. I might as well just hand my wallet to Elizabeth now.

4) I brought my big bag o' makeup to the spa on Saturday so I could do my makeup before I left on my weekend trip. It's still packed from traveling and it's just easier. Well, I stopped at a gas station when I got to Montgomery and was going to touch up my makeup. Bag wasn't in my car. I got a message from the spa asking me to come in today to do a massage. I responded that I could and mentioned my makeup bag.

Today when I went in, my boss asked me where I left the bag because she hadn't seen it. I didn't know exactly but I looked around and...it's gone. My limited edition bag. With literally, all the makeup I own save a jar of loose powder (I take along a ziploc bag to prevent spills) and a couple of things I don't use that often. Four limited edition eyeshadows, a limited edition shower gel from Lush, all my makeup brushes...sigh. I don't understand why someone would take some used makeup but I suspect they were after the bag. They got it!

5) There appears to be movement on the His Dark Materials movie front. Reports are now surfacing that Nicole Kidman will play Mrs. Coulter, some child called Dakota Blue will be Lyra, and Eva Green will be Serafina Pekkala. OMG! We are thismuchcloser to plush Iorek Byrnisons!

6) Mr. R. Miller is playing Birmingham in a few weeks and I was planning on going when I thought it was a regular show but I found out tonight that it's actually a BBQ festival and he's playing last. I don't know how I feel about that. Sloss is spooky.

7) If you haven't seen the Strokes home movies DVD from their 2001 tour, entitled In Transit, I highly recommend it. That's where all the lines on my text icons come from ("Like a son--I adored you like a son!", for example). Those boys are so cheeky. Bonus appearances by the Moldy Peaches, whom I guess were touring with them. I think it's pretty hard to find, so if there's interest, I'll upload it. It's nothing deep but it's fun.

8) Thursday is my big jobsearching day. I have been searching but I'm really going to go aggressive tomorrow. I'm a little nervous. But I'll need a job to support my BPAL habit.

9) I will also work on the second half of my BPAL reviews.

10) And I will look forward to Friday, since we're going out for Mexican food and then seeing Talladega Nights! Shortly, everything will be coming up Salome. I can just feel it.

BPAL reviews! I had so many to do that I'm going to split them in half. Here, obviously, is the first half--I've got appointments tomorrow [Saturday] morning and then a date in the afternoon so the second half will come on Sunday when I get back from my date.

( Smut )
( Midway )
( Hungry Ghost Moon )
( Queen )
( Karma )

Alright, I'm off to find out something only Dead men know. I don't know how often I'll be checking here or anywhere online so if you want to hang out or whatever, you can reach me as always at 256.339.4727.

Hello, my lovelies. I am feeling much better today than last night--yesterday was full of...challenges (flat tire, two trips to the tire place...) and that was the last straw for me. But like I said, I found something and I'm trying to concentrate on the upside.

But anyway...Happy 4th of July! Enjoy your hot dog gorging, ice cold beer and discount fireworks (bottle rockets are a $1, we accept va/mc!) and give a salute to our forefathers and their bravery 230 years ago.

MassHysterical: lol...engerland we totally PWNED joo!
Virginny4luv: i know, rite?

I am going to hide out and not answer any calls from former you-know-whats and enjoy myself. Maybe I'll out test out the rest of my new BPAL (including the Smut I got yesterday from missmp!). Concentrate on the good stuff, yanno?

I should really pack, too!